“We need to get back to work,” Jess stopped Alex in his tracks, “I want to finish opening these graves before we sleep for the night.”

“I’m making a lot of progress,” Alex sighed. Jess wasn’t wrong, but he’d really like to finish up what he was working on, “Probably only another hour of work to get the runes figured out.”

He’d technically only mastered the first one, but the other two pieces of the cylinder were similar enough that they would be easy thanks to the work he’d done to learn how to create the first. The glyph for the last rune was fairly complex but quite manageable. Alex’s years of practice would apply more directly to creating that rune so he was confident in its creation.

“You were already working for over an hour,” Jess said, “It’s not a good use of Anthony’s or my time to just sit here watching you.”

“I know. I know,” Alex replied. He was surprised by how irritable Jess was but didn’t comment, “It’s just interesting.”

“I’m surprised you’re almost done with the runes. The blueprint I worked on with my dad was tough.“ Anthony said.

“I think I got a bit lucky. My runes are pretty straightforward” Alex grinned. He went on to describe the three-part cylinder and his need to design curved structures. Partway through the explanation, Anthony noticed Jess’s annoyed expression and went to help her start digging out the next grave.

Alex, watching the surroundings, didn’t move to help dig. While the others dug, he detailed the difficulties caused by the protrusions and his solution.

“Interesting,” Anthony nodded, “So you’re assuming that the normal rune needs to go in the center of the cylinder?”

“Yeah,” Alex said, “It's also possible that I need several copies of that rune spread across the outside of the cylinder, though.”

“Might even be both,” Anthony grunted, “Are you going to try to design the blueprint yourself or just use Guidance?”

“How did you know I was thinking about doing it myself?” Alex asked. He was a bit taken aback. It wasn’t something he’d thought about much, but the idea of designing his own Mana Body was very appealing. His experience with Inspire and the aura David Alvarez built had left him craving something that was his. Guidance could offer a lot of things, but he felt that the sense of achievement would be hollow if he needed the Trialbringer to hold his hand every step of the way.

Maybe it would feel different if the Achievement reward came from his own actions, but the reality was that he hadn’t earned his Unique Achievement. David had earned it for him.

“You didn’t say anything about receiving more Guidance once you finished the runes. Normally you’re jumping straight into the next thing.”

That was true. There was no need to contemplate whether the last rune would go inside the cylinder or on the outside if he was just receiving Guidance.

“You don’t need to rush if you don’t want to,” Jess said, “If taking your time and figuring out the blueprint yourself sounds like what you want to do, then do that.”

“It leaves us weaker in the trial if I delay my Mana Body,” Alex frowned.

“Alex, this is a trial for Aspirants,” Jess stated, “These graves are interesting, but nothing on this planet is going to be life-changing for us. If you want to slow down, we’ll do a few more trials at Tier 1 to make up for the lost rewards.”

“You don’t want to explore?” Alex asked. He suddenly felt a bit guilty. Would he be holding Jess and Anthony back if he tried to make a blueprint himself?

Jess shrugged, “This world is interesting, but it's a Tier 1 planet. How much can there really be to find?”

Alex frowned and almost asked why they were here if it was so unimportant.

The answer was obvious. Muhammad had been so excited to enter the trial. He’d wanted to earn points for the Competition, to push Earth further up the rankings.

Would Alex be denying that wish, if he decided to hold them back?

Why was Jess so willing to slow down, after she had pushed so hard for them to enter the trial?

Alex didn’t respond for a bit, thinking seriously about the possibilities. There was a bit of tension in the air, the unspoken thought that Muhammad would not have wanted to accept a mediocre performance in this trial hanging between them.

Jess and Anthony didn’t need to focus much on digging to make quick progress. Anthony was the one to break the silence when it was clear that Alex didn’t have an answer to Jess’s question.

“You guys are both thinking about Muhammad, right?” He asked. The blunt question was a bit of a surprise since Muhammad himself was usually the blunt one.

“Of course,” Alex spared a glance away from the fields to see Jess just nod in response to the question.

“Me too,” Anthony continued, “And I’m quite sure he would’ve wanted you to slow down and work on it yourself if that’s what you want to do.”

“He would,” Jess agreed immediately, “He hated how far off the rails Inspire pushed you. We talked about it a few times, in between trials. I’ve never seen him that angry.”

“I didn’t notice,” Alex frowned. If this was supposed to make him feel better about considering slowing down, it was not working. He wasn’t really able to get a sense of how his friends were feeling, staring out into the fields while they had a serious conversation.

“You were almost constantly training, even if it was just meditation, but the rest of us needed to take breaks,” Jess said, “He hated how distant you were. You were obviously unhappy, but none of us knew how to get you to talk about anything other than getting stronger.”

Conversations like that had happened, but they’d been few and far between. Each time it required more focus than high-intensity training. Despite its ability to help other people, Inspire had made Alex far less social.

“Just because he didn’t like Inspire doesn’t mean he would want us to stop exploring,” Alex found himself staring intently at a specific stalk of grass, studying individual details. It was a way to draw his focus away from the uncomfortable topic, but it was also dangerous. He pulled away from that to resume scanning the plains.

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“No, but he would want you to make your own decisions,” Alex could hear the emotion in Jess’s voice.

“And we decided to do this because he wanted to explore the trial,” Alex said. Jess had pushed to enter the trial and try to earn points for the Competition even more than he had. It felt weird that she had reversed her stance so quickly.

“He would’ve hated this,” Jess replied. Alex heard that she had stopped digging, and had to forcibly stop himself from turning around to check in on her as she began sobbing. He heard Anthony moving over to comfort her but knew that abandoning his position as the sentry would only risk their lives.

The pause continued, and Alex mulled over what Jess had said. Would Muhammad have hated this trial? He didn’t think so. They’d already made an exciting discovery.

“He would’ve hated that I separated the team,” Jess continued through the tears after she calmed down enough to speak, “He loved exploring, and he wanted to enter this trial, but he would’ve refused on the spot when we found out Becca couldn’t come.”

She was, Alex realized, completely right. They had been fairly quiet while they made their way to these graves, and Jess hadn’t talked much while they dug. Had she been thinking about this, while they worked?

No wonder she was crying.

Alex had felt Becca’s absence keenly, the past several hours, it seemed that he wasn’t alone.

“We shouldn’t have come here,” Jess said, “I insisted, but he would just be angry at me if he knew about this.”

“He wouldn’t be angry,” Anthony said, a soothing tone in his voice. Alex wished he could go over and comfort their friend with him, but he maintained his position.

This must’ve been eating away at Jess for hours, for her to fall apart like this in the middle of dangerous territory. She was normally so rigid, and this was the first time Alex had seen her control falter since he’d gained Inspire.

Anthony continued to speak to Jess in hushed tones, reassuring her that Muhammad would understand her decision. Alex remained silent, overwhelmed by the onslaught of emotions and information.

He’d been aware that his friends were upset by the events that led to his Achievement. They hadn’t kept it a secret, but they had clearly downplayed it. Jess had said it was the angriest she’d ever seen Muhammad.

How had he missed that?

Alex felt more than a bit guilty, as he went over his interactions with his friends in between delves. There were signs, he realized. Hints that Muhammad was angry that he’d missed. The archer had hidden it surprisingly well, he wasn’t a very subtle person.

Minutes passed that way, with Alex’s thoughts spiraling and Jess steadily calming down. Finally, Jess spoke again, “Sorry, that was stupid.” Her tone was even, a facade of calm spread over her fraught emotional state.

‘Your feelings aren’t stupid,” Anthony disagreed.

“They are when I break down crying in the middle of a trial,” Jess said, “At least Alex kept watch.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Alex glanced over to grin at her, “I figured if I came over it would just make you even more upset.”

Jess gave a sad chuckle, but Alex still chalked it up as a win when he saw her smile briefly before he went back to scanning the plains.

“Still,” Anthony insisted, “I’m glad that we know how you feel, now. If exploring isn’t the right choice, then we’ll stay around these graves for the upcoming days and work on our Mana Bodies.”

Alex wasn’t so certain, “I don’t know, we’re already here, aren’t we?”

“What do you mean?” Anthony asked.

“Well, Jess is right,” Alex stated, “Muhammad wouldn’t have wanted to separate the party. But we’ve already done that, and we did it because we all knew he was excited to explore. We might as well follow through, at this point.”

“So you’re going to use Guidance and try to rush to Tier 1?” Anthony asked.

“I don’t know,” Alex said, “I’m still thinking about it. But I entered this trial to honor Muhammad’s wishes, and it feels wrong to stop.”

“I get what you’re saying,” Anthony agreed, “I’m content either way, I think. We can try to see if there’s anything interesting to find here, or we can just take a break. It’s been an exhausting few weeks.”

Alex agreed with the sentiment. There was so much happening. His excitement from the discovery of the graves was still fresh in his memory, but it already felt distant. He’d been constantly active for days leading up to his entrance to Tier 0, and he just kept going.

Did he want a break? Not really. Even if they just stayed here, he would train. He would work on his aperture, at least.

Besides, what would a break even look like, in the middle of a survival trial?

“We can’t take a break,” Jess clearly agreed with Alex’s thoughts, “Not inside the trial.”

“You’re right,” Anthony nodded, “It was the wrong choice of words. Do we want to push to explore, or accept the reward for survival and whatever we’ve earned here.”

“Our first day isn’t even over,” Alex pointed out, “It feels like its been a while, since we’ve been fighting or exploring the entire time, but the entire trial is still ahead of us.”

“We’ll finish up here today or early tomorrow,” Jess said. She was clearly referring to the timer in their status screens, not the faster day/night cycle of the planet they were on, “Take that time to think and we’ll make a decision. Alex is right, we shouldn’t rush.”

She went back to digging at that point, and Alex didn’t want to push her. Anthony went to work alongside Jess, reassuring Alex that letting her be was the right decision. Anthony was far better at handling emotions than him.

Time passed as the others worked. Alex began to grow confused by the lack of monsters attacking. They cleared out the fifth building and got right to work on opening the next without interruption.

Had they already defeated the Neophytes in the surrounding area? He had initially thought that there wouldn’t be many without a clear prey animal to hunt, but the repeated attacks had put him on guard. Had his first instinct been right?

The group was quiet as they worked, and the night continued. Alex’s thoughts remained on the odd lack of monsters, distracting him from their earlier conversation and upcoming decision.

Was this just the reality of a broken world? Did the native monsters struggle to grow even to Tier 1, without trials replenishing their numbers?

It made sense. Alex had been expecting powerful native monsters, especially after his encounter with Aldrek, but the reality had been far from that. None of the monsters had been close to the peak of Tier 1, and they’d lacked apertures. Even compared to Aldrek’s sole Neophyte subordinate, they came up short.

Alex didn’t really understand how the Trialbringer operated in these broken worlds. The monsters clearly didn’t receive anywhere near as much attention as the sapients and monsters on new planets like Earth, but Aldrek was proof that there was still something here. They had chances to ascend, even if it was significantly harder.

Without the gift of sapience, it would be almost impossible for knowledge to be passed through the generations. Maybe it was normal for monsters to slowly grow weaker until the broken world was nothing but a shadow of its former glory.

That was Earth’s eventual fate if they didn’t stabilize the planet.

Alex frowned at the thought. It wasn’t something the Academy taught in detail, but Alex could make the connections. David wasn’t immortal. Even if he left Alex to defend Earth as he aged, would Alex be able to raise another generation with the strength to survive monster hordes?

Even if Alex managed, eventually someone would fail. The Unique Achievements would dry up, or a talent would die in a difficult trial instead of making it to the level where they could take up arms in defense of New Chicago.

There was only one way to prevent that.

Earth needed to reach Tier 5.

Alex stared out at the fields, he had already received a Unique-Realm Achievement. Earth had reached Tier 3 from that, and if the previous trend held true the requirements would double.

They needed four Cluster Achievements. More than Earth had gained so far, even when there had been billions of humans striving for greatness.

David had already gained one, meaning that they needed three more. After that, they would need eight to reach Tier 5. At that point, it would be necessary to gain a Competition or Race reward.

Alex’s thoughts returned to Muhammad, as he scanned the plains. He remember how excited his friend had been to explore a new world, but that hadn’t been the biggest reason to enter.

Muhammad had wanted to make a difference in the Competition. He had wanted to start to chip away at the gap between Earth and the top planets here. Even if they performed exceptionally, it wouldn’t close that gap.

But it would be something.

Alex had his answer.