Everyone began to discuss the sword. Jackson's Blue Trick was just fair, but it held up well against all monsters—except the ants, of course.

  They imagined the crazy things a rare sword could do.

  Jackson looked stumped. "How many abilities does it have?"

  Matthew pulled up the interface without touching it. "Its description reads—"

  "Wait, did you just open the screen without using your hands?" someone interrupted.

  "Yes, but let me finish this. The description reads—"

  A blade passed down among the kings of the lands hidden in the mists. They were a treacherous people, and their leaders were the worst of them.

  Each king was said to have spilled the blood of at least five relatives to climb to the pinnacle. They held no beliefs, no honor, no loyalty—only the shackles of the Mists of Forgetfulness kept them together.

  Ariel has gifted you this blade in hopes that it leads to your death.

  When the sword is white, your ability to hide your presence improves. After ten strikes, it turns black, removing your stealth, but any wound inflicted will weaken your enemy.

  Beware—after twenty strikes, the sword will send you into a state of madness. It will also not release you until you draw blood.

  If dismissed, it will not return for two minutes.

  Increases attack power, speed and body control, decreases mental acuity and patience

  A moment passed as everyone digested what he had said. A few looks of pity were cast on him.

  Jesse sighed. "Lady Ariel fails us once more."

  There was a row of murmurs before Kirk leaned in and said carefully, "I know we're all supposed to feel sad that some dead god hates you, but that sword feels like something straight out of a story."

  Matthew shrugged. "The white form is honestly more useful than the black."

  Asha corrected him. "It wasn't as useful against the ants, but that doesn't mean it's useless. Honestly, imagine using the black form to slowly whittle down a stronger opponent's power."

  "I'd have to survive long enough for that. I'm not as fast as you."

  Brian nodded, asking another important question. "How were you moving like that, by the way? It was like watching a cartoon."

  They told them about the stat cards and what had happened. Matthew was kind of impressed—he thought only Asha had reached Level 3, but Parker had too, and they had both drawn one stat card.

  Jamie frowned. "You gave her all that essence?"

  Parker looked a little uncomfortable. "We agreed to give it to her because she was the closest to Level 2."

  "You could have easily just given the Wall Crawler's essence to someone else."

  "She's the one who put her life on the line to kill it."

  "She set it on fire? She acted as bait?" Jamie retorted.

  Parker was quiet for a while before saying, "We all agreed to give it to her."

  Jamie looked frustrated at Parker's inability to say anything else. "I'm not saying that was a bad thing, but… imagine if you gave it to someone else?"

  "She was helpful. If we were together from the beginning, Paul…"

  Jamie groaned, now annoyed. "It wasn't a bad decision, is that what you want to hear? But it may have been a better decision to give it to Paul. He would have been more effective than her."

  Everyone was quiet for a while.

  Asha broke it hesitantly. "Yeah… it wasn't the brightest idea. I got some essence, though, and I'm ready to give you guys."

  Jamie looked conflicted, scratching his chin. "I'm not trying to say we shouldn't… I don't want to be the bad guy here, but I think our essence should go to people who can provide the most results."

  Many people agreed. So Matthew agreed. He didn't like seeing Parker being put down, but if he was going to be ineffective, then Jamie was right for taking charge.

  Matthew, for one, wouldn't go against the group consensus.

  The girls, for the most part, seemed to agree with this, but he could see the obvious reluctance.

  They realized what the future dynamics of the group could look like. It's too early, honestly. And why had so many of them already thought about it?

  Matthew would have to understand what had happened here while they were gone.

  The guys who had stayed behind, who weren't thrown into the hunt, mostly agreed. They looked eager to form groups and prove themselves.

  Adelina, who had been on the sidelines, handed someone a piece of her half-eaten fruit.

  Joey saw this and asked, confused, "What are you doing? Don't let them think we're some kind of charity."

  Adelina looked embarrassed but mumbled, "Being hungry isn't nice."

  Joey grit his teeth. "Doesn't mean we have to give them anything."

  Jesse intervened, not willing to let Joey attack her. "Lay off her. It's her food. Besides, should we only feed the people who can bring us results too?"

  Jamie groaned. "Oh god, just stop. That's not what I even meant."

  One of the girls grumbled, "If we're giving food out by who bled for it, I think we shouldn't be eating."

  Someone countered, "Don't pretend like you don't know why we aren't giving them anything. They should go wait for bread to fall from the Altar's hand since they were so ready before."

  Someone from outside the group spoke up angrily. "We're sorry, okay? We were wrong, and now we are asking for help."

  "You don't sound very sorry."

  Matthew chose to intervene now. "We are still going to expand the group, right? We lost people, and we have people here without complete groups of five."

  Jesse added quickly, "He's right. We have a lot more food thanks to that bastard. We can spare some to help."

  Joey scoffed. "You know how injured we are? There won't be another hunt for a couple of days. Matthew's practically crippled."

  The argument jumped around for a while. Everyone was salty—especially after everything they went through to get this food.

  The people who had stayed behind, however, were more inclined to agree that just because someone wasn't a member before the hunt didn't mean they couldn't join now.

  Parker asked carefully, "These are people like us. They need our help—"

  One of Jamie's Loadbearers sighed, exasperated. "Why are you acting like we're just trying to be horrible? We have to be logical. We can't just act on emotions."

  One of the people begging walked up to Jamie and fell to her knees. "Please… we're sorry about anything anyone said. We just need help. We'll pull our own weight after that—we'll help as much as possible."

  Jamie flinched, shocked by the tears and pleading. He signed, turning away. "Okay, we'll help, but we need to check how much food we have and distribute the essence and wish coins. We have to decide how things will work. Now!"

  Everyone agreed, and they all poured out the spirit essence they had, along with the three wish coins.

  Altogether, they had just fifty-three—enough to get only two people to level three and provide them with stat cards.

  They shelved that discussion and began counting the fruit and meat. There were thirty-three people in the group now, with about forty more wanting to join.

  Each original member got a full piece of meat and fruit, while the new members grouped in fives and shared.

  This was hotly contested by Jesse and Parker, but they ultimately lost, as even the newest members had to agree to the arrangement.

  Brian put forward an idea. "Right now, the fourth group is almost gone. Jackson is almost healed and has a weapon, so let's rebuild them around him. We of the first group already have Matthew and Kinslayer. The second, third, and fifth should each get a wish coin and decide who uses it."

  The group was now massive, so he had to stand and speak, it was a bitter subject especially with the fourth group.

  Many people including Parker lowered their heads while some looked at the Wish coins wistfully.

  They were still receiving new members, so the original members had to share.

  Jamie looked to Parker, who largely agreed. Parker nodded and said, "Me and Asha are already level three, so I think we should invest in the other groups—specifically the first and second, who have the most experience."

  Kirk raised his hand, speaking benignly. "Can we stop calling them 'groups'? Something like 'Legion,' 'Squad,' or 'Company' sounds better."

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Parker and many others rolled their eyes.

  Parker continued, "Let's go with 'Legion,' I guess. We should focus on level two. I don't know if you guys are aware, but depending on the essence of the creature you absorb, you'll get different boosts."

  This started a whole new discussion. Matthew was very interested, listening to the stories of visions from Parker and Jackson with rapt attention.

  Does that mean the essence of the creature will slowly change you? That sounds bad. Also… was that why Jackson was looking at me like that? Because I killed a worm, and he thought he was it?

  Matthew sent a baffled look Jackson's way, which prompted the boy to say, "I'm not angry at you anymore."

  What do you mean, 'angry at me'?

  People began to discuss what could be happening. Inane topics such as transformation into a mismatched monster and others talking about monopolizing specific monsters to get specific Stat cards and skills.

  There were more nuanced deeply thought out conversations happening that made Matthew miss when he could walk by himself, he would go around and hear them out to grow his knowledge.

  People talked of the possibility of essence being a literal definition of turning the defining aspects of a thing into something they could absorb.

  Some rather thought it was a spiritual energy that allowed these bizarre animals to fly in the face of biology and physics.

  Somewhere someone talked to a girl about the possibility of giving someone essence, the Root seemed to decide what determined a person could get essence—so they talked softly of what the essence of a person would be.

  Asha separated the essence, checking the notes from the navigators. "These are from the Red Seeker, these are from the Black Hounds, these are from the Wooly Cattle, these are from the Horned Horses. These came from the dune caves—we have Salamander, Rolling Worms, Blade Demon—"

  "What the hell are these names?" someone complained.

  "You don't have anything better?"

  Asha glared, making an annoyed sound in her throat. "Oh, come off it! Those are now their official names."

  With forty-three essence, they decided that Jackson, Jamie, Colin (the Fifth Messenger), Matthew (the First Messenger), and Brian would each get eight essence.

  The remaining thirteen would be reserved for when they had more to give to the new groups.

  Matthew raised his head, wanting to get this out of the way immediately. "The Monarch gave me six spirit essences for helping him, so I'll give my share to Joey and only take two. Also, cutting from Kirk's style—can we call it 'exp'? It's needlessly long."

  This didn't go unnoticed unfortunately.

  Everyone began talking about the possibility of being gifted. Jesse leaned in close to his ear. "Don't think this vindicates you—you're still an idiot."

  Her breath was warm against his neck and smelled like strawberries.

  Jamie scoffed. "He's a lucky idiot, anyway. He's found three wish coins and now this."

  The possibility of being gifted was exciting, it meant there were creature out there that could give them special rewards for specific activities.

  Parker had been quiet most of the time unless he had to oppose something he thought was harmful.

  He smiled bitterly, "kind of like a game, huh? So what happened in the Central cavern was like an event."

  "Damn, I have to get on the Monarch's good side."

  Someone exhaled wistfully. "Can I join y'all? You have the best luck."

  Joey frowned deeply. "Well, we are short on it now."

  There was a moment of silence, and the person tried to apologize

  Joey waved it off. "Can I have two more, then? Specifically the Salamander."

  Jamie interrupted, "Hey, I want the Salamander. There's only eight."

  "You thinking of fire powers when it comes time for skill selection?"

  Jamie grinned. "You know me too well, bro. I'm out here tryna be like Heatblast."

  A disagreement broke out over who would get the eight essences from the Salamander and the Blade Demon.

  No one wanted the herbivores—finding them benign, and the Rolling Worm and Hounds seemed like second choices.

  Everyone in the group began to add their own opinions, who they felt were more suited to inherit specific powers.

  Many believed the blade demon was the deadliest based—on what they had heard—Matthew began to notice how many people thought that Jamie was the most capable person and argued on which was the best with him.

  Joey grimaced, remembering the boy who was beheaded. "I don't want the Blade Demon. I don't even have a weapon, so it's not useful. Jamie, will you take it for me?"

  "I feel sorry for you, bro, but I also am not taking that," Jamie countered—not exactly fully against it, but not willing to agree either.

  Jackson spoke up. "I actually want the Blade Demon. He sounds awesome."

  Brian cringed and explained what happened to Paul, but Jackson was adamant. "That's horrible, but we need its strength."

  Parker agreed begrudgingly. "If I hadn't absorbed the Sand Swimmers already, I would have taken the Demon. It's the strongest and probably the best for fighting."

  Jamie rescinded his bid for the Salamander to Joey and began trying to convince Jackson to let him absorb the Blade Demon.

  "I think I should, really. Matthew and I got swords, but we don't know what you'll get tomorrow," Jackson countered.

  In the end, Joey took the Salamander, Jackson took the Blade Demon, Jamie settled for the Black Hound.

  Colin—still healing from his gunshot wound—took the Woolly Cattle.

  Matthew found it strange that no one contested Colin's share of the essence, since he was incapable of providing anything for his investment currently.

  He was the one who had gotten the worst injuries in the Fifth—but was their leader, in a way.

  Brian took the Rolling worm and some leftover Salamander essence, Matthew took two Red seeker essences — absorbing them to reach level two.

  He clenched his fist but didn't feel necessarily stronger.

  Parker took the three wish coins. He gave one to Jamie and Colin, then kept the last for himself. He signed, looking at the massive group.

  At least seventy people. Most were girls, Matthew realized—he counted thirty-seven.

  Parker's booming voice rang through the hall. "We've been through a lot—the Dark Forest, the dunes, Vasilis, and the Central Cavern's battle. Our priority for tonight and tomorrow is to rest and make friends… Some of you here, I know what you are, so couples will soon start to form among you—"

  "Jesse, we see you!" someone interrupted.

  A chorus of laughter and jabs to his belly surrounded Matthew. Jesse blushed brightly, glancing at him, but he showed no reaction.

  That's beyond a bad idea. Even if she fancied me, I don't think we should…

  Parker continued as they quieted down. "The boys—we have around what… twenty new boys here? You'll form four new groups, and then tomorrow, you're out. The Third Group will be with you, since we so greedily got to level three."

  Jamie scowled at him. "No one called you greedy."

  Parker ignored him. "Anyway, tomorrow we have to gather twenty-one essence. Hopefully, some wish coins too. But our primary objective is essence points… and Vasilis."

  He finished solemnly. "I want us to focus on ourselves I guess—but for Paul, Mini, George, Kieran, Oliver and Finley. There has to be justice for everyone we lost to… greed"

  Brian nodded, a dark look in his eyes. "We have to find that bastard no matter what."

  They all then dispersed, forming smaller groups to discuss and cook the meat in the exit tunnel, where they could dig the pit fires.

  Matthew stared up at the ceiling while the rest talked. He wanted to approach Parker and help him sort through his feelings about Paul's death but he couldn't without drawing a lot of attention.

  He had to consider who he could use as an instrument for such a delicate task and the proper rhetoric he could apply.

  I have to be careful. No matter how I feel about Jesse or Parker, I can't let it alienate me from the group. Whether Jamie takes over or Jesse likes someone, I have to be ready to put myself in a good position.

  He sighed, remembering the descriptions of Kinslayer and what Ariel had called him.

  Betrayer.