Barely more than ten levels had granted him well over a thousand points into his stats, a boon made even greater by his thresholds. His stamina was now approaching the one hundred thousand mark, nearly a thousand times better than it had been upon arrival. One side effect of his balanced stats was a lack of the immense resource pools that beings like circle lords did. If he decided to allocate everything to his physical stats, or his mental ones, he could have had over ten thousand in a single stat by this point, which would grant him hundreds of thousands of points in a single resource. Unfortunately, the circle lords were beings with special racial advantages, so he would never catch up to them on that playing field, but there were many ways to make up for his weakness in other ways.

  Easily telling the glazed look in Jonathan’s eyes from a distance, Edgar wandered over. “Did you find everything on your stat sheet to your liking?”

  Jonathan smiled. “I can’t complain. Honestly, I already have so many unfair advantages. But, I’m always looking for more.”

  Edgar nodded. “I’ve almost reached a True Affinity. A few more fights, and I should be able to commune with the wind itself. What a far cry from when you first met me, eh?”

  “All the way back in Granath’s dungeons. I remember. We were so weak back then. I could have obliterated a good chunk of the city with my current power, let alone Granath,” Jonathan replied, a grin on his face. “You probably could as well.”

  “Probably?” Edgar feigned a gasp. “You think so little of me…”

  “It’s always refreshing to have at least one person who doesn’t treat me like royalty,” Jonathan mused, looking Edgar straight in the eyes. “Despite what Arkanon might say, I know that there is some value in preserving friendships over bonds of servant and mastery.”

  “I’ve been with you for too long. Hell, I’ve even started speaking differently,” the man replied. “Remember when we first met? I sounded like I had a stick up my ass. The problem of only interacting with other royals.”

  Jonathan barked out a laugh. “If nothing else, that’s worth it. Where I came from, we had a revolution to kick out the monarchy. The people of my country hate the notion of one person being over everyone else.”

  “How does that even work?” Edgar said, frowning. “Wouldn’t that lead to complete anarchy?”

  “Every four years, our leader can be replaced with another one. It’s not a perfect system, but it works. Most of the countries on my planet have something similar, if only in name.”

  “I’ve heard of something like that,” Edgar replied. “There was a book in my father’s library about governance. I believe it said ‘a government by the people is one in which there are no people’. But it seems like it worked out in your world.”

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “I guess it’s because we didn’t have a System there. To some extent, everyone was equal. A king would die just as easily as a serf, if struck by the same blow.” Jonathan explained. “We manufactured weapons that went far beyond our own bodily capabilities, and used them to wage war.”

  A laugh sounded out from behind him. “Are you trying to say that guns were a bad thing?” Eliza called out. “Where were you from, California?”

  Jonathan turned, raising an eyebrow. “Eliza? Perhaps you can shed some light on his situation. I merely was telling Edgar that our weapons were overkill for how weak humans were.”

  The woman smirked. “All I know is that I grew up in a household where there were more guns than family members. I learned how to shoot as a child, and never looked back. Foxes in the henhouse? A good spray of buckshot was the answer.”

  “This sounds like a fantasy world that you come from,” Edgar said. “How could you live, knowing that anyone was capable of killing you? At least here, every Tier isolates you from an increasingly large swathe of danger.”

  “Yes, but here, it’s almost impossible to get anywhere worthwhile. We might think we’re strong, but there are beings out there far beyond us,” Eliza replied. “Like Malaraxia. She was-I mean, I assume one of the gods would make us look like an ant in comparison.”

  Jonathan almost missed the slight mistake that Eliza made, as she made an effort to hide it. Only his enhanced hearing allowed him to catch it.

  “Where did you learn about Malaraxia?” He asked. “I’ve only heard of her in passing, or as part of a curse.”

  “I was in Telvaria for a few months before I died,” Eliza hurriedly said, her eyes drifting away from Jonathan’s own. “She was mentioned a lot there.”

  “Hmm,” Jonathan said, before sighing. “You know what, I’m finished with this. What are you here for, huh?” He glared at Eliza. “Are you an assassin? Are you just trying to manipulate me? You’ve been suspicious ever since I met you. I believe that you’re from Earth, but I don’t believe anything else.”

  A crackling flame of purple appeared above his hand, and he rose. “You said that you met Malaraxia by mistake. I barely caught it. Are you one of her pawns? Is that why your Divinity is so strange?”

  “It’s not what it looks like...” Eliza said, but her heart wasn’t in it. “Truth be told, I have been doubting my purpose here somewhat since seeing you free Mire. I will admit, my original goal was to kill you, but it has changed since then.”

  ‘Why?” Jonathan asked, condensing the bolt of the Void hovering above his hands. “Because you realized you couldn’t defeat me?”

  “In part,” Eliza said candidly, beginning to back away, “but I see that you are not the man I was told about. Malaraxia didn’t really describe you at all, other than that you were an adversary. I assumed that because you were in Hell, you deserved it.”

  “Aren’t you here as well?” Jonathan said simply, and Eliza flinched slightly. He ground his teeth in annoyance. “I suppose it did all seem too good to be true. Another person from Earth, and one aligned with me. Tell me, Eliza, what should I do with you?”

  “Like I said, I’ve changed. If I had wanted to kill you-“

  “You could not have done such a thing,” Edgar interrupted, rage in his voice. “Jonathan is the most powerful man I’ve known-“

  “Enough,” Jonathan said, raising his hand. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I need to fight my own battles, especially when it comes to another Earthling.”