"Hey! Jason! Are you ready for the exploration?"
"Jack! You're late. Nick and I have already been waiting for you to arrive for thirty minutes!"
The one named Nick smiled, "If I could I would have stayed to sleep in too. Haha! This buffoon can't help to make sure we are here early."
Jack laughed loudly, "HAHA! That's what you get for getting the short end of the stick!"
Jason frowned at the two laughing idiots, "Never mind that. Jack, where is lazy Harry?"
Jack had finally had enough joking with Nick and looked at Jason, "Well you know the guy can't get started without his coffee. He's addicted to those energy supplements."
"Well, go find him now since our mission starts in twenty minutes and you know they always start early."
"Don't bother I'm already here." A tired voice came from the side.
Jason sighed while looking at the dark bags under Harry's eyes, "Well let's get going and make sure to finish your energy drink before we arrive at the headquarters. We were selected for this important mission to explore level 21 in hopes of making an outpost. Many outposts have failed because of carelessness, and your addiction might hinder the creation of the outpost."
Harry's tired voice sounded again, "Blah Blah Blah... You don't have to be so serious all the time you know? When we reach actually dangerous levels I will be prepared. For now, let us relax at least until we reach level 13 for the passageway. We all know we are doing th-i-s... 'yawn' for the money."
Nick put his hand on Jason's shoulder, "We are brothers. I know you worry, but at least give us some credit. We can handle ourselves."
Jason sighed, "Fine... Let's just get going."
After walking inside a building labeled 'M.E.G. Exploration Department' the brothers said hello to the receptionist and walked to a room labeled 'Briefing 5'. Inside was a man organizing some papers into folders.
The man looked up and smiled, "It's good that you four are here. I am just finishing up organizing these folders for you all to understand the place you will go to." After a few more papers were shoved into the folders, the man then proceeded to hand out the folders according to everyone.
Jason got the folder and said, "Thank you Mr. Finch." The others also seemed to get their manners and spoke up with a 'thank you' as well.
The man known as Finch had his own folder as well and smiled at the four brothers, "Davis brothers you have been assigned to attempt to make a new outpost on level 21. Today I will get you four all the information on both how to leave the level, exit the level, and everything in between. Please now open your folders and look at the information present to begin. Level 21 survival difficulty class 4, unsafe, unsecured, and medium entity count."
Following Finch's instructions, the brothers all opened the folder that was labeled 'Orange - Level 21'
The first picture showed a hallway with white walls, a few pastel pink doors, and circular lights that appeared to be a type of fluorescent lighting. The hall was relatively short and had a sharp turn at the end.
Finch spoke up again, "What you see there is one of the possibilities of what you might see for the place. The halls change often and can be practically any style with the only thing always staying the same being the door placement and the door number. On the next page, you can see where the doors lead to. At the center of the level, there is the one and only safe space where entities have been found to be unable to enter. It should look almost like a classroom because of the desks and chairs inside, this is where the main base should be located in.
As for the changes in the halls, they have not been seen to affect anything other than the mentality of those who explore them, so a hall that looks like bleeding walls, it will still be the same as a hall that looks like plants.
That being said we mostly know of exits and everything else should be considered random. Now for the important parts... Entities... On this level nothing is consistent. You can find anything from Hounds to Sixarms to Vines. We also suggest not interacting with other humans much in the halls since other interactions led to fights or one of the groups being an entity similar to Skin Stealers.
Now let us focus on the reasons for this base being constructed. The main reason being the easier access to Firesalt crystals here compared to other levels. The items that are common are all found on shelves on random walls and should be taken with the exception of the keys found. Almost all keys are traps that will take anyone who grabs the key to a group of entities with numbers ranging from anywhere between 7 and 30. Higher numbers might be possible, but numbers that high are just death sentences.
The best way to explore the halls is to go into one hall and just walk while collecting items on the way and walking back. After our last exploration, we found that doing this can mostly bring a person 10 Firesalt crystals on average safely."
After speaking for so long Finch paused and smiled at the men looking at him with surprised eyes, "Pretty good money ain't that right boys?" Seeing the dazed men nodding he laughed heartily.
"Well... I covered the main section of what you need to know, so for now, you have six hours for last-minute preparations to do whatever and get ready for this new outpost 'M.E.G. Outpost Fire-Hall'
As for me, I'm old and Tired. I'll let you young ones look over the entire information clearly to get your own understanding of this level. You have an hour in this room to talk it over here so I'll be off. I might not be born here like you four, but I sure know there are always times where some dangers should be braved clearly."
After Finch left the room, the four brothers broke out into a discussion about the new place they were leaving to.
"Firesalt! So many people die just to get a few handfuls, yet we can get 10 daily! 10!" Jack yelled out in excitement.
Nick was also very excited, "If we have a day that we earn double or more we could even go out and pocket it and claim it for "safety purposes" in the level!"
Even Harry who looked tired for the morning now had already woken up completely, "Even the smallest Firesalt crystal costs 100B! I heard the largest went out for 1 million! If we are lucky we might even get a big raise for earning so much for the organization!"
Jason was the first to come to his senses and ignored his brother's incessant chattering to look at the information for the level after all someone had to be prepared.
After a good ten minutes after everyone calmed down, Jason spoke up, "There might be a reason why the outpost hasn't been put here despite the abundance of the Firesalt crystals found."
Once Jason got everyone's attention he looked at them and started to explain the smaller hidden dangers found here, "Here on level 21 food is scarce if even found. Instead of fighting the same entities every day, we will need to learn various entity fighting styles. Next, it says here that the largest Firesalt crystal found here is only the size of a fist, so big and good, but rare, and expect to be disappointed to only find a couple of centimeters long Firesalt crystals.
Apparently, we will be meeting someone from the resource department in six hours, well now five and a half hours. They will give us the food creates and other survival resources for the level. Apparently, we also go chosen because we have easy access to the level since we on level 11 only need to pass through the basically harmless level 13.
There are also the 'Exit' areas of the level that claim to be infested with entities. It is unlikely to find, but if found needs to be avoided at all costs.
I believe the greatest difficulty is going to be moving in the right direction to the center. There are four main halls and we have no real way of knowing which one we will end up at. We can only hope for a smooth journey with all the supplies and without death."
Jack on the other hand simply laughed and spoke, "We are considered one of the greatest well-trained beginner professionals on this level! Don't worry so much anymore!"