At that point, none of the monsters in the woods dared to attack them again and it was quite hard to find anything to kill. Luckily, they happened upon something that would help them level up more quickly. Rax was the one who had noticed it first. As they trudged along the grassy ground of the forest, the herpetopede had seen something out of place. Initially, he had thought nothing of it, but as they drew near to the thing in question, he had told Sam what he had seen. It was a strange knot of wood that had a gaping hole in the middle of it. From the back it just looked like a warped tree, but from the front it was clear that something else was going on. The hole seemed to have no bottom and when Sam tentatively put his hand into it, it vanished from his view. He withdrew it, thankfully still possessing his hand. Jeffrey whistled.

“There's already one of these here? This planet must be progressing pretty quick. Sam, can you check the leaderboards again?”

Unsure of what Jeffrey was on about, he pulled up the leaderboards again.

Levels Leaderboard.

1. The Overlord: Level 23

2. Rodney Kane: Level 21

3. The Scourge of New York:Level 20

4. Phoenix:Level 20

5. Melissa Tang:Level 18

6. The Angel of Death: Level 17

7. Elminster Judge:Level 15

8. The Arbiter:Level 15

9. Profound Visionary:Level 14

10. Anonymous:Level 14

The levels leaderboard looked mostly the same, except for the fact that Sam was now on it and that some of the people had switched around. As soon as he checked it, he received a System notification.

You have gained the temporary title Top 10 Levels, Planet Earth:Epic. +10 percent ease in leveling.

That explained how the top people on the leaderboard were progressing. They had a title that made it easier for them to do so. If he had a ten percent bonus, then the top three people would probably have something like a 25 percent one or even more. That would be a life changer in terms of gaining power quickly. The next one was where he was shocked.

Dao Leaderboard

1.The Arbiter

2.Profound Visionary

Someone else had actually managed to create a Dao. For them to have done so without the help of a Mark like Sam meant that they were a true prodigy in the realm of the Dao. The final leaderboard had one change as well, because of the new Dao wielder.

Overall Power

1.The Overlord

2.Rodney Kane

3.The Scourge of New York

4.The Arbiter

5.Profound Visionary

6.Phoenix

7.Melissa Tang

8.The Angel of Death

9.Elminster Judge

10.Anonymous

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The person known as Profound Visionary was now up to the top five places. He turned to Jeffrey and told him what he had seen.

“Someone else gained a Dao recently. They called themselves Profound Visionary.”

Jeffrey winced.

“That’s not good. With a name like that, they probably had a history of meditative journeying even before the System came. If you don’t watch out, they might steal your spot as number one. Two Daos within the first week of initialization on the same planet is not normal. That must have accelerated the rate of development of the planet.”

“Rate of development? What do you mean?” Sam asked.

“You’ve noticed that your planet’s star is further away, right? Well that's because the planet was made larger. It’s also why we’ve been stuck in these woods for so long.”

“Why didn't you tell me about any of these things before?”

“There’s no point. There are so many things that I could tell you and you wouldn't even remember most of them.”

Sam sighed, but he knew that Jeffrey was right.

“Fine. But what is this thing then?”

“When there is a sufficient saturation of power on a planet, the System starts to create dungeons to put some order into the chaos as it were. Otherwise, monsters would start to spawn in greater and greater numbers, continuing to increase the cycle. Dungeons are formed out of pure mana and they hold great danger but also great rewards. Inside, there are a lot of monsters and a single dungeon boss. In some large dungeons there are minibosses, but we won’t have to worry about that here. Dungeons are scaled to the planet’s level so we should be fine seeing as you are on the leaderboards.”

“So what, we just go in?”

Jeffrey nodded. Sam checked over all of his goods to make sure that he was ready. His stat points were all allocated, his information crystal was safe and his machete was sharpened. With a deep breath, he walked into the dark portal. A moment later, he appeared inside a small stone room with a door and a window. His companions appeared next to him a moment later. Outside of the room, the noise of growling and screeching could be heard.

You have entered Planet Earth Dungeon, #7

“Alright. This is the safe zone. We should be fine here until we decide to leave it,” Jeffrey told Sam. Sam nodded to signal that he understood and he walked over to a small window set into the wall. Outside of the room, complete chaos reigned. Hordes of small rat-like creatures darted across a grassy savannah while large hyenas ran around trying to catch the rats. Every now and again, they would succeed and a rat would meet its end, squealing loudly. On the other hand, hyenas would occasionally be separated from their fellows and the rats would swarm them, buying them under the weight of their numbers. In the distance, a few miles away, a solitary mountain stood, with a massive cave in the middle of it. Rumbling snores emanated from the opening and a faint sense of menace was in the air.

Sam made sure to stay quiet, even though there was no way that the creatures outside could detect him.

“Well? What do you see?” Jeffrey asked.

“There is a large group of small creatures fighting against a force of larger beasts. They’ve been at it for a while and both sides seem evenly matched.”

Jeffrey groaned.

“It’s one of those dungeons. Lemme guess, the boss is at the end of the dungeon?”

“Well, there’s a cave in a mountain and it seems as if something is asleep in there.”

Jeffrey nodded.

“That's where the boss is then. In dungeons like these, you have to choose one side to fight on. After one group of monsters is wiped out, then the boss will come out.”

Sam nodded and grabbed his machete. With a thumbs up signal to Jeffrey, he opened the door. The noises redoubled in intensity and he had to cover his ears as he was assaulted by the deafening cries of the monsters. They ignored him for now and he deliberated on which group was better to ally with.

He observed the fight for a few minutes and saw that it would be best to work with the rats. If he tried to fight them, then it would be a battle of attrition rather than of skill. He would get swarmed by them before he could do much because he had no ranged skills. With that in mind, he dashed forwards and brought his machete down on the skull of one of the hyenas. It cried out in pain as his weapon took a sizable chunk of skin and bone off of its head, but it wasn’t dead yet. It charged at him with a manic howl and bit at his legs. He dodged the attack with a well timed jump and landed on the hyena’s back. With a yell, he stabbed the machete into the hyena’s spine, severing it and ending the monster’s life. Now that he was closer to it, he could see that they weren't really hyenas. They each had four eyes instead of two and their tails were topped with a stinger.

Now that he had declared his intent, the rest of the hyenas charged towards him. The rats took advantage of the lull in attentiveness, dragging down many of the hyenas, but the majority reached Sam and started to attack him. Jeffrey and Rax caught up to them and started to join in. Jeffrey with his shotgun and Rax with his teeth.