William opened the door. Just as he expected, the Death Knight was there. Burning red eyes glared back at him in the darkness of the setting sun. In only a few minutes, it would be too dark to even see the black armor it carried upon its shoulders. The Death Knight shifted. William lunged backward, falling to the ground in his haste. He shot up to his feet, making sure to not slip and fall within the holes caused by the venom’s corrosive acid.

  His eyes snapped back towards the door, where he saw the Death Knight slowly saunter in to the stairwell's ledge, the massive lance sword trailing behind it, causing sparks and grating against his mind. The longer it stayed within the shadows and darkness of night, the harder it became to figure out exactly where it started and where the edges of its figure ended.

  Only the burning red eyes told him exactly where it was.

  “Come on you bastard!” he shouted.

  A bulb of venom appeared in his palms, secreting from between his fingers. He waited until the Death Knight was close enough before he launched it as hard as he could. Hoping to cause some type of damage before it finally ended his existence.

  His eyes widened as he saw it move.

  Everything transpired in slow motion. He watched as the blob of venom arced in the air, trailing behind itself and dripping onto the floor. The Death Knight twitched before its eyes and its entire body vanished, turning into shadows. The ball of venom passed right through its ethereal frame, smacking into the doorway and burning and hissing. Though it did not go through the wood.

  William's eyes widened as it disappeared one more time before re-appearing just a few meters away in full position to thrust through his chest.

  He roared as loud as he could as he commanded his lightning domain to blast the Death Knight from whence it stood. Only for those bolts of lightning to phase through it as though it did not exist.

  Then in the next moment, the spear slammed into his chest, to fast for him to react in time.

  William smiled.

  I saw it move! I can kill it!

  He grabbed onto the spear and looked up into the red creature's eyes. Venom dripping from his fingers.

  He grabbed onto its arm with his other hand and threw a blob directly at its face.

  This time, the venom did not phase through it. It did not transfer into shadows. As long as it was stuck inside his chest, it could not turn into the shadows whenever he attacked.

  The Death Knight screamed something shrill as its black metal began to melt, though the corrosiveness was not enough to go through it and scorch its skull as well.

  Red eyes burned as it stared directly into his. It grunted as it picked him up into the air with its lance, holding him far above its head. It finally threw him onto the wall. William tried to laugh but found that he could not utter a sound other than the gurgling of death and blood leaking from his body. A massive, gaping hole had been carved into his chest. Taking out his heart, his lungs, and everything else that was in the area.

  And yet this time around, he hadn't died instantly.

  Darkness had not begun to creep in just yet.

  Though he knew, it was only a matter of time before its cold grip finally caught up to him

  William let out a wet gurgling laugh as he stood back up, struggling to keep his balance. Another blob of venom formed in his hand. If he could survive one more attack, maybe, just maybe, he could end up killing it. But as he looked up, he lost sight of it. Darkness had claimed the the entire stairwell, day had turned into night. The Death Knight was shadow-based. As long as it was within its element, then he had absolutely no chance of finding it or figuring out how to defeat it.

  Something shifted to his left. He dove right, but was too slow.

  He grunted as he felt his arm disappear from the shoulder. Another strike arrived a moment later, carving through his face and into his skull, blasting his head into pieces.

  Welcome back to the Tutorial…

  William shot up to his feet. He checked his body and found that it was all still in one piece. It's always a strange feeling waking back up after having sustained many major injuries. He always had a few moments where phantom pains struck him. Reminding him of exactly what he felt and how he felt it. It was never a good experience recalling your entire arm being blown into a fine mist of blood.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Thankfully, some injuries were impossible to recall.

  It would not have been a pleasant thing to remember the exact details and suffering that he would have experienced if he could remember his head being ripped to shreds by the Death Knight's sword lance.

  William walked out of a cell and headed towards Zefor. He found the old man with his hands crossed behind his head with one eye open, stretching uncomfortably on a hammock that was hanging in the middle of the large cell. Much larger than any other he had seen. Though it was just as sparse as all the rest. He would have expected something as ancient as Zefor to have a sense of comfort and luxury that would match his level of existence. A couple of drawers, maybe a mirror and bed. Something comfortable and beyond anything humanity was capable of.

  Yet there was nothing but the hammock.

  Not even a single table and chair.

  Zefor shifted to look back at him. “You reach level 10 yet?”

  “Nope. Close, but not–”

  “What the hell are you doing here? Get back out there and get to work,” Zefor said before he turned back to the other side and promptly fell back to sleep.

  “Do you even need to sleep? I think someone as powerful as you should be able to go years without having to need a single moment of shut-eye. Do you need to even eat?”

  This was a perfect moment for William to convince the old red man to consistently give him the heavenly food and pitchers of water. Thousands upon thousands of runes waited for him just for fulfilling his base needs and sustaining himself within this Dungeon World. He was sure that Zefor understood exactly what he was attempting to do, but it was something he couldn't let pass him by. Another opportunity he would take advantage of.

  Zefor looked over his shoulder. “Sleep? Eat? Drink? Those are all things that I no longer need except every distant century or so. Though my form of sustenance is nothing that you would understand. More along the lines of highly concentrated ether and energy from the universe, all squeezed into a fist sized ball that I would consume. Though I do enjoy to partake in the mortal treats, everyone likes good food and sweet treats.”

  “On that note,” William said, pausing to press the importance of what he was about to say. "I’m still a normal person that needs all of that in the bucket fulls. Daily… err… Multiple times a day, actually."

  “Really? Is that common for humans? I remember eating once every three to four days back when I earned my first levels.”

  William nodded.

  “Such a defective race, and you expect them to survive the initialization?”

  William nodded again. He was intent on speaking as little as possible and let the old man answer his own questions rather than shooting himself in the foot by saying something stupid.

  Zefor waved his hand and a table appeared in front of William. It had five bowls of the delicious rice and succulent bird meat. Steam rose from them and a mouth watering smell filled the entire cell. William gulped as he thought about eating them this very moment, stuffing his face without consideration for future preparations and plans. A barrel of water and a bunched up bundle, he suspected to be a hammock, appeared next to the table a moment later.

  “If your system is only a quarter of its original size, then I doubt you have much space left after sending the food and water in there.”

  “That’s no problem,” William said as he acted with haste to hide them before Zefor changed his mind. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “I’m sure you will. Now get out of my cell. I was enjoying some peace and quiet."

  William didn't hesitate for another second. He turned and ran out of Zefor's cell back into his own where he placed the extra armors and spears he had collected from the corrupted dead he had killed in one corner. The extra sword he had gotten from the latest corrupted guardsman he had kicked off the ledge stayed within his inventory in case he needed in a future battle.

  For now, he needed to figure out a couple of things about his looping system. That included whether it was a respawn mechanic, or if he woke up in the same exact day at the same exact time with every death he experienced. Surviving for a month and making extreme amounts of progress only to wake up at the very beginning would make any person go mad. He couldn't imagine having to relive all the experiences and interactions he had with other people multiple times.

  It led to the question of whether Zefor was strong enough to see past the looping mechanism itself or if he had just been careless.

  The only thing that he needed to prove was whether it was night time outside or if it was still early day when he had first arrived in the [Ruined City of Balfiemeth].

  He didn't wait any longer and made his way back towards the stairwell where he found it just as dark as it had been when he fought the Death Knight. If anything, his discussion with Zefor only made time pass and the area darker. He could even see up to the stairwell ledge where he farmed for runes, nothing but pitch black darkness after the first couple of steps up.

  Tomorrow. I'll reach level 10 on all of them tomorrow.

  William turned back around and headed back to his cell. He pulled out the hammock and began setting it up for his sleep, tying one end to the cell's gates and another to a pole near the back side of a cell itself. The table and the remaining chairs were still in his room, sitting there. He pulled out one of the bowls of food and the cup he had been provided by Zefor. He mentally commanded the cup to be filled with water, and it happened just as he thought of it.

  He finished it in one gulp.

  Heavenly Water Consumed -

  + 1200 Runes

  Then he activated his [Chained Lightning Domain] to keep it active until he fell asleep and level it up further. He would finish his meal, stretch and exercise a bit in hopes that it may or may not gain him a few stat points, and then he would slumber and rest for the very first time since he had arrived in this hectic Dungeon World. Endless hours of grinding, fighting, dying, and being left to be experimented on by Zefor had caused enough mental strain to account for months.

  William would figure out whether he could make level 10 with just the food and water tomorrow morning. A thousand and two-hundred just from the water, and then potentially four thousand from the food should be enough.

  He pulled out one of the bowls and enjoyed the succulent meal, savoring every bite he took.