Getting up in a jolt, Sam was pulled to the side as Dia scrambled herself out of their shared sleeping bag. Sam, not needing his own hands, Psyhand grabbing all his weapons. By the time they were airborne and out of their sheaths, he looked at a slightly panicked Janik, not in the sense of them being attacked but in a guilty and flustered way.

It didn’t take long for them, or at least for Sam, to realise that Janik had set off the alarm. He was frantically pressing things on the camera, which made the alarm sound, and since his focus was on the device it all came together. Janik had just triggered it as he was turning it off.

“Fucking hell...” Sam vaguely mumbled as he lay back down, still in his bag. He looked up at Dia who looked ready to claw the shit out of anything and everything. Elara was also calming down around his neck, he hadn’t properly noticed her before but even she was ready to strike at anything.

“Dia. No Kra.” He got her attention, he didn’t do the ‘yap’ sound well but at least she knew yes and no. Also not knowing any good words for combat, danger or similar, he opted to just say No Punch. Which seemed to do the trick as she calmed down after taking a last cursory check around. Perhaps that Sam calmed down as well was what made it work.

“Sorry... I.. I’m not used to these yet.” Janik commented as he had managed to turn off the alarm. “At least it works, right?” His frantic expression changed into his normal goofy smile.

And in his defence, this is better than being attacked and it was a somewhat acceptable test of the system. Just a shame to wake up with that kind of shock.

Deciding that he might as well get up, Sam started climbing out of his sleeping bag, unzipping it and getting properly ready. At this time Dia had commented about toilet and disappeared into the woods around them only to return a few minutes later.

Janik and Sam did the same not long after. Setting up a camp stove they got some food going to Dia’s surprise about the weird heat, sound and smell coming from the metallic device used for this purpose, she hadn’t seen a camp stove before. When eating, Dia sat herself at Sam’s side, nudging herself against him, slowly wagging her tail back and forth as they ate. Though Sam wasn’t entirely used to this kind of passive intimacy, he couldn’t complain... Though he could complain about Janik’s soft smile, it seemed he was enjoying them doing things like these but... it felt kind of weird being the target of such an expression.

After they had eaten and packed up, they continued on their way, Dia only accepting being dressed as they were leaving. As they were walking, Sam was not only trying to understand Dia’s language more, but he was trying to teach her more English. He started with the English words for Dia’s language, making it easier to explain and build some form of foundation. Using Janik as an explanations to broaden things to compare and point at, as an example; Human, if Sam pointed only at himself she might confuse it as Sam, male, mate, whatever part he’s pointing at and so on. But having more people to point at... he might still end up with “male” but at least it helped a little...

Though the English language was alien to her, she picked up things surprisingly well, making Sam think she might have a linguistical mind.

“You should get her some simple teaching aid. There are cheap picture books used to help toddlers learn the simple things, I used them a lot before.” Janik commented after the duo had been working back and forth for a while.

“That’s a good idea.” Sam agreed.

Janik had a good point, Sam didn’t have much experience with them but now that he mentioned it, he knew of them well enough. There were bound to be phone apps, videos and all sorts of aid that could speed up this process. Given the amount of options to learn English, it might be easier to have her learn that, and then use her English to help Sam learn her language.

It was a shame that there wasn’t any internet in Aetheria, or he could download the app as they walked. He would have to look into that as they got back to Earth.

“I’ll get some apps or videos when we get back, teach her how to use the phone and she can probably learn something that way.”

Janik nodded with a smile. “That’s probably also a good way to do it. She seems to pick things up fast, so I don’t think it’ll take too long.”

Sam and Janik passed the time walking by trying to teach Dia English, she picked up some random words but she wasn’t to the point of stringing together organic sentences just yet. The times when Janik and Sam spoke together, Dia was carrying Elara who was helping to teach her English, though mostly focusing on the animalistic sides of things.

They were lucky enough to not be attacked by anything, they saw various creatures in the distance but it was easy enough to just not enter their domain. Dia’s sense of smell, sight and hearing also allowed them to walk around most of the most active areas, so though Sam didn’t get to train the consolidation attack thing, it was still fine with some downtime before they got to the next floor.

Including small breaks for rest, toilet and food, the whole day was spent walking. Though they had done a similar thing yesterday, Sam was still somewhat surprised at the Player’s stamina. He would probably not feel as passive about this long walk as he was had he been a normal person. Based on the information about the size of the first floor, the total length they were to walk from the Raven Dungeon to the entry area would be somewhere around 100km/62 miles. Doable in two days if you walk most of it and if you’re in very good shape, but before becoming a Player, Sam was not in good shape.

“There we go!” Janik commented shortly after exiting yet another forest. He was looking into the distance, specifically at a small village. Sam recognized it as well as the village close to the entry area, meaning they were now at the end of this trek!

It was slowly becoming dark again, meaning they had been walking all day again.

“I say we go back to Earth and set out for the second Floor tomorrow. Since you’re paying for your room anyway, you might as well use it.”

Sam agreed though he was fine camping outside, it was not only safer but more comfortable using the room at TAC. Besides, as Janik said; he was paying for it regardless.

“Also... could I borrow Elara until tomorrow?” Janik added, sounding almost hesitant to ask. “Grace took a liking to her.”

Sam lifted an eyebrow, he wasn’t against it, in his mind, it was up to Elara entirely. But before he could respond Janik had already fished out his phone and found a photo to show. It was a picture of a young blonde girl, who looked to be 6-7 years old, sharing a part of her food with Elara who was coiled on the table, eating from the fork the girl used to feed her.

He couldn’t do much more than smile, that was incredibly adorable, and Elara looked happy in the image as well.

“Well, it’s not up to me, really.” Sam started his reply as he gently nudged Elara from his shoulder so he could look at her as he changed to speak to her directly. “It’s all up to you if you want to or not.”

Elara smiled and nodded. “I like Grace, if it’s fine with you I can go with Janik and come back tomorrow.”

The fact that she had this wish for herself made Sam feel surprisingly good about things. He always wanted Elara to have a hobby of her own, but he didn’t expect it to come in the form of spending time with one of Janik’s kids.

“Then there we have it.” Sam smiled as he lifted Elara’s head towards Janik, letting her slither towards him. “I don’t mind if she wants to go..”

Janik looked oddly relieved mixed with happiness. “That’s good to hear.” It almost looked like he was afraid of Sam saying no.

Sam could understand the fear, he had been gone for a while and he might want to spend time with her, but at the same time, he intended to spend lots more time with them in the future so there wasn’t a problem if one night here or there was spent apart. Especially since it worked out so well last time.

Janik held out his arm towards Sam’s, letting Elara reach out and move her weight over and coil up across Janik’s shoulders.

Before leaving, Sam decided to use her daily Venom and get another 16 toothpicks. Though they were probably not going to directly damage anyone on the second floor, they could be used for non-damaging attacks like needles in the eyes, it wouldn’t damage the target but it would at least give the Venom a chance to apply. Saying their goodbyes they split up

They kept walking until they got the popup menu for leaving, after which they found themselves on Earth a few seconds later.

Splitting up Dia kept herself almost glued to Sam’s side as soon as they left Aetheria for the scary concrete jungle, they headed back to his room at TAC. Sam’s mind was on getting the apps and video material to teach her English, as this was a field he wasn’t super stable in. He knew the language but he didn’t have any proper idea of the path needed to teach someone the best way.

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As they entered TAC, before heading to his room he popped by to sell the Cores they had gathered. A total of 28 Goblin cores, 26 Harpy cores, 9 Ravenfolk cores and the Raven boss, it all totalled $83 000. He asked if they could send half of it to Janik, though he did most of the work before the boss, he didn’t mind splitting it for now, the man had a gaggle of kids to handle. Though Sam could use that to gear up better, the man needed it.

Not long after they entered the apartment-like room. Dia turned to Sam.

“Sa” Asking his name seemed to mainly be to get his attention. “Var hyr fara?"

He understood the first word being referring to herself, but he didn’t know the other words. However since she was tugging at her armour and dress, he assumed she was asking something about it, perhaps it was uncomfortable or too tight?

Looking back at her confused, he understood what she meant in context as she started undressing. This made some sense, she seemed to have spent most of her time without clothing on the island, and it was probably more comfortable for her.

Once she was done, though struggling a little with the armour, she looked much more comfortable as she exclaimed “Kara!”

Not knowing if that meant nude, comfortable, usual or something similar, he couldn’t help himself smiling at her opposite reaction to being unclothed than the norm. This also felt like a good idea to reintroduce her to modern hygiene, so he moved to the bathroom, motioning for her to follow. She was hesitant, seeming to remember the room itself, but followed on his request. He still found her dislike of the toilet to be extremely amusing, but at least she was fine with the shower. Though their unclothed nature had other things happen as well, at least he got her a tiny bit more used to hygiene.

However, he had a large problem with her brushing her teeth, even showing himself and starting the process to try and let her continue on herself didn’t work as he hoped. She seemed to... tolerate... it when he brushed her teeth, but she refused to do it herself. He didn’t want to force her so he decided to just brush them for her for now. He knew that in the wild she would never need this, but at the same time... he preferred pleasant breath on people, even more so someone he was intimate with. At least this would let her get used to it over time.

Once everything was done, and most of her fur was dried, they moved into the living room of the apartment, he focused more on getting the proper apps on his phone, searching around to see what was good, during which she had taken to cleaning his hair according to her standard. It still felt weird but given her annoyance at the times he had her stop before, he let her do as she wanted. He didn’t like how this... cleaned... his already clean hair, but it was important to her and it wasn’t like he was trying to impress anyone else.

The rest of the evening went to teach her how to interact with the phone once he had some good apps installed. He started with being the one who did the things for her, but also using her hands to navigate when needed she seemed to understand... enough, to get started. It used the microphone to let her try pronunciations, but Sam had to help her at times.

Eventually, they retired to bed, and he was again reminded of how pleasant a good bed was. Dia liked it as well, seeming to find the springiness very entertaining. She didn’t jump around as much as she liked to just get on all fours and fall sideways, only to get back up and do it again.

The next day they woke up naturally, something Sam was getting used to, but doing so in a calm way like this with Dia wrapped around him was a very good way of waking up. As he checked the time the movement was enough to wake her up, not something he intended to but at least it solved the question about how to wake her. It was past noon and he saw that he had a few messages from Janik.

One message just asked Sam to let him know when he was awake, so they could meet up and plan the day, the three others were pictures of Elara and Grace. One was Grace feeding her ice cream, another was Elara being bathed in the sink, and the last was Elara loosely wrapped around Grace as they slept. Sam couldn’t help himself smiling yet again.

Replying to the comment about waking up, he let Janik know and before Sam had even gotten out of bed he got a reply. Janik thought they could meet up in the training rooms, and get a head start on the thing they talked about.

Sam thought it was a bit odd that he didn’t mention the skill directly, but he might have his reasons. Agreeing to the message, and receiving a reply with a meeting time in about half an hour, he went through his morning routine.

Dia was slightly less of a struggle to go through things, she was seemingly already... at least tolerating the different aspects of things. Still didn’t like having her teeth brushed, but as it improved her breath as well as oral hygiene, Sam decided that she’d just have to get used to it.

Both of them got dressed and headed down, making their way to the training area, ignoring the comments from other Players who might be speaking just loud enough to overhear. They found Janik standing against the wall next to the door, looking at his phone with Elara draped across his shoulders.

“Ah, Sam!” Janik exclaimed, reaching out his closest arm as they got closer, letting Elara slither across and snuggle up against his neck as she coiled around him.

He nodded towards the door a few moments after Elara had her moment, not waiting before entering.

Sam followed him in to find an already prepared rectangular room. It was much narrower than the earlier ones he had used, however, it was both longer and looked ‘smarter’. There was a computer console not far from the door and a marked-up area at the end of it with a dummy inside. Next to the computer console was a collection of metal weapons, they looked dull but looked... different than normal metal weapons.

Janik stated explaining as he pointed at the various parts. “This is a room we normally have to pay for, I called in a favour so today’s free, but keep that in mind for the future.” He had a better-than-thou smile for a brief moment, tooting his own horn, before continuing. “The computer there is linked to the weapons and the dummy, this lets you simulate various damage ratings against various defences, you can also use it to test certain magics as it’s highly resistant and as long as you don’t go overboard you can test most stuff.”

Turning to Sam he looked a bit serious. “Only use the training weapons... actual weapons will damage stuff and... that’s expensive to fix...” His tone of voice hinted that he had done that a lot before.

Walking over to the console, he did a few things there before handing Sam a dagger. “Here, this is now a 5-damage dagger, throw it at the dummy.”

Sam Psyhand grabbed it and launched it at the dummy, it was a still-standing target so it was easy to hit. As he did a small screen to the side displayed Damage Rating: 5. Damage Delt: 5.

Janik nodded to himself and did something on the computer again before turning to Sam. “Now, use the same dagger and do it again.”

Sam did as told, reaching out and bringing the dagger back, launching it again. The display updated to list Defence: 5. Damage Rating: 7. Damage Delt: 2.

Though this was pretty much what Sam expected, it was interesting testing and verifying it like that. Janik returned to the console and did a few more things before he handed Sam three more daggers, giving him a total of four.

Taking them and flailing them at the target listed four instances of the same math. Damage was set to 7, defense was set to 5 and 2 made it through per blade for a total of 8 damage dealt.

“Oh, this is perfect.” Sam commented with a wide smile.

“I know, right?!” Janik exclaimed back. “It doesn’t really matter what we set the damage and defence to, but we might as well leave it like this. It’s set to ignore critical hits so you can just go nuts, if you get more than 8 damage we know you’re getting it!” Janik sounded eager on Sam’s behalf.

“So... I just aim all the blades to hit at the same time?” Sam confirmed, wanting to make sure before he spends too much time on this.

“Yep, though the timing until you get it needs to be pretty exact, and you can’t just half-ass it either, I needed to put in proper attacking effort for it to finally trigger.” Janik looked a bit annoyed as he said that, his voice hinting that this was a struggle.

“Ok, so hit at the same time, exactly, until I get it.” Sam felt focused as he gathered the daggers at the same distance, aiming at the chest to give them a better chance to hit at the same time. To maximize control he opted to attack with the Psyhands and not launch them.

Sending the four daggers towards the target he began!