Sam saw that he had not added in the points from his previous level, and he did so, putting them all into Strength. The bonus that he got from his threshold was extremely powerful, and he wanted to continue gaining as much as he could out of it. Wanting to see if his new title bonus increased his stat any more than it would have before, he opened his stats again.
Sam Atlas
Human
Mortal Tier
G Rank
Class:Dao Visionary
Level 32
Strength
60
1.375x
Constitution
39
1.375x
Resilience
33
1.375x
Dexterity
31
1.375x
Intelligence
40
1.375x
Wisdom
55
1.375x
* Health 390/390
* Mana 400/400
* Stamina 900/900
* Dao
Dao Fragment of Righteous 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
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It seemed that while he had gained somewhat of a boost, it was not enough to push him over the edge to gaining more stat points per one that he put in. Sighing, he closed his stats, knowing that he was already getting a far better deal than anyone else at this moment was. Seeing as he was checking the System functions, he figured that he might as well see who was on the leaderboards. He had been told that they had changed, and he wanted to see by how much. Opening the total power leaderboard, he grinned as he saw the new changes.
Overall Power
1.The Overlord
2.Rodney Kane
3.The Arbiter
4. The Scourge of New York
5. Profound Visionary
6. Melissa Tang
7. The Angel of Death
8.Reaper
9.Anonymous
10. The Bear of the Motherland
Sam was now the third most powerful person in the world, and as he saw this, he was greeted with yet another title upgrade.
The title, [Top 5 Power, Planet Earth: Legendary] has been changed to [Top 3 Power, Planet Earth: Legendary]. + 3% to all stats
It was barely a change at all, only bringing his stat multiplier up to 1.38, but at least he had removed the floating fourth number.
The sound of glass shattering dissuaded anyone going near Andrew Munro’s room from going any closer. The man was in the grips of a fiery rage, after he had seen what had happened with the overall power leaderboard. He had lost his place, and with it some of his power from his title. It was only a measly amount, true, but it was the principle of the matter that counted. He would be a laughingstock among his peers and his closest friend would probably make fun of him. Their relationship was more one of mutual alliance rather than anything else, as a criminal and a former politician could only pretend to be like normal people for so long before their real faces were revealed. Nothing would actually happen to him because of this, but it was still humiliating. He would have his revenge on Sam Atlas, that was for certain.
Back in Lao’s room, Sam was explaining all of the changes in his stats to the eager man. Of course he left out some details, such as his class and his Dao heritage, but the rest was enough to satisfy the old mystic. He bowed low in front of Sam and congratulated him on his new power. If Lao was any worse of a man, he would have been jealous, but he had transcended such base foibles long ago. Instead, he only felt joy for his friend. Also, it wouldn't hurt that their faction was now headed by the third strongest man on Earth.
Besides, Lao was not too far behind. He was still in the top five after all, and with his mastery of the Dao, he would probably reach higher levels soon enough.
Sam was worried that the man who he had so brutally defenestrated from his former position would come seeking revenge. Unfortunately, the leaderboard did not actually say how much stronger the fighters were from each other, and as far as Sam knew, the battle could go either way. Judging by the way that the System had been creating the matches so far, he would be facing off against Andrew Munro soon enough. He was not looking forward to that.
Sam made his way out of the room after having explained everything and he walked towards the arena entrance. There should be another round of fights starting about now. Sam had never really thought about it, but it was strange that everyone seemed to make it to the start of the matches just in time, without any sort of prompting from any outside source. There were some strange things going on with the System, he guessed, and it was subtly manipulating their minds to be on time. It was a lot more subtle than announcing it through the halls, but Sam wondered what was the point. Was it just some sort of power play or was there an actual reason?
Seeing most of the fighters traipse on in, Sam found his customary seat. A few minutes later, he had a strange feeling, almost as if somebody was trying to drill a hole in his skull with just their gaze. He turned around and saw the thunderous face of Andrew Munro. There were flecks of foam on his lips, and he looked completely deranged. The man was channeling his aura through his gaze, but because they were on a similar level of power, nothing was happening. Curious as to what would happen if he did this, Sam sent a spike of his own aura, laced with the power of his new Dao straight at the other man.
Andrew winced as the attack struck home and then clutched his head. Sam flashed him a cheeky grin and then watched the beginning of the battle. This seemed to be the beginning of the losers’ bracket matches that would determine if the fighters were able to make it out of their positions of having lost.
The first match was between Reaper and Anonymous. As they walked up to the arena, both of them gave each other strange looks that Sam couldn't parse. Perhaps it was because they were in the same alliance, or maybe they were just trying to psyche each other out. Anonymous had decided to go without her mask after she had been revealed to everyone by Eduardo and her small, child-like face was at odds with her reputation and power. If not for the fact that Sam could feel her aura, he would have thought that she was just a normal teenage girl.
They entered the sands of the arena and began without waiting for the System to announce the start of the battle. The audience oohed and ahhed at the fight, but Sam had since learned to drown them out with his own thoughts. They were immaterial, and only a distraction from the real fight. The humans in the audience would be the vassals of the winners of this tournament and they were nothing to him.
Feeling a little strange about how much his perspective had shifted, after all he could have been one of them easily enough, Sam watched the battle as it progressed. The two fighters seemed to be holding back for some reason and neither of them used any sort of deadly technique. Reaper stuck to simple armor creation with his ectoplasm, and Anonymous only used her daggers. They had definitely been conspiring with each other.
As Reaper moved to exploit an opening, Anonymous retaliated, revealing that it had been a trick. However, it had been so obvious that Sam had seen it from a mile away, and apparently so had the audience, from the noise that they were making. It was becoming clear to them as well that this fight was rigged.
The fight never progressed past a magically enhanced clash of fists and steel, and eventually they both attacked each other at the same time, with Reaper sending a fist towards Anonymous’ head and she thrusting her knife’s dull edge into the base of the man’s skull. They both collapsed to the ground and there was a pause. The System’s voice rang out and it seemed angry.
“As a result of the clearly manipulated circumstances of this match, from now on any such result as this will result in immediate disqualification of the fighters in question. However, as this was not explained to these two, they both will move back into the winners’ bracket.”
The audience started booing, and Sam got up to join them. The rest of his group did as well, but the enemy faction did not move. Neither did the Overlord, but that was more out of apathy than anything else.
Sam sat down after a moment and watched as the two bodies were carted off to the medical bay. Seeing as this sort of thing was probably going to start happening more and more, manipulation of the rules that was, Sam would have to be on guard. He wanted to win the tournament, so he needed to be ready for any sort of underhanded dealing. In fact, he needed to win the tournament, or else the winner would use their power to destroy him.