The district below them a housing district, the houses were all kinds of things, a select few brick, and cement without windows, brought by surface influence, but most were shaped coral, tall sea grass, oysters, kelp, holes, among other things. Aton and his group stared at the district below. The poor in Bathysphere didn’t live well, especially not in water districts due to the desperation of many of the citizens. Some who travel to Bathysphere have wealth and come for the treasures, but there exist other sad reasons. Some from the sea travel to hide from the horrors of the depths. Others come for the lawlessness, even with the Law faction crime still goes unpunished most of the time, and some to run from their past. What better place than the bottom of the ocean to get away from everything? Of course, many were born into Bathysphere with no opportunity to leave.
Jasper had once lived in a place similar to the one below, born in Bathysphere he joined Aton to escape that place. Seeing it like this brought back terrible memories of his past. Luckily for him, they had no reason to go into the district, they could swim over it to the next tube that should bring them to the residential district which should have a doctor. While residential districts also had homes, they contained some shops and services.
Not too far away they swam to the tube they needed, from the distance they could see the triangle beams that supported the large metal tubes, they lined the tube down as far as could be seen. Every tube in Bathysphere rested on these beams, both the supports and tubes were all reinforced with Ash many times over and they still leaked and often burst. The Restoration faction took care of those issues, when traveling tube to tube they can almost always be seen providing maintenance to them.
Aton now reaching the tube, this one didn’t have any guards blocking it like the previous one further confirming that they were getting targeted. Aton entered the bubble, and everyone else followed suit. Jasper in the back; he had dispelled his skill now, he barely could maintain his consciousness let alone his Ash skill. This put the group in further danger, but he went as long as he could without severe consequences, blood still pouring from his orifices proving it.
“Stay alert.” Said Aton, suddenly, they weren’t in sea yet, their enemy could still be waiting to attack. Inside the tube the normal busy took place, citizens actually traveled this tube. A slugman donning a spear could be seen glued to the bottom of the tube traveling forward, which caused the old tube to groan in pain. The water tubes didn’t get as much wear as the air tubes, but it also meant they weren’t used to it. Like a muscle that hasn’t gotten used enough trying to lift a heavy weight.
The group awkwardly headed in the same direction as the slugman. Aton maneuvered around him and passed the slow slugman and the rest of the group followed his lead. Slugmen were slow but were very resistant to physical attacks, they were weak to a lot of Ash attacks though. They continued to make quick progress down the tube, the slugman not in eyesight anymore.
While probably not smart the group naturally started to relax a bit, they were far from the past dangers. Aton feared this, the two main factors keeping them together were their injuries and the immediate danger activating their survival instincts. Once they start to relax the latter factor gets removed, and problems will rise. They were already walking a tightrope; they couldn’t fall apart here.
“As your leader, I command all of you to keep your emotions in check at least until the doctors fix us up,” Aton said hopefully cooling down the tension at least a little bit. Joshens bit his lip, he knew he should listen to Aton, but he couldn’t help but want to lash out right about now. Jasper festered anger too, but currently, he was too busy holding himself together to think of much else. His fingers burned like nothing he had ever felt before, his other hand basically glued itself onto his now stubs to comfort himself. His ears ringed making it hard to process anything said to him, his nose stung, his eyes burned, and everything on the inside of his body felt on fire.
His vision started to spin in dark circles, his vision tunneling into the water right in front of him, his mind thinking he only had to make it there, then after making it his brain would tell him to do it again, hyperfocus on the area directly in front, make it there do it again. His body exhausting itself more than it already had every few inches felt like an entirety, he didn’t even register his allies anymore as his only object; move forward, otherwise, he would join Lewis. A small disturbance in his trance came from Aton shouting at him to snap out of it. It didn’t do much good, he kept going as he had, Aton shouted again, but he kept going, again, and again.
“Jasper snap out of it, get a hold of yourself lest you wish to die here!” Aton yelled once more, finally getting through to Jasper, with a gasp he got himself together once more. He rubbed his forehead.
“Sorry boss, I've used too much Ash.” Jasper managed to get out before coughing out more blood. Aton gave him a look of concern.
“It’s okay I pushed you a lot today, but please hold on a bit longer we’re almost at the residential district.” Jasper gave a curt nod not wanting to move more than he had to, but Aton spoke the truth they were getting close. They had traveled quite a distance now, and luckily nothing had stopped them. Aton did see one thing that brought concern, Lawmen were rushing down the tube they were headed in the opposite direction, they must’ve got wind of the dead bodies, and made their move. The Lawmen probably would’ve recognized Aton though, and they didn’t stop him inclining him to think the Law wasn’t the perpetrator, or at least not all of them.
Regardless, the pressing matter at hand getting healed, they were now nearing their stop, the residential district. The tube’s bubble to enter the district found itself in Aton’s eye view, nothing looked out of the ordinary so he proceeded like normal and went through the tube, the rest following him closely behind. Below perhaps Joshens and Jasper's only hope at making it, this district a bit better off than the last and could be considered middle-class living.
Houses and homes littered the ground, but occasionally different types of buildings could be spotted. From up here, they couldn’t be identified, maybe somebody with an Ash vision skill could if they wanted, but nobody on Aton’s team had such a skill so they started their descent below blind.
“Stay sharp, we can’t afford any mishaps.” Everyone nodded in understanding, nobody wanted to get into a confrontation right now, their previously calming nerves now shot back up into high-alert mode. They got to the ocean floor, sand right beneath them now. Around them, a small town basically. Like the previous housing district, many of the structures here were not cement or brick but rather all kinds of sea things, some may live in kelp while others may sell out of a large shell.
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While money had a factor in the lack of brick and cement, it's only that, a factor. At the end of the day many of the people here would rather stick with their roots, why have a cement home when they could live in a branch of coral? The group was in the center of it all, Aton purposely descended in the center of the district, so the odds of them finding a doctor here would be much higher, and they would have more people around to ask. Right after they finished their descent Clide went up to the first person he could find, a Simion woman. He stealthily brandished a standardized light gray crystal.
“It's yours if you can lead me and my friends to a doctor.” He pointed towards Aton, Joshens, and Jasper. Crystals were a commonly accepted currency all around the world as they sucked up Ash like a tree absorbing carbon. The darker the crystal the more Ash it has absorbed and the more value it holds. The crystals had many purposes beyond currency; the city's air bubble would be a great example, it's able to stay up thanks to Ash crystals.
The woman swiped the crystal, probably desperate for money.
“I know a place, but it seems like you are in desperate times, so am I. Double the payment.” Clide had expected this, so he gave her a lower amount than he would’ve if he had not predicted this behavior. He pulled out another standardized light gray crystal. Standardized meaning somebody had cut it down to a predetermined size from a rough crystal which could be any size.
She swiped that one too and told Clide to follow her. Clide did so, and Aton, Joshens, and Jasper followed suit. Their well-being beating their anger. While they swam they noticed the district was full of life anywhere one looked. Not only people but other animals too. Many fish swam slightly overhead, little crabs scurried along the ocean floor along with bugs and insects, and the whole place manifested color and beauty. Jasper in particular wanted to sit and watch it all, but the Simion lady went fast, and his pains reminded him he needed to go fast too. It didn’t take her long to reach her destination. A dead giant oyster turned into a makeshift home of sorts. The Simion lady knocked on the oyster.
“Knock knock you have customers Salvador, and rich ones too.” At the word rich the oyster started to open, revealing an old Merman. He looked like he had been through the Abyss and back, though he had a build of a strong warrior although hidden by age it still peered out somewhat.
“Thank u’ Elane, now what ye what, from mee.” Salvador spat out with very little care for his presentation. Clide stepped forward, he liked to do the talking.
“According to Elane you're a doctor, we require medical assistance on two of our friends back here.” The old man walked up to Joshens and Jasper and inspected them for a moment, he had Joshens turn around to see the injuries on his back and he examined Jasper with a skill of sorts perhaps an Ash skill.
“Wel it ain’t gud, but other then thee fingers I could treat ya. It won’t be cheap tho the Fuku has many cuts and whatever he is has severe internal bleeden.” Nobody from the team knew Jasper’s race, not even Aton who thrived off knowledge. Aton had never seen someone like Jasper before, sure he wasn’t terribly far from Simions, but he definitely couldn’t be either.
Slightly taller than Aton, Jasper was a biped humanoid. He has a bright blue skin tone with gray borderlines. He had webbed hands and feet with claws on his feet that enabled him to latch onto the ground even in water. He lacked scales and instead had tough leathery skin. He had three fins on his head, two for his ears, and one placed on the top of his head. He also had two fins on his back almost looking like wings. Lastly, he had dorsal fins on each hand. Uniquely his fins were black with red borderlines. Aton walked up to Salvador with Joshens.
“Don’t mind the races, we are willing to pay what it takes,” Aton told the man with confidence.
“Hoho wel if ye so sure then one black Ash crystel per person pure black or equivalent.”
“Outrageous!” Clide couldn’t help but say, pure black crystals were the furthest down the track, the most expensive crystals, they could take thousands of years to form. For comparison, even a standardized one could buy a pristine Ash-enchanted weapon with change. But even though Clide said that emergency medical services weren’t cheap either and they didn’t have much of a choice, after some negotiation, they agreed on one and a half pure black crystals, or one pure black crystal and five dark black crystals for full payment.
The old man went back into his makeshift home, grabbed a necklace, and put it around him. Aton and Clide could tell it was an artifact, Joshens and Jasper were too out of it to even notice. The man went up to Jasper first.
“A’ight I don’t use Ash I don’t care for thee smell, I use Antiquity, a dyen art, hope ye don’t mind.” Jasper nodded, it would be his first time seeing a magical technique that wasn’t Ash, he’s never even heard of Antiquity before. The man went up to Jasper and placed his hand on his chest. The man's necklace had two rings one inside the other, the inside ring started to spin slowly. Jasper could see some sort of strange symbols on the ring as it slowly spun he couldn’t help but stare.
“Interesting ain’t it, I ain’t too gud at Antiquity, it dyen for a reason, it's a terribly difficult technique. Thee necklace I wear helps me.” The old man explained, then got quiet he looked focused and Jasper could feel his body healing and the Ash fatigue finally leaving his body once more he felt alive. The holes on his fingers mended over, the spell couldn’t give him back his fingers. After Salvador fixed Jasper he moved on to Joshens the process mostly the same, Joshens healing went so well he didn’t even appear as if he had fought at all.
Aton paid the man the amount they agreed on, and even after bargaining earlier decided to give him the full two pure black crystals in case they needed him again he wanted to leave a good impression. The man went back inside his home. Jasper had hoped he would get a chance to talk with the man about the mysterious power he had used, but he didn’t seem interested and Aton had already started to leave. So like that the group made some distance between Salvador's house, Aton didn’t want to disturb the man with what he knew was going to happen next. Joshens had been holding in his fury this whole time and now he had no reason to keep holding it in.
“Clide you bastard!” he shouted “I always knew you were cold, but to kill your own friend you're insane.” Joshens face burned with rage, but Clide looked calm like he didn’t have a worry in the world.
“I get how you feel, we can fight if you want but I only did what I thought best for the safety of everyone here—”
“Shut up.” Joshens didn’t care about his excuses at the end of the day he killed Lewis, they could’ve saved him he knew they could have. Joshens pulled up his arms preparing to strike at Clide before he could activate his skill.
Too late though, Clide, of course, had been expecting this he knew Joshens would lash out at him the second he got the chance, so already prepared he activated his skill, golden armor enveloped his body as a sword entered his hand and bow slung across his back, he could also choose which weapon to be holding as he activated the skill. A bright divine light surrounded him.
In the meantime, Aton also got prepared for the upcoming conflict and even Jasper steeled himself for an upcoming confrontation though he didn’t quite know what to do.