He entered the circle and this time started to pay attention to what he was doing. As he did this, the process slowed down, until he could see every aspect of it. Small particles of energy from his Dao exited the orb and collided with yellow energy that coursed outwards from his Meridian. This created the special energy that he could use to enhance himself. Thinking about it more, Sam remembered that he had selected Earth because it would match well with his Dao of the Arbiter. It looked like it was synergizing well with this one as well.
The energy crackled as it condensed into a stronger form, creating a template on the inside of his body for his bones. As it entered them, he saw the bone matter briefly glowing and discharging a wave of colorless power into the surrounding tissue. It dissipated quickly, but the effects could be felt afterwards. As Sam zeroed in his sight into the tissue, he could see that they were slowly breaking down under the effects of the power. It was at a negligible rate, but as he moved, it sped up. That was why he was suffering from the skill if he used it for too long.
Sam opened his eyes and returned to the here and now. Sarge waited for him to attack, and Sam did so. He pulled his fist back and he punched forwards as he ran, crunching his fist into the torso of the robot. Sam’s arm twinged, but it held firm and an indent of his fist could faintly be seen on the robot’s torso, before it disappeared as if it had never been there.
Sarge twisted in the air and landed feet first, cocking back its hand and rushing Sam. He forced his body to move under the fist, as it was moving far faster than he would hope to dodge with just his natural movements. He winced as something tore in his back, and he dropped to the ground again. This would be a long training session.
Five or six hours later, Sam was able to use the skill for about ten minutes without faltering. If he overextended himself however, that time was slashed down to almost nothing. He was able to fight Sarge using the full power of the Overlord to a standstill, but he was quickly overwhelmed. If this was the best showing that he could put up against a poor imitation of the man, he would be instantly defeated the next time. His only hope of salvation was that he could exploit the other man’s strange Dao in order to force him to cede the advantage.
Any normal fighter, prepared in advance, would go all out against a fighter that they had battled before. However, Sam thought that it was much more likely that the Overlord would wait, in order to build up his Dao power. It was a powerful Dao, but one with many strictures. Without it, the Overlord would still have been the strongest, because of his level, but it would have been a much more even fight.
Sam checked the leaderboards, but there were no changes. He was still in third place. If all went as planned, his next opponent would be Rodney Kane, a good warm up for his final battle. Sam finished up his training for the day, as it would be useless to push his body beyond its abilities. All that would do would be to make it so that he was tired and sore for his next fight, and that would not do. Instead, he decided to do something a bit less intensive. Cultivating his Meridian.
Entering his body, he made his way to the spinning orb of Earth elemental energy, and stared deep into its depths. The sight of almost invisible creatures and things swimming around in its depths tantalized him with the slightest echoes of advanced concepts and abilities, but they were completely out of his reach. Instead, Sam sat down within the metaphysical space within his body that his Meridian was located in, and started to meditate.
He did not think about anything in particular, instead simply letting the power of his Meridian guide him. He could feel that he was on the cusp of a breakthrough, as a result of his usage of the element, but he needed to do a little bit of non physical contemplation first. As he sat there, for an indeterminate amount of time, small truths and nuggets of information entered his mind. It was on a subconscious level, and he did not register then consciously, but it was enough to push him over the edge.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
With a pop, his Meridian flared with light and then let out a small nova of power that dissipated after a moment. Sam exited his meditation and checked his stat sheet. Sure enough, there was the notification.
You have reached 2% mastery of your Meridian of Earth.
Now with nothing else to do for a while, Sam played around with his stat sheet. He had configured it to display his skills and titles when he selected that area, but he had never really tested it out yet. Clicking on the skills section first, he waited to see what it would say.
Skills
Dao Pedagogy:Legendary
Basic Dao Channeling:Legendary
Fiery Justice:Legendary
Eyes of Judgement:Legendary
Lesser Mana Bulwark:Rare
Elemental Sight:Rare
Basic Analyze:Common
It seemed that it organized the skills by rarity, similar to how it did on the main status sheet, but also gave more details about them such as the names. Satisfied, Sam closed the skills section and entered the titles one.
Titles
Greater Dao Paragon of the 10,239,428,157th Universe:Celestial
Temporary Titles
#1 Dao, Planet Earth: Mythical
Top 3 Power, Planet Earth: Legendary
Top 10 Levels, Planet Earth:Epic
Sam nodded as he read the titles. It was exactly what he had expected. As he closed his status, he wondered if there was something about titles in the Interweb. He entered the multiversal communication web and teleported to the library. Entering the door, he connected to a vacant information port and immediately searched titles. A generic System entry came up first, which is what he opened.
Titles
Titles are a concrete appreciation of a being’s accomplishment, made solid by the Dao Archetype of Merit. Upon gaining a title, one receives a reward based on the type of title. Usually this is a stat boost or a boost to something else. As well as normal titles, there are temporary titles, which include titles related to ruling a specific territory, something based on a hierarchy, or a fugitive title for criminals. Titles are organized by rarity, similar to skills. They start at Common, and go all the way up to the highest rarity, which is not within the purview of a minor universe to see.
Sam groaned as he saw the blockage of information from the System. Why could it not just tell everyone what they had to prepare for? What was the point of all this cloak and dagger stuff when it was likely that everyone would find out anyway? Or perhaps they wouldn't.
Thinking about his personal experience, Sam realized that most people who aspired to power died by the sword of their own path. Barely anyone would ever reach the top, and to keep it fair to those who did, the System hid information about them.
He closed the tab and looked at the other results that came up. Most of them were dry academic entries about the interaction of titles, and how to get specific titles, but of course, none of them were useful. The most interesting thing that he saw there was a method to get the Common title of Questioner. All that meant was that someone had questioned the nature of reality at some point in their life, and had directed it towards gaining a title. Sam realized that he was already going down the rabbithole, and closed the tab, but it was too late.
You have gained the title [Questioner:Common]
Am I real?
+25% certainty that your reality is a lie
Sam groaned and immediately looked up something else, which was how to get rid of titles.
Title Removal
For titles without any concrete benefit, one can simply wish for them to be removed.
“Huh, that’s pretty easy,” Sam said to himself. He selected the worthless title with his mind and banished it. It disappeared out of his title screen, and it was as if it never had existed. Sam wondered if that article pertaining to the Questioner Title had been some sort of joke, like a computer virus back on Old Earth that would infect your computer with an annoying but harmless effect. Sam sighed and let out a little chuckle. It was quite funny now that he thought about it. If it had been something harmful, he would have been annoyed, but it was just a joke. Now that he had gotten what he was looking for, Sam left the Interweb and returned to his room.