Corvayne woke up from a normal dream about patrolling or cleaning the gym at Mister I's old community building and forced himself to pull out a pad of paper and write down a number that had caused him to wake up.

[72.5%] - Dreamed Mister I was a lion-man, sweeping dust. Had to help. Didn't use points.

The thought almost immediately faded when he finished writing it. He settled back into bed between Hari and Wick, looking at rays of sunshine creeping in through a gap in the blinds. Got it this time!

The group convened for breakfast. At least, the inn thought it was day, as the space outside his room had shifted from a star lit desert to what looked like Cascadia as the sun was rising over a foggy bay, sky scrapers jutting out above the hill. He took a long look at the skyline and islands, then turned to walk back into the dingy green inn.

He was the second up, joining Lady Blood Claw at a table where she was sipping coffee and staring at a map that changed details whenever Corvayne looked away. She nodded in companionable silence while Corvayne got tea. Wick and a sleepy Hari showed up a few minutes later, fresh from another bath. Nyx didn't so much walk to the table as swagger, giving Corvayne a wink as he flopped himself down. Undine was last, coming back with her own cup of tea and a muffin. When the waiter came, Undine passed on ordering anything else for breakfast.

They ate and Corvayne shared what happened with their questions. Wick groaned and grabbed her hair. “I knew I shouldn't have had you go without me! One of those quests is going to be miserable!”

Lady Blood Claw glared at her muffin. “Well, I totally forgot to ask him about the Pilgrims.”

Undine rolled her eyes. “Thankfully, one of us remembered the real reason we are here.”

Corvayne shook his head. “Undoing our curses?”

Nyx had a big goofy smile on his face. “Getting laid?”

Hari looked confused, as if there was no question. “Treasure?”

“Tch. We are close to understanding a hidden cornerstone of history. It might even be something we can use to restore the empire.”

Hari raised an eyebrow at Undine's statement. “I thought you didn't care for them one way or another?”

“The other options are worse. Life would go on, just with a lot more pointless suffering.” Undine finished her breakfast. “So, how do we leave this out of place tavern?”

Corvayne gestured to the door next to the bar. “The next floor will be a challenge of sorts. They are harder than the monsters on the previous floors.”

Undine nodded. “How often do you come close to someone dying?”

“Rarely, but we've mostly been sticking to lower floors. The longest fight we had was a duel between me and one of my former allies. The most dangerous monster was an extreme outlier. Me and Wick fought it on our first run, and the second time we had more people and it added a second boss that also kicked our asses. Overall, that tower path seemed much more dangerous than others.”

Undine stopped. “Have you done a study about powers of monsters and the challenges with Hari yet?”

Hari shook her hear. Undine glared at her. “What have I told you? Measure, Measure, Measure! What's the average advancement of the monsters in this tower per level?”

Hari thought about it. “Seven?”

Undine groaned. “The golems were advancement three on level one, bunnies and centipedes were six on level two, the wind blades were advancement four on level three, the sand golems were advancement five on level four, and while we didn't fight anything on the fifth floor the animals were advancement fifteen with a few of the big fliers higher.”

Nyx for the first time since they had sat down for breakfast that morning looked annoyed. “Did anyone order an extra large order of numbers?”

Corvayne sort of agreed but nobody else seemed to be paying him mind.

Hari shrugged. “I couldn't see the specifics before I got a few levels.”

“You can't see on lower floors?” Undine asked.

Hari's eye twitched. “Even the voice of everything uses levels instead of 'advancements'.”

The older woman snorted. “I will NOT. I am not a house!”

“You already used that line, Master.”

Corvayne looked to Wick, and she nodded and cleared her throat. “We'll have to put a rain check on telling Undine she's wrong and should get on our level.” Corvayne saw the old woman narrowing her eyes but Wick kept going. “We only stayed here because it was convenient. We've got tower to explore.”

Undine stood. “It's just as well. The bar's clients are mostly adventurers, and they would smash a priceless vase egraved with a thousand secrets of a long forgotten era to pull out six copper.”

Nyx cracked his fingers. “Right. Enough bantering, let's put a boss in the ground!” He had a little spring in his step, and Corvayne saw him look over at the bar and followed his gaze. There was a woman who looked like she was made of viscous gel sitting at the bar, wearing a white silk shirt tied off at her waist embroidered with the same coat of arms Nyx put on most of his things. Corvayne considered all the Wick clones they usually saw.

“Ah.” Was all he had to say about that.

What would two Wicks at once be like? He decided that his answer was 'A spear moves forward before it gets itself into trouble' and did so.

The arena was familiar. It looked like the place where he had taken on Spears-Like-Water one on one, back on floor ten of Cascadia National Forest. He had walked into with his spear across his shoulder, and starting walking down the steps. It was a different hillside arena than the one before, with some of the hills holding ruined stone terraces. The lightning was daytime but the sky was a washed out star-scape, as before. He looked back and saw the group following him, and shrugged. Which person from the village would he have to fight next? Maybe he could give One-Last-Note a beating now that he had the ability to enhance his strength, speed, or toughness.

At the bottom of about a hundred broad steps was the weird human shaped vines. He noticed out on the arena was a man he'd never seen before, holding a stave and looking what he usually thought wizards should look like, robes and beard and everything.

When he went to the gate, the vine-figure gestured for him to sit.

“Wait, but isn't this a one on one fight?” Corvayne asked.

“It's not you being challenged. This time.”

“And I can't offer to take someone else's place?”

“Just as you had first right to fight, so will Undine.” The vined figure spoke, and Corvayne nodded.

Corvayne got the hint from it's gently gesturing vine and sat. Wick looked confused too as she walked down the steps. “You going to make me fight this Gandalf looking fucker?”

Hari sat down beside them as Corvayne explained. “It's Undine's fight I suppose.”

Nyx floated down onto a ghostly spectator, causing them to float away and reform one row back. “Hah, I win the bet LBC!”

Lady Blood Claw was walking past him, and looked at the shade sitting next to Nyx and made a gesture asking if the whispy being minded, to which the featureless outline of a person nodded and stood up, moving a few seats down. LBC sat down, sighed, then produced a few gold coins and slipped them to Nyx. “I should never bet against your rudeness.”

Nyx smiled. “No, you shouldn't!”

Undine was last, her gaze fixed on the arena floor, face tightning at what she saw. “Figures... they would shove that in my face.”

Corvayne started to stand. “What is it? If you need me to fight in your stead, I-”

Undine turned and snapped at him, “None of your business pup, this is MY fight! I'm old, not an invalid. Old choice between a family and my goals. Just the sort of illusionary nonsense I'd been waiting for. Still, it's my nonsense. Would you deny an poor, helpless old woman that?” she finished in a mocking tone.

Corvayne sat back down, holding his hands up. “It's your right to fight. I don't doubt you're skilled.”

She snorted, then walked a few steps down to the vine and gate to enter the arena below them. There was a few words exchanged, and Undine nodded and strode down, her weathered face serious.

She had her blade out as she stepped down onto the sand. She paused and cast three spells.

“Hari, do you know how she's going to fight?”

Hari was watching intently. “Three buffs first. I think [Optical Shell], [Stone Skin], and [Arcane Evasion], all defensive.”

Corvayne leaned back. “But nothing to help her deal with his defenses?”

“She knows more magic than I do so she might have something, but as an Investigator I mostly use magic to help me land high damage hits from behind. I'm working on new spells from the book, Though! I promise I'll stay useful.”

He wasn't sure what she was worried about, he'd have taken her along if she couldn't harm a fly. He kept his gaze on the arena as Undine then crouched, her own head still trained on the wizard as she took deep breaths. Likely letting her magic come back, from what Wick did when she overused magic. Standing up, Undine cast [Investigate] and that started the Mage casting his first spell. Corvayne felt himself leaning forwards. He had always wanted to see a magic duel, the rare kind where two different wizards tried to trick and outclass each other with clever spells.

Undine was responding to what the wizened caster before her was doing, diving as the wizard finished his spell sending an orange mote of energy to where she was standing. It landed and detonated, creating a burnt section of ground but not harming Undine, who was moving with enhanced speed around her enemy. The wizard turned and slammed his staff down, creating a patch of spines on the ground. Undine belted out [Blink] before she was hemmed in, landing behind the wizard. He spun and flung what looked like a glob of slime at her, both them blurring out of place as they traded attacks.

“[Optical Shell], he must have had it on too.” Hari added while Corvayne watched Undine cast another spell, creating a shimmering curtain of air around the Wizard's head. The mage calmly reached into his robes and with a blindingly light cloth wiped the air clean. Undine used the time to close in, but slowed and reversed direction as the wizard summoned a ring of lightning around him that then exploded out into spikes. Undine was steaming a little, but shook herself off and cast another spell, this time wrapping the wizards hands together with glowing blue string. The wizard bit the string, and kicked the ground at the same time. A moment later strong winds picked up, forcing Corvayne to hold up a hand as the arena was covered in dust. Undine managed to get a spell off in retaliation, a quick word that splattered the mage in goop that ignited into multi-colored fire he could see through the grit flying about.

It looked like the wizard was just ignoring the fire, so Corvayne assumed it was a modified [Fairy Fire], a spell that came up in a lot of books. A shield blocked most of the dust, but with the wind passing through it was still too loud to hear what Hari was saying, so he just watched the murky arena. The glowing caster he saw seemed to be making deliberate movements, perhaps directing the storm. In a blink, however, the magic faded and Corvayne saw Undine putting her airfoil rapier away as her still glowing opponent dropped to the ground.

Hari leapt to her feet. “MASTER is the BEST!”

Corvayne was about to get out of his seat and applaud when the world vanished and he started falling through the stormy sky of his Mindscape.