I may have acquiesced to Bruzigan’s team name because we needed to resolve this quickly, but I wasn’t about to pretend I was okay with it. “I told Edwin, it was one of the first things I said,” I muttered, “I told all of them, to their faces, I was not okay with being made into a superhero! Team Justice, may as well be The Justice League of Area 1...”

“Are you done, Lheticus?” said Bruzigan, “because we’re almost at the nest.”

I gave him a sheepish grin. “Yeah all right, I’m good.”

The monster type this time was a sort of bat-creature. They were individually the size of a big-screen TV when their wings were spread, they attacked with a sonic shriek that you couldn’t protect against or dodge for shit, and as if that wasn’t enough, they could also pelt you from above with acidic guano.

Yet for all that, the most troublesome thing was that they were more inclined to flee than fight if their nest was disturbed, meaning many A Rank Adventurers would survive, but fail to eliminate the threat they posed. There weren’t actually much more monsters to deal with than an average B Rank mission, but what we were doing was considered difficult even for A Rank teams, which is why we took it on—clearing this nest would reflect favorably on our case for making the S ranks.

It genuinely pushed what our teamwork could do, too. Arvallei manipulated the wind to keep them from escaping, Anna and Mewi called targets and buffed us, and Bruzigan, Ri’legh and I crushed, slashed, and burned them respectively. In less than five minutes, it was over and not a single one had escaped.

“I gotta admit, we are scary good,” I said. Ri’legh, Mewi and Anna were also in quite good spirits. Arvallei was a bit too tired to be as cheery.

“Don’t get cocky,” said Bruzigan, “remember, we’re still in the easy part.”

“Sorry, boss.”

However, it was the very fact that we were in the easy part of Floor 5’s mission that meant we basically had a free day once we got back to the nearest town. I was a little surprised when it first came up in our preparations that we wouldn’t be doing more than one A Rank request per day, but once I actually saw the list in the adventurer System, I understood that we pretty much couldn’t take more than one per day anyway—it was so short that even over the 5 days we were spending on them, we’d run out of them.

Over those 5 days, we completed a difficult A Rank task every day. Most of us had downtime after each mission, but I never saw Bruzigan at leisure when we were. Come to think of it, I never saw him at all.

The night before we were to be considered for higher adventurer ranks, I had another dream vision.

I found myself once again looking at a small, dingy apartment. Once again, Mewi and I were seated at monitors with holographic keyboards.

I threw up my arms, and made a noise that was half groan, half frustrated scream. “We can’t go on like this! Two more false leads today, this is worse than job hunting back on Earth!

There’s no getting around it anymore, Mewi. We need to take matters into our own hands.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“Let’s register as mercenaries. There’s no way we won’t come into contact with people similarly strong as us that way. We might even be able to sneak into Federation controlled space, somehow.”

“But...won’t we have to work for the AFL?”

“Don’t get me wrong, the AFL can go fuck themselves for starting this whole thing and destroying the safe zones. But they’re pretty much the only people to make money from in the Erkolls system anymore. And we’re getting very dangerously low.”

“What if they put us on a suicide mission first thing?”

“Then we’ll have the means, motive, and opportunity to defect back to the Federation straight away,” I countered, “I’d almost consider that the best-case scenario. I think we can pull it off—after all, we both have our ways of getting along with people, don’t we?”

Mewi sighed. “You’re right, we’re almost out of money. And we do make a good team as a pair. All right, let’s try it.”

“I’ll register us right away,” I said, pulling up a new site on my screen, “How’s Frostflame sound for a mercenary name for the pair of us?”

On checking the Memory Gem, I saw this vision had been placed as the third of what was now 7 of them. Checking the second one, it could have taken place directly after it for all I knew.

I had always been a punctuality freak, even back on Earth, so I was the first to arrive at the Adventurer’s Guild Central Branch other than Bruzigan.

“You didn’t bring Mewi with you? I’m surprised you let him out of your sight.”

“No monsters around here, and he’s strong and smart enough not to let anyone with a PK mission jump him. He’ll be fine. He wanted to take his time getting breakfast.”

“Ah.”

“Seeing as I got you alone...what have you been doing, while the rest of us have been relaxing and spending Floor gold?”

I more than half expected him to refuse to answer—so I was quite surprised when Bruzigan did. “Gathering information on other challengers. In particular, seeing if any other teams are taking on Very High or Extreme difficulty. So far, I’ve been in contact with one team with a Very High mission, and a few rumors of one more.”

“Is that good for us, or bad?”

“It could be either. So far though, it’s good. The team I got in contact with agreed to coordinate with us when the time for the final battle comes. That should just leave the other one—I very much doubt there are any others on this Floor right now. And unless nothing changes we’ll outnumber them 2 to 1 as well as outgun them. If we need to force cooperation, we’ll be able to.

Bruzigan turned to look at me, seeming to be thinking about something. “Since we are very alone right now...would you consider telling me about that secret power of yours? I can’t factor it into our battle plans if I don’t know it.”

“No.” I continued to look straight ahead, ignoring Bruzigan’s gaze, watching for the others to approach.

“Why not? You still don’t trust me?”

I did turn to look at him, then, giving him a hard stare. “I trust you, and Arvallei, Ri'legh, Anna...I trust this team with my life. But the day that I share that secret will be a day on which I trust you for a lot more than just that.

And the simple fact of the matter is, you’re better off not knowing. I’m not being facetious or something here. If the wrong person finds out my secret, it’ll mean a lot of trouble. If I tell you, and you even accidentally let on that you know, it would make trouble for you just with that. And at best, that would distract from our overall mission, correct?”

Bruzigan gave a long, dissatisfied grunt. “One of these days, you’re going to tell me.”

“One of these days, I’ll tell the whole team,” I said, “but only when I’m ready for the consequences.”