For once, Prince had made promises and delivered on them.

The first day had been pretty hectic. But afterward, things had calmed down and this ring had devolved into a walk to the park: An eight-day-long walk to the park but still. Even the first floor had been more challenging. And so...

"Have we been missed out on something?" Sophia asked.

"What are you talking about?" Paolo retorted almost immediately, "Missing out? Life is great here."

"I'm speaking of critical information about the tutorial. It's supposed to challenge us. Do you feel challenged here?"

"Eh? If I had to fight those murderous flocks, we would be challenged alright." Paolo answered honestly, "But we deal with them early on and they are purposefully avoiding us right now. So I guess that counts as a challenge cleared and completed. Plus, the system asked us to adapt, not kill everything that dared to give us a mean look. Those birds have a right to live too, you know?"

Of course, he was right. It was just that peace made her high-wired brain for danger feel jumpy.

And that was yet another consequence of her brain rewire: moments of true peace were now lost on her as she could not truly appreciate them. Obsessing over details, in her desperate search for anything that needs fixing.

And that's when she realized that's how her life would be like from now on. She would fight monsters and solve problems so others get a better life. And once she would retire if she ever truly did so, she would be faced with that feeling, forever not at peace because her brain would not allow her so.

'Come on!' She cried internally at the mounting realization. Before finally responding to Paolo.

"And yeah, of course, those birds have the right to live. Sorry to bother you with my stupid questions."

"They are not stupid. And you're welcome." Paolo concluded before giving her some alone time.

But it was a short-lived moment as the next junction point was found soon afterward.

★☆★

After the rather uneventful fifth ring, Sophia and the team finally reached the sixth and could immediately tell something was not quite right. For it was still as sunny as the ring before but the temperature did not add up. It was rather chill though not yet cold and that it translated into the environment.

The vegetation was as scarce as the past floor but had switched from mostly decidual to mostly pinneous.

As for the fauna, it seemed to have migrated straight from the past ring.

So Sophia knew the monsters would not be an issue this time again. But the chill was bad news as only a couple of things could cause this: either it was a station designed to host as many different environments as possible in their Noah Ark station. Or it was a flaw in the hull, one that could definitely kill them if left unchecked for too long and that needed fixing.

Maybe it would even be that floor challenge, as it perfectly fitted the kind of puzzle the tutorial seemed to enjoy: find whatever the issue is with this entire floor or section of the floor. And find a creative way to fix it with the tools given by the tutorial itself.

"So we are going to do a repeat of the fifth ring?" Prince commented. "Not that I'm complaining..."

"The spiders are gone," Paolo observed.

"That's the cold" Moana contributed. "They truly don't like it."

That finally rekindled Sophia's spirit:

"Spiders are gone? Then how about taking the alternative route now that the coast is clear?" She asked with renewed enthusiasm.

"Let me get it straight:" Paolo tried to talk some sense into her. "You want to walk in the shadow, while the air is already so cold, in broad daylight?"

"To Sophia's defense, we are moving in a tube and the air, similar to us, can realistically go in a single direction." Moana contributed once more before concluding: "The air temperature should be uniform enough across the entire ring unless we are walking towards the actual source of the cold, that's it."

Sophia wasn't expecting Moana to come to her rescue ever. But so she did. Maybe she too was feeling bored to death? Or maybe it was something else entirely? Still, it was nice seeing Moana fully committed to working for the team recently.

"Thanks, Moana." Sophia approved. "But the question still stands: we can go through this floor like we did the last. Or we can finally explore that crepuscular biome now that the spiders are gone. Not sure it would be worth it and we can switch back at any moment but still: who's feeling curious?

"So long there are no spiders." Lono enthusiastically replied.

"I don't see the point. We have a clear path to the seven ring." Michel answered pragmatically.

"My robes had been suffering from all that slithering in the dirt." Moana finally complained about something, almost to everyone's relief, and voiced her own argument in favor of exploration, leaving it up to Paolo and Sophia.

"I would save the trouble by approving this exploration." Paolo finally said. "At the condition we leave at the first sign of trouble, as you promised."

And so that settled it. They were finally going to get a good look at this spider-free crepuscular environment.

First and foremost, crepuscular wasn't doing it any justice, as the light was reaching that side as well just fine. It was just dimmer and occasionally exploded into aurora borealis, partially or fully decomposing the light at whim. It was beautiful. But so was the flora living on that side of the big floating rock.

Their incredibly big dark leaves were defying the cold and their colorful equally oversized flowers were adding all the contrast those plants needed, all at once. It was a true explosion of colors compared to the other half that was thriving in the sunlight.

But there was still no sign of the fauna leaving there, and so they continued their journey along the ring armature, moving at an unprecedented pace since the third ring.

But Sophia knew that peace couldn't last, because of the principle of power vacuum. The spiders were gone and so, another monster had to step up and take their niche. Or at least, it should be the case, unless the niche no longer exists for some reason or something prevents anyone from claiming it.

But the answer here turned resoundingly simple.

The wildlife surviving there was merely enough to support themselves and their habitat. They were basically mice-sized rodents living under the very foliage of the plants surrounding them. Be it an adaptation to the birds' attacks or a natural thing, it turned out that their new neighbors' meek personalities would not cause any trouble, if, ever.

And so they kept pushing, faster than ever.

★☆★

And so, they finally found the source of the cold at the sixth ring junction point, as wind and snow came pouring from the seventh ring.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Okay, guys, sounds like we located the source of the cold" Sophia pointed out the obvious. "And this floor next challenge or so it seems. Everyone in the team with experience with extreme cold?"

And so Moana raised her hand. "I have extended knowledge of frostbite, how to treat and prevent it."

"That valuable knowledge of what we should avoid, if nothing else" Sophia approved. "Anyone else?"

"I experienced a snowstorm thrice in my life," Michel finally said, "Two which I was too young to remember properly. I remember my parents playing it cool, taking a few days off, and playing the sledge with me in the aftermath as if everything was normal. Needless to say, I don't have much experience to go by: Snow is dangerous and might be even more so in zero gravity. And we are far too underdressed. Aside from that, I won't know where to start as most of my experience consists of handling a car in that sort of snow and running from point A to point B to gather everything needed to stay shut-in for a few days."

That was the valid strategy on Earth to wait the storm out. But this one felt as unnatural as the rest of the floor and there was no saying this storm would come to an end at all.

"Look, everyone" Sophia finally declared, "Normally, the wise thing to do be 100% to wait this out. But that thing must have been going on for longer than we have been on this ring had shown no time of stopping. We are not even sure it is a cyclical event. So what do you want to do? I don't want to be alone in that decision."

"I'm in favor we push through," Paolo surprised everyone. "We can use prestidigitation to heat up our equipment and manipulate water to control the snow. We could even build an igloo with it and give Prince a break."

"This sounds risky but I will follow my sister's opinion on this one, whatever it is," Lono spoke out next.

"We can't spend more than four hours of day outside in that cold." Michel declared, sure of what he declared.

"He is right. A few hours outside should be fine. But magic or not, we should head in as soon as someone is feeling the first sign of frostnip. Which can occur as fast as fifteen minutes under 25 degrees Celsius. It's possible. But we need to prepare like ever before and be prepared to set the camp back up as soon as we head out, cause we don't know how many kilometers we will be able to endure under that kind of weather."

And so they started preparing like crazy while contemplating the raging seven-ring spouting out its snow like an ice volcano.

★☆★

That bittering cold was an entirely new definition of a hostile environment. It took them three trips to make it through the junction corridor and get to the true raging heart of the storm.

The only good thing was: once they reached the other side, they finally had the wind in their back instead of in front of them. The temperature difference was actually causing the wind of the junction corridor itself. But the wind of the ring itself? It was moving in the opposite direction and toward the source of the cold. Or so Sophia thought.

But at least, aside from the debilitating cold that penetrated even deeper into their bones, the ring was clear of all threats.

It was purely a man vs the environment challenge. But in this case: it was more than enough, especially as the weather was getting colder as they kept going, confirming all of Sophia's fears. They were indeed moving in the direction of the cold and only the wind was remaining constant.

But the more they progressed, the harder it was to keep going and their break had become more and more frequent to avoid frostbite. And so, the team had picked up on the igloo idea not to overly rely on Prince for shelter.

And they would use magic to warm up blankets and candles as well as their own body heat to warm up each other.

"Okay Everyone, it's time for a check-up," Moana declared cheerfully and everyone groaned. "I know what you are feeling but if you got frostbite and can't even feel it, that's actually bad news. So let me double-check so we can all go on with our prep."

Of course, she was right. Safety first and she already prevented several people, not from getting frostbite yet, but from getting sick in the middle of that storm which would be equally as bad. The cold was irritating. And it all affected them on different levels.

And for Sophia, it was the lungs. Breathing in a scarf was not helping but actually better than doing without. Her body wasn't used to that kind of temperature and she was always on the verge of falling sick. She had so many layers of clothes to protect her frame from the cold that it felt like a damn corset.

Everyone needed medical attention at this point at they kept pushing into the extreme cold.

They did not have a thermometer and no one got any frostbite yet. But the snow was a dead giveaway that it always had been below zero and they could feel it actually worsening as they pushed through.

They weren't at the fifteen minutes under -25°C Moana had warned them about.

But they were pretty damn close.

Forty minutes.

That was how long they could still push through before the cold became so uncomfortable that they started to feel it in their extremities. And that always had been Moana's call for them to start setting up for camping.

And thanks to magic by the time they were done, another twenty minutes had elapsed, resulting in a full hour trip outside.

A quarter of what they were supposed to stand at -25°C.

However, the human body did not function on a linear scale.

-10°C was far worse than twice -5°C. But without a thermometer, it was impossible to reconcile their feelings with the hard facts. For them, the temperature felt several times colder than it actually was.

They would then warm up for an hour or two inside the igloo before going for another forty-minute push.

They were running that ring at a pace of four hours in day. For an average speed of eight kilometers per day. A speed so slow that it would take them 35 days to reach the next junction point, and that was if they were lucky.

Even compared to the 23 days that the jungle ring took them, essentially out of safety precautions. That one was far too extreme. But Sophia had a feeling they would reach the source of the cold even before that. Or die trying to reach it, whichever came first.

There were now three days in and things were starting to settle into a routine.

They would push for forty-minute runs about six times a day. Then recover for two hours in between. And at the end of the day, Prince would summon their shelter, which they voluntarily buried in snow because, for all its worth, the insulation of marble was really cool in the summer but less so in the winter, when the stone needed to absorb a lot more heat in its mass before it started sharing it back.

Otherwise said: they needed the natural insulation of snow to ensure, most of their body heat would be redistributed inside the shelter. But unlike the igloo, they could start a real fire inside the shelter without endangering their lives, with monoxide intoxication sure, but also because of the thickening layer of ice that was adding up to the igloo each time they were heating it up too much, reducing its isolation and therefore, its durability.

They kept burning candles for heat and cooking though.

But the candles needed daily maintenance re-smelting them and changing their wick with rope - they had never been so happy they stocked up so much - not even counting their obsessing over making sure not to lose any waxes.

All in all, they were sufficiently occupied every day, even moving at this snail's pace.

But necessity also started shifting Prince's opinion about his own shelter, from a curse in disguise to something slightly less negative. The cold was affecting him in ways the others could not understand, as he had kept stubbornly flying by their side instead of using his paws and claws to secure his footing. And so, with the extra exposure from the cold air, even if the wind was carrying him in the right direction, he was tiring and cooling down a lot faster than they did.

It had been driving Moana crazy as she had been arguing with Prince about how even first-stage frostbite might be cause for amputation in the case of his wings. As there was little more than skin over bones there, his feathers put aside.

But so far, the Tressym pride had won over all her arguments and he had found his one way around the issue — probably magic though no one had dared to ask the grumpy cat — to keep pushing far beyond everyone thought he could.

Though once it was finally time to settle for the night and conjure up their shelter, Sophia had noticed that Prince was slightly more enthusiastic than he used to be. In the face of death by exposure to the cold, even the most hated place would feel homily. And that was exactly what was happening here. By sheltering them from an even worse experience, the shelter was slowly amounting to positive reinforcement in the tressym mind and was probably helping to counter -if not heal - years of trauma associated with that place that shelter was picturing.

If anything, the trauma was probably still there, but slowly moving on from its material triggers. Which was good enough for Prince day to day life: at least it would be less painful.

But more than anything, the cooking and bonding time around the fire, in the hearthplace, and the real reason they needed the shelter, had helped the tressym come around more than anything as he enjoyed the heat of the fire just as anyone else. The warmth of the conversation was starting to grow on him too.

Who would have thought that he would take an unknown temperature far below zero degrees Celsius to finally crack that nut? But finally, the team was feeling truly complete, with everyone contributing harmoniously in the face of absolute adversity.

And yet, every single night, Sophia could not help but look at the clear sky and untiring sun through their only window that was clear of the snow. Every night observing their progress on the ring, always going 'higher'. Or so she chooses to perceive it like this on this floor with no ups and downs.

There was hope at the end of their journey up the floors.

Sophia was sure of it.