At the Dao Tree

Sam sat in a meditative position underneath the boughs of the Dao Tree. There were only a few other people with him, as more would have diluted the power of the tree, but they were making good use of it. Sam, Eduardo, Lao and Jeffrey were clustered around it, so far the only people to have formed a Dao in the entire faction. Well, Jeffrey had not formed one per se, but he still had one. In addition to this, Sam had remembered the Dao fruit that he had left with Jeffrey, the one that only worked up to F Rank. It was hard to believe, but he was getting close to the next rank, and he would be able to progress even more quickly now that he was out of the tournament.

He had talked to Jeffrey about what the best thing to do with it would be, and the alien had told him that he was better off just selling it. A mere G Rank Dao fruit would be worthless to somebody who had a Fragment stage Dao, but there would be many people who would pay good money for one. With that in mind, Sam had set up a stall on the Interweb, for the price of ten thousand credits, and had displayed his fruit there. He wasn't very clear on how this would all work, but apparently the System would teleport the item, in exchange for a small fee, to its buyer once purchased. He had put it up for 5 million credits, something that seemed like far too much to him, but what Jeffrey told him was nothing to the various hereditary sects of the Multiverse who would pay anything for their progeny to gain an edge. When it was bought, he was planning to put the money into the faction funds. Sam had discovered that the purpose of the faction coffers was to prevent corruption by making it so that any money put in there could only be used for construction. That was where he was planning to send all the taxes too, once he had set the taxation system up. He was going to wait until after the end of the initialization for that, instead relying on the voluntary contributions of the members until then.

As he sat in the tranquil shade of the tree, small flashes of insight whirled around him like autumn leaves in a gale. They were all unconnected to each other, some about his current Dao, and some about possible ones. He knew that he would have to start accumulating Daos soon in order to follow his path properly, but for now he wanted to focus on gaining as much power as he could, which revolved around upgrading his Fragment. And then there was the question of his Meridian, which also needed to be cultivated. For now though, he let his concerns drift away on the winds of his insights, instead trying to glean that little bit of information that stood between him and increasing his comprehension of his Dao. It seemed that quite a lot of time in the future would be spent pondering his Dao, rather than fighting. Sam shook his head and cleared his mind, drifting away from reality for some time.

A flash of light brought him out of his state, and he bolted up, noting that the light had come from near the wall. Something was attacking their compound. He ran as fast as he could, leaving the others, save Eduardo, in the dust. The other man could keep pace with Sam, but only barely, and that was because he had predominantly focused on Dexterity. By the time that they had reached the wall, Sam could make out what was going on. An utterly massive version of the Dire Bears that he had fought before loomed over the wall, roaring in rage as the defenders shot arrows and spells up at it. None of them did more than scratch the surface of its skin however. Sam quickly scanned it and gritted his teeth as he saw what it was.

Mature Dire Bear

Level 49

It was the adult version of the Juvenile Dire Bears, and it was on the cusp of F Rank. It was more than ten levels higher than Sam, and its natural power would make that gap even larger. Luckily they had the advantage of numbers on their side, or else this might not have been a winnable battle.

The bear opened its maw wide, and a beach ball sized ball of blood ripped through one of the defenders, moving so quickly that it was almost solid. Sam growled and jumped up the wall, gripping onto small handholds along the way. He reached the top just in time to see another defender die, and he roared as the power of his Dao started to fill him. The bear turned to look at him, just in time to see Sam’s mace impact its skull.

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The bear folded under the strike, crashing back onto all fours. It shook its head in pain as a small trickle of blood dripped down, but it was otherwise unhurt. Its prehensile tail whipped up and grabbed Sam’s ankle, pulling him towards it. Sam grabbed onto the battlements, thankful for the medieval construction of the wall, and heard the rock begin to crack as he was pulled in.

A strip of white light sped up towards him and cut the tail in half, letting Sam scramble away. The bear screamed, a noise that had everyone covering their now bleeding ears, and went berserk. It was too weak to break the wall easily, but it was causing cracks to run up it with each smash of its massive paws.

Sam rolled to his feet, and started to imbue himself with his body enhancement technique. As he did so, something clicked within him, and he received a notification. He had finally mastered the technique enough for it to become a skill. However, he did not have time to look at that now, and all he felt was that it had become far easier for him to use.

Sam propelled himself through the air by his bones, gathering up power that he started to channel into the beginning of his final attack. It would not really work on the bear, as it was too large, but it would at least do some damage. His mace whipped up from his waist as he jumped off the wall, sending the bear up onto its back legs as it connected. Pushing off the wall, Sam cocked back his mace and walloped the bear’s stomach with it. The creature retched and vomited up a stream of blood and bile right on top of him. Sam groaned and rolled underneath the bear, knocking it over with a sweep of his mace. Jumping up to deliver the final blow, he brought his mace down with all of his strength on the bear's stomach.

The explosive energy of his Dao detonated as he made contact, and the bear was blasted into the ground by the explosion. A large wound was torn into its stomach, and it roared. Sam jumped back as it swiped at where he had been, still unnaturally lively despite the wounds that it had taken. Three short blades of wind shot out from its paws as it swiped, and caught Sam unawares. His left cheek was carved deep, and he swore as he remembered that he had just finished healing the wound there from fighting the Overlord. Now it was reopened. Interestingly enough, the attacks had glanced off his teeth, the bony protuberances apparently much more durable than his skin. His entire jaw ached from the impact, but at least he hadn’t lost any teeth. Instead, he just looked like a man who had narrowly survived a knife fight.

The bear got to its feet, limping slightly, and charged Sam. He ducked to the side as one of its massive paws crashed down where he was, and he spun his mace around towards it. Without the aid of his finisher, which had most certainly not worked as advertised, the bear only stumbled as he struck it. It wheeled around and crashed down on Sam, using its bulk as a weapon. Sam groaned as his bones were crushed beneath the bear, and it took all the strength he had to keep it off him enough to breathe.

Then a bolt of blue energy soared down from the walls and struck the bear’s head. Immediately, it rolled off of Sam, suddenly under the effect of its own attack. The weight that it had leveraged against Sam was now pressing down on itself. The force of gravity on the bear was now effectively doubled, and it labored to its feet a moment later. Sam smiled and struck the bear multiple times in the span of a second, waiting for his mana and Dao energy to recover enough for him to use Justice is Best Served Cold again. The skill name was ridiculous, but it had an undeniable ring to it, one that made Sam smile.

The bear tried to swipe at him again, but a series of throwing knives slammed into the paw, causing the bear to withdraw it. Sam looked up behind him, and saw Claude drawing a seemingly endless supply of knives out of somewhere, and throwing them. The two sisters had both drawn bows, and were in the process of loading them. Finally, George had drawn his greatsword, and was vaulting over the edge of the battlement. He landed on the bear’s back a moment later, and he smashed the weapon into its spine. Such a heavy weapon going at such high speeds acted more like a club than anything else, and Sam smiled as he heard a vertebrae break.

George rolled off the bear’s back, and landed next to it. It tried to crush him beneath its paw, but its motor control was suddenly gone, and all it did was flail around. Sam rushed in with his mace, and smashed the bear’s head to the side, breaking teeth, and nearly dislocating its jaw. Three more strikes to the same place ended up breaking the bone entirely, and the bear whimpered as it reared back at the sudden pain.

George stabbed the bear in the belly with the end of his sword, landing right on the wound that Sam had already created. His sword slid in deep, and the bear let out one last pitiful groan and then collapsed to the ground, dead. Sam winced as the adrenaline from the fight left his body, and his cheek blazed as if it had been lit on fire.

You have killed a Mature Dire Bear!

You have leveled up!