Life slowly returned to normal after Dallion’s first “village task”. It was outright astonishing how quickly everything around the events left the villager’s consciousness. After just one day the only people who referred to the improvement of the well, were the boy’s parents. After one more even they hardly mentioned it anymore, carrying on as if that had always been the case.

The village chief and his family also ended all interactions, remaining in their mansion. On a few occasions Dallion would see Gloria venture outside the walls of the chief’s house, only to go back inside.

If there was such a thing as the perfect status quo, this was it… except for Dallion. The conversation with his grandfather had opened the boy’s eyes and now he couldn’t stop seeing the weirdness in behavior of everyone around. Often he’d deliberately ask questions that interested him—the Order of the Seven moons, what was beyond the village, the state of the world, only to watch the conversation slowly drag on to the usual nothingness that people spoke about. It seemed that from the entire village, only he had retained his spark of curiosity.

As the days went by Dallion kept using his awakening powers. Once most of the important items in his house had been improved, the boy then helped out some of his neighbors, some family friends, even his aunt Vanessa. It was through this fashion that the boy discovered that there was a limit imposed on his leveling activities. Apparently, once he reached level ten of his skills, no matter of defeating guardians did anything.

Improving an area also seemed out of the question. When Dallion tried with a shed, the only thing he was able to do was improve the board he touched. When he tried improving the wall of his house, nothing at all happened, as if he were touching air. Clearly Dallion had to improve his awakening level, alas that had turned out easier said than done.

In half a week alone, Dallion had made four attempts to complete the fourth trial of the awakening shrine, and each time he had fallen short. The sand dragon—thankfully a quarter of the size of the one he had faced with Gloria—proved to be both faster and smarter on a tactical level than Dallion. It was like playing a sidescroller on highest difficulty with just one life. No matter how well the boy did, there always came a moment in which he’d make a mistake and be thrown out of the challenge. In one instance, Dallion regretted being able to see the guardian’s health; losing when the enemy boss was at two percent life was probably the most gut-wrenching experience he’d experienced since the first time he’d had his heart broken in high school.

After Dallion’s seventh failure, the boy felt he had reached his limits. The last few times had been abysmal. Not only didn’t he reach his record of two percent, he had been eliminated while the dragon was at half health. If he had learned anything from his experience against the well pack, it definitely wasn’t fighting dragons.

The boy’s awakening level allowed him to make a few more attempts. The recent failures, though, made him reluctant to try. Instead, he went back to the riverbank next to the village and lay on the ground. The stars shined above him, forming constellations he knew nothing about. No doubt there was a story behind each, possibly a local zodiac linked with the world’s myths and legends. Until the echoes were removed, it was unlikely Dallion would learn about them.

“It’s not easy reaching level four, is it?” a familiar voice asked. Gloria’s bent down above the boy, her face blocking most of the stars. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Dallion said, not budging. “Yeah. It’s tougher than I thought.”

“Of course it is.” The girl carefully cleaned the ground next to Dallion and sat down. “If it wasn’t, I’d have done it years ago. Did you reach your skill limit?”

“Yes, I reached my skill limit.” Part of Dallion was annoyed that she was talking to him, though another was glad that she had come here. “How did you know I’ve been going to the shrine?”

“I started going there the moment I learned about it. Why wouldn’t you?”

That stood to reason.

“Also, you left a lot of tracks. Don’t worry, grandfather doesn’t believe in perception. He thinks it’s a useless skill. I guess that’s why he finds me such a disappointment unless it comes to negotiations.”

Surprise, surprise. The old man likes having his own lie detector when bargaining, Dallion thought.

“So, what happens now? Know any shortcut to help me pass the fourth trial?”

“Nope.” Gloria shook her head. “You have to do it by yourself.”

“No help? That’s a bit mercantile of you.”

Even in the moonlight, Dallion saw her cheeks change color.

“It’s not like that! I’d already reached level four, the challenge is blocked for me, and there’s no way you can handle the fifth one.”

“Oh.” Dallion hadn’t thought of that, despite experiencing it himself. “Sorry, I completely forgot about that. Any chance I’d convince any of your relatives to help out?”

Gloria stared at him for several long seconds, then burst out laughing. For some reason that made Dallion feel better as well.

“Only you could ask such a thing. No, I don’t think they’ll do that. My brother hates your guts, and the rest don’t want to get on grandfather’s bad side. Not that they’ll be any help,” she added in near disgust. “They’re happy to stay at level two and spend their lives improving trinkets and bossing people around.”

“Your brother’s level three?”

“He’s a natural, so grandfather doesn’t want to get him to get too strong. If he knew about me, I’d probably remain locked at home.” There was another long pause. “Sorry I didn’t warn you about the trial. I wanted to, but grandfather would have found out…”

“It’s okay. No one else warned me either.” That was a bit harsh, but Dallion wasn’t in a charitable mood right now.

“I didn’t get what I wanted either…” Gloria said.

Experience back on Earth had taught Dallion two valuable lessons: to know when someone changed the topic to something regarding their problems, and to be smart enough not to interrupt when they did.

“Grandfather is marrying me off in a month. He said he found a suitable travelling merchant with a son. When I improved my clothes for the third time, I hoped he’d think of keeping me here and let me have my own choice, but…” the girl looked at the stars. “Seems like that never was an option. I’m not even sure the event will take place here.”

“You don’t have a say in the matter?”

“No one has. Grandfather has already found two candidates for my brother's wife as well. At least he’ll get to stay here.” The girl clenched her fists. “I’m the fourth highest awakened in the village and I still can’t—”

Abruptly she stopped. As far as Dallion was aware, less than a second had passed, yet his keen perception noticed that a stone on the ground next to the girl’s fists had become far more polished than the rest.

“Sorry about that. I just needed to talk to someone.”

“Sure.” You did more than talk, didn’t you? “Don’t worry. There’s still a month. We’ll figure out something.”

By that time, Dallion was going to do everything possible to find a way to defeat the village elder and destroy all of his echoes.