I decided to sprint instead of relying on Apportation. The spell still required a large amount of spiritual energy and I wanted to try and push for the next level as soon as I could. I was forced to attack several more creatures before I entered the next section of the shuffled city. These had to have been house cats before the System came. They were the size of Great Danes with tawny fur. They were pretty quick. I placed their agility somewhere in the thirties but they weren't very durable. I was able to blast them without any difficulty. I even had time to cultivate while moving. The process was a bit like walking and chewing gum and only recovered a fifth of the energy than if I had just sat down to do it.

It took me half a day of running before I came across my first problem. Once I was close enough to see the building in its full glory I realized it had to be the tallest building I had ever seen. It also wasn't accurate to call it a single building. It was a bit like the System had taken several skyscrapers and kind of twisted them together to make one spire. It was both majestic and terrifying to look at, there was no way that building was up to any code. Of course, it also looked incredibly stable as if it had always been there. That wasn't the problem. The problem was the bird or rather the birds. The smallest of them was around the size of a sedan including its wingspan while the biggest was as big as a plane. They cast large shadows over everything as they flew. Thankfully weren't very fast. When they swooped down to hunt they had to trail behind their prey for quite a distance before they could go for the kill.

Their main danger was their talons and their wings. Both were so sharp they could ignore the buildings around them. One bird smashed through a car to get to the large rodent beast that hid beneath it. Unfortunately for them, neither their souls nor their minds were as strong as their bodies. I flexed my fingers and quickly came up with a plan. I wanted to push myself against an enemy that could fight in three dimensions. I leaped on top of a car and then on top of the building. Once I had cleared an arena for myself I picked out my targets. Two Psychic Blast found their marks causing both birds to stagger in the air. They were able to correct their flight within seconds but the attacks did their jobs.

A cacophony of wing beats filled the air as five birds shot toward me. I bounced on the balls of my feet as I prepared myself. The first bird brought its wings together and unleashed a storm of feathers. I cocked my head to the side and stepped toward them. I dropped down into a squat avoiding the first volley. Next, I spun to the right and unleashed Psionic Rain. I took two feathers in my shoulders due to a distraction at the moment the spell formed but I blocked out the pain. I didn't have time to watch my attack land as two more feather storms shot at me. I summoned Psychic Aegis to protect me. Just as the barrier appeared I began my next attack. Psychic Blast shot forward. The indigo beam passed through my next target like an illusory blade.

I had just enough time to catch the bird fall from the sky. Its kill energy poured into my dantian. I stepped back into the center of my ring and waited for the next attack. The remaining two birds shot toward me like bullets. Razor-sharp talons reached for me. I ducked beneath the first one and slammed my fist into the head of the second. There was a loud crack as my fist shattered the thing's skull. It slammed through the roof a second later as the rest of its momentum was expended. The roof buckled before collapsing. I gritted my teeth as I resisted the urge to open a portal. I slammed into a wooden table in the next second. I spun to the right just as the last bird unleashed a storm of feathers.

I crashed through the store window and searched the sky for my target. It took me a second to find it flying against the sun. I grinned and unleashed another Psychic Blast. The bird attempted to avoid but it wasn't able to overcome its momentum. A surge of kill energy confirmed its death and the end of my workout. It wasn't enough to get me to the next level but it confirmed that this would be a great place to grind. I sat on the hood of a half-broken Mustang and reviewed the battle. Fighting without relying on my danger sense was a new feeling. I hadn't realized just how much I had been leaning on it. I reached down and plucked the two feathers out of my shoulders. The feathers weren't metal. Instead, they were actual feathers infused with spiritual energy to become hard.

I placed the feathers into my bag. I wasn't sure if they could be turned into arrows but they might. They might also make good bed materials. Either way, the feathers should be useful. I take thirty minutes to go around and collect some of the feathers. Once I got bored and broke most of the others I decided to continue on my journey. I was forced to deal with another set of birds. This time I decided not to play around and relied on Aegis to keep me safe while blasting them with Psychic Blast. When I reached the actual building I had to spend an hour fighting more birds. At this point, they were more annoying than they were a challenge but I was getting close to level 23.

I was just about to enter the building when my danger sense made my blood run cold. I threw myself back just as a blade of wind slammed into the ground. My eyes nearly popped out of my skull when I saw how deep the cut went. It had carved through the street and the sewer below. It had reached into the earth below and I wasn't sure just how far down it went. I rolled to my feet and looked up. The largest bird I had ever seen was soaring around the building. It was easily 100ft from wing to wing. Its feathers were almost reflective in the sunlight and just staring at it made me think of a blade. A blade that would cut me in half if I weren't careful. It wasn't hard for me to figure out that this thing had a tao. A tao related to sharpness or cutting. I grinned as the bird began a second attack.

It brought both wings together and a storm that bloated out of the sun shot down at me. There had to be hundreds if not thousands of feathers. I couldn't help but laugh. I summoned Psychic Aegis in its wall form and infused it with the strand of adamance. The wall hardened just as the storm slammed into it. Every feather felt like a bullet as they rained down on but my shield held. When the attack finished the street around me looked like it survived the apocalypse. Rather a second apocalypse. Cars and buildings barely survived while the area protected by me looked like it had received a pardon from heaven. I turned my attention to my opponent and unleashed Psionic Rain empowered by the tao of lucidity. The shower of blades shot forward like heat-seeking missiles.

They passed through the bird's feathers as if they weren't there. I waited for a surge of kill energy. A confirmation that either our fight was over or that I would get to have more fun. When the bird dived for me instead of falling out of the air I had my answer. I unleashed Psychic Blast just as it unleashed another blade of wind. The blade carved into my aegis but the barrier held. Seeing its attack fail the bird turned into a dive and shot for me. My danger sense told me my barrier would not be enough to stop it. Excitement and adrenaline flooded me as I waited for the bird to arrive. Its talons slammed through my barrier and I pushed a large amount of spiritual energy into my fist. I narrowly avoided its beak as I slammed my fist into its skull.

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It was like I had slammed my fist into a steel wall. My wrist screamed in protest as I fought the bird's momentum. I unleashed Psychic Blast at point-blank range when I realized there was no chance of me winning a contest of strength. The indigo light flashed across the bird's head as I spun to the side. It dropped to the ground just in time for me to unleash Psionic Rain. As soon as the psychic blades hit their target a surge of kill energy flooded into my dantian. It put me on a threshold of a new level, a threshold I would cross as soon as I got the chance. I left the corpse on the ground and took refuge inside one of the nearby buildings. I wasn't sure if this was the only big bird in the area. After all, if there was a mamma bird there should probably be a daddy bird. I also had no interest in starting up a new fight. Not now that I was so close.

I ducked into one building and stepped through a hole in its back wall to enter the next. I repeated this process until I had gotten a few blocks away. I then ducked into a storage closet and shut the door. Once again I was reminded of why I needed to get a proper cultivation chamber. I pulled out my rug and my last spirit stone. I had to take a few minutes to calm down before I was ready to start cultivating. It took me less than an hour to reach level 23, unfortunately, I was forced to stop cultivating as soon as I reached the threshold. The problem was that I was wasting the majority of the stone's energy. I hadn't realized it in the tutorial but the cultivation chambers they provided kept the energy inside the room which helped me contain it. Here the energy was able to just float off into space kind of like heat.

The free points went into Agility. I checked my quest screen hoping that I would get a new quest or a spell but there was nothing there. I closed the menu and collected my mat. Once I was ready to go I decided to use Apportation to skip the jog. I stepped out of my portal and onto a rooftop across from my new home. I chuckled at the image of a massive tower surrounded by the corpses of giant birds. It had a certain evil lord vibe about it but that was fine. I jumped off the building and made my way inside. The inside of the building was not what I expected. I assumed I would find a bird's nest filled with discarded feathers and broken beaks or something. Instead, it looked like a confused patchwork of buildings. It was as if the System combined a hotel, apartment, and office building.

I walked through a hall that was partially carpeted and partially hardwood. Where parts of the wall were rustic while other parts were modern. It was beautiful in a strange way as if someone had tried to make an artistic representation of society by combining all types of influences. Everything wasn't great though. The building had no power. Not only did it have no power there was no place for power to go. There were no outlets, no breakers that I could find and there were no power lines connected to the building. I couldn't cut out the chance of subterranean power lines but my gut told me there was nothing. Which made me curious as to why the System would do that. It wasn't like I hated technology since the computers were still around I just couldn't power them.

It wasn't until I reached an elevator that this became a major problem. The elevator was one of the circular glass types that would let you see the main floor as you went up. Unfortunately, no power meant the elevator didn't work. I considered teleporting but the stairs were close by so I got to walking. I passed through each of the floors and was pleasantly surprised. The building was ideal for what I wanted it for. It was big enough to hold a small city. I could divide the building into roughly three tiers. The lowest tier was the widest section of the building and had a lot of office-style rooms. I could move all that equipment out and convert the rooms into living spaces or even stores or any other kind of building. The next tier was where the building became more hotel-like. Each of the rooms required keys to access of course they were all electronic locks so they were mostly for show. If I could figure out how to get that part fixed though...

The final third was my favorite. It was like the System had taken a high-end hotel, penthouse suite, and boardroom and moved them all to the upper third. I wasn't sure how the System did it but the entire upper floor was bigger yet smaller than the rest of the building. It had broken the laws of physics to create an upper-class living space. At the top of which was the penthouse and boardroom. The whole thing made me concerned. I had assumed that the changes had been random up until now. There was no way the System created this place accidentally. It was almost as if the System wanted someone to take this building. Had the System created places of power? Highly desirable locations that we would have no choice but to fight over? If so what other places like this exist? I couldn't help but look up at the ceiling as if it would reveal some grand design for the planet. Could there be a flying city? A lunar city? An underwater one? Hell, a volcanic one?

I shook my head and turned my attention to what I had to do. I made my way into the penthouse and started to set up. The room was beautiful with glass walls covering three sides and an empty pool outside the main one. The living room was furnished with a black and white set that included a couch two chairs and a love seat. There was a TV hanging off the wall but it also did not work. There were three side rooms. One was the bedroom which housed a beautiful king-sized bed that I was torn on replacing. I wasn't sure if it was as durable as the one I got from the tutorial but I also didn't think I needed an especially durable bed. I wasn't planning on fighting someone while lying in bed. There was also no guarantee that the bed was that strong to begin with.

After thinking about it for a few minutes I decided to leave the bed in place. I turned my attention to the next room. This one had been a closet originally. It was a walk-in and had space for me to hang things up if I wanted. I quickly got a new idea. The room had no lights or windows. It only had one entrance, a solid door that could probably be improved later. Altogether it would make a brilliant cultivation chamber. I grinned as I placed the mat on the ground. I placed it in the center of the room and then went through and removed everything else. Once the room was empty I shut the door and returned to my new house. The third room was the boardroom. It had a single onyx stone table that could seat 12 and a set of chairs to match. The whole thing looked like something out of a TV show which only made me want to keep the table more. I took a seat at the head of the table and folded my hands behind my head.

"You have failed me for the last time." I declared doing my best to imitate a supervillain. I then pressed my imaginary kill everyone button. Once the scenario played out I chuckled to myself and took a breath. The decisions I would make in this room would likely result in the deaths of an untold amount of people. Despite the gravity of the thought, I wasn't afraid. No, it was more accurate to say that I was eager for it. I already made up my mind that I would start up a faction or rather a city. I had pushed myself to be the best in the tutorial when I could have taken the easy way out. This was the road I chose to walk which meant the only thing to do was to see how far I could go. I needed to gather people. Both strong allies and actual citizens. This realization presented the first problem. Did I want to try and recruit the people in the mall? They were all mortals but they would certainly die if I didn't. Especially if they couldn't recruit any cultivators. They also might have what I needed, people who could build a city or a government. I was pretty confident in dealing with most if not all monsters on Earth. It was the logistics that I didn't know. A partially finished Law degree wasn't worth much when you were trying to build a government. All of those were future considerations. There was something that I could do right now though.