“Thank you. And sorry about that,” Gad said. “I’m being a burden.”

Nar kneeled next to her, gulping air like a desperate man.

“You’re fine,” he panted. “Don’t worry about it.”

She licked her dried lips, and looked like she was going to say more. Instead, she nodded and closed her eyes, and leaned her head against the wall.

The second and now the third trip through the pressure had been just as long. Always between 40 and 45 minutes, according to Jul. That meant that no matter what they did, the corridor’s length of Pressure would always start wherever they stood.

They couldn’t head back either, into the darkness.

Even though the corridor had never once turned or twisted, it made no sense at all to go back. Their only option was to keep going forward, following those yellow arrows till the very end. And as the arrows disappeared behind them, it wasn’t like they could simply wander back into the dark anyways.

However, after hours under strain, exhaustion was starting to show.

Viy did not wake up that time around, and both Kur and Gad were looking worse for wear.

After four rounds of Pressure, which in cubeplant terms meant that he was well into his second shift, Nar was starting to doubt if even he would have enough strength to go on. Attributes or no attributes, that morning he had just been a normal worker. There had to be a limit to what he could do with his meager, initial attributes, and he feared the limit wasn’t far now. Or if it hadn’t already been crossed and left well behind.

“We can’t go on like this, Kur,” Cen said, panting. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep going.”

Nar could tell that Kur kept his eyes open only through sheer force of will.

“Hang in there, guys,” Kur said, his tone drawling with exhaustion. “This is penance, not a death sentence. I’m sure the Crystal will be fair.”

Nar snorted inwardly.

The Crystal All Benevolent hadn’t been that benevolent to him and the other Unclean for his entire life. Not quite surprising if It wasn’t now either.

He grimaced at the thought and offered up a quick prayer of apology.

“I-I hear something!” Jul suddenly shouted.

“The Pressure?” Mul asked. “Already?”

“No! Something else! Something small… And quick! It’s coming from the front!”

“My shield!” Gad boomed, with an energy Nar hadn't thought she still had in her. “Quick!”

Cen, stunned, grabbed the shield while Gad pushed herself up, aided by Nar.

“Weapons everyone!” Kur shouted.

“Are they coming now?” Tuk asked, turning pale. “Really?”

Gad pushed Nar away as she came to her full height. “I’m fine. Grab your sword and stand next to me!”

Nar grabbed Gad’s shield first, taking the massive slab of whatever metal it was made of from the hands of the struggling caster.

Gad took her heavy shield from him, which was straight at the top, and then, at about two thirds of its length, gently curved down towards a sharp tip.

Wish I had one of those… Nar though, eyeing the shield with envy.

“Your sword! Quick!” the tank shouted again.

“Mul, to her left side!” Kur said. “Nar, take her right side!”

Nar glanced back, to the still passed out spear woman.

“What about the back?” he asked, as he retrieved his sword.

He felt a strange but familiar comfort when his fingers wrapped around the sword's hilt. Like, somehow, he had used the weapon many times before, and had at least some idea of what to do in a fight.

“I’ll cover the back!” Kur said. “If anything comes, Jul will hear it and I can at least slow it down!”

Nar felt a surge of respect for the man. It seemed that he was proving himself under duress after all.

“It’s here!” Jul shouted.

And having said that, she dropped down and hid behind Viy’s sleeping form.

Nar caught the sound of something rushing towards them and ran into position.

“I can hear it!” Gad said.

“Are you okay?” Nar asked. The tank hadn’t even grabbed her mace.

By the way she was swaying on her feet, she was probably doing all she could just to stand and hold the shield in front of her.

“Don’t worry about me! I’ll be fine!”

Nar whipped his eyes forward as sound exploded out of the darkness.

A ball of black, long limbs, rolled towards them at speed.

Nar stood where he was, transfixed.

What the…

Next to him, Gad stepped forward, with her shield pushed out in front of her.

The two of them collided with a metallic bang that echoed throughout the corridor.

Nar stared at Gad with his jaw dropped open.

How did she stop that? He thought.

The thing had been rolling towards them so fast he was sure that Gad had been about to be blown away!

Long, narrow limbs that looked like 3-inch-thick tubes, spread out from the black thing, revealing a round, metallic main body. The limbs had circles indented into them, and were entirely flexible. At the end of each, an 8-inch long and very sharp looking blade gleamed in the yellow light that cast the entire thing in a nightmarish glow.

Nar’s eyes went wide when the limbs exploded outward, banging and screeching against Gad’s shield in cacophony that deafened them all

“DPS!” Kur shouted.

His command woke Nar up.

He saw that Mul had jumped into the fight already. The brawler was struggling against the limbs, trying to get through to the thing’s body, a low growl escaping his lips.

With a short gasp, Nar too, forced his legs to take him into the fight.

Limbs and blades snapped all around him, and he was forced to use his sword to parry and block the chaos of shining blades.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He wasn’t very good at it, and hot lines of pain burned across his arms and legs as the blades licked his flesh.

How am I supposed to check my HP in the middle of this? Nar thought, gritting his teeth at the onslaught.

“I’m taunting it!” Gad shouted

Suddenly, the pressure melted off him and the knowledge that taunt meant that the tank was doing something to get the full, absolute attention of the enemy, tickled into his brain.

The thing focused its full attention on Gad, as though he wasn’t even there.

“Attack, attack!” Kur shouted. “Ranged, attack too!”

Nar snapped out of his reverie and hacked wildly at the thing.

Rings flew over his head, ricocheting off the confusion of limbs flailing around the enemy, and little, grayish puffs of something followed them, targeting the gaps around Gad, Mul and Nar, and bursting with little pops against the thing’s metallic limbs.

Most of Nar’s hits bounced off of limbs as well. It was damn nearly impossible to get in there, but he managed a few solid hits. However, he couldn’t tell if those had done anything at all. Does it have HP? He asked himself, pulling back from a wayward strike that was aimed at Gad’s side, rather than him.

Was it alive? Was it a machine? Did status apply to it? There was no way to tell.

“I’m losing it!” Gad shouted. “I’m losing taunt!”

A second later, Nar was back in the thick of it again, and too late to get out.

Even more of the thing’s limbs reached for him now, and he was forced to abandon any and all attempts at attacking to just focus on staying alive. HP or not, he had no doubt that just one of those blades would be enough to kill him if it went inside him in the wrong place.

So he fought with one hand, parrying, blocking and even dodging as best as he could with his sword, while with the other arm, he covered his neck and head.

Lines of burning pain cut across him, and the thing hit with such violence it left him reeling, his improvised meat and bone shield quickly going numb. If the enemy hit his head with that kind of force, Nar would be a goner.

The sword grew steadily heavier in his hand, slowing down. More and more hits were getting through.

Then, the thing seemed to lose interest in him again.

“I have it!” Gad shouted.

“DPS, use your skills if you have enough stamina!” Kur shouted. “You’re probably running out of HP! We have to end this!”

We are? Nar thought, feeling rising dread.

He somehow managed to check it, in between attacks.

Holy Crystal! 49? Where did it all go?

Mul grunted, and the thing was suddenly lifted off the floor. It crashed down again, hard, and all its limbs went limp.

What just…

“Ah! Take that!” Mul shouted.

The brawler jumped onto the thing and started pounding on it.

Not wanting to be left behind, Nar jumped in too.

It occurred to him that this was the perfect moment to try and stab the enemy. He switched his grip and held the sword with both hands. With a low snarl, he drove the blade down into the circular body of their attacker.

There was a split-second of resistance, and then, he was through. His sword buried deep into the thing’s body and Nar, not expecting it, fell flat against it.

DING!

A window appeared in front of him, blocking his sight, and Nar scrambled in a mad panic to get away from the thing.

A heavy hand fell on his shoulder. “Calm down. It's dead.”

Nar looked up, finding Gad’s face through the translucent window.

“W-What?”

“It’s dead. It’s over. Read the window,” she said.

Her hand disappeared and Nar focused on the words before him.

You have defeated one Guardian Worker 1. 84 experience points have been awarded.

You have leveled up!

You have gained:

Constitution 10 -> 11

Agility 6 -> 7

Aura 21 -> 23

Congratulations on your first level!

Levels are gained when you accrue enough experience points. The higher your level, the more experience it will cost you to continue leveling up.

Remember, you are what you do. Your gains are attributed accordingly.

Guardian? So that was a… Aura?

His stomach dropped.

Aura? But… But why? How? It even says it right there, you are what you do!

The cubeplant was gone. The machine was gone. He hadn’t used any aura. He hadn't touched whatever sharp, hacked pieces of it potentially remained within his veins. Not even once had he even attempted to! So how? How?

“Level up!” Mul celebrated. “Here comes the good stuff.”

Nar felt a pang of jealousy and of something worse.

Is that because I’m Unclean, uh? Was I not punished enough for it?

Mul raised his hands in the air and walked back in triumph to his sister.

Nar had to breathe deeply to swallow his anger. It was so unfair! Why was he gaining Aura?

At this stage, if it keeps happening, I might lose my first modifier!

He clenched his jaw.

He had planned for his first attribute modifier to go to his [Aether], so he could gain double the points on it. But if this went on, and with no [Aether] in sight yet, he might just lose the first and most important of the attribute modifiers to his useless [Aura]!

“Hey, you okay?”

He wished for the window to disappear and looked up to see Gad staring down at him. Rather than her asking him that question, he should be the one to ask her. She could barely stand.

Nar dropped his sword and rushed to his feet.

He passed an arm under hers and she dropped her weight onto him, nearly causing his legs to buckle. Her shield clanged against the downed guardian’s sprawled limbs.

“Are you okay?” he shouted.

“I’m fine,” she said, barely holding on to her shield. “Just tired.”

“Hold on,” he told her.

He helped her return to the party and found Kur sitting on the floor, with Jul staring at him in concern.

“Are you alright?” Kur asked the morsvar.

“Just wrecked,” she said.

“Yeah, me too,” Kur said. “You hear that? I’m fine Jul.”

The scout nodded and got up. Nar didn’t see where she went, as he helped Gad sit down.

“Thank you,” she said.

“No worries,” Nar said. “You were amazing. I didn’t think you were going to be able to take that charge.”

Gad chuckled feebly, then she grimaced and held her side.

“Me neither. At the last moment I used a skill, [Warrior’s Stand]. It increases my [Strength] and gives me a 20% damage mitigation. I think it’s what saved me. Even with it, I almost blacked out from the pain... Don’t think I broke anything at least.”

“I’m sorry, Gad, I didn’t know about your skills. I should’ve asked you. I didn’t even know about taunting,” Kur said.

Gad waved his words off. “Not your fault. We were too busy surviving that Pressure. I’m the one who should have told you. You need to know everything to lead us properly.”

Kur nodded.

“I suppose. Still, thank you, for taking it,” he said.

“My job, party leader. Or have you forgotten?”

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Kur said, with a little chuckle.

“And thank you too,” Gad said, looking at Nar. “You tanked that thing when I lost aggro. Well, at least you kept it off of Mul for the most part.”

New knowledge came to Nar again.

Aggro, short for aggression, is the level of threat exuded by combat classes while fighting. Typically, the tank needs to be the one with the highest aggro in order to keep the enemy’s attacks off the rest of the party, otherwise, the combat class with the next highest aggro will be attacked instead.

Nar shook his head. That had been a particularly lengthy piece of new knowledge. He could almost feel it inside him, somewhere deep in his brain. Something that didn’t quite belong. At least not yet.

“Don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that,” Kur muttered, feeling the same.

“You did well, without a shield,” Gad said, still staring at Nar.

Nar looked away. “Not sure about that. I lost over half my HP.”

“Which is incredible!” Kur said. “You had no idea what that looked like! I thought we were about to have our first death!”

His words dropped a heavy silence over them.

“I… Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s our reality now. We can die at any moment,” Gad said. “And speaking of which, we should get going again, before the Pressure hits.”

“Oh… Yes!” Kur said, his face dropping. “Everyone, up! Up! We need to go! Quick, before the Pressure comes again.”

Nar stood up and pulled Gad to her feet.

“You never did answer my question,” she said, staring at him, down from her impressive height. “Is everything okay? You looked like something was wrong just there.”

Nar looked away from her penetrating black eyes.

It was because of my [Aura] gains, he thought.

No way he was going to say that, though. He couldn’t have people asking questions and finding out the truth about him. It was bad enough that his hybrid class had an even worse start than he had anticipated, no need to let them know that he was also accumulating a useless attribute somehow.

“No, it was nothing. Just shocked about my HP loss,” he lied.

Gad stared at him for another few, unconformable seconds. Then, she nodded.

“Don’t worry, you will gain in [Constitution]. We won’t be weak forever. Not even against this damned Pressure. At least, I hope not.”

Nar smiled. “I hope not.”

She offered him her arm and Nar took it, supporting her weight.

Ahead of him, stepping gingerly around the downed guardian, he saw Cen collecting his dropped sword.

I need to stop doing that. Going to end up regretting it, he thought with a wince.

“Nar?” Gad asked.

“Yes?”

“Just so you know, if anything is ever bothering you, or if you want to talk about anything at all, just come to me, okay? I’m here.”

“Yeah, of course! Thank you!” Nar said, surprised but managing to keep the lie from showing.

“No worries. That’s what the party is for. To have each other’s backs.”

Nar nodded, failing to swallow the lump that formed in his throat.

The lie had come easy.

Less easy to stomach was the feeling of guilt and shame that followed it. Gad had been genuine, he could tell.

However, he had no choice. He doubted she would feel the same if she ever found out he was an Unclean.

All he could do was hope that he didn’t give himself away. And that his first level up would also be the end of his [Aura] gains.

Though in all seriousness, how had it even happened?