Elijah collapsed onto the ground, having left the latest challenge far behind. For a long time, he just lay there, his eyes closed as he steadied his breathing. As much as he had gained inside, he never wanted to see anything like it ever again. He didn’t even want to think about the horrors he’d witnessed, though no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t push any of it away.

In retrospect, the battle against the ta’alaki archdruid hadn’t been that harrowing. In fact, if he’d had to rank it alongside the other three challenges he’d encountered, he would have placed it at the very bottom. Even the fight against the aviak had been more difficult. Yet, that had never been what the challenge was meant to be about. Rather, the situation itself – of a corrupted circle within a Druid grove – was where the true test lay.

Elijah’s mind wandered back to the accusatory shades that had haunted him for the last part of the challenge. Even knowing they were caused by the corruption hadn’t helped him to deal with any of it. It was only when he’d acknowledged and accepted the three parts of his nature that he was strong enough to truly destroy the taint.

But that wasn’t all that had happened. As he lay there, on a blessedly dry island in the middle of the swamp, he cycled back to the notification he’d received just before the archdruid had revealed herself.

Congratulations! Your Mind has reached the Jade Stage.

He didn’t really need the notification – or the line in his status – to verify it, either. He could feel it. The facets of his Mind had drawn into a tight cluster, where they were bound together by a dense web of willpower. Each facet was capable of quicker thoughts, and his ability to calculate had improved by leaps and bounds. In a lot of ways, he felt like one of those people who could do complex math problems more quickly than a calculator.

But the real benefit of reaching the Jade stage of his Mind cultivation was that his ability to regenerate ethera had once again drastically improved. And because of his improved ability with numbers, he estimated that he’d received a roughly thirty-percent boost.

That would doubtless prove to be an incredible benefit, though he knew that it wouldn’t be nearly as impactful for him as it would be for someone who relied a little more on casting abilities. The bulk of his power was tied into his various forms, so while he liked the flexibility of being able to cast spells, he didn’t rely as much on his ethera regeneration as someone with a more spell-focused class.

Regardless, Elijah could think of multiple instances when he would have benefited from a little more ethera regeneration. So, he didn’t disdain the improvement. Perhaps just as importantly, he’d gained two whole levels during his ordeal, putting him at level ninety-eight.

As he lay there, Elijah looked at his status:

Name

Elijah Hart

Level

98

Archetype

Druid

Class

Animist

Specialization

N/A

Alignment

N/A

Strength

159 (113)

Dexterity

158 (102)

Constitution

155 (115)

Ethera

128 (110)

Regeneration

160 (102)

Attunement

Nature

Cultivation Stage: Adept

Body

Core

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Mind

Soul

Stone

Whelp

Jade

Novice

The numbers didn’t add up, though. He cycled through his notifications, then found the culprit. While he’d been distracted by the agonizing pain – both physical and psychological – of the corruption trying to infect his body, he’d gained eight whole points in his Ethera attribute and an additional four had been added to his Constitution.

Which was insane.

Elijah was no stranger to increasing his attributes via alternate means like training or through other feats of endurance. Yet, he’d never gained so much so quickly, which left him in awe. More, he came to realize just how dangerous the challenge had been. One wrong move, and he would have succumbed to the corruption. He had no idea what would have happened at that point, but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would not have been good.

However, he keenly felt the loss of his Staff of the First Dragon, which had increased his attributes by twenty points each, in addition to augmenting his spells by a significant margin. Replacing that weapon would be a difficult and time-consuming task, and one Elijah wasn’t certain would be possible in the short term.

At least his armor remained intact, as did the attribute bonuses from his coffee. Idly, he remembered that he’d never even used the Rejuvenation ability tied to his lost staff, which seemed like such an oversight. The same could be said for the ability associated with his armor, Bulwark of the Boar King. More than once, he could have used an impenetrable shield, and even if it had a two-week cooldown, he vowed to make better use of it going forward.

The problem was that he had a lot of abilities to juggle, and he didn’t have quite as intuitive of a grasp when it came to the ones granted by items. Even so, he knew that if he was going to survive the rest of the Trial – and get the most out of it – he would need every advantage he could find. Not just the ones that were easy to remember.

Hopefully, reaching the Jade stage of his Mind cultivation would help in that department. Elijah knew he wasn’t perfect, though. Far from it, in fact. But now that he had recognized the issue, he would endeavor to fix it. Only time would tell how well that would work out.

In any case, Elijah moved on to the next order of business. In order to complete the challenge, he’d had to combine the three pieces of the broken Branch of the World Tree, then place them at the center of the fallen Druid circle. Doing so hadn’t been difficult, largely because once the corrupted archdruid had died, much of the taint had dissipated. Upon completion, the powerful shards of crystal had disappeared, but he’d gained a reward.

With an exhausted sigh, he sat up and retrieved the item from his Ghoul-Hide Satchel. Just looking at it, the thing didn’t seem all that special, but when he focused on the Shard of Nature’s Might, he was nearly overwhelmed by the dense ethera running through and surrounding it. If it was any weaker than the Ingot of Celestial Gold, he would have been extremely surprised.

From a physical perspective, the shard was a foot-long chunk of cloudy crystal with jagged edges. The interior pulsed slightly with ethereal power, but in broad daylight, it wasn’t really visible.

More than that, though, Elijah could feel a connection with it. That shouldn’t have been surprising, given the nature of the latest challenge. Though it had been corrupted, the Swamp of Ill Omen – and the grove within – had been tied to nature. So, it made sense that the reward would be as well.

Still, Elijah wasn’t ready to claim it as his until he’d had Atticus inspect it. Sure, he’d earned it, fair and square, but if it was something that would benefit one of his teammates more than him, he had no issues with turning it over. Perhaps that wasn’t the cutthroat mentality that many would take, but Elijah knew that he would only go so far as his team. The stronger they were, the better his chances of completing every challenge within the Trial and gaining the real rewards at the end.

Of course, it wasn’t lost on him that he’d managed to defeat one challenge on his own, but he expected that was the result of a very specific confluence of events. It wasn’t likely that he would be able to rely on that sort of thing going forward.

But mostly, Elijah was willing to share the wealth for one, simple reason. Earth was under siege. The Primal Realm in Hong Kong was unlikely to be the only such situation, and if they were going to overcome the dangers assailing their planet, then humans as a whole would need to grow much stronger. The first step in that direction was helping his companions.

Finally, Elijah picked himself up and looked around. Without any more delay, he shifted into the Shape of the Predator and set off across the swamp. The further he got from the challenge, the better he felt. What’s more, he could sense the changes in his Mind even more keenly with every step. One with Nature hadn’t grown any stronger – and in fact, the radius of effect had shrunk when he’d lost his Staff of the First Dragon – but the depth of his understanding had increased by a significant degree. He felt connected to his surroundings in a way he never had before.

On top of that, his other senses had grown stronger as well. Was that a side effect of his Mind cultivation increasing to Jade? Or was it due to the acceptance of his bestial side? Elijah wasn’t certain, but he was grateful for the change. The more information he had, the better.

Gradually, he crossed the swamp until, nearly two days later, he found an expanse of solid ground stretching before him. That’s when he finally thought it safe to take to the skies, and he circled the area for another couple of hours until, at last, he saw his companions.

They were standing in the middle of a battlefield, surrounded by the bodies of hundreds of wraiths and dozens of large beasts. Clearly, the fight had ended only recently, because they still hadn’t completely healed. Elijah landed a little ways away, then resumed his human form before approaching. He made certain to be as obvious as possible as he picked his way between the corpses.

“You’re back, eh?” said Kurik. “You get it done?”

“Why were you waving like that, bro?”

“The last thing I wanted was to surprise you when you’re all geared up for battle,” he answered, lowering his hand self-consciously. “And yeah. I finished it.”

As he said that, he cast Healing Rain, then used Soothe on all of his companions. Once again, he was reminded that his spells weren’t as powerful due to the loss of his Staff of the First Dragon, but he couldn’t do anything about that for the moment. So, he pushed it out of his thoughts and began an explanation of everything that had happened. He skipped over the worst parts of the psychological torture he’d endured, but he ended by saying, “I don’t think you all would have survived. The corruption in there…the only reason I wasn’t overwhelmed was because of my cultivation.”

“Then that’s something we need to address as soon as possible, isn’t it?” asked Sadie, using some kind of putty to patch the cracks in her armor. It was almost to the point that even her efforts would be useless in keeping it together, but like his situation with his staff, she didn’t have a good replacement.

That’s when he remembered his old Staff of the Serpent Healer. It had been cracked during a previous fight, but as far as he could tell, it still worked. The reason he’d been so adamant about replacing it was because its augmentation was limited to healing spells and because he knew that one good hit would shatter it completely. Still, it was better than nothing for the time being.

So, he pulled it out of his Ghoul-Hide Satchel and continued to heal. Meanwhile, he answered Sadie’s question. “I think that should be the next order of business,” he said. “It’s going to take a while to get anywhere, but it will be time well spent.”

“I need to go back to Nexus Town first,” Sadie said. The others voiced their agreement, and she continued, “My armor is shot. It’s not even providing any attributes anymore. So, I want to see if Atticus or his people can do something about it. Either repair or replace. I don’t know what’s more likely.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Elijah said.

After that, they all focused on recovery until, once everyone was in good enough shape, they set off to find a better campsite. The next couple of days were spent in recuperation until they were well enough to trek across the jungle toward the Nexus Town.

The trip took almost a week, during which they avoided any unnecessary fights. A little experience wouldn’t go amiss, but none of them were in their best shape. Apparently, the group had spent the entire time he’d been engaged with the challenge fighting against the local wildlife. They’d even fought off a hunting party. The result was that they wanted to take a few days to rest before they pushed on.

“What is that?” asked Dat, pointing ahead.

Elijah followed the gesture and saw a column of smoke snaking into the sky. “That’s in Nexus Town,” he said. “I don’t think they just decided to have a bonfire, either. Something is wrong.”

Everyone agreed with that assessment, and they quickened their pace, hoping that they wouldn’t find disaster when they reached the settlement.