{Agility (Bronze Rank) permanently unlocked}
Well at least all that hopping did me some good other than just training my calf muscles to the extreme. I had hopped around the entire floor of the hospital I was on and deduced that the only 2 places that I would hide something so hard to miss as some golden thread it would either be in the morgue or on the roof.
The problem was that if I checked the roof its also likely that the boss might be up there so instead I decided to head down to the morgue. The elevators werent working (go figure) so I had to take the stairs all the way down to the bottom floor.
On the way down I decided to finally take a look at the amount of progress I had made:
{Name – Zane}
{Level: 5}
{Skills: Time Loop (5 Seconds), Strength (Bronze Rank), Weapons (Dirt Rank), Unarmed (Dirt Rank), Dodge (Bronze Rank), Agility (Bronze Rank)}
{Temporary Skills: Defence (Dirt Rank), Acrobatics (Bronze Rank), Focus (Dirt Rank)}
If I had to guess by the fact my skills are an array of dirt and bronze I would say I'm not that powerful.
Well I only had 2 quests left that I could do and they both gave me skills so hopefully when I leave this hospital-dungeon thing I can reintegrate into society seamlessly. Thinking about that gave my sore legs motivation to keep moving down the stairs.
I spotted quite a few minotaurs in the floors I passed by but they were all in groups and I'd only been doing this monster hunting thing for a couple hours, there was no way I was going to be able to kill more than one at a time.
So with nothing more to do than go down stairs until I found the way to the next floor down I began to think more about this dungeon. It was clearly based around the Greek myth of Theseus where he enters a labyrinth and uses golden thread so he doesn't get lost and he beats to death a sleeping minotaur.
As far as myths go this one was actually pretty badass hence why it stuck with me but it gave me more questions, like are all dungeons based around stories and if this was supposed to be that myth then where was the labyrinth?
I finally reached the morgue and found a lot of body bags that had been torn open and ripped to shreds. Blood trailed around every floor and on the walls of every room.
I suppose the minotaurs had been here for quite a while like Tock said and so they needed to eat something. I said a silent thanks to Tock for keeping me alive for so long and kept searching. I came to a room that was filled with drawers, some had been opened and some even had their shelves coming out, again with bits of gore and body bag scattered on it. There had to be a clue or something around here so I began to search high and low for anything that could have to do with golden thread.
I checked every single drawer in here but no thread could be found. I was about to give up until I decided I should at least check the patient charts, maybe there was a clue about where to look next.
But the pages on it had faded all except 3 names, Theseus, Ariadne & Dionysus. They each had different locations about where to find them but I had no idea what it meant.
I thought for a second and realized that it was a test of who I thought had the golden thread.
The summation of Theseus' story is this, Theseus needs to kill the minotaur but its in a labyrinth and he knows he will die like the others who have tried, he meets a beautiful woman named Ariadne who gives him some golden thread so he will not get lost, he enters the labyrinth holding just the thread and kills the minotaur and as they are sailing away happily Dionysus tells Theseus he wants Ariadne as his wife so Theseus gives her up.
From what I remember he was supposed to bundle up the thread and give it back but is there something I'm missing. I'm sure Theseus would not keep it he seems too heroic and it didn't belong to him so the obvious answer is Ariadne.
I begin to walk to the maternity ward as it is the location for Dionysus, I was almost fooled by the test but I remembered the most important rule in Greek mythology it's all about the gods, they own everything and have control over everything. If Ariadne had been given back the thread Dionysus would have taken it as his once they were married.
I was looking for a specific storage closet in the maternity ward, I mean it made sense Dionysus was the Greek god of fertilization, nature, harvest and wine. I suppose if there was any place in a hospital for a god like that it would be the ward for mothers looking to give birth.
I found it tucked away in a room at the far end of the floor I was on, opening the door and looking inside I expected to find mostly medical equipment and medicine but instead it was nearly filled completely with wine and vast amounts of gold and jewels.
I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes 'wow I wonder if this is another test', I thought sarcastically and after scanning through the small closet I saw that the thread was wrapped around the light fixture. I had to start unwrapping it from around the cord connected to the light bulb and I was surprised at how easy it was to maneuver. It felt like wire but it moved like string and even though the light was off it gave off this dim glow that meant I could see what I was doing when I was touching it.
I finally unspooled it and put it into my hand. For the first time since I woke up I began to really see the wonder in not only how much the world must have changed but also how great it was that I was still alive.
Closing the door though, that's when I began to think about other things I had put off like were my family ok and was the world in general still a safe place to be?
I was about to find somewhere quiet to sit down and come to grips with everything when I heard the familiar clacking of hooves against the floor. I went back into the closet and hid and briefly marvelled at the fact that all the riches and wine had disappeared and it was now just filled with medical equipment like I had expected the first time.
The minotaur was clearly looking for me it was checking every room and under desks and even glanced outside the window for whatever reason. It was rearing its head up and snorting clearly trying to sniff me out. It finally went down a corridor away from me and I spammed my time loop skill to give myself a decent chance at escaping. I fled back to the stairs because I knew that there was only one thing left for me to do kill the minotaur boss.
I had no real way of knowing just how I was going to do it but I figured it would probably be on the roof. I looked at the thread realizing I had no idea if it actually did anything.
"Hey Tock! What does this thread do?"
He gushed out of my chest once again.
"Oh god why are you still just wearing a hospital gown?! You know there are probably clothes lying around somewhere."
"Tock Focus."
"You can't see what it does because you don't have the observation skill."
"What gives in every story about systems they can just automatically do that."
"That's because you're not like everyone else you don't have the skills that other people usually get." Tock began to explain to me as though you would a child.
"What skills am I missing?"
"Well you have some of them like strength and agility but you're still missing Intelligence, defence, inventory and observe"
"But I have defence. Why don't I get these skills like everyone else?"
Then tock looked a little unsure of himself and uneasy.
"Tock! What aren't you telling me?"
"The thing is in order for you to gain the time loop system you need to have run out of time"
"What do you mean?"
"Well you died for a day or two when the hospital was turned into a dungeon. So you gained the time loop system and when you did you gained a … system."
"I gained a what system?"
"You gained a monster's system." Tock finally spat out.
I had to digest this for a moment I slid down the wall behind me plonking my bare ass on the cold floor.
"I'm not a monster am I?"
"No of course not but in order to use our system you had to have access to the basic one and since you died you couldn't gain the basic one so we had to improvise."
"Humans aren't going to be able to tell right?"
"No of course not. The system has even been trying to give you skills to help with that."
"OK thanks Tock Ill let you go now."
He seeped back into my chest and the more I thought about it the more things made sense. The minotaurs didn't come to kill a comatose person because it didn't see one to them it was probably like a dead monster was in my room. I survived my coma because I was given a weak system.
It took me a while to finally even just get up never mind snap my brain back to the task at hand.
Tock had been right though I needed to find some clothes so instead of heading straight to the roof I snuck around a few floors until I found a locker room for hospital staff. All I could really find in my size was some guys used gym clothes but I'd been smelling blood and hospital stink for hours now so it didn't bother me.
Sadly he didn't leave any boxers so I guess I was going commando. I pulled up some black shorts under my hospital gown and sat down to put on some socks and trainers. I finally was able to rip off this gown that had been probably been worn so long that it had become a part of me and wore a white t-shirt.
I looked at myself in the mirror I'd clearly become incredibly skinny because of the coma but I could see a tiny amount of muscle definition on my arm if I flexed really hard. My dark brown hair was so long it went past my shoulders and my face had spouted a small beard. I was somewhere between homeless and caveman but I couldn't worry about my looks right now.
I decided to finally look at what the golden thread had given me.
{Golden thread, Unarmed (Bronze Rank) permanently upgraded}
Unarmed huh? I wrapped the golden thread around right fist until it looked like a golden boxing wrap and wielded a sharp knife I had found in the cafeteria when looking for this locker room. I had considered maybe seeing if I could find anything to eat there but the minotaurs had foiled that plan so I had to settle for drinking a can of cola instead, it might not have been food but it tasted heavenly after not having tasted anything but minotaur heart for a year.
Tock had said it has been a year since this place has turned into a dungeon so hopefully I wouldn't be too out of the loop when I reentered society.
I quickly steered my thoughts back to beating the boss because I had to beat this thing without the help of my time loop skill otherwise I would die. I didn't have time to dream about leaving this place when I was probably going to die either way.
So I stalked minotaurs and killed them all around the hospital picking up every move they made and every attack in their arsenal.
When I had finally reached level 10 I knew it was time. This boss was going down.