An half hour later, he found that his anticipation about a challenge was misplaced. The first of the elemental brutes had been almost half composed of lightning, and as such was a bit harder to fight in a contest of physical strength. Even better, it possessed ranged attacks. With every roar, the skies would open up, disgorging a lightning bolt the width of a telephone pole down towards him.

However, Sam’s elemental attacks simply dismantled the monster, tearing it apart with ease. The lightning bolt had been a bit more of a surprise, as it caused his body to seize slightly, but that was all. The normal muscular paralysis was canceled out by his E Rank status, and all that he suffered from was the elemental concept imbued into the attack. His Dao was more than enough to resist, now that it was a part of his being.

It was still strange having to think of himself as a fused entity rather than a being of parts. It was so far from his previous experience that he felt significant dissonance from thinking about it.

Leaving the hill that had served as the lion’s den behind, he continued on across the savannah. The Alphas vanished before his blows, especially considering that he now knew how they fought and what their weaknesses were.

The other four hills were turned to piles of clay and rock as he passed. With his new power, he could move thousands of miles within ten minutes, which made the land flash by. He could teleport miles with ease, and he tested his maximum range after killing the third Brute.

With all of his Dao Energy, he was able to teleport almost fifty miles, quite a significant amount, even for his level. It was far more than he could move in the same amount of time. However, the hills were placed thousands of miles apart, to account for things like that. The Alphas were scattered seemingly at random around the area, and their presence wasted more of Sam’s time. He did notice a promising trend though, in that the overall number of monsters was going down, and their strength was going up.

Perhaps something would change next floor, but then again, perhaps not.

At a Branch Headquarters of the Adventurers’ Guild

A quartet of high ranking Guild officials glowered at the screen before them, watching as the man whom their faction had snubbed progressed through the early stages of the Tower of Transcendence at a rate that defied belief.

“We shall have to devote a large sum of money to the sponsorship floors,” one of them said.

“It would have to be quite the sum to make up for the bad impression that certain elements within our faction have made,” another declared. He turned towards those certain elements, watching as the group of representatives that had greeted Sam so rudely in the Interweb. Before the gaze of a C Ranker, they quailed.

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“Anything to say for your incompetence?” The original speaker asked.

“No, High Elder Zakoss. There is no excuse.” The one who answered was the only one not shaking in abject terror. While the Adventurers’ Guild was less brutal than most, failure was still considered to be a stain upon their honor.

“You’re damn right about that. If by some miracle we manage to get the boy back to our side, a public apology from you and your compatriots will be the least he will receive. It is not every day, any millenia even, that a talent such as his emerges.”

Zakoss fell silent, watching Sam brutalize beasts that should have been just as powerful as he was. A spark of respect was beginning to grow within the Elder’s heart. This was a man who would go far, especially with the right support. It was well known that the mysterious leader of the Guild was growing bored with the performance of their subordinates. When that happened, things tended to grow bloody. There had been a few purges in the past, and they were much of the reason that almost nobody knew anything about their own Guild’s leader.

On Marsoon, Capital Planet of the Isolationists

The council of the Isolationists, B Rankers all, watched as their prime pick for this Tower of Transcendence cycle made short work of all that stood before him. Jacob Atlas, or as he now went, the Overlord, was perhaps the second most promising being to come of the last few millennia. The possessor of a remarkably powerful Dao Seed, he also possessed the mindset that made the Isolationists so famous.

Their universe was perhaps one of the most developed in the Multiverse, expanded beyond the normal extent of most. It was dozens of times the size of most universes, and the amount of concentrated power it contained was second only to the Universe Prime, the seat of power for the Creator Kings.

All seven of the High B Rankers who made up the council were veterans of eons, well versed in the tides and tribulations of progress. It was because of this that they recognized a swell in the ocean of the Multiverse, one summited by a singular universe. When a single B Ranker could determine the fate of universes, and an A Ranker to determine the fate of the Multiverse as a whole, the promise of beings with potential to reach that level was more valuable than anything save for them actually being at that level of power.

“The other factions will be bidding eagerly on those two,” the leader of the council declared. Arkaon Anthar had been at the bottleneck of A Rank for the last hundred million years, and was searching for something to allow him to cross that final gap to true godhood.

“Even though we do not care for Sam Atlas as much as the other, he would still be useful to bid on. However, judging by his character, I believe that he will refuse the offers that the factions send him. It might serve us well to drive up their price to the other factions though.”

The next speaker was Arkaon’s wife, named Dorghara. She had been by his side for the majority of his life, ever since they had first stepped on the path to godhood as a pair of lowly F Rankers in a frontier universe. Save for the Creator Kings, they were perhaps one of the greatest success stories in the Multiverse.

The others were almost as well known, five of the most powerful B Rankers in the Multiverse. Then again, there were hardly many in the first place. The Isolationists alone counted a sizeable fraction of them among their number.