[Saeri] Well then. This is the entrance to the fourth floor. Normally you would be attacked by the animals inside but in the interest of time they will behave.

We stare down at the entrance. It was a slippery looking set of stairs running down into the ground. To make things worse the steps were small and a not insignificant amount of water was constantly flowing down.

[Vance] Kesia, make sure you don’t trip. It seems deep enough that if you fall even you’ll get a little hurt.

[Kesia] I- I know. I’m not that clumsy. Uh. But why don’t you guys go first. I’ll follow.

She says she’ll be fine but I could clearly hear her slip a few times. Part way down she more or less gave up and started crawling down on all fours. Seriously, I wish this girl would be a little more careful. With her weight, if she slips and pushes us it wouldn’t be a laughing matter.

At the bottom of the stairs, we both bump into Kanva.

[Kesia] Mistress Kanva?

[Vance] Is everything ok ?

[Kanva] Hush. I’m busy. I see. The root system have been reinforced. It’s possibly physical matter I suppose….

As Kanva finally walks out of the doorway while muttering something I couldn’t quite catch…

[Vance] Woah. This is… different.

[Kesia] Wow. Look Vance. The trees are above us. There’s a whole forest above us!

Sure enough. Just as she said, there was a whole forest above our heads. Upside down. Hanging. A whole ceiling of roots and plant life. Surprisingly the branches didn’t hang at a weird angle. It was simply as if their gravity was different from ours. In places the trees almost touched the floor, while in others they were inaccessible to anyone who couldn’t fly. It wasn’t only trees too. There were rocks and caves and hills, all upside down. It was as if a section of the forest had been carved out and flipped.

The floor on the other hand was much simpler. The terrain still wasn’t a simple walk in the park but it was… well, normal. Rocks, sand, lots of leaves and decaying plant matter.

There were however various birds and small animals digging through the leaves, for food perhaps. When they spotted us most would fly or jump back into the trees. It was truly a living, upside down forest. I’m just glad the birds and such weren’t flying upside down as well.

[Kanva] Vance. Quit spacing out. See that tree over there? Fly up there. I think I see something.

[Vance] Y-yes Ma’am.

I stretch out my yellow tinted wasp wings, cast a quick lightening spell on my body, and jumped. My wings quickly caught the air and pushed. As the wing flaps sped up, so did my body. I reached the tree Kanva had pointed to in no time. I buzzed around the tree, trying my best to follow the instructions Kanva was yelling up at me and to find whatever she thinks she saw.

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[Vance] Hoh. How did she even spot this. This is…

I cut my lightening spell and quickly drifted down in a spiral.

[Vance] These are red tipped elf ears! They’re rare even in the deeper parts of the forest.

I show the others the two mushrooms in my hands. They had the characteristic shape of an elf’s pointy ears, with the tips of the ears stained red.

[Kesia] Oh. These things. They only grow near tree tops and only a few per tree right? I remember you spent a whole week looking when we got a request for a deafness cure.

[Vance] Ugh. Don’t remind me. I didn’t even get any help since hardly anyone can fly. If they’re in here then maybe we can just buy them instead. I really don’t want to try finding these in the wild more than I have to.

As we walked further through the level, we heard Kanva muttering again.

[Kanva] Interesting. Interesting. Ironwood. So that’s what that was…

[Vance] Hm? Ironwood? Well there certainly are a few larger ironwood trees but what’s the big deal?

[Kesia[ Ah. Ah! It’s starting to rain!

And so it was. What started as a few drops quickly picked up in intensity. Luckily it wasn’t windy or obscuring our sight too much.

[Vance] Ironwood. I see. Look! It’s not rain. The water is just dripping from the roots and trees. And it’s IRONwood. Ironwood trees need metal deposits to survive. There’s no way Miss Kanva wouldn’t say anything after what she did on the first floor.

[Kesia] Eh? Eh? Are you saying…

[Vance] Yes! What’s above us is the watery 3rd floor. And what’s before that is the mining 2nd floor. The tree roots we saw on the third floor must be from these trees. And the pillars we saw must be ironwood trees reaching into the mining floor. That’s why there was so many roots on that floor!

[Kesia] I see! So these three floors are basically all just one big floor huh. Wow.

We stared up at the forest in awe for a moment, heedless of the rain.

[Kanva] Hm. About 60 points I guess? It should have been easy to realize when we saw the ironwood tree trunks on the third floor. Not to mention that the trees all have natural rhythms. Just like when a human heart beats and their blood vessels expand, if the expansions and contraction of the tree roots are synchronized -

[Kesia] They all shrink at the same time slowly letting more water drip through from the third floor!

[Kanva] Yes. That’s about right. Although normally, even an ancient forest wouldn’t be quite so in sync. Or change so rapidly. It must be a change the dungeon made. Regardless, let’s keep going. Even if the rain is warm it’s bad for you lot to stay wet for so long.

Kanva pulls out two seeds which she plants in the ground. Then she channels her mana into them and forces them to grow through a plant growth spell. They grow just large enough to form leaves big enough to use as umbrellas.

[Vance] Heater Locus huh. Does she need one?

I point behind me towards Saeri, the little girl who’s still following us.

[Saeri] That’s unnecessary. I may not be a very proficient magic user, but I am partial to water spells and did know this was coming. I had cast a waterproofing spell earlier so I am fine.

[Vance] I see. I mean. Could have warned us…..

[Saeri] Where would the fun be in that. Well. The next change shouldn’t sneak up on you at least.

As we walked, I could certainly see what she meant. It got noticeably colder, the further we walked. The trees on this side of the floor was much less vibrant and colorful. The rain hadn’t let up during our walk. Soon it turned into slush, then hail, then snow. We’re quite lucky Kanva decided to go with a heater locus, since it could generate some heat when you run mana through it.

[Kesia] Look look! It’s snowing. It’s like winter even though it’s not even midsummer yet outside.

[Kanva] Foolish girl. Stop it. Stay under the locus.

[Kesia] But but why?

[Vance] Ha. We’ll get scolded again if we can’t figure it out huh.

I strain my eyes and follow some flakes of snow as they fell onto the now white and fluffy floor.

… Huh. Fluffy. Isn’t this a little too… fluffy for snow?

[Vance] Ah crap. Kesia stay under the locus. Look. Most of it is snow but there’s some dream dust dandelion seeds mixed in. There must be some of the stuff growing behind the trees up there.

[Kesia] Huh. Oh it’s true. . . . At least it’s going to be easy to harvest?

[Vance] Still. The seeds are tiny white fluffs and really blend into the snow. People will definitely miss it if they aren’t careful. Even Saeri had to prepare a cloth mask for herself huh.

And so we traveled the last bits of the floor making sure Kesia doesn’t accidentally breathe in any of the seeds. Luckily there wasn’t any wind or aggressive creatures. At least it made for a pretty scenery, with the inverted trees and the gently drifting snowfall. The distant antelopes and chirping birds and the rare flower that blooms in the snow almost made me forget how dangerous this place can be.