Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty

The inside of the warehouse was big, crowded, and noisy. Rather than a single big pit like I'd been expecting there were half a dozen small circles drawn out on the cement floor, and fighters were brawling inside them, surrounded by crowds of cheering bloodthirsty watchers. People were being shoved aside so others could get a closer look as some of them waved credit sticks at the fighters to try to get them to go harder, screaming offers for bribes and rewards to try to motivate the participants.

In short, it was utter fucking chaos. Callie's mouth twitched, clearly annoyed at having to be in the middle of all this, and she grabbed my arm, pulling me along. She leaned in close to talk, but it was so loud even right next to me she had to shout. "We won't be out here long! Attic Bat prefers to spend his time in the subbasement!" I tried to ignore the ridiculously gorgeous girl I'd had a massive crush on for years holding my arm in favor of trying to find some kind of possible basement entrance, but despite looking around on the ground I don't see anything.

Without another word she dragged me past several crowds and into an empty back corner. Once we arrived she stopped next a one of the steel support column dotted throughout the warehouse. Without bothering to look around or check if we were being watched, she kicked the thing sharply near the bottom, and a section of the column popped out, swinging open to reveal a small three foot by three foot chute hidden inside the steel. The only thing in the chute was a single, tightly anchored metal ladder. Callie let go of my arm, grabbed the ladder, and started to climb down.

I was worried we might be noticed, but when I looked around no one was paying any attention to us. Whether because they were busy or because they knew better than to pay attention I had no clue, but with a shrug I grabbed the ladder and started my own climb down. As soon as I was in the hatch slammed shut, clicking back into place and leaving me alone in the dark as I climbed down. I expected to run into Callie, but luckily the shaft wasn't long at all, and my booted feet hit the ground at the bottom of the ladder within a minute or so.

Once down I heard a tap and the space we were standing in flooded with light. Callie was holding up a scan right with a white screen floating over it. I'd forgotten the things even had a flashlight mode but regardless it was nice to be able to see. As for what I was seeing, I was pretty overwhelmed. I'd expected labyrinthine tunnels under the warehouse, but in the end we climbed down ten feet tops to a landing on a flight of cement steps. Once she saw I had me footing and could see Callie jerked her head down the steps, gesturing me to follow, and we set off.

I felt stifled down there, like I shouldn't talk or even make a sound, but to my surprise Callie spoke up after a minute. "These steps are kind of long, but Attic Bat's room is pretty close to the bottom, so once we make it down there we should be able to find him quick." She smirked over at me. "I'm surprised you haven't asked about Attic Bat. For one thing it's probably weird to you that he lives underground with a name like that."

I shrugged. "It's not exactly normal, but then again no Ascendant seems to be normal. They all seem weird or eccentric somehow. Maybe it's the stats, I imagine high Fantasy will make anyone come across a bit loopy." Either that or some side effect of power gain being related to gaining renown, the weirdest people would obviously be the ones who had the best chance of becoming strong.

To my surprise though Callie just chuckled. "I forget you're new. I suppose you're high enough up that I can tell you, though don't go spreading it around. The reason Ascendants are unusual isn't because of stats. It's a side effect of cultivation itself." I cocked my head at that and she sighed. "Ok, you know Captain Polaris right? He grew up in the guild, his mom is the guild master, he's strong and good looking. These are all the perfect recipe for an unbearable asshole. It would have been simple for him to end up being a dick."

I nodded, that was fair. I kind of wondered why Ian wasn't a bigger asshole myself. I knew from Benny that wasn't always the case, so it had mostly been a passing thought, but I'd noticed how lucky I was that my mentor was a nice guy. Callie's face was serious. "The reason for that is simple. Aside from just being a nice dude, Ian is also suffering from what Ascendants call recursive cultivation. Well. Suffering is the wrong word. It's not a bad thing, at least not for him. The long and short of it is that while we affect our legends, they effect us too."

I blinked. My voice came out uncertain as I responded to her cryptic remark. "I...Don't know what that means. Like sure, our legends shape our stats which shape how our powers grow. But that has nothing to do with personality does it?" I guessed hypothetically powers could affect how a person interacted with the world and on a larger scale how they formed as a person, but this seemed like something more direct, and I didn't get it.

She sighed. "Don't talk about this to anyone. We keep it under wraps because it can...give people an excuse to be unruly. In plain and simple terms, cultivation is the act of changing from a person to an idea. The basic ascension from a human being to a powerful icon. However, more than just shaping your stats or powers, your legend shapes your very being. It's not immutable, it can be resisted, and honestly most of the really powerful people are the ones with the mental fortitude to do so, but the stories people tell about you sort of...nudge who you are."

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I stopped and turned to stare at her. She shook her head. "Not as directly as it sounds. You can think of the act of Ascending as becoming bigger. As you gain Impact you grow, your footprint in reality becoming larger. Stats are how we fill that emptiness, solidifying ourselves so we can break through to the next rank and take a qualitative step towards a higher state of being. However, those stats come from your legends. That's why great deeds make us stronger, give us power. We're using the stories, the renown, to fill up our empty selves. We build the icon we ascend to step by step."

I felt a light bulb go off in my head. "Oh. You're saying that the stronger you get, the more of you is made up of those stories, and the larger the influence they have on you. At your core you're still you though right?" She nodded seriously and I paused. "So then when you say the ones with the mental fortitude, you mean the ones able to remain themselves as they grow. What happens if they don't? What happens to the one that get swallowed up in the stories and consumed by their own legend?"

She shrugged. "Depends. We're all affected by it, but the ones who lose themselves in it usually die pretty early. Full on villains who get swallowed up in recursion essentially feed their legend with stories about how crazy or rabid they are until they devolve into mindless killing machines. Heroes have an easier time, but someone usually kills them in an ambush or something. Rarely you get an Ascendant who manages to make it to the higher ranks in recursion, and they're always absurdly dangerous."

Her face scrunched up in distaste. "At that point they're more like forces of nature than people. Even the heroes like that are awful. They'll kill you for the slightest violation of their principles." She stopped walking, her eyes becoming unfocused as she remembered something. Then the spell broke and she shook her head to clear it. "Sorry, point is everyone has some small amount of recursion. Ian's reputation is as a straighforward and heroic guy, and so he's subconsciously pushed in that direction. He could resist I suppose but why would he? Attic Bat has developed a reputation for being extremely suited to tight confined spaces, and he needs to sleep underground to feel comfortable."

She gave me a serious look. "The reason I tell you this is that Attic Bat is an extremely nervous and timid individual. I need you to keep quiet when we meet him, because he spooks easily and he might not talk if frightened. He really does act like a bat in some ways." She smirked. "Though with his insane Perception stat he probably already knows we're coming. He's known for being the H grade with the strongest Perception in the city. People who stack one stat mainly are fairly rare." That explained why she hadn't bothered to whisper on our way down. No point to it I supposed.

She sounded fond of the guy, and it occurred to me how much shit Callie must have gone through after the mess with her dad and Shadowthorn. She was the same age as I was, so if this was a while ago she would have been probably sixteen at the oldest. I couldn't imagine being a solo act and wandering around places like the WCP or this one when I was sixteen. I'd always known Nightstrike was a total badass, but knowing what cultivation actually entailed made the things she'd accomplished even more mind blowing. Not to mention she didn't even have a cheat ability like mine.

As we walked, I tried to keep an ear out for anyone who might be sneaking up on us. I didn't really like the whole underground stair case vibe much, especially with only the one small light. Luckily it didn't seem to be an issue. This place was fairly deserted at the moment, probably because the people were all upstairs watching the fights. It took a surprisingly long time to get to the bottom of the steps, and I wondered who the hell had dug this place out. Benny's dad was the head of the miner's union and he would have had trouble making a space this large at all, never mind without being noticed.

Then again I was assuming it was done through normal means. Maybe that had someone with some kind earth or stone manipulation ability. Hell even if they didn't a high enough level of construction skill might be able to do something like this for all I knew. It was a hard shift in mentality to start considering all the insane shit Ascendants were capable of in their every day lives, even with me being one of them now. We reached the bottom of the steps after probably five to ten minutes and Callie turned us towards a nearby door.

She stopped in front of it and banged on the metal. "Batty!" We waited, but there was no response. She rolled her eyes under her mask with a huff, banging again. "Batty you absolute goon, I know you heard me coming, let me in." This time the lack of response wasn't brushed off. She was starting to look uneasy. Nightstrike called a key into her hand from the nearby shadows and slipped it into the door, unlocking it.

She waited a bit before pushing it open. "Batty, last chance, answer or we're busting in on our own." When there wasn't a reply she shoved the door open and froze. I stared into the room and immediately realized two things. One, I knew why Attic Bat hadn't been answering, and two we hadn't come here chasing ghosts. Judging by the bloody symbol drawn on the wall we were definitely in the right place. The Evil Eye was here, and it looked like he'd struck again pretty recently.

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