Light shone through the high skylight in a slanted rectangle, preventing the narrow cell from being completely dark. Rats and cockroaches lurked in the piled-up straw, and a foul stench lingered constantly.
"How many days have I actually been locked in here?" The black-haired youth leaned against the wall, watching the beam of light cast by the skylight, and muttered to himself, "Isn't the punishment for failing the initial quest a bit too severe?"
The black-haired youth looked haggard; his hands were shackled with long chains, and a ball and chain was tied to his right leg—he was undoubtedly dressed as a prisoner.
He touched his chest, where there was a strange brand that looked like it was composed of several rings and lines. When he reached out to touch it, he could see things that others could not.
"Seal of the Golden Order"
"Name": Nidhogg Yggdrasil
"Level": LV0 (Ordinary Person)
"Apparel": vagabond knight helm / vagabond knight armor / vagabond knight gauntlets / vagabond knight greaves
"Weapon": Longsword (Skill: Ready Stance)
"Shield": heater shield (Skill: Parry)
"Long-term Quest": Achieve any one of the endings: Dark Age, Eternal War, or Dawn of Light.
"Mid-term Quest": golden seed and flask of crimson and cerulean tears (Condition: Reach Level 27)
"Short-term Quest": Escape the prison
"Initial Quest": Join any knight order or mercenary group within three days (Failed; Penalty: Lost halberd, imprisoned)
Nidhogg did not intentionally fail the initial quest.
After all, he was a transmigrator. One moment he was at home, replaying the game "elden ring," and the next he arrived in what seemed to be medieval Europe, even resurrecting in a mass grave. Anyone would be flustered in his position.
At that time, the so-called "Seal of the Golden Order" gave him a new name, a new background, and provided him with a set of apparel, a weapon, and a shield, before issuing the initial quest.
Nidhogg couldn't care about all that. With his heart set on returning to the modern world, he hurriedly left the mass grave, searching everywhere for a way home.
As a result, the time limit for the initial quest passed, and the punishment descended.
First, he lost his halberd, one of his starting weapons, and then he ran head-on into a knight order with blood-stained swords and shields. The leader was the tall and stalwart "The Grey Knight," Bazuso.
For the past three months, the lord's castle had been besieged by enemy forces. It was the combined efforts of Bazuso's knight order and a valiant mercenary group that had repelled wave after wave of enemy attacks.
Bazuso had just repelled another wave of enemy attacks and was planning to return to the city when he unexpectedly encountered the suspicious-looking Nidhogg on the road, so he ordered his knight order to surround him.
Nidhogg was dressed in the attire of a vagabond knight, yet he was acting furtively. When Bazuso questioned his origins, he stammered and couldn't give an answer, which deepened Bazuso's suspicion of him.
At that time, the two armies were at war. Bazuso believed he must be an enemy scout sent to probe the siege routes, so he had his knight order capture Nidhogg, throw him into prison, and interrogate him strictly.
Nidhogg was stripped of his helm, armor, gauntlets, and greaves, and his weapon and shield were taken away. After suffering days of whipping, he finally had to "confess," claiming he was indeed an enemy scout, and made up some random intelligence.
The interrogator was overjoyed, stopped the whipping, and excitedly left with the intelligence, not returning for the next few days.
Nidhogg was locked in the cell, silently nursing his wounds in the dim light.
The good news was that he no longer had to suffer whipping; the bad news was that he heard from a jailer that the interrogator had intended to go to the city walls to report to the lord, but ended up being shot to death by an arrow from the enemy forces who had nearly breached the walls.
The lord and Bazuso were busy guarding the castle day and night, not daring to slack off, and had forgotten about Nidhogg's existence.
Nidhogg did not know how long he had been locked up, or how much longer he would have to stay in the prison, which left him feeling quite decadent and depressed.
In such a predicament, in order to pull himself together, Nidhogg naturally placed his last shred of hope on the "Seal of the Golden Order" on his chest.
The helm, armor, gauntlets, greaves, longsword, heater shield... these were certainly not to be counted on, as he didn't even know where they had been thrown.
His only hope was his LV0 level, as well as those so-called long-term, mid-term, and short-term quests.
The long-term quest's meaning was unclear, and the mid-term quest required reaching level 27, which was too far off, so he could only look at the short-term quest—escaping the prison.
Nidhogg couldn't see any information on how to level up, so he could only speculate, eventually concluding that leveling up was closely related to completing quests; at the very least, completing quests would be an important way to level up.
However, the problem circled back.
He had originally thought that after leveling up, perhaps he would have a way to leave the prison, but his intuition told him that he needed to leave the prison to level up—wasn't this a dead loop?
Nidhogg felt a wave of distress.
At this moment, he suddenly heard a commotion coming in through the skylight. He could vaguely distinguish what seemed to be shouts of killing and the sounds of weapons clashing, which had not ceased.
Nidhogg knew the castle was being besieged by enemy forces, but he had never heard shouts of killing from within the castle before.
Could it be that the enemy had broken into this castle?
If that were the case, this would be the perfect opportunity for me to escape the prison!
Nidhogg stood up excitedly, pressed against the wall, and stood on his tiptoes, wanting to hear more sounds from the outside through the skylight.
Unfortunately, it seemed very chaotic outside, and he couldn't hear clearly. However, the prison was too quiet, and he soon heard a sound of pacing footsteps, full of hesitation.
Turning around, Nidhogg saw the middle-aged jailer who was usually in charge of guarding this place, pacing back and forth in the corridor, muttering something in a low voice.
Nidhogg's heart skipped a beat, and he crept closer, even holding his breath.
I must not miss this chance to escape again!
The light in the prison was dim, and the middle-aged jailer was so flustered that he didn't notice Nidhogg's movements. He stood in place, his face pale.
"They actually broke in... Damn it, damn it, what is Bazuso doing? And that Band of the Hawk, weren't they supposed to be illustrious in battle? How can they not even defend the castle? If I had known, I should have run away three months ago."
"The other jailers were either dragged off to defend the city or have long since run away. Only I am still foolishly staying in the castle, owed several months' wages, and haven't gotten a single cent back to this day... I really should have run away sooner!"
The middle-aged jailer was quite annoyed, scratching his head, completely unguarded with his back to Nidhogg's cell, still unaware of the malice coming from behind.
Nidhogg gripped the chains, stretched his hands out through the same bars of the cell, and with quick eyes and fast hands, looped them around the middle-aged jailer's neck, then quickly pulled his hands back, turned around, and squatted down!
When the cold chains pressed against the middle-aged jailer's neck, he spasmed subconsciously. His entire body was yanked hard, his back slamming against the prison bars, and the chains tightened violently!
"Mmph... Mmph... Mmph..."
On the other side of the prison bars, Nidhogg sat on the ground with his back to him, hunched over, using all his strength, ignoring the middle-aged jailer's limbs flailing and the moans coming from his throat.
"Mmph... Mmph... Mmm..."
Until the prison fell silent again and the middle-aged jailer behind him stopped moving, Nidhogg still did not let go. He held on for several more minutes before finally relaxing the chains and gasping for breath.
Nidhogg, having killed for the first time, felt no guilt at all. After all, this jailer had also participated in the whipping and interrogation of him; he had finally avenged himself, though it was a pity that the interrogator had died too early.
Nidhogg turned around and searched the body of the long-dead middle-aged jailer. Sure enough, he found a set of keys, so he took them and tried them one by one in the keyhole of the cell door.
Finally, one of the keys opened the cell door. Nidhogg escaped the prison and regained his freedom.
This time, without him needing to touch the brand, the text popped up before his eyes.
"Short-term Quest": Escape the prison (Completed, Reward: LV0 upgraded to LV1)
"Short-term Quest": Retrieve the vagabond knight set (0/6) / Kill the person obstructing you in the castle battlefield (1)