The next morning we continued our advance through the highway, after a while, we started to notice pillars forming circles outside of the highway. Those were probably Shovos houses, they worked similarly to the ones used for the highway, being used as support for tools able to gather mana from the surrounding but those concentrated the mana in the portion of ground where they were planted for a few metres. The Shovos, when they slept, immersed their core in their favourite element, and most of the Shovos that lived here preferred the earth attribute, so they slept underground, like the elemental we defeated.

After a while the number of the pillars started to become overwhelming, that was the moment we knew we entered the city.

Other smaller highways started to depart from the one we were in and we started to see bigger circles of pillars, those circles were like condominiums, they used to host several Shovos. We also saw a big basin with pillars inside them, it used to be full of water and was inhabited by the Shovos that preferred the water attribute. There were also pits going deep underground that arrived near a zone full of magma, for the Shovos that preferred fire, there was nothing for the ones that preferred the wind though, guess that just wasn't an option here.

There were some buildings that were used as public lockers, for keeping things safe. The Shovos didn't need much privacy, they communicated by exchanging different kinds of mana in precise orders to form words, so they could talk in plain sight while not being heard by anyone else. They could also just release the mana in the air if they wanted to be heard.

They also didn't have many possessions since mana was all that mattered to them, their only possessions usually were tools for their work and mana crystals, which both worked as food and as currency.

There were also buildings for breeding. Shovos didn't need a partner to breed, they broke a part of their core and left it in a place full of mana. Being seen while doing this wasn't as shameful as having sex in public was for us, but still, most of them didn't want to be seen in a debilitated state.

Those two were the two most common uses of the few closed buildings present in this city.

There were also a couple of completely oversized pillars, those only had a single spot for magic tools right on the top though, those were probably monuments, guess spirits also had their pride.

While walking through the city we met a few enemies, but we never faced any desperate situation, Oliver didn't miss any enemy this time.

After a while, we stopped under one of the biggest pillars to rest and eat.

While doing so I looked around me. This ancient ruin was very stimulating, I always wanted to see something like this, I wanted to know more about this civilization. I couldn't help but wonder how much this civilization knew about this world, its magic system, and the Heart Of The World.

While Lae was doing what I was supposed to do I roamed around a little and, in a small pillar, I saw again a carving I saw many times in this city.

It represented what seemed like a web surrounded by dots, and with a small hollow at its centre, inside it, there was a human-like figure.

I had no idea why the Shovos had so many of those carvings in their city, did they do this during the war against the humans?

“I see you noticed those, mister David.”

I looked behind me and saw Alua, she was looking at me with a fake smile on her face. She continued to talk.

“I was going to explain this to you all later when we arrive at the centre of the city, where the bigger one of those is present, but if you are interested I can tell you something about it right now.”

“Yes please.”

“First, the dots at the outer part are the Shovos and the web is the Earth Of The World, the magic system that connects all living being, the human-like figure at the centre, at last, is the shape the Shovos used to represent the core of the Heart Of The World.”

“Wait, did they know what that core was? And why would they use their enemies' shape to represent it?”

“Well, we now speculate the Heart Of The World to be what connects all the cores inside our souls to each other, forming a system of links that connects all living beings. It is also the core of this world's magic system, in a sense what we, as parts of the Earth Of The World, believe influences the way magic manifests. In fact, although the dark attribute represents the Nothing, its colour is black which is the sum of every colour, not white, which is the result of the absence of colour."

She touched the centre of the carving on the pillar and then continued to talk.

"That said, the Earth Of The World's core is said to be a point where all the links between cores converge, it's a core inside another core, in a way. We couldn't even demonstrate its existence, and the Shovos didn't know much more than we do, but it seems they at least managed to get some information. And that brings us to the second question, the Shovos already started drawing those before they summoned the first human, so there is only a solution to this: They saw goddess Esha in the core and that is also proof of her existence, how could they know our shape, otherwise?”

'Or maybe they drew that shape by chance and then summoned beings that resembled it to study them.'

Alua's speech was suspicious as heck, as always, but I didn't mind the information about the Earth Of The World.

So it was basically a big web connecting all living beings uh. I didn't like that.

Knowing that I had been connected to everyone without my consent made me feel exposed.

There was nothing I could do about it though. I thought about what Jane told me, she wanted to create a connection between us, but I felt extremely uncomfortable by that.

But now I was in a difficult spot, I just lost another ally and I still hadn't convinced Oliver, I wondered if accepting to have a deeper relationship with the others was the only way to have them follow me.

I couldn't see why that would have helped us, and I was genuinely scared of doing it, but if that meant I had to do it to obtain their strength.......

I recalled my purpose: to obtain enough power to be free from the madness of the world and eventually to obtain enough power to change it.

I wouldn't let my fear stop me.

I had to take risks.

I stared a bit more at those carvings representing the links between people and then turned back and returned to the others.

--Oliver's pov--

I was talking to Mark about small stuff and it was a nice chat, I didn't have the chance to talk too much with him, but now I found out we had a lot of common interests.

In the corner of my eye, I saw David sneaking away while Lae was maintaining his weapons and Mark turned his head to watch him.

He then turned his head again and asked me:

“Hey Oliver, what do you think of David?”

“I think he's an idiot.”

“Yes, I'm a bit of an idiot, but I was asking of David.”

“I was talking about David.”

“Wait, What?! If he's an idiot then what am I?”

“Honestly, I think you are a bit of an idiot yourself, but not as much as he is.”

“Okay dude, I'm not getting it, please explain.”

“Being good at making plans doesn't make you smart, being smart means knowing the world and knowing yourself. I don't know if he knows himself, but he definitely doesn't know the world. He thinks he can change it if he tries, but it's not like that, you can't make the world adapt to you, you have to adapt to the world.”

Mark looked at me with an awkward look.

“I don't know man, I'm with David on that, I think we can change the world.”

“Well, I won't resent you if you don't believe me, but I can tell you I learned this on my skin.”

“I won't hate you either man, but I can't accept that we are powerless, I want to believe I have the power to help people, I just wish I was as good as David.”

He now had a sad expression.

“You must admire him a lot.”

“Yes, I do, he never let the situation overwhelm him and always manage to survive at everything that is thrown at him. I wish I had the power to protect those dear to me as he has.”

At those words, I felt my heart throb a little.

“You know, in a way, I admire him too.”

“Didn't you think he is an idiot?”

“I do, I still think what he's doing is really stupid but I still admire him, for fighting back so fiercely against all this.”

“Hahah so you don't dislike him so much after all. But what's the thing he's doing?”

'Fuck he doesn't know.'

“Being a good leader, I mean. Anyway, I never said I didn't like him, I just think he's an idiot.”

I talked with Mark for a bit more and then he got up and went to talk to Erian.

Then, right after David returned, Jane sat next to me.

I didn't know what to do about that, she barely talked to me before.

She took a deep breath, then looked at me in the eyes and said:

“I won't beat around the bush. Oliver, I came here to apologize.”

“About what?”

“About bullying you.”

Probably I was supposed to be moved by her apology, but I wasn't really feeling anything about it.

“You didn't do anything yourself though, you always stood aside without doing anything.”

“I still encouraged and went along with it. I am sorry about everything. You see, I was a pitiful person but I want to change. It's fine if you won't forgive me but I needed to do this for myself other than for you.”

“Well, I won't forgive you then....... but I hope you can change the way you want.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it a lot.”

She then got up and went away.

I didn't want to forgive her, now or never, but I didn't hate her either, hating people had no sense, it was all the world's fault, after all, she just happened to be on the side that adapted to it, differently from me.

I felt sadness enveloping me.

I wondered if one day I could change the way I wanted without upsetting the world.

At that moment I envied David furiously.

--David's pov--

We sat in a circle while eating, Oliver seemed a little gloomy, while Jane seemed happy. I saw those two talk earlier, I wondered what they said to each other.

While Lae was serving the food, Erian sat next to me. Her cheeks were a little red, I hoped she was fine now, I didn't want her to faint in the middle of a fight.

Today we decided to eat our best food since we just managed to reach the destination, so Lae took out a box sealed with a preservation rune and took out sausages from it.

Then, while looking at Erian she said:

“Hey, Erian, do you want this big wiener?”

'What's wrong with her choice of words now?'

I didn't hear a reply from my side so I looked at her and saw Erian facing the other way while keeping a hand on her mouth, her cheeks seemed a little swelled.

'Is she about to throw now?'

Lae got closer and said to Erian with a low voice:

“Hey, Erian do you know that joke?”

“What joke?”

“The one with Phil.”

“Who's Phil?”

“Feel deez nuts.”

Erian got up and ran away.

After a few instants, I could hear a crackling laugher from the distance.

At that moment I discovered Vossian was similar enough to English to translate deez nuts jokes, and it was a problem since I was weak to them.

Lae sat next to me and I in the meanwhile, looked behind me with a hand on my mouth, trying to repress the laughter.

I successfully repressed my laugh and faced in front of me again.

After hearing Lae's joke, Oliver seemed to have regained some energy so he decided to keep the ball rolling.

“Hey I've got one too: Do you know about the dragon?”

Mark decided to play along with it.

“What dragon?”

“Drag on deez nuts on your face.”

“Hahaha good one man.”

'What the hell are you doing you, idiot?'

I had to face back again to hide my face.

When I faced in front of me I saw that Mark was looking at me.

'Oh no.'

His expression suddenly turned into a smug one.

'D-don't.'

He opened his mouth.

'Don't do it.'

“I've got one too.”

'Don't fucking do that to me.'

“Oliver do you know Sakon?”

“Who?”

“Suck on deez nuts.”

“Hahaha that's a classic.”

'Fuck.'

I ran away.

I went until the carving of the Earth Of The World, I leaned on it and I cracked up laughing uncontrollably.

After I finished I turned back a little but saw from the distance that Erian still wasn't back.

I was about to return anyway but then I thought that she was could have fainted in the middle of the ruins, alone.

I decided to look for her, I didn't want a party member as strong as her to die, yes, that was it.

I roamed a little and then I found her walking in my direction.

We looked at each other awkwardly and then I said:

“Are you fine?”

“Yes, I saw from the distance that you weren't in the camp so I went looking for you, were you looking for me?”

“N-no, I just got pissed off by that childish jokes and decided to study the carvings on the pillars, it's not like I was looking for you or anything.”

“I see.”

An awkward silence followed.

“Anyway let's turn back, it's about time we move out.”

I said.

“Yes.”

We silently returned to the camp.

'Why do I feel this tense.'

I was feeling very nervous, it was probably the effect of being near a beautiful girl, but this time it was much more intense than usual, I couldn't explain why though.