Disconnected from the aid of the Voidrot, his foe was far weaker than he had expected. Wood crumpled underneath his blows, and the monster soon fell to the ground, its right leg shattered. More and more of the nearby conceptual energy of decay tried to reach its avatar, but Sam refused, sending his own Dao to work at cutting the strands before they could reach their target.

Doing so, he was able to kill the monster in a matter of moments, turning it into a pile of splinters on the ground. Then he burned it to ash with a plume of Dao energy.

Before he could rejoice though, he was met with an unpleasant surprise. There was far less essence from the kill than normal. Only now was he really understanding how the whole variable level thing worked. Power directly corresponded to essence, and the fully empowered Voidrot Guardians must have been drawing upon the Voidrot itself to supplement their might.

Sam moved on, teleporting next to the second Guardian, his hammer blurring around in an arc of steel and lightning. It impacted the side of the monster’s head, knocking it off the ground. With a grin, Bronvar saluted Sam with his ax, the weapon glistening in the light.

“I guess you are what you claim, Sam Atlas. What a pleasant surprise.”

Sam simply nodded as he teleported once more, the air zipping open and closed around him. He sent his hammer one another path, straight towards his foe’s left leg. The Voidrot Guardian’s flesh tore before his might, but as long as the ribbons of elemental and conceptual power that connected it to the Voidrot remained, it was functionally immortal.

Instead of battering the hulk of wood until he wore out his hammer, he instead cut its ties to its patron in an instant with his command over the Dao. It seemed that his compatriots, while powerful, lacked Daos at the same order of power as his, which was why they were unable to do the same thing.

Taking advantage of this, Sam and his allies laid into the beleaguered Voidrot Guardian, dismantling it with ease. As the corpse fell to the ground, he was met with a series of surprise filled gazes.

“You can sever their connection to the Voidrot?” One of the Forest Folk elites said. “Why didn’t you tell us that before?”

“I didn’t know until now. Most of the ones I’ve fought so far were already rooted to one of the Sentinel trees.”

“Leave the outsider alone,” Bronvar said sternly. “He has proven to be a great asset. Who cares what his background is?”

Sam nodded along, but most of his focus was on his objective marker, which had ticked up by a single point. He still had nine missions left though, until he could upgrade his title one more. Although it was still merely Ancient ranked, it provided almost as much as his other titles combined. As the Tower progressed, it would fuel his future growth, giving him an advantage that few, if any, could match. Despite all of these dreams of power, what remained at the forefront of his mind was his burgeoning civilization, an entire Multiverse away.

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Earth, Faction Headquarters

A bit less than a week had passed since Sam and the Overlord had left. In that time, the city had faced waves of invaders, incensed by the failure of three E Rankers to teach the upstart planet its place.

Across the planet, a concerted effort was being made to reclaim all of the lost cities of Earth under the banner of Sam’s faction. So far, a dozen smaller towns had been claimed, and defended with the Planetary Core. As it turned out, its basic functions had been empowered as well, and construction could be carried out at any point on the planet under the jurisdiction of the faction that controlled it.

A good portion of the Southeastern United States was now protected by domes of azure light, and reinforced by subterranean passageways that connected the central city to its various suburbs. So far, it still lacked a name, but it would be given one once Sam returned.

The treasury had swelled to truly unprecedented heights, tens of billions of credits swirling around the economy. Under the watchful gaze of Okina, the survivors of Earth’s apocalypse were thriving economically. The walls had been discarded in favor of the force field, which was more efficient for the same amount of money. The field extended out for over a hundred miles in every direction, marking out a zone easily visible from space.

The captains still stood at the peak of F Rank, and most of them wouldn’t be going anywhere else soon. E Rank was a gulf that few could cross, especially over anything less than a year. Lao was the closest conceptually, and because the levels of the elites were equalized, he would probably break through first.

Many of the other captains were coming closer to the peak of their rank, honing themselves on the seemingly endless waves of invaders. So far, no more E Rankers had come, but it was just a matter of time.

The population of the city and its wider environs had finally grown to include all of the human survivors who had been sequestered away by the System after the tournament. The population hovered around five million, including some of the alien mercenaries who had switched sides.

Every few minutes, teams of fighters were dispatched to hold key positions on the front lines of the reclamation effort, reinforcing the communities acting as the first line of defence. So far, all of those not suited for battle, from crafters to the infirm, remained in the central city.

As of the current moment, most of the captains were away on missions, and the faction was being manned by Talnor, Jeffrey and Lao. The three men had been eagerly watching Sam’s progress through the Tower as they cultivated. Right now, there was no need for training, save for the conceptual delving that was needed to rank up.

The only new addition to their might was a new gun for Jeffrey, which he had commissioned from George. The man had reached the peak of Apprentice Tier for smithing, and was able to create rudimentary firearms that ran off of mana. He had started to branch off from general smithing to a focus on weapons, which were more important for arming a general populace.

The weapon was modeled after a pistol, but contained enough potency to level a city block, or even a few if enough energy was forced into it. With Jeffrey’s Dao and the mana pool of a peak F Ranker, he could achieve great things with his new gun.