[MA] 97. May You Tread Your Path With Honor (Patreon)

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[A/N: Notice for everyone: the remaining chapters for this week (2 for D and C-ranks, 3 for B-ranks) will be released tomorrow.]

The Dreamer killed the last of the Void Spawn who had invaded the galaxy when the Heavens, once again, destroyed the protections around the Pioneer Tutorial.

Cultivators were bad enough, but the Heavenly Tribulations they conjured were even worse.

Once there was a Void Spawn anywhere, they could open a connection to the Void that it used to invade, and the tutorial mega-world had plenty of the creatures. The only way to avoid that was to block the link, which required a very advanced and delicate enchantment, but the Heavens had shredded the seals to get to Feng Shen. A high price had been paid to reseal the world—fortunately, the Pioneer Tutorials had a lot of resources to draw from.

Completing one's Path on the Pioneer Tutorial wasn't rare, but not common either. It was also one of the signs that a talent evaluated as an early burner was not such a thing. Together with everything else Feng Shen had shown, the system wanted to give the human a first-class label, but that would make the Dreamer's Bounty impossible to complete.

First-class talents were rare, about one in every hundred trillion Guardians, making them very valuable. Ten percent of those who survived long enough became C-ranks, and at least one percent of those C-ranks became B-ranks. More than any worries about fighting the Void, that's what the great powers of the Alliance sought when evaluating talent: the thrill of betting on the right pawn and the strength acquired by adding another B-rank to their forces.

The Dreamer's Bounty required them to protect the boy from any external influence from C-rank upwards. They couldn't do that if too many B-ranks or an A-rank got involved. Therefore, they had interfered with Feng Shen's talent evaluation, now firmly set as second-class. Only the system, the Talent Reevaluation Committee, or people working on Pioneer Tutorials could directly change an evaluation like that.

To be sincere, even they felt tempted to manipulate a first-class talent, but a connection to the Primordial Bridge trumped any gains having a future C-rank—or even B-rank—puppet might give them.

So they went back to their watch.

= - = - =

After getting killed, Shen that it was impossible to communicate with the outside from inside the circles. It was probably because whoever was out of the fight was out for good. Even giving tips on what to do wasn't allowed anymore.

Everyone fought to the death quickly enough though. On the next reset, he left his circle and used the Lion's Roar to talk to everyone.

He explained what Heavenly Tribulations were and that he had triggered that one by completing his Path. He told them what the wisp had taught in the magic class during the third stage, "No tribulations when growing stronger using mana." He didn't know if it also applied to Path-related tribulations or just rank-ups, but that wasn't his problem to solve.

After that, he shared the good news with the war council. "I can kill the golem by myself in less than two and a half hours."

The declaration was met with shocked silence.

Schneider was the first to recover. "Are you serious?"

"Yes," Shen said firmly.

"He never jokes," Evelyn said.

"That changes things," Schneider replied.

"But there's a possible catch," Shen warned. "Something that the very Heavens taught us during my tribulation. Expect the unexpected. None of us expected the tribulation, and when it arrived, it changed all our plans for that battle. I can kill the final boss if it fights the way it has until now, but it may have surprises reserved for us."

"That makes sense," Sai said. He wasn't part of the council, but he was listening nearby and gave his opinion. "In some games, bosses change patterns when their HP hit a threshold. Some stuff in the Alliance and this tutorial look like games."

Shen nodded. "I could try to attack until I found that threshold, but it might make people get excited and attack the boss, maybe even kill it, and I think that's a bad idea."

"Why?" Schneider asked.

"How much damage can you can currently deal?" Shen asked back instead of replying.

"Five thousand in half an hour, then we get wiped out," Schneider replied.

"That's your answer. We can all still improve. Remaining time."

| Final boss remaining time: 5 weeks, 2 days, 17 hours, 32 minutes, 55 seconds

"I suggest we continue with the free-for-alls," Shen continued. "We train to the utmost, using every second we can to improve."

"Can't you kill it already, probably?" Schneider asked. "What's the purpose of wasting time training?"

"I'm only one person, and we have an entire planet to protect. It's for the best that everyone trains as much as we can against strong foes." Shen looked the others in the eyes. "We're Earth's best defense against obliteration; let's not ever forget that." They nodded. "When we hit one week remaining, we train against the boss only, and we'll go for the kill when there are three days remaining. Cutting any closer would be dangerous. If something happens that I can't deal with alone, we'll need the extra time."

"Seconded," Marzia said quickly.

They voted and agreed on it.

"I would like to fight all of you again," Shen said with a slight smile. "No knife on the back this time." Then the knowledge he had thanks to War told him to add, "If anyone does it and claim they did it for me, they'll be lying. I swear I'll make it my mission to kill them at the start of every boss fight in the last week, just as I shall do to the annoying ones who repeatedly spoke against me before." He had killed more than the couple, but the others were just friends protecting the two. Shen would let them go.

"About that..." Schneider said. "We were wondering if they could apologize, and you could let bygones be bygones."

Shen squinted his eyes. Before the tribulation, he would've said no. Today, words weighted less for him.

"Yes," he replied. "But I must believe they mean it, or they must kneel." An apology from the heart or self-humiliation. That was the cultivator's way of doing things.

Everything happened quickly. The couple came, and Shen believed the regret in their eyes. Then they went away.

"So, to the fight?" he asked.

They agreed.

= - = - =

Shen rushed at the thirteen hundred people. They had organized themselves just like last time. He didn't throw his spear at them again.

A barrage of projectiles rained on him as he approached, and gravity and ice slowed him down, but he was just too fast. No spells hit him, and no arrow pierced his body.

He reached the front line and leaped at the closest defender, his spear a perfect parallel to the ground. His opponent raised their shield, and when Shen hit, he used Arc Flash.

He used it both on the tip of his spearhead and his back.

The two powerful shock waves made a mess on his body. He took fifty points of damage just like that. But the opposing forces also kept him in place while the explosion on the tip of his spear pushed his enemy's shield arm against their body.

That was all the opening he needed.

In that split second, he swung his spear from below, in between his target's legs. His opponent was wearing plate armor, but Sharpness, Combat, and War told him where and when to strike. Zephyr, Flow, and Boundlessness made his attack fast. Arc Flash added a mighty blow on contact.

Shen used two explosions again, one on each side of his blade this time. They were meant to damage the armor while not getting pushed back. After the brief stop, he continued with the swing, cutting true.

His spearhead entered the armor. Shen pulled his enemy a little for a better angle, then pushed the spear through their bodies, skewering them.

As they turned into light, Shen found himself with free access to the strength and agility fighters. The group didn't have enough dedicated defenders for more than one row.

Henceforth, death abounded.

Shen was faster than anyone and at least as strong. His resistance didn't pale much compared to the resistant fighters either, but that didn't matter. War, Combat, Zephyr, Flow, and Boundlessness—and even a bit of Arc Flash—made him too fast and too good at dodging, and his footwork pushed it to yet another level.

The enemy became a string of cuts, explosions, and motes of light flowing all around.

Shen shredded the ranged attackers in the middle of the group, crushed the close-ranged attackers, and left the defenders to last.

He was fast, and he was brutally effective.

After his last enemy fell, he killed himself so they could fight among themselves in the next reset.

= - = - =

The following weeks were filled with death. Shen won every reset he took part in, whether they got in a single group or divided themselves. He improved a little more on every fight too.

He wanted to give tips on how to do better against him but decided against it. What if they used his advice to kill him at the final fight against the boss?

Every time he fought, he focused the most on the knowledge he had received from War. Every time he meditated, he tried to further his understanding of it. He progressed little by little, in a desperate rush to master it and enter D-rank, but after four weeks, he was still at 92% of the way to mastery.

Other people tried to join his service, and he said he would be glad to accept them—once they were back on Earth. He wouldn't let strangers who might have an agenda get closer to him right now. The position of a guard was the lowest one, and Sai walked nine whole feet away from Shen, but it was still a position that could bring calamity if exploited. Even to accept someone as a lowly guard, some measure of trust, or at least lack of distrust, was needed. Shen didn't trust anyone but Alicia at his point of the final boss, and he merely not distrusted Sai.

At long last, they reached the point when there was one week remaining to the end of the final boss, and they started training solely against it.

Shen became their general. He knew the best way to tackle the boss, but organizing all those people together took a lot of time and effort. They spent days training formations, learning the tactics Shen gave them, and practicing against the boss.

But they were elites, and when only three days were missing to the end of the Pioneer Tutorial, they were ready enough.

All that practice with strategy and acting as a general even pushed his War an extra percent, to 93%.

Shen could almost feel the mastery within his grasp. Yet, he instinctively knew that gap would not be easily overcome.

He would not improve even a single percent more until he mastered the Concept.

Why 93%? Why a 7% gap? He had no idea, but it meant any extra days of training wouldn't help. He needed sudden enlightenment to cross that gap. Small accumulations over time didn't matter anymore.

Shen was still determined to succeed.

Everyone got in position.

They were ready for their first real fight against the final boss.

= - = - =

They were organized in six sides around the boss, their numbers equally divided. Resistance fighters stayed on the front, agility and strength fighters a little behind, and mages further away from the front line. Each stat would have to act differently because of the weak spots, but everyone's movements would be based on which side they started at.

Some would disregard the plans and instructions to their advantage, but Shen had a solution for those: the end of his spear. He had told no one yet, but he was about to.

Shen walked around the golem, between the boss and everyone else, using his Lion's Roar for its true purpose, leading troops to war.

"You know what to do," he said. "I have no great poetry or silky words to share with you. I will tell you the crude truth only.

"You're Earth's best defense against the Void that threatens to consume us all. We must succeed here simply because no one else can.

"I expect our first run to succeed." There was confusion and surprise at that declaration, and he smiled slightly. That wasn't even the most controversial thing he would say.

"Yes, I expect treason, deceit, and betrayal to make things harder. But I also expect you all to be prepared and not fall for any attempts against you.

"You're Earth's best. You will be tested time and time again once we leave the tutorial too. The system told us how merely existing means excluding others. You, at the top, will always have to beware of treachery.

"If you can't succeed when you know betrayal is coming, you're not made for glory. Glory is for great people, and you'll have proven yourselves small. Blame no one but yourself if you fail here."

He made a pause. That had created a lot of discussions. He let it settle down a little before continuing.

"But also know this: if you betray anyone, I'll find you, and I'll kill you. There is no judicial system in this trial, no time for discussions. This is war, and here, mighty makes right. Maybe you'll all hate me for declaring myself the judge and executioner of anyone I see fit, and for that, I can only say one thing:

"Blame yourselves for not being strong enough to resist my tyranny."

Shen had thought hard about that. The Fate Resolution Tribulation had almost made him fall, but he was now more self-assured. His honor demanded he dealt with any treachery he saw, and if that pushed him on a Path that others might not agree with, he didn't care much.

His Path was his only.

He knew what was right and just, and he would do his best to keep the world so. Justice had to be delivered quickly in this situation and not with words.

"It's time to finish this," he said, then turned to the golem. "May you tread your Path with honor."

Shen sprinted towards the final boss.

[A/N: The tutorial will most likely end next week! \o/ Are you hyped for the final battle?]

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