“Well, that was some speech.” A man in the crowd said. “I actually feel a little bad for them.”

“I just realized they walked away with all the points they earned from the den quest.” Another man said. “Shouldn’t they pay a fine for breaking the rules?”

“We should go look for them and tell them to hand over their points.” A woman said.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” A male sarcastically responded. “While you do that I’ll stay here. I’m sure you’ll convince the elves to part with their points.”

Once the elven left the crowd, the meeting area burst into conversation. The responses to the actions of the elven were much more varied than they were in the beginning. People responses contained sympathy, indifference, annoyance and several other emotions. Zane and the others behaved like many others in the crowd and were having their own discussion about the elves.

“You know what,” Jason said. “I actually feel a little bad for the elves. I think we might have judged them a little too harshly.”

“Of course, you would say that.” Sophie said. “Are you sure you weren’t taken in by her looks.”

“I can’t believe you would say that. I’m showing sympathy for the difficult situation that the elven have to face. I never mentioned Daughter’s pretty hair or wonderful eyes.”

“I never mentioned them either.”

“I also feel sympathetic to the elves situation,” Zane added. “However, I don’t think that gives them a good excuse for their actions.”

“Shouldn’t it?” Luna quietly asked. “If our home was in danger, I would fight for it.”

“I also think their actions are noble,” Shawn added.

“The actions I’m criticizing is their treatment of humans,” Zane clarified. “I don’t think they should treat us as their enemies or have so much hatred toward us. We might be humans, but we aren’t even from the same world as the humans that destroyed their World Tree. We definitely don’t share the same blood as those humans. It’s not fair to blame us for something we didn’t do or even know about.”

“I understand the negative emotions they would have felt when they first saw us. However, several days have passed since they first arrived here. They should have realized that we were different from the humans from their world. I could understand and accept them not trusting us and being unfriendly. I can’t understand or accept the constant looks of disgust and hatred that they have shown since the first day of the starting village.”

“I agree with Zane,” Sophie said. “I think that they could have received help if they asked for it. At least the humans from our world would have given them a decent share of our points. Now, I don’t think anyone would be willing to share points after the way they behave.”

“Hmph, we don’t even know if what they said is true,” Lana said.

“Right, it could all be an act,” Shane agreed. “Of course, it doesn’t matter if it’s an act. Their behavior has made them more enemies than friends.”

Zane’s group and the rest of the crowd continued to discuss the elves for a few more minutes. Eventually, Jade and the others that were a part of the council asked the people to calm down. As the conversation died down, they told everyone to disperse and to enjoy the rest of the night. They were still planning the battle strategy and they would inform everyone about what they came up with tomorrow.

“Is that it?” A man asked. “The elves basically came here and said they planned on doing whatever they want. Are the rest of us supposed to lie down and accept it?”

“We are people with skills that can help with organizing groups of people,” Jade said. “We are not rulers with absolute authority and power. We only suggest plans depending on what we think the best path is and we change our plans based on your responses. In other words, whether we continue to do something depends on you.”

“Let’s vote on it then.” Nikki suggested. “By a show of hands who wants to jeopardize the Upheaval Defense quest and potentially get into a fight to the death with the elves by pursuing the matter of the elves destroying the dens?”

A few people responded with chuckles to Nikki’s question. Some people let out a few coughs and cleared their throats. However, nobody raised their hand.

“I know everyone is on edge right now, but things aren’t as bad as they seem.” Adam said. “As longs as we work together, we will survive the Upheaval.”

“Hard to work together when the people were supposed to be working with don’t want to work with us.” A man said.

“Can you guarantee we will survive the Upheaval?” A woman asked. “The Upheaval was already dangerous, and the elves increased that level of danger.”

“They said it was okay because we have experts among us, but I’m not an expert.” A male said. “What if we can’t handle the increase in strength? Are the rest of us supposed to die?”

The crowd became rowdy as everyone started talking about how dangerous the Upheaval would be. Everyone was worried that they might not have the strength to survive. People were worried before, but they had some confidence that they would be able to survive. However, now that the difficulty of the Upheaval was increased again people started to become less confident.

“If your problem is obtaining more strength than I have the answer for you.”

Wearing a black cloak, a man started to walk onto the stage. He had a handsome face, blond hair and blue eyes. He was tall and had a slender but muscular physique. Once he was on the stage, he opened his arms walked forward and gave the stunned Adam a hug.

“It’s good to see you, big brother.”

“Damien,” Adam was shocked. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“Yeah, I was kind of doing my own thing.”

“Why didn’t you come see me? How come I didn’t hear about you until now?”

“Let’s catch up later big bro, right now I have to address the people.” Damien patted Adam’s shoulder and walked to the edge of the stage. “I’m sure you all want to know how to get stronger and the answer I have is simple. All you need to do is upgrade to the evil human race.”

Damien’s words weren’t met with applause. Instead, they were met with hesitation and confusion. After a few seconds a woman spoke up and questioned him.

“I saw the option to change to the evil human race during the mana surge. The benefits it offers aren’t that different from the human race.”

“Other than becoming an adult human, most of you haven’t improved you race since you got here. If you had, you would know about the benefits the evil human race could give you. I could tell you about the benefits, but I think it would be better if I showed you.”

Damien waved his hand and had the information about the evil human race appear in front of everyone. Zane and the others were also shown information about the second and third upgrades for the evil human race. However, the information wasn’t new to them. After a few seconds someone else spoke up.

“I heard there were certain requirements we needed to meet so we could upgrade our race?”

“The requirements for the evil human race are similar to the requirements of the human race. A certain number of stats are required, and certain amount of energy is needed. However, instead of needing mana, what is needed the most is evil energy.”

“What do you mean by evil energy? Is that energy obtained by doing evil acts? Does that mean we have to commit awful acts like murder and rape?”

“You won’t have to do anything like that. I’m sure you can all see that the system says being evil means following your desires. As long as you continue to follow your desires without surprising yourself, you can gather evil energy and upgrade you race.”

“But doesn’t being a part of the evil human race make us, well, evil?” A woman asked.

“I don’t have the urge to do anything like murdering people or any other acts that most people would consider evil. Of course, I haven’t been an evil human for more than a month yet. Are there any evil humans from this world that can help me explain the evil human race?”

Everyone began to look around after Damien finished talking. Not everyone was interested in upgrading to the evil human race, but everyone was interested in obtaining more information about the race. After a few moments, a man wearing a black hood found or created a piece of stone to stand on. As he stood above the crowd no one could tell his age, but his voice sounded young when he started to speak.

“I was born in this world, and I was born as a member of the evil human race. From a young age I would always have trouble following the rules. Even if someone told me something was wrong, I would still do it because it aligned with my desires. I would sneak into places I wasn’t allowed to enter, beat up others over simple disputes and take whatever item I wanted. As I grew up, I obtained more control over my desires, and I was able to live in society properly. I didn’t cause as much trouble and was able to help those around me. However, controlling my desires never meant they went away.”

“Thank you for your input,” Damien said. “As you all can see upgrading to the evil human race doesn’t make you a monster, but it will give you the strength to fight against monsters. If you have the desire to live than the evil energy will give you the strength to accomplish that desire. I’m sure many of you will fail to control your desires and might harm others. However, no matter how bad your sins are you can always be forgiven by repenting and doing good acts. But remember, you can’t do the good acts necessary for obtaining forgiveness if your dead. The choices you have before you are clear. You can remain human and die or become an evil human and live. Now tell me, what will you choose?”

Damien was a talented speaker and was able to excite the crowd. The entire crowd was pulled in by his words and it was hard to resist the tempting offer he presented. However, Zane and the others weren’t affected.

“This guy probably has some kind of speaking skill, right?” Shane asked. “I don’t plan on upgrading to the evil race, but his words definitely make me feel tempted to do so.”

“He might have a skill, but he doesn’t need one,” Zane answered. “It’s possible that he has experience speaking to others and is relying on that.”

“The evil human race focuses on using evil energy,” Sophie said. “Upgrading to the evil human race will make it harder for them to discover their own path.”

“Should we say something?” Luna asked.

“It’s not our problem,” Lana said.

“I don’t think they would appreciate our advice,” Zane said.

While Zane and the others talked, they heard a few people saying they wanted to join the evil human race. The few influenced the many and soon more people were asking to become a part of the evil human race. Zane and the others didn’t interfere with this process. Although becoming an evil human wasn’t the best decision to make, it also wasn’t the worst decision to make. People would become stronger after becoming an evil human and would have a better chance at surviving the Upheaval.

“Upgrading to the evil human race is definitely a great decision,” Damien said to the people that came forward. “Now, the process to upgrade to the evil human race will be a bit different than normal. To help you upgrade I will-”

“Stop! Don’t fall for his lies. Turn from the path of evil and step onto the path of righteousness.”