The group knew their vacation in France couldn't last forever.
For a few days, Lyon had felt like a strange pocket of normal life—good food, music, laughter, quiet walks through old streets, and nights where the biggest threat was a drunk diver vandalizing public property. For a moment, the dungeon had felt far away.
But the dungeon was never truly far.
And neither were the people who wanted them dead.
Josh.
Olen.
And whatever chaos Em might decide to stir next.
So the morning after their last night in Lyon, the gang gathered in the backyard of Maison Delacroix – Chambres d'Hôtes, under the enormous lime-oak tree that had grown there like a silent guardian.
The Delacroix family stood with them.
The Lambert family as well.
Mr. Delacroix crossed his arms and looked at the group thoughtfully.
"You people…"
His English was rough, but sincere.
"…are dangerous friends for my daughter."
Camille winced slightly.
"Papa…"
But the man smiled.
"Dangerous," he repeated, "but good."
Mrs. Lambert nodded in agreement.
"We read the news."
She gestured vaguely toward the city.
"Twenty-six criminals arrested in one night."
Dominic coughed.
"Coincidences happen."
Mr. Lambert laughed.
"Yes."
He looked at Séline and Camille.
"You two met good people."
That was all he said.
But it meant more than enough.
Before they left, another unexpected message arrived.
Phong's status menu flashed.
Everyone gathered around immediately.
The sender was…
Em.
The message read:
"Formal complaint filed."
Phong blinked.
"…what?"
Another message appeared.
"Your 'tell the dragon' strategy is unsportmanship-like conduct between Pillars and divers."
The entity continued.
"You humans call it 'snitching to mom.'"
Dominic burst out laughing.
"You snitched on a floor boss?"
Janet shook her head.
"Unbelievable."
Phong rolled his eyes and typed a reply.
"You threatened to mind-control my girlfriend."
A pause.
Then Em answered:
"Still unsporting."
Phong replied instantly.
"Still deserved."
No further response came.
But the conversation wasn't over.
Another notification appeared.
This one carried a presence that made everyone instinctively straighten up.
Sender: The Sky Emperor
The message was calm.
Direct.
"I have addressed the matter."
The group exchanged glances.
Then the next line appeared.
"Em has received appropriate time."
Dominic muttered quietly.
"…that means he got his ass kicked again."
The message continued.
"The Pillar shall never attempt to tamper with the minds of divers."
Phong felt a small weight lift off his chest.
Even Alex exhaled slowly.
The dragon continued.
"However."
Everyone leaned closer.
"The scorched land has cooled."
A final line appeared.
"Please repair the area as agreed."
Phong stared at the message for a moment.
Then nodded slowly.
"…fair."
He honestly hadn't expected that level of fairness from a being powerful enough to erase cities.
The Sky Emperor didn't threaten.
Didn't demand.
He simply held people—humans or Pillars—to the agreements they made.
Before leaving Lyon, Phong tested something.
The lime-oak tree.
The massive trunk twisted as he placed his hand against it.
The mana inside the roots pulsed like a heartbeat.
He focused.
The lower portion of the tree creaked.
Then the bark split open, revealing a hollow interior swirling with faint green light.
A gateway.
Dominic leaned forward.
"…no way."
Phong stepped closer.
The root network connection appeared inside his menu like a living map.
Camp Stymphalian.
The Lyon tree.
Two points.
One connection.
Teleportation.
And the system did not require dungeon soil to use the gateway.
Only the buffs from the fruit required dungeon conditions.
Dominic laughed loudly.
"We just built a secret international teleport hub in a motel backyard."
Mr. Delacroix looked at the glowing gateway in stunned silence.
"…mon dieu."
Camille just sighed.
"This is my life now."
One by one, the group stepped through the lime-oak gateway.
The sensation was strange.
Like walking through cool water made of mana.
Then the world shifted.
And they were back.
Camp Stymphalian.
The familiar fields greeted them.
Garlic mines.
Bonktatoes.
Sunflower lights.
Chili arcs.
The quiet hum of a living defensive ecosystem.
Rico leaped off Dominic's shoulder and stretched dramatically.
"Home!"
Work resumed almost immediately.
Phong opened the bag of seeds Alex had bought at the auction.
The ones the German vendor had claimed came from a tree that grew behind Les Cornes de la Terre—the Horns of the Earth.
Phong wasn't sure if the story was true.
But if it was…
Those seeds might carry the influence of a Pillar.
He carefully separated them.
Half would be planted here.
Half kept for testing.
Then he turned to another set of seeds.
Tomatoes.
Normal ones he had bought in Lyon.
He planted them near the sunflower fields.
The dungeon soil would decide what they would become.
Meanwhile, the others prepared for their next operation.
Dominic spread a rough map on a wooden table.
"The Wraith Fortress."
He tapped the location.
"We're close to stabilizing it."
Janet nodded.
"With the lizardmen canal connected, most monsters already avoid the area."
Jake added:
"Once the perimeter is secure, it becomes a perfect forward base."
Dominic grinned.
"And eventually…"
He pointed to the lime-oak sprout in Phong's hands.
"Second camp."
A new outpost.
Connected by root network.
Vertical expansion through dungeon floors.
Exactly what Em had hoped to provoke.
But this time…
They were doing it on their own terms.
Alex approached Phong before departure.
"We're going with them."
He nodded.
"I figured."
She would join Dominic, Séline, and Camille.
More combat strength meant safer expansion.
Phong then crouched beside two other members of the team.
Nyx.
Bruno.
"You two are going as well."
Both animals froze.
Nyx's ears perked.
Bruno wagged his tail cautiously.
"You're not babies anymore."
Combat experience mattered now.
Dungeon survival required real skills.
Dominic immediately sent a message.
"Alexei, ready?"
The reply came seconds later.
"Always."
Dominic looked at Phong.
"I'll keep them safe."
The paladin would be there too.
Phong nodded gratefully.
Rico crossed his arms dramatically.
"So I stay?"
Dominic shook his head firmly.
"You stay."
The raccoon looked betrayed.
"But my treant partner needs levels!"
Dominic opened a crate.
Inside were twelve cans of soda.
Rico stared.
"…bribery?"
Dominic nodded.
"Professional negotiation."
Rico grabbed the pack instantly.
"Acceptable."
Morning came quickly.
November 5th.
Cold air drifted across the fields.
The group assembled near the entrance to Floor 2.
Dominic.
Janet.
Jake.
Jack.
Joanne.
Séline.
Camille.
Alex.
Nyx.
Bruno.
They stood ready for the descent.
Dominic turned to Phong.
"Take care of the farm."
Phong nodded.
"And try not to start another international incident while we're gone."
Rico raised a soda can in salute.
"No promises."
Dominic laughed.
Then the team stepped forward.
One by one they disappeared into the passage leading to Floor 2.
Silence returned to Camp Stymphalian.
Only two figures remained.
Phong.
And Rico.
The raccoon cracked open a soda.
"Alright boss."
He gestured toward the distant scorched land the Sky Emperor had asked to be healed.
"Time to farm."
Phong looked toward the blackened horizon.
A request from a dragon.
Seeds from a wandering god of life.
Tomatoes waiting to mutate.
And a dungeon ecosystem slowly becoming intertwined with his farm.
He picked up his shovel.
"…guess we better get to work."
The patch of land the Sky Emperor had delivered was ugly.
Not just scorched.
Dead.
Blackened soil cracked like burnt pottery. Ash clung to the surface in gray streaks. The air still carried the faint smell of ozone and charred life, the lingering aftermath of the fight between Suzaku and Em.
It had been part of Floor 3 once.
Now it sat half a mile from Camp Stymphalian like a scar hammered into the landscape.
Phong stood there with a shovel resting on his shoulder.
"…yeah, this is going to take a while."
Rico stood beside him, arms crossed.
The raccoon wore a small pair of sunglasses he had stolen somewhere in Lyon.
"Looks like the dragon dropped a nuclear test site."
Phong sighed.
"Pretty much."
Still, a request was a request.
And from what Phong had seen of the Sky Emperor, the dragon played fair.
That meant Phong would too.
So he began.
Terraforming started the simplest way possible.
Moletatoes.
Phong planted the first row carefully across the edge of the burned field.
The mutated potatoes reacted almost immediately.
Small tremors passed through the ground as the underground network began spreading. Moletatoes were perfect for this kind of work—digging, aerating, and restructuring soil without Phong needing heavy equipment.
Rico helped for about fifteen minutes.
Then twenty.
Then he flopped onto the ground dramatically.
"I'm out."
Phong didn't look up.
"Out of what?"
"Caffeine."
The raccoon lifted his empty soda can and shook it sadly.
"No fuel."
Phong continued planting.
"You've had six today."
"Six is maintenance."
Rico rolled onto his back.
"Eight is optimal productivity."
Phong snorted.
Rico stayed there for another two minutes.
Then suddenly sprang to his feet.
"I'll go find bugs."
Phong blinked.
"…bugs?"
"Natural dopamine."
And just like that, the raccoon vanished into nearby bushes chasing dungeon insects like a hyperactive gremlin.
Phong shook his head and kept working.
A few minutes later his phone buzzed.
Then again.
Then again.
Phong frowned and wiped dirt from his hands before pulling it out.
Messages.
A lot of them.
From names he hadn't seen in almost two years.
High school friends.
College classmates.
People he used to hang out with.
People he used to talk to daily.
People he used to argue with about e-sports rankings and football matches.
People he used to complain about professors with.
People who had slowly stopped responding after Josh's father destroyed his family.
The first message read:
"Hey man, long time. How've you been?"
Another:
"Bro I saw some dungeon news recently and thought of you. What are you up to these days?"
Another:
"Still farming? lol"
Then a different tone.
"You diving now? Heard some farmers got pretty strong."
Another:
"You around New York gate these days?"
Phong stared at the screen quietly.
Too polite.
Too careful.
Too coordinated.
It didn't feel like real conversation.
It felt like someone reading from a script.
He shrugged.
If they were fishing for information…
They would get nothing.
Phong typed simple responses.
"Doing fine."
"Still farming."
"Nothing interesting."
"Staying near the gate."
"Just growing crops."
No details.
No hints.
Nothing about Camp Stymphalian.
Nothing about alliances.
Nothing about mutated plants.
Just the same harmless, boring story.
A small farmer doing small farmer things.
Far away on the surface.
In a quiet corporate office.
Olen's father received a call.
The HR director spoke calmly.
"Sir, the students have started contacting him."
"Good."
"They're following the behavioral scripts exactly as instructed."
Olen's father leaned back in his chair.
"Any results?"
"Not yet. He's cautious."
"Of course he is."
The man steepled his fingers.
"That boy survived two assassination attempts."
He smiled faintly.
"But everyone talks eventually."
He glanced at the data reports on his desk.
Psychological profiling.
Social network analysis.
Dormitory friend lists.
Chat histories.
"Use everything you know about human psychology."
His voice was calm.
Controlled.
"Crack that boy open."
"Understood."
The call ended.
Meanwhile, Olen himself had disappeared.
Completely.
No media appearances.
No social posts.
No messages.
Even Alex had stopped receiving his relentless DMs.
Publicly, he had gone silent.
In reality…
He had been sent to Paris.
His father didn't want him anywhere near the New York gate biome right now.
Too many production-class deaths.
Too many strange monster behaviors targeting farmers.
Better to move him to a different gate entirely.
Paris dungeon operations were calmer.
For now.
And Olen had been given a clear order:
Reach Level 20.
Fast.
Deep below.
Floor 2.
Dominic's team moved through the ruined valley near the Wraith Fortress.
The expanded squad now included:
Dominic
Janet
Jake
Jack
Joanne
Alex
Séline
Camille
Alexei
Nyx
Bruno
A powerful group by any dungeon standard.
They had already secured several surrounding zones when the next encounter appeared.
The ground trembled.
Dominic raised his hand.
"Hold."
From the treeline ahead came a group of creatures.
They looked…
Like trolls.
But smaller.
About chest-high to Dominic.
Their bodies were hunched and thick with muscle.
Goat heads.
No horns.
Their skin completely covered in green moss and creeping vines.
Tiny glowing mushrooms grew from their backs.
Jake frowned.
"…what the hell are those?"
The creatures charged.
Dominic didn't hesitate.
"Formation!"
The first moss troll lunged.
Dominic's shieldcrashed down.
CRACK.
The creature exploded into spores and rotten plant matter.
But three more leapt from the side.
Séline's blade flashed.
Camille followed with a brutal spinning kick that snapped a creature's spine.
Alexei stepped forward with his shield glowing.
"Light of the covenant."
Radiant energy blasted outward, knocking two trolls backward.
Meanwhile—
Nyx darted between the fighters like a shadow.
A bolt of mana shot from her mouth and punched straight through a moss troll's skull.
Bruno tackled another creature to the ground and finished it with a savage bite.
Janet floated briefly above the battlefield, spear diving downward like a falling star.
Within seconds the first wave was crushed.
But the forest ahead rustled.
More shapes moved.
Dozens.
Dominic wiped green spores from his glove.
"…great."
Alex cracked her knuckles.
"Mini trolls."
Jake grinned.
"Let's farm."
And the battle for Floor 2 territory began.