Chapter 1421 - The Hunter, the Swordsman, & the Monk (7) (Patreon)

Countless questions raced through Jake’s head as he stared at the massive wheel that continued to slowly turn. Had the Eastbound Monk also encountered the First Sage? Had the First Sage taught the monk? When? Where? Was it related to the Daofather in some way? Jake felt like it had to be, right?

The Daofather was also known as the Samsara Daolord, and this was the Wheel of Samsara. A wheel that, as it continued turning, grew in aura and slowly forced Jake back without him even noticing.

An invisible barrier seemed to surround the monk. No, rather than a barrier, it was more as if the space surrounding the Eastbound Monk had been relocated somewhere else. As if it existed in another reality altogether. Jake instinctively knew that even if he wanted to attack the monk during this juncture, none of his arrows would reach his target.

Suddenly, the aura of the wheel spiked as the monk spoke once more.

“An individual is the sum of their choices... It’s called one’s Path, because it’s what one has gone through to get where they are today. A single choice, a forced encounter, an unfortunate scenario, or so many other happenings can entirely change how one’s life develops and ends up. It can make one an entirely different person.”

Jake stared at the wheel, and as he did, images filled his head. He saw the Eastbound Monk standing, wearing a simple white robe within an entirely white room, the system-entity sitting in front of him. Next, what had happened in the Tutorial flashed in Jake’s mind as he observed what he guessed had to be the monk’s life... or perhaps just one version of it.

The monk had indeed been a healer as he claimed, helping the people he encountered. It was a Tutorial that seemed somewhat similar to Jake’s, in that it was simply meant to have one hunt down monsters and gain experience, which naturally led to factions forming. The monk was recruited into one of these factions and sought to heal the wounded, primarily staying at a rapidly developing camp.

A camp far larger than any Jake had seen in his own Tutorial, and he guessed there had to be thousands in it. Plenty of work for a healer, which even in such a huge Tutorial was a lacking asset. At first, the injuries he healed were those from monsters, but soon, it became clear there was a development in the Tutorial. The slashes from claws were replaced with those of swords, holes from fangs with ones from arrows, and it didn’t take a genius to see that war had broken out.

Again, a not too unfamiliar development. As Jake had these memories flash through his mind, he also felt some of the monk’s emotions. He felt the fear, the hopelessness, and a faint, hidden, underlying anger. He was frustrated with all the injured; he found the fighting dumb, but at the same time, he didn’t dare speak up, but simply focused on healing. Calling him satisfied wasn’t accurate, but at least he had resigned himself to the small, temporary hospital he worked in.

It didn’t last long, though. The battles grew worse, and one day, the monk was forced from the hospital. While a healer in the camp that had developed into a small town was good, a healer on the frontline was far more valuable. The monk protested and finally made his dissatisfaction with what was going on known. His anger flooded out... and in response, he was beaten to the ground.

Threats were made, and ultimately, the monk once again surrendered himself to his fate. He stayed on the front lines and healed all the way up until his side lost. However, rather than kill him, the other side captured the valuable healer and dragged him along as they ransacked the town the monk had called his home since shortly after the Tutorial began.

His friends were slaughtered, the innocents turned into nothing more than experience points... and throughout it all, the monk did nothing. He watched, not shedding any tears, but seemingly entirely empty of emotion. Yet Jake felt the anger building.

Even as the monk was dragged back by the other faction, he remained apathetic. He didn’t even let out a cry when they tortured him for information. Not like he knew anything. After they realized that, they should have killed him... but healers were useful, right?

So rather than let him die, they dragged him to their version of a hospital. Of course, they didn’t trust him, so to make sure he wouldn’t be a problem, they chained him up with nails that penetrated through his legs and arms. It was needlessly cruel, and the ones who did it seemed to take great pleasure when they put the monk in the contraption.

Even then... nothing. The monk seemed to have entirely given up. Yet he continued to heal those brought before him. Like a machine with no other purpose. He healed while suffering every day as the torturers realized he was a good tool to train their professions on. He didn’t die no matter what they did, but kept himself alive through his own healing magic.

Then, one day, there was a change yet again. The camp was invaded by a party of five that were all far more powerful than anyone else. Perhaps they had been the only ones actually focusing on the objective of the Tutorial rather than fighting amongst themselves, but either way, they started slaughtering their way through the camp until they reached the hospital, where they found the monk.

At that point, the man was nothing more than a husk of himself. Chained up, dried blood all over his body, and noticeably thinner than before. He didn’t even look up when they spoke to him, yet when one said something, the monk recognized the voice. It belonged to one of the first people he’d met in the Tutorial and had helped in the early days.

For the first time, Jake felt a flicker of emotion from the monk, only for it to be replaced with pain a moment later as the entire room blew up.

The monk was thrown through the air and landed on the ground, full of burns and still with large metal nails penetrating through his body. Healing himself yet again, the monk could only watch as the elites of the camp descended upon the party of five while they were still shaken by the explosion. They fought back well, though, but they were ultimately significantly outnumbered.

People died in droves, and with every death, Jake felt the apathy of the monk grow until suddenly, it was all replaced with anger. He opened his mouth and told them to stop, speaking for the first time in over two weeks. No one heard him, nor did they hear his subsequent, increasingly angry, commands for them all to just stop.

Something had clearly broken within the monk who’d taken an oath of non-aggression at some point. With slow movements, he ripped the nails out of his body, his wounds healing as he did so. One by one, he ripped them all out, unnoticed by the people fighting not too far away.

Rising to his feet, the monk walked toward them, his movements slow and deliberate... and then the memory Jake saw seemed to glitch out. The next thing that appeared was the monk standing there, covered in blood, with all the others dead around him.

The memory flashed forward til what had to be after the Tutorial. A settlement was made, people were fighting over it, and yet again the monk appeared, and not long after, not a single soul was alive save for a few children and younger adults who were left utterly traumatized.

Jake saw and felt only glimpses of action and emotions throughout the memories. Emotionally, it was completely nonsensical to Jake. The monk was filled with a desire to stop any violence from taking place and create a world where no one died needlessly, and his method to achieve that was to kill anyone capable of fighting in the first place.

When it came to the glimpses of action, Jake saw a monk fight very differently than he had against Jake and the Sword Saint. Rather than a skilled martial artist using technique and grace, he was a brutal berserker, tearing apart people while constantly healing himself. He seemed to display power far beyond what he should have been capable of, making Jake curiously observe with the hope of finding out how the monk worked.

This obviously broken monk continued his rampage, slaughtering across the land as his emotions became more and more one-sided and simplistic. He was back to being a machine, doing nothing more than killing anyone with the slightest amount of killing intent. Anyone who showed even the slightest aggression was ruthlessly attacked, and the more Jake saw, the more certain he became...

The monk was fucked.

More accurately, his Path was fucked. Strong? Kind of, but also not truly. He was good against weaker people in large numbers, but against a single top-tier expert of his own level, he would likely have met his end. Fortunately for him, top-tier experts were incredibly rare on random planets after the integration, with Earth just being a massive outlier.

Eventually, he would be killed, though. The monk was walking a Path with no future, and in some ways, it reminded Jake a bit too much of Temlat back from the Nevermore Challenge Dungeon. Jake’s first disciple. It was a Path that would end only in ruin, and the monk would become nothing more than a mindless beast, or perhaps even a living calamity.

Like so, the monk continued on his Path, killing many things... including Primas. Enough to get a key.

A key that one day brought him to the Seat of the Exalted Prima. A place where violence wasn’t allowed. Yet the monk tried, seeing as he was surrounded by people who were clearly capable of violence. In response, the monk was temporarily sealed away until the Myriad Paths system event began.

At this stage of the memories, things seemed to slow down, and in the real world, the Wheel of Samsara was also about to complete a full revolution. Back in the memory, the monk entered the simulation for the Myriad Paths event, where he got the chance to make a different choice. Back during this same event, Jake had experienced a different future where his parents had died and Caleb was never born, eventually leading to the creation of Sim-Jake.

Jake didn’t see all the options the monk could choose from, but he did see the one that was chosen. In this reality, during the Tutorial, instead of going to the camp, he chose to explore a nearby area by himself, ultimately resulting in him falling into a river and ending up within a Challenge Dungeon. One that turned out to be connected to the Dao Sect.

This discovery led to his entire life naturally changing within the Tutorial, though unfortunately for Jake, he didn’t get to see any of the details. What he did see was that the monk had chosen to embrace this new Path afterward and become a whole new person, effectively fixing his Path. His mind had returned, and as he stood there within the white void inside the Seat of the Exalted Prima, he said something. Words Jake couldn’t hear, or was denied from hearing. Either way, the next thing Jake saw was the monk standing within a massive area covered nearly entirely in darkness, a towering figure before him with the Wheel of Samsara behind it.

At that very moment, the wheel was done turning, and all the memories and emotions disappeared, leaving Jake even more confused than before. The monk clearly noticed Jake’s perplexed demeanor and spoke.

“The wheel allows all who observe it to get a glimpse at the incarnations it’s channeling. I find myself embarrassed showing you what became of me, and even more ashamed to embrace aspects of that Path once more,” the monk said, not really explaining anything that cleared up any of Jake’s confusion.

During his speech, Jake also felt the wheel slightly shift the monk’s aura as it clearly affected him. While experiencing the memories felt like it had taken a long time, in reality, only a few seconds had passed, and the wheel would need a few more to finish doing its work. Enough for Jake to try to understand how the hell he felt a connection to the First Sage.

“Did you get that wheel from the Myriad Paths system event?” Jake asked, uncertain whether he would get a response.

“Yes,” the monk answered without hesitation.

“Who gave it to you?”

“I believe we both know,” the monk said with a light smile.

“The First Sage?” Jake asked, hoping to confirm... only for the monk to neither answer nor look away, staring at Jake for several seconds before frowning.

“You... just spoke words I did not hear. Could not hear. Forbidden Knowledge,” the monk muttered, as now it was his eyes to open in surprise and realization. “You know the name and identity of who created this artifact?”

“You don’t?” Jake blurted out, now even more confused than before. “Then who the hell gave it to you?”

The monk stared for a few seconds before shaking his head and chuckling. “Now it feels unfair of me to simply answer, so let me propose this: let us exchange information at a more opportune time, because as of this moment, I shall no longer fight you as the Eastbound Monk, but a shadow of my past I hope to one day grow past, yet never forget.”

With those words, the odd barrier surrounding the monk disappeared, and the Wheel of Samsara let out one final flash of energy before disappearing, merging with the body of the monk. Jake was on guard as he observed the other human in question. He looked the same, but there was something clearly different about him. His aura of serenity was gone and replaced by a presence that gave even Jake pause as he frowned.

The man stood with his eyes closed, and when he opened them, a flood of sheer bloodlust and killing intent washed over Jake. It wasn’t simply some passive effect but a mental attack that the monk quickly took advantage of as he appeared in front of Jake despite the massive hole in his body and his battered state.

Jake responded quickly, but was slightly too slow as he only barely managed to raise his katars in time. His arms buckled under the force of the blow, and while Jake felt that the stat-amplification from the special Cyclops weapon was gone, it quite frankly still felt as if he had it.

Blasted back, Jake stabilized as the monk gave chase, a red aura of sheer bloodlust surrounding and empowering him. His wounds were squirming slightly as if healing, yet they didn’t seem to actually heal, but instead simply got stabilized. Granted, it wouldn’t be easy to heal the wounds, given that Jake’s poison was still ravaging through the Eastbound Monk’s system.

Continuing to give chase, the monk relentlessly attacked Jake, who was forced on the defensive as his opponent had grown both stronger and faster than before. What’s more, Jake recognized what he believed to be passive abilities he’d seen in the memories of the monk, making him fairly sure he knew what he was dealing with now.

All traces of calm and serenity had been stripped away to create a berserker-healer hybrid that was already incredibly damaged due to the prior fight, and as far as Jake could tell, he was only powering up with every passing second as his existing injuries retroactively fed his passive skills.

As far as Jake could tell, the monk had effectively “changed” this Path using the Wheel of Samsara and become something closer to a living calamity of sheer bloodlust and destruction. A being that was continually growing stronger.

However, things weren’t all bad, as while the monk had clearly changed, he hadn’t necessarily grown stronger, and his body was also still a complete mess. Something Jake sought to take advantage of, as rather than continuing to retreat, he charged straight for his opponent.

When he got near, he felt Pride once more work overtime to resist the passive aura surrounding the monk that seemingly sought to dispel all rational thought from Jake’s mind. He managed to remain unaffected as he dodged the blow of the monk that had also become a lot more simplistic as he punched for the existing hole in the monk’s body... only for his opponent to seemingly split into different incarnations as Jake was punched in the stomach, blood pooling in his mouth as he was blasted into the distance.

Jake’s vision momentarily flickered from the pain that was clearly far amplified above the usual, as he watched the monk slightly smile at him, clarity in his eyes.

What’s more, around him, the red aura of sheer bloodlust began to change as it was given form, actively being controlled. The more Jake saw, the more readily apparent it became that some-fucking-how, the monk remained fully in control despite effectively having become a berserker of sorts, effectively nullifying the biggest drawback of such a Path.