Sam appeared in his house, and rose from his seated position. His newly bought wares surrounded him in a semicircle, with the storage device hanging off his belt loop. Sam rose to his feet and checked the time. There was still quite a lot left until it was time to leave. The flying craft would take about half a day to reach France, assuming that the distance had increased in line with the rest of the planet. Sam was going to give it eighteen hours though, just in case. That still left him with fourteen hours to burn. That time would be best spent cultivating.
Sam tidied up all of the goods around himself and made his way out of his house, heading for the Dao tree. When he arrived, he found a long line there waiting for their turn to enter. It seemed that more and more of his people were starting to encroach on the territory of the Dao. As far as he could tell, none of them actually possessed a fully fledged Dao yet, but they were close. As soon as they saw Sam, they started to make way, but he shook his head. These people needed the boost more than he did. Sam’s cultivation rate for his Dao outside of the Dao tree area was greater than that of anyone else within it.
Sam cultivated as he slowly walked forward, and he gradually increased his Dao connection as he went. It took four hours for him to reach the front of the line, and he was once more glad for the fact that his high stats meant that he almost never had to relieve himself. Back on Old Earth, he would have had to leave the line by now. He imagined that in higher rank universes, people would queue for years to get what they wanted, or perhaps even longer.
When Sam finally reached the front of the line, he found that the fence around the tree had been expanded outward, to a large enough size to fit over a dozen people. That would end up weakening the effect, but it was worth it seeing as so many people were trying to create their own Daos.
Sam made his way in, sitting down next to a swarthy blacksmith who was in the middle of cultivating what Sam could see was a minor concept of the path of Fire. Sam sat down, and began to cultivate in earnest, the power of the Dao tree sending his Dao rocketing upwards. He sent his Dao Pedagogy skill outwards in a cone, sending it into the people sitting around himself, subtly increasing their Dao comprehension speed. It was the least he could do.
He focused solely on his Dao Mote of Resolve, and the rate at which it grew was staggering. Sam’s mind seemed to absorb insights like a sponge in water, and soon he was able to construct his own idea of what resolve meant to him. It was the means in which one mustered the courage to progress and strive for their dream against the face of adversity, but it also resonated with Sam deeply. He had embodied the Dao even before acquiring it, with his Mantra and his goals for the future. As Sam contemplated the role of resolve within him, he realized that it had always been a part of himself. As he saw this truth for what it was, he was sent spiraling into a Dao vision. Sam was watching his fight with Rodney Kane from above, and he knew what was about to happen. On the sands, Rodney landed a devastating blow on him, the same one that had almost killed him weeks ago. As Sam flew into the wall, he was able to spot a tiny flaring of blue light within him as his Mantra coalesced into being, and he sensed the energy of resolve coursing through himself, despite not having had the Dao then. Sam closed his eyes, and drew that energy up to himself, and imbued it with his own, sending it back down to his clone. Its eyes snapped open, glowing bright blue, and it rose.
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As the vision faded away, Sam heard one last scream as he got to Rodney Kane. As Sam woke, he saw that every single person in the enclosure was staring at him in amazement. Looking down, he saw that he was coated in a thin sheen of blur light. The light dissipated, but the looks of awe did not. From their perspective, Sam had come in here, and in the span of a mere half hour, he had upgraded his Dao. Sam waved at them awkwardly, before opening up his notification.
You have deepened your connection to the Dao Mote of Resolve
Resolve is a concept that is universal to all sapient beings, even if they do not know of its existence. You have come to realize that all throughout your life, Resolve has been your constant companion, an unappreciated, invisible ally who helped you overcome the greatest of odds. Perhaps that you now know of its existence, you will appreciate it more.
Sam had been able to deepen the Dao after thirty minutes, and it was now time for him to leave. The Dao did not provide any concrete bonus as of now, but it would in the future.
Sam smiled as he departed the enclosure, and he was glad that he had been able to subtly use his Dao Pedagogy skill to ease along some of the others in there. The stronger the citizens were, the stronger the city. Sam was a bit perturbed at the fact that only a tiny fraction of the city seemed to be interested in forming a Dao, but he supposed that people still had work to do. Still, there would always be some without a strong drive to progress, and he would respect their wishes.
Sam had achieved enough in the line of cultivation that day, and he had no need to sleep as of now. Instead, he roamed the city for the next few hours, trying to get a better sense of its layout and demographics. Most of the people there were on the younger end, from about twenty five to forty years in age, and there were few children. There were quite a few older teenagers, but not anywhere near the number of those older. There were a few elderly folks,but not many. This was of course indicative of the number of survivors of the initial phase of the initialization process. Naturally, only the strong would survive.
There were a few exceptions like an octogenarian who had run over a gremlin with his wheelchair and had been able to reclaim some of his lost youth with the levels, but for the most part the population was homogeneous. Sam had found all of this out through a bit of eavesdropping as nobody would talk to him on an equal level. As soon as he tried to eke out some sort of general conversation with a citizen, they instantly began to bow and scrape to him as if he was their god. Eventually, Sam had grown tired of this and had decided to simply explore.