I don’t know how long I was in there. It could have been an hour, or it could have been days. There was absolutely no light, and no sound, so I had no way to measure time other than counting, and I wasn’t able to concentrate on doing so.

After an eternity, I heard voices in the hallway outside my cell. Then with a clunk, the door was unlocked and opened, letting the light of a lamp fill the room.

“Get up and come over here. Quickly!”

The order was given in a gruff and unyielding voice. A soldier. I couldn’t see well enough to make out anything. The light was blinding me.

Still, I did as I was told. I’d learned during my trip down here that if I disobeyed or tried anything, I’d be met with a quick and painful punishment.

On my feet, I shuffled over to the door as fast as my bound legs could. The floor was pitch black, even in the light. No, don’t think about that, I thought, as my feet squished through the ooze on the floor.

At the door, I was dragged out of the room and a light covered me. The next time I looked at myself, I could see that the grime was gone. I was clean again. I didn’t get to spend any time rejoicing, as I was dragged between a pair of guards into another room.

In the room was a woman. She was middle aged, with light brown hair that was starting to grey. Wrinkles had started to make their appearance on her face, which, though well formed, was more handsome than beautiful. She was dressed in an elegant dress, so she was likely some from of nobility. What did she want with me?

“Are you the one my father summoned as the Hero?”

I tried to answer, but my throat was so dry, I was unable to speak, so I simply nodded.

“Has he not been given any sustenance?! He looks like he is mostly dead. Give him something to drink. Now!”

The guards followed orders, filling a cup from a jug and thrusting it at me. I took it in shaky hands and raised it to my mouth. I almost choked on it. It was alcohol. This wouldn’t be good for my body, since alcohol is a diuretic, but I couldn’t stop myself from draining the cup. It loosened my throat so I could at least speak.

“Thank you, my lady.” I was able to croak.

“You had bad luck to be summoned. The king has decided that it is better to hide our shame by getting rid of you, rather than have you be an embarrassment to the kingdom.”

“Get rid of how?”

I had a bad feeling about this.

“He decided to have you killed, claiming that you went wild and attacked those who summoned you, before taking your own life.”

“What kind of messed up situation is this?! I’ve done nothing wrong, but I’m supposed to just die? For what, his pride? He hasn’t even given me a chance to do anything!”

“Yes. That is why, I am here. Though you may not be of use as a Hero, you should not lose your life over it. You will be taken away from the palace and have to make your own way in the world. We can’t do more than this to help you, or we will also face the headsman’s axe.”

“Thank you.”

“It is not something that needs thanks, given that we are the ones who brought you here. Our time is short, as we have to be gone before the guards change.”

She turned to face a man who’d just entered the room.

“Is it done?”

“Yes. The corpse has been placed by the cell. We just need to dress it, and roll it around a little and they’ll assume he got sick and died. It’s not unusual with that place.”

“Good. Take him away, and then never speak of this, or we will all die.”

She left, followed by half the guards. I was led away by the others. We made a quick stop back by the cell and I changed my clothes. They said they’d be used to dress the corpse that would be my body double. I convinced them to let me keep the underwear. I didn’t ask where the corpse came from, but they told me anyway as they dressed it. It was a criminal who’d died in another part of the prison and was supposed to have already been disposed of.

Now dressed in plain looking clothes, I was ushered through the prison and to another cell. I’d been listed as a suspect that was to be released as my innocence had been proven. I’d have to wait till morning to be released, but there shouldn’t be a problem. If they’d tried to evacuate me during the night, we’d have been caught and executed. Passage in or out of the castle was restricted during the night.

The new cell was a clean one, with a bed and blanket. Both were rough and somewhat uncomfortable, but they were better than nothing. I tried storing the blanket in the wallet, and succeeded.

They’d never know that it was missing, since they wouldn’t see it on me.

I was able to get some sleep, though not very restful. The heavy tread of boots woke me up in the morning. A moment later and my cell opened and I was bid to come out.

I was led, relatively politely, out of the prison area and to an office. It was laid out similarly to police stations, with rows of desks for people to work at. I was seated in front of one of those desks. Behind it was a man whose figure had started to go fat.

“We’re very sorry for the misunderstanding. If you will please confirm your belongings, and sign that you have received them, we will be done with you.”

He gestured to a backpack and paper on the desk between us. I picked up the bag, rummaging through it for a moment to see what all was there. It wasn’t much. There was a belt with a knife and pouch, a purse with a few coins, a small bag of salt, and a change of clothes.

I nodded, not finding anything missing… I hoped. Reading over the document, I took up the pen and signed it. Thank goodness this world seemed to have ballpoint pens. I don’t know if I could have used a quill. My ‘name’ was completely illegible, but signatures often are. I didn’t know the name I was under, so making it unreadable was for the best.

“Please accept this as an apology for the inconvenience.”

The man held out another small purse, which clinked. Taking it, I stood and thanked him before shrugging the pack onto my shoulder and being led out.

The sunlight blinded me for a moment, and I had to stop. After my eyes adjusted, and I wiped away the tears that the bright sunlight cause to spill, I resumed following my guide.

It wasn’t a long walk, as the dungeons were close to one of the entrances to the palace grounds. Since there didn’t seem to be any servants, and everyone was in uniforms, I guessed that this one was restricted to guard and military use. It was quite a long way away from the main body of the palace. I hadn’t realized how far I’d been dragged before I was thrown into prison.

At the gates, I was passed through, and then I was on my own.

For the time being, I just started walking. The direction? Away from the palace. I wanted nothing more to do with that nest of vipers. While there were at least some people who weren’t completely evil there, I couldn’t count on them. Even the noblewoman who released me might have only done so in order to foil someone else’s plans, for all I knew.

Now my problem was that I was in a new world, with next to nothing, and no knowledge about anything…

Starting a new life on Hard Mode. Fuck! I hate Hard Mode. I never play games on it, since I play for fun, and Hard Mode usually isn’t. At least not for me.

I had money, but no idea what it was worth, or even how much I had. Well, I actually should have more than was given to me when I was released, since I had my infinite wallet. Hmm, I wonder how much I actually have?

These clothes don’t have pockets, but I wasn’t worried about that. The belt had a pouch, so after putting the belt on, I summoned my wallet into the pouch. Finding an unoccupied corner, I leaned against a wall while keeping an eye on my surroundings.

Hmm, now Is there a way to check the contents of the wallet? I focused on it.

###

Wallet Currency*

Platinum: 0

Large Gold: 0

Medium Gold: 0

Small Gold: 0

Large Silver: 0

Medium Silver: 0

Small Silver: 0

Large Copper: 0

Copper: 0

Inventory List:

Rough Blanket

###

HUH?! Wasn’t this thing supposed to collect money over time?! Then why isn’t there anything there?!

Shit, did I have to have it summoned to gain money?

Wait… There was an asterisk next to the currency header. I focused on it and a new screen popped up.

###

First Use Message:

Funds will accumulate over time and must be collected to be added to wallet. The funds released will be based on user status at the time of collection. The higher the status, the better the results.

Funds are accrued every hour. Collecting them will only affect the hour counter.

Funds can accumulate for up to 720 hours, 30 days, before they will be automatically placed into wallet. It is possible to adjust this setting to do so more frequently.

We wish you luck on your journey!

###

The message disappeared when I finished reading it. The asterisk was gone, and in its place were two things, a time, and a button labeled ‘Collect.’ The timer read 33:25:14. So I should have been on this world for nearly a day and a half. Well, at least this will let me see how much it gathers in an hour right now.

I pressed the button.

The amount in the wallet changed, and the timer was changed to display 0:25:23. So what was the impact it made on my wallet?

Both copper and large copper increased to 3. Since there had been 33 hours, I could at least tell the relationship between those. Hopefully that stayed the same for each increment. Ten to one.

I doubt that’s much at all. Lets see how much I got when I was released.

The small pouch had mostly copper, but there were a few silver as well, but only small ones. The other pouch had ten medium silver. When I added it to the wallet, the medium silver counted up and the tenth one dropped the number back down to zero as Large silver went up by one. Yup, 10:1 conversion rate.

I played around with it, and found that I could summon any increment I wanted. If I wanted the large silver, I could pull it out. If I wanted a medium silver, I could take one out and the large silver dropped to zero as medium went to 9.

Very convenient.

Now that I knew how the currency went, it was time to find some work. And by that, I meant to see if there was an Adventurer’s Guild.

Or so I was supposed to… I got sidetracked. It wasn’t very hard for that to happen in this case. I smelled food, and my stomach, which hadn’t been satiated in over a day and a half spoke up. Loudly.

I gathered stares, making me flush with embarrassment. I followed the smells to the source and found a line of stalls selling many different types of food.

I spent a large copper buying a bunch of skewers, as well as a mug of juice. I was only able to finish half the food, but that was fine. I stashed a piece at a time away every time I picked one up. Since the items I stored away would be frozen in time, it would leave me with food for later.

Hunger assuaged, it was time to look for the guild.