With that, he had finished the guide. The fact that his perceived greatest enemy was barely a speck of dust compared to the more powerful forces in the Multiverse was a very disheartening thought. It was a thought that he ignored for now, instead reporting to Jeffrey.
“Alright, Jeffrey, I found what we were looking for. Tantalos Veruvax is the head of a C Rank faction called the Darkstar Conquerors. They have apparently harvested other universes before this one and there is no hope of outside salvation. We are on our own.”
Jeffrey sighed.
“Why the hell did I have to pick this universe to go to,” the man whined as he started walking. Sam didn't answer and he followed Jeffrey further into the woods.
Finally, after what felt like days of traveling, they came across something extraordinary. A verdant valley filled with exotic plants that Sam didn't recognize lay before them. In the very center of the valley, a majestic tree stood, its branches enfolding a good portion of the valley. It gave off a subtle aura of peace and serenity and Sam felt an instinctual draw to it. He resisted the urge long enough to see that the tree was surrounded by what looked to be hundreds of monsters, ranging from the lowliest gremlins to one of the huge chimeras that they had fought before. Strangely, none of them were fighting amongst themselves, instead basking in the light of the tree.
Sam and Jeffrey snuck closer, and Rax made his way down there. They assumed that he would be mistaken as another monster by the ones already there and would be allowed to pass in peace. They were right and he settled down by the tree. A moment later, Rax talked to them through their link.
“This is amazing! It's like I’m being fed the raw essence of reality. I feel as if I could almost touch the underpinnings of the universe.” It sounded to Sam as if the herpetopede was high. But Jeffrey had a different reaction.
“In the name of the System, it's a natural treasure!”
Sam looked at the man.
“What? What do you mean?”
Jeffrey stared at him with a frantic look on his face.
“This could be what takes us to new heights of power!”
Sam waved his hand at the man.
“What is it though? He said, a little annoyed.
“A natural treasure is an accumulation of essence that has formed into something related to the natural world. They have all sorts of effects, but this one seems to be the rarest one of all, a Dao Tree. It speeds up the process of creating and expanding a Dao, making it easier to develop one. In addition, the less people that are using it at one time, the more benefit they each get. It could even provide as much as a 50 percent boost!”
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Sam was salivating by this point. If this was all true, then they had just lucked into the find of a lifetime. He recalled Rax and the herpetopede walked up the hill back towards them. A few of the monsters gazed after him in suspicion, but none of them followed. When he was back, Sam asked them all what to do.
“How are we supposed to do this? There’s too many monsters there to fight.”
Jeffrey responded immediately.
“What about our weapons? My one allows me to supercharge it, and from what I had seen during the battle with the dungeon boss, it had acidic blood. If this weapon can replicate that, then it could produce an effect far beyond our individual strengths.”
Sam nodded.
“My one allows me to project a wave of force outwards from myself. It has a secondary effect too, but that isn't as important now. It can only be used once per day though, so we will have to be judicious in its usage.”
With that, they began to hatch a plan. Jeffrey would snipe the largest clusters of monsters from the hill, hopefully drawing them up towards them. Sam would wait until they were surrounded, before using the weapon ability. By then, theoretically, they could mop up the stragglers.
They waited until the monsters had become sluggish in the warm light of the afternoon sun, and then Jeffrey struck. He hefted his gun and pulled the trigger. As he did so, a cloud of reddish energy was siphoned out of him and into the gun. He grunted in pain, but held on. The cloud continued to grow in size and Jeffrey’s skin became waxy and pale. Just when Sam was about to wrest the weapon from his hands, Jeffrey stabilized. A beach ball sized orb of blood shot out of the incongruously small opening of the gun, streaking towards the monsters.
It landed with a loud splash and doused the creatures around it in blood. An unholy screeching erupted from the monsters who had been struck by the attack and Sam could see their skin melting away from where he was. The other monsters woke up immediately and got on their feet. Jeffrey staggered as he raised the gun again. This time, a cloud of blue energy was siphoned out of him and a smaller orb of blood was launched. This one targeted a cluster of gremlins and they were instantly melted away by the power of the acid. By then, the monsters had triangulated their position and the first of them were running up the hill.
Sam watched as they bounded along, and he waited until he saw the first ones approach. With a few swift kicks, they were sent tumbling down the hill, taking their allies with them. This allowed for the rest of the horde to catch up and they moved en masse towards them.
Sam grinned, it was working exactly as he had planned, Rax growled and sank down close to the ground in preparation to attack. As the main bulk of the monsters approached, Sam widened his stance and started to whirl his mace around. Skulls crunched beneath his weapon, bones broke and limbs were torn apart. Despite all that, it barely did anything to stem the tide. His body was soon covered in wounds and yet the monsters still were not close enough. He roared and used his mana shield ability, buying himself time. Luckily for the other members of his party, the monsters only seemed to have eyes for him and Jeffrey and Rax had already left the battlefield. It was unlikely that the mace ability would harm them, but it was better to be safe. When Sam thought that he was about to die, the last monster crested the hill. With a triumphant shout, he used his ability.
A dome of energy expanded outwards from his mace, pulping the weaker enemies and heavily injuring the stronger ones. A fire was kindled in his muscles and bones and he felt a surge of energy soak into him. Like a man possessed, he erupted into a storm of carnage, wiping out monsters left and right with his mace. Veritable rivers of essence entered his body, but he felt them transform into something else, a bellows for the flame in his soul. With a primal shriek, he smashed his mace down on the ground. A blinding flare of light expanded outwards from it and he saw nothing more.