As soon as he did so, a strange feeling overtook him. His mind started to drift upwards, and out of his body. As it did so, he began to feel a strange sense of unease as he exited his skin. As soon as that happened, his mind was blasted with what felt like the full truth of Creation. Everything that could be conceived, and some that could not, were funneled into his mind like bullets of pure insight. He screamed, but he had no mouth with which to scream.

Sam’s mind started to expand, dancing perilously close to the edge of insanity. Then it stopped, and the feeling was gone. He gasped as he was sent back into his body and sheltered from the storm of information. It had been not physically painful per se, but painful in the way that trying to multitask beyond your limits was. Only on a far larger scale. Now that he was past that however, he felt like a new man. Every action that he had taken within the last few days was laid bare to his sight, telling him what he should have done in those situations. However, this insight was tempered with the knowledge that the past was done, and that there was no point worrying about it. That must have been his Wisdom kicking in to mitigate the effects of untrammeled Intelligence. Sam was glad that he had picked that stat to upgrade first.

The notification came in, and Sam read it quickly, his new Intelligence allowing him to read the entire paragraph in less than a second.

You have passed the First Threshold of Intelligence.

Intelligence is often mistaken for wisdom, but in reality they are two vastly different things that need each other to be efficient. Intelligence allows for raw analytical capacity and processing speed, but does not govern itself. If someone knows everything, save for the knowledge of what to do with it, then do they not simply know nothing at all?’

Sam chuckled at the sheer depth of that last sentence. The threshold notifications for both Intelligence and Wisdom had been filled with pithy insights that sounded straight out of a philosophy book.

As he got used to his new Intelligence, he remembered something that disturbed him. The last time that he had received free essence, it had corrupted his body somewhat. Had that happened to him now?

Sam searched his status, but found nothing. He was fine, but he did not know why he was so. Perhaps it was something to do with how the notification last time had told him that only unearned essence would harm his cultivation. Shrugging, he returned to his stat sheet. He had another 7 points to allocate, which was enough to get him 10 points into any stat of his choice with his multiplier. With a sigh, he saw that he would be able to pass another threshold. Gritting his teeth, he put the points into Constitution.

As soon as he did so, an ominous crack could be heard coming from his body. He looked down and saw that his bones were sticking out of his skin, completely shattered. The pain hit him a moment later, and he screamed out loud. Hoping that the room was soundproofed, he continued.

His bones were torn completely out of his body, and he flopped to the ground without anything to hold him up. They started to clack together, forming a new skeleton in the air in front of him. As they did so, they began to glow and fuse together, becoming denser and smoother. Mana was sucked out of him to facilitate this change, and the marrow within his bones was hardened and made more durable. Meanwhile his skin and flesh was having the same thing happen to it, only on a lesser scale.

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The pain of this was immense, and even worse than the pain for the Strength threshold. It was as if he was feeling his bones, despite them not actually being in his body. It was a maddening sensation, but one that thankfully dissipated after a few minutes. Still, he could feel the uncomfortable out of body tingling for a bit afterwards.

With a crack, the bones locked together fully and then flew at Sam. Without anything to block or move with, he had to sit there as they forced their way into his body. As they did that, the blood and viscera on the ground flew up and back into his body, making it whole again. Coughing up some strange black substance, Sam felt the pain disappear.

You have passed the First Threshold of Constitution.

Meaty, thick, built, these are words that might be used to describe you. That is, if you had chosen to transition through a different Dao Archetype. Instead of selecting the stereotypical image of a tank, you opted to remain the same as you were before. In saying goodbye to your 5 foot wide shoulders, you said goodbye to the possible hordes of suitors that would follow you. Some might consider that a blessing, and others a curse.

Sam laughed out loud at that one, as it was like the description of the Heavyweight class from his class selection ceremony. Now that he had gone through both of the excruciating changes, Sam checked his stats. Sure enough, both his health and mana had gone up, the former to 795 and the latter to 765. Sam exited his status sheet and got up. It was time to perfect his new skill seeing as he was more powerful now.

Sarge got to its feet as Sam approached, and the robot smiled. It knew that he was ready now to train, and that was the robot’s primary directive, to help others train. Nothing else would make it happier, save perhaps for its freedom. There however lay a slippery slope of obtuse ethics, which Sam did not really want to get into. For now, he had a tournament to win.

Entering the arena with the robot, Sam started to prepare his skill. Sarge let him do it, powering up as well. Sinking into himself, Sam constructed the network of energy and slotted it into his bones. Now that his bones had been enhanced, they seemed to take the energy far more easily than before, and the feeling of power from the skill washed over him like a wave of warmth. He felt strong, fast, dangerous even. More than anything else, he felt ready.

With a surge of will, his right arm shot out, at speeds that even he could barely see. Clenching his fist, Sam got into a fighting stance. He would use this to train his pugilism as well, seeing as he would not always be able to use a mace in battle. Sarge clapped its hands, and the robot sped across the ground towards him. This time however, Sam could see him. As the robot’s fist slammed into where Sam would have been, he grabbed ahold of it, and winced as his bones and ligaments started to feel the strain. A little pain was nothing however, and he continued.

Tearing the robot off the ground and out of the grasp of gravity, Sam threw Sarge into the hard floor, causing it to crack slightly. The robot was unharmed, but it was a big difference to the previous fight. Sam flitted backwards, reveling in his new speed, and then he tripped on something immaterial. As he fell towards the ground, he realized that his left leg had given out. With a sigh, he canceled the skill and fell to the ground.

“Damn it! Why is this skill so hard to use?” Sam screamed as he pounded the ground with his fist. At least he had been able to do it more easily this time. It would work in a fight, but only for a moment.

He got to his feet, helped up by Sarge and he clenched his fist as the robot did so. Sarge didn't seem to mind, and the hard metal was nice to squeeze, seeing as it would not break under his grasp. He stood up fully and then gave Sarge a determined look.

“I will do this,” Sam said, as much to himself as the robot.

Sarge nodded and gave him a grin.

“Good. Remember your promise, I am looking forward to my new body.”

Sam nodded.

“I will. Thank you for all you have done.”

Sam rested for another ten minutes, and then got up. His body seemed to be healed from his mild exertion, and it was time to continue.