As he often did when he entered the isolation room, Tom paused once the doors clicked shut and briefly browsed the ‘Current Events’ folder. He was interested in the crystal slime project’s progress, even if the results continued to be disappointing.

As his eyes scanned down the ranking list, he almost dropped the folder in shock.

Humans had dropped in the ranking. They were now sixth instead of fifth.

Wador was above them still, basically within touching distance, but…

It couldn’t be true. It was ridiculous, but it was written in plain black ink in front of him, the evidence of the change. Somehow, the inventors had shot up the ladder. They were only four million off third.

* Inventors: Current Rank 4 with accumulated points of 267 million and year on year accumulation of 70 million.

Additional notes:

* There was an unexplained jump of 85 million this week.

* Cause of the windfall is being investigated. Hypothesises include:

* A species triggered GODs action and was eliminated in a fashion similar to how humans benefitted from the kid slaughter fiasco;

* Inventor-led environmental shaping caused a catastrophic collapse of an ecosystem;

* A self-replicating robot was released to terraform a large swath of Existentia.

* At this stage, it cannot be determined if their gain is repeatable, however, the observable pattern consists of repeatedly larger successes.

* Our analysis suggests there is a significant chance that inventors may win the competition.

That last point set Tom’s mind on edge. While the chosen and the inventors had been locked into seventh and sixth places respectively, humans had only needed to beat the wador to get out of the catastrophic zone, and then either the giants or insects to reach third place.

However, if the inventors ended up being a real contender and were contesting top place, that totally changed the calculations. They would have to beat three of the four species that Tom had assumed would be competitive. The threat of the dragon and insects was self-explanatory. They were the clear front runners, and even having suffered the penalties they had, they were still fifty million ahead. This gap, Tom confirmed when he checked his memory, had only grown since the first time he had seen these numbers.

Catching them felt like an insurmountable task, but if that analyst’s point was accurate, the inventors might end up beating them.

It was beyond depressing, but he comforted himself by looking at the raw point values as opposed to positions. Under that lens, humans were only twenty-five million from third place. While the engineering of the river to kill the crystal slimes had failed, there were other projects that would hopefully gain more than enough to cross the divide.

“Nope.” Tom said out loud. “That doesn’t work for me.” Relying on others and having faith that things would work out okay was not good enough for him.

He put the folder away and went to work. All he could control was his own actions and, for now, that meant working hard.

Two weeks later, he was back in the trial, and he was excited. Today, he hoped to convince April to set up a combat scenario that would help him merge Cell Division and Growth, Localised Paralysis, and Circulatory Rebuild together into Heal Muscle. Tom wasn’t sure what the best type of monster to push the proposed spell would look like, but he was sure that April would have suggestions.

He appeared next to the lake, which was not what he wanted. “Meeting,” he yelled out. “Can we have a meeting first.”

The world froze, broke apart, and then he was seated at the café with the angel across from him as usual.

“Hi, April,” he said happily. She didn’t respond and instead waited patiently for him to get to the crux of why he had asked to meet her. “You know what happened two weeks ago?” He hedged.

“No, I’m not doing it today.”

Tom ignored the hostility, as he was expecting it. “I was hoping to do something similar today. But don’t worry, this isn’t like Blood Replenish. I’ve been struggling to progress this in the real world. I need to do it here, or else it is too dangerous.” He was exaggerating a little, but figured it wouldn’t matter.

“No, I won’t support that.” She smiled. “Crafting is more important.”

Tom looked at her in confusion. She wasn’t outright rejecting him - rather talking cross-purposes. “Why are we worried about that? I’ve been making steady progress. In a couple of weeks, it’ll be done.”

“No, you need to shift your priorities, and you’re closer to getting the skills than you think. Last week, you were starting to create growth instead of only redirecting what I was supplying.”

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“That’s great, and we’ll keep the training up. But I’m ready to evolve Heal Muscle, and I want to do it today.”

She was grinning. She definitely knew something she wasn’t sharing yet.

Mentally, Tom began to adjust his priorities. If she was pushing for something, it was worth for him to embrace it fully. If she thought something was in his interest, then it was. Nevertheless, he wasn’t about to let her get her way without at least some push back. The situation called for a small amount of belligerence. “We have to do this today.”

“No Tom, you’re not listening. I won’t support it. The attempt needs to wait. Today your fate pool has to go into gaining the living wood skill. You’ll take too long, otherwise”

“Are you sure? Because I’m beating the estimated timelines you gave me initially.”

“If you want to reach general combat four, you’ll need to gain multiple spear skills before you turn six, which is less than a year away.”

Tom hadn’t even realised he had turned five, as individual birthdays weren’t celebrated. He had kind of known, but hadn’t cared. The more important milestone was the naming ceremony, where the entire cohort chose their names. The secondary context of what she was saying got through. “Wait, are you actually on board with helping me?”

“Of course I am. This,” she waved her hand. “This is because an idea just occurred to me and I ran a whole host of simulations to ensure it wasn’t erroneous. I’ve basically compared human natural biological growth to the guidelines for the divine champion trial. The most likely time to get selected remains at eleven, like with Corrine, but there is another window just before you turn six in earth years. I’ve also compared your rate of skill acquisition as well as the level of spells and skills in previous lives, and from that I estimated how long it will take you to develop. What all that shows is that in the trial, concentrating on skills is better than on spells.”

He grinned. “If you can get me into that trial, I’m happy to take guidance. What do you want me to do?”

“Tom, I’m not guaranteeing you anything. There is nothing in your build plan to solve the speed issue at least short-term. Before eleven, there are both spells and skills that can help.”

“How about the six threshold?” he leaned forward, suddenly excited. “Can I develop them before then?”

She snorted. “Not unless you produce even more ridiculous talent than you’ve already shown. You’ve got no chance. Unless…” April paused, a look of excitement on her face. “If you can tap into the community fate that’s being produced, that might speed you up enough. Presuming you’re the best prospect, it won’t even need to be targeted at you specifically. Something general, like helping children get into the divine champion’s trial, is all you’ll need. If thirty per cent of the town’s fate would be directed toward that aim, maybe fifty in case Corrine takes some of it… That should speed your progress up enough.”

Tom whistled in appreciation. “That’s… that’s genius.”

“It’s a strategy that puts a lot of humans’ eggs into that one basket. It’s really dangerous, but if the situation is as dire as you’ve told me last week, then it might be a good gamble.”

“Because I’m an egg? An egg that can get broken easily?”

“You’re an egg, and you can get whisked and scrambled by a passing assassin or just bad luck. That fifty percent fate isn’t being wasted. If it goes to you and your party, you’ll need to repay humanity for that, and that’s risky, because you’re still a kid. For them to get anything from the investment, you would have to survive until you’re an adult. The facts are, you currently have no levels and no strength. Anyone can kill you. You’ll have to earn half a million points just to break even. How are you going to do that?”

“Kill the dragons, slay the insect queens, and probably challenge some world-level boss monsters.”

She briefly lowered her head into her hands, a pained expression on her face. “You say that so glibly. Do you know how many world-level monsters humanity has slain? Or how many dragons?”

Tom had no choice but to shake his head.

“The information I can share is fifteen years out of date, but I think it’s likely that there’s been no appetite for these kinds of aspirational conquests in the intervening years. They cost too many lives. To answer my own question, a single dragon has been killed, and that was by your team.”

Tom shook his head. “Probably a bad example. It was a group effort, and the giant delivered the killing blow.”

“Yes, and it was resurrected, but it was still slain. As for the world bosses, there had been three attempts by humans. Two failed, costing fifty and a hundred and twenty lives, respectively. A single one was successful, and even that cost seventy lives. Worse, that kill only yielded a million experience. Are you seeing now why you might struggle to get Dimitri to go down this path?”

“But what is the community using the fate for?”

“Safety and crafting projects,” April answered immediately. “Again, my information is out of date, but using it lowered attrition rates by seventy percent in town-controlled areas.”

Tom was flabbergasted by that statement. It implied the town wasn’t safe, which, given the walls and the defences, was weird. “Why would there be so many deaths?”

“It is Existentia. This town is a formal settlement, but the surrounding land hasn’t been claimed. Monsters test the walls often. As for the crafting fate, that’s estimated to support half of the ranking points contributed by crafters.”

“That can’t be much more than a hundred thousand a year.”

“It’s likely two for this town, but.” She raised a single finger. “That’s a guaranteed contribution, while expecting the experience to pay off is a huge gamble.”

“Fair enough. But one thing you’re probably not factoring in is that I had an agreement that I’d only get resurrected if I could change things. Even if I don’t get into the trial, I’m determined to keep up my faith in that fact. I will find a way to make a difference. I’m going to continue placing one foot after another and worry about the big stuff later. For now, my only focus is getting stronger.”

“Good. Then send your fate towards getting the wood growth skill.”

“Done,” he reported after a moment’s thought.

April’s training started immediately as he was teleported away from the cafe. There were no fun fights against bloodthirsty monsters. The thrill of battle was denied to him, as was the moment when his heartrate would spike and his focus would condense into a gem-like intensity in order for him to survive. Unfortunately, none of this happened. Instead, he was put into the standard growing room with the rate of expansion having been made more aggressive.

Tom adjusted to the new challenge and pushed the half-formed skill harder.

There was a ding.