Blood and meat shower the ground as the grinder that is our group travels through the district. It's been just over five hours since we set out, and we haven't had any unexpected instructions just yet. I have absolutely no confidence that this'll stay this way, but for now, I'll take the mask free trek for as long as it lasts.

"Everywhere in this place looks the same." Llaliu notes. "The further we go, the less I think anything's going to surprise me."

"Definitely nothing from the architecture, that's for sure." Clutter agrees. "It's same-y stone-like stuff all the way down, and nothing but twisted paindne to fight in it. What happened to the hallways that shot leeches at us? Did the quest just stop bothering with them after the changes?"

I shrug. "You'd be the one who knows."

Clutter flexes his fingers. "That's the problem; I don't. Even the hallway we ran from the stain through stopped doing its thing at some point. Unless Sawyer and Gnash lied to us."

"Hey!" Gnash exclaims. "Sawyer might lie like that, but I never would!"

Sawyer gasps. "How can you say that in front of the general! I would never lie about anything important. Little things, sure, like how many naps I actually take, but nothing that could put anyone in danger."

I raise an eyebrow. "How many naps are you taking?"

"UM." Sawyer's eyes dart back and forth guiltily. "None! Absolutely none at all, ma'am!"

Gnash snorts in amusement. "You're lucky I'm not a snitch, Sawyer."

"But you just…" Sawyer huffs and crosses his arms. "I doon't like you sometimes."

"Me neither, buddy." Gnash laughs and pats Sawyer on the side. "That's what makes us such good friends."

Sawyer nods sagely. "It sure is."

I shake my head and ignore the pair as they continue on. Even months in, I can't tell if they're best friends or two people who have no idea how to pretend to be friends. It's harder to parse than I ever thought it'd be. Jumble taps me on the shoulder, then secretly motions up at Pearl's shell.

Pearl notices without me having to say anything. "She's listening."

"She's listening." I repeat for Jumble.

Jumble nods. "Any sign of that thing I asked you to look for?"

"No sign at all." Pearl says, which I then relay to Jumble. "If it's around here, it's very well hidden. But I'll keep my eyes open."

Worry crosses Jumble's face for a split second, but it disappears a moment later. "Thanks for keeping an eye out. I know there's not a good chance, but… well… there's still a chance. There has to be."

I refrain from raising an eyebrow in case anyone's watching us too closely. Jumble steps away ever so slightly, going from actually touching me to just brushing her arm against mine once every few seconds, but the aftereffects of whatever she just asked Pearl about lingers in her body language. They've been talking about censored stuff more and more these days, and Pearl's convinced it's related to the quest I got from the system upgrade manual all those months ago.

There hasn't been any evidence to prove that yet, so I'm stuck trusting her on faith alone. But considering what this place is built with, it's not that far-fetched an idea.

"Are we even close yet?" Ward huffs. "My lungs are shriveling up like raisins from all this running."

Clutter raises his hand, then three fingers. "Three more miles to the first suspect. If it's nothing, we can take a little break before moving to the next one."

Rina groans. "We're coming all this way for a chance at something? Didn't you say you were sure of this?"

"I did. I'm just confident in a few things." Clutter says defensively. "The other trial started before we got into the subquest. I found three things that could lead us to the trial, and if it doesn't, it'll still lead us to something."

"A dead end is something." Dani groans. "I should've stayed back with those two. Then I wouldn't be stuck here with the rest of you lot."

We all ignore his bitching, since that too has gotten more common over the months. Jumble did something to stop him from actually harming or threatening us, so now complaining is the worst thing he can do. And he's not even good at it.

Dani crosses his arms with a huff. "You're all stupid."

"Yeah, sure, big guy." Gnash falls back a step and smacks Dani's bicep with the back of his hand. "We're all dumb and you're the only smart one. The probabilities definitely work out in your favour there—yeep!"

Gnash squeaks as Dani tries to pull him into a headlock, but the slippery pint-sized paindne squeezes through the smallest of openings and sprints ahead to rejoin Sawyer. Shakes wrack his entire body as short and hot breaths fill the air, his eyes widened with the kind of fear that comes from a brush with death.

"See! See!" Gnash points accusingly at Dani. "He tried to kill me! With those big'ol muscly arms of his! Perfect for squeezing me until my eyes squish outta my skull and dangle from their sockets like berries stuck to branches!"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I roll my eyes and turn my attention to Clutter's fingers, two of which are already lowered. We're almost there. I hold up my hand then clench my fist for silence, and everyone instantly shuts off their conversations. Jumble starts whispering in her empowering staticky tone, and Clutter's body begins to shimmer with the first whispers of invisibility. Everyone else prepared themselves in their own ways without me having to say a single word.

"Depending on what happens, we might get split up." I say without turning. "We've got ten people here. If possible, stay in as large a group as you can, and keep in contact with our Class Cards. Remember, there's no shame in retreating to live another day."

I finally turn and lower my fist to my chest. "This is a marathon, not a sprint. If the quest gives you a way to get out, remember that only one of us needs to clear it for all of us to reap the rewards. Don't be like Wojkmi."

Everyone nods seriously. I trust them all to preserve their lives. Even Dani, as long as I'm not alone with him–then I have the feeling he'd try to kill me first. As long as I avoid that, we're fine.

Pearl sits up straighter in her shell. "We're here."

Clutter lowers his last finger and slows to a stop next to a stretch of hallway that looks like any other stretch of hallway. He looks around with eyes that glitter like snapshots of the night sky, magic filling the air around him in a thick haze that's far stronger than anything else I've seen him do before.

"Got a new spell?" I ask as he prods the wall with his fingertips.

He nods. "One of my spells evolved, and now I can concentrate it in my eyes. It lets me see any magical enchantments and what they're called, not just spells, and it points me right to them."

"A lot like an awareness." Pearl notes. "I wonder if being around us twisted how that spell evolved."

In my mind there's no doubt it did. I try to focus on the place Clutter's feeling at, but all I get is a weak flicker of magic that's not distinct enough to focus on. Maybe that's enough for his spell to work, though.

"Here you are." He murmurs victoriously and plants his palm on the wall.

A section of it slides up and away, revealing four pipes that emit high-pitched whooshing noises. Each of them feels slightly different magic-wise, but like four notes produced by the same instrument, they're all obviously from the same source. I motion for Jumble to come in close, then turn and beckon Llaliu as well. She's the only one with any kind of magical engineering know-how of the bunch.

"It's a bunch of pipes?" Jumble asks as she makes room for Llaliu. "Is this where the magic in the workshop comes from?"

Llaliu shrugs as she leans in to get a closer look. She taps each of them gently, then slightly harder. Each pipe gives off a slightly different tone, but they all ring… hollow. Like there's nothing at all inside of them, even though we can hear the magic inside of them. Her brow furrows in concentration as she puts her head up right next to them, taps them again, and finally leans back with a sigh.

"If it's this weird, it has to be a part of some quest." She says. "They're all made of the exact same material, and from the vibrations, they all have the exact same thickness. Problem is they sound different from making the exact same vibrations, so our ears are interpreting them wrong."

"Gotta be a hint." I say.

She nods. "Can't see anything else it'd be. Follow the sounds and we'll find something. No guarantees that it's the uplifting trial we're looking for, though."

"I bet it is. That's why we're here first." Clutter says confidently, then turns to me. "Can you follow the sounds?"

Pearl nods. But I'm not as convinced, even if she thinks she can do it.

"This is dangerously close to how we found the other one, isn't it?"

Clutter tilts his head to the side. "Isn't that a good thing? It means we're on the right path, doesn't it?"

"It means we're on a path." I scratch my neck and take a step back from the pipes. "I don't trust this for shit. How are we even supposed to know which pipe is the right one to follow? Why bother putting four here if there's only one right answer?"

Jumble hums in thought. "Because the quest is trying to split us up or waste our time. Maybe even both."

"Probably both!" Gnash chimes in. "How would we even know the thing we're following ends somewhere? I don't want to run for days just to figure out the pipes are hundreds of miles long!"

Good point. I scratch my neck even harder in thought, trying to dispel this sensation of unease and just roll with what needs to be done. But I can't shake the feeling that this isn't what we think it is. Four of the same empty pipes, each putting off the same vibrations, but the sounds hit our ears as different tones. I… still think it's a hint. Just not in a 'follow the sound' kind of way. Problem is I can't think of any other kind of hint it'd be.

I take another step back and just try to think. The hell could this be? What would pipes have to do with the next trial in the same way that following a path did for the other? Nothing pops out. No ideas spring to mind. But if Llaliu is confident… there's always one way to check.

"You're damn sure these pipes are empty?" I ask.

Llaliu nods. "They're just vibrating. Nothing's actually inside of them."

I turn my eyes upwards to ask for confirmation. Pearl doesn't nod right away.

"She's not wrong, but she's not right either. The pipes can't be empty, but the stuff inside of them isn't what's making them vibrate. If you're about to do what I think you're going to do, you should put up a shield just in case."

I flip a coin through my knuckles and grab a pipe with the other hand. "Stand back, everyone. I have no idea what this is going to do."

After a few heartbeats to let everyone get to safety, I drum my fingers against the pipe and yank with all my might. It breaks away with barely any resistance, and the sound reverberating through the pipe snaps off with it. Sludgy grey material oozes out of the pipe, spilling around my legs and filling the entire hallway thigh-deep so quickly that I don't even have time to scream.

A single face appears in the grey, shifting and swishing like a reflection on a rippling lake. It opens its eyes to reveal empty sockets, then wrenches open a jaw filled with shattered teeth that float away in the flow of construct juices.

It's broken.

Come with me.

Maybe you'll be able to fix it.

Before I can make a sound, the ground disappears from under my feet and the entire world turns a dull shade of grey. I flail to try and find handholds in the sludgy liquid, but just as quickly as it came, I find myself standing with nothing but slightly stained clothes to prove it ever existed. Jumble and Clutter look around in confusion, their furs wicking off the material, and Llaliu is utterly mystified at the fact that she's perfectly fine.

"Where are we?!" She demands as she looks around in a panic. "And where the hell is everyone else?!"

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