“What exactly is happening here?” He asked, trying to piece together a picture of what the System wanted from him.

  “We were taken from a nearby solar system, with promises of riches if we helped to do some research into aging,” one of them said, stepping forwards. She looked like a human, but her fingers were strangely elongated, and her face had an angular, alien cast to it. One of her fingers was missing.

  “Aging? Why?”

  The woman looked fearfully at an iridescent, reptilian scale lying on a nearby table. “The dragonlord Abrinadus holds sway over this region of space. He’s lived nearly to the end of his natural lifespan, and lacks the talent to break through to D Rank. He wants a way to escape the shackles of time.”

  Sam looked at the tables that the scientists were working at, and spotted a few opalescent scales scattered on them, with fragments of them soaking in flasks of brightly colored liquids. “Oh. Are there more like you around these parts? How large is the asteroid belt?”

  “As far as we know, hundreds of teams were tricked into coming here. Can you save them too?” The woman asked, a pleading note in her voice. “My sister was taken away to a different asteroid. I’m not sure if she’s alive or dead…”

  “Can you all find your way out of here?” Sam asked, not wanting to leave those he had saved stranded. “How far is your home?”

  A different scientist raised a hand. He was a bulky Teruvarian analogue, with green skin and tusks, but with four arms. “I have a few contacts with the Blacktusks. They can organize an extraction, for a fee. I think these dragon scales will be sufficient.”

  Sam turned to him. “Blacktusks? I heard one of the guards mention them.”

  “They are a coalition of members of my species,” the man began. “A coalition of pirates. Still, they are more honorable than Abrinadus.”

  “If you trust them, go ahead. Unfortunately, I have no way to transport a large number of people with me, so it's either that, or you remain here. Rest assured, I will try to free the rest of the dragon’s captives.”

  He received a few smiles, but for the most part, the recent captives were still shell shocked, the trauma of their captivity still evident on their faces. None of them were warriors, or used to pain. The torture must have had a far reaching impact on them, despite it being nothing compared to what Sam went through on a near everyday basis.

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  He waited until the four armed Teruvarian had contacted his allies with one of the guards’ communications devices, and teleported away, emerging on the surface of the asteroid. A System notification awaited.

  You have completed the Desolation Belt: Layer 1! (Challenge Mode)

  You have upgraded a title!

  Fortieth Floor Obliterator: Primal> Forty First Floor Obliterator: Primal

  Not content to breeze through the paltry difficulty of the base Tower of Transcendence, you have proven that you are capable of greater things. In defeating the tenth floor of Challenge Mode, you have overcome a hurdle that few could at your level. In defeating the twentieth floor, you have further proven your might. In defeating the thirtieth floor, your talent is evident, in struggling against challenges deemed worthy for all but the greatest of E Rankers. In defeating the fortieth floor, you have gained a new understanding of your mortality, tempering might with humility.

  Bonuses: +82% to all stats

  ***

  Over the next week or so, Sam wandered the asteroid belt, finding more enclaves of enslaved researchers. The ring of frigid rocks orbiting the star in their center was by far the largest of its kind Sam had ever seen, stretching for well beyond the easy reach of his teleportation. It would have taken weeks to traverse its edge, with the faint gravity of the star at its center barely keeping them contained, so far were they. Sam suspected that the orb of brilliant nuclear fire was far larger than his own Sun, and indeed, of any star from his universe. Perhaps the reason there were no planets was because the star was simply too hot and bright. Either that, or they were so small in comparison that even Sam’s E Rank senses could not pick them out. Either way, it was a truly titanic celestial body.

  As expected, the first few quests were simple enough, increasing numbers of research stations that he needed to liberate. The enemies were basic enough, and Sam had taken to limiting his power against them, seeking to train his weapon mastery. The one thing he didn’t have going for him was refinement, as almost every other E Ranker had decades if not centuries of experience in battle. The only reason Sam never found himself outclassed by those at the same rank was because he could fight dozens of levels above his own, perhaps even to the peak of the Rank against any normal cultivator. D Rank was still well beyond him, but it was not an insurmountable challenge.

  After a few dozen liberations, and the culmination of the fourth layer of the Desolation Belt, things began to change. Sam grew by two levels, and his skills grew with that. The asteroids grew larger in size, turning from lumpen, jagged boulders tumbling in the astral void, to small planetoids, dozens of miles across. They were rounder too, and some even had ice on their poles. Less of them floated around than the smaller asteroids, but they more than made up for that with sheer mass.

  Sam’s Worldsense had grown sharper over time, and he had been practicing with it, finding the limits of the skill. He could see almost anything that he wanted within a radius of a mile, reading the patterns of the Dao. Beyond that, it was a question of focusing it more than anything, as he lacked the mastery to project a sphere of Dao energy that far out. Even in its most basic form, it was a hungry skill, bottoming out his Dao after mere seconds of use. To an E Ranker, it was an eternity, but it was nothing in objective time.