A few seconds later, they were standing on the top floor of the tower, with a massive, verdigrised door before them. It was supposedly the very first profit the Foreman had ever made, a slab of elementally infused copper. It had stood there for the last few dozen years, hence the appearance.

  Taking a deep breath, the two prospectors rapped on the door in unison with the ends of their staffs.

  “Come in,” a resonant voice responded. “I know why you two are here.”

  The doors slid open of their own accord, revealing a spartan study with a single desk and a few bookshelves. Sitting at the desk was a middle aged human man, with salt and pepper hair verging on white, and dark brown skin. Nobody would dare to say that he was weak on account of his age, though, and his stocky, muscular physique demonstrated his dedication to war, even before E Rank. Now he was the strongest man in Anang, and possessed the aura to match.

  “We failed, Foreman,” one of the mages said, bowing his head. “The others are dead. Slain by some interloper in the elemental plain.”

  The Foreman leaned forwards, steepling his fingers. “Which level? It had better be the last one, for your sakes.”

  “It was,” the mage hurriedly nodded. “The one with the Dark elemental invaders. Only, it seemed a bit different this time.” The man gulped as the Foreman raised an eyebrow. “That’s not important. We faced off against a human. He wasn’t even level 200, but he dominated the battle.”

  The Foreman leaned back, prompting a sigh of relief from the mages. “Huh. Must be some out of system scion, come to prove himself. I don’t know of anyone on Stillgrave that could beat Granak at such a lower level.” The man nodded once to himself. “Alright. I’ll deal with it. Can’t risk the most valuable layer of the elemental plane being in jeopardy.”

  For the first time in years, the Foreman got up from his desk, and summoned his armor and weapons from a storage ring. Clad in thick plates of silvery mithril, the man cut an imposing figure, accentuated by the warhammer resting on his shoulder. He nodded once at the two prospectors, and teleported out of the castle, heading for the portal to the elemental plane.

  ***

  Sam sat in silent cultivation, surrounded by dozens of gemstone spirits. They were weaving the power of the Earth itself, directing it towards him. Now that he was in the early twenties in terms of Earth mastery, ranking up was far harder than before. He had reached a qualitative step in his progression, and would have to expand upon that to continue in that progression.

  In the meantime, the Matriarch had explained more about the realm to him. It was the ninth in a series of elemental planes of Earth, and the deepest of them all. Apparently, it was linked to the outside world by a series of portals, though the Matriarch wasn’t sure how that worked. The only way in was through those portals, but once inside the plane, any half decent mage could teleport out. This brought an extra degree of danger to living in the realm, the omnipresent threat of hunters, looking to score an easy jackpot by killing a few Gemstone Spirits. Considering that only the Matriarch seemed capable of fighting to any degree within the E Rank, their defenses were few and far between.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Now that contact had been made with the outside world, Sam knew that the invaders would feature more heavily in the battles to come. Every floor in the Tower had grown in complexity at an exponential rate as the layers progressed, and it seemed that this one was no different.

  Sam was ready to fight anything that could come, though, bolstered by another few tower titles since coming to the Gemlands. As he cultivated, he opened his stats. It had been a while.

  Sam Atlas

  Human: E Rank

  Enlightened Tier

  E Rank

  Class: Lesser Dao Paragon

  Level 174

  (275 stat points unspent)

  Strength

  4893

  2.77x

  Constitution

  4345

  2.72x

  Resilience

  5964

  2.66x

  Dexterity

  4349

  2.77x

  Intelligence

  4293

  2.72x

  Wisdom

  4353

  2.72x

  

  
• 
  
    Health 97763/97763
  
    


  
• 
  
    Mana 96593/96593
  
    


  
• 
  
    Stamina 110092/110092
  
    


  
• 
  
    Karma: 59
  
    


  
• 
  
    Road to Zenith
  
    


  

  Stage 3

  

  
• 
  
    Dao
  
    


  

  Dao Echo of Inspiration

  Dao Seed of the Avenger(Third Step)

  Dao Fragment of the Passage(First Step)

  Dao Fragment of Retaliation(First Step)

  

  
• 
  
    Skills
  
    


  

  1x Rare, 3x Epic, 4x Legendary, 5x Mythical, 2x Ancient, 2x Primal, 1x Unique

  

  
• 
  
    Titles
  
    


  

  1x Legendary, 3x Mythical, 2x Ancient, 1x Ethereal, 1x Transcendent

  

  
• 
  
    Temporary Titles
  
    


  

  1x Epic, 1x Legendary, 1x Mythical

  

  
• 
  
    Dao Heritage
  
    


  

  Dao Incarnation of Existence(Second Step)

  

  
• 
  
    Party
  
    


  

  None

  

  
• 
  
    Skill Branches
  
    


  

  Lightning Neurons (Level 2)

  Iron Body(Level 2)

  Iron Bones (Level 2)

  Muscle Density Enhancement(Level 1)

  Basic Weapon Knowledge: Blunt(Level 1)

  Dao Resonance(Level 1)

  Karmic Cycle(Level 1)

  Lucky(Level 1)

  Increased Blood Flow (Level 1)

  

  
• 
  
    Weapon Style
  
    


  

  Flowing Water Style

  

  
• 
  
    Weapon Mastery: Brotherhood Stage 7
  
    


  
• 
  
    Elemental Affinities
  
    


  

  Earth: 20% Mastery

  

  
• 
  
    Elemental Boons
  
    


  

  Elemental Infusions: Stoneskin, Mountain’s Flesh

  

  
• 
  
    Quests
  
    


  

  The Sacred Bond: Impossible

  Engines of the End Times: S

  

  
• 
  
    Professions
  
    


  

  Smith: Apprentice Stage 9

  Dao Smith: Apprentice Stage 9