Waking up was really painful and I had to continuously rub my temple. Clearly this Karson guy couldn't take a joke.
The most painful part about it was not having more of Dionysus' wine that would really go down a treat right now.
The shackles were still on me meaning I had no access to the bottle or even any of my skills.
Looking around I could see I was in quite a dark looking interrogation room like the ones you would see on television. I was sat on a white metallic chair that was in front of a white metallic table, they must have bought them in bulk.
I got up, awkwardly because of the shackles around my arms and legs , and shuffled over to the mirror. I knew from movies that someone was probably behind that watching me right now.
I know all about movies and shows but when it comes to just who the hell I am I have no idea.
"Hello I'm ready for my interrogation now." I said in a sing-song voice tapping on the glass with my finger.
Then the door flew open with such speed I thought I might be caught up in a gust it made and blown over.
I made out who it was in an instant from his red and white shining bulky armour and the sword on his hip that beat the side of my head into unconsciousness.
"Hi Karson! Just couldn't stay away from me huh? Keep up the flirting like this and I might have to ask for your number."
He said nothing he was clearly not amused by my jokes or me in general. He just sat down in the chair opposite to the one I woke up on and gestured for me to sit as well.
I have to say the way the lighting caught his blonde perfectly businesslike hair that was radiated further by his armour may have made me swoon, if I had been a teenage girl.
I sat down and looked in his eyes, a perfect cerulean blue of course.
"Who are you?"
"Karson didn't we do this already my name is Zane Mack."
"That's what you say but the only Zane Mack to ever live in this city died in the hospital that we found you leaving." His tone indicated how serious he was.
"Well clearly I didn't die because I'm right here." His face didn't change and he looked like he might start yelling at me so I said, "look all I know is I woke up from my coma with this weird system thing and then I had to fight my way out of the dungeon."
"Again your story doesn't make sense you could have just left why did you stay and fight?"
Well there's a wrinkle in my story, I guess I couldn't tell him that if I didn't kill the boss it would have killed me.
"I just guessed based on web comics I've read that I needed to beat the boss to leave." I looked down at my hands because the pain from my broken right hand was killing me and that was when I noticed that they took my golden thread.
"Where's my thread?!"
"Oh haha I think you mean our thread it belongs to our guild because the dungeon's rights belong to us."
I was going to argue further but it was just some thread.
"Why are you keeping me here?"
"We need to figure out who or what you are. We can do this the easy way and we can check you're status or I can cut you with Excalibur until you talk."
"Really Excalibur? Does that mean the thread I had?"
"Was really Ariadne's yes, yes it does."
"Ok you can check my status." No use fighting it if the alternative was being mutilated by a legendary sword.
He went out of the room for a couple of minutes and then came back with a strange metallic pedestal that held a crystal ball atop it.
"Put any hand you like on this and it will allow me to see your status."
I used my left hand because I didn't want to cry in pain using my broken one and the crystal ball started to glow blue and make a strange humming noise.
"What's your inherent skill?" he said after studying me for a bit.
"What's yours?" I asked not to be difficult but just because I was genuinely curious.
"Haha We don't give out that information."
"Ok then I wont tell you" I said simply.
He lost his temper for a second changing his face to a quick snarl before changing back to his plain expression. So he is human after all.
Then I heard the door open again and this time a green haired woman dressed like a witch from an anime came in and Karson begrudgingly moved from the chair to let her sit.
She studied me for a minute then looked at Karson before looking back at me.
"You are who you say you are. You will be free to go after I ask you a few things, is that ok?" she had a more maternal voice and carried an experienced aura.
"Yeah that's fine as long as I can get some things from you after?" I asked tentatively. I was suddenly nervous but decided to put it down to the atmosphere rather than the attractive woman sitting across from me.
"Really?!" Karson said before throwing his arms up in exasperation and storming out of the room.
"That will be fine within reason. My name is Clarisse."
"So is this good cop bad cop or something?"
"What's that?" She said genuinely curious. What kind of sheltered upbringing had she had that she didn't know what that was.
"Never mind. I want to know about my family and friends and where I can find them and I also want my thread back." I did not want to know what would happen if I gave away Ariadne's thread.
"Ok I can have those taken care of. Ok, first question, how have you survived in the dungeon?"
"I was comatose throughout so I have no idea but it only took me about a day to clear it after that."
She seemed really shocked at that but then went back to being professional.
"OK how did you clear the dungeon?"
"It really wasn't that difficult I had to fight a few minotaurs. I found the golden thread and then I kept the boss asleep whilst I killed it like Theseus."
She seemed to struggle to take in all this information I could practically hear the gears in her brain trying to come up with which question she wanted to ask first.
"I'm sorry why is it such a big deal that I cleared the dungeon? Everyone's acting like I did something that wasn't normal."
"That's because it is not normal. That dungeon was specifically hard to defeat because for one, no one could find the relic and for two, the boss is insanely difficult to kill. It is unheard for someone so weak to beat a dungeon nevermind those other factors" Clarisse explained to me.
"Well there was a clue to the relic in the morgue that showed three names and locations. Theseus, Ariadne and Dionysus. I figured it was talking about which one had the thread because of all the minotaurs everywhere." I didn't want to tell anyone about how the quests had told me to look specifically for it.
"How did you know Dionysus was the right answer?"
"Well Theseus took the thread from the labyrinth back to Ariadne but in the end she ended up marrying Dionysus. So it would belong to him because he is a god."
"Ok I think I understand now I have to ask how did you destroy the dungeon?"
"What do you mean?"
"Dungeons don't get destroyed. Even if they are defeated they stay open as dungeons."
I pondered whether I should tell her exactly how it was destroyed and decided that there wasn't any real harm in it.
"Dionysus acknowledged me and destroyed it for me."
"What do you mean acknowledged?"
"Wait you're telling me that dungeons have been open for over a year and I'm the first person to ever be acknowledged by somebody."
"Zane… Dungeons have been opening for 60 years."
The smile dropped from my face as I realised the words she had said. I could feel sweat building up around my forehead and my eyes were on the brink of bursting forth tears.
"No! How could I have been in a coma for 60 years?!"
"Dungeons work on 1/60th of the time here on Earth. In some other realms it's different but yes you have been in a coma for 60 years."
I could feel my heart collapsing into itself I was struggling to breathe. Everyone I knew had to be either old or dead, what did I have to live for now?!
"I'm sorry I assumed you knew or Karson had told you. Ill go get you some water Ill be right back."
The words could barely reach my ears I was losing it.
She came back very quickly with a mug full of water. I had to sip slowly otherwise I'd choke. I was full on crying now and rocking myself back and forth.
Clarisse came round the table and hugged me stroking my back. I just couldn't wrap my head around any of it right now. She produced some cookies from I assumed somewhere in her inventory for me to eat.
The first real food I'd eaten since I came back from my coma.
We stayed there for quite a while until I eventually calmed down.
"Cla-Clarisse what did you mean by realms?" I said finally getting rid of my leftover tears.
"I could show you. But I don't want to freak you out after everything you have been through."
I nodded to her and she began to take off her witches hat revealing two elven ears underneath.
"Nowadays on Earth there are all kinds of different creatures that live in harmony with each other. Humans, Elves, Orcs, Beastkin, Dragonkin, etc."
"What happened to Earth?"
"Well actually around the same week yu were put in a coma people around Earth started to show extraordinary abilities and then dungeons started taking over buildings and even created portals sometimes. These portals were gateways between our realms and soon the dungeons took over every realm but Earth. We had to all migrate here but that was over 50 years ago. I myself was born here on Earth."
This was a lot of information to take in but it seemed way too elaborate for an interrogation tactic so all I could do was listen and learn.
"When we explored dungeons sometimes by going through tests we were able to discover artifacts from different myths and legends."
"Like the golden thread and Excalibur."
"Yes exactly these artifacts were very powerful and we assumed that they would somehow stop the dungeons however they never did and this leads to the world we live in now."
Wow that's a lot to take in.
"Wait, what will happen to me where do I go? What do I do? My family and friends probably can no longer take me in right?"
"That's correct. Karson has been lobbying that you should be put in one of our cells and only be brought out when we need a dungeon to be destroyed. I was against from the start and it seems as though you really had no idea what destroyed the dungeon."
"I know it was Dionysus because he sent me a notification through the system but other than that I don't why?"
"Well you have 2 options, you can either join our guid and stay here or you can go it alone."
It didn't really sound like much of a choice, either I become an indentured servant or I struggle to make ends meet when people will have trouble verifying my identity.
"I guess I'll stay here then. What's the name of the guild?"
"Orion."
"Wow this place sounds cool!"
Little did I know I was entering the worst guild in the world.