He had seen little of the outside world during the last few weeks, and when he stepped outside of his tent, he was shocked to discover that a small city had risen up around him. Buildings crafted from elemental manipulation rose multiple stories, all surrounded by the illusory field which had hidden the camp from view.

  His tent was the only one remaining, and he realized that the rebels had given him a courtesy, not interrupting his cultivation by asking him to move. It was a nice little gesture, but one that Sam thought was a bit odd. He wouldn’t have cared much if he had been asked. Then he realized that most cultivators were used to months if not years of cultivation, and any interruption would lead to the potential loss of a previous insight. Sam, however, had such a fast cultivation rate that it didn’t really matter.

  As soon as he set one foot on the ground outside his tent, he felt a few auras appear close by as the E Rank rebels teleported in. All of them sported smiles, at least on those without armor to hide them.

  “I take it that you succeeded?” Miranda asked. “Are you ready to face off against Granthar?”

  “As ready as I can be. Are you sure we can’t wait for this?”

  “I told you about the predicament we were in,” Miranda replied. “Our peak E Rankers will die in less than a week. There is no time for anything else. We need to get you back to Prax.”

  “The man who gave me the natural treasure promised me a hundred billion credits for this. Is that offer still on the table?” Sam replied.

  Miranda laughed. “I guess it is true. Money really can buy anything. Even a fight with a D Ranker. But yes, I can send the money right now.”

  Sam’s credit balance exploded upwards as a hundred billions credits were transferred to it, making him richer than his entire faction. He smiled grimly, and nodded. “I’m ready.”

  As soon as those words were spoken, a System notification flashed up.

  You have entered Floor 9 of the Grand Arena(Challenge Mode)

  The scheme hatched by mortals to kill a demigod has entered its final phase, with you at its very center. Return to Prax and challenge King Granthar to a duel, buying time for your allies to arrive and kill him. You must do so within the next six days or else this will fail.

  Completion: 0/1

  Rewards: Title Upgrade

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Sam closed the message after scanning it briefly, meeting Miranda’s gaze with his own. “Let’s do this.”

  ***

  The rebels had a single spacecraft in their possession, a Peak E Rank artifact that was capable of interstellar travel, albeit at a relatively slow rate. It could travel between stars at about a quarter of the speed of light, which made for some uncomfortably slow travel times. For the most part, people in the Boundless Expanse simply used teleporters to get around, which were far cheaper and more efficient than powered vessels. However, in the Granthar Dominion, all of the teleporters were linked to Granthar’s consciousness, and an attempt to use them by anyone flagged as dangerous would alert him. Sam had no doubt that he was on that list, and the rebels most certainly were. With the mind of a D Ranker, the tyrant king would be able to pick them out from the millions, if not billions of people using the teleporters at any given moment, and appear at their arrival point.

  In contrast to this, however, a spacecraft would be far harder to pinpoint, and a lot more innocuous. Generally, only the weakest of cultivators used such methods of travel, being unable to handle the stresses of teleportation. People in the low G Ranks, generally.

  Sam stood by as the small city was dismantled in a matter of moments, a wave of energy passing across it, turning the elementally manipulated buildings back into the earth and snow they had come from. In their place, a medium sized vessel was placed from a storage device, resting on the ice of Gravos’ polar regions. It was about a hundred feet long, and fifty wide, shaped like a wedge. A few ion boosters blazed on its rear, made for the purpose of getting the ship out of the gravitational field of the planet. Once in space, it switched to Dao powered propulsion. As a budget craft, it used both the Daos of Momentum and Space, meaning that it took time for it to build up to its maximum speed. Within the confines of the Granthar System, though, it would be limited. If all went according to plan, Sam and the others would arrive on Prax within the week.

  The group entered the ship, walking up a ramp that extended from its right side. The interior was sparse, but had a few chairs and cultivation mats. In the center was a familiar sight, one of the simian monsters that were often used to pilot spacecraft in the Boundless Expanse. It looked almost the same as the one on Sam’s own craft, although it was a bit larger.

  “Greetings,” the creature intoned in the same robotic voice as the one Sam was familiar with. “What is the destination?”

  “Take us to the planet of Prax, as close to the palace as you can without drawing attention,” Miranda ordered.

  With a shudder, the ship rose from the ground, and as its ion boosters kicked in, it shot up into the sky, piercing through the clouds above. Sam was pressed back into his seat by the force, although it didn’t bother him much. As an E Ranker, he was pretty much immune to G forces, as his body had no organs or brain matter to compress.

  The walls of the ship went transparent a few moments later, revealing the darkness of space outside. Stars twinkled in the midst of the interstellar night, and in the distance, the sun blazed, casting light over the planets of the system. Prax was visible in the distance, a massive jewel of a world, many times larger than Earth. From space, Sam could detect the true scope of the world. It was easily as large as Jupiter, somehow held together by gravities beyond those Sam was used to. He could only assume that a mere mortal standing on its surface would keenly feel the pressure.