Jacob broke through to D Rank after three months, a lot of that time taken up by contemplation of his place in existence. He could have broken through almost immediately, such was his talent, but he wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfection. While he was still a Dao Incarnation, his path was murkier than Sam’s. Supremacy wasn’t one of the accepted endpoint Daos, either among the twelve elements of the natural world or the three Supreme Daos. It was a path waiting for someone to complete it. If Jacob succeeded in reaching A Rank, he could elevate his Dao to the level of the twelve elements, but in power rather than form.
Sam had studied the Dao extensively in the Interweb, taking advantage of his D Rank status to access higher level libraries and archives. What he learned had surprised him. Other than the basic level theorycrafting and academic intrigue that tended to fill the pages of the simulated books and scrolls, there were a few gems of insight, hidden amidst all the dross. Chief among them was the revelation that Daos were not limited to a single tier of power. Any concept could be brought to the heights of power, as long as its user was able to back it up.
While it was possible in practice, however, only one person in the Multiverse had ever managed to elevate a concept more than a stage beyond its original form. That person had been Altari himself in his younger years, then a C Ranker. He had Ranked up twice with the same Dao, bringing his Dao of Conquest, originally a Sapling, all the way through the Tree stage and then to the next, creating what was known as a Dao Star. He had only managed to do so by accomplishing something extraordinary. Defeating not one or two, but five B Rankers while still being a few dozen levels short of that Rank himself. In doing so he had redefined the very meaning of Conquest itself. Now it was a fully fledged Dao Star, available for any hopeful C Ranker to cultivate in preparation for their breakthrough to B Rank.
Altari himself had left accounts of this experience, going to great lengths just to hammer home how difficult it had been. While most cultivators would have hidden something like that, what did Altari have to fear? He was undisputedly the strongest man in the Multiverse, and its king.
It was the first time Sam had actually seen anything directly sourced from the leader of the Creator Kings. While he was the most famous person in the Multiverse, it was quite hard to find any concrete details about him. Most people were too scared to describe him as anything other than a divine entity so far beyond mortality that it was futile to try and understand him. There were pictures and videos all throughout the Interweb, but they didn’t really say much about Altari. He was an average sized member of Tantalos’ species, grey skinned and bald. Everything that made him special was contained not in his appearance but in his absurd strength.
Altari’s writings, while only a few paragraphs long, had stuck with Sam since he read them.
I believe now, as do many others, that I have what it takes to reach A Rank and become the king of this Multiverse. I have lived for millennia, and have steeped myself in the wisdom of those years, but there is one question that I still ask myself. What is a king? A king is a man who stands not above his people but before them. He is their shield and their sword in times of war and the rod and carrot in times of peace. At least, this is part of the truth. I did not learn the other part until today.
A man is not born a king. In the civilizations of old, before the coming of the System, blood determined royalty. Now the currency of sovereignty, and of life, is power. The power to impose one’s will upon others. The power to look the heavens in the eyes and claim one’s due. Most importantly it is the power for change. History is written by the victor, or so they say, but there have been a million victors for every one whose name graces the pages of the past. No, those who burn their names into the annals of the Boundless Expanse are no mere victors. They are conquerors.
When I was first entering the shoals of true power, speeding towards D Rank, I was told that my Dao was weak. A flawed, meager concept that could never surpass the Sapling stage. I could have heeded their words, discarding or upgrading my Dao and effortlessly breaking through to D Rank, but I instead chose to follow my heart. I knew deep down that there was more to Conquest than the ambitions of petty tyrants and warlords.
The crown of a Conqueror exists not in the physical world or that of the Dao, but in the minds and hearts of all who know his name. Even if I were to die this very day, I would live on forever, kept alive by the burning flame of memory. That is the true power of a Conqueror, and that is my path forward.
Of course, Altari hadn’t said anything that could actually help someone follow in his footsteps. Most of the text had been somewhat self-aggrandizing, but the core idea, that far more was possible than anyone ever thought, was the bit Sam paid attention to.
While he had no need to transcend the limitations of the Dao, as he already had the potential to seize the Dao of Existence itself, it would be an extremely valuable tool for everyone else in his faction. Sam held no illusions about the overall potential of the Arbiters of Justice. While most of the soldiers would be considered elites for their level in the wider Multiverse, only a few of the captains, like Lao and Jeffrey, and of course, Jacob himself, had the ability to break through the limitations of reality and seize the impossible.
Since then, Jacob had gotten started on deepening his connection to his Dao, an easy enough task given his Dao Heritage. Sam had done the same, upgrading his Dao Sapling again. He was closing in on another upgrade, but the distance between such achievements was dramatically increasing. He was nearing the limits of his ability. Even though he was the Dao Incarnation of Existence, he still had limits.
Sam might have been a prodigy of the Dao, but all that meant was that breakthroughs that took years still took months for him. His Dao Heritage provided bonuses that nobody else had, but Sam still had to meet it halfway. A mediocre cultivator with such potential could become a true elite, like the Creator Kings, but only one who was already a prodigy regardless of their Dao Heritage could go beyond that.
In other regards, Sam had been working on his skills. His Dao of Karmic Retribution was very powerful, but it was a bit limited in its scope. As a result, Sam started experimenting more with his mana and elemental energy, both of which had been neglected as of late. Sam almost never used mana anymore, as his Dao was simply superior in every regard. His Authority could do far more than his Dao ever could, and in terms of raw destructive potential, his Dao could accomplish far more.
The main problem was that Sam was a true one of a kind talent in the realm of the Dao, but he was merely talented when it came to everything else. He was a skilled warrior, had a knack for smithing and was good at generic energy manipulation, but he hadn’t had enough time yet for any of that to catch up to, or even approach his Dao abilities.
In other regards, his level had been creeping up nicely. Invaders were arriving more and more frequently, seemingly allying with one another in some way. The strikes were often coordinated at different parts of the Solar System, trying to draw the key defenders away from Earth.
In any case it had been a good source of essence. Sam had tried to grind in other ways, such as clearing the dungeons that had been scattered across Earth. Unfortunately, none of them went higher than the peak of F Rank with the occasional boss monster crossing into early E Rank. While they were a treasure trove of essence for the lower level fighters of the faction, it did little for Sam and Jacob.
Sam’s level now stood at 244, only six levels away from the true beginning of D Rank. The hundreds of D Rankers he had slaughtered over the last few months had bolstered his level beyond belief. As the true powers of the universe began training and leveling, the cap on the strength of invaders was lifting. For someone like Sam, much stronger than his level would indicate, the level gap was more of a boon than a bane. He received a decent chunk of essence for each kill, much more than he would have been able to earn otherwise.
Still, he was running out of time to gain a D Rank class, and he knew that the final six levels would be nearly impossible to earn in the time that he had. Sam would need to go further afield to bolster his strength sufficiently.
Sam sat in silent cultivation within the city hall, searching for a breakthrough with his Dao Seed of Travel. While he could have accumulated a host of other Daos in the time he had spent cultivating, most of that time had been spent upgrading the Daos that he actually used. It would be too time consuming to bring up a lot of weaker Daos to a useful level. Sam could have brought a nascent Dao up to the beginning of the Seed stage within a week or two, but the gap in power between such a Dao and a mid stage Sapling was so vast that he would need dozens of them to make it worthwhile. All he would be left with was a spread out power set with a bunch of weaker skills.
In the end the sum total of his training was a seventh stage Dao Seed of Travel and a fourth stage Dao Sapling of Karmic Retribution. This had provided a massive boost to his stats, but also to his skills. All of his Dao related skills had seen a significant increase in potency, even if their rarities hadn’t increased. Sam could teleport across the entire Solar System now, if not further. His Karmic Retribution skills could shatter planetoids and large asteroids in a single hit.
More importantly, his Authority had progressed to the next level. It turned out that each of the Authority designations within D Rank had multiple stages. He had skipped over the first few, breaking through to Mid D Rank, but now that he was pushing the boundaries, the strength of his Authority had increased to Stage 2 of Mid D Rank.
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He now had an effective range of twenty four miles, dramatically increasing the area over which he could establish his dominion. He had attempted to expand Worldbreaker to a similar size, but the length of the handle became so long that he couldn’t effectively use it without burning through Dao energy like gasoline. In many cases it was impractical to use the hammer in its enlarged form, especially against faster opponents. The expanded hammer was incredibly useful for striking stationary foes or gigantic ones, but it resulted in Sam being unable to swing it at a speed matching his level. Any D Ranker worth their salt could dodge a basic swing of the hammer.
It was far more devastating against human sized opponents while in its base form, as the overall weight of the hammer didn’t change. Sam had begun experimenting with using Earth elemental energy to enhance the mass of Worldbreaker once it was enlarged. Considering the immense size of the weapon, he was only able to double the mass, and only for a few moments. He had tested it on a mid-range planetoid in the asteroid belt. All of the asteroids had grown in size similar to how Earth had, and many of them were large enough for gravity to force them into a roughly spherical shape. Over the course of his training, Sam had graduated to increasingly larger asteroids. He was more than twice as powerful as he had been at the beginning.
There were a host of other minor improvements, but by far the greatest impact was from his Dao upgrades.
You have upgraded your Dao!
Dao Sapling of Karmic Retribution(Fourth Step)
In an ideal world, no evil deed goes unpunished, no sinner walks free and no innocent lives are taken by tyrants who do so simply because they can. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an ideal world. There is only power. You choose to take that power and wield it against your foes, especially those who have wronged you and those you hold close. Now your retribution goes beyond that of a mortal, tapping into the very threads of consequence and morality that underpin sapient interactions. By honing your Dao in battle, you have come to another conclusion. You stand alone in this battle for the morality of existence. No allies can help you fight against the very nature of the soul itself.
+30000 to all physical stats
+18000 to all mental stats
Dao Seed of Travel(Seventh Step)
Space is vast, and near infinite in all the ways that matter. Crossing that space, or more realistically, a small fraction of that, is one of the main aspects of life. Without motion, there is stagnation. With stagnation, there is nothingness. Seize the concept that underpins the continuation of existence, and wield it to great effect. You have learned that the traversal of space is a function of time, and that time is the key to achieving your goals, whether one of distance crossed, or of the reaching of a more metaphysical destination.
+10000 to Dexterity
Although the stat boosts no longer scaled to such an absurd extent, the increase per stage was still exponential. In fact, most of Sam’s stats came from his Daos rather than his level. That would remain the case until he upgraded his class, and perhaps forever. The System might have streamlined progression within the Boundless Expanse but the actual power that it used was that of the Dao. Things like classes and levels were somewhat separate to the Dao, relying on the System acting as an intermediary between essence and personal power.
As of late, Sam had noticed a curious change in the way his Dexterity interfaced with the world around him. With all of his boosts active, Sam should have been able to vastly outpace himself in his base state, but he often found himself running into an invisible wall of sorts, his speed capping out even if he should have been able to press beyond. It had only taken a few moments of contemplation to figure out the problem. He was pushing up against the universe’s natural limiter on velocity, the speed of light.
It wasn’t a problem that could be brute forced, and indeed, since first noticing the issue about two months prior, Sam hadn’t discovered a solution. He had thrown the full weight of his Authority at the problem, attempting to alter reality to allow him to reach beyond his limits. The consequences had ensured that he never tried that again. For one instant he had surpassed the speed of light, and then a monumental presence, not one of the System but of the Dao, had slammed into him. It had taken the form of a faceless golden statue hovering above Sam, its mere proximity to him warping his flesh and nearly tearing it apart. All the figure had done was hold up a single hand, releasing a wave of halcyon energy in Sam’s direction. When he was found an hour later, passed out in the middle of a field near the edge of the city, the farmers had been very confused.
He had researched the mysterious being, finding that it was the result of the fundamental Daos of existence, specifically the higher end component Daos of Light, manifesting to punish him for defying them.
Sam shook his head, finding himself lost in thought. The longer he spent in cultivation, the more his mind drifted away from the present and into the past and future. Although the personality of a cultivator was quite similar to a somewhat arrogant mortal’s, their mind was not. A normal person would have been unable to sit in seclusion for days or weeks on end, even assuming all their bodily needs were met.
He turned his mind back to cultivation, but quickly realized that he wasn’t making any progress. The last bits of insight he needed to upgrade his Dao Seed to the final stage before Sapling eluded him, and had been doing so for a while. Sam instead opened his stats. He rarely did so anymore, but with the tournament coming up quickly, Sam needed to know what he had to work on.
Sam Atlas
Human: D Rank
Enlightened Tier
D Rank
Class: Lesser Dao Paragon
Level 244
(11300 stat points unspent)
- Health 7376265/7376265
- Mana 4672536/4672536
- Stamina 7308529/7308529
- Karma: 59
- Road to Zenith
Stage 4
- Dao
Dao Echo of Inspiration
Dao Sapling of Karmic Retribution(Second Step)
Dao Seed of Travel(First Step)
- Skills
1x Rare, 3x Epic, 4x Legendary, 6x Mythical, 2x Ancient, 1x Primal, 1x Ethereal 1x Unique
- Titles
1x Legendary, 3x Mythical, 2x Ancient, 1x Ethereal, 1x Transcendent, 2x Divine
- Temporary Titles
1x Epic, 1x Legendary, 1x Mythical
- Dao Heritage
Dao Incarnation of Existence(Second Step)
- Authority
Mid D Rank(Stage 2)
- Party
None
- Skill Branches
Karmic Cultivator(Level 1)
- Weapon Style
Flowing Water Style
- Weapon Mastery: Brotherhood Stage 8
- Elemental Affinities
Earth: 29% Mastery
- Elemental Boons
Elemental Infusions: Stoneskin, Mountain’s Flesh
- Quests
The Sacred Bond: Impossible
Engines of the End Times: S
- Professions
Smith: Apprentice Stage 9
Dao Smith: Apprentice Stage 9
Sam’s stats were a far cry from what they had been after he returned from the Tower. All of his attributes had increased dramatically as a result of leveling and cultivation. However, there was one glaring problem that Sam instantly spotted. The discrepancy between his physical and mental stats. It was only natural for this to have developed as a result of his primary Dao being mostly focused on his physical power.
It could be far worse, I suppose. If my Dao Sapling only boosted physical stats I would be in a sorry state right now.
With over ten thousand free stat points waiting to be allocated, Sam could easily bring both Intelligence and Wisdom closer to par. The question was whether that was actually worth it. The benefits from those stats were far more nebulous than his physical ones. Sam’s mental processing speed and capacity had continued to grow and grow, but at the moment it didn’t really mean much. He could hold an entire library’s worth of books in his head and recite them word for word, but that didn’t matter in battle. Only true mages, those whose prowess in the manipulation of mana matched their Dao comprehension, would be able to fully take advantage of those stats. There were plenty of Daos that could complement a mage’s fighting style, but Sam had none of them.
Eventually he resolved to revisit the problem a bit closer to the tournament. For now his stats were so monstrously ahead of almost everyone else in the universe that they weren’t a priority. Instead he needed to reach level 250, and perhaps he would make his decision after seeing the way his new class took him.