“The way in to where?” Titus asked from where he was standing by the now-open rear ramp. “There’s nothing here.”
“Oh, you just don’t know where to look,” Thorne said, patting him on the shoulder as she passed, then strode down the ramp.
Kaiden followed her at a jog.
“Talk to me, Thorne. Where are we?”
For all intents and purposes, it looks like we’re in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t even land next to the warden outpost on the planet.
Thorne pointed ahead and Kaiden found himself staring up at the wall of the impact crater, rising several hundred paces into the sky. Except there was something at the base of the wall. It was covered in a layer of ashen dust, but still, it reflected a bit of light.
“Langrangia is just a nowhere backwater,” Thorne said as she approached the metal wall. But no, not a wall. A door. “Or that’s what the Warden Corps wants everyone to believe.” She stretched out and touched the tip of her hammer to the door with quiet dink. Light poured out from a pinhole on the door and scanned her hammer. It went over it once, top to bottom, then once more, and switched off. There was a hiss of compressed air, then a puff of ash, and the door opened.
“When we found Werner on that station, he mentioned the Warden Corps was power-leveling accounts, right?” Thorne asked, peering into the dark hallway beyond the door. “He shouldn’t have said that.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Kaiden asked.
“Because this is where they’re doing it.” Thorne stepped into the hallway then waved them after her. “Follow me and keep close.”
“Wait a minute,” Zelda said, refusing to step past the door. “You mean to tell me those hundred player signatures Ellenton saw were all wardens?”
Oh, shit. Kaiden stopped mid-step, standing in the doorway next to Zelda but going no further.
“They sure were,” Thorne said. “But they’re busy power-leveling, like I said. With any luck we’re going to slip past them unnoticed.”
“And do what?” Kaiden asked.
Thorne nodded at him.
“Take another step. Just one more.”
He hesitated – what was she on about? – but stepped forward and into the hallway.
Location Discovered: The Grinder
Faction: Warden Corps
“What the hell is ‘The Grinder?’” he asked, reading the name aloud.
“The Grinder is the Warden Corps’ power-leveling facility,” Thorne explained. “And it’s how we’re going to get the levels we need to enter Maximus’ tournament.” She walked further down the hallway, forcing them to follow.
“The Warden Corps has a power-leveling facility?” Kaiden asked, taking in his surroundings as he followed Thorne. The hallway was unremarkable, rough-hewn walls cut from the natural black stone of the planet. Ahead, though, Kaiden thought he could see an intersection with another hallway, and that one better lit.
“This Grinder’s only supposed to be used on special occasions,” Thorne said through comms. “Mainly because of how many resources it takes to maintain it.” A door appeared, jutting out of the rock wall on their right. Thorne pointed at it but kept walking.
Kaiden looked toward the door. It was much the same as the one they’d entered through except there was a display on its front.
“Room Status: Unoccupied?” Zelda read aloud.
“Means there’s nothing in it,” Thorne replied, pointing to the green glow of its display.
“Thanks. Really cleared that up.”
“Like I was saying,” Thorne continued. “It takes a lot to maintain this place because, well, we have to stock it.” She pointed toward another door, this one on their left. It too had a display, and a realization dawned on Kaiden as he read it.
Room status: Unoccupied.
Mob status: 30/30 Voidspawn, Level: 15
“Voidspawn?” Kaiden felt his jaw drop. “Wait. The Corps is stocking this place with voidspawn?”
“Not just voidspawn,” Thorne said as she reached the intersection and paused to peer around the corner. Once she’d confirmed the hallway was empty, she gestured for Kaiden to look down it.
More doors. Hundreds of them, lining the walls of the hallway as far as he could see. Displays on them read out the status of each room, what was inside it, and how many.
“Voidspawn. Grachnids. Dark Turen. Baboulian Manhunters. Pretty much any mob of use ends up here,” Thorne said. “Of course, it’s a major pain in the ass to transport them all here. Total grunt work – you three are lucky you got out before you ended up on collection detail,” she said with a smirk.
“How big is this place?” Zelda asked, her eyes wide as she took in the seemingly endless number of doors lining the hallway.
“Big enough that I’m confident we can slip into a room or two without being noticed. Plus it’s even fuller than I thought it would be. I’ve never seen so many stocked rooms. This place was empty last time I checked,” Thorne said. “And once we’re inside, the room status will show ‘occupied,’ so no one’s going to bother us. We’ll be free to grind away on all the mobs in the room.” She nodded down the hall to two doors whose displays were red, in stark contrast with hundreds that were green.
“This is something of a disused area,” Thorne explained. “Overflow storage, essentially. There’s much more closer to the heart of the facility. Hopefully here we can go unseen for a while.”
“I’m seeing different levels of mobs listed on each door?” Titus said, poking a head around the corner and squinting.
“They’re all organized by level. That way, when you kill all the mobs in one room, you can move right to the next. It’s grinding at its most efficient. Or, well, it is for those who get to use it. The mobs don’t respawn – once they’re killed, more have to be captured and brought here. The grunts who stock this place hate it. Do you know how hard it is to capture mobs, get them onto a ship, and bring them here?”
“If the Warden
