In the end, Paolo had sacrificed a lot of non-essential to take six of the library books with him and somehow convinced Sophia to take two others in her backpack. And while he had made his selection, she had assessed their temporary allies.

First, Sienna was the true evil bitch of the lot. Pretty much like Paolo, her core power was lightning-based. But contrary to the boy, she had a sadistic streak and plainly admitted that her God's approval was all that mattered to her. Sophia understood the reasoning: she was a Cleric, and she had lucked out, ending up with a dark god. Yet making sure her God was pleased was her way to ensure her own survival.

Blake was simpler. A bully he was, always had been, and always will be. He was the typical rich kid with anger issues, who liked to destroy things. So he chose the Axe because it seemed like it had the most destructive power. And he was not wrong. Daggers were multi-function tools. Spears were the perfect weapons against human targets. Swords were versatile weapons. Hammers were tools and the best anti-armor weapons. And bows were the most effective weapon known to man before the invention of guns. Axes, however, were extremely good at chopping wood and destroying things.

Michel however, was your average guy who had to toughen up because of his two companions. As a Diviner/Rogue, he was the perfect scout and strategist. He could warn his companions of traps and ambushes ahead of time. He always knew the enemies and their weaknesses despite fighting them for the first time. He was the perfect time-saver/efficiency-multiplier of any team, and just ended up unlucky.

If the three of them had not been a package deal, she would not have minded recruiting only that guy. He chose Rogue as his secondary but he had invested in an entirely different direction. In many ways, he was more of a Rogue than she ever was or ever will be, as she picked that primary entirely by default.

As for their combat capabilities, strictly speaking: Sienna was getting by, by spamming resistance in combination with divine touch to hurt her targets, and using her thunderwave economically for battlefield control. Blake was just smashing things like an idiot and training with him had been an exercise in frustration. As for Michel, true to his specialty, he always knew her every move before she did, but could not do a thing to her either. Otherwise said: he could survive but while his insight was invaluable, he could not pull his own weight in most fights.

So when it was time to leave, they had quite a peculiar formation:

Blake was at the front, taking over the leadership. Sienna was on the left while Paolo covered their right flank. Which left Michel in the middle and herself, covering her rear.

And contrary to the first floor, the second floor was a vast expanse where predators, which most resembled those found on Earth, could come at them from every direction, including from the air and shallow water. And on their first day on the second floor, they had specifically made a detour to avoid giant crocodiles and sabertooth tigers' territories.

Otherwise said, this jungle was a primeval forest and a carbon copy of the Amazonian forest on steroids: lush vegetation, overabundance of water forming swamps, riverbed weaving in zigzags across the entire area, treacherous water and falls everywhere. And the final threat coming from the sky and the only concession to the overall primeval jungle theme: wyvern.

As according to Prince, nothing could be more different than a wyvern and a dragon.

The fact still stood that a non-sapient, very hungry, very dangerous, fire-breathing flying lizard was looming overhead and searching for prey. He was apparently the single representative of his species and the apex predator of the entire floor. But was effectively more than enough to impress the fear of death in even the worst of its competitors.

And they could not risk being in open view for more than seconds because of the existential threat it represented: absolute unavoidable death.

Quickly, Michel and Sophia had made a brutally effective team, making short work of the dangerous-yet-somewhat-normal animals that otherwise populated the floor. He told her about the threat well in advance and she shot them down before they could get close enough. The only downside of that strategy was the time she would lose every time to retrieve her limited supply of arrows.

But she had allegedly allowed them to avoid hours of combat, prevented them to attract bigger predators with the fights and blood, and cherry on top: it gave those very predators fresh meat to eat to distract them while they passed by.

By the end of the day, they were proud to announce that at this rate, her team's sef-imposed escort mission would end within one day and a half, leaving them with plenty of time to find that Chained Chest thanks to the treasure map.

They took turns watching over each other while the others were resting, which Sophia utilized to skim through the books Paolo had entrusted her. It was as she expected: advanced core magic theory, of which she did not understand much.

She had to admit it was simply not her area of expertise. She simply always had been a down-to-earth, hardworking but mediocre student trying her best with the cards she had. Conversely, while he had been struggling to get started, Paolo was now absorbing all that knowledge like a sponge and was obviously a lot better than her at juggling with abstract concepts.

They were forming a good team and Paolo was still almost blindly following her judgment. But at this point, she did need him more than the other way around. Yet, attachment clearly played a bigger part in their team cohesion and she wasn't blind either. The boy had feelings toward her she couldn't quite reciprocate. At least he never asked anything and was always respectful.

"You have a truly interesting pet," Michel said, sitting beside her, as it was his turn to watch.

"Has he done anything to bother you?" She asked, puzzled by the man's tone.

"Nope. He is just an interesting character." He responded chuckling, but she could tell his mind was elsewhere.

"That he is. If you spot anything, don't bother and just give me a light kick. I will get some good shut-eyes right here."

It was just the reasonable thing to do, as the Diviner was not battle-oriented. Plus, she never trusted any of them and would only truly sleep when it would be Paolo's turn to watch, as she already trusted him with her life.

★☆★

They finally made it to the metal double of the challenge in which Blake, Sienna, and Michel had lost their life at the hands of their own companions. It had been a small detour with no real purpose as the exit circle was not there and the place had been stripped of all its valuable already. But their temporary companions had needed that to come to terms with it.

It was an odd feeling for Sophia. Until now, the death-free permit had been nothing but an abstraction in her mind. But here she was tagging along with people, grieving above their own dead bodies. She could not even fathom how they felt about it. It disturbed her so profoundly that she had to leave and wait alone by the door until they were done.

Prince and Blake joined her first. Then Paolo and Sienna. And finally, Michel, who took extra time alone with his corpse. But in the end, he joined them too looking grim but determined. And after silently communicating with each other, the three of them made their way to this floor exit circle. And Sophia's team followed in tail. There wasn't a single beast left alive in this place so that part of their travel had been swift and quiet. But it had finally come to an end.

Sienna walked through the circle and disappeared without even saying goodbye. Blake, however, had the decency to nod in appreciation, waving goodbye with his Axe before walking into the circle backward. Only Michel had stayed behind and did not look like he was in any rush to join them already.

"I must admit: I never encountered a mind like yours before. It was really instructive. I would love to join your little treasure hunt but how would it reflect on me to betray my former team like this? But well, I'm sure we are going to bump into each other once again sooner or later and I will get a chance." He smirked before his tone gained a flair for a dramatic. "Oh, Little Witch, before I forget, you are not alone anymore. See you around, Pretty Boy."

And then, before leaving them any time to react to his declaration, he saluted, turned around, and disappeared.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

'Could it be...?' Sophia's thoughts were interrupted by Paolo, losing his temper at the man's taunt:

"The dare... Anyway, what did that guy mean when he said you weren't alone anymore?" He demanded.

That's when she realized her restrictions on that particular secret had gone somewhat loose. Or at least loose enough to let her say that:

"Remember that I know things I cannot explain? That Diviner probably read my mind and learned about it. And now he has it too. And so you should. You just have to ask."

He tried to say something in return but she held her hand and shook her head, pointing at the sky. She was already at her limit and he just had to figure it out. It's not like he had any other option when she could not answer his question right?

Then his eyes went distant yet wide as saucers as his mind was elsewhere and she knew he finally got it. He was in the zone for longer than ever before, but she waited quietly, checking her own system in the meantime.

That mind library is a gold mine. I will try my best to repay it to you. Until then, take care. — Michel

That was the only publication the man had made. The single proof he had been telling the truth. And not only was she not alone anymore but Paolo was going to join in as well. And to her, that sliver of hope was more than enough. She would not have to carry that burden on her own.

And then, that hit her: everything she wrote would be accessible to all three of them. She shook her head. Surely the two boys would leave her obviously private rambling alone and concentrate on the literal 'gold mine', as Michel put it, that she had pinned, written, and neatly organized for that very opportunity. Someone else but her would get to benefit from her efforts and if anything, it was worth the potential inconvenience.

"That's... that's amazing!" Paolo exclaimed as he finally emerged from his self-induced trance.

"Well, I'm happy not to have to lie about this anymore. I'm sorry I could not tell you sooner." She apologized.

"I understand. I just signed off those agreements. I'm just starting to understand how much frustrated you must have been, knowing things you could not share, doing things you could not explain."

"You have no idea!" She sighed in relief. "I'm really glad not to have that particular wall anymore between us. That solitude was gnawing at me. I had amassed quite a lot of good stuff I wished I could have shared."

"Speaking of sharing..." Paolo said, suddenly hesitant.

"Okay, what it is?" She finally asked.

"Well... I like you. Really, like you." He confessed.

Oops. Okay.

"Well. To be brutally honest, I knew. And I pretend not to because I can't reciprocate your feelings. Not the way you would like, at least?"

"You can't?" He asked, playing on semantics. But she understood his untold question anyway.

"What I meant to say is: that it is flattering and I value your friendship a lot. But I don't swing that way."

He looked at her speechless and she was not sure he understood so she reformulated:

"I like chicks."

Then, after some time, he finally sight and simply said.

"Guess it cannot be helped. Of course, I had to crush on that girl I was abducted with. I'm just relieved it was simply not meant to be, in spite of the tutorial schemes and all that."

"Tutorial schemes" She repeated, interested in hearing his thoughts.

"Well, I had that silly theory, you know. The system only took young men and women and put them in a life-and-death situation with very little option for emotional support and all that. So I guessed it was the same for everyone, depending on each other like this."

He did not say the words but Sophia understood them loud and clear. Selective breeding. It kind of made sense. If the aliens lied about the evacuation and only cared about saving their species, not their culture but genetic material, it would somewhat make sense. But yet, it was a bit too sophisticated and wasteful for that simple of a purpose.

"I had worst ideas." She admitted, being guilty of one such line of thoughts really recently, she could not blame his creative thinking.

And that's when they were interrupted once again:

The third floor's nickname is the "Realm of Giants" and apparently, dinosaurs are the LEAST of our problems there. Whatever Pretty Boy is gonna get from that chest, I hope you get something good.

My many thanks for the rest area library and dictionary. — Michel

Technically, there was nothing in the terms of use that said it could not be used as a messaging service. Yet, it was one use she would never have thought of, and was rather reluctant to use as such herself.

"Why is that guy so adamant on calling me Pretty Boy?" Paolo asked, indignant.

And so she gave her the look, slightly amused as his candid cluelessness.

Until he finally got it? : "Seriously. Well, I guess I should be flattered too."

And so she couldn't help but laugh before commenting:

"You've always been a fast learner."

"You didn't give me much of a choice," He remarked.

"That's true."

"And now that we are telling each other everything: you are quite a training maniac, you deranged woman."

"That's also true"

And he was left speechless by her answer once again, trying hard to catch up with her before he finally said:

"Did you actually pull on over me with that rocket raccoon reference on purpose???"

She only briefly turned to face him and smirked.

★☆★

Making their way to that second chest had been hell.

Albeit it had not been too far away, the terrain had been even more difficult than the rest of the jungle. And a pride of Sabertooth Tigers had decided to settle their nursery there, which had been one hell of a fight.

While the male had faced them first and alone — and had been quickly dispatched by one of Sophia's arrows right through his one good eye before Paolo had dealt the killing blow — all the females had attacked them in sync and encircled them.

Only the combination of his empowered shocking grasp and her song of healing had saved the two of them. But Prince had been brutally murdered while trying to fly away to safety, proving that no mercy existed between felines.

And though they were still alive, the fight had cost them dearly. Sophia got her right arm injured and could not use her bow anymore. And one of the females had broken his staff attacking him from behind, so his longstrider speed buff was temporarily out-of-commission.

Once the fight was over, Sophia did not have the heart to kill the cubs the females had fought so fiercely to protect. Their chance of survival alone were practically none existent. But she wasn't in the mood, even for a mercy kill. They would live or die trying, as they should.

Paolo even considered adopting one but she told him off. While he could try to tame one, it would never be domesticated. A cub might grow to perceive their team as its pride but would still perceive everything or everyone else as a fair game. So it was a bad idea unless they planned to become bandits, permanently living in the wild, or didn't have an issue with animal cruelty, crippling and restraining the cub, permanently.

It successfully talked Paolo out of even trying.

Yet, he had been adamant about wasting time giving the adults a funeral pyre. They had been majestic prehistoric creatures they had been taught about in awe while they were young. They only had attacked them as a defense mechanism and would probably have left them alone otherwise. And Paolo might have watched too much of the Ice Age movies franchise.

Once that ritual was done, they finally went doing what they had come to do:

Face the metallic doors challenges and claim their prize.

This time, however, they had been faced with a maze and still plenty of traps. Sophia could still trigger those remotely without risking her life, having collected plenty of extra branches for the pyre. But detecting them in advance, let alone disarm them was still beyond her, making her question that part of her primary Archetype.

Yet, after hours of wandering around foolishly and narrowly escaping death a few times, they finally reached the end of the maze, where the Chained Chest and the exit metal doors awaited them. She was relieved about the doors as she would not have been eager to make her way back, though she had already taken contingencies, just in case.

"Here goes nothing." Paolo declared getting close to the chest before looking her straight in the eyes. "Can you cast Guidance on me? I have a theory about those chests I would like to test out?"

And so she nodded, not seeing any reason not to.

Since the chest was magical and somewhat reading his needs and wants, maybe he hoped guidance would let him get something better? Although she doubted an angry goddess would be eager to help them with something like this.

Yet she did not know what to expect as he opened the chest as her own experience had been so different.

But him, opening the chest and pulling out a book without any pause or hesitation had not been one of them.

"What is it?" She asked.

"That's a tome." He replied, beaming with pride and eyes shining "We can both learn from it and it contains two cantrips and one spell. And the best part is: once we are done and learned everything from it, it's still a precious tome we can trade for anything we might need."

"How precious are we speaking?" Sophia asked although Paolo did not immediately understand her concerns.

"Probably more than anything else we have combined?" Paolo replied, hesitantly, not understanding her reaction.

"Let's learn anything we can from it and hide it at the very bottom of your backpack."

Paolo gulped hard, as he finally understood the implications, before settling beside her on the cold hard floor and opening the book.