The room offered something new for Nick to deal with. When they came in, they saw a group finishing up killing some sort of monster and a chest gathered in the centre of the room. Something was wrong though, some of the members of the other team looked really hurt. They were clutching various injuries and were losing a lot of blood. They noticed Nick and the group as they entered the room.

“Hey! Are any of you healers? We’ve got some people pretty messed up.” One of them called out.

Nick could see that some of the members looked to be on death's door. Nick just shook his head, the recruits were eyeing up the chest in the centre of the room. The man that had called out to them looked concerned.

“Y-You guys can take the loot. Please just let us go, we need to find a healer.” The man sounded desperate.

Nick just nodded again, he wasn’t going to rob people in this state. If his team moved to, then he’d intervene, he wasn’t onboard with that kind of behaviour. The man looked relieved and his teammates picked each other up and started ambling towards the door. The archer moved towards the chest, eager to check the free loot. That’s when Nick realised something was fishy. Neither Paige nor Rina had said anything since they’d entered the room. The injured group was also fighting a monster pretty openly, this was supposed to be a Trickster room. The lighting level hadn’t even changed once they defeated it. The pieces started to click together.

“Don’t touch the chest!” He yelled out.

It was too late, the archer had opened it and something flew out and hit them square in the chest. The archer crumpled to the floor and didn’t move. That’s when the injured group suddenly transformed into a disgusting amalgamation of tendrils. The group had been crossing past Nick’s and they’d transformed at the point they were closest. The Shieldbearer was the closest to the group and was instantly engulfed into the mass of tendrils. The swordsman was the next person nearest to the monster and was quickly latched onto. They desperately tried to fight back but they didn’t have time to get their sword into proper position, they could only use one hand to try and slash against some of the tendrils.

Nick hadn’t moved towards the centre of the room with the rest of his team and was luckily the furthest from the monster. The creature didn’t even bother trying to reach for him yet, focusing on the two targets it already had locked up. Nick moved quickly, he wasn’t sure what it was doing to the shieldbearer but it couldn’t be good. Nick circled around the back of the creature and found a flatter, more solid portion of the creature, that he assumed to be the main body.

Nick did what he was quickly realising he did best and got to punching. The creature writhed and let out screams as he hit it. It was a mortifying sound but Nick steeled himself and just kept swinging. The creature was just as weak as the other Tricksters so far and quickly broke down into dust. The shieldbearer was revealed and slumped to the floor unmoving, just like the archer. Nick saw that the swordsman was also on the floor, out like a light. The Trickster must have used some sort of poison on them, he doubted they were dead. Paige or Rina would have stepped in already.

Nick then realised he wasn’t done. The chest was another monster that had to be dealt with. Nick had no patience for the monster, it was once again pretending to be a normal chest. Nick didn’t like mimics, how dare a monster get someone’s hopes up then pry upon them? Absolutely disrespectful in Nick’s opinion. Nick much preferred monsters that attacked head on, proud and shameless. His experiences in the last week only confirmed his beliefs that had been built up over years of playing dungeon crawlers. These Tricksters really just were the absolute worst.

Nick approached the chest, instead of bending over to open it though Nick went for something a little different. Nick jumped up into the air, cocked a punch, then used gravity to assist him in delivering a disgusting ground and pound. The chest didn’t even get a chance to open up, Nick caved the creature in on itself. It quickly dissipated into dust, it wasn’t made to take such a beating.

Nick spat on the dust as it moved towards the centre of the room.

“Serves you right, mimic scum.”

Nick wasn’t entirely sure why he was so mad at the mimic, specifically the one pretending to be a chest, but it just felt right. How dare a monster pretend to be loot? A new chest formed in the centre of the room but Nick wasn’t taking any chances. He ran up to the chest and dropped a stomp into it. The chest didn’t budge at all, not even a little shake. Just to be sure, Nick stomped on it again, getting no reaction.

With a satisfied grunt Nick opened up the chest and found a new pair of wraps. He looked down at his own and had to admit they’d seen better days. They were slightly torn and getting frayed. Jesus, it had only been a week. It usually took him six months to get through a pair of wraps. There was one slight issue with the wraps though, they were bright pink. Not a passable, soft or pastel, no, like vibrantly, violently pink. Nick then realised he couldn’t really just take them, it wasn’t his turn to take the item. So he left the wraps sitting there for the time being and looked at the state of his team.

Rina had dragged them all to the same spot and Paige was rubbing a cream onto their necks. The recruits started to stir, but they looked exceptionally groggy.

“That was a rather terrible performance, recruits. If it weren’t for Nick, you would have all died.” Paige berated the recruits. “You all knew this was Trickster room, but why was Nick the only one that seemed to actually remember that?”

Rina had a frown across her face. “There’s not much combat I can critique here. Recruits, even if that other team was real, you shouldn’t have let them get so close. Pretending to be injured is a rather common bandit tactic. Nick, good job circling the larger mimic, also good spacing in general. I’m not sure why you went so hard on the smaller one though. It got the job done, but it was certainly a little excessive.”

Nick felt absolutely no need to justify himself in this case. That mimic had it coming, he felt absolutely no remorse. In fact, his only regret was that he didn’t go harder on it.

“Nick, you can take all of the loot. The recruits don’t deserve any after that performance. Shameful.” Paige seemed pretty cross with the recruits.

Nick wasn’t one to say no to free loot, especially when it was loot that he needed. Nick took the wraps and put them in his bag, he’d get them checked out before he put them on. The group of recruits were still very groggy and Paige made the call that it was time for a lunch break anyway. The group trudged their way back to the dining room and grabbed themselves some food. Nick was beginning to feel a little spoiled, he wasn’t sure he could give up meals like this.

“Nick, I don’t think the recruits are going to be fit enough to be fighting again for a few hours at least. You might want to go solo for a bit.” Rina said.

Nick thought about it for a moment. Tomorrow was the big day, he wanted to get back a little earlier and make sure that everyone was ready. He decided to do a bit of solo stuff, but leave earlier. He checked his new clock and found that it was already one o’clock in the afternoon, time had flown by.

“I’ve got some business on tomorrow, so I’ll probably be leaving earlier. I’ll go out solo for a bit but I won’t meet back up with you guys.” Nick finally said.

“No problem, see you tomorrow Nick. Have fun with whatever you’ve got on.” Rina replied, unbothered.

Paige on the other hand, grinned. “I do love a bit of business, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow Nick.”

Nick felt a little uncomfortable with how she said it but Nick didn’t think too hard about it. He got up and decided to go back to the spider challenge room to push himself a bit. He would be able to get a huge amount of loot pretty easily and he’d be able to get a good workout from it as well. Nick walked off in the direction of the room, venturing out alone for the first time in a few days. He quickly noticed a difference in how he was looked at.

No longer was he surrounded by a respected faction, he was just a solo. He quickly had to adjust his posture, he didn’t want to walk too confidently and draw the attention of a group that thought he would be easy pickings. Nick wasn’t sure how well he’d match up against the average person roaming the floor. He knew that there were 3-3s around and the 2-2s weren't uncommon, and they were all roaming in teams. Nick was just a lone 2-2, carrying a lot of loot in a bag hanging around his waist.

Nick tried to remain lowkey but unfortunately he quickly realised he had a team following him. Nick quickly ran a couple of plans through his head. There were three people following him, two of them were carrying swords and one had a bow. Nick wasn’t sure of his chances in a direct fight, he had no idea how strong this group was. He snuck glances back and tried to get an idea of their gear. After a few twists and turns Nick realised he was finally reaching the area where group numbers started to dwindle. The group following him were likely to make their move soon.

Nick managed to get a basic assessment of the people following him. There was one large man who was wearing a full set of armour, proper plate mail looking stuff. It seemed that he was the only well off member of the group though. The other swordsman was mainly just that, he had a basic looking sword and few pieces of leather gear. The archer was a woman, she was in a pretty similar state as the poor swordsman, she had a bow and very flimsy looking leather gear. Now Nick knew he was throwing stones from a glass house, his own gear was pretty shoddy, but he had the excuse of only being here for a week.

That’s when Nick realised that he hadn’t gotten the new wraps appraised while he was back at the dining room. That could have been a solid power up, now he was being followed by a group and he only had his worn out wraps. Nick took a deep breath and focused. He had something these people likely didn’t, a trump card. Said trump card was harmlessly floating around inside him right now. He made a risky assumption that no one in the group was a level three, as a level three could probably get a spot on one of Doyle’s teams and wouldn’t have to resort to something like this. His own aura abilities would likely be unmatched.

Now Nick was also assuming that this group was out to mug him. It might not have been a very charitable assumption, but they weren’t a friendly looking bunch. He really doubted they were following him from a suspicious distance just to try and sell him cookies. Nick was assuming the worst and he was going to act in accordance. He tried simply running or losing them but they must have had some sort of tracking ability, as whenever he got to a larger room he’d notice them trailing the same distance behind him. Goddamnit, why couldn’t the confusing layout of the hotel help him out just this once?

Nick resigned to the fact that he’d probably be fighting this group. He could try and bolt all the way back to the dining room but he was sure they’d just cut him off and he’d be caught out of breath. He had some advantages he needed to keep in mind. They were waiting to strike, probably when there were less people around. They likely didn’t know his classes or if they did, his fighting abilities. Finally his makeshift aura, that was serious trump.

Nick pieced together a proper plan and waited for the right room to come up. It didn’t take long until he walked through a door and into a narrow corridor, just wide enough that two people could stand side by side if they squished. It wasn’t perfect but Nick wasn’t sure he’d be able to find a narrower corridor before the group decided to strike. Nick waited, primed to strike. He heard footsteps approaching and the door swung open. As soon as Nick was the glint of the man’s metal armour he knew it was time to strike.

Nick would be lying if he said part of him wasn’t excited for the fight.