One of the people standing in the back of the room walked forward, edging the other people out of the way. It was Okita, who Sam had not talked to in quite some time. The Japanese man looked quite happy, which Sam suspected was because of the fact that he had won the tournament. Okita had wanted Sam to take him on as a financial manager for his faction, which Sam was happy enough to do. He had told the man long ago that if he had proven his worth then Sam would accept. Okita had done so during the tournament, and in any case, the more people that were in his faction the better.
“Have you thought about my proposal?” The man asked, trying to mask his apprehension as he did so.
Sam nodded and his face brightened.
“Alright. As soon as we are in the right position, I can show you what I can do with your money. I can guarantee you that you will not be disappointed.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing it,” Sam said, actually meaning that. Anything that would give him more credits would always be worth it. He had millions of credits now, and if Okita had some sort of way to increase that by an appreciable amount, he would be one of the most valuable members of the faction. The man walked off, and Sam did a quick head count of the people in his faction. There were a little bit over 2000. As he finalized the count, the System spoke.
“You have one more minute to finalize your faction choices. A set of options will now appear on your System interface that you can pick from, unless you are one of the three faction heads. For you, you will be able to choose where you will teleport to with the rest of your faction officers. Only those who have competed in the tournament proper will be allowed to teleport with you, and the rest will be held in stasis until there is enough room for them within your faction headquarters to support them.”
A notice popped up in front of Sam as he thought on the words of the System.
Planet Earth teleportation options.
37 possible options, 1 recommended option.
Sam selected the recommended option.
Natural Treasure site #1
Select? Y/N
Sam immediately hit yes. If he was not mistaken, that was the Dao tree that Jeffrey and Rax were waiting at. Not only would they gain access to a great resource for the burgeoning faction, but they would also be able to meet up with Jeffrey and Rax easily. Sam would not have wanted to have to go look for them. A few seconds later, everything went dark.
Sam opened his eyes slowly, savoring the feeling of fresh air on his face. Then he wrinkled his nose. There was something off about where he was. There was a strange scent, almost like that of rotting flesh. It was faint, but definitely there. In addition to that, there was a shadow on him that there should not have been. Sam opened his eyes fully and saw that the landscape had changed a lot since he had been there last. Sam, and the rest of his new faction members, were standing in the middle of a large fort constructed out of wood. The Dao tree stood in the middle of the enclosure, and it had grown larger than before, to the point that its branches were not even visible behind the edge of the walls. They were so large that every part of the ground that he was able to see was in shade. Before he could continue taking the area around him, a notification popped up.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
You have gained the Dao skill [Justice is Best Served Cold:Mythical] Your two conflicting Daos demand different methods of use. Your Justice leaning half wants patient, methodical application so that no breaches of ethics or judgment are used, and your side of Anger wishes for you to charge into every situation with your temper flaring high. This skill creates a temporary balance between these halves, allowing you to head off the influence of your anger by using it as a form of time bomb, keeping it stable with the conceptual energy of your other half. Mingled with a multi stage weapon technique, this is highly effective. As with magnets, opposites repel, and forcing your conflicting Dao halves into such close proximity with each other creates a devastating chain reaction when your technique is over.
Sam frowned and looked deep into his Dao. He had thought that it was one homogeneous solid, with both halves perfectly mingled. Was that not actually the case? As he neared it, he saw something strange. The Fragment itself was a uniform shade, but the mist of energy that rose up off it was of two different shades, depending on which half it came from, Neither wanted to mix, and as he forced them to do so, the individual particles tried to resist him. Perhaps this was just a part of his Dao’s nature, but he would definitely be looking into this later.
Smoke drifted up from outside of the wooden enclosure, and Sam heard a muffled squeak. He turned to the noise and then was bowled over by a flash of movement. His Strength had been easily enough to resist it, but he had been too surprised to do so. A long and forked tongue licked eagerly at his face and he smiled. It was Rax.
“Rax! Come on. You can’t do that to me! I have an image to uphold.” A few of the people standing around them chuckled, and then went very still after Sam glared at them.
“Sorry, Sam. I was so excited to see you again,” Rax said sheepishly, as he got up.
“That, uh, beast can talk?” Eduardo said, moving closer.
Sam nodded.
“His name is Rax. There should be someone else here. Hey, Rax? Where’s Jeffrey?”
“He’s working on a hole in the walls.”
Sam got up and walked over after Rax, and the others started after him, but eventually realized that having over two thousand people move in that manner was not going to work. Only Sam, Lao and Eduardo continued, with the Bear and the other finalist members of the faction following after a short pause. Sam saw Sarge walk off to a corner of the area, before sitting down and starting to absorb small particles of light from the surrounding air. Sam only spared the robot a moment’s notice, and mainly focused on keeping his eye out for Jeffrey. His companions took in the sights in various ways. Thomas Aquinas seemed very interested in the construction of the walls, and he stopped every now and again to inspect them. As Sam rounded the corner where a small cabin stood, he caught sight of a man standing next to a wall. As he heard the footsteps, he looked around, and froze.
“Sam? You’re back!”