That had been a day well spent and if their success continued at this rate, they would easily be able to get classes by the time of the tournament. Unfortunately, the other two would be unable to participate in the tournament, as neither was a native of Earth but according to Jeffrey, they would both be able to do other things during the time period, such as level up.
Sam had coaxed a more detailed explanation of the integration of universes out of Jeffrey. In and out of leveling sprees, the man explained it to Sam. The integration of a new universe was a very important event, at least in the local sector of the universe as apparently the Multiverse was so vast that it had to be divided into smaller segments to allow for any sort of coherent governance. In the surrounding universes, the integration was broadcasted as some sort of entertainment event, but it hid the identities of the people who were the subjects of it in most cases. Jeffrey had told Sam that there was a very good chance that he was famous now, as he had created a Dao before anyone else in the universe. If they succeed in defeating Tantalos, they would have a very exciting journey through the Multiverse.
For now, Sam tried not to allow the accounts of the other man to distract them too much, especially when it devolved into tales of the many exotic romantic partners that the man had had. He acted like a normal person, but Jeffrey was really over ten times older than Sam. Upon hearing Sam’s puzzlement at his demeanor, Jeffrey had explained that leveling up slowed down the mental development of an individual, not intellect but rather emotional development. He had warned Sam of the scions of the greater noble houses of the Multiverse, as many of them had been force fed levels at a very young age. This had created a group of extremely powerful people with the minds of children. Very intelligent children, but still children.
That was a very dangerous combination and Sam would try to avoid those people at all cost. He wondered how the children of Earth were doing in the integration as he had seen a few teenagers during the System announcement. The leveling speed slowed down to almost nothing after a while, the levels of the monsters falling far behind those of Sam, but he still gained enough to progress. He passed level 20 after a few days, but the next three levels took over a week.
It was soon time for the tournament and he started to feel a little bit of paranoia. That was not helped by the countdown that the System implanted into his mind as the date of the tournament approached, telling him that he only had 72 hours left. Sam traveled further and further afield in search of levels and eventually found a worthy opponent.
On the cusp of level 25, he found a Juvenile Dire Grizzly, a stronger variant of the Juvenile Dire Bear. It was about 25 percent larger than the other one had been and its brown body was covered in scars and burns. The bulging muscles that were clearly visible under its flesh only added to the aura of power that it possessed. Upon seeing Sam, it let out a low growl, one that increased in intensity until a trickle of blood ran down the sides of Sam’s face. He winced and moved in with his mace at the ready. Upon seeing the weapon, the bear went berserk. Sam cursed himself for bringing the severed foot of a bear into a fight with an even larger, angrier bear, but it was his best weapon.
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Jeffrey and Rax were not here to help him and it was just him again this titan of nature. The bear was over level 25, and he didn’t know if monsters had classes as well as sapients. It immediately became apparent that this creature was on a whole other level as one swipe of its massive paw sent him spiraling through the air and into a nearby tree. His body shattered the wood, rather than the other way around, an effect of his new stats. He had gone for an equal stat spread between his physical stats and a few points into his mental ones. The extra mana was valuable for fighting as shown by the efficacy of his mana shielding skill. The ability was far more versatile than he had originally thought and he had found out how to manipulate it in varied ways.
One of his hands glowed with the phantom blue pattern of a buckler and the other one was surrounded by a spike of energy. He had not found out how to infuse his weapon with the mana yet, but it acted as a decent cross guard for his mace. The bear roared again and its tail separated from its body, dividing into three distinct parts. Each of them formed into a smaller version of the bear and they charged at Sam. He swiped them aside with his mace, the low level creatures too weak to harm him. It was the bear that he was here for.
As it saw him ignoring its summons, it growled and launched a ball of blood at him. This ball was a lot larger than the one that the other bear had used and it spiraled through the air at him. He ran to the side, but was still splattered by the blood from the sphere. It burned his skin, almost to the bone in some places. He groaned in pain, but refused to let it distract him.
With a mighty leap, fueled by his prodigious strength, he cleared over 20 feet of the forest floor and brought his mace down on the head of the bear. With a satisfying thunk, it struck home, smashing the bear down into the ground. It let out a pained grunt and rose back up, swiping at Sam with its paw. He dodged the blow, knowing that he lacked the strength to withstand it. That allowed him to bring his mace down on the paw, breaking something in it. The barely noticeable reaction for the bear told Sam that it wasn’t anything important. He was already starting to get impatient with this fight, clearly the bear would take hours of constant attacks to even take a chunk out of its health.
Now, what Sam needed was a new approach. As he fought, a daring and quite possibly stupid plan came to the forefront of his mind. He shrugged as his common sense tried to step in and prepared to enact it. As the paw of the bear slammed into the ground next to him, Sam jumped onto it. Faster than the bear could react, he scrambled up it and towards it gaping maw. The bear, not understanding what was happening, opened its jaws wider as if to swallow Sam whole. He obliged and threw himself towards the mouth of the beast. As the tip of his mace made its way into the maw of the bear, he smiled.
“Checkmate, motherfu-“ Sam was blasted backwards by the force of his mace’s ability going off within such a small area. He shook his head to clear the ringing and then surveyed his work. The headless corpse of the bear swayed for a moment and then fell over with a titanic thud. A rush of essence soaked into his body and the blessed voice of the System announced that he had reached level 25.
Congratulations upon reaching level 25! You have unlocked classes.
Do you wish to enter the class selection screen? Y/N