Chapter VI: Willie

When I woke up the next morning it was cold in the room. I went out of my bed and went downstairs. Obi seemed to be working already. I asked him if I could take a shower, and he asked me what a shower was. I explained him that it was a thing that you could hold in your hands and that there was water coming out of it. He laughed with me, and told me such things didn’t exist. I explained me that they washed themselves at troughs. When asking him where I could find one, he told me there was one at Willie’s mill.

And so I went to Willie’s mill. I saw a trough and a well. I filled a bucket with water and poured it into the trough. The water didn’t seem very clear, but it would be suiting. I started washing myself with the water. I was half way done when I heard noise coming out of the mill. A few seconds later I saw an angry person running outside of the building holding a rake.


He ran to me and threw the rake. I avoided the rake, but it was very close of hitting me. I yelled to him “Are you crazy?” but he did not reply. When he reached me pushed me on the floor and grumbled to me that I had to stay away from his yard. I explained him the situation, and told him that Obi told me to come and wash myself here. He helped me to stand up and told me I should have asked him first, and I told him I was sorry. Willie went back inside and I continued washing myself.

Chapter V: Wooden Shield

I went down into the cities sewers once more, lighted my torch and slayed another rat. A few more rats gave their live, and I felt that I was getting skilled at this. Some rats didn’t drop anything, but some rats dropped gold. I collected all the gold and cheese in my bag. I also ate a cheese, because hunting rats made me hungry. Those slaying started to become easy, but the problem was that the rats could bite me pretty hard.

I remembered what someone ever told to me about equipment, and I thought maybe if I have some more equipment, I would get less hitted. Thinking what would be the most useful I concluded that I needed a shield. A shield would allow me to block the attacks of these creatures, and it would reduce the damage rats do to me, and so also my pain. I went up to the city again, and went to Obi, the shopkeeper. I asked him for shields and he told me he was selling several shields from several price classes. I told him I needed it for rats, and he told me the cheapest shield, a wooden shield, would be serving. I informed for the price, and it was fifteen golden coins, but the problem was that I only had 13.

I needed 2 more golden coins, and I asked Obi if I could pay them later, but he told me about him getting thieved and so he didn’t want to give me this credit. He told me he once allowed someone to pay over 100 golden coins, and that he never saw him again. I understood his distrust in humans, after all it was the same in my world. The only thing I could do to collect the gold was skinning one or two more rats, but that wouldn’t be for now since I was too tired.

I asked Obi if I could sleep somewhere, and he told me there were two beds upstairs in his store, and that I was free to use one. I went upstairs to the room with the beds and they looked pretty comfortable, much more comfortable then I expected. I ate my last cheese and went to bed. Maybe when I woke up again I would be back at my home? Maybe not? Maybe I was at some other place again? It where all questions that I wanted to think about, but after all the hashing from today I was tired, even too tired to think about those questions. I would see tomorrow where I was, after today I couldn’t be surprised anymore.

Chapter IV: My first money

I also asked them why and how I needed to collect money, and why I need equipment for. An entire story about creatures trying to kill you, such as trolls, followed. The people said that equipment helps you to protect yourself against these creatures. Good and strong equipment would mean that the monsters will deal less damage. As for the money; it was needed to buy food, drinks, equipment and a lot of other stuff. It could be earned by slaying beasts, like rats. They also told me that the rats could be found under the city, in the sewers.

I decided to give it a try to slay a rat. I went down trough a sewer gate to kill one of them. I thought that it couldn’t be too hard to kill one since I was about 1.60 meters and a rat about 0.10 meters, but there I was wrong. When I just climbed off the ladder I already saw a rat. I felt lucky that I didn’t threw away my club, like I did with my torch. The torch would have been very handy now, since the sewers were dark. I folded my hands around the club and started using it to hit the rat. On the first rat I faced I already got damaged pretty hard, and it took me a few hits to successfully kill it.

When the rat died I opened it and I found a cheese inside and 2 golden coins. I putted all my earnings in my bag and walked climbed back up. I was too scared in the dark to continue my path there. I felt hungry from killing that rat, so I ate my cheese. I went to a bench and sat down for a while. I felt my energy growing again, and was ready to kill some more rats so I could collect money for equipments, but first of all I needed a torch.

I asked someone where I could buy a torch and he showed me where it was. The salesman was called Obi. When I came in his shop I remembered that I had been there before. I greeted Obi and he asked me where he could help me with. I explained him that I needed a torch, and he sold me one for just 2 golden coins. I was broke again now, so I needed to kill more rats.

Chapter III: My first steps

I asked him how I came there and what I had to do to get away from that place. All he said to that question was that I had to collect gold and buy better equipment. Of course I understood nothing of this. Where did I have to collect gold? Why do I need equipment? What was that place?

I walked outside the temple and noticed that I was in a town. Many people where walking around there and I asked some how I came there and what I had to do to get out of there. They told me that they didn’t knew how I and they came there neither, and that they thought there was no way out. I was hoping that they weren’t right, since I didn’t felt comfortable at this place, and I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I kept asking people, but they all went to bed and ended up there. Some of them spoke foreign languages which I didn’t understood.

My mother language was Dutch, but I almost spoke English fluently. Not many people seemed to know Dutch, but most of them understood English. Did this mean I wasn’t in Belgium anymore? Where was I? Was there a connection with Belgium? According to some, this was a virtual world. I didn’t believe in virtual worlds, but this situation made me think about it.

Chapter II: The awakening

When I woke up it looked like I was in some kind of temple. There was no bed, I was standing there. I couldn’t remember anything from what happened, and how I could possibly get into this temple. All my memories told me that I just went to bed. I thought I was dreaming, but this all seemed too real to be a dream. It was real, but what happened? Why was I in that temple and not at home sleeping in my bed?

I looked around, and saw four marble pillars and 3 coal basins. Further I also saw several gaps in the walls. Those gaps where like windows, but then without glass. The cold from outside came in trough them. The only living being I could see was a monk named Cipfried. I wanted to get out of there and I thought that if I could get there I could get back too, but I didn’t see a door or something. There seemed to be no escape from that place, but I had to see it from the bright side, my headache was gone.

At the back of the temple there was a jacket lying on the floor, the same jacket then I was wearing. I was also holding a bag containing an apple and a torch. I threw away the torch, since I thought I would never use it. In my hand I had a club. Again I thought it was useless, but I kept it since it looked cool. I greeted the monk, Cipfried, and he welcomed me and told me that I could ask him for help if I needed. I asked him where I was and he said that the gods had chosen that island as the point of arrival for the newborn souls. I had no idea what that meant, but Cipfried seemed to love to talk in riddles.