The group of four quickly passed along the road that led to the Garden, where Nick was met with a surprise. The Garden wasn’t the same place that he had seen less than a day ago. Flower beds had been destroyed, massive holes littered the lawn and trees had been uprooted. Nick could also see various fires trying to burn their way through the hedge. That wasn’t the only chaos Nick could see. There were many groups fighting it out in the area he could see, and these weren’t friendly contests of strength. People were being brutally slain left, right, and centre. People were engaged in bloody fights to the death, comrades falling around them. There were two apparent sides in the fight, the people from the hotel and the people from the Parklands. It was their clothing choices that mainly set them apart, one side wore clearly hand crafted garments and the other wore lots of denim. It wasn’t hard for Nick to choose sides in this fight.

None of the Hogs were even remotely bothered by the fighting though. Nick watched as the various teams ran, jumped, and skipped through the bloody conflict, completely carefree. It was only when one of the hotel teams tried to intercept one of the Hogs that it became apparent why they could afford to be so carefree. Nick assumed that these people were crazy and simply held no regard for their own lives, and while that certainly could be true, there was another factor. One of the people Nick had seen completely passed out drunk only an hour ago was engaged by two mighty looking frontliners. The two swordsmen tried to cut down the Hog but the Hog didn’t change their course, no, they just kept running right towards them and right at the last minute jumped. They soared over the two goons and kicked out their legs in the goofest martial display Nick had ever seen. Each foot connected with a swordsman’s head and the results were anything but goofy.

Nick watched in abject horror as the two men’s helmets crumpled and the remains of their heads oozed from the gaps. The Hog didn’t even bother to check what their kicks had done and simply kept running to catch up with their teammates. Nick was suddenly made aware of what seemed to be a fact. Explorers were incredibly strong individuals; no wonder he’d been called weak, if what he’d just saw was the average Explorer in this collective. Nick had thought that being a 2-2 was a pretty good achievement, one that put him a cut above your average guy. He was sorely wrong though, these people were operating on a completely different level than anything he’d seen so far.

It made sense as well. From his limited time roaming he knew how extreme his resource benefits were compared to the average roamer, it wasn’t even fair to compare himself to them. Explorer’s had a direct pathway to power, if treasure and loot equated to power then an Explorer was a cheat code. Their first skill let them cut the nonsense and directly seek out treasure and their second skill meant that any treasure they did get was marks above the average. It made no sense to even try and compare himself to the average person when he looked at it like this. When he looked at the teams of Hogs treating this battlefield like a playground as they danced their way through it, he had to admit that he was terribly weak.

Nick looked at the three people in the group with him. They were likely the strongest of the Hogs, Kim no doubt sitting at the top of that pecking order. 20 years, that’s how long people had been here from what he’d heard, how strong could people be if they’d been engaging in behaviour like this for that long? It had only taken a week for Nick to make it to 2-2, what levels would someone like Kim have been able to make it to? A burning part of Nick wanted to ask the man, but another part of him was slighty afraid. Did he want to know how strong the people around actually were, or was it better to live in blissful ignorance for just a while longer?

Nick stayed quiet and just focused on keeping pace with his own team for now. A few more hotel folk tried to pick fights, but it never ended well for them. Nick realised that the hotel folk really had no way to tell that the Hogs were part of the Executioners either. Whereas most members of the Exes wore masks or at least dressed in black, the Hogs had no uniform colours or symbols. Everyone seemed to just be wearing whatever they wanted, assorted colours, stlyes and materials. Then Nick realised that none of them were wearing any armour of any sort, or carrying weapons. Every member of the Hogs were simply wearing casual clothes, which didn’t make sense to Nick.

These were likely the most materially rich people in the entire Complex, and none of them were showing it. There was no flashy, gaudy armour or epic looking weapons, it was just a group of people recklessly running through a messed up garden. So Nick got curious and activated this treasure sense to see if he could find absolutely anything on them. His sense gave him a clear and direct answer. He hadn’t noticed it before, but every single member of the Hogs was wearing a ring. Nick looked at the hands of the other two members of his team and saw that the rings they were wearing weren’t nearly as fancy as Kim’s, but they were certainly still quite the exquisite pieces.

If his treasure sense was anything to go off, then each of these rings was an absolutely priceless treasure. His sense told him that they were some of the most treasury treasures he’d ever had the fortune to behold. That was until he looked at Kim’s ring with his skill. Nick stumbled and almost fell over. The items in Paimon’s study had sung out to him, but Kim’s ring was something else. It was like seeing an oasis in the desert, two days after running out of water. His body practically begged him to get that ring. Nick had to slap himself to clear his head. The allure of that ring was worse than anything Paige or Paimon had put him through.

His display earned a laugh from Kim. “Wasn’t jokin about mah ring laddy. Ya’d be lucky.”

“I still can’t believe you managed to convince that freak to let you run the 40th. I even tried to sleep with the creep for the chance.” The female team member complained.

“Ah Jackie ya sorry lass. No woman could compare ta tha beauty of that event room.” Kim laughed.

The female team member, Jackie, pouted in response. “It can’t be that good. I’m not too bad myself.”

“As if.” The other man sniggered.

A massive rock suddenly appeared in Jackie’s hand and was swiftly bounced off the man’s head, sending him tumbling to the ground.

“Suck shit Leif. You certainly like it.” Jackie send with a scowl.

The man quickly scrammbled back up to his feet and ran after Jackie, the two quickly picking up speed and chasing each other around the Gardens. Even with their antics they still managed to stay ahead of Nick and Kim, who was matching his pace. Nick had never felt so subtly flexed on in his life. He certainly needed to get stronger and hopefully this trip was going to be the start of it. The massive group of people eventually made it through the Garden and grouped up on the 70th floor of the car park. Nick noticed that they were all seemingly waiting for Kim to arrive. None of them seemed bothered in the slightest about how much longer it had taken their team though. There were a few jokes made about Kim finally getting too old and the likes, but nothing serious.

“Alright alright.” Kim quietened the group down. “Ya know the drill. Gear on.”

Everyone in the small crowd grumbled but then Nick was stunned. There was a sudden pause then everyone in the group had various pieces of armour on and weapons in hand. Nick rubbed his eyes. It had been instanteous, the group went from casually clothed to geared up in a blink of an eye.

“Everything aiight lad?” Kim asked.

Nick looked back at the crowd and saw that they were all wearing casual clothes again. Was Nick going mad? Had he finally lost his marbles? That’s when someone in the crowd couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing. Soon the entire crowd was laughing, including Kim.

“What the hell was that?” Nick asked.

He watched as everyone in the crowd was once again armoured up and was holding their weapons. Kim started speaking and Nick noticed that the man was also now wearing armour and had an impressive looking bow slung across his back.

“Tha rings laddy. Special drop on tha 50th. Special loot bags they arr.”

Nick just had to shrug his shoulders at the absurdity of it. Of course each of the members of the Hogs had a special item from all the way down on the 50th floor. At least it answered his question of why they all looked so mundane usually. They were hiding their wealth in their rings. Now as he examined the fifty-odd people around him he could see the exuberant displays of wealth. Engraved metal armour pieces, leather pieces that had been bedazzled with gems and crystals, it was a garish sight. Each of the weapons looked masterfully crafted or even purely cerimonial. This is what Nick had been expecting from the richest folk in the Complex.

When the group was combined it was almost overwhelming. The crowd became a mob of oppresive apperance, their weapons and armour putting anything Nick had previously seen to shame. Nick certainly wasn’t the only person that had been effected by the shenigans of the Hogs. The various traders and groups that were gathered around the ramps between the Parklands and car park were subject to everything Nick had been. Nick saw some traders rolling their eyes, apparently used to this. He saw some groups openly envious of the mob, clearly coveting the Hogs gear. The hogs weren’t phased in the slightest though, they just kept laughing and carrying on. They insulted eachother’s gear and boasted about their own.

“Aiight everyone! Tha hunt begins!” Kim yelled out.

With that the group made their speed apparent again, bursting off towards the nearby ramps. Nick and the team he was with didn’t take off immediately, Kim turned to them and it seemed like he had something to discuss before they set off.

“So, how are we gonna do this? What’s tha quickest way we can get tha lad up tah scratch?” He asked.

The group pondered on it for a moment before an open discussion broke out.

“70th event take too much time.”

“Aye.”

“We could farm threes and fours from 65th?”

“True.”

“We could try and loot goblin on the 60s?”

“Nay. Too long. We’d also get sevens from that.”

“Don’t wanna stay on the 70s and loot goblin?”

“Nay. Too crowded up here.”

“So, best option is the 65th?”

That got an agreement from the other members of the group and so they set out. Nick was once again amazed by the group, it was just completely different from the atmosphere staying on the 72nd had caused him to expect. A level two gem was a momentous find and caused massive issues for people, well mainly just for the people between Tony and said gem. Here was a group of people casually talking about getting level seven gems. Nick realised that to these people, level seven was nothing.

“What levels are you guys?” Nick cautiously asked.

“11-11.” Lief answered first.

“11-11 as well.” Jackie then said.

Then Nick looked at Kim.

“12-11 mahself. Don’t ya worry laddy, we’ll get ya up to scratch in a jiffy.”

Nick was stunned. Level three seemed like a big hurdle to him, but the titans standing around him put that to shame. Nick was stunned at the high numbers but quickly realised he didn’t really understand how strong that actually was. The only people he’d really interacted with on a frequent basis were level twos and maybe the occasional three. He hand’t asked Frank and his team their levels. The strongest people he’d actually seen using their strength would likely be Reggie and Casper, but he had no idea what their levels were.

“Do you guys know what level Reggie is?” He asked.

“Tha poser? Think he was a nine or ten? Summin like tha.” Kim answered.

“Pretty sure it was a nine, he made a big whoo hah about it a while back.” Jackie added on.

That meant that everyone in the group around him was stronger than the man who had killed an entire room of people without lifting a finger. Nick shuddered at the memory before resealing it, it still wasn’t time for him to process that particuarly horrofic morning. Nick decided to push his questioning a bit further.

“What about Paimon, she seemed pretty strong?”

Kim spat on the ground next him. “Tha bitch. I know she got a 12, can’t believe tha trollop got it before me.”

Kim seemed pretty pissed off at the mention of Paimon, whatever had happened between the two of them certainly didn’t end well. Kim certainly had nothing nice to say about the woman. The group then set off towards the ramps and Nick couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t excited. He’d wanted to get stronger and now he was on the gravy train. All he had to do was sit back and watch the levels flow in.