Brock

I grunted, lifting up the boulder above my head. I trembled under its massive weight before sighing and hurling it back down. “No matter what I do I can’t carry the stupid thing!” I yelled frustrated with my lack of progress.

“Says the person literally carrying a boulder well over 1 ton in weight.” Minya scoffed at me.

I just waved her off. “It wasn’t 1 ton, it was almost 2.” I said, snorting. I wouldn’t waste my time on such light items.

She just looked at me and sighed, standing back up. “My rest period is up. Your turn.” She said stretching her arms and then her legs.

I sighed. “But I didn’t even get to advance through very many boulders.” I whined.

She waved me off. “It’s fine next time start at the 100 lb mark again-”

I cut her off, scoffing. “Why would I start over again? I already know I can lift all of the previous ones.

She glared at me. “As I was saying you should restart but this time try to break them with your bare hands. It would give you a far better challenge.” She finished stretching and we switched spots. She took a deep breath and started running.

She was so fast! At this point her speed was on par with a cheetah, and it was still growing.

Granted, so was I. I was over 10 ft tall now and I hadn’t shown any signs of stopping. I was positive it was because of my giant blood, but it could also be influenced by my strength.

I breathed in deeply and entered my meditative state. Before I got my path I had struggled to stay in a meditative state for what seemed like hours. Afterwards, it felt as easy as flipping a switch.

My path was currently guiding me to learn more about myself and what it meant to be truly strong. I settled down and focused. What did it mean to be truly strong?

A truly strong person was not defined by just their physical strength but also by their mental and spiritual strength. A truly strong person was strong enough to break through any barrier, had the most ironclad of wills and never wavered from their beliefs and morals no matter the opposition.

No. That wasn’t right. That may be true over all, but what is the true meaning of strength to ME. I thought about this deeply but I couldn’t find any other answers than the ones I had already learned. I was missing something. I had to be. The idea of true strength didn’t feel complete.

Frustrated, I opened my eyes to look at the others. Emily was doing physical tests like endurance, strength, balance and flexibility, with slightly more focus on flexibility and balance. Her partner, Layton, was meditating and her brow was scrunched up in a cute way. Drake was also doing physical training with more endurance and strength focus -the opposite of Emily. Finally Kent was meditating.

But as I watched Kent meditate I noticed that he was doing it differently than all of us. Instead of getting frustrated or just trying to carry on I watched as he had an epiphany after his brow furrowed. He wasn’t trying to power through the blocks or evade them, he was learning from them.

And while that didn’t make very much sense to me personally, I at least now understood how to look at it. Right before I was about to close my eyes, Kent gasped and opened his eyes. Quickly pulling up his screen he grinned, then yelled out. “I now have the dao of the dragon! It gives you a few nice benefits but the real prize is the dao itself. As far as I can tell the dao is personal but still all encompassing.”

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I looked over at him dryly. Of course he would be the first. He was so gifted in everything but he was so timid. He seemed to have violently murdered some of that timidness though so I was proud of him. He was the optimal teammate for this situation we were in.

I took a deep breath and reentered the meditative state. Personal… What was the meaning of true strength to me personally? True strength… It was overcoming one's boundaries no matter what would get in your way. It was striving to be the peak of what you could. It was used throughout the day in the simplest acts. Telling someone to have a good day was true strength because you were helping those around you and improving your environment to help you to the peak. True strength was not something that you achieved alone. True strength is found in every bond and every friendship. True strength is when you are doing everything you can to become better.

True strength was overcoming one's limits… with others by your side.

As I learned those final words the world exploded into a bright light.

Dao of True Strength comprehended! Dao Seed of True Strength, +10 WILL +10 CHA +10 Strength.

I smiled. That was it True strength was reaching the peak of power with others by your side to guide you and for you to guide them. It was not a thing you did alone.

I opened my eyes and looked around me. The world felt… better somehow. More bright as though whatever challenges were thrown at me I would be able to go through.

I stood up and felt different. It wasn’t just the difference of stats. It was as though everything was connected to me, and me them. I felt exceptionally strong bonds with the other members of my party. Kent more so as I had known him the longest.

I looked over at Minya who was panting heavily but still running at crazy speeds. “It’s time to switch!” I said, giving her a giant grin when she looked over. “I also got a dao seed. Guess you're going to have to catch up.”

She looked confused. “Dao? As in western cultivation?” I nodded and she grinned. “I still can’t believe we're going through the apocalypse.”

She went over to the mat and heavily sat down. She started breathing deeply and she concentrated on the very foundations of what made up the world. Dao.

I smiled and went over to the rocks. I felt the dim connection between me and the boulders and tried to strengthen it. There were too many and it was fruitless. Concentrating on one of the smaller rocks, it looked to be about 200 lbs. I focused on the thread between us and tried to strengthen it. I felt it grow and tighten as though becoming stronger and thicker.

When I felt like the bond was as strong as it could get I rested my hand against the rock. Nothing happened and it felt about the same, maybe a little warmer but that was it. I tried to pick it up and grunted. I couldn’t lift it at all. Getting more excited I picked up another rock and slammed it into the side of the rock with all of my strength.

The rock in my hand exploded and I flinched back. I looked over at the original rock. It was perfectly fine except for a small scratch on its side. I smiled. I knew what I was going to do with this.

I ran over to one of the walls and felt out my bond with it. It was weak, but I could change that. Over the next hour, I made all of the walls nigh indestructible and made sure that they were as strong as they could be.

All of us made breakthroughs and got a dao seed each. We were learning and growing at a huge rate but we needed to get even stronger before attempting to take on the next boss.

Drake called a meeting. “Guys we are doing great! We have all gotten a dao seed and we all understand how are abilities work and we have strengthened and upgraded our camp. That brings us to the next question. The Grand AI asked me and Kent to ask you all to make a team name. We don’t need to choose it yet but we need one by the end of the week. Or else. Those were pretty much the exact words. So keep your minds open to ideas. We will talk about it later in a few days.”

I nodded. It seemed perfectly reasonable to make up a team name for us sometime. We needed something to call ourselves. Something that represented who we were as a group, not just individuals. As I was thinking Minya perked up. “Did you hear that?” She asked us in a whisper.

“No…” I said hesitantly.

She held up a hand to quiet us and we walked over to the walls. Drake and Kent had made platforms to look over the wall that was now over 15 feet tall. We had upgraded it quite a bit. We looked off into the distance and saw trees and bushes rustling in an unsettling way a few hundred yards away. Suddenly a pale white creature appeared from the undergrowth and looked straight at us.

I stilled. There was another human here? I quickly scanned it to see who or what it was.

BOSS: Wandering Revenant

Lvl: 20