The next day the pair set out northwest from the city with Joshua taking the lead in most fights. Between the two of them they developed a stable system that resulted in Joshua getting about twenty percent of the energy. Maximilian couldn't tell if that was the maximum possible with him removing this much of the danger or if there was something they hadn't noticed. Either way it didn't matter. The exercise had helped improve his control over his energy and skills. He had already reached max proficiency in them so he doubted it counted for anything in the Network's eyes but it was still nice. He was confident in hitting the exact point he wanted to up to a few hundred yards. Which when your weapon was a buzz saw strong enough to split buildings in half would make a big difference.

  "Are you able to tell what a person's affinities are?" Joshua asked as the sun began to set.

  Maximilian shook his head. "No, though I am sure there are ways. The big orb they used in the tutorial seemed a bit ostentatious. Like it was meant to impress us. I doubt everyone would buy something that big."

  He nodded. "Mine weren't that impressive." He continued while he lazily spun his staff around. "I have some affinity with a few of the martial dao including the Dao of staves."

  Maximilian nodded. "I have a few other weapons if you want to switch. I hadn't intended to force you to use one or the other."

  He shook his head. "I think I like it. Its makes me feel like one of those martial artists. You know from the movies." He stepped back and spun the staff until he slammed it into the ground. "If you don't mind my asking what does it feel like? To be a king? To have all that power?"

  Maximilian paused and looked up at the sky as if the words he searched for were written in the clouds. They weren't. "I don't know. At least not in the way you would think. I don't feel anything. When I close my eyes I could convince myself that the world hadn't changed. That I would open them to find myself standing in an office ready to sign papers. Of course that isn't true. I can always feel my dantian. I can feel the energy in the air. The Dao—" He paused and reached the sky. He could almost feel the Dao like an ethereal gossamer web. One that got thinner the more he tried to hold on. "The Dao is there always. It isn't all good. It also feels like I am walking natural disaster. That if I let my power flow freely I could destroy cities and kill who knows how many people. I am not sure how war works with people like me out there. No with people stronger than me out there. I can't help but feel like it wouldn't exist. That everyone would settle their problems with single combat. Or perhaps words."

  "You don't sound very hopeful about that." Joshua replied.

  "I think that war never changes. Not truly. I could imagine a world of people each one able to wipe out a city yet instead of peace we would just make our cities stronger. Our weapons bigger until we've just started over again."

  "Well that's a rather pessimistic thought. It makes me ask what's the point of it all." Almost as soon as he finished the question he shook his head. "Don't answer that. I don't think I'd like to hear what your thoughts are on that."

  Maximilian snorted and gestured for him to follow. The pair made their way deeper into the forest until they found an out cropping large enough for them to set up camp. "I will add that it is fun. I have to convince myself not to jump of a buildings just to do a superhero landing. It also feels like a puzzle. Like the secrets of the universe are just out of sight. Like all I have to do is focus." Maximilian wasn't sure why he felt like he had to offer that answer. He didn't want to make it seem like life was bad now that the Network had arrived. It was more complicated than that at least to him. He enjoyed it but he knew that others were dying. That he wouldn't be able to get to most of them. It was complicated and he wasn't sure what burden he was supposed to carry.

  "You stare off into the distance a lot." Joshua's voice brought Maximilian back from his thoughts. "You shouldn't get lose like that. People like that often forget to live in the world. Thinking is important in all but sometimes you just got to do stuff." He shrugged and moved to take a seat at the base of an oak tree two or three times as big as it should be. Maximilian watched him for a moment before he leaped into the tree's canopy. He only needed to sleep about an hour or so a week which meant he was on watch all the time. Not that he minded. The solitude of night was a great time for him to cultivate or to practice with his Dao. He had given up on advancing his new attack in favor of strengthening his Dao fields. He still hadn't gotten it quite right but he had improved the boost. It now provided a ten percent increase to his skills. Although he only had one skill that matched his Dao. Static Bolt was a decent option but at this point he was sure that it couldn't go the distance.

  Even if you added the boost from the dao field it was arguably weaker than if he just attacked with his dao. Which brought him to his current position. He wanted to try and combine the two fields together. He wasn't sure if that was even possible but he leaned toward yes. He could release both fields at the same time. So why couldn't he make them one thing? No matter how obvious the thought seemed he hadn't made any real progress. He had tried everything from the simultaneous release of both fields to the gradual release of one while the other was already out. He had even tried to picture them as two force fields that he could push together. His failure wasn't all bad. He had better control over the two. The Dao field of static was more offensive while rain was more defensive though it wasn't a protection. It was healing or to be more accurate purification. It could wash things away. He hadn't had a lot of time to test it but he could confirm it would shelter him from energy. He had shattered a first realm stone and then washed the energy away. He refused to test that with a 2nd realm stone. Those were too valuable to risk. By the time the sun had risen he sported a migraine that was the rival of anything he had in college.

  "You have to show me how to do whatever it is you are doing. It looks and feels freaky. Like you are some sort of weather god." Joshua said when Maximilian jumped out of the tree. "I can only imagine what the scientist would think if they saw it."

  Maximilian chuckled. "I don't think they'd have a problem. It still follows the laws of physics at least I think. It uses mental energy to create something. Though its more accurate to say my mental energy is the fuel and the dao is the thing."

  "Yeah and what is the Dao?"

  Maximilian offered him a rueful shrug. "The best I can offer is that its understanding. Its like asking me what sight is or what it means to think. You have to experience it to understand." Joshua nodded and Maximilian could tell the man wanted to ask more questions, but he didn't. Maximilian had already considered the problem, but he had no solution. Even if he told Joshua every insight that went into his Daos it wouldn't work. It was like the experience was too personal. His gut told him it should be possible. After all, wouldn't that be the kind of thing you would pass onto your descendants or even just a student? Regardless there was nothing to be done about it today. They decided to devote today to travel in hopes of making out of the forest. Maximilian reduced his speed by half to avoid abandoning Joshua. Which only drove home the difference between them. It took them almost five hours before they reached the outskirts of another settlement. It was in better shape than Bridgerock which wasn't saying much. There were two cultivators standing in front of a large metal gate. The cultivators were nothing special. Somewhere around level 3 if he had to place them.

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  They were unarmed and wore the tutorial robes which meant they hadn't earned anything else just hadn't completed any quests. Not that he had given them any real chance of doing that. When the guards saw them, their eyes lit up. They walked until they were about fifteen away and held out their hands. "It costs two spirit stones to enter the city. Everyone has to pay." The larger of the two men called out. Maximilian nodded and summoned four stones from his bag and tossed them over. Both men had their eyes glued to his bag and it didn't take a genius to figure to out their thoughts. Maximilian had little interest in a fight so he decided to get move on. He gave Joshua a nod who settled in behind him. Maximilian didn't relax until they were passed the guards and into the city. He almost wished they hadn't gone through. If New Philadelphia was an attempt at recapturing the old world than this place its opposite. The whole place looked like an apocalyptic trash heap. The streets were filled with people who lay about. It was a bit like they had just given up on everything. The few people that had any kind of spark in their eyes moved with fear. As if every step took them further from danger. Danger that was always half a step behind them.

  "Should we do anything about this?" Joshua asked and Maximilian wasn't sure. This wasn't a monster he couldn't kill the people, nor could he blast them with killing intent. Most of them looked like they would die if he shouted at them. They headed down a mostly deserted street when they encountered a group of five cultivators. The cultivators were weak an uninteresting outside of the two metal mages. He recalled a metal spike skill, so it wasn't that rare, but it made him more irritated. He knew that the men likely lacked any dao related to the element so they couldn't make metal walls or houses. That did little to make him feel better.

  "You got to pay spirit stones to go down—" One of the unarmed men began before he was hit with a blast of water. Maximilian had held back as much as he could but you wouldn't have been able to tell based on the man's reaction. He was launched backwards almost five feet and was drenched from head to toe.

  "Go. Away. I am not in the mood to have this conversation. Before you get it in your mind that you can fight me or rob me, I am stronger than you. Just go away." Maximilian glanced at the quintet and considered releasing his killing intent to deal with the issue, but he held back. He didn't want to take the risk.

  "Just who the hell do you think you are?" The now soaked man screeched as his face reddened with anger. "Do you know who I am?" For a moment the man looked like he wanted to continue fighting but thought better of it. Maximilian didn't relax until the group stormed out of the street.

  "He's going to come back." Joshua said as he gripped his staff. "Are you sure we should've let them go?"

  Maximilian nodded. "It should be fine. I doubt anyone in this place is strong enough to fight me. I would estimate that you could've handled most of those people on your own. Maybe not all at once though."

  "Right, I will take your word for it. You won't mind if I stay with you though. I am not down to get attacked by whatever gang runs this place."

  Maximilian chuckled but didn't complain. "I would like to find someone we can ask about the people here. I doubt my father is anywhere near here but they might have heard rumors. We could find somewhere to stay while we are here."

  "I think I would rather stay out in the forest." Joshua said.

  The pair were allowed to walk around for twenty more minutes before they found them. The man he had drenched had a grin on his face that reminded Maximilian of a rat. His gaze was pulled to the largest of the group. A man who looked like he had eaten a heavyweight boxer. He was almost as tall as Maximilian with dirty blonde hair. The man had a pair of claws like weapons that had two blades extended a few inches above his fists. Maximilian cocked his head at the man in amused confusion. The man had to be one of the top ten which made more and more sense the more he thought about it. The man had made himself a king. Just a bad one for some reason.

  "I heard you've come into my home and have started causing problems. Hand over your bag, break your arms and legs and I won't take things further." The man cracked his fingers and Maximilian considered fighting him hand to hand. Just to test his own ability but he knew that wasn't a wise course of action. He doubted he could control the battle like that and this place felt like it was made of cardboard.

  "Look the idiot seems to have lost the ability to speak." The man from last time snickered as he took a step forward. "Don't you know who is?" He gestured to the large man. "This Anthony Jones. You know the Anthony, from the list. I would suggest you listen to him before he gets impatient."

  Maximilian's eyes dimmed at that. He was both relieved and disappointed it wasn't Justinian or Yao Wei. It was good that they didn't let their homes turn into this but it also meant this guy was likely weaker than them. Of course, he was still at level nine so it might be a decent fight. Anthony said something but Maximilian had stopped paying him any attention. The man stepped forward but before he could swing a burst of bluish-white electricity surged through him. Maximilian ducked to avoid the follow up punch. Anthony's attack was much too slow to be a threat but it was interesting. He had tried to paralyze him but it hadn't worked. Was it the man's attributes or was his dao too weak to stop someone like him? Maximilian gave the man his full attention. The event repeated five more times before Anthony decided he had enough. The claw on his fight hand glowed with spiritual energy seconds before he unleashed a slash of pure energy. The two pronged slash crashed into his Dao field as the forces of nature fought against war. The battle if you could call it that lasted for a fraction of a second.

  The slash ran out of energy and then Maximilian withdrew his defense. Whatever skill he had used was the same quality as Static Bolt so it wasn't a concern. "Now that you've done that shall we end this? I think I got the hang of how much power I need to use to paralyze you though I can't be certain. If you and your friends back off now I will let you—" Maximilian's words died when Anthony popped a pill into his mouth. A moment later the man began to bulge. In a instant he had grown almost two sizes. He was now big enough to dwarf Maximilian but that wasn't what had caused him to stop. Now his danger sense warned him. "A buffing skill?" Before he could offer him one last chance to surrender Anthony shot toward him with the force of bomb. Maximilian narrowly avoided losing his head. He leaped back ten feet and created a mine field of static darts. The monster of a man roared and charged. One of his followers was too slow and was knocked through a rock wall. Maximilian's mind raced as he tried to come up with a plan. The man charged into his defenses like a bull in a China shop. Maximilian couldn't tell if he could feel pain anymore, but he doubted it. Maximilian side stepped a punch only to be caught by the man's right knee. The impact was enough to launch him across the street and into a shop window.

  A scream of danger was his only warning before Anthony unleashed his slashing skill again. This time his beams of light were strong enough to make Maximilian's hair stand on end. Without thinking about he activated Prismatic Barrier. Blinding white clashed with the rainbow with enough force to blow out all the windows in the neighborhood. It wasn't enough to get through his defenses but he knew he couldn't let this continue. Maximilian's eyes hardened as he activated Severing Disc. Two door sized buzz saws each imbued with the dao of static appeared as he dismissed his defensive skill. "I don't know if you can hear me but it doesn't really matter." He released his hold on his skill and the blades shot forward like the executioner's axe. It was time to end this.