After the counterattack, the remaining Kinetice forces in the system folded with relatively little resistance. It was time for my second supply run.

Edwin was there, to both personally oversee the transfer and to bring me the planned spell book, protecting it with his own bodyguards. “Good to see that you’re well, Lheticus.”

“And you, Edwin. Opposition faction not had much headway here?”

“No, in fact they’ve begun withdrawing from Satslik. These precautions are still necessary to keep them from getting ideas about disrupting your team’s forces, though.”

“Naturally. So, I’ve been kept in suspense long enough. What’s this super-amazing, super rare, super hard to learn 3rd Floor busting spell?”

“Here.” He handed me a spell book. “It’s one of the rarest in the Floor, so you can only borrow it to learn the spell.”

1st Circle Spell

Add persuasive charisma to your words.

Required Intuition: 155

That was rather more Intuition than I actually had, so once again, my Class Trait was coming in handy. The spell’s Mana cost was extreme, and the effect only lasted for a minute at the starting level, but I was agog at the implications.

“This...doesn’t only affect Floor natives, does it?”

“Indeed. The Federation strictly regulates the use of such spells as this. There are ways to protect oneself against such effects, but only powerful challengers or those who possess one of a number of quite rare items can do so. However, to a challenger involved in completing the full storyline of the first four Floors, its value is immeasurable. You’ll understand once Bruzigan starts briefing and drilling you and Mewi on the 3rd Floor.

I also brought this for you,” said Edwin, taking a spell formula—not a spell book, and it would be consumed when someone learned the spell on it unlike them—and handed it to me, as I handed back the book of Imbue Persuasion. “You should be able to learn it very soon,” he said, “it’s the most potent AOE Fire spell available in this Area. Actually, for most casters, it’s a little too potent—its area is huge, so it’s very easy to create mishaps of friendly fire. But I believe you can handle it.”

The formula was for a spell called , and it had an Intuition requirement of 118, which was indeed more than I had at the moment, though not by terribly much. I stored it away in my own ring.

“Thank you, that’s quite generous.”

Edwin made a “think nothing of it” gesture. “It’s actually not too valuable a formula, in spite of its rarity, because of the friendly fire problem and the high Intuition cost.

Anyway, keep up the good work. You’re already inspiring hope in people. I’ve got a couple more spells in mind for you and Mewi both to learn as a reward once you’re through the 3rd Floor.”

While the troops rested, it was time for Mewi and I to begin earnest preparations for the 3rd Floor. More training, more drilling on the known possible twists and events, more hard work. Bruzigan said that Mewi should be able to handle the Extreme difficulty now, Mewi expressed desire to try, and I reluctantly acquiesced. At least his stats were a great deal more formidable than they’d been back on the 1st Floor, thanks to his own liberation missions, though he was still much weaker than Bruzigan or me in pure numbers.

It was time to do or die. It was time for the Third Floor.

The Firebrand had already been docked at a city on Kolisot 1. I approached a Dimensional Gate in an armored car to a certain amount of fanfare. This time, I’d acquiesced to the attention, so as to not give assassins from the anti-Fed faction a nice, quiet shot at me.

I configured the gate to take me to the Floor. Then, with a deep breath, I entered it.

And walked into my worst nightmare.

Don’t get me wrong, I was extremely glad that I’d been forewarned about the nature of Yzmar’s 3rd ring.

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Even if I had freaked out quite a bit at the time that I learned what it entailed.

Even if I had bitched and moaned almost constantly until Bruzigan had threatened to make me do 100,000 pushups if I didn’t shut up during the training to prepare me for this particular aspect of the challenge.

But this one was definitely not gonna be fun.

[Welcome to Floor 3.]

[You are once again transported to the island planet Yzmar.]

[By securing the backing of a powerful audience member with your performance in the Qualifying and Preliminary rounds, you have overcome your identity as an enemy, though a slave you remain.]

[You have arrived at the third, innermost ring of the island.]

[Participate in the Elimination Round.]

[The natives call this place the Frozen Land.]

[Having overcome the savage jungle and the desert’s heat, remaining contestants must now survive the frozen tundra.]

[A deadly game takes place here, where the only choices are to cooperate or perish.]

[You have passed the Floor 2 mission with a difficulty rating of or above.]

[Your story will not be reset.]

[Analyzing...]

[You put on an impressive performance in the Qualifying Round.]

[Though many would still love to see you dead, a cult following is actually rooting for you to survive, though they are still limited in how they can help you, compared to your competitors.]

[You are participating in this game for the third time. You have the identity of a ‘participant.’]

[Please choose your difficulty.]

I selected Extreme.

[Mission Selected]

[Qualify for the Finals with your team in the Top 200 teams.]

I wasn’t actually in the cold where I spawned. But I’d inevitably have to go out into it. As was about to be explained.

[Helloooooo, dear participants!]

[We started out with 50 million of you, and we’re down to a mere 100,000 or so. You have all been through difficult trials to stand here, and you should be proud! Especially of passing our Qualifying Game, ]

[However, I’m afraid only 10,000 of you will advance to Yzmar’s main surface, where our ultimate champions will be decided! So here’s how we’re going to narrow it down.]

[This time, the name of the game is In this game, you must work together to survive.]

[And if your comrades look familiar, they should. That’s riiiiight, it’s your fellow survivors from the previous round! Well, in most cases anyway. I mean, you’ve all been through so much together—slaving away in the hot sun, fighting thirst and horrible monsters—it would be just too cruel for us to force you to part!]

[Right now it’s a beautiful morning on the third ring of Yzmar. The current weather forecast indicates a high temperature of a refreshing -30 degrees. But watch out for those lows, contestants. At night, it gets so cold that you’ll easily freeze to death in minutes, no matter how well bundled up you are!]

[But fret not, my dear participants! Every group has been allocated a special outpost designed to provide comfortable living conditions in this frozen wasteland!]

[Central heating, cozy shelters, comfortable bedding, your new home has it all. We’ve even provided you all with essential goods such as food, drink, and cold weather exploration gear!]

[Of course, such a luxurious little village requires no small effort to maintain. Various tasks will need to be performed regularly in order to keep everything running.]

[And don’t get too comfortable in your little self-contained bubbles, participants. You didn’t really think we’d let you off of going out into the cold, did you?]

[For this tundra holds a secret...it’s absolutely chock full of treasure! Entrances to caves can be found all around you, and each cave hides a certain amount of treasure. There are, of course, indigenous monsters who will protect their homes at all cost, but that should be no problem for you intrepid explorers, am I right?]

[Reach the end of a cave and you’ll find a treasure chest. The color of the chest indicates the relative value of the treasure inside. And best of all, at regular intervals, treasure will reappear inside the chests! If you’re the lucky ones who clear the special cave containing the purple chest, you’ll likely be “set for life!”]

[Of course, it’s very possible that different teams can run into each other out there. And violence between participants is very much NOT forbidden this round. So do take care on your expeditions...hahaha.]

[Now, pay attention because this next part is important. Every single outpost has been granted the exact same starting resources as every other outpost. It’s our fairest game yet!]

[However, much like before, there is no tolerance for freeloaders. I’m afraid that the supplies you’ve been given so far aren’t at all adequate for surviving the 15 days that you’ll be here. If you want more, you’ll have to trade treasure for it!]

[And of course, let’s not forget our wonderful audience! In this round, they have the ability to vote for certain “powerups” that can either help or hinder you. So do your best to appease your adoring public!]

[As I mentioned, the time limit for this round is 15 days. At the end of that time, the 1,000 teams that have stocked the most treasure will advance to the Finals!]

[Oh, there’s one more thing. What’s an expedition without a strong and powerful captain? In your case, your team captain will be the participant from the previous round who gained the highest number of merits.]

[Your captain has absolute authority over the distribution of resources, the assignment of tasks, and the allocation of treasure. So, you should probably treat them with respect.]

[There are some fiddly little details that I haven’t mentioned, but this has gone on long enough. You’ll have to figure out the rest yourselves! Good luck, and have fun!]