Eden woke up from his slumber, far earlier than planned. It was 6:00 am, so he had about 2 hours to get everything in order and pack any extra things into his inventory. The first thing he does is grab the hay that covers his bed.

  Who knows if I will need this again, but better safe than sorry. Now what else should I take with me? Eden wonders, but after scanning around his small room, he realizes that there was never much in it. The only things of note were the alarm clock and books. The room had nothing else of note in it, even by Eden’s generally low standards. The same is true for just about everything else in the house. Nothing in the house was worth taking and able to be stored in his inventory. He would take things like the fridge, but he has already tried to store the fridge in his inventory once, but he was unable to. There was some kind of undisclosed size or weight limit on what can be stored. So after a short combing of the house, pardon Old Man’s room, he found a grand total of nothing he wanted that he could take. So, while waiting for Plantus to show up, he sits in the kitchen on one of the stools, something he also sadly cannot store in the inventory. It would seem Old Man cleaned up the kitchen, as Eden does not see any lemonade nor the glass on the ground. Eden frowns upon thinking of last night.

  I acted too suddenly. I should have given my idea more thought, hell even just a little thought before discussing it! But I have no other choice, one should discuss the draft to make an agreed upon plan.Though, I am a little surprised Old Man did not agree with my statement, or did he not take it seriously? No, Old Man is not that kind of person. Eden concludes as he pulls out the forging book, Crafting fundamentals, a Dwarf’s Guide. He gets through only a few pages however, as he is interrupted by Old Man walking in. His eyes look droopy and halfway closed. It looks like he aged a dozen or so years, as the wrinkles on his face are far more defined. Old Man looks over to Eden, who sits in silence, acting as though he did not notice Old Man and is still reading his book.

  “Are you going to pretend not to see me here? If you are going to do that, pick a book in English next time.” Old Man politely mocks Eden. Eden sighs and puts down the book.

  “I wanted to save continuing our conversation for a future date-wait, what did you mean by picking a book in English?” Eden starts to answer, but gets derailed by what Old Man says. Old Man’s tired eyes widened a bit after hearing this, but that is soon replaced by a look of realization.

  “Eden, would you happen to have the “Language comprehension” skill?” Old Man asks, and upon Eden nodding, Old Man continues. “That explains it. It seems one of the languages translated by that skill would be Stonian; the language of the dwarfs and other cave dwellers.” Old Man explains to Eden.

  This skill auto translate like that? I would have thought it would give me knowledge on how to read the language, not translate it. Wait, now that I look at this skill, it also has the effect of giving my language translation abilities to others. Must have forgotten it because of the mana cost I was unable to pay. Regardless, certainly talking about the book will buy me some time. Eden realises. He then shows Old Man the book and activates his skill. He calls out “Language comprehension!” and a wave of light flows out of Eden’s head.

  “This is what I was reading.” Eden shows Old Man with a slight grin, born both from his interest in the book and to delay their conversation last night to a future date. Old Man quickly reads the title and looks at Eden with a sign of disappointment.

  “You saw a book with the words “a dwarf’s guide” in the title and thought it would be written in English? Did you forget that skill existed or something?” Old Man rhetorically asks Eden, who feels a bit hurt.

  “Well I mean it could have been an english translation or something I do not know.” Eden hastily answers, but regrets his point almost immediately. Sadly what is said has been said.

  “Eden, more books on the shelf are not in English than are in English. Unless your skill is far higher level than your other abilities, it is unlikely you can translate every language in those books.” Old Man clarifies.

  “Point taken.” Eden says, admitting defeat on this end. But he continues on to his next topic rather quickly afterwards. “But it feels like you are calling me weak based upon that last line.” Eden quickly bounces back with.

  “Well you kind of are. I mean your only level 2, last time I heard, and have at most a few months of experience in the tower, most of which was farming. People on the second floor are normally around level 8-12, and those that choose to stay on floor two are far higher than that. Honestly, compared to those at your actual level, you are stronger than most.” Old Man explains to Eden, who is conflicted on how he should feel about this information. But he does not wish to stand in silence for long, so Eden does what he does best: ask questions.

  “If I am so weak compared to you all, then why was I the focus of the battle against the ogre?” Eden quickly asks. Old Man seemed to have somewhat expected this question, so he had an answer prepared almost immediately.

  “That would be for a few reasons. For one, the growth blockers do not stop decay in abilities, so it is rather easy to lose power when under them for too long. Furthermore, all of our skills were out of practice and your equipment was shotty at best. But most important of all was the spirit axe, as it dealt life type damage, which uses the target’s magic defence. Since magic defence is based upon intelligence, it naturally would make your blows do far more damage to a creature as unintelligent as a feral ogre. Hence, we had you, the only one allowed to use outside interference I might add, lead the charge. It was a shame you passed out before you got the EXP from the ogre, or else you would have likely leveled up a good few times.” Old Man monologues to Eden.

  Or at least, that is all of the practical reasons as to why I had you lead the charge. Old Man thinks.

  That makes some sense if he is telling the truth. Wait no Eden, do not waste time in thought! Eden screams in his mind. He only allows himself a little time to think of a question to ask Old Man.

  “I suppose that makes sense. But what do you mean intelligence is magic defence?” Eden asks, honestly curious about the information this time.

  “It is one of the factors that determines your stat grade in intelligence. Some of the other factors that I know of for intelligence are reaction time, actual intellect, and wisdom. But there are likely other factors I am unaware of. That is how the other stats work, and how the grades got the unofficial title of “second worst grading system”. First place is the education system in case you were wondering.” Old Man answers. Once he finishes however he glances out of the kitchen towards the front door.

  “It would seem Plantus is here. A tad earlier than I believe he was supposed to show up. Means you have no reason to stall anymore.” Old Man informs Eden, who looks a little surprised.

  He knew? I did not think I was being too obvious or anything. What could have given me away? Eden wonders, but he gets no time to ask as Old Man is already walking out of the kitchen.

  “I am going to grab my things right now from my room. I would like you to not leave without me.” Old Man tells Eden as he walks to his room. Almost at the same time Old Man closes the door, a knock is heard at the front door. Eden walks over and opens the door, revealing Plantus right behind it.

  “Morning.” Plantus says, raising his right hand in a slight wave. “Did you grab your things already?” Plantus quickly asks right after his wave.

  “I am all ready, however Old Man still has some things to grab apparently. Though I doubt it will take him long.” Eden answers Plantus.

  “Rare for him to not be prepared. Anyway I have my vine orb with the others, But you should probably take your own vine orb to the house. I am sure you would not want to leave your transportation in a place you cannot reach.” Plantus says as he moves over, seeming to be making space for Eden to walk through. Eden obliges and walks outside, where he sees a vine orb about 300 ft (91.44 m) out. It is far further away from the house then where Eden had parked.

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  “You would be right on that front, Plantus. However, I must ask you where I am supposed to go? If I had to guess it is the residential district, but I am unsure of where after.” Eden asks Plantus. He faces palms after hearing this.

  “I forgot to add the marker in the residential district for your new home. God damn it! Ah, no I can remedy this. Eden, take me to your vine orb and I will update the display to contain your home's coordinates.” Plantus informs Eden, clearly annoyed at himself. Eden however does not look angry.

  “No, no. You are all good, Plantus. We have time to kill regardless, so an honest slip up of such a small scale is not a problem. Here, come on, I will open my vine orb quickly.” Eden tells Plantus, who seems to be feeling better about himself. They both reach Eden’s vine orb rather quickly and the vine door automatically opens once he gets close to it. They both walk in and Plantus goes over to the helm. Eden watches closely to see what Plantus does.

  “Edit map: Coordinates!" Plantus yells out. The map suddenly changes to be two large textboxes, one labelled “x coordinate” and the other “y coordinate”. Furthermore, a keyboard is summoned underneath the two textboxes which Plantus types in a coordinate. After typing in the coordinates, another text box appears to cover the former two, prompting a name for the marker. Plantus writes in “home”.

  “There! I have it all set up! You should know what to do from here. You go there first, I will follow soon after, once Old Man finishes his packing.” Plantus calls out to Eden. Eden nods and Plantus floats outside of the vine orb. The door closes and Eden goes up to the helm and presses the new icon. The vine orb takes him to his new house.

  Plantus walks back to Eden's former residence and enters like it was his own, which it technically is. He opens the door and floats inside.

  “Old Man! You got your things all set up!?” Plantus yells to Old Man. After a few seconds Old Man’s room door opens up, revealing Old Man. He looks a good bit more refreshed than he did before.

  “Breaking into homes again I see.” Old Man remarks to Plantus. The polite tone Old Man normally takes is not at all present.

  “Well it is my property. Not the point however. I had Eden take his own vine orb to his house, come on now so we do not end up too late. I have already grabbed the rest of you.” Plantus orders to Old Man, who furrows his brow. His eyes go a decent bit more narrow as he stares right at Plantus.

  “Fine, fine. But Plantus, before we go humour me with but one question: how long are you going to put up this act of helping us? You might have fooled Eden, and perhaps even the others, but I know damn well no wood spirit would be caught dead helping one of their slaves without some kind of benefit." Old Man questions, staring daggers into Plantus. Plantus however seems unfazed at this development.

  “You know you act a lot softer in front of Eden. Almost made me forget your rotten personality. Almost. But I guess I cannot say your suspicions are unwarranted, though the racism might be. In truth I have been acting for the sake of profit for my first few moves, but not anymore. The boy reminds me of the bookworm you were so close friends with.” Plantus states with a hint of regret. Old Man frowns, and his face turns a bit red. His hands tighten into fists, and veins are clearly visible all over his body. But before Old Man does anything, he gives off a deep yet silent sigh before calming down.

  “Just take me to the damn vine orb. Quiet with the small talk if you could.” Old Man orders Plantus. He gives no response, and just floats outside. Old Man takes that as his cue to follow, and so after walking into Eden’s room, he goes outside. He walks over to the vine orb and enters it, seeing his comrades inside. Plantus is also present.

  Eden feels a slight thump as the vine orb lands to the ground. He has reached his destination, and so the vine orb opens up its door for Eden to walk out of. Eden slowly walks out of the vine orb, and looks ahead of him. He sees a massive tree house, along with a much smaller shed-like structure on the ground. The tree itself looks to be about 100 ft (30.48 m) tall, and has wide thick branches. The bark is a deep brown and the leaves are a cool forest green. The tree is perfectly symmetrical, and no part of the tree has any real colour differences for its parts. The house itself is also equally large, not quite a mansion but certainly two stories plus an attic. Upon first glance one can assume the home is about 2000 square ft (185.81 square m). The house is reminiscent of a log cabin to Eden, with the walls and ceiling being entirely made from thick logs. There was also luckily a very wide wooden staircase from the bottom of the tree to the front of the home that wrapped around the tree. Any architect would snatch their head at how the staircase stands so steadily without any proper support beams, but one could assume it was with the help of magic that allowed the staircase to only need mild support from the tree. While Eden could not see through them, there were also a few square windows here and there in the home.

  To contrast the nice looking home in the tree. The shed looked rather shabby and small. It looked held together by toothpicks and had the stability of an ancient rope bridge, almost waiting to fall. But the shed held up somehow, and so Eden did not place much thought on it, though that could be because he could not make out the finer details from this far away. He was parked in the far right corner of the lot his home was at, and since the lot had to be at least 5 acres of land it would be impressive if anyone could properly make out fine details from such a distance. Eden spent his time looking around the area, noticing nothing besides similar homes and large empty fields around him. In fact, the only difference between his lot and everyone else's would be the shed.

  The sound of rushing wind could be heard all around Eden, interrupting his glancing around. A vine orb lands next to him, and once it opens Eden sees his comrades walk out. Old Man is the first one to step outside, followed by Plantus, Soldier, Cowboy, and lastly Toxin. They all, pardon Plantus, glance around, some in amazingment, others without reaction.

  “Partner ain’t this grass is mighty fine if I don’t say so myself! The grass back in the old west was as yellow as a horse’s piss during a rodeo under the early sun.” Cowboy cheers out as he looks all over the lawn. He is not wrong, as the grass is surprisingly well kept and dark green. No dead patches are present, and the only things breaking up the dark grass are some natural flowers of many different colours.

  “Welcome to your new home!” Plantus loudly says, spreading his arms wide. He looks over and notices Eden.

  “Oh, Eden! I hope I did not make you wait all too long.” Plantus tells Eden.

  “Do not worry yourself over it, Plantus. I only just got here. But would you mind showing us all around our new home?” Eden asks Plantus.

  “That was the plan! So we should probably start off with where you guys are staying (Everyone besides Eden), then I will show Eden around his home.” Plantus informs everyone. They all nod in agreement, so Plantus waves his hand to signal to follow him as he floats towards the shed. Eden is a little confused.

  “Wait, did you not say we are going to my teammates' houses? Why are we going to the shed and not the massive house?” Eden asks Plantus.

  “Oh no, the house up there is all yours, courtesy of Cosmos. Funny story actually, I was supposed to be the one to buy your home, but Cosmos called me and said he would take care of it. The shed there is more of an entrance way to the real home, which is underground.” Plantus explains to Eden.

  I get that whole thing by myself!? There is no way Cosmos would give me such a thing without reason, let alone to his detriment. So why did he get me this? Maybe the shops in the shopping district are very small and this kind of housing is standard or something? In that case, this could have been done to better monitor me without having to pay for high quality informants, like that shopkeeper! Eden concludes as he walks to the shed.

  True to Plantus’s words, the shed had a stone staircase that went underground, far deeper than what Eden thought it would be. Not until after going down roughly 12 ft (3.66 m) down into the ground did they finally reach a room. It was a central type room, much like the waiting area one would see in a doctors office, only instead of medical jokes and information there was a table and some chairs, both made from decent quality wood. There was also a small fridge, stove, and microwave, not quite modern but likely from the 1980-1990s in quality. There were a few drawers, likely filled with cooking supplies, and a small sink in the corner of the room. Most notable however are the five doors, two on the left and right of the room, and the last one was the furthest away from the staircase.

  “This is your guy's home. The doors on your left and right are bedrooms. Do not fight over them, they are all the same. The last door is a bathroom, far nicer than the one you are all used to. I doubt I need to showcase much, so I believe I should take Eden to his house.” Plantus states. The others besides Eden take this opportunity to look around more closely and Toxin picks out a room; the last one on the right. Plantus signals for Eden to follow him outside, which he obliges. While the two walk to the tree and climb up the stairs, Eden makes a little small talk.

  “So Cosmos paid for all of this?” Eden asks, his skepticism evident.

  “I am a little surprised myself, to be honest. Never thought he was the type to buy such an expensive thing for someone else.” Plantus tells Eden.

  “How much was this house anyway? Oh by the way, Plantus, I am not all that familiar with how much 1 gold is really worth, especially for homes, so could you compare it to something such as the stores in the shopping district?” Eden asks Plantus, who takes a bit to answer. From the look of his face, Eden can assume this is honest pondering, though he cannot be sure of that.

  “Well, one of those stores cost around 300,000 gold, though a good $100,000 gold or so of that is from the location. This house likely costs around 1 million gold. In fact, this is the most expensive neighborhood to live in in the residential district!” Plantus exclaims to Eden, seeming to be trying to impress him. However it only worries him further.

  That confirms the hidden intent. There is no chance in hell that that king is willing to shell out a million gold for a human he hardly knows. Eden firmly believes, with due reason in all regards.

  They finally reach the top of the staircase, taking about a minute to climb while at walking pace. They are met with a pair of nice looking doors made from what looks to be three different woods: a white birch like one, a standard dark brown wood, and a golden wood that shines without any light source. In fact, the entire area from the bottom of the stairs seems to be lit up like the sun was shining on it without any light source. Plantus opens the doors as Eden asks another question.

  “Why is the tree so brightly lit? I am not seeing any light sources, so it should be a lot darker.” Eden questions. Plantus seems to have answered Eden quickly after, but he only heard a few bits of it, such as something to do with light magic or something. Eden became distracted by the dazzling home he was let into. While the outside looked like a log cabin, the inside looked like a modern high quality house. It was the closest thing to a nice 90s home with a modern flare Eden had ever seen. There was a small hallway at the entrance of the home, which had two paths to take, one going upstairs, and the other going into a much more open space. There were a few nice paintings on the wall, some decorative lanterns glowing softly on the walls. Next to the wall on the side of the stairs, which were made from wood and nicely carpeted red, was a small counter table right below a light switch which also held a much larger lamp. Eden looked down and saw a nice thick mat on the ground.

  “Welcome to your new home!” Plantus calls out.