When Refos ran into the room, Pellex started to get up to greet him, but was stopped by the [Precisian]’s announcement.

“They’re coming. We need to go.”

Evwel was the first to break the stunned silence that followed.

“What happened?”

“An arder caught me as I was conversing with Holia. She subdued him, but I can’t imagine we have much time.”

“But you did meet with Holia?” Pellex said, “what happened?”

“She cannot be released, at least not easily. Julian has the keys on his person. She was able to transfer a fair quantity of these soup canisters, though.”

As Refos spoke, he started handing out the food, everyone taking a couple bottles. Pellex opened one of his and swirled it around, the tempting aroma slowly suffusing the air. He took a moment to think things through, then spoke again.

“If we’re going to run, we want to get as deep as we can go. Moving is a risk, every time. Do any of you have anything to help us make sure we can keep heading down? Oh, and if we need to eat, we should probably do that first.”

Surprisingly, it was Ucria who spoke up first.

“I have, erm, [Mazesense]. It’s in [Scouting], you’ve probably all seen it, but it lets me find my way through any confusing structure… so long as, uh, the destination is another floor, an exit, or a room I have had clearly described to me.”

“That’ll work, for sure,” Evwel said, “so, eating, then?”

Pellex nodded and raised the bottle to his lips.

“Indeed.”

He drank deeply, finding the soup the perfect temperature, not so hot as to be scalding or so cold as to be distasteful. The broth was easily drinkable, with no large chunks to disturb his eating, and it tasted far better than he had expected, even knowing that Holia was Second Echelon in a class meant for this. Now he understood why restaurants with higher-level chefs were so well-patronized, despite their great cost. And Holia had done this in a cave with whatever scraps the arders would have stolen from airship cargoes.

After a few seconds, Pellex had had his fill, and he smacked his lips and closed the bottle, noting to his surprise that it was still half-full. Storing the canister on his person, he noticed something in the System vying for his attention, and he brought up the notification.

You have been buffed!

[Soothing Nourishment]

Physical Power +2

Physical Fortitude +3

Mental Agility +2

Mental Fortitude +3

Social Fortitude +3

Time remaining: Depends on activity, estimated 6 hours, 18 minutes.

“The soup buffs you! I got +3 to all Fortitude and +2 to Physical Power and Mental Agility!”

“I got the same!” Ucria said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

“Me too, but who calls ability scores their system names? Just say Strength and Creativity.”

“The colloquial names are largely inaccurate, though. Strength is largely correct, but Mental Agility simply isn’t-”

“This will be an interesting discussion to have after we have escaped, right?”

Slightly embarrassed, Refos and Evwel each gave Pellex a quick nod. Refos then coughed and turned to Ucria.

“Unless there’s anything else we need to do…?”

“I’m good.”

“Me too.”

“Alright. Ucria?”

“I’ve got this.”

Activating her skill, Ucria led them all out of the room, and into the complex.

Pellex thanked Tolivae for the arders’ insignia. The small metal badges were the perfect targets for [Locate], and using the skill every minute or so was an incomprehensible ease on Pellex’s mind as they made their way through the eerie hallways. Bronze, then silver. Pellex could have searched for just the shape, not specifying the metal, but there were significant range penalties. He just had to hope there weren’t any ranks he didn’t know about hunting for them. Ithium wasn’t a concern by virtue of being an absolutely insurmountable obstacle.

The maze seemed to go on forever, passageways winding in and out, crazy intersections, empty rooms, a design that gave theoretical invaders the environmental advantage in combat ninety percent of the time. Ucria had led them down two floors so far, the only difficulty being an arder Pellex pinged on the edge of [Locate], who was defeated with the incredible power of going the other way. The stairs down were strange, rickety to a fault, loudly creaking every time Pellex stepped a foot on them, but they were eight-inch-thick sheets of solid rock growing out of the walls. After he escaped, Pellex fully intended to find out who built this madhouse, and how it was made. Pellex supposed he shouldn’t be complaining too much, given that the weirdness of the facility almost entirely assisted him, not the arders.

As they came down to the third floor, Ucria frowned for a second before walking off.

“Anything wrong?” Pellex asked.

“Skill felt weird this time. Probably just close to a rank-up or I’ve been using it too frequently or something.”

“Probably, yeah. Just this way?”

After a few hundred more feet, Pellex sprang forward and stopped the group.

“I’m seeing something with one of my skills… looks like two bronze arders, standing up ahead.

“I’ll take care of them,” Evwel said, smacking her fist into her palm.

“If you say there are two, I will also go, that we may preserve the essential element of surprise.”

“Myself and Ucria will stay behind then, unless Ucria objects.”

“Um, no objections here. I can’t really fight right now, like I said before.”

“Good. Don’t move unless necessary – we’ll be right back.”

Evwel and Refos headed around the corner, and Pellex took the opportunity to look around. The complex was a bit different here, and he hadn’t had time to notice. The walls were more of a polished slate gray, now, and the sourceless illumination was flatter, not flickering at all. Checking backwards, Pellex noted that the halls were a bit straighter, instead of curving in random directions.

“You see this?” Pellex asked Ucria, who was awkwardly staring at the ground.

“Um, see what?”

“The place looks different here. See the walls and the light?”

“You’re right! Um, hmmm. I think-”

Refos and Evwel walked into the room, and Ucria broke off. Refos was as clean as he had been, but Evwel was drenched in blood. More than any Pellex had ever seen in one place before, the red liquid covered nearly all of Evwel’s body, except for the hands. As Pellex watched, the blood slowly faded away, and on a second glance, Pellex realized the blood was being absorbed into the [Apheretic]’s skin. Before he could ask about the somewhat disturbing phenomena, she spoke.

“Come with us, you have to see this.”

Following closely behind, they made it into a fairly large room in a few minutes. There were a few interesting things about the room, the first being that none of the other hallways had ever ended in rooms, those always being attached on the sides. The second was the two corpses, one relatively unspoiled cadaver with its neck at an unnatural angle, and the other… all over the room. The third was the nearly two-story-high set of ornate bronze doors, carvings of a gigantic, caterpillar like creature decorating their faces. Pellex was a bit used to being surprised at this point, but he had to admit, he hadn’t expected this.

“Are… those?”

“Yep. This whole place is a dungeon, and right in front of us, is the door to a boss room.”