“Oh, don’t look so surprised,” said Zirin as he revealed himself, “you didn’t really think you had actually used sufficient measures to imprison a master of Space magic, did you? Futility and the fact that you would still be able to overcome me were what really kept me imprisoned.”

“So that...thing...was connected to why the wars between the three kingdoms has gone on so long?” said Mewi, “Does that mean the wars can stop, now that it’s gone?”

“It was, and it does,” said Zirin, though he didn’t sound happy about it. “But I’m afraid if you think that means you’re going to be lauded as heroes who saved our three nations, you’re going to be disappointed.

Don’t get me wrong. Those who knew of the existence of that beast, myself included, will be extremely grateful to learn just how little havoc it managed to wreak, thanks to you. But the three nations have still met our destiny on the road we took to avoid it.

Still, you all should know the truth. You only wanted to end this pointless fighting, and I cannot deny you have done a great thing today. I am only sorry that it was for nothing.

You see...our land, the continent of 3 nations who endlessly fight over it, is actually the smallest mainland on this world. Our ancestors fled here when the one who truly rules this world first came. They thought then to escape them forever, or perhaps that someone might rise to stop them, but they later discovered their powers were too great to be stopped.

Once the rest of the world was theirs, he struck a deal with our ancestors. He said there was a way our people could be useful. By helping them to hatch a rare and powerful creature, the egg of which they said even his kind prized, over thousands of years, we would remain free of their rule, and their whims save that one.

So for all that time, we did as instructed and fed the egg of the beast of pure destruction through war. Over time, the opposing forces grew and changed into what we are today, and their rulers forbade the masses to pass down the reason for our near-constant conflict, giving them a world free of the terror that had birthed it.

They also sought to prolong the creature’s hatching as long as possible, by keeping the war from entering a state in which massive destruction would be wrought, and wasting resources enough to force numerous breaks in the fighting. But it was always going to hatch sooner or later. You need not trouble yourselves as being the final cause of it, either. If the mere battle to retake the city of Bartisina was enough to tip that scale, then it would have hatched long before the next period of peace could have started. I doubt you’ve cheated us of more than a few weeks, and in exchange, we’ve been mostly spared the wrath of the creature.

We were never to be ultimately spared of the wrath of its master, however. You should all flee while you still can.

If indeed there is anywhere you can flee to, to escape him.”

At that moment, a Tower notification appeared to me, and I saw to the others as well.

[Because the Hak'uun'kunoko, the creature of pure destruction, was destroyed, the war between the three nations will no longer continue. All remaining challengers who are currently fulfilling their mission conditions may turn in their missions.]

Bruizgan grunted, and a moment later, another notification appeared.

[Your party leader has turned in your mission. Prepare to exit the Floor.]

“I thought another shoe was going to drop,” I said, with us safely in the Tower’s Neutral Zone, “but I didn’t think it would be like that.”

“Well, healing an enemy isn’t a tactic I could have thought of,” said Bruizgan, “thanks to you, we were still able to complete the mission.”

As if to echo his sentiment, the Tower chose that moment to send its usual mission clear messages:

[Congratulations on completing your mission.]

[Mission Difficulty: Extreme]

[You have received 20 AP.]

[Your class has responded.]

[+2 AP to Psych Attribute.]

[Select 2 Attributes to receive +5 AP.]

[Select 1 Attribute to receive +2 AP.]

I could finally claim the bonus Mewi had discovered for reaching 100 points in everything: a new Title.

Challenger may preview Area 1’s exit reward:

[At each multiple of 100, effective attributes double.]

The implications of that sentence went beyond my having twice the HP and Mana I would have had before. I’d long known now that from 100 to 200, Attributes needed 2 AP to raise a single point instead of 1, and from 200 on it got even worse after that. But for now at least, the doubling effect would ensure every point I used had, in practical terms, the same effect as before.

With the new additions—mostly to my Strength, but a few to others, my stats stood as follows:

Floor Cleared: 6th

Health: 14,980/14,980

Stamina: 17,348/17,348

Mana: 5,840/5,840

Strength: 100

Stamina: 115

Sturdiness: 105

Mana Pool: 121

Intuition: 118

Magic Power: 140

Regeneration: 100

Psych: 100

Anna spoke up while others were still assigning their bonuses. “Say, Lheticus. If the reason you still haven’t told us the big secret about your Innate Trait is down to being worried about being overheard...you might try telling us here.”

“She has a good point,” said Bruzigan, “The Neutral Zone is the most impenetrable place in the entire Tower. Teams who clear their mission are always completely isolated in their Neutral Zone chamber before returning to their Area. Come to think of it, I believe there are even documented experiments—tests of listening and other monitoring devices, all of which failed during their time in the Neutral Zone.”

“I should have thought of that,” I admitted, “but we don’t really have much time to pow-wow when we have rewards and AP to accept.”

“Once we’re repeating the 7th Floor, we won’t have those, but the Neutral Zone still shouldn’t kick us out immediately. What about then?”

“We’re splitting up and joining Leech teams from our factions then, remember,” said Arvallei.

Anna’s face fell, and I got the impression that it wasn’t just because her idea didn’t work. “Oh. Well...maybe once we clear the 8th Floor?”

“If I have telling you all at that point in mind from the start, it should work,” I said, “all right, let’s do it.”

Not long after that, it was time for the mission analysis.

[Mission Rating: 4.0]

[Collating data on your individual performance...performance determined.]

[Contribution Score: 7/10]

[Team’s total Contribution Score is greater than 40. An additional Group Reward will be awarded.]

[Individual Mission Rewards]

1) Firewalker Boots

2) Skeleton Key x5

[Group Mission Rewards]

1) Currency Conversion Token

2) Void Grenade Set

3) 1.083 G3 Coins

Not a bad haul. We’d lost some mission rating because the destruction of Bartisina had reached 16%, but gained some back by actually defeating the boss, was my guess as to how we’d reached 4.0. If we’d put off the city conquest, we could have reached Day 100 before it awakened. I wasn’t sure what the rating would have been then.

My spellbook this time was which would definitely be useful, even if it was only one-to-one telepathic communication, with a short range at that. Mewi got rather ordinary spells in Wind and Water element, but his Space element spell this time was the exceptionally rare spell, arguably the best self-target defensive spell in the Area.

Back in Area 1, our training schedule was relaxed once again. The 7th Floor would be much more straightforward than the 6th, with few chances for nasty surprises, tricky battles, or plans being torn apart by out-of-nowhere circumstances. Nor were there specific circumstances for us to prepare for. So, our main focus turned back to the system liberation missions, though of course we still had some combat training.