Before Seras stood and gaping hole, a fissure in the side of the cavern wall.


    After the Golem her flight through the abandoned city had become more frantic. She didn’t encounter any more Golem’s, or any other silver ranked monsters.


    She had seen a couple more Tunnel Chargers, and even the skittering shadows of what she assumed to be more Cavern Lurkers. But nothing terrifying like the golem. She wasn’t sure if her heart could take the stress of a second Golem.


    Now she stood before a split in the cave wall, exactly what she had been hoping to find. But now she wasn’t sure if she wanted to leave. Leaving meant dealing with unknown dangers. She wasn’t even sure if this exit could take her anywhere, it could simply be a dead end, or the lair to something terrifying.


    But nothing ventured…and all that crap.


    Seras stepped through the threshold and felt a change in the air around her. It was… less rich, and just a little harder to breath. For the first time Seras had realized that the air in the city was too clean, not nearly dusty enough to be cave air. Not like what she was breathing now.


    You have exited the Vestal Gateway Astral space.


    Strange. Seras checked her street view map and saw that the entire area behind her was no longer being shown. Instead it was labeled as an ‘open astral aperture’. While it listed her current location and the ‘Labyrinth’


    She glanced back and looked through the hole to see the city still behind her. She stepped back through.


    You have entered the Vestal Gateway Astral space


    She stepped back through


    You have exited the Vestal Gateway Astral space.


    Weird. Seras felt the difference between the two spaces starkly. One was rich with something while the new tunnel was dry and dead feeling.


    Another entry for the list.


    Without looking back Seras strode down the tunnel.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    After five minutes of walking a turn in the tunnel meant she lost to light from the city, and once again lit up her finger. The tunnel eventually got smaller and smaller and Seras had to turn to the side to squeeze through the tight tunnel. Fifteen minutes of shuffling and pulling she came through the other end.


    The tunnel on this side was wide enough for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder. With nothing better to do Seras continued on.


    ~~~*~~~


    Four hours after leaving the city Seras found the first thing of interest after hours of walking. Along one side of the cave Seras saw that the wall here was made of shiny gray little stones that appeared to be emerging from the stone itself.


    She pulled out her knife and pried one free.


    Iron quintessence. A distillation of iron.


    Once again she encountered a strange quintessence just emerging from the wall. This added further credence to her theory that it just appeared. She opened the pocket space, its existence becoming easier to just accept as normal as she used more and more, and began prying the quintessence from the wall. Supposedly these could speed along her arm repair, and potentially had other uses.


    The quintessence took some effort to pry out, but the silver dagger appeared sturdier than normal knifes and allowed Seras to use more of her arm strength. Quickly she had a routine for popping out the little iron colored stones. Behind the surface layer was a deeper layer of quintessence and once Seras had a good hole going the rest of the vein became quicker to excavate.


    Her knife however wasn’t the ideal tool for digging, and even though it stayed magically sharp she wished she had a jack hammer or a drill.


    A hundred and fifty-seven quintessence later the vein appeared to be all tapped out. Seras wondered how much she could get for them? They had to be worth something right? She didn’t waste half an hour on something pointless.


    Well, no point in regret.


    Her haul stashed away in the magic pocket space Seras continued walking.


    ~~~*~~~


    Hours later a popup appeared in Seras’ vision.


    Auto repair complete. Right Biolite recoil absorbing arm has been fully repaired.


    She blinked, she hadn’t been walking for that long right?


    Nope, a glance at her street view map showed a great deal of revealed space. Miles worth of cave traversed and all she had encountered of note was that patch of iron quintessence and the occasional dark quintessence. She was up to 36 now.


    All that walking and she hadn’t found the surface. How deep was she?


    She looked at her battery, 36% remaining.


    The active camo had drained her power faster than normal running. And it seemed the auto-repair had a high-power draw as well. If she didn’t find a hook up soon her body would enter low power mode, becoming weak and sluggish. And if she ran out of power after that her body would go into stasis. Her limbs locking up, and reality fading away as she slept with no end in sight.


    Her only hope for waking up would be someone stumbling across her in this tunnel and deciding to power her up rather than take her vulnerable body to a chop shop to scrap her limbs.


    The thought scared her.


    Well, standing around would only further waste energy. She continued on.


    ~~~*~~~


    At twenty percent battery Seras came across her first junction. Sort of.


    One was a path that continued along the way she had been walking. The other was a narrow vertical shaft.


    Climbing up would further drain her reserves. While the path ahead of her remained flat and might not ever start to go up.


    Seras closed her eyes and made her mind go blank, trying to here what her gut thought was best.


    For as long as she could remember her gut instincts had always been right on the money. Trusting it was how she had come so far in her career as a merc. It helped her know who to trust, what jobs were good or a trap in disguise, and most importantly what gear to purchase before a big job.


    Several times she found herself in an impossibly tight spot only find that the new chrome she had bought on a whim was exactly what she needed to get out alive.


    Seras wasn’t one for superstitions, but every merc whether they were the zealous sort or unrepentant atheist like herself, trusted their guts. The difference between a good merc and a bad one was determined by their instincts and how well they listened.


    Seras used to scoff at the idea, but after nearly a decade of deadly contracts she had learned that maybe some superstitions were worth paying heed to.


    Seras frowned as she opened her eyes and looked up. At least if it turned out to be a dead end then climbing down would be easy.