With the amulets dealt with, it was now time to imbue fire onto her arrows with her prismatic orb spell and roast the damn troll alive.

She could only cast the spell four times so she had only four shots she couldn't afford to miss.

That part of the plan had been simple: she opened with fire arrows, then Paolo would respond, surrounding the troll with acid thanks to shape water. And finally, the spaceship would open fire to finish it off.

Her first arrow hit her target.

But the acid wall never came and so did the ship finisher.

Paolo was frozen by Lono's side and the ship had gone awfully silent and unmoving. And so she was left alone to finish off the troll. And after outright attacking it, even her Luring Song could not save her anymore.

But for the first time, the troll had been afraid and vulnerable. And so it smashed a lonely crate to turn it into a makeshift shield instead of charging her right away. That cautiousness on the troll's part had allowed her to cast another spell and shoot her arrow straight into the troll's face, effectively blinding it before it could get close enough, and then narrowly jumped out of the way.

If the troll had not been blind, she would have exposed herself to its attack.

But instead, she silently floated out of harm's way and landed on the ship, still silent and unmoving. Michel must have put the alien out of commission after what it did. Yet, she could still use the ship for one thing, by painting a target on it. If the troll attacked the ship instead of her, she could buy enough time for one last crippling shot.

But before that, she had to lure the troll there by firing her third shot and then, jump back to the flight deck wall.

When she would run out of spells, she would have to rely on acid and cantrip to finish the job. And so she sorely needed Paolo to snap out of it and help her.

Her third shot also flew true, scorching the troll's left arm and torso.

And the troll immediately responded to her taunt and jumped to the ship, starting to smash the ship's armor as it blindly searched for her.

In the meantime, she had reached Paolo. And after whispering his name, and shaking him as he stayed unresponsive, she finally finally succeeded in getting him back among the living by slapping him twice.

"Are you crazy?" Paolo shouted, incidentally getting the troll's attention.

"I get it. Lono is dead, right? But the troll is still breathing and I need your help. Now, help me raise up a bubble of acid before he got us, okay?" She ordered.

And with their joint efforts, they managed to put a bubble of acidic water right on time on the troll's trajectory before it reached them and under the pressure watched it blindly close in as if in slow motion. It wasn't like the troll could do anything to change its fate. Yet the troll had been and still was a force of nature. And it was hard to believe something that strong was still their equal in the face of death.

And then, it hit the bubble head first and immediately realised its mistakes, thrashing wildly to try a get out of that nasty trap. But soon, he had gone entirely through the bubble, which exploded but still took most of its momentum with it.

The troll was hovering in the air, nastily burned by both her fire and the acid, but somewhat still breathing. But at this speed, it would take hours to get to the walls, and even more, Sophia would ensure with her every arrow to decrease its momentum even further.

Imbuing her arrows with her bone-chilling cantrip, further negating the troll's regeneration, she started turning the troll into a porcupine until it finally stopped breathing.

Then, she jumped to the troll to confirm it wasn't feigning death and finish it off if it was. It wasn't. And also to recover her arrows as her supply was still desperately short.

Predictably, most of her arrows were now scorched or broken. But still, she diligently took back every single one. The tutorial always repaired broken arrows in her possession. But Sophia was still unwilling to test out what would happen to her lost ones.

Paolo joined her and started cutting and collecting the troll's blood in some vials. But with no gravity and the troll heart that stopped pumping, the blood was more likely to coagulate before they collected any. And so they had to do the unthinkable and practice first aid on the troll, not to revive it, but to ease the blood out of its veins. A really awkward and gross thing to do but still.

In the meantime, Sophia distracted her by getting news from Michel.

Hey! The troll is dead. And so is Lono. How are you doing on your side? Are you trapped inside the ship?

The answer took longer to come in than it usually did.

I thought about it and knocked the alien off instead of killing it. And Moana 'forgot' to give them their potion. Can you believe it? Anyway, we royally fucked up and lost our only frontliner we can't communicate with. Lono is on his last life, right? Not to be pessimistic but what are the odds Moana would get to see her brother again?

Even for Michel, that message was highly unusual. Not that the diviner rogue would ever admit being shaken by a companion's death. But Sophia wasn't so blind as to not realize something had been going on between the two. They clearly had a privileged friendship that no one else on the team shared. And now, it was gone.

I did promise not to leave anyone behind. But turning back and roaming the entire first ring aimlessly isn't gonna help. It would take months and with no way to communicate we can't tell him to wait and that help is coming.

Sophia did not mention Lono's suicidal tendencies or his crippling fear of spiders. Michel probably knew him better than she did. But she could not resolve herself to take the pragmatic decision she knew she would regret forever.

It's okay. I know you cannot make miracles and I'm not in denial like Moana. Lono is dead to us. And even if he somehow survives, we have to trust him to find his way back to us. Now what?

So Michel was already at the anger stage of grief. He was trying to play cool and downplay it. But Sophia could still feel it through its every word. And it made echo to how she felt.

I'm going to retrieve his body and get to the spaceship roof. He deserves better than being left drifting on the flight deck forever. I need you to convince Moana that we need the alien to land and open the door. Then so long they do not kill them, if she wants to torture them for an entire week before we go to the gangsters' HQ, I would let her.

Else, there is something else the team needs to discuss, in person, but wrong timing and it would be better if Moana is otherwise distracted. I don't want to get her hopes up or for her to get the wrong idea.

Then, Paolo barged into the conversation for Michel's benefit:

It's about the chain chest, right? Now that the troll is gone, we can get it, and it's Moana's turn. She is probably going to ask for a way to get her brother back. What about it?

Paolo was sometimes awfully perceptive but now was the wrong time.

We will discuss it in person.

Sophia concluded, putting an abrupt end to the discussion.

Though they never named her explicitly, that mysterious R claimed to have something Moana needed, at the time they were writing. And unless the system could somehow predict the future, it was probably NOT what Moana desperately wanted right now. And with Lono gone and that outsider who had already claimed one of the chests, recruiting them to the team was the only pragmatic way to solve the chain chest puzzle. But Moana would take it wrong that Sophia even considered it. The girl would feel like they were trying to replace her brother.

As if that was even possible...

Sophia had not been particularly close to Lono. He had been more like a friend's friend and someone she had grown to acknowledge for his many contributions to the team and his cheerful demeanor. But Lono had probably done more than anyone else to keep the team together and was most likely responsible for the fact Michel was slowly opening up to the team. Those were not things that could be replaced. And that was not accounting for his many talents that were lost to the team now that he was gone.

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And so Sophia took her revenge and frustration on the troll's ravaged torso and zoned out until Paolo asked her to stop. But what truly made her stop was his look. He looked frightened as if she had turned into some sort of monster.

Maybe she had been lying to herself and Lono's death had been affecting her more than she thought.

Cause she too did not recognize herself anymore.

★☆★

Shortly after they were done with the troll, they received Michel's notification that the potion took effects and the prisoner came back to their senses.

And then, only twenty minutes later, the ship landed and the door opened.

Sophia had expected that it would take hours and was honestly surprised. And so she said to Michel as they were welcomed back to the ship.

"You were fast!" She exclaimed. "Good job handling the prisoner."

"Thanks," Michel replied awkwardly. "But it was mostly Moana's doing."

"What? She guilt-trips the prisoner into opening the door?" Sophia rolled her eyes.

"Nope. Quite the contrary: She went mental after Lono's death. And she threatened to surgically remove their 'soul' if they did not cooperate immediately."

"Come again?" Paolo asked, confused.

"Those aliens think that their psionic powers are their souls." Sophia quickly explained before asking Michel for further details. "I can understand her feelings. But how did she plan to do that?"

And so Michel retold their point of view of the fight:

"After it had become clear that the prisoner 'clumsiness' was no side effect of the potion as they claimed, they tried to mind control Moana to support their mutiny and use her as a meatshield. She resisted his psionic attack but it created a link between them. A link that she planned to exploit to find and excise the alien part of the brain responsible.

She was confident she could do it and the alien looked convinced enough after she gave them a gruesome detailed plan for the surgery. Not only did that immediately break their spirit but she got some shady field surgeon boon from it. I can't tell you what. She immediately asked to be left alone afterwards, unless the prisoner got uncooperative again."

It was understandable. Moana had lost her brother and bent her ethics in a few hours to get the only revenge she could afford. And even doing so, she did not get to put her brother's murderer through the torture she so vividly pictured for them. And the system notification probably just added fuel to her inner fire. But while Sophia could sympathize, it wasn't a good time to put herself in the other girl's shoes. And so she focused back on what truly mattered:

"And the prisoner?" She asked.

"They are still on the bridge." Michel pointed in their general direction and shrugged, "Prince is watching over them like a hawk. Though if you ask me, I don't think there is much of a fight left within them. They do value their precious 'soul' more than their life."

"Good to know. But I'm going to join Prince anyway." Sophia concluded. "It doesn't have to be right now. But you should let Moana know she can say goodbye to her brother whenever... If she does so wish. And before we leave. And I know that attention would probably sound better if it's coming from you."

Michel nodded gravely. They both knew that Moana would probably say no. Lono wasn't dead and she would never give up on him. Seeing his corpse might even distress her more instead. But she had to offer. And with no way to communicate, all they could do was to leave messages behind for him to find, and hope he would survive and go find his way back to them.

That idea at least was worth mentioning the next time Moana would be in a talking mood.

But now, however... it would be premature.

★☆★

Things had changed incredibly fast after that.

Angry words had been exchanged. Moana decided to leave a message with the troll and her brother's corpses. And then, demanded that they got the hell out of here, which the prisoner complied with renewed zeal.

And then, they got to experience space travel for a short time, as the ship navigated out of the armillary sphere.

But even that had been fast and short-lived.

Cause the ship reached a space ring portal that the alien claimed to be their tickets for the nearest station on their way to the headquarters. But it turned out to be something else entirely:

It was the floor exit, barely a few kilometers away from the space station.

And again, that was changing everything.

They had been steeling their resolve to either infiltrate or carve a path in blood on their way to the exit. But here it was, so very close to them. And suddenly most of their efforts to get there, all the sacrifices they had made as well as Lono's death turned out to be for nothing.

They could have just been arrested by the security robots and sent straight to the next floor. Even with the troll on their tails, they probably could have done it in time. Lono could have still been with them as they went to the next floor. And had they known the chain chest had been stolen somehow, and that crucial information about the floor exit, they could have skipped to the next floor months ago.

But they did not know and made yet another wrong assumption about the floor rules, regarding that criminal organization. As it turned out to be nothing but flavor on an otherwise chaotic floor, with an equally chaotic theme.

'Zero gravity or the loss of points of reference.' That's what that floor should have been called.

First the spider, then the zoological deck, then the frozen hell, the residential deck, and finally, the upper decks fuckery: Nothing on that station seemed to make sense. And when the floor finally threw a bone at them to explain things, it turned out to be irrelevant anyway.

This time around, they got nothing for solving that shitty puzzle of a floor except pain and loss.

And unlike the other times, Sophia did not get that alone time and that sense of closure before crossing the floor exit circle. This time around, they all passed through it at high speed before they even got the time to react.

One moment, Sophia had been on the ship, realizing what that space ring portal truly was, and the next, she was back in the void. Actually, she had been back to the void before she had been even able to fully process the information.

But it was okay. The system was nothing but patient:

Criminal Mastermind Archetype Sneak Attack Hide Disengage Roguish Ingenuity

You can intuit actionable weaknesses of any foes you have an advantage against.

Advantage is acquired by things like utilizing the terrain, getting the upper hand in a fight, surprising your opponent, or sneaking behind them. Get creative!

You get a preternatural sense of stealth akin to precognition to help you prevent being discovered.

You can further hide from enemies by muffling the sound of your steps, sticking to the dark, and avoiding enemies' sightlines.

After taking a hit, drastically increase your ability to evade getting hit again, for six seconds.

You also get a preternatural sense of danger to evade projectiles aimed at you while fleeing combat.

You choose a specialization for your Rogue Archetype among 12 different choices.

Once selected, you must go through with your specialization selection, which becomes an integral part of your Primary Archetype and cannot be undone.

Magus Weavesinger Archetype Song of Rest Grieving Song Faerzress Wild Magic School of Song

Once per day, you can sing to the Weave to revitalize yourself and your allies.

Everyone who can hear your song recovers from physical or magical fatigue and gets a significant boost to their natural healing.

Commoners enjoy gathering for lunch breaks and listening to a bard Song of Rest, improving productivity by 50% for every workplace benefiting from it.

Your song is blessing the dead eternal rest, repulsing any undead and causing most necromancy spells within earshot to critically fail.

Though highly unpopular, this rare complementary boon to its cleric equivalent is highly sought after for funeral services and the occasional mass graves, especially on the battlefield.

Attune your Feywild magic to the Faerzress, the magical energy found in the Underdark.

While on the surface, this will stabilize your magic further, so long you make regular trip to the underdark.

While in the Underdark, this will temporarily empower your magic, making your spells more potent and your surges, even wilder.

Through magic specialization, you gain access to the School of Song spell list, starting with a cantrip of your choice.

The School of Song is mutually exclusive with Necromancy, Divination, and Evocation. And specialist of this school often struggles to learn spells from their polar opposite philosophies.

Fighter Archetype Second Wind

Once per combat, you can draw on your stamina to heal yourself.

However, once the danger has passed, your fatigue will catch up to you.

You currently have:

[Criminal Mastermind Archetype (Primary): 5 ] [Weavesinger Archetype: 4/5 ] [Others: 0/5]

That time around, Sophia completely disregarded her primary archetype options.

Magus Arcana had transformed her archery into magical archery. And the magical boons she got access to thanks to her witch contract were now the most important part of her toolkit.

She was using stealth Weavesinging so much that it practically became her signature. Then, while recent, the combination of Weavesinging and Magus Arcana had soared to the second place. Her Luring Song also saved her skin against that troll and for that alone, it deserved its third place. Only her Song Healing was lagging behind cause she lacked the healing spells to improve it.

In comparison, except for Advanced Archery and Survival Fitness, she wasn't that satisfied with her Rogue Boon. Kingslayer was taking the lead as her only unwanted boon. But Dash had been situational at best. And Wælstów Arcuier... it had potential down the line as a bread earner and power multiplier, once she got time and experience... but as it was right now, it was essentially useless.

But first thing first, she thought that she had another no-brainer choice she now needed to acknowledge:

"Please remove the Fighter Archetype and its Second Wind boon. I'm not going to take it."

It would take a huge change in her fighting style to convince her otherwise. So far, her stealth and archery had protected her from harm. And similarly to the Disengage boon, she would be worried for her life regardless if she ever needed it.

Plus, if she ever burned through her five boon slots for a third Archetype, it would most probably be for magic. That wizard freak from the fourth wave had been right about one thing:

In a world of magic, spellcasters got to set the rules.