They waited, anxious, for something to happen, but after 10 minutes of nearly absolute silence, Kur spoke up again.

“It looks like that was it,” Kur said.

Tuk sighed, and leaned back on his hands. “That was some welcome.”

“What do we do now?” Cen asked.

“We need to rest,” Kur said. “I’m slowly getting better, but Nar is still injured. At the very least, we should all heal a bit. But just in case, it's better to keep our weapons out.”

At his words, Nar took his sword back out, and dropped it over his knees. He had managed to push the image of his dad out of his mind. And slowly, and with difficulty, he was coming back to himself, from the edges of fear and panic.

I did the right thing. I know I did the right thing, he told himself, not even needing to convince himself of it. However, the shadow of the price for his failure still gnawed at him, and he couldn’t shake it.

Tuk, ever the most light hearted person that Nar had ever known, was the first to relax. “Anything not a tank would’ve died from that,” he said, spinning his rings in a casual display of dexterity. “That was crazy, Gad! You were so awesome! You are so awesome.”

The tank shook her head. “I failed. I shouldn’t have let into the room.”

“Ah, come on!” Cen said. “What else could you have done?”

Gad only shook her head again.

“Jul, was there no warning at all?” Kur asked. “And don’t apologize! It’s fine. I just want to know everything that happened, so we can be better prepared next time.”

The scout nodded slowly, her eyes wide.

“There was nothing at all, until suddenly, it was there,” she whispered. “It-It probably came from outside my range… I couldn’t sense it until it was too late.”

“Ah, so there are limits then?” Tuk asked.

Jul nodded.

Kur waved at the darkness around him. “And in this? How far can you see?”

Jul looked around them.

“Maybe 30-feet? A-Around the arrows I mean.”

“Wow,” Mul said. “I can’t see for shit.”

“Are there any walls?” Cen asked. “A ceiling?”

Jul shook her head. “Not that I can see.”

“Hmm,” Kur said, feeling the side of his head gingerly. “30-feet is not a lot, but it's much better than what I got. What about you, Nar?”

Nar startled at the mention of his name. He had only been half listening to the party.

“M-Me?” he said.

“Yes, you told me you have [Hearing] and [Sight] as well, right?”

“Seriously?” Mul whispered.

“Damn, that’s so cool!” Tuk said, beaming at Nar.

“That’s really good for us,” Gad said, looking out into the dark. “I won’t be of much use in this.”

Nar nodded slowly. “I do. I, uh… Maybe 10-feet? Definitely less than Jul. Also, my [Instinct] didn’t trigger until the very last moment. I think Jul detected it before me.”

“You were right behind me,” Kur said. “You would’ve been hit too.”

Nar nodded.

“Definitely a much more personal sense of danger than Jul’s [Instinct],” the party leader mused. “Regardless, you two will have to be our eyes and ears until we can get out of this place.”

Nar glanced around them, fighting to keep a shiver from running down his spine. The deep silence smothering them somehow managed to be more unsettling than the deafening Pressure had been.

“It’s so dark,” Cen whispered, with a shudder. “It’s like it's eating the light from the arrows.”

“Maybe it is,” Gad said. “We never know. We know nothing of the Nexus. Of what is possible and impossible.”

“Like predicting the future!” Tuk said, grinning at Jul.

“It’s not like that…” Jul said, looking away. “It’s just a feeling.”

“A feeling I wish I had,” Mul said gruffly. “What would have happened if none of us had sense attributes?”

“What would have happened if we didn’t have a tank,” Gad countered. “Or in our case, two.”

The lengos frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

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“Think about it,” she said. “What would have happened if none of us was a tank?”

The words hung heavy over the party. The implication was obvious.

“Crystal…” Cen said. “We would’ve died.”

“And that’s if we had even managed to survive the tutorial,” Kur said.

“But then… But, not all parties had tanks!” Tuk said, horrified. “What happens to them?”

Nar remembered the all, two-handed heavy weapon, DPS party that he had seen back in the cubeplant.

Around him, nobody answered Tuk.

“You can’t just mean that they’ll die!” Tuk shouted.

“Shhhhh!” Jul threw at him.

Tuk looked at her, still in shock.

“Without a good party, you can’t make it,” Gad said. “You need the tank’s sturdiness, and the party leader’s guidance and boons. And then you need enough DPS to bring down the enemy. If even a single one of these is missing, a Climb will most likely end up in failure.”

Kur nodded. “They did tell us that tanks and party leaders were important.”

“But there weren’t enough to go around,” Tuk whispered. “And they only accepted the Climbers that looked strong.”

Nar considered the trugger wide eyed expression.

Considering his class of ring tosser, Nar wondered how many parties had turned him down before he finally stumbled upon Kur. And it had probably been the same for Jul, Mul and Cen. Counting himself, they were an unlikely party. Besides Gad and Kur, Viy was the only one that had probably had no problem finding a party, as both human, and a spear wielder.

Which begged the question, why was she with them?

Nar stared at the spear woman, who had thus far remained quiet. Why had she decided to join them? Why not go for one of the proper looking parties?

Oh! I haven’t even thanked her yet, Nar realized with a start. He had behaved in the exact same way that he had criticized her for! He would have to thank her afterwards. He needed to make it right.

“So, are you saying that we were just lucky?” Tuk asked.

Gad shook her head. “All I meant to say is that it is what it is. There are two tanks here, a leader and enough DPS. We also happen to have a scout. Luck, or fate, or the Crystal’s Mercy, who knows what brought us together. Maybe, it was just because Kur didn’t discriminate, and saw what we could become, and didn’t turn away a quam without a combat class, a lengos brawler, a ring tosser, or a crazy with a hybrid class.”

Kur chuckled nervously as they turned their eyes to him.

“I just wanted to make a good party,” he said. “That was all.”

“And are we, a good party?” Viy asked.

Kur snorted. “Remains to be seen, doesn’t it? We survived the tutorial, but now, we’re facing the real deal.”

He stared at them all, in turn, holding them with the strength of his gaze.

“It doesn’t matter what we have or lack, and it doesn’t matter what happens to other Climbers. The people here, in this party, are all that matters. We will do the best with what we have, we will grow stronger, and we will survive whatever is required of us. No one is going to be left behind, and no one is going to be a burden. We do what we can, individually, and together, that will be enough.”

Gad nodded gravely.

“We will need to be even more careful from now on,” she said. “The time for straightforward and single guardian fights is over. We won’t have a tight tunnel to cover our sides here, or keep the enemy in front of us. Or from surrounding us. This was an intelligent attack, with two guardians, meant to end us. We could’ve been facing three, four, five or Crystal knows how many more. From now on, anything is possible. And it will only get harder.”

Tuk sighed. “It wasn’t exactly easy.”

“It was fucked up, and now it’s even more fucked up,” Mul said, rubbing his chin. “And it will only get more fucked as we go.”

It was crudely put, but Nar couldn’t have said it better. His mind was still churning, and all that talking wasn’t helping him. He would think about it all later, for now, there were more pressing issues than straightening out his thoughts, or continuing that conversation, which dangerously bordered on blasphemous.

“Do you think we should go?” Nar asked. “Before we get hit again? I mean, we could, right?”

Kur looked at him in surprise. “Are you well enough to move?”

Nar glanced down at his bleeding arm and shrugged. It already looked a little bit better. “I should be fine. I still have two thirds of my HP left.”

Tuk let out a low whistle.

“Those were some good [Constitution] gains,” Gad said, nodding approvingly.

“I-Yeah, I guess,” Nar said, looking down awkwardly.

“Well, if you think you can move, then maybe we should,” Kur said, squinting into the darkness. “We are, after all, still in the same place. Another guardian could come crashing down on us at any moment.”

“Lovely,” Mul muttered. “Can you guys stand?”

The party, as one, turned to him.

“What?” he said, looking down. “I promised.”

Kur chuckled and shook his head.

“Thank you, but I’m fine. Nar?”

In response, Nar stood up. Other than his arm, everything seemed to be in working order.

“Nice,” Kur said. “For now, Gad you will tank, okay? Once Nar is fully healed, we can start swapping again. Especially since Nar can see better in this.”

Both Gad and Nar nodded at him.

“Alright,” Kur said, standing up. “We’ve stayed here long enough.”

Mul helped his sister back up, and she offered him a grateful smile. Gad helped Viy, and Kur pulled up Tuk. Nar had to admit it. Despite his fears and worries, he was very happy to have come to this party. Which only made it all the harder on him. He felt as though he was stuck, forced between choosing his dad, and his new companions. And he didn’t know which way he would choose yet.

Someone poked his arm and he half-jumped, which in turn made Jul half-jump too.

“Wha-what?” he said.

She leaned in to him.

“I-I just… I was thinking. Should we tell them? That we can hear them, I mean?”

“Uhh…What?” he said, caught off guard.

“The [Hearing]... Isn’t it rude?”

“Oh, hmmm. I-I can’t hear them.”

Her face fell.

“B-But maybe I will, once I gain more points on it,” Nar added quickly. “I thought that you couldn’t hear unless you used your attributes.”

“Yes, but I’m using mine all the time,” she said, frowning. “And you should too! But watch your stamina!”

“Oh, hmm, yes! You’re right, I should! And yes, I will!”

He took a deep breath, then held it there. How in the pile was he supposed to do it?

“Just think about it,” Jul said. “And it will happen.”

Nar frowned, but did as she said. Suddenly he heard them.

“Crystal, but this darkness is something,” Tuk whispered.

Nar turned around. The trugger was a few feet away from him, and was clearly muttering to himself.

“You see?” Jul asked him. “I mean… Hear?”

“Yeah. Now I do.”

“I will protect you, no matter what!” Mul said.

“Oh, Mul. Just be careful. Please!”

Nar made a face, staring at the two lengos whispering to each other.

“Oookay. Maybe we should tell them.”

“Later?”

“Yes! For sure!”

“Okay!”

“Okay!”

“You tell them!”

“I tell them! Wait, why me? You hear them better!”

She frowned at him. “You tell them!”

“I… Okay. I’ll tell them…”

And with that, she turned his back on him.

Nar, on the other hand, stared at her with his mouth half opened. That was the longest he had talked to her. It could actually be considered a full, functioning conversation. And she had initiated it.

Uh… Well, I mean, I’m happy for her. This means she’s getting better. But, how in the pile am I going to tell the others can we basically hear everything they say.

“My dear sister…”

Alright, that’s it! I’ll definitely tell them!

“Everyone ready?” Kur asked, his voice sounding as though he was standing right next to Nar. “Good, then let’s go. The sooner we get out of this darkness, the better.”