"So what?" Lena hissed.

"What do you mean, so what? Did you listen to a word I said?"

Lena nodded.

"I did, and it doesn't make sense!"

"It does, Lena."

"No, it doesn't." She had a serious look on her face. "While what you say is true, you are not really at fault here. The situation was strange, even for us, as we were the ones fighting on one side. Fighting against people this way was strange even for us. Besides, you could have done nothing about Martin tricking you. He simply didn't provide you information, and you didn't search for it because… You are simply that good of a person. You trusted Martin, you trusted me, and while such trust might be dangerous, it is also good."

She paused. "Based on how things are going, there won't be many people like you around for a while. Hell! Even you might turn into a complete monster, but at least for now, you are what you are, one of the few that is still clinging to humanity."

Reidar looked at her with serious eyes. "Keeping my humanity almost killed me."

"That was because you didn't level up enough, Reidar. If you wouldn't have been so scared of being exploited for your trait, you might have simply swept the area with your monsters and gained many levels. There are many monsters in the wilds, but there are even more near human settlements, where they lurk to prey on us. You could have taken advantage of that and gotten stronger." She paused.

"Who would have dared to challenge you if they had seen you commanding thousands of monsters? No one."

But Reidar wasn't convinced. "What if they had some kind of mental control skill? Silas looked like someone who could likely have it, although he didn't use it against me. What then? I would have been turned into a weapon."

"You are a weapon, Reidar." She looked him in the eye, seeing him regarding her words as an offense. "No. You are an army. What you can do is not something other people can without spending a lot of mana and survival points. You can do this with less than half the resources. If you keep getting stronger, no one will be able to fight against you."

"The church can."

"The church is an organization made by monsters, as much as I've seen. And yet you can fight them."

She looked at him, her gaze resolute as it held his own, searching for the gleam of understanding she knew must have been buried beneath his doubt.

She didn't feel well and was having trouble even keeping her head up. Yet she did, because she knew that what she said was right.

Her voice softened, not with pity, but with the hard-won certainty of someone who had seen what he could become. "Being a weapon, being an army… It doesn't mean being a monster. Your actions will eventually turn you into that."

"You might be right, and I already know what you want," Reidar said. "You want to ask me to stay and help, but this doesn't change the problem. Silas is too strong for me."

"He's too strong for you now," Lena said, stressing that last word as if it mattered most, and in fact, it did.

Reidar studied Lena's face, her fierce loyalty to Martin and his settlement warring with her pain. She saw the potential in him, the raw power he could wield if he embraced it fully. She wasn't wrong.

"An army of level eighty monsters," he repeated, the words hanging in the air between them. "You think that's the answer. That I could just… grind my way to power. Summon an unstoppable force."

"You can."

"Maybe." He ran a wary hand through his hair. "But it's not that simple. To command level eighty creatures, I'd need to be level eighty, or close to it. That's not a quick climb, Lena. That's months of nothing but hunting, killing, and surviving. And that's assuming the monsters I find are strong enough to give the C.L.A.S.P. points I need. The higher you go, the harder it gets."

He looked toward the silent forest. "And what happens while I'm out here, grinding away? Silas isn't going to sit idly. He played a long game, but this game is about to end. He is turning Havenwood from the inside by spreading the church's influence. By the time I'm strong enough to face him, will there even be a Havenwood left to save? Will he have conquered it or simply corrupted it completely? You saw how easily he turned Martin against me without even revealing his presence to him. He appeared before us because he wanted to recruit me."

He paused. "And what if he forces a confrontation before I'm ready? What if he attacks while I'm still level fifty? Sixty? I'd be throwing my life away, and yours with it. "

"But you have me," Lena said with a conviction that said it all. It was clear she had something in mind, but Reidar could not understand what.

"Forgive me, but although you are a talented fighter, you are in my same shoes. It would be easier if you had summoning skills of your own, but you don't."

She grinned.

"I don't have summoning skills, but you could share yours." She sighed. "That's not the point, though." She gave a small, knowing smile, her eyes steady and calm. "It's not about what I can do."

"Then what?" Reidar asked. He looked at her face, searching for some hidden power she might have beyond the obvious.

Her skills were lethal, yes, but they were also utterly useless against Silas. They saw that with their own eyes. What could she possibly offer that would tip the scales against a threat like Silas? "What else can you do?"

"Did you forget I know this place like the back of my palm?" But it wasn't just that; Reidar was certain.

"Besides, who said you are the only one with a trait?"

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