Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

For a long time, Elijah just floated in the cave. As he gently swayed back and forth with the weak current, he reveled in the feeling of his Body of Stone. He’d only progressed an hour or so ago, and yet, he could already feel more of a difference than he’d felt when he’d taken the first step on the path of body cultivation. That initial stage had cured his cancer while also acting as a multiplier on his physical attributes. Progression to the Body of Stone stage came with a similar increase, though it was far more noticeable. Even when he was nearly weightless, he could feel the Strength surging through him.

If he had described the previous stage’s multiplicative effect as making him half-again as strong, then the second step doubled that. He was still dependent on his actual attributes, but those numbers now counted for even more.

And according to Nerthus, as well as the single guide to cultivation he’d found, progression now increased his life span. Though the actual degree to which that was expressed was dependent on species as well as attributes and other categories of cultivation, it wasn’t uncommon for Body of Stone to come with a lifespan that was twice as long as the base.

Each subsequent step was supposed to be even more dramatic, meaning that if he could take a few more steps, he could live for thousands of years.

Which was unfathomable. For all that he could understand those numbers, actually conceptualizing a life spanning for thousands of years was difficult. After all, the pace of human development meant that the entire world could be transformed in a few hundred years. So, what would Earth look like in a thousand? Two thousand? Elijah’s imagination wasn’t up to that sort of prediction.

But as someone who’d, only a few years before, made peace with the fact that he would soon die, Elijah would take any extra years he could get. And if that meant seeing a rapidly transformed world, then so be it. After all, Elijah had already seen how quickly Ironshore had developed, so he suspected that there were places in other parts of the world that could match that pace.

Maybe Seattle was one of them.

Elijah could only hope.

And now that he’d accomplished his goals for the moment, it was time to resume his long-delayed search for his sister. Of course, he’d kept an eye on Carmen’s name on the power rankings, and though he’d watched it bounce on and off the list, Elijah took solace in the assumption that she was still alive.

Because if she had survived, then so too had Alyssa.

Elijah was well aware of the flaws in his reasoning. There were a host of issues, and they weren’t limited to the fact that Carmen Rodriguez was an incredibly common name. There was no guarantee that the Carmen whose name he was tracking on the power rankings was even his sister-in-law. But he chose to believe it was, just like he chose to focus on how that might relate to his sister’s survival. And his nephew’s. It was one of the only things keeping him sane.

Eventually, Elijah moved on from that, then swam toward the tunnel. He intended to embark on his quest immediately, but he knew that after what he’d done to the cave’s environment, he needed to spend a little time setting things right. So, despite his desire to immediately set out for Seattle, he spent the next few hours transplanting sea life into the cave. Then, he remained behind for an additional day while he continuously used Nature’s Bounty. As he did, he couldn’t stop himself from repeatedly checking his status: