Lus stared into the flames as he sat in the chair. Dinner had been very filling, and it was difficult not to drift to sleep immediately, but they’d all agreed to take turns keeping watch just in case this moon did boast some kind of animal life. The majority of the night sky was taken up by the great greenness of Aschir, but the few swathes of sky which were visible held a crystal clear view into the Cinder Rock.
He was lucky enough to get first watch, but that also meant he had to wait to be sure everyone was fully asleep before he accessed his system. That campfire hash gave him the last boost of [XP] he needed, so now he was at [Level 5]. At the same time as leveling up, he’d also gotten two notifications.
[New Skill Acquired: Chef’s Intuition Level 1]
[Skill Shop Unlocked]
Lusac was eager to explore the [Skill Shop] and see how his stats changed, but he didn’t want to be doing anything while the others were awake since he wasn’t quite ready to reveal his system to the rest of the crew.
He was especially worried about Nippy finding out since the Kremel had a system of his own, and he might notice that there was something different about Lus’s which would lead to revealing Leviathan. The fewer people who knew about the Demon in the interbox, the better his life would be.
He grimaced as he remembered his interaction with Officer Rhine only a few days before. She didn’t strike him as the type to give up easily, so he might be forced to reveal the truth sooner than he would like in order to keep the crew safe from yet another disastrous run in with a dozen ships after him.
After about an hour, Lus was fairly confident his other four companions were asleep, Wsr and Yonnex-Quniwel in one tent, with Nippy and Zer-Dasht in the other. Lusac would join the former when it came time for his turn to sleep.
With a thought, he pulled up the blue screen and scanned the homepage to see what changed.
[Stamina: 7]
[Intelligence: 8]
[Strength: 7]
[Charm: 7]
[Health: 10]
[Speed: 8]
[Common Sense: 1]
[Luck: 12]
Lus smiled. All that work in the gym paid off, his [Strength] went up by 2. His [Charm] and [Luck] also each went up by 1, likely from that encounter with Varyna that happened to work out in his favor. What made him happier than even the [Strength] increase was to see a proud 1 in [Common Sense]. It wasn’t a lot, but it seemed huge compared to the -1 he started with.
He was only up to [2000 XP] for his lifetime, and to reach [Level 6] he would need to hit [3500 XP], but aside from completing his latest quest, all he could do was continue to cook like a madman. At least he still had [1000 XP] to spend. Thinking of that, Lus navigated to the newest tab on the screen: [Skill Shop].
Similar to the [Recipe Book], most of the [Skills] were locked, but there were three available to purchase, and based on the names alone, he knew it was going to be a tough choice.
[Night Sight]
[Dash]
[Sixth Sense]
They all cost [1000 XP] each, so he would only be able to choose one. [Night Sight] sounded like the one he’d use in the upcoming mission, but [Dash] might be nice for getting out of some of the tighter situations he found himself in. As for [Sixth Sense], well he wasn’t even sure what that was, so he figured it wasn’t one to worry about yet.
Lusac glanced away from the screen to examine their surroundings. Outside of the ring of light provided by the fire and the lanterns, he couldn’t see any kind of detail amongst the rocks and boulders. He thought back to his earlier excursion with Nippy into the mine. If there was something living in those tunnels, [Night Sight] would be a huge aid in actually catching sight of it.
As Lus went to select the buy option, one of the tents unzipped and he quickly swiped the screen away, still unsure if others could see it or not but not willing to take any chances.
Wsr stepped out of the canvas and stretched with a wide yawn. She blinked several times before motioning Lusac to the tent she just exited. “My turn. Get some sleep, Lus.”
He blinked in surprise. Had it been an hour and half already? Time has flown.
Nodding, Lusac stood up from his chair and went into the tent, careful not to disturb Quniwel as he crawled into his sleeping bag. Part of him wanted to get the screen back out and buy his first real [Skill], but in such close quarters to another, he didn’t dare. There would be time later for such things.
Lus closed his eyes and drifted off immediately after the long day of hiking and exploring. It seemed only a few minutes passed before Wsr was shaking him awake, her morning breath washing over him as she spoke.
“Up and at ‘em, Lusac. We want a big breakfast before we head into the mines today.”
Groaning, Lus rubbed his eyes as gray light streamed in from the tent walls from the suns outside. He hated that he had to do all this cooking, even if it did mean getting a little more [XP] to put towards a new [Skill].
Since most of the stuff was at the top of the food supplies, Lus made the hash from last night again, but no one seemed to mind. His grumpiness dissipated a little when he got that familiar notification as he set the last of the plates of food out.
[Cooking Complete]
[XP Gained: 25]
A whole 25 points closer to another skill, he thought to himself as he took one plate of food for himself.
As they ate, Zer-Dasht told the story of getting one of the artifacts from a university’s storage vault during Lus’s mandatory ship time. Lus enjoyed hearing it the first time, and maybe even the second, but now that he was on third time listening to Dasht recount his own heroism, it was starting to drag a little.
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Once everyone finished, Nippy clapped his hands together and stood up. “Alright, people. Get the gear together. Let’s find ourselves an artifact.”
Lus was left to wash the dishes while the others sorted through the bags to put together five sets of equipment. After he finished, he picked up his set, a small, close fitting backpack stocked with water and food for two days, a back up lantern, an industrial all-in cutter, a hand drill, an anchor, a grappling gun, a medical kit, a small air tank, and emergency alunitanium rope. Ideally, he would need very little, if any, of the gear, but it was good to be prepared, especially going into a place they didn’t even have a map of.
He was the last to get his bag on, and Nippy was clearly antsy about getting into the tunnels sooner rather than later.
“All set?” the Kremel confirmed.
Lusac nodded, and Nippy set off directly towards the cave entrance. Zer-Dasht and Yonnex-Quniwel followed behind, then came Lus, and Wsr took up the rear. They all kept their lanterns in hand, and Nippy insisted everyone pack a blaster pistol as well. He claimed it was just another tool, but Lusac suspected that the Kremel still carried some discomfort from last night the same as him.
The unnaturalness of the square tunnel bothered Lus a whole lot less now that he had Wsr at his back. She could take on anything that might come their way. And having all the extra sets of eyes to keep watching for odd occurrences helped calm his anxieties about some malevolent beast waiting to strike out.
Even as they entered the cavern with the pond, Lus remained calm, and he convinced himself that everything he thought he saw last night had been the light bouncing around the room in strange ways.
Sunlight poured in from the upper vent to the surface, bathing the entire room in fairly bright morning light. Walking amongst the decrepit equipment now was interesting rather than creepy, and the light gave Lus a chance to really examine the machinery as they passed it. He recognized the general use of most of what they crossed through, but a few of the appliances were completely foreign to him.
Part of him wanted a closer look at the more intact pieces to see what he could learn from tinkering, but he decided to ask about that after they had the artifact and Nippy was in a better mood.
Just as they arrived at the three tunnels, Quniwel yelped and jumped upwards, his frog-like legs springing him to over six feet in the air with ease.
“I saw something!” he yelled, wrapping his arms around his chest.
Nippy snorted as the group turned to look where Yonnex-Quniwel was staring, but just as the night before, there was nothing there.
“Keep yourself together, Quniwel,” the second-in-command growled as he resumed studying the pathways before them.
“This place can be a little freaky. I was jumpy last night when I came with Nippy,” Lus said, giving the Nemarian a reassuring pat.
Yonnex-Quniwel nodded weakly, his eyes remaining trained on the same spot as if looking away might cause a monster to spring upon him.
Wsr reached forwards to shove the Nemarian forward, and he let loose one small squeal before shuffling to join Nippy and Dasht at the tunnels.
“Which way first?” Dasht asked, his beady black eyes darting between the three options in sequence. “You’d think they’d have labeled these things.”
“Maybe the signs are decayed or faded, like the writing outside,” Lus suggested.
“We should split up,” Nippy said, his hand at his chin. “That way we can cover all three. Dasht, you and Lus go together down the right. Wsr, take Quniwel and scout the left. I’ll take the middle.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Quniwel burst. His webbed hands flexed open and close, a common sign of nervousness in Nemarians. “I mean, just in case there’s a cave in or something,” he added as Nippy raised a single eyebrow.
Nippy patted his head. “I’ll be fine, Yonnex-Quniwel. I appreciate your concern, but my system will serve as my backup.”
He nodded to the others. “Keep comms open. As long as the rock doesn’t get too thick between us, we should be able to keep in touch.” He offered one last confident smile as he started into the darkness.
Dasht muttered under his breath as he led the way to the right hand side. “Of course I get stuck with the Human who’s as blind as a nocturne.” He glanced over his shoulder to Lus with a frown. “Keep your lantern light low. I want to be able to see properly.”
“Well so do I,” Lus argued.
“My eyes are better than yours in the dark already. Having too much light will ruin my dark vision. I’ll tell you if I see anything important,” Zer-Dasht assured him.
“Fine,” Lusac agreed just so they could get moving. If only he’d bought [Night Sight] when he had the chance. This was going to suck without it.
The two walked into the tunnel with dim lanterns held aloft. As Lus had noticed before, there were metal beams holding the ceiling and jagged edges of rock stuck out from the walls to make the place feel more like the mines he was used to back home. From what he could tell in the faint glow, the rocks were deepening to sharp red, gaining far more pigment than the passageway started with.
“Did you feel that breeze? This must lead to another exit,” Dasht mentioned after they’d been walking for several minutes.
“There was no breeze,” Lus said.
“Sure there was. It ruffled my fins,” Dasht pressed.
Lusac shook his head. “I didn’t feel anything.”
The Nemarian rolled his eyes. “Humans. I swear your entire species is desensitized to anything but the most pointed sensations. Come on. It can’t be far.”
The pair continued their journey until something in the corner of his eye caught Lus’s attention. He softly swung his lantern around, trying to make it seem like he was just scanning the walls closer.
Just another false alarm. Quniwel’s jumpiness seemed to be catching, and Lus didn’t want Dasht to know he was starting to get that sensation of being watched again.
“Huh. Not an exit. Not this way at least. Maybe we missed a turn,” Lus’s Nemarian companion said, drawing his focus back to the path which was now blocked by a smooth rock face.
Lus walked up to it and ran his hands across the crimson stone. He didn’t feel or see a single imperfection, which was a rather stark contrast to the walls of the tunnel they stood in now. It was also one perfect shade, another difference from the walls.
“Isn’t it odd how smooth this wall is compared to the others?” Lusac voiced his thoughts aloud.
“Maybe it’s part of a collapse,” Dasht mused.
“No way falling rocks yielded this,” Lus pointed out. “It seems very intentional, just like the tunnel leading down to the lake.”
“I wouldn’t call it a lake.”
“That’s not the point.” Lus exhaled in frustration and stepped back. Zer-Dasht didn’t seem interested in figuring this out. He needed to talk with someone like Wsr or Nippy who would care more about something like this.
“Come on, Lus. We should double check there aren’t any passageways that shoot off from this on our way back,” Dasht reminded him.
Lus took one last glance at the strange, perfectly hewn and colored wall as they started back the way they came.
They hadn’t made it very many steps when Dasht stopped to stare at the ceiling.
“What is it?” Lusac asked, his patience with the Nemarian running thin.
“I thought I saw something.”
“It’s just the lantern light reflecting weirdly. It happened a bunch last night too,” Lus explained.
Dasht glared at the spot for a few more seconds before giving up to continue walking. It hadn’t been more than another minute when Lus felt something brush his arm. The sensation reminded him of a bug crawling on his skin, but covering a much larger area than a single insect. Without thinking he brushed at his arms only to find the rough alunitanium woven suit which covered his skin all the way to his hands.
“A breeze?” Dasht asked, as he looked back.
“I guess. But it went all the way through my suit.” Lus held his free arm close to his chest, not caring that he was doing just as Yonnex-Quniwel had done. This place was freaky, no doubt about it. “Let’s just get back to the lake room.”
“Pond,” Dasht corrected him.
“Whatever,” Lus hissed. “Get going.”
The Nemarian murmured complaints under his breath as they started on their path again. When he stopped once more, Lus opened his mouth to issue some rather strong words until he noticed what stood in their way.
It was a wall of perfectly smooth, red stone, just like the one they came from. They were trapped.