After getting out of the floor, each life mage worked to heal themselves one final time, just in case any poisonous effects hadn’t ended with the section, before they all looked to each other, wondering what to do from there. Things had just gone about as far from expected as they could, so they needed to know what they’d do next, they were just waiting for someone to speak first.

Of them all, Ben had it the worst for the simple fact that he was cheating, reading their minds to know how they each felt instead of listening to whatever they might say, only to be faced with the horror of his earlier success.

Convincing them each to go, he’d stroked their desires for strength and power, and now he was paying the cost of it. None of them wanted to leave. Maybe they would have felt different if things had been more dangerous overall, but given the ease they’d gotten through the first floor, as well as how harmless the second had ended up once they’d worked things out, it had left Sachel and Sonya at least with a misplaced sense of security, while Thera and Steph were both of the mind that they could handle whatever there was to come.

Which we absolutely don’t know is the case.

For his own part, he was torn. All of the benefits of climbing the tower remained, but it felt like the risk had exploded. He would have felt better if he was picking up any sign of hesitation from the others, but the most he was getting was Sonya’s internal debate about her personal desire against the risk of the unknown and how going farther could endanger her niece.

But together, I don’t think there’s anything I can actually say on this floor to talk them into quitting here. Shit, okay, going to try to not panic and figure this out.

The second floor was admittedly a terrible place to end things given that the potential to get a blessing was there so long as they completed the third, and if things went poorly on the next floor then he was sure he’d be able to talk them into leaving there. It would be a loss for everyone to not make it to the top, but a level or two wasn’t worth dying for.

“Okay,” He began, pulling all attention to him. “Clearly things didn’t go as planned and that’s on me. I’d assumed that the tower was a set number of floors and it looks like I’m wrong, which means there’s no way to know if any of the other three will be what I think they are so obviously this just got a lot more dangerous so does anyone want to get off here? Nobody is going to hold it against you, please prioritize your own lives here.”

He asked it despite already knowing the answer as he rubbed his head, trying not to show his stress as not one person said they wanted to go.

“Okay, fair, we’re pretty close to getting the blessing so why don’t we talk about this again after the next section? For now, why don’t we take a little break?”

And I’ll try and deal with the sudden crushing weight of it all.

He’d convinced each one of them to join him for one reason or another, which as far as he was concerned meant that their safety was his responsibility. Never mind the fact that he was the only one without life magic, if any of them ended up hurt or worse it would be another thing to haunt him. He couldn’t let that happen.

“Not like I have much choice in the matter though, do I?” He asked himself as he pulled a pan and ingredients out of his bag to make a meal for the lot of them as they all chatted, with one common theme among them all. How well everything had gone.

“It really seems like you’d be able to manage this yourself, Thera,” Sonya laughed as she wrapped her arms around her niece. “Seeing you in the clinic is one thing, but actually joining you for something like this is so much better. Of course, maybe this is one thing we’ll keep from your mother.”

“I doubt she’ll worry too much aunty, are you forgetting who forced me into my first trial?”

Sonya couldn’t help but chuckle thinking about it despite the danger, both past and present. “I was thinking more along the lines of how she’d complain about not getting to join us. Honestly, I don’t know how she stays so free-spirited despite all of that responsibility.”

“You’re right, I can already imagine her being a huge pain about it.”

“But are you going to be okay for the next section?” Sachel wanted to know. “I literally can’t begin to imagine how much mana you just spent, what’s your regen rate even like?”

“Good compared to others, poor compared to my total mana,” She said evasively. Even if all of Stonewall knew she had an unnaturally large quantity, she didn’t want word getting out about just how unnaturally large. “Either way, I’ll be fine after just a couple hours and I still have plenty to spare.”

The half-dryad could only shake her head hearing that, not knowing how many figures she would even try to guess at before changing the topic of her attention as she looked to Steph.

“And so, you’re from a different planet, what’s that like?”

She was kicking herself as she said it, the question feeling like it had come out as awkward as it had sounded, but she couldn’t deny her curiosity. Otherworlders had been a huge topic of conversation only a couple of years prior, and while she wanted to question Ben for all she could given the reveal that he’d secretly been one the entire time, his brief summary of things had made it clear it was a touchy subject for him. Not to say it wouldn’t be one for any summoned individual, but Steph took it in stride.

“A little lonely at times, but since I live in a gate city I can make time to meet with some others every now and then, plus I have my partner Will with me so it makes things easier. Of course, the money I’m given makes things easier too, but this is a pretty big departure from what I’d been planning to do back on Earth.”

From there she told the rest of them a bit about life on Earth from her own perspective as Ben finished cooking, letting her wrap things up before calling them to eat. He couldn’t help but worry about just how chipper everyone's moods had ended up, their conversation wiping away their bits of lingering worry as it only festered in himself, but he tried to keep that from showing as he spoke up.

“So I have no clue if we even have a chance of getting it, but for Amy, Jake, and Yuzu, the next section involved lasting ten hours in an area filling with more and more life mana and having to actively keep it from destroying their bodies. As someone who’s been in that exact scenario before I’ve gotta say it sucks a lot, but with all of the life mages here I think we could probably handle it. It did have a couple other things going on too it seemed like, I couldn’t be certain but I think it had something akin to streams of life mana flowing through it where certain areas would become significantly more concentrated so sensing it and getting to safer sections would be a priority if I’m right about that, but since they had Yuzu with them they didn’t have any real problems.”

As he explained they all nodded along, feeling like it was something they could handle if that was what they ended up with and in their defense, they were probably right. The four of them had differing levels of life magic and he had his resistances, With Thera there to help them all, it would be shocking if things went any less than fine, but that was only if they really did pull that floor from the stack.

And for all I know there’s a chance we could get their second floor now instead, it’s impossible to say for sure without actually doing it.

He felt his body want to actively reject the idea of going further but suppressed the feeling as he stood up and stretched as he focused on the rest of them, wishing he’d see just a hint of hesitation instead of the generally good atmosphere around them.

“Alright then, shall we go on?”