Elijah closed his eyes and tilted his head toward the sky, basking in the sunlight as he focused on One with Nature. He could feel everything for almost a hundred yards, and he was both awed and disturbed at the results. There were hundreds of the blue-and-white skinned, four-armed creatures all around him, yet most were underground. The ones that weren’t seemed to be in some sort of hibernation, their breathing rapid as they twitched with every passing second.

That was the source of his disturbance.

By contrast, he was overcome by the breadth of life stretched out all around him. He’d been in a few jungles over the course of his life – especially in Hawaii – and his island could best be described as a temperate rainforest. Yet, he’d never experienced vitality on par with what he sensed in the surrounding jungle. There was so much life, ranging from the tiniest microorganisms to much larger animals, most of which were completely unfamiliar to him.

Elijah was nearly overwhelmed by what he felt.

Fortunately, he had the benefit of his Quartz Mind to deal with the onslaught of information, so rather than being overcome, he could properly appreciate the novelty of the setting.

The remnants of a mighty city were in evidence as well, though the further they’d traveled from the domed building, the more obvious the collapse had become. And after traveling more than ten miles away from the site of the battle, most of the walls had long since been torn down by the combination of erosion and creeping vines. Even the foundations were gone, giving way to dense vegetation that either covered or cracked the sturdy stone.

Every now and again, Elijah had caught sight of a standing tower or wall, but those instances had become increasingly rare with every step. Soon, Elijah expected they would completely give way to unbroken jungle.

He opened his eyes, and he couldn’t help but appreciate the sky. In a lot of ways, it resembled Earth’s atmosphere. Predominantly, it was still blue, though the clouds were cast in muted hues of the rainbow. He took a deep breath, then let out a sigh as he studied the alien expanse. If he hadn’t already been convinced he’d traveled to a different world, the sight of the sky above certainly drove that reality home.

The same was true of the surrounding jungle. The general structures were similar to what might be found on Earth, but all the details were off. For instance, many of the trees’ leaves were the wrong shapes. Or they tended toward blue-green, rather than the verdant vegetation with which Elijah was familiar. The bark was mostly the same, at least, which Elijah found oddly comforting. Still, every now and again, he’d caught sight of glowing plants or he’d sensed vegetation that was clearly a lot more mobile than anything he’d seen on Earth.

To put it mildly, the parts were similar, but to Elijah, it felt as if the entire environment had experienced a violent evolutionary shift, creating something wholly unique. To the biologist in him, it was fascinating, but he was more concerned about the unknown dangers that lay ahead.

After a few more minutes, he took a deep breath, then descended from his perch atop one of the towering trees. Within seconds, he was mired in darkness created via the shade of the jungle’s dense canopy. Some light peeked through, but it was only enough to establish a twilight-like atmosphere. Fortunately, there were a few glowing plants, moss, and fungi that alleviated some of the gloom.

The tree was more than two-hundred yards tall, so Eliijah’s descent took a couple of minutes’ worth of hopping from one knobby branch to another before he finally alighted to the soft ground. Venka looked up at his arrival, asking, “See anything?”

Elijah shook his head. “Nothing but more jungle,” he admitted, taking his tablet from his Ghoul-Hide Satchel. He glanced at the map readout, seeing a couple of points-of-interest, but nothing to indicate which direction they needed to travel. “I think this place is a lot bigger than we first thought.”

Indeed, with Eyes of the Eagle, he could see incredibly far – hundreds of miles, at least – and he’d seen no indication of the Nexus Town mentioned in the initial notification. It shouldn’t have been surprising. There were more than five thousand participants in the Trial, so without a large enough playing field, they would spend more time fighting one another than attempting to conquer the challenges. Still, Elijah was a bit put off by the fact that, to leave, one had to reach the promised safety of Nexus Town – a fact that would probably trip more than a few people up. Clearly, the system didn’t intend to coddle anyone.

“We should probably just keep going east,” Elijah added. He and Venka had decided to use Earth’s celestial patterns – meaning that the sun rose in the east and set in the west – to establish directions. That seemed easier than considering that they really didn’t know anything about the planet’s rotation, so it was possible that it rotated on a completely different axis.

Venka grunted, then glanced at Grod, who’d remained almost completely silent since the battle. Elijah recognized the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, though he had no idea how to combat it. The ogre was clearly bothered by what he’d had to do – as well as the deaths of the others – and he didn’t seem capable of dealing with the aftermath.

“How’re you doing, Grod?” Elijah asked, trying to get through to the ogre.

In response, Grod only shook his head and said, “Grod fine.”

At the same time, he held a small, red gem – made to look even smaller in his large hands – turning it between his fingers as he stared at it. He seemed to take some solace in the depths of the faceted shape, so Elijah left him to it. Instead, he focused on what he could control.

Like his own status, which he hadn’t inspected in quite some time. After completing his core cultivation, he’d given it a quick peek, but he’d quickly become distracted by crafting his Staff of the First Dragon. So, he’d not had the opportunity to look at everything now that he was fully equipped and completely buffed. Now that he had a few spare minutes, he decided to do just that.

And he was more than a little surprised at what he found:

Name

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Elijah Hart

Level

90

Archetype

Druid

Class

Animist

Specialization

N/A

Alignment

N/A

Strength

171 (105)

Dexterity

170 (94)

Constitution

163 (103)

Ethera

137 (99)

Regeneration

172 (94)

Attunement

Nature

Cultivation Stage: Adept

Body

Core

Mind

Soul

Stone

Whelp

Quartz

Novice

Elijah enjoyed the sight of those massive numbers associated with his attributes. With the combination of his equipment and buffs, they had reached truly impressive proportions, and he’d seen that at play in the fight against the native creatures. He didn’t think he was quite on the same tier as a dedicated fighter of his level, but the equipment, buffs from the coffee as well as the pork jerky, and his essence line of spells would hopefully go a long way toward letting him stand on the same stage.

His attributes would have been a good bit higher, too, if it wasn’t for one factor he hadn’t considered. Apparently, there was a limit to how many pieces of equipment a person could wear, and it seemed to be tied to types. For instance, he couldn’t equip the Gauntlets of the Boar King and the Weighted Gloves at the same time. Nor could he pile three pairs of pants on. In addition, he’d recently learned that he could only get the benefits from two rings and one necklace-type item at a time. So, he’d had to discard some of his old equipment in favor of keeping his set bonus from the Armor of the Boar King active.

Regardless, he couldn’t feel too upset about the tradeoff.

Especially considering that, with his Dragon Core reaching the Whelp stage, his essence buffs had received another boost. So, they were currently three times as effective as they had been in the beginning, which made for a fifty percent increase over their potency at the Hatchling stage.

In addition, his shapes had received a similar enhancement, with the draconid shape coming with a thirty-point increase to both Strength and Dexterity, with a much smaller nine point buff to constitution. Similarly, Shape of the Guardian resulted in a massive buff of forty-five points to Strength and forty points to Constitution. Finally, Shape of the Sky gave him a slightly more modest boost of thirty Dexterity.

None of those increases were currently evident in his Status, but he knew they would make a huge difference when he decided to go all out.

The same was true of his other spells, which, though they were much more difficult to measure, had received similar increases to their potency. Without that, he might not have been capable of keeping up with the damage done to his new allies.

Finally, Elijah had also reached the second stage of overall cultivation, progressing from being a Cultivator to an Adept. That, in turn, had served to increase his total power as well, though it wasn’t reflected in his attributes. As a result, he felt stronger and more coordinated than ever before. In addition, his pool of ethera had grown much larger, and it filled far more quickly than it had before reaching the second stage.

In short, he was in the best shape of his life, which he expected he would need if he was going to not only survive the Trial of Primacy, but also gain as many benefits as possible. He wasn’t so arrogant that he thought he would walk away with the top spot – there were some true monsters out there, and he had to believe that many would come with the benefit of some sort of support system – but he did think he had a good chance of getting into the top ten.

And who knew? Maybe he would climb to the top, just as he’d ascended to the pinnacle of Earth’s progression ladder. He certainly intended to find out, though he wouldn’t make the mistake of tackling the challenges without a good deal of caution. That was how people got killed.

Once the trio had gathered their wits about them, they set off toward the east, with Venka leading the way. To Elijah’s surprise, the hill goblin was a terrible outdoorsman, and he failed to live up to the standards Elijah had come to expect during his time traveling with Kurik.

When Elijah asked about it, Venka only grinned and stated, “Never said I was a beast hunter. I’ve always made my living as a bounty hunter. More of a rogue by class, though. Hope you don’t mind.”

Elijah just shrugged. He didn’t care what Venka’s class or occupation was. Instead, he was far more concerned with whether or not the hill goblin was a trustworthy ally. And so far, he’d proven to be just that. So, even if Elijah still planned to keep an eye on Venka – and Grod, come to that – it wasn’t so different than how he approached most new relationships. He was willing to trust, but that didn’t mean he was going to drop his guard.

With that in mind, they continued along, covering one mile after the next as they carved their way through the dense jungle. Every now and again, Elijah sensed one predator or another stalking them, but none of them chose to attack. Likely, that was because they could tell that the group was more trouble than they were worth.

But just as the sun began to set, and the shadows beneath the dense canopy deepened, everything changed. A piercing scream echoed through the jungle, followed by the sound of an explosion in the distance.

“It’s not far,” Venka said, already drawing his long knives. They quivered with black energy as he embraced a skill. “Investigate? Might be we can find a little more loot.”

“Save people,” Grod rumbled. “Not loot.”

“Fine,” Venka said. “We’ll try to save them first. But if they fall…loot.”

Elijah nodded, giving his consent. Then, the three companions took off through the jungle. Venka must’ve used another ability, because his clumsy traversal suddenly smoothed out, and he practically glided through the underbrush. Grod followed, his thick legs clearing the way for Elijah to follow at an easy trot.

When they finally reached the site of the explosion, though, Elijah found something he didn’t expect.