Once again, we stand in front of the massive iron door leading to what I can only guess is a bunker, also known as the Sanctuary.

Darren keeps looking between me and the pile of food and water on the ground.

The entire time, I keep [Redistribution] on Vega so she can try to fight against it, as I disrupt her mana to up the difficulty for her.

Even though we are not leveling right now, she is raising the levels of her skills, and my intention is to help her learn how to recreate the effect of my Mantle. Making sure she can maintain control of her mana is a higher priority than raising her level.

Vega is getting hurt, and blood leaks from tears in her skin, as more blood flows from her nose, earning me a few weird looks.

“It’s not poisoned or anything,” I tell Darren when he stays too silent.

“I know that it most likely isn’t, and we can check for and remove the poison if needed. I just can’t understand where you got it from, and I’m sure you won’t tell me even if I ask.”

He looks towards me and I nod, confirming his suspicion, then I increase the pressure on Vega as she starts to get the hang of fighting my skills. Did she level up her skills?

“I like to be honest, Darren, and I don’t like it when things become tedious or take too long. I know you likely have some trouble within the Sanctuary, and I want you to let me in.”

“You realize what you are asking for, right? There are a lot of weaker people we are protecting, our families, and our kids. We don’t even know you.”

“And you realize that in the worst case, I can get inside on my own. Usually, I wouldn’t mind taking some time to ‘prove’ myself, but I don’t have the luxury.”

Nina, who once again stands by Darren’s side, touches her sword, and our eyes meet.

“Don’t,” Darren warns her and turns back to me. For a second, he glances at my disciple next to me and then back, “Do I have your word, Nathaniel?”

“Kind of? If you guys attack me or my disciple, I will fight back.”

“That much is reasonable.”

“Father…” Nina leans closer and whispers something into Darren’s ear, but he shakes his head.

He reaches into one of his pockets and pulls out a mana stone. He activates it, and sends a signal somewhere behind the giant circular iron door.

The massive door emits a few cracking noises before opening in a slow, smooth motion. There doesn’t seem to be any mana involved at all, its motion powered by the combined strength of multiple men and women pushing it from inside.

They only open the door part way, and when Darren gestures to me, I release some of the pressure I’m putting on Vega and continue to disrupt her mana. We follow behind him, along with a dozen guards and Nina, some of them taking a moment to grab the supplies I left outside.

“Welcome to the Sanctuary.”

We enter into a rough circular tunnel filled with buildings made out of wood, mostly, which mostly seem to act as a space for the guards to rest. We get a few surprised looks as we pass by them, and the men on duty pull a series of ropes to close the door behind us.

The inside of the tunnel is made out of stone with gray veins of iron running through it. It reminds me of the gray stone from the 4th floor, the one used for the tunnels and orbital base. It’s not like the material is the same, but the iron veins seem to be strengthening it, and when I send mana toward it, I sense channels gouged through that are empty and void of mana. The iron itself seems to serve as durable and mana-resistant shielding.

We delve deeper into the long, straight tunnel, taking us deeper underground. Some channels seem to have been cut into the stone to help with flooding.

I reach out and touch the walls, they are rougher than the floor, almost as if they were carved out in a hurry.

“Did your group build the Sanctuary?” I ask.

Darren shakes his head, “The Sanctuary is older than anyone alive. From what we know, it was a bunker built long before the war, left abandoned and unused. Our ancestors came up with better types of bunkers, and the Sanctuary was considered to be obsolete. Some of the survivors found it after the war.”

I listen carefully to what he says, and I can’t help but feel a tingle of curiosity and excitement. I can’t explain it properly, but this feels like fun. Even back on Earth, I liked the videos of people delving into old buildings and exploring them, or visiting bunkers from the World War era. There is something creepy, and exceedingly fascinating about them.

“How old is the bunker, and when did the war start and end? Also, who fought in that war? And don’t ask me why I’m asking.”

Darren closes his mouth in the middle of the question.

Nina answers instead, “We estimate it’s around 120 years old. The war against the Veil started around 100 years ago and mostly ended around 99 years ago. For the rest of the 99 years, the Veil has been trying to wipe out what remains while fighting the monsters.”

I don’t even have to ask another question, as Nina continues, “The Veil is the creation of the guild of enchanters. Something meant to protect our cities and help us with our war against the monsters. We don’t know what happened, but the Veil turned against us and wiped out most of humanity within days of their activation.”

We stop in front of yet another circular iron door. This one is smaller than the last, but still three times taller than me. Darren sends a signal, and we wait for them to open.

“Thankfully, the monsters used the opportunity and attacked too, and that split the Veil along both fronts. That’s probably the only reason there were any survivors.”

I ask, “And the monsters, what are they?”

“They are just monsters... There isn’t any one species of them, there are dozens. We believe there are a few really strong monsters either dominating or manipulating the others into attacking us. The monsters came here around 120 years ago and took over some territory in an event known as The Pairing.”

Huh, that's interesting. So Pairings can happen even in worlds dominated by monsters? Or is it something else? Is it another race they just consider to be monsters? Or are the monsters just weapons of war, once used by another race, like the Colony and the Living Tree that the lynthari created?Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I partially expect my quest to learn about the fall of this planet to be completed, but nothing happens. Obviously, that would be too easy.

The door finally opens, and we continue walking deeper, the floor narrowing and descending into stairs. The echo of our steps starts to change, and we have more light as well. In the distance, I can hear voices and other sounds.

Soon enough, the cave opens up in front of us, and Vega loses her concentration, but I let it slide this time and stop disrupting her mana.

The cave, if I can call it that, is a perfect arch with smooth walls, with a mana crystal at the top of the dome. That crystal emits a gentle orange light that lights up the entire cave. A wide variety of buildings litter the cavern. The oldest towers and buildings appear to have been carved from a single block of stone..

In between those buildings, are houses made out of wood and bricks, as people weave through the alleys and streets as they go about their business. I estimate there are somewhere between a few hundred, and a few thousand people. Plenty of them are under level 20, and there are a lot of kids as well.

The Sanctuary seems to be a city of survivors, and even now, I can’t find anyone stronger than me. That explains why Darren was so worried.

“Master?”

“Yes?”

“You can continue,” my disciple says.

I nod and renew my attempts to disrupt her mana.

“Where do you get water and food from?” I ask.

Darren seems relieved, seeing my reaction, or lack of it. Did he expect me to murder everyone or something? Well, I can't even be mad. It’s fine to be so paranoid when you have so many people relying on you.

“There are some old facilities we were able to reactivate and power. A few smaller gardens and a filtration system. We mostly get our water from the outside and use filtration to get rid of the poison.”

“That must take quite a while to get enough water for so many people.”

He nods, “It’s nonstop work and dangerous too. There is a small aquifer that slowly fills, but we only use a small part of it. We also keep it replenished in case we would need to. Then we also hunt animals and have people that can get the poison out of their meat.”

It still sounds suspicious, even if they did have enough strong people to bring the water, it would be a goddamn hard task. Do they have items like my Aqua Arcanum Vial? Something able to contain more water than its size should allow?

“So, what is the problem you have down here?”

Darren exchanges a quick look with Nina, and she steps ahead, “I will be your guide and tell you as much as we can. Father has work to do.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“I’m glad, I will see you later tonight.” Darren then quickly leaves, followed by a few of his men.

The moment he leaves, Nina turns to me, “I don’t trust you.”

“Okay.”

Taken aback after my answer she continues after a moment, “I trust father, but he is getting less decisive as he grows older and has more people to take care of. I believe we could fight you.”

My silly disciple once again stops focusing, and to punish her, I send a bit more mana towards her. Like a slap on the wrist.

“You should have done that outside then,” I respond.

“Yes, maybe I should have,” she doesn’t seem to be overly antagonistic, just the hotheaded type that doesn’t like to hold in their feelings.

A common variation of the extrovert class.

“I would like to see your filtration systems. I have some water with me and would like to see how it works,” to prove it, I pull out my epic Aqua Arcanum Vial.

“So you also have a water storage item,” Nina looks at it and then back to me. “We can do that.”

I follow behind her, and the guards follow us as well.

“How much water can it store? Looking at its shape, it’s at least upper uncommon or maybe low rare? Ours are usually bigger, and the compression isn’t that good, but since we can't fix damaged ones, we keep using them.”

I avoid answering her question, “You also said you were able to activate only some of the facilities?”

“Yes, there are many more, but oftentimes we don’t even know what they were used for. We don’t have enough mana to start some or enough skill to fix the others. And yes, before you ask, I can show you some. They don’t work anyways, so it’s fine.”

We pass through the streets of the city, and I start noticing that most people tend to wear homemade clothes, similar colors, and styles. They are fairly thin, but not overly so, and seem to be at least somewhat taken care of.

They greet Nina and her guards with a smile, and my guides return them. For a moment, their faces become less tense.

I glance back at Vega and notice that she is looking around with a suspicious expression. Her body is tense, and her mana is radiating, ready to fight. She twitches every time someone makes an unexpected movement and keeps searching for escape routes.

Her expression is colder than it was when we were on our own. She still tries to put on the mask to look innocent and defenseless, but it feels fake. A big difference from the relaxed behavior she exhibits around me.

I also notice that people don't seem to care about her red eyes or horns. Either her appearance is somewhat normal or it’s the work of the system.

Pushing through the streets, Nina leads me towards the edge of the cave where we enter another tunnel, though it’s much smaller this time. It's still wide enough for multiple people to walk side by side and better lit. Passing by a few men and women who seem to be working, we reach another cave, smaller than the main cavern, but still sizable, with the same domed construction.

“This is one of our unused filtration plants. You just need to pour the water you have into the tank, close it, and then send your mana through the control device.” As if challenging me, she continues, “Do you think you can do that?”

The smile that flashes across her face tells me that it's a bit harder than she lets on. Perhaps she expects me to falter once or twice, or perhaps she is trying to use reverse psychology on me.

The filtration tank is under the floor. It seems to be really long and narrow. Like a wide tube. At the bottom, I can sense some inscriptions and other things that seem to help with the filtration.

Out of that tube comes another that leads into the transparent tank in the wall that seems to store filtered water. This one is much bigger and empty. Next to that, is the control panel Nina pointed out. little more than a piece of iron with some inscriptions and a few mana stones, all connected to the tank under the ground.

I take out the vial and, while looking at Nina, start pouring the water inside.

At first, she is smiling as she watches the water trickle down.

Then I control the item and increase the pressure, causing much more water to flow through.

Her expression turns to confusion, and when I continue for a minute, it turns to shock.

When I finally stop, the tank, which is probably big enough to fill a swimming pool, is full. The remaining water in my vial is multiple times that.

Nina becomes even quieter when I put my hand on the control panel and activate it, avoiding any broken inscriptions.

A soft hum fills the room, and the water under the floor starts going through the filtration system, fed by my mana. That water moves through the tubes and flows into the giant glass tank that encompasses the entire wall and goes deep into the stone.

I make a few changes to the way I use my mana and find a few slightly hidden mechanisms in the control panel, turning off a few invisible switches. The drain on my mana dramatically increases, but the water starts filling the tank much faster. It pours from the tubes and inside of the tank like a series of waterfalls, quickly filling it within a few minutes.

Vega, noticing how much I'm enjoying this, pulls on my clothes, “Asshole,” she whispers so only I can hear.

What are you, Biscuit´s disciple?