After they were done collecting themselves, they all walked back and went into Eli's room, sitting around the table. Everyone was sitting quietly as Eli walked around them, looking them over carefully. After considering, he made a decision and then decided to let everyone in on the plan for the next few weeks.
"I just made a deal with Ghost that 3 of you will be staying and helping with the next event. I expect those three to be training and building their strength so that you don't embarrass the rest of us. As for the rest of us, in 10 days, we will be going to the center of the large volcano in the middle of the zone. I do not know what is in there for sure, but I think it's a dungeon. No one will be forced to go, but it will be an excellent source of growth for all of us. Questions?"
"Who is staying behind?" Tara and Bethany said at the same time.
"I think Tara and Stevens should for sure, since we want to show them our strength, the third should be Bethany or Cody. But to be honest, I'm not going to choose, I want you guys to figure it out. I may be the focal point of this group when it comes to power, but I do not intend on leading the day-to-day stuff."
"What should we do before we leave?" Beau asked.
"Get stronger, this dungeon is probably going to start at level 75 and get stronger after that." Eli said. "It also wouldn't hurt to go visit Ghost's city, maybe see if anyone stands out worth recruiting."
"What will you be doing to get ready?" Tara asked.
"I will be working on opening another node, so I'll be here mostly, maybe try and get some levels so I'm not holding any of you back." Eli explained. "Any other questions?" he paused, then said, "Ok then, please leave my house I would like a nice nap." He had planned on winking at Tara at the end of that sentence but when he looked over to her, she was staring at the wall in deep thought. Eli shrugged it off and followed everyone to the door, when he was alone he used some roots to lock the others out and laid down for some peaceful rest.
When everyone filed out into the open area, Tara took Bethany and Lucy aside for a private discussion. Bethany was not happy because she was planning on intimidating Cody into staying so she could go with Eli to the dungeon. When they were in Bethany's hut, she poked her head out of the vines to make sure no one else was around and came back in with a very serious face.
"I need your help," Tara said
"With what?" Lucy replied
"You want us to help you help Eli," Bethany said with a bit of frustration in her voice.
"I know it might not seem fair, but I don't know how to help him. Before all this he was always so stoic and solid, nothing ever got to him and he always did what needed doing. Now he has all these emotions and doubts, I just don't know how to give him the help he needs. Being honest, if it was any other man, I would just tell him to suck it up, be a man, and get the job done. But I love him and this is all so new to him, I just want to help him." Tara explained and then let out a big sigh.
"Wait, why is it not fair?" Lucy said.
"She thinks it's unfair since she wants our help and she considers us rivals for his heart, keep up," Bethany said, clearly not having patience for Lucy. Bethany felt that Lucy being younger and having a connection to his unknown past gave Lucy an advantage that she didn't earn, and it frustrated her to no end.
"I'm not your rival, I'm here to serve him, I'm not worthy of his heart." Lucy said while staring at the ground.
"I've seen the way you look at him," Bethany said as she grabbed Lucy's face and looked right into her eyes. "You can't tell me he doesn't make your heart flutter when your eyes connect." Lucy turned bright red and went back to looking at the ground facing away from the other two women.
"That's enough Bethany, the reason I'm asking," Tara said, changing the subject, "is that I know all three of us just want him to survive all this without losing his mind. My fear is that he leaves us all behind and loses his humanity, not caring about the suffering of others."
"The prince and I just had a discussion about this," Lucy said, quickly turning to face them. "He said that he thinks the lord system is partially in place to keep the powerful people of the world connected to other people, making it easier for them to keep their humanity."
"So, if that's the case, then we need to recruit more people. That lord who attacked had like a hundred people with him, all transformed from their connection to him," Bethany said. "Also, did we condemn that safe zone to die by removing their strong people?"
"I hadn't thought of that," said Lucy, "they weren't that strong though."
"Let's stay on topic ladies," Tara said like a chastising school teacher. "How do we increase his connection to humanity without just letting everyone in? Because I would rather we remain selective."
"What ever happened to Arinya?" Bethany asked.
"Oh shit, we should probably go talk to her," Tara said.
"I just messaged Audrey, she will do it." said Bethany, "back on topic now, I have an idea, let me be his mistress." Tara and Lucy both gave her a flat look. "Just think about it, more connection."
"Ugh, I'll think about it," Tara said. "But we should still recruit more."
Beau and Cody were sitting in the central area of Crater Town near the fountain and discussing magic and their big fight when the three women left Bethany's hut and went their separate ways. Both of them were close in age, being in their early twenties, and were very aware of the beautiful women they were surrounded with. Neither of them had had luck with the farer sex in the past, and being around a man like Eli definitely reminded them of any shortcomings they had. Despite this, both of them wanted companionship, but felt like they were in a pickle since they lived so far away from the local populace.
"So… What is Lucy's deal?" Beau asked.
"I'm not entirely sure, she seems attached to Eli, but not in the same way the other women are. She seems more like an employee, than a girlfriend," Cody said, he wasn't sure what words to use to explain what he was observing.
"I think I'm going to go talk to her."
"Well, maybe we should just take a couple days in town after the dungeon. Kind of like a vacation, I'm they will have some fun stuff to do in town by then." Cody said, clearly hinting that he didn't think flirting with any woman associated with Eli was a good idea.
"I can do both, she is very cute and I want to get to know her."
"She is cute," Cody said in resignation.
Eli woke up from his nap and took some deep breaths, just laying there, no urgent thing to accomplish or fix, no lives at stake, just a relaxing bed and a beautiful leaf colored ceiling. He didn't even have any messages, so he just laid there and his mind wandered, but it quickly landed on a top he had been shaking out of his head for the past couple weeks. What was he becoming? What was he in general? He probably wasn't human, and he definitely wasn't from earth. All of these realizations happened at a time when he had other priorities and he had just shaken the thoughts out of his head. Now they were all coming back and he was having something of an existential crisis.
Organizing these thoughts he separated them into three questions he needed to resolve so that he could get his head on straight and trust his planning and decision making. One, what does being human have to do with the concept of humanity. Two, does his origin change his allegiance to earth and humans. Three, what is the relation between his power and his morality. The first one he felt he knew the answer too right away, his humanity was not attached to being a human, they were separate concepts and that made sense to him. The second one he was going to put on hold for now since he needed to know more about his origins before he wanted to settle his mind on that issue.
The third question was one that he was struggling with the most internally. Does the world being a new place and all the previous societal norms change how morality works, or even should work. He knew from his past that all cultures that functioned above a tribal level had a few taboos in common even if they did not interact, concepts like not harming children, or innocents. Wrapping his mind around that, he continued to put it together, he could feel in his gut that those things were wrong along with other moral concepts. The problem he was trying to settle on was in any grey area, he could just do what he wanted and there wasn't anyone who could say anything against his decision.
Eli ran through some scenarios in his mind where he could do something morally wrong, especially in an emotional state, and rationalize it later to make it seem like he was morally right. One such scenario he thought up was if someone hurt one of his friends and he found someone he thought was at fault, not with any evidence, just some local shady character who probably did it. His reaction in a state of rage and worry for his friend would cause him to get very violent with the shady person. Whether that person was guilty or not, he would tell himself that the person had it coming so that he didn't feel bad about it.
Nothing clear was coming from his thought experiments but he did decide that he needed to lean on his people more and let their decisions show him where the moral line is. He thought of his people as good people, even the new guy, Beau, seemed like a nice guy. The only obstacle to this was making sure they felt comfortable enough with him to speak up and stop him from crossing that line. He felt so good about this plan that he was going to tell Bethany, Tara, Audrey and Stevens about it so they knew they could speak up and help him keep himself grounded.
Eli sent everyone a message to meet in his home if they were in town, everyone was there and they came in sitting down wondering what was going on. They had just had a meeting and they were wondering if he had changed his mind about something, which made all of them nervous.
"Ill make this quick and simple, I may not be human and I'm not from earth. I am having trouble with how to keep myself in check since I am clearly not in full control of my emotions right now. I need all of you, especially Tara, Stevens, Bethany, and Audrey, to let me know when I'm close to crossing a line. And more importantly, try and stop me." Eli explained, speaking quickly so as to get it all out at once.
Beau raised his hand and said, "How?"
"Eli would never hurt us, his power is intimidating, but he is saying he wants us to speak up, get in his face and let him know when he is crossing a line."
"Just use your best judgement, if you think im working an angle then its fine to stay quiet but if im crossing a line, a line you personally hold, then tell me and stop me." Eli said with a clear weight falling off his shoulders as he spoke.
Everyone just kind of nodded nervously to each other. Eli walked away from the table and went behind the curtain where his bed was and sat down on the edge of it. Bethany was staring at Tara with her eyebrows raised, hinting that her earlier request about being his mistress needed an answer because he was outsourcing his moral compass. Tara sighed and nodded yes to her, while slumping her shoulders and slouching in her chair, obviously defeated by her inability to handle all of his problems on her own. Bethany's smile was so big it nearly split her head off her shoulders.