"Are you okay?" I asked, reaching across the table with my hand, trying to figure out why she was crying and whatever I did to make her feel that way.

"You forced the crystals to combine even when they didn't want to." She blinked away more tears, and she wiped her face with a hand, her cheeks tinting red.

I pulled back my hand. That had made her cry? I carefully replied, "I asked them to work together, and the three of them joined to become something new."

"You silenced three voices."

"They became a new one. Can't you hear it?" I asked, grabbing the blade and setting it in the center of the table. The presence inside the crystal reminded me of the storm that had recently passed overhead. "It's a storm crystal, a mixture of both fire and water, with air holding it together."

She shook her head and didn't move. Her eyes hovered on the blade with distaste. "All I could hear was the water screaming out as it vanished."

The water hadn't screamed for me. I used Insight on Sang.

[Sang, Water Weaver, Level 25, Prey.]

That made a weird sort of sense.

"Congratulations, you bonded with the water crystals," I said softly. My mind raced, wondering how she'd done it when I couldn't. I'd tried with all 4 crystals and nothing, yet here she was just watching me craft and she'd bonded with a crystal type.

"What…?" her voice came out as a whisper as her eyes flickered, checking her notifications.

"I bet it's why you didn't like hearing the water's voice change, and become a storm's voice," I said half guessing. This answered the question of why other crystal singers didn't work with different types of crystals after they bonded. Maybe they couldn't.

"My profession changed," she said, frowning. Her fingers tapped lightly on the table. "It has limitations now."

"I'm sorry if my crafting bothered you, but that came out of nowhere." I wished I could read her notifications to figure out what changed.

She opened her lips, but then closed them before nodding. She held up a finger. I waited for her to finish whatever she was doing.

"I don't know if I can evolve a water crystal into something else. It might damage my class." She blinked a few times and looked at me. "I'm sorry. Normally, I'm not like that."

"Yeah, you didn't even cry when that tentacle got you in the mines…"

Somehow, her profession had changed, affecting her emotions. Abby had wondered about how classes and such affected a person, this proved she had a little more insight than I'd thought. For a split second, I worried about my class, then shoved it away. It wasn't like I had a lot of options at the moment. Noseen had made it clear, I had to focus on being less squishy.

"I don't think I'm going to get any more crafting done today," she said, quickly wiping her face.

"Well, there are water crystals in the lake, though Grizzle is only bringing one more for access to the dungeon."

"I'll figure things out, don't worry about me…" Sang hurried out of the workshop, like a part of her couldn't stand to be around me but she didn't want to admit it.

"So, that was awkward," said Hammy, chuckling as he bent a hunk of metal. "First, you start singing very bad rock music, then you make Sang cry. I mean, I admit, the music almost had me crying, but she seemed pretty upset."

"I didn't make Sang cry, her new profession made her cry…" Though, if I hadn't done that, she wouldn't have gotten her new profession as quickly. "I made a new blade for my spear, though."

"That isn't going to make me forget how bad you are at singing…" teased Hammy, hurrying over after setting the hunk of metal down, though now it appeared to be more like a thick pipe than a shapeless hunk.

"I do better if I have the music playing, you know," I grumbled, knowing he was correct. My brothers always teased me about my singing. Hopefully, John and Hammy could get a music player of some kind going so we could listen to my dad's music collection. Though, it was all really old stuff, from way before his time. He'd inherited it from his grandfather.

"I want to see that blade," Hammy said as he came over.

I held it up so he could use Insight on it.

His head tilted to one side, then he scratched the back of his neck. "That's just cool, and makes it even worse if Sang can't do the same thing."

"I don't know." I shook my head and stood up, grabbing the communications crystals and the bloomstone. She'd left them in the center of the table, only taking the healing crystal with her. I hadn't accomplished what I wanted, but it needed to be good enough for the moment. The rain had stopped and people were out in the clearing, including Abby, who started an outside fire.

"Hey, Abby!"

She turned in my direction, a giant pot already in her hands that she set onto a grouping of coals she'd pulled off to one side.

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"Can you hold onto this?" I asked, holding up the bloomstone. "It's for Benny, but he's.."

"In the dungeon with your dad and John." She tossed a whole bunch of things into the pot. "I can do that. Set it by my bag. He'll want that as soon as he's out. He wanted to level up before he planted the fruit trees stashed in the inventory stones."

A leather bag rested near the fire on a flat stone, and I set the bloomstone down near the opening. Benny would be happy to see it, and I couldn't guarantee I'd be here to give it to him later.

"I also have a communication crystal. You can have one, while I hang on to the other."

"Is that like a walkie-talkie?" she asked, staring at the marble-like object I held up.

"Yep. I don't know if it will work when I'm in the dungeon, but it will as I explore our surroundings. I also have no idea what the range is, which is why we need to test it."

"Oh, that's useful. Are you sure I should be the one with it?"

This time I glared at her. Just stared, like she'd said something dumb. "Of course, you're the one who should have it. You keep all of us together and on track."

The dark clouds overhead lessened and a few areas even had blue skies in the distance. Though the clearing had puddles here and there, things were starting to dry out.

"Hey, Alex," asked Cass, making me turn in her direction. She came from the north.

"What's up?"

"Do you have any plans today?"

I pointed back toward the cavern. "Gonna do a solo dungeon run to see what changes, to let everyone know. Then I gotta head up north to check out some beetles we spotted when we rescued Len and the miners."

"Ah, okay," she said, glancing around at the trees surrounding the courtyard.

"What?"

"Well, where are we going to put all the houses?" she asked, looking around. "Everyone enjoys having the trees, and while we have a ton of space, we don't want to fill it all up."

I noticed Lenna and Dengu heading our way and I waved at them both. Dengu chirped and sped up. Then I realized what Cass had asked.

"Why are you asking me?"

Both Abby and Cass stared at me for a second, before Abby responded just as the other two joined us.

"No one wants to upset you, honey. You own the territory." Abby turned her attention to Dengu, who immediately nuzzled her. "Good morning dear… I have some meat for you if you want it. Just a snack, since I know you prefer hunting."

Lenna chuckled, then saw my expression. "You own the territory, it's expected for you to have some say."

"Dad said he'd take care of settlement planning…"

Cass, Abby, and Lenna all glared at me.

"If he does it, this will be a military camp," explained Abby, after feeding Dengu slices of meat from next to the fire. "I'd rather this be our home, like a little village."

"Can I make you in charge then?"

"Not until your territory is a higher level," said Lenna. "That's how my grandmother is the leader of our village. The territory owner made her family line the leaders."

"Okay, I'll level up the territory once I know how," I said, adding another line item to my to-do list, which suddenly started to feel a little long. Especially when I added things like skill training and ranking up to it.

"Wait, you want me to be in charge?" asked Abby.

"Think about it. You're the center, just like I said. You can stand up to my father and others will listen to you, especially the ones who don't want to live on a military base. Didn't we spend enough time on a base during training?" Years, though I didn't remember most of it. Just the lessons.

She nodded slowly, accepting everything that I said. "That makes sense."

"Take the marble, we'll keep in touch. Hopefully."

Lenna stared at the stone, as I passed it over. "Did you create that?"

"Yeah, with the air crystals I found."

That was another thing on the list, trying to find a source of forest crystals. We had water crystals down below in the lake, and hopefully fire crystals in the mountain behind us. Air crystals should be on the cliffs, but forest ones required big trees, and this area was less forest and more transitioning to prairie.

"That's useful," she said, frowning. "I think my parents have something like that, but it isn't round."

"Oh, good to know it's a common thing. I might have upset Sang with this…" I pulled out my knife and showed her the new blade.

"That's new." Lenna's eyes widened, and she leaned closer.

"I was trying for something else, but thankfully I got this instead." I turned back to Abby. "So, where are the prefab houses going to go?"

Her eyes narrowed at me as she fed another piece of meat to Dengu. "I might keep them clustered near the entrance to the cavern, but leave enough room for large friends to be able to access the dungeon.

"I know Benny wants us to leave the inner area near the eastern gate open for crops and orchards. We put the fencing as far out as it is so that he has room for the orchard, and three fields he has designed," she finished.

"See, you guys already have this taken care of. I bet you'll even have a map ready to go when John and Benny are free from the dungeon." I chuckled to myself, eyeing the pot on the coals as my stomach rumbled.

"Are you ever not hungry?" asked Cass.

Lenna answered for me. "Alex could eat all the time."

I rolled my eyes and headed back to the cavern entrance. There was one other problem to deal with. I didn't even make it a few feet into the cavern when I heard yelling coming from that last problem.

Hawk dragged Jennifer out by her arm, with Mary following. Mary had her weapon drawn and looked ready to kill Jennifer.

"She won't make a choice, and we're done with this." Hawk's eyes found me. "She won't keep her mouth shut, and she tried to attack Mary."

"I thought she was Alex!" screamed Jennifer. "Alex needs to die."

A flash of fire burned inside my chest. Let her try.

"Last chance, decide." My words came out harsh, cold, and aimed directly at Jennifer. "I don't want to kill you, since you aren't worth anything. No experience, no levels, it's not worth the effort."

Her eyes widened, staring at me, and everyone else was silent.

"Dungeon, or I'll toss you out of the back of the shuttle some distance from here. Choose."

"The shuttle." Her voice came out as barely a whisper, like she couldn't believe everyone just stood there waiting for her to make a choice.

"Fine." I nodded at Hawk. "Let's get the shuttle in the air as soon as John's back."

He looked uncertain for a moment, then nodded. "Where do you want her?"

She yanked her arm free and tossed something into the fire. It burned bright blue for a moment as a burst of blue smoke poofed into the air.

Everyone began coughing.

[Your poison resistance has failed.]

I sneezed and yanked Cass out of the cloud, followed by Abby. Lenna made her way out, along with Dengu.

Hawk dragged Mary away who coughed up blood. It dribbled down her chin, and from her nose.

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