Chapter 196 (Patreon)

Chapter 196

Matt and his friends were sitting around the living room playing a board game. Well, technically Susanne and Aster still were. He and Liz had been defeated already, and Aster was shamelessly cheating, but somehow still losing to Susanne.

As Aster's defeat became even more apparent, Liz tried once again to get them to switch to poker. “Come on guys, poker’s fun, and I don’t cheat at it. You guys have a chance.”

No one even acknowledged her saying that, and she fell back, huffing. Liz didn’t need to cheat to always win at poker, and no one was willing to play with her after experiencing it first hand.

Losing could be fun, but the absolute thrashing that Liz always handed out wasn’t.

Just as Aster was losing her last territory, their AI beeped as someone tried to enter their house. It wasn’t an attack, but rather the equivalent of someone knocking on the front door.

Matt spread his spiritual sense, and seeing that it was Bradley and Jill, let them in.

Any thought that this was a social call was dashed when they saw the pair's faces. Bradley looked happy, but Jill was disgruntled.

Bradley rubbed his hands together as he plopped down on the arm of the couch. “Guess what!?”

Aster, still in a sour mood from her loss, groused, “Jill found someone better than you?”

That earned a smirk from Jill and a wink from Bradley. “Now that's just impossible. I'm the best there is.” The older Pather waved that off, though. “But that’s not why we’re here.”

His grin only spread as he left them, questioning his purpose for showing up.

Jill spoke up before he could leave them hanging too long. “We got a report from Summer. Or rather, Summer’s cultivators. They’re surrendering, and have already moved all of their top assets to the center of the floor. No fighting. They and everyone else just want to leave the floor as quickly as possible at this time. They even managed to force the people who want to stay out of the city, and made them agree to hold off from retaking the city for at least a week.”

Matt leaned forward, interested, but Bradley snorted.

“It appears they found out about Secundus and Tertius, and decided that they didn’t want to fight two Fae generals at the same time. Can’t say I blame them, though. Once was more than enough for me.”

Hearing that Summer found out about the two new Generals surprised Matt, but not all that much. They themselves just found out three days ago, and the second army was still a day out from reaching their position at Fall’s city. Whether Summer had spies in Winter, Winter’s people were passing information, or they had their own version of a drone network, Matt didn’t know. Frankly, he didn’t care either.

If Summer wanted to give up without a fight, he wasn’t going to complain that much. He was more than happy to let the Fae fight it out over the last city while he waited at the exit, though losing out on the extra recovery time did sting somewhat.

Standing up, he asked. “When are we moving?”

Bradley laughed. “Tomorrow morning. We are going to pass the information out in the next half hour or so, but there’s no rush to get to the center. The gate isn't open yet, after all.”

Matt nodded, but Liz stood up and wiggled her still healing arm. In the last week, it had lost some of its waxy appearance as she coaxed it to be more a part of her true body, speeding along the healing cooldown. “I'm going to get checked over by an Empire healer before the information goes out. Anyone want to join me?”

All of them ended up doing so. While they had been on the same side during this floor, all of that cooperation would vanish like smoke once news went out that the exit was about to open. While healers, especially officially trained Empire healers, should be above such petty concerns like who they were healing, none of them were going to risk it.

Even Jill and Bradley tagged along and got checked out. All of them were given a clean bill of health, with the caveat that they were still near or over the healing cooldown. They were told that they would need more time without injuries for their bodies to fully acclimate to the prior healing that they had received. Until then, their wounds were liable to re-open.

It was a good thing they got checked out, too. As they were walking back to their house, the news spread, and the cultivator camp exploded. Cheers and shouts sounded from everywhere as people came out of their tents and houses and started celebrating.

Everyone had been mentally prepared to siege down one final city, and now they would achieve their final victory without having to risk their lives.

The Tier 14s were even more exuberant. They all had earned enough Genesis Energy to take the exit reward and the floor reward, even with the higher costs for their Tier. Some of the more proactive ones even had enough Genesis Energy to keep the powers of their boons upon leaving, though without enough Favor for a full Title, their effective benefits were low.

It was still more than any of them had ever expected to take out.

The celebrations didn’t slow at all after they started moving.

It took them almost a full day of flying, but they eventually arrived at the center of the floor and found four large pillars, three of which were covered in frost and snow. The fourth one, however, remained upright and untouched by the cold air around it.

Around the pillars, each season's cultivators gathered and sectioned off into their own little portions of the pie.

At least they were unlikely to be ambushed. Those who wished to leave the floor at this time were mostly the strongest cultivators who wished to progress further into Minkalla’s depths, along with the rare non-Winter Tier 14’s who managed to gather enough Genesis Energy to get the exit reward of a Concept and leave. Essentially, the number of Winter cultivators massively outnumbered the other sides.

Nearly all of Winter's troops had enough Genesis Energy for their needs, and they were taking the opportunity to leave.

As they settled down, Matt and the other top fighters moved to the front, where they could reach the exit first, while the Tier 14s lingered in the back, willing to wait the few seconds it would take for them to leave.

Still, there was almost nothing to do with each side keeping to their own, and Matt and his team eventually retreated to their house for privacy and to occupy their time.

Susanne had been spending a number of days negotiating for their team’s cut of the rewards that the Fall General had left behind when he died, and discussions had finally come to a close by the time they reached the central pillars of the floor. It was the first time Matt had ever heard of a monster dropping a spatial bag nearly stuffed with valuables of every description. The stand out item of the bunch was a replica of the General’s scythe, a Tier 14 growth item that seriously enhanced any wind or decay aspected skills cast through it, had 3 different Tier 14 skills in it, and finally drained and converted a slain foe’s mana into the wielder’s aspect. It was, to put it lightly, worth a fortune, doubly so right before they finished out Courtly Warfare.

After all the scheming and wrangling for shares after their contribution was calculated, the scythe had gone to William, the Corporations’ representative after he bought out enough of the others shares.

They hadn’t come away with nothing, of course. Matt had gotten [Crescent Sweep], a Tier 14 skill that let the user throw their sword in an arc in front of them, spinning and slashing at everything in its path, before returning to the wielder’s hand. It was the closest thing to [Animate Weapon] Matt was likely to see for quite a while, and paired nicely with any number of other weapon skills. His spirit was too full at the moment to absorb it, but once he Tiered up a time or two, he’d take it alongside a [Wind Cutter] and [Shield Shatter] he’d gotten, the latter of which would let him batter down most defenses with his sword. He’d also gotten a decent amount of cooking items and skills which he was currently working on absorbing into his outer spirit.

He’d even gotten a minor natural treasure, namely a Striped Bladecone. It had hurt a lot going down but the sharpened sense of taste and smell made it worthwhile.

Aster received a scattering of air skills like [Wind Slash] and [Tornado], and a much coveted [Mana Cunning]. She had also been lucky to get another growth item seemingly out of the blue, her tiara bonding to her as she was eating ice cream one day. None of them could figure out what finally triggered it, but it gained the ability for her to cast an Ice or Winter skill through it to animate the spell into a pseudo-elemental. It could only maintain a single summon at a time, but Aster was hopeful that function would grow with Tier and from what little Matt could gleam from the odd runes the item grew he believed it would.

Liz was quite happy with [Hungering Weapon] and [Summon Mana Monster]. To top it off, she got one of the copies of the General’s armor, which could shut down most offensive air skills nearby and shoot off leaves that could block some incoming projectiles. It went a long way to replacing her tournament reward armor, which was out of commission for the foreseeable future.

Susanne’s rewards were somewhat simpler. Most notably, she got her own copy of [Crescent Sweep],  [Phantom Armor], and [Momentum Overcharge]. Matt was naturally quite familiar with [Phantom Armor], but the latter wasn’t something he had memorized. As it turned out, it was almost a combination of the Tier 8, [Momentum Charge] and [Momentum Strike] skills, siphoning off kinetic energy the user produced, and storing it for a massive burst of speed and power. As it didn’t enhance perceptions, it wasn’t usable as a constant physical empowerment, but did make for a potent trump card if used carefully.

To keep themselves busy, they were going through their various bags and rings and attempting to organize all of the valuables they had received from Minkalla thus far. The pile of skills was daunting, and everyone had picked out a few that they intended to use once they were out of Minkalla and had the opportunity to train with them. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to fill up their Inner Spirits because of how bad that would make a potential New Growth floor. There, they couldn’t use any of their current skills, but as soon as that threat was lifted, they would have plenty of new toys to play around with.

Liz had picked out a few spear skills to use in the future. Luna had warned Matt a number of times about relying too much on any single skill, and had given Liz even more lectures about how detrimental it could be to rely on a single item, a lesson which was rearing its ugly head now. The loss of her glove represented a large change to her fighting style, because she no longer started each fight with thousands of gallons of her own blood to use for her skills. In the long run, those problems were mostly solvable, but they didn’t have the time or resources to do anything about it now. For the meantime, she would be relying more on her spear to start fights. Historically, a number of spear skills had simply broken when her Talent tried to convert them. [Cracked Tar Ball] was the latest skill that had failed to convert, but Liz was hopeful about a few of the spear skills.

Susanne was hiding it well, but Matt could tell that she was quite excited about the skills she now had access to. She had never been able to even sniff the breadth and quantity of skills that Matt had grown accustomed to, as she had to sell the majority of her earnings from rifts just to afford more delving slots. Minkalla could produce skills from anywhere in the realm, which meant that they now had a sizable number of skills that were essentially inaccessible within the Empire. Aside from selling exceptionally well on the outside, using the skills themselves could give them an edge in future fights, and Susanne was a big fan of edges.

But for Matt, the largest find was an [Analyze] skill shard. The skill would grant his AI greater analytical capabilities for items, monsters, people, traps, and pretty much anything else. The skill was both rare and highly valued, since every crafter worth their name wanted it. It waned in value for higher Tiers, who had more specialized skills for information gathering, but Matt could leave Minkalla with no other skills and be happy with his haul.

Most people did the same thing as they were, but they got word about and checked out a merchant who was plying his trade between the seasons.

Jullian, a Corporation's delver, was fearless as he moved from location to location and bought and sold seemingly everything, but his main trade was Genesis Energy to the Tier 14s who lingered around the edges of the formations. He was specifically targeting those who didn’t quite have enough of the unique energy to take the exit reward.

He was primarily buying from the Tier 14s who had more than they needed, or the other cultivators who wanted to make a quick buck before they moved to deeper floors.

From what Matt had seen of his wares and prices, it was blatant extortion, but nobody else wanted to take on the risk.

Healing potions, talismans, weapons, armor, skills, natural treasures, even mana stones; everything was for sale. Though, the only thing he took in trade was Genesis Energy, which he then sold to the Tier 14s for contracts regarding their future.

As far as he could tell, the contracts were tightly worded, with strict penalties for breaking them. At the same time, they weren’t that bad. In return for his giving the cultivator enough Genesis Energy to take the floor reward, they had to delve at least once a month in a Tier 15 rift and send Jullian the equivalent of half of their rift rewards for two centuries.

Matt wasn’t entirely sure how Jullian enforced those contracts without AI verification, but the man seemed certain that no one would be able to slip out of those deals, and no one who signed them talked.

It took another two and a half weeks for Winter's army of Fae to finally take Summer's city, and for the last few hours, everyone was waiting with anticipation.

Before they left the army, the Titled had given orders for Primus and the new general Tertius to assault and take over Summer. It was what they were going to do anyway, but it still needed to be done.

In the end, three weeks to the day after Fall fell, Summer’s frost-edged pillar transformed into a full pillar of ice and snow.

As the ice fully took over, there was a resonance between the four pillars, and then a distortion appeared in the air.

Like moths to the flame, everyone rushed forward.

When Matt crossed the barrier, he found himself standing in front of Winter.

“How wonderful to see you once more, my Herald.”

Her icy smile was both happy and cold enough to send a shiver down his spine. He felt like a naughty child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, which was frankly ridiculous. He had bought those cookies. He could eat as many as he wanted.

“I thank thee for your contributions to the war. Truly, you have been my greatest servant. While perhaps not my Herald anymore, I charge thee to go forth and spread our season forevermore.”

Having said that, she reached out and pressed a finger to his forehead, and he felt his boon settle down and condense, like loose snow compacting into ice. It was lesser, but it was also solid in a new way, connected to him intimately like a new limb.

Before he was able to investigate, he found himself asked a simple question, with a simple answer. He accepted, and found himself in a large, circular room, standing on top of a strange, metallic platform.

All he needed to do was to find someone able to upgrade one of his growth items, and get them to upgrade it. It wasn’t dangerous, just a bit time-consuming. At floor four, any new effects that a growth item got would be fundamentally tied to their current abilities, but their choices in the challenge would influence what exactly they got, and its strength.

It meant that Matt couldn’t just go to the first blacksmith he found and persuade them to just hit his weapon a few times, then expect to get the same result as if he found some hidden, immortal, legendary, master blacksmith and got them to refine his weapon.

At the same time, going to a blacksmith was stupid if he wanted to get one of his rings upgraded. The profession needed to match the item, or even the best crafter wouldn’t get a good result.

Or whatever the equivalent here was. Matt found a quiet corner of the busy transportation hub and assessed his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed was that all of his skills weren’t exactly gone, but they weren’t exactly in their normal place, either. A lot of his manipulation skills felt like they were locked away, while many of his attack spells felt like they were tied to the strangely complex and chromed gun that his sword had turned into. His defensive and buffing skills were meanwhile tied to a suit of power armor he was wearing, and his crafting skills to various tools were integrated into that armor. All of it was powered by a glowing reactor at the center of his chest.

Okay, so less direct magic, more technology.

He could handle that.

Luna had given them overviews on some of the differences they may notice between reality and the cities they encountered, but Minkalla liked putting people into civilization types that they knew very little about.

With a bit more context in mind, he looked around at his surroundings more. There was lots of metal and glass, and a giant platform that was obviously meant to be some kind of teleportation station. Albeit, one that didn’t look anything like the sorts that Matt was used to. What really caught his attention was the incredible variety in the people. They all looked basically human, but various skin colors and additional features abounded. Many of them were equipped for war, but the flow of traffic was definitely leading into the city proper, and following them brought Matt to a giant space station encased in an enormous force field. Stars shone unwaveringly against the infinite void, while ships docked and surrounded the city.

It took Matt a bit of time to get acquainted with the, well… everything, but he eventually found a shop where he could get the teleportation pack that his first ring had turned into appraised.

The purple-skinned and horned woman there shook her head. “I could probably remake the paired pack if you want, but I’d just be copying this. Actually, upgrading it while its pair is broken is beyond my abilities. Even if it wasn’t broken, I don’t know that anyone could do anything better than strengthening their bond somewhat. It’s not a single piece of gear which we can tinker with, it’s a pair.”

Matt thanked the woman for her time and took back his teleporter, going for a walk down the street. He needed to think, and walking helped with that.

He currently had three growth items.

His first and oldest item was the teleport ring he had gotten during the training planet and then given to Liz, cementing their teaming up and partnership. But if he understood the woman correctly, he would have to spend his ‘upgrade’ by just repairing it, and even if it were fully repaired, he’d only get half the normal benefit as compared to if it were a singular item. Liz would also have to upgrade her ring for them to get the normal level of upgrade, and she didn’t have it at the moment.

That had been his first choice to upgrade, as they hoped the shared mana pool that the rings had, allowing Liz to take from the pool instead of just giving her own mana. If that was possible, it could have let them share mana across distances like her brother Travis’ ring did with his husband.

With that out of the way, he had two remaining options.

His sword, his second growth item that had manifested as a gun, or his other ring that allowed him to store and convert to other people's mana types were the other options. And as far as he could tell, the ring was represented by the housing of his power reactor as an energy processor.

His initial instinct was to upgrade the sword, but he didn’t want to discount the other ring if it could be useful enough.

Whistling, he started walking around the city, getting a feel for its layout.

After that, he started talking, and more importantly, listening.

Most everyone in the city was talking about which shops they’d gotten their gear at, or who did good maintenance, or who was great at modifying generic gear to better suit the user.

It took him a week, but he eventually found the person he thought was the best ‘energy technician’ in the city.

They didn’t work at any of the high end, shiny storefronts near the top of the city. Instead, she worked near the spaceship docks, where grime had started to build but hadn’t quite hit the level that the slums were at.

Still, Arissa Silver was apparently the person to talk to whenever there were power flow issues in gear or vehicles alike.

Even the best custom workers at nearly the top of the city paled in comparison to her skill.

Armed with a carton of hot tea and a platter of donuts, Matt knocked on her door at six AM.

To his bewilderment, the woman opened the door, took his offerings, and then shoved a leash with a small dog at him.

The second the dog cleared the door, it slammed, leaving them outside.

Shrugging, Matt picked the dog up and checked its collar. “Well Maxinna. Let’s go for a walk.”

Half an hour later, Matt returned to find the garage open and Arissa Silver working on something in her workshop.

A craftsman himself, Matt appreciated her tools, even if he couldn’t quite map their functions to what he was used to.

As soon as the dog got back inside the fence, she ran forward, straining at the leash.

That brought the craftswoman out of her work, and she spent nearly half an hour giving her pet attention before finally deigning to address Matt.

“I thought you would have left by now.”

Her look wasn’t hostile, but Matt read that she really didn’t want to help him.

“What can you do with this?” He pulled out the reactor casing and handed it over to the grease-covered woman.

She studied it for a few minutes. “Interesting. Hmm, I think I could probably swap out some of the capacitors and tighten up a few of the connections, that would give enough room for a modulator to fit in here. Right now, it lets you alter the kind of energy your reactor feeds, yeah? I think I could up the efficiency and allow for more variation, and let you output mixes of energy instead of just a rotator switch like you’ve got now. Interested?”

Matt thought it over for a second. Being able to output multiple types of mana at the same time wasn’t great, but it wasn’t useless either. It definitely wasn’t something he needed desperately, and when the time came for the ring to naturally unlock its next power, he wouldn’t be heartbroken if it was something different.

He thanked the woman for her time and reinstalled the reactor casing into his armor. His next stop was a teleporter mechanic who informed him that he could upgrade Matt’s teleporter pack to be more powerful, but doing so would involve removing the pair-bond, which Matt wasn’t interested in. It would prevent Liz from getting her own ring back, and depriving her of half her remaining growth items would be enormously selfish of him.

Next on his list was a weapons mechanic he’d learned about after he’d helped just some random person on the street with a broken levitation platform. Their shop was nearly at the very top of the city, well inside the restricted-access streets, and Matt only got through the checkpoint after name-dropping the man who’d recommended he look for ‘Jeffrey.’

Currently, the old man was studying Matt’s gun, stroking a scaled chin.

“Good, custom work. Lots of room for modifications. Hmm... Well cared-for.”

As Jeffrey ran scarred and burned hands over the gun, and he inspected it and the modifications that Matt’s enchantments had manifested as.

When he looked up at Matt, he asked, “Triple toughness and piercing mod packs, two auto-regen packs… Aye, you have to know you’re on diminishing returns, boy. Where are the special shots? Extra ammo packs? Anything unique or special? You’ve got to have the skill for it, jamming so many of the same mods in here.”

Matt shrugged. “I go after big prey, and I get most of my versatility from special ammo types or other special tools. My armor’s got a decent amount of versatility that it provides on its own.”

That earned a nod from Jeffrey, who went back to inspecting his gun.

“Hmm. Howsabout this, I think I can reroute some of the internals to make the gun only have a single modpack slot, but recessed more and with the ability to pull it off whenever you want. But, to keep all your mods currently there functional, I’ll give you an adapter that connects all those mods into a single slot.”

Matt frowned, trying to translate the man’s claims into enchantments, but Jeffery saw his confusion and clarified.

“Ye’ll be able to have a couple of pre-made modpack loadouts and swap them out whenever you want. I’ll even throw in a revised design for the modpacks so you can fit somethin’ interesting in, along with all your normal stuff. Don’t want nobody to see Jeffrey’s work and think he makes shoddy, uninspired weapons. No siree, that would not do. Not at all.”

Matt’s eyebrows skyrocketed. He had not expected his blade’s upgrade to be so practical. Being able to store two sets of enchantments had a lot of possibilities, and if he started with two full sets, that would be one of the item’s new Growth features, giving him more enchantment presets as he advanced in Tier. Additional enchantment capacity was a nice bonus too, though that was mostly just an upgrade to the item’s base growth ability.

Unlike with the ring, which would only incidentally help out, he’d benefit from having more enchantments to swap between right away, making it an easy choice.

“I’ll take it.”

The old man smiled and motioned Matt to follow him into his workshop. Matt didn’t understand what half the giant tools did, but Jeffrey worked with them like they were second nature. Sparks flew, energy coalesced, and the gun was disassembled and reassembled a half-dozen times. By the end of it, it was sleek and practically glowing with potential, with two ‘modpack loadouts’ able to be swapped out at will.

“Now that's some of my better work, even if I didn’t make the original. Enjoy it, and put it to good use.”

Matt smiled as he felt the world start to fade around him.

“I will.”

***

“My first Princess. Investing in you was my smartest choice.”

Aster hopped up into Winter's lap and leaned into the scratches.

“I don’t know how this works, but could you help me control all the ice? Not just winter, but all ice. Anything that’s icy or cold, anything I can grow ice into, all of it.”

Winter looked down at her and Aster rolled her eyes.

“I'm not crazy. I swearrrrr. I already changed my Rank 1 bloodline from Ice to Winter, but I want Stellar Ice. The ice of the cold dead void after every fire has been extinguished.”

Seeing Winter was listening, Aster spoke on. The Queen was a construct of Minkalla, and she hoped if she spilled her plans, it would give her a final floor Blood is Thicker.

The floor’s upgrade allowed for beasts to change their Rank 1 bloodlines or pave the way for their Rank 2 bloodlines if they were like Aster, and not of a Rank 2 species to begin with.

After hearing about that, Aster had asked herself why she was going to use her Rank 2 bloodline to bring in aurora mana into herself, then use the Rank 3 to get her stellar ice mana.

She was better than that.

She could do it at Rank 1.

A new breed of Foxes. Stellar Ice Foxes.

She liked the sound of that.

As a Rank 1 bloodline, they would have the coldest ice powers imaginable, and that idea called to the vain part of her. It would be the best fox bloodline ever, and she would be the matriarch.

And if Minkalla cooperated, she could get to the next step right here and now.

“Hmm, perhaps.” Aster swore she almost saw the woman smile but it might have been her hoping a little too hard. “Go forth, my child, and freeze the stars themselves.”

Aster started walking around the city that she suddenly found herself in, admiring the incredible amount of magic woven into every inch of the glowing trees that the Bever’s buildings were built on and in, looking for the best crafters.

She had two items that she now needed to decide between for her upgrade. Both her pendant choker and tiara were so pretty and useful, but now she had to choose.

Each crafter seemed to be able to do something slightly different in terms of upgrades, but none of them really caught her attention until the craftsman she found hidden beneath one of the trees’ roots.

He would allow her to re-cast the same spell that her tiara’s elemental was made of into the crown’s center gem, either healing or strengthening the summon.

That was better than her ice cream cloud being able to change flavors, which a small part of her wanted to pick, but that would be a waste, so she went with the practical upgrade.

With Matt, she would be able to make the elemental so strong, it would be amazing.

She could always buy more ice cream after all.

With her tail swishing side to side, the world faded away.

***

Winter looked at Susanne and smiled. “My Duchess of Days Cut Short, how lovely it is to see you once more. Or should I say, Queen? Amusing that we share a moniker. Wanderer yet not lost, rooted past snow and turmoil, remaker of the broken blade. Thou art a poem in the making.”

Seeing her confusion, the manifestation of Winter explained. “Thou hast scouted my woods without getting lost. Remained steady despite being betrayed by her own faction. Remade your blade during your fight with Fall’s General. And thou art a Queen yourself, though lacking an appropriate crown. May you cut forth all that which may be cut, and a little more besides, forever shortening the days of your enemies.”

With a wave, Susanne felt her Favor crystallize in her spirit, and the world blinked.

Before she knew what happened, she found herself standing in a city gleaming with brass and filled with the constant hissing of steam. Giant balloon-lifted ships crowded the skies, while her immediate surroundings were filled with crowds of people leaving a shining train.

The test of this floor.

Carol had prepared her for this, and she knew better than to go to the first shop and agree to their upgrade.

Susanne had it easy. Or at least, easier than Matt, who had three growth items.

With only one growth item, she immediately started shopping around for armorers and seeing what they could do for her.

What she decided on wasn’t perfect, but after a month and a half of searching, she liked what she found. Derrick was a seemingly normal smith's apprentice, but she found out that he made most of the armor for the illegal underground death matches. His practical experiences and superb talents let him rise to be a hidden master of armor, while officially, he was nothing more than an apprentice trying to reach Journeyman status.

The upgrade he imparted, if she understood Minkalla correctly, would either reflect damage she took from ranged attackers back at the caster, or impair their vision. But she was pretty sure it was the former. Either way, it helped cover one of her weak points as a melee fighter so she took it.

She was growing stronger.

Minkalla had taught her many lessons, and she could feel herself closing the gap between herself and her new friends with each floor.

Four down, and three to go.

***

Liz sat across from Winter as the Queen spoke. “My Lady of Red Snow, you have truly excelled. The blood of your enemies flows forth and shapes the landscape, now and forevermore. I thank you for your service.”

Winter's frozen finger touched Liz’s forehead, and she found herself in a sprawling city of stone and steel. There was magic here, she could feel it. But it was… locked away, hidden. The towers around her were short compared to what she was used to, but impressive if there truly was no magic in them. She also felt different, her relationship to blood had changed in some ephemeral way but still strongly there.

It took her a few seconds, but then it clicked. She was a vampire here, wasn’t she?

That could be interesting.

Originally she had wanted to upgrade the ring Matt had given her, but now that was impossible, and the fact really irritated her.

They had hoped that if they both upgraded the rings, they could get two upgrades on the same item, further improving it, but the Fall general had ruined that idea.

Her backup plan of upgrading her blood storage glove was also shattered, destroyed by the same General.

That left her with her little portable garden that had recently bound itself to her. It wouldn’t have been anywhere on her list if she had a choice, but she didn’t.

Still, she wasn’t going to just find the first crafter and have them upgrade it just because she didn’t want to upgrade it.

It was still a useful item that had originally allowed her to hold and grow any herbs she collected. When it turned into a growth item, it allowed her to advance time inside slightly for a small but constant stream of mana, and she was able to create new areas to grow things under more specific conditions.

Its ability to use [Blood Copy] with any plant inside it gave her an inkling of an idea for how to use it in the future, if she could find the best enchantment.

It was apparently a small terrarium in this simulation, but one that still had a faint ring of magic.

Her infiltration training with Luna paid off well, because she quickly learned that the average person didn’t know magic existed. Eventually, she learned the tell’s for the few scattered, hidden magical enclaves throughout the city. Vampires were the top of the literal and metaphorical food chain, which was nice, but a few other smaller magics still existed, with some hidden shops scattered amongst the mundane in the massive city. The first place she visited wasn’t nearly as fruitful as she had hoped it would be, however.

“Apologies, elder mistress, but this one does not know so much as where to start with something like this. But this one does recommend Ernest’s. They work on odds and ends and have a penchant for curiosities such as this.”

Thanking him, Liz followed his directions to find Ernest’s store, hidden behind an illusion of a brick wall.

There, she found the man in question, a human magician, but his possible upgrade was less than ideal.

All the man would be able to do was add the ability to automatically harvest and replant herbs inside.

It was a useful effect, but one she could do without.

Seeing she was unhappy with his upgrade, he sent her to a Mr. Vistraina, a vampire who specialized in making support and non combat items.

From there, she was sent to Walter's Emporium, but even he had nothing she really wanted.

That trend continued for two weeks, until she visited every shop the in the city that had even a small relation to non combat items.

The final woman, Garnet, shook her head. “If you’ve already spoken to all of them, you have no one left.” Standing up, she started to walk away, but paused. “Though, you look like a high society girl. You can try Theophania; she’s the best artificer in the city, but getting her to agree to a commission is nearly impossible. She hasn’t taken any in decades. She would rather drink and fuck than work, even playing with the mundanes, if you can believe it. But if you want the best, she's it.”

Liz pursed her lips.

This Theophania seemed ideal, if not for her personality, but Liz gathered her courage.

She could do it.

She just didn’t want to.

Finding a rental store, she got a nice evening gown and then crashed the party that Theophania was said to be hosting.

And that she was.

Theophania was a fish in water in the high society party. She talked, she drank, she fucked. She was everything Garnet said she was. The only thing Liz didn’t see her do during the evening was work.

Oh she bragged endlessly, but she never actually did anything, preferring to hang on whoever was pretty and close.

Sighing, Liz gathered her courage and entered the fray.

Smiling and chatting, she mingled and declined endless invitations to head to one of the back rooms for a quick tumble.

She didn’t mind most political meetings or more somber parties, but this was too close to her younger days as a young princess to enjoy. While the parties had still been tame at her age, this was exactly what they turned into, and she had no desire to join in.

Two hours later, she finally arrived at the table that Theophania was holding court at, and after mingling for a while, slipped in the request. She was sure to slip in the right codes to guarantee that the vampire knew she was magical.

Theophania promptly shut Liz down. “I only work when I want to. Psh. If that is all you want, leave.”

Liz expected this reaction, and didn’t get upset. If she had more time, she could have set something more elaborate up, but she didn’t care about her reputation or social standing here.

So she went in with a wrecking ball. “Garnet said as much. You aren’t a has-been. You’re a never-was. Just coasting on your family’s reputation, never actually doing the work.”

With the very unoriginal gauntlet thrown, Liz let the drama play out.

There were a few scandalized gasps as some of the hangers-ons began teasing their posse leader. Some of them, Liz could tell, were in on magic, and those were the ones who really were leaning into giving the lady the most trouble.

Eventually, Theophania held up a hand, silencing the nearby chatter, and her eyes glimmered red as she locked a predatory gaze upon Liz. “Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing there, young lady. I’m not so base a target, but… I suppose I am not so base as to truly deny a sister in blood such a heartfelt desire?”

She bared a fanged smile. “You’ve got good blood. Mingle a little, get a good drink, and afterwards we’ll talk. Sample some of the mortals if you like. We have them so stuffed full of stimulants it can even affect us.”

“Deal.”

Now, all Liz needed to do was survive a high-society party for a while. It wasn’t ideal, but she had enough elegance and practice to not make a fool of herself.

Eventually, the celebration wound down, and she returned to Theophania, with a young man hanging off her arm as they navigated to a backroom.

“Well, a bargain struck is a bargain struck. I’ll take a look at your little project, but you need to do a few things for me first.”

Liz sighed, “And they are?”

“Oh, just a couple rivals who need elimination. Nothing a strong-blooded lass like yourself can’t handle.”

“And what can you do for this?” Liz held out the terrarium, steadfastly doing her best to ignore the ever-decreasing amounts of clothing that the vampire and her latest victim were wearing.

“Hmm, well yes, I can work with this. I think… I think I can make the plants inside grow more magical the longer they’re in there, assuming you have the magic to fuel them anyway.” Almost like an afterthought, the woman added, “Also, I think I can make it carry even more plants.”

Translation, plants in the terrarium would Tier up, to a maximum of her Tier, at least while they were growing. On top of that, the plantable space would grow with each Tier, more than it already was.

That… was actually pretty good, Liz decided after some thought. There weren’t many ways to get some rarer plants at higher Tiers, so having her own private supply of at-Tier ingredients was certainly welcome.

“Not bad.”

“Not bad? Darling, I’m the best.”

Liz raised an eyebrow at the woman, but didn’t challenge her. “I’m sure you are, but I want to make sure that you’ll come through on your end of the bargain. I’ll go off and plan out my assassinations while you work on this.” She patted the terrarium and continued, “And when I come back, see that it’s done, and only then will I do your actual dirty work.”

“Hmm. Very well, just leave it here and I’ll get it done in the next couple of days. Don’t forget your part of the deal now.”

“Just tell me who to kill.”

“Of course, darling,” the naked vampire drawled, scribbling out some notes on a nearby sheet of paper, then thrust it at Liz all without interrupting her other ‘business’. “I shall see you in a few days.”

About two days after that meeting, Liz found the world fade around her, and she smiled. Theophania had finished the upgrade, it seemed, and that concluded the challenge.

The race was on now.

‘Floor five, here we come.’