“GRIND!” Rose screamed, grabbing the stump of my right shoulder.

  “I’m really quite fine,” I said, offering her a smile. “I don’t feel a thing.”

  That only made things worse. The next moment, Rose broke down, hugging and sobbing.

  Junior was looking pale, but he kept himself together. “What happened?”

  “Oh there was a core. He challenged me to a fight. I lost an arm.”

  “And you beat it?” Junior asked.

  “Sort of,” I said. “I’m technically still taking my turn, and he has to stand still until I do.”

  The color drained from his face. “It’s still alive?”

  “Of course,” I said. “He seemed pretty strong.”

  “Not stronger than you though, right?” Junior asked, eyes widening.

  I opened my mouth.

  And then I closed it.

  “It would have been close,” I admitted.

  In the corner, Axel was prodding Sern. From the moment she laid eyes on my arm, Serenity utterly refused to look in my direction.

  Not that I could blame her. The cut was pretty disgusting.

  I let out a sigh.

  Rose forced me to sit on the ground so she could get a better look at my wound.

  “What for?” I huffed. “The arm’s already gone.”

  “Grind…” she glowered. “Stay still.”

  As Rose changed my bandages, Junior got a peek at the cut. When he did, his gaze shifted toward the ground.

  “That’s pretty bad, Grind. Shouldn’t you be in pain right about now?”

  “I am,” I stated. “Your sister—”

  “I’m being as gentle as I can!” Rose snapped. “Though I don’t know why I bother. Lost an arm and you’re not only conscious but grinning like an idiot.”

  Junior squirmed. “Grind, I mean like in pain, pain. I’ll start crying if I cut my arm. Your arm is gone, and you won’t even wince when somebody brushes against it.”

  I shrugged.

  “Axel,” Axel said, glancing toward us and making a series of extremely complex gestures. “Axxxeelllll.”

  “Axel thinks you’ve gone through a change in mental state, where shock is no longer processed, causing emotional buildup that’ll hit like a train the next time you wind down,” Junior said. He blinked. “Or something like that.”

  I raised my left arm to my right shoulder.

  There was a searing flash of pain.

  Yet the pain was, and it was not. It happened, but it didn’t. It was a sensation almost like watching another person break a bone.

  The injury looked so painful you could almost feel it, even if there wasn’t anything actually happening to you.

  Like a hallucinated injury. Except my arm was really gone.

  I closed my eyes.

  The sensation began to wane and my shock processing system was activated.

  When I finally woke up, I was on the ground with Rose by my side. She had bright puffy red eyes.

  Junior poked my shoulder. “You good?”

  I cried out in pain, recoiling, which only hurt more. So I froze up, like a statue, trying to avoid even the slightest movement.

  “Grind?” Rose asked. “Grind, can you look at me? How do you feel?”

  “Uhhthgghghhg,” I groaned. “Awful.”

  Rose beamed.

  I gritted my teeth, planting a hand on the floor—

  I only have one hand now.

  There was something soulcrushing about that. I couldn't possibly beat the game with just one arm, could I? Which meant I would die again, which meant time would reset again, which meant that nothing here mattered anymore.

  “Grind?” Rose asked. She slid her arm underneath mine, pushing me to my feet. “You looked sad. Did it set it?”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. What was I going to do now?

  I took a couple steps forward, suddenly falling. Rose pulled me back to my feet. “You were just laying on the floor, screaming,” she snapped. “You need to see a doctor.”

  “I’ll be fine. Besides, there’s probably potions that regenerate limbs around here somewhere,” I stated. “Even a regular health potion ought to patch the hole in my shoulder.”

  Though, come to think of it, the core never actually dealt any damage, had he? Which meant I was dealing with an attack unlike anything I’d heard of.

  Axel walked over and slung me over one shoulder. He pointed forward.

  This was a big moment. I won against the core, didn’t I? We should be happy.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  So I grinned from ear to ear. “Cheer up, guys. We’re about to head into the city the likes of which you’ve never seen.”

  “No,” Junior hissed. “We’re going to a doctor first.”

  “We don’t have the money.” I shrugged with one side of my body. “But once we do, I’ll go there first thing, okay?”

  Junior looked at Rose.

  Rose sighed. “Very well. You don’t seem to be in any danger.”

  As we began to leave, she noticed Sern, hunched down in a corner.

  “Hey,” Rose said, waving her forward. “Get up! We’re leaving.”

  Sern suppressed a shudder, taking Axel’s arm. She’s put herself into such a position that, while I sat on Axel’s enormous woolly back, I wouldn’t see her.

  She wouldn’t even look at me.

  Fine. I could let it go.

  Rose could not.

  “Aren’t you going to thank him?” She barked.

  Sern hunched down. Rose took a step forward.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Really.”

  Rose looked to me, then to Sern. “What’s your problem?” She hissed, positioning herself near Axel, so Sern wouldn’t be able to see her.

  “Rose, I haven’t done anything worth thanking yet,” I admitted. “So far I’ve only put her in danger. So it’s okay if she’s upset.”

  Sern jolted, snapping her head toward me.

  There were big gobs of tears in her eyes, running down her face and nose.

  She yanked her hair down, burrowing her face into Axel’s coat.

  So much for that idea.

  Maybe she was lonely? Or homesick?

  I thought about that last one for a couple seconds.

  She’s not homesick, right? Definitely. Definitely.

  Maybe?

  We walked through the rest of the tunnel without speaking another word.

  It took much longer than I’d expected, but after a half hour we reached a new place, bustling with people. Centirides milled about, unloading passengers.

  Once unloaded, they would walk a short distance over the flat rock, up to a station. It had thick metal beams and thick metal walls and absolutely no decorations. It was a plain station, built to last.

  When we arrived, the guards bristled.

  “Name?” A uniformed man asked, not so subtly clenching his hand in the way only a player would, moments before summoning weapons. He blended in well with the scattered Npc guards the union kept on staff.

  I waved. “I’m Grind. The people behind and under me are my party.

  He conjured up some sort of screen, before noticeably relaxing. “I’m sorry if we scared you, sir, but there’s been troubling reports.” He glanced behind us, to the empty tunnel. “What happened to your Centiride?”

  “We were attacked by a Peacekeeper man,” I stated.

  Another guard wandered over. “Another extremist? I assure you, the majority of the Peacekeepers are pleasant folk. Weird, sure, but harmless.”

  The first guard nodded. “If you see any Peacekeepers named ‘cultist,’ then I would recommend getting away from them as fast as you possibly can. There are few ways to earn such a title, and none of them are particularly pleasant.”

  Junior suppressed a shudder.

  The second guard scratched his chin. “Where is he? The peacekeeper, I mean?”

  “He ran,” I lied.

  The second guard grimaced. “He’s probably gone now. It’s impossible to search those tunnels.” As he glanced down, the guard noticed my arm. “He did that?”

  “Yeah,” I lied. “You wouldn’t have a health potion on you, by chance?”

  The guard allowed himself a smile. “No, but I’ll send a word to one of the hospitals, and they’ll send you some basic medical supplies. If you have further issues, I’m sure the Union would be more than happy to offer restitution. They’re nice like that.”

  He squeezed his hands and the air fizzled. A map of the area dropped into his hands, which he gave to me.

  The guard smiled. “Welcome to the Capital.”

  Once we moved out of earshot, Junior jabbed me in the side. “Why didn’t you tell them about the Core?”

  “Reasons.”

  He blinked. “Care to elaborate?”

  “Something about the whole situation bothered me,” I admitted. “It’s unlucky enough to run into a cultist who’s trying to kidnap you guys, but then to face a Core on a level of power beyond anything I’ve ever seen? That’s too unlucky to feel natural.”

  Rose frowned. “And you seriously think somebody set a trap? For us?”

  “It’s odd, that’s all,” I said. “It’s all very, very odd.”

  “What if it wasn’t a trap?” Junior asked. “Then shouldn’t we tell somebody?”

  “Not yet,” I said. “Not until I finally start understanding what’s going on around here. Besides, the Core’s harmless. You can trust me on that.”

  Off from the platform rose up a stairwell, covered in bright paintings and colorful lights, contrasting against the bleak station.

  And then we stepped out into the sunlight.

  Rose suppressed a gasp.

  Junior staggered forward, almost walking headfirst into a post.

  Axel grunted.

  Hundreds of thousands of people milled around us, talking, laughing, shouting. Everywhere, there were massive pieces of titan bone, acting as anchors for skyscrapers. Tethers had been set between buildings, giving several areas the appearance of a spiderweb. Between their materials and their techniques, buildings rose up and up, higher than would’ve ever been possible on earth.

  Everywhere, in every corner, there was abundant wealth and technology. People used small chips and tokens at stalls that had been connected with wires to large buildings which were in turn connected through glass tunnels in the sky.

  Overhead, massive creatures floated around billboards on their sides, advertising various goods and services. Wires ran down from them, into the tallest structures

  My party had spent the majority of their life in a box. They’d never forget the first time they saw a real city.

  This was blowing their mind.

  My gaze flicked to my severed arm.

  “Worth it,” I whispered.

  Rose spun in a circle, overwhelmed but delighted. “This place is amazing!”

  She took a step forward.

  I jumped down and yanked Rose away from the street, moments before she got run over by a rush of beasts and wagons.

  “Careful!” I said, biting back pain to keep a smile on. “We’re safer here, but there’s still danger.”

  Axel scratched under his iron muzzle, hissing to himself. Now that I had left, Sern climbed up onto his back, looking around the crowds.

  “It’s starting to get late,” I sighed, looking up toward the sky. “Which means we need to find a place to stay. Wwwwhiiich means we need money.”

  We needed Qualms.

  The map twitched.

  “Union,” I said.

  A path lit up the road, flicking rainbow-colored light that only I could see.

  I turned it over. “This is going to be handy.”