Leta proved to be an absolute delight of a person, with an easy smile that proved impossible to deny.

They were surprised by a large, land-based bird beast with short wings but wicked claws and beak within five minutes of leaving the others behind, and while between Nar, Tuk and Rel, they made short work of it, in her shock, Rel stumbled onto a glowing purple bush that left her with a nasty rash across her neck and chin. Leta easily handled it by pushing a rather sharp looking and long needle into the center of the rash and cycling her aura through it.

"Is that what you meant by being good with needles?" Rel had asked, wide eyed at the painless needle that went in her neck.

The cooline had shook with another of her characteristically full-bellied laughters, her quills of many browns rippling in tandem with her laughter.

"Yes and no. My family runs a special kind of practice called acupuncture, meaning, we use needles with our auras to heal people," Leta explained. "But we're also not rich, so one learns to mend their clothes to make them last longer."

She grinned and briefly raised her eyes to meet theirs. "My dad taught me both uses of the needle as he learned them in his cubeplant, though I'm still nowhere as good as him… Even with my formal healer's education!"

Tuk nodded along her words, obviously already knowing her story, but Nar and Rel were left stunned by it.

"Wow," Nar breathed.

"Damn… The Nexus is wild," Rel said, straining her eyes to look down at the glowing needle in her neck. "Healing with needles…"

"There's actually quite a lot of other ways of healing too! We healers come as varied as the tanks, at the very least, though we can't compare to the insane infinite variety of the DPS classes," Leta said, as she eyed the purple raised skin returning to normal. "Just in our residential there's actually five other healing practices! We've got cupping, bathing, and three massage centers! Those are always popular, you know? Especially after a hard day's work in the factories of our hub."

"Right…" Nar said, nodding to hide is confusion. "Wait, you said your family's practice was auramancer, right? I thought that auramancer swapped to… Oh."

Leta grinned at him as the pieces fell into place.

"Yep! Second-gen means that my folks didn't have the XP to register me with a spirit," Leta told them. "You need monthly donations for that kind stuff, you know?"

"Oh…" Rel said, pursing her lips.

"Sorry," Nar mumbled.

The cooline slapped his arm. "None of that! For -19 folk we actually live pretty nicely! There's no shortage of auramancers to heal down there, so we've got a good living going and we never go hungry!"

-19? Nar thought, hoping his expression remained neutral. That's practically besides the exit from the B-Nex! Crystal, how many ex-Climbers actually make it out of the Minus Levels? Or are they just stuck in factories and farms down there?

"And there! All fixed!" Leta said, retrieving her needle from Rel's neck.

"Wow," Rel whispered, feeling her skin. "I think healers have to be the best class of all!"

"Right?" Tuk said, wiggling his eyebrows. "You're awesome Leta!"

"Oh, stop it you two!"

They got underway again, after letting the others know through their mental chat, with Leta stopping once in a while to gather the glowing flora of the Brightnight. Like Jasphaer, she had taken up gathering as an extra activity, though unlike their healer, Leta didn't know anything about harvesting.

"By the way, Leta, and tell me if this is wrong of me to ask, but what is Tun's affinity?" Nar asked, as they waited for her to pick a single, tiny and deep blue glowing mushroom from amongst the roots of a giant tree, glowing pink ivy dangling from its branches. Apparently, that mushroom had been listed in the prep material as a powerful deworming agent, once cooked and prepared through several steps.

"It's not wrong at all! We're in the same party and you should be checking everyone's status!" Leta said, storing the mushroom, and peering around for more.

"I did wonder if that was rude," Rel said. "You never really know out here…"

"It's good to be cautious, but for this kind of stuff, where we're all trying to survive together, you don't need to worry!" Leta said. "Oh! There's another one! Anyways, you can confirm it yourself, but Tun's affinity is one of protection and retribution of one's loved ones, manifesting as light."

"Oh, I also manifest as light!" Tuk added.

"You are a bright one, aren't you, Tuk?" Leta said, dimples forming on her cheeks as she rubbed his back.

"Loved ones, uh?" Nar said, rubbing his chin. "And that skill of his…"

"[Phalanx of Safeguarding]? The one with the shields of light?" Leta asked.

"Yeah, that one! Is it a purely defensive skill?" Nar asked. "And can he keep it indefinitely?"

"Yes and yes, as long as he has an aura. Good eyes!" Leta said, getting back up. "Tun's path is based on his love for his party. His skills are centered around protecting us, but there is one, [Vengeance of the Protector], that allows him to take any damage we take, double it, and deal that damage back to the enemy in a line of light that is similar to your [Aura Blade]. Uh, that was the skill you used back there, right? That was so cool!"

"Oh, uh, thanks," Nar said, his eyebrows rising. "But, wait, does that mean Tun has a weapon too?"

"Of course!" the cooline said, and she made a gesture as if unsheathing a blade from behind a shield. "There's a short sword sheathed on the inside of his great shield, a gladius they're called. It's a very popular combo amongst heavy tanks."

"Heavy tanks?" Nar asked.

Leta smiled as she ducked under a low branch. "I told you there was a lot of variety! Heavy tanks are a subclass of tank, and they're the ones you expect to find holding the frontlines, as they usually have the biggest HP pools, the greatest [Toughness] and the best damage negating or soaking skills."

"Right… Pile, there's so much stuff still to learn out here," Nar mumbled.

"So much," Tuk said. "You have no idea how much stuff you can learn just from our ship alone."

"Just take it one step at a time," Leta said. "But yeah, you can pretty much trust Tun to hold the frontline and take a crap ton of damage. And if we take any damage, then he gets to use his [Vengeance of the Protector] skill and fight back… Uh, but that doesn't work if the damage comes from his [Bastion of the Cherished], which redirects up to 30% damage from us to him."

"You can do that?" Rel asked, her jaw dropping.

"You can do anything," Leta said, chuckling. "Oh, there's another one!"

And she plopped down to collect another of the deworming mushrooms from a dark nook within a heavy set of gnarled roots.

Come to think of it, these trees look different, Nar thought, eyeing the thick, towering titans around them. Their roots alone were so massive that the jungle's, glowing vegetation grew within and over their gnarly embrace, and they were forced to climb up and down across those roots.

"It's actually interesting… Skills with words like "vengeance" or "retribution" paths are usually associated with the holy classes, especially the paladin and inquisition orders," Leta said, as she carefully cut the mushroom's base with a short, curved knife. "It's rare to see it in other classes."

Nar and Tuk glanced at Rel.

"Uh… Paladin is like a holy warrior and an inquisitor is like an… Investigator that makes sure there's no heresy going about?" the alfin said. "Their aethermancers bonded to spirits of course, just as normal, but their skills are heavily reliant on their faith and religious practices."

"Pretty much that… But some of them are even bonded to gods themselves," Leta said, her tone distracted as she inspected the blue, glowing mushroom.

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"You can do that?" Nar asked, mimicking Rel's early reaction.

"Damn… To a god?" Tuk whispered.

"Those kinds of people are usually really, really strong," Leta said, getting up. "The greatest fighter in the Nexus is the Paladin of the Crystal, the Great Protector of the Nexus. He's bonded to the Crystal Itself."

"No way…" Tuk breathed. "Really? The Crystal Itself?"

"One step at a time," Leta said, grinning at Tuk's and Nar's mute expressions.

Damn… Can you imagine that kind of power? Nar wondered, as they resumed searching for a camping spot. Bonded to a god… I can't even begin imagining how that must be.

**********

Eventually they found a large enough space for them to spend the night in, and by then, Nar had realized that he had been right in lumping Leta in with the extroverted side of the party. And when Kur and Row sent Viy, Jaz and Mul over with Sarke accompanying them, the volume only grew as all the loudmouths in the two parties assembled together without party leader supervision. Sighing, Nar eventually realized that Kur and Row must have expected him to keep things under control, and told them all to either zip it or keep it down.

Meanwhile, Sarke, who was starting to open up more to them all, taught them how to clear the brush and use shovels to flatten a surface to assemble their tents in. Tuk and Viy showed sadness about destroying a patch of really pretty flowers, and even a small tree that grew from them.

"Don't feel bad about it," Sarke had told them, as they hesitated in the face of the beautiful thing, with its shining elegant leaves and red glowing, tiny flowers. "When we leave, it will grow again in a few minutes. The Brightnight has an insane rate of regeneration, and no matter how much destruction you cause, it will all be regenerated in a matter of minutes or hours as soon as there is no sapient there to see it."

After flattening a clear enough surface to her standards, they then set about drilling holes into the tree trunks in order to hoist the tarps above their heads at slanted angles. There was no telling when it would rain in that heavy rain prone area, and so it was a warranted precaution that was well worth it in order to keep all of them and their gear dry.

And so they had progressed, and raised a large tent made up of a thick material with transparent rectangles across it to allow them to peer outside from within. Inside that large tent, they set up smaller ones over a large, thicker tarp that padded the floor over any rocks and debris, and which should keep everything inside the tent from getting wet from mud or running water when the Jungle Tops' legendary downpours began.

Each tent could field five people, and it came equipped with nets at the entrances to help keep any bugs from wandering inside by mistake or in search of sustenance, which would be them. Sarke set up a smaller two-person tent for her and Sej, and in the center of the tents, they set up two of the water boiler-purifiers to start stockpiling on water, as well as several chairs.

Since they would be eating rations for the first few days, they didn't bother to set up their kitchen area. As for the cleaning up needs, the assemble two showers and two latrines, which were made up collapse rectangles of a cloth-like material which they erected in a corner of the large tent, away from the eating areas. These all came with connecting tubes to the outside, to allow fresh air in, and with reservoirs that would need to be emptied every day, and no one was looking forward to that shared duty.

Though at least you can heat up the water with aura, Nar remarked, as they completed their assembly.

Finally, they inflated mattresses and laid out pillows and slim blankets, though in that heat, Nar doubted anyone was going to be using them. All told, it took them about three hours to assemble the whole thing, and that was with them only setting up the bare minimum, since they would be moving locations in the morning to their first long-term location.

Then, while they waited for the others to finish up on their harvesting, Sarke led them around to gather some plants, berries and mushrooms, in search of anything that was part of their list, of value, or that they could eat once their rations went out, though they didn't spot anything of the third category.

When the others finally returned, they took turns washing up, the bloodied people who'd been harvesting taking precedence in cleaning themselves up and their jungle suits. Darkness was falling by the time they were done, and everyone took a quick bite out of their rations and got ready to sleep after Jasphaer and Leta performed a quick checkup over everyone, to ensure there were no nasty surprises attached to or inside anyone, leaving five people up on watch.

Sometime later, Tuk woke Nar up for his turn.

"Sleep well," he told the ring tosser as he headed out the tent he shared with Kur, Tuk, Mul and Jasphaer.

Tuk threw him a thumbs up and collapsed on his mattress, not bothering with his blanket. It had been a long, long day and the trugger was already half-asleep by the time Nar exited their shared tent. And once outside, he found that the air within the larger structure that protected them from the jungle was only slightly cooler and less damp than inside the smaller tent.

Crystal… he thought. He had been hoping to at least dry out some of that sweat drenching him, but it looked like he needed to get used to the sensation of always being wet and sticky in that domain.

He glanced out one the few rectangles they'd left open for the night, and noticed that beyond the aura lights they had set up around the perimeter, there was now only an impenetrable darkness. Insects buzzed around the lights, and cricked and buzzed further in the distance, hidden in the completely dark jungle now. Meanwhile, within the tent, the sound of hushed conversation joined the low grumble and gargle of the water boiler-purifiers working away with some water they'd collected from further down the stream. Other than that, the jungle was deadly silent, enveloping them in a warm and sweaty blanket of utter nothingness.

They weren't joking about the nights in here, Nar thought, growing at that absolute darkness. It was somehow reminiscent of their time in the B-Nex corridors.

"You managed to sleep in this heat?" Row asked him as he joined the cluster of people on watch.

He gave a nod of greeting to Tun and Cor, who had joined in to watch over everyone as well.

"I did, eventually. But shouldn't you guys be sleeping by now?" he asked the two-party leaders.

Kur and Row had volunteered for the first watch, since they had a lot to discuss in order to understand the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the working peculiarities of each party before they could plan how to work together. But that had been hours ago.

"We should, but your party is a fucking mess!" the red party leader said. "We're still trying to figure out how this all is going to work!"

Nar winced, but there was nothing he could say to that.

"Is your party… Easier then?" he asked, glancing over at Tun and Cor, who smiled in return.

Row scoffed, and scrubbed at her bloodshot eyes. "Not sure if easier is the right word… But it's definitely simpler. First and foremost, we only have 3 affinities unlocked so far. First, we got Tun, his affinity is…"

"Oh, I already asked Leta about it," Nar said, nodding at the tank. "That's one awesome affinity."

"Cheers," Tun said, with a nod of his own.

"Right, well, next up is Jaz, then. His affinity is that of the jokester, meaning that he just makes a shit ton of noise and chaos to distract the enemy," Row said, rolling her eyes. "Trust him to have an affinity towards pranking things and being noisy as fuck!"

Nar and Kur both chuckled.

"It does match him," Kur said, rubbing at his own eyes.

"As for the last affinity," Row said, and slapped Cor's leg affectionately. "Cor unlocked an affinity to momentum/tides, manifesting through water."

"Tides? Like the sea in those easy dungeons?" Nar asked.

The caster smiled proudly. "The very same."

"Cor's affinity has become the core of our party's combat strategies!" Row beamed. "She's amazing!"

"I'm still learning!" Cor protested. "And I only have three skills! And one of them is an upgraded meditation!"

"So far! And they're already insanely cool!" Row said.

"Oh?" Nar asked, his eyebrows rising in curiosity.

"Go on, explain!" Row said, elbowing the caster.

"Ugh. Fine! My two skills are [The Gathering and Receding Tide] and [High Tide]," Cor explained, a smile lighting up her features despite her clear awkwardness. "Here, it will be easier if I just read them out to you."

 

The Gathering and Receding Tide (Aura/Affinity): The tide ebbs and flows. Requires absolute focus and for the user to remain immobile as they build up their aura in their core and pathways. It grants instances of [Gathering Tide] at no aura cost. Each instance grants a 0.2% bonus to the party's skills and lasts 1 minute or until another instance is added (refreshing the timer). Can stack up to 100 instances, but once 100 are reached, they can only be maintained for 30 seconds. Once this time runs out, or once spent, [Gathering Tide] instances turn into instances of [Receding Tide] which have the opposite effect.

High Tide: Becomes available at 100 stacks of [Gathering Tide]. The high tide is here! Spend all available aura in a devastating torrent (this skill is not dependent nor limited by [Mastery]).

- Tsunami: Unleash an enormous, crushing wave of water affinity aura that demolishes and sweeps away anything in its path. Water and blunt physical damage are caused. May cause drowning.

Meditation of the Tides: This greatly enhanced meditation skill boosts aura recovery by 300% outside of battle and 100% while in battle. Requires absolute stillness and concentration in order to maintain, and if there are instances of [Receding Tide], meditating will help speed up clearing them.

"Crystal!" Nar whispered. "That's so amazing! And your [Meditation] now works in battle too?"

"Right?" Row said, elbowing Cor, who looked down as a furious blush tinted her cheeks. "Our whole end-game strategy is now just to protect her as she builds up to [High Tide] and then let her destroy everything in front of her!"

"No, it's not!" Cor hissed.

"I can see why," Nar said, grinning. "Crystal… That's crazy."

The human caster sighed, and passed a hand of her sweat streaked, short, ashen gray hair. "She's just messing, Nar. It takes me about 30 minutes to stack up to 100 instances, and that's not something that we can or need to do in every single fight. At the moment, I'm mostly just using my [Aura Projectiles] as usual, and I use my [Gathering Tide] to boost up the party when needed. At least, that's the idea, but we haven't really faced anything tough enough that required that sort of drawn-out strategy."

"We will at some point. It's just a matter of time," Tun rumbled, crossing his vast arms. "But from our testing, the buff alone that we get from [Gathering Tide] is more than worth it for all of us across the boards. DPS is massively boosted and so is my tanking capabilities."

"You just need to keep working on your [Mastery] and pathways," Row added, patting Cor's shoulder. "It will speed things up. Plus, you'll unlock more skills soon, too! I'm sure there will be something faster there!"

"Maybe…"

"Does it speed things up?" Nar asked.

Cor grimaced. "It should…"

"It will," Row said, her tone serious. "Just keep working at it. Regardless, I do believe that in the future, our strategies will become heavily focused on our Cor here. Most parties do the same, focusing around a key path or set of skills. Maybe even just one skill."

"I see," Nar said, nodding. "That does seem simpler compared to our… Eh, mess."

"Just wait until you get more affinities," Kur muttered, as Row burst out laughing.

"Bah!" Row showed him his tongue. "I'm sure it's going to be fine."

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