The journey back was far shorter than the journey out. Marking the tunnels they hadn't been in with warnings, they found themselves at the fringes of Excretiaville in what seemed like the blink of an eye. It was jarring to see people moving about as if nothing happened. Which, for them, nothing had. And Mai still had a feeling in between her shoulder blades that she was being watched. Followed.

Entering the airlock to their barracks, they sighed in relief as the dirt of the day was cleaned from their hazmat suits and groaned as they unzipped them and let them fall to the floor. It felt as though she was shedding a rotten skin or pupae, emerging like a slightly wrinkled and incredibly smelly butterfly.

"I don't care what it costs," Mai said as she rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, "I'm going to the bathhouse and I'm going to pay for a massage. I feel as though I've been hit all over by a brick-filled pillow."

Andries chuckled for a moment then looked over.

"Why did you take so long to heal yourself? You could have died," the seriousness, and worry, in his voice made her look over. His face was lined with worry, and he also seemed to be angry at her.

"The pain. I wasn't used to the pain. I've never felt anything like it. I know that HEALING is passive for small things like stubbing a toe, or getting a splinter, but I thought SERIOUS WOUNDS would kick in automatically when I took damage like that as well. It was just so damned painful1."

She rubbed at her stomach where the nanites were still doing their work. Her fingers ran over the raised scar tissue beneath her top. If she was to lift it she'd see the ragged red lines running across her skin. It made her shudder. Thinking back to the way the claws felt as they ripped through her flesh. It was something she never wanted to experience again and wished she could scrub the memory of it from her brain.

"If you're going to make it through your indenture alive, or just get through life, you're going to have to get used to using your skills properly. You can't die because something hurt so much. Activating a skill is as easy as taking a breath or thinking about the grey sky. Think, as it's done."

"It doesn’t' make sense though, you'd think something like that would happen straight off. Why doesn't it?" That feeling of being watched was back again.

Andries shrugged theatrically, both hands outstretched.

"Who cares? That's just the way this shitty world works. Get hurt, activate. Okay?" He rubbed at his arms as if suddenly chilly. "You feel that?"

"Nope," she replied, carefully turning around to see what on Earth had them both so damned spooked. "But I've got a constant itch between my shoulder blades. We're probably just being paranoid. We were fighting nightmare creatures after all."

"True, but still ..." he too took a careful turnabout, casting his eyes all over, hiding it by appearing to stretch, "can't be too careful."

"I forgot, can you assess how much these teeth are worth?" she opened her bag, showing him the teeth she'd yanked from the ghoul's mouth. Looking into the bag, and gently prodding them with a thin rod he'd crafted, he slowly counted them, lips moving as he did so.

"SCAVENGER says you'll be able to get one hundred credits for them. Five per tooth."

"And how much does the Scavenger Queen sell them for?" One hundred credits was ten days’ worth of shifts. And even if she had to spend five on getting a proper massage and bath, she'd still be up. It was looking as though the trial they'd been through might actually have been worth it.

"Oh, if they've got poison in, each tooth sells for about fifty credits. If they're mounted on a weapon, like a Ghoul Blade, or Maw Fist, then you're looking at about five hundred for the whole thing."

Jaw dropping, Mai opened up her WEAPONS MENU and did a quick search. The first she found was Maw Fist.

Maw Fist

500 UC to purchase if non-template. Ten per cent BIO-MASS if bought. Causes SERIOUS WOUNDS, POISON @1% PER SECOND, PANIC and BLEEDING at a minimum of 5% per second. Utilising teeth taken from a ghoul, the MAW FIST is a truly terrifying weapon. Popular with Pit Gladiators (rather their owners) and Close Combat Specialists, this weapon will reduce even the toughest opponent into bloody chunks.

The picture which accompanied it showed a metal gauntlet with the hooked fangs mounted on the tops of the knuckles. It was a raking weapon with zero subtlety.

Next up was the Ghoul Blade.

"Holy Gods! Who the fuck uses weapons like these?" She'd thought that the Maw Fist was bad enough, but the Ghoul Blade was truly horrendous. Carved from what looked like a ground down human thigh bone, it had ghoul teeth embedded along both sides. It was listed as being a sword, but she'd never seen anything like it before.

Ghoul Blade

600 UC if not crafted from a template. Instantly causes SHOCKED. Upon striking it causes SERIOUS WOUNDS, PANIC, POISON @2% PER SECOND and BLEEDING at a minimum of 10% per second. A truly terrible weapon made to not only kill your opponent but make them quake in fear as soon as you face them, the GHOUL BLADE is forged from the thigh bone of a powerful warrior, with GHOUL teeth carefully affixed to the edges.

Despite her horror at what the weapons could do, and especially at how the GHOUL BLADE was manufactured, she was just as impressed at the amount of money they could go for.

"How do I unlock the ability to make these?" she asked as she scrolled through other weapons, finding at least another ten that used at least one piece of a ghoul.

"You don't!" Andries snapped. "You're a sewer worker. The skills needed to do that aren't going to be granted to you. Didn't you read the part about the human thigh bone? Who you going to go and hunt down to make that? Know any warriors do you?"

"No need to take that tone! I just want to be out of here. Six hundred credits is two whole months of not having to worry about hitting target!"

Andries rubbed his hand over his face. "Mai, if you haven't realised already, you always have to hit target. They'll find a way of screwing with you. Even with my SCAVENGER maxed out I'm still stuck here. Every time I do well, I'm given more tasks, more SKILLS to do those tasks and I'm charged for them. And they get more and more expensive as I progress."

His hand dropped to his side, shoulders slumped.

"You either live, or you die, Mai. I've never known anyone to get out of here that wasn't dead."

She shook her head, trying to deny every word, trying to believe that she'd get out of the sewers and back to her sister.

"You might think that, but I'm not going to give up. Never! Now, let's go sell these fucking teeth."

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***

The whole of the walk to the Scavenger Queen's shop Mai could have sworn they were being followed. It was as if she was seeing things from the corner of her eye which disappeared when she tried to look at them properly.

Emperor's balls, I'm jumpy. Bastard ghoul must have hit me so hard not even the nanites can fix me, it was absurd to think that nanites could fix anyone if they had enough BIO-MASS. Even the scars on her stomach had disappeared. It was as if she'd never had to try to push her guts back through the torn flesh. Still, she was more than happy to step through into the store.

"Ah, Andries, so good to see you, and Mai, welcome, welcome!" crooned the old crone, as she hobbled over to the counter. "What delights do you have for me today?"

"Ghoul's teeth," Mai tipped the teeth onto the counter with a chorus of clacks. They fell heavily, not bouncing like a normal tooth would, the poison in the roots weighing them down. Leaping forward like a cat pouncing, the Scavenger Queen sorted through the teeth, separating them into two different groups. Muttering to herself, the Queen took a much closer, and careful, look at the larger of the groups.

"These have full poison sacs. I'll give you four cre .."

"Six," Mai interrupted. "There's enough to make a MAW FIST. Like that one over there," she'd spotted the MAW FIST in a locked cabinet labelled 'EXOTICS' the moment they came in. "And you've got that fist listed at seven hundred credits. Six each for the ones I've brought you is fair."

"Five! Not a credit more, and only because I like you!" glowered the Scavenger Queen, raising her head as far as her bowed back would allow.

Mai hid a smile, having pitched higher than offered, she'd got the amount Andries had told her to expect.

NEW SKILL!

BARTER!

Whilst the Scavenger Queen grumbled and paid her the money, Mai accessed the SKILLS MENU.

Barter

An important skill to learn if you want to get the best deals. Those with SMART MOUTH receive a PASSIVE 0.5% bonus per level of that skill.

She paused at that, never having had to barter for anything in her life before, she hadn't realised that her SMART MOUTH could have helped in such a way. She continued reading.

When active, SMART MOUTH confers +5% to all item values.

Dammit, wish I'd known that before I started bartering. It didn't matter though, she'd got the price she wanted, and from the look of it, the Queen was also somewhat pleased.

"I want five for the rest. They're nearly all full," she said as the Queen reached for the slightly larger pile. As she spoke, she activated STREET SMARTS. "You can still get at least five hundred for them in a MAW FIST. Don't pretend you can't. And five credits to someone such as yourself is nothing, that's half a day of back breaking work for me if I hit target."

"They're not worth that much!"

"No," Mai replied flatly, "they're worth many times more than that. Take the deal or I'll just keep them myself."

Andries stepped forward as if to intervene but stopped as both women turned their gaze upon him.

"Stay out of this young man, the adults are talking," the Queen cackled at the crestfallen look on Andries' face as he stepped away, hands held out as if to protect himself. "Fine, five credits for all of the teeth. I'll even chuck in a five per cent bonus. How's that?"

"Deal," Mai held out her hand and they shook. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Piss off," the Queen scooped the rest of the teeth into a silk bag and tightly knotted it.

***

"Did you hear?" one of Mai's company slid onto the bench next to her, placing down a steaming bowl of lichen noodles and protein cubes. "A worker in company ninety-three was found dead this morning."

"You don't say?" Mai replied around a mouthful of noodles. The previous day's mission still had her utterly ravenous despite having eaten, what she thought was a lot, after they had returned to the company. Thankfully, it was a rest day, and she was planning on spending it getting a proper bath and even a massage at one of the Tea Houses later that day. Yes, she knew it was an expense that could go to paying her debt to ensure she got back to her sister sooner, but damn she felt she needed this. That was too close of a brush with death.

"Yeah, drained of blood. Looked like some creature had torn their throat out. Both eyes missing as well I hear!" The worker didn't let those gruesome facts rob him of his appetite, using chopsticks to aid him in slurping one of the biggest mouthfuls she'd ever seen crammed into a mouth. It wasn't as if he even had a large mouth, just that his cheeks bulged out far more than she thought was naturally possible.

"I heard that too," said a woman sitting opposite her. On her work uniform was the Number 15, indicating that she was from Work Company 15. Some of the workers had been sent to join Mai's company due to a larger than normal number of fat bergs in their assigned sewers. "People keep saying that they feel like they’re being watched as well."

Mai's chopsticks paused in front of her open mouth. "Say that again."

"People are saying they feel as though they’re being watched. Kinda funny in a spooky way. Then again, these tunnels get to people. Otherwise, why would they go missing?"

Mai dropped her chopsticks, slopping soup over the table as she stood up. "Where was the body found?"

"Over in Tunnel Two-Five-Niner-Alpha. Worker was doing some sly overtime."

It was a common thing to happen. Workers, desperate to earn a few more credits would often sneak out later after their shift was done to either try and earn more credits or find something they could sell. It sounded as though this worker had found a lot more than they bargained for.

Shit, shit, shit, Mai thought as she left the table without a backward glance. I've got to find Andries.

Palming the canteen door open, she was just about to exit when her mentor slammed into her, driving the breath from her lungs, and sending her careering across the canteen to jeers and laughter.

"Shit! Sorry, Mai, I came to find you, we need to ..."

"Talk about the spooky happenings?" Mai gasped, grabbing Andries by the arm and leading him back out of the canteen. "You heard about the dead worker?" she said in a much lower tone as they entered the street.

"Yes, drained of blood. Forget the rest of the details, they don't matter. The eyes were probably taken by critters, nice and easy to eat you see."

"And people are complaining that they’re being watched all the time," Mai added. "You don't think that the jiangshi and ghouls followed us back here do you?"

Andries glanced furtively around, leading her down a small dead-end side alley.

"I don't know what to think," he whispered, still glancing about. "But I think we have to consider the possibility that yes, the bastards followed us."

"Does this sort of thing happen all the time?" Mai whispered back, as she too started to glance all around. His paranoia, as well as the thought that there might be a small chance that the vampires had followed her was getting her well and truly on edge.

"I've never heard of it. Well, there were rumours, but you know what people are like. They get bored and they make shit up. Post it onto a forum and all of a sudden there are pink elephants and they have wings."

Mai brushed away the questions that this imagery brought. The first being, what was an elephant. Probably some other thing he'd made up.

"So, you have actually heard of this happening?"

"Well, yes, but no. There were just stories shared by people around the odd glass of sake or five. I thought they were just joking. There's been nothing recently. As in, nothing since I started living here, and that was over twenty years ago."

Mai dropped down onto the dirty floor of the alleyway and rested her head on her knees. Yet again she was neck deep in shit.

"Who do we report this to?" she asked, not looking up at him.

"Report it to? Gods, no-one! We have to deal with this ourselves. Otherwise, if word gets out that we brought vampires and ghouls into Excretiaville, we'll be fined so heavily we'll barely make a scratch on it before we die!"

That raised another question, if they would be punished by Madam Sun and the other bosses of the Sewer Companies, why hadn't they been punished already by the system? She raised her head and asked him.

"Because we haven't technically done anything illegal. We took on a mission, found it hard and retreated. However, our actions have caused a death, whereupon the vampires and ghouls followed us into town. Which our bosses can punish us for because well, they're our bosses and we've put everyone in danger."

Mai thought it was all rather semantic but couldn't be bothered to work it out. To her it seemed as though the whole system was broken and none of the rules made any sense.

"So what do we do?" she whispered, voice catching as a tear ran down her cheek.

"We find them, and we kill them. Going to need some help though," he said, rubbing at his chin. "Going to have to call in some favours. Mine, not yours. This isn’t your fault. It's mine."

He paused, as if he expected Mai to jump in and deny it, but there wasn't a chance she was going to do that. This was well and truly his fault.

"Okay, let's do this."