“Actually, I think I might have an idea on that. But if I’m right, it’s huger than huge. This is something the whole team should hear, and I’m sorry but to make extra sure of things security-wise, I think I should wait until we’re on the next Floor to say it.”

“You think people could be spying on our training in the virtual space?”

“Such things are definitely possible. I’ve looked into it. Don’t get me wrong, the idea that our every move in here is being watched is ridiculous, but even if someone gets through for a short time, if it’s the exactly wrong short time...”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Fine. I guess I can wait for the 6th Floor.”

By now, the Firebrand Liberation Fleet was large enough that two groups were able to split off and liberate systems near to the ones that enjoyed my personal attention on their own that didn’t have as much Kinetice presence. So this time around, we were able to have a more substantial effect on the entire Zone rather than having to prioritize key Federation sites.

A week after I’d cleared the 5th Floor, I received an unwelcome reminder from General Karl about another aspect of affecting things positively. “General, I said no public appearances!”

“We said no public appearances until after the Erkolls system was liberated, sir.” As respectful as he was to me these days, it didn’t seem like he was going to budge on this one. “You’ve put it off long enough.”

I groaned. “Do I really need to do this?”

Karl’s facial expression changed not a bit. “I thought you might react like this, so I took the trouble of requesting written orders from the admiral if you’d like to see them.”

I slumped. “You’re really taking this seriously, huh? I guess I’d better do it then.”

What followed was a whirlwind of activity every bit as busy as the rest of my training regimen. Meet and greets, press interviews, the Federation officials who had apparently organized it all even tried to get me signing autographs, but I lost patience with that one pretty quick and put my foot down.

By far the most chagrining part though, was that the public, or the Federation, or maybe it just came out of the ether of Area 1 I don’t know, but they’d given me a superhero name. They called me Inferno. I mean, come on, is Lheticus really that hard to pronounce?! Okay maybe it’s not effortless since you have to know or assume the H is silent, but...

Dammit, I was not comfortable being treated like a superhero!

Finally, the only thing left was a closing ceremony of sorts as I boarded the Firebrand to depart once again. Other than accept the cheers of the crowd, I didn’t have to do crap for this one. Just smile and wave, boys, smile and wave—

Moments before I turned to go, I spotted a face in the crowd that wasn’t cheering. It was smirking, and staring at me intensely as though they wanted to advertise their presence.

Rilzian.

Of course, I was going to report this to Bruzigan. “You’re certain it was him? Could it have been someone else, who looks like him?”

“He didn’t blend in with the crowd at all, the way he was dressed compared to them. And I know that look he was giving me. It was him.”

Bruzigan gave a frustrated snarl. “I had a feeling we hadn’t seen the last of him. What do you think he wants now?”

I gave Bruzigan a put-upon look. “To screw with us? Hell if I know. I doubt he has a way to tail us without announcing where we’ll be, so maybe let’s clamp down on the whole public appearance thing?” I said hopefully.

“He didn’t act against you today, and since I don’t have any better idea why he would than you do, let alone what he’s after by appearing to you, I don’t think it’s necessary. However, I believe we will forego the public ceremony for Floor entry and make the time of entry to the 6th and future Floors, and what world we enter from, classified information.”

“Fair enough.”

The grind continued. Not long after the closing ceremony incident, Bruzigan declared us as having acceptably adapted to Mewi’s changes with fighting as a team. It had been decided by both Edwin and Bruzigan that for now, he would learn relatively few Wind and Space element spells, other than the ones from the spell books the Tower had granted him, those being and . Among Wind spells, he only learned and , and the only Space element spell Edwin provided for now was , keeping him focused on support and control.

Bruzigan also continued to nurture what he called Mewi’s talent at directing battles. His goal was to get him a special profession that was somewhat situational for Floor missions, and difficult to obtain besides, but amazing on Floors that called for it known as Tactician. He had even started directing a small number of ships in his Liberation Fleet in battle as his personal squad.

There was no more sign of Rilzian for the rest of the month time limit, either tailing us to liberated systems or in the form of information leaks or any other signs of his presence of Area 1’s internet, or any evidence of spying on our expensively maintained joint virtual space. Even with training, training, and more training that I’d done in the 20x time dilated space, it was as though the month flew by.

And when we finally met up again, on one of the worlds that Anna had liberated that she’d otherwise long moved on from, I had a bit more work to do before we even entered.

“Orders up!”

When Edwin found out that we wouldn’t be entering the 6th Floor publicly, he decided it was the right time to grant me a very expensive item known as a Portable Field Kitchen.

Some crafting professions, like Mewi’s Alchemist, could set up just about anywhere, at least at the fairly basic levels that we had reached. For many others though, like blacksmith or indeed chef, it wasn’t so easy. Sure, there wouldn’t exactly be a shortage of suitable kitchens on the 6th Floor, but if buffs from the recipes I’d managed to learn so far ran out at the wrong time, it could be quite a while before they could be reapplied.

Unless of course you had a Field Kitchen that could be spatially compressed into a container roughly the size of a bowling ball. It was expensive as hell, taking second place to the Memory Gem as the most expensive item I possessed that money could buy—though of course, that was still only 5th or 6th overall by now. I’d used a copy of it in the virtual space of course, but now was a great opportunity to practice using it for real.

The rest of the team gave their meals their seal of approval, though I thought I’d been a little slower with the preparations than I should have been. We ended up entering the 6th Floor Landing at the start of the hour after the one we’d meant to, so we were in for a long wait for the start.

“People are a lot more tense this time, huh...” said Mewi.

“That’s only natural,” said Ri’legh, “every team here might end up fighting to the death with any number of the others.”

I nodded. “It’s like the difference between a PvP server and a PvE server.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Cut it with the gamer lingo, Lheticus.”

“At least this way, we can keep track of just about anyone because we’re here when most of the teams come in,” said Arvallei, “we should see if we can identify more hidden threats like Golden Blades in advance this time.”

Ugh, I hope they don’t actually show up here...