Chapter 6 - Where am I?

His mind was blank. It was still active, despite his unconsciousness. He didn't know how long he had been in there, but it felt like an eternity. Time? What is time? Who knows? Nobody. It is a method of describing inevitable progress throughout any particular day.

Aaron wasn't able to move, hear, or even see anything. All he could do was think his limited thoughts, by himself.

'Why am I here?'

'What's the point of it all?'

'Why is everything like this?'

These were the questions he continually asked himself, yet he never found an answer. It was torture. Having questions, yet not being able to search for an answer. It was painful.

His mind received a sharp jolt of energy, from an unknown source, and it wracked him with pain. His mind started to scream out, as it was pained by this unknown force. This force just kept on getting stronger and stronger, causing even more pain to just stab at him, like it was trying to wake him up from his unconsciousness. It wasn't working. His body wasn't fully functional yet, and was just starting itself up.

'It hurts...'

'It hurts...'

'It hurts...'

This was the most complex train of thought his mind could provide at this moment. His mind was in a lot of pain, so it was trying to numb itself to reduce that pain. Even without a physical brain, you can receive pain to your mind, and half of the time, it's worse than if you did have a brain.

His body was forced along with a start, as his mind drifted away from unconsciousness, and was forced into his skeletal body. His bones began to animate themselves, showing that he was actually there. His mind, however, was barely awake. The people infront of him didn't care, however, and one of them slammed their fist on the table to try and wake him up. It actually worked. His body and mind jumped to life, and as he tried to jump with it, he realised that his body was chained down. His arms and legs were tied down with some form of metal ring, preventing him from moving. He decided to wait until later to escape.

"So, this is the skeleton you mentioned, Laurel?", an unknown voice asked. It was undeterminable if it was a male or female.

"Yes, Arch-Bishop. It is. This is the skeleton that did not attack, but simply tried to dodge.'

Well, now we know that it is a male.

Aaron, with his head down, was still somewhat drowsy, but it surprised him that they spoke in English. He would have assumed that it would have been a completely new language that they spoke in. Lucky him.

Aaron looked up, and saw that a person wearing a Holy Robe was sitting across from him. He shouldn't have expected anything different, but it suprised him.

"So you are finally awake, monster? I hope you understand the situation you are in. Any wrong moves, and you die."

To that, Aaron simply made a sighing gesture, and pointed his head to the ground. He really didn't want to be here. He wanted to test out new skills, not be here, talking to soem magical priest.

"Oh, so you understood what I am saying? I'm going to assume you can't talk. You don't have vocal chords, so of course you can't. Also yes, I am aware that you can escape those chains at any time, but stay seated."

'Oh, so he understands what he's put me in. Great. He probably wants me to help his kingdom, or is going to ask me loads about why I'm here.'

The Arch-Bishop slid a pencil and some paper over to him, like it was a game.

"Write your name, if you have one, on this, monster. Remove your hands, pull your arms out, and then re-attach your hands, and write."

'Great. Just great. This isn't going to go well, is it?'

Aaron then did as the Arch-Bishop instructed, picked up the pencil and began to write. They had graphite pencils here? They have some of the items we have. So they aren't hundreds of years behind where I originally came from.

He wrote his name. Simply 'Aaron Stone' .

"Aaron Stone, huh? That's quite the odd name. Especially for a monster, since monsters don't usually have names. Usually, if they did, they would be around a leader of sorts, but you were all on your own, on the first floor, which means you are a named monster without a master. You don't realise the sheer danger you are to this world, do you?"

Aaron simply shook his head, as he went looking through his skills, as the Arch-Bishop went on a long rant about the history of humans and monsters. Really, it was stuff you could find anywhere. Nothing special about it. Except for one thing that interested him.

"...Emperor Class Monsters..."

Aaron then wrote down on a piece of paper 'Tell me more about emperor class monsters'. He slid it over to the Bishop, who, as he finished saying a paragraph about how monsters became Emperor Class, looked at it, and smiled.

"So, that caught your attention? Emperor Class's monsters are monsters that are about five times as powerful as King Type Monsters. The rankings go like this: Common, Rare, Special, King, Emperor. Each floor of the dungeon has at least one of each type, and we try to avoid the last two types. You are a common monster, with special properties, like intelligence. Now, what can I offer you to not bother our armies?"

Aaron simply wrote down on the paper 'Freedom', and slid it over the table towards the Arch-Bishop, who snapped his fingers, while smiling.

"Done."

And with that, Aaron appeared back in the dungeon, where he had his brief little skirmish with Laurel Anarpov. That was a waste of his time. He needed to get to levelling up!

Back at the area where Aaron and the Arch-Bishop, the Arch-Bishop, smiled, as he said something to Laurel.

"Do not enter the dungeon for the next few days. I want to see how Aaron fares on his own. He's powerful, and has a name. That gives him an advantage."

"Alright, Arch-Bishop, I will inform the guild to not let anyone into the dungeon for the next seven days, or until further notice."

Back to Aaron, he began his walk to find a place where he could shelter himself for a bit. He needed to check through his abilities a bit.