Sam closed the message quickly, and took a few deep breaths, recovering from the strain. It had been harder than normal, given his unique method of resisting it, but the aftereffects were lessened dramatically. He no longer felt any regret from the threshold like he had before, but the mental exhaustion was something else.
He staggered to his feet, and let out a groan. A massive headache rippled through his head as he stood, but he resisted the urge to fall to his knees. Instead, he walked out of the barn, holding his head. His thoughts felt faster, and more put together. As he walked, the headache that he felt faded, until he was able to enjoy the new strength of his gains.
He felt like he could parse information more effectively than before, and he suddenly was filled with a storm of insight into the best possible way to go forwards, taking into account the relative strength of the Titans. Gaea would be the last, as she was the most powerful, but at the rate Sam was progressing, as long as he was able to have a hand in killing all of the Titans, he would be able to reach Peak F Rank by the time he had to fight Gaea. However, that did not take into account the fact that the Overlord was yet to use his training token. When he returned, he would be a force to be reckoned with. Rodney Kane was less of a threat, but he was still there, and not out of the game yet. Sam would need to plan around their presence.
In any case, he started to rank the Titans based on how easy they would be to take out with the strengths of the city and its defenders. Assuming that all of the Titans were keyed to a specific element, they would all have strengths and weaknesses. Gaea, being the Titan of Earth, would have the fewest weaknesses to the sort of attacks that the city excelled in. However, the others were more energy based in nature. Those monsters were weaker to mana attacks, as they bypassed their resistances. The inklings of a strategy began to percolate within Sam’s mind, but he would need to hash it out with his captains in order to be sure of its efficacy.
By the time he reached the spot where the captains had gathered, the core fragments were gone, and all that was left of the Titan were the massive footprints that it had left. The seared holes were gargantuan in scale, even more so now that the Titan was gone. Without the monster as a reference point, the holes were even larger than they had first appeared.
As Sam approached the craters, he could still feel the heat from the Solar Titan wafting up from it. It created a humid breeze that floated around the battlefield, the only nice thing left by the conflict. Sam stood there for a while, taking in the blasted plain, and then turned around, back towards his city. This would be a long few months.
Sam started to train for the majority of his days, using every last drop of his time to further his abilities. The battles with the Titans were what would grant him new levels, but in between them, he needed to increase in strength in other ways. As he attempted to further his Dao, he finally came across the insight that he needed to upgrade his Dao of Righteous Anger to the final step of mastery.
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Seated in front of the Dao Tree, his eyes closed in meditation, Sam pondered the meaning of his Dao. What it truly meant to feel a sense of justified rage. As he approached the final rank of the Dao, he could feel it trying to expand, shifting towards a grander meaning. There were many things that could be done with the concept, but the one that he was being tugged towards was that of an avenger. A being who followed the path of justice to punish those who had hurt them or the allies. However, he still needed to find the last bit of insight that would allow him to rank up his Dao.
He stewed in the memories of the times where he had been too weak, cultivating the rage and impotent terror that he had felt then. From his conflict with Berrigious to the first battle against the Overlord. He had been a victor more often than not, but he still knew defeat. The only thing that was good about that was the fact that he could always grow stronger, and seek his revenge no matter what happened. Until his death, he would always be able to grow stronger. Finally, after days of trying to conceptualize this, he managed to break through.
You have upgraded your Dao.
Dao Fragment of Righteous Anger(Final Step)
Righteous Anger is the purest and most virtuous form of wrath that there is. Rather than selfishly indulging in your own anger as a palliative for your inner suffering, you instead use it as a shield and sword with which to protect the innocent. Now that you have increased connection with his concept and ideal, it will begin to manifest itself more frequently. You have passed the first trial of your Dao, the trial of Will. You have proven to it that you are worthy to wield it, and as such more of its power is available to you. In discovering the next step of your Dao concept, you have realized that your rage is nothing without a purpose. For you, that purpose is that of vengeance for your fallen allies. In further conceptualizing that vengeance, you have discovered that nothing save for death can stop you. Until you take your last breath, nothing is impossible, and vengeance is assured.
+80 to all Physical Stats
+56 to all Mental Stats
As a sudden rush of power assaulted him, Sam realized that he was now butting up against the final thresholds that awaited him. Constitution, and Dexterity. That reminded him that he had still never read over the notifications from his impromptu threshold crossings during the battle with the Titans. Before starting, he opened those.
You have passed the Second Threshold of Dexterity.
Your speed is now the stuff of legends. On your old world, you would have been seen as a god among men. However, speed comes in many forms from the mental to the physical. Be sure that the speed of your mind matches the speed of your body. Many an acolyte of the path of Speed has found themselves dead before their minds even register it, the result of a lack of control on their part. To ensure that this never happens, you must find balance in your abilities.
Sam read through this quickly and then opened the next notification.
You have passed the Second Threshold of Resilience.
Many seek to follow this path because they fear the bite of pain, only finding out far too late that they have simply brought more pain upon themselves. You are not among their number however, and your will is greater than the constraints of your physical body. However, will is nothing without strength, and your bodily strength is immense.