Elijah lay on the bed, and for a long while, stared at the ceiling. A fan twirled lazily above him, but otherwise, it was blank. It was such a stark difference from the places he usually slept. There were no stars twinkling above him. No subtle sounds of nature. No glowing flowers. Just blank drywall.

He sighed, already wishing he was back home. Or out in the forest. Even a tower would have felt more normal, if only because he wouldn’t have time to sit around and think about the unnaturalness of human habitation. People did everything they could to separate themselves from nature, to surround themselves with concrete and steel, all in the pursuit of comfort and safety. They achieved those goals, and yet, they lost something as well. Some ineffable connection with the natural world whose absence few even noticed, let alone lamented.

But Elijah felt it, and right down to his bones, and he could only feel that humanity was worse off for how firmly they’d embraced civilization.

To distract himself from that depressive feeling, he focused on the first of his guides:

Official Notice:

The Trial of Primacy

The Trial of Primacy is a benefit and challenge offered on newly touched worlds. The number of participants depends on the population of the world in question, but it has rarely exceeded ten thousand participants. Normally, it is much lower.

The Trial itself can be compared to a tower or Primal Realm. However, it differs in a number of ways. The most obvious is that the space where the Trial takes place is only temporarily connected to these newly touched worlds. In addition, the Trial of Primacy can be held in an Ancestral Realm, Trial Planet, Battle World, or even an excised world. These are much larger than towers or Primal Realms, and they often have unique histories.

However, the primary goal of a Trial of Primacy is to help establish a hierarchy on newly touched planets. Secondarily, it will allow for some unique benefits, including prime cultivation environments, leveling opportunities, equipment, and Feats of Strength to be added to your Legacy.

Thirdly, at the completion of the Trial of Primacy, many of the system’s latent features, including the World Tree’s communication system, local market, and long-distance (but still global) teleportation network will be unlocked.

And finally, when the Trial of Primacy is completed and everyone has returned to their world, ambient levels of ethera will receive a boost, reaching the density necessary for core cultivation.

Please note that if, at any time, participants wish to leave, they will be provided the means to do so. All tower surges and Primal Realm advancement will be halted during this time, though they will remain open for anyone who wishes to challenge them.

Good luck, and may you take advantage of this opportunity.

Even though it was not terribly complicated, Elijah took the time to read the guide – or notice – thrice. Yet, he saw nothing that he didn’t notice on the first read-through. The idea was simple, he supposed. Anyone who qualified for the Trial of Primacy would be transferred to a special space – not dissimilar from a tower – where they would face challenges. The completion of those challenges would result in advancement.

Yet, there were a few new pieces of information that stood out to Elijah. The first was the mention of Feats of Strength, which would be added to his Legacy. When he’d evolved Ancestral Circle into Roots of the World Tree, Feats of Strength had been mentioned, though at the time, Elijah hadn’t considered them to be anything official. However, the notice he’d just read seemed to imply that it was an official – if hidden – aspect of the system. And the Trial of Primacy offered an opportunity to add to that.

The second bit of information that seemed important was that, at the conclusion of the Trial, more Branch features would be unlocked, including communication and worldwide teleportation. While searching for his family, Elijah had checked on the latter, but he’d been disappointed to find that, while the teleportation network was technically available, most settlements were out of range from one another. Yet, Elijah wasn’t that excited about that feature, largely because he’d already been told that it was far too pricey to use except in emergencies.

But for Elijah, it might be worth it. He could use that system once, then create a dolmen on the other side of the world. That way, he could expand his own network much further than would normally be possible. From what he’d been told, Earth was now the size of Saturn, which meant that, even though its diameter was only ten times its old size, that meant that the surface area was almost a hundred times larger than before the planet had been touched by the World Tree. Covering that much ground, even in his flight form, was not feasible, at least in the short term.

It was something to think about, for sure.

The most important part of that section concerned the world’s ambient ethera. Elijah had felt its rise over the past four-and-a-half years, and he’d always expected it to eventually reach the point where it could support core cultivation. His grove and especially his cave had long since gotten to that level, but the rest of the world lagged far behind. It was one of the reasons he’d had so much trouble pushing himself to the next stage. Yet, the fact that the system would enhance Earth’s ethera density meant that it wouldn’t be long before others caught up to him.

In turn, that meant that if he wanted to maintain his advantages, he had something of a time limit. As he thought about it, Elijah decided to set himself a goal. He would do everything he could to advance his core to the second stage before the Trial of Primacy.

Finally, Elijah took note of the last paragraph. If people wanted to leave the Trial of Primacy, they could. However, even as he re-read that statement, he felt that doing so would result in some sort of detriment that exceeded the loss of benefits. The system didn’t like failure, and he expected that wouldn’t cease to be the case in the Trial of Primacy. If there were Feats of Strength attached to his official Legacy, then were there Feats of Weakness, as well?

Maybe.

In any case, the notice about the Trial of Primacy held quite a lot of useful information. Some of it was explicit, but there was plenty between the lines as well. Hopefully, the other two guides Elijah had gotten would prove just as helpful. He moved on to the first, which was called A Primer on Specializations:

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Guide: A Primer on Specializations

Specializations are available at levels 100, 225, 450, and 900. There are rumors about further Specializations that may be developed in the Transcendent Realm, but they are unconfirmed.

Generally, each Specialization opportunity results in three choices, each intended to enhance an aspect of a class’s abilities.

For example, a Warmaster may be given the following three choices:

· Defense – Enhances the Warmaster’s defensive capabilities by a percentage based on Legacy.

· Damage – Enhances the Warmaster’s damage abilities by a percentage based on Legacy.

· Balance – Gives a smaller enhancement to all of the Warmaster’s abilities. Also based on Legacy.

It should be noted that not all Warmasters will receive the same Specialization choices. Much is determined by Legacy, yet most will see similar options.

After that, the guide gave a few more examples, but they all followed the same pattern. Then, there were hundreds of pages containing other known specializations for various classes. And while Animist was not represented, there were a few for other Druid classes. The first one Elijah saw was called Preserver:

Archetype: Druid

Class: Preserver

Common Specialization Options

(increases represent the average, individual results will vary based on Legacy)

Growth

Healing

Connection

Increase the potency of abilities that affect plant growth by 5%.

Increase the potency of healing abilities by 10%.

Transform One with Nature into a more powerful variant. Future evolutions will be reflected.

Another variant of the Druid archetype seemed to focus on various forms of damage spells, with one branch increasing damage-over-time abilities, another affecting direct damage spells like Storm’s Fury, and the final focusing on slaying unnatural entities with spells like Nature’s Rebuke.

It was one of the spells that Elijah often neglected, largely because it wasn’t that damaging against anything the system considered natural. And he’d discovered that that definition was extremely narrow. So far, the only creatures he’d seen that qualified were the vampires – and presumably, the ghouls – in the Magister’s Estate and Voxx.

Either way, it was a relatively cheap spell to cast, and he knew he needed to get into the habit of using it as often as possible. Perhaps it would have helped against the monster Bruce Garet had become.

It was just another reminder that he was far from perfect. Like most people, he developed habits, and because his class tended to focus on his animal forms, he sometimes neglected his other spells. That needed to change, and soon.

He spent another couple of hours perusing A Primer on Specializations, but eventually, he moved on to the final guide he’d acquired, which was called Evolutions of the Animist:

Guide: Evolutions of the Animist

The Animist is a Rare class associated with the Druid archetype, and it focuses on shapeshifting into bestial forms. Shape of the Predator specializes in stealth and assassination, Shape of the Guardian is a fair defender and melee combatant, and Shape of the Sky allows for rapid travel. Shape of Mastery is the final form before evolution, and it focuses on single combat.

The evolutions associated with the class generally follow this theme, though most focus on making one form more powerful than the others. In addition, there are evolutions meant to adjust the Animist’s path to one more appropriate for a traditional Druid. Finally, there are evolutions which will permanently transform the Animist into a more powerful bestial form.

Availability of evolutions is based on Legacy.

After that, Elijah read a list of fifteen possible class evolutions. As the blurb had suggested, they each had a very specific focus that would shift his class into a narrower focus. For some, it would enhance his lamellar ape form. For others, his predator shape. There was even one that would augment Shape of the Sky. But as interesting as they were, Elijah quickly realized that there was too much variation based on his Legacy for him to make any plans.

However, that didn’t mean that the guide was useless. Far from it. It established a pattern for the choices he might be given. Like the Specializations, evolutions served to narrow the focus of his classes. Yet, unlike Specializations, there were a few that would change his direction altogether.

Like the evolutions that would effectively turn him into a beast. Or a Guardian, more accurately. What would drive an Animist in that direction? He knew from experience just how easily one could be overwhelmed by the instincts that came with their bestial forms. It had almost happened to him. Elijah knew he’d never allow himself to go down that road, but perhaps others wouldn’t be so reticent.

The biggest benefit of that guide also highlighted another oversight. Spells and abilities in the Mortal Realm – which was from level one to one-twenty-five – followed a set path. That meant that his future abilities were predetermined. Every Animist would get the same spells. As such, it would have made sense for Elijah to find a guide that would let him know what was coming.

But he was out of questions.

Thankfully, Evolutions of the Animist did reveal the existence of one: Shape of the Master. He had no idea what form it would take, but it was said to focus on one-on-one combat. That was interesting, and it would definitely fill a niche. Yet, that wouldn’t come until the peak of the realm, so it would likely be some time before he would know more.

Unless he could enlist the services of another Librarian, which didn’t seem likely.

Finally, Elijah checked his status:

Name

Elijah Hart

Level

84

Archetype

Druid

Class

Animist

Specialization

N/A

Alignment

N/A

Strength

99

Dexterity

88

Constitution

97

Ethera

93

Regeneration

88

Attunement

Nature

Cultivation Stage: Cultivator

Body

Core

Mind

Soul

Stone

Hatchling

Quartz

Novice

He’d only gained one level from the fighting in Seattle, largely because he hadn’t really killed that many people. Most of the Adventurers had been sacrificed by Bruce, and the leader himself wasn’t actually that high of a level. Instead, his incredible power had been temporarily boosted by that sacrifice ability. So, he hadn’t awarded much in the way of experience. The same could be said for killing Barry.

He hung his head.

He hated thinking of killing people in those terms. They were more than just bags of experience. They were living, breathing human beings, complete with hopes and dreams and people who cared about them. Even Barry, as detestable as he was, had a family. Elijah needed to remember that, or he’d end up going to an extremely dark place.

In any case, he focused on his gains, which exceeded the one point per attribute he was awarded for each level. He’d gained extra points in everything but Ethera. Some had come from his efforts constructing the temple. Toting enormous stone blocks was great for building Strength and Constitution, apparently. But he’d also gained a couple of points from other activities, like fighting and cycling his Core.

Although, Elijah was less interested in the individual points than he was in the fact that he had a couple of attributes that were on the verge of crossing the one-hundred point threshold. It was an important mark, and not just because he suspected it would be more impactful than normal. Rather, it was a mark of how far Elijah had come. After all, he hadn’t forgotten that, only a little more than four years before, his physical attributes had been pathetic. Back then, his body had been ravaged by chemotherapy and cancer, which had left his strength at a mere three points. His Constitution had been even lower. And now, he was close to reaching triple digits.

It was a good reminder of just how far he’d come.

And how far he had yet to go.

With that in mind, he settled back into the bed and, for once, fell asleep quickly and slept soundly.