Nick wasn’t too excited by his find in the chest, two green pills. It was certainly a step up from getting a handful of white pills but it wasn’t very satisfying. Nick sighed and started making his way towards the next nearest challenge room. He’d only spent about 15 minutes on that last fight, if he kept this pace up he’d be able to clear a couple of rooms before he had to head back.

Nick decided to see how tough the Horde rooms were down here, those were the real money makers. If he could comfortably clear five waves or more he could start seriously increasing his income. Nick was a little apprehensive though, he wasn’t sure how tough the critters would be and if he bit off more than he could chew he’d be truly screwed. Nick knew the risks but still decided to head into the challenge room when he arrived. Getting out of the creepy tiled hallways for a bit definitely was a contributing factor though. Not that the room he found himself in was much better than the hallways. It was larger than the room he’d just fought the turtle in but it was titled just another tiled monstrosity. He did notice that there were larger puddles on the floor though, which would be a slip hazard he’d have to keep in mind.

He searched the room for the first of the Horde critters he’d have to be fighting but couldn’t find any, which was unnerving. He looked up at the ceiling and got worried, were they hiding in the pipes up there? If they had some sort of ranged attack and just peppered him from out of his reach then he’d be royally screwed. Nick was watching the ceiling carefully when he felt a sharp pain in his calf. He yelled and lept up, looking down and finding a large crab cutting into his leg with its pincer. It had cut pretty deeply but not enough to fully impair his leg. Nick stomped down on the crustacean, breaking the thing in two. He looked around and realised that the things were coming out from the puddles. He inspected the four other crabs and found that they weren’t the usual black that he’d come to expect from most of the monsters in the Complex.

The crabs were mostly grey, with a slightly red tint to them. They looked partially boiled, which almost made Nick laugh until he realised the potential meaning behind it. He ran over and quickly dispatched three of the crabs, thankfully they only felt about as tough as the 11th wave tier critter from the 70s floor’s Horde rooms. He picked up the last one and very quickly confirmed his fears, the crabs were hot to the touch, hot enough to hurt his hands. Nick quickly threw the creature as hard he could into a nearby wall, splattering it. Nick hated this floor. The vibe was all off, the creatures hurt to attack and it was even more visually unappealing than the previous floors.

Nick accepted the next wave and watched one of the puddles closely, he noticed some slight tremors in it then the crab started scuttling out. Nick easy stomped his way through the next couple of waves, the crabs made for rather easy targets. They didn’t have great movement while on land and while they could move pretty fast, Nick was far faster. After the seventh wave, Nick started to notice a serious problem, after killing at least a hundred of the crabs his leather boots were getting wrecked. The heat of each crab he smashed through was wearing out his boots incredibly quickly, Nick realised that this was likely the major challenge of the room. The crabs weren’t particularly difficult foes, they didn’t have great movement and their attacks were pretty easy to avoid, it was their bodies that caused problems.

It was a serious problem, their heated bodies would damage anything used to kill them. It was manageable for a while but the damage would start to add up pretty quickly, Nick could only imagine how many swords had been made useless by these little terrors. Nick also realised that the only surefire way they had to kill him was just to crawl all over him and slowly burn him to death, which would surely be a pretty terrible way to die. On the tenth wave, Nick finally burnt a hole in one of his boots. Killing 50 crabs in one sitting was finally enough to put an end to his sturdy boots. Nick cursed, he didn’t have any other shoes to wear and now he’d be stuck with this broken pair for the foreseeable future.

Nick decided to try the 11th wave, just to see how strong the monsters were before heading back to where the others were. The five crabs that emerged from the puddles looked a fair bit more bothersome than the previous kind. They didn’t have much bigger pincers, they didn’t have spikes, and they weren’t even that much faster. They were just a bit larger and a whole lot redder. Nick could see the water evaporating off them and into steam. Of course, the harder crabs just got hotter, why wouldn’t they? Nick struggled to kill these crabs without seriously burning himself. It highlighted a serious weakness in his way of fighting. He had to get up close and very personal, his wraps protected his wrists and knuckles, but most of his fingers were still exposed. This left them to get burnt if he punched through the scalding shell of the crabs.

Thankfully it was only the shells of the crabs that were so hot, the flesh was much cooler. When he whittled the group down to a single crab Nick tried something different, he got his foot under the crab and kicked it up into the air. He then punched the creature as hard as he could and sent it flying into the wall, where it promptly exploded. Well, if he ever came back here that was definitely going to be his go-to strategy. Nick was pretty hopeful as he opened up the chest, he really needed some new gear. Thankfully his skill pulled through pretty clutch this time around. He found two items inside the chest, some new boots and a chest plate that felt warm to the touch. Nick had no idea what sort of effect these gear pieces would give him, but they were going to be better than the garbage he was currently wearing.

Nick chucked his usless chest plate in his bag and slid on the new one, it felt warm against his skin but in a comfortable way, like a nice jacket. It was when he tried the new boots on that something felt slightly off. He felt slightly slower than before but noticed that he didn’t slip on the wet tiles. He remembered that his previous pair of boots had given him a speed boost that he’d just totally gotten used to having, moving around without it felt slightly weird. It was only very minor, but as he’d been so acclimated to it, it felt jarring to no longer have it. He tested out the non-slip effect a bit and found it incredibly useful. No matter whether he was standing on completely dry tiles or soaked ones, he felt the same level of grip. This would let him fight without having to worry about slipping over when he tried to turn his weight into a punch. The boots were also hydrophobic to an extent, which meant he wouldn’t have to stress about his socks getting soaked. An absolute win.

The surprise cut he’d received on his leg closed over after he’d finished the fight but left a pretty nasty-looking scar. Nick looked across his body and realised that he was absolutely marred with scars, he put it to the back of his mind but decided to give himself a full inspection at the next available opportunity. Nick started making his way back toward the sushi restaurant, feeling a whole lot more confident. It was very reassuring to now not be wearing a chest plate with a 30-centimetre diameter hole through the front and back of it. Checking his watch he realised it was already 10:30 pm, though it had been an exceptionally long day.

He’d started the day practically comatose after being roughed up by Paige, he’d then spent a lot of his morning choking to death on black sludge. The midmorning had been filled with meeting three of the leaders of the Executioners, followed by a hasty escape from their city. Then in the evening he’d run through the car park, picked up a fresh Latecomer and decided to run a couple of challenge rooms. Quite the action-packed itinerary if he did say so himself. Nick then walked about into the restaurant room and was greatly relieved to be in a room that wasn’t tiled, this place had wooden walls and a concrete floor. You really didn’t appreciate the little things until you lost them.

Nick found that Jamie and Clarissa were still deep in conversation when he returned. The three men were playing cards in the next booth over. Nick decided to try his luck and sat down next to Jamie. Jamie turned to look at him as he sat down.

“Damn dude, where’d you pick up the new chest thing?” Jamie asked.

Clarissa rolled her eyes. “Explorers huh. You were gone for like an hour, and you already managed to get new gear, that you could actually use? Typical. Though aren’t you too weak to be clearing stuff down here? You’re like 3-3 aren’t you?”

“4-3, Brawler Explorer. ” Without looking away from his cards the man with large eyes called out.

“That’s still weak. How did you manage to not get fucked up bubs?” Clarissa questioned.

“He didn’t. Cut to the back of his leg, multiple burns and scaldings. Recently healed,” the man with a large nose answered.

“How did he manage to heal?” Clarissa asked with a frown.

“Brawler’s Consitution and its evolved counterparts. Gives Brawlers regeneration after fights,” Bissus called out, similarly not looking away from the cards.

Nick felt well and truly exposed, but honestly, he was rather used to it by now. Spending so much time with Paige and under Paimon’s glare had quickly desensitised him to the feeling. Though he did wonder how much else the three men knew about him. Whatever skills they had were clearly very effective at gathering information. The three of them must be Scouts or some similar perception-based class. Nick did notice that all three of them carried daggers at their sides. So, some sort of Rogue? That was kinda cool.

Nick looked at Clarissa, what sort of class did she have? The only weapon she had on her was a butterfly knife, but Nick doubted she used that for combat. It looked more like a decorative piece to fit her aesthetic. Nick really couldn’t tell much about her from just appearances, though she definitely felt like the leader here. Was she ruling by strength? Or was it similar to what Doyle had been doing, a buff specialist? It was fun to speculate about but it didn’t really mean much. Nick decided to just act as if nothing had happened.

“So, you guys have a good conversation?” Nick asked.

Jamie was more than happy to answer. “Yeah, Clare was interested in knowing how things had been going back home. I tried to keep it mostly positive, but it really made me realise how much terrible shit has happened in the last two decades.”

Clarissa smiled. “It was still lovely to hear about how things are bub. Thank you,” she tapped the table twice and the man with a large nose walked over and placed a fabric pouch on the table. “Thank you Tris, here bubs. A gift.”

Jamie opened up the pouch and pulled out two gems. Level two class gems to be exact. Nick was gobsmacked. Tony would have been pulling out his hair in frustration if he’d seen this. Jamie didn’t even have a class yet and already had level two guaranteed for him. Jamie had no clue what the gems were though and looked a little confused. “Thanks for the pretty rocks?”

Clarissa burst out laughing and Nick couldn’t hold back a grin of his own. When Clarissa stopped laughing she explained what they were to Jamie, and while he still didn’t seem to quite get it Nick stepped in and tried to explain that it was a pretty substantial gift to get. Clarissa blew it off though. “This is chump change to me, kiddo. When you live below the 70s, these sorta gems aren’t worth anything. I don’t plan on heading back up any time soon.”

“Well, thanks, Clare. I’ll make sure to put them to good use. Thanks for the chat, though I am rather tired, where can a man get some rest around here?”

“Well,” Clare raised her eyebrow, “I’ve got a pretty nice room, pretty comfy bed as well.”

“Yeah, why not, sounds good to me,” Jamie said with a grin.

The two moved off together and Nick was left along with the three men. Nick let out a long sigh. “Say guys, got room for another in your game?”