Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

“You know we can’t just babysit him, right?”

Elijah glanced at Carmen, unsure of how to respond. One thing that had almost immediately become clear after Earth had been touched by the World Tree was that leveling was weird. Some things that seemed like they should have given multiple levels barely gave a trickle of experience, while other actions resulted in a flood of progress. He was aware that there were whole classes dedicated to charting the most efficient leveling path, but he’d never actually met anyone like that. Probably because Scholars, by their very nature, tended to be quite vulnerable, and the situation on Earth wasn’t settled enough to guarantee their safety. As a result, compared to most other archetypes, few Scholars had survived.

Whatever the case, he’d learned that watching over Miguel while he tried to level would result in quite a bit less experience than if the young man acted alone or with a group of similarly leveled people. It brought to mind how slowly he had progressed when he’d first been stranded on the island. Over the first few months, he’d killed dozens of crabs, and while they weren’t particularly high-leveled, they should have given much more experience than they had. Except that, the entire time, he’d had the panther watching over him, providing him with a safe environment and ready to step in if it looked like Elijah was going to die.

Maybe.

Elijah wasn’t entirely certain how it all worked, and he didn’t think that would change anytime soon. All he could do was keep going and hope things became clearer as he gained power. Regardless, it wasn’t as if gaining levels had ever been the goal. Sure, he liked the way progression felt. He liked getting stronger. But the vast majority of his choices were based on other factors, and leveling had usually been a byproduct of seeking out other goals.

“I know,” he said, knowing that Miguel would never progress if he had Elijah as his guardian angel. “It just sucks.”

“It does,” agreed Carmen, taking a sip of coffee. “I wish he would have chosen something non-combat.”

“I don’t think he had the option.”

“He didn’t, but that’s my fault, too,” Carmen said, glancing at Elijah. “Ever since the world changed, I’ve let him pursue a future as a fighter. At first, I just looked at it like it was a new sport, like he’d taken up football or something, but with the added bonus of letting him protect himself. Then, everything with Alyssa happened…”

“It’s not your fault,” Elijah said.

“It really is,” she argued. “I could have brought him into the forge with me. He might have enjoyed making things. But I was so scared. So focused on everything else. And I just pushed him off to Colt. That sealed it.”

“I could see that,” Elijah contributed. For better or worse, Colt was invariably cool. He wasn’t the most powerful person in the world – far from it – but few children could look at a cowboy samurai and not want to emulate him. That was compounded by the fact that Colt was a good, loyal person who took to the mentor role quite well. It was inevitable that Miguel would end up idolizing him.

Carmen leaned back in the chair and gazed across the grove toward where Miguel was going through guided meditation with Nerthus. It was the first step in preparing the young man for cultivation, which would take up the next month of his life. Only then would Miguel step out into the world and start leveling. Thankfully, there was a large enough population of children in Ironshore who’d recently come of age that there was an opportunity to form parties. Once they did, they would venture out into the local wilderness and hunt the relatively weak beasts in the region. Then, after they’d gained their classes and established teamwork with a static team, they would be given a slot to run the local tower.

Elijah wished he could just take Miguel in and escort him through the tower, but the level difference was far too great, and as a result, Miguel would never survive the run.

“It really is frustrating, isn’t it?” he said. The system seemed to want people to rise or fall on their own merits. Sure, there were exceptions. They could load Miguel up with high-grade equipment, but even that wasn’t foolproof. If the gear was too powerful, he wouldn’t be able to support it. So, the help they could offer was limited, mostly to training and preparation, but that could only go so far.

“More than you can know.”

“Are you going to make him some armor? A weapon, maybe?” he asked. Thinking that Miguel would eventually choose to become a Ranger, Elijah had been on the lookout for a good bowyer, but those plans seemed a bit silly now that the young man had chosen to become a Warrior. “You know I still have the spear you made for Alyssa.”

It had been incorporated into the statue back in Argos, but it wouldn’t be difficult to replace it.

“No. Leave it where it is. I intend to make something special.”

“How’s your forge project going?” he asked, changing the subject. They would get nowhere by going in circles about their impotency concerning Miguel’s development.

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Carmen answered, “It’s going. I’m about a third of the way finished with the bricks, but there’s a lot more to it than something like the Temple of Virtue.”

Then, she went on to describe the process, which involved incorporating the high-grade sun copper and blood tin, as well as their alloys – into the entire building. Moreover, the structure would take on the shape of a series of enchanting runes Carmen had learned via a guide. And finally, she intended to make every smithing tool from those high-grade metals. The project wasn’t something that could be finished in a few weeks, so Carmen expected to be working on it for quite some time. Months, at the very least. However, given the high density of the ethera in Ironshore – due to the ancestral tree in Druid’s Park – Carmen thought the final result would be quite powerful for both cultivation and for crafting purposes.

“What about you?” she asked.

Elijah just leaned back with a sigh. Sitting on his balcony overlooking the grove, it was easy to forget how much work he had ahead of him. Three issues demanded his attention, and he didn’t know which one he’d focus on first.

First, there was the situation in Hong Kong. Elijah still intended to help rid the city of undead, but given that the source was a Primal Realm, he knew it wouldn’t be the work of a few days. Instead, it would likely take weeks just to fight their way to the Primal Realm, then an unpredictable amount of time to conquer it. Likely, it would be a dangerous and deadly months-long endeavor.

Then, he needed to help the survivors of the plane crash, though that presented a host of issues as well. The largest problem was reaching the atoll, but Elijah had fought – or run from – the harpies, so he knew precisely how much danger their presence added to the mix. Exterminating those monsters would be at least as difficult as conquering the Primal Realm in Hong Kong.

And finally, he needed to prepare for the Trial of Primacy. He’d never considered not going, though he suspected that eschewing the Trial was probably the most prudent course. But Elijah knew it was important. He wasn’t sure exactly how, but he was certain that it would be a formative experience for Earth’s future elites. Not going would cripple his position.

Fortunately, the only time-sensitive issue was the Trial, largely because the most recent visit to a Branch resulted in yet another announcement from the system. It read: