Crystals cracked and melted away as I climbed back out of the hole. I tried contacting Inopsy a few more times, but got only static in response. Keratily hadn’t shown up and blasted us into nonexistence yet, so he hadn’t lost, but I was starting to get more than a little worried. The second Annette destroyed this place, Inopsy would have to do a hell of a lot more to distract Keratily.

I opened my interface as I pulled myself free of the hole and scrolled over to my inventory. Nothing jumped out at me as anything I could use at the moment, and that was kind of frustrating. I’d been on this world for a while now, and I really didn’t have a whole lot of gear to show for it. My armor set, trinkets, and my one weapon were all I really had to my name gear-wise.

“I need a lot more utility and combat stuff.” I muttered to myself as I summoned a vial of water and dumped it down my throat. Everything I’d lost in the run and struggle came back right away, and then a little more joined it. “There has to be a downside to this stuff. Percentage healing should never be this good, but if there’s no hidden side effects, I don’t think I’d ever find a better consumable than this one.”

My boots splintered a paving stone as I pushed off in the direction of the next set of Keratily’s crystals. The city blurred around me as my armor worked to push me past my limits, which didn’t feel as low as they had a minute ago. My steps were a little lighter, and my legs pumped with a little less effort than before. I swiped over my interface to my armor, which had… changed. There were no longer slots for different kinds of equipment, just weapons, trinkets, and one general armor slot.

I pressed on my armor and waited for it to shift to that screen. Apparently I couldn’t go back from here–hopefully that wasn’t a huge-ass mistake.

//OILBLOSSOM-SANCTUARY(//CORRUPTED,Professional).

Core mastery requirement: Variable. Currently 35.

Current item mastery: 22

//SLYKENED-SOUL: While powered with Slyk Oil, grants an empowered interface and functions are 10+X% stronger in all facets.

Oils from stronger Slyk grant larger X values and drain their energy slower.

This armor grows stronger with the user’s blood-oil.

Mastery 22 upgrade: Increases all of the user’s stats by X as long as this armor is powered by blood-oil, scaling with the quality of their blood-oil.

Upgrades at mastery 1/[22]/49/76/???

//Blood-Oil Quality: Above-Average 1%.

//Translates to a 30% X value.

That explained the new sensations. All of my stats had just taken a significant jump, but it still wasn’t quite as much as if I’d had a full set of oilblossom armor. The caveat was that this stat boost could easily outpace the other one as I got stronger, which made the armor sort of feel like I was supposed to keep it forever.

Especially with that one line of text–‘This armor grows stronger with the user’s blood-oil’. I thought that was just another reminder that my blood-oil would give it better X values, but no–that was another line on the thing’s description that I’d completely overlooked. So what would happen to my armor as my blood-oil got stronger? Would it just… upgrade itself? Would it get more mastery upgrades? Or would the mastery upgrades just get better?

Something to look forward to when all this was over. And boy did I need something like that.

{Okeria, I’m on my way to the eastern crystal. Any movements I should know about?}

{Nothin’ so intense I’d need ya ta know. Scalovera hasn’t shown his face, Keratily completely disappeared, and I haven’t caught wind of the other mercs on Danday’s level movin’ in a way that’d affect ya and Annette. Keep on, and I’ll keep ya posted.}

{Alright. Good luck.}

Okeria snorted out a little laugh. {That’s my line, Sebastian. And I’m gonna use it–good luck. Don’t get killed.}

I nodded to nobody and tapped the side of my helmet. The action was completely unnecessary, but there was some kind of satisfaction at activating the core-scanning function with physical touch. Far too many outlines appeared in oily blues, and not all of them were on street level. Most of them weren’t, in fact.

A huge crowd charged by right under my feet. Some of them were outlined in such an intense blue that I had to squint to look at it, and others were such a weak colour that it was almost white. But what outnumbered the outliers twenty to one were the normal blues. I quickly relayed the information to Okeria, but he brushed me off just as fast.

{I’ve got eyes on ‘em already. Two monsters in that group, but they don’t look like the ones Danday was hired along with. Must be reinforcements from outta town.} He explained as casually as someone would their shopping list. {I’ll drop the hammer on ‘em once you’re outta collateral damage range. How many of ‘em can ya put your sword’s function on?}

Good question. I shifted my weapon into twin daggers and snapped them to my legs, then spun around and locked onto the most brilliant blue outlines I could make out. They’d get a notification the second I activated my function, so I just held it there. One step away from activation.

{Give me a three second countdown before you blast ‘em.}

{Three.}

C’mon. I sighed and forced wipe-away to settle on as many people as I could, which as it turned out, was a whole fucking lot. Seventeen links settled on my mind, and as two seconds ticked by with Okeria’s counts, my battery dropped from overfull to a measly twenty percent. Counter notifications popped up like weeds as people tried to undo what I’d just done to them, but a pillar of horrifically destructive lightning changed those notifications into very different ones.

{Done and dusted.} Okeria said grimly. {Fair warnin’, some of those people were Endra’s chosen. They’re gettin’ in here somehow, but they haven’t sent in any of their really heavy hitters just yet. Except for the two that managed ta survive that blast. Ya might wanna get outta there before they pull themselves together.}

Reinforcements this soon? That was bad news. I clicked my tongue and watched all the crystallized experience flow in, along with a whole lot of cores that represented a lot more death than I was comfortable with. How many of those people had just been doing their jobs?

No. I couldn’t think like that now. They were even more likely to be infected with Endra’s parasites if they were with her chosen. Death for those people would be a mercy.

I opened my map and let it orient itself so I was perfectly facing my destination. This was what I needed to focus on, not anything else.

Something was fucky. I stood at the base of a crystal the size of a limousine standing on its nose. Waves of pink washed off of it like localized aurora, and with it came the inexplicable urge to lay down my weapons and wait. Except there wasn’t anything else. No visor-sucking crystal to fuck with my brain, no guardians to prevent me from getting at it, and not even a single sign of Keratily.

I knit my eyebrows together and let the teleportation anchor fall to the ground. {I’m in place, Annette. How much longer?}

{None. I’m done here.} She said slowly. {Is it safe to teleport?}

{I can’t see anything here, but that doesn’t mean it's safe. Be ready to fight the second you appear.}

{Roger that. Activating the ring now.}

The anchor crackled with electricity, then Annette stood in front of me. She dusted off a thin layer of liquid crystal from her arms as she scanned the room.

“This is a lot more like what I expected from the other one. Except… wait. Are we in a living room?”

The table, chairs, and a plush-looking sofa all pointed to yes. It reminded me a little of the place I’d seen in Okeria’s message before we went into Acasiana’s hazard, but not quite the same. For one, there was the big fuck-off crystal. And for two, I hadn’t gone through a house to get here. I’d jumped down a manhole, screwed a lid off a pipe, and shimmied down the barely me-sized opening through perfectly clear water.

And found myself in a living room. “None of the doors or hallways go anywhere, unless I’m under Keratily’s hypnosis thing and they actually do. Check ‘em if you want, but otherwise, just do your thing.”

“Yeah, okay.” Annette muttered while she walked around the crystal that had been placed through the table in the middle of the room. “This crystal’s different than the other one. It feels like there’s a whole lot of stuff inside of here, but the other one felt like it was giving out orders. Almost like this one’s a receiver, and the other’s a transmitter.”

“Really?” I stepped in a little closer and tried to get a feeling for the crystal. “I can’t feel anything. But if you’re sure, I’ll trust you on this. Wouldn’t a receiver be a lot more heavily guarded than a transmitter if the entire point of Keratily’s function is to steal experience from people?”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Hrm. Alright, keep the teleport anchor on your person at all times. Okeria, you watch over her and teleport her to me instantly if Keratily or anything that could put this operation in danger shows up.”

{Gotcha. One drone on watch duty comin’ up.} He confirmed. {Annette, can ya put some of that mossy stuff on it ta shield it from Keratily’s influence?}

{I can.} Annette confirmed with a nod. Okeria’s tiny drone appeared from behind my head, floated over to Annette, and got the coating he’d requested. {Can you do a scan of this place to see if any of these doors actually lead anywhere?}

{Already did, and they don’t. This place is a replica of somethin’, but I can’t put my finger on what or why. Keep a sharp eye out, and I’ll keep an even sharper one. Seb, people are on your tail. Not Annette’s. Can ya lead ‘em away?}

{The same people you nearly nuked into oblivion?}

{Yep, the two of ‘em.}

{Will do.} I confirmed and made my way for the pipe. “You all good, Annette?”

“As good as I can be.” She chuckled. “Don’t get yourself killed. It means they’ll kill me after.”

“And then we’d all be doomed.” I said grimly. “Don’t worry, I have a little too much to live for. Do your thing.”

“Same to you.”

I slid into the pipe and screwed the lid back on before sprinting through the waterways away from Annette and the city. The twisting and turning dripping catacombs rumbled with movement, and I caught a glimpse of a smoky flash somewhere behind me. I twisted to make sure there were two people following me, and sure enough, there were two suits of armor barreling down the waterways after me.

{Any insights, Okeria?}

{Yeah. Get aboveground before ya fight. The smoky one can phase through solid objects, but I don’t got no info on the other. Play it safe, and don’t give ‘em a more advantageous position than ya have ta.}

The next manhole came less than ten seconds later. I jumped as high as my legs would let me, sailed straight through the opening, and stumbled into a continuation of the run from before. There was still a little city around me, but there was a whole lot of basin just a few hundred feet away.

That’s where I’d make their graves.