Chapter 4

"Whew, that was some exercise…" Compa mused breathlessly while wiping her forehead with her forearm. She let loose a slow exhale as she calmed down from the rush that adrenaline born from a fight gave her, while Neptune herself was the exact opposite. She was bouncing up and down energetically like all their fighting was just a slight workout for her.

Said preteen turned to face both Compa and Nico whose armour and claws were still active. It made him look a lot more dangerous and badass, and Neptune really liked this new look on him. "Wowee, Nicky who knew you had this kinda cool equip? you been holding out on littl' old me?" she asked him. "adopting the look of a well-known M*r*el supervillain, eh? What you a fan?" she asked him.

Nico crossed his arms in front of his chest as he tilted his head at her. "Really? Your making old school jokes right now, Neptune? I bet people hardly even remember the comics you know, it's all about the internet now." He retorted, briefly remembering something and continuing before the purplette could respond. "But since you asked, this is my deployable armour. Its served me well, got me through some tough binds way back when and is self-regenerative, basically it can repair itself in case its damaged." He explained, looking down at his Armour fondly, one could tell by the look in his eye, considering how the Mask he wore covered the rest of his face.

"Wooow, is this the armour that you told me about when you left?" Compa asked in awe, reaching forth and rubbing her hand on one of the shoulder plates. She remembered when Nico had left to become a Guild Agent, later becoming a Spec-Ops Agent, how he had been stoked about getting this new armour for battle. Armour wasn't used as commonly as one might think in a group of Mercenaries like the Guild, or even adventurers in general, because it slowed them down, wasn't comfortable or other reasons like that, stated by their users of course. It was a pleasant surprise to see something different for a change.

Nodding to his friend, Nico smirked behind his Mask. "Yes, yes, it is Compa. Like I said, this baby's been with me for some time, she and I are practically siblings-in-arms at this point." He explained, before turning to Neptune and forming a look of approval in his eye as he spoke his evaluation of her skills. "Despite your lack of a proper weapon and rough movements, you did good out there, Neptune. Looks like your body remembers some form of combat skills." He complimented. The Mask split where the black and orange colours meet, the plates sliding to the sides of his head and revealing the small smirk on his face.

Neptune grinned at him, throwing him a thumbs-up sign. "Yup, all in a day's work." She said, before jogging off. "C'mon guys, my hole's a waitin'!" she proclaimed as she got further ahead of them. "Hey, monster! #SLASH# there it goes. Okay, NOW we can move along, soldiers!" a monster had tried to jump Neptune from the side while she ran past some bushes, but she saw it and slashed it several times before it vanished out of existence. She had then turned to them and gave them a wave, standing on one foot and leaning sideways on it, looking kinda like a goof.

Both teens shared a look with each other, silently having a stare down, but Nico was the first to speak. " That girl... she doesn't realise the implication of that last bit, does she?" he questioned, frowning. Compa only shook her head with a small blush on her cheeks, making him sigh. "We should follow her, so she doesn't wind up in a Nest of Dogoos. She seems like a rookie that would make that basic mistake." He told her before jumping after the energetic preteen.

Compa watched the male get further and further away for a moment, before she smiled weakly and sweat dropped. "Well… I'm not sure falling into a nest of meanie Dogoos would be a rookie mistake…" she muttered, before she realised that the distance between her and the others was growing fast. Panic washed over her as Compa ran like her legs had never ran before to catch up. "Wait a minute, don't leave the healer behind you two!"


The trio, after catching up with Neptune whom had, much to Nico's amusement, got caught inside a tree by jumping too far and too fast, travelled deeper into the dungeon. They fought various monsters, although they weren't as numerous as the Dogoos were the first time they had fought. Nico had seen more of Neptune's fighting style and compared it to that of a caveman, or woman in this case. It held a large amount of barbaric, reckless movements but somehow, she made them spin together in a way that worked for her. Her endurance seemed to compensate for her battle style as despite her petite frame she could take a lot of damage and give just as much. How much damage she could take was still in question, but Nico didn't want to find out.

But honestly, fighting these weaker monsters should have been boring for him, due to fighting so many more powerful ones in stronger, freakier dungeons. But Nico surprised himself when found it oddly calming with a side sense of nostalgia. Seeing those girls fight like they did, with Neptune in the front lines and Compa at the rear, reminded him of when he was a young rookie in the Guild. True he was still a teenager in a physical sense, but inside Nico felt older, much older with the experiences he had gone through, the feats he had under his belt. Also, it was calming that none of these monsters posed a threat to him, gave his nerves a chance to cool off from the constant onslaught that was warning him of any specific dangers.

Finally, though, the trio reached the edge of the crater where they had found Neptune. The crater was still as large as Nico remembered it, but with the daytime being upon them he could see things that he didn't before. For example, there was a hole in the centre of the crater, its size and shape determining that was where Neptune had once resided. Cracks ran along from the hole to the surroundings, not being very long but they did set off warning bells inside Nico's head. 'Oh boy, I can tell that the direction this is going is bound to be, as a certain lazy ninja in a certain village says, troublesome…'

Unaware of his thoughts, Compa stepped forwards to the edge of the crater, before spinning on her heels and turning to face them. She addressed Neptune though. "Here we are! This is where me and Ni-Ni found you, Nep-Nep." She said, pointing to the hole in the crater below. The cream haired girl hoped that this would spark some form of memory from the purplette, for both her and Nico's sakes. She knew that he would get frustrated easily if he didn't get the answers, or some form of answer, soon enough.

Neptune took one look at the Crater and her eyes turned white, becoming round. "Whoa… that's a big hole right there…" she muttered, both in awe and in disbelief. In a sense, it shouldn't be that surprising, after all it was the norm to break the laws of space and time physics, just look at Nico and Compa. One carries a Syringe that can be used as an assault rifle, and the other has deployable Armour he can take off at any time. Yeah, PHYSICS is largely ignored…

Moving forward.

Compa turned to the resident nutter of the group, concern written over her face when she saw how intently Neptune had begun staring at the hole, it was as if she were trying to burn a hole through it. "Nep-Nep, does this make you remember anything...?" she asked her, letting her worries infect her tone and show through her eyes.

Unfortunately, she didn't get an answer, which increased her concern as Neptune looked at the Crater intently. Silence passed by as she did so, with a silent breeze blowing past them. Through every second, Nico started to feel uncomfortable, his instincts told him something was wrong, and like a good warrior he listened to them, "um… Neptune, you alright? Don't tell me your memes and references have run dry…" he spoke, hoping that a jab at her personality traits would snap her out of this focus she was in.

This time they got a reaction out of her. "Hmmm… she mumbled, her eyes narrowing sharply as her brows furrowed. Neptune went as far as to cup her chin like a detective deep in thought. 'Okay, 'NOW I'm getting worried.' Nico thought while sweat rolled down the sides of his forehead as he stared at the girl, 'normally Neptune wouldn't be thinking this hard, not from what I know about her. She usually is the one who hits first and asks questions later… kinda like a lot of people these days. If she's really thinking this hard I fear her brain might overheat.'

"Mmmmmmm….!" The mumbling got worse the more Neptune stared at the crater. She started shaking slightly with her eyes turning big, white with black outlines, a sign that frustration was beginning to build inside of her like lava in a volcano about to erupt. "Hey, uh, Neptune you okay? Your brain hasn't fried yet has it?" Nico asked worriedly, tilting his head with what he was feeling inside evident in his sole uncovered eye.

Finally, after moments of agonising tension, the volcano known as Vol Nep erupted.

Neptune made a frustrated sound as she held the sides of her head, digging her fingers into her scalp. "Ah-! I can't remember a thing!" she exclaimed in frustration, scratching her scalp while groaning in irritation. She was also bent over in front of them, so caught up in her problems that she didn't realise she was flashing them her panties, which were the same pattern as her stockings.

Nico noticed though, but mentally he assured himself that there were more important things to do than to listen to any perverted tendencies. "Whoa their girl, hold your horses!" he said, quickly jogging over and placing a hand on her shoulder. Surprised by the sudden contact she was, to which she showed it when she looked up into his eyes, which were peering down at her with a gaze so intense it slightly made her flush in embarrassment. "You'll remember it in time, so don't force it. Amnesiacs who try to do that often suffer problems later down the line, so wait for a bit, you'll remember when you're ready." He told her, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze.

She was silent for a moment, taking in his words of encouragement. But that was shattered when she noticed that he was still holding her shoulder, and a teasing smirk formed on her face. "Hey, not bad. You put the smooth moves out there onto this pure maiden, are you trying to unlock my route? I'm not gonna make it easy on you flirtsman!" she said with a mischievous undertone.

Her comments had the intended effect when the male went red, quickly withdrawing his hand from her shoulders as he stuttered, trying to deny what she said. 'Goddamnit, she knows my one weakness!' he exclaimed mentally in frustration and embarrassment. Nico may be a Spec-Ops agent, but to him he never felt that he was any good with the ladies, sure he was respectful and friendly towards them, even helped them when need be, but that was just him being a nice person. He didn't think any woman would have a slightest amount of interest in him, he just couldn't see it.

Seeing his reaction caused Neptune to burst into giggles, "Hehehehehe, aw that's so cute! The big strong male is embarrassed by a bunch of cute girls wanting the booty." She commented, riling him up even more. Even Compa had signs of a smile on her lips, though she tried to hide it. In the end, she may as well not have even tried since he saw it right away. 'Goddamnit, not you too, Compa!'

"A-Anyways, let's get back on topic! We have a serious situation here!" Nico said, though it sounded more like a shout. He was thankful that his Mask and chainlink mail covered most his face, or they would have seen just how red he really was with those teasing comments. Their only indication had been the darkening of the skin around his eye that the Mask's eye showed. Taking a few calming breaths to get his composure back, Nico turned to Neptune and crossed his arms in front of his armoured chest. "Neptune, you think you might have dropped something? I mean, you were literally spearing the ground when we found you, and it was night so maybe something fell out and we didn't notice?" he suggested, cupping his chin halfway through his suggestion.

Chuckling nervously, Neptune rubbed the back of her head when she replied awkwardly, "I wish, but you know, kinda have no memory here…" she remarked, reminding them of her amnesia. Nico mentally facepalmed, realising she had a point. 'That's right she has no memory of her life beyond waking up in Compa's room. Her fall must be the cause, landing face first in the ground is bound to damage one's head. It only makes sense that she forgets if she had valuables or not.' He thought to himself.

A light gasp pulled Nico out of his thoughts as he looked up, seeing Neptune with a look of shock and realisation on her face. A surge of hope filled him as he inquired as to what had caused this action of hers. "What, what is it Neptune? Do you recall something?" he asked her. 'Finally, a possible lead to the truth!' he exclaimed mentally as an afterthought. Let it be known that Nico had an impatient side to him.

"I-I do remember something I'm missing!" Neptune exclaimed in shock and slight amazement too. She had a big grin on her face with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. While Nico felt happy that she was remembering something, a part of him told the male to be prepared. 'I'm happy for her… so why am I getting a bad feeling from her?' he wondered in his mind but didn't voice it out loud.

Perhaps if he did then the next moments may have happened differently.

Compa, ever the oblivious yet excitable one, asked with eagerness. "Really? What is it?" with an excited gleam in her eyes. She was leaning forth, towards Neptune while awaiting what she was going to say next with baited breath. She didn't expect however, what would come out of Neptune's mouth at that moment.

"Well, that's obvious…"

"Obvious…?"

"My memory!"

BONK!

"Nepu!" Neptune clutched her head as she bent down, curled into a standing ball with a comical bump on her head that was as large as the fist that Nico had used on her. It seemed to be glowing red one second, then stopped the next before repeating the cycle while Nico's fist was steaming.

The male's expression showed his irritation with the girl before him, as he shook his fist with a tick mark on his forehead. "Neptune this is no time for jokes!" he yelled angrily, scolding her like a parent would their child when they did something naughty and they needed to be lectured about it. "This is a real serious situation here."

Compa nodded her head in agreement with her friend. "He's right Nep-Nep… jokes aren't really effective in this type of scenario…" she said while taking a few pauses between her sentence as she gave Neptune a deadpan stare. Normally it would be humiliating for someone to get that stare, but somehow Compa made it even worse just by doing nothing.

With slight tears in the corners of her eyes, Neptune looked up at them while nursing the bump on her head, which comically was pulsating still. "You mean it wasn't funny? I'm sorry, I just thought you guys were joking when you asked if I remembered anything!" she protested, though she didn't get much leeway with the combined stares that Nico and Compa were giving her, much to her embarrassment.

This lasted for a few more seconds before Compa shook her head, deciding to get back to the situation at hand. "Joking aside, let's look for some clues." She suggested, getting nods of agreement from the other two as Neptune stood up once more, the bump fading back into her head as if it were never there in the first place. She was back to her normal self soon too, much to Nico's surprise. He guessed the girl's durability was better than he had given her credit for.

With that commotion aside, the trio began to search for any clues as to Neptune's identity. Nico remained weary though when he had analysed the stability of the ground with his right Bracer, which told him that the ground was prone to collapse at any second with the weight of 3 people on them. Hell, he once thought that with how much Neptune would eat she would weigh much more than she was showing. He knew this judging from how much pudding she ate back at Compa's house. She likely was a food-person, though he wondered if she would go obese if she did eat so much.

Fortunately, none of these thoughts left his mouth. He didn't wanna get killed just yet.

To him: one can get along fine with girls if he stuck to these rules:

Make sure you treat them with the respect they deserve, which meant no peeping on them in the shower or trying to look up their skirts. A lot of male pervs did that and they got punched for it.

If a woman was feeling down and depressed, helping her through it or even just talking to her will get you on their good books.

NEVER, not even under the dire of circumstances, EVER comment on their chests or weight if you didn't want to be crucified alive. Seriously he had seen that one happens before…

Women were scary… if you pissed them off, that is.

While he was thinking of this, Nico became broken from his thoughts when he suddenly heard cracking. 'Huh? What was… uh oh, this is not good!' his eyes widened in horror and dread when he realised what that sound signalled as he glanced at his Bracer, which had the hologram of a screen with a massive exclamation mark on it, beeping constantly as a warning. He needed to get outta here and fast.

"What was that just now?" his head snapped to the others, shit he forgot, Compa and Neptune! Both girls were looking around, unaware of what the danger was as cracks formed on the ground. 'Oh shit, shit, shit! If I don't do something those girls will be goners!' he screamed in his mind. A small flashback was triggered in his mind, not any particular scene, but a shadowy figure that he recognised as a senior Guild Agent, saying: 'The top 3 priorities of a spec ops are as follows, kid: 3, protect the interests of the government. 2, make sure the city is safe from any threat against its walls. And number 1, most important: PROTECT the civilians whenever you can!'

As the male recalled this, his choice was made clear.


"Ouch, ouch-ouch… my bum is protesting to this recent abuse its suffered…" Neptune moaned in discomfort, sitting on her backside which had screamed in protest. While her eyes were closed with a grimace on her features, Neptune tried soothing the pain by rubbing her hand on it.

Several seconds later the pain dulled down enough so that she wouldn't be as uncomfortable. Neptune then opened her eyes and looked around, noticing a peculiarity about her surroundings. "Huh? I'm in… the forest still?" she muttered in confusion. She didn't know what had happened, as it all went down so quickly, but the last thing she could recall as a large… appendage grabbing her and flinging her into the air. The faint screams of surprise from Compa's lips were another thing she recalled-

Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she recalled the other person she was with. "oh crud, Compa! Compa, are you okay? Can you hear me? Respond to the sound of my voice!" she called to the surroundings, hoping that her friend was okay. It'd be really sucky for her, the main protagonist of the Neptunia franchise, to lose her first friend ever.

"I-I'm okay, Nep-Nep!" Compa's voice came back to her much to the relief of the purplette. It sounded like she was close too, which meant she should be within eyesight. "Can you tell me where you are? I'm gonna get to you, so don't worry! This Nep is on the job!" she proclaimed, quickly pulling out a magnifying glass from… somewhere, and got onto all fours, moving along as she pressed the magnifying glass to her eye.

"Nep-Nep, I'm up here!"

An exasperated tone entered Compa's voice, one that Neptune responded by looking up. Her eyes became big and white when she saw where Compa was though, and she couldn't help but comment. "Eek! Compa, what are you doing at a time like this?! This isn't the time to be stretching awkwardly!"

Indeed, Compa had somehow found herself amid a series of tree branches, and her position was very… suggestive. Her arms were trapped on a branch above her head with the same happening to her feet, only the trapping branch was behind her making her look like a stretched out 'C'. Not a very nice position to be in for a long period of time.

Apparently Compa felt the same way, "I-it's not like I wanted to! Please, help me get down! I can't reach my syringe like this, so I'm stuck!" she cried, her face beet red at the situation she found herself in. like Neptune, she too had no idea how she had gotten into this position, but it was not like she liked it! She didn't want the wind to flutter her skirt and show her undies! That would be really embarrassing even if they were both girls!

After Neptune managed to get herself to her feet, she quickly climbed up the tree with all four limbs, though it proved to be a struggle,. "Ugh, guh, gosh darnit, I can't get up this way!" she whined in defeat, pouting as she dropped down to the ground. Tree climbing was a skill she had yet to master it seemed. That may have to change if this had to happen again, she decided.

"Um, any time now Nep-Nep…!" Compa called out when she saw Neptune doing nothing but standing there in a thinking pose. This position was quickly getting uncomfortable and was starting to hurt right now. She shuffled about, trying to numb the pain her body was starting to experience from this position, but it wasn't like she could do much.

Fortunately, she didn't have to endure it much longer because Neptune had gotten an idea. A figurative lightbulb went off in her head as she snapped her fingers that were once on her chin, "I got it! Hold on Compa, I'mma comin'!" she called out as she readied her wooden sword. She got into a stance that indicated she was going to use a Skill, one that she had just learned from one of their battles in this Dungeon.

Before Compa could ask what, she was planning on doing, Neptune struck fast:

"CROSS COMBINATION!"

The girl made a mighty dash forwards, planting her feet onto the ground to propel herself into the air. Usually the skill involved her flying to her enemy and giving them a slashing bashin', but with this situation she had to tweak the skill a bit, so that she could cut both the branches that Compa was trapped by. "Hyaaaa!" she unleashed a battle cry as she unleashed her skill, slicing the branches restraining her friend to bits.

Her skill ended with a success, as Compa was now freed… freed to fall to the ground below though. 'Oopsies, my bad…' was all Neptune could think as the cream haired girl could only squeal in fright, flailing her arms and legs until she hit the ground backside first, moaning in pain at the impact. Landing beside her right on her feet, Neptune walked on over and played it off as if it didn't mean anything. "Whassup, Compa? You okay? You're not being stretched, anymore right?"

"Ooouchie… that really hurt my poor girl booty…" Compa moaned, feeling aches in the joints in her arms and legs. "I-I'm okay, Nep-Nep… still though, could you have gotten me down any easier?" she asked her friend while getting to her feet. Remembering some of the skills that had been taught to her at Nursing school, Compa pressed her hand to her leg joints, a faint green light appearing around both her hand and the injury. She pulled it away moments later, finding that the pain was gone, before moving on to the other owwies.

The preteen had the decency to look embarrassed as she laughed lightly while rubbing the back of her head. "Hehe, sorry, sorry Compa. I just couldn't think of any way to get you down other than just 'cutting loose'…" she said, grinning at the 'clever' pun in her eyes. However, when she saw the deadpanned look from her friend, the girl gave a sigh of dismay, "… too soon?"

"Too soon. Anyways," Compa decided to change the subject when she had finished healing her wounds. She gave Neptune a confused look as she pondered on how they got into this situation. "What just happened before? One minute we were standing where me and Ni-Ni found you, and then we were…" her eyes widened as she trailed off, not finishing her sentence as she realised that they were short one member.

Their single male member.

Blinking owlishly, Neptune at first didn't get what she was taking about, but then her mind clicked and came to the same conclusion as she did. "Nepu! Compa your right on target, our Nicky isn't here! What happened to him, did he get hurt?" she exclaimed in worry. She then gasped as, in a rare show of intelligence, her mind placed the pieces together. "Oh snap, Nicky must have heard the cracks on the ground we did and got us to safety, but not before failing to save himself from the fall!"

Compa became pale at the thought. Horrible scenarios of her friend being trapped in wherever that collapsed hole lead to filled her mind as she quickly made to head out in search of an alternate entrance. "Oh no! Nep-Nep, we should hurry! Ni-Ni must have fallen to wherever he is now. He could be hurt for all we know!" she exclaimed in dread and fear. She didn't want to think what would happen if Nico were hurt right now, especially if he had gotten hurt keeping them safe. The guilt would be horrible on her, and since he was a cherished friend of hers it would be even worse.

"You betcha, Compa! Let's go find another way to wherever that hole in the ground leads, I'm not gonna allow a party member, even if he's a guy, to get a bad end this early in the story."

"Huh? You said something in the middle there, Nep-Nep…"

"Oh, it's nothing, don't trouble yourself, Compa."

"Hmmm…. Okie dokie."


Meanwhile, as he had managed to get the girls out of harm's way, Nico unfortunately was left to fall down the large hole in the crater alone. The male cursed as he fell down a large chute, chunks of rubble falling around him that were likely once part of the ground above. 'Tch, fucking shit! I hope to goddesses nobody saw what I just did. It was an impulse, but I had to use THAT to get them outta there in time!' he cursed in his mind while looking from side to side to find a way to slow his fall. At the rate he was going, Nico wasn't sure that his armour would be able to protect him from every bit of the impact.

WARNING!

LOSS OF CENTRE OF BALANCE DETECTED

FREEFALLING TOWARDS HAZARDOUS AREA

FREEFALL SPEED: CRITICAL

ESTIMATED TIME TILL LANDING: 4.67 SECONDS.

A Message appeared at the side of his vision, born from his Bracer's HUD, Heads Up Display, which was another function his Bracer had. It showed him that he didn't have long before landing, so he had to make sure that he had a measure of slowing himself down. He glanced around, and saw a large piece of rubble, which sparked an idea inside his brain. It was a longshot, and Nico expected a significant decrease in his combat capabilities if he pulled this off, but it was either that or instant death. And he wasn't quite ready to die just yet, so option A was quite appealing currently.

With that in mind, Nico twisted his body so that he faced the rubble piece. He then raised his legs and planted them onto the rubble piece, launching himself from it to the side of the chute, where he deployed his right Plasma Claw before stabbing it into the earthen wall. The weapon grinded away at the wall, leaving a series of glowing claw marks going down it. Sparks flew from the weapon as he shoved both feet into the wall to help slow his descent even further while he looked down, eyeing the approaching exit from the Chute. All the while his HUD displayed error messages about his descent.

Finally, Nico reached the end, his form falling out the bottom of the chute to a platform below. He quickly adjusted himself for a landing, his Plasma Claw dragging itself out the side of the chute when he passed its exist. Flipping forwards several times, the male landed on the platform in a crouching position, his left hand on the ground with his Plasma claw flared to the side.

Like an animal, Nico's eyes darted about, inspecting the terrain around him for any signs of hostile entities. Whenever one enters an unfamiliar terrain it was usually considered a good idea to keep tabs on your surroundings, which was what Nico did every time this happened to him. And by goddesses, this did happen a lot on his many adventures doing quests as a Spec-Ops Agent.

Seconds later the male breathed a sigh of relief seeing that he was alone. His senses picked up monsters, but they were in the far distance considering how faint their scents were. While there were monster scents lingering everywhere, Nico had learned how to narrow his senses to spot their source from a fair distance. His Bracer then activated, displaying a hologram in the form of an orb structure, lighter blue coloured pulses continuously expanding from its centre. This was his Radar function, which activated whenever he didn't have a holographic map of a Dungeon in its database. It tracked enemies down by motion sensors, which made it good for keeping aware of threats when his Holomap was useless.

Always good to have a failsafe.

Standing upright, Nico deactivated his Plasma Claw, a faint 'TSSSH' sound being heard as the weapon disappeared. Looking around he decided to evaluate his surroundings. The male seemed to be in some sort of cave, though it wasn't one he recalled being in before. It was like several other Dungeons he'd been in with the layout, the glowing blue crystals dotted about to illuminate the Dungeon, and the futuristic platforms built likely by hand, but if his Holomap was useless then he had to be wary. While a lot of Dungeons had similar layouts, it was wrong to suspect them of being the exact same. Many rookie Guild Agents made this mistake, and that usually costed them greatly.

'What the heck is this place? Its layout looks like previous dungeon's I've visited, but if my Holomap has no blueprint for its database, then I'm almost walking blind while I search for an exit.' He thought, panic beginning to settle in. however, Nico took a few deep breaths and punched himself in the chest, forcing himself to calm down. 'Alright, calm down dude, take deep breaths. You aren't cardless, you still have tricks to play for this situation. First thing to do is activate your Left Bracer, have it scan the Dungeon's layout to get an idea of where the Exit is. Using it on your right one will disable its other functions, which would be unwise in this situation.'

With one final breath, Nico raised his left Bracer and began pressing several holographic keys on it. The screen on the Bracer flared brightly for a moment, before it died down to show a single bar that was slowly being filled, the amount of it being filled being displayed as a percentage beside it. 1%, 2%, 3%... that was how it went. 'Now that I'm scanning the Dungeon, I should probably look around for the Monsters, get an idea of their power levels so I can send a field report to the Guild. If they send Agents here they must be of a sufficient level, under levelled Agents would only get themselves killed if this was a high-level Dungeon.'

Adopting a professional demeanour did wonders in calming his nerves. He felt like he knew what to do and how to do it, which was a big help in situations like these. Nico had experienced being trapped in surprise dungeons several times before, and the first time he had, well… Nico didn't want to remember it because it was embarrassing, so he'll stop thinking about that and pushed those memories to the back of his mind, never to be thought of again.

Hopefully. Nico noted never to bring it up with Neptune around. Girl was a trouble magnet.

Though most of the time he found Neptune's antics amusing, especially when the situation was appropriate. Though if he was on a short fuse when they didn't get any questions answered like earlier, then it could become annoying. Nevertheless, from what he could tell that girl just didn't have it in her to be evil, it was like she just was a curious child wanting to know everything around her. While he still had his doubts about her past, getting to know her current self wasn't that bad.

She was literally a ball of excitable energy on a sugar rush, the way she always spoke with enthusiasm and innocent wonder. Thinking back on it, Nico wondered if he was simply being too paranoid about her, as so far, she seemed to have a remarkable set of qualities that were alike with Compa's. both were cheerful, naive in a sense, possessed a hero's complex and an intense desire to help others when in danger. Also, they had a powerful innocence about them that made them all the purer. Together, they complement each other's antics and make some humorous situations. It was seriously hard for him to imagine why someone would hate Neptune, and let's not get him started on Compa.

Seriously, anyone who disliked Compa was an asshole no questions asked.

Shaking his head, Nico pushed those thoughts away just as a beeping noise came from his left Bracer. Bringing it to his face, he saw that the Bracer had finished scanning the Dungeon he was in and had downloaded it to his Holomap on his right Bracer. A small smirk formed on his lips. 'Good, now I have a means of getting out of here and regrouping with the girls. Compa will likely be worried sick about me, while Neptune stays the positive member of our little trio. She does seem like the comedy of our group.'

Neptune aside, Nico began his trek through the Dungeon after looking through the Holomap on his right Bracer, using the left for his Motion tracker. But before he could get far Nico gasped when he nearly tripped on something. "Whoa, whoa, whoaaaa!" he exclaimed, flailing his arms as he hopped several times, trying to retain his balance. He succeeded in his attempt, planting both feet on the ground, electing a sigh of relief from the male. "Whew, that was a close one. good thing nobody saw that otherwise it could have been much worse…" he shuddered at the thought of the humiliation if someone like Neptune saw what just happened. She would have never let him hear the end of it if she saw that he had almost fell over like a certain klutz he knew.

Though, it begged the question of what he had managed to trip on.

Turning around, Nico looked down to the ground to see what had nearly caused him to fall and act like his friend did. he kneeled onto one knee peering downwards. His eye widened in surprise at what he saw, as it baffled him on what it was. 'This… what the hell…?' a faint red glow could be seen from what looked like part of a crystal, so Nico deployed a Plasma Claw and cut the pieces of earth away to let him get a better look at the object.

When he had sufficiently chipped away enough, Nico was greeted to the sight of a crystal, its colours and aura constantly shifting so it had no definite colour, lazily laying down in the earth like a businessman on the beach for vacation. His eyes were drawn to it, unable to look away as he gazed at it, almost reverently as his thoughts ran wild. 'Whoa… this thing, whatever it is… its actually kinda cool… it looks like the button on a Console actually.' He thought as he reached out and plucked it from the confines that once restricted it.

The moment he picked it up, the aura around the crystal swayed slightly, flickering as if responding to the fact that it was being touched, likely for the first time in ages considering how much dirt there was on the crystal. Raising it to his face, Nico looked closer at the crystal, checking to see if he could find out what this thing really was. The shape of the crystal reminded him an awful lot of the CPUs of Gamindustri, who had power button symbols in their eyes instead of pupils. He knew this because of the depictions made by the more… fanatical, of the Basilicom workers.

His armour began to scan the Crystal, and unlike a Dungeon this process was significantly quicker. However, that proved to be useless as there was barely anything his armour could get out of it, scans didn't know what to make of this crystal. The material it was made of registered as an unknown, while there were unusual energy readings coming from it. His eyes narrowed at the crystal, his mind breaking free from staring at the 'beauty' that it had as he pondered what to do with it. 'Whatever this is, it'd be best if I take this to the WDD, they have a sub division focused on researching if I recall correctly, they can look at whatever this is.' He thought, making to pocket the crystal.

However, that was stopped when the crystal's glow began to increase in intensity. A series of warning alarms blared from both Bracers, making Nico jump in alarm, his hand releasing the Crystal. 'Whoa, what the fuck?! What's happening these energy readings are off the scale!' he screamed mentally, seeing the readings both Bracers presented him. Looking up at the crystal, the last thing he saw was it shooting towards him like a bullet before he knew only darkness.