Alim waited patiently near the end of the bridge for Scarlet to arrive. He had gathered that something was wrong with her, but it had been annoying when Jin had pulled Darya off to the side to speak with their backs towards them. That turned out not to matter as much when Ramazan returned to the group, leading a slightly smaller woman who was wearing a long dress with long sleeves and gardening gloves with a hood and mask over her face.

The only reason Alim could tell it was Scarlet was from the bit of red hair peeking out from the hood. He tilted his head curiously at her and wrote in the air with his [Mind of the Magister] when she stopped a few feet in front of him. "Are you alright?"

She looked up at him with glassy eyes full of grief and shook her head in the negative.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Scarlet shook her head again and started to move her hands in general gestures that meant nothing to him. He could tell she was trying to talk, but he couldn't understand any of it.

"I'm sorry, Scarlet, but I can't read your lips with the mask over them."

She dropped her hands to her side, balling them up into fists, and the body language alone told Alim that she was frustrated by everything.

He was about to offer the notebook he had brought for her to try writing as well, but Jin returned by then and signed to him, "I'll translate for her. I'll explain the clothes later, but don't ask her to remove them if she's not ready to."

Alim nodded in understanding and wrote his original question. "Have you had any luck in cultivating the growth of the divine tower seeds? We've managed a few seedlings, but they are extremely slow-growing. At the current rate, I'm not sure they'll be harvestable before the floor time runs out."

He could see Scarlet start to move with her talking again, and Jin signed for him, "I've been trying different soil infusions with the three seeds we've managed to get ahold of when we came across a strange creature with a tree growing from its back. If you have more, I could experiment faster with additional formulas, but it's the trial-and-error stage right now. I've never worked with Radiant-attuned plants before."

Pinching the bridge of his nose while thinking over all of that, along with their options and what they could afford to test with, he finally signed to Jin, "Are you okay with offering the extra seeds to test with in exchange for future payment of infused fertilizer that has a positive effect on the plants? However, we're risking losing the seeds completely if they react poorly during testing."

Jin shrugged and answered, "The reward seems worth the risk if it gives us a quicker renewable source for them. The only other thing we would do with them right now is burn them for tribute points, which seems like an impulsive choice if we're aiming to play the long game."

Alim hesitated a moment, looking from Jin to Scarlet, then over to the rest of the Workers, and he reluctantly admitted, "There's also the risk of them burning the seeds for tribute points and then just saying nothing worked."

"Then it comes down to how much you trust them, right?" Jin asked with a raised brow. Her stance became softer as she added, "I was just reminded about this from Darya regarding Rayyan, and right now you're the only one I trust to weigh this risk."

Alim let out a small huff, not certain how to measure something so intangible as trust in this kind of situation where there were too many variables to track. After a moment of thinking and his gaze drifting back to Scarlet and her odd clothing, he signed to Jin, "What happened to her?"

Jin's face remained completely blank and unreadable, but her hands moved slowly enough to add weight to what she was telling him. "The Fighters punished her because the Workers didn't want to betray us. Darya said she's scarred everywhere now thanks to Jilani, and considering I can feel her Crystal Caste Aura, I'm guessing the ascension couldn't heal it." Jin looked at Scarlet before slowly adding, "I think she chose you over the Fighters, Alim."

A frown pulled at the corners of his mouth. He knew Scarlet had a crush on him, but he hadn't thought she would go that far to protect him. He had been fairly consistent in treating her as nothing more than a friend and peer because that was all he saw her as.

However, it did make one thing perfectly clear to him, so he signed to Jin, "I trust her with the seeds."

Jin's blank mask finally broke with that as she offered him a soft smile and simply replied, "Good. I'll make the trade then." She gently patted his shoulder before turning to say something to Scarlet, then leaving to walk back to Darya.

Alim turned back to Scarlet, the two of them simply looking at each other for a long moment before he wrote in the air, "I'm sorry about what happened. You didn't deserve it. And you didn't need to protect me."

Scarlet didn't respond right away, simply reading the glowing words hanging in the air, then turning to look into his hazel eyes. She slowly lifted a hand up and hooked the fabric of her mask with a finger, dragging it down to reveal the scar of an X across her lips as she slowly mouthed the words for him, and said, "I know, but I chose to."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Jin was exhausted by the time they made it back to their base. She still joined the group as they helped set up the two Absorption Rituals in the dirt yard between the front door and canopy of vines. She watched as Liraz used her new Devour Spirit Gem, along with Karam holding the Mire Spirit Gem that Rayyan had offered them.

It was nice to see their new addition make good on his word to give the gem, but Jin was slightly worried about the Fighters hunting Rayyan down for stealing it. If he was telling the truth, would the Fighters allow him to live, or would they simply assume he'd die alone in the goblin-infested swamp?

She already knew the biome of this floor was massive compared to the last one. The only reason they knew which way to go to find the Workers' base had been because of Liraz's bracelet, and they had accidentally stumbled upon what they now knew to be the Lovers' base, but they hadn't seen any others for the weeks they'd been hunting and mapping.

Jin sat on the stone stairs leading up to the front door as she watched Liraz absorb her Spirit Gem, then show Alim the display from her bracelet. They signed back and forth a bit as the others said their congratulations before Liraz cheerfully skipped over to her and said, "Will catch a lot more gobbies now." Jin chuckled but leaned forward to read the ability display.

Class Ability: Engulfing Slime

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

Cost: High mana.

Cooldown: 30 minutes.

Current Caste: Crystal 1 (0%)

Crystal Effect: Summon a tiny slime that will pursue a targeted enemy, rapidly increasing its size and directly engulfing the enemy upon contact, trapping them and restricting their movement.

Jin raised an eyebrow at the new summon and asked, "So instead of just dropping slime from the sky to melt your enemies, you instill them with terror as they try to flee an inevitable demise?" At Liraz's happy nod, Jin chuckled. "Well, I approve. You keep showing the people watching us how fierce something so adorable can be."

Hadia laughed as she joined them, crossing her arms as she leaned against the house. "I'm still not sure if the Speakers are going to try to use her recordings for the kid-friendly channels or not. I think most of the brats would be thrilled to see someone their size competing and being a badass Champion, but the death shots are definitely going to need censoring."

A laugh drew all of their attention to the other ritual taking place as they heard Rayyan say happily to Karam, "Oh, you must try it out now! This one sounds amazing."

Jin pushed herself up from the steps to walk over and see what new ability Karam had unlocked.

Class Ability: Fragrant Mire

Type: Transfiguration (spell, elemental, water)

Cost: Severe mana.

Cooldown: 6 hours.

Current Caste: Crystal 1 (0%)

Crystal Effect: Transfigure an area into a Fragrant Fungi Mire that produces a random assortment of fungi, granting various effects when destroyed. The transfiguration lasts for three days per Caste level.

Karam seemed to flush with embarrassment as she read the display, and he admitted, "I'm not sure how useful it will be in here with such a long cooldown."

"I think we're just going to have to try it and find out," she replied, patting his shoulder and gesturing to the plain dirt yard they were standing in, shaded by the Guardian's canopy above them. "It's getting dark, so why don't you try it out here really quickly before we all head inside and eat some dinner?"

The larger teen nodded and took a few more steps away from the front door, explaining as he moved, "I can sense that it's a rather large area, and I don't want the base caught in it in case it turns out bad." When he was about ten yards away from the tree's roots, he incanted, "Flow forth fungi from the fen, full of fragrant fun and foolish frights. Bring bliss to buddies and fear to foes. May the mire merge morosity, mania, merry mirth, and more."

Like a stone being dropped in a pond, there was a ripple of power that spread out from Karam in a circle, and a breath later, another ripple followed that everyone could see as the ground beneath the boy shifted and transformed into a grow bed of dark green moss, and little glowing mushrooms began to sprout up in a random assortment, blanketing the ground in a rainbow of colors and magical illumination. The sight of it momentarily took Jin's breath away simply from how brilliantly alive it seemed compared to the dreariness of the murky swamp and the dull dirt that had been there a moment before.

She took a step to the edge of the ring and squatted down to take a closer look. Aside from being different colors, they were also various sizes, and she wondered what each type would do. The smell was also unexpected, as the scent that hit her reminded her less of a field of fungi or even wildflowers but like she had just stepped into a bakery full of sweet pastries.

Carefully picking a small blue one, it easily pulled away from the spongy moss beneath it, and Jin wondered if she needed to eat it to get whatever effect from it. Luckily, it simply began to dissolve a moment later, leaving behind the strong scent of freshly glazed donuts, and Jin could sense the Boon that had been placed on her.

Curious if her own ability would let her see an effect like that, she pressed the Display rune on her bracelet while focusing her mind on the Boon.

Status Effect: Mycena Mana

Type: Boon (elemental, plant, water)

Effects:

Slightly increases your maximum mana pool and mana regeneration for a long duration.

Jin smiled at both the effects and the fact that she could read them for herself. "I think I have to agree with Rayyan now that this is totally awesome, Kar," she said, looking up at him.

He smiled brightly at the praise and took a step towards her, the mushrooms simply squishing down under his steps and bouncing back behind him as he moved. "I think we have to purposefully pick them to get the Boons, but if enemies walk over them, they'll burst with Banes instead," he happily explained.

"That's even better," Jin replied, leaning over to pick a larger red mushroom and feeling a subtle health regeneration Boon stick to her as the smell of fresh strawberry jelly permeated the air around her. She straightened and grumbled, "Now I'm craving strawberry donuts. Any chance we'll find something in here that can act like flour?"

Karam chuckled and Hadia snorted a laugh from behind her, calling out, "You're getting more monster stew tonight, even if we did. But I know Alim put some ricley seeds on the list we wanted to trade from the Workers if they had them."

"I didn't know what half of those names on the list actually were," Jin admitted with a roll of her eyes. "I'm guessing ricley is some kind of grain we can use for bread so that we're not living off just magical meat and vegetables?"

Hadia grinned, her scars making the smile more intimidating than necessary as she announced, "Yup, and the first thing I plan to make us is a cake."

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