As the only opponent that Sam would be allowed to fight would be Rodney Kane, he had some time to practice his abilities and skills. His mace mastery was good enough for what he was planning, as he had no way to upgrade something that was the creation of a being far more powerful than him. No, what his idea was to walk down the long road of full body enhancement. The ability that he had used against the Overlord in the last minutes of the fight had catapulted his power to extents that he had never dreamed of before, and if it had been mastered, it might have been enough.
So, Sam began to train, with the help of Sarge. After his arm had fully healed, he was able to enhance it properly, and today would be the first time that he attempted to use the skill again. Walking up to Sarge, Sam sat down and tried to think of what he would say.
“I don’t suppose that you have access to the arena feeds?” Sam asked.
The robot nodded.
“Of course, one of my primary functions is to masquerade as one of the fighters that my charges will have to fight. I was surprised that you did not make use of that function.”
Sam was pleasantly surprised, and his face showed as much.
“Huh, can you mimic the fighting style and power of the Overlord’s last form then?”
“Yes, but do you really want to fight something at that power again? I might accidentally kill you.”
Sam was almost about to so no, but then a surge of resolve hit him. Shaking his head, Sam answered.
“No. I will win this tournament at all costs. I will take some pain if it is necessary.”
Sarge muttered something that sounded vaguely like a warning that Sam was going to be in a lot more than some pain. The robot sighed and got up, and immediately sent out a surge of aura. Sarge’s body began to take on the color of the Overlord’s form as well, creating the illusion of the man standing in front of Sam. With a deep breath, Sam stepped into the arena. It was time to see if he had what it took to be the strongest.
As soon as he entered the arena, Sam was blindsided by a punch so powerful that all of the teeth of the right side of his face were sent flying out of his mouth. Even then, he could tell that the robot was holding back.
Sam scampered backwards and rapidly began to cycle his Dao and elemental energy, trying to ignore the searing pain of his mouth. Sarge walked slowly towards him, mimicking the character of the Overlord as well. This gave Sam time to start enhancing himself. The power of his Dao energy and his Earth mastery started to coalesce, creating an incredibly unstable matrix of energy within his body. Sam closed his eyes. If he was to pull this off without crippling himself, he needed to focus.
It took everything that he had to ignore the overwhelming presence walking towards him, but Sam persevered. With a cracking noise, the matrix sunk into his bones and muscles, causing his body to erupt into agony. Along with it came a strange feeling, one that felt as if his body was a puppet, and his was the puppet master. Moving came easier to him, and Sam sensed that he would be able to pick himself up with his mind if he wanted to. As a punch spiraled in, he tested it out. As soon as he tried to move, his body rebelled, and he fell backwards into unconsciousness.
Sam woke up to see the figure of Sarge looming over him. He groaned and got up, nursing a splitting headache. Running his tongue around his mouth, he was pleased to find that his teeth were already regrowing. He slowly got to his feet and immediately fell over.
“What happened?” Sam asked Sarge.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The robot shrugged.
“I have no idea. Your arms twitched, and then you fell over. That was all I saw.”
Sam sighed. This might take a while to perfect. It had worked during the actual arena match, and Sam stopped for a moment to wonder why it had failed now. His memories of the fight were crystal clear, and he found the difference soon enough. In the fight with the Overlord, it had been the first time that he had used the technique, and it had not bonded with his body in the way that it had just done. It seemed that the power of the technique would be inhibited by how little it was integrated with his body. Sam would have to train the skill in order to allow it to seamlessly merge with his bones. What he suspected was that there was too much power contained within his Dao to be fully integrated into his body. If Sam had to hazard a guess, he would assume that only F Ranks and above usually had a Dao Fragment. For now, his stats were likely too low to integrate it, at least without years of practice. Unfortunately, there were no ways to get essence where he was, not unless there was something that he had been overlooking the entire time. As if reading his mind, Sarge spoke.
“Your technique is stressing your body, correct? I believe that you need more levels for it to work properly. Why do you not take on some missions in the Multiversal Interweb?”
Sam stared at the robot.
“What? How would I do that? I thought that it was just a computer simulation. There aren't any real monsters to kill there or anything.”
The robot shook his head.
“I mean that people offer essence rewards in exchange for certain services. In a manner similar to bounty posts, that is, just with essence rather than credits.”
Sam nodded. He had collected one of them himself.
“How do I find these?” Sam asked Sarge.
“It should be near the spawn point, you won’t miss it. I have never actually seen one, only the code that represents it, but it should be pretty clear.” Sam thanked the robot and entered the Interweb.
He emerged in front of the library and rather than enter, he started to look around for something that looked like a bounty posting. Further down the street, there was something that looked like an open air market, but each stall was covered in pieces of paper rather than goods. That looked promising, and Sam started to make his way towards it.
The space dilation kicked in as soon as he set foot on the street, and it took him a good part of an hour to reach his destination. When he entered the market, the dilation stopped. Sam made his way to the nearest booth and found that it was manned by a strange green alien with five arms. It looked up at him and pointed at the piece of paper. Sam wondered why it just didn't talk to him, but then he saw that it did not have a mouth. He picked up one of the pieces of paper and read it.
Wanted
10 pieces of Reality Stone, 0.1 Percent purity.
Reward:10,000 essence
Deliver to Tavroxis Altrun, Planet Davanna IV.
Sam put it down. That was not something that he would be able to do. He had no idea what Reality Stone was, and he had no idea how to get it. Instead, he picked up another piece of paper.
Wanted
Dao Tutoring for Fragment Stage Breakthrough. Only accepting tutors who already have a Fragment.
Reward:75,000 essence
Contact the buyer through this link
)^*^%*(*^7
A series of random characters were scrawled along the bottom, and they glowed with a faint blue light, appearing to be some sort of hyperlink. Sam clicked on it, and he was whisked away. This time, he could see where he was going, and he was being carried at high speeds across the city towards a nondescript building.
The force carried him inside and set him down in front of a group of dour looking elderly men and women in robes. They were not human, but they were close in appearance, certainly closer than many of the aliens that Sam had seen in the market. They had pallid gray skin and tiny horns on their brow, but apart from that, they looked like normal people.
In front of them sat a young man in a cross legged position. As soon as Sam entered,he felt an extremely powerful aura lock down on him, imbued with a Dao. He frowned and pushed back with his own one, making the aura unable to gain purchase on him. One of the elders sighed in relief.
“Good, you really do have what we need. Some of the previous applicants were fraudsters. Let me introduce myself. I am one of the Elders of the Manthrox Sect, a small F Rank sect that resides on a planet of the same name. Our scion here is our last hope to break free of our earthly shackles, and take to the stars. He had touched upon the inklings of the Dao path that leads to the Dao of Space, and we need that to be able to leave our planet. Will you help us out?”
Sam didn't know what to make of that proclamation, and he paused in thought. After a minute of thought, he nodded.
“Alright. What do you need me to do?”