Jin felt like she had gotten hit by a truck, then that truck backed up and ran over her again, and then, for good measure, tossed her off a cliff to let the rocks below break her fall. Despite her body actually feeling stronger and healthier than she could remember, her soul felt pummeled.

The first thing she noticed was the lack of Basima's face smiling back to greet her awake.

She slowly sat up and looked around the fairly plain room of white marble and evenly spaced alcoves set into the circular walls. A blanket she didn't remember going to sleep with slipped down her lithe frame, and she recognized it as the one she slept with in their cabin before—

Memories came back to her in a rush, unbidden flashes of Basima's cheerful smile as they hid from the onlooking audience under the covers at night. A dagger going straight through her heart, killing her almost instantly. Jilani's grin of triumph and the shock of anger when she was defeated in turn.

Jin flexed her hand, feeling the new power welling just below the surface. They had defeated the floor boss and were now all Crystal Casters… If she had had this power sooner, would Basima still be alive?

She violently shoved that thought from her mind, refusing to go down that spiraling path right now. She couldn't change it now. She had learned that lesson long ago when her first hospital friend died, a friend she couldn't even remember the appearance of anymore. She learned long ago that death was always happening and there was nothing anyone could do to bring the dead back.

Nobody got to respawn.

Jin rubbed at her eyes with her palms, trying to dislodge the sleep and keep back any traitorous tears. She remembered the cool mask her [Poker Face] Talent granted her and tugged on that control again, making her face blank. It wouldn't stop her from actually feeling her emotions, but it could at least help protect the others from being inflicted with them and not cause her own embarrassment or distress from adding to her emotional pile she was currently shoving into the back closet of her brain.

She took a deep grounding breath, and when she opened her eyes again, a little blue girl was sitting at her feet, watching her with bright blue eyes.

Liraz signed to her, "Are you ready to buy stuff now?" She tugged on the edge of her skirt and added, "I bought some mage robes and a Knowledge Tome."

Jin allowed herself a small, grateful smile to the offered distraction of shopping. She needed to focus on doing something to keep her mind from being tempted to open up that dark closet again. She tapped at the crimson chest piece she still wore, even after getting it partially soaked in dragon blood during the boss fight, which helped create some little health globes for her to use like potions in the future. "I spent a significant amount of points on this before, but I think I still have a lot left after killing…" She paused, not wanting to recall exactly how she got some of those points—not wanting to remember the price of a life, but managed to finish saying, "The boss and another Champion."

Pressing the Money Rune on her bracelet, she checked the shop and her current point total.

Total Points Accumulated: 338

Points Available to Spend: 207

Current Shop Items:

Crystal Weapon – 100 points. Crystal Dimensional Storage – 90 points. Crystal Chest Armor – 80 points. Crystal Leg Armor – 75 points. Crystal Gloves – 70 points. Crystal Belt – 60 points. Knowledge Tome – 50 points. Crystal Ritual Kit – 45 points. Weekly Rations Kit – 20 points.

Shop refreshes in 5 hours 35 minutes.

Jin's eyes went wide at her point total, and she let out a slightly stunned huff of laughter, "I've got enough for a few things. Hopefully, I can help protect the others more."

Hadia groaned from nearby and retorted, "Don't refuse to take anything for yourself just because you're afraid another one of us will die."

Jin glared toward her and began to retort, "I wasn't—"

"Yeah, you were," Hadia interjected as she sat up. "I can tell you don't want to talk about it, but I'm going to if I start to see you putting yourself more at risk for our sakes, Sky Girl." She pointed a finger towards Jin's chest. "If you die next, how long do you think it will be before the rest of us follow? We need to do what's right for all of us to survive this, and that means you, too."

Jin wanted to grind her teeth in frustration at the words, but her Talent once more helped her from letting that emotion slip past. Instead, she probably stayed stone still for way too long before giving a curt nod of her head. "Fine. Once everyone's awake, we'll talk about what's best to buy with our pooled points." She jerked her chin towards Liraz as she added, "We can use her Worker bracelet to transfer points around, right?"

Hadia nodded as she stood, but clarified, "Yes, but it's on a day-long cooldown. I don't think we want to wait that long before heading to the next floor and hopefully staying ahead of the other Sects."

"So we each spend on what we can before pooling the last of it," Jin surmised, forcing herself to stand as well. Karam was still asleep next to her, and Alim was on his other side, both covered in their thin blankets from the cabin. Jin turned to look at Liraz, remembering that she was the one with the dimensional storage originally, and asked, "Did you cover them up?"

Liraz's cheeks turned a faint purple before nodding and signing, "You all seemed cold."

Jin snorted a small laugh and shook her head, signing back, "Well, should we wake them or wait?"

Hadia stretched fully with her arms over her head as she said, "I can explain the terminals to you while they finish sleeping. Probably not a good idea to interrupt this particular sleep after recovering from the soul exhaustion of a Caste ascension."

Jin just gestured to the alcove behind her, then with an unspoken "lead the way," as she took a step back.

Hadia chuckled and instead of moving forward, took hold of Jin to lead her forward into the alcove first. The alcove was basically a half-circle of white marble wall with a few runes etched into it. The first rune was one Jin recognized from her bracelet that opened the shop. The second was one her translation ability was reading as "Upgrade," and the third was one that translated as "Hint."

Before Jin could ask or assume, Hadia began explaining while looking over Jin's shoulder. "This one obviously goes to the shop like our bracelets, but unlike that one, this one isn't on a changing timer because it gives you access to everything at once. However, once we leave this room, we can't return to it and won't get this freedom of choice until the next floor's treasure room."

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Jin nodded in understanding. To show she was paying attention, she added, "So now's the best time to get the rarer or more specific items?"

"Yep," Hadia confirmed. "The Enhancement rune there will permanently upgrade our bracelets for the next floors, but it changes every time, so we won't know what it will give until we do it." She pointed at the last rune and said, "This last one will be a hint or clue or fucking riddle for what the next floor's challenges are going to be."

"You don't seem enthused about being prepared," Jin dryly replied with a raised brow. "Is it a trick?"

Hadia gave a huff of annoyance. "Kind of? It can often be misleading. If it's vague in just the right way, it can make people believe it's one thing, spend their points to prepare for that one thing, but then, when they go on, they realize they misinterpreted it and ended up wasting their points on useless items. I remember watching one time where it mentioned sun and sand, the group assumed a desert biome like where we live, but it turned out to be a crap ton of islands and they didn't have a boat."

Jin's eyes went wide for a moment before glancing between Hadia and the Money rune and asking, "We can buy a whole boat from this?"

Hadia rolled her eyes. "Please tell me that's not all you heard."

Jin mirrored the reaction and said, "Oh, come on. I just need to know if we really need to consider buying a boat and how we plan to actually transport it." She turned to look at Liraz's small form and asked, "Can you even store an entire boat in your dimensional storage?"

Liraz shrugged and signed, "Depends on the boat."

Running a hand through her silky black hair, Jin gave a slight sigh and turned back to Hadia to ask, "So do we just ignore the hint so we're not tempted into a false assumption?"

Hadia grimaced but shook her head. "I think we should still learn it, but we need to not let our assumptions be the driving factor. Like, aim for things that are more generally desired, but if it comes down to a tie or something, then let the hint tip the scale."

"Makes sense," Jin replied. "Any ideas on what you want or what you think the group will need?"

"Alim mentioned wanting a Knowledge Tome for the Crystal Caste Rituals, which I agree with," Hadia immediately reminded, then looked thoughtful. "I wouldn't mind a Knowledge Tome either to help with fighting, but I'm also wanting a proper second weapon to dual wield with. We could all use more armor, though, too. You and I have our chest pieces, but Alim and Kar are still wearing their Sliksilk gear, which won't hold up very well as we start facing stronger enemies next level."

Jin looked back at Liraz, taking in her new robes. They reminded her of the time she had stolen a pair of the doctor coats to impress her newest friend, Phoenix, during Jin's first hospital visit. They were both too small for the oversized lab coats, but Phoenix's laugh had made the punishment from both her parents and the hospital staff so worth it.

These particular robes looked just as oversized, but were a dusky steel-blue color with a darker sash around the middle. The skirt portion was flowy down to her shins but seemed cut in a way that didn't hinder the smaller girl's movements. Liraz's new hat didn't seem to be part of the robes, but it did match the color, though it looked to be made of slime. Jin took it all in and asked, "I thought all magical equipment was supposed to resize like our Sliksilk and my chestplate. Is it defective? Are the gods messing with us again? Mind if I can see the stats with my Talent?"

Liraz shrank back but nodded and lifted the skirt portion for Jin to touch.

Item: Robes of the Insatiable Thirst

Made from the pelt of a kelpie cursed by a petty god with unending thirst; causing them to drink until its home lake was nothing but parched earth to sate themselves.

Caste: Crystal.

Availability: Rare.

Type: Apparel, chest.

Effects:

Repairs damage over time. Adjusts to always be oversized on the wearer. Increased resistance to Fire, Ice, and Water effects. Robes may absorb liquid or semiliquid substances and take on characteristics of the substance absorbed. When attacked, the robes expel the built-up substances in a compressed form to knock back attackers.

"Nice?" Jin replied, uncertain if being oversized all the time was a bug or a feature. Glancing back over to the two men still passed out on the floor nearby, she said, "Think we should focus on getting them something like that or…" She paused for a moment as she glanced back at the runed alcove. "If we can buy a whole boat, what other kinds of items like that might we want instead? A portable home? A land vehicle?"

"Those are options sometimes," Hadia admitted with a shrug. "However, there's usually some kind of base available for each Sect on each floor. Not always, but often enough that I wouldn't recommend a portable base unless the hint is extremely blunt about something like that."

"Would it be blunt like that?" Jin asked with a quirked brow.

"Sometimes, which makes it all the more difficult to weed out the traps that can occur."

Jin gave a heavy sigh again but said, "Alright, well aside from just more gear pieces like boots and gloves, I can't really think of anything specific I want for myself at this point so I'm going to offer to buy the bigger group items if we find anything promising." She looked at the second rune then and asked, "So, how do I do this bracelet upgrade thing while we wait for the others to wake?"

"Just press the rune and stick your arm in the hole," Hadia replied with a shrug and smirk.

Jin's head whipped towards her, and she said, "Did you just tell me to stick my arm in a hole like I'd be completely okay with losing said arm?"

"Yep," Hadia replied, pressing the rune which caused a large hole to appear where the rune had once been. Her gaze turned slightly sadistic as she teased, "Don't tell me you're afraid of simply sticking your hand in a hole, are you, Sky Girl?"

Said "hole" was less a hole and more a pitch black portal into a void from what Jin was seeing. It looked almost like a part of reality itself was missing, and that if she shoved anything into it, she'd never get it out again.

Jin looked between the hole and Hadia a few times, debating about giving in to the taunt or protecting her limbs, and finally said, "How about you show me how it's done first?"

Hadia almost looked victorious as she playfully muttered, "Chikarum."

"I don't know what that is," Jin retorted with a roll of her eyes. "But I'm not a coward, going off your tone… I'm just pragmatically cautious."

"Because you're afraid of the potential consequences," Hadia mercilessly pointed out, but she moved forward and stuck her arm into the hole of doom.

Nothing seemed to happen at first, until the room began to vibrate slightly and an odd sound echoed around them. "You know, I think you should thank me for not doing the cliche thing and screaming my head off to get you to freak out," Hadia said above the weird sound that Jin could only describe as something akin to gravel being turned into powder. "Every year there's some Sect that has a comedian in it who tries to make everyone else think something is going horribly wrong, and I swore never to be that person."

The noise, combined with the subtle vibrations trembling through them, was enough to wake Karam and Alim from their sleep, and after a brief moment of panic. They relaxed at seeing half of Hadia's arm being eaten by a hole in the wall like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Jin shook her head, not sure if she would ever get over this odd sight, and eventually just turned to help both of her other friends to stand.

Alim ran a hand through his short, wavy brown hair before signing to her, "Did you both already do your shopping?"

Jin shook her head and spoke aloud as she signed back, "No. We were waiting to discuss it with all of us together, but she did catch me up on how the wall things work."

Karam didn't seem to want to waste any time either, as he stuck his own bracelet into the hole that appeared in his own alcove. Liraz seemed to take that as a cue as well, practically skipping across the room to where her alcove was.

Alim looked at her expectantly for a long moment before smirking and signing, "You know you need to upgrade the bracelet to access the next floor, right? There's no getting out of it."

Jin rocked her head back to groan at the ceiling before giving a heavy sigh and nodding as she signed back. "Yeah, yeah. I'll go risk an arm and hope Karam can heal it if it goes horribly wrong."

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