Sam was starting to lose stamina and mana rapidly as he fought, and he was nowhere near another level up, which would have replenished his reserves. Instead, he was forced to stop using his mana, instead drawing simply upon his own prowess. Using his martial skill helped a lot in reducing the stamina that his attacks took to use, but the price was still there, and he knew that he was only prolonging his death here.

There were millions, if not tens of millions, of aliens here, and he would never be able to defeat them all, or even a small fraction of their number. Things were looking grim. Sam was in the middle of a seething sea of fighters, and he was standing his ground like a rock standing against the tide. However, all rocks were eventually worn down, and he was starting to flag. He was relying on his stamina regeneration to carry him through, delaying his strikes in order to use his power more effectively. This allowed the aliens to get some hits in on him, and he was starting to lose health. It only was a few points here and there, but it added up when you were fighting against thousands of aliens at once.

Sam pushed through the pain and the exhaustion, fighting to keep himself alive. He was too drained to use any of his skills now, and he had no intuition of using his trump card skill here, as it would simply kill him. It was better to die on his own terms.

Sam finally ran out of stamina entirely, and he fell backwards, letting the aliens whale on him with their weapons. He lay there, dazed, as his health points dropped. However, there was a flash of light, and a shadowy figure appeared in front of him, before grabbing his leg and pulling him away with them. He was moving at speeds that he had never experienced before, and he was buffeted by gale force winds as they went. If not for his durability, he would have been dead many times over.

This came to an end a few moments later and he found himself standing on top of a lookout point, high above the battle below. Whoever had grabbed him was incredibly powerful, seeing as he had been dragged what looked to be miles in about half a minute. He looked towards his savior, and then paused, not sure what he was seeing. The man standing in front of him looked very familiar. He was another human.

“I see that you weren’t expecting another one of your species then?” The man asked, in a pleasant voice. “Most newly initialized do not realize that races are repeated across the Multiverse. There are only so many possible combinations of traits, and there is always some overlap. Anyway, I am to be your mentor. My name is Gordanus, but you will call me Master. Am I understood?”

Sam frowned.

“Master? That seems a little over the top to me. How do I know that you are even my actual mentor?” He asked, already a little bit suspicious. There was no proof that this man was who he said he was, seeing as he had only stepped in after Sam had arrived.

“You don’t. However, I am an E Ranker, so it hardly matters.” A sudden oppressive aura pushed down onto Sam, crushing him into the ground. It was more powerful than anything Sam had felt recently, and he let out an inadvertent gasp. If this man wanted to, Sam would be dead in an instant. “Now, would you prefer that I am your teacher, or your enemy?”

“My teacher. Master,” Sam said, adding on the last bit at the end. He knew when he had been beaten, and this was one of those times.

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“Good. That little fight down there as the first part of your training. I wanted to see how powerful you were starting out, and I have to say, your strength is quite impressive. However, you fight like a drunken berserker, without any sort of refined technique. In addition, your mana usage is incredibly sloppy. Those are problems that need to be rectified.”

“What do you mean? I have already reached the second level of my weapon mastery. I can’t speak on my mana, but I like to think that I am at least decently proficient in my craft.”

“You may like to think that, but it isn’t true. Also, I think you forgot something,” the other man said.

Sam nodded, a bit annoyed on the inside.

“Yes, Master.”

“Good. See? You can learn after all. Now, if you truly think that you are proficient with your weapon, then how about we have a little sparring match? I will limit my strength to that of a mortal, and only use my weapon prowess. Does that sound reasonable?”

Sam knew there was some sort of trick here, but he didn't really have an alternative, and he simply nodded, getting ready. Gordanus reached into a small pouch on his belt and pulled out a long sword that looked to be some sort of claymore. He held the sword firmly with both hands, and then nodded at Sam. Sam nodded back, and then pushed off the ground, racing towards his opponent.

He smiled as he saw that Gordanus hadn't even moved yet, and it looked as if the man was standing still. However, as Sam neared, the man shifted ever so slightly, and his sword found itself just in the right place to deflect Sam’s blow. He had not tried to block the attack, as his mortal strength would have been insufficient, but he was more than capable of redirecting it.

Gordanus was still moving as if in slow motion, and Sam brought his hammer back, swinging it at Gordanus’ head. The man shifted slightly again, and his hand flicked the back of his weapon, propelling its tip upwards. Sam’s hammer struck the sword midair, and its trajectory was altered ever so lightly, passing over the other man’s head, with barely a millimeter to spare. Sam backed off, and stared at the other man in shock.

“What the hell? How?” He spluttered, shocked at the level of skill that he just seen.

“I am at the next stage of weapon mastery above your own. The gaps between the tier increase exponentially as you go up the ranks. Someone at the highest level would be able to split a galaxy in half without any sort of power at all, beyond simply using their weapon.”

“I see what you were talking about now, Master,” Sam replied. “That was one of the most impressive things that I have ever seen. Will you teach me how to use my hammer like that?”

“Well, no shit. Did you forget to allocate points into Intelligence or something? I’m your goddamn teacher!” The man said, letting his true personality loose a bit more.

He took a flask off his belt and took a long drink from it. Fumes leaked out into the air, causing Sam to gag, even from over a dozen feet away. Whatever the man was drinking, it was strong.

“Want some?” The man asked Sam, upon seeing that he was watching him.

“Whatever that stuff is, it would probably kill me,” Sam replied. “Sorry, but no thanks.”

“That’s just as well. This stuff is rated for Second Threshold possessors. It probably would actually kill you. As for me, it simply gives me a bit of a buzz. How I deal with life.”

Sam nodded at the man, not letting any of his emotions leak. It was a bit strange that such a powerful man would still be an alcoholic, but Sam supposed that everyone had their outlets in life, and this man had his own. Who was Sam to begrudge him for that? He only hoped that it would not interfere with his training. He had quite a lot to progress in, and only a month to do it in. He knew that he would not reach E Rank by the end of the month, or anywhere even close, but he could grow far stronger than before.

“I can tell that you think less of me for indulging in such a vice. E Ranker, remember? I can sense your heartbeat like it is my own. But it doesn't matter. It will help with the training if you see me in a slightly adversarial light. Now, we are not going to train here. I will take you to my base on this planet, where we can begin.”