Plans were made, and discoveries were too. One had struck out on his own, seeking a path that would better protect his friends. Another discovered, finally, the reason why they alone did not improve at all during these deadly fights. More were pleased enough to grow stronger, obtaining powerful abilities and accruing more skill points. For more of them, however, this was just another battle, one that may have been worth plenty of EXP, but did little in actually granting them the money necessary to fund themselves. More combat, more preparations, perhaps a quest or two. The night was young and Cacophony Concord had a time dilation ratio of three to one anyways. There was plenty more to do before any of them called it a night.
Then, they noticed a detail. A small detail. One that gave them pause.
In the party menu that Ames had set up, Ari's status was grayed out, all her Resources set to zero.
Groping through the darkness, Ari’s other senses sharpened in lieu of the complete absence of light, both her human ears and her cat ears primed for any sound of merriment. It was distorted, the laughter of the gambling den she sought, but it was also something that she was more and more certain wasn’t just a figment of her imagination. Continuing down the tunnel, she gradually realized that she was going up an incline. The tainted waters that trickled from the path she crouched through had to flow downwards, after all. It made sense, in a way.
What didn’t make sense, though, was when she hit a deadend in her path. Feeling about, Ari could ascertain that there weren’t any other paths to turn and travel down. Rather, the deadend appeared to be a raised platform, where more water trickled down. Her feet, however, could feel sturdy grates too, as well as the accumulation of garbage, indicating that there was a separate path that went downwards instead. Half-crawling as she was now, it would be hard to pry open the lower grate, and even harder to slip through without getting dirty, but on the other hand, if she continued up onto the raised platform, which continued to incline upwards, wouldn’t she eventually just end up reaching the surface again?
Ari did not think too long on what to do. After all, she wasn’t in any hurry. The path of least resistance could be scouted out first. Not just because she didn’t feel like touching the grate here without knowing what sort of filth her hand touches. With a hop, she tried to climb on the platform itself, and continue on.
Ari hopped, hit her head on the low ceiling, and ended up having to crawl up instead, her hands touching the somewhat slimy, somewhat sticky stone. The incline became steeper and the tunnel became lower as she continued upwards; going on all-fours was inevitable now. If it was raining, the path she went through would most likely be submerged in fast-flowing water, but right now, it took only five disgusting minutes for her to make it up to a plateau. Above, about five meters upwards, she could see slivers of daylight that partially illuminated her surroundings.
In front of her was another passageway, one that was taller this time. A catwalk was elevated off to the side, offering a place to walk that wasn’t suffused in trash. It looked to lead to somewhere important, if only because it was designed for humans to actually walk on. To her right side was another slope of similar incline to the one she had climbed up on. A stone slat was placed at the entrance to it, blocking off what meager water trickled down from above and diverting all water to the slope she had climbed up on it. Though it was difficult to make out, she could tell by the stone that this path looked much cleaner than the other. No moss, mold, or dampness seemed to be present there.
The clean path immediately took her interest. How was it so clean, with not even mold on it from this sort of environment. Her tail was twitching almost uncontrollably from the excitement now, feeling as if she was getting somewhere finally. It took her tying it into her waistband to keep it controlled. Ari didn’t even want to know how bad it would be trying to clean things of her own fur. Now moving slightly faster, she scrambled down the cleaner path, ignoring the catwalk for now.
The ceiling was as frustratingly low as ever, but with the downward slope and the cleanliness of the floor, Ari could afford to slide her way down. As she continued into the deep darkness, her nose wrinkled at a strange scent, this time of something sterile. A cleaning agent? She didn’t hear anything though, beyond an occasional ‘blop blop’, like bubbles rising to the surface.
Moments later, her feet touched a warm liquid, then sank deeper into it. Before she could descend any further, Ari managed to stop herself by planting her hands on both sides of the tunnel. It was like moving in molasses all of a sudden, a jelly-like warmth that almost seemed to be tickling her. An interesting sensation, truly...until whatever that was began to rise up of its on accord, wrapping around her ankles and climbing up onto her calves.
And what had been a tickling sensation turned into a painful one, like sandpaper being rubbed all over the parts of her body submerged in this slime. At a slow, but increasing pace, Ari’s HP dropped.
She barely stopped herself from screaming out loud, jerking her foot back immediately, scrambling up the slope. There was no way she was going to fight anything in the darkness, but this could be some useful to know someday.
Ari slipped a couple times, feeling the fabrics of her shoes being frayed, corroded, but whatever she stepped in seemed to have no inclination, or perhaps simply not enough strength to continue its grasp on her. She tore herself free, reaching the top of the slope at recorded speed, the burbling of bubbles sounding behind her as the smell of corroded flesh hit her as well. At such low HP, even that encounter had been brutal for her. One of her shoes were gone, exposing the bloody mess of her feet and leg. It looked as if a swarm of insects had bitten little pieces off of it, and though the pain itself faded after some moments, it wasn’t a pleasant thing to look at, not at all.
Still, the catwalk was there for her to pursue, if she wished to continue.
Grimacing, she went towards the catwalk, hoping that way lead to a better result. With a catwalk in place and bioluminescent moss to give her some light, it appeared that Ari had reached a more well-made portion of the sewer. Whatever she had climbed up before had served as a chute towards the sewage stream out in Nyu-Taro, and now, she was going through the labyrinthine setup of the sewer proper. Her choices took her gradually downwards and leftwards, as she chased after the elusive sound of human interaction amid the gurgling of refuse and water. The going was easy despite the damage she had sustained on her feet; now that she no longer stepped through sludge or climb up disgusting slopes, Ari breezed through the corridors and junctions, until her travels were cut short by a wall. The stream beside her flowed down, and from the speed of the water as it traveled underneath the wall, it looked to be another slope. If she was willing to dive in, she could bypass the wall, but once she committed, there was no way to backtrack, nor was there any guarantee that she would have any of this moss to light her way when she did go down.
Still, if her sense of direction served her well, that should be the direction of the hideout. Should...
There was more than just the foreboding sense of danger assailling her thoughts at the mere look of that very dank looking water, made worse by the poor illumination. Diving deep into the unknown both scared and excited her. It was a game after all, but still she hesitated at the brink. There was no guarantee she would find her location at the end of this stream, or even any guarantee it wasn’t just a tunnel full of water rushing towards a far location where her lifeless body would inevitably be found.
Scraping a bit of the moss, and lining the inside of her clothes with it, she took the dive, now far too gone to give up and go back.
Immediately, there was a drop as Ari slipped beneath the wall and into the swift current of a steep slope. She scrambled to keep her head above the water, but her surroundings were pitch-black, and it was much too difficult to pull out the moss she had collected now. The water rushed on, pulling her down with it. A careening path saw her bump into either sides of the tunnel, incremental damage being built up as the tunnel went even deeper, even lower. Could she be dropping into the very depths of the earth itself? Battered and broken, left to decay within some underground dumping ground for the city’s sewage?
The waters turned torrential, accelerating ever further. It was impossible to stay on the surface now. Every breath was fought for in a wild gasp, before she was sucked down again. The pattern repeated on and on, the only mercy being that the tunnel she was propelled through had no errant rocks to smash herself again. But it was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Only a matter o-
Through the froth of water, Ari could see light speeding up towards her. An opening in the side of the tunnel? She was flowing almost vertically down now, the speed mind-numbing, but if she could somehow get into that opening, there was a chance she wouldn’t immediately die. But with seconds left before that opening passed her by, what could she do?
Using whatever she had left in her, Ari spun and kicked against the wall, aiming to launch herself straight into that opening.
But slowed by the drag of water upon her clothes, Ari's spin amounted to nothing. Her feet slipped against the stone surface she tried to propel herself off of, and all she could do was get a single hand on the ledge, enough to pull her head out of the water for the briefest of moments. If she was only a normal human, the waters would had dragged her down into the abyss, into certain death. She would die ignorant and alone.
She wasn't normal though. She perceived time at half the speed that normal humans did, and her skill, her physical control of her body, was even greater than that! Bracing herself as best as she could, Ari cleared the water out of her eyes and caught a glimpse of where that opening actually lead.
Marbled stone, embellished with ancient paintings. Paper lanterns, burning with warm light. Buildings of wood and ceramic, against a backdrop of a starry sky. Bronze guardians, facsimiles of ancient warriors.
A whole dungeon, deep beneath the city-state.
She lost her grip then, and tumbled into the cold, wild darkness once more.
⚙
⚙
⚙
《𝔻𝔼𝕊𝕋ℝ𝕌ℂ𝕋𝔼𝔻 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝕃𝔻 𝔻𝔼𝕊𝕋𝔸𝔹𝕀𝕃𝕀ℤ𝔼𝔻》
《𝕋𝕀𝕄𝔼 𝕆𝔽 ℝ𝔼𝕊𝕌ℝℝ𝔼ℂ𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ》
《𝟚𝟜:𝟘𝟘:𝟘𝟘》
Then, they noticed a detail. A small detail. One that gave them pause.
In the party menu that Ames had set up, Ari's status was grayed out, all her Resources set to zero.
Groping through the darkness, Ari’s other senses sharpened in lieu of the complete absence of light, both her human ears and her cat ears primed for any sound of merriment. It was distorted, the laughter of the gambling den she sought, but it was also something that she was more and more certain wasn’t just a figment of her imagination. Continuing down the tunnel, she gradually realized that she was going up an incline. The tainted waters that trickled from the path she crouched through had to flow downwards, after all. It made sense, in a way.
What didn’t make sense, though, was when she hit a deadend in her path. Feeling about, Ari could ascertain that there weren’t any other paths to turn and travel down. Rather, the deadend appeared to be a raised platform, where more water trickled down. Her feet, however, could feel sturdy grates too, as well as the accumulation of garbage, indicating that there was a separate path that went downwards instead. Half-crawling as she was now, it would be hard to pry open the lower grate, and even harder to slip through without getting dirty, but on the other hand, if she continued up onto the raised platform, which continued to incline upwards, wouldn’t she eventually just end up reaching the surface again?
Ari did not think too long on what to do. After all, she wasn’t in any hurry. The path of least resistance could be scouted out first. Not just because she didn’t feel like touching the grate here without knowing what sort of filth her hand touches. With a hop, she tried to climb on the platform itself, and continue on.
Ari hopped, hit her head on the low ceiling, and ended up having to crawl up instead, her hands touching the somewhat slimy, somewhat sticky stone. The incline became steeper and the tunnel became lower as she continued upwards; going on all-fours was inevitable now. If it was raining, the path she went through would most likely be submerged in fast-flowing water, but right now, it took only five disgusting minutes for her to make it up to a plateau. Above, about five meters upwards, she could see slivers of daylight that partially illuminated her surroundings.
In front of her was another passageway, one that was taller this time. A catwalk was elevated off to the side, offering a place to walk that wasn’t suffused in trash. It looked to lead to somewhere important, if only because it was designed for humans to actually walk on. To her right side was another slope of similar incline to the one she had climbed up on. A stone slat was placed at the entrance to it, blocking off what meager water trickled down from above and diverting all water to the slope she had climbed up on it. Though it was difficult to make out, she could tell by the stone that this path looked much cleaner than the other. No moss, mold, or dampness seemed to be present there.
The clean path immediately took her interest. How was it so clean, with not even mold on it from this sort of environment. Her tail was twitching almost uncontrollably from the excitement now, feeling as if she was getting somewhere finally. It took her tying it into her waistband to keep it controlled. Ari didn’t even want to know how bad it would be trying to clean things of her own fur. Now moving slightly faster, she scrambled down the cleaner path, ignoring the catwalk for now.
The ceiling was as frustratingly low as ever, but with the downward slope and the cleanliness of the floor, Ari could afford to slide her way down. As she continued into the deep darkness, her nose wrinkled at a strange scent, this time of something sterile. A cleaning agent? She didn’t hear anything though, beyond an occasional ‘blop blop’, like bubbles rising to the surface.
Moments later, her feet touched a warm liquid, then sank deeper into it. Before she could descend any further, Ari managed to stop herself by planting her hands on both sides of the tunnel. It was like moving in molasses all of a sudden, a jelly-like warmth that almost seemed to be tickling her. An interesting sensation, truly...until whatever that was began to rise up of its on accord, wrapping around her ankles and climbing up onto her calves.
And what had been a tickling sensation turned into a painful one, like sandpaper being rubbed all over the parts of her body submerged in this slime. At a slow, but increasing pace, Ari’s HP dropped.
She barely stopped herself from screaming out loud, jerking her foot back immediately, scrambling up the slope. There was no way she was going to fight anything in the darkness, but this could be some useful to know someday.
Ari slipped a couple times, feeling the fabrics of her shoes being frayed, corroded, but whatever she stepped in seemed to have no inclination, or perhaps simply not enough strength to continue its grasp on her. She tore herself free, reaching the top of the slope at recorded speed, the burbling of bubbles sounding behind her as the smell of corroded flesh hit her as well. At such low HP, even that encounter had been brutal for her. One of her shoes were gone, exposing the bloody mess of her feet and leg. It looked as if a swarm of insects had bitten little pieces off of it, and though the pain itself faded after some moments, it wasn’t a pleasant thing to look at, not at all.
Still, the catwalk was there for her to pursue, if she wished to continue.
Grimacing, she went towards the catwalk, hoping that way lead to a better result. With a catwalk in place and bioluminescent moss to give her some light, it appeared that Ari had reached a more well-made portion of the sewer. Whatever she had climbed up before had served as a chute towards the sewage stream out in Nyu-Taro, and now, she was going through the labyrinthine setup of the sewer proper. Her choices took her gradually downwards and leftwards, as she chased after the elusive sound of human interaction amid the gurgling of refuse and water. The going was easy despite the damage she had sustained on her feet; now that she no longer stepped through sludge or climb up disgusting slopes, Ari breezed through the corridors and junctions, until her travels were cut short by a wall. The stream beside her flowed down, and from the speed of the water as it traveled underneath the wall, it looked to be another slope. If she was willing to dive in, she could bypass the wall, but once she committed, there was no way to backtrack, nor was there any guarantee that she would have any of this moss to light her way when she did go down.
Still, if her sense of direction served her well, that should be the direction of the hideout. Should...
There was more than just the foreboding sense of danger assailling her thoughts at the mere look of that very dank looking water, made worse by the poor illumination. Diving deep into the unknown both scared and excited her. It was a game after all, but still she hesitated at the brink. There was no guarantee she would find her location at the end of this stream, or even any guarantee it wasn’t just a tunnel full of water rushing towards a far location where her lifeless body would inevitably be found.
Scraping a bit of the moss, and lining the inside of her clothes with it, she took the dive, now far too gone to give up and go back.
Immediately, there was a drop as Ari slipped beneath the wall and into the swift current of a steep slope. She scrambled to keep her head above the water, but her surroundings were pitch-black, and it was much too difficult to pull out the moss she had collected now. The water rushed on, pulling her down with it. A careening path saw her bump into either sides of the tunnel, incremental damage being built up as the tunnel went even deeper, even lower. Could she be dropping into the very depths of the earth itself? Battered and broken, left to decay within some underground dumping ground for the city’s sewage?
The waters turned torrential, accelerating ever further. It was impossible to stay on the surface now. Every breath was fought for in a wild gasp, before she was sucked down again. The pattern repeated on and on, the only mercy being that the tunnel she was propelled through had no errant rocks to smash herself again. But it was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Only a matter o-
Through the froth of water, Ari could see light speeding up towards her. An opening in the side of the tunnel? She was flowing almost vertically down now, the speed mind-numbing, but if she could somehow get into that opening, there was a chance she wouldn’t immediately die. But with seconds left before that opening passed her by, what could she do?
Using whatever she had left in her, Ari spun and kicked against the wall, aiming to launch herself straight into that opening.
But slowed by the drag of water upon her clothes, Ari's spin amounted to nothing. Her feet slipped against the stone surface she tried to propel herself off of, and all she could do was get a single hand on the ledge, enough to pull her head out of the water for the briefest of moments. If she was only a normal human, the waters would had dragged her down into the abyss, into certain death. She would die ignorant and alone.
She wasn't normal though. She perceived time at half the speed that normal humans did, and her skill, her physical control of her body, was even greater than that! Bracing herself as best as she could, Ari cleared the water out of her eyes and caught a glimpse of where that opening actually lead.
Marbled stone, embellished with ancient paintings. Paper lanterns, burning with warm light. Buildings of wood and ceramic, against a backdrop of a starry sky. Bronze guardians, facsimiles of ancient warriors.
A whole dungeon, deep beneath the city-state.
She lost her grip then, and tumbled into the cold, wild darkness once more.
⚙
⚙
⚙
《𝔻𝔼𝕊𝕋ℝ𝕌ℂ𝕋𝔼𝔻 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝕃𝔻 𝔻𝔼𝕊𝕋𝔸𝔹𝕀𝕃𝕀ℤ𝔼𝔻》
《𝕋𝕀𝕄𝔼 𝕆𝔽 ℝ𝔼𝕊𝕌ℝℝ𝔼ℂ𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ》
《𝟚𝟜:𝟘𝟘:𝟘𝟘》
