The man sauntered down the stairs and a group of people trailed behind him. With every step they took Nick felt the need to take a step back, the man’s aura was so strong it almost felt like a physical force pressing down on him. Nick could tell he wasn’t the only one feeling it, he noticed that most people were at least shaking a little bit or looking strained. As he got closer the intensity grew and grew, people started shaking more and Nick felt his knees begin to buckle. The man was watching in glee as his ‘retainers’ quaked in his presence.

The man’s next step forward sent Nick tumbling to his knees. He felt the pressure continue to force him down until his forehead hit the carpeted floor. Then all of a sudden it was gone, Nick sat up and looked bewildered. He had just gone from feeling like he had been trapped at the bottom of a collapsing sand mine to being perfectly free.

“Tony, why have you brought someone so weak into my audience?” The man asked, sounding insulted.

“Reggie, he is a very promising recruit. I’m sure the other teams can attest to his combat prowess.” Tony stammered out.

“He fights as good as a basic warrior and seems classless.” Doyle spoke in a much calmer voice, though Nick could still hear it wobbling.

A hum was all Reggie replied with before clicking his fingers. “Casper.”

A man with thematically fitting white hair stepped forward from the group behind Reggie. All of a sudden Nick felt the intense urge to hide himself, like he was a rabbit being watched by a hawk. Every inch of his body felt scorched by the man’s eyes.

“2-0, Explorer. Latecomer, must be very fresh.” Casper said before stepping back into the group.

“Tony Tony Tony, you really don’t know when to give up. Living up to your nickname again it seems. At least this one can fight, let’s see if you can manage to keep him around.” Reggie said, sending chuckles throughout the gathered group.

Nick cursed to himself. He felt like he had a target on his back now, though it seemed that Reggie himself didn’t have any interest in the class beyond joking at Tony’s expense. Maybe he had a very high levelled Explorer in his group?

“Enough with the pleasantries, let’s get into the event!” Reggie called out, earning a very very forced cheer from everyone.

Reggie and his group walked towards the large door in the centre of the room but instead of opening it they each proceeded to put their hands on the door handle then disappear. Then each team from the floors followed in order of their floor number, all walking up, grabbing the handle then vanishing. Nick felt excitement course through his body when it was their turn.

“Just say yes.” Maddy said before she vanished.

Nick then walked up and touched the handle.

75th Floor Event Room!

Start Time: 23:46

Enter?

Yes. With that Nick found himself standing in a field with a bunch of other people.

Welcome to the Event!

Gather as many squirrels as you can! Golden squirrels count for three!

Whoever gets the most will be declared the winner!

You have an hour! Good luck!

What. Nick was shocked by his environment, he was outside! In a field! He could feel the cool breeze and the sun on his skin. He sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, a feeling that he didn’t realise he had been missing until he felt it fill his lungs.

“Welcome to your first event Nick.” Joshua said as he approached.

“Where are we? This place is amazing.”

“Not sure really, people think it’s some sort of special space created by the event room. It’s exactly the same for each event, no matter how much damage is done to the environment.”

Nick looked around at all the people in the event room and found that there were a whole lot more people here than just the groups from each floor. A heap of people just seemed to be dumping huge bundles of items. Plates, dirty clothes and other assorted garbage. If this place recreated itself like Joshua said then Nick realised that it also made it a perfect landfill site, which he assumed everyone else had worked out long before him. Though where did everything go? Did this place just eat it up when it closed?

Another interesting group of people drew Nick’s inquisitive gaze. A number of people looked starkly different, their clothes looked far less tacky than the excess of denim and dress shirts that heavily dated their wearers. These people wore thick pants and rougher looking shirts, durable looking and filled with more muted colours. An interesting detail was their shoes, they all wore boots with what looked like mud stains splattering across them. If Nick was a gambling man he’d guess that these people were from the parklands.

Jacob noticed his gaze and followed it. “They’re from the parklands kid. While their clothes don’t look as good, they probably offer the same protection as that chest piece you’ve got on.”

Jacob had spoken like he was offering great insight and Nick had to stare at him.

“Says the dude that dresses like a 60s Greaser.” Nick couldn’t help himself.

“Cultured look.” Jacob said before swaggering his way over to the nearest group of females.

Joshua and Maddy laughed, Logan even cracked a grin. Tony wasn’t as impressed, the man looked like he was going to have an aneurysm.

“I’m glad you’re all laughing. The cat’s out of the bag and I find out you’ve been keeping class gems from me!” The man almost yelled, drawing looks from the rest of the crowd.

His statement made everyone in the group blank and the people close by began to snicker. The snickering only incensed him further.

“I’m cutting your pills! For the next few months you’ll only be given enough to eat!”

Nick got the vague sense that the man was clutching at straws here. Surely the team could just go out and get the pills themselves? Isn’t that what they already did? Though the threat seemed to work on the group for some reason, which greatly confused Nick.

“And you!” Tony jabbed at Nick. “You better earn your keep in this event!”

Nick just nodded at the man who looked like a kettle that had reached boiling point. That seemed to pacify the man a bit and he stomped off through the crowd. Nick looked around a bit and found that they all seemed to be trapped in by an invisible wall of sorts, when he reached out to touch it it would pulse and become slightly visible before a timer would appear on it.

15:29

Well that was neat. Looking further into the field Nick saw that field was surrounded by a thick forest. He was enjoying seeing such greenery when his team approached him again. He had kinda wandered away from them.

“Alright so Logan and I are rather useless here so we’ll probably just sit around with Tony. You, Maddy and Jacob will be doing all the heavy lifting here.”

If they were catching squirrels that seemed fair enough, the two men were certainly more power over dexterity. While Nick had never seen, let alone tried to catch, a squirrel he assumed that being fast was a rather important factor.

Now that Nick didn’t need to hide the fact that he was an Explorer he decided to use his skills. He didn’t think that other people could see them, at least Gareth couldn’t see the map, but he hadn’t wanted to run the risk while moving through the car park. He opened up his map and looked through what had changed. He now had a few routes trailing up the car park floors and a way more detailed map of the 75th floor, one that showed the route back to the ramps and indicated the shops and stalls he’d looked at. Reggie’s Emporium was even labelled.

Interestingly enough he had a new button that sat next to the map, it had little icons that he could mentally click on. One opened his map of the hotel floors, the next the car park and the last one the event room he was in now. It was a nice streamlining feature that allowed him to quickly open whatever he was looking for. Looking at the map of the event room he was currently in didn’t reveal much, just that he was in a field surrounded by trees. He did wonder how far the forest went though. How hard would it be for him to completely map it all out?

Nick then activated his Treasure Sense skill and was flooded with information. He could sense small objects in every direction. Focusing he could make out that they were certainly shaped like the squirrels he’d seen in videos, though none of them were moving. It was rather unnerving now that he could sense them. There were dozens of the little critters in the few hundred metres around him and they were all just sitting there.

Using the skill in a new environment helped him understand it greatly. He realised that the skill expanded out in a circle around him roughly 200 metres in each direction, where it suddenly cut off. He wasn’t certain but he doubted that the abundant squirrels didn’t just suddenly stop existing after the 200 metre mark, so it was likely that his skill ended at the distance. Nick realised that when he found the Loot Goblin it must have been right on the edge of his skill. His first thought was that he was incredibly lucky, then he remembered that he was. He had a whole skill just for that.

Nick then focused on the different things he could feel within the sense. He knew that there were at least two kinds of squirrels, the normal ones and the golden ones, so surely his skill would differentiate as well. Focusing, Nick began to realise that some of the squirrels did feel a little different, like they were more valuable than the others. It wasn’t a concrete feeling, it was like he could feel that some of the squirrels were worth more to him. They looked exactly the same in the visible aspect of his skill but he could just intrinsically tell they were slightly off.

Nick was greatly intrigued by these new feelings that the skill had given him. The speed from the buff was just that, he felt fast, the map didn’t feel like anything and his luck boosting passive didn’t make him feel any different either. Treasure sense was different though, it gave him a whole new sense that he just immediately understood how to use. It was the same as smelling or hearing to him, he could just activate the skill and feel things around him at such great distances. He knew that some animals had incredible senses, like being able to smell things kilometres away and couldn’t help but wonder if any of them experienced anything similar to him. Then he realised that might be other skills that boosted senses or granted whole new ones. It really was a strange place he’d found himself.

Nick was pulled from his thoughts by Maddy tapping him on the shoulder.

“Time's almost up, hope you’re ready to put those skills to good use.” She said with a smile. “Have to show everyone the power of an Explorer.”

“Aren’t there other Explorers here?” Nick was sure that there had to be at least a couple in such a large group.

“Uh no. Explorer isn’t a class anyone really takes.” She looked a little guilty.

Felt suddenly felt his stomach drop. His class seemed amazingly useful, a map, the ability to find treasure easily and he was literally luckier than most. Why wouldn’t more people take it? Even if just for the luck?

“Why?” He simply asked, hoping it wasn’t anything too bad.

“Well.” Maddy started.

“Explorers tend to go crazy.” Jacob cut in. “Our classes start to affect our personalities as they level up. You explorers tend to go a little cuckoo and wander off into the Hotel.”

The man had a shit eating grin plastered across his face, taking obvious delight in delivering the news.

“Righto then.” Nick said out loud, his mind spiralling.

He’d been forced onto a pathway to insanity, splendid.