Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

"Don't look at me like that," Pax telepathically responded to Zendri's flat stare. "I'm telling you, the upgraded kitchen option is definitely the optimal choice. It comes with an ice box and an enchanted oven. Plus a whole three weeks of food if it's just the two of us."

"Do you always strategize based on your stomach?" Zendri mentally asked as she fed another golden egg into their base's pedestal. She thought they had been making decent progress so far, considering their lacking numbers.

After discovering the floor boss, they had decided to claim the Speakers' base. The pair were fairly confident that, should the Speakers show up, the two of them would be able to either recruit them or kill them, depending on how amicable they turned out to be.

Pax leaned back in his chair at the worktable nearby and retorted, "Definitely not. I'll also plan for things based on my di—"

"Has anyone ever told you before that you're a degenerate?" she interjected, throwing one of the golden river stones they had managed to gather at his head.

The masked Whisper's golden eyes crinkled with mirth as he deftly caught the stone and replied, "Only you, princess. Every other person is simply in such a state of awe at the sight of me that they praise both my prowess and strategy skills."

"I think you mean they're afraid you'll kill them if they say anything negative or argue with you," she pointed out, shooting him a flat look.

"Which means I've made the right choice in my career path, obviously. That's peak strategizing right there," he quipped back. Pax shifted forward in his chair again, grabbing a different golden stone he had been working on earlier. As he held it up for her to see, he asked, "Are you sure it's better to enchant these instead of feeding them to the tree?"

"They're only worth a couple of points, and they give us a powerful ranged option with their Radiant attunement."

"We have ranged options," he argued, leaning back in his chair again. "I have my [Needle Spray] that's a little ranged, and you can throw that thorn dagger thingy you conjure. Plus, your [Transfusion], [Brairpatch], and that new one are technically ranged."

Zendri rolled her eyes and fed another Divine Tower Iris to the pedestal, watching the golden flower quickly disintegrate in the side box. She managed to stay patient and indulgent with the Whisper, especially considering she only had that new ability due to his help taking out a rare goblin that had been sprinting like crazy through the swamp while carrying a sack of loot on its back. Pax was even the one to insist she use the Abundance Spirit Gem that had been in that sack full of shinies and golden tower items.

With a heavy sigh, she asked, "How can you possibly forget a name as simple as [Rose Garden]?"

"Maybe because it's almost too simple! Why do I get something as vague as [Thread the Needle] for my Perception Passive, but you get that?" he complained, gesturing towards the sky like the gods were to blame for it.

"Maybe it's because you're simply more melodramatic than everyone? You only have your soul to blame if you don't like the naming."

"Wait, wouldn't that mean you're simplistic? Are you actually some kind of unfeeling golem?"

"I'll show you how simplistic and unfeeling I am with a health check involving my dagger in a moment if you keep that up."

"Sadist Rose," he telepathically muttered.

"Whiny Assassin," she quipped back.

"I'm not whiny," he whined at her. He gave a mental huff and added, "And that doesn't even begin with a V! You gotta have something better than that."

"How about 'Vapid Assassin' if this is you trying to challenge me—a Speaker—to a battle of words?" she replied, leveling another flat look at him.

"Okay, I'll admit that stings a little," he said, holding up his hands in surrender, but she could still see the smile in his eyes.

"Just focus on making those mini bombs, and I'll focus on getting these tribute points converted, then we can eat something other than Mana Bits. I hate how sweet they are," she said, putting a golden plum in next.

"See? Upgraded kitchen! I'm telling you, it'll be worth the point setback," he enthused again, but leaned forward to continue engraving tiny runes into the golden stones.

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"I still think we need to decide on what to convert that extra bedroom into first. Tomorrow's the last day for the Speakers to come up from the first floor, and I'm not sure they're all going to make it here," Zendri sadly admitted. She wasn't exactly beholden to the four Speakers she'd left behind, but they hadn't earned a spot on Pax's kill list like some of the others had.

None of their names had shown up as recent deaths since the second floor opened, which was mildly impressive. One of the Lovers' names appeared a couple of weeks ago, with the cause of death listed as a Miasmire Kraken—which she very much hoped they'd never run into based on that name—so she assumed that was when their group tried to reach their new base.

"Do you want to try waiting for them back at the first-floor portal to help escort them if they want to play nicely?" Pax softly asked, shifting just enough to look at her again.

Zendri was honestly surprised by the offer. It was a risk in multiple ways, considering the Fighters might have a similar idea, or the Speakers may very well be loyalists who would try to kill them instead. Abyss, in here, they might have even waited on purpose just to see if she was a bleeding heart for her Sect mates.

Instead of answering right away, she asked, "Are you still planning to spy on the Fighters again tonight?" She already assumed the answer, which she also thought was more reckless than strategic, considering how dead Pax would end up if anyone noticed him.

"Yup," he replied as he seemed to finish his etching, then stood and stretched. "We've already learned plenty of useful things from doing so. I'm hoping they'll cough up more goodies for us to plan around in that 'war room' option they chose. Perhaps we'll learn if they have similar ideas regarding the Speakers."

At least they were on the same page with that thought. She shifted slightly in her lotus position on the floor, looking up into those golden eyes she knew were a result of his Talent, and admitted, "I don't like you going alone."

He ran a hand through golden hair as he mentally sighed. "You know why I have to. There's no point in having you on the other side of a moat just to wait and see if I die."

"It's better than waiting here to see if you walk back through the front door or read your name on the death list."

"Zen," he stressed, bending down to be eye level with her. "It's safer for me if I know you're safer here. I'm not saying you couldn't be helpful or useful if I needed to make a quick retreat and got injured, but this is a purely stealth mission. I don't want to be worried that a Fighter might spot you while I'm trying to focus on slipping past their defenses. Alright?"

She felt her bottom lip pushing out in a pout that she couldn't help before conceding, "Alright, but I'm still staying up to wait."

"Your choice to choose boredom over dreams," he replied with a chuckle. Then he gently punched her shoulder with a fist and said, "I'll be careful, so don't worry about me. Nobody will even know I was there. That's just how amazing I am."

Zendri rolled her eyes again, but offered a small smile and teased, "I changed my mind, it's definitely Vain Assassin for you."

Pax laughed and stood up as he gave a soft clap, "That's much better. Really improving those banter skills. Might even reach my level once we leave this floor, my Sassy Rose."

Pax carefully made his way towards the Fighters' base, checking his map once in a while just to verify he hadn't gotten turned around while trying to stay clear of the water. His original [Truesight] Talent had cultivated when he had absorbed his Dark Aspect, and made the murky light levels and night less of a concern for him.

While trying to explore and map out more of the floor during both the night and day to see if there were noticeable differences, it had become apparent after the first few excursions that the goblins were nocturnal and easier to hunt in the day, even if it was perpetually overcast. That said, more swamp critters were active during the day here, as if to help counterbalance.

The waters seemed to be dangerous no matter the time, and Pax tried to avoid them as much as possible. He wasn't fond of getting wet to begin with, but the slimy fish and monster muck gave him the skin-crawls. He also had very few tools to help him handle aquatic fighting, so he leaned into the tools he did have and stayed far away while hiding as much as possible.

That was also the reason he was extremely grateful that the Fighters had put a makeshift bridge across their moat to their base, and their arrogance had led to them not bothering to enchant or trap said bridge. Even without his [Sound of Silence] Talent making any noise that he would have produced to be negated, or his Perception ability helping him a bit, crossing the bridge without anyone noticing was child's play.

It was that last part that helped in this particular case as he balanced across the floating logs that had been tied together with vines, trying to reduce any splash or ripples across the water. Once on the other side, his [Chameleon's Shroud] and [Diminished Presence] Talents, along with his Dark Aspect Passive, were doing the heavy lifting to keep both the Fighters and the Cultivating Guardian Home from sensing his presence.

He carefully bent under the canopy of vines as he approached the Fighters' cabin among the roots, moving towards the back, where they had converted their primary room with the pedestal in it into a war room. It had a large table that a Champion's bracelet could copy and even combine maps to be displayed upon. It also seemed to have the interesting feature of having stations set up in each corner that helped further control the Guardian manually.

Pax assumed that was how the floor boss's tree worked, but wasn't positive since he hadn't been able to get close enough to see and hadn't been there when they probably first discussed it. He had only found their base in the first place by accident, having caught a glimpse of them practically stomping through the swamp and deciding to follow them—at the very least, to make it on his map.

Now, he silently maneuvered himself onto the roof and leaned back to get comfortable while he listened in on them. His eyes went wide a moment later as he heard Antoni say something he hadn't expected.

"Alright! I'll give you a fucking strategy!" Antoni yelled. His volume dropped, but his tone remained hard as steel as he proclaimed, "In three days, we're going to use this Guardian to crush the floor boss, then we'll move on the Servants when they're asleep during the day and take them completely by surprise."