"Do you mind if I talk to you separately?" Azariah asked.

I gestured for the others to leave without me and closed the door behind them. Once we were alone I gave her a head nod. "What can I do for you?"

"I" She began. "I am sorry for you leaving you back there. I shouldn't have—" I raised a hand to stop her.

"You likely wouldn't have survived. I don't expect you to throw your life away to follow me. Let's just say the things I had to do after we separated weren't fun. Still, you should get used to the idea of gambling your life. We haven't been at this half a year yet but it feels like we aren't in a marathon."

She folded her arms. "What does that mean?"

"I can't explain it. It feels like this is less a slow and steady and more of a grab everything you can while you can. At first, I thought it was just the tutorial titles but that isn't the case. It's like there is a little voice in the back of my head encouraging me to go forward. It's less like a voice in more a hand or a caress."

Azariah went quiet after that and I would have loved to have been able to read her thoughts. I couldn't tell if she believed me or if she thought I had lost my whole mind. Truthfully I wasn't sure myself but the feeling was real. "I don't know what to do with that information?"

I searched her face for any hunt to her feelings on the matter but there was nothing. "I can't answer that for you. I can tell you that I enjoy it so for me it's natural. Regardless you have to get strong enough to survive."

She slowly nodded. "Are your new clothes the reward for the quest?"

I laughed and did a quick spin. "Yeah, the last ones got fucked up but I like these a bit more. Black and white have always been my favorite color pairing."

She laughed and shook her head. "I would have assumed the defensive abilities would be the most important part but I guess that's something for us mere mortals to worry about it."

I rolled my eyes and nodded. "I mean those of us at the top have serious problems. We have to somehow stay beautiful and fashionable. I don't even have a person to do my locs."

"Uhuh, I will get right on finding someone for you. Are you sure we can trust that Keshaun guy?"

I sighed and nodded. "I think we can trust him for now. I am pretty sure everything he said was real but I doubt he plans to just hope things work out. The question is does he intend to try and play politics or if he has some kind of quest that will help him."

She shrugged. "I don't know but I can keep an eye on him when you aren't around."

"I would appreciate that. Have you gotten any new quests?"

"No, not since the one I gave up. I also didn't get a fail message it just disappeared from the list."

I nodded. "Yeah, I didn't get a quest complete screen either. Either way, it doesn't matter. You should get some rest. I am setting out early tomorrow to bring them over." I opened the door and gave her a final nod before leaving. I made my way down the hall and into the elevator. I had to ask a few times before I found Trey seated outside the academy.

"What's up big man." I held out my hand, he dapped me up and I pulled him into a shoulder hug.

"Amari, I guess this means you're back from wherever you got stuck?"

I nodded. "Yeah, It wasn't that big a deal. I got some new clothes out of it. How are things going for you?"

"I went out with some of the teams and killed one of those wolves. I had to do it with a spear though so I don't know if that will mess with my ability to get a mage class."

I shook my head. "I doubt it but if you want we can get you one of the spells from the hub. They aren't good when compared to the one I got but it should be better than nothing."

His eyes went so wide they nearly popped out of his head. "Those are stupid expensive though. Even after training for a while now I can't afford the cheapest."

I shrugged. "Consider it an investment."

"Bet, bet I appreciate it."

I nodded and gestured for him to follow. "So how has your energy training gone?"

He sighed and shook his head. "It's a bit weird. In some ways, it reminds me of electricity. Energy goes through t the channels and is altered to be what you need it to be but the whole 'cultivating' part doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

"It's a bit weird. I imagine that it will make more sense to you when you can do it. It's a bit like breathing for me now so I can't relate."

"The different kinds of energy are pretty interesting though. Light, Fire, water, etc all has its flavor to it. Then there are the three base energies. Which I am guessing you use Psychic or mental mainly?" I nodded. "I am not too thrilled with that one. It sounds creepy."

I chuckled at that. "Worried I am reading your mind?"

He nodded. "Not exactly but yeah. I just don't like things that mess with my head nor do I want to mess with someone else's. No hate but it can't compare to just blasting something with lightning like Static."

I laughed as the elevator doors opened and we stepped into the hallway. "Fair enough. Are you going for lightning then?"

He stumbled a step at that question before coming to a stop. "No...I am sticking with fire and ice."

I nodded and led into the boardroom. I pulled up my sheet and stopped. "Wait you don't have access to a status screen so how can you spend credits?"

"You can still transfer them to me. It just won't show up like it does for you all. To me, it looks a bit like a video game bar that only shows up when I can buy something. Like in the academy."

I shrugged and sent him five hundred thousand credits. Part of me wondered if this part would be considered nepotism but did it matter? I had to put my life on the line for this money and if I wanted to give it away I would. I closed the screen and watched Trey. His eyes had a far-away look while his face was a smile that would make the Kool-Aid man jealous. It only took him a second to buy the spell he wanted and then another for him to launch a fireball at me. My tao field extended just before the baseball-sized flame could hit me. I went through a roller coaster of emotions in the span of a second. Everything from fear to pride before I stopped on confusion.

"Yo, what was that?"

I resisted the urge to smack him upside the head and got to my feet instead. "It's something you can learn to do later. Come on let's see if we can get you some practice with that thing."

Less than ten minutes later we were running through the ruined city. To be more accurate Trey was running and I was briskly walking but I had to admit the limited training he helped him. His stamina was above average. Unfortunately, the new norm now was superhuman so it made no real difference. After twenty minutes we stopped for a break at the remains of a diner.

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"Why can't you just carry me." He asked while his lungs pumped like bellows.

I had to work to not laugh at him. "I didn't feel like it. Besides what will you do when I am not around? You got to be able to take care of yourself."

"Don't you have a portal spell? You could have just taken us here."

I chuckled. "You're right. Now take five and then we will see if we can find you a monster to fight."

It took us nearly ten minutes to find a monster but when we did I couldn't help but be impressed. It was another of the bipedal lizard things though it was maybe three-fourths as big as the one I dealt with. I was about to leap down and take it out when Trey stopped me.

"Can you open a portal to the top of that building? Desbera said there would be a title if I defeated a high-level enemy on my own."

I nodded and activated Apportation. The portal opened in less than a second. We both stepped through and I waited to see what would come next. What came next was the worst "Fight" I had ever seen. Intellectually what Trey did was wise and brilliant. He effectively forced the lizard into a battle where it couldn't do anything. It couldn't climb the metal on the building while getting hit. Which created a scene out of the Itsy Bitsy Spider only it wasn't the rain wiping the thing out. None of that was the worst part. It took him nearly an hour of constant attacks to kill the thing and that wasn't counting the passive energy restoration. Since he couldn't draw the energy in himself. Lastly, he didn't get any kill energy so we couldn't even be sure it worked. Despite all of that the hunt was a success. The brilliant laugh on his face as the monster died was enough to make it worth it.

"Is that what it's like when you fight?"

I laughed and shook my head. "Not exactly. Typically a lot more screaming and more enemies. Though if I focused on fighting enemies around here I could probably hunt the majority of them."

He nodded, stood up, and peered over the edge. "Are you going to collect the body for the meat?"

"Nah, I think whatever meat it had you probably scorched. I am going to have to see if any domesticated animals still live though. Proper cows and chickens would be nice. "

He laughed. "Let's make sure you don't find any watermelon or we are going to restart stereotypes."

We both stared at each other for a beat after that and then broke out into laughter. A few minutes later when we got control over ourselves I got to my feet. "I think 'racism' is pretty much over. If anything we've gone back to the city-states era."

"Until you conquer everything."

I shrugged and did my best to ignore the weight that suddenly blanketed us. "Do you think I should do that?" I avoided looking at him while I waited for his answer. I wasn't sure what I wanted him to say but it felt like I was on trial waiting to hear the jury's judgment. Only I couldn't decide if the judgment was important or not.

"Don't know. Someone has to right? I don't see why you shouldn't. You seem coo to me."

I chuckled at that and looked toward Amara in the distance. "Keep training hard and once you can officially start cultivating I will take you out. We will make your first official kill something impressive."

He laughed. "No problem. I am going to be stronger than you by then."

I laughed and activated Apportation. The portal opened in front of us and I grabbed his hand. "You got a long way to go to catch up to me little homie." It took us two portals to make it back to Amara, a fact that was especially irritating to Trey but I was fine with it. He got some more practice in with his fireball spell but either couldn't advance it or the ability required more practice. Either way, I considered the evening pretty successful. Before I could head up to my room Azariah came and found me.

"There you are, Young Master. I purchased the array and it's ready to activate at any time. I was able to purchase an upgrade that removed the requirement for the individual array flags."

I smiled and then narrowed my eyes as I processed what she said. "How much."

She smiled nervously. "Well, you can't put a price on both the speed of service as well as the improvement. It required quite a few experts to work together you see."

"How much."

"Ah right well with the modifications." She passed me an information stone and I sent a stream of energy inside. The data flowed into my mind and I once again narrowed my eyes. If I was being honest the upgrade was worth it but it had added on nearly half the total price. The improvements were much more than she mentioned as well. According to this, the array would be ten percent stronger at the cost of ten percent more energy.

"It's fine. Do you need me to transfer more credits?" When she nodded I transferred the difference. "Anything else?"

"No, would you like the array activated immediately?"

I was about to say yes when I thought about it. If I activated it now I would be spending energy to power it but there was no danger. Of course, if a threat happened I would be in trouble if I activated it late. I opened my bag and grabbed two of my new spirit stones and handed them to her. "Don't activate it yet. Get these to Christopher and tell him to trigger the ward if anything threatening happens when I am not here."

She confirmed and I jogged to the elevator wanting to avoid another distraction. A few moments later I was in my cultivation chamber. The energy density felt better than an actual bath but now wasn't the time for that. Instead, I turned my attention inward and focused on each of my sigils. I could tell that I was nowhere near advancing the tao of adamance again. If meditation could be compared to making a snowball then not only did I have to start all over but I now needed to make three times as big. Lucidity was different. I still didn't fully understand what it did. At first, I thought it was making my attacks less real but that wasn't quite it. My spells were still real and could still be blocked it just made them weird.

It also had a mental defensive aspect to it though it wasn't as strong as adamance. Lastly, there was the effect it had on other people. The mental destabilization effect was useful against everyone but especially against other psychic enemies. I had only devoted four hours to meditation when I was woken up. I gave myself an extra five minutes before I left.

"The group is ready to go whenever you are. We decided to go with a small fast-moving group. We figured you would be the main defender and attacker." Christopher asked as soon as he saw me.

"That's fine. Have them gather up and I will be down in a few."

Once Christopher was gone I took a minute to wash my face and mentally prepare myself. Looking after such a large and slow-moving group was always a pain in the ass. Still, it was better to get it done quickly. When I made my way out I found a group of eight including Aaliyah. They all had handguns as secondary weapons and a variety of new weapons. The majority used swords though one added a bow and arrow. The weapons lacked any sign of spirituality so I figured they weren't quest rewards. That did nothing to ruin my mood.

I wiped a fake tear from my eyes as I jogged up to them. The confused look on the faces of everyone except Christopher and Aaliyah only made me laugh. "I am just so proud to see everyone using good weapons." When I received nothing but blank looks in response I couldn't stop myself and broke out into a raucous laugh.

"Our noble leader," Aaliyah said with a roll of her eyes. "I would like to get a move on so if you are done?"

I grinned and shook my head. "There was something I have been dying to try." Before anyone could question me further I activated Apportation. The portal slowly opened in front of me to the shock and awe of the people who hadn't seen it before. It cost me a bit more energy but I forced the opening open to a full ten feet across. "Now this takes quite a bit of effort so I would appreciate it if everyone entered quickly." My words fell on deaf ears as everyone just stared at either me or the portal. The strain of forcing the portal open this long was slowly turning into the monster of all migraines. Thankfully Aaliyah took mercy on me and stepped through. Once she did Christopher woke up from his stupor and started ordering everyone through.

"Alright, get through stay close together" He barked like a high school football coach.

The other six people stepped through followed by Christopher and then myself. Once we were all inside the portal closed and a new one opened. We all stepped out over half a mile away and in the middle of the street. The mental refresh from the spell more than made up for the splitting headache but I made a mental note to not carry that many people in the future. Each person who stepped through cost me more psychic energy. It was hard to know for sure but ten or so was probably my limit.

"Could you have always done that?" Christopher asked.

I nodded. "Not quite always. I wasn't able to bring this many people before."

He stared at me like he wanted to say something but decided against it. "Right, everyone line up we will be moving out in a straight line from here." Christopher barked.

I was slightly impressed at how quickly they got into position. It was a bit early to call them an army but they were better. Once they were ready I started to jog. Even with their attributes they couldn't keep up with my speed. Which wasn't the major problem. The big issue was the differences with each other. The gap between the slowest and the fastest among them was too great. It was hard to calculate based on eye alone but I figured the average agility was around forty. Fortunately, we were able to find a speed that wouldn't tire anyone out and would let us move quickly. The group's levels and new combat experience allowed me to unleash a small portion of my aura without hurting them. It wasn't to scare anything too lethal but it did keep the low level away. In total, the journey took a day and a half not counting the time we spent resting. Instead of heading straight there, I made the call to rest for the night and arrive in the morning. I didn't think an extra day would make a difference and I didn't want to risk appearing in the middle of the night. We found a former high school to spend the night in before we made the final leg of the journey.