It truly felt like magic to see how the base was able to grow, change, and reconfigure itself. Jin wished she could see it in process, but the stairwell got blocked off by a brilliant blue force shield that reminded her a bit of Alim's [Mana Barrier] with that same color.

Once the shield dissipated after a few minutes, she went up the stairs to find that the previously empty loft now had a large open fireplace against the wall of the room opposite the stair landing, and there was a new large bay window in the wall facing the front of the base with its own sitting cushions. There was also a love seat facing the fireplace, bracketed by two plush armchairs on either side, and a very furry rug on the floor between all of it.

Jin went over to the currently empty fireplace and noticed a small control panel resting on the rather bare mantle. She heard the others following after her and picking spots to sit. Humming in thought, she pressed the rune that read as "Ignite," and a flash of fire appeared momentarily. A small hologram appeared above the dial, saying "Error 404: Fuel not found."

She glared at the notice, then pulled out the Lullog to place in the center rack and hit the button again. It lit the log, and she grumbled, "We didn't need to spend the points on the room if it was just going to use our own fuel that we could light ourselves."

However, a new notification popped up, saying, "Excellent fuel source provided. Room bonus applied for triple efficiency. Fire will be able to burn at max settings for the next 39 weeks."

"Well, shit. I take it back. That'll last us the whole floor time," Jin said, pressing the rune that read as "Power," and got a holographic slider she could control the size of the flame with. She put it to max for the moment, just to get the temp up in the whole place.

The Lullog became a roaring blaze that was almost too strong to stand beside, but it was nice once she sat in the chair with her back to the window. Rayyan and Karam sat in the loveseat together, but Liraz had chosen to lie out on the rug instead of taking the open chair. Hadia had remained downstairs to cook more while Alim combed through the other options for them.

Jin took a few minutes to just lie back and relax in the plush chair while the heat soaked back into her. The boss's behavior had been odd, but her gamer brain was already trying to break it down in gaming tactics. Either the storm it created was the challenge they would need to figure out how to get past, or it was a wall they weren't meant to fight. It hadn't been there until they started climbing. That could have been coincidental, but she doubted it. It had come straight at them to knock them back. Maybe the storm had a timer? Maybe they had done something specific to trigger it aside from just climbing? Maybe the dark clue Rayyan had mentioned meant they needed to climb during the night instead? Too many variables still remained that they'd need to try, but at least they had thirty-nine weeks to figure it out; that was like nine months—plenty of time… hopefully.

She didn't remember falling asleep, but Karam's hand on her shoulder jerked her awake. He smiled softly as he said, "Sorry, Miss Jin, but dinner's ready downstairs if you want some; otherwise, I thought you might prefer sleeping in your bed."

Nodding and stretching, she stood and agreed, "Yeah, not a great position to sleep in, and I should take the armor off. Already feeling sore from that little nap. Does the fireplace have a sleeping enchantment on it?"

Karam chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think so, but I know you weren't the only one lulled to sleep by the warmth and safety," he said and tilted his head towards Liraz, who was sprawled out like a starfish on the furry rug and drooling slime as she softly snored.

Jin snorted a laugh and asked, "Want me to wake her up?"

"Nah, I got her. You go downstairs before Hadia comes to drag you down by the ear," he said with a grin.

She nodded in acquiescence and headed downstairs into the kitchen, sitting in her usual spot by the door. Hadia set a bowl in front of her, and Jin gave her a grateful smile before teasing, "Swamp soup again?"

"Hey, you want to go outside and eat some snow, be my guest," Hadia retorted with a smirk.

"Ooo, I should try to make us some snow cones. Wonder what we could use to make the syrup flavors… We have some fruit growing in the greenhouse we could use, though, so that's something," Jin pondered aloud, idly stirring her spoon through the magical soup. It wasn't as bad as she had teased about, considering the ingredients involved. She was just glad she liked mushrooms.

Hadia left for a moment as Karam and Liraz walked in and sat near Rayyan on the other end of the table. When Hadia returned, she was dragging Alim by the ear, muttering, "I swear you're as bad as Jin sometimes with taking care of yourself."

"At least we have a loving mom like you to take care of us children," Jin quipped with a snarky grin, but her smile fell when Hadia visibly flinched and froze in place. "What's wrong?" she quickly asked, noticing something she said must have triggered the woman.

Hadia shuddered and took a deep breath before saying, "It's nothing… just—" Her voice cut off before she finally mumbled, "Just don't call me a mom or parent, please."

"Right. Sorry," Jin instantly replied. "I didn't mean—Like, I was just joking, but I won't do that again. Promise." She didn't push or ask why, already knowing from past experience with other kids that trauma came in many forms for a variety of reasons. If someone acted like that and made that kind of request, she knew better than to dig into painful memories.

Hadia simply nodded and dropped it and signed to Alim in a short explanation to his concerned and questioning look. As they sat as well to eat, Alim wrote in the air, "I found some pretty promising options. If we extend the greenhouse up, it says it will promote the growth of trees, which made me think about that one tree we found on the previous floor that grew Divine Tower fruit. I bet we can transplant it for more tribute point generation. There's also a Meditation Room option that sounded promising for its increase in cultivation rate Boon when inside it."

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"You mentioned meditation before but said we wouldn't really need to worry about that later for whatever reason," Jin signed between bites.

Hadia replied, "Meditation is how experience is cultivated into actual Caste progress. At the lower Caste, it's less of a requirement since it sorta does it on its own, but meditation would still make it more efficient, and we could progress faster with it. I'm pretty sure it's required to hit Emerald, though."

"I think it might be worth starting now, especially since Liraz has all her abilities unlocked to actually push towards Sapphire. Any boost to that rate is worth it to help us stay ahead," Alim wrote out, taking another bite of soup with his other hand. "There were also some of the other options we considered before that were cheaper than the extensions, like a Ritual Room, Workshop, Training Arena, Armory, and Cartography Room."

"What about the War Room that the Fighters have?" Rayyan asked, trying his best to sign as well.

Alim nodded and explained, "It requires the larger main room, so we'd have to forego the Greenhouse extension, but you're right that it's an option. There's also that defensive bunker option that requires the larger room size we debated about before." He turned towards Jin and added, "I think we might want to wait a little longer to see what this challenge truly is before spending the points or using up the free option. If the challenge is figuring out a way through the storm, we might need something like the bunker."

Humming and nodding in thought, Jin slowly ate her soup while pondering their next steps. Alim brought up a lot of good points, and she agreed that they shouldn't rush to pick more things. She didn't regret picking the fireplace at all, but they might regret doing the greenhouse expansion if they needed a different capability to get through this floor.

She was pretty sure they had cheated the last floor's boss fight by using their kiting technique. The Fighters were probably the ones doing it correctly by choosing the War Room to fight the boss in a camp versus camp brawl. She wasn't going to feel bad about winning unconventionally, though. She also wasn't above using a game exploit the devs hadn't intended to win—if they didn't want it to be possible, then they should have coded it better.

As they all ate and discussed options and theorized on what they might need to do, the sunlight continued to diminish outside the window beside the table. They were all surprised when a loud bell sounded from outside, and each of their bracelets popped up with a new notification for them to read.

Night has fallen upon the Third Floor's Frozen Mountain Biome. The first of eight waves has begun, and the portal to the previous floor is temporarily disabled. Prepare to defend yourself! Rabbit's Blessing upon you, Champion!

Jin reread the message at least three times before quickly standing. "Shit, I knew I didn't like the fact that we hadn't run into monsters yet!" She hurriedly ate the last few bites of soup, slurping it down before signing to the others, "Should we shrink the base so it's less of a target or just go on the defensive to protect it?"

"Protect it from what?" Karam asked in confusion. "I don't remember seeing this wave thing before."

"It's monster waves," Jin said while still signing, completely convinced about the mechanic. "It's a survival challenge. I don't know how long the night cycle on this floor is, but it's likely we'll get the eight waves evenly spread throughout it, which means we'll want to make sure the first wave is taken care of before the second wave hits, and then the third, which will eventually stack up and overwhelm us. Thus, game over for all of us."

"We go on the defensive and protect the base," Alim responded with firm hand movements. "The base gives us the advantage with its enchantments, and I can go buy more right now if we think it's worth it."

Jin glanced at the others for input and asked, "Show of hands of who thinks we should wait and see how this first wave goes? Alim can come back and add more enchantments mid-combat, too, if we're desperate, right?"

The others nodded and raised their hands. "Then let's get ready to fight some monsters and survive the waves," Jin said with finality. Going to set her bowl in the sink before heading outside to strategize how they might leverage their new location.

She realized a few potential pros and cons depending on the types of monsters they would be facing. The first was that the bit of forest they were in was much thicker than even the first floor had been. It had been a struggle just to find a clearing large enough for Mister Snuggleroot to grow, so the current treeline around the base didn't give them much room to fight or see what was coming until the monsters were already on top of them. However, that also meant the monsters might not be able to find them easily and would potentially be taken by surprise when stumbling into their midst.

"From stone you were born and stone you will be. To stand against our enemies and ram them towards their demise. Spring forth from the earth," Hadia incanted from behind her, summoning her Terram to help in the upcoming fight. Liraz was also summoning her Slime Kraken and Engulfing Slime in preparation.

"Do you want me to make the mushroom field here?" Karam asked. "Or do you think we should wait and move to a better location?"

"I think being hidden in the trees will be better," Jin replied. "At least to begin with. I'm worried about being overrun if we're caught in the open. Go ahead and make the mushrooms right here between the base and the mountain. I'd bet anything the waves are coming from that direction."

Karam nodded and began casting his [Fragrant Mire]. Jin turned to ask Liraz, " Do you think you can cast that new [Slime Field] over the trees themselves as a sort of extra barrier?" She gave the smaller girl a wide grin and added, "I'm thinking slime everywhere might be the answer this time."

Liraz returned her smile with an excited sparkle in her bright blue eyes and cheerfully replied, "Slime is the answer all the time!"

Jin shook her head but still smiled at the girl's enthusiasm, watching as Liraz skipped over to the treeline and lifted her hands. Before she could speak the incantation, however, a large monster that looked like some kind of snow leopard pounced through the snowy branches to maul the small mage.

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.