Mai stood for a couple of seconds, utterly stunned at what she had just witnessed.

“Mad as a box of frogs,” she muttered to herself as she looked out through the hatch to see Andries running face down the side of the pipe in a controlled measure. “Not a chance I’m going to be doing that.”

Opening her SKILLS menu, she tried to see if she had rappelling, but it was greyed out.

“Emperor’s teeth!” she stamped her foot in frustration. The only skill which might actually help her get down the pipe was FREERUNNING. Activating any skill was better than trying to rappel and wing it. She didn’t even have the BASE 20% in it, so would essentially be winging it. Not something she really wanted to do, but Andries seemed to think she could do it, and she didn’t want to fail him.

In at the bloody deep end, she thought. Here goes nothing, she activated FREERUNNING, sat on the edge of the hatch, pushed herself over the edge and gingerly lowered herself down.

“Oh come on! My mothers can move faster than you!” Andries’ voice crackled in her earpiece, startling her. Foot slipping, she face-planted into the side of the pipe, the world suddenly spinning, body bouncing.

DAMAGE 1%

SOAK 99%

“Don’t thrash! Just stay still, I’m coming back up!” Mai didn’t have to look down to see Andries coming towards her, she was head down, blood rushing from her boots to fill her head.The pressure continued to build, head pounding with each heartbeat.

“I don’t feel so good, can you come closer?” she groaned. “Feeling quite sick.”

“If you puke, don’t you dare raise your visor, there’s enough poison gas to melt your lungs in seconds!” Andries continued to climb towards her as quickly as he could. Mai swallowed down the bile that rose into her mouth as she swung back and forth on the rope, gyrating as she did.

Just as her stomach rumbled and started to contract he reached her. Grabbing her foot he expertly spun her the right way up. Too late. Vomit raced up her throat, punching through her pinched lips and decorating the inside of her mask.

She breathed in. Vomit washed straight back into her mouth and throat. Gagging, she vomited again, her reflexes kicking in and taking another breath.

DAMAGE! 1%

CHOKING!

PANIC!

HEALTH 99%

“Breathe out! Your mask will clear! Breath out!”

She could barely hear Andries, the hammering of heart, the pounding of her lungs filling her head. Arms flailing she reached for her visor’s release.

“Breathe out!” Andries slapped her hands away, fighting her each time she reached up to try to open her helmet.

CHOKING @5% PER SECOND

PANIC!

HEALTH 94%

Stars exploded in her eyes as she breathed in the acidic goop and threw it back up again. Her throat burned and she tried to scream, but there was no air and yet more goop flooded into her mouth.

CHOKING @10% PER SECOND!

HEALTH 84%

She was completely blind, unable to open her eyes, screwed shut against her own stomach acid. Time ceased to exist. Her world boiled down to one desperate need, to breathe.

CHOKING @15% PER SECOND

HEALTH 69%

Whether her eyes were shut or not, the notifications kept coming, there was no escaping them. No escaping the vomit-filled prison her helmet had become.

DAMAGE! 10%

STUNNED!

HEALTH 59%

Barely conscious she felt her visor lifted from face, replaced before her mind even truly registered what had happened.

DAMAGE! 5%

WINDED!

HEALTH 54%

Pain exploded in her belly, blasting her lungs clear before she drew in a breath of mercifully vomit-clear air. She hung, whooping, and wailing as she gradually returned to normal. Finally able to open her still-stinging eyes, she looked over at Andries.

“Next time, maybe unlock the skill I need, yeah?”

***

It took nearly half an hour before she felt able to continue, her health restoring as soon as she’d stopped CHOKING, oxygen starved brain returned to what Andries tried to jokingly refer to as ‘the Mai we all know and love’. From the look on his face he knew it was in poor taste before he’d even finished speaking.

“Don’t ever fucking do anything like that to me again,” she shissed, pointing a shaky finger at him. “I don’t care how you think it’ll improve me if it nearly bloody kills me!”

She tried to shout that last sentence, but her throat was dry and it came out as a rasp instead.

“Sorry I had to hit you,” he said, looking genuinely ashamed. “As soon as I got your visor off and flicked it clear of puke, I needed you to breathe out and clear it of the poison. Best thing I could think of was punching you in the bread basket.”

Mai flapped her hand, he’d saved her life after all. A punch was nothing compared to that.

“How about you give me rappelling now?”

“Sure, it’s a niche skill, only fifty credits. Normally a company would bring ladders. You happy with that?” He flinched as though expecting she might do him some damage. She couldn’t deny it wasn’t tempting.

“No, I’m not okay with that, I just don’t have a bloody choice, do I?”

RAPPEL SKILL UNLOCKED

PAY 50 UC?

YES/NO

She selected YES without even thinking about it. Just another five days of work to carry out a supposedly simple task.

“This better pay out or I’m five hundred and fifty credits down!” she snarled as she checked her SASS to see what the skill actually gave her.

Rappel

The act of attaching oneself to a double-coiled rope affixed at a higher point and using it to descend vertical or near-vertical surfaces.

It was all perfectly reasonable. She closed the menu as there wasn't much else that she needed to know. The skill was PASSIVE, meaning that she wouldn't have to activate it, although there were some sub-skills listed such as 'SUICIDE DIVE', 'BUNGEE AWAY', and 'FACE FIRST', which she would be able to unlock the more she used the skill. Not that I'm looking to use this any more than I have to. I mean, just how many times am I going to abseil down a shit filled sewer blocked by a plug of fat?

Now that she had the skill, despite the fact it was at only twenty per cent, she immediately felt a lot more confident about completing the task. She adjusted her rope, changed the tension here, added more slack there, and got herself comfortable. Her heart rate immediately started to return to normal, and she realised just how scared she had been just hanging there.

"Good, ready to go?" asked Andries, who had silently hung next to her whilst she got things sorted.

"Yeah, much better," she even managed to smile as she kicked off from the side of the sewer and dropped a few paces. Landing both feet against the side of the sewer, she flexed her knees automatically, absorbing the impact easily, transferring what could have been a jarring blow into a relatively soft landing.

As soon as she was ready she boosted away from the wall, a little bit harder this time, and dropped even further. Andries matched her jump for jump, offering advice as he did so, clearly still guilty that he hadn't done this in the first place. In what seemed like no time at all they were knee deep in shit and releasing themselves from the ropes.

FIRST TIMER!

FLAWLESS!

"You're a natural! Must be all that FREE RUNNING you've done," Andries clapped her gently on the shoulder.

"I managed to add a couple of percentage points, two per cent to be precise, on that drop as well," she grinned back, just glad that she'd made it all the way down without a repeat of earlier.

"Ah, that's because certain skills reward you for flawless uses of them. Did you get a FLAWLESS notification?"

"Uh huh," she nodded.

"Yeah, you basically performed every move as perfectly as possible at your level, which is the base of twenty per cent. Otherwise you'd have earned experience for each jump you did well, but that experience would have been a sliding scale. I don't have a clue how that actually translates into figures, don't really care either, but hey, you levelled it up two per cent!"

He gave her his signature big grin and a double thumbs up.

"So, let's blow shit up!"

She grinned back, unable to resist. Out of everyone in the Sewer Worker Company, he'd done the most to make her feel at home and she had the feeling that it wasn't because it was his job, but because he genuinely cared about all of his fellow workers. She hadn't heard a bad thing said about him, which was in marked contrast to a lot of the workers in the company.

"How do we do this?" she peered over as he started making blocks of explosive.

"I'll make the explosive and tell you where to stick it," he chuckled before continuing, she didn't bother asking what he was laughing about, his humour could be somewhat childish at times. Another thing she liked about him. He didn't take things too seriously when there was no need. "And make sure you do, otherwise the explosive won't blow properly."

"Do I get social score for placing the explosives?" she asked as she took the block he handed her.

He paused, cocking his head. "Ummm, yes? I can't give you the skill because it's too advanced for your professional level right now. We don't want everyone knowing how to blow things up. It can lead to unfortunate incidents. Touchy subject," he added as she opened her mouth to ask about those very incidents.

"No worries, tell me where to place them, I'll do it, and we'll see if I get the skill or not," she hated this about the way nanites, and skills worked. Everyone took for granted the fact that they had nanites in their system just waiting to activate knowledge, but the actual mechanics of the whole thing were a mystery to everyone. Granted, you carried out an action you had no skill in, and you'd earn experience points which would see you slowly gain expertise in the skill. Or, as the Skills Mistress had explained before, you were granted the skill by your employer and immediately started at a base of twenty per cent.

"Okay, take the block you're holding and place it over there," a red target block appeared now that she was in possession of the explosive and was essentially attacking the plug. "Take this."

She turned to see what 'this' was. It was a thin cylinder of metal with what looked like a small antenna attached to it.

"Place the explosive into the red target box, then carefully, and I mean carefully, push this into the block of explosive. Don't push too hard and don't hold it for too long either."

"Why not?" she asked, although she rather suspected she knew the answer.

"It's a radio-controlled detonator. If you snap it, it'll blow your hand off. If you snap it whilst it's in the explosive, it'll vaporise you and most likely kill me too. If you hold it too long it'll get too warm with the same results. Chop, chop!" he made a shooing motion with his hand.

Sighing, Mai waded through the knee-deep brown slop to the target. Kneeling down, she placed the explosive carefully, trying to ensure she got it as central as possible, hoping to maximise the amount of social score she'd earn once the mission to blow the fat plug was over.

It took them another thirty minutes to place all of the explosive required, with Andries having to pause and eat protein paste to top up his nanites.

"It's the fact that the blocks of explosive, detonator, and radio antenna are all counted separately. I can't just make a block of remotely detonated explosive. God knows why."

Mai thought she had an inkling. Making each took time, not long, but long enough. It also cost in BIO-MASS. Giving workers access to something so powerful in one go might give some of the less desirable elements bad ideas. Bad ideas which Andries had already hinted at.

She didn't say this however, just shrugged as she slurped down her own protein paste. Wading through the thick morass of excrement was tiring, and she was glad for the rest and a bite to eat. Not that eating was easy with a visor on. There was a small attachment which allowed her to push the nozzle of the protein paste tube through, from there it was a simple matter of squeezing and sucking at the same time. It wasn't as good as a proper meal, but she was so hungry it didn't matter what it was. The coolness of the paste also helped soothe her throat.

"Right, time to ascend and blow this bad boy," Andries tossed his paste tube into the pool. "Once it's blown, we'll rappel down to the bottom of the pipe and see what we can find before we tell them to turn it back on."

***

The climb back up was much easier than Mai had expected, and far less dramatic than her first descent attempt. She didn't gain any Social Score worth mentioning however as it wasn't her first attempt. Pausing to rest her legs, she opened the menu and saw that she'd get a boost every 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 uses of the skill. Since it was unlikely she'd ever use it that much, she pushed that to the back of her mind.

Once they were at the top, Andries carefully closed the hatch, ensuring that it was snugly secured before leading her to a dog leg in the corridor.

"You can never be too careful when using explosives. Always, always put something between you and the explosion. Preferably more than one thing as well. Here goes."

Lifting a small clacker device, Andries grinned then squeezed. There was a pause, then a dull thud. It was, Mai decided, utterly underwhelming.

MISSION COMPLETE!

NEW SKILL! USE EXPLOSIVES! RANK 1!

USE EXPLOSIVE BONUS +5%

FAT PLUG DESTROYED

+10 SOCIAL POINTS – YOU HAVE DONE THE EMPIRE A GREAT SERVICE!

She was happy with the new skill, but her mouth soured at the suggestion she’d done the Empire a great service.

"Right! Let's go see what we've got," and with that Andries was sprinting towards the hatch. It caught Mai off guard as she was just about to access the USE EXPLOSIVE skill description. Instead, she was forced to blink-click the notifications closed.

"What's the rush?" Mai called, cursing as she scrambled to catch up.

"Well, now we've blown the fat berg and it's dropped, it's fair game for anyone down in that tunnel. We've got to beat them to it to stake our claim."

"Shit!" Mai snatched her rope and clipped herself on. "What the Hells are we waiting for?"

Andries didn't answer, pulling open the hatch and launching himself through the opening just as he had before.

"Oh for Buddha's sake!" groaned Mai. Reaching the lip of the hatch, she launched herself out backwards, bounding down the sewer wall, cursing each time she landed badly or slipped slightly. Glancing down the badly-lit pipe she caught glimpses of Andries as he raced down the wall, dozens of paces ahead of her.

"Come on! I'm nearly there. You've got at least another hundred paces. Hurry!"

Mai sighed, kicked off hard and loosened her grip, plummeting towards the bottom of the pipe. Tightening it, she slammed into the side of the pipe harder than she planned, her soles stinging with the impact despite the heavy boots she was wearing. Another few descents and she splashed down next to Andries who was busy sorting through the blocks of shattered fat berg.

"I'm using SCAVENGER, which I can't grant you as it's not technically a work-based skill. You'll have to learn it yourself. It's both a PASSIVE and ACTIVE skill. When ACTIVE it helps you spot stuff much quicker. Like ..." he paused, head scanning left to right. "This!"

He practically pounced on a piece of fat berg which looked like practically every other piece of fat berg. Cracking it open, he revealed an old copper bottle.

"Um, wow," she offered. "How much is that worth?"

"Ah, well according to my skill, it's worth about one credit. Give or take," he tucked it into a backpack she hadn't seen him with before.

"Try it, just hunt through the blocks. If you feel drawn to one more than any others, crack it open. Toss the ones you don't feel drawn to over to me and I'll make sure we don't miss anything."

Mai sighed, teeth gritted in frustration as she weighed the one credit that bottle was worth against the five hundred and fifty she'd spent to get to this stage. And looking at the huge piles of fat before them, her shoulders slumped as she realised just how long they were going to be there.

***

"Berg claimed by Sewer Company Fifty-Five!" yelled Andries as a troop of other workers appeared around a bend in the tunnel. Mai straightened, back clicking after hours of stooping as she shifted through the fat. Andries had been forced to expand his backpack at least twice. There was a chorus of groans and the odd curse as the workers turned around and traipsed back the way they had come. Mai was surprised they hadn't put up more of a fight, in fact she'd been geared up for a fight. But it seemed that rules were rules and the Sewer Workers respected them.

Despite having earned the SCAVENGER skill after finding her first bit of what Andries called loot, she was unsure as to how much their bounty was worth since her measly one per cent in the skill gave her ballpark figures with the result that each one pretty much stated a value of one credit all the way up to one hundred for a crystal she'd found.

When she'd asked why in the Emperor's name would someone throw away a crystal potentially worth so much, Andries had just shrugged. And so had she once she'd thought about it. Why they did it didn't matter. That they did, did matter because it meant she could use the loot to clear her debt quicker.

"Why didn’t I get SCAVENGER when I was working on the fat berg last week?"

"Were you drawn to anything, or did you find anything?" he asked as he tossed away the last piece of fat berg she'd passed him without a second glance.

"Nope," she looked around and sighed in relief as she saw there were no more pieces of fat to sort through.

"That's why. Like I said, it's not guaranteed that you'll find something. And if no-one told you, you wouldn't have known to even look if you had felt that one piece was different to another. And," he twisted at the hips, making his back click loudly, "being a noob, no-one would have felt inclined to make it easy for you. But if you had spotted something, then you’d have got it at one per cent."

"Bastards," she said, although she couldn't really blame them. When the whole system seemed designed to keep them trapped in the sewers, helping someone they barely knew to get out would have gone against their own interests. "Why are you so keen to help me then?"

Andries opened his mouth to answer, then paused, as if unsure of what he was going to say.

"I'm your mentor. That's my job. I mentor you. Get you up to scratch and get rewarded for doing so. I take a cut from your salary by the way. So you better hit target, okay?” He laughed, but she could sense an underlying current of seriousness.

"Yeah, but you could have done that without bringing me here. Today alone I've gained RAPPELLING, USE EXPLOSIVES and SCAVENGER. I'm a bit shit at the last two, but all of them are skills I don't really need."

He didn't say anything for a while. Then shrugged.

"Let's just say, I feel compelled to help you. I like you, and I want to see you progress. So I’ve been taking you on extra missions, rather than just sticking with the day job."

"I'll take that," she smiled as he shouldered his backpack. "Time to go home?"

"Oh yes, and on the way I'll introduce you to the Scavenger Queen.”