Leaving his room, Sam searched for Profound Visionary. Hearing a strange humming noise coming from one of the rooms,he moved towards it, recognizing the sound of the man’s voice. He knocked on the door and the humming stopped. A moment later, it opened, revealing the face of the mystic himself. Looking at Sam for a second, he opened the door wider and let him in.

Sitting down on what looked to be a piece of rug that had been cut off of the main section, he waited for Sam to speak. Before he did so, he took in the room and its furnishings, or rather lack thereof. There was nothing in the room, save for the ceiling light and the piece of rug that the man now sat on. As Sam turned to him with an obvious question on his lips, Profound Visionary answered before Sam could say anything.

“The lack of distractions helps me focus on my meditation. If I am to reach the next level of the Dao anytime soon, then I will need to meditate efficiently. Not, as to why you are here. You seek counseling about your own Dao, correct? In addition, you recently went through a Dao Tribulation.”

Sam stared at the man.

“How did you know all of that?” Sam asked, astounded. The other man smiled and tapped the side of his head.

“I would like to say my wisdom, but in reality my Dao gives me some abilities that some might consider… unnatural.”

Sam gave him a look.

“Did you just make a movie reference?” Sam asked, shocked that the man who had lived in a monastery for so many years would know about that.

“I’m not that old, Sam. Living on rice for many years had prematurely wizened me. Besides, some of the other monks would come back to the monastery with DVDs sometimes. We had a small tv for the purpose of instructional videos, but it was quickly repurposed to play movies on. They were always badly dubbed, as we could not succumb too much to the pleasures of the flesh, but that line got through well.”

Sam laughed and waited for the other man to answer his original question. Seeing that he was impatient, Profound Visionary smiled and waggled his finger.

“You must be willing to wait for great power to come to you. Not everything is training. But I suppose that I must answer you now. What you went through was a test from your Dao to see if you were worthy of its strictures. If you pass it, then your connection deepens a little, but if you fail you start to lose that connection. Passing it also rewards you with an item, usually something that is part of the vision.”

Sam nodded. That was exactly what had happened to him. The other man continued and picked up something from the ground next to him. It was a small ring that pulsed with gentle blue light. Passing it over to Sam, he let him analyze it.

Ring of the Sage

G-Rank Item

A ring that passively increases the wearer’s wisdom through regular bouts of introspection and tests. Every 12 hours that it is worn, one gains a point into Wisdom, as long as the tests are passed. Limit of 2 points per level.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Sam dropped the ring as if he was holding something dirty.

“That's… that's a goddamn cheat!” Sam shouted, clapping his hand over his mouth as he remembered his company. “You can get two extra points per level just from this?”

The other man smiled and shrugged.

“I guess it is. By the way, I know that you're getting tired of referring to me by my title in your head. You can call me Lao. Before you start sputtering, that was another effect of my Dao. I am not a mind reader, just good at sensing emotions. Anyway, that was not the main reason that you came here though. You thought about my words, did you not?”

Sam nodded.

“Yes, I need to fix my Daos before I have to fight against someone powerful, and I recently passed my Wisdom threshold which allowed me to see what I was doing wrong.”

Lao cocked his head.

“Don't you have that in your Strength stat as well? How did you get two thresholds in such a short time without completely unbalanced stats?”

Sam's look must have told Lao everything, as he did not press the subject.

"Never mind. Come sit by me, and we can get started.” Sam followed the man’s directions and sat beside him in a cross legged position, beginning to let himself relax. Lao took in a deep breath, and Sam followed him. Rather than say anything, the other man started to breathe in and out regularly and Sam copied him. After about 15 minutes, his mind was completely calm. Lao opened his eyes next to Sam and looked at him.

“Now we can begin. Firstly, have you reached the visualization stage of your Dao development yet?”

“What, you mean that I can see them within my body? Yes, I have.”

Lao smiled.

“Good. I want you to go look at them right now.” Sam tried to do so, but he then realized that he was still disconnected from them.

“Uh, I might not be able to reach them right now. There were some complications that I have to deal with now.”

The other man shook his head.

“No matter how fractured, your Dao is, and always will be a part of you. You can find it no matter where it is. Just try. You might surprise yourself.”

Wondering how the older man knew all of this, Sam started to test it out. He drifted into his corespace and started to search for his Daos. There was nothing available there, but he instead started to look for the feeling that the Daos gave him and eventually he found a thin thread of their conceptual energies. Diving into his soul and using the thread as a guiding line, he was able to delve further than he had ever done so before.

His mind started to get a bit fuzzy, but still he pressed on, his single minded determination forcing him past his own limits in search of answers. Finally, two lights appeared out of the darkness, one of white energy and the other of red and orange. The white orb was cracked down the middle and streams of energy were tugged out of it by the gravity of the other orb, which was trying to force it to adapt.

Sam reached the surface of his Dao of the Arbiter and laid his hands on it. Back in the real world, his body twitched as his soul started to convulse. Lao laid his hands on Sam and started to send some of his energy into him. Within the soul space, Sam saw a wave of calming blue energy sweep across his soul, enveloping him and easing his pain somewhat. Laying hands on a fractured Dao was like looking upon something that was not meant to be, a rent in reality, a tear in existence. As he did so however, he gradually started to see what was going wrong. His other Dao had forced him towards violent behaviors that did not fit well with his Dao of the Arbiter, and this created a toxic dichotomy that could not last without one caving. Sam could see that even with all of the safeguards in place from the placement of his Daos within this area, they were still disintegrating, albeit slowly. In fact, his arrival here had caused the process to speed up and he recognized that he would not be able to fix them again if he did not do so now. Sam retreated from the surface of the orb and started to grasp at the streams of energy with his mind. He didn't know how he was doing this, but it felt right.