My communicator crackled with static for a handful of seconds before I got my answer.

{Skies above, you’re fine! And I’ve got three signals, which means all three of ya are fine! Ha!} Okeria laughed happily. {Alright, I need all three of ya back where ya left from. We’ve got plans on the move, one of which is a kind of bastardization of Keratily’s four-crystal technique I told ya about. It’s why your friends around ya ain’t doin’ much in the way of attackin’.}

I glanced at the still suits of armor around me. “You froze people in their armor?”

{Nah, nothin’ that complex. I’ll explain when you’re here in person, just in case someone’s listenin’ in on our conversation. Ya remember where ta go?}

Jun nodded and lowered her gun. “We do. Anything else we should be on the lookout for?”

{Hmm… the streets should be mostly empty, so ya won’t have ta worry about runnin’ into anyone. We’ve initiated a city-wide lockdown against the people’s will, but we’ve only got enough food to feed everyone for one more week.} Okeria explained as we began to slowly make our way back to Rainbow Basin. {Ya know how there’s a general sense of disdain towards armored folk in the city?}

“I’ve noticed it.” Jun said flatly.

“As have we!” Mortician agreed, then tilted their head to the side. “...As we have? We have noticed the disdain as well. That is what we meant to convey.”

Okeria laughed heartily, and I heard a metallic clank through the communicator that could’ve been him slapping his knee. “I got the gist, but it’s good ta hear your voice again, Mortician. I’ve missed it.”

“We barely missed you.” Mortician said simply, which only served to make Okeria laugh harder.

{Ah, missed ya, buddy. Sebastian, Juniper, did ya get the trainin’ you were lookin’ for?}

I was about to nod, but when I actually thought about it, we hadn’t really gotten that much stronger. I had intervention and my hydras, and Jun had Danday’s knife, armor, and her barrier, but we hadn’t exactly gone up a lot of levels.

“Not exactly.” I admitted. “That hazard doesn’t give a whole lot of experience.”

{...But ya should’ve fought a whole bunch. Your items should’ve gotten a lot of mastery, even if your cores didn’t.} Okeria hummed in thought. {Ya might want ta check again when ya get back here. Ya might’ve missed somethin’ important in your hurry ta get outta there.}

I shared a look with Jun, and she just shrugged. We’d double and triple checked, but if Okeria thought we’d missed something, then maybe we’d missed something. A low buzz closed in next to my ear, and for a split second, Okeria’s drone stealth fell to show me it was there. I nodded at it and shifted my weapon into a dagger, then went to activate one of endless’ consumables. Except none of the ones I currently had on it really made me that much more powerful in the moment.

I had two utility consumables, and two consumables that were only good for fighting. The blessing of overflowing current made me a little more observant, but Okeria was literally providing overwatch. I really needed to find a mythical consumable that helped me fight. So instead, I pushed my blood-oil into my armor and grunted at the combination of discomfort and empowerment it provided.

…Actually, why had I gotten rid of the blood-coral concoction in the first place? It was strangely powerful for something that could barely be considered a consumable, and I’d chosen the two things Keratily had made for me over it. The stat boosts for having oil-based armor were pretty substantial, especially once I’d made a full set of the stuff, but having more on top of that couldn’t hurt.

Was I just blinded by the fact that it was a lower rarity and quality? I mean, it made sense in the grand scheme of things; it was made from worse materials, and came out as a lower quality consumable. So maybe it was just that Keratily’s things weren’t anywhere near as good as I thought they were. And, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if using them put me under the same slow experience drain as everything else Keratily did.

“Seb? You lost in your mind again?” Jun asked.

I couldn’t say I wasn’t. “Yeah. Just thinking about which consumables I should use.” I replied, then brushed my fingers against endless’ ribbons. One of which gave me a chunk of experience, another that recharged my everything while also being a terrifying in-combat boost when I was a high enough level, and the other two which were… fine. “Okeria, do you have any mythic-grade consumables?”

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{I think I’ve got one somewhere around here, but it might’ve already gotten used.} He replied instantly. {Oh, I forgot ta tell the both of ya something huge. While I was exploring the underground some more, I found some things that look like facilities. Big ones, too. Could be they’re from a long time ago, or could be that a new hazard’s in the process of bein’ born right under our feet.}

“Oh, we already know what they are.” Mortician cut in. “Sebastian, Juniper, and ourselves have access to the facilities thanks to Matria Acasiana Rambola.”

{...I’ve heard of her, but why’s she important?}

“Matria Rambola. The founder of Rainbow Basin.” Mortician insisted. “We met with her in the hazard, and she informed us of the underground facilities she built over two thousand years ago.”

{Over two… alright, guess I gotta check our records.} Okeria sighed. {We don’t got a lot of info from the foundin’ days, but if ya met her, I ain’t gonna argue. Goin’ dark until ya get back.}

I nodded at the shimmer of a drone next to me and glanced around. We weren’t too far from Rainbow Basin, but we did have a fair bit of walking to do. And from all the creaking metal and rustling plants, it wasn’t going to be an easy trek.

“You hear them too?” Jun asked casually and flipped her gun. Her fingertips glowed with her barrier function at the ready, and her other hand was suddenly filled with Danday’s knife. “What’s the plan?”

I activated the two endless consumables that would help us and dropped a mass of hydra-summoning petal-scales to the ground. Mortician opened their book and cloaked us in their words. We were far more used to fighting together than a few days ago. As long as the people skulking around weren’t Endra or Scalovera’s elite, I was confident in our chances.

“Don’t attack first. They’re cautious, and it’s best for us if they stay that way.” I decided as my hydra rubbed against my leg. The thing really was like a big, oily-scaly dog. “Keep your eyes open. And we’ll be better than fine.”

----------------------------------------

I wiped the blood from my dagger as Jun and Mortician stood over a table with a single piece of paper on it. I’d read it three times as I walked past, but the more I thought of it, it made so much less sense. Okeria was out for lunch. When he knew we’d be getting back. And it was signed seven hours ago, which would’ve been early-ish morning.

“Is he making fun of us?” Mortician asked in confusion. They wiped their hand across the paper as if to reveal a hidden message, but nothing changed. “This is the place he was referring to, right?”

Jun shrugged and plucked the piece of paper from the table. It fell to pieces as it left, then disintegrated further as it fluttered to the floor. She stared blankly at it, then summoned her armor and tensed her shoulders.

“Something’s off. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not good.” She said with an edge of uncertainty. “What if we weren’t talking to Okeria at all, but one of Scalovera’s people with a voice modulator? Would that go through our communicators?”

“I don’t know.” I admitted and sent my weapon back to my inventory. “It sounded like him, and it had the right cadence of voice and personality, so someone would have to have a function for perfect imitation. I’m not ruling that out, but that doesn’t feel like Scalovera’s way of doing things.”

“You have a point, but we don’t have any answers.” Jun shifted and took in the room. It didn’t look any more abandoned than before, but it also didn’t look like people had been living in it. “Where did Okeria send the guards and the prisoners we freed? They’ve gotta be safe somewhere, right?”

My communicator crackled to life. {Yep, they’re safe somewhere. I put ‘em in another hazard while Scalovera was distracted with ya three. They won’t be of any use ta us for the battle ta come.}

“And the other three?” I asked. “Thorn’s captured, Gloriosa’s not a fighter, and Ambus is in mourning. Is it just the four of us?”

{Nah, Ambus is gonna fight with us. She’s takin’ care of the hazard for now, but she comes back at nightfall ta help Gloriosa with plannin’.} Okeria explained. He scraped his fingers along something that made enough noise for me to hear, but it didn’t just come through my helmet. The exact same sound came from somewhere in the house. {Looks like that’s actually the three of ya in here with me. Let me drop this little disguise, and I’ll be right with ya.}

I looked around for a fake wall, or something of the like. Nothing changed. None of the doors opened, and I couldn’t feel a difference in the room at all. Jun and Mortician looked around with the same confusion I felt until a scratching from between them caught my attention. All three of us looked down at the table at the exact same time.

Just in time to see a fully armored Okeria crawling out from under it. He groaned and grunted as he pushed himself to his feet, dusted off his legs, and planted his hands on his hips with a nod of conviction.

“Yup, looks like there’s some sorta weird thing on all of ya.” He said. His words echoed in my helmet, and I gestured for him to turn off his communicator. “Oop, right, forgot about that. I’ve been under that table for so long I barely remember what it feels like ta stand.”

He flexed his fingers, then nodded to himself. “Well, I bet you’ve got more than a few questions for me. And I’ve got a few of my own for ya. Gimme two minutes ta make sure the entire place is safe, then we can talk.”