The inside of the sanctuary was cozy, almost like a wooden cabin but at a larger scale, similar to the room they stayed in at the Might Residence.

The main room right after the entrance was a dining area with 3 long tables that could fit over 30 people and right next to it was a relaxing lounge area.

Currently there was no one else here.

“If you guys wouldn't mind taking off your shoes, we like to keep it tidy here.” Jorron motioned to a closet.

They took off their muddied brand new shoes they had bought to take on this adventure and followed after Jorron as he walked into the sanctuary.

“So if you guys would like, you can borrow one of our rooms for as long as you like, free of charge of course.” He explained. “If you're gonna stay here then there are some ground rules we have to go over.”

He waited to see if they had a response but seeing as they stayed silent he went on to explain the rules of the sanctuary.

“Pretty simple rules like; don't hurt anyone, don't break stuff, don't leave a mess, but those are pretty standard everywhere. The more specific rules here are; Don't pull your badge weapon out in areas not designated as training areas, try not to use artifacts or embers that are destructive, and most importantly don't annoy the Keeper.”

“That last part isn't a rule but more of a suggestion from me.” Jorron chuckled. “Come on, I'll show you to your rooms.”

They followed him down a hallway and were confused when the hallway had a dead end, Jorron smiled and pointed up.

There was a hole in the ceiling, a long hole that looked like a continuation of the hallway. Bo could even spot doors on the wall as he looked up the disorienting hole.

“Weird right?” Jorron said. “I thought so at first, but now it's pretty normal to me.”

Jorron approached the wall at the end and did a little hop while planting his feet on the wall. He didn't fall like you'd expect but instead stuck to the wall like it was the floor.

“The creator of the sanctuary used the gravitational anomalies found in the Lost Forest in the buildings' architecture, creating this weirdly shaped maze of a building. It's a little tricky to get the hang of it on the first try but it becomes natural real quick.”

He started to walk up while waving at them.

The first to try was surprisingly Iris. Her eyes were gleaming with interest and she ran over to the wall and jumped at the wall.

She forgot the part where she needs to plant her feet on the wall and insead face planted a few feet up on the wall. She got up off the ground— or wall, and was standing sideways like Jorron .

“Wow!” She squealed excitedly.

Sera couldn't stay on the ground any longer and quickly joined Iris on the wall and she nailed it on the first try.

Now it was only Bo’s turn.

Bo carefully approached the wall and instead of jumping, he simply raised one leg and placed it on the wall. The feeling of his weight being uneveningly distributed due to the gravity affecting his body differently in two different places was a strange feeling.

He did a little hop jump and put his second leg on the wall feeling the gravity switch on him, now forcing him into the wall instead of the ground.

“Haha!” Jorron laughed. “Good job everyone, you all did pretty good! Your rooms are just ahead!”

As he walked further up, Bo looked behind him to the floor that was now the wall. It was a trippy feeling.

Jorron turned to ask them, “Do you guys want separate rooms or is anyone sharing? Each room has a large bed and its own washroom and shower.”

The response was immediate. “One room!” All three said at the same time and chuckled at each other. They were in this together from now on, no need to separate.

“Alrighty one room it is!” Jorron then said. “Since you're planning to stay here, mind telling me your names, I'd like to know our new residents!”

They introduced themselves to Jorron, each giving him a handshake.

He opened up one of the rooms with a master key and said they could check out the room while he went to grab the specific key to their room.

They walked in, plopped their backpacks down and flopped onto the massive bed— and when Jorron said large bed he meant it, the bed could easily fit 5-6 people on it.

“So… that was a little bit of a scary experience yesterday,” Bo said after a moment of silence.

“Mm.” Iris agreed. “I still feel a little off.”

“Same,” Sera said.

“Though I did manage to find another use of my ember.”

The two turned to look at him in shared happiness waiting for him to explain.

“It's similar to being able to absorb emotions, I can also absorb pain.” Bo started talking. “I can then turn the pain into red balls that explode. That's how I beat that giant gray venus plant.”

“Ohh!” Iris cheered.

“Let's test it out some more.” Sera then suggested. “Here i’ll cut myself, then you can absorb the pain.”

“What!? No no no need to hurt yourself.” Bo freaked out at her suggestion. “We don't have to rush figuring it out, I think I'll have plenty of opportunities to test it out.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

And with that slightly grim revelation from Bo, Jorron walked through the open door into their room with a key in hand.

“Who wants to keep the key, we only have one.” Bo and Sera turned to face Iris, Jorron took that as the sign and tossed the key over to Iris.

“You guys wanna see the rest of the sanctuary?” Jorron asked. “It's not too big but there are a few cool sections.”

They agreed and followed after Jorron who showed them around the place. He first showed them to a training room located back on ground level through one of the hallways.

It wasn't anything too big but the coolest thing about it was that it was built so that you could walk on five of the walls, the one you couldn't walk on was the back wall where the entrance to the room was.

The reason for this is because the gravitational anomaly occurs near the surface of the natural environment. The front wall, two sides walls, and ceiling are only a few feet away from the surface of a cliffside the same shape as the room making it possible to walk on all the walls.

The back wall wasn't near the surface so you couldn't walk on it.

Pretty simple to understand once you realize that, but still hard to wrap your head around when you're actually walking upside down.

The next room led to a large cave opening where the ground was grassy and filled with gardens of vegetables growing. A path extended through the grassy opening towards a massive pavilion at the end where plenty of gardening equipment and lounge items lay.

It was a place to store gardening equipment as well as a place to relax after gardening, or just relax.

The path continued past the pavilion and warped around the garden making a nice walking trail for any of the residents living here.

They stopped there for a while because Iris couldn't help herself from inspecting every flower or plant she spotted that she didn't immediately recognise.

Their last stop was back to the front entrance and down another hallway where three rooms could be found, one on either side and one at the end of the hall.

“This is my room.” Jorron pointed to the door on the right. “I'm the explorer of the sanctuary and my job is to go out and look for things or well— people like yourself.”

“If you ever need me, this is where you'll most likely find me, unless I'm out.” He finished.

He then pointed to the door of the left. “This is Dr. Thorn’s room, she's the doctor and scientist of the sanctuary. Lastly, The room at the end of the hall is the Keeper’s room, we won't be going there anytime. That's basically all there is to the sanctuary.”

“Dr Thorn should also be in if you wanna meet her and maybe get a checkup with her if you'd like.”

A doctor? Bo wondered what a doctor would think of his metallic body, maybe he could ask her to do a checkup to see if his body was all right.

Jorron knocked on the door and got a muffled “come in” from the other side.

They walked in to see a beautiful lady with bright purple hair wearing a pair of glasses and a doctor coat. She turned in her chair to see who had arrived and stared at them with a cold blank look.

“New faces.” She said and turned back around to tend to her work.

“Cold as ever Keira.” Jorron chuckled. “This is Dr. Thorn, she's a little harsh with words but she's nice on the inside.”

“Oi, don't talk shit about others!” Keira said and turned back to them. “And? Who are you three?”

They once again introduced themselves.

“Okay. So you guys want a checkup?” Keira asked. “I'll just do a general check, see if there's anything wrong. It's also free.”

Bo wasn't too sure what she would find if he got a checkup but he felt it might be good to get one just in case.

“I'll take one!” Sera raised her hand and sat down where Keira pointed to.

“Do you want them to leave?” Keira asked Sera.

“Nah they can stay” Sera responded.

“Okay. Everyone but Jorron can stay.”

With that, Jorron waved them goodbye and said they could talk to him if they needed anything.

Keira’s eyes glowed white and she scanned Sera’s body up and down.

“Nothing too bad, it seems you got stung by a giant gray venus plant but you're doing alright. Your body still needs to flush out its venoms before your back in peak condition.”

Keira then squeezed Sera’s muscular arms.

“You do have a fine body, perfect for combat. Useful for being a crosser.”

Sera blushed at the sudden compliment and said. “Thanks.”

“Next.” Keira said and Iris sat down also wanting a checkup after hearing Sera still had venom in her body.

“Same issue, got venom running through you, it might take you longer to get back since your body is much smaller than Sera’s here.”

“I will say, you should probably eat some more, your body is frail for a crosser. Other than that you’re okay except for some old injuries still present.”

‘Old Injuries’ Bo wondered where she would have been injured but seeing Iris’s expression he knew it wasn't the time to ask questions.

“Ah. You didn't want them to know about those, whoops.” She said expressionlessly and then looked at Bo.

“You want a checkup metal man?” Keira asked then said with a forceful tone. “I'm curious about your body so you better say yes.”

Bo took a deep breath and sat down in the patient chair, waiting to see what Keira had to say about him.

After scanning him with her white glowing eyes she silently sat there whilst rubbing her chin.

“How much do you know about your body?” Keira asked.

How do I answer this? Bo thought. “Um, not very much actually.” Bo ultimately told her the truth.

“I can tell you if you're fine with everyone here hearing it.”

“I'm okay with everyone staying.” Bo replied.

“Where do we start…” Keira crossed her leg and went on to explain the weirdness of his body.

For starters, he didn't have any organs inside his body. No heart, no lungs, no stomach— nothing. His body was purely made of solid metal.

How did the food he ate get processed? That was a mystery to Keira. In fact, Bo didn't even need to excrete or urinate like other living things, the food and water seemed to disappear inside him.

He also never felt hungry in the first place so he wondered if he needed to eat food in the first place.

The metal that his body was made of was unknown and its flexible but rigid properties perplexed Keira enough to warrant her to say she wanted him to be an experimental subject for her.

He politely declined for now.

Another big point Keira brought up was that his skin seemed to contain a certain element that was capable of absorbing UV rays, like plants absorbing sunlight for nourishment.

Keira pondered if this is the reason he never got hungry because his body was feeding off the UV rays.

Finally she stopped pestering him and finished the checkup. They all seemed fine and dandy except for the venom still in their body but that would soon go away.

They said goodbye and left her room heading for the dinner room where Jorron had explained they had tons of ingredients stocked up and anyone was able to use the ingredients to cook for themselves.

They were hungry since it was almost dinner time and Iris wondered what goodies they had as ingredients for her to use.