The great pain ended, and a throbbing ache remained at the base of my skull. But finally, I had my antennae...

  I didn't feel any different.

  "What is this shit?" I muttered, pinching one of the antennae with my fingers. It felt soft to the touch, but it didn't feel really sturdy in any way. I wondered if it would get torn away sooner rather than later.

  "It actually kind of suits you," Mark said, looking me over. "I wonder why you didn't have antennae already?"

  "You should probably stop wondering about how the gods made the players in this tournament," Talisha muttered, looking me over with visible interest in her eyes. Crudia on the other side gave me a thumbs up, smiling at my new appearance.

  "Bryga and Dusk are probably quite a bit away. It's hard to know without seeing them on the map, but we'll get them into our guild once we get that started, and then they should show up on the map."

  "So, no meeting them today?" I asked, still a bit hopeful.

  "Nope," he answered, deadpan. "They are on a forest island of some kind. I haven't seen any other island than this one, but the biome should not change so rapidly. Just like on the other first floor, it should be gradual. On one end of the islands there will be lush forest; on the other, there will be dead mountains full of snow."

  "Okay, so we need to find the other players first," I said.

  "Yes, yes, as we discussed. I am not going to repeat myself again. Let's go to the city and we'll see where we go from there." Mark nodded and hovered into the air, already going towards the floor.

  "Wait, but what about the safehouse upgrades?" Crudia asked, her ears drooping a little. "I wanted to decorate a little bit. Maybe even craft those crafting tables."

  "We'll get to that later," Mark responded, dismissing Crudia's questions. "We'll also need to figure out how much Talisha can help now since she's gonna be stuck here for who knows how long."

  "Wait, you're leaving me here?" Talisha asked, horrified.

  "Did you see how the building blocked you from going out? That's what's going to happen every time you try," Mark said, sighing at the situation. "I don't think we can do anything. Sorry."

  "So, what am I going to do now?" she said, looking from one face to another. "Do I just sit here and do nothing? I don’t want to do that anymore, Mark. It’s all we did for YEARS."

  "As I said, we'll discuss what you can do once we come back. We’ll be back soon. I promise." He let the sentence hang for a second, before, finally, Talisha gave him a small nod.

  “Nice.” He scratched his chin and looked at the corner of the room. "Actually, Shrimpie, can you open the building menu?"

  I groaned, but complied.

  "Okay, good. Now can you see the guild menu options?" He asked, as if I had any idea how to navigate this menu still.

  "No, I cannot," I said, already angry about having to interact with this menu at all.

  "It's in the lower-left corner; it's like… two hammers that are crossed," he said, quite hesitant himself, but it was enough to get me to where I needed to be. I clicked the menu and a new selection opened. Instead of listing materials needed for several hundred items, it asked for gold. Everything could just be purchased for gold.

  "Okay! Good! Now, let’s get to it. Buy a couch and buy a regular TV," he said, looking at the corner of the room still.

  "So you're just gonna leave me here to watch TV? Actually… I would complain, but that sounded kind of good compared to what we'd been through.” Talisha smirked, leaning against a wall.

  "It won't let you watch any TV," Mark replied, watching me as I scrolled through the menu trying to find the items he said I should look for. "You'll be able to watch us or anyone in the guild through it. What class did you pick again?"

  "The Planner," she said.

  "The Planner? You? God.” He smirked as Talisha’s materiallized hand swished through his blue body. “You could have just picked a good crafting class."

  "Excuse me, what are you implying?" she said, smirking back.

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  "Well, I don't know what that class offers you, but as I said, we can discuss it later. You'll be able to watch everyone, and it should also provide you with some... what was it again? Commandive skills? No, that wasn’t it…"

  "Oh, did you forget?" Talisha smirked, laughing at him.

  "At least I remember at least some parts of the guides," he shot back, which made Talisha go quiet.

  "Okay, now kids, let's go out."

  "Who are you calling kids?" I showed him my middle finger as I walked out of the door.

  We walked through the city, the sight much too similar to what it looked like before, and I took more notice of the castle than before, since we were going to approach. We went into a line that stood in front of a gate surrounding the spiraling towers next, making some occasional small talk, though it was mostly quiet.

  Most of the people here looked as if their life depended on getting inside—not because they looked like they needed food or anything, but all of them looked stressed, focused, and intent. Too intent.

  The line itself moved slowly, but it wasn't a complete crawl, thankfully. Most of the people in front, however, were turned away, making me wonder what exactly was the deciding factor on letting someone inside. At least I wouldn’t have to wait for that long.

  "This whole new area makes me kind of excited," Crudia said, looking around but mostly looking up at the spires. "Also, this is the nicest place I've seen yet. It makes me think that we might even see more interesting places as we go to the next floor." She smiled, looking at me as if waiting for me to agree.

  "I think so, though it's a bit strange that there are towers on clouds. It’s… kind of out there, you know? And it's just the second floor. They gave us some new knowledge and then..."

  "Completely disregarded it," she completed the sentence, nodding. "Yeah, it's a bit strange, but there’s nothing better than a strange adventure!" She looked back toward the line. We were third from the front. Two tall guards wearing the same armor that the ones who led us into the city wore stood still and inspected the man and woman in front of them.

  The pair suddenly shook their heads, and one of the guards pointed to the city behind us, saying something in a low murmur that I couldn't hear. The two looked shocked, judging by their movements, but their shoulders slumped, and they turned toward us, walking toward the back of the line and into the city.

  Now there was a small distance from which we had to watch the pair in front of us talk to the guards, and I again cursed the fact that I couldn't understand a single word.

  Tense moments passed, filled with us anxiously twiddling our fingers, waiting for the guards to finally wave us forward, and when the call finally came, I found myself stressing. The reason for that was unclear to me—I fought with a dragon, escaped another the very next day, but then I found myself stressing over some guard inspection?

  Laughable. I forced the nervousness down, swallowed my saliva, and stepped forward.

  The guards looked indistinguishable from the ones who waved us into the city, even height-wise. They looked at us expectantly, as if we were the ones who were supposed to do the talking.

  …

  …

  ….

  …..

  …………………

  Silence. This was beginning to feel awkward.

  “He-hello?” Crudia spoke before I could.

  “What are you two waiting for?” one of the guards said, ignoring the greeting.

  “We should be the ones asking that! Why are you just standing there?” I said, stunned. Were these guards even dumber than the goblins, somehow?

  “You’re supposed to state your purpose and show us your permit to enter. As does everyone,” the other guard said, similar height but wider at the shoulders. Awfully pompous for someone with such ugly armor.

  “And how are we supposed to know that if you don’t say anything, good sirs?” Crudia said, letting her usual politeness slip a little, replaced by an edge instead.

  “Oh, you must be travelers,” one of them said, a hint of realization coloring his voice. “I don’t reckon you have a permit on your person?”

  God, this man talked so strangely it was hard to understand him. “No, we do not.”

  “And your purpose?” the other guard added. The two of them almost spoke like one entity.

  “We’re here to look at the dungeon!” Crudia said, her ears in their excited position.

  The guards looked at us for a moment, silent again, and then spoke more cautiously than before, the question coming from both, almost in unison. “You two are adventurers?”

  “Players, to be exact, but yes,” I responded.

  “And you’ll get the dungeon destroyed?” the wider one asked expectantly.

  “We want to have a look first. But we’ll see what we can do,” I answered, hoping that would be answer enough. The two guards looked at one another, momentarily confused about what to do, but then one of them nodded, told us to wait, and turned toward the towers, the clicks of his plate armor getting quieter as he walked away.

  “What kind of dungeon will it be, Mark? Maybe a cave? Or maybe some catacombs? Oh, oh, or maybe—!” Crudia was about to burst with excitement, but Mark stopped her, his hand raising in front of her face.

  “It’s a castle, so probably something to do with that. The gods seem to really like their thematic integrity, as you could have seen.” He finally put his arm down. “But don’t get too excited. We’re just looking, and we’ll be going away soon. I don’t intend to die, thank you very much. We might not even return if the dungeon doesn’t look good enough.”

  “What a spoilsport!” Crudia groaned, making me chuckle, just for that discussion to be cut off by the guard returning, half-running back to the gate.

  He finally stopped, looked us over through his visor again, and then stood sideways to let us pass. “Enter. The other guards will direct you to the captain.” He stopped, his voice getting more serious. “And don’t cause trouble.”

  Rolling my eyes, I cracked my shoulder, and stepped inside the castle.