Over the next few days Sorp would show up at the sparring yard, leaping to the stage and take on challengers. Initially this sparked some controversy, as this was absolutely not the norm. What was odd about the whole ordeal, is that eight out of ten fighters would be women.

Two weeks passed by in a flurry and all the guys had entered the Two-step faction. What was more is that they managed to maneuver their relationship with Sorp to gain some undeserved respect and renown.

The third week in, more men began to challenge Sorp, almost entirely because the women he kept fighting would show sudden progress. This has to do with the types of fights Sorp engaged in. He is still considered a beginner in many ways but his perseverance allowed people to break past the shackles they didn’t even know they had.

Sorp fought like an animal, not like a person. His movements, his attitude and most importantly his tolerance for pain allowed people to gain new understanding of their abilities. Sorp could do this because he actually has high social standing due to his ‘master´. Master in the terms of a high regarded teacher.

In addition to a stable standing within the Two-step faction, Sorp had access to healing facilities that allowed him to continue his reckless behaviour. It should come to no one's surprise that he progressed quickly.

However, things like tempering the body with B.F.M. energy requires time, not talent or perseverance. This can be seen by the fact that the guys were not far behind Sorp in terms of B.F.M energy tempering.

During the third and fourth week, the Two-step faction saw an increase in recruits. Sorp and some of the guys have been recording and broadcasting their journey. This has allowed people to take some shortcuts.

It isn´t just Sorp and the guys, quite a few people have an avid following of people. This following only increases and as time marches on, more people catch up. Just like in a ten meter race, a nine meter head start is massive but in a race of hundred meters, nine meters isn’t as obvious.

Pal, Ret and Jarem have gotten a rather bad reputation around the faction. Pal and Ret have been aggressive and even abusive. Jarem has fooled and tricked quite a few women into doing lecherous things with him.

Kom and Dart have been busy in their own way and Sorp hasn’t abstained from chasing after women but they still spend most of their times on more constructive things. Dart has mainly focused on his crafting and things related to it. Kom has been expanding his network of contacts and often participates in social events.

All the guys have moved into the Two-step lodgings and abandoned the housing they were assigned when they arrived in first wave city underground cavern. Over these past weeks Dart has begun to see the importance of Vcoin.

Crafting is still practicable through virtual environment but there are limits to it. Materials are not unreachable but they require some effort to obtain. Dart has even begun planning to dive into the caverns. In the caverns multiple crafting materials can be harvest.

These caverns are not as simple as one would think. They have flowing rivers, underground foliage which can make it difficult to even traverse through. To call it an underground forest wouldn't be far off. These caves can be narrow but they can also be as expansive as stadium fit to house tens of thousands of people.

The caves are filled with beasts with a large variation of B.F.M. abilities that can be harvested for crafting. Multiple ores and plants are also used in crafting, some of which need to be analyzed by machines in Perpetuity, the city. These are remnant machines which hold vast swathes of information and can be used to deduce the use of rare unknown materials. This can all be found in Perpetuity lore.

Quite a bit of materials can be identified locally through local organization, the twelve factions included. It does require them to willfully pass on the information, barring their willingness, there is no issue to send specimens back to Perpetuity at no significant cost. At most it takes time to send physical samples over. The findings can be directly transmitted through technological means, instantly.

One would think that finding new materials worth excavating and sending back to Perpetuity are rare. However, the caverns aren’t that simple, the factions have plenty of reason to keep things confidential. On top of that, the factions all have their own maps, none of which are identical. They tend to stay on their own routes and expand from there.

These procedures make sure that even on lower levels of the cavern, there are ‘unexplored’ areas. If ignoring all maps and only taking the factions maps into consideration, the first thirty levels have only been map to about twenty seven percent.

This does not mean that seventy three percent are unexplored. Just that the factions have not specifically spent time charting the areas. As to why this like this, Lore says it is because of time and money, mainly that is frivioulus to do so. These areas are not where they make their profits.

These can all be seen as trivial excuses, and perhaps they are. To a degree, it is Perpetual powers intent that people chart their own maps in preparation to do so when they leave the Pebble in the river.

This not expected of people in the sense that they actually chart the map, it is done for them as they explore the caverns. But a particular few may take up cartography to fulfill the needs of the public players.

These things are relevant as Dart has managed through his mysterious means, acquire a piece of map layout for some particular crafting materials. Areas with renewal crafting materials are nodes. These nodes are more valuable than just an ordinary maps.

Such nodes are chartered by members of the factions, mostly through contracts that not only require certain materials but also the location they were harvested. This is also how factions accumulate wealth over time.

These kinds of practices are understandable now, but when wave after wave of new people arrive, these locations will become less valuable. However that wave of people will cover that cost through quantity. At first it will push down prices of materials and then it’ll cause an inflation.

Dart is one of few front runners with his eyes on crafting materials. From an outside point of view, one would think gathering crafting materials is a priority. The reality is different. What people experience in the First wave city underground city, is combat. They experience this ethereal B.F.M. surge technique repeatedly.

Not everyone cares for combat in the traditional sense, but they do experience it in abundance at least indirectly when they join a faction. Most people join a faction but some confident loners try to freelance. Those confident freelancer are even more likely to put emphasize on combat.

It takes people like Kom or Dart to direct their attention to what is really important, crafting. It is crafting where Perpetuity’s future lies. Without crafting there is no future. A person that is reluctant to fight will still do better than a person that ignores crafting.

This makes little sense until the factor of virtual reality is taken into account. Or more precisely, that this is a game in many ways. There are armour pieces that allow people to negate damage and at the same time, allow them to deal damage.

Just from an outside perspective, this might sound unfair or unrealistic, but in practice it flows naturally. Training crafting is very much in tune with training people to fight. This is because future abilities in Perpetuity are bound to a person’s control over their energy.

This is why Sorp’s and other prominent fighters might not hold an advantage over a physically frail person. As long as a person puts in the time, they may even defeat world renowned fighters. Fighters Sorp would have lost to.

It's been over four weeks since the guys entered the first wave city underground caverns and they have not gone into the deeper caves. This might sound strange, four weeks may seem a long time to just mill around.

But in reality, things take time, especially if they are to hold any meaning. Dart has completed five contracts while the guys have at most finished one. And Sorp has finished none. The reason why they haven’t gone into the caves is because they haven’t been qualified.

Going into the caves means they have to reach a certain degree of success in body tempering. Without it, they’ll feel a debilitating pressure that’ll incapacitate them. Five days ago, their body tempering entered a stage where they’ll benefit from diving into the caves.

One way to know when they are ready is by digging out the knowledge from Perpetuity Lore or by monitoring what contracts they have available. This being a virtual environment, the system in place will know when they are eligible for a contract.

These contracts are simple fetching contracts. Members are sent into relatively safe areas to collect from known material nodes. Most of the danger is other people, but there is also a risk of the local wildlife.

Dart has accepted one these contracts and is planning to leave today. It took little no effort to get the guys to join him and accept similar contracts. While four weeks is not a long time, it is also not short.

Ret, Pal and Jarem jumped at the chance to do something other than their usual depravity, which there was too much of. On one hand they have a lot better understanding of the above ground city and its entertainment options.

Eight people walking down an increasingly crowded street are the guys and two Two-step members, both women. One of these woman is Hondura and the other, her friend Jatto. Over the past few weeks they have been routinely sparring with Sorp.

“We’ll stay at the Dive house until about eighteen hundred.”

“Alright.”

Hondura waved her hand and left for one of the cave entrances with her friend. Sorp and the guys went on to register themselves, using their identity as a Two-step member.

Certain ‘rules’ make it so the guys cannot join the two girls on their contracts. In short, they are not qualified to accept the quest the girls are attempting to fulfill.

After registering themselves, the guys are given some general information and public maps for the cave entrances. Sorp’s unique status in the Two-step faction allowed him access to a far more complete map so the guys only give the brochure a cursory glance.

“Ignore those contracts Ret.”

“Why?”

“They’re cheating everyone out of their loot.”

General contracts, meaning government contracts, are far less valuable than those issued by private organizations. But these contracts have the benefit of advancing a person’s reputation with the government.

There are benefits to high government reputation but without an obvious and immediate benefit, these contracts can be seen as poor.

One has to remember that most contracts are not about culling beasts but gathering materials. And any contracts about an action like removing pests, are usually issued by the government.

Another factor to these contracts is that they are what is called open. They do not need to be accepted or denied. When people enter an area like with a governmental office, where the guys are located right now, they are alerted to the option of turning in a contract.

Many people may casually accept turning in a contract like this, this has to do with authority. Being prompted to do something, even if it is optional, can be a very compelling.

Dart has already read up on the differing rewards from various contracts and its his opinion that is best to stick to a single organisation. The reputation accumulated can make up the loss in temporary gain.

Sorp had the grueling experience of having to use the study hall devices and on would struggle finding relevant information, but in doing so he gained valuable information. This information included potential harvest nodes.

Another thing to remember about harvest nodes, is that it is not a small location. It can be, but doesn’t have to be. Harvest nodes can also be the native habitat of specific beasts that possess useful B.F.M. appendages.

It can also be the case that specific animals hunt other animals or gather valuable materials and are then hunted for those materials. This is often the case with the smaller and smarter animals. While the larger tend to lean on brute force.

Most of the harvest nodes in the earliest caves are from animals. And majority of those are from what the animal creates rather than the animal itself. Neutral B.F.M. animals still have B.F.M. abilities but they usually come from a B.F.M. organ.

Unlike for example the monkey creature Ret is taking care of, which has a B.F.M. tail for offense and defence, these creatures have things like B.F.M. livers that process what they eat. This also means that majority of what makes them valuable has to be sifted through their droppings.

In some cases, these animals are made domesticated and in more crueler cases, the animal is killed and the organ harvested directly. Sometimes they are made into strings or concocted into potions. A tiny pebble can become a tip of a weapon, giving it unique abilities.

The guys were in a group and heading towards one of the cave entrances. This entrance is called withering depths. The name itself doesn't mean much, only that the vegetation appears to be dry and dying.

Along the path, the cave begins to twist, turn and widen. Five minutes in, the cave path begins to be wide enough that their light source isn’t enough to see from wall to wall.

“You hear anything?”

“A wind?”

“No I heard something else.”

In the caverns, the most numerous living being are small insects and critters. These critters are at best food for sustiance and nothing else. Their skittering about serves as ambient sound. The sounds blend into the guys breathing, their footsteps and the friction of moving clothes.

“Does it have to be this dark?”

“Did any of you bring a flashlight?”

There is a way to deal with dark areas without a source of light. And that is B.F.M. equipment, unfortunately, only the government sells these. Currently the guys do not have the qualification to buy them.

There is almost always a way around such restrictions. Sorp could have asked Phallen to give him a pair for example. But general government regulations don’t allow even someone like Phallen to buy multiple regulated devices on a whim.

These sorts of restrictions can be seen as arbitrary but from Perpetual Power’s point of view they are crucial to the sense of progression. Even those naturally talented at fighting need walls to break down, and those walls can come in many forms.

“Where are we now?”

“Hold on guys.”

Kom and Dart had their maps up, followed by the rest of them, leaving only Sorp to look around. Now at this point it would be a perfect opportunity for Sorp to tell them he had a near perfect map that could lead them directly to four of six locations.

It is four out of six locations because two of the contracts are ‘confirmation’ contracts. Meaning Two-step faction has begun preparing for an influx of new members. They want more starter resources as their prices will skyrocket in the coming six months.

These harvest nodes can actually result in abnormal amount of resources. While a few tens cannot begin to dent the vigorous resources of the Two-step faction, hundreds and thousands can amount to a considerable amount.