PART 2 - THE MID-LEVELS

“You don’t know darkness, little man. Not like we do.” - Anonymous delver morsvar tank, ex-Climber, The Goliath, S739DAF88L46Y, popular drinking establishment for ex-Climber tanks

Excerpt from “Life in the Depths – A Study of the Life Conditions in the Between-Nexus”

Status: Unpublished. Censored by the authority of Truth Praetor Alastor Ghabn

Notation: Level 4 Breach of The Tenets for Scholarly Conduct, Education and Enlightenment

Scholar Kuon Feeir, KUO274021097334283LDX – 2nd strike

>> <<

Someone shook him awake.

“Yeah?”

“It’s me,” Kur said. “Get ready. We’re leaving soon.”

Nar checked the timer.

“We still have 5 hours?”

“I want to go before the rest of them,” Kur said. “I want to put this crowd well behind us.”

Nar blinked at Kur. He knew there was meaning to his words, but his thoughts were like jell-o, slowly dripping down the table’s edge.

Drip.

Drip.

Before the rest… Behind us…

Drip.

“Oh.”

“Yes. Are you okay? Are you awake?” Kur asked him.

“Yeah. Yes. Sorry. Just tired.”

“We’ll catch a better sleep somewhere out there,” Kur said. “Come on, eat something for now.”

Eat? Didn’t I just eat last night?

Nar’s stomach growled. In the near silence of soft snores and low sighs, his stomach was like a roaring Sentry.

“See?” Kur asked, smiling. “Eat something. We leave as soon as everyone’s ready.”

Kur walked away and left Nar to sort out his heavy brain.

It had been a long night.

No one, it seemed, had wanted to sleep.

Someone ran past them almost every five minutes. Running where, going where, Nar had no idea, but the Climbers had been in a frenzy of activity well into the late hours of the night.

Climbers had come to ask to join their party. Beg for it, really, by the dozen, waking him every time he was close to drifting off into sleep. And casters had come to chat with Cen.

Around them, everyone talked and talked, no silence to be found.

There was the begging.

“Please take me in. I’ll work for it!”

“The problem is not you. It's us. We’ve known each other since childhood and …”

There was the disgusting.

“We should see if we can get some women, man. There’s only guys in our…”

And then there were the ones that hit close to home.

“I can’t believe no one has magic! Someone’s got to be lying…”

“Lying for what? Why would anyone hide it?”

And especially this one.

“I’m almost 10 already… This [Aura Projectile] is still my only skill. I’m starting to think I made a mistake picking the caster class.”

“Man, you’re probably the strongest Climber here. Just… Just wait a bit more. It has to be soon! It has to!”

That conversation had left him staring at the darkness above him for a long time.

It had only been when the Climbers finally ran out energy and quieted down, that Nar had managed to slip into oblivion. That had been only three hours ago.

Now, he was looking for the previous night’s half-finished cracker. He couldn’t find it. No matter how many times he stored the intact cracker and withdrew another one from his ring, the half-eaten one refused to come out.

“You alright, man?” Tuk asked.

He was munching on his own cracker, and had been staring at Nar for almost a full two minutes now.

“I… Yeah, I’m looking for my cracker. It’s not coming out for some reason.”

“Didn’t you finish it?” Tuk asked him.

Nar stopped, holding the new intact cracker.

“No? It was a new one.”

“Hmmm. Yeah, pretty sure you did. Looked like you were very hungry. It was a very… Passionate display.”

Nar frowned at Tuk, who chuckled at him and ended up in a fit of cough as he choked on his food.

“He’s right, you ate it,” Gad said.

“Oh… Okay. Thanks.”

He had no recollection of it. However, he didn’t remember much after their talk about magic and paths and their future. His brain hadn’t been at its best condition by then.

“No… Problem…” Tuk wheezed.

Gad slapped his back with a stoic expression.

“Wait! Not… Too… Strong…” Tuk coughed. “You’re going to… Break me!”

Nar considered the new cracker.

“Are you okay?” Gad asked him, still slapping the ring tosser’s back.

“Yeah… Just a bit out of it.”

He couldn’t tell why, but there was something nibbling at the edges of his memory. Something to do with crackers?

Nar took a tentative bite, munching slowly.

It was that bite that finally sparked his memory.

“Holy shit!” he shouted.

“Shhhh!” Kur hissed at him. “We’re trying to sneak out!”

“Ah, you finally remembered!” Tuk said, in between deep breaths.

“I ate the whole thing?” Nar asked, going pale. “I ate the whole thing!”

“I said be quiet!”

Tuk laughed.

“How could I eat the whole thing?” Nar said, mortified. “It’s enough for a whole month!”

“Not anymore, it isn’t,” Mul grunted. “I had three quarters yesterday, and I’m starving!”

As if on cue, Nar’s stomach rumbled loudly again.

Kur simply sighed.

“But-But how?” Nar asked, staring down at his stomach, as though he didn’t recognize it as part of himself.

Mul plopped the surviving quarter from last night’s meal in his mouth, and took out a new cracker.

“Mul!” Cen said, horrified. “No!”

“What? I’m hungry. I’m not even messing this time around. I’m starving!” Mul said.

Nar gaped at him, too stunned to speak.

“Maybe it's our levels? We gained two yesterday, and a good chunk of attributes with them,” Gad mused. “Maybe our bodies need more food now. I’ve also been eating more.”

“Ah! See!” Mul said, pointing at Gad. “I’m not just making it up.”

“I know that. I’ve also been eating more. But still…” Cen said.

“Doesn’t mean you get to stuff yourself,” Kur warned the brawler. “We still need to ration. Gad, can you come give me a hand with Viy, please?”

That, seemingly, put an end to their cracker conversation.

Nar found himself holding his breath, as Gad gently shook Viy awake, with both Kur and Jul sitting nearby.

“Hmmm… What?” Viy mumbled.

“It’s Gad. It’s time to get up, Viy.”

“Oh… O-Okay.”

Gad and Kur helped her sit up and Viy stared blankly at her legs.

“What do you think happened?” Tuk whispered.

“Panic?” Mul suggested.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“She ran into the cannibals, not away from them,” Tuk said. “And she was, you know, banging her head against the wall and saying all of that crazy stuff!”

“Then I don’t know,” Mul whispered. “I just hope she’s okay. That stuff was terrifying.”

Cen shushed them.

“Stop talking!” she hissed, glaring at them.

Nar suddenly found his cracker very interesting, and pretended he hadn’t been a part of that conversation, even though he hadn’t uttered a word. It looked like Cen was back to her normal self, and he didn't want to be a target of her wrath.

“Do you remember what happened?” Gad asked, in a gentle tone.

The tank had Viy’s hand in hers, and with the other, she gently rubbed the spear woman’s back.

“I remember the arrows… The cannibals… And then... And then…”.

Viy whimpered.

“My head…”

Gad hushed at her gently. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Everything’s fine now.”

“I just remember the cannibals… They were everywhere.”

She gasped. “Nar! Where’s Nar?”

“Nar’s over there. Don’t worry, he’s fine,” Gad said. “He and the others are over there, talking about why we’re eating so much now.”

Man, that cracker sure was interesting.

Nar broke out in sweat just from the awkwardness. And likewise, Mul and Tuk pretend they hadn’t heard a thing.

“Oh... Are we?” Viy asked, confused.

“Maybe. But it's nothing to worry about for now,” Gad told her. “Listen, some stuff happened, and we need to leave now. Before that though, I have something for you. Here. It’s part of your quest reward.”

“There are notifications…”

“Just ignore them for now. We’ll explain everything on the way.”

“Are we in trouble?” Viy asked.

“Not if we hurry,” Gad said.

The tank reached for Viy’s spear, which had slept next to the unconscious spear woman, and placed it on the floor between them.

“For now, you just need to touch that thing to your spear. Once you get the prompt, let go of it though. It will burn your fingers if you’re still holding on to it when you accept it.”

“Hmm, ok.”

Nar plopped the last piece of cracker into his mouth, and heard the sizzles and pops of the AUC doing its thing.

“It’s safe now. You can store it away,” Gad said when the procedure was done. “And you should eat something now.”

“It’s okay. I can eat on the way.”

“It’s best to do it now,” Kur said. “You might lose your appetite on the way out.”

“Why?”

“Just trust us on this,” Gad said.

“Okay.”

She bit into her cracker and made a low sound of delight.

“Oh! I’m so hungry!” she said.

Nar rubbed his empty hands.

“I could go for another,” Mul muttered.

“Mul!”

“It’s just, there’s a little something…”

“There’s nothing!” Cen said. “And you’re not eating anything for two days!”

“What? But…”

“No buts! We need to ration!”

Nar grimaced at his empty hands.

There really is a little something, he thought.

He sighed.

What in the pile is wrong with me? I just ate a whole month’s worth of food. How is that not enough?

“You okay there, big boy?” Tuk asked. “Feeling the urge?”

“Yes! I don’t know what's happening,” Mul said, between flabbergasted and terrified. “And watching her eat is making it worse! I want more food!”

“Yes!” Nar said, surprising even himself. “Me too!”

“It’s like I don’t know what to do with my hands, but I want to do something!” Mul said.

“To grab something… To put it in my mouth!” Nar added. “To chew!”

“To taste it!”

“Are you guys okay?” Tuk asked.

Nar’s checks burned, as he became self-aware.

“You don’t feel it?” Mul asked.

“I’m okay,” Tuk said, still staring at them.

“Oh. Is it just us then?” Mul muttered.

“Are you just hungry?” Tuk asked.

“No, I don’t think it’s that.”

Internally, Nar nodded furiously. Externally, he just wanted to take back every word of what he had just said.

To put it in my… Ugh, for the love of…

“If you guys are done talking about eating,” Kur said. “We need to get going.”

Nar swore he could hear the smile in his tone, and his face grew even hotter.

Keeping his mouth firmly shut, he got up with the others.

They hadn't been trying to be quiet, as evidenced by the whole food debacle. But now, stepping around sleeping parties, Nar found himself stepping lightly, and holding his breath.

The party headed to the edge of the circle of crystalights, skirting around the sleeping Climbers.

“Where are you going?” a worker shouted, startled as they suddenly emerged from the dark.

Two other workers came running at the sound.

“What’s happening over here?” one of them asked.

“Go back! You can’t use the facilities again!”

Kur raised his hands and gestured slowly. “Hi. We don’t want to use the facilities. We want to leave.”

The three workers stared at each other, then back at him.

“Leave?”

“Leave where?”

“Uhm, outside. Beyond the Doors,” Kur said, and pointed at them.

“Oh. There.”

“Aren’t you early, though?”

“We want to get an early start,” Kur said, still in the same patient tone.

The workers looked at each other.

“Should be ok, right?”

“I guess? They just want to leave. I can take them. The Admin can decide.”

“Yeah, yeah. You do that!”

The worker that had offered to guide them shone her crystalight in their faces, making them look away from the sudden blinding light.

She was a trugger, about the same height as Tuk.

“Oh, sorry!” she said, lowering the light. “Follow me, I’ll take you to the Admin. He’s by the Doors.”

“Thank you,” Kur told her.

The eight of them followed after the solitary light. Ahead of them, the massive bulk of the Doors still stood open, letting in that nightmarish light.

“It still looks very purple,” Tuk said.

“I’m sure the path will be there,” Kur said. “Somewhere.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence. In the distance, lines of lights stretched from the Doors to the Homes.

They’re still at it, Nar realized. It wasn’t really surprising. There were thousands of corpses outside. And each of them represented potential jell-os and crackers of bereavement.

As they got closer, Nar made out the highlighted figures of workers coming in and out, under the watchful gaze of the giant slabs that were the Doors. Considering the flurry of activity, there were probably hundreds of workers on corpse reclamation duty.

Nar curled his nose as the stench, wafting in from the outside, grew stronger.

Their guide took them away from the workers, to a gathering of people by the left Door.

“Admin!” she called out.

The old man was in the midst of an argument with a group of people, probably senior management. The shout interrupted him mid-sentence and he searched for its source, his brow furrowing deeply.

“I already said…”

“I-I bring Climbers!” their guide stammered.

The old man paused.

“What do they want?”

He looked past his worker. “It's you. What do you want?”

“We just want to leave,” Kur said.

“Is it time already?” the Admin asked, surprised.

Behind him, upper management erupted in panicked whispers.

“No, no, no! There’s still… Hmm, there’s lots of time!” Kur said, narrowly avoiding using hours. “We just want to leave early.”

The Admin considered his words.

“You want to put some distance between you and the rest of them.”

It was not a question, and after a split moment’s hesitation, Kur nodded.

“Yes.”

“That’s wise. Your party is… Alright, for Climbers. But some of the others…”

The Admin scratched his chin.

“That morsvar with the shield. His party wasn’t great.”

“No… It was not,” Kur said.

The morsvar with the shield? Are they talking about the other guy, the one that stood with Gad?

“Thrown away by his own party. Disgusting,” the Admin said, twisting his face. “And there were some issues, right? With those spheres you got… Climbers.”

He spat that last word, and shook his head.

“Yes, I’d be leaving early too.”

He nodded towards the exit.

“Go on, then,” he said. “And thank you, for your part in our redemption.”

And blessing, Nar thought, eyeing the dead bodies being carried in. The recyclers had to be catching fire by now.

“Thank you, Admin,” Kur said. “Crystal’s blessing to you and yours.”

“Crystal’s blessings to you and yours.”

They bowed to each other, forming the Crystal’s blessing with their hands, then Kur motioned for them to follow him, and they walked around the cluster of upper management.

Nar grimaced as they approached the outside, in expectation of what lay ahead of them.

Speaking of which…

“Uhm, Viy…”

“Ye-Yes?”

Nar startled at her startle.

“I… Uh. Maybe you should… Uh, close your eyes?”

She glared at him, and Nar took an involuntary step back.

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” Gad said.

“Why? I know what’s there,” Viy said, and walked past them.

Gad shared a look with Nar, then ran after her. “Viy, hold on!”

“I’m fine!”

Should’ve minded my own receptor, Nar though, with a sigh.

Tuk patted him on the back.

“It was a good idea,” he said. “I was worried too.”

“I was actually thinking the same,” Mul said. “Something in there is not right.”

“Mul!” Cen warned him.

He shrugged at his sister. “You saw it, I saw it, we all saw it.”

Nar and Tuk both nodded.

“Still! She could hear you. Don’t mention it again! We don’t know what happened,” Cen told him.

“You mean, what's happening?” Mul countered.

Cen just glared at him.

“Fine. Fine!” Mul said. “I won’t say anything.”

The four of them followed after the others, and crossed the Doors.

Kur was at the front with Jul. Viy stood a few steps from them, staring out at the room, with Gad silently looking at her.

Tuk retched, and covered his mouth.

“Maybe you should close your eyes,” Viy said, without looking at them.

Nar kept a blank expression.

I’m not saying anything ever again. Ever. Again.

Instead, he looked out at the large room as well.

Out here, the stench was like a physical blow, and mounds of corpses stretched towards the far side of the wall.

“Crystal…” Cen whispered.

“Yeah, that’s something,” Mul said.

He looked down at his feet and scowled at the gore that already coated his brand new [Climber’s Shoes].

“I don’t see the path,” the brawler said. “If it's there, it's buried under all this shit.”

“We’ll cross to the other side for now,” Kur said. “And look where the floor is clear.”

In a single file, they followed after Gad.

Nar walked behind Tuk, at the back of the line, trying and failing to keep his shoes clean. Similarly, the trugger was being very measured with his steps, and he retched on occasion.

“Are you okay?” Nar asked, after maybe the eighth time.

“Yeah…” Tuk muttered, through his fingers.

Nar patted his back, but there wasn’t much he could do.

He took in the scenery around him.

There were guts spread on the floor, limbs without owner, brains and tongues spilling from holes in heads. It all blurred into one purple mess in Nar’s eyes.

In the distance, he watched a group of workers sifting through a particularly tall mountain of corpses. The thing must’ve been over 10-feet tall.

How did that even happen? he wondered.

It clearly hadn’t been a result of the battle, and he doubted the workers would waste time pilling up bodies. That only left the cannibals. But why would they be doing that in the middle of fighting?

Who knows how they think, Nar thought, remembering the cannibal that had asked him “why” as it died.

He let his feet follow after Tuk and kept watching the workers. Their shouts and voices traveled easily across the muted silence that hung heavy over the battlefield.

“Found something!” one of the workers shouted.

Nar watched him lean into the pile. Like, head and shoulders deep, into the mountain of corpses.

Damn…

The worker crawled back out, pulling a big arm with him. He tugged and pulled, swearing and sweating, and slowly, the arm’s owner slid from under the bodies. It was a morsvar, and she looked relatively intact from this far away.

The worker, still holding on to his prize, called out to another guy. The other worker dropped the quam he was dragging, and came over to help him.

The two of them grabbed an arm each and pulled, almost bending backward with the effort.

Oh? Isn’t that going to…

One of the other workers spotted the danger as well, and cried out an alert. But it was too late. The morsvar popped free from the pile and unto the two workers, taking them down.

Nar watched the whole thing tip sideways. The workers shouted, just as the first bodies came loose. They scattered in all directions. Unfortunately, the two workers responsible for the incident didn’t manage to escape on time.

“Whatever you do,” Nar said. “Don’t look to your left, Tuk.”

The trugger swallowed hard. “Thanks…”

Similar scenes played out everywhere, though not as dramatic. The workers were well organized. They combed the room for the biggest and most well-preserved corpses, to ensure they would get the most crackers and jell-o out of the recyclers. Once they found a suitable body, two of them would carry it to the Doors, where it was then handed over to another pair of workers, who carried the body into the cubeplant. And Nar expected that similar arrangements ought to be in place by the recyclers.

The Admin, or whatever committee was overseeing the efforts, had established a simple and efficient food production line. It wasn’t that surprising. It was only slightly different from what they dealt with every day.

Nar found it impossible to look away from the ongoing operation.

“Where here,” Kur said.

Nar turned his face forward, and found himself at the mouth of one of the corridors that had led both Climbers and Cannibals to the cubeplant.

Kur pointed down, and they gathered to see what it was.

Amidst the confusion of purple arrows that crisscrossed every surface of the corridor, there was a straight line of yellow arrows. Their glow drowned the purple surrounding it, and it defiantly pointed in the opposite direction to the purple arrows.

“Is there one in every corridor?” Gad asked.

“Probably,” Kur said. “But I don’t think it matters. In the end, they all point towards the same thing.”

Gad rubbed her chin for a moment, then nodded.

“Alright,” Kur said. “Into formation, and let’s get out of here.”

Nar looked back.

What would his dad say when he told him the story of how he had fought to save a cubeplant from an army of cannibals?

Stories actually, he corrected himself.

He had many to tell already. And unfortunately, he was sure he would accumulate many more before he reached the surface.

With one last glance, he took in the corpses, the workers, the Doors and the purple. For some reason, it felt important to remember what had happened there.

Then, he turned his back to a place he would never see again, and followed the others into the corridor.

They’d seen and been through a lot already.

He couldn’t help but wonder at what else lay in wait for him, as he followed the yellow path to the surface.