Chapter 31: Grinding
When they got to the carved stone ramp that led down around the pit in a spiral, Victor had a sudden surge of vertigo. The ramp was about as wide as a one-lane road back on Earth, but there was no railing, and it had a fairly steep slope. What was worse, he could see out across the pit to see the ramp winding down around the ledge, growing smaller and fainter the further he looked. Hanging in the air, at the center of the “well” about a hundred, or a thousand for all Victor could tell, feet down, mist clouded the air, reflecting the bright yellow lights from above.
Some of the gathered delvers snickered when they saw Victor stumble and hold out his hands for balance when he walked up. He looked around, scowling, but the assembled characters weren’t intimidated by his glare. All sorts were there, lounging or standing idly, tapping their batons in their fists. He saw a huge, bulky Ardeni that made even Ponda seem small. He saw a pair of Ghelli women, their wings glittering—not as large or as brilliant as Lam’s wings, but they looked a lot more functional than Edeya’s. A cluster of four Vodkin brought his mind back to Ponda, yet again, as they laughed at some joke, their big, furry bellies jiggling with the motion. Then there were the usual red-skinned Shadeni and normal-sized Ardeni—some were kitted out in armor and looking ready for action, and some looked more like Victor or Edeya, their gear cheap and patchy and their eyes hungry.
“When was the last wave?” Heng asked, glaring around. As far as Vodkin go, Heng wasn’t a very big guy, but he had a look that gave people second thoughts about being rude. A tall Shadeni woman that was all legs and long arms walked up and clasped his hand.
“Heng!” she said, “been too long!”
“Aye, Captain’s kept us busy. Anyway, when was the last wave?”
“Not gonna introduce me to your friends?” she asked, ignoring his question again. She turned to Victor and Edeya and said, “I’m Shar. Heng used to be my lover.” Heng groaned and slapped a hand to his furry head. Victor snorted out a laugh before he could catch himself, but Edeya stepped forward and held out her hand.
“I’m Edeya! So nice to meet you! This tall guy is Victor.” Edeya clapped a hand on Victor’s shoulder, and he smiled at Shar.
“Good to meet you.”
“Come on, Shar, how long since the last wave?” Heng tried for the third time.
“Oh, you’re no fun, Heng! It’s been about fifteen minutes; we’d just thrown the bodies over when you all walked up.”
“What was it?”
“Stone imps—only about twenty of them.”
“Think we’re going to head down a bit. This crowd’s a little much.” Heng started walking toward the ramp, and Victor looked at Edeya before following. Her eyes were wide, and he caught her licking her lips nervously as she began to follow after Heng.
“Heng, don’t do that! Some of us don’t want to go deeper; you know what happened to Trennet!” Shar called after Heng.
“Who’s Trennet?” Victor asked Shar.
“A friend of ours that went to the second platform. Never heard from him again. Heng’s stubborn, though, and he won’t want to share with this many. Ahh, well, guess we can loaf about until he gets bored.” Victor looked at the other delvers and saw that a handful were standing up and starting to follow after Heng. Still, the vast majority were grumbling and looking toward the door, apparently unwilling to go deeper for action but not wanting to hang around waiting for Heng and his group to come back up.
“So people that don’t want to go deeper will just sit here and twiddle their thumbs?” he asked.
“Hah, funny guy, aren’t you? ‘Twiddle our thumbs?’ I like it!” She reached forward and gave Victor’s shoulder a squeeze. “You are a big one, aren’t you?”
“Um, yeah. I better go catch up to Heng.” Victor awkwardly pulled away and hurried after the smaller group of delvers moving down the ramp. He could hear Shar’s laughter following after him, and his ears started to burn. Why was he running away? What was wrong with a friendly woman? He shook his head, cursing his awkwardness.
“She a little too forward for you?” Edeya asked, and Victor realized she’d been watching the exchange.
“Aw, c’mon. I know when to steer clear of drama, and she seemed like more than I could handle,” Victor shrugged.
“Mmhmm.” Edeya was walking backward, talking to him, and she looked like she would steer herself right off the curving ramp.
“Watch where you’re going, chica!” Victor snapped, wincing at the image of her tumbling into the bottomless well. She turned and scooted further from the ledge.
“Glad to know you care,” she laughed. “I’m not an idiot, though; I wasn’t going to walk off!”
“Ugh, this fucking well is giving me the creeps. No one has ever been to the bottom?”
“Yeah, from what I hear. If anyone’s seen the bottom, they never made it back out again.”
“What about Lam? She ever try?” Victor couldn’t imagine Captain Lam struggling to kill anything that might be down there.
“No idea! I’ve been in her unit as long as you have!”
“Right.” They’d caught up with Heng and the other five delvers who’d followed him, but they were still walking along the ramp. Victor couldn’t see any sort of platform yet. “How far is the first platform?”
“Few more turns,” Heng said, spitting a gob of black saliva out toward the well.
“What you chewing, man?” Victor asked. Heng dug around in his belt and produced a square, brass tin. He held it out to Victor.
“Yiil weed. Want some?” Victor took the tin and lifted off the top, taking a sniff of the black, moist powder within. It smelled bitter and pungent, but it made Victor’s mouth salivate, so he took a pinch of it and stuffed it into his lip like he’d seen ballplayers do with chew. It burned a little, but it was kind of spicy with a sweet aftertaste, and it gave him a little buzz almost immediately.
“Disgusting,” Edeya said, and Victor laughed, trying to pass her the tin. She huffed and increased her pace, walking quickly past Heng. Victor spat some brown-black saliva toward the edge and then passed Heng his tin.
“Thanks,” he said. Heng nodded and tucked it into his belt. They’d made a couple of steep rotations of the well, and the air was cooler, and the light from the enormous globes up above was less bright.
“What’s the deepest you’ve been, Heng?”
“When I was newer here, I followed some real heavy hitters down to the third platform. We held that position for a long time, and I got a lot of Energy by just throwing a few shots here and there. Haven’t been past the first platform since, though.”
“Incoming!” A stout, black-haired, hooved Cadwalli guy shouted, pointing to the far side of the well with his baton. Coming up around the steep, spiraling ramp was a throng of large, lumbering creatures that looked like a cross between a two-legged bear and a beetle.
“What the fuck?” Victor exclaimed, tightening his grip on his baton.
“Oh, this ain’t lucky,” Heng said softly, then he yelled, “Form up a line—backs to the wall, they’ll throw you off. Don’t try to run! They’re twice as fast as you!”
“What the fuck are they?” Victor asked, finally voicing his question coherently.The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.
“Aye, hulks first off.”
“Ouch, bad luck. At least you survived.” Heng just grunted in reply, and Victor wondered at their strange relationship. She seemed to genuinely like him, but Heng was as reticent with her as he was with anyone. Maybe she liked it?
Once they’d gotten through the massive metal door and dropped off the survivors, Heng turned to Victor and Edeya and said, “I’m going to visit some old friends since we’ve finished early. Sorry, I’m not in the mood to head back into the well.”
“I’ve had enough for today,” Edeya said. “I think next time I’m going to stay up near the top; I’m not meant to be fighting things like hulks.”
“Smart,” Heng nodded and turned to walk away.
“Later, then,” Victor called after him. He looked at Edeya and shrugged, “What now?”
“You aren’t even tired, are you?”
“Nah, not really.”
“You should go fight at the top of the well for a while; the stronger you get, the safer the rest of us will be down in the deep delves.”
“You sure you don’t want to hang out? I’ll do most of the work, and if hulks come, you can run for the door.” Victor chuckled at the image.
“No, thanks, Victor. I don’t have your stamina or Energy affinity, I think. I’m feeling really weak, and my head hurts from when I got knocked out.”
“You okay to walk back?”
“Yeah, it’s nothing. I’ll stop for some food at the Settlement Stone.”
“Alright, then.” Victor held out his fist, and Edeya gently knocked his knuckles. “That’s the spirit. Chin up, chica; you fought like a boss!” That got a smile out of her, and she briefly waved as she turned to walk away. Victor turned back to the big metal door and walked back into the well.
As he walked over to the dozen or so other delvers waiting for action, he called up his attributes:
Strength:
38
Vitality:
69
Dexterity:
23
Agility:
23
Intelligence:
24
Will:
62
Points Available:
7
He hadn’t gained any new insights since his last level, so he decided to do the same thing as before, three into strength, two into dexterity, and two into agility.
“Back for more, handsome?” Shar strolled over from a trio of Ghelli she’d been talking to.
“Uh, yeah, figured I’d try to get some more fighting in. Grind out another level or two.”
“Ambitious! Not going down again, are you?”
“Nah, I’m cool hanging up here.”
“Cool? What a strange dialect you have. Might I ask about your heritage? Let me see, part Ghelli, part Shadeni?”
“Huh? No, I’m a human. I’m not from this world.”
“Ahh, that explains the lack of wings. Most part-Ghelli have at least some wings.”
“Yeah...”
“Incoming!” a short, very stout Cadwalli hollered from the top of the ramp. “More Herd-damned stone imps!” Victor’s face spread into a grin; he enjoyed cracking stone imps with his baton.
“Come on, Shar! I bet I can get more kills than you!” Victor charged toward the top of the ramp, his baton at the ready and his Inspiring Presence primed.
