The two men walked in companionable silence for the rest of their trip to the elevator. However, Sam would never get on it. As Manarox summoned the elevator, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and before he could blink, he found himself whirling through space and time, in the grip of Gordanus. He appeared back in the cave that had become the subject of his nightmares, with the man who was often the inspiration for those nightmares.

“I hope you have been enjoying your escapades with that alien,” Gordanus said. “I won’t be letting you go here until you have proved yourself further. You may possess great power for your level, power beyond anything that I have seen at that rank, but you can still get more out of it.”

Sam could have been angry at the man for whisking him away again without a bit of warning, but he had come to realize that Gordanus would simply enjoy that. The man was a bit sadistic in his tendencies, and encouragement would only make them worse.

“I was able to use my purified mana more effectively in battle, Master, but I am afraid that I need some more tutelage in the subject. Will you help me with that?” Sam asked.

“Uh,” Gordanus began, searching for an excuse. It seemed that the man only wanted to beat Sam up sometimes, using training as an excuse. “Why don’t you go bother Pelar about it? That sack of flesh doesn’t have anything better to do with his time.” Gordanus turned around, drawing his bottle, and preparing to take a deep swig. “Well? Get to it!”

Sam nodded, and entered the Interweb a moment later, the real world dissipating before his eyes. He was deposited on the same beach that he had arrived at upon first using this spawn point, and quickly made his way up to Pelar’s house. The door was open, and he simply walked in. The house was as empty as last time, and as he made his way towards Pelar’s sanctum, he could hear the man muttering to himself. Sam knocked on his door loudly, causing the man to curse under his breath and rush to the door. Upon pulling it open, he was already in a defensive mood.

“For the last gods-cursed time, I am not interested in tithing to your bloody church!” he shouted at Sam, before realizing who he was. “Sam? What are you doing here?”

“Religious troubles?” Sam asked as he edged into the room.

“Yeah,” Pelar sighed. “Some church representatives keep pestering me for credits to support their cause. Probably want to force some other poor sap to become a System Battery.”

“Oh. That church,” Sam said.

“Of course. What else?”

“Never mind. Anyway, I came here because I reached a new level of mastery over that purified mana technique that you taught me. However, I cannot go past it, and Gordanus thinks that I need some more refinement,” Sam explained.

“Oh. Always happy to help with something like that. Come with me,” Pelar said, walking towards a comfortable looking chair.

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Sam followed him and sat down on another chair, crossing his hands on his lap. Pelar started to look over Sam, as if studying him. Sam sat there in silence for a few minutes, and then coughed.

“What do you think would be best for me to increase my mastery?” Sam asked, trying to be polite.

“Well, from what I saw, you seem to have been able to find some sort of technique to increase your ability to draw upon pure mana, as your channels have been purified to a greater extent. However, you have not been able to draw upon it in any sort of advanced manner, have you?”

“No. The only time I used it in battle, it was more of an instinct than anything else. I summoned it to my hands, and detonated it. Probably lucky that I didn’t blow a few fingers off or something.”

“Lucky indeed. You managed to use it in a meaningful way without suffering injury? I’m surprised. You must have outrageous durability for your level,” Pelar said.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Sma replied sheepishly. With his stock of free points, he could increase it at any time, but Pelar didn’t need to know that. Stat multipliers really were overpowered. The man had proven to be mildly trustworthy, but he had not known him for that long.

“Well, show me what you managed to accomplish then,” Pelar suggested, steepling his fingers and leaning back.

Sam nodded, and closed his eyes, beginning to draw his mana from his core. The mana came easier than before, and he found it more intuitive to fold his Dao energy away from it. He was anticipating having to expend some of his Dao energy to be able to remove the mana from his core but to his surprise his control was tight enough that he could do it without as much trouble. It seemed that his experimentation with his teleportation ability had imbued him with a greater mastery over his Dao than before.

In any case, a ball of bright blue light was summoned to his hand, and it spun there, glowing in the palm of his hand. Pelar stood up and walked over to the mana ball, studying it slowly. He looked up a moment later.

“This is far better than what you were able to before. How long has it been since I saw you last? It's been barely a week, right?”

“Something like that,” Sam replied.

“This is highly impressive. You must have reached some sort of Dao breakthrough in that time.”

“Well, that, and I found a natural treasure that allowed me to gain a greater control over my mana. Gordanus found it for me, I think. Perhaps it was just luck though,” Sam said.

“Not with that man. He always had a nose for treasure, no matter how dangerous it was to get. I won’t show you now, but I have a line of scars down my back from one time that he led us astray. We made a lot of money from that expedition, but the medical fees were astronomical. We had to seek out healing from above our rank,” Pelar replied, smiling ruefully. “If he was there, you can bet that he had found that treasure in advance. In any case, what are you here for? You have already managed to achieve the goal we set last time.”

“I just wanted a few more tips. It might be easier to use now, but without my other abilities, it seems a little bit lacking in comparison. I tend to use the same abilities over and over again in a fight, in order to wear down my main opponents. Such are the curses of constantly fighting up in level.”

“I guess. Well, why don’t you try using it then? Perhaps you will see how powerful it really is. It would be beneficial in a battle to be able to switch up your moves every now and again, after all.”

“How should I test it?” Sam asked.

“Enter a duel with me, and you will be able to fight properly. I won’t attack you, but you should surrender after testing out your attack. I don’t want to cause permanent soul damage to you,” Pelar replied.