He turned his gaze inward for a bit, analyzing his perfect set of nodes. A spiral of energy reaching in towards his heart, it encompassed his entire body. Each node took in ambient essence and cycled it when he set his mind to it. However, he usually had no need, given how many fights he got into.

He continued to look at his nodes, and then moved in towards his core. Whereas before it had simply been a generic ball of energy, it was starting to gain features. His nodes linked into it, tracers of power providing essence. His mana core and Dao core were nearby, but in a strange twist of mental reality, they were impossibly far away, unless he focused on them.

The core itself looked like a sun, and it was his body’s main method of processing essence. When it was imbued with essence, it spread its power throughout his body, in accordance with his leveling choice. He peered deeper into his core, deeper than he had ever looked before. Something about his heightened stats allowed him a greater degree of clarity within his mental space, and he could see three thick bands of energy that stretched out of his core, dividing into smaller strands as they went. One of them connected to his brain and neurons, its tendrils becoming truly miniscule. Another went to his muscles and body. Finally, the third one extended out into infinity, likely representing his Wisdom’s effect on Dao comprehension.

Pulses of power raced along those strands, providing energy to his body. He sat there in comfortable silence for some time, simply taking in the wonder that was continued within his own body. Life in the Boundless Expanse was often dark and dangerous, but sometimes, it was beautiful.

A few hours later, they returned to the city. It sprawled out across the plains, having easily doubled in size since last Sam had seen. It now rivaled, if not exceeded, any city on Old Earth. More and more of the people kept in stasis after the tournament were returning, and the population now numbered in the millions.

Although alien invaders still plagued the earth, they had all broken upon the walls of the city, unable to overcome the defenses. As an F Rank faction, they had access to all manner of potent armaments, more than strong enough to deal with any threat on the planet. Sam even caught a glimpse of what looked like an orbital bombardment station, dozens of miles up in the sky.

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The walls were now made out of a strange greenish metal, which he had been informed was called orichalcum, which was an alloy of steel and mithril. It only used tiny fractions of the incredibly valuable neutron star metal, but it was still many times stronger than most other metals. Jeffrey had told him that the greenish color was due to its density compressing the impurities in the metal to the exterior of its surface.

In any case, the city’s force field was its main defense, far outstripping the wall in terms of usefulness. At this point, it was able to take multiple hits from an E Ranker without crumbling away. The automatons had been upgraded as well, and there were enough of them to patrol the surrounding area.

The city center was just as built up as Old Earth cities, with massive skyscrapers containing various guilds dominating the space. Further out, verdant pastures extended, providing enough food for millions. Of course, most of it was sold on the Interweb for profit as many of the citizens did not need to eat much at their level of power. At this point, it was a source of significant earnings.

In the city hall, Sam sat, reading over a report of the alien invasions over the last few weeks. Apparently, they had ramped up significantly, and the only reason he hadn’t seen any was because they were purposefully avoiding him in favor of easier targets. He and his closest allies, and the Overlord as well, were objects of wonder to the invaders, who could not fathom their leveling speed and Dao mastery.

Speaking of the Overlord, the man sat in another part of the room, cultivating. He was under close guard by a dozen peak F Rank automatons, as well as some of the captains. It was unlikely that they could defeat him, but they could easily stall him, despite all his power, what with the enhancement arrays. While he and Sam had the power of low E Rankers at this point, they were still both in F Rank, and as such, the arrays worked on them. That went for the weakening array as well.

However, the presence of the Overlord was not the most pressing thing. That was the book propped open on Sam’s lap, which he was voraciously devouring. It was a manual of E Rank ascension. However, it was frustratingly vague, as apparently, knowing too much about the process itself was enough to destabilize it. It reeked of information control to Sam, but there were no better options. Besides, that part at least was somewhat true.

The bit that rubbed him the wrong way was the constant refrain that anyone who failed the process and crippled themselves permanently would always be welcome as a System Battery. So far, Sam had never seen one of the misbegotten people who had been cursed so, and he did not want to find out. The idea of becoming one was abhorrent in the extreme.