Nick and his family spent the night eating food that came from the oven in the kitchenette and playing board games. It helped distract them from the strange circumstances they had found themselves in. For a brief moment all thoughts of the dark car park, strange sickness and nightmarish monsters were gone. It was just the small family enjoying themselves and sharing food.

Sadly Nick had to bring up the fact that he was leaving the next morning. His family didn’t respond very positively to the news, but Nick made it clear that none of them really got a choice. He couldn’t even give them any information about where he was going, all he knew was that he was going up to the 75th floor for a meeting of sorts.

“Well if Tony is going with you it’ll give us a better chance to work out what’s going on around here.” Lily said.

“You can’t do that anyway?” Nick asked.

“Well I tried to go out while you were out with your new friends but there’s an awkward problem with that.”

Nick only had to think about it for a moment before realising her problem.

“You have to walk past Tony to get to where everyone is.”

“Yep, he just stared at me as soon as I walked in. I turned back and decided to wait for you.” Lily sighed.

Tony had positioned himself between the two groups of people, causing a clear divide. There were the people that worked for him in the Quarters, then there was everyone else on the other side of the bar. Who were those people? What did they do? Nick went through his memories of what he’d seen while walking around. They all seemed to just play games and eat. They also seemed to drink a lot, the cupboards must have supplied a lot of alcohol. He remembered the minibar, it had been completely stocked with alcohol.

Suddenly he jumped up and made his way over to the minibar in his current room. He swung it open and found that it was filled with even more alcohol but he did find a few bottles of water, he grabbed one out and had a drink. He popped back above the counter and faced his family, who looked bewildered at his sudden actions.

“There is a hell of a lot of alcohol in this place, like it’s a seemingly infinite amount of booze. This place is a recovering alcoholic's worst nightmare.”

“Huh can’t say I even thought about that.” Lily said.

“Anything good in there? Lily only brought out the water.” Henry asked.

Nick rolled his eyes. “Check it yourself, you old dog.”

The family settled back in and played games until they were too tired to continue. The time on their phones showed it was late at night, but he wasn’t sure how accurate that was. Somehow the time on the family's phones seemed to line up somewhat with whatever the people here were using. He’d have to ask about it tomorrow. With that thought Nick called it quits and chose a bedroom to claim as his own. The beds might just have been the most comfortable he’d ever experienced.

The next morning he was up bright and early, well early at least according to his phone. The room had no windows so he had no idea if it was bright. Did it get bright here or was it dark? It would suck if it was always dark in here. Wait, how did people get vitamin D here? Nick had to stop himself from spiralling into an unending series of questions. Though, proper nutrition and vitamin intake was certainly at the forefront of his mind. The only food he’d encountered so far wasn’t the healthiest. Junk food in the cupboards and the food from the ovens was mostly burgers, chips and pizzas, generally greasy foods. More questions Nick needed answers to.

Nick hopped in the shower, and kept it cold to wake him up and clear his head. He needed to focus today, questions could be slipped in here and there. When Nick emerged from the bathroom he found his family gathered around in the lounge.

“What’s cooking guys?”

Benny rushed over to him and tackled him into a hug. Liz and Henry quickly joined in, hugging Nick.

“You stay safe out there Nicky. We’ll have worked something out by the time you’re back.” Henry grumbled.

Lily and Benny didn’t say anything, just hugged Nick a bit tighter. Nick realised he’d forgotten to bring up the idea of crafting classes with his family. He didn’t have time to now, but if they hadn’t found out about it already he’d make sure to bring it up when he was back.

The family finally separated and everyone was spared any tears. Nick then headed to the bar where he found most of the team already gathered. They waved him over as he entered.

“Nick, Tony’s got some gifts for you before we set out.” Joshua called out.

Nick raised an eyebrow and approached the bar. Gifts from Tony? That didn’t sound right. He saw that there were a couple of items on the counter. Most notable was a leather vest, it was definitely in keeping with the rest of the team's aesthetic. There were two other items on the counter than Nick was familiar with, the hand wraps that he had found.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I managed to convince him that the gear would help sell people on the fact that you’re a fighter in training.” Joshua said, as if he’d done Nick the greatest favour imaginable.

“Gee thanks man, thought won’t I be asked what class I have?” Nick asked.

“It’s pretty normal for people to do a bit of training before deciding what combat class to take. Given that you’re a Latecomer, nobody will ask any questions.” Joshua answered.

“Latecomer as in, late to the hotel?”

“Late to the Complex, Nick. A couple dozen of you folk pop up every year or so, people started calling them Latecomers.” Joshua answered. “Maddy herself turned up about a year ago.”

That certainly surprised Nick, he turned to Maddy and she only smiled at him. No wonder people weren’t overly surprised at him and his family turning up, it seems that it wasn’t too uncommon an event. Though the revelation did confirm that Maddy was very much in the same boat as him, though she’d possibly been putting up with it for a year.

Nick reached out to the leather chest piece and tried to put it on. He hadn’t worn anything like it before so it was a bit of an awkward ordeal, earning laughs from everyone watching. Though no one stepped in to help him. He got the hardened leather over his head and found that it was straps he could tie down to fasten it around him. He moved around in it for a bit and found that it didn’t restrict his mobility too much. He then pocketed the wraps as Tony walked into the room.

“Well Sebas is all set to take the lead of the floor. You all ready to go?” Tony asked.

Everyone nodded and Nick followed along behind his team, walking in step with Maddy. She was still doing her best to be as far from Tony as she could manage and Nick was more than happy to join her. Nick was pleasantly surprised as the group left the hotel door that led back to the car park. It was bright, at least the space around the car park was. Where inky darkness had been when he’d last been out here, there was a warm white light. It even made his skin feel slightly warm.

“Is this sunlight?” Nick asked, though he was fairly sure it wasn’t.

“No, well at least we don’t think so. The sun can’t shine from everywhere at once.” Maddy answered.

Looking around Nick noticed that the light wasn’t coming from a single point, like Maddy said it seemed to be coming from every direction outside the structures. As Nick descended the stairs and looked into the car park he noticed that the light didn’t penetrate very far, three or four metres at most. Then it was just darkness, the same level as he’d last encountered, just enough light to make out shapes.

Nick was surprised to see a huge group of at least 100 people standing around. They were all wearing the same scrap metal armour with weapons of various quality. There were a few legitimate looking weapons like the Roamers’, but most of them were homebrew looking creations. Swords and cleavers made from poorly forged metals and maces with jagged metal spikes. It was quite the violent looking mob, Nick certainly didn’t want to be on the wrong end of their mob justice.

There was no fancy speech or anything, once Tony and the team were in the car park Sebas gave a simple order and everyone started moving deeper into the darkness. A couple of people within the group pulled out large crystals, after a moment they began to emit light. In no time the crystals had created a field of light around the mob. Tony pulled out his own crystal, it was smaller looking than the other but it looked far more ornate. The light that came from his crystal matched the same radiance as all the other crystals combined.

Nick was awed. This was magic, clear cut magic. He had been a little disappointed by Maddy’s healing, a glowy palm wasn’t very showy. This was something else though, crystals emitting an area of light? While yes, a lightbulb technically did the same thing, Nick was taking what he could get. Magic!

He did wonder whether these were items dropped by challenge rooms or if they were something created by a crafting class of some sort. Nick decided he’d just wait and see.

The mob was making progress through the car park, towards what Nick assumed was the fort thing he’d passed through when they encountered their first creature. Someone at the front of the mob alerted everyone.

“Trickster!”

Nick tried to get a view of what it could be, but the mass of bodies was blocking everything. Then the group split up. A large portion started moving off to the side and the rest spread out in a straight line, weapons drawn. One the group had thinned a bit it allowed Nick to make out something laying across the floor. It looked like the black viney thing he’d avoided on his way through, though this one was far thicker.

He watched on as the mob seemed to ready themselves. The larger group had formed a circle around what he assumed was the body of the creature. Someone started a countdown, and on one the attack commenced. All of the people lining along the vine swung down into it at once and the larger group charged the body.

An unearthly scream resounded through the car park. Nick fell to his knees for a moment and as he glanced around he noticed that many of the armoured folk were shaken but pressed on with their attack. The scream had echoed through his body, he’d never experienced anything so disturbing. It felt like his insides had been violated. He felt a hand gently support his shoulder.

“You’ll build up a resistance to it with time. I know how terrible it is, most people here are just completely used to it.” Maddy said, helping him up to his feet.

Nick simply nodded his head and watched on as the mob dispatched the creature with trained coordination. Nick was surprised, they had looked like an unruly bunch with no order to their ranks. Now he could see that each of these people were clearly experienced in this world and he had such a long road ahead of him.

He didn’t have much time to contemplate such things, the scream seemed to have attracted more of the creatures. Nick heard shouts and realised that there were familiar creatures coming from multiple directions.

“Group up! Horde incoming!”

“Hope you’re ready for some action Nick.” Maddy said as he positioned herself amongst the team.

Nick scrambled to pull his wraps out. He wasn’t the fastest at the procedure and realised he didn’t have time to get them both done before the creatures would be on them. It seemed like only one of his fists would be a bit more durable for this fight. He rushed the job and could immediately feel that his right hand felt far more solid than ever before.

“Goddamnit, I should have done this earlier.”

With that the horde of spider-like creatures clashed with the forces of the 72nd floor.