*

  And I found a few items: a shining, oval-shaped metal locket with intricate carvings, attached to a tarnished chain; an old, crushed pack of cigarettes; some ancient, rotten papers that crumbled at my touch; and two small, cork-sealed glass tubes containing some kind of deep-blue, slowly swirling gas, with a black, sand-like substance settled at the bottom of each.

  I first examined the oval metal locket, but I didn’t have a single clue what it was and couldn’t pry it open with only one hand, even when it seemed like it should be possible.

  So, I put it aside for the moment, picking up one of the glass tubes and examining it a little more closely.

  I couldn’t tell what the fuck I was looking at precisely, but the glass of the tube was clearly, remarkably strong.

  Even after so many goddamn years, it wasn’t falling apart or even cracked, and the tubes were perfectly sealed with a simple cork.

  This possibly meant they contained some kind of potent medicine, likely concocted with arcane ingredients.

  It might even be a healing potion!

  I’d heard healing potions are bloody expensive, almost legendary, and only something extremely valuable would be packaged and sealed in such a meticulous way that it wouldn’t break easily in the heat of a fight.

  Meaning – them little glasses had to be fuckin' tough, maybe even bulletproof or somethin’ equally insane.

  Either way, the tubes were still fuckin' amazing trophies to stumble upon.

  I have never actually seen a real healing potion, or any other medicine almost completely infused with arcane energies, in my entire miserable life.

  I’d only heard about them from others, whispers on the street, and seen glamorized pictures of ‘em on flickering billboards, faded signboards, and cheap ads playing on the grimy TVs in the subway trains.

  So, the only thing that backed up my hopeful guess about what was in these tubes were the few little things I knew and what I’d just observed, like those tough-ass glasses.

  I was now faced with a stark choice: either taking this mysterious medicine of completely unknown use, or slowly, agonizingly dying out from starvation, blood loss, and my myriad internal injuries, as long as I just stalled and did nothing.

  The first option, as risky as it was, at least gave me a sliver of a chance at surviving.

  I decided to execute that option immediately, grabbing one of the tubes and cracking the ancient cork sealing open with my teeth, the old material crumbling.

  Since the content inside looked gassy, ethereal, I quickly put the mouth of the tube to my lips and sucked in the entire contents, including the fine black ‘sand’ that swirled up behind the dissipating gas.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The chilling thought that this shit might be poison, that it could kill me instantly, wasn’t gone from my mind, not by a long shot, but I had to make a goddamn choice.

  If I die, I die.

  At the stark thought of my own death, my mind, unbidden, went back to my mother, my brothers, and my sister.

  I wondered what they were doing right now, and what kind of bleak life would be waiting for them if I truly died here, forgotten in this hole.

  The crushing debt of my father would fall squarely on my mother and Kenzo.

  But Kenzo isn't an Evolve, which would mean Eiji and Ayaka would be wrapped up in this ugly shit real quick.

  Mother and Ayaka… they’d probably be put on the block by those dickheads – Jiro and Kuroda – pimping and selling ‘em off for small chops, just to cover their losses.

  At least they would be alive, while I might be fuckin' dying right now in this fuckin' hole!

  Suddenly, I began to feel a weird, tingling flow spread throughout my entire body.

  The intense, throbbing pain I felt from the injuries all over my body began to noticeably subside, as the wounds themselves, miraculously, started sealing up slowly, knitting flesh back together.

  I couldn’t see all my injuries, of course, but I could feel a lot of ‘em, especially the deep gashes on my face and the mangled mess of both my arms.

  Then came a distinct, sharp cracking sound from my right shoulder, which, surprisingly, wasn’t painful at all.

  Instead, it was fuckin' blissful, a wave of profound, relaxing relief washing over me.

  I gently, cautiously, raised my right arm and was utterly amazed at what had just happened to me.

  And at being right about the mysterious gas in the tube.

  I have been healed up by Asuka a lot of times, but her powers ain’t shit compared to what I just felt and witnessed happen to my own damn body!

  I gently stood up, feeling stronger, more whole, and took the remaining bottle of the healing potion and the silver oval locket, putting them carefully in my battered bag, which was partially burnt and torn.

  I didn’t plan on staying down here for too much longer.

  This place still scares the shit out of me, even if I’m feeling remarkably chilled out right now from the healing juju.

  I walked slowly over to the lower half of the dead guard and searched its pockets and pouches with my now-functional right hand.

  I found broken shards of dark glass, more old, decayed paper, some faded pictures, a heavily rusted pocket knife, and, to my surprise, three old but intact grenades.

  I grabbed the pocket knife.

  It’s actually next to useless against these fuckin' freaks of nature called Aggressors.

  And if it ever was an arcane-weapon, the mana inbuilt in it has long since dissipated into nothing.

  I mean, what the hell can I do with this particular piece of shit?

  It’s the equivalent of using a dull pencil on a fuckin' Zipper-spine.

  But I didn't throw it away.

  The streets are still out there – this blade might be worthless against Aggressors, but it can definitely shank some annoying motherfuckers if it comes down to it.

  My stomach rumbled loudly out of hunger as I did all this, a hollow, aching reminder of my body’s needs.

  I instantly felt the hunger vanish when I pulled out those dusty grenades.

  Even if they appear very old, corroded even, they should still work fine.

  I carefully put them in my burnt-up, ragged jeans pockets.

  I then started walking as quietly as a dead man, like a ghost, heading cautiously towards where this ominous path led, with extreme, heightened caution, every sense on high alert.

  After several tense minutes of silent progress, I began to see what looked like an exit from the oppressive cave I was in.

  But I quickly, instinctively, jumped and slammed my back flat against the cold, rough wall of the cave, because I heard the distinct sounds of multiple footsteps and a low, guttural vocal noise from just beyond the opening.

  I edged forward very gently, my back still pressed hard against the stone wall, to get a quick, dangerous peek of what was out there.

  I risked putting nearly half of my head out of the cave opening, using only my right eye to peer at the things that were making such a considerable ruckus.

  And behold, there was a large, unexpectedly bright opening outside the narrow cave I was in.

  This new area had strange, black-coloured, multifaceted gems sticking out of the ground like jagged rocks, scattered all over the place.

  In this illuminated opening were these extremely short, pale-white, vaguely humanoid creatures with disproportionately big, black, soulless eyes and rough, entirely hairless heads.

  They were definitely under 3 feet tall.

  They wore some kind of rudimentary, net-like clothes, and some of them held crude, cyan-coloured daggers or short-swords (they were probably full-sized swords to creatures of their stature).

  Others carried short sticks topped with a green, moon-shaped, bladed head (like a spear with a curved, sharpened crescent).

  They seemed to be doing some kind of manual labour, because many of them that were without weapons were diligently digging and pushing the black-gem rocks around with their bare, surprisingly strong-looking hands.

  The strange thing, the most jarring thing, was how bright sunlight, or something very much like it, was present in this deep, underground place.

  The opening where these creatures toiled was just a much bigger cave, yet somehow there was abundant light in here too, and it definitely didn’t look or feel like it was coming from Ear

  th’s sun.

  So, I looked up, craning my neck, to see where this mysterious, pervasive source of light could possibly come from.