Sam settled in with the group over the next few hours, finding out more about the resistance efforts against Granthar. Miranda took it upon herself to narrate the history of their organization, and Sam eagerly listened, mainly because his layer quest was still pending, as he had no concrete objective.

  A few thousand years ago, a member of a branch family of the solar system’s royalty, named Alana Darkan, had reached D Rank. Although she had no intention of fighting for the throne, Granthar’s fear and paranoia led to him calling down a cultivator’s equivalent of a nuclear strike upon her, a concentrated bomb into which he had poured his surplus power into for over a century. Since then, he had never allowed anyone to reach the peak of E Rank within his domain.

  Although he was a D Ranker, he was only one in the most pathetic of senses, that of his level. His talent was mediocre, and anyone who had any degree of skill could defeat him, even at a lower level. Unfortunately for them, the king made sure that nobody was able to progress past level 230. If they did so, they were instantly killed, or, in rare cases, banished.

  The family of Alana left Granthar’s court, and swore to never return until they could remove the tyrant from his throne for good. Unfortunately, D Rank was not a mere fruit, hanging from a tree for anyone to pluck. For every D Ranker, there were tens of thousands of E Rankers who never reached that rank, and billions, if not trillions, of F Rankers. Despite this, there should have been many more D Rankers to rise from the people of the Granthar Dominion. There were millions of E Rankers on the planet, after all, many of whom were more talented than their overlord.

  After listening to all of this, Sam found himself even more incensed at the character of Granthar. Normally, he would have taken something like this with a grain of salt, but as it was, he had no reason to disbelieve Miranda. The picture he himself had built of Granthar matched with the story he was being told.

  “The man who gave me the natural treasure told me that your group hoped to use my nature as a Tower climber to bend fate to your advantage,” Sam said. “How exactly is that supposed to work?”

  “The System is brutal in many cases, but it is ultimately an engine of fairness. The Tower is meant to be possible, if only barely so, up until you reach the limits of your potential. There is always an out on every quest that you are meant to complete, even if it seems impossible.”

  Sam nodded. “So you want me to challenge Granthar, or something like that? I think I’m quite powerful for my level, but the man is a D Ranker. There’s no competing with that. If half of the motifs I’ve seen of his exploits are true, he could break me in half over his knee.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Miranda nodded. “Something like that. All you need to do is to stall him for long enough. Believe it or not, many of the defences that surround the planet of Prax are held up by his own power, because of his paranoia. If you can distract him for long enough, we can enter the planet, and unleash our weaponry.”

  “I thought there weren’t any D Rankers in the system except for Granthar?” Sam asked. “How are you going to deal with that?”

  “That is only a matter of necessity. Any D Ranker worth their salt can detect another ascension within a certain radius. We have five cultivators hovering on the brink of ascension, waiting until Granthar is sufficiently occupied. Otherwise, he would simply teleport to their location, and kill them as they cultivated. The only problem is, they have been waiting so long that they’re nearly dead.” Miranda sighed. “Granthar has ruled over us for so long that E Rankers are born and die within a fraction of his reign. We have them on life support, but they have less than a month to live.”

  “I’m going to need to get a lot stronger for this, aren’t I?” Sam asked, already knowing the answer.

  “You are.”

  You have entered Floor 8 of the Grand Arena(Challenge Mode).

  Your survival is the keystone of the edifice of rebellion you have found yourself a part of. To stand a chance of even lasting a second against a D Ranker, you must develop your abilities to a far higher extent than they currently are. To do so, you must reach the third Stage of your Dao Seed, and upgrade your Dao Motes to Fragments.

  Completion: 0/3

  Rewards: Title Upgrade

  Sam smiled at the message. Being rewarded for gaining power by more power was always welcome. However, achieving those goals was easier said than done. He would need time. Time that he intended to find.

  ***

  Over the next few weeks, Sam cultivated day in, day out. His E Rank body meant that he needed no rest, and that he could simply sit, cultivating for days on end. The first thing he managed to do was upgrade his Dao Motes, which was far easier than even advancing a single stage in his Dao Seed. His Dao Mote of the Conduit upgraded after he carefully considered the nature of that concept in more ways than simply electricity.

  A conduit was a means of connection between two objects, whether it was physical, or ephemeral. It could be a conduit of emotions, or of steel. Regardless, it was still a conduit. Advancing a Dao Mote at his stage of power was far easier than ever before, and all it took was a good bit of introspection for every deepening, and a bit more of a mental push for the actual upgrade.

  You have upgraded your Dao!

  Dao Fragment of the Passage(First Step)

  A passage is a means of connection between two things, allowing for transit between them. This is a concept that goes beyond the physical, if you are attuned to it enough. Find the hidden links that tie the universe together, and work your will through them.

  +27 to Intelligence, +27 to Wisdom