“Do you think you can take us to the other side of the swamp?” Esopp asked quietly, during their walk alongside the swamp’s edge. It was early morning and with lack of obvious solution as to what to do about the swamp, they cut their group some slack.

Keynes wore a pensive look as his thoughts circled around various topics. He didn’t answer Esopp until the other man stopped and gave Keynes a little confused but inquiring glance.

“There’s something,” Keynes eventually said, trying to tackle the first subject.

“The aura thing?”

Keynes wasn’t surprised that Esopp had noticed. On the contrary, it pleased him because it meant that Esopp’s progress cultivating essence and raising his spiritual stage was coming on nicely.

“Yes. It’s something I discovered here in the dominion.”

That got through Esopp’s disciplined mannerism and evoked a shocked reaction. It didn’t last long but the sheer fact that it happened put a smile on Keynes’s face.

“What’s with that smug?”

Keynes shrugged in a barely noticeable way then launched into explaining his discovery and what had been shock now turned into a calculating face. Esopp got emotions backwards it seemed. But Keynes could perfectly follow his senior fellow’s logic in this case. After all, Keynes had gone through a similar process upon discovering the boon granted by the bladegrass.

With his improved spiritual baseline came another little bonus. He could now share information from the System with others. It confirmed that each ascender had a different amount of available information and most of it was still hidden.

“Do you think there are more of these bladegrasses here?”

“No idea. The System and Alice are silent about it.”

“Alice?”

“My spiritual companion.”

“...Ah. You mentioned something like that.”

Right. Not everyone remembered everything like Keynes, although having a spiritual companion amended that issue. Well, to some degree at least. Alice, like Keynes, remembered absolutely everything but Keynes’s memory did something Alice couldn’t provide, it remembered impressions, feelings and motions. These little things were precious when coupled with the Rapid Learning buff.

Esopp’s stare shifted to the swamp.

“Do you think something similar could be located here?”

It certainly was possible. There was something about the dominion … something bothersome.

“Have you noticed that the whole dominion’s setup is designed like a game?”

Esopp considered Keynes’s words carefully, all playfulness gone. After a moment, Esopp half-turned to Keynes.

“I was never one to waste time on video games but I’m not a complete ignorant on the matter. That said, there is, indeed, a strong resemblance to a game design but so is the challenge mode. With the System now online it comes as no surprise that something like this is at work.”

“Hm?” What was that?

“Let’s talk while we’re moving.” Esopp resumed a walk and Keynes quickly caught up with him. Esopp continued. “There are some theories about the whole System and its purpose. It was dormant until we all have received the spiritual message and the Vitality attribute has been unlocked. We believe that the System is not exactly natural in its nature. If that’s the case, the implications … they would be difficult to envision but with everything we have seen so far, I’m beginning to bet this is the case.”

Keynes wasn’t sure he agreed with the conclusion that the System was artificial. There was that fundamental and primal feel to it, like it was the inseparable part of the reality itself.

Strange as it sounded, Keynes found the whole topic disturbing. The artificial System? What would it mean? Was their reality fake then? Did their lives have any goal or were they pointless struggles? The questions and doubts started to pile up. The feeling was very uncharacteristic to Keynes and he didn’t know what to do about it so he clumsily changed the topic.

“I think I should be okay with getting you all to the other side. We’re ill-prepared to complete the bonus missions anyway. And I have to say, Serrata’s suspicions have merit. Wagner should have sent us all his best potions.”

***

Upon moving everyone, several gruelling hours later, Esopp asked the group to listen. The massive, snaking and densely covered by rich greenery valley wasn’t on any of their maps. A quick trip to the maximum altitude confirmed that the valley led toward the centre of the dominion. Nonetheless, Esopp expected complications on their way there with what the dominion had thrown at them so far.

So he wanted to make some changes.

“For now, I want to split us into two teams to rake up the dominion points and essence before we resume our march.”

Others in the group shifted uncomfortably. The idea of splitting into smaller groups didn’t sit well with them. Even Keynes was somewhat surprised with Esopp’s sudden plan.

“Why stop now?” Serrata asked, suspicion bubbling in her eyes. “Very likely, we’re the closest party to the centre. If we push hard, we can be done with it by the end of the week.”

Esopp nodded, acknowledging her words. Keynes agreed with her point of view. But then Esopp explained his reasoning.

“Keynes and I believe that cutting straight to the sub-boss is barely scratching the surface of what the dominion has to offer. I’d rather slow us down and explore than simply rushing heedlessly toward the sub-boss.”

Keynes frowned at being brought into Esopp’s argument, although he started suspecting what Esopp was trying to do here. Prodded by the silent stare of Serrata, Keynes only shrugged, not wanting to mess up Esopp’s little scheme.

Serrata hadn’t gotten the position of CEO without having a superior intellect though and she wasn’t going to let it go without a good explanation from Esopp. She actually figured it out and pointed it to Esopp.

“I don’t like secrets, Esopp Earl. Especially here, in a place where we can very easily die. You are not a fool to believe that I haven’t noticed his aura getting a large boost after he had returned from scouting. Now, all of sudden you want to go and explore.”

Esopp smiled and choosing not to escalate the situation, he admitted that they’d discovered something but he wasn’t in position to reveal more without Wagner’s and Columbus’s input. Untainted Paradise and Artefact Exchange were allies but neither company was going to show their cards to the other one. This, Serrata understood and agreed with splitting the team. Although, judging by the looks and her body language, she didn’t like it.

The split was uneven and as much as Keynes had expected, he and Esopp and two of their elites and a healer moved to the south.

Keynes asked Alice to scout anything unusual in more inaccessible locations. Not an hour later they ran into the first pack of monsters and the grind started all over again. By a silent agreement, Keynes was more focused on searching for any hidden points of interest; similarly to Alice.

As evening started to approach, they called it a day and returned to the camp by the swamp. The forest on the slope of the valley held no treasure unfortunately.

Esopp and Serrata took the first watch, while Keynes went to sleep. He badly needed to recover his energy.

Master, master, please wake up!

Keynes cracked an eye open, then slowly stretched his body on the hard ground. What I would give for a bed…

Master, you can store a bed in your dimensional pouch now that it is Level 3.

Wait … what?

Master, I found something, she said ignoring him.

Keynes pulled himself up, then swapped his clothes for a fresh set. The watch changed while Keynes slept, however Esopp stayed awake taking advantage of [Endurance]. He noticed Keynes but didn’t say anything until Keynes told him he was going to check on something.

Alice led him to the middle of the swamp. Of course, where else? It was some distance from the route he’d used to bring everyone to the other side so too far away to sense anything back then. But hovering a few metres above the surface, Keynes could feel the spiritual energy bubbling beneath. He used [Night Sight] to better see through the greenish, murky water but with little luck.

What’s down there? Keynes inquired, half-expecting the answer.

I am not able to sense anything beneath the surface. It is like a blank space to my spiritual senses even with the boost. That confirmed it then. Another treasure was here. But the issue was how to access it. The bladegrass ensnared him through a vision. If the same thing happened underwater, Keynes would die. There were Talents that allowed ascenders to breathe underwater or get by without oxygen but Keynes wasn’t in position to disregard the threat of drowning.

What should I do? He asked, unsure about his next step.

I advise you to leave it, master. We do not know what is there. And if things go bad, there is no one who can help you.

That soured Keynes’s mood and when he returned to the camp everyone was already up. He softly shook head upon an inquiring glance from Esopp. Serrata tensed up but didn’t say anything.

***

Their next camp was set twenty kilometres from the swamp, at the mouth of the valley. In front of them spread a plateau spotted by tall rocky pillars. There were three dozen of them, at least two hundred metres high each. The plateau itself was a mix of rocks, grass and bodies of water. It was all surreal but that was no longer surprising.

But there were things that gave them pause and forced them to hide their presence inside a dense bush.

Monsters. Thousands of them.

And there was a champion, a hundred metres long serpent that slithered between the vertical rocks that seemed to bleed monsters through many vents they were spotted with.

“A spawning ground and a champion.”

“That snake looks like a massive headache,” Serrata murmured.

Others glanced at each other, even though they kept themselves in relaxed poses, their auras betrayed their feelings; they were terrified of what lay ahead. Keynes couldn’t blame them, right? He found himself on a crossroad, his mind and his heart were pulling him in two different directions.

On one hand, these people had a sliver of Keynes’s resources, on the other something was missing, something Keynes couldn’t precisely place. Each of the elites looked every bit a hardened soldier with focused stare and fluid moves and yet, they lacked … conviction? Was this what set Keynes and others apart? Seeing the army of monsters, thrill seeped into every fibre of Keynes’s body. Esopp and Serrata were much more restrained and their auras a bit harder to read.

Before any dark thoughts could enter Keynes’s mind for longer, he remembered that he too hadn’t pushed his luck when the odds were piling up against him; this morning at the swamp for example. That cooled him off but still he was disturbed by the trajectory of his thoughts. They reminded him of the days he’d spent in Scotland.

He tuned out the hushed conversation, closed his eyes and focused on meditation. He had gained over 2% of essence today and while 1% went straight into the progress toward Level 4, the other 1% Keynes decided to use on experimentation with his cores.

***

Someone in the front of the expedition called the rest to halt. Syberius knew what they found before one of the officers came to inform him.

“A spawning ground and a massive serpent, possibly the sub-boss.”

That wasn’t the sub-boss. It had to be a champion. Syberius corrected the officer and ordered him to prepare a camp. Even though the expedition was well organised, they couldn’t face the army of the monsters head on. Syberius didn’t think he could force them to do so anyway. While he wrestled control of the expedition from a counsellor he didn’t know, it was only achieved due to the gap in the strength between him and others. If Syberius had been Level 7, he’d have been denied. The rule of the strongest wasn’t anything surprising or new. After all, it was the only reason why Windsor Freeman had stayed at the pinnacle of the World Government for so long.

An hour later, various captains and team leaders came to Syberius to discuss the strategy. Most of these people were Level 5 and their subordinates Level 4.

“We’ve counted over ten thousand monsters out there and they still are being spawned. We don’t have the luxury of time.” Neither do you have the luxury of fighting them in the open, Syberius thought sourly.

This opened the discussion that lasted for a while until someone came up with a genuine solution.

“We will move a very mobile diversion team to the valley in the north. Detonate explosive, drawing the monsters’ attention away from us, then we’ll cut through the stragglers on the plateau. If we time the explosions well, we should be able to make a clean cut.”

“I like that,” Syberius said. “Anyone disagree with the plan?”

No one did.

“Good. Go start the preparations.”