I still didn't know exactly what was going on, but I could guess, and it would somewhat explain what was happening. I’m guessing the monster I ran into was the so-called king of this mountain and when a king dies a new one must be elected. Everyone that gathered here wanted to fight for that title.

It took two more days to reach the end. The ghosts were still with me meaning that I will most likely need to fight anyone who survived. But I was confident I could beat any of them as I had now recovered enough for another fight. But somewhere during those two days of watching the fights, this kind of turned into a sporting event for me as for some reason I started to root for some of the monsters.

Only six fights were going on and the hot spring creature was still in the running. I kind of wanted him to win but at the same time didn't. It would be sad if I had to fight him. It was beaten up like everyone else but what kept it going was that it was quite clearly at the highest energy level out of the remaining monster and the rock that I gave him. Those two factors gave him the edge, but it's had a big weakness of having a relatively low volume of rock.

I could see a few young rock creatures watching from far away. They will probably be the next generation that will fight the current winner. One of the huge brutes won its last fight and started to watch the last fight going on and waiting for his turn at the chance of becoming the winner. The current fight was between the hot springs creature and a monster that used a lot of small rocks in a similar cloud form as I had fought.

This was the hardest fight the hot springs creature had been a part of because its advantages meant little against this kind of tactic. But eventually, it won simply because of stubbornness. The big guy didn’t wait the second and started to move towards the hot spring’s creature.

But it seems that the hot spring creature had a trump card to play. It swung the rock that I gave him and threw it at the oncoming enemy, but the rock started to glow with the telltale sign of ability usage.

When the rock hit an explosion came out of it. At first, it didn't seem to do anything but slowly the big rock monster started to fall apart as it looked around in confusion. I don’t know exactly what the explosion did, but it didn't take long for the big guy to crumble to pieces in defeat. The hot springs creature went and picked up the rock that I gave it and then started to move towards me.

I got ready for a fight and when the creature was getting close a notification popped up.

Fight for the ownership of the mountain.

Owning mountains sounded awesome but was not really necessary at least not right now and it would paint a target on my back. There wasn’t a decline button but perhaps there might still be a way.

“I surrender.”

There was a moment of pause where nothing happened, but the notification disappeared from my sight and the rock creature that was moving towards me stopped. It looked quite puzzled and paused for quite a while looking between me and what I assumed would be its system notification. Eventually, it started to shift going from a battle form of sorts into a shape I saw in the hot springs.

My ghost also disappeared, and I got a lot of notifications. It seems that there will be no need for a fight. Halfway through shifting the monster seemingly just gave up and sort of sacked down into a heap of rocks. There didn’t seem to be any movement and I’m guessing the fighting exhausted whatever keeps them going. I was just glad I didn’t have to fight. Every part of me still hurt from all the pounding the flying rocks gave me.

This expedition turned out to be way more exciting than I first imagine. But looking at the gains I was excited. I let the levels flow through me giving me a lot of strength. Killing gold-rank monsters truly is a good way to gain experience. But perhaps it is more to do with me being on a lower tier of energy than the creature I killed.

My homesteader class got to level 32 while true archer and heroic soldier got to level 30. There didn't seem to be any level 30 milestones which were a bit disappointing, but I also wasn't surprised as I expected there to not be one.

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That was a lot of level-ups for abilities and skills. It was nice to see my mind skill level to 32 meaning there were only three more levels until I can level up my adventurer class as well. That would also mean quite a lot of useful abilities and hopefully, it will level up quite a lot, thanks to all the killing I’ve been doing.

My new skill of climbing got past the basic tier which I was quite happy about giving me a choice of abilities. Sticky hands sounded good and would be useful in many situations. Enhanced rope strength not so much. Crushing hand was the most puzzling ability but in the contents of climbing, I am guessing that you can strengthen your hand so you can make handholes into the rock so you can keep climbing in a difficult situation.

It was not a clear choice, but I was leaning towards crushing hand. Not finding a clear answer I picked crushing hand. Testing it briefly I found it to be a handy ability. Not only did it help crush rock it improved my hand strength by a lot.

I unlocked a new skill meditation most likely because of the last part of the fight where I was only focused on staying alive. It was weird that I didn’t get something like battle meditation, but I was also not complaining. I also got a skill called beginner energy construction. This might be a game-changer for my energy side of things, but we will have to see.

I was also happy to get my basic cartography upgraded to the next tier giving me a choice of abilities. But there was no question about what choice I will take because one of the options was a mini-map. How could I not pick the choice I wanted to get? What I did not expect was to get a new notification.

You have gained a new ability mini map

mini map specialized by class homesteader

Ability mini-map change to interactive map

If I wanted to, I could check an area map to see what I know about the area. I suspect that was the extent of the original ability. But now owners land fed information into it giving me an active map of my lands. Not only that but even the land I explored during this expedition was filled in. This area was however a bit grey most likely meaning I only had old information. Still, this ability seemed amazing and needed further testing.

For some reason, I was able to tier up my stealth which was a pleasant surprise giving me another choice of abilities. The choice was between shadow melding and an ability called stealth. In the end, I picked stealth hoping that eventually, I can just disappear in broad daylight from watching eyes.

My ability list just kept getting longer and I still had some choices to be made. Next was my armour skill. There was a clear winner. Armour damage absorption. There was no good way of testing right now, but I believed this to be one of my most powerful abilities.

After that was battle presence. There didn’t seem to be any good choices, so I ended up picking a choice that made my commander ability better. The choice was just commander+ so I had no idea how it will improve it.

It seems that even my awareness skill tiered up and I had to make another choice. Trouble sense was the clear winner. It sounded something like the spider-man's awareness. The ability turned out to be a passive one that took a constant stream of energy, but it was a small amount. But its effectiveness needs to be determined.

I was expecting to be finished but turns out that I wasn’t. My running seemed to have tiered up also. This was quite a good surprise but also completely reasonable. I had done a lot of running in difficult terrain. This choice was honestly the easiest. Haste is the main staple to most fighters and even with its downsides, it’s still a powerful ability.

Finally, I made it to the last notification, and I already recognized the style of it. I had earned another achievement. Perhaps it will be an upgrade to the tier surpasser as I was able to kill another one, but it turned out I was wrong.

Congratulations you have gained a new achievement 3x500

You reached 500 in all three main stats you receive access to first-tier energy.

After reading that I was momentarily frozen by the surprise. Then I could feel the absolute power flowing into me. All the energy that my stats provided was upgraded to a stronger tier. This process took quite a while, but I also helped it along by circulating my energy.

What was interesting was how my cores were filled with the new energy and how they started to change into a better version of themselves. It was like every cell of my body was drinking in the new power making me stronger. I could see now why I needed the 500 stats point as without them my body wouldn’t be strong enough to properly handle the upgraded energy that I had access to.

I believe I have reached the gold rank and even gone past the beginning stage of it. I now understood why the knights called low gold-rank people false gold. After the fight with the Sabertooth, I was considered a false gold. But now that I had access to the next tier of energy, I should be a full-blooded gold-rank adventurer.

It seems that my change was noticed by the rock creature as it finally gathered itself up and approached me. I was a bit weary, but that evaporated as it extended its arm again. Now I knew that perhaps we could have a good working relationship.

The problem was there was no way to communicate at least not right now but I’m guessing there are ways. The real question is how much will it cost me to get a device so I could communicate with this creature.