Barely a minute later, he could feel another monster rising up out of the depths underneath him, and this time he knew what was coming. As he felt the monster neared, Sam tore himself out of the water with his Girdings of the Arbiter skill, narrowly missing the closing jaws of the monster. His control over the skill was growing as he rose in level, and perhaps once he reached E Rank, he would have a true flight skill. For now however it was more like a telekinetic shove than anything else, and he could move about a dozen feet in any direction from it. Most of the time, he simply used the skill for its combat properties, rather than like this.

As the creature’s jaws snapped shut on empty air, Sam kept swimming, racing away from the monstrous beast, which from the surface looked like some sort of whale. It had no eyes however, and its skin was covered in scales. The monster bellowed in rage and swam toward him, but it was too slow.

Sam was faster than it in an open race of speed, and he eventually drew away from the beast, losing it amid the gently bubbling water. He breathed heavily as he surveyed his situation a few moments later, watching as the monster sank beneath the surface, giving up on its chase. This journey was becoming more and more nerve wracking as he went on, but at least it was good for his level. If he was able to kill another of those whales, he would level up again. Perhaps he would try that on the way back. It hadn’t exactly been hard.

Sam kept on swimming, and he powered through the water, avoiding the other monsters in the same way that he had with the last whale.

About ten minutes later, accounting for the time he had spent avoiding the whales, he had reached his target, and he leaped up onto the rocky outcropping, and beheld the tree. It was a small plant, about three feet in height, with a large ball of leaves surrounding its stout trunk. It glowed with a faint blue light, and in the very center of the leaf ball was a tiny berry that looked like a crystallized piece of the sky. It was a deep azure color, and Sam salivated at the sight of the berry, already knowing that it would do wonders for his strength.

If he was not mistaken, this fruit had something to do with mana, given how his mana was reacting to it. As the strength of natural treasures increased, so did their effects on the minds and bodies of their beholders. At F Rank, it was taking everything that Sam had not to simply pluck the berry and pop it in his mouth. However, he scanned it first, just to be safe.

F-Rank Mana Concentration Berry

F-Rank Magical Item

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The product of a mana aligned natural treasure, this fruit will give the user the ability to condense their mana to a greater degree, and will passively increase their control over the resource. A word to the wise, this process will be agonizing.

The last part of the message was a bit worrying, but it was exactly what Sam needed, and he was in no danger in this part of the lake. He sighed, and plucked the berry, popping it into his mouth. Nothing happened for a moment, and then he felt an invisible fist clench around his mana pool, crushing it downwards.

Sam gasped as he felt his core tremble in pain, and he fell to the ground. Threads of what felt like lava raced down his mana channels, extending them and strengthening them. Sam groaned as the pain reached a crescendo, and then disappeared, leaving him on the floor.

He lay there for a few minutes, and then slowly rose, feeling new power coursing through his veins. Sam raised his right hand, and summoned his mana to it, able to keep it separated from his Dao energy far more easily than before.

He pumped more energy into his hand, and found that he was able to place almost a hundred points of mana into it before his control vanished. It was still far too little to have any impact on a fight, but it was at least progress, and the effects of the fruit would only scale with time. With a grin, he dove back into the lake, and swam towards the center. It was time to gain some levels.

As Sam traversed the lake, Gordanus watched eagerly from the side of the cavern, blending in with the surrounding rock with one of his plethora of various utility skills. He had picked this one up a few centuries ago, while on a stealth mission on an abandoned moon in another universe. The moon had been completely devoid of any sort of natural cover, and Gordanus had been forced to make his own. As a result, he had ended up with a skill patterned after a chameleon, which was perfect for theft, or keeping an eye on a promising student.

While he would never admit such anything to any of his charges, let alone Sam, he actually cared about the people who were under his tutelage, if more for his own ego than anything else. So far, Sam was by far the most promising of the many students that he had taught, eclipsing many with levels dozens his senior in both power and wisdom. The boy’s raw talent was astounding, and he had rectified his mana problem unbelievably quickly, finding the solution to it, if not mastering the technique for doing so. By the end of these thirty days, Sam would be a true monster. It was a shame that he would be dead in a century, but such was the way of life within the Multiverse. One as always at the whims of someone stronger unless they were Altari himself. Even then, the System loomed over all, as well as the shadowy monsters who dwelt in the rest of the Boundless Expanse, a mythical land that no one knew much about. And if they did, they weren't sharing.

In any case, such thoughts were the realm of conjecture, and not applicable to Gordanus’ current situation. As Sam slowly butchered his way across the lake’s store of beasts, rising in level as he did so, Gordanus intervened slightly, in order to make this more of a challenge.