It takes us a day and a half to get to the next data cache. The monsters seem to have grown more numerous the longer we spend in the hive. Which bodes not well for our speed at completing this hive.

  Stephen places his hands on my shoulder. “Maka, hate to do this to ya. But it was nice knowing you.” He has a grim expression on his face.

  “I understand, it is my duty after all.” I speak solemnly, Moxie gives me a quick pat on the head. Violet looks at me like she wants to say something, but decides not to.

  After nimbly dodging a hug from Liv, I jump down from the roofs into a veritable sea of monsters. They are guarding a large metal air traffic control tower that is gleaming, reflecting what little sunlight there is in the evening.

  At the front of said tower is a small door with a shield glimmering over it. Unfortunately, between us and that door is the aforementioned sea of monsters, we estimate around three thousand of them.

  I charge right into the crowd, spewing fire, lightning, mud and utilizing my daggers to shred monster after monster. Within moments I get absolutely drenched, as is the life of a warrior I suppose.

  I manage to clear a small area so that the others can drop down. Violet is the first one and lands right next to me, her blade going right through a demon that was about to slash at me. Our eyes meet for an instant, and I see a smile on her face, then she is gone. A path is carved wherever she goes, monsters falling by the dozens.

  Far in front, explosions rain down as Moxie does her thing. I don't know how she does it, but she is simultaneously healing Liv and raining down hell. I can occasionally hear the crack of Stephen’s rifle, but am unable to see the targets he undoubtedly hits.

  A warrior charges in towards me, breaking away from a mob that was heading towards Liv. I Blink and my dagger slides into its core, and I am gone before it even disintegrates. My mind fills with only the thought of slaying monsters, and a large smile appears on my face as I feel the experience flow into me.

  At some point I start laughing, and do not stop even as monster after monster falls beneath my blades and spells. At some point my body starts to get tired, but I simply push myself to go even faster. After all, there is no point stopping when monsters still exist to be slayed. I must simply persevere, even if my body wishes to give out.

  I end up next to Violet, and we start fighting back to back, and monsters die in a large radius around it. It is really nice, Violet truly is a great fighter, and has great battle sense. Even if she can be a bit prickly at times, she does know how to work with others at least.

  Our eyes meet every once in a while, and I see a look in her eyes that must mirror my own. She looks beautiful and I am almost tempted to just stand back and watch her fight. Thankfully, logic wins out and I continue to slay monsters.

  If the experience of fighting by myself was euphoric, doing it with Violet at my back is transcendental.

  We encounter remarkably few necromancers, but there is a new type of demon that appears. [Demon Legionnaire Lvl 150], quite nasty as they appear in groups of around six and have long spears and square shields that anchor into the ground. They are impossible for Stephen to take out and Liv has quite some trouble. Though Violet and I can move and hit their backs without much effort. And of course, Moxie just obliterates anything that happens to be within her spells.

  They are annoying, but not unmanageable. Especially with Violet the badass on our side moving like she is possessed by a spirit. She looks super hot while doing it though.

  Eventually the number of demons starts to thin and eventually we clear out the entire area.

  “Alright then fellas, let's crack this bad boy open, shall we?” Liv walks up to the door. But just as she is about to touch the door, my Trace Clues goes off and my vision flashes red.

  I Blink to her side and shove her away. “What the fuck Maka?”

  I crouch down and inspect the ground, surely enough, it is trapped. I point to the spot, “There is a megaton mine here. If you had stepped on it, we all would be dead, or at least in need of a few new limbs.”

  Liv’s face goes white, and she takes several steps backwards.

  “No one died, let us enter then” Violet walks up to the door, careful to avoid the mine and opens the door. It opens with a loud scraping sound, good thing we cleared all the monsters, or the sound would've attracted them in hordes.

  The first room is a large lobby-like chamber. The walls are made out of a white stone – marble perhaps. On the far wall in large letters that are almost faded it says ‘Like Academy of Social Creation.’ It must be an old school, I wonder what it was like.

  We spend a while exploring the old academy. Somehow Violet and I end up alone in a classroom. “Woah, I think this thing is called a blackboard. I haven’t seen one, none of the Dragon Guard prep schools use such old-fashioned tech.” I run my finger along the weird device, and I get a bit of a white powder on my finger.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Idiot. It is just a blackboard, why are you so excited?”

  “It is not just that. It is the fact that all of us are here together, exploring what are basically ancient ruins.” I turn to look at Violet and she meets my eyes. “After all, everything is better with friends.”

  “Friends..”

  I take a step towards her. “Of course, we are all friends after all.”

  She laughs, “No fucking way I would have friends, least of all an idiot like you.”

  “Oh really now? What makes you say that?” I pick up an eraser from where it sits on the blackboard. It feels weak and brittle.

  “To associate with such imbeciles and freakshows would ruin my honor.” She turns away from me, but I can see a hint of a smile.

  I toss the eraser at her back, and it clinks on her armor. Then it shatters into several dozen pieces. “Whoops, it slipped out of my hand.”

  She looks at me, and I see a bit of murder in those lovely blue eyes of hers. The murder really brings out their beauty and makes me want to stare into them forever. Or perhaps that is the fear speaking. “Sure it did, idiot.”

  I fully expected to be at least slapped, but she didn't even move towards me. It is strange, and I don’t trust that she won't sneakily attack me later.

  Liv peeks in through the door. “Guys! You gotta see this, the mess hall has real food! Stephen managed to get the nutrient synthesizer running by some miracle of nature!”

  Without even glancing at me, Violet is out the door. We follow Liv to the mess hall, a large room that could easily fit five hundred hungry students inside. Everything is coated in a thick layer of dust and rust. I pop open my helmet and immediately start coughing at the dust. At least there seems to be some sort of temperature and atmosphere control.

  On the far side of the room, the lights are on and Stephen is busy convincing the machine to spit out food slowly. Arranged out is a bunch of ribs, hamburger and even an entire roast pig. It has an apple in its mouth, and I can smell bacon in the air.

  After a bit of tidying and intense dusting of a table, we all sit down and pile food high on our plates. Thank goodness raw nutrient concentrate was invented back then and has a shelflife of several million years.

  “Ommmygosh, this is dewisious.” Liv says through a mouthful of ribs. It turns out the machine makes even the bones edible, for easy consumption. I take a bite into one of the ribs and am overwhelmed by the flavor.

  “Damn, this must’ve been a school for rich people. This stuff is top of the line.”

  “I have had better.” Violet remarks by inhaling a hamburger, yet still maintaining a flawless sense of properness.

  “Maka, you are a bloody maniac by the way.” Stephen comments between mouthfuls. “Truly insane.”

  “Huh? I have no clue what you are talking about.”

  “Maka crazy, jump into monsters.” Moxie adds with a smile.

  “Oh yeah, that. It is really fun to be surrounded by so many at once, you all should try it sometimes.”

  “It is fun, though it is much more interesting to watch you go in first.” Violet says, sipping a cup of some teoffe the machine was also able to produce. Nutrient synthesizers really are nice.

  However what is not nice is the look that Violet is currently giving me. She seems angry and thinking about something. Then a few seconds later, a fork comes flying right for my head. I barely manage to dodge it, and it goes flying past and sticks right into the metal wall. I can’t imagine if that was my head.

  “Whoops, it slipped out of my hand.” Violet says, laughing lightly. If nearly dying is the cost for hearing her beautiful laugh, it is a price I am willing to pay gladly.

  The others look between us for a moment, then break out into laughter. It is infectious, and before long I join in as well.

  We laugh and eat food for quite a while, stuffing ourselves until the nutrients run completely out. Conveniently, the FAUD marches into the room carrying the data cache, identical to the last one.

  We open it up and it gives the same reveal of the praetorian’s location and -20 levels to it. Though this time it gives us a bonus augment crate instead of a gear crate. I wonder if there are any better rewards that are possible. It would be cool if we could get a vehicle or something like that.

  But that seems a bit extreme, after all, these bonus objectives aren’t that hard, and almost seem required. So unless they get a lot harder or more complicated, the reward makes sense as it is.

  We decide to sleep until the middle of the next day. I claim one of the dorm rooms, but just as I am getting ready to fall asleep, I see a picture frame on a side table.

  I pick it up and brush off the dust. A young woman with brown hair and green eyes has her arm linked around a tall guy with blue eyes and black hair. Strange, perhaps they were allowed to get their eye colors changed or something. I know some entertainment stars are allowed to do that today.

  It is still odd though.

  Anyways, I put the picture frame back where I found it. The people captured are likely long dead by now, but I do tidy the area up a bit. This was their home after all, I am technically an intruder.

  I settle into the bed, and while I wouldn’t say it's comfortable, it is definitely much better than the hard soil.

  I wonder what sorts of things we will discover in the future. The universe is a large place, and I am sure there are many mysteries. The system and monsters are just one of such mysteries I am sure.

  Next Chapter: Burnt Steel

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