Heavenly Unbound [A LitRPG System Survival]

Sam woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed. He couldn't remember the last time he'd truly relaxed or slept soundly. Part of him didn't want to get out of bed, but the day ahead was full of tasks that wouldn't wait.

Reluctantly, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, stretched, and got ready for the day. After a quick shower, he stepped out of his room and into the living area, where the smell of freshly cooked food greeted him.

His mother stood at the kitchen counter, busy with her preparations. She glanced up with a warm smile as Sam approached.

"Mom, let me help you," Sam offered, already reaching for an apron.

But his mother waved him off playfully. "Please, don't. I just learned a new cooking skill, and I want to try it out! You'd better wait and let me cook."

Sam chuckled, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. I'll get out of your way. I'll go explore the town for a bit and be back soon."

Grabbing his coat, Sam stepped out of the apartment building. The structure loomed above him, a ten-story wooden marvel. He still couldn't fathom how it managed to withstand its own weight, but he assumed it had something to do with magic.

Their apartment wasn't cheap—5,000 soul points a month—but his parents could more than afford it. As two of the most skilled healers among the participants, they were in high demand. Not only did they heal participants and natives alike at the barracks, but they also taught advanced medical techniques from Earth to native healers. It seemed Earth's medical knowledge, even as a common skill, surpassed what the locals could do.

Sam wandered toward the center of the residential area, where a faint blue glow caught his attention. As he approached, he saw a blue glowing pylon floating slightly above the ground. Curious, he placed his hand on its surface.

Ding!

[Minor System Pylon]:

Territory Management

Transportation

System Store

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Interesting," he murmured, impressed by the functionality of the pylon. Deciding to explore further, he selected System Store.

Ding!

[Soul Points Function is Unlocked]

[Soul Points: 10,008,500]

Sam blinked in disbelief. "Ten million? Where did all of that come from?" he thought. Then, realization struck him—it must have been the accumulated rewards from his exceptional performance during the tutorial's first stage.

He continued to explore the store interface.

Ding!

[System Store]:

Equipment

Skills

Items

Information

…

The list seemed endless. Sam grinned to himself. "This might take a while."

Curious, Sam began to explore the System Store section by section, eager to see what it offered.

What he discovered left him both amazed and amused—it had everything he could think of, from mystical artifacts to mundane Earth items like cars. However, the store wasn't without its limitations.

Most of the items available to him were restricted by his current tier and rarity level. As a Tier 1 participant, he could only access Tier 0 and Tier 1 items of common and uncommon rarity. Even then, some items came with specific requirements.

For example, a Goblin Staff required the Goblin Slayer title to purchase, which he luckily possessed. But a simple car? That needed a Car Engineer title, which he didn't have.

Sam smirked, shaking his head. "A car, huh? Not exactly what I need right now."

Today, his focus wasn't on equipment or fancy toys. What he needed was information. He navigated to the appropriate section and opened it.

[Information]:

[Tier General]

[Rarity General]

[System Lore General]

[Class General]

…

At the bottom of the screen, a disclaimer caught his eye:

-x- Information purchased from the System Store cannot be shared.

Sam frowned slightly at the restriction. "Figures. They wouldn't want us giving others an edge for free."

With a deep breath, he began to browse through the information categories, deciding where to start.

Sam decided to start with the Tier General section. The cost was 100 Soul Points, a relatively small amount compared to what he had. Without hesitation, he confirmed the purchase.

The moment the transaction was complete, Sam felt a subtle shift in his mind. Something new appeared—like a small mental sphere nestled within his consciousness. Curious, he reached out to it with his mental power, and the information unfolded effortlessly.

"This is convenient," he muttered, already appreciating the seamless integration of the system's knowledge delivery.

Encouraged by the process, Sam proceeded to purchase additional general information: Level, Rarity, Class, and Traits. Each cost the same 100 Soul Points, and each added another mental sphere to his mind.

After unlocking them all, Sam browsed through the store one last time and noticed something intriguing:

[Realm Lord Information - 5,000,000 Soul Points]

His eyes narrowed as he read the requirements. The cost wasn't the issue; he had more than enough Soul Points to afford it. But the prerequisites listed were daunting.

Required Title: Realm Creator (✔)

Required Tier: 6 (✖)

Sam clenched his jaw. "So close, yet so far," he thought, frustrated by the barrier. The title he already had, likely due to his Grandmist Dimension, but Tier 6 was still a long way off.

Realizing there wasn't much more he could do in the store for now, Sam decided to head back to his family's apartment. The streets were quieter as evening approached, and the warm light of lanterns began to flicker to life along the stone-paved paths.

When Sam returned to the apartment, the scent of freshly cooked breakfast greeted him. His mother had prepared a hearty meal, and the six of them—including Ann, who now lived with them—gathered around the table.

The atmosphere was light and cheerful as they shared stories about their experiences in the tutorial and the people they'd encountered. Laughter echoed through the room, a rare moment of relaxation after a month of constant survival.

After breakfast, his parents suggested they take the day to explore the town. "You've all been through a lot," his father said. "Let's take this chance to enjoy a bit of normalcy."

The group agreed, and for the rest of the day, they wandered through the bustling streets of the tutorial town. Sam's father and mother showed them various parts of the city, from the vibrant marketplace to the towering guild hall. They even stopped by the barracks to watch some participants train.

It was a day of light shopping, relaxation, and absorbing the town's layout. For Sam, it was also a chance to mentally map out key locations and observe how the system influenced this place.

By evening, they returned to the apartment, tired but satisfied.

Once Sam reached his room, he closed the door behind him, leaning against it with a deep exhale. The day had been pleasant, but now it was time to focus.

Sitting cross-legged on his bed, he reached into his mind, triggering the mental spheres he had purchased earlier. One by one, the spheres of information unlocked, flooding his mind with clarity.

The first sphere, Tier General, unveiled the structured hierarchy of power within the system. Tiers represented not merely raw strength but the fundamental evolution of one's very existence.

There were eight tiers commonly known in general knowledge:

Tier 0 – The Mundane: This tier encompassed purely physical beings like humans or animals on Earth. Regardless of their strength or skill, they were incapable of wielding Existence Power without assistance from the system.

Tier 1 – Initiate: Evolution into this tier marked a being's first step into the realm of Existence Power. Upon reaching Tier 1, an Energy Core would form, granting the ability to generate and manipulate Existence Power independently. This evolution also extended the being's lifespan by 100% of their original span. For example, a human with a natural lifespan of 70 years could now live up to 150 years.

Tier 2 – Practitioner: This tier further enhanced the quantity of the Energy Core, doubling its capacity and extending the lifespan by another 100%, reaching approximately 300 years for humans.

Tier 3 – Adept: At this level, the quality of the Energy Core improved significantly, refining the energy it produced and boosting its potency. The lifespan extended by another 100%, allowing humans to live up to 600 years.

Tier 4 – Elite: The transformation at this stage was profound. The Energy Core merged with the soul and body to form an Existence Core, a higher state of energy cohesion. Both the quantity and quality of the core increased dramatically. Lifespans skyrocketed to 3,000 years, regardless of species.

Beyond Tier 4, the tiers were largely shrouded in mystery, with only their names known in general knowledge:

Tier 5 – Expert

Tier 6 – Master

Tier 7 – Champion

This was the end of the general knowledge provided by the system. However, Sam's own understanding extended beyond what the system revealed. From the knowledge he possessed before the system's existence, he knew of a god-tier level of existence beyond Tier 7.

In the system's framework, a Tier 8 being was referred to as a Celestial, an immortal entity born directly from the will of the universe itself. These beings served as agents of creation, shaping stars, planets, and life to aid in the universe's expansion. Before the system's intervention, such beings could only come into existence naturally, birthed by the universe's design. Mortals often revered them as deities, offering faith and devotion—a form of Existence Power far more potent than most other sources.

This faith enabled Celestials to transcend their original purpose and evolve into something even greater: the Divine. A Divine being could create separate dimensions or worlds, using the universe as a foundation. These realms operated under laws defined entirely by the Divine's will, standing apart from the universal laws. Such worlds were called Divine Realms.

However, beyond the Divine lay an even more formidable level of existence—one that challenged the very fabric of the universe. To ascend beyond the Divine, a being had to defy and usurp the supreme authority of the universal laws themselves. This act of rebellion allowed them to become The Supreme, an existence equal to the universe in power and authority. The key difference was that while a Supreme rivaled the universe's strength, it lacked the boundless vastness and infinitude of the universe itself.

Sam knew there was an existence even greater than the Supreme—the System itself. He didn't know where it came from; it simply appeared. At first, its power seemed equal to the Supreme, but as he experienced rebirth through the endless cycles of the universe, he realized the System had grown incomprehensibly stronger, far beyond anything he had ever known.

Because of the System, his universal self gained access to fragments of his soul from different realities. These fragments became the source of his memories and the foundation of his Unbound nature.

Then Sam moved on to the next topic: Leveling. He wanted to understand why his progress had been so slow. As he recalled the information, he murmured, "I'm just too strong."

It turned out his slow leveling wasn't a flaw or an issue with the system. Instead, it was because his soul record was far more powerful than the average Tier 1 being. His titles, Grandmist, and unique skills had made his record extraordinarily dense, requiring far more experience than usual to fuel it to its full capacity before he could undergo evolution.

What caught him off guard, however, was the revelation that there were multiple ways to gain experience. Killing monsters and performing class-specific tasks, like healing for a medic or analyzing for an analyzer, were just the most obvious ones. Then he came across a peculiar method—Breathing Techniques.

Sam couldn't help but feel a sense of irony. "Am I in a cultivation novel now?" he muttered to himself. It seemed so, as breathing techniques were defined as common skills in the system, with varying effects depending on the individual and the technique used.

Another surprising method was consuming resources called experience stones, which formed naturally on planets rich in existence energy. Their function reminded him even more of cultivation worlds, reinforcing the similarities.

Despite the variety, the system confirmed that the most effective method for gaining experience was killing the Chaos Being System will personally reward Extra exp for such action.

Next was Rarity. While it functioned similarly to tiers, rarity applied to objects, skills, and classes rather than living beings. Unlike living beings, which possessed a soul record, these items still had records but were instead categorized into seven ranks: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic, and Hero. Each rank represented the strength and resilience of the item's record. For example, a Legendary item could withstand the power of a Tier 5 being and remain intact, while its full potential could only be unlocked by someone of the same tier or higher.

Sam also noted that there were rarities beyond the standard, such as his Unique rank. However, these rarities didn't conform strictly to tiered power levels and seemed to depend on individual cases and circumstances.

Next was Class. While much of the information aligned with what Sam already knew, there was a critical new insight about tier evolution. Transitioning from Tier 0 to Tier 1 was straightforward and almost guaranteed for any being. However, evolving beyond Tier 1 required a stronger soul record, as it directly influenced the rarity of class choices available during evolution.

For instance:

Tier 1 to Tier 2 required at least an Uncommon class to progress.

Tier 3 required a Rare class.

Tier 4 required an Epic class.

Tier 5 required a Legendary class.

Tier 6 required a Mythic class.

Tier 7 required a Hero class.

The rarity of class choices depended entirely on the strength of the soul record. To enhance the soul record, participants needed to acquire powerful titles and high-rank skills. Titles reflected exceptional achievements and unique traits, while rare or unique skills increased the complexity and depth of the record. Without sufficient soul record strength, a participant might be limited to weaker class options, ultimately capping their growth potential.

This realization reinforced the necessity of actively seeking challenges and improving skills, as grinding alone would not suffice to ascend the higher tiers. Every title earned and skill acquired was a stepping stone to a stronger soul record and, ultimately, a higher rarity class choice.

Finally, there was Trait. It explained the true nature or essence of one's existence and soul record. Traits also factored in the individual's race. For instance, humans often possess traits like comprehension, which enhance learning speed. Some individuals had rarer traits, such as Ruler or King, which boosted leadership and granted specific skill enhancements.

However, not all traits were created equal, even if they shared the same name. Their effectiveness depended on the individual. Sam likened them to gifts in Earth terms. If Albert Einstein were alive in this world, Sam imagined he would have a trait that aided his comprehension of the cosmos.

After reviewing everything, he lay on the bed and closed his eyes, thinking this might be the last day that he would have full sleep.