Nar inhaled deeply.

  The red Miasma swirled around him, coating the distant gaps in between twisted black brambles and thorns in a curtain of misty red that blocked what lay beyond from even his advanced [Sight]. Just as it had been by the lake shore, the air was muffled, as though sound didn’t travel well through the Miasma. However, while the silence laying heavy upon that dark pebble beach had been isolating in its loneliness, here, the quiet was the promise of a held breath, ready to explode at any time into a brawl of hunger-crazed beasts.

  Sweat ran down Nar’s body underneath the jungle suit, and he was glad to have found out that he was still immune to the [Touch of Rot], his aura cycling denying it purchase in his body. This meant that he could bypass the need for that suffocating mask, which earned him plenty of jealous glares from Mul, Jaz, Teb and Leon as they navigated the twisting maze.

  Originally, the ma’bat was supposed to have ferried them across the Hungry Jungle and deposited them at its southern lair, Miasma Extraction Point, or Miasma Point, as the local delvers and guides called it.

  Miasma Point was a semi-permanent industrial complex located besides the ma’bat southern lair, which stood at the edge between the Hungry Jungle, the Great Lake, and the Gap, the passageway leading up to the Gloom. It was manned at all hours and served to extract the red Miasma, which was then ferried across the Gloom in great convoys towards the exit by the Heart of the Jungle. There, the shipments were handed to small parties with tiny exit token requirements whose sole purpose was to farm enough tokens to continuously enter and exit the Brightnight to ferry goods in and out.

  It was quite the involved logistics process, according to Sarke, and although the two guilds’ arrival to trigger the War Quest had greatly reduced its operations, it was still on-going. The local guilds wanted to extract as much Miasma, read profits, as they could before they were forced out for the War Quest. Once it was done, the dungeon would reset and they would need to rebuild everything from scratch.

  Nar had been looking forward to seeing Miasma Point, as apparently, the extraction towers were quite the sight, especially when seen from above. Unfortunately, their crash and subsequent desperate run through the Hungry Jungle had shifted them severely southward, instead of southwest as intended. They now found themselves far, far down the shores of the Great Lake than they had supposed to be.

  Thus, with harvesting and gathering requirements, plus the need to level up before entering the Gloom, the domain party had packed up camp that morning in order to settle down further up the lake shore when they exited the Hungry Jungle again that night.

  Rather than the individual parties that they had split into again in the Jungle Tops, and which came together in Leon’s triangle formation for den clearing and crazier fights, they now climbed up and down the twisting black branches in a somewhat loose formation with Leon’s party leading the way with Sej, and the other two parties flanking it.

  Given the discovery of malicious agents in the dungeon, which Leon’s party had to come to refer to as potential assassins, the aethermancers had insisted on taking the lead in order to draw out any potential danger away from the other two parties. Of course, Kur and Row had allowed it without much fanfare, but both of their parties were positioned so close to Leon’s as to not make any difference at all.

  Nar felt a slight bump against his arm for perhaps the tenth time in the last quarter of hour, and hiding a grin he glanced down to the shorter delver walking at his side.

  “What?” Jul asked, her voice muffled behind her mask and daring him to say anything.

  Nar pursed his lips and shook his head. No matter how many times he’d told her that he was fine now, even with Jasphaer’s confirmation, she still insisted on walking at his side to keep an eye on him, just in case. To be fair, he hadn’t had a chance to meditate and fill back up on the aura he had exhausted during their escape between his leg’s healing, his wild use of [Aura Blade]s and his sword's sudden voraciousness.

  Not to mention that I also need to refill my sword’s core again, Nar thought, grimacing at being bereft of that safety net, especially since it had indeed come in to save the day when he most needed it. Just as the master predicted it.

  At his side, Jul frowned at him, her eyes glaring as she tried to guess at his thoughts.

  “Alright, alright!” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “I just wanted to ask you for a favor!”

  She blinked at him. “Oh?”

  Nar looked away to hide any guilt that showed up through his eyes, even if it was only half a lie.

  “Well, I’ve gotten my [Aura Blade] issues fixed, and any more progress is going to need fighting,” he said, looking down and shaking his head as Tuk and Mul bickered about how much space the other was taking on their narrower branch. “I really needed it figured out, but now I have time to focus on something else, and I was wondering if you could help me make better use of my senses.”

  “Your senses?” Jul asked, frowning. “But you can already sense very well, no? And your [Instinct] is huge too!”

  Nar scratched at the back of his head.

  “You’re not wrong, but even with all my gains and boosts to my senses, I’m still pretty much focused on myself,” he explained. “I would like to be able to sense a bit further out, and especially to get more out of my [Awareness] too. A lot more. I know that Sej has been teaching you loads about active [Awareness] right? I remember a good chunk of it, but to be honest, I was too focused on my [Aura Blade]...”

  “Oh, is this so that you can protect the party better?” she asked, her eyebrows at last easing.

  “Yeah… I feel like I haven't been doing a great job at that.”

  “But… Is that still your role, though?” Jul asked him.

  “I can’t help it that I have long legs, man!” Tuk shouted from down below, and for a moment Nar stared at their altercation for a while, unsure of what to say.

  Is it not? He thought, as Kur turned back to yell at the two of them to shut up.

  It was true that he hadn’t acted as their secondary tank for a while now. He had stepped up during their first assessment when Gad had been momentarily disabled by the psaelis’ mental assault, and he had kept that snake boss at bay while the rest of the party gathered themselves and handled the other two Moss-Backs. But as Gad got more and more proficient with her new affinity and way of tanking, and especially with Leon and Tun also being present, the less he had been needed as a secondary tank.

  That skull ripper… Was that the last time it happened? He wondered.

  There was a light double touch on his arm.

  “I can teach you,” she said, smiling. “Well, I’ll just be passing on what Sej taught me and Jaz, and you can join in when she’s teaching us from now on too. You do have all of those sense stats, so it makes sense for you to properly be able to use them.”

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  “Right. Thank you,” he said, still somewhat taken aback.

  “No worries… But, out of curiosity, how did the System rank your attributes? Uh, the primary, secondary, tertiary thing, I mean,” she asked, looking down.

  “Oh, uh… Pretty much what you would expect, I guess,” he said, recalling the numbers. “The primary ones are the same that my [The Aspiring Champion] boosts, minus [Instinct] of course. Sucks that the System didn’t boost that one… And then my sense attributes came in as secondary, as well as my [Stamina] and [Constitution].”

  “Oh, really? I thought [Constitution] would be one of your primary ones,” she said, as they bent low to walk under one of the massive, black thorns that sprouted from the branch they walked on.

  “Right? I get that I’m not supposed to be taking damage to the face, like a tank, but I still take it! Plus, I’ve been gaining so much in [Constitution] lately too,” Nar grumbled. “But no, the System says it’s secondary. Anything else, Body-Mind and Mind, and I did unlock [Intuition], was mostly tertiary. Not sure what that says about me…”

  Jul stifled a burst of laughter.

  “I guess you’re not supposed to think too much and just destroy everything!” she said, her eyes shining with mirth.

  “Whatever…”

  She rubbed his back. “Don’t worry. You were asleep, so you missed it, but there were a few surprises around.”

  Jul motioned with her head towards the people walking with them on the same branch, but a little further ahead.

  “Viy only had primary and tertiary gains,” she revealed. “Most of her physical combat related attributes got plus 20 points, while her senses and mind attributes got plus 5.”

  Oh… Nar thought, eyeing the spearwoman, who had somehow gotten mixed in with Leon’s party and was now laughing with Eum. Ah, but is that really a surprise?

  “Then there was Gad. She got the most attributes from that quest in the whole party, as she earned mostly plus 20’s across the board!”

  “Damn… Makes sense, though. Her frontline controller path demands a lot of attributes,” Nar thought, a smile touching his lips. Gad had been so worried about her tanking capabilities for so long, it was great to see her making such huge strides now.

  “Tuk was pretty much what you’d expect, but he did get a plus 20 on [Reflex], which is probably to help with his close-medium range fighting,” Jul continued, smiling at the duo whisper-snapping at each other on the branch below theirs. “As for Mul, besides his physical attributes, he also got plus 20 in [Perception], [Cunning] and [Intuition].”

  “Really?” Nar breathed, glancing down at the brawler. “Wait! I mean—”

  Jul’s laughter silenced his poor attempts at backtracking from what he’d just implied.

  “Don’t worry, we were all shocked. You should’ve seen Tuk!” she said, grinning. “But, maybe it is a bit unfair from us, you know? Mul’s really smart, and he notices a lot of things that even I and Gad miss.”

  “Well, that is true,” Nar said, sighing. “I guess I just tend to forget it because of all that complaining…”

  “Yes!” Jul said. “But never underestimate Mul. Out of all of us, I think he’s probably the one who sees things the clearest.”

  Yeah… That’s probably true, Nar thought.

  Jul nudged him again, to get his attention again.

  “Cen got her boosts focused around Mind attributes, as expected, same with Jasphaer. And Rel got her boosts in attributes that help her ranged class, and other than [Sight], her other senses were only counted as tertiary.”

  Nar glanced down at the archer, who followed behind the troublesome duo on the branch below them.

  “Well, even back during the Climb, she was already moving away from her scout role in her old party,” Nar said, trying hard not to remember the archer’s previous party. “I guess she’s just continuing on with that.”

  Jul nodded. “And then there’s Kur…”

  “Let me guess, physical attributes at tertiary, senses as secondary, and Mind attributes as primary?” Nar asked.

  The ex-rogue grinned at him. “You got it. But he also unlocked [Smell]. Oh! Viy did too!”

  “Nice,” Nar thought, smiling down at his party leader. “Sense attributes have been his main concern lately, and since we all got a huge bonus to them overall, his [NPL]’s sensing bonus is going to be huge too!”

  Not bad… Not bad at all. I guess we should be grateful the dungeon guardian decided to throw that quest in our faces, Nar thought. As levels go, that was probably the densest in attributes that we’ve ever gained.

  “And what about you?” Nar asked, smiling down at the quam. “What did you get?”

  “Well…” she mumbled. “It wasn’t great.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I don’t know why, but the System decided that my primary attributes were my senses and Mind ones, and left my physical attributes as secondary and tertiary,” she said, her voice dropping.

  “What in the Pile?” Nar thought, heat sparking within him. “Why did It do that?”

  Jul shrugged. “I don’t know. Kur doesn’t know either. Nor Sej. She explained that the dungeon guardian will sometimes throw special quests and rewards to parties it considers exceptional, but… It doesn’t really explain why this happened.”

  “But that—That goes against you are what you do!” Nar said. “The sense attributes make sense, and you’ve had really high Mind attributes for a while now, which I thought was because of your fear sensing path and the way you always know about danger before it happens. But as for the physical attributes…”

  “Maybe I’m still being punished for hiding my class during the Climb,” Jul whispered.

  “That doesn’t make any sense! Rel’s attributes are changing to reflect her choices, and so are Gad’s and everyone else. The Climb doesn’t matter anymore,” Nar said. “This… This doesn’t make any sense. If anything…”

  He cut himself short.

  For if anything, it looked as though the System was pushing Jul towards the path that the Master of Shadows had initially wanted for her, that of the The Breath of All Encompassing Dread of Einxo, the Named Few who had become a Silent, and was, even to this day, somehow kept asleep for when the Crystal had need of his services.

  There was no doubt in his mind that when Jul finally managed to unlock her fear sense, that it would also affect her current sense attributes in some way, likely further boosting them even more.

  And if we add in all the Mind attributes too… It could be the basis for that [Stealth], assassin-caster path, Nar thought. But Jul’s been moving away from it. She hasn’t used her [Stealth] nor [Backstab] attributes even once since the Climb, so why is this happening?

  “Don’t worry,” Jul said, patting his arm. “Whatever it is, I’m still making lots of gains on my physical attributes and getting better and better with my war picks and wakizashi! I’ll build my own path. You’ll see!”

  Nar smiled at her and patted the top of her head. He should be the one telling her that.

  “You are and you will!” he said. “Don’t worry, you really are doing great!”

  Jul chuckled and shook her head. “Anyways. I’ll help you with your senses! So, with active [Awareness], the first thing you want to do is—”

  “Wait! Before that,” Nar said. “We were supposed to talk about what happened back there, with the Grounding. You were able to sense it again, right? The fear…”

  Jul nodded, her face going dead serious.

  “It was like-like a huge wave! Do you remember the sea back in Haven? It was like that! A wave rising in the jungle, and-and then a flood,” she said, her eyes going wide at the memory. “And for a moment it looked… I-I don’t even know if ‘looked’ is the right way to describe it. It was like seeing but not seeing. It was like the whole jungle was turning darker… But at the same time, not. Almost more a presence than feeling. Does that make any sense?”

  Nar’s eyebrows rose up his forehead as he considered her words. “Well, it is another sense, so I don’t think the rest of us will ever be able to fully understand it.”

  “I don’t understand it either. Not yet at least,” Jul said, eyeing the twisted maze of red Miasma and black, thorny branches that suffocated them. “I think that helped, but I’m still missing something.”

  “Can you feel anything in here?” Nar asked. “Or since then?”

  The quam shook her head.

  “I don’t think there’s any fear in this place,” she said, her voice growing distant. “I can’t tell how I know, but I do. This is not a place of fear. Only hunger lives here.”

  Right. Well at least she seems okay, now, Nar thought, eyeing her as Jul scanned the Hungry Jungle around them. She was probably overwhelmed by the huge amount of fear back then. Like turning on a bright light when you’re in the dark. Let’s just keep an eye on her for now, but this is something she needs to figure out by herself.

  But there was also what Leon had warned him about, weeks past, burning at the back of his mind. Jul’s potential future divination capabilities, and how just the mere rumor of her possessing such was potentially enough to place her, and the rest of them, in the crosshairs of some of the nastiest people on the Nexus. While Kur had discussed it with Jul, and then, together, they all discussed amongst the party, there had been no clear resolution to the situation. Nothing other than “Let’s get stronger!” so that they could protect Jul if the need ever arose.

  And at this stage, our need to grow stronger will never end, Nar thought.

  “Oh! Anyways! So, [Awareness], right?” Jul said, snapping out of her own reverie and pulling him back to reality.

  Grateful, Nar drank in her every word, hoping to not only push his use of his sense attributes to a new level, but also to find a solution to a problem and role in the party he himself wasn’t sure still existed or not. Underneath it, he was happy to continue satisfying his need for continued growth.

  He couldn’t stop. Not until he knew for sure that he had reached a place from which he could ensure their futures. No matter how high that might bring him, or the sacrifices and pain yet required of him.