We did two portal jumps before I decided to let Aaliyah have another turn. We found another group of raptors and I climbed into a tree to wait. Once I was sure she could take care of it I turned my attention to my status screen. First I spent my free points, and both of them went into Wisdom. Which brought it up to 303 but if you took into account the potency bonus I was at 342 which was just crazy. The additional points weren't from just my level though. The plus five to Wisdom was nowhere near enough and I had an idea of where the extra points had come from. I could one-tap anything that wasn't at least a few levels higher than me. Even that relied on monsters being more durable than humans. It was kind of like I had become Superman and the world around me was made out of paper. Only the majority of my powers were based around the mind. I turned my attention to my Tao screen and smiled when I saw that I had indeed improved.

Tao Strand of Adamance — Comprehension: Middle. Wisdom +25, Constitution +10, Strength +5

I grinned to myself and reached for my tao. The connection was much stronger than before. An idea formed in my mind like a small seed of possibility. Once it was there I couldn't ignore it. I pushed the strand of adamance out of my body as if I wanted to release my aura. It took me a couple of minutes to get it right but when I did it exploded out of me. It was like the air had transformed into steel. The tree I was on splintered as an area about thirty feet across became impassible. The makeshift shield wasn't as strong as **Psychic Aegis** but it didn't use spiritual energy at all. My psychic energy drained but even that could barely be considered a trickle. If I had Realm of Consciousness going it would be a net gain in mental energy. I was just about to start testing it out when I caught sight of Aaliyah. She glared at me and it took me another minute to figure out why. When the tree exploded a branch shot out and slammed into her leg. The wound wasn't bad but it looked painful. I smiled placatingly and tossed her one of my healing pills.

"Hey, do you mind helping me test this? I don't want to go out and find a monster for something this simple." I asked hoping to take her mind off of what just happened.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked while staring at the shimmering bubble around me.

"Just try to hit me. I don't know what the field around me will do so try not to slip inside it. I have no way of knowing just how strong it is."

She stared at me as if I had grown two heads. She drew her dagger and gently tapped against it. The field sounded like she had hit solid steel. She raised an eyebrow, drew her hand back, and slammed the dagger into the field. The blade sunk maybe a quarter of an inch before it stopped and was flung out of her hand. A resounding crack filled the air and for a moment I thought the dagger was broken but instead, it was her wrist. My eyes widened in shock and I pulled out another healing pill. "Uh on the bright side, you are going to get used to being in pain."

She glared at me and for a moment I thought she was going to try and punch me. She seemed to remember that there was a wall of steel between us now and gave up. "¿Qué carajo?" She glared at me and rubbed her wrist. "Just because we can heal from just about anything now doesn't mean I want to be hurt. How the hell are you doing that anyway?"

I chuckled and shook my head. It's the Strand of Adamance I guess when my comprehension reaches "Middle" I can project outward. I am not sure what it's defensive though. I am not sure if it's because the tao itself is meant to be defensive or if it's because I caused it somehow. I rubbed my chin and reflected on the evolution. "Adamantine comes from Adamance and adamant so there may be some connection there. Though I don't why the System would use things from our myths unless it's not. It's customizing things for us. I murmured the last part to myself and shook my head. The more I learned about the System the more questions I had. Why do this? It would be easier to create a single standard and force everyone else to adapt to it. I shook my head and ended my musing. I wasn't going to find the answers to my questions here and I didn't have the strength to go searching for them. Not yet anyway.

"I am going to test my new ability for a bit. Do you mind waiting for me?"

She nodded. "Sure, why not but you have to explain what the fuck the 'Strand of Adamance' is."

I nodded and gave her an explanation of the Tao based on everything I had seen so far. After that, we got to work. I spent an hour putting my new ability through just about every test I could come up and I learned several important things. First of which my normal aura was different now. Previously my aura was more or less the same as my killing intent. Bloody and intimidating, but now it was infused with my tao. The strand of Adamance was the most pronounced of the two but lucidity was present. It made my aura feel unyielding and unbreakable as if I had become the embodiment of progress. It sounded pretty epic to me but according to Aaliyah, it was more like being in front of the unstoppable force that would sooner run you down than stop. Unfortunately, I had no control over the sensation. No matter how much of my aura was released it still felt the same. From that, I was able to make an assumption. What the tutorial educators mentioned was more true than I realized back then. My aura would become customized to me so it would be a spiritual fingerprint.

I could still seal my entire aura inside of me but that just made me seem empty. Like I hadn't started cultivating at all. That was fine for now but it would become pointless as time went on. I was no doubt famous amongst the people in the region already. When I explored the rest of the world that wouldn't be the case. I would need to either suppress my aura and risk people thinking I am weak or constantly release a small portion of my aura. I was never much of a stealth player in games and I had no interest in doing so now. Still, I had to admit being able to hide was useful. Either way, it wasn't a problem for today. The rest of my revelations were less impactful but no less useful. My tao aura wasn't limited to its base size. I could expand at the cost of more mental energy. At current I could hit about 100 yards though the defensive impact was much weaker at the maximum range. Although calling it "Weaker" was relative, at its weakest point it was still as strong as oak. A pre-assimilation human would have to work hard like a lumberjack to get through. All while I tried to kill them.

The last thing we tested was the most useful right now. My aura could protect anyone I wanted it. As long as they were within the range. Something that Aaliyah found amusing. I wasn't sure if I could use that to help with everyone's training since they had to already be within the aura. The one time I tried to activate it to "defend" Aaliyah when she wasn't near me nearly crushed her.

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"Alright, let's head deeper into the mountains. I need to give my mental energy some time to recover and I have a monster of a headache."

Aaliyah nodded and we continued. "So since all of your spells are mental attacks does that mean you are stuck dealing with more headaches?"

I shrugged. "Probably, I am not sure if it's the System or if it's cultivation itself but it doesn't seem possible to avoid pain outright. It's kind of fucked up when you think about it."

"Yet you seem to relish in it. Are you sure you haven't gone crazy? The lightning could have fried your brain. I can tell you are stronger than most if not all of us now. You could probably get away with relaxing."

I shook my head. "The monsters will continue to get stronger and they are stronger than us if you compare straight levels. If we stop going forward now we will be wiped out by nature. We aren't at the top of the food chain anymore. Or rather there isn't a food chain anymore. Even the plants could kill us if we aren't careful. As for that other part, I have been thinking about that. Am I crazy for enjoying the world are is everyone else crazy for not enjoying it? The world we knew is gone. I have no idea if going back is possible let alone what it would cost for us to do so."

She sighed. "So what do you think? That we should all turn into wandering battle maniacs?"

I shrugged. "Can't say what you or anyone else should do. I know merchants exist Azariah is proof of that. Crafters are always good and then you have Alchemy and Arrays. There are paths forward for people who don't like fighting. I doubt any of them will be peaceful like back then. Not until someone emerges as the unquestioned leader."

"So just no more democracy? I thought you were a red-blooded American." She said with a dry chuckle.

I stared at the ground and shook my head. "I don't know. Democracy wasn't that much better. Just a different set of problems. How would you even run a democracy in this world? The System gave me the rights of governorship and as far as I can tell there isn't an option to transition to democracy. Nor is there a way to remove power. If I were to give it up the System would just force everyone to fight over it."

"And you like the power."

I tentatively nodded. "It's nice to be able to change things. Try to make a place good for everyone without being chained down by a system. Outside of the new literal System. Are you going to tell me that I shouldn't do that? Or that it's evil."

She shook her head. "I think you passed what we would have considered evil a long time ago. You killed at least three people when you saved us but if you hadn't then where would we be? Besides it wasn't like governments of the old world were angels. Hell, monarchy still existed. Cults, secret societies, and war were still around. I just hope you know that you won't be able to solve everything. Everyone thinks that they will make a new better world."

I chuckled and flexed the muscles in my hand. "The System is going to force us to fight and I should gain more and more control over the world."

"Do you plan on just killing everyone that disagrees with you? Our world would be bathed in blood and terror. What happens when you leave? Or do you see yourself coming back to put down the next person who thinks like you?"

I sighed and raised my hands in surrender. "I know, I know but for now we have to focus on surviving the dangers of today before we start to worry about governance structures."

She nodded as we arrived in front of a cave. "So this is the place?"

I nodded. "Yeah, not sure what kind of monsters are down here but I felt something react to my killing intent. I will let you lead. If you need to back off let me know."

She nodded and stepped into the cave. I waited for her to disappear from the entrance and began a ten-count. When I reached ten and didn't hear any signs of battle or cries of pain I followed. As soon as I exited the mouth of the cave I entered into a dimly lit tunnel. A tunnel that narrowed to the point I was forced to bend over. Fortunately, there were no monsters in the initial portion. I walked for another five minutes before I caught up to Aaliyah. She was crouched overlooking a natural bridge formation. One that reached over a waterfall and river. It took my brain a moment to process that I didn't hear any sound. I looked at Aaliyah who shook her head. I punched a wall and no sound. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I imagined some silent horror movie.

I peeked over the edge of the bridge and saw what had Aaliyah stuck here though. There were five black puddles of what looked like oil. For a moment I thought we had discovered some kind of natural resource. Of course, that was until the puddles moved. They were some kind of liquid or sludge-like monster. Once again I wished that I had some sort of identification spell. One that would tell me the names or at least if I was looking at a monster. I scanned the cavern around us but didn't find any more of the puddles or anything else that looked out of sorts.

I looked down at Aaliyah and wished I had taught myself sign language. I gestured to them and then to her knife. She then shook her head and pointed to her wrist. Upon looking closer I saw that she had acid burns going down her arm. I raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes. She then opened up her bottle of pills and took one. The burns healed. I slowly nodded and pieced things together. She got down here and tried to attack the monsters only to discover that they were made out of acid. The only thing that didn't make sense was why she didn't go back. That question was answered as soon as I tried to turn around.

Reach the lowest levels of the cavern before time runs out. Time Remaining: 23:59:59

The voice of the System was like a light that banished my ignorance. The quest didn't mention what would happen if we failed to move forward which couldn't be good. There was also no way to leave the area without forfeiting the quest. Aaliyah gave me a head nod and I unleashed a blast of psychic energy at the closest of the slimy creatures. The attack hit the slime. It throbbed and pulsed in a way that made me feel sick. It was like watching pudding lung into the air it then moved in our direction. We waited for a moment to see if it would find us but it couldn't. It was kind of like watching a blind toddler move around. If that toddler was acidic and melted stone. I let out a silent chuckle and started blasting. It took me roughly two weak shots to take each one down which made them less of a problem and more of a nuisance. They gave much more spiritual energy for some reason. They gave around one and a half times more which made this spot an amazing grinding spot.

I took the chance to use my new Tao field to keep us safe. Something that was both fun and put a strain on my nerves. The slimes couldn't get through my barrier but the barrier was invisible so I had to train myself to ignore attacks. I could feel the field but Aaliyah couldn't. A fact that led to more than a few soundless screams. We traveled like this for about ten minutes before we reached a new chamber. My danger sense picked up but I couldn't find why. I searched the entrance but there was nothing. I even released a pulse of compressed spiritual and psychic energy hoping to hit anything. I placed a hand on Aaliyah's shoulder and pushed her behind me. We stepped into the chamber only to find a graveyard. It was like we had stepped into a black tar pit. Half dissolved bodies a variety of creatures including several humans were half submerged. The few bodies that still had faces were twisted in panic and fear. My danger sense prickled the edges of my mind and I unleashed a blast into the black liquid. What I saw made my stomach turn. It was like a dozen maggots were pulsing around the corpse of what looked like some kind of big dinosaur. Most of it was already dissolved but that hadn't stopped the ugly creatures.

My attack had overturned the beehive and the slimes surged toward us like a wave. My danger sense nearly deafened me as I pushed my tao field to its limit. I pushed Aaliyah in the opposite direction and we didn't need any words to agree that it was time to get the fuck out of here.