Jin tore her spear from the chest of the latest goblin she had killed, pausing only when she noticed the species of this one being one of the rarer Shaman variety of goblin that they had been hunting and raiding for weeks now. They seemed to be endless, and camps would seemingly pop up overnight in new locations, even ones they had already cleared before.

"Hey, got a shamy over here," Jin called over to the others, Karam already healing a wound at Alim's inner elbow. When Alim followed Karam's gaze to land on her, she signed, "Want me to go ahead and spend the essence on this rare spawn?"

He nodded and wrote in the air instead of trying to sign one-handed. "Go ahead. We get a better chance at Spirit Gems, it seems, when you do."

She simply nodded and triggered her [Treasure Hoard] Talent to use the built-up essence she had to upgrade the quality of loot from this one. As the goblin began to dissolve into white ash, she felt two identical jewels appear in her dimensional storage. She had gotten better about sensing the loot mentally now, being able to know exactly what was available and where it was so that if she wanted to, she could access it from exactly where she needed to pick it up without physically moving her body through the space.

Jin did that now, picking up the two polished gems that were a blood-red color with black veins crawling through them, and having her [Poker Face] identify them for her.

Item: Devour Spirit Gem

A magical gem containing the spiritual concept of devouring made manifest.

Caste: Crystal.

Availability: Epic.

Type: Consumable, ingredient.

Requirements: Crystal Caste with less than 5 unlocked Class abilities.

Effect: Unlocks a random Class ability weighted towards a suitable Aspect.

You are able to use [Devour Spirit Gem] with your Talent: [Aetheric Transmigrator].

Do you wish to unlock a Class ability infused with the devouring concept?

"Hey, Li, Hadia," Jin called over to the blue girl currently cleaning slime off a small pile of goblin corpses. "I've got two Devour Spirit Gems here if either of you wants one. If you don't, I'll use both."

"I think I'll pass this time," Hadia replied, wiping the mud off her hammer. "I got that Resolve Spirit Gem last time. Which, despite it not giving me another attack, I'm pretty happy with, yeah?"

Jin nodded, remembering the latest addition to Hadia's powerset that actually made both her and Hadia deal more damage and live longer.

Ability: Steadfast Resolve

Type: Boon (elemental, earth)

Cost: Low mana.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Current Caste: Crystal 1 (15%)

Crystal Effect: Increases the Strength and Magic of nearby allies for a moderate duration. If your health drops below 50%, you gain an instance of [Earthen Rally].

Earthen Rally (elemental, earth): Greatly increases Fortitude and stamina regeneration for a short duration.

Turning to Liraz, who had walked over, Jin held out one of the gems and asked, "I know you got that Vilebiter Spirit Gem from that swarm of fish earlier, but you think this'll go with your powerset, too?"

"I like my fishies," Liraz replies with a sharp-toothed grin that reminded Jin of those piranha-like monsters that almost killed Alim. "More slime that eats gobbies sounds good, right?"

Jin nodded, unable to argue with that logic when it seemed like they'd be stuck farming goblins for the next year at this rate. While they had always been a good source of loot and tribute points, along with the tower points they gained just from the kills—which had increased from two to five points now that they were fighting Crystal Caste monsters instead of Mundane ones—the camps didn't always have Divine Tower items they could turn into tribute points, and sometimes they didn't have any loot at all except what Jin took from their corpses.

After handing one of the Devour Spirit Gems to Liraz, Jin didn't waste time absorbing her own and seeing what she would get this time, not particularly caring what it might be so long as it helped devour her enemies.

The little gem shattered in her palm, swirling around her like before and embedding itself into her flesh wherever it could. She felt the concept infusing into her and bonding to her Void Aspect, and quickly brought up the display to make sure what she felt was real.

Class Ability: Maw of the Dragon

Type: Execute (drain, summon, transfiguration, divine, void)

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Cost: Severe mana.

Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Current Caste: Crystal 1 (0%)

Crystal Effect: Your weapon becomes the maw of the [Níðhǫggr, the Herald of Ragnarǫk], consuming an enemy with your next strike and healing you for an equivalent amount. Damage is scaled based on the amount of health missing from the target. If the enemy survives, you gain an instance of [Dragon Rage].

Dragon Rage (boon, divine, void): Greatly increases Strength and Magic and reduces the remaining cooldown of all your abilities for a short duration.

Jin's eyes went wide at the little holographic display floating above her bracelet. Was she really going to be summoning the World Eater with this new ability? Would she accidentally trigger a real Ragnarok just by using this? She doubted it, but couldn't stop from wondering what it might grow to become if she managed to increase her Caste more. What would this look like at Ruby if she ever reached it, like Clover talked about before?

"So what did you get?" Hadia asked from right beside her, unable to see the display of Jin's information as [Poker Face] obscured it.

"A potentially world-ending Execute attack," Jin casually replied, like it wasn't anything special. After Hadia raised an eyebrow at her, she softly admitted, "I'm honestly a little afraid to use it at all. The text is a little scary if it aligns with some of the lore of my old world."

"I'm sure it's not so bad you can't use it," Hadia replied, rolling her eyes. "You're still Crystal Caste, after all. It's not like you're going to devour the planet with a single attack."

Jin nodded along and replied, "Right. Yeah. Of course it won't… for now." She quickly turned to Liraz to try and cut off that mildly terrifying train of thought and asked, "Want to head back now to do your Absorption Ritual at the base? It's getting late enough already, I think. We can call it quits a little early tonight."

Liraz nodded happily, and Jin watched as the little gem seemed to melt into her palm for safekeeping. "Mister Snuggleroot will help me and Dia make dinner, too. Yummy monster stew tonight!"

Jin chuckled, patting the girl's head like Basima used to do, and pulled up the map on her bracelet. They had scouted out a decent chunk over the last month or two, including finding the bases for the Worker and another they weren't sure of, but which was still empty when they checked. She was honestly struggling to keep track of the days, but they still had eighteen weeks remaining on this floor, according to the little floor timer.

With a furrowed brow, Jin turned to Hadia and asked, "Do you remember how long the first floor still had until they're forced to come here?"

Hadia blinked at her for a moment, processing the sudden topic shift, and instead of answering, began signing to the two men who were approaching. "Alim, do you remember how much time the first floor has before the Keepers go through and murder everyone?"

Alim checked his own bracelet for a moment before responding, "About two. They'll probably be joining us soon. They won't want to wait until the last day when the Fighters or Whispers might be camping at the portal to toll them."

"I think you mean 'troll' them," Jin muttered under her breath, but looked back down at her map and signed as she asked the group, "Should we check to see if they've moved into those two bases we found on our way back or just head straight home?"

"It's been over four weeks since we last checked. The slight detour couldn't hurt if we all agree not to take on more goblin camps we come across," Alim signed.

"What do you think, Kar?" Jin asked, trying to get him to speak up more.

Karam simply smiled softly and said, "I'm fine with either. Where you lead, I'll follow, Miss Jin."

"Alright, why don't you finish looting these, Sky Girl? Then we'll head back the long way and see if the Workers and whoever else are building up their bases yet," Hadia said, lightly smacking Jin on the back to urge her to get moving, which Jin did.

She hadn't realized until that moment that Hadia had been doing that a lot more for her lately, summarizing plans and physically nudging her to keep moving. It made a small smile tug at the corner of her mouth as she thought about how such a small thing could actually help her so much when she found herself caught in the fog of monotony.

With a few more thoughts, she finished looting all the goblins within her Aura, turning the rest of them into loot essence and white crystal ash.

Jin led the way again, with her perception being better for catching sight of a monster sooner, but Liraz stayed in the back with her tremorsense working best to feel if anything tried to ambush them from behind. Karam continued to walk right behind Jin, his little candle and lantern combo helping them all recover from the battles. Alim stayed to Karam's left, ready to move in either direction to defend, while Hadia walked on Karam's right, focusing more on using her own [From the Earth] perception to make sure Jin didn't step in another deceptive puddle of mud.

They had been using this formation for so long now that it had become second nature as they fell into place again, moving through the bog in a winding path that avoided needing to swim.

It was about an hour later when they arrived at the first base that they didn't know the Sect of, and ran into an odd sight of a blonde man standing on the water while yelling at the unclaimed Cultivating Guardian Home. He wore silk clothes—reminding Jin of a Raqs Sharqi dancer with his midriff showing and the fabrics being sheer in many places—and pointed at the canopy of weeping vines.

"Listen here! You're meant to be my home now, so quit trying to slap me like one of those ruffians from House—Oh, hello there!" the stranger yelled, suddenly catching sight of them and waving. "You don't by chance know how to make this thing obey, do you? I've walked circles around it and am positive this base is for the Lovers."

Jin didn't lower her Spear as she observed the Lover, wondering how he even managed to get this far on his own without getting eaten by something. She focused on her Aura senses and could feel that he was a Crystal Caster, but the way he was dressed and shouting at the tree like it was a… client didn't make her believe he was any kind of combatant.

"Who are you and what happened to the rest of your Sect?" Jin pointedly asked.

The man's smile fell slightly, and he rubbed the back of his neck as he said, "Ah, yes, well, I guess that does look a bit suspicious now, doesn't it?" He held his hands up to show his empty palms as he defensively added, "But I swear to the gods above, I didn't abandon them or anything! If anything, it was a collision of opposing ideologies!"

Jin turned to stare at Hadia and asked, "Do all Lovers speak like they swallowed a thesaurus, and that's why you left?"

Hadia shoved her shoulder at the jab and asked the stranger, "Give your name, Courtesan, and explain like we're Servants, not Speakers."

The man got a slightly bashful look before casually walking across the water towards them while saying, "Right, sometimes habit overrides presence. I'm Rayyan, a Courtesan-turned-Champion like you assume. However, I parted ways with my Sect when the Fighters forced us to join them. They found us wandering the swamps trying to get here to our new base, and when Antoni threatened to kill us for points instead of staying with them at their base, Blossom caved and agreed to follow him."

"I thought Blossom was hoping to prove her leadership capabilities this Season," Hadia said, apparently understanding more than what Jin was at the moment.

"She is," Rayyan replied with an agreeing tilt of his head. "And one could argue she did lead us well with choosing to live. I even went with them for a time, waiting for a chance to escape. The Fighters are a rather"—he paused and winced, looking for the right word—"brutal lot, and they like to use us for their own pleasure. Aside from that, they also wanted us to help with advancing their base instead of our own. I learned what I could about how these tree bases work, and when I found an opening, I took a few things and left, hoping to get our own home up and running or to find all of you."

Everyone shifted uneasily at that, and Jin spoke up again. "Why were you hoping to run into us?"

Rayyan got a wide smile and cheerfully replied, "Because I'm part of the rebellion, just like you, and I brought you a Spirit Gem as a token of goodwill."

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