Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 410: Reaping the Benefits

Jack touched the realm heart. At that moment, his mind became one with it, and he had perfect awareness.

He saw the entire hidden realm from a distance. It was a massive upside-down cone—short and wide. The realm heart chamber was at the bottom end, while the entire jungle rested on the cone’s flat top. The hole which led Jack to the heart chamber had descended from the temple at the middle of the jungle all the way down to the tip of the cone; that was why they’d fallen for such a long time.

Outside the cone was a multi-colored nothingness devoid of space and time. That had to be the inter-dimensional void. Since the hidden realm seemed to float inside it, Jack decided to call it the Dimensional Sea.

In the face of the infinite Dimensional Sea, the hidden realm seemed tiny—but it was actually gigantic. The jungle was a perfect circle with a radius of a hundred thousand miles—it had a hundred and sixty times the surface area of Earth!

That was no joke! No wonder C- and B-Grade creatures could exist and fight freely. Even if one of them tried, it would take a long time to raze this high-level jungle. In fact, with his current awareness, Jack could sense multiple B-Grade dragons inside the jungle—the red one they’d defeated before was just one of them. As for C-Grade creatures, they were a dime a dozen.

As Jack was gawking at the jungle and trying to process all this new information, he suddenly realized the existence of something else. Hmm? he frowned. What are these guys up to?

The small village created by the other expedition members—the Green Cultivation Town—fell under his eyes. They did not notice him, of course, but he could clearly see that they had formed a little community and were even farming beasts.

He couldn’t help making a wry smile. I guess that’s on me. Those guys think they’re colonizing. How cute.

Some of his enemies were also in that group—especially Spacewind. It was a shame Jack couldn’t use the power of the realm heart to harm them directly. What he could do, however, was not let them out.

Not forever, of course. Most of those people had no relation to him—he wouldn’t strand them here for life. Just for a few years, until he had the power to defeat Spacewind. They were C- and B-Grades—they could take it. A few years would be nothing to them.

If Spacewind returned to the Cathedral, not only would he inevitably try to kill Jack, but he might even follow the teleporter backward to Earth and create trouble. That was too high a risk.

Besides, Jack thought, still smiling wryly, look how much fun they’re having.

A C-Grade who looked like a glass pane was petting a small dragon. Nearby, Spacewind had tried to do the same but ended up getting his hand beaten—he could only yell at the dragon while everyone else laughed.

It didn’t seem too bad.

The only ones he felt sad about were Shi Mo, his C-Grade friend, and Borkuren Madiba, the B-Grade who’d been kind to him before. He had some relationship with those two, so he didn’t want to leave them here even for a few years, but there was nothing he could do about it. If he tried to go over there and sneakily led them to the exit portals, there was a good chance other people would catch on, and then nothing could save him. The risk was just too great, and the losses not too important. After all, again, a few years were nothing to them.

He hoped they would understand.

With that, Jack turned his gaze away from the small cultivator village. He was now back in the chamber with the crystalline realm heart. The Archon’s voice echoed out again.

“This is my creation: the Green Dragon Realm. I do not know what state it is in at the time of your arrival, but I hope it is still as lush and green as I left it. You may return to our universe and take the realm heart with you—the realm will persist for a few millennia without it. However, I request of you that after you reach the A-Grade, when your inner world is spacious enough, you return here and absorb this realm into your inner world, where it can exist indefinitely. The jungle creatures can be considered my descendants—I would not want them to go extinct.”

“It would be my honor,” Jack replied, lowering his head though the Archon could neither see nor hear him. These were just pre-recorded messages—it was unknown whether Archon Green Dragon was even still alive.

“There is nothing more to be said. Recording this message makes me emotional. When you hear this, it is unknown how much time will have passed—I might be alive or long dead… In any case, you have received my legacy, and I know it will not be wasted on you. You are the heir of me, Green Dragon. Farewell, my disciple. Carry on my legacy. Make me proud!”

The voice rumbled, rising in intensity until the last words, which made even the cavern tremble. Jack was touched. This could be the last time he heard this Archon’s voice—the final words he would receive from a truly supreme existence.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Thank you,” he said again, lowering his head and remaining there respectfully until the voice’s final echoes had disappeared and all was silent. He then sighed. His emotions were many, and they were also tangled with each other—but piecing them together could wait. He had a legacy to inherit.

His hand gently rested on the realm heart. He poured his mind into it, and the entire crystalline mass turned into a ray of light which sank into his soul. As it did, he once again got a wide view of the entire realm, zooming rapidly. From the entire realm, he could see the tip of the cone, then the tree cavern, where the majestic tree stood, its branches spreading not just to the temple, but everywhere! This tree alone supported the entire realm. Deep into the dirt, Jack could even sense nine fruits, each giving their own twist to the life energy. He didn’t know what they signified exactly, but it probably had something to do with the nine fruits cultivators grew on their Dao Trees.

Wait. Is that…a tenth fruit?

Before he could take a better look, his view zoomed further, focusing on the tree cavern, the heart chamber, and finally himself.

As the heart entered his soul, it brought along a large number of Dao runes—Jack could meditate on them to increase his spacetime understandings at a rapid pace, and the heart itself would greatly enhance his inner world when he formed it. It was similar to the world anchor he’d previously consumed but far better.

At the same time, Jack sensed the strong life aura which surrounded the heart. As this energy entered his soul, it was not absorbed by his Dao Tree, but rather it leaked out into his body. It was soft and gentle, yet vast beyond compare—it was the source of the tremendous amount of life on the jungle above. It seeped through him, and Jack felt incomparably comfortable, like relaxing in the world’s greatest hot spring.

His entire body was revitalized. His wounds and exhaustion disappeared, restoring him to his peak and then some. The heart was powered by something in its depth and maintained a steady intensity in its aura, overflowing his cells with life.

Under the effects of this power, Jack felt his body growing rapidly stronger. It was a form of body tempering like the one he could achieve through the Life Drop, but far gentler, as if the realm heart was made for this exact purpose. There was no pain—instead, as if his body rapidly strengthened, he felt almost euphoria. He sat down cross-legged, enjoying this feeling.

The absorption took one day and one night. When an equilibrium was finally achieved between Jack’s body and the life aura produced by the heart, he opened his eyes, realizing he was full of vigor. Even his blood had turned a shadow greener—as if inheriting a wisp of the Green Dragon’s bloodline.

However, the transformation was still not over. The life aura nourished his Dao Tree, and Jack’s fourth fruit, which had already reached maturity, began to overflow. He smiled widely.

After three years of meditation, this fruit had long reached maturity. However, he had purposely limited his cultivation to the peak of this fourth fruit to consolidate it, ensuring the stability of his foundation. After all, these four fruits had grown too rapidly, and he’d never had the time to properly experience them.

Now, this overflowing of energy was the sign that his foundation was as solid as could be. The breakthrough to the next fruit, which normally required a massive accumulation of resources, was happening by itself. Delaying it any longer would only harm him. He let the energy rise, naturally gathering at another end of the branches and sprouting into a red fruit—this represented not a particular Dao, but Jack’s burning blood, his unyielding battle spirit. It was the essence of his Dao as he’d realized during his battle against the Old God projections.

Only now were the realm heart’s effects finished, but they had been absolutely massive. From his body, to his Dao, to his cultivation, Jack had been transformed. He was simply incomparable to before.

He was burning with the desire to test his strength. It was time to leave this place. Before that, however, there was another thing he desperately wanted to do.

He opened his status screen for the first time in a while.

Name: Jack Rust

Species: Human, Earth-387

Faction: Bare Fist Brotherhood (C)

Grade: C

Class: Gladiator Titan (King)

Level: 301

Strength: 5842 (+)

Dexterity: 5842 (+)

Constitution: 5842 (+)

Mental: 949 (+)

Will: 949 (+)

Free points: 260

Free sub-points: 1

Dao Skills: Meteor Punch IV, Iron Fist Style III, Brutalizing Aura III, Neutron Star Body III, Supernova III, Space Mastery III, Fist of Mortality III, Death Mastery II, Titan Taunt I

Dao Roots: Indomitable Will, Life, Power, Weakness

Dao Fruits: Fist, Space, Life, Death, Battle

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

In his three years of cultivation, and now with absorbing the realm heart, Jack had risen by thirteen levels. His Space Mastery and Fist of Mortality skills had both reached the third tier, he had developed the Death Mastery skill and taken it to the second tier, and finally his Physical substats had increased by almost a thousand and five hundred points each—most of which came from the realm heart.

Being transformed was not a figure of speech. At this point, without even using any Dao, Jack could crush a mountain ridge with his bare hands.

The inheritance of an Archon was almost scary.

And all of those weren’t even the best thing. Jack surveyed his stat points. By some lucky coincidence, they were…

He barely contained his excitement.

Of the 260 free points, he invested 102 in Mental and Will to bring them both to a round thousand. That left exactly 158, which he allocated fully into the Physical substats. The resulting image was something he had desired for many, many years.

Strength: 6000 (+)

Dexterity: 6000 (+)

Constitution: 6000 (+)

Mental: 1000

Will: 1000

Free sub-points: 1

“Oh, heavens, thank you! Thank you! You are beautiful, haha!”

If Jack wasn’t already euphoric, he would be now. This balance would break once he cultivated a little bit, but, for now…it was perfect.

Jack spent another three days in the heart chamber to consolidate his benefits a little and let his body grow used to its increased stats. Then, with a tug of will, he teleported back to the tree cavern. As the owner of the realm heart, he could freely move around this cavern—though he did not possess the power to do the same in the jungle above.