The wo challenges were huge projects, far rger than they normally gave parties with seven adults, let alohree teens. The general objective was to have a group move through in about a day, but these st two projects were about a day each.

  Kazue and Mordecai had good reason to ramp up the challenge, and the value of the rewards given was going to be a little under what they had earned, which would build up a bit of a debt on the dungeon's side. And that in turn will allow some better prizes at the end.

  And it robably going to be the st opportunity to directly gift dungeon-craft items to Fuyuko, as she hadn't accepted a tractor positio. And some items required a dungeon's touch to craft easily.

  The first of the remaining two challenges on this floor was 'just' a jigsaw puzzle, of a map of the entire ti. It was of course huge, and the pieces were not, but that wasn't the hardest part. Every city and pame was on aical scroll graphic, which Kazue had gohrough some effort to standardize the size of through a bination of extra spa short names and writing rger names in smaller text. And the jigsaw piece that was removed for the names was identical for every piece.

  Naturally, there had to be a solution to the puzzle, and that solution was to be found in the very, very detailed reference books that gave descriptive clues about all the beled locations. While Shizoku's general study habits would give her an advantage in searg through the books, her expertise was not in things like geography, and her base knowledge wouldn't be a lot higher thahers. Aia would probably appreciate them hammering in a little meopolitical knowledge into the stubbirl's head.

  The prizes were straightforward. First, the linked unicatis that each of them had earned in the crystal puzzles were upgraded to include an indication of the dire and the rough distao both of the other ones, as well as an upgrade to the distahe unication worked. The distandication was simply the brightness of the representative dot, which hit its minimum at the edge of the unicatie, though the dire range worked no matter the distance, so long as they were on the same physical yer of reality.

  Sed, they were each given a scroll case that was inteo be loaded with bnk paper and had built-in wells for ink. When loaded and activated, the case would automatically map the terrain around them to a distance of about 20 feet if set in high detail. At the lowest detail setting, it would map out to about a mile, but this wouldn't catch most buildings let aloheir interiors, and no matter what the setting it could only add details that the person the case was keyed to sensed, and mostly this meant vision.

  The three teens puzzled over their prizes on the way back to the store in order to curl up again for the night, and the group correctly surmised that Kazue and Mordecai were setting them up to learn how to be a team. While they were doing that, Kazue preserved the giant jigsaw a up in a gallery that listed the date, time to plete, their names, and their ages. She also added a transparent yer over the top that overid the pames with a bnk scroll, so that no one else would have an advantage from their hard work. It was going to be the start of a bonus challeher than a regur challenge, but given the ego of some people, seeing the names of three young teens on such a massive piece would ehem to pete.

  The final puzzle was a more creative exercise. They entered an exhibit that expihe cepts of a tarot ded the ways in which they be interpreted, and included an example tarot deck using many of the primogen gods, such as Zagaroth for the Emperor, Amirume and Mericume for the Sun and Moon, Danu for the Empress, and Li for the Fool. This also gave an opportunity to demonstrate that wheing specific figures to fulfill roles in a tarot deck, you based them on the individual role, and not the retioweehus Danu being Empress as it had no bearing on Zagaroth being Emperor.

  The example deck delved into the fifty-six minor ara as well, pulling from various pantheons. The dwarven god of brewing was in the cups/water suite, while the dwarven god of smithing was in the wands/fire suite, and so on. Naturally, the elemental lords of earth, fire, water, and wind took up the position of King of their respective suits, while other elemental lords took up the other 'court' positions of queen, knight, and page.

  This example tarot set also took up all of the gods that were well-known in this area. This was important because the challenge was to create their own tarot deck as a group, using only deities not currently represented in the sample colle.

  They were given all of the art tools they would o design and create their own cards, and of course, a pition of all the religious knowledge the dungeon had. There was no specific correswer, the task was to uand the gods that they studied and chose well enough to be able to choose something that would suit them and develop even crude artwork that was representative.

  Kazue helped a little by making sure that there were stencils and such as part of the art supplies. The design art of the challenge, not the execution of the design.

  When they were pleted, each of them was given a different but reted boon. Fuyuko's holy symbol was enhao help keep her obscured from the senses of the undead and other unholy things. Shizoku's holy symbol of Mericume's moon was ented to gleam with a hint of true, holy moonlight when brandished to ward off the undead. Derek's was more difficult as he had not dedicated himself to a specific deity yet, and Mordecai maed his avatar to have a discussion with the boy.

  In the end, they gave him a book detailing all the elemental lords and how their various edicts would i with each other, weaving together a possible ized pantheonic worship that bahe various elements, along with some guidan how to struct a suitable holy symbol for the group.

  It would be harder than following an individual deity or divinely decreed grouping, but Derek was only looking to find whom to dedicate himself to, and was not looking to bee a priest or champion. The bar was much lower for y followers.

  This was not a dedication in itself, it ossible guide if he chose this route, but there was no need for him to rush into the decision.

  In addition to the above, they were each given three non-magical tarot decks: A copy of the inal sample, a copy of the ohey designed and crafted, and a third ohat was their design as executed by Kazue's own artistic skill. They were all high-quality materials, but in the end, they were more for seal value than for moary value.

  The teens were happy to colpse into proper beds in the rest area and recuperate for the floor. They had been passed by more than a few groups, so they didn't know any of the people they met here. Kazue had kept their se of the library locked to them for the duration of their excursion through the exhibits.

  The floor was the mushroom forest/vilge. As each group was given their ow objectives, there was o keep separate ses here, and the three of them were able to flex their talents a little more. Between Fuyuko's sense of smell and Derek's ability to sense slight vibrations wheuo earth, they were adept at finding anything alive ohey were in the right area, and Shizoku was skilled at dising miails and differences when they had to find the exact right item or spe.

  It hysically exhausting but cmbering through the mushroom forest and occasional deeper caverns or tall cliffs didn't exhaust their minds in quite the same way as the previous floor did. It was also a lot less ized as Kazue let the bunkin and their fellows handle creating and implementing quests, and their hardest challenge was capturing a 'feral' giant polecat without hurting it and bringing it back to the bunkin in charge of training new mounts. The polecat had a great time leading them on a wild chase and pying his part, as for the story of this challenge he wasn't supposed to be sapient.

  The rewards were fairly typical for this level; Shizoku got a couple more alchemical recipes and a sele of ingredients uo this dungeon, while Derek and Fuyuko got a colle of single-use 'token' items. Some of them could transform into various useful but much bulkier items, such as a long dder or a berry bush that would root into the ground and provide ented berries with restorative properties for a day. After that, it would provide normal berries. Others tained emergency spells like oo cause them to float if they started falling from a great height.

  Though the rewards were det for the work, it was still far from easy for the trio and Shizoku was getting quite good at pining about the torments that Kazue utting them through, though the other two were less vocal. And while some of the griping was sincere frustration, it also had the sound of stress release and bonding against a on 'foe'. It made Kazue eager with the anticipation of seeing Shizoku's rea to the floor.

  "Sun and moohe woman, I fot about the stupid river level," swore the tiny white-haired kitsune.

  Fuyuko took the initiative to start walking toward the keside town waiting for them in the ever-widening tunnel. She hadn't experiehe river level at all, but she had been given a tour so she at least was more familiar with the cept than Derek was. Shizoku trailed st, spending some of her energy on tinued grumbling.

  Finding lodging wasn't hard, but the inn keep had a message for them. "Mistress Kazue says you three have some special rules. No paying your way across or through anything, you have to work everything out yourself. If you need any training on skills, you trade bor, skill, or knowledge, but not money oods except foods you colleake from this point forward. This will apply to the zone as well."

  This elicited groans from all of them. "Why is she pushing us this hard? We k was going to take a while with only three of us, but this is getting ridiculous." Shizoku said with a scowl.

  Derek nodded in agreement, "I mean, I'm kind of having fun too, but this is going to leave me away from home even lohan I realized."

  "Well," the inn keep replied, "she's keeping the details a surprise, but she's trying to maximize what is fair to give you as a final reward. And assuming Miss Fuyuko here joins as a tractor, they won't be able to give her rewards like this iure, so they agreed that they wahis st ce to provide something his way. Also, they figure this would be a nice way to help fe some friendships, seeing as how Miss Fuyuko doesn't really knoeople in the area, especially those close to her own age."

  Fuyuko looked embarrassed at the blunt assessment but shrugged in aowledgment of the truth.

  Shizoku gnced betweewo as her tails shed and then sighed. "I was going to suggest separate rooms, or maybe me sharing a room with Fuyuko, but now I think that might not be best. you set us up with a room with three beds and some privacy for ging?"

  That surprised Derek and Fuyuko, who turo stare at her as they tried to figure out her logic. She rolled her eyes at them, "Look, it's simple. While my training may have included weeks-long excursions with no pany but the forest spirit, her of you really trained like that. Derek's clearly getting a touesick without more people he knows nearby, and Fuyuko, eh, I don't know a suct word, but it's close enough to homesid you could use some pany too. So it's best if we stick together and no one's sleeping alone for now, alright?"

  It could often be hard to remember that Shizoku was being guided toossibly being Aia's heir, but sometimes that education showed itself in ued fshes of insight from the prickly thirteen-year-old.

  Zagaroth