Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

The overlord core contained a large, stormy black ocean. As Jack focused on it, he saw himself growing smaller and smaller, rapped by the winds of this storm.

In the huge sphere which dominated his perception, dark lightning flashed, shedding the light of death on the water. Figures were revealed inside it—some smaller, some larger, all bloodthirsty creatures with terrifying visages. It was like every creature the overlord had ever killed was trapped in this core. They were many, they were powerful, and they were mad with anger.

Jack gulped. Facing this huge sphere of water, he felt small. He could overpower this unruly ocean—but absorbing it felt impossible.

“One step at a time,” he told himself. He could sit here and stare at it in fear for days, but that wouldn’t change what he had to do.

The reason such an ocean of power could fit inside the torso-sized core was because it was highly condensed. Jack gently extracted a string of energy, sensing it fight madly to escape his control. It was like holding onto an angry snake. He brought it to his chest and pushed it in.

The snake went wild. It hissed and snapped its jaws, rushing through Jack’s body in the most destructive rampage it could achieve. He gasped. Blood spurted out. His veins broke, his muscles and tendons tore, his bones were pierced. Thankfully, his body was extremely durable, and his regeneration effective even without the Life Drop. The snake couldn’t kill him—but it could break him and make him suffer.

Jack couldn’t hold it in—he screamed.

The overlord’s Dao of Death was different than Jack’s. Jack pursued the concept of death, its finality. This overlord had focused on the savagery which caused death, on destruction. Their energy embodied this concept. As the tiny black snake wreaked desperate havoc inside Jack’s body, its sole purpose to damage him as much as possible, all Jack could do was seal his pores so it couldn’t escape. He caged in the beast.

Flashes of burning pain. It was like he’d swallowed a maggot trying to eat him alive. Yet, he gritted his teeth and persisted. Screams left his mouth. The pain was maddening.

Even worse, there was nothing he could do—unless he diluted the core, wasting part of its essence, the only way he could harness this energy was to let it exhaust itself inside his body. Only this way could he ensure maximum effectiveness.

The snake was rampaging, but its energy was slowly depleting. A few minutes later, it finally slowed down. Its damage lessened, letting Jack’s regeneration catch up. Finally, it stilled. The destructive Dao embedded in the wisp had been exhausted, leaving only the pure, raw energy of death.

Jack absorbed it into his inner world. He sensed the difference—this core’s energy was so pure and compressed, that even one wisp produced a noticeable improvement in his inner world. Not enough to advance his Matter Condensation by even one percent—but noticeable nonetheless.

As soon as the energy was absorbed, Jack collapsed to the ground. He was dry heaving. Intense pain still wreaked his body from all the wounds the snake had left behind, and the memory of its rampage shadowed Jack’s mind, trying to shake him. That was torture. Had it really only been two minutes?

Jack gritted his teeth. That was just one wisp of the core’s energy. A tiny part. There were hundreds of thousands of shadowy creatures waiting for him in there, maybe millions. Would he really have to do this for each of them? Maybe he should dilute the core in water like Starhair had suggested. This was impossible.

I cannot waste the efficacy, he thought through gritted teeth. He planted a fist on the ground and used it to raise himself. Sweat dripped down his forehead—he was panting but resolute. I cannot afford to delay. The only way out is through.

His regeneration was only now finishing up the repairs, and Jack waited until it was done to keep going. As it finished, however, he raised a brow. His body felt…slightly stronger than before. Denser. More durable. The parts ravaged by the snake had been almost imperceptibly enhanced.

He wondered for a moment, then started laughing. “Life from death!” he shouted. “Thank you, senior Overlord, whoever you were! You have done me a great favor through the ages!”

The more Jack interacted with this overlord core, the more benefits he discovered. He was sure that, if he could fully absorb it, it would transform him completely and greatly increase his powers. It wouldn’t be a small difference—but a whole new world!

The only problem was, absorbing this core would be a battle…but Jack had nothing if not willpower.

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He pulled another wisp from the core, forced it into his chest, and screamed.

***

Starhair stood nervously in the main cavern of their underground cave. He hadn’t gone to absorb his core yet—he was concerned about Jack, who’d chosen to try something obviously impossible. The man was suicidal. He only prayed he stopped this madness early.

“Stop pacing around,” Brock said. “Big bro will be fine.”

“How can you be so calm?” Starhair asked. “He’s killing himself.”

“He’s not. You must believe.”

“Believe in what? It’s impossible!”

On cue, a miserable scream cut through the cave. It sounded like someone being eaten alive. Starhair jumped and rushed towards Jack’s cave, but Brock flashed in front of him. “No,” he said. “Believe.”

“Are you insane? Your brother is dying in there!”

Another scream echoed, sharper than the previous one. Brock didn’t budge. “Believe,” he repeated.

Starhair cursed. He paced back and forth. “You can’t be serious,” he spat out.

“I am. Stay put and absorb your core. Big bro knows what he’s doing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

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“You don’t have to. Just do as I say.”

Starhair wanted to lash out and destroy the cavern. He barely held himself in check. Instead of absorbing his core, he just sat there, waiting for Jack’s inevitable cry for help. But it never arrived. The screams continued for a whole two minutes before abruptly cutting off.

Starhair shot to his feet. “He’s unconscious,” he said. “Or dead. I’m impressed he lasted that long. Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Brock replied.

“To save Jack, of course!”

The brorilla shook his head. He did not respond.

“What’s the matter with you?” Starhair shouted, slowly getting angry. “Your brother just passed out mid-scream and you won’t even check on him? Do you not care!?”

“I care more than you think,” Brock replied calmly. “But I believe in him. You don’t understand yet. You will. Just wait.”

“That’s—”

The screaming restarted. It had barely been half a minute since they stopped—had Jack just taken a break? What was going on?

“Absorbing the core will take a long time,” Starhair said. “He’s already suffering. There is no way he can last that long.”

Brock smiled.

Time passed. Every few minutes, Jack’s screaming would pause, only to restart seconds later. His voice grew hoarser. After an hour, Starhair had gone numb. He just listened on. “How can he last this long?” he whispered, eyes shaking in horror. “How is he even alive?”

“I think it’s time to start,” Brock said. He waved a hand, creating a soundproof barrier around Jack’s cavern to isolate the screams. Their cave grew deathly quiet.

“What if something happens to him?” Starhair asked.

“Big bro is competent. If it’s too dangerous, he will stop. He cannot die.”

Brock took out the peak A-Grade core. It was a violent torrent of extremely high-level energy—yet, compared to Jack’s overlord core, it was sadly lacking. The brorilla retreated to another small cave to absorb it, and Starhair reluctantly did the same. He remained concerned, but he did his best to focus.

Three days later, Starhair emerged from his seclusion. Two of his three uprooted strands of hair had reformed—only one remained. He sat alone in the empty cave, watching the boulder shutting Jack’s cave. The sound isolation barrier remained. Deep in worry, Starhair undid it for a moment, only for the sound of hoarse screams to instantly fill the cave.

He was stunned. Disbelief and horror warred on his face. Finally, he numbly reinstated the barrier and sat in meditation. “How…” he whispered.

It took another five months before Brock emerged as well. He seemed reborn. His aura pulsed in waves, both stable and vastly strengthened. He had steadily stepped into the late B-Grade.

Starhair eyed Brock with despair. In the time it took him to repair his broken cultivation, Brock had climbed an entire small realm. That cultivation speed was unreal. Starhair…was already far surpassed.

He chuckled in resignation.

“How’s big bro doing?” was the first thing Brock asked.

“He’s fine. I’m removing the sound barrier every few days to check in on him, but he never stops screaming. He doesn’t even take breaks anymore. It’s just one constant, neverending torture. I have no idea how he hangs on.”

“Because he knows he has to,” Brock replied calmly. He sat down cross-legged. “Meditate. Big bro might be a while.”

Time flowed on. Due to the inherent difficulties, Jack’s process of absorbing the core was much slower than Brock’s. He also had much more energy to absorb. The months turned into years. Brock and Starhair remained in the cave, still like statues, pondering on the truths of the world. They occasionally opened their eyes to discuss something which perplexed them. Starhair was the one explaining at first, but as time passed, he found himself more and more on the receiving end of wisdom.

He was stubbornly resisting the bro plague, but little by little, a crack had formed in the corner of his heart…

Starhair’s checks on Jack turned from daily, into weekly, into monthly. One year in, his screams grew so hoarse they were barely audible. Starhair had never found him not screaming.

Three and a half years passed. In the blink of an eye, they’d been in the Space Monster World for four years. It was unknown how the war outside progressed, if the Church was still persisting, or whether the Old Gods had arrived from their far corner of the universe. All Starhair knew was this cave.

His injuries had healed within the first two years of seclusion. Now, he was pondering on his Daos and absorbing the ambient energies, making slow but steady progress. He no longer bothered to lift the sound barrier. Whatever was going on inside that cave had surpassed his understanding.

Jack’s deadline to visit the Great Silver faction had also passed, but… Oh well…

Finally, one day which seemed no different than the others, the boulder sealing Jack’s cave moved. The man himself left seclusion, stepping into the light for the first time in almost four years.

As soon as Jack appeared, Brock’s eyes shot open, and Starhair rushed to welcome him. “Are you okay?” he asked, but he abruptly paused ten feet before Jack. It wasn’t by choice. He just couldn’t move forward.

Something had changed in this man. Visually, Jack looked the same as before—bare chest, calm eyes, relaxed yet confident posture—but his aura was vastly different. Darker. More savage. His eyes hid pain so deep it put the oceans to shame. It wasn’t some Dao which made Starhair pause—just a profound sense of inferiority.

This was not a man. It was a dark angel. Someone…unfathomable.

“I’m fine,” Jack replied, and all the darkness disappeared, leaving just a simple man. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because… In there… You were screaming the whole time!” Starhair shouted.

“Just a little bit of pain,” Jack replied calmly. His smile didn’t reach his ears. “It’s nothing. Oh, hey bro. Got any food? I’m famished.”

Jack walked past Starhair, reaching the cave proper where Brock welcomed him with open arms. They took out a table full of Earth delicacies and tore into it, chatting and laughing like nothing was wrong.

For Starhair, reality was jarring. He couldn’t reconcile the two facts he faced. Jack had been screaming in a dark room for three and a half years—now he came out unaffected? How was this possible? Was it all some elaborate prank?

He couldn’t help himself. He walked forward, crossing the corridor and approaching Jack’s cave. The stench hit him before he even arrived. Dark, damp metal. Blood. Rot.

Starhair braved the smell. It turned his stomach, but he had to know. He had to see.

He reached the opening. He froze where he stood. His legs were rooted to the ground, and all his cultivation left him, leaving him a mortal.

This was a room of gore. The walls, the floor, the ceiling… Every square inch was covered in layers and layers of dried blood and rotten flesh. The smell was intolerable. The sight, revolting.

Starhair’s eyes were shaking. He forced himself to turn around, away from this hellish sight, to gaze at the man eating and laughing so nonchalantly. How had he done this? That was more blood than he carried in his body. Endless ounces. How many times had he run out and forced new blood to form? How many times had he died in that room? How much had he suffered?

Three and a half years of constant torture… The mental fortitude required to withstand this was something Starhair couldn’t fathom. He’d always wondered how he, a rare genius with a faint hope of reaching the A-Grade, could be so inferior to Jack. Only now did he realize the gulf which lay between them. The true difference. How could he ever compare? How could anyone?

Jack was simply inhuman. Unfathomable. Eternal.

“Hey, Starhair!” Jack shouted, biting into a piece of meat. “Come eat with us! This is beef from my planet—it’s really tasty!”

What have you been through? Starhair wondered, not daring to voice the question. His legs were shaking. His eyes were fuzzy. How did you become like this? What have you seen, Jack Rust?

He is… A monster… An impossible monster…