It took them only twenty minutes of walking straight out from the wall to escape the dense forest of evergreens. Jin was almost blinded by the sun that shone high above and reflected off the white snow stretching out in front of her. She hadn't had to deal with this much sunlight for the last three months since entering the tower, and it was extremely jarring.

Once her eyes adjusted, she realized they were at the base of a huge mountain stretching so high that she couldn't see the peak from here. Despite the sun shining in the clear blue sky, it was still freezing, even with all of them wearing cloaks. These cloaks weren't for winter, though; they were just Mundane ponchos for camouflaging through a boggy swamp. They had been cheap points-wise, and might help blend into the forest they just traveled through, but they weren't up to handling this kind of weather.

"I'm guessing we're supposed to climb it like Rayyan guessed," Alim wrote in the air to them. Looking between the others that had actually watched past Seasons, he asked, "Do you think it's a Monarch-of-the-Mountain challenge?" For Jin's benefit, he added, "Where we have to beat the others to the top and hold it for a certain amount of time for a private boss arena to appear."

Jin looked back up the mountain, analyzing it for any kind of clue. It didn't look that steep, despite its height, and it looked like there might have been landings at certain points, but she couldn't be sure from this angle. She didn't think they would actually need the climbing gear they got, and wondered if there was actually some kind of path they could find that led to the top.

"I vote we turn around, go back to the gross swamp, and trade the Workers the third-floor information for a set of heavy winter clothing and a bathtub that makes infinite hot water," Clover whispered in her mind. The little reptile had quickly decided to merge back with her after Karam's hair failed to be warm enough.

"What do you need a hot bath for? Aren't dragons supposed to be, like, immune to hot and cold since they're supposed to breathe fire?" Jin teased back.

"That's discrimination! I'm a Jade Dragon, not a boring Red Dragon that gets all grumpy and snorts fire when it has a bad day, and then is completely rude by blowing smoke in your face when you're trying to have a civil conversation with it! And, this floor isn't brimming with acid flows for me to relax in. So, chop chop! Turn around and get back to the warm muck!"

"I'm pretty sure you were just discriminating against Red Dragons with that whole rant, and I don't want to sound cliche, but which Red Dragon hurt you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Clover replied with a huff before going silent, and Jin could feel the little Familiar sulking within her soul.

Jin mentally rolled her eyes at Clover, but thought one of their ideas actually had merit. "Hey, can we go back and trade the information about the floor and the hint to the other Sects? And what's to stop us from only sending one of us to the next floor next time and then coming back for the rest of us to do smarter shopping?" she signed to Alim.

"Can't go back through the portal until all members of your Sect come through," Alim replied with a shake of his head. "We can trade the information, though, like you said. Just like we had talked about doing last floor, but we run the same risk of running into the Fighters at the portal entrance."

Jin glanced down to think and noticed the baby Snuggleroot holding Alim's offhand and remembered to ask, "Do you think there's still a base or maybe a camping area on this floor that our bracelets will lead up to?"

Everyone shrugged at that, looking around the area more for some kind of clue. It looked like the treeline circled all around the base of the mountain, and Jin thought that was a pretty good sign that they were meant to race to the top, if all the teams were going to be spread around.

Letting out a huff, making steam cloud her vision, Jin signed while saying, "Quick vote: do we climb or do we follow the treeline to search for a base? Raise your hand for climbing."

Alim, Liram, Hadia, and Rayyan all raised their hands. Jin turned to Karam and patted his shoulder. "Looks like you and I got out-voted."

The larger boy let out a sigh and nodded, saying, "I just wanted to get warm inside Mister Snuggleroot."

"That sounds really dirty when you say it like that, even though I know it's not," Jin muttered with a shake of her head. Signing to the others and wrapping her cloak tighter, she said, "Alright, let's get moving. That floor hint mentioned the dark, so I assume there's a night cycle here."

The group began trudging through the snow that came about halfway up Jin's shin. It was cold, and wet, and annoying, and apparently didn't count as water for Jin's boots to walk on top of, which she thought was total bullshit. She was tempted to do what Karam suggested and just turn Mister Snuggleroot back into a giant treehouse for them, just to get warm with that Lullog they bought earlier.

After only about ten minutes of heading up the mountain from the treeline, they all froze at the sound of a large screech… except for Alim, who turned to look at them in confusion for a moment before quickly scanning the area for the threat.

Jin couldn't sense anything in the immediate area with her [See Without Sight] Perception, but Liraz cried out and pointed up in the sky, towards the mountain's peak. "Look! Look! A flying monster!" A moment later, Liraz's bracelet made a pinging sound and got a new notification.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Congratulations! You are the first to discover the floor boss: Metzen, the Blizzard Gryphon! You have been awarded ten points for the discovery. Rabbit's blessing upon you, Champion!

"Why does that name sound so familiar?" Jin pondered for a moment before noticing the boss heading straight towards them. She grabbed Alim by the wrist and hauled him back as she yelled to the others, "Run! Back to the trees!"

Everyone turned and fled. Hadia even picked up Liraz to cling to her back since her shorter legs struggled in the snow. They didn't make it to the treeline before discovering exactly what the boss planned to do to them.

With another loud screech, the Gryphon beat its massive white-feather wings, and a flurry of wind and snow slammed into their backs, knocking them down into the snow. It screeched again, but didn't attack directly. Instead, it kept flapping its wings and then started to fly off to its right. In its wake, the wind continued to kick up, and a veritable blizzard was left behind.

Jin could tell they were taking Cold damage from it, along with Banes that were slowing their movement and lowering their Cold resistance even further. Fighting against it, she pulled the others along, conjuring her spear just for the extra strength to keep going to get out of the storm's area.

When they made it to the cover of the evergreens, Jin chattered out, "Kar, mist and cleanse."

He nodded and muttered, "Let the mists refresh the fallen," triggering his [Refreshing Mist] to help replenish their health and stamina. Then he incanted his newest ability, "May the light cleanse us."

Class Ability: Cleansing Light

Type: Spell (magical, light)

Cost: Moderate mana.

Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Current Caste: Crystal 1 (0%)

Crystal Effect: Cleanse an instance of a Magical Bane from the target.

"This won't do the Bane that's lowering our resistance!" Karam shouted over the roar of the storm. "It's Elemental!"

"That's fine, let's just pull back and find a place that we can set up the base!" Jin yelled back, signing as well.

The others didn't argue as they retreated back into the protection of the forest. It only took about another ten minutes for them to find a suitable location with enough space that the baby Snuggleroot finally agreed to turn back into a treehouse for Alim.

As they all trudged inside, Jin muttered, "Why does the tree only listen to Alim? Pretty sure I'm the one who claimed it in the first place. Not that I want the Muppet to cling to me like that, but it's a little hurtful."

"I think it just likes Alim best because he's the one who always puts in the tribute items and messes with all the settings," Karam theorized.

Jin paused when she noticed the stairs and quickly said, "I'm gonna go check out the second floor really quick. If you all want to come, cool, otherwise I'll meet you in the kitchen!" Then she ducked up the wooden stairwell, which was L-shaped in the corner to take her up to a corner landing that looked like an open loft area.

There was another hallway that she guessed mirrored the one below, as well as four more rooms. Jin was only slightly disappointed that the rooms were all empty, but she hoped that meant there were some free upgrade options available, similar to how the main room had been at first.

Instead of going to the kitchen, they all agreed to go into the main room's greenhouse to check the console again and see what the options were; plus, the greenhouse had the extra benefit of being temperature-controlled.

"Should we go with the fireplace upgrade in the loft up there?" Alim asked them as he scrolled through the options and wrote in the air one-handed. "It says it'll control the temperature in the whole base in addition to being a pleasant sitting area for up to four people."

"How much? Or do we get the first one free?" Jin asked, though she was tempted to send a hefty amount for it. Despite her teasing Clover for it, Jin didn't particularly care to freeze her tail off either.

Alim shook his head as he explained, "We get the larger room above this one for free, it looks like, but not the other rooms. It also says there's an expansion option available for each of the rooms that will connect it to the room below it to expand its foundational capabilities."

"So, like, the kitchen can become a super kitchen?" Hadia asked with a tilt of her head.

Liraz bounced on her feet and quickly signed, "Can we turn the bathroom into a slime bath?!"

"Veto!" Rayyan called out. "I may not get as much of a vote as the other Servants, but I don't think I'm the only one who prefers my bath filled with hot water, not slime goop."

"How much are the extensions?" Jin asked curiously, trying to figure out the cost-benefit, even if she hated math.

"Two hundred points, so not cheap," Alim answered with a grimace. "The benefits listed look pretty good, though, if we think something like that is worth it. It also looks like there are some new replacement options that require a stacked room. Like a Library that is actually stocked with books."

"Gods, we're going to be spending all night going through all these base-building options, aren't we?" Jin asked with a groan. She hadn't been exactly fond of those kinds of games in the past; those were more Phoenix's speed. She definitely preferred the action of fighting bosses or even mindless grinding to level or collect resources. The number crunching and home maintenance had been an afterthought; that's what online strategy guides that told her the best things to choose were for.

"Want me to buy that fireplace option so you can go relax while I narrow down the best options and come back with a shorter summary list for you?" Alim asked with a small, knowing smirk.

"Yes, please!" Jin replied. She turned to Hadia and teased, "See, this is why I like him best."

Hadia rolled her eyes and shoved Jin towards the door as she said, "Come on, let's leave him to it while I make us some dinner. Then we can try to figure out what to do about the boss that won't let us climb up its mountain."

"Maybe we're supposed to climb up at night, since the hint mentioned the dark," Rayyan suggested as they all began to head to the kitchen to let Alim do his hyperfocus thing.

Jin's brow furrowed at the suggestion, though, and asked, "Hey, we haven't seen any monsters other than the boss on this floor, have we?"

"Perhaps we'll see some tonight?" Karam replied, looking a little nervous.

Jin shook her head and muttered, "For some reason, that doesn't feel like a good thing."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.