The next morning Zane woke up when the forest became silent. He didn’t rush to leave his room and entered Meditation. He let his mind drift as he felt the energy in his surroundings and the energy inside himself. This continued until he received the system message telling him it was daytime. Zane put on his cloak, packed up his things and left his room.

After leaving his room Zane walked through the door in front of him and entered the room which Sophie referred to as the gathering room. Zane thought it looked nothing like the gathering room they had at the orphanage and he wasn’t the only one. However, once he sat down with everyone for a meal at the table it felt like he was back at the orphanage.

“Morning Zane.”

The moment Zane walked into the room he was given a warm greeting. Eleven seats were filled and one seat at the end of the table was left for Zane. Zane’s group and Brad’s group had become closer over the past few days. Zane was the most hesitant about letting them enter the shelter but there were two major reason that convinced him to change his mind.

One reason was the lack of knowledge, experience and ability Brad’s group constantly displayed. In Zane’s mind they were helpless humans that would suffer without the support of his group. It could be dangerous to be too trusting of them, but the level of danger would never reach a lethal level.

The second reason was Brad’s friends followed his path and became righteous humans. After finding out Brad could slightly increase the damage dealt to mana creatures because he saw them as evil, all of his friends were determined to become righteous humans as soon as possible. Sophie did her best to make sure they were aware of the potential problems that could come with being a righteous human, but she didn’t try to change their minds. On the fourth night their opportunity came when the group successfully destroyed a den that was controlled by wolves.

This was the second den quest that Sophie accepted and other than an increase in mana creatures that needed to be killed it was the same as the first den quest they accepted. Unfortunately, this meant that Sophie was unable to share the quest with everyone. Brad and Frank refused to accept the quest rewards, but they were still able to evolve their race when the den was destroyed.

Zane knew that righteous humans would always do the right thing. They preferred to help humans and wouldn’t attack people without a justified reason. Although Zane couldn’t guarantee Brad and his friends wouldn’t harm them, he knew that any attempts to do so would be done openly. During his lessons at school and his time spent traveling with Teacher Isabelle he had never heard of righteous humans using sneaky or hidden methods to attack people.

“I really think you should consider building a bathroom,” Sam said. “At least consider building a shower.”

“Didn’t we have this conversation already?” Jason asked.

“I know we did but I managed to talk to a plumber yesterday. He explained what we would need to do and I’m sure you could accomplish it with magic. By the way am I the only one who’s amazed how easy it is to remember stuff after gaining a few dozen levels?”

“Nope,” Frank answered. “But I am surprised that I don’t feel like a super genius after reaching level thirty-seven. When we got here my intelligence stat was at level twelve and now it’s increased by more than ten times.”

“I get what you mean,” Brad added. “I’m able to remember a lot of the math that I memorized in high school, but I still have trouble understanding it.”

“I wonder if our memories are affected by intelligence or wisdom?” Whitney said.

“Instead of guessing we should just ask the experts,” Britney replied.

“We’re not experts,” Sophie said. “And we already decided that all questions would be left for our nighttime sessions.”

“We’ve also decided on the bathroom situation as well,” Jason added.

“Can’t you reconsider?” Sam asked.

“Sophie already showed you how to use mana and water to clean yourself and there are places to relieve yourself at the training ground. I don’t know why you insist on this idea of a bathroom and a shower.”

“Trust me, once you’ve taken a shower you will be glad you made it.”

“Anyway,” Jason ignored Sam and stood up. “Before we leave, I have something I would like to announce. I plan to upgrade my class and officially enter the first tier.”

“Congratulations!” Sophie exclaimed.

“I thought Zane would have been first,” Shane stated.

“You beat me by a few levels,” Zane said.

“It’s only a small achievement.” Jason grinned as everyone congratulated him. “I plan to upgrade my class after we watch Zane and Shawn’s matches. They let people watch, right?”

“They should,” Shane answered. “The training ground for warriors is very similar to the stadium. They have seats surrounding the field and nobody would make them if they didn’t want people to sit and watch.”

“We should have an easy time completing the next den quest tonight,” Brad said. “One spell from Jason should clear an entire room.”

“We don’t know if there will be another den quest available,” Sophie said. “If there is another quest available, we don’t know if we will arrive at the location on time. Don’t forget that we missed the last one.”

“Hmph, I think we should have fought those elves for the right to destroy the den,” Jason said.

“That would be a terrible idea.”

“I agree,” Zane said. “The tier one expert amongst the elves didn’t look for me after I fought a group of elves with Old Saber. If we fought with them at the den and one of them escaped, we would have to fight their tier one expert to the death.”

“Then all we had to do was make sure none of them escape,” Jason replied.

“Don’t get too confident because you managed to become a tier one expert in less than two weeks. There’s probably plenty of humans and a few elves that managed to reach the first tier as well.”

The group only spoke for a few more minutes before leaving the shelter. Britney, Luna, Lana and Zane waited while the others used a rope to climb down the tree. Once they were at the bottom Zane pulled up the rope and the four of them slid down the tree. On the way down Zane could see people sitting in groups and sitting by themselves. He also saw people walking into the forest in groups and on their own.

As the group came down the tree, they attracted a lot of attention. Some people waved, some people silently watched from the side and some people only glanced at them before refocusing on their own things. Once everyone was down Shawn walked up to the tree, placed his hand on it and began to make barely audible unrecognizable sounds.

When people started to gather around the pond Zane knew that there would be some people that tried to investigate their shelter. After proposing this idea to the group Shawn said he would ask the tree for protection. Zane didn’t know what Shawn did, but he knew it worked. Luna and Lana noticed signs of people coming up and down the tree but there were no signs of people entering the shelter.

It wasn’t long before Shawn finished and backed away from the tree. Once he nodded everyone started jogging away. The trip back to the starting village was quick and they didn’t encounter any people or mana creatures. That changed once they reached the boundary between the forest and the grassy plains.

On their way into the starting village, they saw a lot of people walking in. The group was used to this scene, but they were surprised to see where everyone was heading. Most of the people walking toward the starting village were heading toward the training ground for warriors.

“Do you think all those people are going to the warrior training ground?” Brad asked.

“Duh,” Britney said.

“I didn’t expect so many people to notice that today was the tenth day,” Shane said. “Honestly, I don’t even know how many names were on the ranking at the end of the first day.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Zane said. “We only have to focus on our own battles.”

“You’re right. The number of people on the champion ranking won’t affect the number of challengers.”

The group joined the crowd walking toward the warrior training ground. They were worried that they would have to spend a long time waiting, but the crowd was moving at a steady pace. It wasn’t long before they passed the entrance to the training ground and arrived at the lobby. Most people didn’t stop moving once they reached the lobby. Only a few people stopped to look around or speak to the women at the desk.

“I guess we should head to the counter,” Brad said.

“Or we could use the ranking orbs we purchased,” Zane said.

Zane took out the ranking orb he received on the first day from his space bag. He started by looking at his own ranking and saw he had nine wins. If nobody challenged him in another four hours, he would receive his tenth win. After the tenth win he would be able to complete the champion quest and receive his reward.

“Huh, it looks like someone challenged me.” Shane said.

“Oh, how can you tell?” Zane asked.

“My name started glowing and after I focused on it I received a message saying someone has challenged me.”

“It doesn’t look like anyone challenged and I’m the first person on the rankings. I guess you were right. It's important to pick a name that makes people want to fight you."

“Hmph, if the person who challenged me thinks I’m all talk, then they’re in for a surprise.”

“Well, since nobody challenged me, I’ll have to challenge someone. The only question is who?”