I sat at the entrance, my feet dangling above the ramp, waiting for Kenny and contemplating the unfairness of it all. Just several days ago, when we all arrived here, fresh and lively, we all had the energy to get up to the Pillar's entrance.

  The knowledge and skills to do so were missing, but the ability was there. We could have saved so much time and effort if someone knew how to do it then.

  Instead, dozens or, more likely, hundreds of people worked for days to construct this ramp under my feet, only to discover empty rooms. Days in which everyone's energy waned and dwindled.

  The sheer inefficiency was staggering. The same result of bringing a person—myself—up here would cost me seconds of highly intense magic use if I chose to magically hover here or days of hard back labor for hundreds of people to build the stupid ramp.

  I was getting worried. Kenny was missing for a long time. It was hard to imagine him venturing outside by himself, and he shouldn't be targeted by a wannabe cannibal since there were easier targets all around the place. But then again, people often made irrational decisions, and Kenny didn't exactly hide his fancy daggers. So I was hoping nobody decided to rob him.

  I had just four symbols to my name, three of which I had gained the same day, but I felt much more powerful and dangerous.

  Life, Sight, Shape, and Force. Each of them was versatile and powerful in its own right.

  If I were to offer my Healing for the ghouls and become real competition for Claire, I could enjoy an unlimited amount of energy brought right to my doorstep by my clients. The only downside to this would be a confrontation with our local witch, but the potential was inspiring. What amazing things could be possible? If only I had enough energy.

  Before I could consider it further, I noticed Victor and a couple of others dragging themselves to the square.

  I held my spear safely in front of me and jumped down to meet them, the Force sign easing me to a more gentle landing under my direction.

  "Not now," Victor barked as he moved towards Claire's temple, barely sparing a glance at my weapon.

  He was dragging the beaten form of a ghoul, leaving bloody streaks on the ground. His companions were moving behind him. Both were of as large of a frame as he was.

  One of them was not as lucky to return unharmed. His stomach looked savaged beyond recognition, missing chunks, the shirt and innards mixed into a grotesque slurry.

  A stocky gal with a determined scowl dragged the injured, her braided sun-bleached hair soaked in his blood.

  The wounded looked unconscious, and when I risked a glance with the Sight, his energy was dimmer than anyone I'd seen.

  The ghoul, on the other hand, was overflowing with it. The excess was most likely leached from the wounded man, but the underlying energy that felt innate to the ghoul had a strange vibe to it. I couldn't put my finger on it, and it didn't look any different in the magical Sight, but there was something different there.

  I watched Victor enter the Western Temple and prepared for a long wait, but fortunately for me, he came out almost immediately and tiredly sat on the stairs.

  "Is he gonna be okay?" I asked Victor, referring to his wounded companion.

  "We'll have to wait and see," he answered.

  "What happened?" I asked. "Found another one feeding? Managed to save the guy this time?"

  Other than the heavily wounded man, Victor and the gal weren't visually hurt in any way.

  "Nah," he replied. "That's my crew. We went out there together."

  He took a deep breath.

  "Three big strong fellows. I thought it wouldn't be a problem. Like putting down a rabid dog," he trailed. "Well, it was something like a dog, alright. It refuses to let go. Once it got its teeth in Benjy, we kept beating down on it, but it kept sucking the life out of him like an overgrown bug. It was disgusting."

  I let the silence linger. That was crucial information. We could use that if the ghouls don't attack anyone while feeding. Maybe take a piece of another ghoul and pump it chuck full of energy to use it as bait. Of course, we didn't know yet if ghouls would attack each other or if they would go for something other than a living person, but if it worked, it would make my life much easier.

  "You know how to use your new toy?" He asked, nodding at my new spear.

  I silently demonstrated several lightning-fast sweeping motions augmented with Force.

  "Damn," he whistled. "If the team wasn't at full capacity already, I'd ask you to join. Too bad."

  "What do you mean, full?" I asked.

  "Didn't you hear?" He asked, surprised. "The witch only does three Restorations for a ghoul carcass. That's the going rate now."

  I thought back to Thomas, questions buzzing in my head. His group also numbered only three members. Did she restrict her services to run a profit? Or was it something more insidious and calculated on her part? Did she understand that her restriction on Restorations would implicitly limit group sizes? Was it her attempt to divide us?

  Before I could reply, his companion called him back inside.

  I sat on the stairs and watched people slowly trickle back into the plaza. Some came back in groups, while others returned in pairs or alone. Most were empty-handed but unhurt.

  Kenny was still missing. A big guy like him, full of vigor and armed, I hoped he found a good group to join.

  What started as a brawl with a victorious returning group carrying their prize became a vicious free-for-all. More people joined the fray, and some tried to pull the ghoul away without fighting.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  It looked horrifying. I could see head stomping and some helpless girl pulled around by her hair and used as a shield.

  I didn't come near the action, watching impassively across the square.

  A group of people came near me, and I didn't pay them any mind, assuming they were going to the temple.

  "Where did you get it?" The man in the lead asked me angrily.

  It took me a second to realize he was talking to me.

  "Arena," I answered shortly.

  "Give it here," he demanded, reaching for the spear.

  I used Force to swat his hand away with the shaft without raising its end off the ground.

  "Get your own," I responded.

  He looked furious at that, standing tall above me. His goons crowded behind him.

  "What are you, slow? It's gonna be a lot better for you if you give it to me," he tried to sound menacing as he got in my face.

  I sighed and stood up. I looked at them and saw them for the bunch of weak, scared people that they were.

  I turned to the side and tried to walk away, but the idiot lunged at my shoulder.

  With a thought, the spear's butt rammed backward into his midsection with a loud crunch. I turned to see him wheezing on the ground, unable to breathe or sit up from his hunched position.

  "Next one gets the other end," I stated, enjoying the reaction on their faces.

  There was an awkward silence only broken by the whizzing from the ground. Nobody said anything.

  Basking in their fear, I walked away. Fortunately, nobody tried to accost me this time.

  I was surprised by the strength of the strike. All I wanted was a quick jab. But, instead, I effortlessly broke his ribs. It was hard to say how bad it was going to be for him without medical attention, but I knew that my actions may have killed him in the long run, leaving him unable to hunt or at least defend himself. That was one hell of a sobering thought.

  ***

  Victor finally exited the temple as another morning ritual rolled around.

  Benjy, Victor's heavily wounded companion, followed. Only his torn shirt served as a reminder of the horrifying wound he had suffered.

  This ritual was by far the least attended of all the previous ones. Many people were still missing, hunting ghouls presumably. I also heard talk of exploring more of the city or leaving it altogether.

  Four figures backed the high priestess. However, unlike Claire, they wore white robes of worse quality than her black-silked regal attire.

  Her first assistant, the redhead, was among them, and it didn't look like she enjoyed any higher status than the newer additions.

  I tuned out the regular drivel, the thanks to the Triple Goddess, the blessing of being brought here to the Undercity. Then, finally, she reiterated her standing offer of three full Restorations for a defeated ghoul, making it sound like she was doing us a favor, accepting this pittance for her indispensable skill.

  What caught my eye was the brightly burning pentacle under her robes. The hidden necklace was so tightly packed with energy that its golden shine was almost painful to my Sight. It was hard to tell precisely how much essence it held, but it was more than the whole of the latest ghoul.

  When Kenny and I split the shade's energy and its essence, it was far lesser than what the pentacle contained, and we still couldn't consume any more of it. Her inner light looked slightly brighter than mine, closer to what I had when I first developed the Sight, but it was different compared to the implement she carried.

  None of her underlings carried anything similar, and I couldn't see other magical symbols on her.

  Someone's hand rested on my shoulder, and I was ready to drive the spear right through the offender when I recognized Kenny.

  "Oh, I thought the ghouls took you," I greeted him.

  Kenny shifted, refusing to look at my face.

  "No," Kenny trailed. "I'm safe."

  I waited for him to elaborate while he moved around indecisively.

  "Can we talk?" He finally asked.

  We moved to the other end of the plaza, near the three roads, Kenny leading the way. He finally found the courage to speak when we were out of earshot.

  "One of Thomas's friends was here," he started. "Looking for help."

  I motioned for him to continue.

  "Well, Thomas was badly hurt, but they finished off the ghoul. One of the guys holed up with him, and the other ran here," he told me. "But Claire didn't want to leave the temple to help them. She told him they had to bring him and the ghoul here."

  I started to suspect I knew where this was going.

  "So you went to help," I finished for him.

  He nodded.

  "Why didn't you call me?" I asked.

  He didn't answer, but it was probably because he knew I would dissuade him.

  "So what happened?" I asked, fearing the worst.

  "I told them," he confessed.

  "You told them what?" I slowly asked, feeling my grip tightening.

  "How to Heal," Kenny answered in a small voice. "And how to Drain the ghoul."

  I cursed, cracking the butt of the spear on the ground, then I took a deep breath to calm down and loudly smacked it again.

  "Shit," I restrained myself.

  There is no way that's all they got from him. We made all our discoveries with less. In the best-case scenario, they don't know the limitations we found yet, and that life force can enact other effects.

  "It's just not right," he tried to defend himself. "The ghoul had three times as much essence as it took to Heal and Restore them fully. So why should Claire get all of it for their hard work?"

  "What are you going to do when they Drain this idiot instead of risking their lives?" I asked, pointing back to one of the motionless people strewn around the square. They didn't have much energy, but they gradually regenerated the slow outflow, their own essence barely diminishing in the process, and they were much safer than hunting a feral ghoul.

  The dual nature of energy was apparent to me now after looking at living people and myself with the Sight for long enough. The more viscous essence was slowly converted to the more fleeting form of energy, the mana used to cast spells and naturally spent during activity.

  One was the long-term energy storage, like fat for a living person, and the other was the energy that had to be naturally used to stay alive and active or awake, whatever its effect was.

  The problem was that while the mana could regenerate fully in a matter of minutes when we rested, it burned the essence to do so. And the only way to regain essence, as far as I knew, was to Drain it out of a ghoul or a shade.

  Or another person.

  "They wouldn't," he defended. "They are good people. They didn't try to attack me and even stayed with what's left of the ghoul to save it for us. They keep their word even now when they no longer need us."

  I was still fuming.

  "They are so good that they'll teach the others?" I asked. "We already had a cannibal before he knew how to Drain his victim," I pointed out.

  "We'll ask them to keep it quiet," Kenny naively answered.

  I couldn't argue with his optimistic worldview. Not when he refused to see the dangers that were so apparent to me.

  A disappointed sigh escaped me.

  "Lead the way," I relented. "Let's see if they keep their word when you're not around."