Nick slammed his foot down onto one of the spider-like things trying to climb his leg as he pulled one off his arm and threw it away.

“ARHGHHHHH!”

Nick managed to get all of the creatures off him and he started running, hoping to put some distance between himself and the little terrors. Said terrors were scurrying after him at a rapid pace, their long dark legs scuttling along the concrete floor.

Nick turned around to face the little swarm, ten of the creatures still barreling towards him. He realised he’d ran himself into a corner and now had to fight his way out. Covered in bites and scratches he met the swarm’s charge head on. He kicked one of the creatures across the room and caught one jumping towards him, barely stopping it before it’s mouth met his flesh. He ignored the legs slicing into his arms and used the creature as a buldgening tool, striking down at the next creature to get close.

After amassing numerous injuries, Nick let out a gutteral yell and slammed his fist through the last of the spiders. Having defeated the last of his foes he collapsed down to the ground.

Wave 2 Complete!

Continue?

Hell nawh. Nick was completely spent, if there had have been even one more spider he might have bitten the dust. As he rolled over and pushed himself up to his feet he saw Maddy burst through the door and sprint towards him. He saw a faint glow around her palm and then he felt a tingling sensation across his body. Suddenly he felt like something was being pulled out of his wounds and he panicked, looking at his arms he saw shadowy wisps dissapaiting from his cuts as they slowly closed up.

“What the hell is going on?” He asked no one in particular.

“That right there is why healers are so important. Plenty of classes have a self-heal of some sort, but only healers can remove taint. Saves more than a pretty penny on pills.” Joshua answered.

Nick certainly liked the sound of a self-heal. Considering the creatures he’d encountered so far, being able to stay healthy would be incredible.

“Well you made it further than any other freshie we’ve dragged in here before. Congrats Nick. Poor Greg couldn’t even beat wave one before he got a combat class.”

“Not that he could beat wave two after he did.” Jacob chided.

Nick was really getting the feeling the group didn’t like this Greg character. Nick was a bit conflicted, he felt like he was in the same boat as the guy. They likely had faced similar treatment from Tony. Then he realised he could be facing the exact same fate.

“What happened to this Greg guy?” Nick tried to casually asked, hoping the anxiety wasn’t too detectable in his voice.

“Bastard cut and run. Hear he’s living like a king working for Margret on the 70th now.” Jacob barely hid the disdain in his voice.

“Sure Jacob, like you wouldn’t take the same opportunity.” Joshua joked, earning a laugh from the other two members of the group.

Jacob only glared back at everyone. Nick couldn’t help but grin himself, it felt like he was getting a hang of the group dynamics at play here.

“So I guess us Explorers are pretty valuable?”

“Don’t be getting any ideas now.” Jacob actually drew one of his knives and pointed it at him, causing Nick to blank.

Joshua pushed Jacobs arm down but his own face was serious.

“Look Nick, Explorers are a rather rare commodity around here and we aren’t prepared to give up such benefits. I’ll make it extremely clear, you won’t be telling anyone outside of Tony’s crew your class.”

Nick searched the faces of the team, Joshua was straight faced, Jacob had a smug grin, Logan was looking away and Maddy looked uncomfortable. Nick couldn’t help but sigh.

“What did I expect.” Nick muttered to himself as he brushed himself off. “Thanks for the heal Maddy.”

The group fell into a rather uncomfortable silence as Nick checked his wounds. Most of them had completely healed, only a few of the worse cuts he’d gotten still remained but they were still significantly healed. Nick certainly needed a self-heal, this was awesome. His clothes were certainly in tatters though.

“Any of you happen to bring a change of clothes?” He asked.

Joshua pulled a large shirt out of a bag he was carrying a threw it at him. Inspecting it Nick realised this must have been planned. The giant shirt had a childish graphic plastered across it. He’d just been hazed. Goddamnit. Nick just had to roll with it.

He turned the shirt inside out, put it on, then tied off all the slack in a knot. The group looked at him, surprise plastered across their faces.

“Well damn. Got us there.” Jacob scowled.

Logan grinned and Maddy let out a light laugh, even Joshua’s straight face eased into a smile. While Nick wasn’t happy with the circumstances, first his new asshole of a boss and now a team that clearly viewed him as a tool, he just had to make do. He would love to pull the same stint as Greg but he needed to make sure he could get his family out as well.

While Nick certainly had a lot of the grumble about, he also couldn’t lie to himself, he had enjoyed the two challenge rooms he’d faced so far. He had always enjoyed the fights he’d gotten into over the years and it hadn’t felt the same when he’d transitioned to boxing as a way to more safely itch his need for violence, at the behest of his family. Finally getting the excuse to just focus purely on fighting for a while reawakened the burning desire he’d been suppressing for the past few years.

Ignoring the utterly bizarre setting and the god awful politicing he was facing, he couldn’t help but feel excited. It hadn’t even been two days yet but he’d already almost died once, had two exhilirating fights and seen sights that were previously beyond comprehension. Speaking of sights beyond comprehension.

“So uh, what’s going on with this hotel?” He hadn’t had the chance to really ask anyone about it so far.

“The illogical geometry? The eerie aesthetic? Couldn’t tell you. You just get used to over the years I guess. I forget that the real world isn’t like this.” Joshua answered.

“You don’t think this place is real?” Nick asked.

Suprisingly it was Maddy who answered. “How could this be real? Look aroud, the monsters? The game-like system? The hotel?”

“None of you have really been to the Parklands, now there’s nothing realer than that place.” Jacob added in, Logan grunted in approval.

Nick had heard the Parklands mentioned a couple of times now. Sorry Gareth, sometimes questions just need to be asked.

“What are the Parklands?”

Jacob sighed and was about to open his mouth before Joshua cut in. “You can tell us your many tales when we’re walking back. Nick, go grab your reward.”

Nick saw that a small chest had coalesced into being in the centre of the room and wandered over to it. He found two pills sitting inside it and added them to the baggie he’d gotten from the last challenge room.

The group then made their way back towards the bar, which wasn’t too far considering the challenge room was in the door next to the button that gave him his class. As it turns out, the window would show what was happening inside the challenge room, even though it shouldn’t logically line up that way. As they walked Jacob told a few stories about his adventures through the Parklands. He did a terrible job explaining what the Parklands actually were and mostly bragged about the flocks of women he’d apparently seduced.

While Nick didn’t believe most of what the evidently sleezy man had said, he did get a vague picture of what the Parklands were. Apparently on a couple of the floors there are big concrete bridges that lead into a massive park. Now somehow, though he wasn’t sure how he was still surprised at this point, the park was large enough to have huge groups living in it. These groups acted like countries or states from what he understood and the largest of them was the PPM, though he wasn’t sure what that stood for.

Once again making the imaginary Gareth on his shoulder frown, he asked. It was Maddy that answered.

“The Parkland People’s Militia. From what I’ve heard they’re some sort of communist thing, but the hotel groups do a lot of trading with them.”

Logan grunted in approval and Joshua followed on. “They may be Soviet-like dogs, but they still control most of the farmlands and have most of the Crafters.”

That raised a whole bunch of new questions in Nick’s mind. He had seen a few classes like Baker and Bricklayer and even his own that showed there were classes that weren’t cobat orientated but classes that focused on making things? Could they make things with special effects, like the wraps? That could be the answer his family was looking for.

Before he could continue his thoughts they made it back to the bar and found that there seemed to be a meeting of sorts going on. Tony was speaking to everyone.

“And so Reggie has called all the leaders and main teams up to the 75th. While this will make clearing the car park harder, under Sebastian’s guidance it will get done. We start tomorrow morning, everyone be ready.”

Tony turned around as the group came in. “Good timing Roamers. I see you’ve hazed the kid. How’d he do? He doesn’t look too badly banged up.”

Joshua stepped forward. “Managed to clear the second solo. Once he gets his combat class I could see him being quite the force.”

“Hmm.” Was the only response Tony gave for a while, falling into deep thought for a while. Nick could practically see the man scheming and calculating and he didn’t like it one bit.

Joshua offered an idea. “I think it will offer great cover for Explorer, just say he’s a very promising freshie you’ve picked up and you’re training for the team?”

Nick wasn’t enjoying being talked about like this one bit and walked over to Maddy, who was lingering at the back of the group. As far from Tony as she could make herself. Now standing back he watched as Tony continued his blatant scheming as Joshua tried to join in.

“Disgusting isn’t it?” Maddy said softly so that only Nick could hear.

“I’m certainly not a fan.” Nick replied.

“I can’t say you get used to it. I still haven’t.”

It was then that it clicked with Nick. He wasn’t the only tool on the team. The way Joshua had spoken hinted at it. Considering her abilities he could see that it was likely Maddy was being treated the same way he was. Nick felt his anger rise up, injustice like this just didn’t sit right with him.

Noticing his state, Maddy put a hand on his shoulder which calmed him down a bit. He looked at her and saw resignation in her eyes. He got it, there really wasn’t much he could do here was there?

“Well, we’ll just have to see how the kid develops.” Tony finally spoke. “Anyway, you might have heard but Reggie is calling us all up. It seems not just my Shaman foresaw how bad things are going to get and Reggie thinks the PPM might try something. We leave in the morning.”

With that the group walked off towards the quarters. Joshua had pat him on the back and told him to enjoy the night.

Nick used his map to work out what room was the one his family had chosen and knocked before entering. His family was sitting in the lounge playing a board game.

“Wow, nice shirt loser.”