“You alright, man?” Tuk asked.

Nar lifted his eyes and saw Tuk approaching him. He held Cen in his arms, their caster still fast asleep.

A quick, and by now automatic and effortless glance at their party view, told him that the caster would stay under for about another nine minutes. Fortunately, those bolts’ poison was not as bad as the poisoners they had first encountered, back in the Mid Levels.

Tuk grimaced in regret and guilt as he stared at the blood oozing out of Nar’s side.

“I’m sorry man,” he whispered. “I really didn’t mean to hit you.”

“Tuk, stop!” Nar said, marshaling some of his leftover energy to kill the ring tosser’s guilt right there and then. “It was not your fault. I jumped in your way, knowing I was doing it. It was my fault.”

Tuk shook his head. “I know man… Still. And Crystal man, that was an [Aura] ring! Was that really the only way?”

Nar nodded, then pursed his lips, regretting the movement as nausea almost won over him.

“Damn. Respect, man. Respect.”

Tuk lowered Cen to the floor next to Nar, and kneeled at her side.

“How’s she?” Jul asked.

“Just [Asleep],” Tuk said. “The bolt hit her on the shoulder, so it didn’t do too much damage.”

Nar squinted against the pain, and forced his eyes to focus on Cen’s injured shoulder. Blood seeped through a hastily tied scrap of stained purple clothing, but the injury looked like something HP would easily heal, even for her, the Climber with the least amount of [Constitution] in the party.

It was also fortunate that the bolts these new guardians shot were much smaller than the poisoners', being only about 3-inches long and 1-inch thick.

“I’m going to leave her here and go tell Mul that she’s fine,” Tuk told him. “I don’t think you can handle that level of noise like that.”

The trugger smiled at him, and Nar grunted back in thanks.

“It’s about the only thing I can do for you,” Tuk said. “Ensure you can heal without a screaming, raging brawler at your side. Oh, shit! Here he comes!”

Tuk leaped, and dashed to intercept Mul before he made towards his sister.

As Tuk swayed right and left to block Mul’s passage, Nar noticed that Kur and Gad were engrossed in some kind of discussion, with Viy silently hanging nearby. It was most likely about their continuing, failing performance.

Things had changed once more, and there was no denying that they were struggling to adapt to it.

They were no longer in nice, enclosed corridors that allowed them to concentrate their defenses on either the front, the back, or both.

Here, they were vulnerable from all sides, and the guardians had exploited that from day one. They also came in much larger numbers than before.

The new nature of their fights had meant that Gad and Kur needed to be much more active in their planning and tanking, and as a result, their fights had become much more mobile and fluid.

Viy, Mul and Jul now faced fights where the enemy wasn’t just swatting at them by accident while Gad held their aggro, or while Nar conveniently blocked the damage for them. No. They now fought their own battles, one-on-one, and sometimes even more than that.

Jul, sitting quietly at his side, bleed from a split lip, and the big bruise on her face that had knocked her out on the previous day, was still there, even if faded to almost gone.

Through spear distancing, [Agility] and [Speed], or with their very arms and [Constitution], the trio had to adapt quickly to a new style of battle. And no longer free to dish out damage like before, even with [Aura], they were now slower in bringing down their enemies.

The ranged DPS faced a similar challenge. They had to learn to mind their surroundings, and enemies, much more than before, since they were no longer fighting from the relative safety of the back or center of the party, away from the frontlines.

Honestly, if things continued as they were, Nar wouldn’t be surprised if Tuk and Cen developed [Instinct] at some point, considering the amount of crap flying at them. Fortunately for Tuk, his [Sight] was now at a respectable 8 points, so he could actually see their enemies in the dark. Cen, however, had not unlocked any sense attributes at all, and was showing no signs that she ever would.

Perhaps it was just a part of her caster class, a counter to the massive potential of her pure [Aura] caster DPS. But whatever the reason might be, it left Cen blind, and relying on the instructions from the Tuk and Rel. That not only slowed her down tremendously, it also explained why she had been downed three times already. In comparison, Tuk had been shot only once, and Rel had managed to avoid every bolt thus far.

And that left Nar, and he could only do so much.

He and Gad had to focus on the bigger threat, the soldier 2’s. Keeping them away from the others was the only reason they had managed to survive so far.

The DPS could suffer some bolts, or some hits and cuts, as long as they were not critical nor life threatening injuries. But a Guardian Soldier 2 could kill any of the DPS and Kur with a single blow, smashing through their HP as if it wasn’t even there.

The best Nar and Gad could come up with, was to alternate between shared tanking and Gad taunting everything, to give Nar a precious half a minute in which to try and help everyone else, depending on who was most in need.

And so, the battles dragged on, depleting HP and exhausting stamina, and they always ended up having to stop for the rest of the day afterwards, completely drained.

That meant their progress down that wide corridor, and potentially past that particular stage of their Climb, was slowed down as well. Which meant more attacks. Which meant they went even slower, and injuries and exhaustion from successive long, drawn-out fights piled on in a vicious cycle…

With a weary sight, Nar wondered how difficult their next fight would be, with a half-healed [Aura] cut, and potentially cracked ribs to go with it.

Jul poked his arm.

“Hmmm?” Nar made, opening his eyes. He didn’t even remember closing them.

Jul pressed her lips tightly together for a moment, considering what she wanted to say.

“Nar, I-I know that you are doing the best you can,” she said. “And you even saved Rel. But this is…”

She froze mid-sentence and Nar recognized the now familiar focused expression that took her.

He stayed silent, breathing short breaths of warm, still air to try and disturb his side as little as possible. As for the annihilating headache, there was nothing he could do but wait for his melted, bleeding brain to slowly heal from his [NPC] abuse.

Maybe they’ll have something for headaches up there. And a healer… Crystal. We so need a healer.

But healing was yet another thing kept from them. It required magic, and Climber’s had none. By now, Nar was starting to wonder if he would actually ever see a drop of [Aether] before the very end of the Climb. After all, what better way was there than to test, torture and despair him, than to dangle the promise of the thing he most needed right over him, but not ever within his reach? It would be just another way of suffering. Another way for him to atone for his egregious sins.

“There’s something up ahead,” Jul said eventually. “I think I need to go have a look.”

“Be careful!” Nar shouted, shooting daggers of pain across his body and mind. But she was already up and going.

She dropped by Kur and Gad and they had a quick discussion that ended in Kur nodding and probably uttering the same “be careful!” that Nar had. Then Jul was gone into the dark, her body turning invisible with [Stealth] as she was swallowed by it.

Crystal. She didn’t even hesitate…

In the month and weeks after the escape, as they had collectively begun referring to in regards to all the cannibal related events, Jul had slowly but steadily embraced her actual class as a rogue. While she still lacked behind Mul and Viy in terms of DPS and attributes, she never shirked from the fighting. Nar had never seen her running from the frontline, unless Kur ordered it or strategy demanded it.

She was fully embracing her change, her discovery of her own bravery and might, and Nar couldn't have enough of it. He knew that he would put his own life on the line if it meant keeping her on her path to recovery. He knew it with the same certainty that he knew he would one day return to save his dad, no matter what still waited for him in the years to come.

He couldn’t say with the same certainty as to whether he would ever learn magic or not, or become a Named Few. Those two, once so assured, the big pillars of his plan, had slowly dimmed in certainty after their escape.

With a pained groan, he reached out for his sword, discarded at his side.

He held out the weapon in front of him, and allowed his eyes to roam across its length.

The blade gleamed in its soft purple iridescence, and beyond its tip, gleaming gently in the dim yellow light of the arrows, he found the shattered remains of a soldier 2.

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The broken guardian was barely visible in the light of the path. In that massive, open corridor, the dark seemed to drink in the pitiful light of their path… Pressing and weighing down on it, just as much as it did on the party with its oppressive silence and voidness.

Nar willed his [Sight] to increase a little bit. Just enough so that he could examine the broken guardian, while ignoring the extra strain it put on his injured mind.

The machine had been destroyed by Rel. He could see the entry puncture on one side, and on the other, past the broken innards of the guardian, was a much bigger and ragged exit.

It had been an instant kill.

Something I still can’t do, Nar thought bitterly.

He inhaled sharply, relishing the pain that the movement brought. Almost as if to punish himself for his failure. No! For his decision to allow himself to fail.

Despite the cannibals, despite what he had told himself, here he was, weeks later, still recoiling from his [Aura]. Still running away from the undeniable power that awaited within him, a power that all the others had accepted and learned to wield.

If not for everyone throwing around [Aura] enhanced DPS as though they’d given up on magic, they would have all died on that first chaotic fight in that corridor…

But it wasn’t that Nar was being deceitful, betraying the others to hold on to his fear and need for magic. Not at all!

He longed to be able to use his [Aura] alongside them! He didn’t want to be carried to the surface on their backs and sacrifice! He didn’t want to be their burden!

And yet… [Aura] remained out of reach.

Nar focused on the blade.

He felt for the [Aura] inside him.

He pulled.

He pushed.

Light gathered at the base of his blade, and too late he realized his folly.

Like a pileslide, razor sharp [Aura] spread through his body, unchecked and out of his control. It filled his blood vessels, gathered in his stomach, in his lungs. His heart protested, crushed under the sudden pressure.

Nausea swept over him even harder than before, hand in hand with the pain and darkness that exploded in his mind, bursting in his head like a thousand, thousand shards of burning, poisonous aetherium.

Fresh blood gushed from his side, splattering the floor and undoing the early efforts of his HP! And…

The sword was knocked from his loose fingers.

“What in the pile do you think you’re doing?” Rel shouted at him.

The anger in her voice punctuated every syllable.

Nar moaned pitifully, his sight just a burst of yellow dots in the darkness that had nearly taken him under.

“You’re hurt, you fucking idiot!” Rel said. “Just rest. Heal!”

“Rel…” he managed to breathe.

“Shut up! Heal!”

He heard her kneel next to him, then, from very far away, felt tender fingers around his wound.

“Crystal, what an idiot!” she muttered. “Just leave the fucking [Aura] alone for once!”

She crawled behind him and sat down, gently propping her back against his. Nar almost wept from the relief that her support brought him.

“Did you know?” she asked, after a few moments had gone by.

Nar kept his mouth shut. Between the pain, and her anger, he wished he could pass out at that very moment.

“Of course you did!” Rel said, almost snarling the words. “And you still jumped in the way of an [Aura] ring? Haven’t you seen what those things do to guardians? You know, the things we fight, and that are made of metal?”

“You were about to die,” Nar whispered, in a low, strained voice.

“You don’t know that!”

Nar, again, stayed silent, and so she did.

“I-I’m sorry,” Rel said, eventually. “I know… Thank you.”

There we go. How hard was that? Nar thought, closing his eyes. Thank you, Nar, for saving my life. There, a few words. That's all I’m asking for. No need to always make it so damned complicated…

“How-How are you feeling?” she asked.

Nar just snorted.

“The [NPC]?” she asked. “Or the wound.”

“Both,” he croaked.

Rel winced in sympathy.

“You’re definitely using it too much. Can’t you learn to control it?” she asked him.

“No idea. No yet,” Nar said. “I’ve had [Instinct] for longer, and I still can’t do anything about it. It’s probably just something that works out on its own… Ouch!”

“Damn…” Rel whispered. There wasn’t really anything else she could do for him, other than to feel for his pain.

“It doesn’t matter anyways. It’s the only way I can keep up with them,” Nar muttered.

He felt her nod against the back of his head.

“Your speed-taking is insane, but I don’t envy you. It looks like a really… Hard path to walk.”

It feels like one, too... Crystal, will you ever make anything easy for me? he thought coldly.

Steps approached them from behind, and Nar resisted the urge to see who it was. It wasn’t worth the pain that he had already made worse through his stupidity.

Kur came into sight and kneeled next to him. He looked at Cen for a moment, then checked Nar’s wound.

“You’re always bleeding,” Kur said.

“It’s great for [Constitution], isn’t it?” Nar muttered. “At least I hope so… Ow!”

The party leader chuckled. “I guess so. You should be happy for that, eh?”

Nar laughed and cried out in pain. “Please, don’t make me laugh!”

Kur shook his head, a smile adorning his lips.

“You did great. Both in saving Rel, and in keeping those three away from us,” he said, gently touching Nar’s shoulder. “We need to figure out a better way of managing our aggro, though. This can’t go on. We’re getting wrecked every time, and I doubt other parties have someone like you to keep them alive.”

“Eh. Thanks,” Nar said.

“I guess you deserved that one,” Kur conceded. “Anyways, you seem like you’ll be fine, as does Cen. Apart from that, I assume neither of you have leveled up yet?”

“Nothing,” Rel said. “Still stuck at 20.”

After the escape, Rel had unpacked all of Tas’ extensive and insidious lies.

One of them had been Rel’s actual level. Both her and Tas had been stuck at level 19 for months, hiding the truth behind their own party view. Only Wik’s level had been true. By turning cannibal, and embracing their full depravity, he had also been able to level up like they did… Though eating attributes was a more apt description of the disgusting atrocity of what he had chosen to do. She had no idea how the process actually worked, as she had refused to even be around anyone engaging in such a thing. But it was more than obvious to her that the boss had found a way for the cannibals to take in the attributes of Climbers by consuming them.

Knowing that her real level was stuck at 20 at least told the party that despite everything that she had done, Rel hadn’t fallen so far as to get to the point of eating and torturing people. Or at least, that was the leap of faith and logic they had all decided to take in order to make her presence easier…

With a groan, Kur sat down next to them.

“We’re still stuck,” Rel said.

“Yes,” Kur agreed.

Just like at the end of the tutorial, and before the first bridge crossing, the System wasn’t allowing anyone to level up past 20. They had even stopped receiving their post-combat experience reports for some reason.

Level 21 was barred from them, and would remain so until they did or reached whatever it was that the System demanded of them at present.

“I hope Jul sensed the end of it” Kur said, after a sigh. “I’m sick of this damned corridor. I miss walls around me.”

“Me too,” Rel agreed.

Nar forgot himself, and nodded, and pain tore through his head.

Kur winced at his wordless groan.

“Crystal, man, you have it rough,” Kur said. “I don’t envy you.”

“Rel already said that,” Nar mumbled.

“That, I did.”

“Well, I agree with her,” Kur said. “Alright, let me grab Cen and bring her over to Mul. He’s holding back so he doesn’t disturb you, but I can see the veins on his forehead and neck from here. And I don't even have [Sight].”

“Yeah, that doesn’t look too good,” Rel said.

For his part, Nar kept his head firmly still. He wanted to look. He really did.

Not worth it, Nar. It’s not worth it. It’s just Mul being Mul…

Kur took Cen and walked away.

“Do you want to lay down?” Rel asked from behind him.

“No.”

“Alright. Shout if you need anything,” she said. “I have to go look for my arrows though. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She got up and Nar cried at suddenly having to sustain his weight again.

“Sorry! I moved too fast!”

“It’s fine. Go get your arrows,” Nar whispered.

“I’ll be back soon!”

And with that, she rushed towards the broken guardians in the darkness that surrounded them.

Between you breaking them and they breaking most of the time they hit the guardians or the walls, is there even a point? Nar thought to himself.

She had explained to him how her arrow storage system worked. As an archer, she had always had a storage ring, though at first it had only allowed her to carry arrows. She took them straight from her storage, and was allowed to hold up to nine hundred and ninety-nine arrows, which she could only replenish at a dispenser.

“It sounds like a lot, right?” she had asked him. “I thought so too at first, and then I ran out right before the end of the tutorial. My aim was a lot worse back then, and things went a lot less smooth than Tas made them out to be. We spent a lot of time in that damned corridor, more than you guys did. And by the time we reached that bridge at the end, I was useless. A bow is not much of a blunt weapon… And from then onwards, I’ve always recovered as many arrows as I could.”

And so she continued to do after every fight.

No matter how tired she was, she always dragged herself into the piles of broken guardians to search for arrows, and then canvassed the darkness nearby for any stray arrows too.

It was hard work, and painful too, if you weren’t careful while shifting through broken guardians. Arrows seemed to be meant to be used once and then forgotten, and so they didn’t possess the same useful trick that Tuk’s rings did. She had to look for them in the natural way.

Nar joined her whenever he wasn’t too tired. But today, he was more than happy to just watch her do it, hoping she would hurry back to come help support him again.

It’s funny. A month ago she was trying to get me eaten, he thought.

He often found himself surprised at how much he had grown to trust and rely on Rel. It was as though everything that had happened was nothing more than a distant nightmare, for which he could not really blame her for.

Maybe, deep down, he understood that she was as much a victim as they had been.

In the days and weeks that had followed their escape, he had avoided thinking about what he would have done if he had been in her position. Never mind the pain and torture, the dread of being eaten alive, or being forced to watch everyone in his party be subjected to all the depravations of the cannibals… What would he have done about his dad? His dreams? His longing for the Nexus beyond the darkness?

It was easy to shrug it off with a “I would’ve never done that!”, but he had not been faced with the choice. Nor did he have something inside his mind controlling and dictating his actions either. So, could he truly judge her? Could any of them?

Or maybe, it was just necessity that brought them all closer.

Faced with death on a daily basis, it was impossible not to grow closer. To learn to trust and rely on each other. To know that you have to place your life in the hands of others, and that there’s nothing you can do about it, even if said other used to lure Climbers into the salivating jaws of cannibals.

Thinking about it wasn’t doing his head any favors, and yet, Nar still considered her, watching her carefully shift through their broken enemies.

She sifted through the sharp pieces with a care that belayed all her efforts of inflicting pain upon herself. What was the point of the splintered arrows, and the things she did in the night when she thought no one could hear her? And then, the next morning, she displayed her bloody sleeves without a care. Without worry or shame or discomfort, or really anything at all. It was as though it had never happened, and the blood’s presence was a mystery she did not care about.

In all this, Nar understood nothing. He knew that he never would, unless Rel told him what the Yearning was. And then again, would it be fair to call that the whole story? Could she truly be defined by simply the condition that affected her?

At that moment, Rel gasped and lifted an arrow up in the air. She inspected it, her smile widening into a grin as she saw no faults or defects which rendered the arrow unusable.

It was a real smile. A sight that Nar was seeing more and more on her face, as she left the nightmare farther and farther behind her.

It was a sight that disarmed him that little bit more, every time he saw it. Made him care for her more and accept her amongst them.

Like all the others, he had grown to want her to succeed. To want her to reach the surface and find the cure for whatever it was that destroyed her from the inside.

He wanted her to be happy. He wanted to include her in his new and growing…

And growing what?

Jul. Gad. Kur. Cen. Tuk. Mul. Viy. And now Rel.

Sometimes, it felt like they were becoming more than party. Especially after all secrets had come out in the open.

Which was why his failure at learning to wield his [Aura] stabbed him so deeply.

But that pain blocking his path… Crystal, he knew pain, dammit! And this was something else!

But what was pain compared to the lives of his party? His own? And yet, he couldn’t do it. It was like being shredded to bloody bits from the inside, and the moment he puked blood, the others would demand the truth out of him. And once they knew, they would forbid him to continue, and he just couldn’t stomach that...

All he could do now was wait to heal enough, and then try again.

This too, he would overcome. Like he had everything else so far.