The Hogs had all gathered in the same spot they had when they’d crossed over from the Parklands. They had taken their armour off and were just standing around chatting, carefree as usual. Nick was once again impressed by their demeanour, they had just travelled through a life-threatening experience and here they were just goofing around. Well, maybe it wasn’t life-threatening to them. Nick certainly had been at constant risk of dying, but they were the Hogs. Were they just that strong that they could treat everything around them as trivial? That sounded pretty nice actually.

“Now comes time fa tha most important part of tha hunt!” Kim called out loudly, drawing everyone's attention.

Nick was curious, what could have been more important than doing the event and getting treasure? Surely that was the most important thing to a group of Explorers?

“Tha last one back ta tha hall cleans tha toilets fa tha week!”

As soon as Kim finished his sentence people started running, dashing away at speeds Nick couldn’t even register. He was left standing alone with a dumb look on his face. The Hogs raced each other back from the car park? It was childish, but he was quickly learning to expect that from the Hogs. Nick activated Hasten and set out himself, he knew he’d definitely be coming last but it wouldn’t look good to take too long. He bounded up the ramp and was met with a shocking sight. The fighting had grown and was looking desperate. Groups of people were lined around the trees and flower beds, seemingly to protect them. It was a bizarre sight to behold, groups of people fighting ferociously over pretty plants.

Nick realised that the PPM was desperately trying to prevent any more damage from occurring to the gardens, likely to try and prevent the Earthquake from happening. It looked like a losing fight though, the PPM was fighting fiercely but the hotel fighters weren’t aiming to fight, they were just trying to cause as much damage as possible. Nick saw that the lawn was a mess, massive holes and gashes dug deeply into it, turf having been thrown around wildly. Nick then realised that he had to get through all of this. He had to navigate his way through an active battlefield. Nick was hesitant, he wasn’t as powerful as the Hogs and he couldn’t afford to treat this like a trivial game. There were strong people fighting around him and he was at risk of being caught in the crossfire.

Nick waited until he saw a sizeable opening in the fighting, the surrounding groups too concentrated on their fights to notice if he ran by them. Nick thought it would be his best chance and he went for it. He activated Hasten again and charged out into the Garden, hoping that he wouldn’t be noticed if he made it through quickly enough. Nick skirted between the groups, having the occasional arrow shot at him. Most of the melee fighters paid him little attention when he just kept running past them. It wasn’t as hard as he initially thought it would be. The people he passed by all looked tired, anything that wasn’t someone trying to kill them or a bit of greeny they could destroy got little attention.

Nick managed to slip by group after group, making progress through the Garden. It was a rather depressing experience for Nick, seeing the Garden that had impressed him so much being destroyed around him. Nick shook his head, if what he had heard was right, the Garden would be returned to its optimal state no matter what happened here today, he didn’t have to morn a loss. Nick quickly covered the distance of the Garden and began following the hedge along, looking for the gap that led back to Agoetia. Once he found it, it was a straight sprint back to the Executioner’s stronghold. It was going to be an easy sprint and he was excited to see how fast he could get if he activated Hasten and ran with everything he had.

That’s when Nick was thrown to the floor, the ground beneath him began to rumble. The shaking grew and grew in magnitude and Nick began to panic. He had never experienced an earthquake before and it was absolutely terrifying, he had no idea what to do. He had nowhere to go or hide, what could he do? He tried to calm himself down but the panic was growing, he tried to remember what he had learned about earthquakes and how to stay safe during them. He needed to get low and make sure that there was nothing that could fall on him. He darted away from the pathway and away from the trees that ran along with it, realising that he was on a massive open plain.

He laughed to himself, of course, he wasn’t in a city filled with giant buildings that could topple down on him. He made his way out into the plain on shaky legs, it was unsurprisingly hard to find footing when the ground beneath him was violently rumbling. Nick sat down, unsure of what he could do. He was safe or at least thought he was, the shaking was actually just proving to be more of an annoyance than anything else. He couldn’t run or move around right now, so he was forced to just try to wait it all out. That’s when the changes to the landscape started appearing. Nick watched as the path that led to Agoetia sunk into the ground, the paved stones sinking away. The trees toppled over and sunk beneath the ground as well. The hard dirt that he had been standing on just before now looking like quicksand.

Now Nick started to panic again, was he at risk of just sinking beneath the ground as well? That certainly wasn’t how he wanted to die. There was nothing he could feasibly do though, so he just sat there and waited. He watched as the ground began to change levels, small mounds and hills growing around him. The Exes must have levelled the ground around the area of the path. Thick grass grew from this new dirt, then sparse trees began to sprout from the earth. Nick watched in wonder as small saplings grew before him, quickly growing into large trees. These large trees were solitary figures that now dotted the landscape. Then the rumbling stopped.

Nick was amazed. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when he’d heard about the Earthquake but he was awed by it. He’d only ever imagined earthquakes as massive disasters that ruined lives, but before him was a reformed terrain, one that was teeming with new life. Then Nick remembered why the Earthquake had been triggered, there were surely many people suffering right now. Their homes and farms having been taken beneath the earth, replaced with a barren landscape. Nick sighed, there was good and bad he guessed. Nick decided to walk his way back towards the Exe’s settlement, he knew he was already last so there wasn’t much point in rushing. Nick took in the environment around him as he walked, the landscape looked a bit greener than the previous times he’d passed through. The trees were a new addition as well, why had they been cut down?

How long had it been since the last Earthquake? Nick couldn’t imagine that it was a frequent occurrence, otherwise, surely things would have been different here in the Parklands, more nomadic he guessed. Eventually, he made it back to Agoetia or at least where he thought it was. He was met with a thick forest that he could barely see through. No wonder the Exe’s had cut a path through, just traversing this place looked like a hassle. As he made his way through the trees he began to hear a chorus of loud thwacks, he moved closer to find the source of the noise. He then heard a creaking sound and the rustling of leaves.

“TIMBER!”

That’s when he heard a crash, something landing heavily on the ground. Nick found a group of Executioners chopping their way through the forest. There were about a dozen of them, working in pairs to quickly fell the trees. Each group would yell timber as the trees dropped, allowing the other Exes to move clear of the path of the tree as it fell. Nick waved to the group and he approached them.

“Working hard fellas?” He asked.

“Are you lost son?” One of them called back to him, wiping sweat from his brow.

Nick explained that he was just heading back to Agoetia and the lumberjack pointed back at the pathway they had been clearing. Nick saw that the narrow pathway stretched for about 20 metres before it cleared, he could spot the massive towers of the cathedral though. Nick thanked the man and started walking. Then he realised that the forest couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes old and the team of lumberjacks had already cleared at least a hundred trees. He turned around and watched as the lumberjacks got back to work. Their pace was incredible, they made swift work of the trees and kept pushing through. The pathway would be done in an hour at worst if they kept this pace going.

Nick shook his head in amazement and made his way into the town. Looking around he realised it was likely better to call the place a city. His eyes had almost always been drawn to the cathedral but now as he calmly strolled around he realised that were dozens of massive halls just in the area he could see. Each of these buildings was large enough to house hundreds of people. They were like apartments that stretched outwards instead of upwards. Each of the buildings was made of wood and beautifully put together, he was once again awed by the architectural abilities displayed here. Nick realised that the gothic theme was only present in the plaza that held the main halls and entrance to the cathedral. The rest of the city had varying types of architecture, looking more and more like a collage of different styles.

If you only approached the city from the pathway you’d only see the gothic buildings, it was only when he looked from a different angle or explored past the initial buildings that it was revealed. Little pockets of different styles. Nick then noticed that he was getting strange looks from the people that he passed by, he didn’t look that out of place, did he? That’s when he was reminded of the stinging pain in his face. That’s right, he was missing part of his face right now. How had he managed to forget that?

Nick made his way back to the main plaza and approached the only light-coloured building there. The Unvoided Hall. Nick headed inside and walked up to the receptionist, what was her name? Sally? Cindy? It was only when he looked at her hair that it clicked. Sandy.

“Hi! Sandy right?” He greeted.

“Paige’s charge with a penchant for getting injured? Already living up to expectations I see.” She said with a smile.

“Yeah, you know how it is. Fell over down on the 50th, getting crushed into the floor and such. Usual business.” He shrugged.

The woman chuckled. “Head on through, Chloe’s on shift today.”

Nick didn’t know who the heck Chloe was, but he was sure she’d heal him. Nick took a seat and a familiar face came out of another room. The level six Healer with brunette hair and rosy cheeks. She didn’t say a word and gave Nick a once over, her eyes glowed green for a moment. Nick wasn’t sure what she was doing but he thought she looked pretty cool, he wanted a skill that made his eyes glow like that.

“Come into my office for a sec.” She said before turning around and walking back into the room she had come out from.

Nick had no reason not to, so he followed behind her. He found a room very similar to any doctor's office he’d visited back home. A desk and one of those beds that could be adjusted being the main features that made him think that way. Nick wondered why he’d been brought in here, surely his face wasn’t going to be that hard a fix?

“You got a skill that cures you or something similar didn’t you?” The Healer asked him with a small sigh.

“Yeah, from my level four Brawler. Is there something wrong with that?” Nick asked, slightly worried now.

“Not the skill no, it’s actually a wonderful type of skill to have.” She said with a smile. “The issue is you, and who you seem to be associated with.”

It then clicked with Nick. Her hesitance to heal him yesterday and Paige’s response. Her heal had removed some of the junk that had been in his blood. That’s why he had felt such clarity and why Paige had dragged him into the closet as she had. Paige was set on making sure that that junk stayed in his blood and now he’d managed to land himself a skill that removed it. He could see an issue growing here. He also remembered that he was wearing Abby’s necklace, he took it off and stuffed it in his pocket, earning a raised eyebrow from Chloe.

“So Doc, what can I do?” He asked, ignoring the questioning look on her face.

“I’m not a doctor, I was a nurse back before all this, you know?” She said shaking her head, she suddenly looked tired. “This is all out of my scope of practice.”

Then she looked at Nick. “You are in for a rather bothersome time.”

Nick smiled back at her. “Nothing new then.”