The Slants

After five days of patience, further study and cataloguing of my materials, diligent training, and heartwarming family dinners, I had a weapon strapped to my back, pockets full of gear, and many pouches strapped to my body.

The next stop was the Slants—the three colossal bridges that jutted out from the southern side of the lower middle layer like they were support beams keeping the city of arcane metal in place.

Functionally, they were long, pathways that took the city’s brave and desperate out into the miasma-and-fog-covered marsh surrounding the grand hill. Their incline was just shallow enough to drag a cart down by hand, but steep enough to make the climb back up an act of penance.

On either side of the central walkway ran thick walls that prevented people from just falling off—but they were no mere safety walls. No, they were mana-fed tracks for lift sleds.

Standing at the top, one could watch a sled shoot down. Those metal cages bolted to a rune-covered plate were fast. Large gears churned along the walls of the gateway too. They were essential to the sled tracks, but you’d have to ask Meredi if you wanted to know exactly what they were connected to.

Shoddy shops were built right into the walls of the lift tracks—full of salvagers and crooks trying to peddle their wares.

The Slants weren’t really part of the city, but interestingly, they were a place where people from the lowest layer strived to be. They would climb up from the ground floor, just to have a chance to live in the comparative luxury of the Slants. 

The people of The Slants—they were not kidding themselves. They knew that if there was ever an attack, or if some madman decided to cause trouble, they were on their own. The gates at the top of The Slants would come down, and they’d be locked out here. Their price to pay for leaving their “designated” place in life. All that said, the only attack I knew of was the one that killed the moms, so you could say it was a pretty good gamble to take.

In the game, this area had functioned as a simple transition zone between the city and the wild. It didn’t really do much other than offer some atmosphere and a tutorial on the bargain-hunting system built into the shopping system. The village setting didn’t really have an equivalent to The Slants, so you could argue that the concept of this gritty transition area was wasted.

***

I was stopped at the gateway dividing the Slants and the city by a pair of tired-looking guards. They gave me a hard time, thinking I was a crazy man for heading out there. Then they found out I was related to Meredi and gave me an even harder time, but ultimately, they were here to collect fares and have a record of who went out and came back in. They also had to check if I had the respirator mask made for surviving out there—which I did.

With my name and next of kin registered, I stepped into the outside world.

My goal was firmly in my mind—the harvesting of a Gloomspawn’s flesh, preferably its heart.