Earth's Path

Grant just stood still with a satisfied look on his face. He had finally achieved his short term goal. He was starting to think he had somehow hit a wall or something because even after being level 24 for so long, killing a thousand zombies, and then even more monsters over the past day of training, he still hadn't leveled up to 25.

Sherlock had told him it took about the same amount of experience to go from level 1-24 as it did from 24-25 but it still annoyed Grant that it had taken so long. If he hadn't achieved it from killing the cat he would have started to seriously question the integrity of The Path.

[Congratulations on killing Ferocious Agile Cat - Assassin Level 29.

You have reached level 25.

Gained two status points to be distributed freely.

You have absorbed +15 Strength, +38 Agility, +17 Health, and +25 Stamina.

You have gained +50 Credits and 1 Random Rolls for successfully leveling up.]

Even after reading the notification Grant still couldn't believe that the cat had actually been an Enlightened tier monster.

[Sherlock, why was that cat so weak even though it was an Enlightened Tier monster? And why didn't it use any skills like the spider had?]

{The cat was not weak. You are simply too strong for your level and the point that the Earth has reached on its own Path.

The reason that the Ferocious Cat didn't use any active skills is because it may not have had any.

As I mentioned before, their are two different types of Path's.

Their are the unique Paths, such as the spider you faced, who gain skills related to their Path upon beginning their journey and then their are normal or generic Paths.

The normal Paths are far more common and there are many people who walk them. But they are also far weaker than the Unique paths in both stats and Path specific skills.

Normal paths do not gain skills when they begin their journey on a particular Path but they can still purchase them with their credits.

It is likely that the cat purchased self enhancing passive skills rather than active skills.}

[Makes sense I guess. Follow up question though, how the heck does a monster even use credits? Do they have something similar to the display that I see?]

{They do, but unless the monster has reached a fairly high level of intelligence, they pick their skills mostly on instinct.

It is similar to when you look at a group of monsters and can tell which is the most dangerous of the bunch just from feeling.

They will see a list of skills and then choose based on which skill they believe to be strongest based on their instincts.

Of course there are those you would deem monsters that have intelligence from the moment of inception. Skit would be an example. Although you may view him as a monster, he is much the same as you, just another member of his species, but unlike you who are flesh and bone, he is just bone.}

[Makes sense.

One follow up question on something that you just casually passed over but is actually pretty important information.

What the fuck do you mean Earth is on its own Path?!]

{You didn't believe that the Earth would remain the same, did you? How would it manage to sustain the inevitable battles between high level monsters and members of different species if it did not evolve?

Much like dungeons, planets evolution is determined by the species that occupy it. The stronger the members of a planet grow, the stronger the planet itself grows.

Think of the planet as you would a plant and how it creates nutrients for itself. On Earth, you humans will absorb oxygen and then expel carbon dioxide, and then plants use said carbon dioxide to grow while expelling the waste they create, oxygen, for you humans to survive.

Planets function in the same way, but use Mana as fuel. Your body will absorb or create mana to be used for skills, and when you execute those skills, you are condensing that mana into a purer form that it was before. The planets will absorbed that pure mana after the skills execution, pull out as much of the purity as it can and then expel the looser more ambient mana back into the atmosphere.

Of course, their is more too it than that, but it would be pointless for you to know the finer details. For now at least.}

[You know, ninety-five percent of the time, you're pretty useless. The rest of the time however, you really like to drop information like we Americans drop bombs, oversized and explosive.]

The conversation between Sherlock and Grant only took a few seconds because the stronger he became the more his cognitive functions improved. So by the time he was finished, Richard and Robin had just reached his side.

Robin was concerned that Grant may have been injured but he just gave her a pat on the head and told her that he was fine. He told her that she had nothing to worry about because the feline was actually pretty weak.

Both Richard and Robin just stared at Grant for a few seconds while Grant handed Peacekeeper back to Richards now frozen outstretched arms. To them, it looked like the Flash was fighting the Reverse-Flash. Grant and the cat had been moving at such insane speeds that the two could barely perceive them, and yet, Grant thought the fight was easy?

The both wondered what level they would have to obtain to fight like that and feel like it hadn't taken much effort?

Neither of them particularly enjoyed fighting and killing, but the prospect of being able to move and fight like a superhero made the fire and desire for more strength burst out of them.

They started to pester Grant over and over to take continue their training. Which at this point was more like a guided tour around the city as they killed stuff because the two kids had already exceeded the level that Grant had intended for them to reach.

Grant was itching to get a look at his choices for his Path, but he decided to put it off until the sun started to set and they called it quits for the day.

He was limited on time, and they would need to make the most out of the daylight while they still could.

Their would be plenty of opportunity to spend time diving deep into his Path after the sun set.

So for the last few hours of the day, they moved through the city with a determination in their gaze and a fire burning in their eyes.

Robin and Richard were so fired up that even when they came across survivors they just blew past them at insane speeds and charged at any monster they could find.

Grant had started to give them more and more space as the day went on so that they would slowly get used to the feeling of him not being close enough to protect them.

Trailing about a block behind them, Grant had stopped to talk with one group of survivors and had actually overheard a small portion of the group gossiping about two kids killing all the monsters they could find.

Grant had no doubt that it would eventually lead to a sizable amount of fame for the kids when the multiple groups of survivors that had seen them fight reached the settlements but he figured that it would just be another test for them to handle down the road.

Would fame change them? Or would they stay true to their goals and their roots?

When the sun finally began to set, Grant told the two kids that it was time to go home for the day and get some rest.

Although slightly disappointed that they had to end their hunt for the day, they were both starting to become mentally exhausted from the sheer amount of focus they had to expend while exploring different areas.

When they returned to the gun shop, Ally already had food waiting for them when they walked through the door. She even had a smile on her face and gave the kids a hug each even though they were covered in every kind of fluid you could imagine along with chunks of flesh and bone.

Grant was happy that Ally was starting to act the way she had when he first met her and could tell that it was having a positive effect on the kids.

The kids had immediately grabbed a plate of food each and sat down at the table with their Mom telling her all about their experiences from the day, the survivors they had met, and even the fight Grant had had with the large cat.

Grant decided to excuse himself from the family dinner and told them he would eat outside because he wanted to enjoy the darkness and stars while taking care of some personal stuff.

While sitting on the roof of a crashed vehicle in the middle of the road, Grant finally opened the notification that had been blinking at him all day long,

{Congratulations on reaching the beginning of your Path. Please choose The Path you would like to walk. Bare in mind that once you set foot on a Path, you will be forced to walk it until its conclusion or your death.

The Path's you may choose from are: ... }