He made his way back to the arena and slunk inside the door, making sure that there was nobody there to see him. As he walked down the corridor and back to his room, he spotted somebody walking up it, shortly followed by a whole group of people. It was the enemy faction, and Sam had no intention of tangling with them. He ducked into a side corridor and regulated his breathing as they passed by. If not for the presence of Reaper, Anonymous, and the two leaders of the group, he would not have been troubled. It seemed that Reaper and Anonymous had finally decided to pick a side, and now, rather than simply sitting with the group, they were a part of it.

After they passed, Sam let out a deep breath and continued to his room. Opening the door and ducking inside, he froze as he spotted a man sitting on one of his sofas. As the man turned towards him, Sam let out a gasp. It was the Overlord. Drawing his weapon in one smooth motion, Sam prepared to fight, no matter how futile it was. To his surprise, the other man waved his hand dismissively.

“I am not here to fight. Merely to ask a question. Why do you not use your Dao in your fights?”

Sam paused and then put his mace back.

“How the hell did you get into my room? I’m the only one with a key.” The Overlord did not answer, instead staring at Sam. Sighing, he answered the original question.

“That is of no concern to you. Now, if you will excuse me, I have things to do. Can you please leave?” Without taking his eyes away from Sam, the Overlord walked out of the room and into the hallway, clearly suspicious of him. Sam sat down, worried about what had just happened. How exactly had the man gotten into his locked room without his permission, or his key? Was it to do with his power; had he simply broken through the defenses with his Dao? Sam dismissed that. That was not a very likely thing to happen, as the System would likely have planned for something like that to happen. It simply seemed as if this would be a mystery, at least until Sam found out more about the Overlord. For now, it was time to explore his new Meridian and to level up.

Debating which to do first, he decided to upgrade his stats before his Meridian. If he had to fight again soon, this would be the better option. Picking up the large orb of essence, he crushed it between his hands, allowing the essence stored within to rush into his body. It felt like he was inhaling liquid glass, and he choked on the substance as it entered him. Coughing, he read his new status sheet. Now he knew why the crystal had been so cheap for its power in the merchant’s booth. Who the hell would want to go through that just to level up? Looking at his stat sheet, he decided that he would for the amount of potential power that he had just gained. Before he could check the stats, a System notification popped up.

Warning, essence corruption has reached 10 percent. This is the maximum threshold for natural depletion of corruption within your body. Any more consumption of unearned essence will result in permanent difficulties leveling up.

And there was the other reason. Sam had known that the description of the essence crystal was too good to be true. He was glad that he had not succumbed to the siren’s call of easy power, and had bought a lot of the crystals without knowing the side effects. This was a valuable lesson, and one with no real cost as of now. As long as he remembered what would happen, he would be fine. Finally opening his stat sheet, he inspected the new changes.

Sam Atlas

Human

Mortal Tier

G Rank

Class:Dao Visionary

Level 32

(6 free stat points)

Strength

50

1.325x

Constitution

34

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

1.325x

Resilience

28

1.325x

Dexterity

26

1.325x

Intelligence

36

1.325x

Wisdom

47

1.325x

* Health 340/340

* Mana 360/360

* Stamina 750/750

* Dao

Dao Mote of The Arbiter

Dao Mote of Anger

* Skills

1x Common, 2x Rare,1x Epic, 2x Legendary

* Titles

1x Celestial

* Temporary Titles

1x Epic, 1x Legendary, 1x Mythical

* Dao Heritage

Dao Incarnation of Existence

* Party

Torturna Salvinii-Brescon: Level 26. Health 350/350

Rax:Level 25. Health 370/370

* Skill Branches

Muscle Density Enhancement(Level 1)

Basic Weapon Knowledge:Blunt(Level 1)

* Weapon Style

Flowing Water Style

* Weapon Mastery:Implement Stage 5

* Elemental Affinities

Earth:1% Mastery

Sam was happy to see that his party members were doing well for themselves. Both of them had gained their classes, and as far as he would tell, were gaining something out of them. Both of their health counters had increased substantially, showing that they had increased their Constitution substantially. More importantly, he had a choice to make.

Knowing what happened upon reaching level 50 in a stat, did he want to cross another threshold now, or wait until later? His stat gains from his class had enabled him to increase Wisdom by a large amount without having to place a single point in it. Either way, by the next level he would have it, but he had no idea when that would happen. Eventually, he decided to do it. Placing three stat points into Wisdom, he waited for the pain to hit him. This time, it was like there was a cauldron full of boiling acid being poured directly into his brain. His eyes were forcibly opened to the world, and to all of his interactions within it. All of his transgressions, all of his sins were laid bare for him to see.

The physical pain stopped, but the mental anguish was far worse. It made him feel like a failure, a complete non entity to see all the times that he had neglected to pick the right option that could have done so much more for him. He saw that he had wasted his life before the System had come by moping around and not applying himself to living properly. This more than anything else was what really seared his brain to the core. After what felt like hours of this, the feelings subsided and he was deposited back within the naive safety of his own mind.

You have passed the First Threshold of Wisdom.

Wisdom is what allows for the formulations of efficient plans, knowing what is to come, and even for more esoteric ponderings, such as upon the Dao. Wisdom might seem useless, but it is far from that. Only the wise truly understand that simple truth however. If wisdom is required to attain wisdom, then is wisdom predetermined?

The notification took a more philosophical bent by the end, and it still did not explain exactly how this new threshold was going to do for him. Sam felt more powerful, but in an incredibly vague way. Then, looking inwards, he saw. His Daos had been repaired even further, and suddenly he understood what his problem was. His Dao Heritage meant that he was supposed to comprehend the Dao of Existence, which he assumed was the greatest Dao that there was. However, he still had to start somewhere, and that was at the very beginning. Rather than picking a single path and following that to the end, he would have to connect with every Dao in existence. The two Daos that he possessed now were in conflict, and the only way to fix them was to create something greater out of the ashes of the old.

How he was to do this, Sam did not know, but he knew, as surely as he knew of his own existence, that he would figure it out. It was time to ask someone who was more versed in the ways of the Dao than himself about the whole thing.