In the Neutral Zone, the Tower gave me a few minutes to recover before presenting its first notification.

[Would you like to use the Class Evolver?]

“No.” The completed Class Evolver was going to go to Mewi—he needed it way more than I did. And I didn’t think he’d have difficulty getting more high mission ratings to complete the other one once he had a Gold class—especially not if we stuck with the team we had.

That message dismissed, and a new one appeared.

[Congratulations on completing a hidden mission.]

[Hidden Mission Difficulty: Titled I]

Titled ONE?! There are even higher difficulties still?!

[Calculated to be greater than mission difficulty. Rewards are increased by 50%.]

[You have received 15 AP.]

[You have received a Qualification.]

[You have received Class Trait .]

[You have received a Title.]

Use unknown.

[A hidden reward is unlocked. Calculating...]

[You have received a Secret Scroll.]

Contains special information related to the . Can only be read by the recipient.

I’d gotten one answer only to be filled with a dozen more questions. But the Tower was far from done with me.

[Your class has responded.]

[+2 AP to Psych.]

[Select 2 Attributes to receive +5 AP.]

[Select 1 Attribute to receive +2 AP.]

I shored up Regeneration, which had fallen a bit behind, with one of the +5s and gave the other +5 to Strength, which was even further behind, giving the +2 to Resilience. By now, only those attributes, Sturdiness, and Psych were less than 100:

Floor Cleared: 4th

Health: 5,099/5,812

Stamina: 119/8,377

Mana: 187/3,200

Strength: 55

Speed: 108

Stamina: 112

Sturdiness: 91

Mana Pool: 110

Intuition: 118

Magic Power: 130

Regeneration: 72

Psych: 97

[You have received a spell book.]

1st Circle Fire Spell

Required Intuition: 70

Wreath yourself in a barrier of magic flames that reduces or nullifies damage from projectiles and slightly damages foes who make direct contact.

Huh. And here I thought there were no fire spells left I’d need in this Area. The Tower wants me to improve my defense?

Next was the mission itself.

[Congratulations on completing your mission.]

[Mission Difficulty: Extreme]

[You have received 20 AP.]

[Analyzing Mission...mission analyzed. Gathering Data...]

[Data gathered.]

[Mission Rating: 3.8]

I’d probably been penalized a little for insisting on saving Darril. But I was more or less satisfied.

[Mission Rewards]

Veil Glass Cookbook—Rimurl’s Recettes: Level 1 Magical Map 4.74 G4 Coins

I could tell that there was quite a crowd waiting for me outside the 4th Floor Extreme exit room of the Pantheon. I took a few deep breaths, not so much to calm myself as to recover myself enough to pretend that I hadn’t been nearly totally exhausted by the 4th Floor, bowed to the statues inside to collect a bonus point for all my attributes except Psych. Then, I walked outside and put into practice some age-old wisdom from a penguin named Skipper: Just smile and wave.

Edwin was once again waiting for me personally. Convenient, though he did get concerned when I basically collapsed as soon as the armored vehicle pulled away. “Are you all right?!”

“Stamina and mana potion reserves gone,” I managed, “can I have some time before you or Bruzigan debriefs me?”

“Of course, of course,” he said in a tone that certainly attempted to approach soothing, “I find it hard to believe it was this bad for you, though...”

“Long story. Tell you later. Me need shleepeh shleepeh.”

This time, I had no dreams at all.

I expected to wake up in some medical bay, but I was actually in a very comfortable bed in a rather tastefully decorated elite dormitory. Though there was quite a lot of dust—there weren’t a lot of strong pro Federation faction members without a lot to do, I guessed.

“Is anyone there? How long was I out?”

“About five hours,” said a blessedly familiar voice.

“Mewi! Somehow I didn’t even notice you in the car.” It was all I could do not to cry at how worried he looked.

“That’s because I wasn’t in it. Edwin said it would be better if I met you at the Dimension Gate so that I wouldn’t attract attention at the Pantheon, but he called and told me what happened. You should go see him now, if you’re feeling ok.”

I didn’t feel fully refreshed, but I wasn’t exhausted anymore either. I stood. “You’d better come too, I think. There’s some things I need to say that might be risky to say twice.”

He gave me a confused look at that, but followed me to Edwin’s office.

He was meeting with someone else when we arrived. “Lheticus, there you are. I do apologize,” he said, turning to the other person, a rather short humanoid, “we’ll have to pick this back up a little later.”

I took the vacated seat, and Mewi said he was fine standing. “Forgive my bluntness,” said Edwin, “but what the heck happened in there?”

I glanced around. It didn’t seem like there could be recording or listening devices hidden. “How confident are you in the privacy of this office?”

“Young man, I’d be a poor faction leader if I couldn’t guarantee my own privacy.”

“In that case,” I said, taking a deep breath, “have you heard of Titled difficulty?”

From how quickly Edwin’s face went pale, he’d heard of it all right. He and Mewi were totally silent as I gave an account of the hidden mission I triggered from the AzurePrincess route. Edwin cleared his throat when I indicated I’d finished.

“To answer your question, Lheticus, I have heard of it. More precisely, I have heard rumors of one or more difficulty levels beyond Extreme existing, and ‘Titled I’, until now, was merely one of many possible names that was supposedly what it was called.

And it is regarding one aspect of those rumors that I wish to ask you about now. In completing the hidden mission, among your rewards, was there something called a ‘Qualification’?”

It was my turn to pale a little. “Yes there was. Do you know anything about it, about what it does?”

“Several different rumors agreed that possessing a Qualification is required to access the difficulty above Extreme. Almost nothing any pro-Fed faction uncovered agreed on the method to obtain one. It could be that there are many possible, though prohibitively difficult, methods. But I thought it would make sense that completing a hidden mission on that difficulty would result in gaining it.

As to what further purposes Qualification may have, I know nothing. But I have not had contact with someone to actually possess one. Did you find out anything?”

“Well, there was one thing...” I revealed the trait.

“The trait is locked? I’ve never heard of a Trait of any kind being locked on reception. I’ve also heard nothing before this that suggested that it is possible to obtain more than one Qualification—a supposition this clearly controverts. I think,” here Edwin drew back and steepled his fingers in thought, “that a few things are suggested. First, that there are still two more difficulties beyond Titled I, each accessed with a further Qualification. The sudden addition of a numeral further suggests that most likely, these difficulties are known as Titled II and Titled III.

Combined with known rumors, I theorize that in order to gain a second or third Qualification, one cannot utilize the same methods that grant one’s first. In other words, just as Tower difficulty levels have an exorbitant amount of difference between them, it is most likely symmetrically more difficult to gain a second Qualification, compared to a first.”

He straightened his posture. “Forgive my ramblings. I am certainly not going to press you to explore this matter further. Compared to the unsubstantiated paucity we had before, you have already increased our knowledge on the phenomenon of Qualification and Titled difficulty astronomically. I will need time to consider an appropriate reward.

Now, return to your flagships. I apprised Admiral Bruzigan of your situation, and I’ve no doubt he’s eager to debrief you.” As I got up, nodding and turning to leave, he stopped me. “Something I must caution, however. I believe you were very right to insist on utmost privacy to discuss this matter. There have been certain indications that point to a third party’s involvement in the fall of the Sanctuaries—a certain underground organization of power that was previously unfathomable. However, I believe what you’ve revealed here today brings us closer to fathoming it. It is likely that this organization, if they rely on Titled difficulty rewards, is maintaining a near-monopoly on related information. If they were to discover your Qualification...”

I paled again. So did Mewi. “I can imagine,” I said. “What I’ve told you doesn’t leave this room, Edwin. Not even to tell Bruzigan.”

Mewi and Edwin both nodded at this, Edwin’s decisive, Mewi’s nervous.