Desperately I swung my staff in a wide almost circle around me, it was a feeble attempt to keep those puffball monsters away from me. I was dead tired. We had been fighting for ages. My legs felt like they might turn to jello and get sucked down into the earth along with the gravity that was pulling on my eyelids. There were probably like six or seven of them around me, and unfortunately only two of them were hit by my strike.

Various minor cuts and bruises littered my body, and by minor I mean anywhere between small and large but not immediately fatal on their own. I could’ve sworn we had been fighting for the last week. The fatigue and injuries had built up. I couldn’t go on much longer.

Aureus.

Master.

I’m tired.

Yes.

I want to give up.

Please.

Okay. I’m sorry.

No.

“I give up, I surrender. Please, I’m tired.” I forced it out of my dry throat. It was hard to force myself not to collapse onto the stone right when I proclaimed I was done. Forcing myself to stand longer was taking all of my concentration. As I was getting through the first couple syllables of my surrender a claw sunk deep into my right ankle. I couldn’t care much about it though. Everything hurt.

Almost immediately after the ‘r’ in surrender escaped my lips the little terrors that had been plaguing me for gods know how long were bubbled away. I wondered for a few seconds if I was seeing things, the little monsters were put in bubbles and floated away into the entrances? Exits? That the bats had arrived through. Thank the gods. I was so tired. I furrowed my brows despite my exhaustion. When had I gotten used to thanking them for things? They had been the cause of all of this, why was I thanking them for things that went my way despite all of it? Angry, I glanced towards the GGC.

[“Reflection of an Empty Throne” cursed and exclaimed that they would never bet on you ever again.]

[“Traveling Spring Painter” complained that if they just trusted you a bit more they would have won their bet.]

[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” expressed that they were happy with the performance you presented even if he didn’t win his bet.]

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” cheers as they collect their winnings.]

[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” jumps up and down.]

[“Divine Hammer of Blessings” curses and complains that it won’t be the same next time.]

“I wish you guys could maybe not bet on my life and death experiences sometimes? Maybe? I mean I know you are trusting me to do well, but sometimes it feels less like you’re trusting me and more like you’re trying to make a profit.” I whined.

[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” asks what the difference is.]

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” expresses that they have to make a profit somehow.]

[“Traveling Spring Painter” says that you should try to understand their position on things like this.]

[“Playful Cat hates Yarn” complains that even gods need entertainment.]

“I’m pretty sure you guys have enough, there are… well… at least there used to be like eight billion people on the earth. It’s not my fault if you guys reduced the quantity of entertainment producing individuals here.” I groaned as I rolled over and tried to look for my child. Strangely my mind was more tired than my body, at the very least I could move on instinct and ramble, but the effort of using my brain and talking to Aureus was killing me.

Aureus?

What?

Where?

Ugh.

I know.

I’m tired. Do I have to?

No.

Thank you.

I decided to just rest. The exhaustion we were enduring was crippling, even more so than the extensive injuries that painted our bodies in various shades of red and purple. We had been fighting nonstop forever. Everytime it felt like we were making a dent in the masses there would be more pouring out of the arches throughout the enclosed space we were in. At first I had run low on little skulls to smash, and then more of the wommi arrived. The new ones were different, they were coated in painted markings and carried different weapons, a few of them even shot elemental magic. After Aureus defeated the first three bats, five more appeared, and then nine.

Rest started to take me, I felt a sense of relief. I was done. I could finally just rest. It was time to do nothing and enjoy the fact that I was done. Just as I felt myself slipping into a dream that unimaginably loud groaning of metal and stone started again. I nearly cried as I forced my body into a sitting up position. Sticky blood and guts pulled at my skin painfully as I lifted myself upwards just slightly, propping my weight on my forearms. What now?

The floor beneath me started to level out as the mountains disappeared and the valleys moved up to meet me. Finally I was laying on a completely flat floor, and I glanced between my feet where I saw Aureus also laying on the ground. I smiled thinking the noise was finally done, and I let my body fully relax flopping down onto the hard sticky stone. I could let sleep take me, but it didn’t stop. The walls between each section started to lower. It wasn’t as loud, but still. I couldn't sleep like that, it sounded like I was in a jet engine, and there was no way my inherent fear response would allow me to rest if there was even an inkling of danger. I had no energy to lift my head to so I tried to angle myself as lazily as possible to see past the walls around me. I wanted to see if Reid was okay.

The walls moved infuriatingly slow. I even pulled up the GGC to complain to the collector about his shoddy construction before I stopped myself. What if he fucked with it because I complained? I waited staring hard at the walls, willing them to move just even a modicum of a second faster. Finally they were close to human height. My eyes were sore as they fought with my own anatomy to stare towards the area I had last seen Reid. I couldn’t see him, well after a moment I couldn't see anything. My vision went moderately dark since I strained my eyes too much and I suppose they might have rolled back into my head. There wasn’t any way to know what really happened.

“Mia?!”

“Theodore?!”

“HELP!”

A small sigh that was almost inaudible, “Theodore…” I guessed it was Rosalynn. Thank the gods, they had all lived. It was an appropriate gamble.

“Reid? I’m here!” I tried to call out to them, but my throat didn’t carry the sound like I wanted. It came out breathy and quiet. I lifted my fist slightly and tried to smack it down, but I didn’t have much energy for that either.

“Mia! God! Why do you always do this?!” I could hear Reid, but I couldn’t see him. From the plops of his footsteps I assumed he was coming closer.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Well I’ll be damned…” Rosalynn said. It was hard to tell if she was impressed or just confused.

“Thank god. Thank god! Rose!” Theo yelled.

“How many times do I have to tell your ass to not call me Rose. God!” She complained.

“But you call me Theodore even though I prefer Theo…” he whined in response, I never heard her response if she gave one.

Reid appeared in my vision above me, his worried face that had become even more common since we had arrived in the Underhollow looked down at me. He opened his mouth for a few seconds, his face contorting with things he wanted to say. Curses and complaints and then sympathy and finally resignation. I smiled. It was nice to see him. More than anything I was happy to be able to relax.

“Mia, don’t you go to sleep.” He commanded.

“Why?” I complained.

“I need to check your head first, and then maybe you should lay down in your camper?”

He had a point, there was that thing people always said about not sleeping after a concussion or something? I groaned and tried my best to force my consciousness back into the forefront of my mind. It wasn’t very effective. Sleep had wrapped me up in weighted blankets that were sinking me deeper and deeper into the clouds of dreams. There wasn’t much I could do about that. Reid should argue with sleep, it was pretty persuasive. A gold light flashed, Reid mumbled something I didn’t understand, and then picked me up. Something soft appeared under me and then I was gone.

~~*~~

The heavy fog of slumber started to lift, and for a single moment there was nothing wrong in the world. I was completely and utterly comfortable and safe, and then I was jolted back into reality. Throwing myself completely off of the couch as my conscious mind raised an alarm about bats and giant fluffy gizmo.

“Ow.” I rubbed my hip as I stood up next to my couch in the camper. How did I even get in there? I didn’t remember deploying it before I went to sleep.

“Mia?” Reid wheeled around the corner of the bathing area, his eyes sweeping the couch before snapping up to where I stood. “You okay?”

“Yeah? I think so. Did you heal me? How is Aureus?”

He sighed, “He’s fine, he was pretty beat up, or well even if he wasn’t he was more coated in gunk than you so he’s in the bath. Don’t worry about him.”

“And the other two?”

“Yeah they’re fine as well. You wanna see them?”

“I guess?” I was more uncertain about meeting Rosalynn and Theo than I expected. Maybe the idea of meeting them after they saw me in such a vulnerable state was scary. I wasn’t fully sure.

The two of us took a step out of the camper into the large room we had started in. Rosalynn and Theo were sitting on the stone floor a few feet away from the doorway. She shot up as the door opened.

“Hey… you doing alright?” she asked, and I felt like there was genuine concern in her voice.

“Yeah… just a little tired. I’m right as rain now.” I smacked my bicep for emphasis.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose before responding, “What in the hell were you doing? Honestly, who fights for four days before just collapsing with no energy? You’re insane!” It felt like she was trying to admonish me but honestly she was too excited to do it properly. Her eyes sparkled as she stared at me with excitement. She reminded me vaguely of Noel, excited, but different. It was refreshing.

“I dunno, I just… didn’t want to give up. I guess? Plus I’m quite close to another level up!”

She gave up on the pretense of a disappointed authority figure and just let loose on her bellowing laughter. It echoed in our large chamber as she walked over to clap my back with her small hand. I stumbled forward a bit from the weight of it, I knew that huge hammer wasn’t for show, but god her hand was heavy. “I like you. You should come see us sometime when we get out of here.”

I spent a moment considering if she was trying to mimic an authority figure due to her small stature or because of her skill in the Underhollow. Was this a position thrust upon her or taken up by her?... Or was this just her? “Sure. I’d like to see if you guys figure something out with the lady department. I don’t really want to go back to the old methods.” I joked.

“Hey… uh…” Theo started trepidatiously, “Can we talk?” He glanced up at me awkwardly.

“I mean. I guess. Fine. Before that though, what happened? Are we done? Can we leave this damn maze?”

“Yeah, but as we needed with the door and stuff we need all four people to agree to leave.” Reid answered my question promptly.

“Huh… Then if one of us died would… Nevermind. Uh, okay well since we aren’t completely confident what will happen when we do that, or rather where we will end up when we leave. Theo, do you wanna step aside quickly before we all decide to move on?”

He nodded and hurried to join me a few feet away from the group. He stopped about fifteen feet away from Rosalynn and Reid. I considered for a second whether or not I should tell him that they would most likely be able to hear us from here, but decided against it. I didn’t really care if they heard or not.

“So… about that day…” he started.

I stared at him, not responding and waiting. I wasn’t going to make this conversation easy on him. I didn’t care that it had been a long time ago, I didn’t care that he was having a hard time. The world was harsh and life wasn’t fair, but I’d had more than my fair share of misfortune. Well, at least compared to him. I’m sure my life wasn’t the worst, but he surely doesn’t deserve my sympathy.

“I just…” he tried to continue, “ I just, I made a mistake. I was out of my mind, and Nicole she was just so pushy and…” he stopped himself. I wasn’t sure if he ran out of excuses or just didn’t want to make more.

“Why are you trying to say this now?” I asked.

“I,” He stopped and then took a deep breath, “I just don’t want you to hate me.”

“Ok.”

“Wait… you forgive me?”

“No?”

“But you… you said okay?”

“Yeah I said okay, I understand that you don’t want me to hate you.”

“So you don’t hate me?”

“I don't know. I’m just acknowledging your feelings. I’m not agreeing to anything or forgiving anything.”

“Oh.” He stared at me for a few seconds, “So you don’t forgive me?”

“I didn’t hear an apology just now, and even if I did I’m not sure if I’d want to. You did a fuckin awful thing. And your timing was literally the worst. Also, fuck you.”

“Yeah… I guess I deserve th-” he stopped his halfhearted apology – if you could even call it that – as I walked away towards the group.

“Welp, you guys ready to go?”

“Whenever you are.” Rosalynn agreed.

“I hate him.” Reid complained.

“I’m gonna grab Aureus and then we can go.” I ignored Reid’s complaint as I retrieved my familiar and camper. Once the four of us were ready I checked the system.

[ Finished Challenge ]

[ Placement: 1/4 ]

[ Survival time: 03:15:38 ]

[ Rewards Calculating ]

[ Gem set Detected ]

[ Rewards Determined ]

[ Acquired Rain Drop Necklace ]

[ Challenge Completed, Please Vacate Challenge Chamber ]

[Required 3/4 ]

Several system messages populated my vision along with various GGC messages that I pushed aside, I could talk to the gods later. I placed first? Even though I had given up? How? Did I really spend that long fighting those little assholes? I guess I must’ve, I wasn’t really keeping up with what was going on. I felt like I might die if I didn’t kill them so I guess that makes sense? I was so preoccupied with the idea that one of us had to complete the challenge without giving up that I didn’t consider the fact that all of us could give up and it wouldn’t mean that the group failed, or that we would have to give up at some point.

~~*~~

Rain Drop Necklace

Description: When the user is surrounded by or using water their abilities are heightened, this includes the user’s senses and damage. User is able to do more damage with water based attacks, and can sense things within water or related to water much easier.

Damage: +10%

~~*~~

Well it was no Water Drop Staff, but it was definitely an enormous boon. Reid on the other hand had likely just gotten his first proper item from the gods’ system. I was entirely excited to ask him about his gains and bug him, but I decided that it would be rude to ask him now. If he wanted to tell me about his gains he would. Plus I was the only one preventing us from leaving the labyrinth.

Mentally I approved the escape and the 3/4 clicked up to a whole. Immediately a moderate weight of gravity pressed itself onto us, but having experienced something similar, I handled the change in environment well. I couldn’t say the same for Reid, who after we appeared on the familiar rocky terrain with red sky flopped down with uncomfortable gasping. To his credit Theo had a very similar response. I decided that it was because they were underleveled compared to me and Rosalynn, I wasn’t sure what level she was, but I was certain it was higher than the both of them.

“Oh… Well, I guess we don’t end up where we left…” I said as I glanced around me, when I saw Aureus behind me I relaxed inadvertently. A heavy fog of exhaustion started to fall onto my shoulders.

Master, my pillars.

What?

I furrowed my brows as I followed his pointed claw towards my left. Indeed there were two large pillars in the distance. For a moment I didn’t remember what they were, after a few seconds I realized. Aureus had created two pillars around the hole that was above Caroline and Noel. They weren’t close, but at least we knew where they were. I was ecstatic.