Natalie posed herself. She'd been flustered by Elida's ued arrival, as if she'd been caught doing something inappropriate, but she hadn't, really. She was cheg out the Coliseum purely out of practical siderations. To see how it worked, and to see how fast the passive token-entment was. And for once, she wasn't lying to herself. Natalie was a lot of things, but a voyeur wasn't one.

  Well, she wasn't especially a voyeur, at least. She wouldn't pretend the show being put on didn't get her a little excited. heless. She wouldn't have shown up if not for curiosity on the entment fun.

  "Elida," Natalie repeated, more posed this time. "Faye. Clementine. When'd you get here? How'd you find us?"

  "About an ho," Elida said. "We just missed the 'cycle reset,' apparently. How unfortunate. We saw your name and Vaa's a hunting. Checked the Arena first, sihat was what your assig was, and figured you'd either be in the shopping district or at the Coliseum. And here you are." She walked over and leaned oone railio Natalie, casually peering out at the ongoing—activity. "This is truly the stra floor I've ever heard of. What's happening? This is a stake payout, I believe they called it?"

  Someone had givehe rundown on how the City worked, it seemed. The basics at least.

  "We only got here a few hours before you, so we don't know that much more," Natalie said. "But yes, this is—a stake payout."

  "Curious. What were the terms?"

  Slightly flustered, she reyed the stake's description to Elida.

  "Ah. So the extra bits were created by the stake? Iing." She leaned back to peer over Natalie's shoulder. "Where are my manners? It's good to see you again, Vaa. I presume you and Natalie had some good bonding time? You were both sent to the Arena for a 'duo assig', no?"

  If Natalie had teasingly prodded Vaa in such a way, she expected the dark-haired rogue would blush furiously. With Elida, her face was pletely deadpan. She met Elida's gaze with barely a twitch. "Yes. I wondered when you'd get here. You must have been thrown farther from the City than us."

  "It was a hike," Elida agreed. "You two have gotten the y of the nd? You'll o catch us up."

  "You've gotten a room at the Pace?" Natalie asked.

  "Indeed. A lovely young man gave us the initiation spiel—but there seems to be a lot going on."

  "Yeah. But automatons are statio most buildings. They're helpful. The only bit that's not obvious is the Emporium. That we've heard about, at least."

  "The Emporium?"

  "In the shopping district. Apparently it's where all the valuable items are sold. Well, the really valuable ohe regur shops are already—absurd enough."

  "Oh?"

  "They sell Epics."

  Even Elida's eyes wide that, the news fl her.

  "Epics? Ohird floor?"

  "They're expensive as hell, but yes. We'd have to be here—" She ran a rough calcution in her head. As she'd learned earlier, token geion and entment was insistent, not something that could be estimated with reliability. "Well, probably more than a week, just to buy one. And that's assuming we're very, very effit workers."

  One of the other city goers had mentioned only earning six ented tokens for their arena run. W at that pace, it would take all month even for a run of the mill Epic.

  'Run of the mill Epiatalie shook her head. What a ridiculous statement.

  "I see," Elida said. "And there's the matter of the time limit. How unfortunate."

  "The time limit?"

  "The two-week maximum."

  "Oh?" Natalie hadn't heard of that. It must have slipped Acacia's briefing, and she hadn't thought to ask whether there was some limitation.

  "You didn't hear? Yes. Apparently, you only stay for two weeks. Then the guards will e t you out."

  The guards. She hadn't seen a, but she knew of them. How else would people be carried off to their punishment at the pillory, for example? They were tall suits of armor, she'd heard, unbelievably strong and quick. Probably level six or seven, maybe higher. Not something that could be reasonably fought.

  Except maybe by their team? Level seven was a tall ask, however prodigious their squad was, though. Natalie had no iions her hand, because there was no respawning except in saned assigs. And not even all of them—the Pace Basement had no such safeguards.

  "Huh. Good to know."

  "Which brings us to the obvious discussion," Elida said. "We have decisions to make as a team. Namely—extending the timeline of our delve."

  Natalie grimaced. She and Vaa had already broached the topic. It erfectly rational to stay at the City of Eros as long as possible. There ic loot for sale. Te would five them, she was certain. They would want full, detailed reports on what was happening on this unique floor. In fact, they might be reprimanded if they didn't stay and perform reaissae didn't like when their students missed csses and training, obviously, but this ecial case.

  The problem was Jordan, Sofia, Liz, and Ana. What would they think if Natalie went missing for two weeks? Beyond the immeress she might p them w that the worst had happened, she was leaving them without a tank for that entire period.

  Thankfully, they'd discussed the topi a smaller scale: what their pns were while Natalie was gone over the weekend. They would be tag the sed floor using a [Divinely Invigorated] Malice as their tank. The martial artist was more of a fighter than a true tank, but she could fill the role, especially when buffed by Natalie's stro skill.

  They ought to make det progress, even without her. Since Malice fed experieo her active owhey'd be rotating the monstergirl around to massively boost their gains. A four-party earning experience as a five-party.

  There was also her [Aura of Blessed Adva]. It was an aura skill, which usually meant she had to be hem … but the description said 'Select up to four party members to receive amplified experience gain'. Not all aura skills were restrained by distance.

  Most were though. The rge majority. But there were rare exceptions. Unfortunately, intuition didn't answer her question. It may or may not fun even when she was separated from them. Hopefully it did?

  Iher case, Malice could act as their front line and boost their experience gain. They weren't suffering overmuch for losing their tank.

  So the dilemma was more about them thinking Natalie had died, rather than her simply being gone. Which was a rather major dilemma, sihey were friends. At the same time—this City of Eros was an unpreted opportunity. She couldn't afford to give it up. Elida and probably even Vaa would overrule any requests to go back early, anyway.

  "Right," Natalie said. "We do o talk."

  She g the developing situation down ihe Coliseum. Catarina had just pleted her sed 'milking.' She'd chosen to use her thighs this time around. Good choice.

  "Maybe not here and now, though," she said, cheeks c. "I want to see how many toke ented, for this, ah, show. We chat after."