Nick was considering the two options when he suddenly toppled over. An influx of energy spread throughout his body, quickly making him turn his gaze to his internal space. He watched in wonder as energy began to flood out of the ethereal rectangles he had assumed represented his classes. The massive influx of energy put what he’d had previously to shame, now his ethereal space was filling with a lively energy that danced around. Nick was amazed by what he was seeing, the small trickle he’d been getting before had been replaced by a flowing river of energy. That’s when he heard the trio around him start laughing.

“Laddy got his first aura!” Kim laughed. “Welcome ta tha big leagues now.”

Suddenly Nick felt an aura surround him, trying to press him down to the ground. Without even having to will it, his energy spread out and joined with the strange film that fit his silhouette. As soon as it did, he noticed that the pressure from the outside aura no longer affected him. His own energy seemed to act like a buffer protecting him from the aura.

“Feel that? It’s your aura protecting you. Congrats kid, you’ve now got yourself an aura.” Jackie said, then retracting her aura. “You’ll want to try and focus on keeping your aura in that position when you’re not using it. It takes practice but it’ll stop people getting the jump on you.”

Nick watched as his energy then tried to return to its careless state, wanting to float around. So he did what Jackie suggested, directing the energy to stay fixed to his silhouette. As soon as he tried to focus on something else the energy would return to doing whatever it wanted. Nick frowned, this certainly was going to take some practice to get used to.

“You’ll get there with time.” Jackie said with a laugh.

Nick then looked down at the level four crystal he was holding. He wasn’t sure which of his classes to level up.

“You guys got any recommendations?” He asked.

“Well, it’s gotta be Explorer.” Leif answered.

“Why?”

“It’s the best class.” He answered with a shrug.

That was fair enough, Nick had to remember that he was dealing with a rather biased source. Of course, someone part of the group called the Treasure Hogs was going to say Explorer was the best class to level up. Nick realised he’d have to hash this one out on his own. He started by breaking down what the level would actually give him; it would give him one skill. Now if he went with Explorer it would likely give him a skill related to exploring, he’d just gotten a combat-related skill from the evolution, but he was sure that was due to the ‘Violent’ adjective and he couldn’t rely on that moving forward. Brawler was likely going to give him a combat-related skill. Which of the skills was going to be more useful to him right now?

If there was one thing Nick knew he was going to be doing, it was fighting. He wasn’t sure when his next fight would be exactly, but he knew it was coming. That made the decision easy for him, Nick crushed the level four gem.

Class Level Up!

Gritty Brawler Level 4!

Skill: Intolerable Weakness - Active

Purge yourself of an ailment and return to fighting condition.

Now that wasn’t a combat skill. Nick was a little disappointed, he’d picked Brawler to level because he thought it would give him something he could use in a fight. Nick looked over the skill and didn’t think too much of it. What did an aliment actually mean? If he got sick could he just use the skill to recover? That sounded pretty cool but he wasn’t sure how useful it would actually be to him right now. Weren’t the skills supposed to reflect his current needs, why was he given a skill like this?

“The brat levelled his Brawler class.” Jackie said with a sigh.

That earned a disappointed sigh from the other two Hogs as well. They didn’t seem too happy about his choice, but Nick felt like it was pretty justified. Nick then approached the button, it was time to check on his status page.

Name

Nicholas Jones

Stickers

+1s (4/4)

Please find better stickers!

Endurance x1

Intelligence x1

Strength x1

Agility x1

Please find better stickers!

Classes

Violent Explorer (Level 3)

Gritty Brawler (Level 4)

Skills

Treasure Sense - Active (6%)

Lucky - Passive (4%)

Hasten - Active (25%)

Map - Active (2: 10%)

Fight for your Treasure - Active (0%)

Gritty Constitution - Passive (11%)

Deep Blows - Passive (10%)

Jeer - Active (3%)

Punishing Combos - Passive (8%)

Endurance Sap (0%)

Intolerable Weakness (0%)

His status confirmed a few things that Nick had suspected. Lucky had barely progressed, which Nick felt proved the fact that he hadn’t been very lucky at all over the last week and a bit. It also showed him that he really needed to be making use of Jeer more, a debuff was a very handy skill to have but he didn’t use it to its full advantage. Nick often forgot or just felt like he didn’t need to use it on his opponents. Nick resolved to try and shit talk his future opponents a bit more, progressing his skills was very important of course.

“Aiight, ya done laddy? We’ve got business ta get ta.” Kim asked.

Nick nodded and moved away from the button. It was crazy to think that he was now on a completely different level than he’d been just an hour ago, both literally and metaphorically. Nick was certain that the main thing that separated levels wasn’t the skills, it was the aura. Just feeling how much more of the energy he had to work with excited him, he suspected that he wouldn’t have to rely on crude outbursts anymore. Though if he did, it would likely be a far more effective tactic now that he had so much energy to work with.

Nick followed the Hogs out of the hotel and into the car park. They beelined back to the ramps and Nick did his best to not slow them down too much. He’d managed to get three levels out of the group, the least he could do was try not to hold them back too much. Though as they were running, Nick delved into his internal space, far too excited to put it off any longer. Nick pushed the energy around and played with it, trying to work out if he could do anything new with it. After experimenting a bit he found out that he couldn’t split or separate the energy in any way, any movements he wanted the energy to make had to be done as a whole. That, and fine movements of the energy were almost impossible.

The act of him spreading out the energy to his silhouette wasn’t a precise action, it was more of a desperate push. That’s why he couldn’t hold it for very long. He wasn’t finely directing the energy to his silhouette, he was just forcing all of it to the edge of the ethereal film. As soon as his focus left, the energy would just fall apart. Nick then tried to go about the activity with a bit more finesse, after one attempt he realised it was a futile effort. He just didn’t have the attention to micromanage that much energy, every time he tried to start spreading everything out his attention would wane and everything would collapse.

Nick then changed strategies, he focused on a smaller area and began to practice finely directing the energy around. It was difficult but much more achievable than trying to cover his entire silhouette at once. Nick realised that it was going to take a lot of practice, but it was a solid starting point for him. Nick kept at it, trying to perfectly layer his energy with his silhouette in small areas. Eventually, he started to develop a headache from the excessive concentration and had to stop.

Nick then noticed that the group had made it to the ramps and was about to head down. A question bubbled to the forefront of his mind.

“Why are we going to the 50th floor in particular?” He asked.

“Issa one of tha best event rooms fa getting treasure laddy. Ya will see when we get tha.” Kim answered.

With that the descent started, Nick, delving deeper into the car park than he’d ever been. The 60s flew by, then the 50s, Nick growing anxious as he watched the darkness grow thicker and thicker. He thought he’d seen how dark places could get on the higher levels, but it was completely different down here. Nick had never experienced the true complexities of darkness until now. Looking out across the 50th floor of the car park he was filled with dread. The darkness was no longer just an absence of light, it was a vacuum. The darkness sucked in the space around it, warping it with shadows. If Nick was being perfectly honest, the last thing he wanted to do was step into it.

That’s when the Hogs finally pulled out some crystals, activating them and generating a minuscule field of light. These crystals looked more intricate and impressive than any he’d seen up until this point, why was their field of light so small? Not able to work out the answer for himself he asked the Hogs.

“The darkness is different the deeper you go. It grows stronger with each level, down here it’s an oppressive force. It eats anything that it touches.” Jackie answered then pointed at the wall closest to the group. “Look at that. It’s not the usual wear and tear you’d see on a building like this.”

Nick tried his best to make out the details of the wall through the darkness, it took a while for his eyes to be able to pick up what Jackie was trying to point out. He shivered when he finally saw it though. The wall did look like it was being eaten like a corrosive force was slowly breaking it down. Nick was now even more sure that he didn’t want to head into the darkness. If it could eat through concrete, he didn’t want to know what horrors it would unleash upon his body. That’s when Kim threw a crystal into his hands.

“Issa loan. Far ta expensive a crystal for a lad like ya. Can’t be havin ya dying down ‘ere though.” Kim grumbled.

Nick then inspected the crystal he’d been given. It was the same crystal that the other hogs were using, Nick squeezed it and tried to activate it. Nothing happened and Nick was confused, how the hell did you make one of these things work? That’s when the Hogs started laughing.

“These crystals aren’t like the crap ones you’ll get on the higher levels.” Leif explained. “You’ve gotta power it with your own aura.”

Nick then looked down at the crystal in his hand. He willed his energy into his palm but wasn’t sure how to get it through the film. Each of the times he’d done it so far it had been more a desperate burst, which he felt wasn’t the most optimal of techniques to be using. Nick slowly pushed more and more of his energy into his palm, building it up into a denser and denser mass. As he kept piling it on he noticed that the film surrounding his hand was starting to shake and grow unstable. Nick was slightly concerned but his curiosity kept him progressing, pushing more energy into his growingly unstable hand. Nick began to notice physical changes in his hand, it started to heat up and he could see a faint glow start to emanate from beneath his skin.

Nick’s concern definitely peaked, but it was unmatched by the growth of his curiosity. What the hell was happening to his hand? What was the energy doing to him? So Nick kept pushing, stuffing more energy into the appendage. Suddenly it hit a breaking point, Nick watching in amazement as the film around his hand simply gave way, and the energy flooded out of his hand. The crystal he was holding was like a vacuum sucking up every drop. Suddenly the crystal started to emanate light, making Nick grin. It might not have been the prettiest of executions, but he’d managed it.

Nick looked up at the Hogs and found them staring at him in surprise. Nick awkwardly smiled at them and held up the crystal. Was he not supposed to have done what he just did?

“Now laddy, how did ya manage tha?” Kim asked, a hint of confusion apparent in his voice.

Nick shrugged. “Just kept pushing the energy into my hand until it came out?”

Nick was a little confused, it wasn’t that strange, was it? It felt like a pretty straightforward process to him.

Leif laughed. “Guess we don’t have to charge the crystal for him then.”

Leif seemed to laugh the whole thing off but the other two didn’t. Kim looked slightly confused and Jackie was looking at him with clear suspicion in her eyes.

“It’s not normally until level six that people can externalise their auras. Have you got a skill or something?” Jackie finally asked.

“Not that I know of.” Nick answered with a shrug.

“Well, can’t be standin ‘round ‘ere all day. Let’s get a move on.” Kim said, shaking his head.