Sam might have been greatly overleveled here by the monster, but he was not expecting to take any serious injuries, on account of the fact that his balanced build was great for fighting against monsters like this. The creature was heavily skewed towards Strength and Constitution, which meant that it was weak against faster fighters, and especially weak against the same faster fighters, who had enough strength to damage it. It wasn’t like Sam had studied any of this before, but his highly enhanced brain was able to piece together details in the blink of an eye, letting him come to a conclusion faster than he would have normally. It still functioned off of the person’s basic knowledge, so he wouldn't be solving any theoretical physics equations anytime soon, but if he had been versed in the ways of science or math before, then he would have been a genius now.
As it was, his intelligence was directed mostly towards battle, which was just as well. He respected people like Thomas Aquinas, who worked for the betterment of the world through their technology, but he still preferred his own path. That was what came before all else in his mind, even himself.
Sam slowly worked his way towards the progenitor, ducking under its strikes with consummate skill. His mastery of his weapon worked with his own body here, allowing him to draw out far more power than he otherwise would have been. Sam preferred this to raw stats in any case, as if the System was any different, he probably would have had over four hundred stat points in most of his stats by now. However, his overall destructive capacity would have been the same, given the potency of his Dao and his elemental energy.
He might have seemed to have low stats, compared to this theoretical alter ego who used a different leveling system without the Dao, perhaps one with more ranks than this one, but he was still stronger in his own right. The differences between the ranks were vast, but actually crossing over the boundary instilled one with power beyond their level, allowing them to comprehend the mysteries of the universe in a deeper manner. He had only gained a few dozen stat points after breaking into F Rank, but he had furthered his connection between his body and his Dao tenfold, which was far more valuable in his mind.
In any case, he could debate with himself until the cows came home, but he still had a battle to finish. He had been working on autopilot for the last few minutes, allowing his mind to rest. However, he had made little progress against the monster in front of him, and it was time to change that.
His Dao energy had recovered mostly by now, as well as his elemental energy, and Sam started to weave together the outline of his Sky Splitting Wrath skill in his left hand. God, even the name sounded epic. The actual thing was far better though.
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A glowing lance of rock and light formed in his hand, promising extreme violence to whatever stood in its way. With a roar, he threw it, sending it on a collision course with the progenitor’s head. The creature raised one arm, snorting as if to deride Sam’s prowess, but the spear went straight through the arm, and skewered the monster through the face. There was an explosion of red light, and the monster burst apart at the seams, spilling its watery gore over the ground.
Sam took a few hurried steps backwards, not wanting anything to do with the disgusting remnants of his fight. Level up notifications spiraled into his vision, and he quickly read them, finding that he had gained only a single level from that fight, which was to be expected. It hadn’t exactly been hard.
He was now alone within the pillars of mycelium, and the grasping tendrils that the mushrooms had exuded were now gone, leaving him standing on the hard packed earth without anything living near him. A moment later, he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he whirled around, only to see Gordanus standing behind him, a smile on his face.
“Well done. That monster was quite highly leveled. You showed great skill in defeating it. I believe that your levels are high enough for now though. It is time for some more consolidation, especially with your Dao and weapon mastery.”
Before Sam could say anything, the other man snapped his fingers, and space around them bent, propelling Sam through the veils of space and time and back into the cave where Gordanus had made his base.
Sam stumbled and retched from the journey, only narrowly managing to keep his bile within him. Having it splatter onto the interior of his helmet would be a uniquely disgusting experience. Gordanus appraised him with a faint smile, and waited until he was ready.
“What the hell was that?” Sam exclaimed once he had regained his breath.
“Just a little teleportation ability. Nothing special. You might have been a little bit too weak for me to use it on your however. No matter,” Gordanus said. “Normally, I would let you rest now, but I can sense that your stamina is nowhere near tapped. You have invested heavily in your Strength, which is good for our purposes. It is time to explore your Dao.”
“Explore it how, Master?” Sam asked.
“I will appraise it, and tell you the direction that I think you should go.”
Sam started to wonder if this was a bad idea, if letting Gordanus do this would allow the man to sense his abnormal talent for the Dao, but he shook his head. Refusing would make him even more suspicious.
Nodding, he squared up in front of the other man, and sighed. Gordanus closed his eyes, and a sudden pressure bore down on Sam’s head, trying to force its way through his shield of Dao energy.
“Don’t resist. I don’t want to break your Dao,” Gordanus said.
Sam sighed and let the energy enter his body, against his better judgment. It swooped down towards his corespace, heading for his Dao. It entered it a moment later and started to poke and prod at his two Daos, dividing up into two halves. Sam gritted his teeth at the uncomfortable sensation, and waited until Gordanus was done. The other man muttered something to himself as he worked, and a few minutes later he withdrew his senses from Sam and opened his eyes.