“That comes out to $2 115 000 split between you,” the young woman behind the counter confirmed. They had piled up their collection of cores and sold those in one batch to make the split easier, selling their individually obtained Aether Crystals, potions and whatnot afterwards to keep things separate.

“And for your crystals, and one mana potion,” having turned to Sam directly she was handling his side of the transaction afterwards. “This comes to $95 500, so your total share comes up to $2 210 500. It’ll be added to your account now.”

Sam got a pling on his phone signalling this number having been added. He didn’t pay much attention to Janik’s talk with her as he checked the bank app. The 150 000 they agreed on had been taken out of his account and with the remaining money he had from the last round he now sported $2 935 500 in his account. This time the amount didn’t even feel weird to him. But rather he felt the need to check the market if there was something good he wanted there.

Though the market was still flooded with random weapons and gear, he was more interested in Skills. Sadly, it seemed that others had the same thoughts and the available Skill Crystals were not only seemingly random every day, but they disappeared almost as soon as they were available. He couldn’t blame them, it made a lot of sense, people selling them as they came back and others buying them almost as fast. Since what you got was random, what was available also had to be random.

Due to this, there weren’t many interesting skills. Or rather, several of them were very interesting, but they were spells and needed mana. Unless they were altered or whatever his Invisibility skill had gone through, he couldn’t use spells as his Energy didn’t work. He required the Mana Conversion skill, allowing him to use an alternative energy source instead of mana. However, that skill wasn’t on the Market and even in historical data, it had only been there a few times, went incredibly fast and at those times cost 10 million...

Right now, Sam had only two choices, get a Spell he couldn’t use, or get some weapons or gear instead. This made him a bit conflicted. On one hand, he could always use better weapons or Armour, as could Dia. On the other hand, he would be going to the next Floor in not long, which should give him passive, though random, access to better gear. He was going to solo the coming Dungeon, so perhaps another weapon wouldn’t be a bad idea. He could afford a C-rank Armour barely better than the one he was wearing, but none weren’t available on the Market.

“Well... There’s not much good on here right now.” Sam commented to Janik, who was doing something on his phone after he was done with selling his stuff.

“We’re not leaving tonight, so you can check again tomorrow,” Janik replied as he put his phone back in his pocket. “TAC has winter clothing and the rest of the gear we need, so we can get that now so we don’t have to consider that tomorrow, but for other stuff, you can stalk the Market from your room or tomorrow?”

Janik didn’t seem entirely certain about how Sam wanted to do that, but he had a good point.

Sam knew that the market was random, due to logical reasons, and since they didn’t have anything else planned for the evening, he could always just check things until they leave tomorrow. Something neat might come up. The basics weren’t something that ran out of stock anyway, so getting the winter clothing, cold-weather camping gear, food, and drink wasn’t an issue either.

“Her fur helps a lot, but isn’t enough for the mountain,” Janik added, pointing at Dia. “For short times she was fine when playing in the snow but she got cold afterwards.”

Not having considered this before, Sam appreciated the info. It was winter outside on Earth but the weather within Aetheria didn’t match, it was more static. The island that Dia came from might not have had any seasonal changes, matching the rest of Aetheria. Since she reacted like she did regarding the snow it was clear it was the first time she had seen it. If this was the norm where her people came from then they might never have developed the needed undercoat for cold weather. Or something... Sam hadn’t studied how this worked.

Dia nodded in agreement to Janik’s comment. “Dia not like cold...”

Sam smiled, it was somewhat amusing that all that fur didn’t work as much as it might seem.

They spent the rest of the day getting the needed cold-weather gear. For Sam and Janik this was a simple thing that didn’t take more than a few minutes, but for Dia, it was a bit worse. Due to her digitigrade leg shapes and pants, it took a while before they found something loose enough so she could move properly in it. This did mean that the pants were several sizes larger than she would ‘normally’ wear, making it look rather funny.

Taking a mental note of this, Sam realised he might need to find a tailor or something that could make something custom for her, until this point she has been using a few dresses to at least keep her covered. During her time with Janik, or rather, the puberty-struggling boys in his group, she had gotten used to underwear as well. But that was about it.

Another problem was shoes, Dia’s feet were more like paws, making this somewhat problematic. Though her paws were much better than Sam’s human feet, at handling cold, Janik still recommended something as it could get very cold up there. Asking Dia what was a good idea here was also a problem as she had never worn shoes. Just trying to tighten something around her ‘feet’ was uncomfortable and weird for her.

In the end, they opted for something simpler, they found some shoes that fit well enough if they were needed. Another alternative was a leather bag with some padding to create some protection against direct contact with snow or ice. If it wasn’t needed then they could just ignore it.

After the gear was put in Sam’s Item Box, Sam took a moment to get some more of Elara’s venom on some toothpicks. He didn’t know if they’d be needed, and he had used a lot of them during his time in the last Solo Dungeon. Once she was out of daily charges, he ended up with a total of 37 venom toothpicks.

Before saying their goodbyes for the night, they talked it over with Elara and decided that she, as a cold-blooded creature, was probably best left back on Earth, she would get her share of the XP when he returned anyway as proven earlier.

The rest of the evening passed like most others. Sam used his collection of hands to try and find further ways to use them both in and out of combat, things not doable by normal hands. And though he had a few ideas and thoughts, none were practical at the moment. Ending up using his hand to play with Dia was amusing, even though they were invisible she was able to track them with a decently high success rate, explaining that she could through a mix of feeling and hearing, notice something being odd with the air where they were. But this was in a controlled scenario in a silent room, as soon as Sam started walking back and forth at the same time, her success rate plummeted.

Spending the time together he checked in on the market a few times before they went to bed, not finding anything interesting at those times either.

The next day, they woke up and went through their normal morning routine, meeting up with Janik for breakfast. Sam was a bit eager to get going. He was looking forward to the next Floor, but most of all, he was looking the most forward to finally getting to the Fourth Floor. That was where most of the Players were, and seeing a group of players outside of TAC was going to be neat.

“I have a question,” Sam asked as they ate. “If all Players need to go through the Final Dungeons of the different Floors, how do Crafters get there if they can’t fight properly?”

“Like me,” Janik smiled back at Sam, who looked at him with questioning eyes.

Janik kept smiling and continued. “They get carried.”

Sam chuckled. “That makes sense, so I suppose they also need to go through the same stuff.”

“Yeah,” Janik confirmed between chews of his food. “Since there isn’t a group limit for most Dungeons, I have heard of a bunch of crafters hiring a boosting group and just challenging a dungeon with 40 people or something. The drawback of doing that is that you get basically zero XP and rewards.”

Sam raised an eyebrow at the mention of zero rewards, though the XP would be split, there should still be the completion reward.

Janik seemed to realize and continued. “Remember I explained a while ago, how the System knows if you’re abusing things or not? If you bring a level 1 Player with you through the Final Dungeon of a Floor, he won’t get rewards?”

Sam nodded to his explanation, he remembered now, but this didn’t stop Janik from completing it.

“It seems they still get access to the next floor, but they’ll struggle with XP and dungeons. Though that’s a problem for combat Players like us, Crafters work a bit differently and won’t be doing Dungeons anyway, they just want to be where everyone is.”

This made a surprising amount of sense, Sam hadn’t considered that before but if a Crafter don’t need XP, or can get it in alternative ways, gaining normal access to a Dungeon doesn’t matter to them. And if they aren’t good in combat, it wouldn’t always matter anyway. There were most likely exceptions to this but as a general concept, it felt logical.

“Well, that makes sense. And I suppose a good, high-level, group could bring you from the first floor to the fourth in a day if they are organized enough. Would most likely cost a lot but if you split it between 40 people it could become somewhat manageable.” Sam toned this like he wanted his understanding confirmed, more than it being a matter of fact.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Pretty much. So you’ll probably find a bunch of Crafters on the Fourth Floor that are around level 20 or something, even though the Monsters there range between 60-80 or so.”

The statement of levels had Sam react, he knew the basics of the various levels on the different floors, but it just properly dawned on him that they were going to jump quite a few levels in danger.

“I just... thought of something... The different level ranges of the Second Floor, you said it was between 20-40 or so. We’re just level 24, is it smart to push on this much?”

“Ah, yeah, I thought the same thing at first,” Janik put down the glass he had just taken a sip from. “But high combat-focused people like you, don’t need to consider the levels as much as the raw stats. Like with us Players, the Levels are just a baseline for your available stats. If you think about it. Enough bonuses from items, skills or whatever, if you have enough money your level doesn’t matter anymore.”

Janik put pressure on the word ‘bonuses’ during his explanation, which Sam interpreted as the Ascendant hax he could do. And he had a good point. Sam started his level 1 with 4 Str, 4 Dex, 3 Vit and 11 Spt. The latter was boosted by his class and whatnot, but he started with 22 points. With 23 levels on top of that, he should have a total of 45, but in reality, his Spt alone was higher than that due to passive training, items and the shenanigans he could do.

His total calculated stats, including items and everything was 61, considering his starting 22 points this put him comparatively to a level 39 Player. Then came all forms of skills, Synergies and utilities on top of that... Not counting his lack of resource consumption so... Janik had a very good point. Sam’s class and build were also breaking the norm for his level, taking Janik as an example; since he was dual-wielding he could do 240 damage per hit for a total of 480, which was very good for level 24 according to the averages.

Sam’s total damage, with his collection of shit-tier weapons, would do about 900, not counting all the other shenanigans. And though his damage lowered dramatically if he used Invisibility, the fact that he was invisible...

He understood what Janik meant.

“Well... when you put it that way,” Sam had to agree in the end. Comparatively, he was already about level 40, if one just went on pure stats. If things were to be judged by levels alone he was where he should be for the end Dungeon.

Completing their meal, and with everything packed and good to go, they went for the Tower.

“I assume you have planned out our trek there?” Sam asked, not looking forward to a mountain trek before they even started on the Dungeon.

“Yes, we can do it in one of two ways. Either we can trek there, which is going to take us a few days depending on the weather, or we can pay someone $100 000 to fly us up there in a few hours.” Janik smiled, halfway hinting at his explanation.

“You’re having me pay to buy weapons of you, in Dungeons I’m grinding, and you want me to pay for the flight up there?” Sam had completed the statement before he realised how sour it sounded.

But he couldn’t properly hide it, he had commented on things through jokes before and... though he wanted to support his friend, buying weapons off him at cost was good but it was still a suppressed annoyance at times. It was true that Janik had it weirder when it came to money, and also true that Sam was somewhat cheating comparatively to other Players, but it was still dangerous work done.

He was still fine helping out and whatnot but this half-lashing out through a joke felt more personal than Sam expected of himself.

“Well... if you put it that way...” Janik’s smile faded. Not to the point of annoyance or anger, just to a more neutral expression. “I suppose it’s kind of hard to pretend that you’re not the sole reason I earned about 4 million yesterday... If I set that money off it’ll last until Noah’s moved out so... I suppose I can foot this bill.” His smile came back afterwards.

The return of Janik’s smile relieved Sam a lot. He didn’t want to become that guy in the group. He wanted to consider fairness as far as possible, he was also considering gearing up the group as a whole, which is why he simply gave away the gear Janik wanted when he came back. And though he wasn’t against paying for the stuff Janik got in his boxes if he didn’t need it... it still felt kind of weird.

Deciding to ignore it for now, he could bring it up next time there was some loot to split, if Janik didn’t bring it up on his own. Fairness should go both ways.

Janik had been checking a few things on his phone, and by the time Sam was done pondering, Janik was already on a call.

“Oh, yes, yeah... As soon as possible... Three... No, we’re fine... Yeah, that’s fine... Ok, that works fine, thanks. Janik Znai... Yep, see you then.”

Hanging up he turned to Sam. “That was very streamlined, I’ll pay when we get there and we just need to meet up and we have a booked flight. Regarding a return flight, we’ll be informed how that works when we’re there.” He smiled, looking happy about this.

Sam would have been a bit surprised, but it made perfect sense. If someone has that kind of speciality, then everything was prepared. They just needed to confirm the basics and perhaps a little checklist and they were off.

“Well, let’s go, then.” He smiled in return, he was both excited and wanted to get this over with.

Heading within the Tower’s influence they soon found themselves leaving the landing area on the Second Floor. According to Janik, all they needed to do was to go a bit further to the side than the village near them, and the transport would be waiting for them there.

They had been here a few times before, so it wasn’t that interesting anymore. Though Sam wondered how Dia would react to this. Sam hadn’t been in a helicopter himself, but at least he knew what to expect and what was going on. Dia had probably never considered something like that.

Janik led them there like it was routine, walking around the village and following a well-used road they found themselves at what looked like a little mini-village. It only had a few buildings but had several marked landing areas that had been flattened out properly, a large blue circle was painted on the stone ground with a white H in the middle.

A man was sitting on a collapsable chair and scrolling on his phone, noticing the group as they came close. He didn't look like he had shaved in years, his bald head covered with a dirty cap, he also wore a simple shirt and jeans held up by suspenders.

“Hey, you the guy on the phone 20 minutes ago?” He shouted as he lifted his head towards them.

Confirming with a nod, Janik walked up to him with his hand and reached out for a handshake. The man didn’t take it but instead started talking.

“We’ll leave as soon as you’re ready and payment goes through. I’ll take you there and land you near the entrance. If you want to be picked up we have a long-range communication device you can borrow, but it comes with a deposit you’ll get back after, just in case you don’t return. When you’re ready to be picked up you use it to get hold of us and hunker down for a few hours, it takes a while to get there, after all.”

Sam was surprisingly fine with his straight-to-the-point nature. Almost oddly refreshing.

Janik handled the finance side of this round, paying for the trip and going through the mini introduction for how to work the communication device, which was a fancy walkie-talkie with a super-long-range directional antenna.

As Janik was doing that, Sam took the moment to explain and prepare Dia.

“The top thing there will spin around really fast and make a lot of noise, after that, it will start flying with us in it.”

“Thing... fly?” Dia asked with an almost suspicious look.

“Yes, we will be in it and it will fly, it’s safe and will take us where we need to go.” Sam smiled. Naturally, he didn’t know just how safe it was, but all things considered, it was best to explain it as safe. He did have a backup with his Boosted Telekinesis if it came to it, but he didn’t want to even hint at it.

Dia looked extremely uncertain, nodding hesitantly but with determination. “Dia safe with Zar, Dia fine.”

The tone of her voice didn’t make it sound entirely believable, but she seemed determined to try.

It didn’t take long for the scruffy man to get into the chopper and start the process of getting the machine going. Dia’s determination faded swiftly as the machine’s chaotic noise increased, followed by the moving of air around them. Her expression was overtaken by confusion and uncertainty.

Sam was a bit excited at this, he always wanted to fly in a helicopter. Janik looked somewhat unphased which might have helped Dia. As Sam grabbed her hand, placing a Psyhand on her head to calm her a little, he started walking towards the helicopter as the pilot waved them in.

Dia’s determination was all but gone, her trust in Sam was enough to let her take slow steps towards the loud wind-monster, but she didn’t like it.