Sam considered killing him anyway, but then he would be disqualified and that would ruin his chances of winning. With a snort, he backed up and then locked eyes with where he knew Rodney Kane to be sitting. The message was clear. He was next. Sam started to walk back to his seat, but then his legs stopped working. He looked down and saw that his front was covered in blood. That was the last thing that he saw for a long time.

Sam woke up in the arena hospital, lying on a bed. The lower half of his upper body was covered in bandages, and he was hooked up to an I.V bag that was filled with green liquid. He took a look around him and saw the body of his opponent lying on a bed across from him. His eyes were open, but completely vacant. It seemed that the man's mind had been broken by his fight with Sam. Sam looked around some more, but there was nobody else in the room with them. He sighed and checked the notifications that he had received.

You have upgraded the Dao Skill [Fiery Rage:Epic] into the Dao Skill [Fiery Justice:Legendary]

Fueled by the power of a Dao Fragment and the inner motivations of its user, this skill allows for the use of a berserker state, without the clouding of mental faculties that normally accompanies it.

That was the name of the new skill that Sam had used during the battle, the one that Fiery Rage had morphed into as he had used it. It was a lot more useful than the previous skill, as it was basically just free power. Sam was always open to that. The next notification was an even more welcome one.

You have upgraded your Dao.

Dao Fragment of Righteous Anger(First Step)

Righteous Anger is the purest and most virtuous form of wrath that there is. Rather than selfishly indulging in your own anger as a palliative for your inner suffering, you instead use it as a shield and sword with which to protect the innocent. Now that you have increased connection with his concept and ideal, it will begin to manifest itself more frequently.

+10 to all Physical Stats

+7 to all Mental Stats

Sam whistled as he saw the new stat bonuses. They were far more than they had been before. Then he paused. Sam winced for a moment, tensed up, and then relaxed. None of his stats had passed their thresholds. It would have been very annoying to have to deal with that when his body was in such a state of disrepair. A few minutes later, Eduardo and Lao rushed into the room. Behind them a few of Sam’s other allies waited, not wanting to disturb Sam. He smiled and greeted them with a wave, not up to much more. The two men gathered at the side of his bed, and Sam reached up with his hands to grasp theirs. Lao let out a relieved sigh.

“I thought that we had lost you. Did you hear my voice calling out for you to recover? Is that why you suddenly had a second wind?”

Sam nodded.

“It is, and I am eternally grateful to you for that. If not for your encouragement, I would have been dead right now.”

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The other man smiled weakly and let go of Sam’s hand. Eduardo cleared his throat and brought the conversation towards more pressing matters.

“Now with Andrew Munro out of the equation, it's up to you to win the tournament. Rodney Kane will be coming for you next, and he will not underestimate you this time. Be sure that you win, or else our positions will be in jeopardy. If you somehow beat the Overlord, then we will have achieved our goal and we can then form a proper faction.”

This surprised Sam.

“You want to make a faction with me?”

The others nodded.

“As well as a good portion of humanity. We need a strong protector, and what better than the strongest man on the planet? Or at least you will be if you win.”

Sam nodded and thought about what that would mean for himself. Rax and Jeffrey would be very surprised if was able to succeed against all odds. They were unable to access the leaderboards, so they had no idea how powerful he was right now except for his level. They would be in for a real shock when he met up with them again. He had tried to contact them through the party link before, but it seemed that they were too far away to do so. That again raised the question of where exactly this arena was.

“Lao? Eduardo? Do either of you know where this arena actually is?”

The others shook their heads too, but Lao had a thoughtful expression on his face.

“I was wondering that as well. The tides of reciprocity that we as humans have with places and things are almost completely unintelligible because of distance. I don't think that we are on Earth anymore.”

“Really? Why would they go to such an expense to transport us here?” Sam asked. All he got was blank stares in reply. Sam clicked his fingers suddenly.

“Wait a sec, I forgot to tell you two about something. Have either of you heard about the Multiversal Interweb?”

Both of them shook their heads and gave him a perplexed look. Sam smiled and showed them how to access it. It took a few minutes but eventually they grasped it. With apprehensive looks, both men sat down on the nearby bed and entered the Interweb. Sam entered shortly after them and waited to see them.

They did not arrive, and he remembered that he had spawned in a different place. He opened his fast travel interface and selected the correct section. There was a whooshing noise and he suddenly found himself standing on top of the building that he had spawned in on. The two other men were standing there, looking over the edge nervously. Sam walked up behind them and tapped their shoulders. Eduardo let out a very uncharacteristic scream and then scowled at Sam.

“Sam! How did you get here?” The man asked. Lao merely smiled at his ignorance, in a way that suggested that he already knew everything about the situation. He somehow managed to pull this off without seeming condescending, which was a miracle as of itself. Eduardo ignored his saintly visage and instead paled as he saw Sam running towards the edge.

“Sam, what the hell?” It was too late. Sam was already over the edge and Eduardo rushed over to look down. What he saw was the figure of Sam standing unharmed far below. He called up to them to follow, and Lao jumped next, completely trusting. Eduardo sighed and followed, landing safely on the ground far below.

“Ok, guys, Welcome to the Interweb. I would explain it, but I’m pretty sure that both of you should be getting a notification about now. That should explain it well enough.”

Sure enough, their eyes glazed over and they read over the screen for a moment. Then they looked up at Sam.

“How is this possible?” Eduardo asked, a look of awe on his face.

Sam shrugged and started to run towards the library. Both men followed him and they ran into the strange spatial dilation effect. Sam flashed them both cheeky grins and used his fast travel ability to appear in front of the library.

He looked at the two men struggling to go up the street and beheld a very strange sight. They were moving in slow motion, with both of them almost appearing stationary. As Sam focused in, he saw that they were both moving slightly, but not much. He wondered what they were feeling as they watched him stand there. About half an hour later, they both arrived and the dilation effect stopped.