“Remove those things from my sight, or they will be removed,” Sadie intoned, her voice low but firm as she leveled her sword in Benedict’s direction.

For his part, the Warlock seemed surprised by the altercation, and for good reason. He’d clearly taken great pains to avoid Sadie, so being cornered in the middle of the square had taken him aback. However, he quickly recovered his composure and said, “I don’t remember anyone putting you in charge. This is a public place. I can walk through it if I wish.”

“I don’t –”

Elijah leaped down from where he’d been perched atop a nearby building. As his feet slapped against the ground, he said, “Guys, this isn’t the place. Just go your separate ways, okay? There doesn’t need to be a fight.”

Sadie didn’t even flinch as she said, “That is debatable, Elijah.”

“If you keep going like this, I’m going to have to do some unpleasant things,” Benedict said.

“You’re welcome to try, demon.”

“Enough!” Elijah shouted, stepping between the two. He turned to Sadie and continued, “Just leave it, okay? We’re about to head out of town. You won’t need to see him ever again.”

For a moment, Elijah thought Sadie was going to attack him as well. Then, she took a deep breath before lowering her sword. “It’s not worth it,” she muttered before turning on her heel and marching away.

When she was gone, Elijah glanced toward Benedict. “You really need to get better at avoiding people who want to cut you in half,” he said.

“Who says I need to avoid her?” asked the Warlock. “The way I see it, she’s the one with the problem. I’m perfectly capable of coexisting. If anything, she should be the one avoiding me.”

Elijah frowned. He understood both sides. From Benedict’s perspective, he was just living his life. He’d not done anything to harm Sadie, and so, he expected to be left alone. However, looking at it through Sadie’s eyes, the man was a fiend. He’d clearly killed people – as evidenced by the presence of his imp minions – and Sadie simply couldn’t let that kind of thing stand. Neither her ability nor her nature would tolerate the man’s continued existence.

Did she have the authority to punish wrongdoing, though? Did anyone?

He wasn’t so sure one way or the other, but at the end of the day, Elijah only wanted to keep the peace. Benedict had proven himself to be a valuable ally. The man had helped in the Citadel of Innovation and fought against the Immortals as well. Was that alliance temporary? Perhaps. But Elijah wanted to maintain the peace for as long as possible.

“Just try to stay out of her way,” Elijah advised. “If you keep pushing her, she’s going to take the next step. I don’t know if you can beat her, but I can feel that it would be close enough that you probably don’t want to test it out. So, in the interest of self-preservation, I think we should go our separate ways.”

Benedict looked as if he wanted to argue, but then clearly thought better of it before saying, “Very well.” He extended his hand, and Elijah took it. “One day, we might find ourselves on opposite sides, but I won’t forget that you’ve helped me in this place. I don’t have many friends. None, actually. But…well, you know. Take care of yourself, Elijah.”

“You, too,” Elijah said.

After that, the two parted ways. As he crossed the square, Elijah couldn’t help but notice that the confrontation between Benedict and Sadie wasn’t the only one of its ilk. Everywhere he looked, people were at odds. Some only showed it in the way they looked at their fellow Trial-takers, while others resorted to aggressive posturing – especially between different races. Thankfully, no fights had broken out, but Elijah could tell that it was only a matter of time before that happened. Now that the danger of the Immortals had passed, Nexus Town had become a powder keg. One small spark, and it would all explode.

Elijah wasn’t sure what the source of so much enmity was. Perhaps it predated the takeover by the Immortals. Or maybe it was as simple as putting a bunch of dominant personalities in the same place. In that situation, clashes were inevitable.

Regardless, Elijah didn’t intend to stick around for much longer. The only reason he and his companions hadn’t already left was because Sadie had commissioned one of the Consortium’s Blacksmiths to repair her armor. The man she’d hired wasn’t capable of bringing the set back to its former power, but he was the best available. Left unused was the block of Celestial Gold; it was far too valuable to allow an inferior craftsman to use. Instead, she’d made it clear that she intended to take Elijah up on his offer of an introduction to Carmen.

The crafters in the Nexus Town were high-leveled, but Elijah had found their products wanting. The best any of them could create was Low-Complex, and even that was rare. That was why he hadn’t commissioned one of them to create a new staff for him. The simple fact was that he could do better on his own, though not without a significant time investment.

Finally, Elijah reached the building he shared with the rest of his party. Seeing Dat sitting in what amounted to a common room, Elijah planted himself on one of the camp chairs and asked, “What’s up?”

“Sketching,” Dat answered, then held up a piece of paper. On it was a representation of one of the yetis they’d encountered in the second Challenge.

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“That’s really good,” Elijah said, impressed by the Witch Hunter’s skill.

“I wasn’t always this good,” Dat said with a sigh. “Extra Dexterity really helps with pencil control. I heard there are artistic classes that can do amazing things. There was this Guide I bought in Hong Kong that talked about paintings and sculptures that could give buffs just from looking at them. Some even make cultivation easier. They never last long, but imagine putting something like that in a hospital. Or that cultivation cave you built.”

Elijah had never even considered how art and the system might intertwine, but now that Dat had mentioned it, the notion made perfect sense. In fact, he felt that his dolmens back on Earth took advantage of something similar. Perhaps enchantments worked on related principles.

Not that Elijah had any skills or techniques to take advantage of that knowledge. When he created dolmens or his staves, he let his instincts take over. Outside of maintaining focus and taking all the right steps, it was not a conscious effort.

“You ever feel like you’re drowning?” Elijah asked, leaning back in the chair. He closed his eyes and tilted his head toward the ceiling. Sighing, he continued, “There’s so much we don’t know, and it would take a lifetime to learn it all.”

“That’s how life works,” came Ron’s voice. Elijah opened his eyes to see that the older man had arrived from upstairs. Notably, he wasn’t wearing his sparkly robe. It had been ripped during the battle, and he’d had a new outfit commissioned. Elijah wasn’t certain if that was because he wanted to preserve the item created by his daughter or if the old robe had become so damaged that it lost its functions.

“What’s that?” Elijah asked.

“That’s life, bro,” Dat said. “Nobody can know everything.”

Elijah responded, “I know that. But there’s foundational knowledge that we always took for granted. Knowing the way everything works on a basic level is valuable. We’re fighting from behind right now.”

“How do we change that?” Ron asked, sitting on another of the empty chairs.

“Education,” Elijah said. “We need more Scholars. In most places, they’re seen as the weaker option, right? They can’t craft. They don’t fight. In a survival situation, they’re kind of the odd ones out. But that doesn’t mean they’re not important. We need schools. Teachers. We need researchers who can find all the relevant information, then relay that information to us in a way we can process it. We need scientists to do experiments and find out new things. We need…we need a foundation. Otherwise, we’re never going to survive.”

Dat said, “We have some Scholars in Hong Kong. Not many. Nobody wants to take that archetype when zombies are knocking down your door. Almost everyone took combat archetypes.”

“Or Healers,” Ron pointed out. “There are a fair few Explorers, too. But they’re at least partially combat oriented.”

“Not to mention that a lot of the people who took non-combat archetypes got killed because they couldn’t defend themselves,” Dat added.

“So, what do we do about it?” asked Elijah. He wasn’t ignorant of his own status, and he knew that, even if he wanted to isolate himself, he would play a prominent role in the world’s future. On top of that, the Trial of Primacy played host to the most powerful people on Earth. Given how large the world had become, there likely wouldn’t be another opportunity to reach such a large audience – at least not anytime soon.

Dat shrugged. “I don’t know, bro. I’m not sure there’s anything we can do. We can’t make people take non-combat classes, especially when they’re fighting for their lives,” he said.

Elijah sighed. At times, he felt like a superhero. He had plenty of personal power, and he’d proven that he knew how to use it. However, at other times, the sheer size of the transformed world – as well as the problems that came with Earth being touched by the World Tree – felt overwhelming.

“What about us?” he asked. He had some ideas about how they would use their remaining time in the Trial, but he didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. “Ron? Are you still planning on going home? There’s no shame in –”

“No.”

Elijah’s brows furrowed. Only a couple of days before, the Healer had been adamant about returning to his daughter’s side. So, Elijah asked, “Why not? What changed?”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No, it’s just –”

“I’m just fucking with you,” Ron said with a slight smirk. “I realized that my reasons for coming here haven’t changed. Do you know how much stronger I’ve gotten since coming here? Since joining this group? If I keep going like this…I might be able to…”

“To what, bro?”

Ron shook his head. “I might be able to cure her,” he said. “My daughter…is not well. It’s not urgent, but she gets weaker by the day, and when I left, there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. Some sort of disease. I don’t know what it is, and none of my spells would help. I figured…I figured that if I came here and gained a few levels, I might be able to do something. I’ve gotten two new spells and one upgrade since joining this party. And we’ve got a long way to go before we’re done. I want to save my daughter. That’s why I’m staying. Even though it terrifies me to think of what we might see going forward, I’m not going to give up. Not until I’m made to do so.”

That wasn’t the exact story that Ron had given when they’d met, but Elijah understood why he hadn’t revealed it before. Regardless, he could empathize with the man’s reasoning.

“I’ll help,” Sadie said, stepping into the room. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and she carried a sack that clinked when she moved, indicating that she’d finally collected her repaired armor. “When we leave here, I’ll help. You know what my Miracle can do. Maybe it will be enough.”

“I appreciate that, even if I know it’s a hollow promise,” Ron said. “We’re pretty isolated, and I don’t even know where we are in relation to everywhere else. I know you’d help if you could find us, but I just don’t think that’s possible.”

“Anything’s possible if we put our minds to it, bro,” Dat said.

“And if we can’t help directly, we’ll do so by getting you to as high of a level as we can,” Elijah added.

Ron looked from one person to another. The only one missing was Kurik, but Elijah felt confident that the dwarven Sapper would have agreed with everyone else. He had a crusty exterior, but inside, he was a softy.

“Thank you,” Ron said. “You have no idea what that means to me. If I fall…”

“Then we’ll keep our promise,” Elijah said. “I’m pretty good at getting around, and if you don’t make it, I won’t rest until I’ve found your daughter and helped in any way I can.”

After that, everyone vowed to do the same. Ron thanked them once again, but once the moment passed into an awkward silence, Dat changed the subject by asking, “Which challenge do we want to tackle next? I don’t think we should stay here much longer.”

“I agree,” Sadie said.

“So do I, but I don’t think we should hit a challenge yet. I think it’s time to use the cultivation cave,” Elijah said. To that, everyone groaned. “What? I thought you’d be excited. Cultivation is –”

“It’s not that,” Sadie said. “It’s just that we all hoped we were done with the cold.”

“Oh,” Elijah said, reflexively pulling his Cloak of the Iron Bear around his shoulders. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. Besides, it’ll be worth it. I promise.”