The third floor hits me with a wave of humidity. The ground below is soft and spongy, giving whenever I step on it, but still able to support my weight. It seems to be made up of… leaves?

  Sylves is floating above it, eyeing them with curiosity, poking at the ground. Richard is stuffing a few handfuls into her mouth. I look around, seeing that the elevation changes, but the entire ground seems to be made from the greens. There are many constructs made from dark wood; scattered houses built into the formations.

  That’s when it clicks. I’m walking on top of a canopy. There’s a forest below - one that’s so dense that the leaves are enough to hold my weight. The trees must be titanic. Ancient, too. And just a few steps next to me, Richard is devouring some.

  I get so stunned that I almost miss when someone stumbles out of the ascendancy well. It’s a young woman, bloodied and bruised, who almost crashes into me, but Kuro quickly deflects her with a shadowy barrier, making her stumble off to the side. Mentally, I thank them for preventing my shirt from getting bloody.

  That’s an inside thought that I don’t voice, though. Instead, I quickly flick my eyes across the notification.

  [Congratulations!]

  [You have made it to the third floor! For your performance in the ascendancy well, you have acquired 2 minor requests.]

  I quickly tuck that knowledge aside, and kneel down to the injured woman. Her eyes are barely open, and her heart is hammering so fast that it’s getting on my nerves. I [Select] her as a target for my healing skill, then pump a quarter of my mana into it.

  Instantly, the golden-white mist seeps into her, clinging to the wounds. The glow crawls over bits of torn and broken skin, mending it. Scrapes disappear, gashes crust over. The lingering effect clings, speeding up the natural healing and making sure the skin is healthy and flexible as it regrows. I smile at the improvements I’ve made to the skill.

  The woman’s eyes flicker open, and she turns to me. Instantly, that gaze narrows in distrust. A frown creases her dark lips, and she brushes her wiry black hair back with a motion of her hand. “Who’re you?” she asks.

  “Your healer,” I reply. “That’ll be one minor request.”

  She stares, and her frown deepens. “I woulda been fine,” she says, grumpily.

  I shake my head. “You probably would’ve bled out. Maybe lured some big predator from the undergrowth and gotten eaten.”

  At that, she frowns even more. “I ain’t paying you shit, fucker. Not giving you the favour I just earned from the tower.” The crystalline wings behind her flare, and I note that she’s scythian.

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  “Shame,” I say, as a dagger of mana manifests in my hand. It glows with a grey tint, imbued with a haze of suppression that I experimentally slapped on. “Time to put you back to how I found you, then.”

  Sylves pats my shoulder. The one with my missing arm. “Ion,” she says gently, but just loud enough for the woman to hear, “c’mon. Don’t be like that.”

  My face remains entirely neutral. “Sorry Titania, but you know how I am about refunds,” I reply. Sylves mimes a terrible frown, grimacing at the woman in sympathy, and combined with my alias, it clicks for her.

  “... Ion?” she asks.

  “Sure,” I say. “That’d be me.”

  She swallows. “What do you want me to use the request on?”

  I smile kindly, handing her the rune booklet. “Please ask for more runes to be added to that,” I say.

  Very slowly, she takes the object from me, making sure her fingers don’t touch the dagger still half-held in my single hand. Then she speaks the request out loud, and after a brief glow, the tiny volume has a few more pages.

  After that, she quickly slinks off. Making money from healing truly is the best.

  - - -

  One by one, members of my team trickle in. Norman made it up easily, having already cleared the trial beforehand. He takes a long drink from an enhanced refilling phial that another group “donated” when they refused to pay. Richard is still stuffing her face with leaves, and Sylves has begun trying to weave with them.

  Opal comes out tired and naps, Jess squints into the three suns overhead. Tons of light spill forth from them, feeding the sea of trees below. We cook a meal from some more edible plants that Richard points out, and take a rest.

  Sleeping near an ascendancy well usually would not go well, but we manage anyway. The most notable occurrence is Vincent coming out, entirely unscathed. He waits for his team, but they never show up, so he shrugs and tags along with another group. He gives me a sly smile as he treks off.

  Fucker.

  Instead of paying him any mind, I practice some more. My shoulder-stump itches, so I change up the inscriptions in it a bit, making sure to optimize the healing. I need to cut it open every so often to make sure that it has a chance to regrow properly, but that’s not too much trouble at all.

  One by one, each person from our team makes it up. Dar is the most hurt, but also the most pleased with his performance. He might be carved up, but something about him has changed, I can see that. His orange eyes glow just a little brighter, and his vessel is just a little stronger. He instantly spends both the favours he earned on enhancing his claw-weapon things.

  When everyone is gathered, we sleep for one more day.

  This floor is less taxing on resources than the previous one. Instead, really, staying still is as safe as can be. But that’s exactly the trouble.

  [Ascension Quest: Labyrinth. The only ways to ascend are in the undergrowth. Abandon the protective light of the sun, survive the treacherous forest, and find a Well yourself.]

  The tower doesn’t highlight the points of ascension on this floor. It’s the first trap for new climbers, because the third floor is hard. The undergrowth is full of brutal ambushes and traps, full of things that stalk the darkness and kill while one sleeps. But it is the only way to ascend.

  Up above, in the canopy, there are cities carved into the trees. That’s where Norman traded for a fae-bait thing for the storm. But down there? No civilization. It is a constant free-for-all, where half-sentient plants are hungry for blood.

  And it was also the only way further up the tower. Luckily, I needed to reach level 50, anyway, so a bit of experience will go a long way.