Gentle taps on his cheek. "Wake up, Hector. You need to go to bed."

He peeled one of his eyelids open to find Darius peering at him from close distance. His brain half asleep still, Hector was astonished how much the man looked like his father. It was Volithur with chubby cheeks. Darius pulled Hector up with enhanced Xian strength and manhandled Hector into their chamber and into his bed in the middle bunk.

It wasn't until morning that he could view the eerie experience with some clarity. He'd been knocked out by the strange compound. It wasn't relaxation, it was instant bed time whether he wanted it or not. How the hell did that work? He had peak level five body enhancement. He should be practically immune to Jinn and Arahant manipulations.

"Have you not been sleeping, Hector?" Darius must have heard him moving around in his bunk. "I know the situation on Tian must be stressful for someone with a gentle upbringing."

"I took sleeping medicine yesterday and it actually worked."

"Sleeping medicine? What was it? Jinn magic or Arahant magic?"

"Both."

"I find it hard to be sympathetic. You shouldn't trust their magics."

Hector hopped out of bed and landed in a crouch. He was feeling remarkably well rested. "How are you so prejudiced against Jinn and Arahant when you didn't grow up around other Xian?"

"Please. Prejudiced. Plenty of worlds know those creatures by their reputation. Arahant act like they are above everyone and woe to those who get in their way. The proud Jinn can grant your every desire, but there's always a cost."

"And the Xian show up to casually murder entire cities," Hector said.

"Well, yeah…. There are no saints in the multiverse. My point is that Xian aren't the only ones who speak poorly of the Jinn and Arahant. Their magics are known to be dangerous."

Hector rolled his eyes. "Fine. But Jinn technology isn't magic."

"None of them call their methods magic. Doesn't mean it's not."

Riley poked her head out over the side of the top bunk. "Do Xian have magic?"

"Of course not," Darius shot back.

Hector decided to clarify that a bit. "Everyone understands 'magic' to be something that doesn't follow the rules they understand. It's always other people's powers."

"Don't be ridiculous, Hector. Xian abilities are straightforward."

"I have a magic sphere for travel between universes, Darius."

"Now you're just being ridiculous," Darius said. "I'm done arguing."

"I have news for you, anyway. My Jinn friend agreed to delve at noon today."

Darius rolled out of bed and brushed past Hector to the door of their small chamber. "I don't see why you think it necessary to ally with a Jinn. We are quite capable of handling the monsters on our own. If you didn't deny it so vehemently, I would think this another case of charity."

Riley scrambled down the ladder to run to a sanitation room. "Don't leave without me!"

Darius frowned. "Why does she assume we will forget her every morning?"

"Her old roommates didn't include her in group activities." Hector didn't mention the parental abandonment issues. That was far too personal a fact for him to share on her behalf.

"Well, her repetition annoys me."

Hector didn't bother replying. A lot about Riley annoyed Darius. Fortunately, the man reserved his complaints for when she wasn't around to hear them. He'd been well behaved ever since he was shamed for his hostile attitude on their first meeting.

On their way through the lobby on the ground floor, Riley ran to a computer to check her messages. "Neither of you responded to my message yet!"

"I'm not spending a credit to send you the word 'hello' when I can do it in person," Hector said.

Darius folded his arms. "I don't muck about with the magic Jinn boxes."

Riley pouted as they went for breakfast at their usual spot. It served the traditional foods of Old Town from before the coalition, though with some innovations around the food sources. Hector liked their lentil, vegetable, and fish stew. It was a little spicy for the first meal of the day, but his stomach was impervious to mundane ingredients. Darius loved the portion sizes and felt that he was treated marginally better by the staff than elsewhere – probably due to the fact that they were Alfar and so didn't get wrapped up in the drama between the big three kinds of human. Riley liked that she could order the rice and meat breakfast and specify any of their twenty sauces as its flavoring.

"Do I have to do deliveries after this?"

"The deal was you need to work every day. I never said it had to be deliveries. Instead of sending messages, use the computer to find jobs you might like better."

Riley wrinkled her nose. "I don't qualify for any other jobs."

"This is a huge city, Riley. I'm sure there are plenty of jobs for you if you look hard enough."

Back at their hostel, Riley went to a computer in the lobby while Darius joined Hector upstairs to cultivate a bit before their dungeon run. "I don't think we need to partner with anyone. The two of us have no trouble running the dungeon."

"Conrad is a professional."

"So is everyone in the dungeon. All 'professional' means is that you get paid to do something."

Hector rolled his eyes. "Anyway, we're going to a place called the ridge. We stand and fight for a while, then run for the exit when things get too much for us."

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"I thought the ravine run was the easiest way to make money."

"All delves pay the same," Hector said. "The ravine run is fast and let's you avoid most monsters. The ridge is somewhere you can slaughter waves of monsters."

Darius appeared confused. "Why would we want that? I'm not trying to impress anyone, Hector. I just want more of the credits. Without wasting too much cosmic energy since I intend to advance soon."

"Think of it as combat training."

"My priorities are level six and having enough wealth to buy resources for body enhancement."

Hector folded his arms. "Don't you think we should help clear the dungeon of monsters?"

"Why? It doesn't pay any more."

"Because monsters are the enemies of mankind. And we're more capable than ninety percent of dungeon delvers."

Darius smirked at him. "I knew it. This is another charitable impulse."

"You say that like it's an insult."

"It's not an insult, Hector. The world would be a better place if everyone thought the way you do. As things are, you are making a sucker of yourself."

"A sucker?"

"It means a gullible fool."

"I know it's meaning," Hector clarified. "What I don't see is how it applies to me. I'm not ignorant of how things work. I am choosing to be better than my environment. Be the change you want to see in the world and all that. No one is tricking me into something I don't want to do."

Darius sniffed. "Your upbringing is tricking you, Hector. Any good you put out will be devoured by the selfishness of humanity. You can't make the world a better place. All you are doing is surrendering your advantages to greedy people."

"I saved my entire world," Hector said. "I guided a task force from the Coalition Army there to stop a monster invasion. You can never convince me that my efforts there didn't make the world a better place."

The eunuch chewed on that claim for a few moments before shrugging. "Obviously stopping a monster invasion is better than letting it run wild. A single example doesn't prove your point."

"If you concede that stopping monster invasions is a good thing, then you need to understand why the dungeons of Union Central exist. They draw in miasma from chaos so that there is less free to enter other worlds. Every monster you kill in the dungeon is one that won't plague an unempowered human world. That's a good thing, Darius."

Darius rolled his eyes. "Fine. I won't mock you for wanting to do more in the dungeon. I'm not always going to be willing to waste my energy on these deep delves, though. My priorities don't align with yours."

"Not yet."

"You think you're going to convert me? Good luck with that, Hector. I think I have better odds of successfully disillusioning you."

"I have no illusions, Darius. I was the first gladiator to know what the Lord Platinum was up to with the tournament. The people in power let themselves become monsters as soon as there are no external restraints on their behavior. That's why I cultivate virtues. Because when I achieve lord strength, I'm going to retain the qualities of a good man."

"It's not that soft men can't become lords," Darius said. "It's that they can't survive their peers. If you intend to stand at the top of Xian society, you need to become a beast that others fear crossing. That's the truth of our kind. I don't see how it's any different with the other kinds. Did you ever hear about the spicy rooms from Riley? That's how people are, Hector."

Hector clenched his teeth. "That's not the true face of humanity."

"And what is? Charity? I think not," Darius scoffed.

The true face of humanity. Hector realized he had a firm visual of that. For him, it was Cindy and Terry Thoreaux, his mother than father. People who were generous with their time, their resources, and their kindness. Hector had never met another person as welcoming as his mother. She didn't save that side of herself for just her loved ones, either. Their dinner table had hosted so many people over the years, people who were lonely or hungry. He'd never known when the extra seats would be filled growing up. He'd thought it was normal to have a regular stream of visitors.

And his father always lit up a room with laughter. Hector didn't think he'd ever heard Terry make a joke at someone else's expense. It was always a good-natured humor. People were drawn to the man because of how he made them feel. He had often felt overshadowed by a father who was more outgoing and fun and warm than him. Hector was more serious and distant and driven in his own temperament, yet he understood how essential those softer traits were for community. Someone had to be the social glue, especially when not everyone had those gifts.

Perhaps Darius was justified in his assessment of Hector. He'd been blessed with kind, generous, inherently good people for parents. Bad things happened, of course. The loss of his brother, mother, and father still hurt. But he grew up believing there was good in everyone, that people who did bad were only ignorant of a better way. That was a privileged viewpoint to have, one that required not just a degree of financial security but also a fundamentally moral home life.

That example of fundamental decency was what he thought humanity looked like. In his understanding, the ugliness of Xian society was a distortion of human nature caused by systematic inequalities and perverse incentives. The world might just need a few examples of great people who managed to still be good people.

The elevator opened to admit an excited Riley. "I'm going to interview for a Xian job!"

Hector blinked as he rapidly switched mental gears. "What is a Xian job?"

"Cosmic chamber attendant! I don't know what they do, but it said only Xian can apply."

The eyes of Darius bugged out like he was about to explode. "That's terrible! You cannot work in such a place!"

"I have an interview scheduled," Riley muttered.

"Do you know what an attendant does?" Darius gesticulated as if he was giving away an imaginary wallet. "They donate their cosmic energy reserves for other people's cultivation. They just give away their advantages. Both of you are so gullible."

Hector cleared his throat to interrupt Darius's meltdown. Riley's initial excitement had faded into a quiet despair. As much as he might share the negative impression of working as a cosmic chamber attendant, Hector also didn't want to discourage Riley from pursuing new experiences. Experiences that let her overcome her natural timidity should be encouraged. Going for a job interview wouldn't be a bad experience even if she didn't get the job. Not even if she got the job and quit it in days.

"I think you should go to the interview, Riley. None of us knew there was a cosmic chamber in Promise City, so I'm sure you will have a chance to meet other Xian there. It will be a good experience even if you decide you don't want the job. Are you confident getting to the interview on your own?"

"I can take a taxi," she said, perking up a little.

"Do you have enough credits?"

"Yes, I still have over ten thousand," Riley said with an eye roll.

"Just be yourself in the interview. If they don't like you then you don't want to work with them. Good luck."

Riley spontaneously hugged him and then rushed off before Darius could nitpick.

He waited until an elevator whisked her away. "You shouldn't have encouraged her."

"Look, Darius, I don't want her working at a cosmic chamber either. But we need to support her when she tries something outside of her comfort zone."

After a few moments, Darius shrugged. "Anyway, I want to use that cosmic chamber."

"Yeah. Maybe if I apply to work as an attendant they will let you and Riley use it for free."

"Damn it, Hector. Quit being so nice. You're making my head hurt."

"Would you feel better if I killed some things?"

"Yes, but only because we get paid twenty thousand credits to go into the dungeon."

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