There was something morbid about being presented with corpses, all of which rested atop some fancy gold-crested wooden tables.

  Currently, they were atop a beautiful garden upon the… twentieth floor? Suna could no longer tell. He gazed across the endless snow far below. The garden had a viewing seat with a proper railing, offering him quite a beautiful show of snowfall.

  Somehow, against all the odds, the garden was beautiful, with its frost-trimmed trees that stretched like each was a Christmas tree—those trees also served as an umbrella, sheltering the multiple tables beneath their huge branches and thick leaves.

  “This is the corpse of the queen,” Wendy took the role of explaining, and she was very eager to do so.

  Just like the King, the Queen was an undead of ice. Her dead body was dressed in an elaborate red fur coat, the fur brushing the edge of her icy neck, her hand folded atop her chest. At a glance, the queen did not appear to die in combat. But Suna knew if he lifted that robe, the damage Slea had done to her would be obvious, and he did not intend to look at that.

  “The queen held incredible control of ice just like the King. Both of their magic was pretty much similar to each other, with perhaps the queen slightly oriented more into both melee and range combat,” Wendy explained.

  “She fractured her focus too much,” Slea—the queen slayer said.

  “What do you mean by that?” Noa asked, arriving just as he weaved his way between the tables with Reki, where they just conversed with a group of Tieflings. The [Bulwark]’s eyes scanned around and shook his head. “This is quite unpleasant.”

  “Why? All of them are frozen anyway?” Reki asked, then he mumbled. “I should find one of the Assassin’s general corpses before all of them claimed…” the [Orator] left them as quickly as he arrived.

  “Ignoring him,” Slea continued, her eyes settling on Suna for some reason.

  Suna raised his eyebrow and leaned againts the giant tree trunk, wondering what the stare was about.

  “The Queen’s class naturally made for long-range. It was quite clear when we fought. When she tried to close in on me to the middle range to use her whip, her magic got weaker, and I capitalized on it.”

  “Did you?” Min cocked her head. “I don’t remember—”

  “I remember!” Wendy exclaimed. “She was getting annoyed with the long-range magic spells battle, then summoned her magic as a shield and tried to advance. Then you blew her shield before she even got into range to use her weapon.”

  A cocky grin briefly marred Slea’s lips, but she bit her cheek and took a purse line. Once again, she faced Suna. “And, who is here among us stretches too much?”

  “Me?” Suna questioned, and annoyingly earned nods from all four. “Now, hold on here… you’re forgetting we’re Integrators with this blessing of Resonance. Well, the Queen was also an Integrator, but her level was limited by the necromancer’s levels. And the identity she took is a Queen! A lazy identity.”

  “That's fair enough,” Noa nodded.

  “I get that,” Slea said. “Just keep this in mind, Suna. Naturally, this is the normal cycle of this new…universe we're stepping into soon. Most will not have these blessings, so you might want to be more discreet when you go out there.”

  “Talk about a distant future, Slea.”

  “What? You think we’re going to fail? With the Tutorial? With securing our world?”

  “I think we will do it,” Suna said honestly.

  Slea smiled and shrugged. “There, you get one thing wrong. There’s no guarantee of ‘we’ once we get out of this place. The world is huge; we might never meet again after this. So, I just need to remind you.”

  Suna accompanied them to choose their corpses. It was morbid at first, of course, yet surprisingly pleasant as time went on. Wendy and Slea seemed to get along as Slea guided Wendy on which Assassin might fit her defensive build the most. Noa and Slea had decided on their coprses, which were the Godknight and Queen.

  The journey into the Altar would take about perhaps two days, considering it took an entire day to set up all of the corpses… and two days for them to be gone, then another two to arrive back—then they would barely arrive on time to enter the Third Depth.

  Just barely enough times.

  Perhaps worse of all, Floundea had decided to take a huge risk by sending the bulk of every upper-strength Tiefling, including her Runebearers, to join the journey as well. This would guarantee an incredible increase in strength by the time they return. And Suna could see the wisdom.

  Another way of looking at it—if the third depth opened, they still did not have to dive in immediately. In a way, it might be nicer to let them…

  Wait.

  Suna stuttered on his steps. What would happen to the city if the Third Depth invaded then?

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  --

  “I will be in your care then, Archer,” Floundea said, the Tiefling’s one knee crossed over the other, showing more of her skin than usual, especially in her nightdress.

  What in the hell did he get himself into?

  He was inside a wide room, the ceiling soaring like a grand library. Actually, not like some ‘library’—he was in one.

  Empty bookshelves were spread around the library, each shelf sadly mistreated, their frost-trimmed edges serving as proof of neglect. Well, Suna was not someone who had any right to lament their condition, considering that the small mounds of corpses in front of him were all here for the sake of his experiment.

  He ran his thumb across the Pyre-amulet. One of the servants had found it for him and even brought multiple more.

  Eyeing Floundea once more, he decided to ignore her and walked toward the corpses, and started to collect Pyre-flames.

  A burst of bluish fire ran across the corpses, turning into a puff of blue orbs that trailed into Suna’s pendant.

  Just like that, he got Pyre-flame.

  Suna kept going. He had a lot of corpses to get through. And clearly someone was bored.

  “Does it bother you? My decision,” Floundea asked.

  “No, not really,” Suna said. “I still much rather have Jack here at least, though.”

  “Jack will be the one who will enable the integrators to return faster,” Floundea yawned, letting the plush sofa eat her body. “And the Gale Step user will certainly return early, too, which means Amidela and her elite squad will be available. Besides, worst-case scenario, this damn city will just burn.”

  That almost made Suna stop.

  Sure, he did not like the king. But, still… letting the entire town burn? Didn’t the deal with the king only work because he still held control of this city at least? How would the Tiefling co-exist if this city no longer existed?

  “Did the king know about this?”

  “No,” Floundea simply said, her voice muffled with a pillow. “We will just run if by the fourth day they do not come without telling him. I expect you to carry me away, of course.”

  “Sure, leave it to me,” Suna said, keeping his tone passive. Somehow, he was not surprised. James probably would have the same plan as her.

  “If you don’t mind, I will be sleeping. Don’t let any assassin kill me. It would negate the point of my staying with you in the first place.”

  “Sure, I will ask you a question if I need a pointer too.”

  “Not sure if I can help, but ask anyway later.”

  For the next hour, Suna kept relentlessly gathering more and more until no more corpses existed. He grinned, examining the result like a proud harvester.

  Pyre Flame: 12,553.

  Was it enough? He had no idea.

  Now, to test the armor creation… and the Arrow too, with his new skill Arrow Hearth.

  Which should he do first? Maybe the arrow, since it was smaller. But, he was way too curious about this armor creation skill—Pyreforge Armor.

  All right, how should he get started?

  Suna read over his three new skills.

  [Pyre Kindle][Common]—A lone fire of corpses full of regret and want nothing more to protect something. Summon a Pyreflame above your palm.

  [Arrow Hearth][Rare]—Wind and Fire got along; the two elements mashed well together, especially under [Flintwind Archer]’s control. An archer needed to be sure of his arrow, as it was his lifeline. Arrow Hearth shall allow [Flintwind Archer] to summon a Hearth of pure Mana, to create more arrows by tying them with Wind and Fire.

  [Pyreforged Armor][Mystic]—The flame of corpses carries many wishes—one such wish is the grand desire to protect the body of its owner. The Pyre flame hated death; it loathes it. The moment Pyre-flame is harvested from a dead body, it swears an oath to prevent the death of the new body it resides in.

  His theory had been that the class manifested thanks to his new skills. So, he should think of a resonance between them. Could he use Arrow Hearth as the base to create armor? Actually, how many Pyre-flames did he actually need?

  Suna couldn’t help but think he did not nearly have enough Pyre-flame. Dua’s one lantern had given him like a hundred thousand after all. Just how many souls has she even captured?

  To prevent himself from thinking too much, Suna decided to have a go at it. He extended his palm, opening it, and pushed out his Pyre Kindle. A charming dancing flame manifested, Floundea’s breath silently drifting.

  Settling down with focus, Suna imagined what kind of armor he wanted. If he remembered correctly, the Knight’s weapons were limited to swords and shields, each fitting Landfred’s class as a knight. Deciding to do the same, Suna willed the fire into an armor that would hug his body without burdening his movement, as an archer needed movement more than defense. His armor should be able to mask his surroundings along with his Rabbit Cloak.

  He did not expect to succeed at the first try. Still, when the Pyre-flame flickered and extended like a blob of unruly wave, his heart quickened.

  The Pyre-flame congregated to the size of his body in a pure blue glow, and its shine slowly faded away, leaving an armor seemingly charred in ash and dust, a dying shape of some cuirass left alone.

  [Gale-Wind Armor][Fractured]—Broken, and absolutely useless. The Gale-wind armor was supposed to carry an archer in the protection of the wind.

  The armor fractured into ashes like snow, the smell of burnt churning around the vaulted library as Suna kept staring at the result.

  For the first try, it was not bad. Maybe.

  Pyre Flame: 11,553.

  A thousand? I only get another eleven tries.

  No, he could not accept that.

  Suna had lines of bottles of mana. Not vial, but bottles. He prepared to do this over and over for the next four days, but Pyre-flame supply was something he still had to be watchful for…

  Suna whipped his head at Floundea, who was peacefully snoring.

  He coughed. The Tiefling did not awake, so he did it far louder over and over again until the Thiefmaster’s eyes slit open.

  “Was that on purpose?” She half-snapped.

  He ignored the question, ”I need more Pyreflame.”

  “Why—” Floundea blinked. She briskly stood and walked beside Suna. The Thiefmaster examined the remnant of the armor, which still held its shape despite slowly turning into an complete ashes.

  “This cost about a thousand to make, and I only got eleven more tries.”

  “That is troublesome,” Floundea bit her cheek. “I will try to arrange more corpses,” she turned, heading toward the door.

  “Wait, do I need to go with you?”

  “No, keep doing what you’re doing. Two of my husband's are still currently mapping the area around this library to guard. I will have a chat with them and supply you with more corpses. Besides, I think the King is not forthcoming.”

  “Not forthcoming?”

  She kicked open the library’s door, revealing two Tieflings bowing at her. “I meant, I think he still hid corpses with greater value out of spite because Slea takes his wife's corpses,” Floundea clicked her tongue. “How childish.”

  You call that childish?

  “My Husbands will return here with me. I will appreciate it if you consider making armor for them too after you are done with yourself.”

  Before Suna could answer, she already closed the door behind her.

  “How childish,” he cursed under his breath.