Nick shuddered. He hadn’t died that time but he’d certainly been close, the terrible feeling of coldness had been pervasive throughout his body. Nick ran his hands across his body, making sure that everything was still there. He sighed in relief, he still had his arm, his leg, and his torso. Wonderful news. Nick definitely wasn’t a fan of the dying business, feeling his body weaken and mind slowly fade away was quite the uncomfortable phenomenon. Nick then looked around and realised that he wasn’t back in the den, he was in a small room standing before a wooden counter.

The wooden counter had two objects on it, a sign and a tray. The sign pointed to the tray and had ‘Treasure Sack Collection’ written on it. Nick pulled the black sack out of his pants and placed it on the tray, to his surprise the bag vanished as soon as he pulled his hand away.

Heist Complete!

12 x Somewhat-priceless art

1 x Semi-priceless art

Points: 15,000!

Reward: Level 6 Class gem, 4 Orange Grade Pills

A small bag appeared on the counter and Nick opened it up. He found a class gem with an orange mark on it. Well, it was a while before he’d be able to use that. Nick certainly wasn’t disappointed with it though, it felt like he hadn’t achieved anything super special on that floor. The third floor had been pretty easy to loot, it was only on the second floor that things actually got dicey. He had almost died though, so getting something as good a class gem helped soothe his mind. Though he wasn’t sure about the orange grade pills. They looked just like the pills he’d been getting on the 70s floors, though they had an orange band running around them. Nick shrugged and put the bag into his own magic bag, thankfully this one didn’t refuse like the black sack had.

Nick’s vision then flashed again he found himself back in the den. As he appeared a cheer broke out through the gathered crowd. Drinks sloshed about and people jostled against each other.

“How many points ya get laddy?!” Kim asked.

“Uhh, 15 thousand.” Nick replied.

The crowd let out a deafening cheer, though Nick was sure that they would have done that no matter what number he had said. He was fairly sure most of them were too drunk to even comprehend what he’d said.

“15 Thousand! Not bad for a 4-3!” Jackie called out.

That statement certainly drew some attention. It seemed that most of the crowd hadn’t actually known what level Nick had been. The Hogs didn’t seem to mind that much, but the assorted collection of intoxicated rogues looked fairly impressed. Nick couldn’t lie, seeing such strong people impressed by him made him feel pretty good. His hard work was getting some recognition, recognition that he hadn’t realised he was craving. Nick grinned. He then wanted to ask some questions about what he’d seen and the rewards he’d gotten from the event, but he realised that everyone he’d try and ask was currently rather intoxicated and having a good time.

Gareth was right, sometimes he just needed to hold his questions to himself. There was plenty of time for him to get answers, no need to bother people just trying to have a good time. Nick wondered if Gareth was okay. When he last saw him, it looked like he was rather apathetic about the whole situation with the PPM and the PPM folk didn’t seem to have a problem with him. Nick then realised that Reggie had slaughtered the people on the 72nd floor, had Gareth managed to survive that ordeal? Nick hoped so, Gareth had been one of the few people to help him out and he seemed like a quality dude. He’d have to try and head up to check on him sometime.

Nick sat down in a corner and put his feet up, he had certainly earned a rest. Nick tuned out the laughter and other raucous noise and let his mind drift inwards. He tried to play around with his energy but his intrusive thoughts kept pulling his attention away. Nick sighed and realised that his mind wasn’t going to let him put this off any longer. Nick let his mind relive the morning he had been trying so hard to keep repressed. It was strange to him it had only been yesterday. It felt like he’d seen and experienced so much in the last 24 hours.

Nick relived the moment that Reggie had announced his presence on the 71st floor. Doyle’s death march and subsequent execution. The room filled with mangled bodies of dying people, people he’d been jostling shoulders with just hours before. It had been a harrowing sight, one that his mind was doing its best to ignore. Nick had no reason to stop it, he simply accepted what he’d seen and let his mind tuck it away. He was sure he’d see it in his dreams for the rest of his life, but there was nothing he could do now. What bothered him most, apart from the fact that hundreds of uninvolved people had been murdered, was everyone else’s reactions.

Reggie had clearly taken joy in it and Paige didn’t bat an eye. Rina’s reaction was the one that bothered him the most. Nick had felt like Rina was a bit more normal than the other Exes, he felt like he could at least relate with her a bit more. That had been flipped when he saw her reaction to Reggie. She had seemed unbothered, like Paige, she seemed rather unfazed by the whole ordeal. Nick realised that he was making an assumption, he wasn’t sure how his own face had looked. Maybe he had been just as blank-faced as the Exes? Nevertheless, it bothered Nick. He realised that he had to talk to Rina about it, he wasn’t going to judge her without at least asking her how the experience had affected her.

Nick then realised that he’d also not been allowing himself to process how he felt about his family leaving him behind. He understood why they had, Abby probably understood the situation better, and someone had to stay back for Benny. It didn’t make him feel much better about it though, without any say in the matter his family had just dropped him off and kept moving away without him. He felt rather hurt, he felt alone. Here he was, on the 50th floor surrounded by people he’d at best, met this morning and at worst, never met. He was incredibly lonely.

It was only now that it dawned on him. He’d been so busy over the last week and bit that he hadn’t really thought about it, but he was alone. He had been completely separated from all of his friends, he had no real friends in this strange place. It was only now that he’d been separated from his family as well that he realised how isolated he really was. He wasn’t making excuses for himself, but no wonder he’d been so easy for Paige to sink her teeth into. Nick really didn’t understand why Abby had been so adamant about leaving him here alone, surely being isolated with Paige, and only Paige, was just the worst state to leave him in. Nick sighed, he couldn’t pretend to understand what Abby was planning.

Nick suddenly remembered the two crystals that Lily had given him, he pulled them out of his bag and checked over them. He hadn’t used the one to tell Lily he was okay last night like he’d promised to. He hadn’t really been able to but he still felt bad about it. He checked the time and realised that it was only three in the afternoon. Hadn’t it been like 1 PM when he’d entered the event? He surely spent more than two hours in the event room, it had felt like at least four or five hours of shenanigans and patiently waiting. Just another question he had. Nick squeezed the crystal Lily had given him it flashed green as he gripped it. He let go and a moment later it flashed green again, Nick assumed that it was Lily replying. It was good to know she was alright.

When he thought about it, he realised he needed to get in contact with Abby or Lily. Lily was apparently working on a way to free him from Paige’s influence, but he’d managed to find his own way around it. He wasn’t sure how often he could use the skill, he wasn’t willing to test it out again to find out, nor was he sure how Paige was going to react when he turned up no longer infected with whatever she had done to him. Things had turned out this way though and he needed to somehow deal with it. Paige and Paimon clearly wanted something from him, but he wasn’t sure what. The Hogs didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives from what he could grasp.

The Hogs felt like a wild group of people, loosely tied to the Exes at best. Actually, why the hell were the Hogs part of the Exes? They didn’t seem to align at all. All of the Hogs looked healthy, like they hadn’t undergone the ritual that the other Exes did. They didn’t even dress the same as the other members of the faction. Now that was a great question he wanted an answer to. Still, he didn’t think that the Hogs were planning anything with him, they were just accepting another Explorer into their fold.

Nick needed to try and work out what Paimon’s plans were for him though, if they were serious enough then he was unlikely to be able to slink out of them by using a skill. Should he try and pretend like he was still under Paige’s influence? What would happen if he didn’t? Nick really wasn’t sure. He threw out his arms in frustration. Why did it feel like everyone was making plans around him that he had no clue about? Reggie, Tony, Paige, Abby, all of them had their own plans that he was just another piece in. Nick decided he needed his own plan, then everyone would just be a piece in his plan. Yeah, that sounded great to Nick.

Nick was just about to start putting his plan together when someone came up to him. It was Kim.

“Aye laddy, we’ll properly celebrate when we get back ta that hall, but congrats ay. Now sit back and watch how tha professionals get it done!”

The crowd cheered at his words and everyone began to pile through the door that they’d pushed him through. Were they all going to challenge the event at once? Was there even going to be enough loot for all of them? There was like 70 people heading in there, how the hell would a group that big even sneak around? Nick knew he had to be missing something but he just added it to the growing pile of questions he had. In a minute he was the only person left in the room. He got up from his table and started looking around the room, inspecting all of the walls.

Yep. He’d definitely missed the beat by not checking this stuff when he first got here. Each of the floors had detailed floorplans, with most of the important rooms marked out. He found a document that detailed each of the open windows and the rooms they led to. He found that there was even an underground sewer system he could have used to sneak into the first floor of the palace. All of the servants’ and guards’ movements were documented as well, right down to the times they spent rotating around. Nick’s life would have been so much easier if he had seen even one of these damn walls before he was thrown into the event.

He remembered that no one in the room had been looking at any of this information, had they just run the floor that many times? They were also definitely still intoxicated. Were they really doing a heist without information while they were drunk? Nick could only shake his head and sigh. The Hogs were certainly an odd group of people, even if Explorers weren’t completely insane, he could understand why so many people thought they were. If the Hogs represented Explorers at the pinnacle, it was a given the class would be seen as lunacy. Nick was likely missing some key information, but it didn’t seem like any of the Hogs were the bloodthirsty boogiemen that the stories had warned him about.

Nick would find out in time he guessed. He sat back down and decided to put some thought into what his plan was going to be. It had to be grand and involve as many people as possible, then he’d be returning the favour to everyone who’d made him feel this way. He understood that it was completely childish, but he needed something to do. Maybe the Hogs were already rubbing off on him? So what could he do? His plan needed to benefit him and hopefully make use of the people he knew.

Nick knuckled down and put his brain cells to work, this had to be the best plan he’d ever come up with, though, that wouldn’t be too hard a task. Nick never really had been that good at the planning side of things. It couldn’t be that hard right?