The team’s life started to settle into a groove. Leave on Sunday after the office – without attracting the attention of Father Vabsley – catch the lake, clear it on Monday, and so on, and end up doing some outdoor experience in Markandon, not too far from the Gate on Fridays and early Saturdays, and back. It was like a job now. Professional work, in all senses of the term.

On the next faire, a fifth team came. A pair of Irish again. Apparently, O’Hogan was starting to get words around the Irish community. Murray immediately complained about paddies monopolizing the trades, which the newcomers thought being genuine complaints until they realized that the Scotsman couldn’t string more than a couple of sentences without trying to inject a bad joke somewhere.

Jokes about trades aside, Jonas noted that they’d traded a bit less than the first time, with only two items of possible interest. He and O’Hogan talked about it, and realized that getting better gear meant also that they were looking for less gear. Only a couple commons had been exchanged; now, except for items from their highest lair, commons were not as interesting as quality gear.

Funnily enough, exceptional items were also not traded much. There was also a good reason for this – most of the items were old items discarded as they were replaced by quality items two or three dozen of levels higher, and just like commons, they were not that interesting at level twenty if you sported a level fifty-one.

Well, in some cases, they still had level twenty items around. It was just a matter of random luck of getting the right item for the right gear option. And not having Murray snarf up the exceptional dagger with 2INT, 22 aether and 15 health that would have been a good upgrade on his common 2INT Basic Focus Dagger – so well named it didn’t even give Focus.

Trust the Scottish joker to do that one on Jonas.

“I’ll try to have even more people next week. The word is starting to spread,” O’Hogan said as Jonas leaned back, sipping on his beer tankard.

“It’s still good for me. But if you start getting more people, this room won’t be enough.”

“I’ve talked with the tavern keeper. He’s fine with us spilling over. He used to have more people around, but the business has been drying up. It’s all warehouses for big companies and stuff like that. Fewer people come this way these days, despite the beer.”

“What’s about that beer? He’s got like five different beers that taste like nothing else. Labyrinth stuff?”

“He’s got a refugee from Flanders working for him. His people are the masters of beer craft, he says. It’s all genuine stuff, no Labyrinth foodstuff used anywhere in the recipes.”

“He must have been devastated by the Closure,” Jonas said, referring to the period with Gate access that everyone had started calling that way.

They settled down looking at the Professionals mingling. Trading negotiations had dried up and they were mostly socializing and swapping stories. Guss had come along this time and was exchanging tips with the Scottish healer, while Laura was explaining all about the properties and use of her Puppet gear holder to the edification of a group of Irish men and women. Apparently, they had never heard of the thing before.

“This might end up being more of a social gathering and less of a gear trading,” Jonas noted.

“You might be right. The Meeting of Independent Professionals? Something like that? Doesn’t sound quite good enough,” O’Hogan replied.

“Let’s try to find a more catchy name,” Jonas mused.

“You still want to test that lair to the end? Not wait until next time? Tier three will help then,” Jonas asked as they reached the third flight of stairs in the ruins.

One of the last mole-like humanoids that had been guarding it was starting to decompose. Unlike their first ruin depths, where a single set of stairs gave access to all floors, this one had rooms to traverse to get to the next flight of stairs. They’d finished the second-floor guardians and had just progressed to the last room where the stairs opened up to the final floor.

Jonas still felt they were taking unnecessary risks, but he was overruled by the rest of the team this time.

Of course, Ira’s levels as the team’s main defender helped. Just like he’d done back at tier two, the reset to level one ensured he’d shot ahead in levels. They ended up catching up, of course, and had even started to get ahead afterwards, but the same scenario was repeating itself and Ira already had his first Careful Barrier Milestone now as they slowly amassed XP. That, plus the gear traded at the fair, and more from the previous lairs got all of their Potentials and vitals slowly, but surely, crawling up.

Team

Professions

Health

Mind

Jonas Sims

Aetherist (70)

464/464

560/560

Jonathan Gilbert

Layman (70)

1068/1068

546/546

Ira Heard

Careful Barrier (82)

1635/1635

738/738

Guss Fullmore

Hospitaler (70)

530/530

548/548

Laura Harvey

Smasher (70)

708/708

629/629

Alton Raby

Piercer (70)

643/643

490/490

But they were also all nearly 71, one level away from the last Milestone and unlocking tier three. Jonas would rather wait and do the final two lairs in a row. This time, however, it was one against four – Alton was abstaining.

“Yep.” “Will do.” “You said yourself, the last fight is three elites, no elder.”

“So they say in the book. I’m pretty sure it’s been done only once. Remember the badgers, sometimes it changes,” Jonas tried to moderate the team.

“And? We run out. You said it yourself, worst case is that one of us gets resurrected after running out. I vote Ira to keep us safe,” Laura said.

“Hey!” the man weakly protested. “Who’s going to resurrect me?”

“I’ll strip your gear to use. Do I get to keep it?” Jonathan asked, grinning.

Jonas shook his head in disbelief before trying to refocus his team.

“I think you should focus on the fight instead of thinking about failing.”

The team crowded itself at the edge of the room. The occupants were apparently busy sharpening their large claw-like paws.

Lost Mole Miner × 3

Level 65 elite

Health: 1723

Mind: 645

Endurance: 1522

Aether: 0

“So… one elite on the first floor, two on the second, and three on the last floor. Sounds like a specific fixed progression,” Ira remarked.

“And Jonas’ book is accurate,” Jonathan added.

“It’s not my book, it’s the Archives’ book,” he replied before taking stock of the situation.

“Okay, so how do we approach the fight? Ira, can you take two of them at the same time?”

“I can try. Got loads more health and armour now,” he replied.

“You’re sure? We’re only one and a half levels from the next Milestone, we can wait,” Jonas insisted.

“I am. Let me do my job,” Ira insisted.

“Good. Then we focus on one of Ira’s molemen, then switch to Jonathan’s, then back to the last. Remember, they attack all around themselves, so don’t stay in range of both at the same time.”

“I’ll try to position them. But I can’t guarantee anything,” Ira said.

Ira charged yelling in the room, causing surprise and temporary confusion in the upright mole-headed humanoids. Before he’d finished, the team was already starting to fan out into the room, waiting until the enemies were separated to take their position.

“To think we ran away from two veterans,” Ira said.

“We were, what, level 30 at the time?” Laura replied across the room. “I could probably do one on my own now without you.”

“Be my guest, dear,” he joked back.

“Less talk…”

“More fighting!” the rest of team replied in unison.

Lost Mole Miner × 3: 6501XP/6 contributors = 1000XP.

You have completed the Othary Plaza Dugout lair

“Okay. I almost thought we would lose someone,” Guss said.

“No aether?”

“I might be able to do one spell in 10 seconds,” he replied.

“That’s because there’s not enough room to separate them well, and Alton and Laura still got shredded by their wild clawing. Told you we should take things easy,” Jonas noted pointedly. “It’s not as if we have to risk every lair to escape the zone anymore.”

“We still have beaten that lair,” Laura replied, as she began looking for the treasure box.

Like the rest of that ruin under the plaza-like structure, the room was half intact furniture, half some broken pieces of every kind of stuff imaginable. There was a table near a wall and an intact chair next to a fallen and broken one. Jonas noticed a wooden door at the end of the room, and moved to check it, tugging at the latch. Despite his tries, the bolt didn’t even move. He looked for broken parts or rust, but there was none. The thing simply refused to budge. He gave it a few more tries before being interrupted by a shout.

“Ah, found it,” Laura called as she finally moved away some rubbish, uncovering a tarnished and dirty copper-plated box.

Jonas noticed her surprise as she pulled out not one, but… three items from the treasure box. She then swore loudly.

“What?”

“Basic items. Every single one. Not even a common quality one.”

Miner Pick

Two-Handed

Basic equipment

Requires: Level 62

Provides: 15 piercing damage

“That’s the first time I’ve seen a pick,” Jonas commented.

“A pick, a hammer and a shovel. Sounds like a theme,” Guss noted.

“Yea, but that hammer is still a piece of junk, though,” she insisted.

“But now, you’ve done the lair. Everyone’s happy?” Jonas said.

“Why yes, I am, fustilugs. Still, six lairs out of seven.”

“And we’re not doing the next. It’s nearly 10 levels higher, and we might not even be able to use the gear of the early guardians because we’re still below 71. Except for Ira.”

“Fine, fine. You win. This run.”

Ira shrugged.

“Speaking of which, what do you think about going to Markandon for getting good experience,” he said.

“We probably don’t have enough time to get 72 before heading to Gatepost, but otherwise, why not,” Jonas replied.

They all acquiesced. As they were filing out of the room, Guss moved to the entrance side and grabbed the torch, twisting and turning it until he managed to tear it out.

“Uh?”

“Learned from the broker we use. Those things are powered by mini-Power Crystals, barely useful. But the torches themselves last for a couple of months, and there’s a real market back in London for torches that don’t need fuel or anything and keep on burning.”

“Oh?”

“The man was ready to pay two shillings for torches. It’s probably a rip-off again, but I’m guessing we can still get nearly two pounds out of the lair.”

“But won’t they burn our bags? They light up again when you smother them,” Jonas said.

“Aha! You’re doing it wrong. Watch!”

Guss turned the torch in hand until he found what he was looking for. He brandished the torch, putting his finger next to a small yellowish dot that looked to be the tiny Power Crystal the torch was supposed to have. He then put his thumb on it, and the flame vacillated, before extinguishing itself. He released the thumb, then hit the Crystal dot again, and the flame popped out almost immediately.

“Wow. Awesome.”

“Sounds almost like a better income than bulk gear sales,” Alton noted.

“There aren’t that many lairs with those torches, suppose,” Guss said.

Jonas tried to count. They’d done something like a dozen lairs now, with two ruins with torches. That did seem plenty enough. But Guss might be right.

“So, Howard, I got this message from Babbage. About some experiment… abroad? Do you know what it’s about?” Jonas asked as he entered the Archives.

“No. Haven’t’ heard anything,” the man replied.

“Is he around?”

“I haven’t seen him since the Gate re-opened. I think he is busy in London. As usual. Despite being a Professional, the man spends half his time at the Earthside Archives.”

“Oh. I’ll go there to check later then.”

“So how do your levels go? Making progress?”

“Doing those lairs works well. Ira’s tier three now, and we’re half a level away from that,” Jonas said.

“Zone guide helpful?” Howard enquired.

“Some. It’s a bit underwhelming, but I guess we spent more time in those lairs now than anyone else. Lots of details that are missing,” Jonas replied.

“Depend on which ones. I suppose nobody but you will ever make use of these but note them down. We’ll sort it out for next edition then. So, what kind of stuff is missing?”

“Like, we found a door in a lair. First time I’ve seen a closed door and it’s not on the book.”

“What door? Where?”

“The Plaza Dugout. There’s a bunch of crap in the last room, and there’s a door but we couldn’t open it, even with all six trying to push it. I wondered if there was another room we missed?”

“Ah, one of those. We don’t record that kind of details. We call those properties, like theatre things. Like a door that doesn’t open, a cask you can’t move. Or a stone fall closing a tunnel that you can’t budge the smallest rock, even with 600 Strength. That’s a fun one I've seen myself.”

“So what’s it for?” Jonas asked.

“Best guess? Scenery, just like theatre. There’s a big hypothesis that the Labyrinth is basically a training ground for Professionals and that all the lairs are set-ups for some exercises.”

“A training ground for what?”

“That’s the question. But it’s one of the many theories about the Labyrinth’s existence. These people are usually called the Apocalyptics since the most likely training would be for the battle at the End of Days.”

Jonas’ eyes bulged.

“Are we really training for…”

The Archivist laughed.

“It’s one of many. Without more information, many things are possible. There are lots of unanswered questions in the Labyrinth, far more than actual answers.”

Howard sobered.

“And even when you think you’ve got some of it all cornered, you get something like you coming out of nowhere, and you get new questions you had no idea you had to ask.”