They hadn't even made it fully down the first mountain before another of the lure monsters appeared again. This one was smaller than the first, and it dwelt in a shallow cave, meaning that everyone was able to see it. As soon as they started to fall under the spell, Eduardo, Lao, and Jeffrey pulsed their Daos, breaking free of the control. Pyotr and Addas weren't as lucky however, and Rax had not even attempted to break loose. All of them started mindlessly walking towards the back of the cave, unheeding of the shouts of their companions. However, with four people unaffected, it was trivial for them to restrain the others, and stop them from entering.
Sam strode forwards into the cave, and turned the monster into a smear of entrails on the floor, wiping off his hands as he left. There was a pervasive feeling of foulness that came off of the creature, and it lingered on Sam even after it was dead.
“Dammit, did we fall under the spell again?” Addas said, when he saw that he was being held down. Pyotr growled in annoyance as he found himself in similar straits. They were quickly let free, and they got to their feet, smoldering with pent up anger. They did not say it, but the reason for their anger was being broadcasted loud and clear. They had been too weak to avoid the monster’s temptation, and they felt unworthy to be with the others. However, there was a somewhat easy fix to this.
“Addas, Pyotr, how close are you two to forming Daos?” Sam asked. They looked at him in confusion.
“Pretty close, why?” Addas said.
“That settles it then. You two are going to break through here and now. I will use my skill on you to speed up your comprehension rate, and you need to try as hard as you can to form your Daos. All those feelings of weakness that you are having, well, they will not dissipate until you truly are not weak.”
Rather than being annoyed at this ultimatum, both men eagerly sat on the ground in cross legged positions, ready to cultivate for all their worth. Sam closed his eyes, and sent twin tendrils of will into their bodies. They both had a small spark of scintillating energy hoving near their cores, aligned to a certain direction, but not fully so. Pyotr’s nascent mote of power was tugged in multiple directions at once, towards Earth, towards solidity, and towards a few other similar concepts. Meanwhile, Addas had a Dao spark that was aligned towards multiple different concepts of luck, such as fortune, serendipity, and a few others.
With a deep breath, Sam pushed energy through his links into the two men, starting to help them mold their Daos. The two sparks blazed as if they were being fanned with air, and they started to pulsate wildly as the two men fought to keep them in control. This was why Sam had not tried to prematurely awaken any Daos in his followers before, but the need was dire now. The two men could definitely survive it.
He pushed more and more energy into them, feeding them with concentrated insights into the nature of reality. They started to breathe heavily as their Daos began to come into being, and suddenly two balls of fire blossomed in their chests, knocking Sam's tendrils backwards. They had done it. Pyotr started to get to his feet, with a big smile on his face, but then he coughed up blood, and fell backwards. His Dao awakening had taken quite a toll on him, but the effects were undeniable. His aura felt more solid than before, and he was subconsciously letting some of his concepts leak out. It felt like a jagged and hard rock, formed from the blood of the Earth. It was the Dao Mote of Quartz.
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On the other hand, Addas’ Dao was a bit more ephemeral. It had something to do with fortuitous encounters, but Sam could not parse its exact meaning. In any case, they were ready now.
A few minutes later, they had recovered sufficiently to get to their feet, and the others congratulated them on their new power. They were now a full cadre of Dao wielders, and the world would tremble before them. Well, at least their enemies, and only those weaker than themselves. Sam frowned as his subconscious ruined the moment for him. Shaking his head, he looked off into the distance towards their goal, the pillar of light piercing the heavens. That was where their next goal lay, and Sam would seize it at all costs.
They finally reached the bottom of the mountain, finding themselves in a dark half world of twisted spires of rock and dark grottoes in which monsters lurked. Sam kept his aura on full blast the entire time, keeping the creatures away until they had reached the other side of the small valley.As they climbed up, Sam let his aura go, and the multitude of beasts that had been watching them streamed out of their burrows. All manner of corrupted mammals emerged, a few massive bears, some six legged wolves, and even a hundred foot long serpent. The terrifying procession only looked like one thing to Sam. An essence buffet.
“Change of plan. Let’s use these monsters to get you all to up to as high a level as possible. Eduardo and I will stand on the sidelines, read to step in if necessary. Is that acceptable to you all?”
Sam was met with a series of grim smiles, and he smiled back. They were ready. For now, the monsters were unable to climb up the steep sides of the valley as they lacked the proper appendages with which to do it, but contrary to their annoyance at having their prey slip away from them, the creatures were startled when four of them leaped down into the valley. It looked as if they were delivering themselves up to the monsters, but the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.
As the monsters edged in, they were blasted back by a wave of blue energy, and then skewered by spears of rock. A beam of red light swept across the monsters, wounding the stronger ones and killing the weakest. Sam watched eagerly as his followers destroyed their enemies ruthlessly, raking in essence by the handful. The stronger monsters were being separated from the weaker ones, and soon only the snake and a few of the wolves were left. Those monsters were a cut above their ilk, and they charged their tormentors, each glowing with elemental energy.
The snake breathed out a mist of poison and the wolves started to crackle with lightning as they charged. Soon they were almost upon the four members of Sam’s party, but it was too late. Addas released a Dao imbued strike, and the others followed suit. A wave of pure energy shot out from the four, and tossed the monsters backwards.
Each of them picked one of the monsters, with Rax going for the weakest, and Lao for the strongest. Addas sent a beam of light straight through his wolf’s heart, Pyotr skewered his opponent, another wolf, on a hail of quartz spears, and Lao boiled the brain of the serpent. Rax tore away at the smallest of the wolves, taking advantage of its dazed state to inflict some serious damage. It soon recovered, but it was too weak to do much. He eviscerated it a moment later with a flash of his jaws, and the monster fell to the ground. Lao grinned as he was met with a level up notification, telling him that he had reached level 49. The others were not as lucky, but they were almost there.
“Great call there, Sam,” Pyotr shouted up. “We gained a decent amount of essence, at minimum risk to ourselves.”
Sam nodded as they started to climb out of the pit, and he helped Lao up as the older man struggled on the last bit. Then the man smiled, and scampered up the last bit.
“I decided to branch out a little bit with my stat allocation. I am no longer as weak as I was before,” he said. Indeed, Lao was visibly more muscular than before, and he seemed healthier too. The others were the same as before, already filled out to the max with this stat allocations. As Rax was lifted out of the pit, they started up the next mountain.