Sam put his helmet back on and used his Authority to locate Jacob. He teleported next to the man, arriving next to a table outside of a small cafe. Jacob sat casually on one of the seats, sipping on a cup of coffee.
“Huh,” Sam remarked, not sure what to say.
Jacob sprang to his feet. “Sam? What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to check in with you about something,” Sam said. He smirked slightly underneath his helmet. “Unless, of course, this cup of coffee is the latest of your enemies, and only through drinking it can you defeat it?”
Jacob sighed. “Alright. I have to admit, I have always been a sucker for good coffee. The stuff you can get these days is phenomenal. All the food in the city would have completely changed the world had it existed before the System. Even disregarding the buffs, it just tastes far better.”
“Do any of those buffs actually do anything for you?” Sam asked, frowning. “Unless that coffee is D Rank or something, I doubt it could impact you.”
“Nah, that’s not the point. I like the taste. Before the System, coffee didn’t really do anything to me after a point. Too many late night study sessions in university and a few years of caffeine addiction afterwards upped my tolerance too much. It became more of a comforting ritual.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “I wasn't expecting that. Every time I talk to you, I realize just how little I know about you. After you left…” Sam trailed off, an uncomfortable tightness in his through.
Jacob lowered his gaze. “I hope we can make up for that in the future. As long as my control over my Dao and the personality changes that it makes increases, I can become more like the Jacob Atlas you knew.”
“You know, I came here to talk about something else, but if there’s more you want to share now, I’m happy to listen,” Sam said, sitting down by his father.
Jacob’s face lit up and he smiled, but it was somewhat bittersweet. “There is something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while. Your mother, before she died, left me with a message for you. She never got to tell you it. Well, I’m sure you remember why. We don’t need to bring that back up.”
Sam nodded. “What was the message?”
Jacob opened his mouth, but his face suddenly twisted in confusion. He frowned. “She wanted you to know… She wanted you to know…”
Sam frowned as well, but his frown quickly grew into a grimace as he realized what was going on.
Jacob stopped talking, his face going blank. Sam gritted his teeth, but that alone was not enough to quell the anger bubbling up within him. Isabella Dantorian’s meddlings in Jacob’s mind became apparent occasionally, usually when he was getting closer to becoming like his own self at a rate eclipsing his own growth rate. While he was getting better, and if he ever reached A Rank he would be completely free, but for now Sam had resigned himself to the fact. However, this was different.
Sam’s aura billowed out for a second before he restrained himself, not wanting to harm any of the civilians around him. “That bitch…” he growled. “Isabella Dantorian and her goddamn games.”
“Who?” Jacob asked, clearly having forgotten everything he had just tried to say. “What were we talking about again?”
Sam took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He was failing, spiraling further into anger. His Dao hummed to life, the concept of Karmic Retribution locking onto Isabella as a target. Normally Sam could have kept his emotions in check, but with the weight of his Dao behind them, his anger quickly grew into apoplectic fury.
“Come with me,” he told Jacob curtly. “Before I tell you what I came here to do, I need to hit something.”
Jacob looked a bit confused, but he got to his feet regardless. “Where do you want to go? You’re acting a bit weirdly. What’s going on?”
Sam almost tried to explain, but he knew that it would be useless. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not something we can do anything about for a while.”
He flew into the air using his Authority, essentially carrying himself through the sky by his own will. It was a bit harder than his usual method of flying with Dao constructs, at least at first, but he quickly got the hang of it. Reality Tinkerer allowed him to learn the basics relatively quickly. It was something to take his mind off of Jacob’s situation at the very least.
They quickly left the city, speeding past the force field. Sam flew up further into the sky, rising until he could see the curve of the planet beneath him. He saw the canyon in the distance and the previous resting place of the Corpse Titan, now only a mangled mound of dirt and rock left by its emergence.
“I don’t think there’s any monsters on Earth that we could have an actual fight with,” Jacob said. “Unless another invader comes around, but they aren’t much of a challenge either.”
“Oh, I’m not thinking of a monster,” Sam said, setting his gaze on a distant mountain range. “I’m thinking about something more like a punching bag, though a lot larger.”
Jacob followed Sam’s gaze. “Oh. You must have really gotten worked up by whatever that was that annoyed you. Are you sure you don’t want to tell me?”
Sam sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. I can’t.”
“Alright. I won’t press further. Though there was something else you did want to tell me, right?”
“We can talk about it while I work out my frustrations on the mountains,” Sam said. “It’s kind of fitting to do that anyway.”
The curve of the planet whipped by beneath them as they flew through the skies far faster than any airplane would have ever dreamed of. They limited their speed somewhat so as to not leave a river of plasma in the middle of the sky. Still, they were easily moving at tens of thousands of miles per hour.
Sam slowed down as he approached the mountain range, noting just how large it was. Comparing the height of the peaks to the width of his own Authority, Sam realized that they were far larger than any mountain range on Old Earth. With the expansion of the planet, all of the geographical features were dramatically enlarged. The mountains were almost thirty miles high, though because the atmosphere had grown as well, their peaks were still just above the clouds.
“Right. Before we start, I have something I need to do. Some of the things I want to tell you are extremely dangerous if they get out into the open.”
Jacob raised an eyebrow. “Is this to do with your time in the Tower? Nobody believes that you didn’t get up to something more than you’re telling us in the Tower.”
Sam didn’t respond, instead reaching into his corespace and activating the ethereal Bastion Tree growing there. A new branch grew out from the tree and kept growing, leaving the bounds of his core. In the real world a tendril of light reached out towards Jacob.
“What is this thing?” Jacob asked apprehensively, giving it a wary glance.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I think you just need to touch it,” Sam explained. “I haven’t used it before. It’s a mental shielding device. It’s called an Immature Bastion Tree fruit, not that that probably means anything to you.”
Jacob shrugged and touched the branch. A pulse of energy raced down it, traveling up his arm and towards his Dao Core.
A ripple passed through the air and another pulse of energy reversed course, traveling from Jacob to Sam. A notification popped up in front of him.
You have used one of the Bastion Tree’s charges to protect the mind of Jacob Atlas.
Remaining charges: 2/3
Sam sighed in relief. “Now we can talk properly, but first…”
By the time Sam had calmed down, a good section of the mountain range was nothing but rubble. He had put away his hammer in favor of using his fists and natural strength alone. Each punch had landed like a bomb, blasting tons of rock high into the air.
Jacob, a bit bemused, had joined in, but was clearly still waiting for Sam to elaborate on his earlier declaration.
Sam lowered his fists and let out a breath. “Alright. Now, about the Tower…”
Jacob nodded. “What exactly happened there? I’m assuming you got to a much higher level than you told everyone else.”
“You’re right. I made it all the way to the final floor of the Tower,” Sam said. “Further than anyone ever has, as far as I know. And I did it not through the normal route, but through a tertiary difficulty called Nightmare Mode. I ended up fighting a demon named Zeredran, who was level 350 at the time. He almost killed me, but I managed to save myself at the last moment.”
Jacob frowned. “Oh. That was it? I already assumed you reached that level. So did I. Though I didn’t hear about this Nightmare Mode. My final boss was level 325.”
Sam blinked. “What? How did you beat it? I was forced to break through to D Rank before I reached the right level.”
A surprised look flashed over Jacob’s face. “Now that, I wasn’t expecting. How the hell did you manage that?”
“My Dao Heritage,” Sam explained. “I don’t entirely understand it myself. But never mind that, how did you manage it if you didn’t do the same thing?”
Rather than speak, Jacob raised his palm. A tiny spark of pure crimson light flickered above it.
“That was what-”
“Look at it with your Dao senses,” Jacob interrupted.
Sam obliged, using Worldsense. He recoiled in shock. The seemingly tiny flame was monstrously large in the realm of the Dao, flaring up at the base and stretching all the way into space.
“What is that thing?” he asked, feeling the strange sensation of Dao suppression from it. “It almost feels like it’s beyond the level of a Dao Seed.”
“Not exactly,” Jacob replied. “Your Dao Heritage allowed you to break through the limiters of your rank, if I am understanding it correctly, but mine allowed me to break through the limits of my Dao. This here is a Dao Echo of a higher concept. Just this tiny spark taxes my ability to control. When I used it in the Tower, it nearly killed me.”
“But if it’s just a purely offensive ability, your physical power shouldn’t be on the level of a D Ranker. The math just doesn’t add up.I have a ten times multiplier to all my stats from breaking through, and you are closer to my stats than any E Ranker has any right to.”
“That’s because I can channel its power into myself,” Jacob answered. “I can surpass most early D Rankers with ease, but it does wear me out afterwards. Not physically, but in terms of how much power I can output. If I have to face a more challenging opponent, I wouldn’t be able to fight a similarly powerful foe again right after, probably for hours or days depending on the strain. If I truly need to cut loose, the price is even steeper. To beat the final boss of the Tower, I had to sacrifice some of my levels. I more than made them back, but I can’t use that function again for six months.”
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Sam admitted. “I wasn’t all that sure about how you were able to keep up with me. I assumed you were able to amass a huge amount of Dao energy in the Tower, and that was how you were so strong.”
“Did you get the special title for completing the Tower?” Jacob asked. “The one that hints at something after A Rank?”
Sam frowned. “Hints? My one outright said it. What’s your one called?”
“Supreme Potential,” Jacob explained. “It said that some cultivators were so talented that they had a chance of breaking through the limits of the Divine and ascending to something beyond A Rank. What did your title say?”
“It told me that I had the potential to reach S Rank,” Sam said, but paused as a sudden pang of pain stabbed at his mind. A notification filled his vision, ignoring his attempts to push it aside.
Warning!
Attempting to discuss secrets pertaining to the S Rank is prohibited unless both parties involved already know of their existence. Jacob Atlas barely fits this description, but this once it will be allowed. Attempting to do the same for anyone else will result in immediate punishment.
“What is it?” Jacob asked.
“The System isn’t too happy that I’m talking about S Rank,” Sam said. “But apparently it will tolerate it for now, given that I’m speaking to you.”
“Well, what is S Rank, I mean?” Jacob clarified. “Did the title tell you anything about it?”
“All I learned was that there have only been three S Rankers in the entire history of the Boundless Expanse,” Sam said. “I also learned a lot about the Dao, but that was a separate thing. There is another rank of Dao beyond the twelve elemental Daos.”
Jacob’s eyes widened. “Really? What Daos does it contain? I assume you need one to reach S Rank?”
“There are three Supreme Daos,” Sam explained. “Zenith, which represents Creation, Nadir, which represents Destruction, and Nil, which represents the absence of either.”
“I can only imagine having a Dao that powerful,” Jacob said wistfully. “I would imagine the S Rankers hold dominion over not just a Multiverse, but maybe even the whole Boundless Expanse. Aren’t there only a few hundred A Rankers in this Multiverse, but nobody contests their rule?”
“It's kind of hard to do that when one of them can show up outside your universe and erase it in the blink of an eye. Not only that, but they’re unified as well. Even if a sole A Ranker arose outside of the normal structure, they would quickly be dealt with by the Creator Kings.”
“That’s why there will be two,” Jacob said confidently. “If we ever do reach A Rank, imagine just how powerful we’ll be. Even the Creator Kings didn’t make it to the heights we did in the Tower. If we reach the apex of our potential, who knows what’s possible? I could fight multiple D Rankers at once right now, and I’m not even at that Rank myself. You can do the same with even less effort, though I suppose you are a D Ranker as well.”
Sam smiled. “We have a long way to go before then. We’ve been progressing extremely quickly, but it’s going to keep slowing down. It’ll be years and years until I reach the peak of D Rank, and probably even longer to break through to C Rank.”
“Yeah. I have a feeling we’ll be able to match that power before actually reaching the Rank, though.”
Sam frowned. “I wouldn’t be so sure. When Tantalos came to the Selvan system to try and stop me from taking part in the battle, he started bragging. C Rankers have an entire world within them, places in which they are basically gods. Unlike the Ranks that come before, it’s no longer a case of just upgrading your Dao and gaining critical insight. You actually have to create that world.”
“He had a world inside of him?” Jacob asked incredulously. “What do you mean? Like his core?”
Sam shook his head. “No. He took me there. It was a real place. A planet far larger than Earth, probably larger than the Solar System. It was surrounded by dozens of moons. The whole place was utterly filled with his Dao.”
“Ah. So it’s the next stage of Authority,” Jacob reasoned. “First you learn how to establish dominion over reality, then you bring that dominion within yourself. Divine training wheels, in a way. I assume all of this is designed to culminate in ascension to A Rank, or S Rank, now that you’ve mentioned it.”
“Whatever it is, we have more pressing concerns right now. I want to level up to level 250. I achieved D Rank early, but I wasn’t able to attain an upgraded class. I’ll get a lot more power out of it.”
“I’ve been pushing towards D Rank myself,” Jacob said. “I’m level 245 right now. All of those invaders, and the Civilization Gestalt, really combined to boost my level.”
Sam sighed. “I wish leveling was that easy for me. Reaching D Rank dramatically cut down my essence gains. I assume it’s to sustain the power multiplier I gained from ranking up.”
“Well, we don’t have anything to do now but train, at least until the tournament. Let’s see if we can’t get you to level 250 by then.”
Sam smiled. “It’ll be down to us to represent Earth. We’ll have to face true powerhouses like the Grakoth Ancestors and the Lycanthi Godhead. Are you up for that?”
Jacob scoffed. “When have I ever not been? We’ve kept Earth safe so far. Nothing can stop us from doing so from now on.”
