This stranger to their world had arrived so suddenly, right in the wake of the most traumatic event of their young lives.

Livia pushed her advantage.

When the sun was finally back up, and right as the boys were getting a second spurt of energy, she struck again.

"What will you do?" The boys took their time but eventually responded instinctively with a variation of the same answer.

"I'm never going to let this happen again;I'm going to be the strongest;I won't accept a moment of rest, I'll reach the pinnacle;No matter what it takes,I will keep everybody safe,"

The rush of words kept going for a full minute, with the boys talking over each other, but they did seem to confirm something for Livia, although she still looked far from satisfied.

"You're thinking about this all wrong. Become the strongest, to do what?” Survive, was what they wanted to answer first, but they knew such a low ambition was no true life.

“Work hard all your young lives, do your best to help people, eventually become the best at whatever. And then what, for what?"

The words they had all blasted out instinctively seemed insufficient all of a sudden.

"You age, you might not even weaken, but somebody stronger eventually comes along. What are you then, and more importantly, what happens to the things you are protecting?” The worst sort of scenarios were surprisingly easy to picture.

“Will you end up relying on the friends you have made along the way, that they make your priorities theirs, just to what? Ensure that you don't slowly fade into irrelevance?"

The scenario Livia was describing left the boys stunned. Thus far in their lives they had all figured that exactly what they proposed was the only true answer, that reaching the heights of legend would ensure they could solve their every problem; That was the nature of power, surely?

Livia knew how their entire culture indicated as much.

"There is another way. You don't build strength, not just that anyway, because power for its own sake is useless. You need to innovate, create something new, meaning that you attract power rather than be stuck chasing after it,”

They clearly weren’t getting it, but Livia kept going. "You work tirelessly at making it come to you, where you decide; and accept nothing less. You do not push for higher levels, you push for new Skills and Class upgrades,"

The trio were sat around the campfire, hanging on every word from their savior at this point. And the young woman was far from done.

"Even the most powerful nations eventually fade, no matter how founded on truth and freedom and new ideas it is. Because when it does it all right, guess what; They grow powerful, because of course you need power, but then how do you keep from stagnating, in the long term?” Despite being so out of their element they were starting to see what Livia was saying. Well, Oscar and Kalle was.

“Even when you figure it out, how will what you build keep from becoming too large to change with the times, with too much strength letting you enjoy the current paradigm you have made of your surroundings? When corruption starts hiding another disaster looming on the horizon?"

They all understood the words, but in their exhausted states it was impossible to connect the dots all the way home. But Livia was barely looking at them at this point, these words were just as much for herself.

"How do you force them to keep moving, and cooperating; to engage with reality, even before it becomes a desperate necessity?” Livia could tell she was starting to bum them out, so maybe it was time for some semblance of a solution.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Do you find a genius and empower them to be a king to handle it all, and then hope they have children capable of the same?" That idea sounded familiar to the boys.

"Do you find a group that work really well together and create a committee? Maybe then educate the whole population, have them find their own leaders from within their ranks, and create a system for fair elections?"

It sounded good but the trio was aware it had been attempted before, and was mostly considered a waste of resources nowadays, except for at a smaller scale in villages like Salcret.

"Which do you wish was done before your time?" " That seemed a lot harder to properly consider, but they did recognise the merits of a world where the sort of cooperation you usually only saw in war was kept up for less urgent times, rather than let languor creep in.

Livia exploded with her last remaining energy "Or do you build something to last, something too useful not to stand the test of time?"

----------------------------------------

Reality crashed back down when Livia was done. The boys still had a lot of questions of their own, but the situation didn't leave them with enough energy to care beyond finding a place to rest their heads. But the words echoed, despite the fact that Livia seemed like she was almost reciting portions from memory.

The group slept a couple of hours, barely getting any rest with the tenseness infecting their bodies.

When the sun rose past noon and prevented any further rest the lads shared their breakfast in the amicable silence, and Livia mustered her courage once more.

"I take it you all still remember what I talked about yesterday? It's time to make a decision," She smiled widely at them.

When the trio still looked reluctant, maybe even sick of her voice, Livia hesitated. But eventually the thought of being left out here pushed her on.

"Your journey almost ended right here, you need to be and do better. So, what will you decide to do?” She was looking at them in expectation, but her eyes betrayed nothing but certainty that they would do the right thing.

“Even if you were to keep going, will you keep doing it the same way, relying on luck to save you a second time?" Despite still being a bit groggy from the earlier mushroom cloud, what Livia said next was what made it all click for the lads.

"If you really want to help humanity you're going to have to find success your own way, not just the same as someone else, not just finding a teacher and doing things the same way they did, hopefully surviving long enough to eventually learn more than they know; but probably only after you passed the same age as them,” That was an all too common situation, even in Salcret.

“You will need to reject the old ways to do what I've talked about. Find the weaknesses they could not see, and be hungry enough to really invest in a different way, and brave enough to believe in it even before you have proof that it will work,"

Their eyes actually started glowing, and Livia realized Kalle had been using a Spell.

"Will you let this learning experience be the last?

"No!" This time Livia got a collective shout for an answer, and so she tried another one.

"Will you rely only on the Classes and Skills you’ve been taught about?"

"No!"

"Will you go back and keep trying to grow the same way?"

"No," They were burning with motivation. "Go on then, show us something better!"

She had them right where she wanted. Hungry, tired and looking to her for leadership.