Jasper’s happiness rapidly faded as the food disappeared from the plates. When the last of the food was gone, he finally looked up and noticed the faces of shock and horror of the people who had been watching him eat.
“You got a hollow leg or something?” The man with a spear asked earning him another slap to the arm. Sabina placed a soft hand on Jasper’s shoulder causing him to flinch back in surprise and quickly taking her hand away.
“How long have you been in the dungeon?” She asked. Jasper thought back he’d kept an eye on his 24-hour clock in the system windows while he’d been trapped in the dungeon and responded to the question. This left Sabina and some of the others with curious faces. “How did you get in this state in such a short amount of time?” she asked, looking at Jasper’s dirty face and body, the scars that he’d gained over the last few months, and the basic leather loincloth that he’d crafted to cover his bits. For the first time in several months, he looked at himself and uncomfortably moved his arms over his body trying to hide more of himself.
He looked at the well-fed, and beautiful men and women in the area and couldn’t help but feel very lacking. His black curls were matted with blood, mud, and pumpkin guts the same as his scraggly beard. Jasper felt the burning emotion of shame flush through his face and felt some wetness touch his cheeks. Sabina’s face dropped from curious to embarrassed, realizing that what she said must have been the wrong thing. She was about to ask a different question when Jaspers's emotional exhaustion reached a tipping point. Although he didn’t trust these people yet, he was just an eighteen-year-old boy who had gone through something that no one should. He was tired and without even deciding to he started unloading.
It started slowly just saying that he had been on the surface for months. Then the floodgates opened, and he was suddenly spilling his guts about everything that he’d gone through. He told her about the restricted class, being kicked out, and his camp, which he spoke of with nothing but pride. By the end of his explanation, he had cried twice and now was wiping the tears from his face. When he looked back up Sabina’s and everyone else’s faces were twisted in anger. Jasper thought for a moment that he’d messed up, that he should have held out and not told them the entire story instead keeping it all to himself.
“Those bastards!” Sabina hissed through her teeth. Her anger was almost palpable rolling off of her in waves of red energy which made Jasper feel nervous. He’d heard of abilities that turned emotions into power before, but he hadn’t seen it up close before. When she saw the effect that her powers were having on Jasper the red waves subsided and her face changed from one of anger to one of pity. He tried not to let that face remind him of the magistrate, but it was difficult. “You never should have had to have gone through that. I’m so sorry.” She said as the person who had read his status came over and placed their cloak around his shoulders.
It was a warm, soft fabric with subdued green colors, and Jasper recognized the smell of vanilla coming off of it. He thanked them abruptly and they gave him a blinding smile. “High charisma.” Jasper thought, warning himself against one of the more frowned-upon stats that some hunters had. You could always tell if someone had charisma because while the hunters with high charisma always looked beautiful and magnetic there was something not quite right about their faces, too perfect. Still, he was happy to be wearing real clothing again. The man who had told Sabina to toss him through the boss portal earlier tsked before rolling his eyes.
“Fine let's take him to the city. The council will probably want to talk to him.” He told Sabina who nodded her agreement with the man’s words. She helped Jasper to his feet and motioned toward the platform. Before he was going anywhere though he wanted his equipment back. He asked about his tools and a look of shame covered the group’s face. Someone that he hadn’t spoken to yet brought out some pieces of wood that Jasper recognized as Flot due to the remnants of ink in the shape of broken runes. He felt a deep sense of sadness at the loss of what he had considered a friend for the last couple of months. Before he let himself sink into that despair though he decided that he would check on his other pieces of equipment.
Effen and Shelld seemed fine, but Jasper could tell that the people holding them didn’t feel comfortable giving him back his weapons yet. Knowing that it wouldn’t be much help to have them back surrounded by such powerful hunters he let them go, taking solace in the fact that at least they were safe. Jasper walked with his new acquaintances stepping onto the platform that would take him to wherever they wanted to take him. As the platform descended a blue magical dome covered the platform. Water covered the top of the dome rapidly and Jasper found himself taking in a deep breath. When he noticed that the water wasn’t rushing in, he let it out feeling foolish for the accidental reaction.
Jasper watched through the blue transparent dome as fish monsters swam by. He wasn’t surprised that they didn’t attack the dome as he’d had plenty of experience with bird monsters completely avoiding the same type of platforms back in the city where he had lived in. After a while the light from the surface of the pool disappeared, being immediately replaced with crystal lights embedded in the walls of the tunnel. Jasper found it interesting how similar the architecture of the tunnels was to his city. He’d never been to another city, but Jasper had thought that there would be more differences between each of them. Instead, he had the feeling that he wouldn’t have any issues finding his way around the new area.
He couldn’t have been any more wrong. As the platform finally exited the tunnel Jasper covered his eyes for a second to shield his eyes from the suddenly much brighter light. When he moved his hand away his face couldn’t contain the shock that he felt. If Jaspers's own city could be compared to an industrial city with stone and wooden buildings, then this city was a marvel of technology. The buildings were made of concrete, glass, and crystal. There were statues made of metal shaped into images of different animals flying around the buildings with ease. Lights floating in the air changed color to deal with traffic. From what Jasper could see floating above the city there weren’t even any slums for poor people to live in. Instead, hundreds of large well-built apartment buildings stretched toward the ceiling of the cavern the entire city had been built in.
The largest crystal that Jasper had ever seen grew out of the ceiling of the cavern, but there was a retractable metal dome only halfway extended covering part of the crystal. Jasper’s creativity kicked in and recognized it as a way for this city to still have a day and night cycle. He imagined that in the early days of living here, they must have had a difficult time sleeping with the bright crystal light keeping them awake. Someone nudged him in the side snapping him out of his imagination-fueled gawking.
“Impressive yeah?” Sabina chucklingly asked him. Not knowing exactly what to say Jasper just gave her a quick nod. The platform had stopped just in time that the blue dome still blocked off the water keeping it from flooding into the city. Jasper looked around the platform recognizing runic technology and immediately wanted to start studying it. He recognized most of the runes that were causing the platform to move in the way it did, but there were still some that he wasn’t able to place. He wanted to summon his journal and pen immediately to copy down all the new runes, but he was already being shuffled from the platform.
Crawling up the side of the cavern walls toward the platform was a building with several ovular metal constructs sitting on a ledge that extended from the building. A man stepped out of the building waiving over the group of hunters.
“Hey, you guys just left you already finished the harvest?” The man said giving the group a kindly smile. He continued walking toward the party of hunters until he laid eyes on Jasper causing him to pull up short a shocked look spreading across his face. Jasper shuffled nervously under the man's gaze and for a moment any amount of trust he’d built up for Sabina and her friends wavered. Thoughts of the man calling for whatever police force they had here and being thrown out yet again. But as quickly as the look crossed the man's face it relaxed back into a kind smile.
“And who is this young man?” He asked turning towards Sabina. She told him the story of how we’d met, and the man nodded along. After she finished telling the story the man looked at Jasper. “I’m sorry young man you must have been through quite a lot. Sabina and her comrades are good folk though they’ll take good care of you.” Giving one last reassuring smile he pointed to one of the metal constructs and the entire group Jasper included walked toward it.
The construct looked completely solid, but then Sabina reached into her pouch and pulled out some kind of talisman. Touching the talisman to the side of the metal oval suddenly runes that Jasper hadn’t seen before lit up all over it. The oval opened on the side closest to the group causing everyone to step back as a ramp extended to let everyone in. It was hollow on the inside, but as people loaded inside seats popped out of the floor giving everyone a place to sit. Sabina took the seat at the front of what Jasper was starting to recognize as a vehicle. When she did the metal at the front cleared away revealing the view of the city through a display panel.
Using the talisman one more time she touched it to the display and another display popped up. Jasper read it from afar.
Hoverbus #52 Control Panel
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Park
Drive
Reverse
Steering
Please Select Action
Jasper watched as Sabina raised her hands mentally selecting one of the options. Constructs of light enveloped her hands and just like Jasper would do when he directed any of his tools Sabina piloted the vessel out toward the city. Jasper felt a small rise and fall in his stomach as the vessel left its port, but he quickly got used to the sensation. He’d made floating platforms before to help him get to areas that he couldn’t reach on his own, but nothing had been as complex as this. He marveled at the runic technology that the people of this city had access to and imagined what it would have been like if they’d had this kind of technology as he was growing up.
Again, he had to fight against his instincts to get up and start studying all of the runes on the device they were using to soar over the city. He managed to keep himself in his seat, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking questions.
“What is this thing? How does it work? What are the runes that allow for such smooth control? Can I see the pattern that creates the light constructs?” The people around him looked at him in shock. They knew him so far as the feral man who had attacked them on sight with a pumpkin that threw lightning. He hadn’t even said much since they’d captured him, but now he was lit up with excitement and rapid firing question after question. Sabina was the first one to break the silence as she started to laugh.
“I’m sure that you can study these later, I’m going to drop off most of the crew then we’re going to get you cleaned up so you can see the council.” She said after her laughing fit had subsided. Jasper didn’t know what the council was or why they would need to see him, but he assumed they were some big shots in the city. He worried about what they would wind up doing to him if he was found lacking, but he liked the idea of getting cleaned up at least.
Just as Sabina had told him she would stop every once and a while to let one or two of the party members off. When it was just her, Jasper, the mean guy, the spear guy, and the person who read his status left on the flying machine she let out a sigh.
“I don’t know about you guys but I’m ready to be home.”
“You are so lazy Sabby we didn’t even do the harvest!” The spear guy said to her earning a chuckle from the high charisma person.
“So what? I can still be excited to go home after a hard day’s work!” She shot back.
“What day? We left like two hours ago!” He responded.
“You guys know that we’re not going to get paid because of this nutjob right?” The guy who had wanted to throw him through the boss portal said gruffly. Jasper couldn’t handle it anymore and decided to ask one more question.
“What are the rest of your names? I can’t keep calling you spear guy, mean guy, and the person who read my status?” So far Jasper hadn’t expressed any interest in getting to know his captors but as they had interacted with him and each other he'd grown more curious about the people that called this city in a dungeon home.
“Why should we tell you?” Mean guy said barkingly causing the others to roll their eyes.
“This is why you’re a mean guy.” The highly charismatic person spoke. “I’m Osur the guy with the spear is Luke and the grumpy one is Figus which is probably why he’s always so grumpy. I know I’d be pissed with a name like that.” The man named Figus took a half-hearted swing at Osur.
“For the last time! There is nothing wrong with my name!” He shouted back clearly frustrated with what appeared to be an ongoing joke if the mischievous smirk on Osur’s face was anything to go on. Figus jumped out of his seat and started chasing a laughing Osur around the cabin of the hover bus before Sabina yelled at them to get back in their seats. The two hunters crawled sheepishly back into their seats looking sheepish and minutes later Jasper felt the final descent toward the street. Jasper was led out of the hover bus and into the front doors of a building made completely out of glass panels.
Of course, they had windows in his city, but he’d never considered entire buildings made of them. On the inside the floor was made of mosaic tile and Jasper was surprised to see more runic designs on them in circular patterns. He couldn’t control himself and dropped to the floor touching his hands to one of the circular mosaics and as soon as he did, he received a new notification.
NOTICE: You have discovered a runic security panel system. Would you like to imbue a runic security system? Y/N?
WARNING: You do not have the necessary magic stat to fully imbue a runic security system. Over-taxing your magic can have detrimental effects. Would you like to proceed? Y/N?
Before he even had a chance to select yes or no Figis already had him strung up with his arms locked above his head in some kind of hold.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Figis hissed angrily in Jasper’s ear. Jasper struggled against the man’s hold before finally giving up frustrated that after building his strength stat as much as he had he was still so weak that he’d been manhandled twice in the same day. Sabina placed a hand on Figis’ arm and with a single look from her he knew it was time to back down. Jasper fell to the floor and rubbed his shoulders trying to get the pain to subside. Sabina knelt looking Jasper in the eye and giving him a serious look.
“What were you doing Jasper? You gave us a scare when you suddenly dropped like that.” Her tone was kind, but her eyes were stern and accusing. She’d been nothing but kind to him so far aside from choking him out in the beginning, so Jasper felt slightly guilty for having scared her. The other part of him still didn’t know whether or not to trust her especially after her guard dog had just slung him around like a ragdoll. There was nothing he could do though, if one of them didn’t start trusting then he knew that he’d be the one on the backfoot if it came to a fight.
“I just wanted to study the runes… It’s part of my class. I got over-excited.” Jasper said looking away embarrassed both because of his lack of control over himself as well as the fact that he was the one who folded first. Sabina looked over at Osur and they nodded their head in agreement.
“So, you are a runic crafter huh? Can you tell me what these are?” She said motioning to the tiles on the floor. Jasper looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“You don’t know?”
“No. While we do have some knowledge of runic devices other things have been lost since our founder died a few hundred years ago.” She responded. Jasper hesitated for another moment but decided that if he’d already come this far, he might as well continue to share what he knew.
“It’s a security system. I’d have to study it for longer to figure out exactly what it did. I’ve only had my class for a few months now.” Jasper rubbed the back of his head hating the fact that now that he was around other people again, he had to worry about embarrassment. The best thing about living in the middle of the woods alone was that there was no one to notice when he screwed up an experiment or talked to himself.
“That matches with what I saw,” Osur confirmed. Sabina continued staring at Jasper as if she was trying to read something on his face.
“Alright come on let's head upstairs before the neighbors start getting nosy,” Luke spoke up for the first time since we entered the building. The others agreed and we all walked through a door leading to a stairwell. They kept Jasper in the middle of the group the entire time they walked up the stairs. Osur and Figis flanked each side of him to the rear and Luke and Sabina did the same in front of him. Five flights of stairs up they entered into another door leading to a long hallway. Then ten doors down they stopped in front of their destination.
The inside of the apartment was larger than Jasper expected sporting high ceilings and a beige and teal color scheme. The kitchen was the first room right off the front door and leading into a common space. It was clear that the people who lived here were serious about their cleanliness because as far as Jasper could see the entire apartment was spotless. The furniture was an eclectic spread of multicolored couches and bookshelves and on each side of the apartment were two doors that Jasper assumed led to the party members’ rooms.
“Alright, which one of you wants to let the smelly guy use their shower?” Sabina said earning her nothing but flat looks from the others.
“Why does it have to be one of our rooms?” Osur asked scrunching up her nose while looking at Jasper with clear disgust.
“Because I have the nicest towels and I don’t want to have to throw them out afterward!” she said jokingly. Luke finally volunteered his bathroom for Jasper’s shower since Sabina, Osur, and Figus were absolutely against the idea of letting him use theirs. Luke led Jasper into his room, closing the door behind the two of them. When Luke flicked on the light showing off his room. The walls were painted royal blue with white trim. The floor was soft and flexible made out of kind matts. Luke had a small cot that he’d shoved into one corner of the room. On the other side of the room was a rack of practice spears and a set of dumbbells.
“So, you like training I’m guessing?” Jasper asked trying and by the look on Luke’s face failing to make small talk. The spear wielder went over to a wall, placed his hand against it, and pushed in. With an audible click, the wall sprang out just enough that he could get his fingers in the gap. Luke pulled at the lip and a cupboard opened up revealing several pairs of clothes hanging on some dowels. Picking out a simple shirt and pair of pants as well as a pair of shoes Luke walked back over to his cot and laid them out for Jasper.
“The shoes might not fit, but the pants and shirt should work. Please do not touch the clothes until you have scrubbed yourself down 'cause I’d like them back.” He told Jasper, trying not to get too close to him. He motioned to another door behind Jasper. “Shower is in there. You do know how to use a shower right?” Jasper nodded his response hoping that it wasn’t some kind of fancy technological shower that he actually wouldn’t know how to use.
“There’s only so much embarrassment I can take for one day.” Jasper thought to himself as he opened the door to the bathroom. It was smaller than he expected based on the rooms he’d seen so far. There was only a small amount of standing room that Jasper could move around in a small sink and a standing shower. There was a space where Jasper could stand with some comfort, but the space caused him to become confused. Sticking his head back out the door he looked around for Luke.
“Uh hey, I think someone stole your toilet.” For the first time since Jasper had entered the room with Luke the other man finally cracked a smile.
“Yeah man, once vitality reaches a certain level you don’t really… do that anymore. Did no one ever tell you that?” Jasper searched back in his memory of things he’d learned in school. Not finding anything in his mind he decided to ask another question.
“When does that happen? Please tell me soon.” Luke smiled again and shook his head.
“Bout 150 now go take a shower you smell like death.” Jasper flushed once more, wishing that he could stop embarrassing himself, and closed the door. After his shower was finished, he found a grey towel sitting on the sink. Once he was dry, he wrapped the towel around himself and exited the bathroom.
“You’re not getting any of my socks or underwear,” Luke stated flatly before Jasper started getting dressed. “Too weird.” Once he had finished dressing himself, they both exited into the main area of the apartment where they found the others waiting for them.
“Look at you! You look almost human!” Sabina said with a smile. “You like the beard or want to go clean-shaven?” Jasper had kept himself clean-shaven for most of his life, but he’d grown accustomed to the beard and told her as much. They trimmed up his beard and hair slightly to make him more presentable and then tied his hair back into a bun. “Sorry, none of us know much about giving haircuts.”
“All good ma’am,” Jasper responded to Sabina earning himself a scowl from the dark-haired woman.
“Sabina not ma’am.” Her glare made Jasper gulp nervously and he nodded his head quickly. “Come on I’ve already contacted the council and they’re looking forward to meeting you.”
“Who is the council anyway?” Jasper asked before he could stop himself.
“No one much just the governing body of the undercity. They control everything from security to food attainment and distribution.” Osur responded answering his question.
“They’re going to be the ones to decide whether you can stay or if we toss you through the boss portal like I originally suggested,” Figus said, giving Jasper a smirk and earning a slap to the arm from Sabina who then gave him an earful about being a jerk. Once he was properly cowed they got back into the same box formation as earlier leading Jasper back out to the hover bus from earlier.