“Ben, this guy is great!” Short Bus said, slapping Namey on the back as hard as he could for about the fifth time since they started walking.

“No, Ben, this guy,” Namey said, pointing at Short Bus and punching him in the arm as hard as he could, “is great!” Both of them were bruised from their increasingly physically violent ways of communicating with one another. Short Bus felt very little pain, and Namey felt nothing at all. It was painfully obvious that Short Bus didn’t like the Void Soul, and equally obvious that the Void Soul had no feelings at all, and was merely mirroring Short Bus’s attitude and behavior.

“We're taking you as far as the City Crystal, and that's it. I don't care what kind of lies you told to get out of jail, you aren't with us. If you get into trouble, you're on your own. I'm not helping you, and neither is anyone else. We've got business we need to take care of now, and that's our priority. Feel free to leave, immediately,” Ben said extremely directly, which was the only appropriate way to speak to someone like Namey.

“Oh yeah!” Namey shouted, leaning back and wildly emulating excitement by pumping his arms and yelling 'woooh!', “Gonna help you with some errands, and then City Crystal here we come!”

“Please stop,” Ben said, feeling exhausted. Namey had been nothing but unrelenting, energetic self-interest since the second they'd walked out of jail. He'd already asked them for, in no particular order; Gear; Money; Ben's Ring; Short Bus's loyalty; everything they had on them; for everyone to just make some really big wishes and do him a solid; their undying and eternal loyalty; their bodies when they died and finally, 'could you guys just walk with me to the City Crystal so I can get turned into a fairy already?'

Ben had agreed to that last one out of a sense of wanting to see Namey get turned into a fucking fairy, and sheer morbid curiosity. He'd never seen it happen before, and quite honestly, he wanted to see someone else go through the shit he did.

As they walked, Ben became more and more aware of just how naked he was, compared to everyone else in the city. That is to say, he was completely naked, and they were completely clothed. His skill still seemed to be working, despite the shitty crown he’d rigged up in jail, but only on people who were visibly low leveled. Ben added ‘Get equipped again’ to his mental to-do list.

Solas, by the way, was a cross between MMORPG chic and delirious sci-fi dreams. They were in what was called The Outer Ring, which was larger and more populous than most Chinese provinces, and was considered the extremely public part of the city that everyone was welcome to use.

The Outer Ring was filled with adventurers and monster hunters, as well as many open air markets and shops that catered to their needs. The streets were packed with aliens of every possible design. Giant elemental beings made from fire, water, air and stone walked among nine foot tall white aliens that resembled grays a little too much to be a coincidence. Hulking seven foot tall lizard-people of every color marched together in clear formation, hissing and snapping at those who got in their way. Mixed groups of undead were given a wide and respectful berth as they walked down the sidewalks, so varied in their appearances that the only way Ben could sum them up would be to say they were corpses in pristine condition.

Cyborgs and robotic beings were mixed throughout, their forms variable, yet predictably metal. There were a few walking around that looked almost exactly like terminators, something that Ben found appealing on a deeply personal level.

There were green people made from wood, their hair moss and flowers, their expressions hard and distrustful. Each and every one of them held an ax of some kind.

There were extremely well dressed goblins moving together as a group, singing what sounded like religious music. They wore colorful clothes with patterned shawls and funny looking hats, burning incense and generally giving off a vibe of 'everybody's going to hell but us'.

Human sized mantis creatures walked in small groups of two or three, clearly intelligent and chittering at one another rapidly as they gesticulated with their scythe arms, arms that ended with rather plain looking hands.

It was enough that, if Ben weren't in the presence of Namey, and if there wasn't a time crunch, and if he weren't completely naked, he would have found somewhere to sit down and just watch it all for hours. Just stare without blinking until the pain convinced him this was all real, and not some ill advised mushroom trip at a party. For the record, Ben had never done any psychedelic drugs.

It was all he could do to focus on the living, and unliving, and. . . er, he wasn't sure how to classify the elementals and other magical manifestations he saw walking around. Well, it was all he could do to focus on all the people, to say nothing of the fantastical architecture all around him.

The Outer Ring of Solas was an absolute hodge-podge of different construction materials, which led Ben to believe that whatever qualified as a local government for the Outer Ring had very little power, and probably not enough money to do anything besides keep the roads clean. Some buildings were made of concrete, or some concrete equivalent, and Ben's overwhelmed mind focused on them first as a sort of 'north star', something familiar to get his bearings. The concrete buildings were some of the smallest, build in the style of multi-level office buildings and apartments, and were never less than eight stories high. Everything in the Outer Ring was stacked. So much so that it reminded Ben of being in the Overcavern Forest, with the sky obscured by the towering skyscrapers all around him.

Think mega cities in Judge Dredd, and then forget everything about mega cities except their sheer size and scope.

The tallest buildings were made from semi-opaque, white crystal, and those buildings were both the tallest, and the largest, one of them looking like it was nearly ten blocks wide and ten city blocks long, and towering so high that Ben didn't even bother trying to count all the levels. It was the sort of place that someone could be born in, live an entire life, and die in, without ever seeing the outside world except through a window.

As Ben walked, his mind was busy crunching numbers. The largest buildings, with a ten by ten city block footprint per floor, combined with however many hundreds of floors there were. . . even if there were only a hundred, that still meant that the building was the equivalent of ten thousand city blocks.

Roughly speaking, that was nearly a hundred square miles represented in a single building, which was neither unique or uncommon. That was, in terms of just sheer land footprint, equivalent to the square miles of Seattle, Washington. The streets were long and wide, and Ben was able to count at least four more crystal super buildings in sight, and he had no doubt that there were many, many more in the Outer Ring. The other buildings, though smaller, were still comparable.

Ben whistled loudly to himself and looked up and up and up, appreciating the sheer scale and scope of the slums of Solas, because that was what the Outer Ring had to be; the rent paying, profit generating portion of the city. His mind started to go a little funny as it started going into calculation loops, doing more and more math, estimating population and utility requirements and-

“Fucking Christ,” he finally said, then punched himself in the face as hard as he could. It hurt, and it made literally everyone around him give him a brief moment of alarmed attention, before they went back to ignoring him, with an added dash of avoiding him.

“Should. . . should I do that?” Namey asked, looking at Ben and then looking at his own fist, “ah, what the hell,” the void soul finally said, and then punched himself so hard he split his lip. The numb being didn't even flinch, instead choosing to stare at his now bloody fist. “Huh, yeah, that was useless.”

“You should do it again, just to be sure,” Short Bus said convincingly, and Namey shrugged and punched himself again.

“Yep, still nothing. Say, how long till we get to the crystal?”

“We've got to get ripped off at Chief Cragg's store first, and speaking of, Thirty-One, how close are we?”

“Very,” the cyborg said cheerfully, “it's in one of the Crystal Stacks,” he said, pointing at one of the massive crystal super buildings, “so we're at least halfway there once we're at the entrance.”

“Oh good, more walking,” Ben said with a sigh.

“Oh good!” Short Bus said sincerely, “more walking! This is so different from swimming, you've got no idea. Well, actually you've got some idea, Ben. You were a surprisingly good swimmer!”

“I wasn't really swimming, I was using my Utility Pocket for mobility,” Ben said, frowning and feeling a little faint for a moment, “hang on,” he said, and then staggered and fell forward, caught by both Namey and Short Bus.

“Woah! Loss of consciousness!” Namey said, laughing his void soul laugh, “That's my 24/7 if you catch my drift.”

“Shut up for a second,” Ben said, blinking several times and feeling hot, chaotic energy bouncing around his body in an uncomfortable way.

[Congratulation*#!!~&*!!]

[Your level system has been severely damaged. Seek a Sage, Hacker.]

[Your level system is unable process energies. Seek a Sage]

[Would you like to exchange one Honest Wish to repair you level system to it's original condition?]

“No,” Ben said, feeling the energy abate and settle somewhere in his abdominal region. The system prompts vanished, and Ben was able to stand up straight and shake it off. “I'm sorry, Thirty-One, I'm still a little messed up from those fights in the Overcavern Forest. We're going to Chief Cragg's shop, and it's close?”

“It is close, and, it is, infact, in the Crystal Stack closest to us,” Thirty-One said cheerfully.

“Great,” Ben said, saying thank you to Short Bus and rudely shaking a very clingly Namey off of him.

“You make my fingers tingle,” Namey commented, staring at his hands while the rest of the group moved on. “My fingers never tingle,” the void soul said in an empty voice, and then composed himself and reattached himself to the group.

The entrance to the Crystal Stack, as Thirty-One called it, was an enormous, absolutely enormous, set of semi-opaque white crystal with golden inlay and highlights. The doors must have been at least thirty feet tall, and opened from the inside, and were open. Written over the open entrance was the name of the building.

“The Desperation Rapids Building,” Ben read out loud, “now that's a name that inspires confidence.”

“That's a name that makes me want to swim out of here and find that bar Thirty-One told me about,” Short Bus said, looking with extreme skepticism at both the building, and the people inside of it, “also, everybody in that building I can see is a bad person.”

“Seriously?” Ben said, looking at his psychic companion.

“Yeah, I mean, they aren't hostile,” the man-shark said, “but also, they will try and take a bite out of us if they get the chance.”

“Noted,” Ghost Ears said, resting on Ben's shoulder and looking a little bored.

“What's up with you,” Ben said, turning his head slightly to look at the fairy.

“It's really nothing,” Ghost Ears said, looking glum, “I'm just thinking about Strange Town, that's all. I bet we could have fit our entire city in the smallest one of these buildings, and nobody would have even noticed us there.”

“I can guarantee you that we would have noticed an enormous hive of fairies living in a building,” Thirty-One said.

“Oh yeah?” Ghost Ears asked, “What would you have done about it?”

“Likely asked you all to leave. You seem all-right, but your kind isn't known for getting along well with others, or being harmonious neighbors.”

Ghost Ears, in response, grunted, and went back to looking at the enormous city with tired, not-quite bitter eyes.

“Let's get this shit-show started,” Ben said, looking at his group. Ghost Ears was emotionally out of commission, Namey was a liability, Thirty-One seemed a little oblivious. . . “Short Bus,” Ben said, turning his head and looking up so he was looking his friend in the eye, “I'm counting on you in here.”

“You got it little buddy,” Short Bus said, putting on a shark's smile and adjusting his posture so he was visibly larger and more threatening. He winked at Ben, “Just a little [Acting].”

They, as a group, stepped through the entrance. The lobby of The Desperation Rapids Building was pretty much like the lobby of every other generic city superstructure on Earth. A wide open area with several information desks and sparse decoration. There were stairs and, thank god, elevators. There were also what looked like teleportation circles, but Ben was determined to ignore those, due to the whole 'Is it me getting teleported, or is a copy getting created at the destination?' mind-fuck that Sci-Fi was fond of scaring people with.

If the footprint of a Crystal Stack building was about ten city blocks, the public area of the lobby was about two city blocks. It was reasonably populated by a variety of creatures, and, much to Ben's absolute and utter shock, humans.

“Oh my God!” Ben said, seeing a group of humans in their various evolutions. One fairy, three Leap-Rechauns, and two actual, full human beings. Who looked both fucking ripped, and like their bodies had been perfected, by the way. Ben was about to run over, when Short Bus stopped him with a hand and a firm shake of his large head.

“Not friends,” the shark said, and then Ben looked closer at the group. At their general demeanor and how everybody gave them a wide berth. At the kinds of tattoos they'd put on their bodies and faces. At their facial expressions.

“Oh,” Ben said, composing himself, “of course.”

“Ben,” Namey said, getting really, really close and whispering so nobody else could hear, “Don't trust those guys, they're going to try and exploit you. I'm pretty sure one of them has The Worm Enclosure.”

“Wow, fuck you Namey, no shit,” Ben whispered back, doing his best to not be outraged by Namey, of all people, telling Ben that someone was trying to exploit him.

“I believe our contact is approaching us now,” Thirty-One said, somewhat oblivious everything that was going on. Their contact was. . .

“Oh, fuck no,” Ben said, seeing the Gray approach them with a brisk, confident walk.

“Ben, I'm getting hungry again,” Short Bus said, drooling a little as the alien got closer. Ghost Ears got up from Ben's shoulder and started buzzing in an angry way.

“Greetings from our mutual friend, Chief Cragg,” the Gray said, completely immune to the hostility being directed at him. He was used to it, and had been genetically designed for it.

“Uh huh,” Ben said, not looking at the. . . it infuriated Ben that the Gray was slightly taller than he was. Super petty, but the truth.

“Please, follow me to the Desperation Rapids General Store and Pawn Shop, and we will see about settling this debt.”

“Debt?” Ben asked, “I never agreed to any debt.”

“None the less, you will find that Chief Cragg's help and assistance does come with a price tag. I can assure you, he is worth the investment,” the gray said, and then started walking, without waiting for Ben and his group.

“Grays,” Ghost ears said.

“Fucking grays,” Ben said at nearly the same time as Ghost Ears.

“Ugh,” Short Bus said at about the same time as Ben and Ghost Ears spoke.

“What a polite professional,” Thirty-One said at about the same time as Ben and Ghost Ears and Short Bus spoke.

They followed the Gray onto an elevator, and went up.