Hub World Transversing

"Hrnghhhh! Hrnghhhh!" Metro hurled out the contents of the coffee all over the floor, as the vomit was absorbed by the slop that was on the ground. When he finally felt like a human being again, he wiped the traces of vomit from his mouth and smeared it against his T-shirt, which completely absorbed the unsanitary mess.

Sorash patted Metro's back. "Don't worry. Once you've reached a 2 star player, there will be no more problems with the tube." Metro patted his chest as he rose up from the ground. He had been forcibly sucked into a tube below him when he had pressed the destination, and he had stumbled out, falling to the ground while vomiting.

"Come, follow behind me. The Underbelly is a maze to navigate if we wish to reach our guild's headquarters." A filthy stench assaulted Metro's sense of smell as he started following Sorash. He covered his nose with his hand as he trudged through the sloppy ground, which contaminated his brown leather shoes.

"You know, the Underbelly is the worst place in the Hub World. But that is what makes it so special!" Sorash walked leisurely as he pointed out various locations to Metro. Metro took a quick look around.

From what he saw, the Underbelly was a swamp, except that there was solid ground which formed a path to somewhere. A thick layer of green fog lingered in the air, which seemed to come from the effervescence of the swamp water.

"These are the Darkwood Forests, belonging to the Mysticism guild Sage of the Unknown. Don't provoke them. If you land into a scenario with them, they might use a PvP token and use dark curses on you." The Darkwood Forests were covered with purple trees that contorted to form buildings of various shapes and sizes. Metro could see a few glints hidden in the crevices of those buildings, so he turned away from them.

"What are PvP tokens?" Metro understood the term Player Vs Player, but he was concerned about under what conditions it was activated. After all, if he offended someone, that person might be a Player stronger than him and continually crush him like a bug.

"You don't have to be so concerned about it. PvP tokens are very expensive, at 10 Fate Points, but they can only be purchased by 3 star and above Players. Of course, you get all your opponent's skills and items to drop, but that's why our guild doesn't carry valuable items around. I personally witnessed a Player hunting before. It was a brutal sight." Sorash wore a grim expression on his face while talking about PvP.

"Ok, let's not talk about that. Can you tell me about those iron bars in front?" Metro tried to divert the topic from PvP. It was obvious that Sorash had negative experiences with the mechanics, and it would do Metro more good to maintain a positive atmosphere to acquire more details.

"Ah! Those are the gates to the massive sewer tunnels. Come, let me lead the way." Sorash snapped back into focus and remembered that Metro was still waiting for him to guide the tunnels. With some more brisk walking, they soon arrived at the high iron bars.

"If you wish to enter or exit the sewers, it's quite easy, just let the gate have an offering of your blood." Sorash used his fingernail to slice his palm open. Only a few drops of blood leaked out, but the iron bars immediately retracted upon contact, akin to a blade being sheathed.

As the duo entered the sewers, the first tunnel they had entered suddenly lit ablaze with flames. Torches appeared from everywhere, surrounding them and revealing the three tunnels in front of them that had previously been awash in darkness, while the iron bars shut tight behind them.

"Clap! Clap! Clap!" The tunnels only served to amplify the sounds of clapping, which created the illusion that it came from everywhere. Metro's toes started twitching, as he felt his adrenaline level slowly rising.

"Newton, let us go. Pranks have a time and place to be played. This is important business." The air flickered, and a young boy with a fireball in his hand appeared.

"Can't you just let an old man like me enjoy using my illusion magic on a newbie for once? It's a good parting gift at least." The youthful boy was impervious to the flames from the fireball, as he played with it like putty. However, Metro's skin had started turning red from the heat. His excessive sweat could not even cool him down fast enough.

"Don't worry. You can't physically die in the Hub World unless you break an absolute rule." Sorash whispered into Metro's ear. Following the whisper, Sorash charged into the young boy and threw him into the wall of a random tunnel, crushing several walls underneath. While the young boy was on the way down, he even had the time to shout, "You made a slight scratch on my vessel! I'm going to make Nana pay for this!"

"That was Newton, the local weirdo. He's unaffiliated, but his Artifact allows him to manifest spells and master alchemy incredibly easily, which makes him quite powerful. Let's just move on." Sorash jumped out and grabbed a torch off the wall to illuminate the way.

Moving further into the sewers, there was surprisingly no more trouble. There were some people who walked by, but Sorash felt no need to introduce them at all. With a few twists and turns in the tunnels, Metro could hear a few muffled conversations, but he ignored them.

"There we go." Finally, they arrived at a hole that was at the end of a dark tunnel. Metro had thought that it was a dead end at first, but Sorash was leading him, and he didn't want to leave a bad impression on his fellow Alliance member, so he jumped into the hole.

"Wait!" Sorash saw that Metro had jumped into the hole and wanted to stop him, but he already heard a grunt of pain coming from Metro. "Did you lose all your fear from that encounter with Newton just now?" Sorash jumped down too and pointed to the conspicuous rope ladder that Metro missed.

"Ugh... whatever. At least we're at the alliance now, right?" Metro has broken both his legs, but he did not feel much pain. In fact, he could even feel his bones beginning to mend by themselves.

"That is an impressive low demon bloodline you got there. How'd you get it?" Sorash started dragging Metro over the floor. The floor was mostly the same disgusting slop aboveground, but Metro did not really mind.

After Metro was dragged past a few holes, he could hear the sounds of people clinking together some drinks. "We're here." Sorash let go of Metro, who had already fully healed by this point. Brushing off the slop on his face, he stood up to meet oddities of various shapes and sizes. Metro was not bothered by this at all. He had already come to this place with a metallic looking man, and had not expected them to be humans.

"Wow, I've seen humans before, but this is the first time a human has willingly joined our alliance. Aside from our alliance leader of course." A one eyed slime started talking using an artificial mouth.

"Welcome to our alliance! My name is Nana. I will take over from Sorash in guiding you!" A woman that was dressed in casual clothes like Metro welcomed him excitedly. "First of all, you're wondering what to do with your Fate Points right?"

"Here's the alliance's Natural Talents machine. You can use it to buy, trade, and upgrade your skills using Fate Points basically." An apathetic looking brown insectoid pushed a crystal ball in front of Metro.

"Oh yeah, the marketplace can be done online, but there's no negotiation of prices to be done. If you want to haggle prices, you will have to go to the actual black market that Nana can lead you to." The insectoid spoiled everything for Metro, who nodded his head. Nana frowned, but Metro had already placed his hand on the Natural Talent machine.

[Fate points: 3

Body Upgrade Points: 0

Conversion rate: 1 Fate Points to 10 Body Upgrade Points]

When Metro saw the message in his mind, he instantly pulled his hand away from the ball. "What's Body Upgrade Points?" He looked around at the alliance members, who had continued drinking immediately.

Sorash gulped down his drink in one gulp, and started explaining, "You can upgrade your body stats directly. It's in your status screen. Whenever you upgrade your stats, you can learn more skills. You need to pay +1 Body Upgrade Points more for every tier though. You can also use them on minor skills if you want. Same progression pattern."

"Seems nice. Will continue buying then." Metro pressed his hand on the crystal ball, and there were indeed skills for him to buy.

Basic Scorched Earth: Apocalypse's most powerful skill, which can scorch the Earth itself.

Mysticism needed: A+

Strength needed: A

Fortitude: A+

Fate Points: 50

Basic Seven Sins of Atonement: Tortorous's least powerful skill, which can devour the minds of everything beneath its powers.

Mysticism needed: A+

Strength needed: B+

Fate Points: 40

Metro's eyes lit up. The skills he could buy were actually related to the characters he encountered in the scenario. That provided an incentive for people to seek out key characters to gain their skills. As Metro scrolled down his list of skills, he found one that caught his eye, along with one that paired well with it.

Basic Holy Boost: Grants you the constitution of a Lesser Priest, allowing you to utilise lower Light spells and raises your Fortitude by 1 level.

Fate Points: 1

Basic Eye of Light: If you are blessed with the Light, this eye is open at all times and can sway people with righteousness and dispel illusions.

Pre-requisites: Mysticism F, Basic Holy Boost

Fate Points: 1