Time was up.

And in the end, despite their efforts and many attempts, only Michel had acquired a boon — of all things, a meditation boon — during those four months. Paolo had been claiming he was close for weeks but wasn't getting anywhere. And so were Moana and Sophia.

The perception training game? They had repeated five times and had a lot of fun doing so. But no one got the perception or combat awareness boon it had been designed for. And though Michel technically got his new boon thanks to it, it was to help him counter the adverse effects of the perception boon he got on the fifth floor's resting area. A boon he always kept quiet about to the point Sophia had gotten oblivious about it.

And so she was, discussing with Prince and venting her frustration on the eve of their departure.

"It doesn't make any sense! Michel got his boon in less than a week. And here I am, getting nothing after training for twelve weeks!" She shouted in the confine of the library, lashing out at the already emptied bookcase.

"I think you have some misconceptions about how truly hard it is to get new boons, especially unrelated ones," Prince stated back, prudently keeping his distance.

"Unrelated?" Sophia repeated menacingly turning around to confront Prince. "How about Archery and Survival Fitness? Don't they both heavily rely on perception? Enlighten me."

"Indeed. Both are altering your perceptions to serve its needs. But unlike Michel's precognition, they do not enhance it because it doesn't need to." Prince lectured, keeping his cool. "Besides, you never really wanted enhanced perceptions but some kind of advanced warning or danger sense to better defend yourself."

"So... you are telling me that you knew for weeks I was aiming in the wrong direction... but you kept it quiet!!!" Sophia snapped and lashed out, throwing some books at the flying cat.

"May I remind you again that I'm contractually obligated to do what I perceive is your best interest? Even if it is protecting you from yourself?" Prince curled into a ball and the far end of the library. "I just told you that Survival fitness is twisting your perceptions. And yet, you are unquestionably willing to double down on it."

That assertion did manage to give her pause.

"Please explain." She asked, keeping her distance.

For a couple of minutes, Prince did not say a word nor move a single whisker.

"Survival fitness enhanced your body and rewired your brain for survival. But just as Michel's enhanced perceptions, it came at a price: peerless instinct in exchange for paranoïa and sociopathic tendencies. So let me rephrase it: do you truly want to sharpen your sense of danger even further, knowing what it would cost you?"

Then, Prince's answer came as both a reminder and a reality check.

Yes, she had been well aware of survival fitness adverse effects. Yet, she had not only let it become an afterthought but also had let her boon-fueled insecurities get the best of her. How much of her former self would she have to lose before she learned her lesson?

"You're right." She admitted before she started chuckling out of nerves. "Of course you are. I've been losing myself to survive. But tell me: what else I am supposed to do?"

It was a real question. She knew exactly what she was becoming and she did not like it. But she wanted to live more. And so she stared at the tressym expectantly, awaiting his answer.

Though she actually did not expect anything from him. He was a smooth talker. But she knew from experience that they were nothing but empty words. A poor attempt at misdirection that unfortunately rang true.

And the tressym just stood there, shaking. Did he truly expect her to hit him? She had always been all bark no bite and utterly careful not to hurt him, even by accident. What sort of monster did he think she was?

"That's what I thought." She concluded. "Well. Thank you for finally telling me. I would have appreciated it if you told me sooner... but whatever. See you tomorrow."

And then, she left.

★☆★

Once again, Sophia had spent her last 24 hours getting prepared. There was no way to know how long it would be until they made it to the next floor. So the only way they could prepare adequately was to be prepared for everything, or at least prepared for whatever their limited intellect could conceive based on past experience.

The fifth floor had brought new things to the table: a completely different sense of scale, a large variety of new hostile environments, and an entirely new set of expectations after encountering their first sapient enemies.

True to its name, the tutorial had introduced those elements of increasing difficulty in a rather conservative and predictable manner. Yet, it was hard to predict what would come next. The tutorial had hinted that soon enough, they might not only fight against individuals but entire factions, organizations, or civilizations. But so far, the tutorial also had liked to surprise them with increasingly alien environments.

And Sophia had trouble imagining something more alien than a space station under zero gravity.

Granted, each environment had been bigger than the last and this new floor should be no different. There should also be some amount of verticality. And so far, the tutorial had not introduced any environmental hazard meant to kill, or nothing that would kill them right away at least. But beyond that? Everything seemed possible.

And given that empty room and its challenge metal door, it was obvious the tutorial had some nasty surprise in store for them. And it didn't want them to be prepared for it, despite all her team efforts.

But here they were and there was no point delaying any further. Even Moana reluctantly agreed that enough was enough and that they had to get on with their lives. And to their grieving friend own admission, if the respawn pods were to activate yet again, only to give her false hope and see their unwilling guest get to the next floor before they did, she would get mad.

Hence, they were finally moving onward and crossing the threshold to the small empty room.

Only to be immediately ambushed by an unexpected system notification:

Welcome humans and congrats!

You safely made your way to the sixth floor and are well on your way to clear the first half of the tutorial. In reward for your efforts, special rules are coming into play for this floor:

-For each representative and upon entering this floor, a chest reward has been randomly hidden somewhere.

-Each chest is identical and you can claim any one as your own. You would find that they all have content of equal value.

-However, should you claim more than one chest as your own, effectively 'stealing' that chest from someone else, the system won't prevent you from doing so, but you would find out that this behavior somehow has a diminishing return.

-Finally, if you do so wish, you will find that some of this floor inhabitants might help you leave that floor only mere hours after entering it, for a quite reasonable price. Every and all challenges of this floor are entirely skippable. But conversely, you would find it hard to back down from one such challenge once involved.

So choose wisely! This floor is going to offer you as many challenges and opportunities as every previous floor combined. And remember: your success or failure will determine how many humans, if any, might be selected in upcoming waves and potentially, the fate of your species as a whole.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After carefully reading it twice, Sophia concluded that it should take no genius that the so-called tutorial reward was a poisonous gift, probably meant to pit them against one another, to make them waste time on that floor instead of advancing further, and finally, to attempt one extra time to weed out those the system deemed unworthy. All in all, it was the tutorial doing its worst to challenge them both physically, mentally, and morally.

To what purpose, however, Sophia wasn't sure.

The announcement made it clear that the system set them up for this. And yet, it also emphasizes the fact they could choose to walk away and have no part in it all. It was a sort of sick game where the only clear win was to refuse to play. And yer, as everything within the tutorial, it couldn't be so simple.

It was a test. And as with every test they had gone through so far, they were going forward with one eye closed. They were perfectly aware they were missing something. But they would never truly be able to figure out what. The only thing they had were guesses.

"So are we going to aim straight for the seventh floor?" Michel asked pragmatically and straight to the point.

"I won't give up on the chain chest puzzle until we meet that R person," Sophia replied, categorically. "However, I won't risk anyone's life over it. I think we should find out where the exit is as soon as possible and then, discuss how to proceed from there."

If it boiled down to it, Sophia was ready for a second solo adventure before regrouping on the seventh floor. But first, she would have to try to assess the situation they were currently in. She would worried about it when they got there. However, for the time being, the only way through was forward and there was no point overthinking it:

"I say we keep it slow and conservative about exploration. Let's be cautious and try not to get 'involved'" She concluded before moving on to open the heavy metal door. "Help, please?"

Then, their efforts were rewarded by an assault of light and sounds.

★☆★

It was brighter than they were ever used to because they could see the sky from every direction, including from under them.

They were on some sort of sky islands archipelago hanging from the branches of an impossibly giant tree, so distant and hidden by the cloud that they couldn't properly see it.

Then there was the flow of water from the waterfall and trickling from vines everywhere. None of the falling water was truly lost and even under them, there was yet another sky island, about a hundred meters under them.

They were on the edge of a rocky, inverted spire formation, connected to the island's main body by a mere stone bridge, about ten meters long for only half a meter wide.

And in front of them, on the other side of the bridge, a huge lake nested in the middle of the island and crowned with lush forested hills and one solitary snowy peak almost reaching the islands above.

The second-floor jungle had been wild, the third-floor valley, picturesque, and the fourth-floor, a textbook fantasy forge. But this floor... This scenery was awesome. And kind of reminded Sophia of both the floating islands of Avatar, the kingdom of giants of Jack and the Beanstalk and maybe of Gulliver's Travels added to the mix.

It was yet an entirely new height on the high fantasy scale, larger than life, bigger than Earth both figuratively and literally. Even the branches they were hanging on were hundreds of kilometers long and kilometers thick. And she didn't even want to think about the tree it originated from.

"Please tell me we won't have to climb that damn tree to the top," Michel exclaimed, rarely that demonstrative about his emotions. It would usually have been something Lono would have said... and it was yet another painful reminder he was gone. No more companion to voice out what they all had been quietly thinking.

"I don't think so. Climbing that tree alone would take decades. And that counting without whatever challenge this floor would throw at us. Plus, the system did promise this floor exit could be reached within hours." Sophia summarized all the reasons she could think of to dismiss that catastrophic scenario and Michel nodded. He knew as much too, and just needed confirmation that they were on the same page about this.

"No point hanging around here." She concluded. "And I don't want to get surprised here if the wind ever picked up."

And so, she started cautiously getting across the stone bridge to the island mainland with the rest of the team following right after her.

And she aimed straight for the lake. The past two floors had taught her the importance of keeping herself hydrated and not taking that precious resource for granted. Despite the lake and the waterfall, they were no guarantee their fresh water supply would stay that abundant. So she emptied one of her bottles and refilled it immediately. If there was something wrong with this water, they would know it before sunset.

"Sophia, you should look over here," Michel warned her, pointing her out in an approximate direction on her left.

And so she did.

There, in the distance, about fifty meters away, was a tiny stall about half a meter tall, covered with a bright multicolor patchwork fabric and a wooden sign hanging with an oversized hazelnut painted on it. And manning the stall was a squirrel sitting upright and waving at them from behind its counter. It was so cute that Sophia had to reign herself not to rush and squeeze the poor creature.

"Awww. It's so freaking adorable. Hope it's not a trap cause that would piss me off to no end." She thought out loud, speaking to no one in particular.

"Many people are calling 911 after trying to pet a squirrel so I would advise against it," Moana said casually. "Otherwise, I don't see any reason not to say hello to this creature. It's obviously not an ordinary squirrel."

Paolo quietly nodded and so they casually made their way to the creature's stall.

"Welcome to my humble shop, strangers." The squirrel greeted them. "I'm Scruffy, an information broker, and trader of nuts and lost things."

Scruffy? It was a strange choice for a moniker. Or its parents must have been needlessly cruel if it was its true birth name. But that was beside the point. That squirrel grey furr and its tiny shop looked pristine.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sophia and here are my companions, Michel, Moana, Paolo, and Prince. What sort of information are you trading for and how much would that cost us?" She asked straight to business.

That little information broker might be one of those floor inhabitants who would help them get to the next floor faster for the right price that the system had hinted to them. And surely, the squirrel prices should be reasonable.

"If you are willing to part with those caramelized nuts I'm smelling in your backpack, I would tell you everything about this region's settlements, how to get there, what they are needing and trading for, as well as their local rulers, the law of the land you need to abide by and the threats you need to watch out on your journey. Finally, I have a magical map for sale but I would only part with it for something of greater or equal value."

That squirrel was suspiciously offering a lot for a few caramelized nut bars. But arguably, that was prime survival nutritious food and the creature could only tell them what it knew, which should not be a lot, even for a talking squirrel.

So she took one of the bars out of her backpack and gave it to the squirrel.

"Gave us a teaser. If I'm satisfied with what you have to say for this amount, I made eighty bars of this stuff and I'm willing to part with half of it. Now, start talking." She challenged the squirrel.

"You are currently in the Mapplefalls Archipelago region, at the far edge of the Yggdrasil lower branches and the crossroad between the Material Plane and the Feywild. The local overlord of this island's city, Astaria, and one of the five powers of the archipelago is a Fey Dragon running the local Arcane School of Magic. Astarot is responsible for the many talking birds and rodents such as myself you will find on this particular island.

He is famed for being wise, knowledgeable, and benevolent. But I would still advise you to keep your distance. This particular dragon is hoarding people and would go to extreme lengths to increase the size of its hoard. Beware not to accept anything from him or you will find yourself trapped under a feywild contract into his services.

And I think that much is already enough for the amount you gave me. I have yet to tell you about the three other cities I know about. And I won't reveal anything truly valuable until I get paid. So, what do you say? Interested?"

It was a really satisfying answer to what she asked for. But first, she needed to make sure there was truly more the little squirrel was holding back and gave him fifteen bars.

"Those are for you to give me a similar rundown about the three other cities, their respective island quirks, and their rulers. Then, if I'm satisfied, I will give you six more bars for each city's exact locations, the local threats on the road, and the local trades and customs you promised. Deal?" Sophia bargained.

"Deal." The squirrel replied with a shrewd rodent smile.

And then, the squirrel gave them the true picture of the entire region, only stopping to hold its tiny hand when it was time to pay up for the extra details.

It turned out that the separation with the feywild was truly paper thin and that Fey crossings, the name of those areas where the two planes collided, was the only way to travel between islands within the Mapplefalls Archipelago.

There was also a fifth city, only accessible from the feywild, and Scruffy admitted knowing next to nothing about it, except that it existed only on the feywild side of the archipelago and that it was located in the central island, the origin point of the falls from the Mapplefalls, far over their heads.

And given the tutorial's tendency of making them climb up to reach the next floor, it was probably where the promised exit for this floor was located. And from Scruffy's intel, they could indeed reach it through Astaria in less than a day.

Finally, satisfied with the information, the team agreed to acquire the magical map the shroud squirrel had teased them with. And having very few things of greater or equal value they could afford to trade, Sophia managed to strike a deal with potions. It had cost them the two third of their alchemical supplies.

But Sophia was convinced it was worth the investment.

Just like her magic, the Feywilds were unstable and ever-shifting. And the map Scruffy had sold them was the real deal: it updated in real-time and was actually a ten-map bundle of the entire archipelago from both sides.

Yep. It was truly worth every potion Sophia had to painstakingly brew to pay for it. And thanks to it, they might be able to avoid a lot of inconvenience on their way to the mysterious city a the top of this sky archipelago.