Instead of worrying about minor trifles like burgeoning emotional connections, Sláine put her efforts towards understanding the esoteric workings of Protocols in the interests of furthering her murder potential.

It was easier the second time around, she found, feeling a twinge of mental discomfort at pulling up her Class Menu but nothing akin to before. She stumbled through allocating her [ SP ] as they walked, spending a portion on one [ Skill ] and saving the rest for later.

Light filled her. Power. Understanding humming over her skin, and the buzz of excitement welled up in her chest. Huh, she thought, placing a hand over her heart. She supposed it made sense that there would be some manner of concrete feedback, considering all the other sensations she’d experienced regarding the Protocols, but she hadn’t expected it to feel so…

Good.

"What's up?" Red asked, glancing at her quizzically, and Sláine once again admired her ability to notice things and attention to detail.

"Just, ah. Figuring things out. I got a new [ Skill ]."

"Oh yeah?"

"[ Battle Frenzy ]," Sláine explained. That one, at least, was so obviously in tune with her interests that she'd want it regardless of anyone else's opinions on the matter.

"Really?" Red snorted. "A little on the nose, don't you think?"

"I'm a [ Berserker ] for a reason."

With a shrug Red certainly gave her that, and they continued walking. Sláine was curious how Red knew what it could do, though -- was it memorization? Simple deduction? Did Arpege have classes in this sort of thing?

"None of the above -- well, sort of to the last one, but that's not why I know,” Red answered when asked. “When a word is said all funny like that, you can [ Inspect ] it to learn more. Just saying your [ Skill ] names lets me read the descriptions."

"Oh," Sláine replied, expression blank. "Huh. How do you even go about doing that?"

"Bit too advanced for you, cupcake. As you get better at all this, you'll learn to interpret the world in a... different way. To look underneath the surface." Vaguely, Red waved at their general surroundings. "Like how everything we think we see doesn't actually exist."

"I hate philosophy," Sláine said with a sigh, and Red barked out a laugh.

It was then that they came to a doorway, and peering through it, Sláine found her thoughts otherwise occupied.

She'd become so used to the dungeon's maze-like tunnels that she hadn't been at all prepared to confront the vastness of such a large, open chamber.

She saw the high ceiling first, the room vertically occupying multiple levels of the facility and the pair having entered somewhere near the top. Dim, hazy light filtered in through an enormous pane of glass, though beyond, Sláine saw thick rolls of purple fog instead of the sky.

A walkway stood before them, metal worked into a tight lattice and bordered by a barred rail. Cautiously, she stepped through the stone arch to look below.

Another walkway wrapped around the concrete room, placing them approximately on the third floor.

On the first, were... things. Pipes and tanks and all manner of machines that looked entirely foreign to her, some small and some reaching all the way up to the second floor. She focused little on the odd technological marvels though, because teeming throughout the rusted wreckage and broken gadgetry was filth itself.

From this distance, only the general shapes were clear, mounds of white and pus-yellow creatures twitching and shifting in their wretched piles. Larger monsters - guardians, it looked like, and a type she hadn't yet seen - dragged in the muted brown corpses of giant rats, leaving them in heaps that the writhing things gorged upon. On every surface, the pockmarked material lay thick, interlaced with numerous tunnels flurrying with tunnel-mite activity.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

She also noted what seemed to be movement around various broken pipes, as if they'd been re-purposed into another path of transportation.

Across from them and down, opening up onto the first floor, Sláine saw an enormous doorway, though everything beyond was cast in shadow. Workers traveled in and out of it, carrying food in and some kind of... strange gelatin out. More wove out of the tunnels in trailing lines, carrying eggs and storing them in the corners atop beds of vile yellow mold.

Strangely enough, on their level of the room, the wall was perfectly clean. The hole-ridden tunnel might structure it reached the doorway, a sharp delineation between hive and not-hive. Sláine glanced behind her, and then Red, trying to figure out what the woman made of the scene.

Red gestured to her to come closer, taking a careful step back to where they'd come from.

"Well," she murmured once Sláine had gotten close. "That's definitely new."

"What should we do?"

"Well..." Red said slowly, mulling it over. "There's probably a boss down there -- uh, real strong monster, basically a leader -- and we absolutely, without question, should not take it on. But if we can figure out how to get there..."

Red tapped lightly on her mask in thought. "It'll help the cleanup crew a lot."

"Not that I'm unwilling, but wouldn't that risk drawing the attention of all -- " Sláine pointed towards the room. "That?"

"I think we can pull it off without getting that close. I'm making a map, after all; a way to the first floor and a general path leading towards the soirée they've got going on down there would be more than enough. Besides..."

Sláine could practically hear her grin. "Worst comes to worst, we'll just get our cardio in today with some running."

"Fine by me," Sláine shrugged, and paused after only a single step when Red spoke up again.

"Just, you know, a heads up - " Red pointed at her, her serious tone contrasting starkly with the mask's unsettling grin. "If you end up rushing in there to test out your shiny new [ Battle Frenzy ] skill, I will save you only so I can personally beat your ass into another genre. Got it?"

"I do," Sláine replied, highly amused for some reason she couldn't name. The wording? The stereotyping? The idea of losing in a direct match against her? Regardless -- "I promise."

Taking the assurance to heart, Red nodded and peered around the corner. "This way, then."

Being able to see such a vast swath of enemies set Sláine ill at ease, as was being so high above the ground, and it was a relief that her time spent creeping gingerly across the suspended walkway had a conclusive ending point. Against another wall stood a dark rectangle indicating another passage, and it wasn't far away at all.

Unfortunately, it was on the second level, and standing between it and them was a long line of metal stairs whose railing had met an unknowable end.

Red appeared untroubled by it, pressing her back to the wall and creeping down them without a whisper of noise, but Sláine found herself hesitating at the first step.

It had been a mistake to look down. She'd used practicality to justify it, that she was simply checking if they'd been noticed, but the drop was steep, the pathway narrow, and even as she eased her foot forward, she heard the dubious suspensions creak.

Holding onto the wall, Sláine forced herself not to think of what it'd been like to have the ground open beneath her. Of fingers scrambling in the dirt, a hand wrapped around her ankle as she desperately clawed at jutting rocks and stray roots for support. The sound of the scream as the weight lifted and someone fell into the fathomless depths.

Looking down and feeling the air rush by her, as if the hole was a giant mouth breathing in.

Suddenly, there was a hand in her vision, gloved palm turned upwards and slightly cupped. Red had paused, looking towards her, and Sláine bit the inside of her cheek.

How wretched.

She opened her mouth to insist that she was fine, but a finger sharply raised to the middle of the smile stopped her. Red extended her hand to her again, more insistently, and then... pointed to Sláine's feet?

She looked down, seeing nothing but metal (and the slight hints of what lay below through all the little holes) and gave Red a squint of confusion.

A third time, Red pushed her hand towards her, and then growing impatient, simply snatched at Sláine's wrist.

Something... washed over her. Tingling, cool, but amorphous like water. Sláine blinked.

"I can already tell you'll be shit at walkin' quiet," Red said, low but still easily perceptible. "And this bit is hard to do my sneaky-magic on, so just grab tight and make it easier for me to do my thing, yeah?"

"You could have said something before," Sláine snapped, before forcing the tenseness out of her shoulders. "Rather than making vague hand gestures."

"Sue me for letting it slip my mind."

Red's grip was inescapable, and this time, when Sláine tried to move, she heard no noise from the floor below.

It wasn't easy, making her way down those steps, but the security of Red's hand may have, just slightly, made it easier. And while Sláine had her doubts about the veracity of Red's excuse, it didn't matter. Accepting aid to quiet her movements was a simply practical choice.

Anything else could be brushed off as an unintended consequence.

>> Continue to second floor