By the time they had reached the bottom, Jonathan had grown passably acquainted with the main landmarks around them, and was confident that he could find his way to any of them. Not that he needed to really know his way around as he could simply use the token to whisk him and Edgar back, but it was still useful nonetheless. Who knew what kind of opportunities were available in those villages.
Obviously, they would not be going to one of those any time soon, as they were likely filled with high leveled Uthraki, but they would be a useful source of essence later on if they managed to reach a passable level of strength. The gains were quick now, but Jonathan had no illusions about how long it would take to reach the peak of Tier 2, even with this amazing addition to his leveling opportunities. Time was still passing in the outside world, and if they stayed here too long, any number of things could happen to their burgeoning settlement.
A cold, an increasingly growing part of Jonathan, told him that it hardly mattered. It would be better for him to stay in this realm and grow as powerful as he could, followers be damned. After all, all that mattered was his own power, with everything else being a secondary concern. Even Edgar. It was a concerning part of his mental state, one that would likely only grow as he grew in power. However, he could suppress it, and he did just that.
With his higher intelligence came the ability to divide his attention from his emotions and apply it to his more immediate concerns. For now, he needed everyone that he could get in terms of supporters, in order to give his cause a chance of winning. It was no good if everything simply crumbled after he left.
Unaware of the mental turmoil of his companion, Edgar took the first step onto the rock of the cavern floor, and let out a hiss as his shoes started to bubble. The rock was heated to hundreds of degrees by the underlying currents of lava. It was not even painful to Jonathan, but Edgar had lower durability, and as such had to float above the ground on a cushion of air so as to avoid the heat. This action only made the treacherous part of Jonathan’s mind more convinced that it was right.
Jonathan frowned at this. It was almost like the realm was trying to influence him towards a path of personal gain over all else. It was like it was trying to make him into an image of a circle lord…
“Wait, that’s exactly what Angranor said that he wanted. Is this place messing with my mind?” Jonathan thought in horror.
However, now that he knew what was going on, he was able to separate himself from the taint, and was able to suppress it far more effectively. It was not gone, but it was not able to affect him for now. He took a few steps out into the middle of the cavern and felt a pleasant heat start to drift up through his bones and into his body from the rock below. Something that would have been intensely painful for any normal human was basically the same as a heated floor for him.
He was getting used to his power, but his mind always found ways to compare him to his previous self from Earth. He remembered the litany of injuries that he had acquired from his truck driving days, and the ones that were no doubt germinating in his overtaxed body as a result of that job. Now they were all gone, from the scars that lined his right side from a bad collision, to the whiplash that had permanently dislodged one of his vertebrae.
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The near constant pain that had serenaded him every day was now completely gone, and he felt far better than he had ever felt before. He was filled with energy and power, and his body did its damndest to tell him that at every opportunity.
As he strode across the heated rock, he spotted a few monsters in the distance, the perfect opportunity to test his power. They seemed to be more of the vaguely reptilian dinosaur analogs that populated the realm, and they snarled as he came into their line of sight. They looked like what he would have called a stegosaurus back on Earth, with large plates running down their spine. However, those plates were alight with fiery energy, which was a sign that they were not the same thing. Cracking his knuckles, Jonathan raced forwards, with Edgar in close pursuit.
The fight was as quick as it was bloody, and Jonathan tore through the monsters with wild abandon. His skill and power was sufficiently advanced to prevent him from taking anything but the most glancing blows, and he managed to protect Edgar perfectly, and not a single hit landed on the mage’s body. The man also fulfilled his part of the battle, providing ranged support and buffs for Jonathan. All in all, it took about a minute, or perhaps even less.
When it was done, essence rushed into Jonathan as he shook off his bloodstained gauntlets. It was not enough to give him another level, as the monsters had been extremely weak. Although they were all technically above level 150, the System treated them as nothing more than basic enemies that were not worth as much as the Uthraki. They possessed no skill, and their dispositions were a lot more docile than any monster that Jonathan had ever seen. It was like how a cow was far larger and more powerful than any human, but in a straight up fight, the cow would probably lose, if the human had at least a basic degree of competence and a weapon.
Like this analogy, on Earth, their species had been herbivores, and perhaps they filled a similar ecological niche here. It was almost like a version of some sort of primitive society here, with animals and even sapient beings inhabiting this place. It was sort of like some sort of primal lost world, such as would be the subject of a book back on Earth. Here however, it was all too real. They were miles away from the nearest of the settlements, and Jonathan was acutely aware of the dangers of the outside world to the growing city. The councilors there might have been mostly fools, but they were still under his protection, and he needed to be there to protect them in case of assault, which he knew was coming. It might be a while away, but he would eventually be exposed by the forces of Granath. As far as he knew, they were already there.
He really needed to find some sort of way to increase the level of the guards that Alana had brought with her. However, the monsters in the area were so strong that even if Jonathan took their attention, any attendants would likely be injured by their clash. Still, if he was able to figure it out, it would provide a mountain of essence for anyone who aided in the death of one of the titans of Ash Heaps. He could afford to do this now because of the existence of Tartarus. The roaming monsters around the city were no longer the essential commodity that they had before. He may have cursed the gods with every breath, but he felt perversely grateful to them for sending that angel. Although it had almost killed him, it had provided him with a monumental boon, one that would likely carry him further than he would ever reach normally. He had the potential, but all he had been lacking was the essence. Now he had both.