The realization hit forcefully. Jonas could feel his spirits sink, and from the stricken looks, the rest of them felt the same.

“Ok. Anyone can think of anything else special about the Labyrinth that might be helpful?” he immediately asked.

Ira shrugged.

“All I know is that it is huge and no one’s found an end. They call it the Infinite Labyrinth after all. And it becomes deadlier the deeper you go, supposedly.”

“That’s not much help. Although… if we’re in something called a tier 1, does that means we’re not too deep?” Jonas pondered.

“Maybe that means we’re on the edge of the Labyrinth? And we can… slide along the edge?” Laura offered.

“That’s… an idea. We probably need to figure out the edges of this zone-thing. See if we can move to a different zone. Find if there’s any tier 1 ‘zone’ around and hope it’s this Grailburg. Anything else?”

“Remember the… Labyrinth descriptor, somehow appearing over the Gate? It did mention Grailburg, didn’t it?” Jonathan noted.

“Yes, that’s where the Great Gate connects to,” Guss confirmed.

“Or used to. It was becoming muddled just before it blew,” Jonas remembered.

“Does this mean it connects to here?” Laura mused.

Ira looked around the marble plaza.

“Don’t think so. Or we’d see people popping here. Or would they?”

“No hope there, I think,” Jonas concluded. “Anything else?”

“There’s monsters and beasts all over the Labyrinth? How do we survive?” Jonathan asked.

“Hm. I suppose the Professions we got can help. Somehow. Guss?”

“Yes?”

“What do you do with Professions? Besides having insane Intellect and stuff? You said I could do magic.”

“Cousin Luther said you needed to try things to get some skills. It helped if you had some focus thing, like a weapon, or a sunstone, or a bandage, or stuff like that. But usually, you found a skill when you can use one, and then it got easy to use.”

“A sunstone?”

“Yea. When he was starting, they had him striking odd poses with some precious stones in his fist until he felt the right moment. But he said it wasn’t entirely necessary, and sometimes you get skills when ‘the time is right’. Whatever that really means.”

“Weapons. We don’t have weapons,” Ira noted.

“We can probably improvise something.”

“With what? Marble chips?”

Jonas realized that they were still standing in that marble structure. The plaza was surrounded by pillars, but to one side was a kind of vaulted gateway. Symbolic, maybe? You obviously could leave the plaza in any direction.

“Let’s see what’s outside first before deciding anything else.”

They stepped out.

The Labyrinth had told them they were in a valley, and that was essentially correct. The marble plaza where they got stranded was at the centre of some kind of recessed basin. Jonas, Londoner born and bred, had never seen the Highlands or anything like that, but he could imagine that it looked like that.

A handful of trees stood near a brook that meandered around the plaza. The entire area exuded a quiet and refreshing aura, which helped raise the group’s spirits.

Central Zone Peace: +10% to all regenerations

Jonas supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that odd… notices… popped whenever his attention focused on some aspect of the Labyrinth. They came and went automatically, following his will. Did all Professionals see the world like that, all the time? Or just the Labyrinth.

“Looks like we’re not in danger,” Jonathan commented.

“Sounds fine to me,” Guss opined.

“But apparently, we’re in the centre of the zone, if I interpret correctly the Labyrinth,” Jonas said.

“How?” Ira asked.

“There’s a kind of… aura that helps, if you check it. But it’s labelled Central Zone Peace, so I presume it’s because it’s at the centre.”

“Sounds plausible.”

He turned toward Laura.

“So if we follow your idea, we need to head out from here. The centre thing implicates a border.”

“How far will it be?” Jonathan asked.

“Guss? Any idea?”

“Cousin Luther said that, the higher the tier, the larger the zone. Most times.”

“So this is tier-one, so it should be smaller? How small?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Some cousin you have,” Ira joked.

“Hey. He never thought I’d ever be in the Labyrinth, I think.”

Alton added his own comment, “Shows that you can never know the future.”

Laura pointed silently to an orangeish large cat next to the stream.

“Okay, everyone, be careful. Wild beasts might be dangerous.”

“It’s the Labyrinth, everything will be dangerous,” Jonathan said.

“More reasons not to rile that one,” she replied.

Younger River Ocelot

Level 2 minion

Health: 62

Mind: 28

Endurance: 31

Aether: 0

Jonas blinked at the description, then checked back his vitals. He then laughed.

“You know? If you compare its numbers to ours, it doesn’t seem that dangerous.”

“Are you sure those… numbers are meaningful?”

“Health and stamina sound real. Besides it’s a cat,” Jonas said.

“I think we are going to see more beasts anyway. Probably bigger ones. There’s six of us anyway. Maybe it will hesitate to attack anyway,” Jonathan said.

“We don’t have weapons,” Ira reminded them.

Alton winced, then fished in his pocket, bringing out an iron knife. Jonas looked at him oddly.

“You carry a knife?”

“Always. Never know when you need one.”

“What about the rest of us,” Jonathan asked.

“Watch out!” Laura interrupted.

Jonas’ head snapped toward the cat who was coming at them. Not exactly running, but not exactly ambling the way a curious cat would.

“So much for being intimidated.”

The six gathered in a tight group. The cat didn’t look very much impressed by the sight. As he was closing in, he started to hiss threateningly.

“Maybe he wants us to leave his river?” Laura mused.

“Maybe, but we really want to find an exit. Following that brook is better than staying here.”

The cat ended up their indecision by starting to run toward them. He crossed the remaining distance quickly, and the group spread out slightly.

Ira was the one in the path of the incoming feline. He tried to bat at the jumping cat but at least managed to avoid the rush without the cat’s claws connecting. Jonas noticed a slight defocusing of Ira’s eyes. That was the kind of sign he thought associated with a notice from the Labyrinth, so he guessed something must have happened to his friend.

Then Alton used his knife and jabbed at the side of the cat. Jonas noticed immediately that the Ocelot’s health indication had dropped. Alton’s knife must have had some significant effect, somehow reflected on the quasi-imaginary descriptor for the cat.

Stab does 8 damage to Younger River Ocelot.

“Hit it!”

The cat turned toward Alton, and jumped again, aiming for the arm. A low growl came, which Jonas guessed was an expression of feline displeasure. Ira took the opportunity and punched the cat, attempting to prevent him from connecting with Alton.

Jonathan spoke, “His health’s dropped again? That punch removed 2 health, I think…”

Jonas immediately jumped on the idea.

“Everyone, punch it with your fists. It will go down quicker than Alton’s knifing.”

He advanced toward the cat that was turning to jump back to Ira and kicked it with his foot, interrupting the jump. The feline’s growl increased in volume.

The cat started yowling as fists rained on him. Alton kept stabbing and Ira kept punching whenever he was turning back to him. Although Ira kept getting scratched and bitten, none of the wounds looked serious, just angry red lines without any bleeding.

The cat hissed again and yowled louder, but as the health indicator went down, he became slightly sluggish before suddenly dropping to the side as another fist connected. Once fallen, he didn’t rise again.

Younger River Ocelot: 105XP/4 contributors = 26XP.

Jonas blinked at that notification. Checking around, he saw that both Jonathan and Laura had stayed away from the cat tussle. That accounted for the mention of 4 contributors, but the “XP”… Oh.

Jonas Mark Sims

Health: 182/182

Mind: 183/183

Endurance: 189/191

Aether: 206/206

Effective level: 1

Level 1 Aetherist

Experience: 26/909

The XP had been added to his experience value. A weird short-hand for Experience then. Given the placement of the respective elements in his descriptor, he could only assume that he was 26/909th closer to increasing a level?

The last two group members closed the distance.

“Why didn’t you help with the cat?”

“I didn’t want to. It’s a dangerous animal,” Jonathan said, as Laura agreed.

“Not that much. Ira’s the only one that got scratched anyway. You good, Ira?”

“Lemme see this,” Guss said. He pulled a handkerchief and pressed it against Ira’s hand.

“Hey! I’m good, it’s only a shallow…”

Ira’s voice trailed. Guss smiled.

“Thought it would work. Like cousin Luther said.”

“What? What would work?”

Skill unlocked: Minor Heal Wound (unranked)

Minor Heal Wound

Aether/Support

Rank 0: Increase target’s health by 50% of Wisdom at short range (10hp). Cost: 0.5 Aether × health.

“That’s a… skill?”

“One that goes with my Profession. Mender mends people, not clothes.”

“I got a notification that I unlocked a Stab skill,” Alton added.

Stab

Equipment/Offense

Rank 0: Adds 25% of STR or DEX to normal weapon physical damage to the sides (+5dmg). Ignore parries. Cost: 1 endurance × dmg.

“Dodge here,” Ira added as well.

Dodge

Personal/Defence

Rank 0: Gives a significant chance of dodging an enemy you are focused on. Cost on trigger: 1 endurance × AGI.

“How come I got nothing?” Jonas asked.

Guss immediately got an idea.

“You’re an Aetherist. So you should be trying to use magic rather than fists?”

Jonas grimaced. He then spotted Laura, who had kneeled next to the cat and was pushing it aside.

“What’s that?”

There was a pair of gloves under the corpse. They looked like some dirty chainmail gloves.

“Wait? Where do those come from?”

Flimsy Light Chainmail Gloves

Hands

Starter equipment

Requires: none

Provides: +1 Defence rating

Laura fished the pair, holding it in front of her.

“I thought I saw something when the cat fell. But these… were not there before.”

“So… they just appeared?”

Laura shrugged.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a common occurrence in the Labyrinth?”

Jonas pondered the gloves’ description for a moment.

“Ira? The gloves say something about Defence, and… well, you’re a Defender.”

“Do you think they’re intended for me?”

“I think so.”

“Look!” Jonathan said.

The corpse of the feline was slouching. Jonas had seen a few times rats decomposing after being mangled by cats and the like, and the spectacle looked the same, except at a very high speed. Skin caved in, fur fell. For a moment, they could see bones jutting before the solid bits broke.

In less than a minute, the entire cat was gone, leaving a bare hint of residue, soon dried out.

“Well, we won’t dine on that one.”

Everyone looked at Alton.

“Hey. We’ll need food at one point. I dunno for you, but I haven’t got anything on me. All my food is in London.”

Ira noted, “Good point. We need to find the exit, but if it takes time, then we need to find some food until we leave.”

He put out his hand. Laura looked at him, then remembered the gloves she was holding and dropped them in. He put the gloves on and wiggled his fingers.

“Feel funny. But it’s not heavy or anything. More like the gloves the Morvells make me wear sometimes… back in London.”

Ira Irwin Heard

Health: 206/206

Mind: 183/183

Endurance: 182/182

Aether: 181/181

Effective level: 1

Level 1 Defender

Experience: 26/909

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 17

Agility: 18

Constitution: 20

Stamina: 18

Wisdom: 19

Focus: 17

Presence: 19

Fortitude: 18

Intellect: 18

Defence Rating: 1

10% faster levelling

Milestones: Adjustment II

Skills: Dodge (rank 0)

Equipment: Flimsy Light Chain Gloves

Defender

(tier 1)

Required: 18 CON

Provides:

+6 health/+2 endurance/+3 mind/+1 aether per level

+1 Milestone per 15 levels

Defender Milestone: +3 CON, +2 AGI, +1 STR, +1 INT, +1 WIS, 5% health/CON

Skillset: Personal / Defence