The next message detailed where he was.

  You have entered Floor 1 of the Gemlands(Challenge Mode)

  Now in an elemental dimensional plane, one aligned with Earth, you must find your purpose in these lands. The realm has been corrupted by a powerful Dark elemental, one that spreads its spatial corruption across the land. Find a local to receive your objective for this quest.

  Completion: 0/1

  Rewards: Title Upgrade

  The penultimate message was the skill notification that Sam had put off from his fight with Abrinadus.

  You have fused three skills!

  Girdings of the Arbiter: Mythical, Resolve of the Avenger: Mythical, Earth Elemental Bulwark: Legendary->I Am My Vengeance: Ancient

  You grow stronger as your foes’ sins against you mount. Vengeance is your strength, and so is justice. Combine those with your elemental energy and mana to create a suit of armor that transcends material bounds.

  Next up was an even more welcome message.

  Congratulations, Sam Atlas. You have taken the Third Step on the Road to Zenith!

  The Road to Zenith is a metaphysical path to the heights of the cultivating world, and its followers line the ranks of the upper echelons of the Boundless Expanse. You have proven that you are among their numbers by setting foot on this path.

  First Step: Complete all initial thresholds before F Rank.

  Second Step: Gain a Dao Seed before level 149.

  Third Step: Reach the 50th floor of the Tower of Transcendence.

  Rewards: Your Fatemark has deepened. +10 percent efficacy to all stats.

  Sam’s body thrummed with power as his reward took root within him, his stats surging in might, while remaining the same on his stat sheet. He smiled. It was a decent upgrade, all things considered. With how easy the challenge had been, the reward seemed almost too good. Then he remembered the statistics from the Interweb. Less than one percent of challengers reached the fiftieth floor of the Tower. Not only that, but he was on Challenge Mode as well.

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  “Damn,” he found himself saying. “I really am a monster.”

  “I hope not,” a voice came from behind him. “If you are, we’re all doomed.”

  Sam whirled around, his hammer snapping out, only for him to stay his arm right before it could hit the strange figure standing in front of him. A diminutive golem-like entity with skin of amethyst crystal, it looked up at him impassively, its craggy features nearly impossible to read. A faint purple glow suffused its body, and the air around it was more stable than the rest of the world, inured against the spatial rifts.

  “Who are you supposed to be?” Sam asked, drawing his hammer back. It was clear that this newcomer wasn’t a threat.

  “My name is Turgluk,” the golem replied. “I’m a Gemstone Spirit. My people used to rule this land before the Shadow Raven nested here.” Its twinkling eyes turned towards the vast obsidian obelisk at the center of the horizon. “Everything except for us died, and the only way we could preserve anything was by turning it to crystal.”

  “Ah,” Sam replied, realizing that this was his introduction to the layer quest. “You spoke as if you knew why I was here. That everything would be lost if I were a monster. Why is that?”

  Turgluk sighed. “The Shadow Raven is more of a force of nature than the beast that its name suggests. It has to be elementally unbound by a powerful Dao. To even do so, its obelisk must be approached, the center of its power.”

  “Do your people not have a means of doing so?” Sam asked, a bit uselessly. The answer was already evident.

  “We tread the line between monsters and men,” Turgluk explained. “Our Daos do not manifest externally. Rather, they empower us. Only the Matriarch has a Dao close to the necessary level of power.”

  “Which is?” Sam replied.

  “The fourth step of the Seed Stage.” The golem twitched nervously, a strange motion for a being made of rock. “Do you possess that?”

  Sam shook his head. “I don’t. I presume that is going to be one of my layer quests.”

  Turgluk frowned, the expression perhaps the only one that could be easily conveyed by its heavy brow. “Layer quests?

  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly like you,” Sam quipped. “I’m from a different universe. Perhaps a different Multiverse. This is part of a challenge called the Tower of Transcendence. This whole area-” Sam waved his hands around at the obelisk and the gemstone trees “-is part of my quest.”

  “As long as you can help us, you could be from the future, as far as my people would care,” Turgluk replied. “Now, if you truly mean to help us, the Shadow Raven is not the only threat in these parts.”

  “Do you mean the spatial anomalies?” Sam asked. “How exactly am I meant to get past that? You seem like you have some sort of resistance to it.”

  Turgluk nodded. “We Gemstone Spirits are suffused with elemental energy. It helps to ward off the local space-related corruption. You’ll have to do something similar.”

  Sam nodded. “How do I get started?”

  “Reach 20 percent mastery of your element, and we can progress to the next step,” Turgluk said. “I’ll take you somewhere safer to do so.”