>> What came before

  Nar, a young worker/sinner, takes the Climb in order to reach the fabled outside and to earn forgiveness for the Original Sin. This is a crime committed by his long forgotten ancestors but which still stains the souls of their descendants, forcing them to a lifetime of indentured work in the darkness of the B-Nex in order to pay for their debts.

  With him, Nar took a secret, his identity as an Unclean, a hated minority within his cubeplant, and his vow to one day return to save his dad, Bey. His dad, who is really his uncle, sacrificed his own chances at freedom in order to care for Nar when he was still a child and his parents died. However, Bey is dying from a disease called the Wasting, which comes about from overwork at the workers' aura machines. This means that Bey will only live another five years at max, unless Nar can return, take him to the O-Nex and bring him to healers within that time.

  In order to Climb, one needs a Climbing party. However, unable to fully trust a bunch of Clean (those who abuse and exploit the Unclean), and knowing that one day he will have to Climb back down on his own, Nar requested the Crystal/Someone, to give him a hybrid class of tank/DPS, so that he can fight on his own. This request was granted.

  Still, a Climbing party is necessary to leave the cubeplant, and so Nar joined Kur, Gad, Jul, Cen, Mul, Tuk and Viy, and together, they embarked upon their journey.

  The Climb proved to be a challenge of darkness, and of cruelty followed after cruelty in an unexplainable series of challenges, lack of information, and what could only be described as complete hatred and desire to kill all the Climbers from the part of the Crystal. Plus, rather than the promised magic and Blessed Aether of the Crystal, the party was forced to embrace their “sinful” aura, discovering in the process that the workers used it wrong (hence why it was so painful and deadly) and that aura was in fact quite powerful and painless to use.

  They slayed and destroyed their way through hordes of killing machines, almost perished at the hands of the cannibals, and gained a new member, Rel, the alfin archer dying from the Yearning. Challenge after challenge, faltering and fallible, the party became more… They became family, Nar revealed his secret as an Unclean, and embraced the party and was embraced by them as well, and together, they made it to the very end, where the Ceremony of Final Atonement awaited them.

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  Here, as all came crashing down, Nar decided to stay back and help his new found family instead of escaping on his own. In doing so, he earned the right to attempt the journey to become an unknown class, a Champion, and the promise from an Unknown entity that if he became a full champion, he would earn the right to return for his dad, as well as to learn the truth of his class and Whoever it was that has been talking to him throughout his Climb (this is one of the rewrite changes!).

  And thus, Nar and the party made it outside… Only to find out that the O-Nex was no paradise. Forced to come to grips with their weakness, and not waiting to end their journey as playthings to the criminal element of the Nexus, they accept the invitation to join the Scimitar, an apprentice-ship designed to raise elite, mighty delvers.

  Given the once off advanced skills that he was allowed to use, [Mantle of the Champion] and [Strike of the Champion], which gave him tremendous power, Nar understood that this class was the answer to his need to save his dad, and to keep his party safe in the cruel, XP obsessed and callous reality that they had found outside the B-Nex.

  And so, Nar and the party learned about Creation, that there were multiple gods under the Crystal, and that even forgiven, they would forever be looked down as BNs. Nar earned the attention of the Master of Blades and Aura, and the first, in particular, began training him in order to lay down the foundations of Nar’s path. While no one aboard the ship seemed to know what a Champion is, it seems that the faculty have at least recognized the greatness in Nar’s potential, and are investing heavily in his future.

  Thus, the party have learned, rested and healed from their Climb, and have survived their first assessment, the den of psaelis. Now, two more insane challenges await them in order for Nar and the party to prove their worth to the Scimitar's faculty, and to be invited to join the two year delve that will see them become powerful elite delvers, capable of ensuring their own survival out in the craziness of the O-Nex and the Labyrinth.

  However, secrets are being whispered in the dark of night. Tsurmirel knows more about Nar's class that it first let on, and Tys herself, the ship's COO who invited Nar and the party aboard, seems to be harboring secrets of her own in regards to Nar and his Champion class…

  Nar's time in the Labyrinth has just begun, and the second and third assessments are promising to be, at the very least, eye opening, and an indication of what is coming his way as they head deeper into the Endless Labyrinth.