It must be destroyed. To ascend the dungeon must die by my hands. In my heart of hearts, I knew it was the only way. With the wall gone from my cultivation, I had to look elsewhere. And where else would my wall be than a delusional hivemind entity that believes it has a soul. It was just a copy and nothing more. The human soul didn't exist.
A smile spread across my face. I was sure it thought the same of me. Why wouldn't I confront it again and spit in the face of its beliefs? It sent Dani to me because it knew I would get attached after we had sex. That damn thing believed I would volunteer myself in her stead. I wanted to believe that. But, if that wasn't the case, then I didn't know what was going on. Why would the dungeon sacrifice one of its own to preserve my life?
Or was I missing something that was also a possibility because a dungeon wouldn't think like me? My thoughts were based on chemical reactions. The chemical reactions that caused me to love Dani weren't natural. Time away from her had made that clear. A dungeon didn't use chemicals to think.
There was also something else I couldn't leave without burning it to ash. I was stronger now than ever before, but the dungeon was a force of nature. Leaving without destroying it wouldn't feel right. That made me think.
Where did my power come from? That question rolled around in my head as I stared at my staff. It had grown from a six feet piece of wood with two-spirit cores inside to a small tree. Black and orange fruits hung heavy from drooping branches filled with qi collected from the world spirit. I planted it in the middle of the room to absorb as much qi as possible during the orgy. By building this staff and gaining experience wielding wood-type qi, I had the knowledge and capability to use the orgy. If I broke that down further, it was because of my spirit sense.
By paying attention to how the world acts and having to skills to take advantage of that, I built the framework for a ritual. What I did made sense.
I took a bite of another fruit. My cultivation climbed higher from 1.37 to 1.381. However, every bite after the last had diminishing returns. After my second bite, that became obvious. The fruit alone couldn't help me reach the heights I wanted. Somewhere deep in my bones, I knew more spirit cores wouldn't either. They, too, had diminishing returns.
My cultivation base was strong enough to sustain my battle form. Though it wasn't really my cultivation base that was the problem. After reaching my current strength, I understood my battle form a little better. I could tell the difference between my past self and now. My cultivation base was never the issue.
That's right, even jumping a realm wouldn't have helped my battle form. It wasn't draining my qi to sustain itself. It was to heal my body when it drained my qi or the qi around me. The only way to ease the burden of that form was to strengthen my body. Some of the pills helped in that regard, but Kale helped the most.
She had nearly killed me, but my cultivation base brought me back by draining the qi in the room. It's funny; I didn't understand where my power came from, not really. Wood type qi provided survival of the fittest; the fire burned the dead cells, earth strengthened what remained, metal targeted the strongest cells, and water fed them first. How did I know this? That was an ability gained from lightning. I understood my body better than ever before. To be more precise, I gathered information directly from my cells differently.
This told me something I didn't want to hear. My flesh was weak. Even with my enhancements without my cultivation, I was maybe a little above a normal human. Cultivation could only go so far. I had limits just like anyone else. My cells weren't immortal; they were very adaptive.
Fortunately, I didn't beat Washington by personally being stronger. My weakness to lightning had seen to that. I built a weapon to surpass my limits. Men didn't fight with their fists if they didn't have to.
I plucked my staff from the ground and knew immediately that it wouldn't work.
"You don't have to do this alone; we can fight with you," Kale said. I took out a piece of paper from my inventory and began drawing designs. When it proved too small, I tossed a seed out and manipulated its growth. A wall of wood grew from a single seed until I had a flat canvas to work with.
"I don't need your help with this. You'll only be a hindrance." I said.
"You agreed to remain here and be a good human male." Terra reminded me.
I waved my hand, and roots swirled around her. She struggled until the roots drained the qi from her perpetual engine.
"You've grown stronger," Lizzy said.
"I need you to get the others out of here. The dungeon and I have some unsettled business." I said.
"Does that mean the ritual was a success?" Molly asked.
"No, but that isn't a bad thing. If it worked, I wouldn't have learned anything." I said.