Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Jack was dragged out of his blissful sleep by burning agony. He woke up screaming.

The last thing he remembered was the black wolf coming for him. He was still in battle. Hell, his entire body burned everywhere the wolf had injured him. The pain was immeasurable.

He jumped up with a splash, still screaming at the top of his lungs. Two gorillas were before him, trying to calm him down—or kill him. Rocky walls surrounded him like a coffin, his body was filled with the cold of death, and everything was illuminated by a pale, white light.

Looking down, his feet were dipped in cold, clear water.

Oh.

It was the ice pond. He was in the ice pond. In his cave. He was safe.

Jack unclenched his left fist, which had almost taken off Oz’s head. “Sorry,” he tried to say, but found himself exhausted. The next moment, the pain returned at full force. “FU—” Jack bit his lips not to scream.

He knew this agony. It was the pain of healing. He had to take it.

Still unsure of what was going on, Jack gritted his teeth and sat back in the pond, letting the purifying cold burn his body. He couldn’t stifle a few screams, especially when his right fist touched the water. It was completely ruined, with bones sticking out in various locations. How did that happen?

The memories came in flashes, synchronized with the pain. A second black wolf had appeared, determined to kill him. It was strong, very strong. He’d resisted. The battle was fuzzy, but at the end, he’d fused his Dao into the Calamitous Punch skill to create a new skill—a Dao Skill—called Meteor Punch that had destroyed both his hand and the wolf’s head.

He remembered that impact clearly. There was a blinding flash and the roar of thunder, and the wolf was gone.

Despite the pain—which he tried to avoid by thinking—he shivered.

A Dao Skill… Is that a skill based on my dao? Is that why it’s so strong? I didn’t even know skills could upgrade like that.

It was too much to pierce apart right now.

Wait. There was more.

He’d gotten some rewards, then founded a faction, or something like that… That part was unclear.

Thankfully, the two brorillas had also brought his other rewards along. They were a golden coin and a pear-shaped fruit that exuded violence. Jack didn’t know how violent fruit could be, but this particular one was definitely at the top of the charts.

He’d deal with those later.

The pain flared once more before slowly receding, and Jack growled as he stood. He was fine, though terribly exhausted. In fact, he felt something odd, as if his body was still fixing itself even without the pond’s assistance.

His thoughts were still slipping through his head, so he decided to ground them by reviewing some blue screens. He had a bunch.

Congratulations! Pugilist Body (I) → Pugilist Body (II)

Pugilist Body (II): Your body has adapted to your fighting style. You gain significant flexibility, reflexes, and durability, as well as increased hardness on your knuckles. You have heightened control over your body, including its natural limiters, and slight regenerative powers.

Congratulations! Drill (I) → Drill (II)

Drill (II): Passive Skill. By punching straight and true, you carry significant drilling power, letting your strikes penetrate hard defenses. You can bypass most kinds of armor, including thick ones.

Congratulations! Fistfighting (II) → Fistfighting (III)

Fistfighting (III): Grants expert knowledge of fistfighting. While fistfighting, enhances your physical attributes, reflexes, and kinetic vision. Moreover, your brain’s wiring is better suited for combat, especially fistfighting.

Huh.

Besides some adjectives becoming stronger, the System was helpful enough to highlight the main improvements.

He didn’t get a new Skill at Level 30—looks like three was all the Class could give him for now—but these improvements were nothing to scoff at.

Pugilist Body looked great. It offered increased control over his body, which was the equivalent of removing his training wheels. He could feel the difference; everything felt slightly more complicated, even simple movements like raising his arm. At the same time, everything was done much more consciously, granting him far greater control and awareness.

In other words, he had manual control of processes that had so far been automatic.

This skill could be a double-edged sword for most, but for Jack, it was a godsend. He could make up for the complexity by practicing hard, and the benefits would be reaped forever.

Plus, he could now do all sorts of funky things. With amusement, he flexed his intestines—almost getting a cramp—and moved his ears. Take that, Professor. She could always do that, and used to mock him for being unable to.

He clenched his fist. It was amazing how many little muscles coordinated to achieve such a simple thing. There was still a lot of underlying assistance, but Jack was in conscious control of the movement. Living the rest of his life like that felt daunting, and at the same time, massively intriguing. If he could get over the steep learning curve, the sky was the ceiling.

Besides this massive increase in bodily control, he now had regenerative powers, which was excellent. He wouldn’t always have the ice pond handy to heal him. Granted, this regeneration wasn’t anything great—he could feel it at work, slow as a snail—but it would hopefully get stronger as the skill advanced further.

Drill, on the other hand, was a bit underwhelming. Bypassing armor was great, sure, and it had saved his life, but it wasn’t anything world-breaking.

Jack shrugged. Maybe that was a good thing; too much change at once could be overwhelming.

Finally, there was fistfighting, which claimed to have changed his brain’s wiring. Jack couldn’t feel anything different, but being a biologist—and a scholar—he knew how impactful this change was.

Rewiring the brain usually took years of concentrated practice, and it was the hallmark difference between a novice and a master. As you worked on the same field for years on end, your brain adapted to make the most common patterns more accessible. All relative connections were strengthened to achieve superhuman performance in a particular field.

This was the reason why chess masters could analyze a position and calculate three moves ahead in the blink of an eye. To a layman, that was unimaginable. It wasn’t because they were geniuses; their brains were just appropriately rewired after years of concentrated effort.

To be frank, most chess masters were geniuses, but that wasn’t the sole reason for their superhuman performance.

Jack was shocked that such a feat could be performed by the System. Years of hard work were replaced by a single ‘ding!’ and a blue screen. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Plus, his brain had already been wired for something: research. He had a PhD in biology—almost. Were those skills still in place, or had the System wiped them away in favor of combat without asking?

And, if it had, was that a bad thing?

Jack shook his head with a frown. There were many things to consider, but now wasn’t the time. He moved on to the next screen.

Congratulations! Skill Calamitous Punch (I) upgraded into Dao Skill Meteor Punch (I).

Meteor Punch (I): When meteors fall from space, they cause exponentially more damage than their size would indicate. Your punches can carry the same effect. Overdraw your body’s potential and combine it with your Dao of the Fist to unleash a devastating attack.

This skill was insane. Devastating was an understatement. If his hand was hard enough, he was confident in demolishing houses with a single punch.

Are skills split into ranks? he couldn’t help but wonder. His other skills couldn’t compare to Meteor Punch, at least not in their first tier. Was a Dao Skill stronger because of his dao, or was it just a better skill, to begin with?

Regardless, Jack now had a tremendous weapon in his disposal. Based on what he’d seen so far, few things in the F-Grade could take a meteor punch head on—or, at least, few things below Level 50. For all he knew, F-Grade extended to Level 9000.

He’d also gotten nine level-ups in the fight against the wolves. Done reviewing himself, Jack opened his status screen to take in the spectacle.

Name: Jack Rust

Species: Human, Earth-387

Faction: Bare Fist Brotherhood (F-Grade)

Grade: F

Class: Pugilist (Elite)

Level: 34

Strength: 97

Dexterity: 97

Constitution: 97

Mental: 9

Will: 7

Skills: Fistfighting (III), Drill (II), Pugilist Body (II)

Dao Skills: Meteor Punch (I)

Titles: Planetary Frontrunner (10)

It was shaping up. He’d almost reached 100 points in all his physical stats, which made him giddy. In fact, he was already there, if he included Planetary Frontrunner’s 10% bonus. After reaching 100, he promised himself to splurge a bit and bring his other stats to a nice round value of 10. The jagged numbers had been bothering him for a while—and he wanted to experiment—but survival came first.

Right now, he could probably match a black wolf head-on, even without Meteor Punch.

Jack spent the next few minutes experimenting with various things. He tried fusing his Dao Root with his other skills, but nothing happened. Why had he succeeded on Calamitous Punch? Was it due to the skill itself and its connection with the bald man’s vision, or was it due to the life-or-death state he’d reached at the time?

Jack had no idea.

He also experimented with his stats a bit. He approached a massive boulder, taller than him, and picked it up.

It must have weighed a ton. Lifting the boulder was strenuous, but nothing too serious. Jack was impressed at himself, and he let it fall back down with a massive bang that rocked the cave and made dust fall from the ceiling.

“Sorry,” he told the frightened brorillas.

He then approached his other two rewards—besides the faction-forming permit—and took a good look at them. And, by good look, it means he asked the System to do it.

Trial Planet Token

Can allow one person into Trial Planet.

Not much to see here. Jack shrugged and pocketed it. He’d find out later.

Dao Fruit of the Fist (F-Grade)

Allows the user to enter a meditative nirvana state, where the speed of Dao cultivation is greatly increased. Breakthroughs are greatly assisted. This particular fruit is oriented towards the Dao Root of the Fist. Effects are reduced as the user’s Dao gets further away from the fist. Effects are reduced as the user’s Dao ascends beyond the Dao Root stage.

Only one Dao Fruit can be used per Grade.

Well, he finally had confirmation that the Dao was split into stages, and Dao Root was just one of them.

This reward looked like a great thing for him. He assumed he could advance his Dao but was unsure how. Maybe this fruit would hold the clue. Moreover, his eyes lingered on the ‘breakthrough’ part. That smelled important. He had a feeling that breakthrough meant that his Dao would advance from Dao Root to the next stage, which sounded like a crucial and difficult process.

Should he save the fruit until then?

He had no idea. Therefore, he decided to keep it for now. For the first time since the System arrived, he didn’t feel the need to get immediately stronger. He could take his time. Now that he could exit the dungeon, he could even ask people. The professor would know for sure.

Speaking of people…

He sat back down. There was one more thing to check before leaving. Faction.

Faction: Bare Fist Brotherhood (F-Grade)

Leader: Jack Rust

Members: 1

Capital: Milky Way galaxy, Milky Way sector, Animal Kingdom constellation, Earth-387 planet, Forest of the Strong dungeon area.

…

Jack hurriedly closed the blue screen. It contained entries for a hundred little things, from resource management, to monster status, to alignment, to a topographical description of the territory, to hierarchical structure, to buildings, to…

Most of those were null, of course, but Jack was allergic to large-scale management. It didn’t matter, anyway. He already had a bunch of things on his plate. He’d deal with the rest later.

The one thing he kept was his faction’s capital.

Milky Way galaxy, Milky Way sector, Animal Kingdom constellation, Earth-387 planet, Forest of the Strong dungeon area… Wow. Those are a lot of specifications.

Did it imply that the System stretched over multiple galaxies? That was insane! And how many stages of division were there? Earth—his Earth—apparently belonged to the Animal Kingdom constellation, which belonged to the Milky Way sector, which was a part of the galaxy.

What the hell was the Animal Kingdom constellation?!

And just what kind of inter-galactic empire had the System shoved them into?

Suddenly, Jack was leery of leaving his little dungeon, where things were nice and simple. He sighed. Well. If anything confuses me, I guess I can just punch right through it.

The social equivalent to punching was asking stuff, so he’d do just that. The time to leave the dungeon was nigh. Since the world was so big, he shouldn’t litter in a tiny corner for too long.

However, before that, there were two things he needed to do. The first was take care of Harambe and the monkeys. Would they join him? Would they stay here? Could they protect themselves against whatever was out there?

That would be up to them. Monkeys or not, they could make their own decisions. Jack would just let Harambe know of the situation.

The next thing to do…

Suddenly, it hit him. He had conquered the dungeon. He had escaped. He could return to civilization. He would see humans again.

The relief was so strong he almost fainted again.

Prepare yourself, world, he thought, grinning. I’m coming!