The next few days, the group established a routine. They would take shifts between exploring the forest, studying, and spending time with Elliot. To make sure everyone got equal time doing each part, even Josh spent time with Elliot. The two played together, and Elliot started to enjoy his time with his new “uncle.” Study time was usually split between reading through books, meditation, and practicing Essence control. Forest exploration had many benefits. While the primary purpose was to gather food, they also learned they could gather more Aether as they walked through the forest than at camp. They would just need to purify it through meditation when they got back to camp. They had also come across the occasional Essence aware beast, which each of them could dispatch with ease due to their understanding of Essence control. Overall, their routine had turned out to work really well and seemed to be relatively safe.

  ?

  Austin had grown to enjoy the routine. He felt like he was making progress but not stressing himself too much. He was shocked by the result of their routine. The first few days of the Game were filled with stress and danger that it was jarring to have created a safe routine.

  ?

  It was Austin’s turn to explore the forest, and he thoroughly enjoyed his time. The strength he had gained made the forest less daunting and instead made it feel like a leisurely hike. As he walked through the forest, he whistled and looked for things that were edible. Throughout their time in the forest, they had been able to find fruits, nuts, and mushrooms. He had missed meat but every animal that he encountered seemed to be Essence aware and turned into Aether when killed. He got the feeling that every animal had been in the forest so long that it was just part of them now. He knew there had to be some meat. If not, then he wondered how the carnivorous animals survived.

  ?

  As Austin walked, he realized animals seemed to avoid him. He thought the birds and squirrels were just acting skittish, but then he noticed one of the large cats that he had encountered earlier. It seemed to watch Austin from afar, and then when Austin noticed it, it ran away as fast as it could. Austin remembered how he could sense Chet from afar. He wondered if the animals could sense Austin’s Essence and that’s why they ran away. Austin did not care too much what the reason was, it just made his stroll through the forest easier.

  ?

  Aether flowed into Austin gently as he picked colorful berries from some bushes. Austin had gotten to a point where he was able to gather Aether without thinking too much. He did not gather a lot at once, but every little bit would help him grow. It was especially helpful because he was able to do other activities while still growing his Essence.

  ?

  Austin finished gathering berries and placed them in his pack. As he did, he decided to close his eyes and look in the direction the Aether took. He did this periodically just to see if he could find more Essence materials. They had not done much with their current materials, but he figured there was nothing wrong with trying to gather more.

  ?

  The ribbons of Aether moved as a steady stream. Unlike how they usually acted, they all seemed to be going the same direction. They did not rush like they did when Austin found the fruit. It was more like the steady, gentle current of a creek than the rushing waters of a river. The calm rhythmic direction of the Aether tempted Austin. He had a deep feeling that something lay in the direction it moved.

  ?

  Austin’s eyes remained closed as he followed the streams of Aether. He could not explain it, but he trusted the path it took him. As he walked, he seemed to avoid any obstructions. The Aether was perfectly guiding him through the forest to its destination.

  ?

  As Austin drew closer to the destination, the Aether started to change. The red and purple Aether slowly turned into a brilliant emerald green. Austin followed the newly emerald green Aether until it started to pool together. The Aether converged together into a brilliant mass of green. The green mass had a feeling of calm like it was undisturbed by anything else.

  ?

  Austin decided to open his eyes as he arrived at the pool of Aether. He was shocked to see that he had arrived at a very ordinary looking cave. It was not extraordinary like the hill and plant life on top. It was just a cave that sat within the forest. The cave was even a dull grey color.

  ?

  Despite the ordinary appearance, Austin assumed there was some reason the Aether led him there. So he shrugged and walked into the cave. He immediately noticed the darkness of the cave and carefully channeled Essence into his hand to create a small blue flame. It was just enough to give Austin light without taxing himself too much.

  ?

  The cave seemed mostly ordinary as Austin walked through. There was nothing weird, just a stone cave. Despite this, Austin pressed forward. If it were just him following the Aether, he might have chalked it up to him looking for something that was not there. But the Aether had changed colors; the only time that happened before was when it became the color of pure blue Essence. This was even stranger than that; the Aether had taken on a completely different color as if it were aligned with something specific.

  ?

  The cave did not grow any colder as Austin walked through it. Which was shocking because Austin felt like he had walked a good amount, yet it still remained a comfortable temperature. He remembered going to a few caves when he was younger, and they always seemed to get cold. He thought maybe that the green Aether had maintained the temperature of the cave somehow.

  ?

  After a little more walking, Austin started to notice a change in the cave. Across the walls of the cave were carved symbols. It was abrupt, too, the cave went from a regular cave to symbols all over the walls. Austin could not understand the symbols at all. He thought it was strange because Maya and him were sure the books were in a different language and translated. So Austin assumed that any language would be translated as long as he was in the forest.

  ?

  Austin followed the symbols further through the cave. He knew that they had to at least lead somewhere important. As the cave split into different directions, the symbols would only go down one path. Austin followed the twisting path and ignored everything else. The path had many twists and turns and started to get narrower as he walked through it. It was soon just big enough for Austin to walk through.

  ?

  The path finally opened up into a wide open span, and Austin’s mouth opened wide as he saw the area in front of him. The area was carved into something like a shrine. Smooth steps were carved that led to a platform. Surrounding the platform were eight columns that held up a stone roof. As Austin walked up the steps, he noticed the same symbols from the cave were carved into the columns.

  ?

  As Austin walked towards the platform, he started to get a view of what was within the shrine. A man-sized statue sat cross-legged in the center. The statue was incredibly detailed and looked like a man. The man’s face was angular with sharp features and had noticeably pointed ears. The ears poked through long straight hair. A sleeveless vest sat open on top of the statue’s thin, muscular chest. The legs of the statue were covered in baggy pants. Austin’s impression of the statue was that it depicted an elven martial arts master.

  ?

  Austin brought his flame closer to the statue to get a better look at it. As he did, the flame started to shift. The top of the flame grew longer and moved towards the statue as if the statue were absorbing it. Austin grabbed his wrist as he tried to keep the flame stable but the statue kept absorbing it. Soon, the flame was completely absorbed by the statue and left Austin in darkness.

  ?

  Austin tried not to panic as his vision went completely black. He recalled cave tours that would turn off the lights to show how dark it could get, but that was always in a controlled environment. Now he was left in true darkness. His only answer to the darkness was to try to bring his flame back to life in his hand.

  ?

  Flames danced in Austin’s hands as he focused on creating light for himself. He seemed to struggle more than he had before as the flames started very small and struggled to come together to form a greater flame. Just as Austin was able to form the flames together into a single flame, the flame was sucked from his hand and into the statue. Once again, leaving Austin in darkness.

  ?

  This darkness was different than before. While at first Austin thought he was in total darkness, he swore that he could make out the vague shapes of the surrounding area. It was as if the tiniest bit of light, something most people wouldn’t even notice, still lingered. Austin decided that maybe he just needed to channel more of his Essence, and he could light up the area.

  ?

  Essence flowed through Austin’s arms in a strong current. If he needed to channel more Essence, then he was going to channel as much as he could. He had never channeled that much at once before, so it shocked his senses. It felt like fire ran through his veins as it took the form of a large ball of flame. It would be hard to say that he held the floating flame, as it was bigger in size than himself. Soon, the same process happened once more, and the statue sucked the flame in rapidly.

  ?

  Everything turned into absolute darkness once more. Austin started to regret his decision as he thought that maybe the small bit of light was just his imagination. Now he wasted Essence, and it was still too dark to see. He started to slowly take steps backwards so he could bring the flame back to his hand and leave. At this point, he figured there was no use staying around.

  ?

  As Austin carefully took his steps backward, green light started to light up the columns. One by one, each symbol started to glow from the bottom to the top. As the last symbol took light, the eyes of the statue glowed an even brighter green. The light from the statue overwhelmed the lights of the columns and shot a blinding light directly at Austin. Austin reacted by covering his face with his arm. He peeked out the sides of his arm to get an idea when the blinding light would stop. He probably could have run away, but he was now too intrigued by the situation.

  ?

  As the light finally stopped, Austin moved his arm away from his face. He was shocked to see that he was no longer in the cave. Instead, he was now in an area of wild and overgrown plants. Unlike the Survival Game forest, the plants were all brilliant green and grew wildly. Vines and plants grew all over uncontrollably. If the Survival Game were a forest, this area was a jungle.

  ?

  Despite the wild overgrowth, Austin was in a clearing, and directly ahead of him was a shrine in a similar shape to the one in the cave. Unlike the shrine in the cave, this one was made of brilliant red wood with a brown roof.

  ?

  A man with long blonde hair walked out of the shrine. His skin was the color of bronze, and he wore a black vest and black pants. Green vines twisted and shaped around his forearms and hands. Austin quickly realized this was the man that the statue was made after.

  ?

  “Oh, welcome, I don’t usually get visitors,” the man smiled as he welcomed Austin.