Several delvers volunteered to help carry the bags with human corpses back to the passage facility on the Earth side. The equipment was left in the liminal void for the time being. Nobody could access it anyway. Robert made use of the facilities and took a shower, changing into his civilian clothes and stashing his disgusting brigandine in a bag. Samson offered him a complimentary locker where he could keep his stuff.

The corpses of the variant squid and the three other Mollusks were processed as normal. The money, plus the bounty on the squid was given in full to Robert. Samson had its own insurance policy for dead delvers and as Robert heard the convoluted explanation as to why they had to pay him the bounty, he understood why they didn't want people to delve solo. It would increase their insurance premiums. It had to do with a partnership they had with the schools to grade the students in their practical exams, and too many moving parts for him to follow.

They then debriefed him on the variant squid's powers. He explained them but refrained from giving any information about his talent or abilities that weren't already known. The official version was that he used life sense to fight the squid with his eyes closed. After the interview, he was glad he'd made twenty grand for all the times he had his brain split in two and then stretched like taffy. Little did he know this was just the beginning.

Once he was outside, the three running Archs came and voiced their apologies along with their words of appreciation for rescuing their dead party members. Their words went all over Robert's head, overwhelmed as he was.

"The squid was dangerous. I only managed to defeat it by a stroke of luck," Robert said at the end. "Don't be too harsh on yourselves for doing what was right. If you hadn't, you'd have troubled me with three more body bags."

His words fell on almost deaf ears. It was obvious that this was a career-ending moment. The trio's motivation to continue delving was s dead as their two companions. Dead eyes, and slumped shoulders, they were scared of facing death once more. The life of a combat Archhuman was like that. Permanent injury, physical, mental, or spiritual was lurking just around the corner. Robert rubbed his wounded hand. The flesh was still tender but it would be fully healed by tomorrow.

Everybody wanted to buy Robert a drink. He instead dug into his newfound wealth and paid for a round. It made him even more popular with the delvers. He sat on a table, with a pint of premium beer. Amanda popped next to him unannounced.

She huffed a long sigh, eyes closed, arms and legs stretched above and below the table. She shuddered, shook her head, then sighed again.

"I'm sorry for running away," the Nature Arch finally said.

"Not your fault. It was the sensible choice."

"I'm a coward."

"Discretion is the best part of valor," Robert misquoted. "Did you contact your family?"

"I did, what about it?"

"How did they react?"

She widened her eyes. "My mom wouldn't stop crying and saying, thank God you are alive."

"There you go. Would you rather have her as bereaved as our party members' parents?"

She lowered her head on her balled fists. Amanda's shoulders shook as she started to sob. Robert knew she needed to vent it out, to have this moment of catharsis. Ignoring or bottling up her feelings would only harm her in the long run. Like he did. He thought about rubbing her back but held back. Instead, he took slow slips of his beer. The mug had an ice inscription to keep the beverage cold for longer.

People came and shook his hands or expressed their sentiments for their loss. They left Amanda alone, though. It was hard to tell if she was even awake since the only perceptible movement was the slow rising and fall of her back. But she wasn't snoring, Robert took that as a hint she was awake.

Then he saw people he knew come into the food court. The people they discarded from the raid because they had overlapping affinities. They looked like people who won the lottery... with a stolen ticket. They were very much happy to be alive but also suffering from an acute case of survivor's guilt.

Guilt struck Robert as he found how happy he was the people who died weren't Chris and company. That struck him like yet another squid-brand mind spike. Was Robert a horrible person? Maybe. Was he profiting from the situation like crazy? Definitely. Would anyone else in his shoes do differently? Hell, no. Nobody in this world was that naive or innocent. It was everyone for themselves. His lawyers ran away the moment the money well dried up. The insurance company that was supposed to do their fucking job and help him instead turned like starving coyotes on a slab of prime steak. The Kraven clan fabricated a ridiculous debt to legally enslave him.

If he didn't look out for himself, nobody else would.

His tab was growing to ridiculously high levels but at least the situation calmed down. That was until the parents started showing up. He only heard the commotion as they yelled and cried and threw the blame on Samson's poor management.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Were it not for the money, Robert would've slipped into the Void in front of everyone and walked away from all this. The negative emotions, the faces he was seeing, the hero worship that was slowly growing among the delvers, it all weighed on him.

Worse, when the parents finished venting their grief on Samson's personnel, they found him. He could read their expressions. "Why wasn't my golden baby who survived instead of a bum like you?" They clamored. But saying it out loud was a huge no-no, so they faked their smiles and softened their voices. Between clenched teeth, they thanked Robert for bringing their sons and daughters back.

He hadn't.

The parents left each a business card behind, so he could contact them regarding the salvage buyback. Robert had half a mind to cosign these cards to the void. Moments after they left, he couldn't recall a single phrase from the conversation they had.

Maybe the time he spent in solitude in the liminal void was making it difficult to talk to people. To Robert, the fight with the reverse recognition squid happened weeks ago. He cycled lavi flows, clearing his head. He leaned back, arms crossed, eyes closed. Life sense and foresight would warn him of any surprise attacks.

With a little soul searching, he found what he wanted to do. Go back in the passage, beat the crap out of the Mollusks. Sort through the gear, and see what he would keep from what he would sell back to the previous owners.

Why the hell was he wasting his precious one percent in real life time there?

Robert stood up. Amanda startled and jumped back to sitting upright. "Where are you going?"

"To the passage. I'm going to get this debacle sorted out, then I'm going to work on my star."

Some of the carousing delvers nodded with respect.

She paled and glanced at the food court exit. "You are... going back there?"

"Yeah. The worst part will be to don my filthy armor. Didn't get around to cleaning it up. Meh. Maybe I'll delve naked. Cut on those costs, 'ya know?"

Boisterous laughter rang through the hall. "If you cut on those costs, the Mollusks will soon cut another cost too!" A jokester jested.

Amanda slammed both hands on the table, almost causing his half-full mug of beer to tip over. She stared at him with swollen eyes. "I'm coming with you!"

"No, you are not."

"I can fight!" Her mounting desperation intensified.

"That's not the issue!"

"I can be useful!" She pleaded like a repentant death row convict.

"I don't doubt that!"

"Please don't leave me behind too!" Amanda begged in a whiny voice.

And that, Robert thought, was the core of the issue. "Call your parents and tell them you are going back there. See what they have to say."

"I'm not a child!" She yelled, her voice rising to a high soprano and almost shattering glass. Necks turned.

"I know that. Guess what," Robert slowly lost his temper. "I'm not your nanny. I'm going back there to do something stupid. That variant showed me how fucking weak I am."

"I am weak too!" She screeched. "I ran away at the first sign of trouble! I didn't even try to attack it."

He grabbed her by the shoulders. Glaring at her eyes, he spoke slowly. "And this is the only reason you are alive. That squid had a reverse recognition power. It could only perceive and attack you if you were perceiving it with your natural five senses. If you had at most glanced at it, your head would have exploded just like everyone else. Amanda, no corpse I recovered had anything above the neck. Heck, half their brains ended up on my armor.

"You may think you are a coward. I won't stop you. To me, you trusted your instincts more than the rest. They told you the best path to survival, and you took it. There's no shame in what you did, and if anyone here says otherwise, three stars or not, I'll take them to the arena."

They were both dripping tears on the table. Defeated, Amanda could barely breathe between sobs. Then they started clapping. Every delver who heard Robert's speech clapped.

"NOW KISS!" Some jackass shouted. A smack came on the counterpoint of the claps and then he shouted no more.

*

*

"I'm sorry, Mr. Robert Blaze, but we can't allow you to delve any longer. Company policy." The clerk at the front desk told him as she reported his application for delving had been denied.

"The what?"

"The passage will be closed for investigation for at least four days. Nobody can delve in the meantime, but you have been considered too strong for this passage. Try to understand. The Mollusk Realm is used to train youngsters and students. You are obviously strong enough to take on harder and more profitable challenges."

"But the equipment salvaged is still out there," he protested. Amanda cleared her throat and the clerk looked away. Then, only then, Robert understood what was really going on. "Fine. I'll tell you the location for five million."

"I'm not authorized to make this kind of decision, sir."

"Then report to whoever is. They won't find it. Ever. Five million, the offer is good for a week. Then I'll spread the news. There's buried treasure in there to every delver whoever entered this place."

"I advise you against that course of action, sir."

He almost told her what she could do with her advice. Instead, he grinned the same fake business smile he hated. "I'll take that into consideration, ma'am. Have a good night."

That said, Robert went to the locker and took his things. He didn't even bother to see if they searched the locker or not. He was too pissed for that. Outside the locker room, Amanda was waiting for him.

"Can I buy you dinner?" She offered.

Robert considered his options. "Just dinner?"

"Only time can tell," she replied with a smirk.

"No. Just dinner," he doubled down.

"Fine. Fine. Tow-tally fine," she crooned. "Where do you want to eat?"

"I don't know anything about these higher districts. How about you pick the place? I can eat pretty much anything."

"Fine. This way," she pointed. They started walking in silence. Then Amanda asked a question. "Is it weird that your party got almost wiped out hours ago, and we are now going to grab dinner?"

To Robert, it was more like a month ago. But he couldn't say that, could he? "Unless we want to join them, we should get some sustenance. We are not dishonoring them by living our lives. Did you see the faces of those guys we chose not to take on the raid with us made? I bet they aren't fasting in thanks for not dying."

"That's sort of cruel and rude," she giggled then grunted lightly.

Robert looked to the sky, "Just like this world we live in."

She elbowed him on the ribs, "It's not so bad."

"Perhaps I've been too pessimistic. My apologies."