Max watched his companions argue as they had for the last five minutes. He shook his head sitting down on a nearby slab of red stone that was likely part of the nearby wall at some point. He and his three team members had stopped to rest after a fight and their two front-liners started a discussion about their next course of action. Sar’zek, their leader, or the closest thing they had to one, wanted one thing while Esthara disagreed with the bronze-scaled snake-man. Off to the side, Tiani had also taken a seat though, unlike Max who decided to stay out of the discussion, she chimed in with her opinion every minute or so, usually not siding with one or the other.

He looked down at the ring in his hand turning it around his index finger. It gleamed in the white torchlight highlighting the alien symbols etched into the black metal. As the party’s resident Tracer, Max had identified the ring and found that its effects were best suited to him. No one argued with him taking it which had been nice. The rest of the group argued so much that he wondered why they even agreed to form a party in the first place— let alone how they made it through the month since their first mission.

He opened the relic description.

Grade: F

A ring forged by the Maidens of Ebonlight to bind sacred unions between the shadowtitans.

Those who wear one of these rings are blessed with clarity at all times and increased natural healing while within shadows. The Ebonlight also helps obscure them from sight when within low light.

Attribute Bonus: +10% Focus

Effect: Embrace of the Ebonlight, Lesser Shadow Regeneration

The Relic Hunter’s Association, or RHA, classified Relics by grade and tier. The grades were self-explanatory, but the tiers were a bit trickier, if only because the RHA created the tiers based on the information given by relic identification messages as opposed to a direct system classification. At B-grade and below, there were three tiers.

At the bottom, minor relics represented the most common type of relic found in Fracture. They always came with one to three passive effects, not all of which were guaranteed to be beneficial. At the next tier, major relics dominated the desires of nearly every individual in Fracture. The reason was simple: the attribute bonus. Since major relics granted percentage increases to at least one attribute, they remained useful even as one climbed the ranks and with the Resonance requirements for relic usage, Max had heard of B-ranked relic hunters who still used D or even E-grade relics.

The last tier relevant for normal people was pinnacle relics. These relics granted two attribute bonuses and perhaps, more importantly, bestowed a skill on the user. For anyone looking to grow more powerful in Fracture, three things mattered: designation, attributes, and skills. Designations were set in stone, as far as Max knew, from the moment someone arrived in Fracture or when they first interacted with an Obelisk if they were born within it.

Attributes and Skills though? Max had only been in Fracture for two months and actively raiding Remnants for one, but even he knew of a few ways to improve attributes and a couple of methods, including relics, to improve one’s skills or acquire new ones. In addition, relic skills almost always scaled with the attributes that were increased further cementing their usefulness.

The only downside of a pinnacle relic applied to all relics and it was simple. All relic effects and skills were heavily dependent on the context of their Remnants and their original purpose. Aside from rarity, this was the second reason why minor relics of all grades dominated the marketplace. Relic hunters were most likely to find relics with effects that were useless to them which led to the item in question being either sold or traded for something more fitting.

So, it was a brilliant stroke of luck that Max not only found a major relic but one that gave a bonus to one of his Core Attributes and had passive effects that were actually useful to his fighting style.

He looked from the ring to his hip at the pistol resting in its holster. The weapon wasn’t loaded and he didn’t have any ammunition for it on him. However, his designation removed the need for such things. He got the designation “Psy-gunner” when he was transported to Fracture and as such, he technically didn’t shoot bullets. He shot shards of psychic energy created by his mana.

These shards lacked mass, so they traveled through the air silently, having just a dim purple glow to denote their presence. In most fights, he hid toward the back taking careful shots at enemies while Sar’zek and Esthara drew attention in melee. He’d had a few fights where their foes never found his position even after they got hit and started looking.

This latest Remnant was different because they were the ones getting ambushed by various shadow creatures, but things had worked out well enough so far thanks to Sar’zek’s tank skills. The group had already figured out the whipshade-type creatures since they were dumb as nails and recovered poorly when their sneak attacks failed. They only ran into one problematic enemy after the first few encounters.

The Shadowbound Squire had been the only enemy in the room they now occupied. After the fight, Sar’zek had called it an Area Boss. An area boss was a powerful enemy that gave better Eidos compared to other creatures at its level. The thing nearly ended Sar’zek and Tiani, but the team pulled through with some amazing teamwork that momentarily pierced the wall of cynicism stopping Max from thinking the party was anything but a temporary arrangement. They had even unanimously agreed that Max would get the area boss’s ring and its sword would be sold off for credits to the RHA.

Then, they had started arguing about which direction they would take.

Fucking hell, he sighed, rolling his eyes. The argument had devolved into the two blockheads criticizing each other.

“How can you sit there and question my willingness to press my advantage when I just saved your life,” Esthara said. Her hands waved about erratically— something to do with her native language. Thankfully, since she had been transported to Fracture like Max, she had gotten the Fractured Tongue talent and thus, they could all understand her.

“Because I wouldn’t have been in danger if I didn’t need to cover your reckless flailing, foolish woman!” Sar’zek said, his rasping voice raising a notch in volume. “You are young so I feel it would be a waste for you to perish too soon, but I will not throw my life away for your pride! I have hatchlings to consider!”

Esthara’s nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed. Max wouldn’t admit it aloud, but the woman scared him more than a literal snake-man. Although, unlike Sar’zek who only had the upper body of a man, Esthara could pass as an exotic human with skin the color of obsidian and hair that flowed down to the middle of her back like pale smoke. If that were all, Max would’ve thought she was attractive. However, tattoos marked every visible part of her body and she was over two meters tall. She also tended to make ugly expressions like the one she was making at the moment.

“I. Am. A. Warrior,” she hissed slashing the hand of her sword arm through the air at the end like some kind of punctuation. “And so are you! Yet, you speak like one whose heart is weak. You nearly died because you hesitated and I did not, not because I was ‘flailing’. I’ve held my ax since I took my first steps. Do not insult me when you have chosen to walk the path of war and violence yet have not readied yourself for the perils that it brings!”

The scales running along Sar’zek’s eyes and cheeks reddened. For a few seconds, he sputtered incoherently in a furious attempt to summon some kind of response. Unfortunately, his reaction spoke volumes about the truth of Esthara’s accusation.

Max reviewed the fight in his head from a somewhat objective perspective. There were a few moments when Sar’zek could’ve struck or gone on the offensive, but chose not to do so. He originally thought it was just the snake-man’s style as a defensive fighter, but perhaps, it wasn’t.

I’m not sure if he’s hesitating or being careful though, Max thought. To him, the melee looked like a chaotic mess and his heart jumped into his throat at the thought of being attacked up close. Back on Earth, he’d been a college student with a major in business because he could decide what he wanted to do in life. His experience with firearms and marksmanship came from his time at the gun range with his father, a veteran turned policeman. If I’m honest with myself, the only reason I feel like I’m hot shit is that my skills and talent make me better at shooting and I’m usually in the least danger during fights. I can’t blame Sar’zek for not throwing everything on the line every time he swings his weapon like Esthara does.

Then and there, he resolved to step into the discussion, saving their fumbling leader from the situation and hopefully avoiding more fighting.

“How about this?” Max said. The other three turned their heads toward their previously silent companion. He stood up and walked over to a door that led to the passageway with a set of stairs leading upward at the end. The area beyond the stairs glowed with orange light casting ominous shadows on the top steps. He jabbed a thumb down the hall. “Let’s avoid the stairs for now.”

Esthara opened her mouth to argue, but he held up a hand. Surprisingly, she complied crossing her arms over her chest and fixing him with a silent, measuring stare. He suppressed a shiver.

“In my world, we had a form of entertainment called video games. Some of these video games shared a lot of similarities with Fracture’s designation and attribute system. The layout of these Remnants and Tartarus as a whole is also really familiar to me.”

“Oh! I’ve heard of these ‘video games’ before!” Tiani blurted. “My sister said one of her clients was from Earth like you and talked about them. She says they are popular with people who have too much time and not enough responsibility. I wanted to buy one, but she wouldn’t let me.”

Max winced at her words even as her head sagged a bit like a child reflecting on a sad thought causing her long braids to obscure her face briefly. He was momentarily surprised by the revelation that Fracture had video games, but realized he was being stupid. Asylum had flying vehicles, vending machines, and skyscrapers bigger than anything he’d seen on Earth. Why wouldn’t they have various forms of entertainment? He sometimes suffered a bit of whiplash when seeing the mix of advanced and primitive technology in Fracture. Magic and eidfuel made the lines blurry.

Pushing Tiani’s unintended insult aside, he recovered and powered onward.

“Anyway, my point is that my knowledge of the games has helped me adapt to the way Fracture does things,” he said. “In those games, going to another level of an area, up or down, usually meant going toward the end. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve found an area boss and there’s a stairway leading upward with ominous light ahead. Let’s go the other way, for now, that way we don’t miss anything. We’ve found four minor relics and two major relics already. This place is practically a gold mine so let’s squeeze all we can out of it.”

Esthara and Sar’zek exchanged a glance causing the tall woman to sigh.

“We take the other path for now, but only because I do not want enemies potentially lurking at our back.”

Sar’zek shook his head and then readied his shield and short spear as he slithered toward the other passage. Esthara followed behind, her ax hefted on her shoulder as her white eyes darted from shadow to shadow.

Tiani gave Max a nervous smile before following behind Esthara with her sigilcrafted rod gripped tightly in both hands. He’d been meaning to ask her about the rod for a few weeks since he wanted to find a sigil scribe to etch some sigils on his gun for a while now. Technically, he could do it himself since he had a mana pool, but he would have to learn sigilcraft and he didn’t even know where to start.

They breezed through the Remnant at a good pace after that. A few rooms and a couple of twisting halls later, they gained three more minor relics and added several eidos crystals to their collection. Rather than absorbing every eidos crystal at their disposal, they saved roughly a quarter of them to exchange for credits. The Eidos Corporation, Logos Collective, and several other organizations offered good rates even for F-grade crystals.

Eventually, they came to a decrepit set of double doors. The sight of the rotted, dry dark wood set off alarm bells in his head. Objectively, there wasn’t anything spectacular or ominous about the doors or the stone to which they were affixed, but he took a step back nonetheless.

“Guys, we need to be careful,” Max whispered.

“Should we turn back?” Tiani asked, worry immediately dominating her expression when she noticed Max’s reaction.

“No, we go forward,” Esthara said. To Max’s dismay, Sar’zek nodded in agreement after a moment of thought. The ease with which they defeated their opponents since facing the Shadowbound Squire had bolstered his confidence. Getting agreement from their leader, she leveled her stare on Max which felt an awful lot like a challenge.

Max gulped. Am I being a coward? Why am I freaked out anyway?

He took a closer look at the door with his heightened sight curtesy of being level three and having Focus as a Core Attributes. The light from the torch Tiani took from one of the walls helped too. There really wasn’t anything of note to them.

It's probably just another room full of broken shit and shitty whipshades. He took a deep breath and nodded as well. Esthara gave him a bright smile and waved for Sar’zek to proceed.

The snake-man pushed the doors open with his shield in the lead. They fell apart under the pressure crumbling inward. The sudden lack of resistance caused him to overextend but his snake half simply reestablished his balance with a short bit of movement.

Carefully, the group crossed the threshold. Esthara took the torch from Tiani and raised it above her head to cast some light on the area around them. The room extended past the limits of the torchlight on all sides although Max could vaguely make out the walls and ceiling if he squinted. At a guess, he placed the room at twenty meters from wall to wall, give or take a few meters.

They slowly walked forward. Everyone was on guard. Max’s eyes jumped from one point to another and he squeezed the grip of his gun to quell the slight tremble in his hands. Augmented vision or not, the dark still creeped him out. He nearly shouted when he ran into Tiani who had stopped.

“What the h—,” he started to say; however, the words died in his throat.

Up ahead, a high back chair sat. He hadn’t seen it a moment ago. The thing might as well have teleported in front of them.

Sitting in the chair, a withered man who must’ve been taller than even Esthara sat. He wore tattered clothing and his skin looked dull and mottled in the torchlight. On his right hand, he wore a gauntlet crafted from pitch black metal seemingly darker than even his ring or the squire's sword. He lifted his head.

“I have failed her. I have failed all of them. Yet, even a king as shameful as I cannot die to ones such as you. Come, my knight…”

Sar’zek and Tiani looked questioningly at Esthara and Max. Since they had the Fractured Tongue talent, only they could understand the man. Neither had a chance to answer though. A flow of shadows spilled from the gauntlet on the king’s right hand. It coalesced into a three-meter-tall figure with a black blade covered in golden veins. When they saw the creature, they all got the same feeling of dread. Its aura carried a familiar sensation that once felt occasionally even when walking around the Warrens, let alone the other parts of Asylum.

“It’s a rank above us, retreat!” Sar’zek yelled. Even Esthara didn’t protest, her grim expression spoke volumes. Their leader pulled out a small orb from his belt and threw it at the king and knight. It exploded in a flash of blue light.

They ran as fast as they could toward the exit but came to a halt when they got there. Instead of a doorway, there was a wall of fiery shadows in front of them. Sar’zek poked the shadows with the butt of his short spear only for the metal fixture at the end to hiss violently on contact. When he pulled it away, the metal was partially melted. Max’s breath caught in his throat.

Then, the knight’s blade struck.