Sam saw the hallway taper a few hundred feet up, and two guards stood on both sides. One woman and one man, they wore stylized plate armor, without helmets. Both came from the same alien race as Amari, with a hole in the back of their armor for the tail to come out. The woman held a sword in both hands, while the man clutched a shining glaive.

They were the strongest people he had seen yet in the Worldsea, both at level 240. Next to them was a large rack, completely empty. They looked bored out of their minds, likely having stood there for days on end without action.

"You know what to do," the man intoned monotonously, pointing at the rack.

Sam headed forwards, and slid Terra's Will into the holder. The weapon sat there, looking incredibly lonely amongst the emptiness. Sam then headed into the darkness behind the guards, finding a small door there. It wasn't really what he had expected as the entrance to a king's chamber, but once he opened it, it all made sense.

Within was a drab stone room, empty save for a cultivation mat in the center. On that mat, a man sat, his eyes closed. A faint haze of Dao energy surrounded him, rotating in a series of concentric circles. His eyes snapped open as Sam entered, a slight frown on his face.

"Who are you?" Elvras asked, looking a bit out of sorts. "Are you here to deliver those pills I commissioned?"

The strange comment the man in the bar had made about Elvras being a training maniac now made sense. The king was completely disconnected from the world around him, focused only on reaching D Rank.

"No?" Sam replied. "Captain Alran assured me that you would want to meet me?"

Elvras cocked his head. "If you're not here to help me train, then what are you here for?"

"The Dreamer cultists. I want to help."

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The Sovereign finally got to his feet, seeming to take Sam more seriously. "Why? What do you think you can do that I cannot?"

Something about the man's attitude rubbed Sam the wrong way. "Pardon me, but it seems like you aren't doing anything at all. Why aren't you fighting the cultists? You're supposed to be one of, if not the most powerful cultivator on the planet."

Elvras' nonchalant demeanor cracked for a moment. "Excuse me?"

Sam doubled down. "You heard me. You rot here, grasping for a future dream while the present slips by. If you haven't reached D Rank by now, you probably aren't going to by the time the threat has fully come to pass."

Elvras snarled. His body started to crackle and hum, dancing beams of elemental light surging around him. He was a Water cultivator, fitting considering his domain. The air started to grow heavy and thick, clouds of vapor forming. Behind Sam, Alran paled, and teleported away. Sam ignored him, and unleashed his own elemental might. He hadn't ever tried to manipulate his element beyond using it in his larger scale attacks, but he knew that more was possible. Pyotr had been able to summon crystals from thin air at G Rank. Sam could certainly do much more at E Rank.

The ground shook as Sam willed his element to respond to his will. Elvras stumbled as gravity increased tenfold in the span of a second. At least, it increased for him. Sam wasn't adept enough with his element to do anything more than increase the weights of individuals. It would require far more elemental mastery to actually control gravity itself.

Sam narrowed his eyes, feeling Elvras' own elemental mastery fighting for supremacy. The other man's control over Water was quite a bit greater than that of Sam's over Earth, as befitted his much longer lifespan. However, there was something that he could not hope to easily contest Sam in. Raw aura pressure. As a cultivator's aura drew from every aspect of their power, Sam, who could kill peak E Rankers as a low E Ranker, was able to output enough concentrated power to stagger Elvras. He did just that.

Like a bomb, his aura surged out in every direction, a tidal wave of force that nearly knocked Elvras off his feet. Then the Sovereign pushed back, showing a mostly equal level of power.

"Hells!" Elvras shouted. "What manner of monster are you?"

"I've had the System for less than a year, and can already compete against you, a training addict," Sam answered. "Put aside your mania, and help! Or at least let me do so."

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