Vassago went about the kitchen, grabbing fruits and cutting them up. They were all fruits that Nick recognised, which actually surprised him. He had partially expected some sort of whacky and strange fruits, not your average apple and orange. Noticing his disappointment, Vassago laughed.

“Classes have made selective breeding much quicker and easier, once people got Farmer and similar classes it was only a matter of months until we had most of our staple foods left. Pretty convenient stuff.”

Nick then watched as the man pulled something that looked distinctly like cheese from a fridge. Now Nick was extra confused, how the hell did they have cheese here? Was there somewhere in the hotel that generated the stuff? Vassago put together some sandwiches then put everything on a platter and carried it back to the lounge room. The pair then sat back down and started eating. Nick had to admit that the fruit was pretty good. The apples were nice and crisp and the oranges were perfectly juicy. When picked up a sandwich and inspected it, he confirmed that it definitely looked like there was cheese in it.

“Is this cheese? Where did you get it?” He asked.

“Well, give it a try and then I’ll tell you,” Vassago smiled.

With a raised eyebrow, Nick bit into the sandwich. It wasn’t bad, it certainly wasn’t the cheesy taste he expected but it was good. It was a very rich tasting, with a nutty hint to it. Nick was never much into all the strange kinds of cheeses out there, but this definitely tasted more like some of the gourmet stuff than the cheddar he was used to.

“Not bad. So where’s it come from?” Nick said.

“It’s made here, by a friend of mine. We get the milk from the native wildlife we’ve been herding for a while.”

“Sorry, what? There are animals here?” Nick asked, shocked. He thought that it was all monsters and strange abominations in the Complex. Wait, were the animals just domesticated monsters?

“After the Expansion, the Parkland’s changed a lot. The Gardeners came about, looking after the Garden, and the plants all began to actually grow and not just be strange static objects. Most interestingly though, animals appeared. An entire ecosystem just popped into existence. They reappear every time the Earthquake hits, I imagine there are many communities out slaying or taming beasties right now. Great time for the meat trade. There are wild boar and bison-like creatures out there, once again it was the classes that allowed people to quickly domesticate the beasties.”

“Are there cowboys?” Nick asked, picturing a Clint Eastwood-esque man roaming around the plains.

“Hmm, I believe there might actually be a class like that. A mix of combat and ranching skills, I don’t think any of the Executioners have a class like that though, our combat and support factions tend to be rather separate,” Vassago explained.

“Why’s that?”

Vassago sighed. “Okay, I guess I should explain your previous question. Why did the Executioners splinter? I’m sure you’ve heard that the Executioners stay impartial to outer conflicts right? That’s not entirely true. We declared ourselves neutral during the Class war, but we strongly pushed for the current arrangement, where everyone had access to the buttons. This was technically the side of the Parkland People’s Militia, but we didn’t push for the eradication of all the hotel groups like they were. It was when that war settled and the PPM started their conquest of the Parklands a year later that our position got dicey. Before the PPM won the civil war, every single faction wanted our favour. To safeguard our interests we took sides,” Vassago sighed again, a dark expression falling across his face.

“Not everyone agreed with Dante’s choice. Me especially. Though Kim wasn’t interested in taking part, he’s always been an exploration purist. The other four all agreed with Dante and while it was never officially announced, the Executioners sided with the Parkland People’s Militia during the Parklands civil war.”

Nick realised that this sounded like a pretty serious secret. “Are you supposed to be telling me this?”

Vassago laughed. “It is a secret, one that I’ve never bothered trying to keep. I’m sure many people in the hotel would have no clue, but it’s more of an open secret out here in the Parklands. No one will openly accuse the Exes of what they did, because no one is strong enough to withstand the ire of our dear faction. Not that all of us are happy with how things have gone the last few years. That’s what’s caused the splintering, partially. Something happened to Dante, he’s become more reclusive and started pushing for some strange changes to the faction.”

“Strange changes?” Nick asked.

“Well, you’ve seen the ‘Voided’ haven’t you? That was one of those changes. One day Dante approached me saying he had found a way for Shamen to change people’s classes. Of course, I was interested, who wouldn’t be at such a prospect? That was until he told me the procedure and the requirements for the ritual,” Vassago shuddered, “I simply refused to do it to anyone. Dante didn’t like that. He went to Malius, another one of the council members, who also happened to be a Shaman and seemingly convinced him pretty easily. Very quickly Dante was convincing the Executioners that the ritual was their ticket to furthering their goals.

“The classes that the ritual offers are almost entirely combat-related though, so most of the support roles or crafters were left out. They needed someone to look after their interests and that’s how I came to be the head of the ‘Unvoided’. That’s also the main splinter within the Executioners nowadays, the Voided versus the Unvoided. There’s no open hostilities or anything, but there is an awkwardness there. Dante has also practically halted all progress on clearing the car park, he blames it on the 40th floor but I know if we all went in together it could be cleared,” Vassago sighed, his shoulders sagging slightly.

“What’s on the 40th floor?” Nick had heard Kim, Jackie, and Leif talking about it but didn’t glean too much about it.

“There’s a faction controlling the entire floor, a very hostile faction. They aren’t big fans of letting anyone access the event room there, and they have more than enough strength to enforce their control.” Vassago explained.

Nick frowned. “Can’t you just bypass the floor and clear the 39th?”

“Not quite. The gaps between levels get rather pronounced the deeper you go into the car park. It can be said that up until the 50th floor, the car park is pretty easy to get through. After the 50th-floor things get difficult, the strength of the monsters starts jumping wildly and you need teams of well-rounded, strong, fighters just to make it to the hotel. They need superb aura control plus the ability to fight, which is easier said than done. A side effect of the voiding ritual seems to be a lessened control of one’s internal aura energy, in exchange for increased external control. This means that while high level Voided can easily crush similar levelled people in contests of aura, they cannot defend themselves nearly as well. This is incredibly detrimental as you get lower into the car park. The key strategy to clearing floors of the car park is about control, I’m sure you’ve been to most of the 70s floors right?” Vassago asked.

“Yeah, the 75th and 70th were almost entirely clear of darkness and monsters, the 71st wasn’t too bad but the 72nd was terrible.” Nick answered.

“It’s exactly that. The better control we have of a floor, the more we can reduce the effect of the void, the darkness as you call it. This in turn weakens the floors around it, making them easier to clear. The problem with the lower floors is that there’s just not enough man power to properly clear the floors or even attempt to control them. Even just entirely clearing a floor for the first time is enough to permanently reduce it’s difficulty, but the Exes have almost entirely stopped doing that since Dante’s change,” Vassago said with a sigh.

“Wait, but didn’t you say that there’s a faction controlling the 40th floor? Doesn’t that mean the floors are weaker, isn’t that enough to allow you to just bypass them?” Nick queried.

“Yes and no, they have purposely never fully cleared or tried to control the car park. They’re happy just letting it run rampant as a way of protecting the hotel from outsiders. They also have some of the most adept Rogues and Scouts in the Complex, which they use to weaken any group trying to make it through the floor.”

“Why are they so hostile? There has to be a reason, or at least some sort of provocation, right?”

Vassago shook his head, “not that I’m aware of, I’ve never been down there and don’t plan on risking it. Kim has though, he’d be the man to question about it.”

Nick sat there for a moment, just sipping on his tea and eating his sandwich. He had just learnt a lot about the Executioners and needed some time to process it all. Vassago seemed content giving him some space to do so and just sat there in silence with him, eating and drinking. Nick ran through what he’d learnt. 10 years of access to the hotel, 5 or 6 years of the Exes being around, they were founded to clear floors, one day their leader changed directions and things got whacky, now the Exes seemed to have fallen stagnant on their goals. The internal issues of the faction seemed rather complex, but Nick wasn’t sure what to make of them. It sounded like Dante had his own different goal, but he had no idea what that could be. Nick frowned, he’d just found himself in the middle of another asshole’s goddamn plan.

Nick quickly switched track to his own goal, escaping the Complex. Firstly he had to make an important detour, he needed to rescue Benny. There was no point aiming to escape the Complex if he couldn’t do it for Benny. He had to rescue the little man, that currently came above all else, other people’s plans be damned. How could he do that? Nick decided to try and used Vassago as a soundboard.

“Vassago, my brother got kidnapped by the old leader of the 72nd floor and dragged down to the 64th floor. Paige promised to get him rescued but apparently, he’s not there anymore. I want nothing else to rescue him, myself, I can’t trust someone else to do it.”

“The 64th floor? That’s not too bad, you’d only have to be level six to safely get around there. Though you’d have to get the jump on the guy, so he couldn’t use your brother as a hostage. Do you have any other details?” Vassago questioned.

Nick then explained everything he could. Tony, Jacob, the three children, and Paige saying they weren’t on the 64th anymore. He also went over his suspicions around Paige and Paimon’s machinations, using Benny as a bargaining chip against him. Vassago sat there for a moment and took it all in then thought it over.

“You’re too weak. There is nothing you can feasibly do until you’re stronger. If you try and recruit someone, you don’t have much to offer, nothing that won’t leave you heavily indebted. I can see that being Paimon’s goal, she wants you to go to her, asking for further help getting your brother back. No matter if she already has him or if she just knows where he is. I don’t think he’s dead. Paimon would try and take advantage of your grief if he was, I can be confident she’s at least confident he’s still alive. Right now, Nick, you need to just get stronger or build some sort of value that you can use to hire others. You are an Explorer, which gives you access to many pathways to these goals. I think you can make a reasonable choice on your own in that department,” Vassago said with a smile.

Nick nodded. He could, he knew he could get stronger pretty quickly, he just had to get out there and take some risks. He had to go back to the hotel and start clearing. He didn’t really want to leave the Parklands and head back to those eerie hallways, but he realised he’d have to. Nick then went to get up.

“Thanks for everything Vassago, you’ve been one of the friendliest people I’ve met in my time here.” Nick went to shake the man’s hand.

The man accepted the gesture and smiled. “Call me Vas, also, before you leave, would you like to have a chat with your sister?”

Of course, Nick couldn’t turn down an offer like that and immediately nodded. Vas then led him into another room that left Nick surprised. The entire room was just a massive staircase that led down beneath the ground. Vas led him down into the space and Nick was left with his jaw hanging open. It was a massive underground lab, with various tools, machines, and workbenches littering the place. Nick could make out various half finished projects around the place, none of them anything he could make sense of. The place was lit with well placed skylights that must have been hidden throughout the garden. Nick was seriously impressed and he didn’t miss Vassago’s proud smile.

Vassago handed him a very polished crystal slate that was perfectly rectangular and sat comfortably in his hands, it made Abby’s crystal look barbaric in comparison.

“Give me a minute and I’ll have you connected with her,” Vas said with a smile.