When he awoke, he was lying on a small cot in the center of the room, with Gordanus hovering over him, inspecting something with his Dao. When Sam opened his eyes, the other man backed away.

“What happened after I blacked out?” Sam asked.

“The more important question is, how did you manage to use that skill?” Gordanus replied, a note of disbelief in his voice. “Is your control over the Dao really that strong? You managed to imitate my brute force teleportation skill without knowing anything prior to doing so. What are you, Sam Atlas?”

“Was that what it was? It looked as if you were slicing open space in front of you with your Dao and then stepping through. I merely tried to imitate that. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, all things considered, you should be dead right now. The fact that you are not is a minor miracle.”

“Just how strong are you, Master? You teleported me miles in the blink of an eye, and just a dozen feet incapacitated me.”

Instead of answering, Gordanus sighed, closing his eyes, and suddenly it was like there was a god in the room with Sam. A burning aura of pure power exploded out of Gordanus, encompassing the cave, and extending outwards into the world. Sam’s hairs stood on end, and he almost ran, only reining in his emotions at the last moment.

Gordanus opened his eyes, and two blindingly bright orbs of light beheld Sam, glowing like miniature suns. Then the aura vanished, and Sam was left with his eccentric teacher once more. It had been awe inspiring, but not that impressive, considering the attentions of cultivators far more powerful than Gordanus that Sam had enjoyed. Beings like Tantalos and Berrigious. Besides, simple auras were nothing more than a will based contest. They could not hurt you unless the Dao of the wielder was folded into it.

Sam slowly worked off the influence of the aura, blinking. The afterimages of Gordanus’s true power were still etched into his retinas, and it took him a few minutes to recover. When he did however he gave Gordanus a grin.

“So it’s not just all booze and apathy then,” he said cheekily.

“You know, after that display, I don’t even care. You have gone far beyond anything I expected of you. Nobody at your level I know has reached your level of mastery with the Dao. Your power in that field matches someone near the peak of F Rank, ready to ascend to the next level.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Because I have two Fragments, right? Ready to fuse into a Seed?”

“In essence, yes. Ranking up without a sufficiently advanced Dao is possible, but it will cripple your future prospects, as ranking up grants great bonuses to your Dao usage and comprehension. The more powerful a Dao you have, the greater the bonus you will gain. In your case, that should not be a problem.”

Sam nodded, contemplating the other man’s words.

“What about that teleportation ability? How can I improve my usage of it? It seems like it would be very useful in battle.”

“Your Dao is very advanced, but your usage of it is still quite basic, which is to be expected, given the short amount of time that you have possessed it. Most people take a decade or more to gain a Fragment, and in that time they gain great mastery over their concept. You need to become more acclimated to your Dao before you can start to use it in more advanced ways. Teleportation is just the start.”

“Well, let’s get started then,” Sam said, before getting out of the cot.

His body ached, but he ignored it. He was filled with a steely resolve now, one that had blossomed into being with the creation of his new Dao. He could not settle for mediocrity. He had an impossible task before him, to kill an E Rank being, and he only had a month in which to gain that power. If he did not train until he had almost died, this time would be wasted.

Sam started to gather his power within him, trying to feel for the same gaps in space that he had detected before, where his Dao was drawn to them. He realized that the air around him was made up almost entirely of a myriad of different Dao types, some of which he had not expected. Along with the more basic elemental Daos, there were quite a few concepts there, ones that he would never have thought would be present in the natural world, concepts like Anger, Love and the like. It looked as if the Dao permeated all aspects of the world, even when it was not related to it.

Using this, Sam was able to trace the pockets of Dao energy that were related to his own Daos, and he slowly started to understand what he had done. He had used those tiny pockets of energy, which he could now see were miniscule indeed, to resonate with his own Daos, in a way that empowered them enough to break through the barrier that kept space intact.

Sam opened his eyes, and saw that Gordanus was standing on the other side of the room, and that the air had solidified in spaces between him and the man. Sam frowned and moved forwards, but found himself blocked off.

“It seems like you have an incredible knack for anything relating to the Dao. If you truly wish to grow in strength enough to beat an E Ranker during this time, which I still maintain is impossible, you should focus on your strengths. Levels will only get you so far, but the Dao is eternal.”

Gordanus turned on his heels and left, leaving Sam with no question as to what he was expected to do. In order to escape this place, he would need to master teleportation enough to break through the barriers of air, which, to his Dao senses, were dozens of feet wide, too wide for him to get through unless he became more adept at his new skill. Rather than feeling angry, or lost, he smiled. This was the way it should be. Him against everything else.