JohnWillStab was sitting on a pile of straw, originally he was just going to sit around for an hour or two and see if his wounds closed.

The wounds stopped bleeding almost instantly and stopped causing pain after twenty minutes, that's why JohnWillStab thought they'd just heal.

However, JohnWillStab was forced to remain seated much longer than expected by a greater power, that power being Arachnophobia laying down on his lap, JohnWillStab couldn't move.

His undead body stopped him from needing to go to the bathroom too, so JohnWillStab sat around not knowing when next he would be permitted to stand.

"Fucking cats..." JohnWillStab thought seemingly forgetting he was patting the cat this entire time.

JohnWillStab let out a sigh, knowing he couldn't do it, he couldn't stand up.

With his non-cat-petting hand, JohnWillStab practised knife-throwing.

The blade flew in the general area he aimed for, but he wanted more precision, overall, JohnWillStab was just throwing his knife at one of the walls of the barn for three hours.

He tapped on his right hand, which was petting the cat until this point.

"My dexterity went up... six dexterity with the gloves on..."

"Perception, guess that's my aim... it went up by one..." he noted.

"Guess I didn't make much of an attempt to aim..." he admitted.

JohnWillStab looked around the barn, "What's that?" he asked looking at a salt lick, a block of salt held up by a wooden pole.

"Is that a trap?!" he thought.

He tossed a dagger at it, the blade sinking to the salt and sending bits flying everywhere.

a few chunks of salt flew at JohnWillStab, seemingly thanks to his dexterity he was able to smack the salt chunks in mid-air, stopping them from interrupting Arachnophobia's slumber.

He picked one of the bits off the ground and sniffed it.

"It looks like ice... but it isn't cold..."

JohnWillStab crushed the crystals in between his fingers turning the crystals into fine, salt powder.

"Well, it's not like it can poison me!" JohnWillStab decided bringing the powder to his lips and trying some.

His face contorted as the salt dried his mouth out.

Immediately he spit it out.

"Pft! It's salt!"

"You can tell this is a fantasy world, who keeps blocks of salt in a barn." John sighed wiping his lips with his sleeve.

"That said, I could use some salt for when I cook up that steak..." JohnWillStab was about to stand up when he felt the weight of his pet causing him to sit back down.

"Later... I'll get it later..." he decided before tossing this dagger at the salt, trying to crack it in very specific places, after another hour of this, JohnWillStab checked his stats.

Dexterity: 4 + 2(Gloves)

Perception: 3

Stamina: 0 + 4(Boots)

Athletics: 2

Strength: 0 + 1(Gloves)

Weapon skill: 2

Magic: 0

Intelligence: 0

Luck: 0

Charisma: 0 + 1(Tits)

JohnWillStab looked at the last stat with a raised eyebrow.

"Questionable design... but it's in my favour for once." he sighed.

A total of twenty minutes later he got up, he couldn't justify wasting any more time.

The cat gave him a wry look.

"Stop that! It's been hours!" JohnWillStab exclaimed.

"Indeed, although thou should have expected a cat to sleep for a long time."

"All you do is sit around anyway, at least you're less alone now." he scoffed.

"...I just made myself sad..." he sighed.

They left the barn, JohnWillStab scooped up some salt from the ground and tossed it into his sack, he also picked up a handful of straw, he could use it to start a fire.

"Alright, I'll have a look in the kitchen if they have any pots or pans... I don't know how I feel about charred-steak." he sighed imagining a slab of meat being tormented within the writhing flames of a bonfire.

"I might have exaggerated slightly..."

JohnWillStab walked to the house once more, it was riddled with holes from when the blood ghoul shot at it.

JohnWillStab headed into the kitchen and looked through the cupboards.

"Plates, plates... a bowl... more plates... how fucking many plates does a two-person family need!?" JohnWillStab complained.

He looked into the oven.

"God, what is that? It's such a mess.... even by my standards." JohnWillStab reached into the oven in hopes of finding a pan or a pot, he would even be satisfied with a cake-tin as long as it had its bottom.

Instead, he pulled out a charred skull.

"What the hell!?" he dropped the skull causing it to shatter leaving a black residue on the wooden floor of the kitchen.

JohnWillStab took a second to collect his thoughts.

"This is wrong... terrible..."

Arachnophobia walked up behind him.

"WHY WOULD A FAMILY OF THREE NEED ON AVERAGE FIFTEEN PLATES EACH!?" he demanded, the look on Arachnophobia's face immediately returned to the look of disappointment.

"I do wonder... were they cannibals or just murderers?"

JohnWillStab checked around again and found a pan, it was pretty deep so it was the perfect multi-tool.

He also found a fork with two blades,

"What is this?"

"It looks like a disabled fork..." he decided.

Arachnophobia wasn't sure if he was just trying to be funny or unaware that forks can come in more than one type.

"Now then! We have acquired cutlery and a pan!" JohnWillStab stood up and headed towards the door.

JohnWillStab and Arachnophobia made their way back onto the cobblestone road.

He had a look at his map and saw that he was slowly moving towards the rolling plains.

"I'm not really sure where to go... I guess it'd make sense to find someone on my continent..." JohnWillStab thought.

"Wait, but that Jared... Jake... whatever his name was, he's a human and he appeared in Grimwood..." JohnWillStab's plan of heading to everyone's starter-zones fell apart before he even got a chance to start it.

"Whatever... we'll run into each other sooner or later! Until we do, I'll do my best to level up!" JohnWillStab turned back to the town, he remembered seeing all the quests over there.

"With any luck, I'd be able to steal all the best ones before anyone realises," he exclaimed.

JohnWillStab ran to Duskshire, Arachnophobia attached to his back like before.

When he made it there, he was relieved to see the place was still empty.

JohnWillStab snuck into the basement where he saw the piles of quest papers on the ground.

He looked through them, picking up over a dozen separate quest-papers and stuffing them into his pockets.

"I might as well take any advantage I can take... I'm a dagger class...."

"I can't fight from a distance except for throwing knives... my strength stat is low and I have no chance of getting someone to help me level, for now at least..."

"I left a few easy ones... I'm not that much of a dick..." he assured himself.

"I'm not going to pull that thing a certain overlord skeleton did and act all edgy... though I must admit I was surprised by my reaction or rather lack there of to the small skeleton in the oven."

JohnWillStab thought back to the real world.

"Yeah, no - my empathy is about the same as it's always been." he shrugged.

JohnWillStab headed up to the main room once more.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jordan demanded, he was standing in the doorway.

"I... came to warm up," he said pointing at the extinguished fire.

"Uh-huh..." Jordan set the fireplace ablaze with a single flick of his staff causing JohnWillStab to flinch as he saw the flames fly towards him before making a sharp turn towards the fire.

"O-oh! Thanks for the f-fire!" he exclaimed.

"I was watching you, you know," Jordan replied.

"You were!?"

"That's right, I saw it all!"

"You pervert!"

"N-no, that's not what I mean!"

"..."

"Alright, I'm sorry!"

"HA! I'm not even upset, I'm just so glad I can actually do this to a person by just calling them a pervert! Besides, all I did was sit with a cat and rob a house." he thought.

"Whatever, I'm going to get going, now," he said still pretending to be upset.

"I mean I've seen you get hurt," he reiterated.

"I got hurt? Oh, that's right, the undead shooting at me."

"At first I thought you're working with whoever tried to drag us in here, since you were disturbingly excited over remaining here."

"But I saw that you were attacked, and hurt."

"Oh shit, does that mean he saw me burry the werebull!?" JohnWillStab's cheeks would have turned red if they could.

"Riiight.... well, as you can see I'm fine." JohnWillStab rolled up his sleeve revealing his arm which had a visible scar, and a deep crater where the projectile penetrated but was almost completely cured.

"How's this possible?! I swear to God the bullet flew out the other end."

"It did, but it healed up nicely." he shrugged.

"How?"

"...I... I always ate my vitamins and exercised for at least thirty minutes a day.." both of those were lies.

"Isn't that just normal stuff?" Asked Jordan.

"Like hell they are!"

"Look, this place is pretty magical as is - so just go with it." John shrugged.

Jordan looked around and back to JohnWillStab.

"Do you think you could help me?"

"I appreciate the offer, but prostitution isn't really my-" JohnWillStab was cut off by Jordan.

"I mean help me get out of here!"

The room turned silent.

"There isn't a way out, is there? No way... I hope not... What am I saying, maybe some people want to leave... I just mean... I don't..."

"Look, man - I have no idea if much less how to get out, so unless you have a plan...-"

"I don't have a plan yet! But I'll figure something out! You're strong and you know a lot about this place!" Jordan exclaimed.

JohnWillStab let out a sigh.

"Alright... look here-" John was cut off once more.

"Please! I'll do anything!"

"God damn it!"

"Fine! But if you don't come up with a plan by the time I meet any of my friends I'm leaving you." JohnWillStab offered.

"Deal!" Jordan sounded ecstatic, he was really trying to get back to Earth... JohnWillStab couldn't understand why.