As they were about to enter the main auction hall, Ray pointed to a large board with scribbles on it.

“Hey, look at that,” he said.

Gritty and Marcus both paused. Ray frowned at the notices on the board. The letters were strangely familiar, even though he was pretty certain they were in a script he couldn’t—wait, no, he could read them now. He blinked. The System’s translation was so strange.

“It says there won’t be an auction for another three days,” Ray said. “But…” He looked back into the hall. “It looks open now.”

“Read the rest, wingman.” Gritty was squinting at the notice too, going over it carefully line by line. “That’s a different auction, I think.”

“Right,” Marcus said. “There’s the main auction where successful competitors hold this big event to sell off their treasures. The rest of the time, the auction is more like a regular marketplace. It’s open, and we can purchase and sell things, but we can’t do anything regarding the tournament. Technically, we’re not even allowed to talk about our treasures.”

Ray rubbed his chin. “Huh. Three days, is it?”

Gritty turned her squint to him. “What you thinking?”

“I’m thinking if we can win one or more dungeons in the three days we still have.” Ray turned to Marcus. “Know where we can find out where they are and how we can get to them?”

“Already?” Marcus asked. “We only just beat one dungeon—”

“I just want to know where they are and when plus how we can get to them. We don’t have to go to them immediately, but knowing helps, you know.”

Marcus sighed. “Fair enough. There should be an Immortalizer Tournament booth somewhere around here too, so we’ll need to go talk with those people. They should be able to guide us. Some info will probably be restricted, but we should be able to learn enough to decide what we ought to do next.”

“Gotcha. I guess I can go look for them. You guys can check out the auction in the meantime.”

“Didn’t we just decide that we shouldn’t be separated? It’s dangerous.”

“Well, it can’t be that dangerous here,” Gritty said. “We’re in the Auction Hall. No one would cause a stir and get innocent people hurt. We’ll be fine, knight guy. But also, I’ve been wondering—if you can just get off and on our team whenever you want, what’s stopping you from collecting your own treasures?”

Ray nodded appreciatively. That was a good question.

Marcus shook his head, though he stopped when he was facing the doors of the Auction Hall. “It’s against the rules to combine treasures from different teams. Even if team members switch allegiances, they aren’t allowed to bring their old treasures. Otherwise, a couple of teams could just join into one big team and win the tourney.”

“That’s true,” Ray said. The gears in his mind were spinning fast. “But that sounds like a pain to track. Teams can potentially form so many different combinations. How would the organizers even track which treasure went where? I feel like there’s so many places where trying to allow people to leave and join teams can cause issues.”

“So you’d think.” Marcus shrugged. “I don’t know the exact details, but I do know that even if I quit your team and somehow got a treasure of my own, I wouldn’t be able to join back up and add my treasure to your collection. That’s just how it works.”

Ray’s brain was still trying to grumble at places where that could fail, but there was no point in pondering that right now. “I’ll go find the tourney booth, then. Let me know if you guys find anything interesting.”

“Will do!” And without further ado, Marcus more or less leaped into the main auction hall.

“Keep an eye on him, will you?” Ray told Gritty.

She sighed. “I wasn’t prepared to babysit a gambler, but whatever. Maybe I’ll find something curious.”

“Also, Gritty.” Ray looked at her squarely in the eye to impress the importance of what he was about to say. “We really do need to find a way to level up. We might have won the last dungeon, so even if we aren’t lagging too far behind the other competitors, they’re not our main antagonists. They aren’t the people who tried to destroy an entire Floor of this Tower.”

For once, Gritty’s dark eyes were serious. “I get you, wingman. I’ll see if I can find something.”

“I got faith you will.”

Ray let them handle things as he returned to the antechamber. It only took about a minute of searching before he found the tournament booth manned by two Sylvans in the same crisp uniforms that the registrars had worn back on the Tier 26 dungeon island.

“Welcome, competitor,” one of the Sylvans said. His voice was pleasant enough, his expression almost trained to be as receptionist-like as possible. “How may we help you?”

Ray wanted to ask how exactly the Sylvans were aware he was a competitor, but then again, was there a single human who wasn’t a competitor? Besides, like with the banker Halftyr, they no doubt kept track of what went on in the tournament and already knew a lot about him. “Hi. I was just looking for some information.”

“Yes, of course. I imagine your rushed entry didn’t allow you to go over our basic introductory materials for tournament participants.”

“Uh…” Well, that confirmed they knew him specifically. “No I haven’t gone through any of that. Please don’t tell me you have an Immortalizer Tournament Orientation or something.”

“We have a variety of information outlets for different individuals to take advantage of. We would like to be accessible to everyone as much as possible, after all. Please, take a moment to peruse through the options to see which one would work for you best.”

Ray had not been expecting that sort of… accessibility-minded thinking from people whose leaders were mostly concerned with conquering this Tower in the name of the Fleshcrafter.

It turned out there were indeed a lot of ways he could learn more about the tournament and its particulars. Pamphlets, little informational recordings that were both auditory and visual, and even the receptionists being willing to answer any questions he might have. Neat. Ray picked the last option because he didn’t want to get lost in the weeds, despite his curiosity.

“I’d mostly like a schedule or something along those lines to see which dungeons are available and when I can go to them,” Ray said. “And I want to learn how I can go to whichever dungeon I pick.”

The other Sylvan cleared his throat. “Of course, competitor. There is a list of dungeons and their winners, along with a list of as yet unconquered dungeons. It is available alongside all the other ranking lists. Those lists will have enough pertinent information to allow you to come to a decision.”

“Oh, alright. That makes sense, I guess.”

“The same goes for travelling procedures. The lists will contain the berth location and times for every dungeon, and you must simply appear there when the moment arrives. Registration, as you have discovered, is entirely in person.”

Ray had to wonder if there was any “online” component to this whole setup. Things he could do remotely and such. So far, it didn’t look like the Sylvans had their own version of the internet. It was curious because having advanced broadcasting channels suggested they’d have advanced personal communications too, though that didn’t appear to be the case.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Oh, right. They had the System chat. That probably functioned well enough fo interpersonal communication.

Accessing the various ranking lists was easy. So long as one had access to one of the viewing screens anywhere, one could navigate to the lists. It was like a TV with its own channel.

Ray found a somewhat secluded screen and navigated to the lists. Quite nice how it was gesture controlled. Almost futuristic, in a way.

The dungeon list was quite interesting. He himself was there, in the top third of the dungeons conquered, which were arranged according to their Tiers. The dungeon he had won was among the strongest, but still nowhere near the most powerful one.

That honour went to the Tier 38 dungeon. One that remained unconquered so far.

Ray whistled under his breath. He could only imagine what kind of acute pain a Tier 38 dungeon would be to get through.

Then again, that Tier 26 Obsidian Halls of Dark Reflection hadn’t been as insane as its Tier would suggest. Though, Ray supposed he had kind of cheated his way through it with his skills. He had been lucky. There was no saying he could do the same in the other dungeons.

Others had won some of the stronger dungeons. A Tier 32 dungeon had been conquered by a team with a strange name—Albatross. He frowned. They could name their teams? It should have been obvious, but the registrars hadn’t mentioned anything about naming. He supposed it had been a bit of a rush job back there.

Ray groaned a little. Gritty was probably going to have a lot of morbid fun once she discovered that.

Back to the list. A Tier 30 dungeon had been won by a group going by their names. Familiar names. It was Sameer’s group, with Eliza and Karkatrix. That made Ray quite glad he and his teams had foiled their victory in the Tier 26 dungeon.

It made him wonder why they had decided to go to a weaker dungeon. Had the Tier 30 dungeon been so difficult that they’d been forced to downgrade?

Between the Tier 38 at the top and the Tier 32 that had been conquered, two more dungeons lay open to proceedings too. A Tier 34 and a Tier 35 one. It wasn’t because the Tier had warded off other competitors. Their times just hadn’t come up yet.

Which was good, because Ray was eying them with interest.

The problem was that none of them would open before the first auction he could participate in, which would take place in three days as Marcus had pointed out. Going through the list revealed that a Tier 25 dungeon was the strongest one Ray could aim for if he wanted to get another dungeon under his belt before the auction.

That was even worse than the one he had just won, but ah well. His options were limited. Hopefully, the other two wouldn’t object.

“Oh!”

Ray turned to see a slim Ryous approaching from behind.

“I did not know someone else was using that screen,” he said. “I’ll come back later.”

“Oh, please.” Ray stepped back. It was rather refreshing to not have a fellow competitor act aggressive and hostile from the get-go. “I’m done here. Feel free to go ahead.”

The Ryous thanked Ray and took his place. He was tempted to hang back and observe just what the Ryous would have peeked at, but that was a blatant violation of the poor guy’s privacy. He’d hate it if someone was looking over his shoulder, after all.

Ray returned to the main auction hall. One side of the large hall was cordoned off, out of reach for everyone. But the rest was quite populated. Vendors had set up stalls, though most didn’t have much merchandise on direct display, and instead, used screens to show off goods.

It didn’t take long to find Gritty. She was hanging back a bit, arms crossed and sporting a strange expression on her face. It was almost like… fondness?

“What’s going on?” Ray asked as he entered. “You find anything yet?”

“Just a few small goodies,” she said.

“What kind of goodies?”

Gritty grinned at him. “Just some fun stuff here and there. You should take a look too, wingman. You might enjoy some.”

“Fun stuff, huh? What kind of fun stuff?”

“Here, I’ll show you.”

She was about to walk off, but Ray wanted to get a couple of things out of the way first.

“Hold on,” he said. “Did you find anything that can help us level?”

“Well… the Sylvans are apparently very cagey about that kind of thing. I did find a… dealer of sorts, who said he might be able to get us some of the Sylvan training crystals. Those would really help level up.”

“Oh shit, really? But that’s not legal, is it?”

“Well, we have to pick our poisons, apparently. The Sylvans don’t want to let us grow stronger beyond what we face in the dungeons.”

Of course the Sylvans wouldn’t want them to get any stronger. With what Ray and his allies had done to the Sylvans across both the First and the Second Floor of the Tower of Forging, the rest of the Sylvans would no doubt be quite wary of them getting any more powerful.

But that didn’t mean Ray was going to let them stymie his growth. He was well aware that the rate of growth promised by exploring dungeons wouldn’t be enough.

Not if he wanted to stop the Sylvans’ plan of converting this entire Tower for the Fleshcrafter.

“How do we know it’s not some kind of trap, though?” Ray asked. “Since the Floor Lord can’t take us out directly after the Tower Lord’s little congratulations, he might be resorting to more underhanded measures.”

Gritty tutted. “It’s not impossible. We’ll have to be careful. But yeah, I haven’t found anything else. Like I said, the Sylvans are really restrictive about this.”

Ray grunted.

They decided to gather up Marcus before heading out to meet Gritty’s shady contact. He was busy going through store after store, and for a second, Ray was distracted by everything on offer too.

One Sylvan was selling little “massage pads” as Ray understood them, though the Sylvan called them something different. Essentially, they were little patches he could attach to his skin, and once he was comfortable, the patches would begin simulating the feeling and effect of a massage around the area it was stuck to. That was honestly pretty neat.

There were other little curious goodies like that. Someone was selling furniture that could transform into various ones, like a bed turning into a table into a divan and so on. A Halftyr claimed his “medicinal remedy” would remove the need for bowel movements. There was even a Ryous merchant who was selling off arms. Literally. He was missing two of his own.

But in the end, Ray wasn’t interested in purchasing random goodies at the moment. Maybe if he was settling down here or something one day, which was, frankly, a ridiculous thought.

Here he was, thinking about inhabiting this Floor, while also trying to think of ways to bring down the people who ran it.

They found Marcus haggling with a Sylvan about a ring that could apparently pull any item pointed at towards the pointer.

“Two Mana pearls?” Marcus was asking incredulously. “Why are you trying to fleece me, man? I said my payment’s good. I can show you the receipts—”

“I care not for your deals with other merchants, competitor,” the Sylvan said. “If you cannot pay up front, then the deferred credit charge will be at least another Mana pearl.”

Marcus grumbled something that he probably ought not to say to the Sylvan’s face. Ray decided to intervene before he got too worked up.

“You alright, Marcus?” Ray asked.

He turned to face Ray, his troubled expression melting into a smile. “Oh, hi. You guys are back. Did you find everything you wanted to about the dungeon schedules?”

“Oh, yeah.” Gritty faced Ray with a curious glint in her eye. “What did you find, wingman?”

Ray explained about the schedules he had seen and how they needed to focus on the stronger dungeons to secure the best rewards. Of course, that depended on the assumption that the stronger dungeons should have the bigger rewards, but it was their best bet to go off.

He also mentioned what he thought ought to be their next target before auction day. They had to be ready for it in a day or so.

“But what about you, Marcus?” Ray asked. “Got everything you were looking for? Everything good?”

Marcus looked a little nervous. “Oh, yeah. All good. Just having a friendly debate about the price of certain items, is all.”

“Hmph.” The Sylvan merchant looked like he wanted to tell Marcus to take a hike. “That was the unfriendliest debate I’ve ever had.”

Marcus sighed. “Look, I’m sorry pal, I just don’t have the hard cash with me right now. But I will! I promise. You already saw we won big time, and I’m sure we can secure a good fund on auction day.”

“Wait, hold on.” Ray was starting to become a little suspicious and it wasn’t the good kind of suspicion. “What’s going on? What’s up with this deferred credit?”

Another sigh. “Like I said, I don’t have a ton of cash on me right now. So I’m going off credit promises. Essentially, I’m promising the future money I’ll have in my hands once we sell off the treasure we got in the last dungeon. With an unfortunate amount of interest, as our friend here is showing. One entire Mana pearl, fucking hell.”

“But—”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Marcus raised a forestalling hand after he saw Ray’s expression. “I’m keeping my purchases to a third of our total auction money. I’m obviously not going to use up your share of the treasure.”

“But Marcus,” Gritty said. “We haven’t sold it yet. How do you know how much it’s going to earn? You might be promising more than we can get.”

Marcus looked nervously between his teammates and the vendor, whose eyes were screwing in suspicion. Ray himself was getting a little worried about just how much Marcus had already spent.

“Told you.” Marcus was trying to project as much confidence as he could, though Ray wasn’t really mollified. “I’ve got experience with this stuff. Auctions and all that. I’ve got a baseline feeling of how much the treasure we got will go for, and I’ve kept the max amount of my purchases to the lowest estimate.”

“You can guess how much the treasure will go for?” Ray asked sceptically.

“Yep. So could you, honestly. You just need to see how the auctions work, what kind of people attend and how much they can pay, and you need to take a peek at one of the ranking leaderboards.”

Ray frowned. Then he blinked. “Oh, right. There’s already been an auction, where they sold items from higher Tier dungeons.”

“Exactly. Trust me, my math isn’t faulty. I’m being reasonable and careful.”

Ray still wasn’t sure he was satisfied, but he let it drop for now. He’d just have to keep a closer eye on things. They had more important issues at the moment.

“You know where to find this mysterious, uh, dealer?” Ray asked Gritty.

Marcus looked between the two of them. “What dealer?”

“I can explain on the way,” she said, heading towards the door. “Come on, follow me. It’s time we finally did some actual levelling.”