The sun rose, and Alex awoke with it.
Time Remaining: 13:04:07:46
Alex checked the timer in his status as soon as he was sure that his friends were still safe. The presence of snakes with magically enhanced stealth had left him reluctant to sleep, even though Anthony’s Perception after the Legendary tier-up was just as high as his own.
The comparison had actually been a surprise to Alex when it was mentioned, but with his own Legendary Achievement and Minor Mana Baptism, most of Anthony’s attributes were actually higher. Jess was only a few points behind with her Rare tier-up.
Alex had received a truly ridiculous number of attributes for a Tier 0, but the others had their own rewards. The Mythic and Unique Achievement rewards that separated him from his friends were massively powerful, but the only direct boost to his attributes came from the Greater Mana Baptism.
Of course, none of his friends could match him when it came to the amount of mana he generated and held in his body. Alex glanced over his status screen while he had it open to see the trial timer.
Name: Alex Moore
Level: 9 (Tier 0)
Mana Body Quality: N/A
Mana Type: Refine (Uncommon)
Achievement: Tier 0 - Unique (Realm)
Attributes:
Strength: 33 - Power: 30
Agility: 33- Speed: 30
Perception: 32 - Sensitivity: 30
Toughness: 32 - Durability: 30
Capacity: 97 - Connection: 139
Notifications:
He no longer had Abilities or Enhancements, a result of his nonexistent Mana Body. What he did have was nearly 100 Capacity, a result of feeding the remnants of Inspire to his new mana type.
There had been a few snake attacks between Jess’s minor breakdown and the group clearing the last gravesite. The monsters hadn’t been anything special, but the emotions of the day’s events made it difficult for Alex to get to sleep. In the end, he woke up after only a few hours.
His heightened attributes would let him power through, but only so much. He would need to sleep well eventually, or else he’d be running on empty as the trial progressed. Any mistakes made from exhaustion would put his friends at risk, so sleeping was a must.
Jess and Anthony were both awake before him. Alex had taken the first watch so that they could sleep off the hard labor of the day. Jess had taken second watch, and Alex hadn’t given voice to his skepticism. The gap between their Perception attributes was minor enough that it would just be condescending.
Anthony had taken the final few hours, not having to wake them for any snakes during his time. With the sun rising back into the sky they now had a better idea of how long it would stay up each day.
“Good morning,” Anthony greeted Alex as he got up. Jess gave him a nod as well.
“Morning,” Alex replied, noticing that breakfast was some pre-prepared rations.
Probably for the best, none of the three of them could cook like Marlin, Alex’s Senior year roommate at the Academy. They weren’t even a match for Becca or Muhammad. Alex could figure something out if they wanted to prepare meat from a monster, but Anthony would probably find a way to burn water.
“It looks like the days are pretty close to twenty-four hours,” Jess said while Alex sat down next to the two of them, “Might be a bit off, but either way it won’t be a real problem.”
Alex grabbed some jerky and nodded, “The temperate weather feels odd, the sun being out for such a short amount of time means that it should be this planet’s equivalent of winter.”
“Maybe it is,” Jess replied, “Why does the season matter?”
“I guess it doesn’t,” Alex shrugged, “But I spent some time thinking about it and things don’t add up. If the winters are this temperate, wouldn’t summer be hot enough to scorch the grass? It’s remarkably similar to Earth grass.”
Jess tilted her head thoughtfully, before nodding, “You’re right. That is odd.”
“I hadn’t really considered that,” Anthony shrugged, “The planet might have a different angle for its axis as it orbits the sun.”
Alex vaguely understood what he was saying, but wasn’t at all sure how orbit worked, so he decided to take his friend’s word for it, “Sure. Like I said, it’s not that important.”
“It’s definitely interesting, though,” Anthony was staring up at the sky in fascination, “This planet is incredibly similar to our own, but that just makes the differences more intriguing.”
Alex nodded, changing the topic, “What are we thinking we’ll do today.” With all of the huts looted, they no longer had a reason to stay in this area. The tall grasses and potentially quite stealthy snakes had him on edge.
Of course, they could remain in place while Alex practiced refining their collection of apertures and worked on his own. Alex had decided he didn’t want to do that, but he wasn’t the only important opinion. Jess seemed to prefer staying in place, when they talked about it yesterday, but Alex wasn’t certain she’d keep that position after thinking things through.
Conversation had died after she said Muhammad would’ve hated their time here, so they’d all spent hours thinking things over.
Alex and Anthony both turned to Jess, who blushed slightly at the reminder of her breakdown. Jess wasn’t the type to lose control of her emotions, so Alex was quite sure that she was embarrassed by the whole thing.
“I still think that this trial was a mistake,” Jess sighed, “But I wasn’t really thinking clearly. This isn’t the place to take a break, even if it’s obvious that I need one.”
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“So what do you want to do?” Alex asked.
If Jess was feeling like herself, she’d have a plan. She’d tell him exactly what they were going to do, and then they’d do it because it would be a better plan than the rest of them could come up with.
Even in her emotionally drained state she still had an answer, “You should try to reach Tier 1. Whether you use Guidance or not is up to you. Once you tier up, we can explore. Until then, I’m worried about monsters with mana types or apertures. We haven’t faced anything truly powerful, not yet.”
Truthfully, Alex was pretty sure they could handle monsters with mana types or apertures. Even if the monster had reached a higher level than anything they’d yet faced, skill and teamwork would bridge the gap.
Monsters with both, on the other hand, Alex wasn’t sure about.
“I think its part of the trial,” Anthony interjected.
“How so?” Alex was a bit confused by the statement.
“We were placed in a pretty weak area. The Neophytes are in the low twenties at most, no mana types or apertures to be found. If we go exploring to earn points, we’ll find the powerful monsters as well.”
“Risk and reward,” Jess nodded, “I hadn’t thought of that, but it does make sense.”
“Won’t those more powerful monsters eventually come to us, regardless?” Alex asked.
“There are only three of us,” Anthony replied, “The compulsion to hunt must be pretty weak for monsters that are far enough away.”
That was a phenomenon Alex was aware of, but he wasn’t sure if it worked that way. Monsters would naturally seek out larger groups of humans, which was why several families and even a few small towns in the midwest had survived the Fall. The cities had drawn the monsters, and once normal cities had fallen, they’d banded together to raid New Chicago.
Those hordes had all died, and several thousand new citizens had been rescued over the following few years before Tier 3 trials overflowed again.
With only three people in their group, they wouldn’t draw anything comparable to the hordes that assaulted New Chicago. Still, without a massive city like New Chicago to draw the monsters, Alex thought it was likely that many would eventually attack.
He explained his thought process. Anthony just shook his head in response, “I’m sure there will be monsters that come from far away, but they’ll be in the minority. The compulsion to attack us will be too faint for most to bother.”
He sounded certain, so Alex figured it was probably some tidbit he’d picked up from his parents at some point. Anthony had learned a lot of little things during his childhood and teen years.
“Okay, so we assume that we’re relatively safe here,” Alex sighed, “Still, I think we should explore.”
“Really?” Jess seemed surprised, “Why?”
“I thought about it while I was on watch last night, how abandoned this planet is,” Alex explained, “It made me realize, this is what will happen to Earth, eventually, if we don’t raise the tier further.”
The others didn’t interrupt, but Anthony nodded his agreement.
“David won’t live to defend Earth forever, and even if I eventually take his place I’m not immortal either,” Alex continued, “That means we need to do better, we need to stabilize Earth by the end of the Competition.”
He didn’t bother saying that they couldn’t do that through Achievements, they could both do the math.
“This trial isn’t going to bridge the gap, Alex,” Jess started, “Even if we discovered and solved some great mystery, it wouldn’t be enough.”
“Every little bit counts,” Alex argued, “If we don’t start making a difference now, we’ll only continue to fall further behind.”
“And if we die because we pushed too hard in some Aspirant trial, Earth is probably screwed,” Anthony stated.
Alex frowned at that, so Anthony continued, “I know I said I’m happy with either option yesterday, but I don’t like your argument, Alex. This isn’t how you maximize Competition Points for Earth.”
Alex’s frown deepened, “Yes, Anthony, it is.”
“No, you get Earth Competition Points by doing what you did for Jess and I.” Anthony disagreed, “You take Aspirants without Mana Bodies through Hard Mode trials, only intervening when necessary so they can maximize contribution. You do it for a month, maybe even delving multiple trials a day once they’re powerful enough. Eventually, they’re strong enough to get a Legendary Achievement in Hell Mode.”
“That’s only five points,” Alex reminded him.
“Sure,” Anthony nodded, “But those Aspirants will have Legendary Achievements and at least Rare tier ups. They’ll be elites, far more likely to earn more points at Tier 1 and beyond than they were before your help.”
“This is what you were thinking about a few days ago,” Alex realized. He’d forgotten about this plan of Anthony’s. The healer had been seriously considering staying at Tier 0 to help other Aspirants run Hard Mode trials for the increased rewards.
Despite that idea, Anthony had decided to tier up to Tier 1, cutting off his ability to help their peers.
“Yes,” Anthony frowned, “I talked to my dad about it. We agreed that you need a healer, and it’s clear that you’re not going to anchor yourself to Tier 0 just because it will do the most good for Earth.”
Alex frowned, that made him sound incredibly selfish, especially because Anthony was right. Staying at Tier 0 sounded painful, especially now that it would separate him from the others. Becca was the only other member of their team still at Tier 0, and her skillset made dismantling her Mana Body and fighting without one a poor decision.
Also, he would be spending months, maybe even years, as an Aspirant. Everything about that sounded awful.
His own enjoyment of progression wasn’t even the biggest reason to advance quickly.
“I can’t stay at Tier 0,” Alex said, “I need to participate in future Competition events.” Alex was aware that it wasn’t the entire gap between Earth and the top two planets, but the event that David and Alice had skipped a century into the Arrival was the source of a large part of their deficit.
Another event would happen soon, barely more than a decade from now when a quarter of the Arrival period had passed. It was Alex’s best chance to make a real difference, and he had to be strong enough to do so.
Anthony shrugged, “I don’t think there’s any reason to argue about this, I’m already Tier 1 and you’re going to follow soon. I’m just saying that we’re choosing to help Earth by improving ourselves, not other people.”
That still felt like Anthony was calling him selfish, but Alex decided to let his friend explain his point.
Alex gestured for Anthony to continue, and the healer did, “We’re gambling on ourselves. That means that if we’re going to take risks, they need to be worth it. Wandering a Tier 1 world, hoping that we don’t come across any monsters near the apex of the planet, is a big risk.”
Alex pulled one of the unattuned apertures out of the pack at his side, “And the rewards match up,” He gestured to the spheres, “We can get Competition points and find more valuable items.”
“We’re not saying we won’t explore, Alex,” Jess disagreed, “We’re saying you should finish your aperture first.”
Alex took a breath, pausing to think over their arguments before he responded. They were making sense, but he was still reluctant to admit that they were probably right.
Anthony must’ve recognized the look on his face, “If you figure out your aperture and reach Tier 1, we’ll be able to do more than we could now. The advantage will probably get us more points than with you as an Aspirant.”
Alex was well aware that he was a stubborn guy, but Anthony really knew just what to say.
Gaining Competition points was important, but he wasn’t going to tell his friends that he didn’t want to get stronger. They’d make up the lost time after he reached Tier 1.
“Alright, you’ve convinced me.”
*****
A few hours later, a cylinder of mana rested in Alex’s stomach. The runes had been formed precisely, and only the glyph was missing. The correct placement was something Alex wasn’t certain of, but that was an easily rectified problem.
Alex briefly felt a flicker of annoyance. His reluctance to lean so heavily on the Body Guidance hadn’t gone away, it had just been superceded by more important goals. Even now, when Inspire was gone, David’s work remained the defining feature of his time as an Aspirant.
One day he would fix that. One day he would be the most important part of his own path.
Would you like to use Body Guidance to gain a blueprint for a Tier 0 Refine aperture?
Yes/No
Not today, though.