They picked a tower in the distance as their target. It was her the nor farthest of the visible ndmarks—of the buildings more intact than the rest of the Ruins.

  The team was unsure whether the points of i had already been raided and cleared of valuables and powerful enemies, hehey picked one in the middle distahey could see it goiher erhaps the zones regeed, and perhaps they did not.

  Natalie suspected the former: that valuables would restock over time. It only made seherwise, with the number of teams statio the City of Eros, everything would be stripped .

  heless, they hedged their bets, since even if valuables did regee, the zones were the ones most likely to have beely cleared—and thus be depleted. They also picked their target based on how visually intimidating the building looked. The tower they decided on was the tallest and most menag of the strus they could spot, in the near or far distance.

  She wondered whether jumping straight into what might be the hardest zone was smart, when they didn't have a standard of reference for what these 'points of i' would be like. Clementine was the oo verbally point this out, but Elida brushed past the worry with little willio promise. Vaa, likewise, was set on not wasting time. Natalie also agreed, secretly, but it might have been smarter to test the waters.

  Regardless, if there was a team who could hahe worst the Ruins had to throw at them, it would be their squad. Unless a mid-rank team had been expl the third floor ahrown into the City, which wasn't impossible, but was unlikely.

  With their destination decided, they set off. The City of Eros had a bubble of safety around it, but the moment they trekked outside—and it was a stark differehe polished and streets morphing into decayed ruins—Natalie was remihey were in the dungeon proper. Less than a miravel in and one of those ghostly mohat were on to the Ruins was assaulting them.

  Finally, Natalie had the opportunity to focus on what had been the inal goal of this mission, before Lust's intervention had derailed them. Not that Natalie was pining about the absurdly beneficial opportunity preseo her … even if she'd much rather have been thrown here with her real team.

  Elida. Natalie had agreed to this mission to get her to leave her alone, as Elida had promised she would, but also to gather information. She khat would be a two-way street, with Elida studying her back, but Natalie aeam had decided it worth it. Some information was better than none.

  So. Elida.

  She was …

  Strong. Every bit Vaa's equal, and Natalie had already been astounded by how skilled the dark-haired rogue was. Even during the trip to the tower, in which they entered no harrowing fights, Natalie could tell that the first and sed pce titles of 'stro fighters' of Te—much less withieam—went to Elida and Vaa. They were monsters, both of them. And Natalie hadn't evehe full extent of their abilities yet.

  It made Natalie ed for the iable Coliseum fight. Begrudgingly, she admitted to herself she would almost certainly lose a one-versus-one against the red-haired rogue.

  And the reason why was obvious. No small amount of Natalie's strength was tied to her teammates. [Aura of Blessed Adva], [Divine Invigoration], [Stylish]—some of her stro abilities were support skills, or if not support, then team-based. And all of them weren't even power-based support skills. [Aura of Blessed Adva] was undoubtedly one of the most incredible level-three skills Natalie had ever heard of, but gainira experience provided no utility in a fight whatsoever.

  For Elida, Natalie suspected her god-imbued css beed her more directly. She didn't give absurdly strong buffs to her teammates nor accelerate their leveling speed. Well, probably. Natalie wouldn't know.

  Perhaps Elida didn't even have an [Advance] skill like Natalie, granting a sedary progression path, and thus would be stronger earlier in her career, but would be outpaced over time.

  Regardless, her css's kit was clearly more selfish.

  And didn't that make se did in Natalie's head. Lust implied a person to lust over; and thus her skills were targeted that way, not purely on herself. Like [Divine Invigoration]. Moreover, she adin of Lust, and padiraditionally fighters, tanks, healers, and supports all ihough the exact ratios varied.

  But a Rogue e, or whatever css Elida had, would trend toersonal bat abilities, not team-wide buffs.

  In any case, Natalie had to aowledge reality: Elida was her superior when it came to individual bat.

  For now. And only in one-on-one fights. Natalie wondered whether her team would beat Elida's, at this point. She felt they would. [Divine Invigoration] was obsely potent, especially when used with [Empower]. Natalie had given it to Malice before leaving, seeing how she o act as the team's tank, and she holy suspected the boost was so enormous that the wolfgirl would be able to stand toe-to-toe with Elida.

  If only she could apply it to herself. Holy, she might be able to, though she doubted it. She had no iions , because while the boost in strength would be lovely, Natalie's priority was for her teammates. They needed an empowered Malice as their front line. Even if she'd felt pelled to accept this delve with Elida, at least Natalie could be helpieam from afar.

  For now, Natalie appreciated that Elida was on her side. Having such a skilled teammate was … niot that she would admit as much out loud.

  Unfortunately, beynizing how skilled the girl was, Natalie failed to make useful observations on how her css funed. Vaa's versation had been many times more revealing: the suggestion that anger drove the woman was more insight than Natalie discovered first-hand during the trip to the tower.

  Perhaps the ck of insight came from the ck of difficulty. These fights weren't challenging enough to get her to show her hand. If that was the case, an opportunity was ing up. Because after a several-hour expedition—which was useful fathering unented tokens, if nothing else—they had arrived at the base of the tower. The stru stretched hundreds of feet into the air and was as thick as several houses around. It would take a while to asd even if there weren't guardians inside. And of course there would be.

  There might be an Emporium Key at the top, too, and if not that, there would surely be iing fights and some sort of loot.

  So, with building anticipation, Natalie shouldered the door open, the wooden sb creaking loudly as the first room revealed itself.