Even though Nick felt like he’d just been fighting for his life, his Brawler’s Constitution never activated. So, Nick had to make his way back to his room covered in small wounds. Scratches and bite marks coated his body. Paige was quite the animated character. Nick had managed to get a shower in before he’d been booted from the room, so he at least was a little presentable. No longer covered in dried blood and having cleaned the vast amount of sweat he had worked up over the couple of hours had done wonders for his appearance.

Nick made it back to his room and found a very tense looking Maddy and Lily pacing the room. As he came into the room he was almost tackled off his feet by Lily.

“Nick! Thank god you’re okay! It’s been hours, we thought the worst had happened!” She yelled at him. “Wait, why do you smell so clean?”

Lily pulled back and looked Nick over. “Where’s your armour? Why have you changed clothes? Did you have a shower?”

Then she noticed the very prominent bite marks on his neck. Nick’s healing had closed the wounds but hadn’t been enough to completely heal them. The skin was bruised and there were still pretty obvious puncture wounds.

“What the hell attacked you? A vampire?” She then noticed all of the other small wounds. “A cat of some sort? Why do you have a dumb smile? Answer my questions!” She yelled.

Nick grabbed his sister's shoulders and pulled her off him.

“Well give me a chance and I will sis. Though I’d like to sit down.” Nick went over to one of the sofas and threw himself across it.

“So? What happened to you?” Maddy asked.

“Well I met with Paige. She might have drugged me and learned a lot about me. Then she sucked my blood. I rightly freaked out, punched her. Then things got pretty normal.”

“Pretty normal?” Lily questioned.

“Sorry, she sucked your blood?” Maddy jutted in.

“Yes and yes.” Nick said with a sigh. “I think she’s a vampire, which is cool I guess. And yeah, we talked business.”

“Oh my bad. I should have totally understood what normal meant.” Lily said with a roll of her eyes. “Especially after she drugged you and sucked your blood, standard business practice right there.”

“Sorry? Why aren’t you two freaking out? A vampire? Nick you literally had your blood sucked!” Maddy yelped.

“Why would I be surprised by a vampire? There’s plenty of crazy stuff going on here. At least I know what a vampire is.” Lily shrugged.

“What’s a little blood between friends?” Nick shrugged.

Maddy looked at the siblings with a bewildered expression and ran a hand through her hair.

“Okay, but how did you end up looking like that?” Maddy pressed.

Nick shrugged again. “She’s bitey.”

Maddy’s eyes then widened in realisation. “You didn’t…?”

Nick smiled coyly.

“After everything that happened, you went and did that?” Maddy sounded exasperated.

Lily then added her own two cents. “Yeah okay Nick, that definitely wasn’t the brightest of ideas. We’re ending this topic here though because I don’t want to know anymore.” Lily then pinched the bridge of her nose. “So. Did you manage to get anything productive out of the meeting?”

Nick grinned. “I certainly did.” Maddy and Lily glared at him. “Well, I got a few things. I know that Paimon definitely has an interest in me, which I don’t know how to feel about. I also managed to get Paige to set up a meeting with some Explorers for me, which will be handy. The most productive thing though, is that she’ll be getting a high levelled team to clear the 64th floor to rescue Benny.”

At that moment Henry came back into the room with some take out boxes. “Pretty good kitchen setup they’ve got here. Pretty dated but very workable.” Then he saw that Nick was in the room. “Ah you’re back. Wow, met a bitey one did ya?” He said with a grin.

“It was one hell of an experience for sure.” Nick said grinning back.

“You know, your mother was always quite-”

“STOP! Don’t want to know!” Lily yelled.

The group then got to the most important of activities, chowing down. The conversation died down as everyone enjoyed the excellent food. Nick had to make sure his dad got the class as soon as possible, access to this quality of food was an immediate priority. Nick realised they could do it now, there was nothing stopping them. When he brought it up to the rest of his family they were all on board.

“Did you decide on which class to take first sis?” Nick asked.

“Shaman. After talking to Abby, she said that she could help train me in the skills while I’m waiting to get the second class. It just seems like the best way to use my time.” She answered.

“I’d like it to be known that I’m not on board with Lily taking Shaman.” Maddy said with a frown.

“Why?” Nick asked.

“Classes change people’s minds. Shaman isn’t exempt from that, you know. Abby wasn’t always the recluse that she is now.” Maddy explained.

“Well it’s my decision to make. I’m aware of the risks. Magic is just way too cool to give up the opportunity.” Lily said with a grin.

Nick pouted and Maddy just shook her head. The group then got up and went to head out. They then decided to stop by Maddy’s room to give Abigail some food. Maddy firmly knocked on the door in a specific pattern, in response the string wrapped around the door handle glowed. Maddy then grabbed the door handle and opened the door. Nick raised an eyebrow. What would have happened if someone grabbed the handle without knocking in that pattern?

If Maddy’s room on the 72nd could have been described as dark and messy, this room would be ominous and chaotic. While on the 72nd there had been symbols drawn onto the walls here and there, there had been strange plants in pots, with strange piles of rocks littering the place, this room took it up a notch. Every inch of the walls were coated in drawn-on symbols, some of which looked suspiciously like blood. The floor was a minefield of plants and rock piles, which ensured that each footstep had to be carefully measured.

“Abby! I’ve got some food for you. Nick, Henry and Lily are also here!” Maddy called out.

The group ventured deeper into the room and found that they were in a wide open space. The hallway they had just walked down was an artificial construction. Maddy’s room was very similar to Nick’s, it was a large room with doors to other smaller rooms. Though in Maddy’s a hallway had been constructed, which Nick assumed was to house all of those symbols across the walls. Abigail was sitting in her armchair in the centre of the room, surrounded by a series of expanding circles carved into the floor. Abigail’s clothes had changed from a black dress to a large black hoodie. Nick felt incredibly jealous, he really missed his collection of hoodies.

“Hey Abigail, where did you get the hoodie?” He called out.

The girl unfurled herself from her crystal tablet to look at Nick. “I know a guy.” She said with a slight smile.

“We’re about to take Henry and Lily to get their classes.” Maddy said as she walked through the circles and handed Abigail a takeout box.

“I’m coming.” Abigail said.

“Huh?” Maddy seemed genuinely surprised by the statement. “Why?”

Abigail answered in a tone that implied she was speaking the most obvious of truths. “Shaman’s skills reflect their specialisations.” She then pointed at Lily. “Lily doesn’t have any specialisations yet, she doesn’t even have a class. I wonder how the hotel will decide her skills?”

Nick thought about it for a moment, he’d heard something similar about new skills being more individualistic. Though all of his new skills seemed to be beneficial to his needs, what had decided that?

“All of my new skills have been pretty useful to me.” Nick put it out there.

“I’m sure, but what does Lily need? What would be useful to her?” Abigail asked.

Abigail got up from her chair and slid her tablet under her arm. “The whole community is very interested, you see.” She said while tapping the tablet.

Then Abigail went behind her chair and began to fiddle with something. After a moment or two she came back around, with something following behind her. It looked like a floating slab of stone. It was a giant piece of stone just floating behind her. Nick was gobsmacked, blatant magic right before his eyes. The stone had one large symbol carved into the centre of it.

“When the hell did you get this?” Maddy asked. “And what the hell is it?”

“It’s mutually assured destruction.” Abigail patted the strange object. “This baby cost me a lot, the guy that made it was such an asshole. He drove a hard bargain.”

“Mutually assured destruction?” Lily asked, concerned.

“Yep. It’s a giant bomb.” Abigail smirked.

“Righto then. Let’s get a move on!” Nick chimed in.

The situation was getting a little too crazy, even for him. So, he corralled everyone out of the room and out into the dining room. He noticed that Abigail was very cautiously continuously scanning every room they walked through. As Nick led the group he tried to start conversations with Abigail. He asked her about her favourite kinds of foods, where she got her clothes, and what she did for fun. It took time but eventually she started to open up a bit more and spent a bit more time focusing on the conversation rather than scanning rooms.

Nick had regeared before they set out and while his gear was pretty trashed at this point, he felt like he still looked a little imposing. Maddy had her bow in hand and was keeping an eye on each group that they encountered. Nick had been attacked by bandits twice now and nobody wanted to take any chances. The fact that there was a giant slab of stone floating behind a girl in a black hoodie probably went a long way in deterring any potential conflicts. Nick certainly knew that he wouldn’t mess with such an obviously magical sight.

It took a while, but this time Nick knew what he was looking for and led the group directly there. Once they got to the room filled with pillars Nick was excited to show off the mind warping layout that the corner of the room held. Though he did notice that the more he thought about the non-euclidean pillar the more a slight headache set in. He shook his head and adopted his perfect strategy of just trying not to think too hard about it. Once the group made it to the right corner Nick grinned.

“Hmm, I could have sworn it was right around here!” He exclaimed in a puzzled tone.

He then walked around the pillar clockwise, coming back to facing the group.

“Hmm, I’m not too sure…” He started hamming it up.

He then walked around the pillar anticlockwise and entered the hallway, where he stayed quiet.

“Nick?” Lily called out. “What are you playing at? Come out from behind the pillar you idiot.”

Nick could help but laugh. “Come round guys, I found it.”

Nick could practically hear Lily rolling her eyes at him as she stomped her way over to him. Considering her reaction, she must have looped around clockwise.

“Huh? Where the hell are you Nick?” She asked.

“Walk around the pillar the other way silly.” He chided.

Lily did what he asked and came face to face to him standing in the middle of a hallway.

“Oh that’s neat.”

“Neat?! That’s your reaction!?” Nick exclaimed.

“Yeah it’s pretty cool. Come check this out guys.” Lily called out to the group.

Everyone in the group then took turns wrapping their heads around the completely nonsensical space. Nick almost felt betrayed by the lack of outcry from the group, only Maddy was similarly as openly shocked by the distortion as Nick.

“Well, I thought it was pretty crazy.” Nick grumpily muttered.

Nick then led the group to the strange patch of wall in the hallway.

“Huh, is it just a dead end?” Lily asked.

Nick chuckled and pushed on the patch of wall, revealing the room with a button on the wall.

“Wow, okay that was pretty cool.” Lily exclaimed with wide eyes.

“Why did that get more of a reaction from you!?” Nick cried out.

Everyone then filed into the room, making it feel a little cramped. Henry volunteered to go first and hesitantly reached out for the button. After he pressed it he looked back at the group in confusion.

“Were you just pulling my-” Then he stumbled back in surprise, earning a laugh from everyone.

“My lord, there certainly are a lot of options.” Henry exclaimed. “Ah there it is. Well. I’m now a Chef, two years in culinary school be damned.”

“What skills did you get?” Nick asked.

“Is there any way I can show you?” Henry asked.

“Yeah, if you think about it you can choose to openly display the class details.” Maddy replied.

After making a sound of surprise a screen popped up in front of him.

Chef -

Skill 1 - Prepare Ingredients - Active

Depending on the care and effort, remove impurities and improve the quality of ingredients.

Skill 2 - Culinary Augmentation - Passive

Any food prepared will further enhance flavours and health effects.

Skill 3 - Perfect Plating - Active

The plating of food in specific ways can now imbue your food with certain buffing effects.

Skill 4 - Soup Specialist - Passive

Any soup you make will have increased taste and buffing effects.

Nick had to agree with the fourth skill, it was well deserved. His dad made an absolutely mean soup, there was a reason it had been the family restaurant's speciality. Henry himself seemed pretty chuffed with the class.

Next up was Lily. She confidently walked towards the button and pressed her hand into it. There were no words as she went about her process. That was until suddenly her eyes widened in shock. She stared at Abigail and Nick felt panic run through his system. Had something gone wrong?

“That’s absolutely horrific.” She exclaimed.

Abigail started laughing.