The door to the store jingled as Corvayne walked in. He did a quick scan of the convenience store to make sure none of the weird totems that infested the roadway had taken up a spot that had previously been safe.

The towerfolk clerk looked up for a moment then went back to staring at some sort of magical device that probably had a movie on it or something. It looked a lot like a Cascadia gas station but with multiple floors he could see from the entrance and a ceiling about a hundred feet up.

He pulled out a list of snacks everyone wanted, mostly codified by what prominent ingredients to look for or a general shape. He hoped LBC would be okay with a croissant that had a horseshoe shaped hotdog inside.

While he could just shoplift everything, he instead grabbed a hand basket and started browsing for snacks.

As the last two stops, the variety of junk food provided was a few things he had seen at the last stop, and entirely new candies that often had components he couldn't name aside from the obvious that 'Borol Fruit' was probably a fruit and that 'Green chocolate' probably wasn't too different from chocolate. The presence of peanut butter and chocolate as sort of universal ingredients was interesting, and made it slightly easier to get something for Preshe who had yet to tire of the 'basic' combo.

He wandered over to the actual pantry section and picked up some flour, baking soda, zebra striped eggs, milk with a picture of a cartoon veloceraptor on it, and a blue produce that smelled like romaine lettuce with a hint of mint.

His basket was nearly full after he raided some of the medicine isles for anything that had basic components from the herbalist book. Note to self, compass to a greenhouse after they get out of the store. The safe zone was a couple of miles around the towns, so there probably was one that they wouldn't be fighting and de-toteming. Compass had started letting him track minor things near him, and 'useful medicine' was a prompt that urged him towards brands that used herbs he knew as active ingredients.

Quick check again for Varia, Wick, Hylal, Mr. Squidglesworth, and Preshe's friends. Faint hints of something, but not the spinning compass that asking the skill to find his mom got him. He had upgraded the ability twice, while also throwing some extra points into [[Essence]], [[Tower]], and [[Unity]] pact. 25 Unity influenced thoughts, but he wanted to try to urge the universe to bring the group together. No luck, but he hoped the something meant they were alive. Wick definitely was, as time was still flowing.

He had buffed his pacts which lead to some new powers. He wrote down what he saw during the last visit to the mindscape, which was reaching a floor 21 with this lovely stretch of road.

[[Unity]] itself at 25 stated it pushed 'Faction standing' up while partying for all members. It also made it easier to recruit for his 'Civ' which he wasn't sure was on the table if they were on the run.

Unity and Understanding 25: Emotional bonds improved on non bonded targets. Can get some empathy from total strangers. He had been training with it to try to read emotions without giving his own away, and could usually do so on guys but often would get caught by any girls he tried it on. Gylwin cited that women generally had better emotional intelligence, and it could be a stat.

Mosh had to tell him that a lot of women wanted to form a very physical connection with him. It would explain the one dude who caught him and started hitting on him.

Growth and Unity 25 seemed to tie into the Unity base ability: Partying with all Civ members improves power outcomes. Long term friends also trigger this effect. Effect drops off quickly down to no bonus at 3 members.

They figured that everyone on the truck and Juggernaut himself all counted, though the chicken and two hounds that had snuck aboard from the painting floor were at best 'party members'. He could feel Sniffy, Clucker, and Sleepy from inside the store, as well as his friends.

[[Essence]] had also been boosted, which was another minor boost to essence gains in parties. He understood that more people split the essence pouring out of monsters, but Preshe was telling him now that with the bonus at 20 the same creatures with the same levels were creating more overall essence. It wasn't just the efficiency they captured it at. Corvayne sort of got why that was odd, and Gylwin of all people started prodding Preshe for more info.

To Corvayne it was just another bonus at the end of the day, but not one that would help him with the massive chasm raising his level was. He hoped the Pacts at higher levels would have some better direct powers.

Understanding 10 gave the users a better feel for levels. Improves assessment of relative level to target. Less useful for him, as his low level wouldn't help him assess as well as if he was still gaining levels.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

15 was more useful: When user is seeking essence gaining activities, it gave them insights into activities that will boost them. Less for him, more so for helping everyone round out subjobs to keep the truck rolling. Mosh wanted to try to get them self sufficient for when time came that they find a floor that they couldn't go outside on.

Essence 20 with Unity supposedly also had a party effect, recreating essence out of experience lost to 'level split' which was a mechanic they had guessed from Babs talking about high level scions being power leveled by low level specialists. This would have helped Corvayne a lot as the lowest level member of the team, but, well, two times a millionth of an experience point might as well be a millionth of an experience point. It would be nice when he started hunting for a Treasure Hunter and the Gatherer/Butcher. They would be able to train up a low level at dizzying speeds.

On the other hand, Essence 20 with Growth was a game changer. It gave him a small refund for the essence he was spending. There was a faint but noticeable increase in cost as he leveled any pact that applied to the rest of them, but it hopefully meant LOVE wouldn't raise the next time he lost control of his powers.

[[Tower]] 15 brought better detection for beacons. A mild improvement since they were so far apart. It seemed like it boosted his compass at least, which was tempting him to try to hit Unity 30 to lock onto party members easier.

The Unity and Tower 10 power improved recruitment and would make Mercs cheaper. He was more interested in the second part of the ability that made him more likely to get long term deals or get 'join quests'. There were some lingering questions if a predetermined task would create real friendship, but beggars couldn't be choosers, and the Magus's brides were strong enough to match him when he was doping. He would take whatever he could get.

Unity and Tower 15: Some Chests will give reproductive tokens. Makes it easier to find the advanced geneticist... he wasn't ready to add to his family yet by any measure, despite Spears prodding him to try to date (emphatically) Lady Blood Claw. Her feverishly admitting she liked... no, that she loved him while drugged out of her mind on painting world... he was pretty sure she remembered it too, as she had become a blueberry ghost when not getting torn up by the stupid plant curse.

Either way, he was trying not to sow wild oats, and [[Understanding]] told him that the 15 pact was likely a set of powers for letting two different species mingle. Hopefully the tokens would have a high market value.

Spears had pried the contents of the Pact out of him, and gotten a little weird around him before getting over it. Bell at some point had been told and let Corvayne know he had damn well better tell them whenever something like that dropped. He assured her that he would and that he was not the type of person to use such an item, which for some reason made her more upset.

Lady Blood Claw had to explain to him, with much swearing while he was doing impromptu surgery on her to dig a palm bush stuck in her stomach out, that Bell might be looking to secure their relationship via true shared family.

The thought made him spin back to the medicine isle and found something that would work as anesthesia to Lady Blood Claw.

He went up to the checkout and reviewed the last few combinations.

Growth and Tower 10 gave him benefits on larger floors like this, but didn't specify what that bonus was. The 15 implied he could find more Notorious Monsters, and they would get buffed based on ones near them and what they had fought during a run. He hoped that wasn't what caused the stupid totems on the floor to keep showing up and forcing them to detour or the absolutely arduous process of trying to kill one. It did explain why nobody else was cold on the snow floor except for him.

Tower and Understanding helped with 'Flags' for floors and with finding Libraries and other info sources.

It was nice, actually, seeing floor information at will!

Ebon Flats Floor 21c. [Long Roads and Crossroad Towns][Desert and Coastal Forest][Extremely Huge]

The tower's location he guessed, the floor he was on, the 'rarity' or 'order' of the floor, with 'A' being the standard and lower numbers diverging. The first flag was general structure of the chunks of the floor and what they resembled. All the floors were infinite, but 'Size' had to do with how big the chunks were and often the distance between key features such as doorways, stairs, beacons, and so on.

[Notorious Monsters][Hidden Dungeons][Raids][Frequent developed Towns][Multiple Mono Floor Civs][Beacons][Doors][Up and Down Stairs][Medium Connectivity]

The next flags tended to show up in every floor. Notorious Monsters was a tag every floor had, and he suspected was nearly if not totally universal. Every floor save 1 they had seen had Dungeons or Hidden dungeons, and quite a few had Raids. Not every floor had settlements. Tower Civs was a tag that let him know that there was a government on the floor but it didn't cross floors and he suspected they didn't cross doors. He was pretty sure every floor had Beacons, and that the stairs flag meant sometimes one could end up in a one-way tower that didn't let you go down at all.

[[Understanding]] and [[Tower]] had suggested that the system didn't trap people and there was always a way forward, even if sometimes the path was knotted. Like the route compass had urged them through, going up and down and sometimes doubling back to higher variant levels of towers they had seen before.

The line for checking out was just two other people, so Corvayne was done musing about powers when he got to the front of the line and dropped a sliver of black crystal on the counter and told the clerk to keep the change.

There was a jingle as the door near him opened, and a fellow in cowboy boots and ornate robes walked in, carrying a very obvious artifact sword at his side. High level, awakened.

Corvayne was turning to leave and met the mans eyes to nod and pass, but [[Unity]] warned him of hostile and possessive intent before the man's arm snapped out and wrapped like iron around Corvayne's wrist.

“Ah! I finally found you, Mr. Piggy bank.”

Corvayne held his other hand up. “Sorry, that's not my name.” He stored his groceries, then dropped the basket. The man, for all his training, looked down when it hit the ground, and Corvayne spun, forcing the man to bend his wrist backwards or let go, and Corvayne pushed down on the sword, pulling the man's belt down and his robe open.

[Juxtapose] spun them, and Corvayne adapted [Agility] and started sprinting for the truck.

He saw a whole flock of guys in ornate robes with cowboy boots and cowboy hats, three of them filling up flying swords at the pump. Six of them, all higher level by a large margin.

Shit.

Cow-tivator one, as Corvayne dubbed him, came waddling out of the store with one hand trying to pull his pants and robe back on. The man's other hand couldn't decide if it was pulling his sword out or pointing, so it did both.

“Get HIM!”