The feass in a blur for Emily, an odd sense of disect following her every move as Juliana’s words echo in her mind. Early the day, the Diver vanishes from the tablet’s dispy, leaving a si floating alone in the darkness. Emily reassures her friends that it’s a good sign and that she remember the location it vanished in, keeping them calm as they tinue desding into the darkness.

  They run into several groups of beasts, including a few more mantolyd a few third circle screamers and lightnihat Emily eagerly adds to their growing colle of body parts. The tunnels tih the same twisting byrinthiructure as the level above, and they even find a few pitch-bck kes that Emily dives into to look for further routes down, but she only finds creatures' dwellings dug into the riverbeds, and never a deeper path.

  Emily spends much of her time as they travel with her attention split between her cores. Part of her cortex focuses on walking, fighting, and maintaining her various dete spells and maes: the other part spends most of its energy her friends, keeping at bay the gnawing sense of loneliness building in her heart. She starts to notice details and differences in their behaviours.

  Tom’s gaze stantly roams the group, being wary when he looks at Dante and Enzo, guilty when he gnces back at Ivor, and taking on a mixture of resped caution when he looks at Emily. He starts a versation whenever he notices the energy or mood of the group dropping, doing his best to keep up morale as Emily often charges on ahead, iive to the emotional needs of her team.

  Ivor trails at the back of the group, not iing with anyone much, other than at mealtimes when he occasionally joins in with the versation. His mood noticeably lifts when Tom struggles to form a few signs to ask him a question.

  Juliana flinches every time a noise sounds off in the distance. She winces every time Emily firms enemy tact. She frowns every time Emily draws her bdes. Her reas add to the bubbling guilt in Emily’s stomach that only recedes when they settle down together for meals, and Juliana seems to rex and e to life again.

  I knew she didn’t like fighting, but I hadn’t realised just how unfortable she’s been. No, that’s not true. I noticed but I chose to ighe problem by doing things like taking the fights where she ’t see them. I just didn’t want to accept the truth.

  The further they sink into the shadows, the more Emily’s bitterness grows as she realises that she hasn’t paid that much attention to her friends sihe expedition started, her goal far more important to her. To make things worse, even after notig their disfort and efforts to make up for her shortings as a leader, she reises her unwavering desire to finish her quest and find The Abyss hasn’t faded, but instead grown stronger as they approach the point where the Diver vanished.

  Late afternoon, on the eighth day in the dark, Emily takes back all the processing power being used to observe her friends, leaving only a shred of focus on watg Juliana, and focuses it oh ahead. At first, she doesn’t hold much hope for the Diver’s disappearance, assuming it to have run into a third circle beast, but the closer they get, the more oddities she notices that suggest otherwise.

  First, the spider detects a low rumbling vibration filling the cave, too low to be audible until they get closer, where Emily reises the sound of running water growing louder. Sed, the shifting darkness around them slowly starts to shudder, growing more active, mgressive, g away at their haven of light and f Emily to pour more mana intht spell to keep them illuminated. And finally, the most pelling piece of evidehat they’re approag a new revetion is the mounting pressure Emily begins to feel and reise, the air around them growing denser as thick mana s around them.

  Her friends start to show signs of distress, slowing down and struggling slightly to keep walking as if pushing against immense resistah every step.

  This feels like the Mandrago Patriarch’s aura, but worse. Is The Abyss a fourth circle phenomenon? Or, is there a strong fourth circle creature ahead? Or both.

  Excitement rises in Emily’s gut as they push forward, the rumble of flowing water growing louder and louder iunnel.

  “What is that?” Hester asks as she forces herself to pe foot in front of the other.

  “I think,” Emily says, lig her lips with anticipation. “It’s our destination.”

  Chatter breaks out among the group, but Emily barely listens to them, staring off into the darkness with intense fervour as her hand rises to rest on The Clock’s pouch.

  Either that, or we’re approag a very dangerous monster.

  The river o them quickly starts to grow choppy, the smooth surface being broken for the first time by the current, bubbling up as Emily removes her boat, sending it into ste before tinuing forward. With each advang step, the unnatural darkness around them shifts, densing and l itself bit by bit to the ground until Emily’s light fills the whole tunnel, except for a swirling yer of darkhat bhe floor and water, a few ihick.

  Emily pauses, signalling for her friends to stop as they ent on the loss of feeling in their feet, before croug down to take a closer look, also feeling an odd, buzzing numbness in her feet that are now engulfed in darkness despite their magical lights trying to keep it at bay.

  I guess this is the feeling Tom mentioned. It’s trated enough to affect me too now.

  “Finally, we see again,” Tom mutters behind her, receiving several grunts of agreement from the others as Emily takes out a light pad activates it, l it into the thick darkness c the ground.

  The magical light vahe sed it touches the swirling yer of bck, tendrils of shadows reag up and swallowing the light it emits the moment it es into taumbing Emily’s fingers as they lick against them.

  “We should feel lucky the darkness hasn’t been this trated the whole time,” Emily says, staring at the light pack as she pulls it free of the darkness’ hold. “We wouldn’t have been able to see at all: we probably wouldn’t be able to feel much either.”

  Tom shivers slightly at the unnatural sight and nods his agreement, being the only one in the group to have experiehe total loss of feeling. Emily stands back up aures for everyoo follow her. The tuwists a few more times, now something Emily easily tell at a gh her vision ahead clear, and they follow it as the rumbling grows louder, building to an overwhelming level, blog out any versation behind her as they proceed.

  They follow the tunnel around o bend before their destination es into sight, and Emily lets out a gasp of astonishment. The tunnel opens up, the river falls away, and everyone freezes on the spot as they stare out into the gaping nothingness before them.

  “The Abyss,” Emily mutters quietly under her breath, the sound quickly being washed away by the cresdo of falling water.

  Standing before them is a vast cavern, spanning hundreds of metres. The roof is lined with dozens of crystal formations releasing light into the dim space, struggling thten the room. The walls are made of bd grey rock, with holes randomly formed at varyis, all p water out into the gaping hole in the tre. There are a few narrow pathways eg some of the nearby holes, but the rest of the space is without a floor.

  Looking out into the vast space, Emily sees darkness casg down with the water, before pooling to form a shifting, liquid yer of shadows a short drop below her. She ’t see a siail past the writhing darkness and, as she moves closer to the edge to gaze down, a foreboding sense of dread fills her gut. She feels powerful mana emanating from The Abyss and, upon closer iion, Emily reises it as a mix of water, darkness, ice, ah, with death pying on her nerves far more than she ever expected.

  I ’t go down there. I’ll die for certain if I try right now.

  As this thought rises to the forefront of her mind unbidden, a system notification appears before her eyes.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  -Quest pleted: The Abyss: Everything Flows To

  [The Abyss: Everything Flows To]

  [Rank:] D

  [Description:] You’ve reached the magical underbelly of The Gde, The Crystal Waters. Now discover where The Waters end.

  Requirements:

  -Find the destination of The Crystal Waters’ flow (plete)

  Rewards:

  -Skill: Flow (passive)

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  -Quest geed: The Abyss: Gaze Into

  [The Abyss: Gaze Into]

  [Rank:] B

  [Description:] You’ve found The Abyss, the culmination of The Gde’s darkness. Now risk a journey into it.

  Requirements:

  -Ehe Abyss (Not plete)

  Rewards:

  --Quest: The Abyss: Gazes Back

  _____

  A shiver runs down Emily’s spine as muscle memory she never had flows into her body along with her new skill. Ign it for now, she frowns at the quest in the line.

  This quest sucks.

  paring the details to her previous quests, Emily almost lets out a groan in frustration.

  The rank has jumped two levels, and it’s very simple to plete, but there isn’t actually a reward.

  She takes a deep breath, her eyes narrowing as her mind starts breaking down the information provided to her.

  The system hasn’t given me a useless quest so far, why would it now? Assume this quest is here for a reason. What is it? A warning?

  Reading over the information again, and gng down into the ominous pit before her, a clear picture starts to form in Emily’s mind.

  None of my other quests have told me the step before I got to it, but this one does. Gazes back. It’s tellihat if I go down there something will notice me. And now, if I try using a time loop to have a quick look, the quest will plete and I’ll have to it to going in and out before I leave so I don’t risk the system punishing me for g the quest and then undoing the requirement. Do I really have to leave having only got this far?

  Her analysis of the quest blends with her instinct to avoid the gaping chasm and, despite her reluce, she decides to turn back for now. A mixture of disappoi and relief s in Emily’s chest as she settles on the decision, sing the odd feeling of disquiet that bubbles iomach when she siders staying for longer.

  “It’s incredible,” she finally hears Hester say behind her, practically shouting, having shut out her friends the moment The Abyss came into view.

  “It’s terrifying,” Tom adds, clearly unnerved. “What do you think’s down there?”

  “No clue.” Enzo joins in. “But I get a bad feeling when I look at it. The mana it’s leaking feels almost suffog.”

  Emily looks back at her friends, seeing all of them with varying levels of stress etched on their faces, from gritted teeth to sweat dripping down their brows, all avoiding stepping up to joi the edge of the path. Juliana, in particur, is drained pletely white, a fearful look in her eyes as they remain fixed on the gaping maw of darkness. With a small sigh, Emily steps towards her and pulls her into a hug, breaking her gaze away from the hole.

  “I don’t know what’s down there, and I don’t think we’re going to find out for now,” Emily says, a flicker of mana flowing through her voiake sure her friends all hear her over the crash of falling water.

  They immediately look at her with a mixture of relief and disbelief, her words seeming more shog to them than the magical phenomena right in front of them.

  “You’re turning back?” Juliana asks from within her arms.

  “Yeah. I also get a bad feeling when I look down there, so I don’t think it’s a good idea to go dow.”

  “Yet?” Dante questions.

  “Yeah, yet. I think I’ll e back again once I’m fourth circle, but for now, this is far enough.”

  “Ha, once you’re fourth circle,” he ughs, before pausing with a thoughtful look. “Actually, I ’t see you not reag fourth circle.”

  Emily chuckles as her friends nod along, all agreeing with his judgement.

  “Thanks for the vote of fidence,” she says, before looking back across the cavern, pulling a bird from her ste and sending it out to float over The Abyss.

  “What are you doing?” Hester asks curiously, watg Emily’s bird flutter away.

  “Looking for our way out,” Emily says as she flies the bird to the closest hole in the wall. “One of those other tunnels must have a viable path out of here. At least, I hope they do.”

  “Hope?” Tom questions.

  “Well, I havely been here before,” Emily responds with a shrug. “This may take a while. I take you guys away from this area to wait if you want, it’s clearly not very fortable.”

  Her friends gween each other, quickly ing to a silent agreement.

  “Yes please,” Hester answers for them, before tinuing with a grin. “What are you going to call this area by the way? You are the first to discover it.”

  Emily smiles, gng over the edge once more as she fills her throat with mana.

  “The Abyss,” she says, her voice eg out and filling the space, reverberating off of every surfad slowly fading into a chilling whisper.

  ***

  Emily walks her friends back through the tuhe way they came, stig with them until they’ve moved far enough to leave the influence of The Abyss, lifting the weight from their shoulders. She sets up the array disc for them before leaving and heading back to The Abyss’ edge alone.

  As she arrives ba the uling cavern, she sits down and sends out four birds to s the nearby streams of falling water for traversable paths. While they’re doing their work, Emily pulls up her system to have a look at her new skill.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  [Flow (passive)]

  User is a master of their own flow and read that of others.

  -Grants an instinctual uanding of smooth movement.

  _____

  What does smooth movement mean? I thought I already had perfect trol over my body.

  She gnces down at her perfectly stationary form, not a single muscle twitg without her i.

  But, I definitely felt something when I got the skill.

  “Ah well. Only one way to find out,” she mutters, standing up.

  Emily closes her eyes, using her spatial awareo form a near-perfect mental image of the space around her. She pictures goblins climbing out through the walls and floor to attack her. She takes a deep breath and blurs into motion.

  Her right arm flicks out, a bde detag from her d flying in a straight lio the first imaginary enemy. It sails through the goblin’s skull, cutting nothing but air and dispersing the first target in her mind. The others rush to close in on her, but Emily barely moves. Her arm retracts quickly in a downward sweeping motion, pulling the bde ba an arder her as she reels it in until it sails past her leg without catg the floor.

  Her hand locks onto the Spitter’s handle on the ast, sliding it from its holster without resistance. Emily turns a full oy, following the bde around and raising the gun to point at a third goblin as the bde shoots away from her, its reel unravelling to let it cut through the sed. She pulls the trigger, nothing happening due to the gun being in safe, and the goblin’s image fades from her mind.

  With barely a thought, Emily’s left hand quickly begins fshing through hand signs as she twists, pulling the trigger twice more to pick off the wo closest goblins, clearing a small gap. The Cw’s bde follows her rotation, gaining speed as it hits ance.

  Her left hand stops, the moment before the bde makes tact with another illusoblin, two fingers pointed a fra ahead of the bde. A glistening green magic circle forms and, the moment the bde touches it, the sharp pieetal rockets sideways, carving a lihrough the goblins.

  A grin creeps its way onto Emily’s face as she stops rotating, the Spitter fading from her hand as she sends it into her ste and stretches her hand out, fingers apart and waiting. The wire of the bde s around her body, gaining speed as it gets closer to her, ripping apart all the enemies she’s pictured. Before the bde get close enough to catch her though, Emily’s outstretched fingers move, snapping together with a crackle of maa.

  The bde stops, held betweehumb and middle finger, rooted in pce by the fadiricity. She flicks the bde back, letting it unravel aract bato its housing as she takes a seat again, the satisfied grin never leaving her face as she takes out and slides the Spitter bato pce.

  “This skill’s amazing,” she mutters.

  It feels like my magid ons are aension of my body. I didn’t eveo think about pg that magic circle in the right pce, I just knew where my bde would be when I finished casting. Not to mention grabbing the Spitter without breaking my attack with my Cw: I’ve never mao get the transitioween ons down that smoothly before.

  “Is that mastering my own flow? I guess I ’t test reading others without real oppos,” Emily says to herself, standing up and looking at one of her birds h before her first potential path. “But even with just that, this skill was worth ing here for.”

  KeroKeron