Defiance of the Fall

Everyone knew that that The Ruthless Heavens mainly opened up the passageways to introduce a challenge to the indigenous inhabitants of the planets . The Ruthless Heavens wanted to test if the original inhabitants were worthy to stay alive , and whether any powerhouses would emerge among them . That was why it let invaders through , but imposed limits on how strong they could be . The challenge needed to be hard , but possible to overcome .

Of course , most powers in the multi-verse was more than happy to be treated as a test by the System . The potential gain of both rare treasures and new domains to own far outweighed the potential sacrifice of some of their young and their untalented . It worked as a great training ground for their young elite , providing both an opportunity to lead , battle and gain precious resources .

The elders of the clan were even more ecstatic then they learned that the world had been given a D-rank classification . It was no secret that when the system integrated new worlds the huge influx of energy could create all sorts of rare and invaluable treasures all over the fresh worlds . The higher grade the new world was , the more treasures would appear . A fresh D-class planet wasn’t top tier , but at least it was above average .

It usually wouldn’t be the turn of some middling clan to get access to this type of smorgasbord . Normally some arch-daemon would have nudged the heavens and snatched it from them , but luckily the Great War was reaching a white-hot intensity . All the real powerhouses had their hands full , and couldn’t focus on this matter even though the potential gain was great .

Azzun had grown up hearing stories of how even lowly imps and thralls had managed to turn into arch daemons after entering a fresh world . They had found some treasure or natural oddity that had helped them shed their lowly heritage and emerge as a powerhouse in their galaxy .

Of course , Azzun knew that even if some treasure was discovered , it wasn’t his turn to enjoy it . They would all enter the greedy hands of their general . Even though the general couldn’t be considered a top talent of their clan , he had managed to snag this great opportunity . He guessed it helped to have a Great Daemon as a great grandfather , who spoiled him rotten .

The old daemon had forcefully elected his only great grandson , Ogras Arh’Rezak to lead the incursion . Azzun and the rest had discovered his incompetence even before entering the new world .

Afraid that there would be a strong resistance on this world , and that losses of their forces would reflect badly on him , he had simply unleashed beast hordes to kill everything around the incursion for the first month . He had chosen four evolved beasts to lead their packs , and simply let them run loose without any supervision from a Beast Master or Tamer .

Even many of the elders had disapproved of such cowardice , but the great daemon quashed any dissention .

He only dared to enter when the first limiter was loosened . Everyone had been shocked to discover that both Ur’Khaz and Vul were dead when they finally arrived .

While neither were particularly strong , both were elites who had been chosen among the thousands of beasts to be leaders of the beast packs they sent through to clear the area . They were almost at the limit of what The Ruthless Heavens would allow to pass through the incursion , and it had cost the clan a fortune to send them through . They had been heavily nurtured and given many supplements to increase their physiques . After the restrictions lifted they would be like kings in a newly initiated world .

Ogras immediately further cemented his erratic leadership upon noticing this fact . He had simply called the Heralds trash for dying so easily , and was more focused on the construction of his palace than finding out the reason for their demise .

He had simply sent out a few scout parties , Azzun’s group included , in order to gain information about the surroundings . Getting the order felt almost like a death sentence the unlucky scouts . If something in this forest could kill their alpha-beasts , how would they survive? They were only level 30 to 35 with common classes , the weakest of the army that had arrived .

However , they had no choice but to comply with the order . The hierarchy and rules were extremely strict . Both they and their families would have a miserable ending if that happened . They could only bitterly nod their heads and try to stay alive . He could only hope to garner some type of merit during their invasion , which would allow him and his family to live a bit more comfortably in the clan .

The blast of different colors around him felt stressful and disorienting , and even though they had been briefed on this type of terrain it was hard to adapt . They were in a constant state of un-ease , as they had no idea what might jump out from the bushes at any moment .

As if summoned by his thoughts , Azzun heard a subdued rustle , followed by a wet thud and grunt . He immediately drew his weapon and turned around , only to see one of his companions topple over with a crushed skull .

Their assailant was already mid-swing toward his other companion , and she was killed before he managed to even react .

The attacker was a walking horror , completely red and covered in blood . Its body looked like a maze of crudely sewn together body parts and Azzun first thought was that the attacker was an Abomination or Ghoul from the Undead Hordes . If the world they attacked had an empire of the undead , their invasion would be a nightmare . There were few enemy factions in the multi-verse that were more annoying to battle than the undead .

He quickly discarded the idea when he noticed that the patchwork was actually an extremely rudimentary armor rather than its actual skin , and realized he was battling some manner of barbarian warrior .

He didn’t have time to analyze the situation further , as the man attacked with a swing of his odd weapon . Azzun quickly lifted his war-axe to intercept the swing , but quickly regretted it when their weapons clashed .

Horrified he realized the monstrous power that was contained in the swing , and he quickly circulated his cosmic energy and activated his defensive skill . An earthen layer quickly covered his arms and torso , and stabilized him . Thanks to his quick reactions he didn’t break his arms , but the force still threw him down on the ground , and his defensive skill shattered .

Disoriented and hurting he threw a wide swing towards his enemy , but only hit air . He tried to get back on his feet and meet his attacker . He didn’t get far however , before he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head , and then everything turned black .

Zac stood panting over the unconscious demon , a sheen of perspiration covering his face . The sweat came from pain rather than exertion , as his charge had opened up some of his wounds . He finally dared to use his skill on the demon , which showed Azzun , Level 33] .

Luckily these demons didn’t seem very strong even if they were higher leveled . He started to go through their bodies , and looted anything that seemed useful . He ended up carrying two sets of gear , and had two backpacks slung over his back .

He ignored the protests of his ribs , and then dragged the two looted corpses into the bushes and hid them there . He was too tired to bury them , and he didn’t want to linger here too long . Hopefully some beast would sniff them out and eat them before their compatriots found them .

Zac was somewhat surprised with how calm he was with his actions . These three were clearly sentient beings , to the point that Zac had mistaken them for humans for a second . Still he had butchered them without any mercy or hesitation . He had been slaughtering nonstop for a month , but those had generally been beasts with the exception of the imps .

He had thought that he still would have some trepidation when dealing with humanoid beings but it seemed that something deep and primal had changed in him during the last month . He was harder and colder compared to before , and he felt that he likely wouldn’t be able to go back to what he was .

Just as the world had changed , so had he .

Chapter 23 - Do you Understand My words?

Zac sighed and slung the unconscious Azzun over his shoulder , and the action caused him to whimper in pain . He would have preferred to drag him , but he didn’t want to leave a trail straight to his campsite .

He wasn’t far away from home now , and slowly walked the last bit . When he was a hundred meters away from the camp , he stopped and put his captive down . After making sure that the demon was still unconscious but alive he got a few vines and tied him up . Then he slowly made a circle around the camp , looking for any sign that there had been foot traffic in the vicinity .

A drawback of the illusion array was that he had no idea if 10 demons were waiting inside his camp without him seeing it , so he wanted to make sure that his surroundings were undisturbed . He couldn’t find any signs of anyone having walked through here lately , so he quietly skulked towards the camp , and took a peek inside illusion array .

Luckily the camp was undisturbed , so Zac went back and got his demon , and then walked back into the safety of the illusion array .

Finally back he let out a long sigh that had felt lodged in his chest for the past few days . A growl from his stomach reminded him he had only eaten nuts and leaves in the last days and he quickly went over to his car and snatched a handful of dried meat he had hung on a line between the trailer and SUV .

He sat down in his camper chair with a grimace , and started devour the meat while staring at his new captive .

He truly looked exotic , with a skin that was tinted in a greyish-red . The skin looked coarse and almost like a cross between scales and normal human skin . Red tattoos which reminded Zac of the fractals from the skills and arrays adorned his upper arms .

He was donned in a formfitting leather armor , which seemed to be made for an agile fighter or scout , rather than a dogfighter . It had vambraces inlaid with a metal plate which covered his forearms , but left the upper arms bare .

The chest plate was formed by a woven mesh of leather strips which seemed both pliable and durable . He had on a belt where he had kept his weapons until Zac stole them , and a pair of dark grey leather pants .

It wasn't only the craftsmanship that was far superior in the gear , the materials were as well . When zac tried to cut through the leather with one of his kitchen knives he couldn't even make a scratch , even after applying pressure . Zac assumed the leather came from some strong beast on the demon's home planet .

Oddly neither this demon nor the others wore any shoes , but after an inspection it made some sense . The demon’s feet looked like a slimmer version of the barghest’s taloned paws , with three sharp claws in the front .

Finally the pair of horns that had warned him from approaching them . They were a blood red color , and looked like an artist’s rendition of fire . They started in his upper forehead , and was bent backwards along his skull . It looked like tongues of fire were reaching upwards along the horn .

It did not seem that they used them for goring enemies , rather it looked largely ornamental .

The demon was still out cold , so Zac took the opportunity to go over his status window while getting another helping of dried meat .

Name

Zachary Atwood

Level

25

Race

Human

Alignment

Human (Earth)

Titles

Born For Carnage , Ultimate Reaper , Luck of the Draw , Giantsbane , Disciple of David , Overpowered , Slayer of Leviathans , Adventurer , Demon Slayer I

Strength

59

Dexterity

39

Endurance

42

Vitality

48

Intelligence

29

Wisdom

29

Luck

44

Free Points

4

Nexus Coins

14030

Active Quests :

Unlimited Potential (Normal) : Reach level 25 . Reward : Unlock class system . (25/25) COMPLETE]

Dynamic Quests :

Off with their heads (Unique) : Kill the four heralds and the general of incursion within 3 months . Reward : 10 E-Grade Nexus Crystals , E-Grade equipment , unique building depending on performance . (2/5)

Incursion Master (Unique) : Close or conquer incursion and protect base from denizens of other alignments for 3 months . Reward : 5 E-Grade Nexus Crystals , outpost upgraded to town , status upgraded to Lord . (0/3)

Zac had gained two levels from killing the Herald and the other monsters while escaping . From how thick the cosmic energy felt , he wasn’t far from gaining another level either .

He also noticed that he had gained roughly 8000 Nexus coins from his attack on the Herald , and the subsequent escape . His quests had also been updated , with the quest called Unlimited Potential showed COMPLETE] at the end . His demon slayer quest had just disappeared after completing , but Zac guessed that this quest remained as he still hadn’t chosen a class .

Zac immediately placed 4 points into strength . He had noticed during the last month that each additional point in a stat had a greater effect than the earlier points . It was like the gains were exponential . This had made him feel that specialization was more highly rewarded compared to putting points in every stat .

Besides , with his large amount of titles all his stats were quite high in any case , affording him the opportunity to go deep in a specific attribute .

Since then he had put all his points from level ups into strength , unless he felt that some other stats was truly lacking . He thought about placing some more points in vitality due to his condition , but discarded that idea after a brief hesitation .

He was extremely eager to choose a Class , but barely managed to contain himself . The reason was the unconscious captive in front of him .

Zac had already stumbled along for a long time , using guesstimation to guide his choices . He was hoping to use Azzun to get some answers about the system and many other things before he did something irrevocable to himself . He didn’t even dare to touch the Nexus Node , as he was afraid some class change process would start that couldn’t be stopped .

Zac felt a lot better after having finished his meal . With a grunt he got back to his feet , and filled a bottle with water from the water array .

He walked over to the demon and poured the contents over his face , resulting in the demon sputtering and waking up .

Azzun had a look of shock and horror on his face as he woke up to the sight of Zac , who still hadn’t bothered to change or remove the blood that was caked all over him .

So uh… I guess I am sorry about your friends . Do you understand my words? - Zac said with a coarse voice . He realized that those were essentially the first words he had spoken in weeks . In the beginning he had muttered and mumbled things to himself , but soon he had grown accustomed to the silence .

Zac didn’t know if it was because of what he said , but the demon snarled and desperately tried to get himself free from the vines . Zac sighed and brandished his hatchet , and with a grunt he slammed it straight next to the tied up demon . It produced a loud thud , and a small crater was formed . Had he swung just a decimeter to his right then one of Azzun’s leg would have been mutilated by now .

The demon immediately stilled , as it perhaps remembered the ending of his two companions thanks to the hatchet .

Do you understand my words? - Zac repeated . He wasn’t really expecting the demon to actually speak his language , but rather that the system provided some translation feature . Language would be a pretty large issue if the system connected endless amounts of worlds .

The demon simply stared at him , then suddenly closed his eyes .

Hello? - Zac prodded once again , unsure what the demon was planning . Suddenly Zac could sense how the cosmic energy in the surroundings started to move toward them , and the demon’s body started to shake .

Zac got a sinking feeling in his chest , and didn’t dare hesitate . He immediately swung his hatchet down on the skull of the demon , crushing it like he had done with the other two .

The body slumped down , and blood gushed out of his nose . Zac got a confirmation that the demon was dead from the influx of cosmic energy , but the uneasy feeling did not disappear . Suddenly the body started expanding , and Zac’s eyes went wide with alarm .

He barely managed to throw himself away and down on the ground , before the corpse exploded with a tremendous bang .

Zac slowly got up on his knees , disoriented and ears ringing . Somehow the demon seemed to have made the energy in his body go haywire and he actually had exploded like a bomb . The camp was in chaos , with the windows of the car having cracks all over , the closest had completely shattered . Things were thrown around haphazardly and there even was an indent on the exterior wall of the camper .

Luckily he had killed the demon in time , or he might have been able to gather even more energy and created a far more deadly explosion , wiping out both him and the camp .

These demons are going to be a pain . ’ Zac thought with a grimace while looking at the mess .

Chapter 24 - Class

Zac was slowly moving through the forest . Since the demon blew himself up he had been stealthily roving around the vicinity of the camp . The illusion array blocked sound to a certain degree , but he was afraid that the explosion would have bled through the protection and alerted other demons .

However , he had been moving around the camp in expanding circles for two hours now , and had seen no sight of any more of the demons . While he had been scouting he’d also taken the time to properly bury the two other demons . It wasn’t to properly honor the dead , but rather to avoid the bodies getting discovered .

Finally satisfied that he had caught a lucky break and still wasn’t found out , he returned to the camp .

He spent some time cleaning up the camp . Some of the loot from the demons unfortunately been destroyed by the explosion . He hadn’t expected his captive to go nuclear as soon as he woke up , so Zac had simply thrown the gear down in a pile not far from him .

The bags seemed to have contained some vials which Zac supposed were either healing tinctures or poisons . The bags where still whole , but the vials hade cracked . Inside was a mess of the different mixtures glass shards , and Zac certainly didn’t want to rummage through it now .

The male’s leather armor was ruined , but the female demon’s suit underneath seemed intact . But most important was the weapon that Azzun had been carrying .

It was a one handed battle axe . It was much longer than his hatchet , reaching roughly 80cm . The head was single-headed , but with a sharp spike sticking out on the other side , perhaps for balance . The edge itself was a half-moon over 30 cm long . Zac tried the edge with his thumb , and was surprised to see that he immediately started bleeding .

It was hard for a normal kitchen knife to cut his skin now without some effort , which showed just how deadly his new weapon was .

The handle was black and it appeared that it had some fractals carved onto them . However these fractals somehow seemed far more rudimentary compared to the ones on the array flags . Finally a strip of some unknown beast hide had been used to create a handle .

This clearly was a weapon for war , rather than a tool as his hatchet . If he had this thing during his fight with the Herald he might even have been able to kill it off with the initial charge .

Zac tried using Eye of Discernment] on the weapon as the axe seemed to be somewhat related to the system with the pattern on the handle . However , it gave no response . Either the skill couldn't show information about items , or items didn't work like that . He had a feeling it was a problem with the skill , as it was by far the cheapest skill that Nexus Coins could buy . It would be odd if it was too versatile .

Apart from this , he had scrounged up a hooked sword , a couple of knives and various bracers and shin guards . There might be something else in the bags , but he would wait until the mess dried out . He didn't really care for the sword and left it to the side , but was delighted with the small knives . They were small and straight with edges on both sides of the blade , giving them excellent balance . He felt they were used for throwing and battle rather than skinning animals and the like .

They would be a great addition to his arsenal , as he was sorely lacking any ranged attack . Every time he wanted to kill an imp he had to hurl his axe on it or a bunch of rocks . But this would be a deadly alternative which didn't force him to throw away his main weapon . He already practiced throwing rocks and the axe for some time every day , and swapping to daggers shouldn't be too large an adjustment .

After going through the gear he finally couldn’t wait any longer , and approached the Nexus Node . It was time for him to get a class , no matter if it was the right choice or not . He pressed his palm against the smooth surface of the crystal , and mentally tried to access the class system .

A new box appeared in his vision with multiple rows .

Top 5 Class choices]

Warrior – F Grade , Common . Fledgling combatant . Proficient with melee weaponry . Upgradeable

Acolyte – F Grade , Common . Fledgling wielder of the elements . Initial proficiency with elemental magic . Upgradeable

Marine – F Grade , Uncommon . Lowest Ranked naval combatant . Proficient with battles at sea . Upgradeable

Demon Hunter – F Grade , Uncommon . Having dedicated his life for the eradication of the Demonic Race , the Demon Hunter has attained a high proficiency in locating and eradicating anything of demonic nature . Upgradeable

Hatchetman – F Grade , Rare . Their army is an endless forest and I’m the lumberjack . Upgradeable

Random F-Grade Class . 92 . 9% Common . 5 . 0% Uncommon . 2 . 0 % Rare . 0 . 1% Epic . Roll the dice

That was all the information Zac could get out of the system . He tried to get a more in depth explanation with mental commands such as - Details - and - Info - , but the short excerpt was all he could go on .

The first thing he noticed that classes did not seem equal . All five choices did have the same grade , F- Grade , so it seemed everyone started at the same grade . They did however have different rarities , ranging from common to rare in his case .

He did not know how large a difference there was between the rarities , but he could only assume that a higher rarity class would be stronger than a low rarity one .

The second thing he noticed that all the classes were upgradeable . That likely meant that he could get stronger classes in the future , but they would be based on the class he chose now . It might be secondary classes or it might be possible to change classes , but he had no information about this . He therefore had to make the choice under the assumption that his choice would influence his future trajectory to a large degree .

The third was that the available choices seemed to be at least partly based on his accomplishments .

The marine class was likely available because he was situated near an ocean . The Demon Hunter class came from killing demonic creatures non-stop since the System arrived .

He was not sure about the Hatchetman class , but he had used a lumberjack’s hatchet for almost all his kills , so he assumed it might be based on that . But it was a combat class going by the description , rather than a woodworking class .

The last choice was a gamble . Even an Epic class was available , albeit only at a 0 . 1% chance . His luck stat might influence those odds , but it was unclear how . If each luck point increased his chance to get the Epic class by 1 point he wouldn’t hesitate . He would roll the dice in a heartbeat . But he doubted it would be that easy , so he felt no need to use this option .

He already had a rare and two uncommon classes to choose from , so he had no reason to gamble . Besides , there might be classes that didn’t help him in combat . What if he got a Rare Painter class from gambling? While it might be nice learning a new skill , it would not help him on the island .

He would therefore definitely choose one of the available classes .

First he eliminated Warrior . It seemed quite basic , and it felt like most other choices were better . Next he eliminated both Marine and Demon Hunter . He didn’t like the prospect of limited boosts . He had no aspirations to live out the rest of the life on the high seas , so a water-centric class did not make sense to him .

He also didn’t want to spend his life hunting demons . The Demon Hunter class might very well be the strongest class for him right now , as there still were demons infesting the whole island . However , either he or the demons would be gone in two months , so it didn’t make sense to pick this class either .

Abby had told him that the Multi-verse consisted of myriad classes . This meant that it wasn't like hell's gates had opened and the universe was being invaded by demons . They were just one of many potential enemies in the vast multi-verse . So even if he survived , he did not know if there were any other demons on Earth apart from in this particular incursion . Wouldn’t that mean he essentially crippled himself by choosing a class that could only help him for the first few months?

Finally , it was an uncommon class . While it was better compared to the warrior and acolyte class , it was worse than the Rare class .

That left Acolyte and Hatchetman . Truth be told , he felt that Acolyte was the most intriguing . He did like the prospect of mastering the elements and firing fireballs and lightning bolts at his surroundings .

However , he felt there were drawbacks as well . For one he had no idea if he actually was able to learn spells just from getting the class . What if the basic spells normally were something you got in the tutorial? Also , he had invested most of his stats so far into physical attributes , which might be wasted on this class .

The only reason he could imagine he got this kind of class to choose was that he had gotten quite a bit of intelligence and wisdom from his titles . But he almost drooled at the aspect of upgrading the class until he became a grand magus , who could burn the sky with a sweep of his hand .

But most importantly it was only a common class . It felt like it was something that almost anyone could get in the future . Getting a common class when he had rare classes to choose from felt like wasting the advantage that his past month had provided him .

The system rewarded the brave and intrepid . The rare class seemed to be the rewards for risking his life every day against the demons .

Of course , Hatchetman sounded a bit stupid , to be honest . The connotation of the word from his professional career was anything but positive , but he felt that it had a somewhat different meaning here .

It seemed that it somehow referred to being a warrior lumberjack from the description . While not exciting , it did , however , check out a few of his boxes . The class probably would be very beneficial if he used his newly acquired axe in battle .

Out of all the choices , it also seemed to be the most tailored for his battle style . It also was the only Rare choice . He did not know how much better each rarity was compared to the one before , but perhaps the difference would be even greater compared to the conditional boost the Demon Hunter class would give against his current enemies .

The drawback was that he couldn’t quite imagine what the upgrade path would be . Next upgrade was a… stronger lumberjack? A walking sawmill? A corporate shark doing hostile takeovers and selling companies for scraps?

So one of the choices seemed to be able to help him less now . But it might end up with him becoming a great wizard . He had always played mage classes when playing games , so this was quite enticing . It was however only a common class .

The other choice seemed to be more suited to his stats and direct power , but lead into an unknown future .

After a long hesitation he finally said good bye to the dream of arcane dominance , and chose the box marked Hatchetman] .

Chapter 25 - Stronger

A strong surge of cosmic energy inundated Zac’s whole body . It felt like his whole being was purified and reshaped . Instinctively he felt an enormous fractal imprinting itself and covered his whole being . However , most parts of the fractal was indistinct and blurred .

He also felt the powerful rush into his cells which indicated the improvement of his stats . Zac was completely oblivious of his surroundings as he was drowning in the sensations . Unfortunately the feeling didn’t last long , and he soon came down from his rush .

From a first look he didn’t feel that different , apart from his condition had improved significantly . It felt like his wounds had largely healed , even his broken arm .

But when he opened his status page he was shocked . His stats had made a great leap .

Name

Zachary Atwood

Level

25

Class

Hatchetman (F)

Race

Human (F)

Alignment

Human (Earth)

Titles

Born for Carnage , Ultimate Reaper , Luck of the Draw , Giantsbane , Disciple of David , Overpowered , Slayer of Leviathans , Adventurer , Demon Slayer I , Full of Class , Rarified Being , Trailblazer

Strength

92

Dexterity

48

Endurance

51

Vitality

57

Intelligence

38

Wisdom

38

Luck

54

Free Points

0

Nexus Coins

14690

All his stats had gained a jump of 9 points , except strength which had increased a whopping 28 . As he had noticed that every stat point gave a larger increase in improvement compared to the one before , he knew he likely had doubled his actual physical power from the increase in strength .

He noticed that his class was added in a row , with F denoting the grade of the class . He was surprised to notice that his Race had also gotten graded , as it was blank before . He was excited at the prospect that he could actually evolve his race somehow .

Hopefully it meant that his power would rise , rather than growing a tail or a third eye though .

He had gained three new titles from getting a class as well . Zac focused on them to get a description

Full of Class : Reach level 25 and attain a Class . All stats +1]

Rarified Being : Attain a Class graded as Rare . All stats +1]

Trailblazer : First to gain a Class in world . All stats : +5]

That explained where the all-around improvements to his stats came from . The first two titles were things that anyone could attain . However the Trailblazer title was another title that only he would get on Earth .

Zac felt a comforting from what that title represented . He still managed to keep his lead , even over the - chosen - cultivators who got help in the beginner villages . Even if he was deemed trash by the System and left to rot to this island , he had defied fate so far and was still on top .

He had to admit that the feeling of power was somewhat addicting . Finding his family was still his priority , but he also craved the feeling of becoming stronger and stronger . He lived for the moment after every battle where he absorbed the cosmic energy , and having the pure unadulterated force of life course through his veins .

He had started to think more and more about where the limits of strength lay . By now he could punch a large rock and it would shatter , and only one month had passed . How powerful would he be in a year? A decade? Just thinking about it made him excited . Of course , he would never let himself forget that to get there in one piece he would have to walk through an ocean of blood .

He didn’t linger on the subject as he was anxious to look through his other changes . He thought - Class - and a new window appeared

Class : Hatchetman , Grade-F , Rare]

Strength +10 , +10% .

Level : +3 strength , +1 endurance , +1 free point per level .

Skills :

Axe Mastery (LOCKED)

Chop (LOCKED)

Forester’s Constitution (LOCKED)

Followed that were rows of blocked out information . At least that showed where the large strength boost came from . The +3 strength per level didn’t seem to be retroactive , otherwise he’d have almost twice the strength by now . But it showed that every level from now would give a much larger boost compared to before .

Zac was annoyed to see that he actually didn’t get any skills for free as he had hoped . There were 3 skills listed that seemed somewhat intuitive . Axe Mastery and Chop seemed offensive , and Forester’s Constitution was defensive . At least he hoped Chop was an offensive skill , and not a woodworking skill .

He didn’t quite understand how - Chop - would be better than what he had been doing before , but he guessed he would find out . It seemed that he couldn’t get any information about the skills until he unlocked them .

The next problem was how to unlock the skills . Soon he found the method in the quest tab . It showed a new category , which was class quests . Each skill needed a quest to be completed .

Axe Mastery (Class) : Mastery is born through battle . Fell 1000 enemies . (0/1000)

Chop (Class) : First chop Wood . Then their bodies . (0/10 000)

Forester's Constitution (Class) : Fight in the forests , be one with nature . (0/30)

None of the quests seemed very hard to accomplish . The Axe Mastery made no distinction of the strength of the enemies , and with his improved physique he could grind it out in a week or two if he just focused on slaying barghests .

The chop quest seemed to take time rather than being hard , but if he changed his daily work-out routine to chop wood it would be done sooner or later . Chopping wood was a great work-out anyways .

The last quest seemed either extremely easy or rather hard . Just 30 fights and it would be done . The whole island was a large forest so finishing it seemed to be the easiest of the three . It depended on what be one with nature meant . If it was just some random words , great .

If he actually had to somehow merge with nature , or become a tree-hugger it felt far more annoying .

Finally it seemed that he found out everything that he could for now . He had entered the outpost shop as well , but it seemed nothing new was added from gaining a class .

There were a few new skills added at the Node , but they were prohibitively expensive , with the cheapest being 500 000 Nexus Coins .

All in all it had been a fruitful day . He was disappointed that the demon had self-destructed rather than answering questions . There were so many things he needed to know . To be fair , Zac would likely have killed him after questioning the demon in any case . That the demon chose making a last ditch effort to bring Zac with him to hell was a logical choice .

Luckily the gear he gained and the strengthening made the sting less severe . He still looked positively insane from the blood and broken gear , and didn’t want to put on the gear while looking like this . He left the camp to patrol the vicinity for a while , and then went back .

This would likely be a new addition to the daily routine . The humanoid demons seemed far more organized compared to the dumb beasts that hade came through the incursion first .

Satisfied that there were no enemies nearby , he moved water from the water array into the tanker’s reservoir . Finally he ripped the patchwork armor off , and took the first good shower in over a week . It was a risky move , but the grime and blood was making even him crazy , and he needed to get it off . He brought his new axe with him into the bathroom in case he was ambushed while in there .

It took half an hour to scrub the layers of dirt and blood of himself before stepping out of the shower .

Even cleaned up he could barely recognize himself in the mirror . His whole body had undergone a metamorphosis during the last month . Almost all of the fat was gone , leaving only a thin layer covering his muscular frame .

His physique looked hard . His muscles were compact and wiry rather than big and swollen like a body builder’s . He thought he actually might be smaller now compared to when he worked out at the gym .

Of course he knew that an explosive power was contained in these muscles , and that they were so dense that maybe not even a bullet would penetrate them by now . All over his body were scars of varying size and severity . His tactic of boosting his vitality and taking blows for landing killing strikes had been effective , but it had left an undeniable mark .

He looked down on his rough and calloused hands . It was hard to believe what these hands had done the last weeks . Once he had actually ripped the jaws of a Gwyllgi straight apart when he had dropped his hatchet .

Zac sighed and put on one of his last whole t-shirts and undergarments . He didn’t want to use his rags together with his new gear .

Unfortunately the chest pieces of both the males’ leather armors had been blasted to shreds so he could only put on the female’s armor . He didn’t worry about it too much though , as he had a strong suspicion that there would be many more demons in the woods that could supply new gear .

To get adjusted to his new weapon he dragged over a thick log . He reactivated his gravity array , and started cutting the log into firewood , working out and working on his quest simultaneously . It was already late , and he would not go out hunting anymore today . As he was methodically swinging his axe a trace of anticipation could be seen on his face .

For the first time since the world changed , he looked forward to go out and test his might .

Chapter 26 - Demons

Zac woke up early the next day . He had slept outside with axe in hand and geared up , just in case of a nightly raid . He once again set out to scout the vicinity , but nothing seemed to have moved through there during the night .

Zac wasted no time , and set out towards the direction of his fight against the herald . He wanted to scout out the situation before proceeding toward the next Herald .

He still wanted to complete the quests as quickly as possible , but the new enemies had proved that something had changed on the island . Zac wanted to scout the situation out until he knew what that change meant , and decided to start from where he had fought Vul .

After walking for a while he ran into a barghest . A creepy smile appeared on Zac’s face , and he brandished the axe .

The beast was aggressive as ever at least , as it mindlessly charged at him . Zac sidestepped to let it run into a tree behind him just to gauge its power .

He was surprised to see that it didn’t actually just charge in to the tree as before , it instead bit into it and ripped a good chunk out of the wood out almost impossibly fast . Of course , it still couldn’t stop its momentum , and still hit the tree square with its now closed maw .

Zac wasted no time and with a swing completely decapitated the demon . He felt almost no resistance when cutting through the spine of the demonling , and the axe continued down with such ease that he almost cut into his own leg before he could stop the descent . He knew the axe was extraordinarily sharp since yesterday , but he was still shocked how easy it went through . .

As he continued on he wouldn’t avoid any beasts anymore , rather he’d go out of his way to kill them if he found them . He looked forward to getting the Axe Mastery skill , and wouldn’t miss an opportunity to work on his 1000 kill goal .

He had been annoyed when he had noticed that only the Axe Mastery quest progressed from kills , not the Forester’s Constitution quest . He would have to figure out what was missing later . He also confirmed that the Chop quest did not progress from battling , even though it mentioned chopping bodies .

As he was advancing he noticed that the beasts had indeed improved . They were stronger , faster , and more impressively they seemed smarter . It was as if a limiter had reduced all stats , including intelligence . Then it had been lifting gradually during the last week of the month , and as the last day passed the limit had been ripped off completely .

Overall he gauged that the beasts’ stats had improved by roughly 50% since four days ago . The danger improved more than that though , as they had started doing feints and use tactics while attacking compared to before . The barghest were of course still dum-dums , but not to the point that they’d mindlessly charge into a wall anymore .

The rewards for killing the beasts hadn’t been improved with their improved performance . It seemed that Zac truly had gotten a bargain when hunting during the first month . Zac snickered as he imagined the cultivators in the beginner villages hunting rabbits and boars around the edge of the village for a mere 2-3 Nexus Coins a piece , like in some RPG .

The increase in strength didn’t bother him when it came to the fodder demons that was peppered through the island . They had improved , but so had he . Even the empowered demons were defenseless against his new weapon . It felt like proper gear actually had a greater effect compared to attaining a class .

Of course , the effect of a class would show over time rather than immediately it seemed . Also the immediate effect on him was not too large , as he already had such high stats from his titles . If someone with only the basic stats got this class with accompanying titles , it’d likely been a pretty large boost to him .

As he killed another demon with a lazy swing he felt the familiar burst of cosmic energy that came with a level up . He was delighted to see that he did get his class stat points in addition to his two free points , rather than instead of . So every level he now got 7 points instead of two .

He paused a second to go over how to allocate his points again . He had thought about it a bit yesterday , and had come up with a plan . As his class seemed to focus on Strength and Endurance , so Zac would do the same with his free points .

He felt that the skills and class itself might somehow synergize with these stats , so getting them as high as possible would be a good option . Even if he was wrong it would be ok , as both these stats was strong on him in any case .

If vitality helped him heal up after getting wounded , then endurance would protect him from getting wounded . Endurance didn’t only help with his stamina , it also toughened his body up . Now that he had a high enough vitality that he wouldn’t die from ordinary wounds , he could focus on endurance to make him even harder to kill .

The other option he had considered was to put the put the points in dexterity , making him quicker . However , for most of the fights so far speed had not been an issue or limiting factor for him , so he decided to hold off on that for now .

Furthermore , among the skills that was added to the Nexus Node after he got his class was one that he felt might be able to substitute the need for Dexterity . It was called Steps of Gaia] and cost 575 000 Nexus Coins . It was a huge amount of coins , far more than he had gathered in total .

But it seemed to fit him perfecty . It was a movement-type skill , which he assumed would help him move quicker . It would both help him charge at enemies faster , and also allow him to easier dodge attacks . It also seemed to be connected to the earth and nature , same as his class , so he felt there might be synergy along the road .

He therefore had decided to start saving up for the skill . He believed that it shouldn't take too long to get the neccessary coins , as his speed of killing beasts had improved significantly with his gear and higher stats .

Finally he decided to put 1 point in strength and 2 in Endurance and kept going . A while later he reached the area where he fought the Herald . The aftermath of from the battle was evident , with crushed trees and rocks all over . He still hadn’t run into any humanoids , and the forest was largely like it was before .

Zac slowly crept toward the spot where the Herald had fallen , alert of his surroundings . He was surprised to find that the carcass had been removed from the spot , as had the poles he had planted .

He could only guess that they had been moved back to the base . He wasn’t sure as he hadn’t seen it , but he assumed that the base were either right at the incursion , or in the mountains . If it was closer to the other sides he felt that he should have run into more of the humanoids by now .

Unless there only were a scant few of the humanoid demons , of course . But Zac’s intuition told him that he wouldn’t be that lucky . The System had screwed him over pretty consistently , and he saw no reason that it would stop anytime soon .

He stopped for a while to decide what to do now . He hadn’t really accomplished anything so far , except for killing some demons . He didn’t need to ponder for long however , as he suddenly heard subdued voices in the distance .

Zac properly hid himself inside a few bushes as the voices drew closer . He was disappointed to find out that he couldn’t understand the words . So much for a universal translation system .

It was a surprisingly smooth and melodic language , specked with vowels flowing like a river . He had assumed that the language of demons would be harsh and perhaps even guttural .

Wait , is that racism?’ a stray thought entered his mind , making him lose focus before setting his sight on the approaching party .

The party looked somewhat similar to the one he had killed earlier , except that this party was comprised of four individuals rather than three .

There were 3 males and one female . The two males looked like a mix of rangers and warriors , dressed in leather armors and wielding a sword each . The female walked in front and seemed to be the lookout , as she was carefully scouting the surroundings and had a bow slung on her back .

The final man was unarmed but seemed to be a leader , or at least of higher status . The quality of his gear seemed to be a notch above the others , such as a chest plate made of the same black metal as his axe handle . It was engraved in the same manner as the handle as well , but more intricate .

Zac had a feeling that these engravings had some sort of effect , like magically imbuing the gear with sharpness or defense . He had found no ways to use the engravings so far though , and hoped he might get an idea from the unarmed man .

Another reason Zac surmised the well-equipped man was of higher status than the other was that he could sense a formless pressure emanating from him . It felt like he was looking at a dangerous beast rather than an unarmed man .

While Zac was well hidden he decided to slowly recede further into the brushes . This party seemed both deadlier and more alert compared to the last one .

His actions were in vain however , as the female suddenly grabbed her bow and an arrow in a fluid motion and without hesitation fired it straight in the direction of Zac .

Zac tried to get out of the way , but there was no time as the arrow slammed straight into his side .

Chapter 27 - One Against Many

Zac almost lost his breakfast as the arrowhead slammed straight into his gut . It punched through the wired leather armor and continued into his body . Luckily most of the force had been spent going through the armor , and with Zac’s high endurance it only proceeded two centimeters before stopping .

This kind of wound wouldn’t really faze Zac anymore after constantly getting hurt from his fights . However , he still hesitated for a second after ripping the arrow out . Fight or flee? He hadn’t prepared to challenge the party like this .

However , he soon discarded any thought of fleeing . He didn’t like the prospect of having another arrow slam into him , this time in the back of his head while running for his life . The ranger seemed to have some detection skill , as she could spot and shoot him while he was hidden in bushes a few hundred meters away . He needed to kill the archer at least before fleeing .

He threw the arrow away and pulled out one of his smaller knives from its sheath . Zac wasted no time and threw it straight at the archer , and it flew with at least the same velocity as the arrow that had hit him .

The female demon seemed to have been prepared , and with an almost impossible nimbleness jumped out of the way and proceeded up into a tree like a forest elf . She moved like a specter and in just a few seconds she was gone from his vision among the leaves

Zac tsked in annoyance , and charged at the party while trying to use trees as a cover from the archer . The force of his steps made deep indents in the ground as he charged forth like a runaway bull . The three remaining demons were obviously ready for the fight , as they spread out intending to encircle him .

Zac could sense that all of them were using some skill , as he could feel the cosmic energy react to their bodies . An illusory red gas started floating around one of the combatants , giving him a more sinister feel . The other underling pointed down on the ground , but Zac couldn’t see anything happening .

Zac couldn’t see anything happening with the leader either , but the sense of danger increased substantially .

As Zac was furiously approaching he quickly used Eye of Discernment] on the trio , and got some basic information about his enemies .

Metisis , Level 38]

Gormer , Level 39]

They were roughly 5 levels higher compared to the last party he had attacked . That meant that they should have at least 15-20 higher stat points including the bonus stats from their classes , compared to the last group of demonss .

He was also surprised to notice that the third man , the unarmed one , had somehow resisted his skill . There was only a blur above his head . This made Zac even more wary of him . He had even managed to identify the herald Vul , who was far higher level compared to himself .

Zac furiously circulated cosmic energy in his body , and ran straight toward the weakest enemy , Metisis . When he was just over 50 meters away from them an arrow came whizzing down from the tree tops . This time Zac was prepared and slammed it away with the broad side of his axe head .

The force of this arrow was far higher than the hastily one she had shot before . When the axe and arrow collided he was actually pushed back a bit , his feet making a grove in the ground . Luckily the axe was apparently made from excellent materials , and wasn’t damaged one bit .

Zac pushed ahead once again , the last 50 meter distance gone in just a few seconds .

Just as he was a few meters away from his target , he pushed all the cosmic energy he could into his right leg . He instantly kicked off with all the power he could , and shot like a bullet straight at the other demon , Gormer . The force of the push created an explosion in the ground , even leaving a small crater .

They had not expected the speed that a 98 strength powered push could give , and Gormer barely managed to lift his hooked sword before Zac chopped horizontally with all the strength he could muster .

The axe moved like a lightning , but when it entered the weird gaseous substance it felt like he was trying to push through water . A good part of the momentum was somehow sapped out of the strike , and his force couldn’t properly come to bear .

Zac wouldn’t let this opportunity go though , and with a growl redoubled his efforts , and the axe continued on and slammed into the demon right under his left arm . The leather armor could afford almost no resistance against the sharp edge of Zac’s axe as it embedded itself firmly in his chest . He couldn’t push it clean through though , as the weird strength sapping effect seemed to be even stronger within the body of the demon .

Zac immediately ripped his axe out which produced a tremendous sprout of blood . He planned to turn around to meet the other two demons head on next . He didn’t believe he’d get a second chance for a surprise attack like this .

But before he could do anything , he suddenly felt something ensnare his feet and he completely lost his footing . Zac fell headfirst on top of the collapsed dying demon . Gormer seemed intent on revenge even with one foot in the grave , as he weakly held on to Zac to keep him from fleeing .

While Zac struggled to get free he took a quick glance down at his legs . They were ensnared by a handful of purplish wiggling roots , which somehow seemed alive . They seemed to be a skill or magic that came from the other demon underling .

Perhaps they had planned to ensnare him when he got closer , and then attack him from three directions , securing an easy kill . Unfortunately for them Zac had preceded them with his lightning fast blitz .

Zac had no time to analyze it any further , as the leader had moved to position close to him . Shockingly he no longer was unarmed , but hefted a monstrous great sword that was almost as long as he was , and over 20cm wide .

He had mocking eyes and a sneer as he lifted the sword above his head . Zac could once again feel the movement of cosmic energy , and knew that the leader was using a skill . Dark arcs of power spread from his arms into the large blade .

The dying demon’s strength was no match for Zac , and he frantically ripped himself free from his grip . But he only managed to get himself up to his knees when the large blade started falling down on him . It was poised to cleave him in two unless he did something .

Zac pushed his power to the limit and gripped his axe with both hands and swung upward with all his might , hoping to intercept the sword .

With a tremendous clangor that echoed through the vicinity the axe and the great sword connected . The force actually created a shockwave that blasted outwards .

Zac was slammed down into the ground again from the force creating a small crater . Even with his superhuman stats he couldn’t handle the power of the sword . Luckily for him he at least managed to get the leader demon off-kilt and change the trajectory of the strike . It actually slammed down in the gut of the dying Demon . The might was so strong that the torso of the underling veritably exploded , instantly killing him . That wiped the smirk of the leaders face and seemed to enrage him instead .

Meanwhile , the dark lightning from the demon’s skill passed into Zac’s axe when they collided , and burrowed into his arm . A blazing pain ran through his whole body , and his muscles spasmed uncontrollably .

That was actually the only reason Zac survived , as a great spasm jerked his head some distance away . Another arrow slammed down right where his head had been before .

This arrow was different than the other , with a jagged arrowhead and being pitch black . It whizzed down with a great force and actually completely embedded itself into the ground , right down to the feathers . The extreme penetrating power was evident from that shot , likely from a skill .

It was only thanks to being bombed with black fireballs by the imps that Zac was able to retain consciousness . He pushed the pain away with all the resilience he could garner , and with a quick swing cut through the roots that ensnared his feet . The roots were far sturdier than they looked , and it felt like he cut through steel wire rather than wood .

Still it was no match for his power and the sharpness of his axe , and he was free in no time . He rolled a way as quickly as possible , trying to gain some distance before the leader swung down again .

He got to his feet just as another batch of roots closed in on him . This time they came as a swarm from the ground under the other demon . Zac whirled his axe back and forth in a frenzied manner and cut them down as they came , stopping their advance after a while .

The battle reached a short lull as Zac stood panting , while facing the two Demons . He tried to survey the treetops but couldn’t locate the female archer . Her existence was like an annoying fly in the periphery that made him unable to fully concentrate . Even worse , this fly could kill him with one strike if he wasn’t careful .

Fighting one against many truly was a pain in the ass .

Chapter 28 - Melee

Zac was a bit unsure of how to proceed . He knew that one should maintain the initiative in a battle , but he didn’t want to just charge over like a stupid barghest .

His enemies made the choice for him . The leader started advancing on him , anger smoldering in his eyes . Both his hands gripped the great sword , which was angled down toward the ground .

The other man was stationary , but mumbling something in their own language .

Zac could only put his game face on . He was still hurting all over from the dark lightning , but he pretended he was fine . With his axe in his hand he got ready for round two .

Zac really didn’t want to meet the great sword straight on . The leader seemed to have roughly the same level of strength as he did , and even if he managed to parry the strike , he was afraid that he would be shocked again from the skill . He would have to fight around it somehow .

Luckily a weapon of that size was unwieldy , and the trajectories would hopefully be telegraphed .

Zac took out a second knife , leaving him with only one remaining . He launched it at the weaker enemy , and started to rush forward .

The demon deflected the knife with a couple of roots even though the force from Zac’s throw was immense . The demon obviously was some sort of earth- or tree-mage , and the roots were far sturdier than something coming from a normal tree .

The demon was interrupted in his chanting though , which was Zac’s main goal . If he actually had managed to hurt him , all the better .

Wasting no time he rushed toward him , trying to avoid the leader and his great sword . The great sword whizzed in a wide upwards arc , seemingly trying to cut Zac’s in two .

Zac pushed forward with his legs and jumped forward into a roll to avoid the swing , but somehow the leader changed trajectory mid swing , and still managed to nick Zac in the side . The cut drew blood but wasn’t too deep , and fortunately the black lightning didn’t emerge again . It seemed the leader couldn’t continuously use the skill .

Zac ignored the pain and quickly got on his feet and charged at the underling . The leader was right behind him , so he quickly swung his axe downward , hoping for a quick kill .

A thick group of roots shot up in front of the demon , and meshed together into a wooden shield to intercept the swing . Zac’s stats were overpowering though , and he slammed through the roots easily . Wood chippings flew everywhere like small projectiles from the strike . Unfortunately for Zac , the brief pause in the swing had allowed the demon to reposition and he could avoid the swing .

Zac felt an intense danger from behind and he didn’t dare hesitate . He jumped forward and crashed into the underling instead of swinging his axe again , pushing them both a few meters away and bringing both of them to the ground . As he jumped forward he felt the wind move right above where his head had been , from a swing of the leader .

The demon spit out a mouth of blood from the impact , but managed to wheeze a few words . A handful of vines shot out of the ground and stabbed into Zac’s chest and legs , trying to bore further into him .

The pain was excruciating but he could only ignore it and hope that his endurance was enough to protect his innards from the roots . With a roar he slammed down the axe . With his overbearing power he completely destroyed the head of the demon , and even created a crater where the axe head hit the ground .

From jumping over until killing him had taken less than a second , giving the leader no time to stop him .

The roots that the demon had summoned didn’t disappear , but they seemed to have stopped moving .

As Zac was jumping away from the body , another arrow soundlessly hit his leg , completely punching through it . The sharpness must have been extraordinary as it didn’t seem to slow down at all even with Zac’s high defense .

Zac Screamed in pain , but could only ignore it for now . The leader was upon him with another swing that almost ended him .

Zac was prepared for the swing as they drew huge wide arcs . He lunged forward after dodging in order to get in closer as the swing had passed . It seemed that the demon had ample battle experience though , and kneed Zac right in the face as he got close . The knee was imbued with the dark lightning , and this time it zapped Zac straight in the head .

Getting a knee in the face was bad , getting electrocuted in the head by demon lightning was worse . The power of the leader was huge , and Zac was flung away from the strike . The impact nearly broke his neck , and Zac was blinded by the pain .

But he roared and charged in again as he landed . Another arrow whizzed down , but Zac managed to hunker down so it only ripped a flesh wound on his back . He needed to turn the fight into a close combat brawl , which would render the great sword useless . It would also hopefully stop the intermittent arrows from coming , as the ranger would be hesitant to hit her leader .

He decided to meet the great sword head on in order to get in close . The demon had just used the lightning attack , and hopefully he needed to wait or charge it up again . The axe and great sword met again in a stupendous clash . The trees in the vicinity actually was actually moving slightly from the even stronger shockwave , and an incoming arrow was pushed away before even coming close .

When Zac was standing he could better utilize his strength , and this time he wasn’t pushed away . Shock was evident in the demon’s eyes , and he tried to create some distance . But Zac wouldn’t let him so he pushed forward and he grabbed the leader’s legs , and they both fell over with a thump .

Zac wanted a repeat of his last kill , and swung down his axe . However , he was still a bit fuzzy from the shock , and in the heat of the moment accidentally next to the leader’s head .

Zac refocused and started another swing , but the leader was fighting back . He punched Zac straight in the face and tried to push him away . The fist had the force of a wrecking ball , and a loud thud echoed out .

Zac got even groggier , but his constitution was no joke so he could endure it . He also had been swinging an axe constantly the last month , and muscle memory helped him . The half-moon edge swooped down toward the demon with superhuman force . As he had been pushed away he couldn’t reach the head , and instead aimed for the heart .

Zac noticed a surge of cosmic energy entering the armor from the demon mid-swing , and the runes on the chest plate lit up . The wheels were already in motion , so Zac could only bear down and hope for the best .

Just as the edge was about to slam into the armor , a golden sheen enveloped the leader . The axe hit the barrier , and it felt like he had slammed axe into himself rather than his enemy . The armor had somehow redirected the force back toward himself , and he flew up in the air from the rebound .

He slammed down right next to the demon , arms and legs akimbo . The demon quickly whipped out a dagger and tried plunge it in Zac’s lungs just as he landed . He managed to barely edge away in time , but the dagger still drew a nasty gash along his ribs .

The demon kept stabbing down at Zac , trying to turn him into a sieve . The second stab hit straight into his arm making Zac scream out . He tried to push down the demon again and wrestle the knife out of his hands with his own free hand , but the demon’s strength was at least equal to his .

In a last desperate attempt , he could only pray his constitution wouldn’t fail him . He let go of the demon’s hand holding the dagger , and intercepted the hand that was holding back his axe .

The demon immediately plunged the dagger into his gut , once more unleashing the black lightning . The blazing pain once again erupted in Zac’s body , but by now he had somewhat acclimatized to the attack .

He ignored the spasms in his gut , and ripped away the demon’s hand and finally managed to swing his weapon down full force at the demon’s neck .

A loud bang was heard as the axe slammed into the ground , creating a large crack . A second , smaller impact was heard as the demon’s decapitated head fell down onto the ground a few meters away .

Another arrow whizzed down from a nearby tree toward his head . But Zac had expected this , and dodged the attack . The ranger had shot a steady stream of arrows at him during the melee , most at least grazing him . Luckily he had been in such close proximity to the demons during the fight that she had only dared aim at his extremities .

He finally saw where the arrows came from , and as all the other demons were dead he finally managed focus and locate the elusive ranger . He spotted here up in a tree not far away from the fights .

With a steely gaze that spoke of death he got on his feet and started running towards her .

Chapter 29 - Inscriptions

Zac was kneeling next to the body of the female ranger , panting with exhaustion .

The hunt luckily had ended quite quickly . She had immediately tried to run when Zac started approaching , jumping from one tree to another . Her speed up among the branches had actually been slightly higher compared to his own down on the ground .

She likely was a Dexterity based class . She even had the time to shoot a few arrows while fleeing . Zac was fully focused on keeping up , so could only manage to deflect the projectiles if they headed straight toward his head or chest . That was because he simply held his axe right in front of his throat , moving it slightly upwards or downwards to intercept the arrows .

Suddenly , as she had tried to jump to a branch on another tree , Zac had used a sneak attack with his last dagger . As she was mid-air he flung it with full force , punching a hole in her back .

She didn’t immediately die from the attack , but she did fall down from the tree tops . And before she managed to get back on her feet , Zac was upon her . He ended the fight with a swing without any words . He didn’t want another suicide bombing incident on his hands , after all .

It was lucky as well , because if that dagger didn’t hit , he’d likely have been forced to flee instead . He didn’t want to try throwing his axe , as it was his most important tool for survival on the island . Then the enemy would have a detailed description of him and his power .

He grabbed her bag and found some cloths he assumed were for bandages . After a quick sniff to make sure that it wasn’t actually doused in some chemical or the like he used it to bandage himself up . His whole body had holes punched in it , from everything between arrows and roots , and the bandage was only enough to treat the worst ones .

He was still bleeding , but it seemed that the wounds hadn’t hit any major arteries or organs . By now normal puncture wounds usually stopped bleeding by their own after a few hours . He could still tentatively put weight on the leg , but he wouldn’t run a marathon . His whole body felt like he had been used as a punching bag , mainly from the black lightning of the leader .

Unfortunately the ranger’s bow had snapped when she fell down from the tree , so he didn’t bother taking it with him as he planned to leave .

He did take the quiver and remaining arrows though , as they had survived the fall . He also skipped taking the armor , as his axe had destroyed the whole thing .

After dragging the body into some thick bushes , he turned back toward the location of the fight with the others . After slowly waking back for a bit he was there .

A barghest had found its way to the corpses from somewhere , but surprisingly it didn’t eat the corpses . Zac had seen those demons eat everything , including members of their own race before , so it was interested that this barghest only dared to sniff and growl anxiously at the corpses .

It reinforced Zac’s suspicion that these demons were not wild animals , rather beasts reared by the humanoids . They were a good tool to use as a meat shield to weaken and tire the enemy . Of course , they didn’t seem to work too well in the complicated terrain of the island . Zac edged to the beast and killed it with one strike as it was distracted by the bodies .

He didn’t bother with it anymore and walked over to the leader . He was most excited about the gear on him , and it was largely intact . The fractals had protected the demon from Zac’s strike on the chest , and the finishing blow had been on his head , which kept all the gear in good working order .

Zac , who was getting more and more adroit in undressing corpses , nimbly loosened the clasps and buckles , and dragged the chest plate from him . He also gingerly touched the great sword , afraid that he would get zapped again .

Fortunately there was no charge left it seemed , and he picked up . The sword was actually lighter than he expected . Of course , he was a bit unsure of his current strength , so making exact measurements was hard .

He carefully looked through the weapon for some hidden function . The leader clearly had been unarmed one second , and in the next holding this monstrosity . It must have come from somewhere .

Zac suspected the sword might be able to grow and shrink at command , and it simply was too small for him to notice before . Or the sword might be able to turn invisible .

After a quick rundown he couldn’t figure it out , and he did not want to delay too long here in case reinforcements arrived . He quickly stripped all remaining items from the leader , including a pouch , a few runed bracelets , and the large knife .

He put all of it inside a backpack , then proceeded to do the same with the other two fighters . He left their weapons and armors though , as he simply was overburdened as is . Just bringing back the sword would be arduous with his battered body .

Finally he dragged the bodies away and looked over the battlefield . A discerning eye would quickly notice that a battle took place here , but Zac couldn’t be too bothered anymore . This was the second scouting party he had killed , besides a herald and a throng of demons .

The humanoids would have to be crazy to not know that someone was hunting them by now . They had seen the trap used to kill the herald , so they knew it wasn’t a beast either .

He wasn’t too sure why they weren’t scouring the island for him . He guessed they either had limited resources or was preoccupied with something else . Who knew , maybe there actually was a city with humans hidden in the mountains that waged war on the demons .

He put the axe into his belt end hefted the great sword over his shoulder and turned back . He had been out for half the day , and either had to turn back soon or sleep in one of his hideouts .

He decided to head back , as the fight had given him some insights about the inscribed items that he wanted to try out in a safe environment .

Zac started heading back , heading a slightly altered path . Even if he was hurt it wasn’t to the point that he couldn’t hunt some demon dogs on the way back . The worst part was his leg , and luckily the demons always came running so he didn’t have to chase them .

He soon ran into one and with a swing of the great sword completely split the barghest in two . The sword continued with its momentum and slammed into a tree , cutting clean through it .

The power was great , but it felt too unwieldy for jungle warfare . More importantly , Zac noticed that killing the barghest with the sword didn’t improve his quest for axe mastery . On second thought he felt it made sense that the kills had to be made with an axe to complete an axe mastery quest .

As he continued on he had to continuously swap weapons every time he ran into a demon .

Finally he arrived at his camp as the suns were starting to set . After the customary sweep he entered the camp . He threw some lumber into the fire pit and lit a small fire , and got some more dried meat . He was starting to run low so he’d have to hunt something edible tomorrow as well .

His wounds had actually turned a lot better during his hike back , as he hadn’t sustained any new wounds from the lesser demons .

A quick glance at his status screen showed that he had gained roughly 10 000 Nexus coins in one day . It made sense , as he had more than doubled the speed of killing barghest with his upgrades . Furthermore , the demons seemed to give out roughly a thousand Nexus Coins each .

Zac was somewhat surprised to find out that he actually had gained nexus coins and cosmic energy from the demon that the leader accidentally killed . He had somewhat felt the rush of energy during the fight , but at the time had been preoccupied with getting zapped by demon lightning .

He also felt that he almost had gained half a level from the intense fights . Risking your life really was the most effective way of getting stronger with the system .

His Axe mastery had progressed as well , currently showing a (69/1000) progress . Most of the kills had been barghest while traveling , with a few of the more agile Gwyllgi peppered in every now and then . Zac felt that if he put his mind to it then he could kill roughly 100 lower demons a day , which would allow him to complete the quest in another 10 days .

He decided to put the 10 days as a deadline . He would also match the quest for Chop , so he’d chop a thousand times a day . Zac figured it’d take somewhere around two hours per day to get it done . He had no real idea as of yet what to do with the last skill , as it still showed 0/30 .

He turned his gaze toward the day’s pile of loot after being finished with his meal . He had gained a whole new set of gear and a sundry of miscellaneous items in the backpacks . At the battle site he hadn’t had time to properly go through everything so he planned to do so now .

The two underlings had had small leather bags that were attached to their belts on their back . In them were nothing of value . It held some gauze , flint , a whetstone , a small knife that seemed to not be for battle and a small water bottle . It felt like it was some basic ordinance .

Both the bottles had some very rudimentary inscriptions on them so Zac wondered if they had some special function . He poured the water out , but was surprised that the small bottle held far more water than it should .

It took almost two minutes for all the water to pour out . Zac was amazed that some inscriptions could do something magical like this . He felt no cosmic energy movements around the bottles , and it looked normal when he peered inside .

The magic bottle gave him a new idea about the sudden appearance of the giant sword . If a bottle could somehow store large amount of water , then it wasn’t impossible that the leader had some similar gear that could store items .

Chapter 30 - Experimentation

Zac eagerly filtered out all the gear that had belonged to the leader and started to go through them . His first guess was the inscribed bracelets as they were the only things except the sword and chest plate that had fractals engraved .

He looked over them multiple times , and tried pressing different parts of the bracelets , but nothing happened . He tried putting them on and focusing on them , but there still was no response . He could only helplessly put them aside for now , and continue to look through the other gear .

Zac picked up the pouch and opened it up . Strangely the insides were pitch black and he couldn’t see anything . His heartbeat sped up and he felt that he had found the jackpot .

He first took one of the small knives and plunged it halfway into the darkness , then pulled it out . There was no damage on it at all as far as Zac could tell . He planned to do the same with his finger , but as soon as he barely put it into the darkness he felt a burning sting .

His fingertip had been singed clean off , and blood dripped down over the pouch . Maybe flesh couldn’t enter he surmised . So he tried the same with a piece of dried meat , but this time it reacted like the knife .

Maybe it’s live things…’ Zac thought . He had no critter to try this theory out though , so it would have to wait .

The next task was how to activate the pouch . He had noticed some hints when he had fought earlier . When he had slammed his axe into the chest of the leader , he had felt that cosmic energy had entered the armor from the demon .

Zac had always only circulated the energy internally , and wasn’t sure how he’d push it outside . He tried circulating some energy into his fingers , then tried to push it out from the tip . The only result was that the concentration of energy got too high at the fingertips , and they started rupturing .

He tried many different things for a few hours until he finally gave up . Zac guessed that there was an inherent problem with how he handled the energy . He had followed an image of a circulatory system of his blood when he had started bending cosmic energy to his will . Of course he hadn’t imagined it to have outlets where it could flow out .

He started mulling over how to improve his system . He tried imagining a hole at his palm where he could let cosmic energy flow out .

But as he changed his energy circulation a blazing pain erupted in his hand and it looked that a bloody stigmata had appeared where he had imagined his exit .

A cold sheen of perspiration appeared on Zac’s forehead from the pain and he had a sinking feeling . Just a small change like this and the pain had been this bad . If he wanted to improve the system on his whole body , how bad would it hurt?

He knew that the circulatory system he had devised in no way was an optimal method of using cosmic energy , it was just something he had whipped together . He had planned on getting some skill or method for it later when he had the opportunity . But he hadn’t imagined that the pain would be this bad .

He was even more dismayed when he noticed that the hole he had created in his hand was continuously leaking cosmic energy and draining him of power .

Zac could only reluctantly change his circulation pattern back , bringing forth another wave of torment .

He sat for a full thirty minutes feeling lost at what to do . He was afraid that he had somehow crippled his future prospects . The more he thought about it the more he felt that it was extremely important to be able to project energy . The skills the demons had used all had projected energy in different ways . The mysterious mist , the black arcs of lightning and the root control . They all relied on manipulating cosmic energy outside of the body .

If he was stuck with this defective system where all the energy was stuck inside his body , would he even be able to use the skills he got in the future?

He needed to find a way to rectify this , even if he had to take the torture of rewriting his pathing . However , the hole he had made didn’t work , and even if it did he was hesitant to use that method anymore . He didn’t want to haphazardly get himself deeper and deeper in the hole by making a crappy patch-work circulation method .

He went over to the Nexus Node once more to scour through the skills , in case one of them actually was a circulation skill or something similar . Of course , he subconsciously knew that wasn’t the case , he had looked those skills over many times by now , and knew there were no such thing there .

The skills available generally could be categorized into offensive , defensive , movement and support as far as he could tell . The Eye of Discernment] would fall into the support skill .

But as he moved his hand away from the crystal he suddenly froze , struck with a realization . All things connected to the system had one thing in common ; the fractals . He still had no idea how to make sense of them , but they were present on the array flags , the weapons , and even the skills used them .

And it just so happened , he knew a pattern that was the exact size of his body . It was the fractal pattern that he had seen when he chose his class . Many details of it was muddled at the time , but the parts he could make out made a full circuit .

When he got the idea he couldn’t let it go . The more he thought it over , the more it made sense . He could still remember the pattern clearly , and it flowed through every part of his body . It was a far more complicated system compared to the one he had devised himself , but he saw no reason that it wouldn’t work .

As for the parts that were hazy and blurred , they might show themselves at a later point when he leveled up or completed quests . At which point Zac could use the new information to improve on the existing pattern .

The only problem was the massive undertaking to change the circulation . Just adding and removing a small hole in his hand had felt like putting the palm in an imp’s fire . He wasn’t even sure he’d survive such an undertaking .

But at the same time he didn’t dare wait . When he first devised the energy circulation he made some small revisions quickly after . At that time he hadn’t felt any pain whatsoever , and assumed that the circulation pattern was just a mental aid for using cosmic energy .

Zac was afraid that it might mean that the pattern gets harder and harder to change , as though it was fusing with his very being . It was still possible for him to change it , but judging from the pain it might be impossible soon .

Zac was no stranger to pain by now , and wasted no time . Ideally he would have wanted to wait until all his wounds were healed , but he had a sense of urgency . He started with his left hand to try if it even was viable to reform the patterns .

A blazing pain far worse than when he opened the hole engulfed his hand . It felt like his whole arm was dipped in burning acid . His whole body was covered in sweat in just seconds , and his eyes were completely bloodshot . Still he pushed through , and kept imagining his crude system in his hand slowly transforming into the fractal he was given by the Hatchetman class .

After what felt like an eternity the transformation was done . His hand was a mess , almost looking as if it had been pushed down into a blender . But where there once was a simple pathway for cosmic energy , now was a sophisticated pattern that had substituted it .

Zac tried moving his fingers , and while it hurt it seemed there was no permanent damage . He then tried to circulate cosmic energy through his arm and into his rewritten pathways .

It was a weird feeling . He had thought his circulation had been smooth all this while . But after pushing the energy into his hand it felt like the energy came from cramped pipes in his arms into the open ocean in his hand . The level of smoothness of handling the energy was incomparable .

Zac knew he had guessed correctly by now . The class change had provided him with a complete pattern to utilize his cosmic energy . It would likely tie in with his skills as well he reckoned .

He also knew what that meant , and with a shudder started converting the rest of his body .

Chapter 31 - Infusion

The suns were starting to rise over the small campsite .

Zac sat naked , except a pair of ragged underpants , in a cross-legged position by the now died out fire . The ground all around him was red with his blood . There was not one spot on Zac’s body that wasn’t damaged and bloody .

He had relentlessly continued to improve his circulation pattern the whole night , and he was almost completed by now . It had felt like he had been thrown into hell and had been tortured for an eternity . He had wanted to stop so many times , but had summoned a willpower he didn’t know he had to keep going .

Of course , that didn’t mean that he had stoically endured the pain like some battle-hardened warrior . Luckily there had been no one around to see him scream himself hoarse , roll around on the ground and cry until snot ran down his face .

Right now only the part around his brain remained to be changed . In the class pattern it was a dense web of fractals that covered his whole head .

Zac hadn’t stopped due to changing his mind , but the pain in his head had made him pass out for a few minutes after he tried it the first time . He was currently steadying himself for another try .

He shakily got up and snatched all the remaining dried meat he had left over . He felt severely drained , and needed some energy before trying again . He also filled his water bottle from his array and poured it over himself to clean away some of the blood . The sting of cold water over his countless cuts jolted him properly awake .

Finally he sat down again to complete the fractal . He was afraid if he didn’t complete it now he wouldn’t dare to sit down and do it in the future . The pain was to the point of creating a mental scar , and he needed to do it immediately to get it done .

He started changing the pattern a small bit at a time , afraid that he’d pass out again if he improved too large a chunk in one go . Still , the pain was barely within the realm he could tolerate . It felt like a spike was stabbed through is eye right into his head , and then started grinding around in there for good measure .

Zac arduously pressed on , tears flowing like a waterfall . Finally after an hour the last piece was changed , and the fractal was whole and connected . Zac suddenly puked out a mouthful of blood , but immediately after felt very refreshed .

He still had an acute bloodloss and was hurting all over , but his body still felt lighter and better . He tried circulating some cosmic energy and was chocked at the improvement . To compare it with before it felt like previously he had breathed and blinked manually when pushing cosmic energy through his body , and now it was an automatic and natural process .

It was if the energy knew what he wanted to do , and followed his will automatically . It also seemed that he absorbed energy from the surroundings faster , and not by a small margin . It wouldn’t help with his level , but it would help him to heal and restore his energy reserves faster .

Finally done with the fractal he closed eyes and had a dreamless sleep .

Zac woke up again roughly three hours later . While he felt drained and still hurting , he didn’t bleed anymore . With his improved stats he only needed to sleep a few hours a day to feel rested , and he had no problems skipping sleep entirely for a night or two . The combination of high endurance and vitality showed its value once again .

He had initially planned on scouting out the actual incursion today , but decided against it . He wanted to be in optimal condition for whatever waited for him at the end of the rainbow . He needed to find something to eat as well , and it felt safer to grind out some lower beasts while he was incapacitated .

His wounds from yesterday’s battle had also improved significantly , with only the leg still smarting .

There was one thing he had to do before setting out though . An important reason why he had tortured himself during the night was the inscribed gear .

Zac was relieved to notice that he could project energy easily now from his upgrade . He couldn’t actually see the cosmic energy with his eyes , but he could sense it . It was a weird feeling , it was as though he had gotten a new sense since starting using cosmic energy , and with his upgraded pathways the sense only seemed stronger . The cosmic energy was floating like an invisible mist above his hand that projected it , not showing any signs of dissipating .

His first goal was to check the pouch , as it contained the most mystery for him . He picked up the small pouch and carefully infused some energy into it . He was shocked to notice that the pouch actually suddenly absorbed all the dried blood on his hand .

He didn’t have time to think it over though , as he suddenly saw a large space in his mind . The space was roughly 3 by 3 meters , and was filled with an assortment of items .

There was another sword inside , also with inscriptions . But this one had a far more normal size compared to its monstrous brother . There were some random tools , a water bottle and a flagon made in silver in one corner . The flagon seemed to have similar fractals as the water bottle , albeit a bit more intricate .

There was also a large reserve of luxurious dishes and fruits in another corner .

More surprisingly there was an actual table , a parasol , a rug , and two ornate chair in the space . Zac dumbly stared at the furniture , not knowing how to react . Was the demon invading another world , or was he out on a picnic?

He didn’t dare take any of the food , as he had no idea whether the food demons ate was edible for humans . While it looked perfectly normal , who knew if they used cyanide as a spice?

The final items in the corner were a few books and a small pile of crystals . Each crystal was uniform in shape and roughly the size of his palm . He couldn’t understand the language in the books at all , and could only put them aside for now .

The crystals were more interesting , and he tried mentally extract it from the pouch . Suddenly the crystal appeared next to the pouch . Zac grabbed it in the air and started to examine it . It wasn’t translucent , but rather a milky white , and cool to the touch . It seemed to emit a faint white light as well .

More interestingly , Zac could feel that the small stone was packed with cosmic energy . It was as if his senses were telling him that he wasn’t holding a small shiny crystal , but a shining sun of energy .

He remembered that his quests had something called Nexus Crystals as a reward for completing , and guessed he was holding one right now . More impressively he had roughly 100 of them in his pouch .

Of course , Zac knew that there was a distinct possibility that this was an F-Grade Nexus Crystal , rather than an E-Grade crystal like the ones that the quests rewarded . It would be odd if he got 100 crystals from just one enemy , if he only got 10 for conquering a whole incursion by himself .

He tried absorbing some energy from the crystal , and a pure stream of energy quickly entered his body and energized him . His slightly depleted body was quickly energized , and he was happy to notice that the absorption continued even after his body was - satiated - . That meant that absorbing the crystals would work toward gaining levels , and not only be a tool for recuperating after a draining battle .

Zac sat and absorbed the crystal for roughly 30 minutes before he stopped . After scrutinizing the crystal it seemed that he had absorber roughly a quarter of the stored energy . So completely absorbing it would take roughly two hours . Furthermore , absorbing just one crystal seemed equivalent of killing roughly 10 barghests and absorbing their energy .

That meant if he only sat down and used these stones to cultivate it would actually be more effective compared to running all over the island killing demon dogs with all his might .

Of course , he wouldn’t get any Nexus Coins , but still .

These crystals would be a huge asset for him . There were always time he couldn’t be killing beasts . Like when cooking , chopping wood and even moving between the demons while out hunting . If he could keep absorbing these crystals during all this down-time he could double his leveling speed .

Next he walked over to the great sword and tried infusing it with cosmic power as well . However , it was as though the energy was blocked when trying to enter , which stumped Zac . After a brief hesitation he cut his finger and dripped a few drops of blood on the runes before trying again . He had remembered the pouch absorbing his blood , and could only try the same method again .

This time he felt no resistance , as the blood was absorbed into the sword . Information once again entered his mind , this time the usage of the sword . It seemed that the sword could increase and decrease its weight , albeit the effect was quite limited . That might have explained why he slammed into the ground so helplessly in the first clash between him and the leader , he might have maximized the weight for the overhead swing .

Next he did the same procedure on his axe . Infusing it with energy had no earth-shattering effect . It had a weak auto-repair and sharpen feature . As long as he infused some cosmic energy into it , it would gradually fix nicks in the edge and re-sharpen .

It didn’t improve the lethality , but it was convenient for him who didn’t have proper facilities for weapons maintenance .

He finally turned to his last inscribed gear , and with the same procedure tried to activate the bracers he had nabbed from the leader . To his surprise , nothing happened when he tried activating them .

Chapter 32 - Vanity

Zac tried everything he could think of to activate the bracers , and by the end they were completely drenched in his blood . Still , there simply was no response from the items . They might just as well have been normal iron hoops .

Struck with realization Zac had an odd expression as he turned his eyes toward the almost comically large sword . Then he summoned the furniture out of the pouch . They had an elaborate ostentatious design , and the two chairs almost felt like thrones .

The bracers were fake . That was the most likely answer he could come up with . The demon had wanted to look impressive , bringing luxurious furniture and foods , a heroic great sword and a dashing breast plate . Perhaps he had wanted to give an even more extravagant impression , so he equipped himself with these fake bracers .

The female archer was a beauty…’ Zac reflected wryly . Had this demon tried to turn the scouting mission into a courtship outing?

That would explain why he never used the bracers during the battle , even when they were in a bloody dogfight .

It seemed crazy to Zac that the demon would be so indifferent to the dangers of invading an unknown world , but he also knew he himself was an anomaly . He both had the highest level in the world and a bunch of titles , making him extremely strong for only one month having passed since the integration into the multi-verse .

Had a normal human , or even a group of humans , met the demon they’d likely have been easily butchered . The demon leader hadn’t expected that his life was in jeopardy on this seemingly deserted island .

Zac didn’t expect that the demons would underestimate him for long though . Killing Vul could be explained with him tricking it into killing itself on the poles . But now 7 demons had died in a short while , a few of which were pretty strong .

He left the furniture where it was , as they were pretty good-looking after all . He also needed to free up some space in his new pouch in any case .

As half the day had already passed , he hurriedly set out . He was mostly decked in the demon leader’s gear now , not including the great sword of course .

He was starting to get quite hungry , and needed to find some prey . Luckily for him it seemed that the thick energy in the atmosphere was great for the animal population .

The native animals grew much faster , and bigger , compared to before . From what he had seen in his hunts some were already stronger than the barghest , and used them as prey . Most didn’t seem to be quite there yet though .

It was a bit troubling though for the world in general . The animals seemed to grow strong faster than humans did . Either they were more suited for absorbing cosmic energy , or the System helped them somehow .

Not long ago he killed a human-sized rabbit . Would he have to fight a train-sized snake in the future?

He soon found a small critter while walking , and tried throwing it into his pouch after catching it . He was surprised to see that it didn’t work , nothing happened as he tried to put the struggling squirrel inside .

Zac could only surmise that putting living beings inside didn’t work . He was a bit confused why the critter didn’t get zapped like the tip of his finger , but it didn’t feel like an important distinction .

There was no need to kill the critter , as the demon had stored both beverage and food inside the pouch with no problems .

When he was a good distance away from the camp he found a hole created from a fallen tree . He threw in all the food and drink the demon had stored , and also the two bracers . He was pretty sure they were fake , but he didn’t want to keep them in the camp on the off-chance their function was tracking their location . Like a revenge-killing tool .

He wasn’t worried about running out of food on the island , as it was teeming with wildlife , and many trees were bearing fruit as well . He filled the pit quickly after throwing it all in , and with his strength he was as efficient as an excavator .

With the unnecessary things in the pouch thrown away , he continued on his journey . He was still hurting from both the fight and the conversion , so he simply killed barghest at the outskirts of the island .

He also managed to find a supersized boar that would last him a good while , even with his enhanced appetite . He was surprised to see that the animal actually gave some nexus coins and experience now . However , he only gained a miniscule amount of energy , and only 21 Nexus coins .

It also gave progress on his Axe Mastery class . It seemed that something had changed lately with the beasts . The boar was quite a bit stronger than a normal human , but it wasn’t quite at the level of a barghest . It also didn’t seem too much stronger compared to the snake he had killed a month ago , yet the snake had given no currency for the kill . Neither had any other animal he had killed for leather or food .

Perhaps something had changed with the passage of the first month for the animal kingdom , just as it had with the incursion . Zac didn’t mind , as it only meant that there were more targets to practice on now .

It was a marvelous feeling fighting with his new and improved circulation pathways . Being able to use magic items and project cosmic energy wasn’t the only benefit . His powers hadn’t really increased , as there still was the limit of how much cosmic energy his muscles could take in . But the energy flowed far more smoothly through his body , making it effortless to switch between attack , defense and movement seamlessly .

He also seemed to use up less energy while fighting , as somehow the new pathways were more efficient . He wasn’t too surprised from that , as he had surmised that his usage before had been inefficient since the start . He had noticed how much energy was wasted pushing it into his muscles , compared to using his skill Eye of Discernment] .

Higher efficiency meant he’d fare better in a protracted battle . Maybe he wouldn’t have been so haggard after killing Vul if he had this level of endurance .

He kept killing demons and animals for the rest of the day , only returning to camp when the suns had practically set . His pouch was full of various large beasts he had killed . He thought he might as well stock up on dried meat in case something happened .

He also wanted to try just leaving some slabs of meat in the pouch , just to see how well they kept .

The fruits that the demon had kept in the pouch before were things he had never seen before , meaning it should have brought them from his home planet . They still looked pristine as though they were just plucked , so Zac hoped that the pouch would also work like a portable freezer .

That would come in handy in case of the weather changing . The weather had been great since the world changed , with only a smattering of clouds in the sky every now and then .

It seemed the trees didn’t suffer from the lack of rain . On the contrary , the forest had kept growing and mutating at an astonishing rate . Zac assumed it had to do with the cosmic energy in the atmosphere . It might work as a substitute for both sunshine and water for all he knew .

The island felt tropical by now , like the island was a primordial forgotten vestige at the edge of the world , where dinosaurs and other prehistorical beasts could be found .

That meant that there might come a tropical rain season . Zac really didn’t hope that was the case , seeing as everything got bigger and more extreme since the integration into the multi-verse . What would a torrential downpour powered by cosmic energy look like?

It took the better part of the night to skin and clean the beasts . He simply threw the skins on top of the car , not really bothered whether they dried properly or not . He didn’t really have any use for skins anymore , as the pouch and better armors kept him covered .

He was somewhat disappointed to see that he was unable to absorb cosmic energy from a Nexus Stones while doing other tasks . He first tried putting it in a pocket while he was cleaning a carcass , but he couldn’t sense the stone when he did .

Having it in one of his hands was too unwieldy , and slowed down his progress on the meat considerably . Finally , he stuffed the crystal in his mouth , hoping the contact to his body would make it possible to absorb the energy without occupying a hand .

The only result from that was that he almost choked himself to death on the energy rock . After a few more experiments he could conclude that he only could absorb cosmic energy from one crystal at the time and that he had to completely focus on the absorption for it to work . As soon as he tried to multi-task while absorbing a crystal the absorption simply would stop .

Disappointed , he could only put aside the crystal and keep it for a later date . He was planning on saving some of them in any case , as he wanted to give them to his father and sister when they met again . They were nifty , but only of limited use for him . But for people of lower levels , they’d be a great tool .

If they could be used to help his family protect themselves better it was worth saving , even if it meant slowing down his own leveling speed slightly .

Chapter 33 - Infection

Zac awoke at the dawn of light , and after preparing an assortment of tools in his pouch he set out . Today he would properly gather intelligence . His wounds were largely better now , just a bit red and sore .

He made a beeline for the incursion this time , heading straight toward the center of the island . Large parts would be uncharted territory for him here , as he had stayed somewhat at the outer edge since the start .

He had a theory that there should be a fourth kind of beast somewhere on the island that he still hadn’t seen .

There were four heralds , and at least one herald was a pack leader of its race , the barghest . But he had only encountered imps and the Gwyllgi apart from the hunkering demonlings .

There should be a fourth type of beast as well somewhere based on this , and Zac guessed that they either were located around the incursion or had moved their territory into the mountain .

Zac kept a rapid pace , moving at a speed that could be considered a sprint for a normal human . Still he made no sound as he passed through the forest , instinctively knowing where to put his feet to soundlessly proceed .

During his travels he noticed that his third class skill , Forester’s Constitution , had finally had its first progression either during last evening or this morning , now showing 1/30 . The problem was that he wasn’t quite sure what he did to progress it . The system gave no ping or notification when his quests progressed , leaving him with no information on when it happened .

A log of his actions would have been very convenient , as then he wouldn’t have to estimate his nexus coin gain from monsters or how much energy they gave all the time .

After he had moved for roughly 10 hours he finally slowed down . He was far closer to the incursion now than he had ever been before . This close he started to notice some jarring changes . For lack of a better word , the forest was infected . The red light of the incursion suffused all the surroundings , and the trees looked different , almost sickly .

Some had weird growths on them , others seemed to completely have lost all their leaves even though the summer was in full swing . The grass on the forest floor was turning a purplish color . There were also many young sprouts of a pitch black tree Zac had never seen before , which seemed to thrive in this odd environment . The very air seemed to be different as well , having an almost astringent taste . It didn’t seem to be a problem for Zac luckily , apart from feeling uncomfortable .

It seemed like the red pillar was slowly transforming its surroundings , likely to better suit the invaders . This made Zac even more anxious to complete his quest , as he didn’t know if this effect was reversible , and whether it would spread outwards . He didn’t want to create his town on a desolate island that smelled a bit like farts .

He also was astonished at the amount of beasts he saw . It seemed that all the demons preferred to stay in this environment , and the forest was packed with monsters . He shuddered at the thought of this horde of beasts being unleashed upon a human city . Luckily they were stranded here on this island .

It also made him realize that it might not have been more beasts spawning during his month of grinding , it was enough that a few strays would leave the central area of the island for the edge of the island to be refilled .

What would’ve looked like hell for many , Zac saw as a treasure trove . He almost drooled at the prospect of grinding here , but he had a mission today . Most human cultivators would likely have trouble killing one barghest since they had their upgrade , but Zac had no trouble facing multiple at a time by now . He might get a few bites and scratches if there were too many of them , but that wouldn’t be anything new for him .

Those plans could only wait though . He needed to gauge the magnitude of the invasion to make a proper plan . There was a lot to do in the coming month . Of course , he wouldn’t hide from the beasts either , so everything that entered his path was met with a swift swing of his axe .

By now he was only a couple of kilometers away from the Incursion , so he started to slow down and focus fully on stealth . He did not want to enter combat again this close to the enemy base , who knew what kind of forces that they had .

The incursion was in a valley which stretched toward the mountain , and Zac gingerly moved toward the edge to see what was happening inside .

As he almost was at the crest he saw a solitary demon sitting next to a tree , currently napping . Zac was again shocked at their bad discipline , and it felt like the whole invasion was handled by a group of undisciplined children rather than an army . If he thought that the horde of barghest around the valley would be enough protection and give prior warning of an attack , then he was sorely mistaken .

After slowly looking at the vicinity to ensure there were no more scouts around he approached the demon soundlessly . He didn’t bother to identify him , afraid he would sense the scrying . When he was 10 meters away he switched gears to a sprint , brandishing his axe .

The demon woke in the last moment , and made a terrified expression . He didn’t have any time to activate any defenses or shout for help though , as the axe descended and cleanly decapitated him .

Zac quickly grabbed the head and put it on top of the body again , before hiding again . He had already scrubbed his face with some dirt , giving him a greyish complexion similar to the demons . With his gear already of demonic design he should probably pass as a demon from a cursory glance from a long distance . Of course if anyone took a second glance he’d be found out instantly , so he didn’t want to try it out .

He stayed next to the corpse and wormed closer to the edge . This part of the valley ended with a steep cliff , meaning that Zac would have to scale down 20 meters if he wanted to enter . But it also meant that he got a good view of the whole vale .

If the other parts of the wood had started to shift into a demon forest , then the valley looked like it was imported from another world . It was as though even the sky was different up above , feeling washed out and grey .

There should have been a great deal of vegetation just like the rest of the island , but it was sparse and looking sickly . There also was evidence of a large amount of felling , as he saw hundreds of cut off stumps . The combination made the valley look completely desolate . The ground was partly covered with smatterings of purplish black grass , but most was just black stone .

The demons clearly needed lumber for something . But for what Zac couldn’t tell so far . His eyes kept going over the valley , until finally looking over to the huge red pillar .

Zac could finally see the terminus of the incursion for the first time since he had arrived . It was a huge crystal that reminded Zac of his Nexus Node at his base . However , this crystal was red , and at least 3 meters tall .

The very air around it pulsated from the power the crystal emitted , and Zac could feel the huge energy that it released all the way from his hiding place . It continuously shot out the light that formed the large pillar that had been a constant part of his life the last month . The glow was so strong that he couldn’t see anything what was happening behind it .

Next to the pillar was a building and Zac could see a few demons milling about .

Zac planted himself within a bush , and while gnawing on some meat he had brought in his pouch he started waiting . After waiting for a full 3 hours he felt confident that there likely were limitations to the invasion .

He had not seen a single being appear from the crystal , nor disappear into it . Either they only came at certain times per day , or they couldn’t go back and forth between the island and their home world . The demons at the small building seemed to be guards left there just to make sure nothing happened to the crystal .

They were mostly milling about or even taking naps in the shade of the house .

Of course , Zac would have to stay for a good while longer if he wanted to confirm that the gate was closed , and he didn’t have time for that . However it made sense that they could only enter at certain intervals , from how the demons had appeared on the island .

The first wave assault had been the demonic beasts , and they arrived as soon as the world was integrated . The second wave was the humanoids who arrived after a month had passed . At the same time some limitations lessened on the beasts , making them stronger .

If the crystal only opened once a month , it would explain why Abby the eye had told him to finish the quest either within one month or within two . It stood to reason that the difficulty would take another noticeable leap within a month .

Zac was not sure if he would be able to handle that , as he was not powering up as quickly anymore as before . He had already gotten his class now , and gaining levels took more time now compared to earlier . The increase in strength he could gain within 30 days would likely be smaller compared to the one before , meaning that he really should try to end this invasion sooner rather than later .

As nothing really happened on this side of the valley , he decided to keep venturing further in . He moved along the edge of the valley in a roundabout manner toward the mountain .

The incursion and valley was located between the middle and the north of the island , while the mountain took up almost all of the northern quadrant . So Zac soon had travelled across the whole island , starting from his campsite in the far south .

Daylight was starting to wane , but Zac had already prepared himself to sleep outside today . While he was advancing he was keeping a lookout for possible temporary places to spend a night unnoticed . He had found some potential spots , but hadn’t bothered to prepare them yet .

During his travels he had killed four more demons . They were quite sparsely placed , making Zac more and more convinced that they were not too concerned about invasion in the immediate vicinity .

Soon he had walked along half the valley , and he could now see what was hidden earlier behind the red glow .

There actually was a town down there .

On a second look a town would be a slight misnomer . The buildings were quite large and rectangular , reminding Zac rather of barracks than civilian domiciles . He noticed that the missing trees had been processed into houses and fortifications . There were a few structures that seemed more refined , maybe for the officers and generals of the army . Those buildings did use both stone and lumber in its construction , and had a quite elegant atmosphere .

The whole settlement was surrounded by a wall that was a few meters tall and at least thick enough to have watch towers and a large amount of guards patrolling . Zac couldn’t fathom how they set up such a large wall in only a few days . He could only explain it with magic , as even hundreds of individuals with Zac’s strength would have to work for months of gathering stones and setting up the wall .

Finally , in the middle of the town a grand structure was being erected at a speed visible even from his great distance .

Chapter 34 - Conspiracies

Ogras Arh’Rezak was already starting to tire of this whole enterprise . The humidity of this baby world was far higher compared to what he was used to , and the two blaring suns forced him to keep squinting through the day . The terraforming was helping , but it would still take a long time until the climate got to the point that was comfortable .

He somewhat regretted exhorting his ancestor to let him lead this invasion . With his status in the clan , he still would have been entitled to any good items they could seize on this world , even if he stayed at home .

But he knew this invasion was his opportunity if he wanted to stay alive . If he could find enough goodies for either himself or the clan he’d be safe until he was strong enough to protect himself .

But who would have thought that The Ruthless Heavens placed them on a godforsaken island? It had rendered his tactic of unleashing his packs through the portal seem like a joke . There had already been voices of disagreement in the clan to such a cowardly tactic , but Ogras had only sneered at their snide remarks .

While most baby worlds were disorganized and paralyzed from the huge changes , some were quite dangerous . There were many anecdotes of new planets resisting and even sometimes completely massacring all the different invaders .

Of course , it was usually the forces behind the other incursions on the planet that were the real enemies , rather than the weak natives .

In any case , he wasn’t about to stick his neck through a portal before increasing his odds of survival , even if it was considered cowardly .

His seven elder brothers had been heroic warriors , always charging into the fray , leading any charge in skirmishes . And now they were all food for the maggots . Some were killed by their enemies , and some died from machinations of their own clan members .

The path to power was ruthless , and even among kin benefits preceded loyalty . There had been a large amount of dissatisfaction towards his branch of the clan for a long time . His great grandfather was originally a normal soldier who managed to rise to his great power through a few lucky encounters .

His prowess had allowed his progeny to enjoy great benefits and resources , even matching that of the main branch’s youth . Ogras suspected that was why his siblings kept dropping dead one after another . He had voiced such concerns to his ancestor , but being a warrior for the clan his whole life his thought patterns had become rigid . He had bled and fought for the clan for over a thousand years , and couldn’t imagine that they would backstab him and his kin like that .

That’s why only the two of them were left , not counting his great aunt who disappeared to become a wandering warrior two hundred years ago . That was also why he kept this ridiculous persona going , pretending to have become a pampered wastrel not interested in cultivation . The fewer of his clan members believed that he was a threat , the lower was the chance that he’d wake up with his throat slit .

That’s why he walked around in his gaudy outfits and surrounded himself with useless sycophants . It was another type of armor . And if he could further his ambitions while it looked like he was just being spiteful and stupid , then all the better .

He had almost laughed out loud when the news of the death of Kevoran arrived at his desk . That little prick from the main branch was one of his largest contenders for any potential goodies that would be found on this planet .

While Kevoran was afraid of his ancestor , only the youths and unevolved were able to go through the portal . So his attitude had progressively gotten worse with each day since they arrived . Ogras had used a snide remark as a basis for ordering him to go with a scout’s squad to canvas the whole island , in order to solidify his position while Kevoran was gone .

Who knew the idiot actually would get himself killed? It was a bit of a shame with Kaela dying as well , as her scouting abilities were top notch among the youths in the clan . But the death of Kevoran more than made up for it . Ogras could kiss the assailant on the mouth if he found him . Just before decapitating him , of course .

Ogras wasn’t overly concerned about the little rats that were hiding on this or some neighboring island . He estimated the number of enemies to be somewhere between 10 to 20 , judging from the number of beasts killed . They certainly had to be some elites on this world to be able to kill even his imps and two scouting parties this soon after their world changed , but it didn’t matter .

He was well aware of the rules by which The Ruthless Heavens worked . As long as he stayed safe in his palace , then his mission would be a success in roughly two months . The portal would stabilize , and the area would be within his jurisdiction .

The native’s group would have to infiltrate his army base , kill their way through the army , and then kill him in order for their quest to succeed . No matter how strong they were they still were only weak natives , and such an assault was suicide .

If they had actually been truly strong they wouldn’t have been forced to use trickery to kill his poor Vul . They would simply have slaughtered all his four pack leaders and stopped the invasion before it even started .

Therefore he would simply stay in the base . Even if everyone thought he was a coward he didn’t care . He had already planned everything out . He didn’t plan on staying for too long in this world .

Initially , he had planned to stay here for a long time , protected from his clan by the limitations of the gate . It was an advantage for him that he could finally cultivate in peace here without anyone finding out , as the suppression would keep his real prowess hidden in any case .

But something had changed this . The mountain contained treasure .

More exact , it contained a Nexus Crystal mine . Even Ogras had been shocked when he heard the news . Of course , it was only a small F-Grade mine , but still , the wealth it contained was staggering . It could at least rival the whole accumulated fortune of some of the elders in the Clan .

With that kind of wealth he could obtain a Fruit of Ascension . It would save him decades on his cultivation time and would leave his competitors among his generation in the dust . Normally , for a clan of their limited power , using such a luxurious treasure on an F-grade cultivator would be considered far too extravagant . But for him it was a matter of life and death .

The supreme elders and clan leader usually turned a blind eye to killings within the clan as they believed it created stronger and more ruthless members among those who survived .

But if someone showed enough promise they would protect their seedlings from the shadows , as they were potential future powerhouses that could bring their clan to greater heights .

And if he just so happened to pilfer enough crystals for him to cultivate in solitude for a decade or so he could come back one advancement , maybe even two , stronger . Then he’d be the hunter instead of the hunted .

Ogras was giddy as he looked over the report containing yesterday’s haul from the mine . Hesitated a bit and then with a swipe removed a few lines of the report , and added back a new tally . This time the extracted amount of crystals printed were 1000 lower compared to before .

Unfortunately , he wasn’t the only one who had this kind of idea . There had been quite a few children with good heritage that had come with him into the incursion . Everyone was hoping to find the lucky break which would allow them to stand out among the masses .

It was tacitly approved by the elders that the young elite would have a feeding frenzy when they arrived at the new world , as some healthy competition was good for strengthening . As long as enough benefits were lugged back they did not really care that some didn’t make it all the way .

As Ogras was pondering about his next steps the door to his temporary study opened , and a man decked in an extravagant armor entered .

This time Ogras was angered for real , as such conduct was a blatant disregard for his authority . Still , he wouldn’t break character for something minor like this .

Insolence! How dare you enter my chambers like his! I will have my grandfather flog you when we return! - Ogras roared as soon as the man was inside the door .

My apologies - the man answered with a face that spoke of no regret . - I wonder what steps you have taken to capture those responsible for my cousin’s death . -

The man in front of him was Rydel Arh’Rezak , one of the heirs to the main branch just like the departed Kevoran . Different from him though , Rydel was one of the most heavily nurtured youths in the clan , and also one they had spent the most Nexus Crystals to allow to retain as much power as possible when going through the incursion .

The more power you retained in an invasion to a baby world , the better your survival rate would be , and the better your position would be when contending for resources on this new world . But The Ruthless Heavens never just gave anything for free . It charged an exorbitant amount of Nexus Crystals if one wanted to keep more of their strength when passing through . And of course there was a limit , or the purpose of the incursions would be lost .

Clan Arh’Rezak wasn’t overly wealthy , and could only pay up to a point for each daemon going through . Any more and the risk of the invasion turning unprofitable would be too big . The rest would have to come out of their own pockets .

Most of the soldiers couldn’t afford it or only got a few levels extra , but the scions of their clan of course got some special benefits under the table . Either from their elders or even from the clan itself .

Maybe not even Ogras himself was a match for Rydel , though he had a few hidden aces in case they ever came to blows . And it might actually come to that , as Ogras had a strong suspicion that Rydel had been sent through the portal to both keep an eye on things , and if possible , neutralize him . That would eliminate any threat of a branch family becoming too strong in the clan .

The crystal mine isn’t going anywhere , and it would seem a waste to attach such large manpower to quickly excavate it . Also , a large portion of our mages are occupied building your… Palace . In my opinion , it would be more pertinent to… -

It doesn’t matter what your opinion is , Rydel . The clan decided I was the most suited for this task , so my orders are what goes . Now leave my study , and remember your manners in the future or there will be repercussions! - Ogras practically screamed , looking very much the part of a fool enjoying his new found power .

Rydel only sneered and performed a barely acceptable salute , and left the study without another word .

Left silently brooding behind his desk , Ogras prayed that the natives and Rydel would find and kill each other , solving all his problems at once .

Chapter 35 - The Fourth Beast

Zac sat perched on a branch in a large tree eating an apple he had foraged earlier . The tree was one of the few in the vicinity that still stood tall and unaffected by the corrosive effect of the incursion , and its dense branches provided natural insulation from prying eyes . He had chosen this tree to be his temporary shelter to spend the night yesterday .

He had spent two nights close to the incursion now , trying to gain as much information as possible . Yesterday he had kept scouting around the demon city and up toward the mountain .

He had made some interesting discoveries . First of all , he had realized how the third skill quest progressed . It was based on time . It seemed that he had to be out in the forests fighting roughly 18 hours for the quest to progress by 1 point . That meant that he had to spend most of his time awake fighting every day . He didn’t mind though , as he was planning on doing that anyway .

But it also meant that it would be an extremely close shave to actually manage to complete it before the 2-month deadline . He had already decided he didn’t dare to wait , he’d kill at least the two remaining heralds as soon as possible . He didn’t want to repeat what happened with Vul , being incapacitated and missing his deadline due to waiting until the last moment . He needed time to recuperate in case he got hurt from the fights .

He had also found the fourth type of beasts that the demons had brought through the portal . They were magic monkeys . Or rather they were called Stone Monkeys by his Eye of Discernment] , and did not look quite as demonic as the other three animals .

They were roughly up to his chest in height but had a bulkier build . They were an anthracite grey and surprisingly no fur . Instead , it looked that they had plates of rocks covering most parts of their bodies , forming almost a natural armor . The aspect that made them look somewhat demonic was their shining red eyes .

The stone monkeys were the most well-rounded of all the demon beasts so far . The barghest was all brawn and no brain , the gwyllgi high speed but low strength , and the imps were incredibly dangerous but also incredibly frail .

The stone monkeys were strong , agile and also durable . Even more annoyingly they seldom moved alone . They seemed to be united in one large group , and Zac suspected that the fourth Herald was the pack leader . He hadn’t seen it , however , as he didn’t dare venture too far into the mountains as it was crawling with monkeys .

That meant that the final Herald apart from the monkey was either a juiced up gwyllgi or imp , depending on which of the two he had managed to kill with his lucky roll for survival . He wasn’t sure which he preferred to be alive , as both felt like they’d be a pain in the ass to fight .

It seemed that the monkeys stayed in the mountain due to their affinity with rocks . Zac often saw them perched and completely immobile on outcroppings as though they were gargoyle sculptures . Their natural habitat was likely in mountainous regions back at their home planet .

He had been happy to notice that each stone monkey gave a lot of Nexus Coins upon killing them . However , he still would rather farm the less lucrative barghest after his only encounter with the monkeys .

Zac thought he had finally managed to single out a solitary stone monkey . It was far away from any demon activity and seemed to be randomly walking around close to the foot of the mountain . Zac had planned to fight it to test it out .

What followed had truly exceeded his expectations . As soon as the monkey noticed Zac it didn’t try to fight . Instead , it screeched at the top of its lungs and started fleeing back up the mountain . While it was faster than a normal human , it still was no match for Zac .

Within a few seconds he had caught up to it , and a brief struggle erupted . The monkey’s fighting style was a full-on brawl , and it was a whirlwind of punches and kicks in a disorganized and confusing manner . It also had a pair of sharp teeth which it tried using when an opportunity arose .

Zac estimated the Strength of the beast to be somewhere in the 60’s , almost on par with Zac’s before he got his class . Its other stats were quite good across the board , even its intelligence seemed higher compared to Earth’s normal primates .

Of course , even with its strong stats , it was no match against Zac . He had grabbed an arm with his free hand and threw the monkey down on the ground . A quick swing and it was dead . The stone plating on the monkeys was quite hard but offered little resistance to his weapon .

The problems came after . The screech of the monkey had pulled a swarm of his brethren over , who all had seemed extremely enraged upon seeing their fallen comrade .

Thus Zac had been beset by an avalanche of angry fists and kicks coming in from all directions . Every swing of his axe had maimed or killed a monkey , but they were endless and fearless . Finally he had escaped , only because the monkeys seemed loath to leave the mountain and enter the forest . They had stopped right at the foot of the mountain , angrily roaring at Zac .

Zac was completely exhausted by then , both physically and his cosmic energy . Even new and improved pathways had barely managed to sustain him in his escape . He wasn’t sure that he’d make it out if that onslaught had started a bit further up the mountain . He’d be drained and then finished off .

The upside from that experience was that it had been the most efficient farming of currency and cosmic energy he had ever done , except from when he killed the heralds . In that free-for-all brawl , he had gained a level and over 10 000 Nexus coins . He wasn’t sure about how many he had actually killed during the escape , but it seemed that the monkeys each awarded around 350 to 400 nexus coins .

The individual gain wasn’t at the level of the imps , but there was a horde of monkeys but only a scant few imps from what he had seen so far . Of course , there still were many locations on the island he still hadn’t ventured to , and they might be a cluster of imps somewhere .

If the monkeys weren’t so territorial and had such teamwork , he’d never want to leave the mountain again . He’d gain enough Nexus Coins to buy the movement skill Steps of Gaia] in no time . But he deemed it too large a risk to farm these beasts , at least for now . He would have to venture up the mountain again soon though , as the Herald was probably hidden somewhere in there , maybe in the form of a monkey king .

He’d wait until he had his class skills first until he ventured back into the mountains .

He had also figured out the general composition of the demon forces . He estimated that there were somewhere around 5 000 demons on the island in total . Their current activities could generally be divided into three parts .

The first part was the construction of a giant palace in the middle of the town . It still wasn’t finished , but Zac was amazed by the design even before seeing the finished product . It looked like medieval eastern architecture had been fused with nature . The structure was made both from stone and trees .

And by trees , he didn’t mean chopped down lumber , but actual trees . There were dozens of mages that reminded Zac of the root mage he had killed , who grew large black trees out of the ground . They then somehow forced it to grow in shapes that would constitute rooms and walls . It took less than an hour for a few mages to grow one of the house-trees into its final size . There were also mages who summoned rocks out of the ground . Under their care the rocks seemed like clay , allowing the mages to form them to their will to form a natural feeling to the walls and other stone features .

The palace was only three stories tall at the highest point , but it was expansive , featuring multiple buildings , beautiful gardens , sky wells , and courtyards . The gracefully curved roofs were made with tiles , with their eaves hanging out a few meters from the structures . The most central building in the complex had two layers of eaves , giving it an even grander feeling . Zac supposed that was either the general’s living quarters or some type of throne room . Surrounding it all was a black hedge roughly 2 meters tall . It felt decorative rather than providing any protection , as anyone would easily get through or above it .

The only thing that took away from the grand structure was the dull colors . The palace was mostly in shades of black and grey , giving it a very foreboding feeling . The only flashes of color were splotches of red in some details , the shade reminding him of the shining pillar .

The second group moved back and forth between the town and a cave in the mountain . He wasn’t exactly sure what they were doing there , as they held no equipment or the like when moving . They likely had magic pouches just like him , obscuring any hint of what was going on inside . He didn’t dare sneak in , as there seemed to be activity inside the cave at all times .

His two guesses were they either were mining , or there was some sort of huge area beneath that they explored . He hadn’t seen anyone hurt or wounded when walking back from the cave at least , so it shouldn’t be full of subterranean monsters at least .

The last group , and also the smallest , was small parties heading out of the town and in different directions of the island . They looked like small search parties , but not like the ones he had encountered so far .

It seemed that the demons had learned their lessons from their two missing groups , and had improved the power of the parties . They all held at least five demons , but that wasn’t all . Accompanying them was a varied amount of beasts . They all had a few Gwyllgi running around to the front and the sides for the party , seemingly acting as scouts . There was also a couple of barghest that moved in the front , filling the role of meat shields . A few parties even had an imp or two subserviently following the demons .

Zac felt like he was no match for a party like this , there were too many variables and things that could damage him at the same time . He hadn’t tried fighting those parties , staying far away as possible . Now that he knew what he was up against , he realized he really only had one advantage .

He knew a lot about them , but for them , he was still an enigma .

Chapter 36 - Determination

After observing the demons for two days Zac also was certain that they were real living , breathing beings . He had always had a sneaking suspicion that they might be puppets , or NPC’s if you will , created by the system to give a challenge to Zac and earth .

But the last two days he had watched them go about their day . They had worked , they had joked around and played cards . He had seen a few start a fierce brawl until a leader ran up and broke them apart . In essence , they were alive .

He hadn’t really thought about it properly before , but they were just like him . Did they even want to be here , or were they forced by the system just like him? Could he just keep regarding them as the enemy , and killing them simply a means to an end?

But Zac soon had soon steeled his heart . The world has fallen , and chaos reigned . They were invaders on the island , HIS island . From everything he had seen and hypothesized since the integration in the multiverse he knew he couldn’t go soft and hope for a peaceful solution .

Even if that somehow was possible before , he already had pulled the trigger and killed a bunch of their kind . Any opportunity for negotiation was already out the window . He would sooner or later have to decide how to act if he ever managed to reunite with humans again , but for now , the only diplomacy he’d deliver would be with the swing of his axe .

He couldn’t and wouldn’t give up on his goal of finding his family , and he knew that he had to become powerful to accomplish that . He had to become a true Defier as Abby called it , someone defying fate and breaking through his limits . Just his small island was fraught with danger , and this was only a small corner in this world . He had no idea how the rest of the world looked since the system merged it with multiple others , but he held no illusions that it had become some sort of paradise .

If he had to sacrifice these demons to reach his goals , then so be it .

Besides , Abby had warned him of not completing quests given by the System . It could have unexpected and horrific consequences it seemed . It meant that people like Zac were almost like slaves to the System , forced to play its games . Unfortunately , he was incapable of doing anything about it , and could only play along .

Zac started heading back to his own camp after his second night at close proximity to the incursion . He had seen what he needed to see and now needed to get back . Being away from his camp from prolonged times filled him with anxiety , especially with the new larger war parties roving through the island for some reason . If a party found his camp while he was gone he would be forced to hide in the tree crowns and caves until he finished the quest , and he had no desire to do that .

Still , he made himself stop at the demonized part of the forest and farm out barghest and gwyllgi for a good 10 hours before continuing on . He could never stop fighting and killing in order to progress his skills . Besides , the density of beasts in the central area was so high that he was gaining coins and cosmic energy at a furious rate .

The only difficulty was that they were in such close proximity with each other’s that often one or a few demons would hear the sounds of battle and join the fray . He got a few gashes and cuts from the onslaught , but nothing that would impact him .

Eventually , he left the area and started heading towards the south . Finally late at night he started to arrive at more familiar parts of the island . He had seen signs of the demon parties on the way and had made a hasty retreat in order not to get entangled with them .

After a while he finally arriving back at his camp he kicked off his shoes and sat down on his comfortable newly acquired throne . In the beginning he had felt isolated and afraid as he was stuck in his little camp , fretful when hearing roars in the distance . Now it felt like a safe haven , a home .

Even with the dried viscera from the exploding demon , the still somewhat visible aftermath from the first fight with the demonling , and the bloodied indoors of the camper , he felt his heartbeat and breath calm down just from entering through the illusion array . In this little bubble , he didn’t need to be a walking slaughterhouse wreaking havoc on the demon population , he could just be .

He just sat on his new chair and closed his eyes . He felt the luxurious rug between his toes , and the wind caressing his hair . For a second he could forget the hellish existence he had led lately .

A bestial roar in the distance woke him up from his revelry . Zac sighed and got up on his feet . He still didn’t have the luxury to relax , there were things to do .

His scouting excursion had given him most of his answers , but he was struggling with coming up with a plan that might work . From his guesswork , he believed one of the heralds was somewhere up on the mountains , while the other was still unaccounted for .

Finally he had to kill a general , and Zac guessed he would be the big boss . It likely was one of the fancier-looking demons in their city , but he had no idea as of yet how to actually get to him , or how strong he was .

He held no illusions that he would be able to take the straight-forward approach and kick in the gate down and charge his way through . He’d be punched full of holes before he knew what happened .

There was the possibility of sneaking in during the dead of night and assassinating the general . But Zac felt that this was unlikely to succeed as well . For one he didn’t know who the general was , but more importantly , he didn’t have the skill-set to pull off such a caper . He wouldn’t have any problem scaling the wall or climbing into a window in the palace .

But doing so soundlessly and without any of the numerous guards noticing was the real challenge . While the scouts at the edge of the valley had been very lackadaisical about their task , the military command seemed far stricter in the actual town .

There were guards in the towers and in the walls around the clock , with changes at intervals Zac couldn’t figure out . It seemed almost randomized . He saw no chance to sneak in during a guard change . Furthermore , most of the vegetation had been cut down in the vicinity of the town , making a stealthy approach nigh impossible .

Zac had even considered tunneling into the town , but that felt much too risky . If a demon party found his entrance he’d be stuck inside . Besides , he had seen that the demons had multiple stone mages who built the palace . They might be able to detect him even when underground with some spell .

He had also toyed with the idea of trying to destroy the crystal . But he eventually gave that up as well . For one it contained such extreme amounts of energy that he was afraid it would explode and obliterate the whole island if he managed to crack it .

But more importantly it seemed that the demons were not worried in the slightest about the crystal . They just left a few men there and then left to build their town further north . If the crystal was instrumental to their invasion they’d surely protect it far better , as it seemed to be no effort for them to erect walls quickly .

Zac could only put it aside for now as he had gotten nowhere the last two days . He would focus on what he could do for now .

He had missed a few days of cutting wood while outside and had some catching up to do . His killing speed on this 3-day expedition had been astonishing , mostly due to the sheer number of targets in the center of the island . As he rhythmically swung his axe down , he mentally brought up his quest panel .

Active Quests

Dynamic Quests

Off With Their Heads (Unique) : Kill the four heralds and the general of an incursion within 3 months . Reward : 10 E-Grade Nexus Crystals , E-Grade equipment , unique building depending on performance . (2/5)

Incursion Master (Unique) : Close or conquer incursion and protect town from denizens of other alignments for 3 months . Reward : 5 E-Grade Nexus Crystals , outpost upgraded to town , status upgraded to Lord . (0/3)

Class Quests

Axe Mastery (Class) : Mastery is born through battle . Fell 1000 enemies . Reward : (548/1000)

Chop (Class) : First chop Wood . Then their bodies . Reward : (1240/10 000)

Forester's Constitution (Class) : Fight in the forests , be one with nature . Reward : (3/30)

He still hadn’t gotten any new active quests since finishing the class quest . He was starting to suspect that the active quests were locked to certain areas and events . He wouldn’t get anything like an upgrade class quest for some while he suspected , as he just had gotten his class . Meanwhile , maybe the demon slaying quest he got was tied to the island , and he’d have to leave it for another area to get another .

Either that or he was missing something about the quests . Perhaps they simply were quite rare . The one he completed did give him a title after all , and those were permanent upgrades .

Zac kept cutting wood long into the night , before finally sitting down for a few hours of sleep . He still stayed outside , as he didn’t want the walls of the camper to dampen any sounds of a potential demon war party heading his way .

The next day he woke up early and immediately headed out . He had decided to stop killing any demons close to his camp . He was afraid that a complete lack of beasts around a certain area would alert the demons . He headed toward the center , this time toward the eastern part .

He was planning on grinding beasts while looking for clues about the fourth elusive herald . Ur’Khaz had been killed in the south as it occupied the same space as him , and he had killed Vul in the western area . The monkey king was likely somewhere in the mountain to the north and that left the eastern quadrant . He thought that he would try gather some more intel while finishing up the class quests .

He went back to camp when the night approached and chopped wood for a few hours . He was lucky that he had found the pouch , as he was starting to accumulate a ridiculous amount of firewood . He had decided to leave most of it in a few dry spots around the island . Just for safety he’d construct a simple roof with some branches and leaves to protect the lumber from a downpour . The lumber was proof of his effort , and it felt wasteful to just throw away .

He kept this routine going for a few days . His intense activities left him with less than 4 hours of sleep , yet he felt refreshed when he woke up . He wondered if he’d get to a point where he didn’t have to sleep at all if his vitality and endurance got high enough .

Suddenly , as Zac slammed down his axe into the head of a barghest , a huge surge of cosmic energy entered his mind , causing him to almost black out .

Chapter 37 - Monstrous Power

While having some difficulty staying conscious Zac finished off the other three beasts that had arrived due to the noise of the fight . Luckily the surge of energy soon dissipated .

He quickly retreated after the kills , not wanting to keep battling any more barghest for the moment . After running for a few minutes he reached one of his hideouts , another construction high up in a tree .

As he sat down on the bedding on leaves he could finally focus on the new things in his head . Just as he suspected he had completed the quest for Axe Mastery with his last kill . His speed of killing had far surpassed his expectations . He had given himself a 10-day deadline but had finished it in just below a week’s time . It was mostly thanks to the high density of monsters in the central part of the island . The monsters were everywhere , and he didn’t have waste a lot of time traveling looking for his next target .

Zac closed his eyes to go over his new skill and was surprised to suddenly find himself standing on the edge of a cliff . Jolted by the change in scenery he immediately opened his eyes , only to once again see the familiar sight of his hideout .

It had only been an illusion or something created in his mind , but it had felt so real he had thought for a second he had been teleported somewhere . Zac calmed his breathing and slowly closed his eyes again .

He once again found himself to be standing on the desolate cliff . As he looked around he found that the cliff was a part of a seemingly endless canyon . It stretched further than Zac could see and the bottom was shrouded in a thick mist , giving the impression of being bottomless . The illusory world itself was a dull grey , as though all life had been sucked out of the area .

The most shocking sight wasn’t the canyon however , it was the enormous axe that was embedded in the ground a few hundred meters away from him . It was at least 50 meters tall and exuded a pressure that almost made Zac collapse just from standing in the vicinity .

The axe itself was simple and unadorned with a straight wooden haft . It was a double axe made in seemingly ordinary steel with curved edges . Even though it looked simple Zac felt that he was gazing at a supreme treasure just from the towering aura it exuded .

As soon as Zac’s eyes landed on the edge of the axe he stumbled backward , his face turning a ghastly white . It had felt like he was being split in two from just looking at the edge .

After regaining his bearing he tentatively looked up at the axe again , careful to avoid looking at the edges . But as he did , his vision once more changed .

The bleak dead world changed to one that could best be described as a paradise . Golden clouds hung in the sky , and there were fantastical buildings upon them . A network of translucent bridges connected the sky cities , and flying contraptions could be seen gliding about .

Zac himself was floating far up in the sky , seemingly unencumbered by gravity . Facing him was a vast celestial army . The army shone in a splendor of white and gold , and the generals radiated a terrifying power that Zac wouldn’t even be able to begin to grade . A few groups of the army were circling pillars as large as skyscrapers , and it took Zac a moment to realize the huge structures were actually supersized array flags , like the ones he had in his camp .

There were even titans among the ranks of the humanoid army , the shortest standing being at least 100 meters tall . Their muscular frames looked strong enough to carry mountains .

The army gave Zac a holy feeling , but it also emitted a monstrous killing intent , which largely seemed to be focused on himself . The very air seemed to vibrate with resentment .

Zac was terrified , as he instinctively knew that each and every one of these warriors would be able to end him without breaking a sweat . He tried to turn around and flee , but he couldn’t move even his eyes .

A sigh escaped for his lips , making him realize he was not just an incorporeal being spectating , but inhabiting a body that was out of his control . It seemed he was viewing the scene through the eyes of someone else .

His eyes suddenly looked down on his body , seeing a muscular frame covered in simple linen clothes . His feet were bare and dusty , looking as though he had walked all day without any shoes . Suddenly an axe entered his vision . It was hefted in his right hand and looked identical to the enormous one he had seen in the first vision at the canyon .

The hand holding it was extremely rough and calloused as if it had been holding and swinging the axe for an eternity .

His vision went back to the army , who now seemed to be preparing to attack . The air was rife with runaway power , almost to the point that the cosmic energy would liquefy .

Thousands of warriors started infusing cosmic power into the towering array flags , who started to shine in a white light that superseded even the pillar on his island .

Suddenly two enormous gates appeared above the army , summoned by the arrays . As the gates started to open an even stronger power started to leak out . It felt like a god’s punishment was held within those gates , and if they opened he would be destroyed body and soul .

But even against this force the being Zac inhabited didn’t react . He simply lifted his axe , and with a grunt swung it down in a vertical arc .

It was as though the world turned white with that swing , and nothing existed except its almighty arc expanding outward . Nothing could withstand it . The celestial soldiers were dismembered without managing to even muster up a defense .

The pillars shattered , and the Titans roared and tried to defend against the wave with their superior physiques . It was to no avail as they crumbled when the wave passed through them .

Some of the leaders frantically summoned awe-inspiring amounts of cosmic energy to muster up defenses that left Zac in shock . Others ripped open tears in the air itself to escape , shock and horror visible on their faces . But the blade arc pushed through and crushed the defenses like dry twigs , annihilating the last remnants of the army . Soon after even the void was split apart and dismembered body parts were thrown out of jagged rifts , and Zac could see it was the leaders that had tried fleeing through the void .

Zac’s vision started to blur , but the last thing he saw before everything faded was a hideous scar on the ground that stretched to the horizon . It looked like the world itself was maimed , and vast amounts of cosmic energy bled through the gash .

Zac’s vision returned to the canyon and the huge axe . Only now he understood it wasn’t a canyon , but the rift caused by that endlessly powerful axe-swing . The once celestial vision he had seen during the battle was gone , replaced with the empty desolation of a dead world .

Zac’s emotions were in turmoil after the battle . He had become steady as a rock after over a thousand battles on the island , but he wasn’t prepared for what he had seen . Who was that man , and why was that army trying to fight him?

Was that how a war in the multi-verse looked? If so , then earth was well and truly screwed . If someone arrived on earth with only a fraction of the power of the man with the axe , then there was nothing the earthlings could do . It would be like ants trying to stop a tank .

Furthermore , he didn’t understand why he was shown this vision . He had just gotten the skill Axe Mastery and suddenly was transported here .

As he was pondering what it all meant the gigantic axe started emitting a blinding light . When he turned his eyes over to the weapon the light intensified and suddenly the axe was gone .

In its place was a large fractal that shared the same general outline as the axe . It also emitted extreme pressure , making Zac feel as though he could somehow be cleaved in two from this pattern as well .

The fractal didn’t stay still for long , and suddenly started to shrink . When it had shrunk into the size of his palm it suddenly shot toward him like a bullet . Aghast Zac tried to dodge . It truly felt like the monstrous axe was charging at him .

It was to no avail however , and it slammed right into his forehead . Zac froze , not daring to move an inch .

Luckily the release of death didn’t arrive , and he found out he was completely fine . The fractal hadn’t cut him but somehow entered his head instead . He could now sense its existence in his mind , and it hovered there now seemingly inert .

Finally , he bit his finger making a small bleeding wound , and willed himself back to reality . He opened his eyes , still sitting in his small hideout . He was shocked to notice that he was completely soaked in sweat and drained of cosmic energy . It also seemed that hours had passed , rather than minutes as it had felt like , since the suns had moved quite a distance in the sky . But as he looked down on his finger it was whole and without any wound .

It seemed that the experience had truly been an illusion . He was already somewhat sure of that but had cut his finger just to be certain . He knew the System was no stranger to teleportation from how it sent away Hannah and her friends , and needed to know if he was in actual danger if it happened again .

For a final test , he tried to enter the mystic space once more , but nothing happened . It seemed it was a one-time opportunity he had received . He was at least happy to notice that the mysterious axe fractal actually had remained in his mind , as he could still perceive it outside of the illusion .

He was quite sure that the new fractal was the axe mastery skill that he had received , but he had no idea how to utilize it as of yet . He had initially planned on heading back to camp to finish his Chop quest as well , but he changed his mind .

He believed he saw those scenes for a reason and wanted to go over it while the memories were still fresh . So instead he rested his back against the tree trunk and once again closed his eyes .

Chapter 38 - Insight

Zac’s instincts told him that what he had seen had been important . So he tried to burn every feeling and impression to his memory .

The immense pressure that emanated from the axe and the terrifying sharpness of its edge . The world-ending power of the seemingly casual strike by the barefooted man . He had just swung once , but somehow everything he had wished to cut was cut , and nothing could escape him . Even the people who fled through portals hadn’t been spared and were somehow killed in another space .

He tried to figure out why he was shown this vision . He could only assume it came from the System , as he couldn’t imagine who else would , and could , show him such a thing .

He did not believe it was something as fantastical as a glimpse into his own future or a prophecy , rather felt it was far more likely the System was trying to show him something else . The only thing he could come up with was that it was sort of a training video . The illusion showed him what axe-mastery at a great , or maybe even the highest , proficiency looked like .

If that was the truth he wasn’t disappointed anymore that he didn’t get a rare or epic mage class . That army had even called upon the gates of heaven to attack , but it couldn’t even withstand one chop . That axe master had also conquered the disadvantage of being a melee class . Everything in his vision was chopped and dismembered , no matter how far or fast they fled .

Of course , Zac knew that even if that was a real event that had happened , it had nothing to do with him . The power levels of those warriors did not seem as simple as having an E-grade or even D-grade class . It felt like a level so far off that it might just as well be a dream .

But still if he could glean some sort of truth or secret from the vision he’d likely benefit greatly from it . It also gave him a wake-up call about how formidable the forces out in the multi-verse were . He had known that there would be powerful people out there , but he hadn’t imagined it being to this degree . That axe wielder would be able to cleave his whole island in two . That was not something that should be possible for a human being . That was the realm of the gods .

So it seemed actual beings with the powers of gods were out there . If one of them got angered with him or someone else from earth there might be irrevocable repercussions . There were already demons on his island , and there might be other forces on the planet as well . It seemed the restrictions were weakening as well , and sooner or later any old monster might be able to waltz through one of the incursions .

If he wanted to keep himself and his close ones safe he had to keep pushing forward until he himself was one of those gods .

Of course , he had to survive this island first before starting fantasizing about deifying himself . He refocused and started looking at the new fractal in his mind . He didn’t really understand how it worked , but it felt like it was housed in an actual space in his mind , rather than it being just a memory .

It was a very weird feeling , as it was akin to noticing your body had secret compartments .

Unfortunately , no matter how he looked at the fractal he couldn’t glean anything from it . He tried driving cosmic energy through it but it had no effect . Since it had entered his mind its heavy aura was gone , and it seemed dead or deactivated .

Zac sighed , feeling slightly disappointed . He had essentially been shown a pretty cool action scene , and was left with a pattern he couldn’t use . He knew he was likely missing something , but could only return to his camp for now .

As he walked back he kept pondering about the vision he had seen . He wondered if he’d ever get to the point of that man in his vision .

He looked down on his axe and with a half-smile he swung it down just like the man in the illusion . Of course , no earth-shattering wave of destruction erupted from the swing . Only a slight swooshing sound was the result of the swing .

But after he performed the swing he stopped . The attack just felt wrong . He couldn’t put it to words , but it was as though the attack was bland and flat compared to the one in the illusion . And he wasn’t talking about the earth-shattering power , but something else .

Even though his swing and the axe-man’s had the same trajectory it felt like man’s swing was real and his the illusion rather than the opposite . Like the man’s swing was a forest and Zac’s just a picture of one .

His swing was missing something , and it was not form or technique , but something more intrinsic . If he hadn’t seen that scene he never would have figured it out . He would think that a swing was just a swing .

He imagined the intense pressure he had felt when standing in front of the huge axe , and tried to incorporate it into the axe . It was easier said than done of course , and Zac kept swinging away while walking back . He even used some demon beasts as practice targets to try to get the feel .

He also tried incorporating cosmic energy into the fractal while swinging , but it also didn’t do anything . He was still missing that feeling that would make his swings feel full instead of empty .

He tried to discern what made the axe-man so strong and made him effortlessly defeat the army . It wasn’t speed . His swing had been slow to the point of almost feeling lazy . It hadn’t been sophisticated or complicated either , but simple and unadorned , just like his axe .

But the swing was sharp . Anything it attacked was cut . It didn’t matter if it were the huge titans , the awe-inspiring defenses of the top cultivators in the army , or even the gates of heaven . Everything that the axe waves hit was split in two .

However , what had made the largest impression on Zac was the heaviness the swing had contained . By that he didn’t mean that the axe grew heavy like the great sword , but it felt like the axe had contained an unstoppable force when falling down . It had felt that the weight of a world was contained in that swing , and it had an unbending determination and intractability contained in it . Anything that tried to impede its path would be destroyed .

Zac didn’t understand how he could know these things . They should be subjective opinions and personal impressions , but it felt like those impressions were rather inviolable truths . That the man’s attack contained these abstruse elements felt as true and real as that the sky was blue .

Zac also somehow knew there was a multitude of other aspects hidden in that seemingly simple swing , but they seemed too far away and elusive for him to grasp onto . He decided to focus on the power and forcefulness for now rather than the sharpness as he felt the heaviness the most clearly in his mind . He was afraid of trying to study both aspects at the same time would be too hard for him to handle .

Zac tried to bring this sense of force and weight into his swing and started to bring more and more cosmic energy into it . His energy started to naturally flow along his pathways , and the whirling sounds from the axe started to sound slightly deeper .

Just as he started to feel that he started to grasp something a blue box suddenly popped up by itself .

Dao seed gained - Heaviness]

Confused , Zac stopped swinging and brought up his status page .

Name

Zachary Atwood

Level

28

Class

Hatchetman (F)

Race

Human (F)

Alignment

Human (Earth)

Titles

Born for Carnage , Ultimate Reaper , Luck of the Draw , Giantsbane , Disciple of David , Overpowered , Slayer of Leviathans , Adventurer , Demon Slayer I , Full of Class , Rarified Being , Trailblazer , Child of Dao

Dao

Seed of Heaviness - Early

Strength

136

Dexterity

57

Endurance

77

Vitality

66

Intelligence

46

Wisdom

46

Luck

64

Free Points

0

Nexus Coins

134780

Zac was shocked when he saw his Strength . He had gained close to 30 points in Strength without gaining any levels .

There were two other changes to his page . The first was that he had a new title , Child of Dao . The second was an entirely new row was added next to the titles , called Dao .

Zac had heard of the concept of Dao somewhere , but couldn’t remember the details . It was a part of eastern mythology or religion , but he didn’t know exactly what it meant . But from context it felt like it was akin to insight or the like .

He had started to gain insight into the weight behind the man’s swing , and he gained a Dao seed .

He began with checking his new title .

Child of Dao : Third in world to attain enlightenment and create a Dao seed . All stats +5 , All stats +5%

The description gave Zac a start . He was only the third in the world to gain the Dao seed . Since the integration into the multi-verse he had constantly been at the forefront , be it with achievements or levels . But he had actually been bested on this aspect .

He didn’t know if someone had surpassed him in level since level 25 and gained a seed the same way as him , or whether there were other ways to get them . But it was a reminder that there were billions of people in the world . He had his lucky encounters , why couldn’t others have theirs?

Besides , he knew he wasn’t a born warrior , and it had taken him an enormous amount of effort to get where he was today . Perhaps there were geniuses that simply were perfectly suited for cultivation and the new world order .

The lost opportunity made him feel a bit depressed , and he swore at himself for all the time he had wasted . Had he gotten to this point a few days quicker he might have snagged a better title .

If the third spot got 5 points in all stat and 5% increase , what did the second and first place get? Perhaps as much as 10 points for second spot and a whopping 15 points for the first?

But Zac steadied his mind quickly , as he knew he couldn’t get greedy . The number of advantages he had accumulated would probably make anyone on earth green with envy if they knew .

Chapter 39 - Guidance

Next Zac wanted to check out the Dao seed . Soon he managed to open a new screen in the system .

It didn’t have a lot of information , just a list in the same manner as the titles .

Dao seed of Heaviness – Early . Strength +10 , Endurance +5]

While the menu or information wasn’t very spectacular , the stat bonuses were quite good . As Zac’s main stats were Strength and Endurance this seed’s bonus was a perfect gift . Perhaps a reason why he learned the Dao seed so smoothly was due to this .

It also made him understand the importance of Dao to the system . He just gained a seed of the Dao of Heaviness , and it was only an early seed . Both things indicated that he had just taken the first steps to understand this concept , but it already gave a boost worth a few levels .

What would it give if he managed to improve it to a higher level , like the Late stage? And what happened if it stopped being a seed and turned into the real thing? The boost it gave would likely be astonishing .

Zac felt that the seed and the fractal in his mind were somehow connected . He gained it while trying to emulate the powerful feeling in that axe swing after all . He once again turned his sight inward and gazed upon the axe fractal again .

He couldn’t tell exactly how , but he sensed that the pattern of the fractal somehow subtly changed . It also no longer seemed inert as it was before , but emitted an aura that gave Zac the familiar sense of weight and intractability .

It was the same sense of heaviness that he somewhat managed to instill into his swings while trying to emulate the axe-man . Now that he could contrast it to the aura in the illusion , he understood that the Dao of Heaviness was only part of the whole picture , and the suffocating aura of the axe was something far greater .

Still , it was a step in the right direction . His seed was only at the early stage . There surely were ways to improve upon it , and perhaps someday his axe aura , or Dao , might be as mighty as the one he saw .

Now that the fractal felt active again , he once more tried to circulate cosmic energy through it . This time it actually worked , and the fractal lit up .

Suddenly his vision changed , and fractals started appearing . Some shone up like glowing footprints in the ground , and others were lights forming arcs and trajectories around him . The lights seemed to have no effect on its surroundings , not lighting the ground or trees up in the slightest . Furthermore , when Zac moved his head the lights moved with him and slightly adjusted . Meaning it came from the system in the same manner as his different menus .

It felt like he was wearing augmented-reality goggles , giving him an extra layer of reality that only he could see . At least he assumed only he could see the lights and the menus , as they only seemed to respond and change in reaction to Zac’s movements and commands .

He tried to touch the fractals that formed the trajectories , but it was like trying to touch a rainbow . Furthermore , as he moved his hand the lights adjusted and moved as well . After adjusting to his new vision he tried stepping on the glowing footprints and moving his body according to the illuminated trajectories . He found himself swinging his axe in a slanted upwards motion . The movement felt smooth and natural , and it felt like he was able to bring the full force of almost his whole body into the swing .

He kept following the glowing instructions and found himself performing a multitude of attacks . There were not only normal swings , but every part of the axe was used . From the butt of the haft to the spike on the back-side of the head , everything was used in an array of methods to maim and kill enemies . It even showed how to use the rest of his body , such as grabbing with his off-hand , footwork and tackles .

It couldn’t be said that the fractals in the air taught him actual Skills , but rather basic guidance on how to properly move and handle an axe .

Every strike had one thing in common , it contained the mass and intractability of his Dao . It made him realize many aspects of his weapon of choice as well . An axe differed from a sword in that it was balanced toward the head , whereas a sword was closer to the handle . This gave an axe a higher forward momentum and higher destructive power .

To master the axe he should focus on the part where it excelled , meaning this power and forcefulness . Its disadvantage was that it wasn’t as flexible as a sword was . The bladed area was also far shorter with an axe , so some precision was needed for a killing strike . At least until he could swing his axe in the fantastical manner of the man in the vision .

Zac kept going through various motions as he moved toward the camp . He was entranced by the beautiful simplicity in the moves , and the power they managed to bring out .

Suddenly he stumbled and fell down , shocked to notice that he was completely and utterly drained . He hadn’t completely recovered his energy from his vision earlier , and it seemed like using the axe fractal consumed large amounts of cosmic energy .

At least Zac finally felt he had figured out how the Axe Mastery] skill worked . It wasn’t what he expected , but he was still very happy with the result .

He initially thought he would get a bonus to stats similar to the Demon Slayer title , like bonus stats while wielding an axe , and perhaps generally get imparted some knowledge about axes . The reality actually trumped his expectations , and the rewards were twofold .

The first part was the vision , which Zac now was certain was showed to him so that he could plant his Dao Seed . The other part was this guidance system that could help him improve his form and fighting abilities . It might have been more convenient if the System crammed his head full of these things , making him master these aspects immediately .

Perhaps that wasn’t possible , as it was related to the Dao . Or perhaps the system didn’t want to just hand things out willy-nilly . The guidance system was a god given in any case as Zac had missed the tutorial and sorely needed some guidance .

Of the two he felt the Dao-vision was the most valuable . One might be able to gain those seeds by themselves by meditating or being an expert on a subject , but Zac’s intuition told him that it wasn’t that easy . Otherwise , he wouldn’t have been the third , but the 3rd millionth , to attain a Dao Seed . The world was full of experts , after all .

He decided on the spot to use the time he earlier spent on cutting wood on practicing his axe-form in the future . That time would be freed up as soon as he finished the second class quest in any case .

Zac sat down to recuperate and devoured some meat from his pouch , before continuing back home . It was dark when he returned to camp , as usual , this time due to his new skill rather than grinding monsters all waking hours .

Still , he couldn’t rest , as he was too excited about what his other skill would be like . He started cutting wood in a furious speed , lumber flying left and right . After roughly 90 minutes he slowed down and caught his breath . He was only 10 swings away from finishing the quest for the Chop] skill , and he wanted to be in rested condition just in case .

He drank a mouthful of water and steadied his breath before once again hefting his axe and swinging the 10 final strikes .

This time cosmic energy didn’t enter his mind , but information . This time the impartment was akin to when he bought Eye of Discernment] from the Nexus Crystal . Zac was a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t get another vision that could give him another Dao seed or the like , but he knew that was a rare opportunity he gained .

The skill was another fractal , and the usage was similar to the identification skill . It needed him to circulate cosmic energy through his energy pathways in a specific manner , then imagining it entering this fractal . The difference was that while Eye of Discernment] placed the fractals inside his eyes , the new one was on the top of his right hand . It wasn’t a physical manifestation , rather it superimposed itself on his pathways .

This was different from his eye skill , which was isolated fractals in his eyes . The Chop] skill’s fractal seemed to actually merge with his Class-pathways . It didn’t look out of place or messy , but it felt as a missing piece of a puzzle was added .

When Zac rewrote his pathways there were many parts that looked blurry and missing . It seemed that from his new skill that they were slots for his skills . Maybe even other skills , like Steps of Gaia] that he was eyeing in the store , could be slotted into his pathway gaps .

He tried doing the same with his ocular skill , but it was a closed circuit fractal , giving no opportunity to integrate with his pathways . The axe mastery fractal was in an enclosed space in his mind , and he had no way to connect it to his pathways either . Unfortunately , he lacked any more skills to experiment with . He actually had enough Nexus Coins to buy the cheapest skills by now , but he didn’t want to burn his hard earned cash for an experiment .

He wasn’t sure what benefits there were to slotting it into his pathways compared to simply having them like his identification skill . He would have to test it and find out .

Even though it was late at night he couldn’t wait , too eager to find out the effects of his new skill . Even if he realized it would be nothing like the great spells he saw in the vision , he had already fought against someone with an impressive skill . It was the demon leader with the great sword , whose furniture now adorned his campsite .

The black arcs of lightning had almost gotten him killed a few times . From the simple name of his own skill he realized that it might not be as extravagant though . But he did get it from a rare class after all , so it shouldn’t be useless .

He planned to try out the skill by using it a few times , then finding a demon beast to test it on , so he left his camp in search for a decent target .

As he walked some ways from the camp he made a new discovery . A skill screen had been added to his various prompts . It hadn’t been there when he bought the identification skill , which is why it had taken him all day before trying it . He surmised it must’ve activated when he got his class skills .

Normal Skills

Eye of Discernment - Proficiency : - . A glimpse into the unknown . Upgradeable

Class Skill

Axe Mastery - Proficiency : Early . The seed of Dao is planted . Upgradeable

Chop - Proficiency : Early . There is greatness in simplicity .

The screen showed scant information , but it did give Zac a few answers to things he had been wondering about . The class skills seemed to have proficiency , and both were at early stage . His Dao seed was at early stage as well , and he guessed that if he progressed in Axe Mastery] , the seed might follow .

Chop] would likely simply get stronger if the proficiency increased . His identification skill had no proficiency , and it seemed that it wouldn’t get stronger . He had wondered about whether he could improve his skill and get more information about enemies , or even be able to identify items .

It was , however , upgradeable . He saw no hint of the requirements , but it was good to know that he could improve the skill into a better one . Chop] wasn’t upgradeable , which was a bit disappointing . He could only hope the description was true , that there was greatness in simplicity .

If he went by his knowledge from video games , then he’d likely need to raise proficiency to the max before somehow upgrading Axe Mastery] into a higher tiered skill . As that option wasn’t available for Eye of Discernment] , he could only hope to find out some clues at a later date .

Of course , even if he wouldn’t be able to upgrade Chop] he’d still try to max out its proficiency . Who knew if the System would reward a Title , or new class quests if he did . The system did like it when people put in effort , after all .

Chapter 40 - Chop

As he walked away from the camp in the dead of the night he was going over his future path of development . He couldn’t just focus on training with the new guidance system all day due to the third class skill requiring large amounts of time battling in the forest .

On the way from the camp he tried using Axe Mastery] in an actual battle with a barghest . He was disappointed to see that the trajectories wouldn’t actually assist him in battle , and completely shut off right before the battle started . It seemed it was purely a training mechanism .

Finally he arrived at a small clearing some distance from the camp . He didn’t want to accidentally ruin his home in case the skill had any unexpected effects .

He started with using a small amount of energy and channeled it through his new fractal as he swung the axe . The energy transformed as it ventured out through his hand and into the axe . As he swung down he could see a translucent edge formed by cosmic energy .

It was like the axe head had gotten a bit larger , as the translucent edge ran a few centimeters in front of the actual edge , and its length was roughly 10 centimeters longer compared to the actual steel edge . The edge created from cosmic energy looked like a copy of his axe’s actual edge , with some faint fractals added along its length .

It wasn’t spectacular but he used a minuscule amount of energy in the strike . He tried using the skill once more , but this time he put far more cosmic energy into the skill . The translucent blade grew quite a bit larger , now stretching noticeably outward . The blade was now over one meter long , making his once short-ranged axe have almost as long a range as the great sword he had commandeered . Luckily the edge didn’t grow downward along the haft , but rather outward . Otherwise it would be hard for him to swing it without maiming himself .

It was out of Zac’s expectation it would grow to this size . As he continued putting in more power into the skill it kept growing , but Zac soon felt that he was starting to lose control over the skill . Suddenly the cosmic energy blade simply dissipated , leaving no trace of ever being there .

It seemed that there was a limit of how large he could grow the blade without it starting to become unstable . After some experimentation he knew that he could keep the blade stable at roughly one meter . Any larger and it would quickly become unstable . The longer he made the blade the shorter duration he could keep it .

It seemed that this was all that there was to the skill . He tried shooting it away like a ranged attack or boomerang , but nothing happened . It was firmly lodged to his axe . Of course , the proficiency was only at early stage , and it might get more functions at higher levels .

Zac was still quite pleased with the skill , even though it wasn’t as flashy as the black lightning of the demon leader . It wasn’t fancy but he could immediately imagine a few uses for a skill such as this . For one he could surprise an enemy . He or she might have thought that they dodged his strike , but instead they were well within the range of his skill blade .

It was also a brutal instrument when fighting against multiple enemies . If he pushed it past its point of stability he could wield a huge blade and slash at multiple people at one , at least for a short duration before the skill broke . With his monstrous strength he believed that he could create a great deal of carnage in that brief window in time .

Of course , that would be a last resort attack , as cramming that amount of cosmic energy into one skill use would greatly drain him .

There was one thing he didn’t understand with the skill . He had gained his Dao seed from managing to incorporate this intangible force of heaviness into his strikes while he was walking back to the camp , but he was utterly incapable of doing the same with the skill .

He tried using a few Dao empowered strikes , and they did have an air of weight to them . It wasn’t as tyrannical as the axe-man’s of course , but it felt like these strikes should be harder for someone to block compared to normal strike .

But when he tried incorporating this feeling into Chop] , everything got jumbled and he didn’t even manage to produce the blade . He saw no reason that they shouldn’t work together but guessed that he had to practice some more before being able to use it as he wished .

The last thing for him to test out with the new skill was the sharpness . It was somewhat pointless if he got a larger edge if it wasn’t sharp . Sure , with his strength he’d do damage anyways without a sharp edge , but if the translucent edge was dull he might as well swing around a tree trunk .

He charged up a meter long blade and swung down upon a rock almost as tall as him . With a clang the cosmic energy blade cut halfway into the stone . Satisfied , Zac let the blade dissipate .

It seemed that cutting through things would use up the energy faster compared to simply having it summoned , but even while not cutting things it continuously drained him slowly . Of course he could likely keep inputting more and more energy and the blade would remain . But it seemed to be a wasteful use of cosmic energy .

Zac felt that the skill was best used as either a finisher or surprise attack , not in a long protracted battle . He would only be able to use it continuously for a few minutes at the most before being completely drained .

The sharpness seemed to be roughly the same as with his actual axe . It did seem to model itself after his axe’s edge after all , so it made sense that they would share some features . He wondered if the sharpness improved if he got a higher grade weapon in the future . He was sure that his weapon was a low F-grade blade , as he had looted it on some random demon after all . It couldn’t be too valuable .

He then brought out a sword from his pouch to test whether he could use Chop] with other weapons , but it at least didn't work with swords .

He was planning on testing some more but a snap of a twig in the vicinity stopped him in his tracks .

Zac got a sinking feeling , as he had made sure that there were no beasts in the area before trying out the skill . He quickly slunk down into nearby foliage and started to retreat toward his camp , taking great care to not make a sound .

Only the gwyllgi among the demons seemed to be active during the night , but he had never heard those beasts make any sounds while moving through the forest . That meant that the snap of the twig was more likely to be one of the war parties moving about .

He swore at himself for his carelessness . He had been on a high from his new boosts and wasn’t as careful as he should be . Even when grinding beasts his biggest priority had always been keeping a lookout for these parties . He always kept moving and didn’t fight close to his base as he didn’t want to attract attention to that area .

Now he was quite close to his camp , and his swing into the stone had made a sound . He soundlessly passed through the layer and entered his illusion array . He could only hope it was a large critter that was lumbering around in the dark .

Zac held his axe at the ready , vigilantly gazing into the woods . His hopes were soon dashed as he saw one of the roving war parties moving close by . The demons conversed in their language with subdued voices , seemingly arguing about something .

The core of the party consisted of 6 demons and an imp . They generally seemed to be average soldiers , with none of them wearing expensive-looking gear . There also were a few gwyllgi and barghest surrounding the party .

Zac didn’t dare to move even though he knew that his camp just looked like an empty area with some extra dense bushes . His illusion array was effective on the eyes , but he had no idea whether there were skills that could sense the array . He had tried it with his Eye of Discernment] without finding anything , but it was also the cheapest skill that the Nexus Node offered .

Suddenly he saw a gwyllgi was slowly coming extremely close , moving some ways from the group . If it kept moving the direction it did , it would enter the bushes he had moved to the edge of his camp , and soon after enter his array .

Zac’s fears came true as it trotted forward and entered his camp through the dense bushes . Zac was ready and with lightning speed he grabbed the hound’s neck as soon as it was through the array , and with a twist broke it . With his strength he could probably rip its head right off , but he didn’t want any blood to spill .

He slowly dragged the corpse into the camp and flung it to the side . Luckily the array also had sound dampening , so no one should have heard anything . He resumed his vigil against the rest of the group , and it seemed no one among them had noticed the missing beast . The gwyllgi often moved some distance from the parties acting as scouts , so it would likely take some while before they noticed their missing beast . Unfortunately , they had stopped just 50 meters away from the camp .

They still seemed to be arguing about something in hushed tones . One of the demons seemed nervous and kept pointing toward where Zac had tested his skill . The others seemed unconvinced and dismissive .

One of the demons rolled his eyes at the nervous one and started to actually walk toward Zac’s camp . The nervous demon entreated him , but was just met with a dismissive wave of his hand . He started fiddling with his pants and stopped at a tree just half a meter away from the edge of the illusion array .

The demon was actually relieving himself . He looked around the area while he did so . His eyes stopped a second on the camp . It should look like a normal clearing to him , but the demon slightly furrowed his brows . Soon they smoothed out and he casually looked away again and continued with his business .

But Zac’s heart started beating rapidly after scrutinizing the demon’s face .

He knew .

Chapter 41 - Apex Predator

Zac didn’t dare hesitate and furiously chopped his axe down through the array while the demon still had his pants down doing his business .

As Zac suspected the demon was ready for the strike , and without hesitation , he lifted his sword to meet the oncoming attack . Unfortunately for him Zac’s strength was in another league , and with the addition of the Dao of Heaviness the force of the swing simply broke the poor demon’s arms and continued unimpeded into his head .

It looked like that the array didn’t hold up to scrutiny when observed at such proximity , or maybe the demon simply used some ocular skill more powerful than his Eye of Discernment] . The demon had noticed something was wrong but didn’t want to alert anyone to this fact until he was back at safety in his group . But some discreet facial tics had foiled his plans .

After the swing Zac quickly grabbed two of his knives from his pouch and hurled them at the war party just as they were shocked by an axe appearing out of thin air and killing their comrade .

One of the knives punched a hole through the imp , instantly killing it , but the other missed the demon he was aiming for . He’d trained his throwing skills diligently since his embarrassing throw that completely missed the target in his first battle against a barghest . Together with his increased stats in Strength and Dexterity , his aim was quite good by now , but he still couldn’t always hit his targets when throwing in rapid succession .

He threw another dagger but the demon dodged it , as it was ready for the attacks now . The barghest were stupid however , and a knife instantly slammed into its torso , maiming it badly . He had a decent stock of knives by now since killing the scout demons surrounding the valley with the incursion , and could keep throwing them for a while .

He didn’t have any time to kill the other barghest , as he saw one of the demons starting to conjure a fireball . Aghast , he didn’t dare to hesitate , and hurled a dagger at the mage . He couldn’t have him burn the camp down , or even start a forest fire . Every demon on the island would know a battle was happening here .

A magic shield stopped the dagger in its tracks , so Zac had no choice but to charge out of his array toward the demons . There still were 5 demons and a couple of demon beasts against him . Fortunately he killed the imp immediately , otherwise he’d have to worry about those fireballs . They were still extremely deadly , even with his improved constitution .

Suddenly as he was approaching spikes shot out the ground . They looked like thin stalactites , so it seemed one of the demons was a rock mage . Not expecting the attack one of the spikes managed to stab into his gut before he could react .

His breastplate was high quality work , but unfortunately it only covered his upper torso . Therefore his only protection on the rest of his body was the common leather armor which barely impeded attacks . He broke off the one impaling him and then destroyed the other with a swing .

An arrow crackling with electricity zoomed toward his head as he was getting rid of the stone spears . He had to dodge before properly removing the tip of the spike from his stomach , making it do some extra damage while he rolled away .

As he got back to his feet the fire mage already seemed ready to fire his spell . But to Zac’s horror he wasn’t actually aiming at him or the camp , but straight up . The demon intended to use it as a signal flare while the others impeded him .

Zac desperately infused all the cosmic energy and heaviness he could into his arm and threw his axe with a grunt . The axe sounded like a propeller as it ripped through the air at the mage . The magic shield that stopped his knife shattered like a mirror , and the axe head slammed into the mage’s chest , instantly killing him .

Lucky for him the ball of flame snuffed out as soon as the mage died , just like how it did with the imps he had fought . There would be no signal flare or forest fire this time at least .

But Zac didn’t have time to breathe out in relief , as a barghest slammed straight into him . The demonic brutes could charge straight through smaller trees , so the force completely winded him . Had he been prepared he could have used the inscription on his chest piece , as his chest armor held one charge where it could nullify an attack . But Zac himself had to activate it and he wasn't prepared for the body slam .

An arrow shot into his stomach as he was pushed backward as well , piling on to his misery . Luckily his endurance was up in the high 70’s by now , and it didn’t get far into his body before stopping .

However , the arrow released a lightning shock right into his intestines , making him unable to breathe for a second . Zac coughed out a mouthful of blood but didn’t dare move the arrow , remembering that leaving the weapons in the wound when stabbed was safer . He could only break it off and ignore it for now . Instead , he punched the barghest which caused it to crash hard into the ground .