Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 319: A World Inside a World

A few days ago,

Jack Rust sat cross-legged on the bare snow. His mind was filled with thoughts, mostly regret over Harambes situation, but he pushed that away. The best he could do to help was defeat the planetary overseerand to do that, he needed to focus.

It had already been a few days since he returned to Earth. Time had flowed slowly. He couldnt stop thinking about the coming battle, his goal since a year ago. To keep himself occupied, hed dived into fighting head-first. The giant yetis and the ice dragon of this D-Grade dungeon had fallen to his fists, now decorating the ground with their blood. He had also been given the option to conquer the dungeon, though he refused.

When the Integration happened, 1111 dungeons spawned on Earth: one thousand F-Grades, one hundred E-Grades, ten D-Grades, and one C-Grade. The higher Grade a dungeon, the more dangerous or inaccessible the area it spawned in. Of the D-Grade dungeons, only seven had been discovered so far; the rest were probably at the bottom of the ocean, in the sky, or on random little islands. Similarly, the sole C-Grade dungeon also remained undiscovered.

Of course, the only Earth cultivator who could currently challenge D-Grade dungeons was Jack. This particular one, the South Pole Territory, was particularly hard even for D-Grade dungeons, with its boss being an Elite peak D-Grade. It could easily level entire frozen mountains, and its ice breath could make the temperature plummet so hard that even the air froze and fell to the ground.

Of course, Jack easily defeated the dragon. It was around as strong as Sapasun. The battle did, however, rekindle his old hunting spirit. As soon as he saved Earth, maybe he would visit the C-Grade dungeon and try his luck.

When all was said and done, Jack had earned another sixteen levels from this dungeon, finally reaching the peak D-Grade.

Name: Jack Rust

Species: Human, Earth-387

Faction: Bare Fist Brotherhood (D)

Grade: D

Class: Cosmic Fist (King)

Level: 249

Strength: 1570 (+)

Dexterity: 1570 (+)

Constitution: 1565 (+)

Mental: 200 (+)

Will: 200 (+)

Free Points: 190

Dao Skills: Meteor Punch III, Iron Fist Style III, Space Walk III, Neutron Star Body II, Brutalizing Aura II

Daos: Dao Tree of the Fist, Dao Root of Indomitable Will (fused), Dao Root of Life (fused), Dao Root of Power (fused), Dao Root of Weakness (fused)

Titles: Planetary Frontrunner (10), Planetary Torchbearer (1), Ninth Ring Conqueror, Planetary Leader (1)

He hadnt invested any of his attributes points since the beginning of the Grand Duel, as his recent adventure was dubbed, so hed collected a fair number again. Now that he had finally reached the peak, it was time to use them.

But in what? he wondered, looking over his attributes. If I want to keep following the 8-1-1 distribution, I should add a few points to Mental and Will. However, I know that the overseer is a leonine of the same lineage as Maximus, so shes a Physical cultivator. And I do like the round two-hundreds there.

Jack shivered. He still remembered how, when all this started, hed had to deal with some horrifically non-round numbers.

Very well. All in Physical it is.

With a decisive mental command, he poured all of his free attributes points into Physical. Each point turned into three subpoints, which he distributed equally among the substatsStrength, Dexterity, and Constitution.

The rush of power was exhilarating. Jack felt his body twitch, then all his muscles contracted and remained there, growing stronger. His eyesight felt sharper, his fingers more delicate, his chest thrumming with every breath like a powerful war drum.

He couldnt help a grin. Rushes of stats like these had grown sparser the more he advanced, but the feeling remained equally euphoricfor some people, just the satisfaction of increasing their stats made the journey worthwhile.

Just how strong am I now? he couldnt help but wonder, clenching and unclenching his fists. If I could defeat the strongest D-Grade of the Animal Kingdom beforewho can stop me now?

Am I the strongest D-Grade in the galaxy?

There was no way to know, but even that filled him with immense pride. Not wanting to let himself be swayed, he quickly opened his status screen again.

Generally speaking, the new stats were satisfying.

Strength: 1760

Dexterity: 1760

Constitution: 1755

Mental: 200

Will: 200

Those five missing points still irked him, however. Wait. Where did I miss them? he suddenly wondered, but nothing came to mind.

His grin widened. Lets go for a test drive.

Jumping up, he accelerated. The sound barrier shattered behind him. Twice at first, then thrice more in quick succession as he accelerated to the limit. The shockwaves ravaged the snow beneath, but there were no animals to be hurt here, and the dungeon walls prevented any shockwaves from reaching the outside world. Despite the dungeons thousand square miles of space, Jack was so fast that he still felt cramped.

The wind pulled back his cheeks to reveal sharp teeth. He could use his Dao to protect himself, but he let it happen, enjoying this breeze that would be enough to whittle concrete. Traveling at such speed was exhilarating. The ground disappeared below him. The clouds detonated at his passage. He felt like a god.

How fast am I going!? he tried to calculate mid-flight, turning to follow the dungeon walls. This entire dungeon was shaped as a dome. Five times the speed of sound in Earths atmosphere isslightly less than four thousand miles per hour.

Holy shit! I could cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than an hour! And my strength Mid-flight, he turned downward and punched. The air shattered. Multiple shockwaves bounced off each other and were amplified. The sound was louder than thunder, and Jack watched with surprise as the terrain under him was completely obliterated, entire hills and glaciers shattering like they were made of glass. As far as he could see, all the way to the horizon, the earth shook by his punch.

He hadnt even used any of his Dao in this attack. This was the result of his pure strength and natural resonance with the ambient Dao. His eyes widened with glee. He wanted to experiment further but feared that, if he really used his Dao, even this thousand square mile area wouldnt be enough to contain him.

And who knew how the dungeon walls would react if someone like him attacked them?

Hey, watch it! a voice reached his mindShols. Were still here, you idiot! Dont destroy the entire continent!

Sorry! he replied quickly. Shol, Brock, Dordok, and the Sage remained in their nearby camp, each busy with their own devices. There were still a couple days until the battle.

Restraining his excitement, Jack slowly landed on a relatively whole piece of earth and sat cross-legged again. As much as he itched to try out his real strength, Antarctica might not be able to handle him.

The planetary overseers face would have to do.

Plus, there was another thing he wanted to try out. Closing his eyes, Jack quickly sank into meditation, appearing in his soul world. Copy Jack instantly rushed him.

Is it time to fight? he asked.

Jack laughed. Not yet, Copy Jack. But soon, I promise. For now, I want to try something. Give me space.

Copy Jack nodded with a pout and moved away.

Jack first used each of his skills, observing their form now that hed reached the peak D-Grade.

He started with shadow-boxing. Stars shimmered faintly around him, each of his punches followed by a shooting meteor. These images were all phantasmal, but they represented the depth of his understanding and the volume of his Class, the King-tier Cosmic Fist. To any watcher, he was like a live constellation of stars punching out.

Then, he teleported. During his three months of isolation training back on Hell, hed discovered a more efficient way to traverse space. Instead of slicing it, he could just punch a hole open. Extending a single finger, he poked it through the fabric of space, creating a hole that he allowed himself to be sucked into. He reappeared a mile awaythough he could go up to nine if he wanted.

Jack then channeled the Neutron Star Body. Visually, nothing changedbut he felt himself dense, compact to the point of ridiculousness. Thanks to the Dao, his cells had achieved a level of density and durability that rendered him completely impervious to most attacks. If an elephant rammed into him, he wouldnt even notice. At the same time, the profoundness of the Dao made it so that his actual weight didnt change that muchotherwise, he would weigh dozens of tons, if not hundreds, and that would be severely inconvenient.

Not to mention his extreme regenerative powers, courtesy of both the Neutron Star Body and the Life Drop.

Then, he tested out Brutalizing Aura. By simply narrowing his eyes, the air around him turned frigid. An aura of terror erupted from his body, like he was a black hole about to swallow his enemies whole. At the same time,, this aura absorbed the fear of his targets, feeding it to his Dao Tree as fertilizer and amplifying his strength.

And, finally, came Meteor Punch. The bread and butter of Jacks skills, the one hed carried since his fight against the twin black wolves in the Forest of the Strong. Jack clenched his fist. All sound and light in his soul world was sucked inside. Everything went dark, with only a single purple meteor flashing into existence, dominating reality. Tiny stars trailed behind it, carving its trajectory into the dark sky, while the meteor itself packed unbelievable power.

Jack shot it out. It exploded. Colors and sounds returned to the world with a bang, erupting with such force that even the farthest corners of Jacks soul shook. The explosion was so titanic it stretched way beyond his perception range. There was nothing to compare it against in this empty space, but he suspected that he could affect entire countries with a single punch if he wanted to.

He grinned. With such powerwho in the D-Grade could stop him? He itched to pit himself against the planetary overseer, test his strength against a real opponent. At this point, hed grown so fast that he struggled to even comprehend the scale of such a battle.

Before that, however, there were two more things he wanted to try, and the first was the ultimate culmination of his Class and Dao. Collecting himself, Jack took a deep breath, then exhaled.

His Dao Domain rolled out, submerging the world in the essence of the Fist.

It was like Jack had plucked a piece of distant space and moved it around him. Stars filled his domain, glimmering and twinkling. Faint purple mist spread everywhere, and Jack himself felt like an Old God playing around with the newborn universe. In his domain, he stood taller than stars, taller than existence itself. It was a whole new world.

Of course, part of that was because he was currently standing inside his own soul world, but he couldnt try this outside yet. Releasing ones domain emitted strong Dao signals which might be picked up even through the dungeon walls.

Jack let his domain drop, returning to normalcy. He took a deep breath again, not to focus, but to collect himself.

I have grown so strong he muttered, letting his voice echo through space. Ive tried so hard and got so farand yet, the end of the road is nowhere in sight. He grinned from ear to ear. I love this.

His muttering was interrupted by the sound of clapping. Copy Jack flew closer.

That was amazing! he shouted. Encore! Encore!

How do you even know that? Jack replied helplessly. Thank you, Copy Jack. I would love to entertain you more, but there is one more thing I want to do. Come with me. This could be fun.

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