Karam watched with mild horror as a swarm of slimy fishies attempted to devour the poor kitty that had gotten stuck in Liraz's [Slime Spray]. While he would admit that he had thought the fishies endearing at first, when Liraz had simply summoned them in their moat back home to see how many there would be, now he wasn't so sure about their cuteness as those sharp teeth dug into the yowling monster.

Class Ability: Fish Friends

Type: Spell (summon, elemental, magical, corrosion, covenant, water)

Cost: High mana.

Cooldown: 1 hour.

Current Caste: Crystal 1 (5%)

Crystal Effect: Summon [Vilebiter Slimes] that can submerge and move through slime of any thickness to attack your enemies, inflicting piercing and Corrosion damage. When moving over areas that are not slime-covered, [Vilebiter Slimes] are only half submerged, move more slowly, and leave trails of slime.

"Is Lady Liraz always that strange mix of terrifying and adorable when she fights monsters?" Rayyan quietly asked from beside him.

Karam simply nodded in response, hoping it would be over soon. He looked over to where Jin and Alim were signing to each other as they discussed the tree they had found on their way to the Workers' base. The strange tree was smaller than they normally saw in this swamp—only about as tall as he was, but it had golden fruit hanging from its branches. It had been guarded by this monster that had slimy green skin but looked like a large cat with webbed paws and powerful back legs that let it jump insanely far—until it jumped into Liraz's sticky slime.

He heard a loud, wet crunching sound and immediately turned to see Hadia with her mace in the kitty's newly crushed skull.

"Seriously, Li," Hadia exclaimed as she pulled the now-slime-covered mace out of the monster. "Why do all of your attacks involve a slow and painful demise? I'm starting to worry about you a little."

"I hate that I'm saying this, but I think I'm relieved that Lady Hadia killed the beast with a mace to the head," Rayyan quietly said so that only Karam would hear.

"I think I am, too," he admitted, matching the blonde's hushed whisper. "At least nobody got seriously hurt before Miss Li caught it."

"Well, just look on the bright side," Rayyan began, looking at him with a cheerful smirk. "If anyone had been injured, you would gain the opportunity to increase your own abilities, yes?"

Karam smiled back and nodded. "I guess that's a good point." He glanced down at the golden flute in Rayyan's hand and added, "At least your Boons can be used all the time, even when we're not fighting. I bet you'll out-level all of us."

It had been interesting to hear Rayyan explain all of his current abilities as a Wave Enchanter when they had first resumed walking with their new group member. Karam thought a Boon specialist like Rayyan would be a… well, a boon to their team.

In return, Jin had simply stated all their roles, without going into much detail about what they could currently do. The mistrust there was made obvious, but Karam thought it wouldn't really help them as a team. While he respected the others enough not to disclose their abilities to Rayyan, he had no problem with sharing his own since he would be working closest with the man.

Rayyan chuckled and shook his head. "While it's true I can cast them whenever I like, I don't think they progress very fast if it's not much of a challenge," he explained, lifting his bracelet up to display one of the abilities. "I tried doing this one on just myself while near my base, but it didn't progress nearly as much as when I cast it on everyone else while fighting."

Class Ability: Pearly Blessing

Type: Boon (elemental, water)

Cost: Low mana.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

Current Caste: Crystal 1 (26%)

Crystal Effect: Targeted allies gain low health regeneration, increased resistance to Elemental damage, and Water abilities have increased effects.

"It's still very nice to have most of your abilities be usable during every fight," Karam pointed out. "Like you said, I have to wait for someone to get hurt, which isn't something I actually want to happen, but I'm glad to be able to help everyone when it does happen."

"Alright, everyone, let's gather up!" Jin called out, snapping Karam's attention back to her. She waved them all over and began to explain. "We're going to try harvesting the fruit really quickly, but leave the tree here and mark it on the map. Alim thinks it will keep spawning fruit, so we'll come back and check it in a few days. Be ready for some kind of trap, though. I'll pick the first fruit while all of you stay back, alright?"

There were nods all around, and Karam stayed back as he and the others watched. Luckily, it didn't appear to be trapped, but they all agreed that another monster would probably spawn again to protect it soon.

It didn't take long to gather everything from the small tree, and they were soon on their way to the Workers' base. With only two weeks left before the first floor was closed off to them, Karam really hoped they had decided to come here sooner.

"So, Sir Karam, are you hoping to join the Pleasure Sect once we all finish our duties within the Tower?" Rayyan asked as they walked.

Karam smiled, mostly because he thought it was funny how—unlike the rest of their group—Rayyan didn't seem to enjoy the silence and would try to fill it with any random topic as they went. "I was thinking about it," he quietly admitted. "Before entering the Tower, I was thinking about joining the Workers—"

"Oh? Do you have some kind of skill they would appreciate?" Rayyan interjected, seeming genuinely curious about him.

He blushed slightly from the attention but answered, "I'm not sure if it was really good enough, but I enjoyed sewing. Specifically, embroidering. I thought maybe it would be more useful than simply showing new Servants around."

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"Well, I'm sure the Lovers would be more than grateful to take you on now. Lady Lavender, who leads the Healer Coterie currently, will usually take anyone with the power to mend."

"Will you join that Coterie too?" Kar asked, raising a curious brow at him.

Rayyan gave a small shrug. "I'm not sure. I may qualify since some of my Boons do help heal, but I'm not really built for only healing like you are."

"What about the Music Coterie?"

He let out a sigh and admitted, "I was part of that one for a time when I was younger and in love with playing the flute. But I transferred to the Courtesan Coterie a couple of years ago."

Karam hesitated a moment before inquiring, "Can I ask why?"

"It paid better," Rayyan replied simply with another shrug.

That was confusing to Karam, tilting his head to the side as he asked, "So… you decided to sell your body because it gave more Bits? That seems a little…"

"Depraved?" Rayyan supplied with a knowing smile.

Karam flushed slightly but clarified, "I was going to say sad, but didn't want it to come across like pity."

Rayyan chuckled and shook his head. "It's alright. And it's not so bad, really. A lot of times, my clients just want someone to spend time with. That's where my flute and Monarch's March skills come in handy. They just want a little entertainment to fill their lonely moments. You can't honestly tell me you've never wished for a companion to spend time with after finishing your Servant duties for the day, can you?"

He thought about that and couldn't really argue the point. That bit of extra time in his day was what led him to learning to sew. It had given him something to do, but he could admit it was a little lonely sometimes. "So are you planning to keep doing that once you leave the Tower? I bet it would pay a lot more, since you'll be a former Champion."

Rayyan gave a soft hum, like he was contemplating the idea, but finally said, "I'm not sure. I think I'll just have to wait and see what opportunities present themselves."

A gentle silence descended after that, and Rayyan surprisingly didn't bring up anything else as they continued through the murky bog.

When the Workers' base came into view through the distant fog, Karam couldn't help but smile broadly as he saw soft lights coming from behind the canopy of weeping vines and the very professional-looking bridge crafted across the moat. It looked like the Workers had arrived a while ago after all.

Jin didn't smile like the rest of the group did at the sight of the Workers' base being obviously active and lived in. She had pulled on her [Poker Face] to keep her face a mask of indifference as soon as Rayyan had joined up with them—not wanting him to have a single hint about what she was feeling right now. Despite that, she was happy to know the group had made it to the second floor and weren't imprisoned by the Fighters like the Lovers might have been.

She stopped the others from crossing the bridge that had been erected, explaining simply before anyone could question her, "It could be trapped." With a deep breath, she shouted as loud as she could to the tree across the water, "Oi! You in there, Darya?! We have some trading to do!"

Nothing seemed to happen at first, but after a few minutes, the canopy parted to allow a handful of people through. Darya was leading them to the other side of the bridge, and Jin noticed the wry smirk the older woman had on her face as she called back over, "Glad to see you've been keeping our Sect mate out of too much trouble, Wayfarer. I'm hoping she's got a large load of materials for us to work with, yeah?"

"I do as well," Jin admitted, hoping the information would show she was still hoping to maintain their earlier alliance. "Can she and I come over safely to barter for a bit?"

Darya nodded and waved her over. "Sure thing, the bridge won't bite you—for now."

Jin shook her head at the information that she definitely needed to look out for trapped bridges in the future and looked at Liraz. She jerked her head towards the Workers and signed to the girl, "You good to go?"

Liraz cheerfully nodded, but Alim interjected, "Can I go too? I'd like to ask Scarlet a few questions about growing the Divine Tower plants."

Nodding, Jin called back to Darya, "Oi! Can Alim come over, too? He'd like some time to talk with Scarlet."

Unexpectedly, Darya grimaced and said something to the woman Jin remembered was called Rama, or something like that. Rama flicked her long raven hair over her shoulder in annoyance before turning and walking back towards the base. "Ramazan is going to go see if Scarlet will come, but no guarantee. Your boy can come over and wait, though."

Jin didn't allow her frown to show, but she could tell something was wrong with Scarlet. Normally, the poor girl seemed entirely too enthusiastic about spending time with Alim, who Jin knew wouldn't be able to return her feelings, so it seemed odd that the girl might not come out.

She led the way across the bridge, with Liraz and Alim in her wake, and was relieved when nothing disastrous happened. Once across, they didn't waste any time in getting right down to business as she and Liraz began listing off all the monster materials they had gathered that had been waiting on the Workers' arrival.

While Jin had mostly been converting the goblin kills into loot essence, she had agreed to simply loot the other creatures without that essence being involved in hopes of gaining these more usable materials for their allies to turn into items and trade with.

As Liraz began pulling out more of their bulk items, like pelts, bones, and various plants, Jin pulled Darya aside and quietly asked, "What happened with Scarlet?"

Darya grimaced again and reluctantly explained, "Back on the first floor… Before you killed Jilani and the Floor Boss… Well, the Fighters paid us a little visit at our cabin. Obviously, they wanted to trade a bit, but when we—" Darya winced slightly and corrected, "When I refused to share information about the other Sects that had come to deal with us, Antoni ordered Jilani to teach us a lesson about not assisting them completely."

Jin did let her frown and simmering anger at the name of the woman she hated show that time as she asked, "What'd that bitch do to Scarlet?"

"Cut her up," the older woman bluntly replied, shaking her head and kicking a rock into the nearby water. "The crazy woman put scars all over her, Jin, and all of us were forced to watch." She let out a heavy sigh. "I caved after that. Told 'em what I knew, which wasn't that much, honestly, but they know Liraz is with you all and that we've had dealings. Haven't seen them since then, though. We assumed they came up here since you all beat them to it—congratulations on that, by the way. However, I'm guessing they'll be trying to hunt you all down for the slight."

"We haven't run into them yet," Jin replied, deciding not to add the 'unfortunately' she had thought. A dark part of her really wished they had, just so she could make them all pay for Basima. The smarter part knew that was a foolish wish when that group still outnumbered them.

She glanced over the moat towards Rayyan and suddenly realized they might not be so outnumbered for long. They had six people again, and the Fighters were down to nine. If Pax caught up to them, that would be another to stand against them, hopefully.

Her voice dropped to a hush as she asked the older and more experienced woman, "What do you know about Rayyan from the Pleasure Sect?"

Darya raised a brow at her and then took a moment to look in the direction Jin was. She shook her head, though, and admitted, "Not much. We don't usually know who the other Sects are going to pick as Champions, so it's not like we learned about them beforehand. I think only the Whispers go to those kinds of lengths with the focus on spying and research. I'd ask why you want to know, but I'm guessing you picked up a stray Lover?"

Jin didn't let her annoyance show as she simply nodded and explained how they had met. After briefly recounting it, she asked, "Do you think it would have been better to leave him?"

The Worker shrugged. "There's no real telling with something like that. You just gotta weigh the risk versus the reward."

"The risk being that he kills all of us in our sleep?" Jin pointed out with a raised brow.

Darya chuckled. "And the reward being that he helps you kill your enemies, right?" At Jin's tiny huff of frustration that she let slip, Darya added, "Look, Jin, to tell you the truth, there are levels of trust that you need to deal with; not only in this Tower but for life in general. I don't trust my own teammates to take an arrow for me in here, but I do trust them to do their jobs, ideally follow my orders, and keep themselves alive. Keep making choices with that kind of dynamic in mind, and hopefully you won't get caught unprepared."

"You mean be ready to dodge the arrow?" Jin replied flatly.

Darya laughed and clapped her on the shoulder before turning them both to go back to the others and saying, "Now you're getting it, Wayfarer."

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