Nick let his gaze wander across the seas of green, red roses too. His mind registered the catfighting taking place around him, but he simply blocked it out. Man, the outside view truly was spectacular. Nick looked around and realised that his dad was doing the same, the two of them shared a nod then went back to enjoying nature.

Nick noticed that the group was approaching a second hedge, this one having only a couple of very large gaps. Through these gaps Nick saw rugged, grassy plains littered with gravel roads. He could also vaguely make out settlements in the distance, surrounded by walls. The biggest part of his view was taken up by a mountain though. Looking at it, it just felt really out of place. There were no hills or inclines leading up to it, it was just a mostly flat plain then suddenly a rocky mountain. It was like someone had just decided they wanted a mountain and plopped one down.

“Does anyone else feel like that mountain doesn’t make any sense? Geographically?” Nick asked out loud.

“I know what you mean.” Henry replied. “It’s a cool mountain, that’s for sure, but it looks so out of place.”

Rina seemed to be happy for a change in topic, or at least a way to extract herself from the catfight that was still going on behind them.

“You’ll get that a lot here. The landscape makes minimal sense at best. Just wait until you see the lakes and rivers.” She said with a smile.

“So, are we heading out into the plains?” Nick asked.

They weren’t. Rina led the group along the hedge, explaining that it was easier to walk through the gardens. They were heading towards a gap in the hedge that led to a road that went directly to where the Executioners were based. Nick was looking forward to seeing the kind of homebase this faction operated from. Looking across the plains he expected some sort of nomadic tent village, but Rina had mentioned that towns were built with stone. Were they going to be mediaeval styled towns? Maybe something closer to stone cottages? Nick was actually feeling pretty excited.

The walk wasn’t very eventful though. Nick tuned back into the bickering taking place but found that Paige and Abigail had devolved into taking jabs at each other's fashion sense. Lily was making the occasional jab at the both of them and Maddy was doing her best to try and keep the peace. Henry and Nick both went back to focusing on the scenery, it truly was spectacular. He had to give props to the Gardeners, they certainly knew what they were doing. Nick hadn’t seen gardens this well maintained since his trip to Europe. Let alone the sheer scale of the place. Supernatural monsters or not, it was quite the feat.

Sadly, the walk had to end eventually. The group made it to a break in the hedge and found a new picturesque sight to behold. The road was paved with large stones and flanked by trees. It was a sight straight out of a European town and Nick was delighted by it. The Parklands were the gift that just kept on giving. Nick didn’t realise how starved he’d been for sights that weren’t the hotel or car park. His mind took great pleasure in being stimulated by these things.

Rina led them out of the garden and into what Paige called the ‘Parklands proper.’ Nick turned around and took the opportunity to be awed by the hedge they passed through, it was at least three metres thick and five metres high on this side. It stretched as far as he could see in one direction, and when he looked to the other he could see it abruptly cut off before as it gave way to the void. Nick then realised that the Parklands were a massive rectangle of sorts. He pulled open his map to see what it had to say about the new landmass he was exploring.

The map now had two new sections. One was just of Parklands, it showed the garden he’d walked through and some of the Parklands proper he’d seen parts of. The other was a new and interesting display. It was a 3D rendition of the hotel, car park and Parklands, titled The Complex. Now that was cool. Suddenly Nick was surprised by a screen popping up in front of him.

Level up!

Explorer Skill 4: Map

Level 1 -> Level 2!

Congratulations!

“What’s up Nick?” Rina asked, noticing he’d stopped. “Headache back?”

“No, not yet. One of my skills just levelled up. Though I’ve got no idea how, or what it does.” Nick replied.

“Oh congratulations, a skill level up after what? A week of being here? That’s impressive. You’ll have to head to a button to see the actual details of a skill, but usually the changes aren’t drastic at all. There will just be some slight improvements.” Rina explained.

Nick looked at his new 3D model and had to agree, it was certainly pretty cool. It only revealed what he’d been through clearly, but the model seemed to be a visualisation of what he assumed the complex looked like. Nick could move it around and zoom in on particular parts, it was far more interactive than his normal maps of areas. When he zoomed in on a floor of the car park that he hadn’t actually been on it was just a blurry space, no details of anything but a vague dark space. Nick being Nick, he managed to find something that gave him a headache pretty quickly.

When he zoomed into the Parklands and then spun the perspective around to look back at the car park and hotel he was met with an issue. The Parklands stretched wider than the car park, significantly. If Nick was estimating that the car park was five kilometres from one end to the other, then the Parklands had a two or three kilometre overhang on each end. Which would make the Parklands at least ten kilometres in width. That in of itself wasn’t an issue, the issue was when he looked at the Parklands from the perspective of the car park. With a mounting headache he saw that the Parklands borders lined up with the car parks.

“Rina. What’s going on with the Parkland’s size?” Nick asked.

Rina looked about ready to go straight into a spiel but stopped herself.

“You probably don’t want to actually know, huh?”

“I want to. Probably shouldn’t though.” Nick laughed.

That’s when the group came into contact with other people for the first time. The other group was four strong and quite the odd bunch. They were all different shapes and sizes: tall, short, fat, thin and a combination of all of the above. They were certainly creepy though, and that was owed entirely to their clothes. They each wore heavy black cloth pieces, while not all the same style, the material tied them together. Each of them also had their own masks. Unlike the uniform presentation of the recruits, each of the members' masks were unique. They were each uniquely decorated or shaped. Two of them resembled animal faces, one was just a plain single colour and the last was an abstract mess of conjoined shapes. The only characteristic shared between all the masks was that they covered the entire face.

Once the group got close they all stopped and bowed to Nick’s group, more specifically Rina and Paige, before continuing on their way. Nick assumed that they were the average group of Executioners heading off to roam. He would ask, but Paige and Abigail were still at each other's throats and Nick just didn’t want to engage with them. So he took a leaf from Henry’s book and stared out across the landscape as they passed it by. It was truly a fabulous way to spend your time. Nick never had been one for nature, always preferring to trawl through the streets of the city. Now though, he wanted to be as far from concrete as he could manage.

A few more groups of Exes passed by, each of them pausing to bow at the group. Neither Paige nor Rina paid them any mind, they acted as if there wasn’t even a group there. If they weren’t going to acknowledge it, then Nick decided he wasn’t either. Maddy and Lily were left in the awkward position of having to just be left confused by each group that passed by. Abigail either didn’t care, or was too caught up in her argument to pay the situation any mind. Henry had mastered the art of gazing off into the distance, the man an unshakeable testament to man's ability of selective inattention. Nick aspired to such awesome heights.

Then scenery began to change, the trees grew thicker and soon the group found themselves walking through a forest. It answered a question that had been hovering in the back of Nick’s mind. The Parklands certainly had plenty of wood to work with. Which made Nick once again excited about the potential architecture he was going to witness. Nick had never been a big fan of architecture but his mind was searching for topics to latch onto, anything to keep the day’s events from being processed, and the possible architecture of the Parklands was a pretty great topic for that.

So Nick let the little bit of knowledge he had about buildings dance around his head, a fantastic little distraction. Nick remained happily distracted until the trees started to thin out again and Rina glanced at him with a grin. Nick raised an eyebrow but didn’t elaborate, she just kept walking. It wasn’t long until Nick understood why she grinned.

Nick was gobsmacked. Before him was a glorious construction that impressed him to the core. Even his sorely lacking knowledge told him how impressive the sight before him was. A massive stone cathedral lay before him. Pointed arches, flying buttresses, stone tracing so detailed that it left him breathless. It was a breathtaking sight. Sharp towers that stretched into the sky, threatening to pierce it. Nick had never seen anything quite like it. Nick looked around and noticed that everyone was taken aback, even Abigail.

Rina began to laugh and even Paige let out a giggle, before quickly going back to a scowl.

“One of the council members took Architect as his class. This building was his passion project for five years, and we all agree that it was worth the blood, sweat, and tears it caused.” Rina said.

Nick had to agree. He was also amazed.

“This only took five years?” He exclaimed.

“Well, he planned it out for a few years. Five years combined for material acquisition and construction.” Rina explained.

As if that made it any less impressive of a feat. Five years for all this? It was insanity, didn’t it take the Europeans hundreds of years to build their catherderials? Nick could have sworn that he’d heard that somewhere. Getting something this massive done in five? Bonkers. The building was at least a hundred metres tall, and several hundred long, it was simply ginormous. Nick was thoroughly impressed.

It was only then that he noticed the rest of the buildings around the area, they were smaller and while they were certainly spectacular, they were completely overshadowed. Each of the buildings maintained a similar theme, peaked arches and sharp roofs. There was an assortment of material combinations at play, full wood, full stone, and mixtures of the two. It all combined to create the image of a refined gothic village, full of spooky vibes that fit its inhabitants perfectly.

“Welcome to Agoetia everyone.” Rina said, full of pride.

Nick noticed another key detail, there was no wall around this city, unlike the other one he’d seen. Nick considered the consequences of this difference and wasn’t sure how to feel. What was that other town protecting itself from that Exes didn’t feel the need to? Nick’s thoughts were interrupted by a wagon zooming down a street a distance in front of the group. Abigail audibly sighed.

“Looks like our ride is here guys.”

The racketty wagon skidded to a halt in front of the group. Nick wasn’t sure how it was moving, it was a wooden vehicle that looked like it would need a horse to pull it, but there was no horse. A young man jumped off from the driver's seat, his long curly hair bouncing all over the place.

“Wassssupppppppppp” He spoke in a high pitched voice.

“This was your master plan? A punk in a wooden car.” Henry sighed.

“A horseless carriage!” Nick couldn’t resist.

“Master plan?” Paige questioned.

Abigail cleared her voice. “You don’t believe I’d actually let anyone I care about stay in this den of monsters right? You were a great escort, but we’re leaving.”

Well, that was one hell of a plan. Though Nick realised he wasn’t going to be leaving with his family. He needed information the Exes had, he needed to be here for Benny, and he didn’t think Paige would actually let him leave. Though that left him in a pretty terrible spot, alone. He didn’t want to leave Henry or Lily, even Maddy and Abby had grown on him, but part of him knew this might be a better idea.

“I guess this is goodbye?” Nick awkwardly said.

Abby scratched the back of her head. “Yeahh, I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.”

Everyone awkwardly looked between each other, they all knew what was going to happen but nobody wanted to make the first move.

“Ayo, Abs whatcha think of my ride? Made it myself.” The young man with curly hair called out.