Defiance of the Fall

A flash of pain erupted on his back , and he noticed a gwyllgi had approached soundlessly from behind . Normally these beasts were of no concern , but he also had to worry about the mage and archer . There also were two more demons who still stayed put . One of them carried a two-handed sword , and with his muscular build looked very much like a classic warrior .

But the other’s gear gave Zac no indication of her means of attack . He assumed she was some sort of mage , as she held a tome in her hands .

Zac growled in annoyance and kept the barghest down on the ground with one hand and grabbed a knife out of his pouch with the other . With a quick stab he tore its throat out . It was still alive but wouldn’t be for long . He just barely dodged another arrow coming at him right after his kill , but simultaneously an earthen spike tore straight through the dying barghest and headed for his head .

Just as he was about to dodge a splitting pain in his mind made him completely blank out , and as he tried to dodge the incoming spike he realized his body didn’t respond .

But with a muffled roar Zac used all his will-power to force himself to move . He succeeded in breaking the odd restriction and managed to move his head away somewhat away from the stone spear . It still tore a huge gash in his left cheek , doubling the length of his mouth .

Breaking free from the binding left him with a pounding headache and a bit woozy , and he had to shrug his head to reorient himself .

A quick glance at the enemies showed that one of the demons who earlier had been staying put was puking blood while looking at Zac aghast . It was the one who was holding a tome looking mysterious . He didn’t have time to think about what kind of skill she used , as he was beset from both behind and the back .

A gwyllgi charged at him again , but this time he was prepared . With a quick stab blood gushed out of its chest , and it crashed into the ground . He took another arrow , this time to his leg , but it was a worthwhile price for another enemy down .

He grabbed the dying gwyllgi by its neck and used it as a shield while charging toward the group . Their distance wasn’t big and he was upon them before they could send another salvo of earthen spears and arrows .

Zac ran toward the downed mage in order to get his axe back , but the warrior demon who had stood rooted until now placed himself in his way . From his bulging muscles he seemed he focused on the Strength attribute , which actually made Zac relieved rather than anything else . If it was one thing he was confident in it was his supreme strength .

The warrior roared and swung his sword toward him . Zac didn’t dare use his knife to intercept , and could only use the beast carcass as a club . He swung it at the warrior , trying to angle it so that he would hit the flat of the blade rather than the edge .

The corpse and the sword clashed , and the corpse exploded in a mangled shower of blood and viscera , drenching both Zac and the demon . But it did its job , and the sword was deflected once . That was all he needed , as he crashed into the demon with all the strength he could muster .

The warrior was flung away like a ragdoll , not being able to muster any resistance in the slightest . He fell down a few meters away , and whether he was alive or dead was unknown . The demons seemingly hadn’t expected that outcome of the collision , and he managed to immediately snatch up his axe before they could react .

Zac then made a beeline for the archer . At these close quarters , the archer had actually dropped his bow and instead held a short sword and a blade respectively . Zac would have expected him to make some distance like the last archer he fought . But perhaps he either actually focused on blades , or didn’t dare turn his back on Zac while fleeing . Both the blades were crackling with the same lightning as the arrows he had shot at Zac earlier .

Zac ignored an earthen spear stabbing into him and pushed on toward the Rogue-looking demon . He wanted to make short work of him and swung a horizontal swing intended to cleave him in two .

However the demon almost seemed to have no bones in his body , and curved his torso to avoid the swing , and then retaliated by trying to stab Zac’s heart and throat . Zac was out of position with the swing and could only desperately protect himself with his free arm , really wishing he had a buckler right about now .

The knife heading for his heart plunged into his bicep , and the short sword changed trajectory slightly to avoid hitting his arm as well . It at least managed to nick his throat , and a small gout of blood spurted out . But at least it hadn’t hit an artery . The electric shocks hurt as well , but with Zac’s Endurance he could grit his teeth and simply force his body not to spasm . These arcs of lightning couldn't compare to the black lightning he had tasted earlier as well .

He turned his hand to readjust his edge and tried to swipe the demon on the way back . The demon once again deftly repositioned his body so that he would be able to avoid it , but this time Zac wouldn't be denied . Just as the axe blade was about to miss the demon’s throat a translucent edge grew out a meter and cleanly decapitated the ranger .

Zac didn’t really want to show his ace while there still were 3 demons alive , but he had to kill the ranger . The ranger was the only one he wasn’t sure he would be able to catch if they started to flee . And if they were sane they should . He had decimated half their force in almost no time . His wounds looked grisly but nothing that would stop him from continuing his onslaught .

With his new skills and power-ups he truly felt like the apex predator of his island .

Chapter 42 - Exodus

With only two demons left , not including the knocked out warrior , Zac charged toward his next targets . The two demons briefly looked at each other in the eye , and both launched an attack before fleeing .

The tome-wielding demon’s attack was an almost invisible ripple in the air , whereas the earth mage erected a large wall . Zac once again threw his axe just before the wall completely obscured the two fleeing combatants , and then he crashed straight into the wall .

The wall was hastily erected and couldn’t withstand Zac’s momentum , and he blasted through it like a wrecking ball . Just as he did the ripple hit him , making him nauseous and disoriented . But the attack wasn’t as strong as the earlier one , and he soon managed to dispell the effects .

A quick glance at the demon who used the ripple attacks showed her dead with an exploded chest , with his axe stuck in the ground some distance away from her corpse . But before he could continue on to kill the earth mage he felt an intense amount of danger as he heard a whistling sound . It was the sword-wielding warrior who Zac had punted earlier .

Somehow he had gotten up and snuck right behind Zac without him noticing , and his two-handed sword was bearing down on his throat . Zac had no time to dodge and could only put his hopes on the spell on his chest . The familiar golden sheen of the armor’s skill immediately enveloped him , just in time to intercept the large sword .

With a crash , the warrior was flung backward once again , and this time Zac could hear the sound of bone breaking .

The earth demon was still running and Zac couldn’t let him get away . He barreled after him and threw a knife at the back of the mage . A block of rock rose up behind him intercepting the dagger , but the scare made the mage stumble .

Zac immediately rushed to the fallen demon , and ferociously stabbed down at his throat . However , a layer of rock appeared on the mage's skin , creating another layer of defense . The knife simply couldn’t cut through it .

Terror was still evident in the demon’s eyes , and it stuttered some words in its own language . Zac ignored it and brought out the huge greatsword from his pouch . He increased the weight to the max through the inscription on the blade , and slammed it down on the body . It was cruel , but he wouldn't risk letting the mage somehow alerting the army of what was going on .

Over 130 Strength and a heavy greatsword resulted in a ruptured lump of flesh on the ground , and even a crater was created .

Zac didn’t waste any time , and immediately ran back toward the last demon . He found him limping away from the scene of the battle , his sword discarded where he fell . He soon noticed Zac approaching with fear and hatred evident on his face . Suddenly he completely disappeared , shocking Zac .

He wondered if the demon used some sort of teleportation skill which would allow it to escape . He furiously ran toward where the demon disappeared and looked around for any clues .

Zac saw a glimmer in the distance and immediately threw a dagger at it . Suddenly the background looked like it was distorting , and the warrior reappeared , the dagger lodged in his arm . Zac ran over , and with a swing of the great sword ended the fight .

The last demon had used an illusion skill like his array , or something similar . That was also how he snuck up and almost decapitated him earlier . Zac was a bit surprised a meat head-looking warrior knew such a skill , as that felt like something that usually belonged to rogue-like classes .

It made him realize he couldn’t rely on his gaming experiences for everything . The system was quite omnipotent , and anything was possible .

With the demons killed there was no hurry anymore , so Zac quickly treated most of his wounds and then gathered up all the corpses and their gear in his pouch . This also made sure none of the demons pulled a ruse on him and played dead , as nothing living could enter the pouch . He also retrieved his daggers and axe , and while doing so he was attacked by the last barghest and gwyllgi from the roving party .

With their masters dead they went back to their ordinary hyper-aggressive behavior . Without any demons shooting various things at him he finished them off easily , officially eradicating the war party .

The fight had gone above his expectation , and he was almost like a fox let loose in a hen house . His stats were getting increasingly scary for his level . Furthermore , the fight had also made him realize something . Not one of the demons he had fought thus far used any Dao while fighting . They had used battle tactics and skills , but the indefinable quality of Dao , such as Zac’s heaviness and force he could imbue into his strikes , were missing . Perhaps gaining a Dao seed was something uncommon , or at least hard , making it a rare boost reserved for the elite .

He was also very satisfied with his new skill Chop] . It worked just as he hoped , providing a great method of sneak attacking . He wasn’t sure if it was designed to be used this way , but he felt it was the most effective method in this type of combat .

Zac had wanted to use the skill a bit more to test it out in battle , but unfortunately , he spent a good deal of the battle without the axe in his hand . He really hoped he would be able to pick up some back-up axes , or even throwing axes , soon . Unfortunately Azzun had been the only demon so far who fought with an axe .

Even though he luckily stopped the signal flare and finished the battle quickly Zac didn’t feel relieved . The fight took place right by his camp , making him realize it was just a matter of time before he was exposed .

He spent the next hour going over the scene of the battle , meticulously removing any traces of battle that he could . He was forced to crush the earthen spikes into rubble , but the wall was crumbling by itself for some reason . Perhaps it was erected so hastily that it couldn’t properly stabilize , sort of like his Chop] blade when making it too long .

When finally done it wasn’t readily apparent a battle took place outside his camp . There were sections of overturned earth though , as Zac had to hide the blood and viscera somehow . Hopefully a day or two in the sun and wind would make it appear more natural .

Finally Zac returned to the camp and properly stitched himself up . He had already removed the arrow-head , but the ugly gash in his face was still open . He prioritized hiding the scene of the battle and had only kept his mouth closed in hopes that it would help the wound close by itself .

After taking a look in the mirror he saw it was already slowly starting to close . He knew that it would leave an ugly scar though , permanently disfiguring his face .

Well , better ugly than dead I suppose’ Zac thought with a sigh . Besides , that scar was only the latest in a litany of wounds on his body accumulated over the last month .

Finally he closed his eyes to sleep for two hours before getting up . His wounds were getting better . Most of the wounds had been quite shallow thanks to his high Endurance , and he felt healed enough for another day of battle .

While cleaning up the scene during the night he made a difficult decision about his future . He would abandon camp , at least for now . The risk of returning home after a day of monsters grinding and finding himself in an ambush started to feel too high for comfort . He would only return if absolutely needed .

He started to pack up anything of use to bring with him . Luckily he acquired another magic pouch from the battle , although its space was smaller than his first . It was half-way packed with various rocks and plants . It seemed that the demon parties were roving the island to collect samples of various things . Zac didn’t know why , but he felt they didn’t do it to compose a botanical encyclopedia .

His guess was that it was for healing remedies or poisons . Even before the world changed plants with healing properties existed , and if they got crammed chock-full with cosmic energy the effect might be far greater . Maybe the demons had some means to test whether the local flora possessed any value , so they collected it to be tested . That would explain why it was only a few samples of each type in the bag .

He left the rocks and herbs in , as he didn’t require a lot of space . The herbs might come in handy in the future after all . He filled the other half with spare gear and the two luxurious chairs . He kept the table , rug , and parasol in his original pouch . He had grown fond of the furniture and didn’t want them seized by the demons if they found his deserted campsite .

He also tried storing the nexus crystals and the array flags , but it didn’t work . He wasn’t surprised , as he already knew he couldn’t move them too far from the camp either . He once tried it earlier , as he had wanted to use the gravity array as a trap device . But when he moved the flags too far away from his designated outpost the flags started to vibrate ominously .

Apparently , they would self-destruct if they were moved too far . They were bought by the System as an outpost improvement , so the System restricted them somehow . Maybe he could purchase non-restricted versions in the future in the shops he had seen in the outpost store . He could only leave them where they were and hope that the demons didn’t destroy them . Most of the things would be pretty cheap to purchase again , but losing the gathering array would hurt .

Finally he tried to store his new pouch in his old one , but it didn’t work either . Perhaps one couldn’t place a magic space inside a magic space , as it would violate some law of space or whatever . He could only carry the two pouches next to each other on his belt .

Having packed all his essentials he paused as he looked over the camp briefly , some sadness welling up in his heart . He probably wouldn’t return here until the demons were dealt with . He now had both brought a demon here for interrogation and also fought a large battle right at the steps of his camp . The risk of staying here was too large .

He could buy defensive arrays , but he held little assurance that something that only cost around a 100 000 nexus coins could keep a whole demon army at bay . Besides , they simply needed to siege him by leaving a hundred men outside , and sooner or later he would run out of resources and also fail his quests .

With a sour feeling he set out , moving toward the western part of the island , where he fought the Herald . After arriving at the vicinity he dumped the bodies and tried to stage the area to look like it had happened there . He wasn’t too optimistic that he’d fool anyone though , but he didn’t want to waste time with burying them . They’d know the party was dead one way or another soon anyway , and he hoped to move their attention to this part of the island .

The corpses were left on the ground without any of their gear and weapons , as it was all pilfered by Zac .

Done with the task he set out again , this time heading for the mountain .

Chapter 43 - Stone Monkeys

Zac moved through the forest with determination . He felt that he couldn’t look around for information or clues anymore . He simply couldn’t find the last Herald , and he was making no headway regarding the General either .

The general was likely holed up in the city , and the last herald either stayed in the cave or in the city as well . He had traversed the whole island while grinding for his quest skills , and hadn’t even seen a trace of the alpha beast . The city and the cave were the last two options that he could come up with .

He needed to progress his quests , and the monkey mountain was the only way he could as he saw it . The other option was entering the cave , but he felt it was too risky for now . There was a lot of foot traffic to and from that cave , and it seemed they placed great importance on it . He had no idea of the topography inside either , meaning he might be stuck in a large cave with no other exits .

The mountain was a safer bet . While it was somewhat close to demon activity , the cave was located at the foot of the mountain towards the southeast . If he kept his activities to the western part and the central area of the mountain he should be able to act unconstrained without any demons noticing . That was as long as another war party didn’t happen upon him of course .

But the mountain sported a complicated terrain with a multitude of outcroppings , caves , and paths , making it convenient to escape even if he was found out .

He soon arrived at the mountain and stealthily started making his way forward , looking for targets . He was planning on thinning the herd for a few days while looking for the monkey king . Since the stone monkeys had a strong sense of camaraderie he was afraid that the monkey Herald would be able to summon hundreds of monkeys with a shout .

But if those animals were already dead he’d be able to fight the boss without any interruptions . He had already seen that no reinforcements came through the crystal , so every monkey he killed was one less to worry about in the future .

There were a lot of monkeys in the mountain , but nowhere near the seemingly endless amount of barghest that were skulking in the forest . He soon found a group of roughly 50 monkeys that sat huddled together and seemed to be sunbathing . They were completely immobile and staring up at the sky . It was a group like this that had almost ended Zac’s life just days before .

Zac didn't prepare any tricks or traps for this fight , and after a quick survey to make sure not another group was in the vicinity , he charged into the pack . He charged up Chop] through the fractal in his hand to the limit of what he could control , and with a great arc decimated three monkeys with one swing . Apart from being a good skill for surprise attacks , it also was excellent when fighting large groups of weaker prey .

Between the haft and the elongated blade of his skill he had a far greater reach compared to a normal axe wielder , and everything within two and a half meters of him was a zone of death . Enraged screams erupted from the pack of monkeys , and they started to frenziedly throw themselves at him .

This time he wasn’t in as dire straits as the last . His strength and endurance had increased considerably , and the skills increased his efficiency against large packs of enemies . Last time he often wasn’t able to completely kill a monkey with a swing , only managing to hurt or maim it . But with Axe Mastery] he learned better ways to handle his weapon , and with Chop] he managed to hit more targets at once .

He was like a harvester cutting down his crops , as with every swing a few monkeys perished . The rock plating on their bodies offered almost no protection against Zac’s inhumanly powerful swings , and rock chips and body parts kept flying in all directions .

The battle only lasted for a minute but almost every monkey died . Terrified by the onslaught some of the smarter monkeys had desperately fled when Zac had killed half of the pack . Zac couldn’t be bothered with hunting them down , as he was quite exhausted and panting . The fight had been fast , but it also had been furious . Keeping his Chop] skill active at maximum capacity for a whole minute also drained him of a lot of his cosmic energy .

Exhausting himself had been worth it though , as the fight gave him another level . Of course , he was quite close to leveling up already before the battle . Zac pulled up his status screen to allocate his points while he moved away from the battle .

He quickly allocated 2 points in endurance and 1 in strength , but as he was about to close the status screen he noticed that all his stats improved again after the allocation . He quickly stopped and took another look to see what changed .

Name

Zachary Atwood

Level

29

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 , The Big 500

Dao

Seed of Heaviness - Early

Strength

145

Dexterity

59

Endurance

84

Vitality

69

Intelligence

49

Wisdom

49

Luck

67

Free Points

0

Nexus Coins

157096

He had once more gained another title , this one called The Big 500 . He focused on it and a prompt explaining the title appeared .

The Big 500 : First in world to reach 500 total attributes . All stats +2]

And the strong get stronger’ Zac thought wryly . It seemed somewhat unfair that the System rewarded those with the most attributes with even more attributes , but no one said that the System was fair .

Just look at how it sent the talented people to some tutorial , deeming the rest as trash and leaving them here to fend for themselves .

It wasn’t a large boost , but it did cheer Zac up after the Child of Dao title . It also reminded him of his strong points . He might not be as smart and talented as others , and he might not be able to cultivate . But even if the cultivators came back with a bunch of skills and knowledge he could still beat them up with his pile of attributes if needed .

He found a secluded spot between a mountain wall and some bushes and sat down to recuperate . With the assistance of the mother-daughter array and a Nexus Crystal it only took him 45 minutes to restore his cosmic energy to its peak . He felt the pinch when using a crystal for recuperation instead of cultivation , but he didn’t want to waste any time so close to enemy territory . A crystal lasted for roughly 2 hours , so his reserve of crystals would be enough to keep a breakneck grinding pace for weeks if needed .

As soon as he was topped off on energy he kept looking for the next group . He didn’t dare look while recuperating , as he never knew when he’d be stuck in an avalanche of monkeys . Soon he found another gathering of the beasts , this one slightly larger than the last . He didn’t know if these groupings were families or packs , but he was thankful that they were spaced out a bit in this manner .

After another recon of the surroundings , he once again started a slaughter . There was not much of a difference between this fight and the last , and it soon ended . He was a bit worse for the wear , but blunt hits from their stone fists did not impact his body overly much . He had over 80 endurance by now , and he gauged the monkey’s strength to be somewhere in the 60’s . They still hurt , but it would take some while for him to take actual damage .

The only real dangers the monkeys could muster up was either from their sharp teeth or from simply tiring him to death with numbers . But with the reach of his weapon infused with Chop] no monkey maw really managed to get close to him , and he carefully checked the surroundings before every fight for hidden backups .

Zac kept this rotation between fighting and resting going , slowly making his way toward the central area of the mountains . Zac figured the Herald should be somewhere on one of the peaks . Unfortunately , the mountain had a number of peaks rather than just one , so he was planning on checking them one by one , and killing the monkeys in-between .

Zac had already known grinding monkeys would be lucrative as each monkey gave almost as much cosmic energy and Nexus Coins as four barghest . But with his improved stats and skills , his grind speed skyrocketed , shocking even himself . As the suns set Zac finished up his last battle for the day , which had actually rewarded him a second level , bringing him to level 30 .

Done with the fighting for now he retreated to a small cave he found while traversing the mountain paths . It was secluded and seemed to have once housed a bear or some similar animal from the shed fur in the corners . But from the dust gathered it seemed that no one had been here for weeks .

Zac guessed that this cave was moved here with its inhabitant from wherever this mountain came from , and that the stone monkeys killed the bear when it ventured out for food .

The cave wasn’t huge but provided Zac with sufficient space to practice using the Axe Mastery] guidance system before he finally sat down and rested . He also spent over an hour on trying to gain another Dao seed . He was trying to actualize the other aspect he had sensed the strongest from his Dao vision , sharpness . If he got another Dao Seed he would gain another power-up and speed up his farming even more .

But no matter what he did or how , he couldn’t take even one step on the path . When he had tried to imagine the one for heaviness it went very smoothly , and he couldn’t quite figure out why the difference in difficulty was so huge . He could only speculate that he either simply had no talent for the Dao of Sharpness , or that the System restricted Dao seeds somehow .

Perhaps the skill could only reward him with one Dao Seed . If he wanted more he had to work on it by himself by arduously practicing and meditating on it . He knew that it would likely have taken him years to figure out the feeling for the Dao of Heaviness if it wasn’t for the vision essentially imprinting the Dao in his mind . He more and more realized the value of that vision as he kept trying to meditate on the Dao by himself .

Finally , he gave up and called it a day . But he would dedicate some time every day for meditation as well he decided . At least until someone told him it was a waste of time . It had been a long day , and Zac was exhausted . He wiped his sweat and then crept into a small crevice that secluded him even further , and fell into a deep slumber .

Chapter 44 - Peak

Zac woke up just at dawn and decided to meditate briefly before getting ready . He wasn’t sure whether it helped him gain insight and progress his Dao Seed , or help gain a new one . Even so , he felt it was a worthwhile endeavor . He was starting to get worried about his psyche . He had bathed in blood and battle constantly for weeks , and it had taken its toll . He felt he almost shut off all his emotions as a coping mechanism to not go insane , but it wasn’t a permanent solution .

He needed to adjust his state of mind to be able to endure . He knew that even if he survived the island , his life wouldn’t likely change much . He still had to defend his island from new invaders for three months even if he managed to kick out the demons . At least if he understood his quest Incursion master correctly .

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

Since the quest still hadn’t progressed after over a month he believed it would start up as soon as the demons and the Incursion were dealt with . If it meant that he only needed to worry about the critters on the island for three months afterwards , then everything would be well and good . But Zac held no hope that the System would be so nice about it , and would likely send some trouble his way .

As he was looking through his quest panel he also noticed that the Forester’s Constitution quest unfortunately hadn’t progressed from his day of battling Monkeys . There were some solitary trees rooted on the cliffs , but it seemed the system made a clear distinction between a mountain next to a forest and a forest .

He closed the menus and silently stared out over the tranquil view . The mountains were quite a bit calmer compared to the forest , as the stone monkeys didn’t have the tendency to incessantly roar like the barghest did . It almost felt like he was just camping again , which made him think about Hannah .

To be honest , he hadn’t really been thinking about her and the others a lot lately , as he was focused on surviving and getting stronger . As he was reminiscing about her he realized he had missed an important clue about the tutorial . The four of them hadn’t returned to his camp after the month-long tutorial had ended . He didn’t reflect over it at the time , his mind occupied with the newly arrived demons and his class acquisition .

As he saw it that could have two reasons . First , they were all dead , and the system didn’t bother to teleport back corpses . Second , after finishing the tutorial they were not teleported back from where they were snatched up , but somewhere else . Perhaps to human settlements or the like .

He could only pray it was the second reason . He wondered if they were looking for him , or if they just assumed he died . Had Hannah moved on?

Zac sighed and looked out over the sunrise . What obligations did he have to a new girlfriend when the apocalypse came? They had only been together for a few months when the world was integrated into the multi-verse . And even if he managed to find her again it would likely take a long time . Could they still even be considered a couple? He couldn’t find any easy answers and simply tabled the matter .

There were monkeys to kill .

He ate a quick breakfast and headed out . Today he was planning on scaling one of the peaks to look for the Herald . As he traversed the mountain he made an intriguing discovery . The further up he climbed , the more concentrated the cosmic energy felt .

He was clueless if it was related to altitude , or something about the mountains themselves caused the phenomena . But he realized that it might be very valuable in the future . He wasn’t a cultivator , but even he felt invigorated by the density of cosmic energy in the surroundings .

Perhaps he could rent out the mountains to cultivators in the future at exorbitant rates . He could only assume that cultivating in this kind of environment would be far more effective compared to doing it at a place with a normal density of energy . It could be a great source of income if he got a town up and running in the future . There was something about the thought of becoming a post-apocalyptic slumlord that gave him a comforting sense of normalcy .

Zac spent half the day killing monkey packs and scaling the closest peak , with his efficiency in monkey dismantling starting to reach a sublime level . There were some surprises where unexpected backup that Zac had missed entered the fray , but it generally only resulted in more Nexus Coins for himself . The scariest moment was when a monkey somehow managed to sneak up on him , biting him in his inner loin . Just slightly to the left and the monkey would have eaten his precious jewels .

He reached the peak midday , and after a brief survey could conclude that this peak wasn’t the home of the Herald . The air felt quite fresh up here , and Zac decided to have his dinner with a view . He sat down between some rocks to look more inconspicuous and retrieved some fruit and dried meat from his pouch .

His experiments with food and the pouch was a great success . Everything he put inside kept even better compared to a refrigerator , the fruits and slabs of meat still looking pristine after over a week . He didn’t dare start a fire for some barbeque this close to the demon town though , so he could only stick to his dried rations .

As he ate he looked over the mountain range . His view from the peak afforded him a unique vantage , and he made some new discoveries .

There were a total of five real peaks , of which he sat on the western-most . The peak he occupied was slightly off on its own , whereas the other four were a bit more clumped together .

Between the four peaks there seemed to be a secluded valley that wasn’t visible from down below as it was located a few hundred meters above sea level . The mountain range itself had some sparse vegetation , such as some windswept shrubbery and small trees , but the valley seemed quite lush with an abundance of leafy growth . Zac even thought he could discern a small pond or lake , but couldn’t be sure as a large part of the valley was covered in a mist .

The valley certainly looked intriguing , like a secret little paradise hidden from sight . If he was on a treasure hunt he’d bet all his doubloons that any riches the island had to offer were hidden there .

More importantly , it also seemed like a good resting place for a Herald .

The only thing making him unsure was the fact that the monkeys seemed to like the rocky outcroppings and cliffs of the mountain . It would be a bit odd if their leader preferred to stay in a forest instead .

The great elevation also allowed him to finally confirm that he was indeed on an island . He hadn’t been able to see anything behind the mountain range before , and knew there might have been land on the other side as well . But steep cliffs gave way to the ocean at the end of the mountain range , looking almost as though the mountain had been sliced clean off . Perhaps the System simply had chopped off part of a larger mountain range and slapped it onto the edge of the island . It was quite the sight , with a drop of at least 100 meters down into the waters below .

Zac finished his meal and made his way back down the mountain slopes again , and started trekking eastbound for the other peaks . He kept killing every monkey pack in his way , bringing a storm of carnage to the mountain . He was somewhat surprised that there still wasn't a more concerted effort to catch him by the monkeys by now , as the monkeys seemed to care greatly for each other .

But they stayed in their groups still , and made perfect targets for him . He even gradually dared to attack larger packs as his confidence grew . Initially he skipped the gatherings that were too large , but by now he felt confident enough to attack most packs .

Zac thought that he would actually gain another level this day , but he was forced to suddenly stop fighting during the evening . It wasn’t because he was hurt or lacked targets , the problem was his axe .

His war-axe possessed a self-repairing and sharpening feature through its inscriptions , but it seemed it couldn’t properly keep up with Zac’s recent activities . During his barghest-genocide it had no problems staying in good shape , but here it was dull and blemished after only one day .

Zac realized that the tough rock plating on the monkeys’ bodies was the problem . His strength and endurance provided all the power he needed , but it was his weapon that failed him . He was quite confused about the whole thing though . When he fought the monkeys he always used his skill Chop] to create the translucent enlarged edge to cover his actual axe head . Still , his actual axe was worse for the wear .

It seemed that the skill didn’t just copy the edge of his weapon , it rather projected it . That was a disadvantage he hadn’t expected , but then again it still was an extremely powerful and diverse skill for being the first attack skill the class offered .

With no other option he could only find a refuge for the night again , and instead spend greater time on practicing with Axe Mastery] and meditating . He briefly considered whether to keep going , using one of the large swords in his pouch as a weapon instead . But he eventually decided against it .

For one he couldn’t use his skills with a sword , and there also was another reason he hesitated . He wanted to use other weapons as little as possible in general .

When he picked his class it generally looked like the options were based on his activities . Since his stats , skills and experiences all were centered on the axe he wanted to upgrade in this direction when he got the opportunity to upgrade the Hatchetman class . He was afraid that he might miss out on a good class upgrade if he kept using too many various weapons and not fulfill the prerequisites .

That’s why he also really wanted to find more axes , so he wouldn’t be forced to use knives as much for throwing or as back-ups . He even toyed with the idea of stalking the roving gathering parties on the island to find someone with axes , and then take them out . But ultimately it still felt like an unnecessary risk . That he managed to kill the party at his camp so smoothly largely could be attributed to the element of surprise . He felt that he could likely wipe out most of the parties by now , but he couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t be able to send out a warning signal like the flame mage had tried .

Zac finally found a decent cave and settled in . As he was practicing his axe technique he was pondering whether he already had to change his plans . The reason was the huge amount of Nexus Coins he was racking up . A day of killing the monkeys resulted in roughly 100 000 nexus coins . That amount took him almost a week to gather when desperately hunting barghest .

He currently had 347 000 coins , and only needed two days to gather the necessary coins for the movement skill Steps of Gaia] . He felt his current weakness was that his speed was lacking . If he could move faster he wouldn’t have to keep throwing his axe at people , but instead simply run up to them .

Allocating his free points in Dexterity was an option , but he felt it wasn’t the correct one . He had already decided to focus one or two stats and let his titles take care of the rest . He already had 59 Dexterity , which should be considered a lot for anyone not having Dexterity as his or her main attribute .

Besides , after observing the demons he fought he realized they did the same thing . They were specialized in one or two stats as well . The mages didn’t have overbearing Strength or Dexterity and likely focused on Wisdom and intelligence . Instead , they used things like magic shields and earthen walls to protect themselves from attacks .

Zac felt that this was the way that people powered up in the multi-verse . Focus on the attributes that best empowered him , and have skills shore up the shortcomings .

He knew he likely had survived the mentalist mage's binding during his last bout with the demons due to his high Intelligence and Wisdom . But he assumed that normally a warrior would have a skill to protect their mind instead of wasting their free stat points on those attributes .

The only problem for Zac was that he didn’t have a ready source of skills except the Nexus Node . But the choices there seemed quite limited , and he hadn’t gotten any new Class skill quests yet . If specialization was the way to go it also meant that he had wasted some stat points in the beginning by putting them into Vitality and Dexterity .

Of course , without the points in Vitality he might be dead by now , but not being optimized left a bad taste in his mouth .

Chapter 45 - Monkey Captain

Finally Zac reluctantly decided to not get the skill for now . He wanted to find and kill the third Herald first .

He really wanted the power-up , but he also realized he was working against the clock here . He was already somewhat surprised there wasn’t a monkey army hunting him in the mountains after his activities . It wasn’t a small number of stone monkeys he had killed in the last two days after all .

He was also getting closer and closer to the area where the demons were active , and they could notice his activities at any moment . The mountains were getting filled with sites of desolation , with hundreds of monkey carcasses adorning the hills by now .

He was afraid that if he spent another two days grinding monsters , and then one day to travel to his camp and back to get the skill , his window of opportunity to kill the Herald would pass .

After all , the cave where the demons worked all day was quite close to the easternmost peak . It wasn’t unreasonable to assume they would wander around the peak as well , looking for more of whatever they wanted in the cave .

He needed to find the Herald quickly and kill it . He decided to spend the day moving toward the valley and kill any packs that were in the vicinity of it . Then he’d finally try locating the Herald early the next morning .

After he woke up he briefly meditated , and after confirming his axe was back to tip-top shape , set out toward the cluster of peaks . He gained a level on the first pack he encountered , bringing him to level 31 .

He soon arrived at the foot of the westernmost peak of the four clustered mountains . He planned to scale it halfway up , which would lead him to the entrance of the valley . Then he’d make a circle around the peaks to kill off any packs close to the valley .

That would both let him scout out the four peaks for anything out of place , and also kill any potential back-up that the Herald could call for . If the herald was on one of the peaks rather than in the valley he hoped there would be something different about it to give him some hints .

As soon as he started climbing the first peak he started to notice an increased resistance . The packs grew slightly larger , and there were stronger monkeys in the packs . Monkeys in the wild usually had an alpha who led the group of primates , but he hadn’t really seen that so far in the groups he had killed . Zac simply assumed that the Herald was the big boss of everyone , but it didn’t seem that simple .

But now there was a monkey with bulging muscles standing a head taller compared to the others . Zac used Eye of Discernment] on it , but it still was only called a Stone Monkey . The other Heralds both had names , so he could only assume this was not it .

The alpha monkey maybe could be considered a captain , and the Herald was the general . Just the fact that the packs were getting stronger felt like a good indication that he was on the correct path . It showed the Herald likely was nearby as he hypothesized .

Zac hesitated for a second , before doing his customary sweep of the surroundings .

The monkeys in general seemed stronger compared to the outer packs , so he needed to do some preparation . Close to the pack he found a narrow path up in the mountain , with sheer wall on both sides . It seemed that the rocky formation cracked in two sometime in the distant past , which had created this path . That would hopefully only let a few monkeys charge in at the time . It would slow down his assault but he wanted to play it safe until he could gauge the strength of these juiced up monkeys .

The next part was to lure the monkeys over , and Zac simply picked up a boulder the size of a head . With a grunt he threw it straight into the clump of monkeys , and with its huge momentum it smashed a poor monkey’s head in .

The monkeys angrily roared and flooded toward him . Zac slowly backed away and placed himself some ways into the crack . He planned to kill a few and then back further in to make room for the corpses .

The battle started as intended , with Zac quickly reaping the lives of a dozen monkeys in quick order . But as he retreated further in he noticed a very bad sign . The monkeys had no problems climbing the sheer rock walls .

Zac wanted to slap himself in his scarred face . He should have realized that rock monkeys were good at climbing rocks . He had simply forgotten about the nimbleness of their primate brethren as the stone monkeys always seemed to sit immobile among the rocks rather than climbing them .

Just as he berated himself he heard a loud roar from the back rows of the group of monkeys . Suddenly all monkeys in front of him threw themselves to the ground in perfect harmony , and taking their place was a rock hurtling toward him . It was twice the size of the one he had thrown , and he didn’t have time to react before it slammed into him like a truck .

Zac was flung backward from the momentum and spit out a mouthful of blood . It seemed the monkey captain wanted revenge for his earlier throw .

Before he could get up multiple monkeys hanging on the walls jumped down on him . Rather than trying to pummel him like monkeys used to , it seemed that they tried to pin him down . They gripped his extremities with all their might and tried to keep him from getting up .

Unfortunately for them his strength was 160 by now , and he could lift the monkeys like they were children . He ignored the monkey clinging to his axe arm and furiously swung the axe , killing the monkeys who were gripping his legs .

As he finally was getting up after getting rid of all the monkeys another projectile was flying into his direction . This time it was a sharp stalactite , and Zac couldn’t understand where the monkey captain had gotten it . He managed to deflect it in the last minute with his axe , but the force made him fall back a few steps .

He immediately jumped into the fray , now fighting both monkeys on the ground and those hanging on the wall . He madly flailed the axe around , the only thing keeping him safe was the great reach of Chop] .

He soon got the answer from where the monkey captain found its stalactite . As he was desperately defending against the deluge of rabid monkeys he saw the captain grab onto the rock wall . Its fingers actually carved into the wall , and suddenly he dragged out another stalactite straight out of the wall .

It actually looked like the monkey could use a skill , or at least an early prototype of one . It wasn’t as fancy as the spikes the earthen mage had used , but he was shocked that a dumb animal could do it . It seemed that skills , and perhaps even exploring the Dao , was not something exclusive to humanoids .

He didn’t have time to reflect on it further before another projectile came flying toward him . He saw it coming this time and grabbed a monkey to use as a shield . The monkey absorbed most of the blow , but Zac was still pushed back somewhat .

The monkey captain seemingly was able to keep generating these projectiles , as he once again moved his hand toward the wall . Zac didn’t want to keep this status quo going . He wasn’t really hurt apart from some bruising so far , but if he didn’t do something soon he might run out of energy or get hit by a lucky projectile .

He stopped his retreat into the crack and instead started to furiously push forward . He was a whirlwind of carnage as he pushed through the horde of monkeys . He wanted to finish off the leader first and then whittle down the others .

Monkeys started to climb around and charge Zac from the back , but with his 90 Endurance he could shrug off the strikes for now . The only time he stopped his onslaught was when some monkey managed to grab his legs and risked pulling him down on the ground again .

The leader threw another large rock at Zac , seemingly trying to impede his advance .

Zac saw the projectile approaching this time , and swung down his axe in a fierce vertical strike to cleave it . He had expected the two pieces to slam to the sides of him , but was sorely mistaken . The only result from his strike was that two boulders hit him instead of one , slamming him back once again .

Zac could only redouble his efforts and ignoring his cosmic energy expenditure kept utilizing Chop] to the max .

Finally , as he was 3 meters away from the captain , he couldn’t be bothered getting in close with it , and overcharged the skill , increasing the length of the blade with a full meter extra . With a roar he swiped in an upward arc , and the captain was split in two . He could only maintain such a length for a second , but one second was all he needed for one quick kill .

After that , he simply planted his back against the wall and kept killing until there was no monkey left willing to fight . There were a few monkeys who kept screaming at him from the distance , but Zac hurled another rock at one , instantly crushing its head . Then finally the last remnants of the pack finally fled .

Zac was truly exhausted and hurting from the fight , but he forced himself to get up and move away from the battle . The sounds carried far in the mountains , and he didn’t want to be around if either the Herald or some demons heard the noise .

He kept sneaking up the mountain and soon reached the entrance to the hidden valley far up in the air . He didn’t dare enter yet , but instead opted to hide between some rocks and recuperate from the battle . The melee reminded him that just because he had gotten the Axe Mastery] skill he still was by no means a master fighter . His planning impeded him rather than helped , and he would probably have been better off just charging in as usual .

It felt like he had been fighting for his life on the island for an eternity , but in reality he had only been on the island for roughly 40 days . Before that he’d just been a desk jockey , completely oblivious to any fighting tactics . He had made a few real beginner mistakes in this fight , and could only strive to do better in the future .

Chapter 46 - The Hunt for the Herald

As Zac stood at the edge of the valley he was shocked by the density of cosmic energy . The amount in the air was already quite a bit higher in the mountains compared to down on the ground , but in this secluded vale it was a whole tier higher still .

The density made his suspicion that the Herald hid in the valley much stronger . He was sure that the Monkey King would prefer the increased amount of cosmic energy if even the monkey captains were able to use skills and maybe even cultivate .

The amount of cosmic energy made Zac worried that there might actually be demons here as well . While he had observed their activities for a few days he didn't really see any demons enter the mountains further than the cave , but that didn’t mean that there weren’t cultivator demon’s stationed here .

He refrained from entering the valley at the moment , as he still wanted to thin the herd of monkeys in the mountains first . A large enough roar from the valley might be able to call for reinforcements from all four peaks after all .

The fight against the pack with the monkey captain was a bit shaky , but it was mostly due to his mistakes . The monkeys on the peaks were slightly stronger compared to the ones he had fought earlier , but not to the point that they could stop his onslaught . He only needed to kill the leader and then it was carnage as usual .

There was one more pack he needed to kill on the mountain peak he had climbed . It didn’t have any captain , but the monkeys in general were slightly bigger even compared to the last pack .

Zac entered the fray after having restored his energy and made short work of the pack . He made the interesting discovery that none of the monkeys dared to enter the valley , even when they were fleeing for their lives . Perhaps the valley was the private residence of the Herald , and they had strict orders not to enter .

Or perhaps something even scarier than Zac lived in the depths of the valley . He supposed he would find out later .

Zac kept his momentum going moving toward the next peak . He didn’t try any fancy tactics anymore , he only tried to knock out the leaders of the following packs by throwing a boulder at them . He didn’t even bother with the throwing knives , as they had trouble penetrating their stone armor . No matter whether the throw succeeded or not he simply charged straight into the throng of stone monkeys , swinging away .

At midday he reached the third peak , having mostly cleared out the two earlier ones apart from a few who managed to escape . This peak was the easternmost , and also the one closest to demon activity . The cave that the demons found so interesting was located not too far away from the foot of the mountain .

Zac was unsure whether he dared to start a battle here , as it might attract the demons below . While the distance was quite great between his location and the cave , he was afraid the sound would carry all the way down . The monkeys got quite loud and agitated during the fights after all . He decided to find a hiding spot with good vantage before deciding anything further . As he was somewhat ahead of schedule , he decided to wait for roughly an hour to gauge any activity in the area .

Weirdly enough there was no monkey pack close to the entrance of the valley . Instead , the monkeys were stationed on the outer side of the mountain peak . This differed from the other two peaks so far , and Zac wanted to figure out why . He soon found his answer , as he was surprised to see a monkey captain hurl a large rock at a demon war party that approached the peak or the valley .

It hit one of them , and with a wail he was flung away from the impact . The demons screamed at the group of monkeys angrily , waving their weapons . But the monkeys were a stoic wall that wouldn’t let them pass . After another minute of posturing , the demons could only turn and leave the mountain .

Zac was confused as he slunk back to the inner side of the mountain . Weren’t the monkeys the pets of the demons , like the other demon beasts? How did they dare deny the demons access to the mountains?

Zac started to get nervous that the monkeys actually weren’t the fourth monster race , but rather some native beast . The System did say it merged Earth with other planets due for integration , and they might be from another one . That would mean that there actually wasn’t a Monkey Herald , but instead two Heralds he couldn’t find .

He felt that shouldn’t be right though . Everything pointed toward them being a part of the demonic invasion . Perhaps the monkeys had a higher standing , and could actually boot the lower demons from their territory .

He knew he wouldn’t get any real answer from just mulling it over , and continued on toward the fourth peak . The weird power dynamic between the monkeys and demons actually helped him out in the end , both removing the threat of demons in the mountains and not having to battle any monkeys that close to the demon activity .

He arrived at the fourth peak and after an intense melee finally finished killing all the packs close to the valley . As it only was evening still he decided to head into the valley after all . Initially he planned to wait until next morning , but due to the inner side of the third peak being free from monkeys he saved a few hours of work .

He took his first steps into the valley , vigilant against any hidden monkeys or other beasts . But after a few minutes of walking it seemed that the forest was deserted . It was odd , as the forest itself felt like a paradise on earth . The air was fresh enough that his cells felt invigorated just from breathing , and the foliage was lush and healthy . The earthy smell of the area calmed Zac’s heart , inviting him to sit down and relax .

However , not even critters were present , making the forest eerily silent except for the occasional rustle from the wind . This stillness felt quite jarring to Zac as his life had been accompanied by the sounds of the forest constantly since the world changed . From critters in the bushes to the calls of the birds . Even the deep roars of the barghest .

That all these sounds were gone didn’t feel natural , and his vigilance only increased , instead of having a soothing effect on him .

As he walked he noticed that he didn’t recognize most of the trees or plants in the valley . Now he wasn’t any botanist , he only knew of the staple flowers and trees . But he felt he should at least recognize some of the vegetation if it was from earth . There were a few trees he assumed were maples but the leaves were as large as his torso .

He didn’t know if the forest had mutated or evolved from the extremely dense cosmic energy in the area , or whether this forest came from another planet , but it felt like the old earth wasn’t able to produce a forest feeling so vibrant .

He was debating whether he should collect samples from the various flowers and herbs like the demon parties did , but soon decided against it . He had no immediate use for them , and the valley would still be here if he managed to kick out the demons .

He soon arrived close to the small lake he glimpsed from the mountain peak . With how pristine the rest of the forest was he had expected that the lake to have clear beautiful waters . While it didn’t look or smell stale , it also wasn’t clear .

The lake was a mysterious shimmering blue , and he could barely see a decimeter into the water before everything was obscured . The water itself seemed to be packed with cosmic energy , as though the lake consisted of liquefied Nexus Crystals .

His body almost instinctively reached down to drink a mouthful of the enticing water before hastily stopping himself . It seemed like such a good natural resource , but still , there were no animals or monsters around , which was very eerie . Perhaps there was something lurking in the depths , prowling on anything stupid enough to come too close to the shore .

He couldn’t let the water go to waste though , and tied a string to one of his magical canteens . He then threw the canteen into the water , and waited some time before dragging it out . It now contained the cosmic water , but he wouldn’t try it before he could feed it to some beasts and see its effects .

Feeling uncomfortable by the mysterious lake Zac continued onward toward the center of the valley . The mysteries of the azure pond would have to wait until another day .

He was almost at the core of the valley by now and slowed his pace . If the Herald was in this valley then it would stand to reason that he was somewhere in the center . Slightly nervous he gripped his axe for comfort , as memories of the struggle with the last herald still haunted him .

Not far ahead it seemed that the forest gave way to open fields , so Zac crouched down and slowly made his way to the edge of the forest . What met his eyes from his hidden vantage point shocked him .

It was a large field , filled with shrunken and desiccated fallen trees . There were signs of bushes and flowers having existed as well , but they too looked like they had been baked in an oven . The only thing still standing tall was a solitary tree in the center .

It wasn’t very large , only being roughly 5 meters tall , but it was spectacular . The trunk and branches had a crimson hue and a smooth exterior . The leaves weren’t red or green but a pristine white , making it look like crystals adorned the branches .

It was a spectacular sight , and Zac didn’t for a second think that this was a normal tree . It was something created with a lot of cosmic energy . The tree virtually hummed with power , making Zac wonder if it actually was alive .

Zac guessed that this tree was the reason for the desolation in the vicinity . The tree seemingly had absorbed the life or cosmic energy out of everything in its surroundings . Perhaps it even had killed all the animals in the forest as well , explaining why it was so quiet . It was a scary thought that the tree wasn't satisfied with the huge density of energy in the air , and needed to drain its surroundings to be satiated .

It took Zac a second to register that something else was next to the tree . A monkey , roughly two meters tall with a build somewhat slimmer compared to its brethren , sat cross-legged with closed eyes under the tree . What made it stand out apart from its build was its color . If the other monkeys in the mountain were made of anthracite rock , then this monkey was made of lava . Red shining streaks ran along every part of the monkey’s otherwise black body , emanating a heavy pressure .

It was the monkey king .

Chapter 47 - Collision Course

The lava monkey didn’t look aggressive or violent like the normal monkeys , but rather harmonious . Even if it seemed crazy , it really looked like he or she was meditating under the peculiar tree . It was quite picturesque , the red streaks of the monkey matching well with the crimson trunk .

The good news was that it looked like he found his Herald . The bad news was that he had no real idea on how to improve the odds in his favor . He saw no method to sneak up on it , as the dried husks of the vegetation on the field wouldn’t provide enough cover .

He didn’t dare use Eye of Discernment] to see its level either , afraid it would notice him like the Imps . That it stayed in this forest with higher cosmic energy concentration , rather than in its natural habitat of the mountain peaks , was telling Zac that the monkey king possessed some sensibility for cosmic energy .

He debated whether he should charge in blind , or wait for a better opportunity . Finally he decided he had to go for it . Finding the Herald sitting by itself with no backup in sight could only be considered a perfect opportunity .

He also discarded the idea of creating crude traps as he had for Vul , the barghest herald . If this monkey could meditate it likely was too intelligent to run into spikes like an idiot .

The only question was whether this monkey was of roughly the same power as Vul or not . When the limiter was lifted at the turn of the month he had concluded that the beasts improved roughly 50% across the board .

He himself had improved far more than that though . When he fought Vul he had only 59 Strength , and now he was at 160 . On top of that , his gear had improved considerably , and he already gained a class and improved pathways . He felt that even if he met an improved Vul today he wouldn’t have to rely on traps to kill it , and it wouldn’t be a desperate struggle either .

But the monkeys were far stronger compared to the barghest . Would the monkey Herald be far stronger compared to the barghest Herald as well?

There was only one way to find out . He slowly repositioned himself to arrive from the east , which would at least let him approach the back of the Herald . It might give him some time to close the distance before it could react .

He steeled his nerves and slowly ventured out of the protective cover of the foliage , and entered the dead zone surrounding the magical tree . He took great care not to step on any of the dried twigs or branches that covered the ground , not wanting to alert the monkey of his approach .

But even though he made no sound it seemed to be to no avail , as the monkey snorted and slowly got up on his feet . Zac held no hope that it was just a coincidence , and immediately pulled out two daggers out of his pouch and threw them at the monster in quick succession .

The monkey turned around in a lightning-quick manner , and with two casual swipes slapped the incoming daggers away into the ground . As the edges collided with its hands sparks flew , but no wounds could be seen . Zac wasn’t surprised as the daggers were barely any use on the normal monkeys , let alone on this super-powered one .

Afterwards he gave up any idea of stealth and thundered straight toward the monkey , with his axe at the ready .

While charged he used the Eye of Discernment] on the monkey , which gave him a terse line of information .

Cindermane , Level 58]

That line removed any last doubts whether this monster was a Herald or not . A solitary Named beast around level 50 fit the bill perfectly . It was a full 13 levels above Vul , who had been level 45 when they battled . He didn’t know how levels worked for beasts , but if it was like for himself it meant it should have almost 100 more attributes in total . Together with the removed limiters , he realized he might be in for a tough battle .

Cindermane didn’t stay put , but charged toward Zac as well . As he did the red streaks on his body lit up and started to emit a fiery shine like lava . They clashed a few meters away from the red-white tree , with Zac doing an upwards horizontal swipe aimed at its torso .

The monkey actually dared to intercept the strike with its bare paws , which lit up completely to look like magma . A tremendous clash erupted when their attacks collided , the dead plants in the surrounding being pulverized by the shockwave .

Zac was surprised to see that his strike didn’t immediately overpower the Herald . With his recent improvements he started to believe there was nothing on the island that could have a comparable level of points in the Strength attribute .

The Herald was pushed back from the force however Zac didn’t emerge unscathed out of the initial collision either . The hands of the monkey did not only look like lava , but they were also as fiery hot as well . The air around them was wobbling due to the heat , looking like a mirage . The axe edge actually showed clear signs of heating up where it collided with the monkey’s palm .

Zac knew he couldn’t fight a protracted battle , as the monkey would destroy his weapon if they kept clashing like this . Using Chop] wouldn’t help either , as the damage was transferred to axe anyway .

Angry at being pushed back Cindermane roared and stomped the ground , causing multiple spikes to erupt beneath Zac . They looked similar to the spikes of the earth mage , with the distinction that they seemed blazing hot and far more numerous .

Zac managed to destroy most of the spikes with a chop , but one managed to stab into his leg . A blinding pain erupted in his thigh , causing him to involuntarily scream . A sickening sizzling sound could be heard and Zac smelled the fragrance of grilled meat . The spike was actually barbequing his leg .

Ignoring the pain he grabbed the burning hot spike with his free hand , ripped it out of his leg and threw it away . As he did the Herald took the opportunity to grab the ground , dragging out a stone the size of Zac from seemingly nowhere . Its molten fingers penetrated the boulder and soon the whole rock was glowing a sinister red .

With a roar it tried to slam the stone down right on Zac , who could only ungainly dodge . Not daring to hide any of his cards any longer he infused his strikes with Dao and started swinging away against the Herald .

Cindermane possessed either great reflexes or combat experience , as he kept dodging or deflecting the strikes . Zac tried to grab onto the monkey with his free hand in order to throw it down on the ground , but as soon as he got a grip on its arm the red streaks lit up and the arm got searing hot . Zac instinctively let go with a scream , and the monkey took the opportunity to try to claw out his throat .

Zac saw no choice but to activate his armor , and the golden sheen protected him from getting killed . He wouldn’t give up even with his lifesaving device used up though , and wildly kept swinging at the Herald , unheeding of any cosmic energy expenditure . After a few exchanges the monkey king managed to get a stab in with one of its hands , pushing a centimeter into Zac’s arm . The finger burned even hotter compared to the spike , and Zac couldn’t refrain from screaming out in pain again .

However Zac’s every strike was overwhelming . He used every trick Axe Mastery] had taught him and weaved a net of destruction with his axe . Marks started to appear on the monkey's hands , and it looked like it wouldn’t be able to block his strikes forever . It was lucky as well as the edge of the axe was starting to shine with a red sheen from all the collisions as well . Not much longer and Zac feared that the inscriptions on it would be ruined , which meant that it wouldn’t auto-repair any longer .

He also had pushed the Herald back toward the tree , and they were currently fighting under the white leaves .

The monkey became more agitated as they approached the trunk , and furiously fought to force Zac away from the tree . There clearly was something special about it , and the Herald didn’t want to risk it getting damaged . The Monkey suddenly emitted a penetrating screech , its whole body lighting up .

It spat out a white-hot ball of magma straight at Zac’s chest , forcing him to jump out of the way , and away from the tree . As he dodged he also saw that the lava spit wasn’t the only thing that changed from that scream .

Like a scene out of a horror movie suddenly an endless number of bodies rose out of the ground , pushing the dried trees and bushes to the side . It wasn’t zombies , but a vast number of stone monkeys , all looking larger and stronger compared to normal ones . With a quick glance he could make out at least 40 monkey captains among the reinforcement .

The monkeys had been lying dormant under the ground , and the roar called them to action to create a trap . He didn’t know why it waited so long to unleash them , but he knew that he had run out of time . In just seconds he would be overrun with stone spears and boulders . He would have problems contending with just the monkey horde , but if he had to watch out for the spells from the Herald as well he’d surely die .

A desperate idea grew in his mind , and he didn’t have time to go through pros and cons before trying it out . He was currently two meters away from the tree trunk , and with an exaggerated roar he swung his axe in a horizontal swipe . As he did the familiar blade of Chop] rapidly grew out , soon longer than he could stably maintain for any longer duration .

Cindermane screeched and hastily jumped to intercept the huge edge from cutting down the tree . Zac’s premonition was correct , the tree truly held a great importance to the monkey .

The Herald couldn’t properly grab the translucent edge with its awkward positioning , and the edge cut into its whole body horizontally across the chest . A deep grisly gash was carved onto its body , but its great Endurance prevented it from getting cut in two . It still was badly hurt and bled profusely as it fell down on the ground .

Just as he was about to finish it off with another swing a boulder slammed into him from the side . He fell over away from the Herald and he barely managed to get to his feet before another hit him again , forcing him even further away from the dying lava monkey .

Unreconciled he once again charged a great edge and swung it at the prone monkey king . But it still had some energy left and pushed itself out of the way .

He knew his window of opportunity had passed . Boulders and stalactites were approaching from all directions , and the only way to kill the Herald was a suicide dive . As he only needed to kill it for a quest he had no reason to die just to bring it down to hell with him .

Zac didn’t hesitate and turned around to run . He could only hope the huge wound he inflicted upon it was lethal and that it would bleed to death . The lava monkey wouldn’t have it though and used its last powers to shoot a few molten spikes his direction as well . Zac could only strike away what he could and endure the rest .

Just after a few seconds he had already gotten hit by another two boulders and was stabbed by three more stalactites . Then the army of monkeys was upon him .

Chapter 48 - Simian Haranguing

Finishing off the Herald was suddenly the last thing on Zac’s mind , and he was horrified as he saw an avalanche of monkeys approach him from all directions . He activated Chop] and frenziedly waved it in front of him , decimating any monkeys that would impede his escape .

The assault was slowing him down though , and finally the enemies were upon him , punching and kicking with wild abandon . Every time a punch or kick hit where the lava spears pieced him earlier it hurt enough for him to almost pass out .

Zac couldn’t care about his cosmic energy expenditure anymore , and with a roar pushed as much cosmic energy as he could into the fractal on his hand . An enormous blade over 5 meters tall blazed into existence , and Zac swung the axe in a mighty horizontal arc .

The edge managed to stay active for less than a second , but the brief window carved out a large pocket in the swarm of monkeys . The swing killed at least 20 monkeys , and he even gained a level . He couldn’t bother about that at the moment though , as the short respite in attacks allowed him to rush out of the field and into the foliage .

Blood was running freely from Zac’s mouth as he was shakily running through the forest , away from the magical tree and Herald . The monkeys wouldn’t relent though and swarmed all around him , jumping between the trees or running on all fours on the ground . Had it not been for his wounded leg he might have been able to maintain some distance after a mad dash . But now he was stuck in a quick jog , but even that was taxing .

He constantly was pelted with kicks and punches , and the occasional mouth trying to bite into him with their sharp canines . A rock whizzed by his head , and instead hit a monkey square in its chest . It appeared the monkey captains had problems with keeping the pace and throwing the projectiles simultaneously at least .

More good news was that the Herald was either dead or too wounded to join the pursuit , as there were no molten spears attacking him anymore . But that was about all the positives that Zac could list while he was mindlessly running .

He already was lost and could only run in a straight direction . Since he was in a valley between the peaks no matter what direction he ran he would sooner or later arrive at the mountains .

He desperately swung his axe back and forth to maim and kill his attackers . He didn’t dare to use Chop] anymore as he was already running low on cosmic energy and there still were at least 100 monkeys following him .

He instead infused the attacks with his understanding of the Dao of Heaviness to add some impact to his strikes . It was the first time he was using it so freely and for a prolonged time , and he was starting to feel a headache coming on .

Soon he couldn’t even use his Dao in order to empower his strikes as he was afraid of increasing the pounding in his head .

He kept going , and with every few steps he killed a monkey , but they seemed endless . Zac’s whole body was hurting , but he couldn’t stop . Another boulder came hurtling toward him , this one with proper aim . He was already mid-swing against a monkey and couldn’t reposition in time , so he could only lift his left arm to block it .

The small boulder slammed into Zac and a sickening pop could be heard . Zac was pushed back and his arm hung limply by his side . Something was protruding oddly at his shoulder and a blazing pain radiated through the arm . After a quick glance he realized that his shoulder was dislocated .

Zac grit his teeth and ran straight into the first monkey he saw , slamming his dislocated shoulder straight into the chest of the monkey . A blinding pain almost made him pass out , but it also temporarily dispelled the pulsing headache from overusing his Dao .

While it still hurt Zac could move his arm again . He had used the monkey as a wall to slam the ball of his arm back into its socket . As a thanks Zac gave it a quick chop which decapitated it , and then kicked its headless body into two oncoming stone monkeys .

This couldn’t continue for long , as Zac had less than 10% of his cosmic energy reserves remaining while the monkeys showed no desire to relent . Thankfully the lush forest soon gave way to rocky outcroppings and cliffs , showing that he was approaching one of the peaks .

Due to the haphazard escape he wasn’t sure which one of the peaks it was , but a quick glance outward showed the familiar forest of the island . That meant he wasn’t running north at least , as he’d only be seeing ocean then . He was thankful , as he was afraid he would have been forced to jump down the steep cliff , praying to survive the 100-meter drop into the ocean .

Zac kept running , and he planned to escape into the forest down on the ground . The first time he fought the monkeys they had stopped at the foot of the mountain , and he could only hope they’d do the same again .

But almost immediately as he ran he knew that plan wouldn’t work . As he passed a small crest a larger view of the island came into view , and he could see the incursion and the demon town . The position immediately made him realize he was on the easternmost peak . If he ran right down this peak he’d be in prime demon territory . Straight out of the frying pan and into the fire .

He stopped for a second confused as what to do which allowed a few monkey captains to drag out new projectiles out of the ground and hurl them at Zac .

He slammed one of them away but the other hit him with a deep thud , eliciting a bloody cough . Even with his 90 plus Endurance , it felt like he couldn’t take many more of those throws . He couldn’t remember how many he’d tanked by now , and it felt like his body was on the brink of collapse .

He sluggishly swung his axe and killed a monkey who was foolish enough to get close and looked around for options .

In his vision he saw a cave entrance slightly hidden behind some shrubbery and boulders . After a brief hesitation he changed course for the cavity . If he continued on along the mountain path he’d arrive at where he had spotted the demon party earlier , and the risk of running into the monkey packs was great . He couldn’t return either , as he wouldn’t last running to another peak .

He didn’t really want to enter the cave , but he knew that it was his only hope . Right now he couldn’t see any other method to shake off the monkey horde . They seemed truly consumed by rage , which made sense as he had killed well over a hundred of the assailants by now .

Either the cave was a small dwelling for an animal , or a part of a larger network of tunnels . If it was the former he’d make a last stand , and at least the enemies would only be able to come from one direction . If it was the latter he might actually survive by fleeing into the tunnels .

There were roughly 10 monkeys in the way , and Zac grimly summoned Chop] for one last charge . His arms and legs felt like they were coated in lead , but he determinedly swung his axe while he advanced .

The monkeys could offer no resistance against Zac’s reignited spirit , and he soon was at the mouth of the cave . A rock slammed into his back just as he entered , making him realize he couldn’t just stand at the entrance and fight it out . He would be sniped to death . After a quick glance inside it seemed that the cave actually was just the entrance of a bigger cave system .

The monkeys seemed to have no problem following him into the tunnels , as they charged towards the entrance without hesitation . Zac suddenly was afraid that he would be in even worse straits if he let them enter . They were stone monkeys , who knew what advantages they’d have inside a cave .

Out of options he could only do something stupid and desperate . He put away his axe and brought out his great sword . With a furious slam he hit the roof of the cave entrance , causing huge cracks in the roof and making rock chippings fly in all directions . He didn’t stop and slammed twice more with all the strength he could muster , and finally an ominous rumbling could be heard .

The roof of the cave started to collapse , and Zac desperately ran further into the cave . Falling rock and debris pelted him , and he was forced to leave his sword behind in the chaos . After a minute the rumblings stopped , and the cave was completely blocked for at least 20 meters of debris . It would take even the strong monkeys a good while to excavate the entrance , if they even wanted to .

His hope was that the monkeys would give up and go back to the valley , but he wouldn’t dare put his life on the line for it to be true . So he hesitantly ventured further into the cave to create some distance . His body was hurting all over but he wouldn’t let himself sit down , afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get back up in a short while if he did .

The caverns seemed to be a confusing maze of interconnected tunnels and chambers , and Zac saw no change after 30 minutes of slow walking . The caves weren’t completely pitch black at least , as there actually was growing moss on many of the walls which gave off some luminescence . He didn’t understand why they would create light , but he assumed that the moss was mutated by cosmic energy .

The tunnels were actually full of cosmic energy , almost at the level of the valley . The high concentration on the mountain peaks seemed to only be a result of some of the interior energy leaking out . It would be strange if something didn’t change with the subterranean flora if they were consistently bathed in cosmic energy of this magnitude .

Finally satisfied with the distance from the entrance he had created , he stopped in a quiet chamber which at least wasn’t completely dark due to the glowing moss . He sighed and thumped down on the ground with a grimace . It was pitch black apart from the blue scattered lights from the moss but he didn’t care . He did have a flashlight he had brought from the camper if he needed proper light , but he didn’t know how much charge the batteries still had . He instead brought out a Nexus Crystal from the pouch and started absorbing .

It didn’t help in healing his battered body , but it did help in recovering his depleted energy . Together with his amulet , he was absorbing energy at a great rate , and after only four hours he once again was full of cosmic energy .

That didn’t mean that he was in prime condition though . His head still hurt from overusing his Dao , and his body screamed in protest as soon as he moved slightly . He could only stay put for a bit longer in order for his Vitality to do its thing . He had nothing in his bag that could help against his wounds that were mainly blunt-force trauma as far as he knew . He did put some ointment on the burns from the herald though , even if he wasn’t sure whether aloe was effective against burns from magic monkey fire .

Finally done with everything he rested his back against the wall and sighed despondently . Today did not go according to plan .

Chapter 49 - Spelunking

Since Zac felt somewhat refreshed from absorbing the Nexus Crystal he held off on sleeping , and instead decided to take a quick glance at his status screen .

Name Zachary Atwood

Level 32

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 , The Big 500

Dao Seed of Heaviness - Early

Strength 164

Dexterity 59

Endurance 92

Vitality 69

Intelligence 49

Wisdom 49

Luck 67

Free Points 3

Nexus Coins 485286

The last few days had actually brought in almost all the coins he needed for the movement skill . Getting his skills and Dao boosts had increased his daily earnings tremendously . Of course he knew that this was the limit for now . The only targets more lucrative compared to the monkeys on the island were the demons and imps . But he held no illusion that he would be able to charge into 50 of them at a time and start a massacre as he had with the monkeys . He would be blasted to smithereens in no time .

Next , he opened up his quest menu to see the progress of his quest

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)

He was quite disappointed to see that the monkey king apparently survived the slash . Of course , there was the possibility that it wasn’t a Herald , but he felt that the chance of that to be quite slim .

He had gained a level right at the start of the pursuit , and he sensed he wasn’t far away from reaching level 33 either . It was a shame that the System didn’t provide the same type of service as many games , restoring both health and mana at the level up . Then he might have actually have had a chance of turning things around and finishing off the monkey king .

The whole experience was quite a let-down and the first real setback except constantly getting hurt . He constantly went over things he could have done differently in order to actually kill the monkey . But soon he threw those depressing thoughts out of his mind , as he knew he had to work with what he got , and try to continuously improve .

As he waited for his body to get better he planned to meditate some on the Dao . He wished to both improve his current Seed of Heaviness , and get another seed , the Seed of Sharpness . These two forces were those he sensed to be strongest in the axe in his vision , and he felt that getting both of them was the first step on the path of true axe mastery .

Besides , the Dao of Sharpness might also be of some use for his throwing knives . Since Axe Mastery] came with no manual how to progress the Dao or his other skills he could only fumble around in the dark . This time literally .

Unfortunately , he could only focus at the large axe fractal in his mind for a short while before his head started hurting again . It seemed that using Dao was still impossible after his overexertion . Zac wondered if there was something like mental energy or soul power that was used when pondering on the Dao or using it in battle , but he hadn’t been able to sense anything of the sort thus far . He only knew his head hurt and felt swollen like a bad migraine .

Helplessly he could only go to sleep . He would have preferred to take a look around the area , but his body didn’t really listen to his commands anymore . Besides any sound carried through the tunnels and amplified , and it was completely quiet apart from his breathing . There should be no monsters or creepy crawlies around at least this part of the subterranean system .

Zac woke up some time later , not being able to tell exactly how long he was out . His watch had broken long ago , and his cell phone ran out of charge as well . He had learned to tell the time somewhat accurately with the help of the suns , but down in the caverns this was useless .

Judging from the state of his body he felt that he had been out somewhere between 3 and 5 hours . He was still bruised all over but at least he could get by . He got up on his feet but stopped before setting out .

He was a bit unsure how to proceed from here on out . After some hesitation , he decided to look around the caves for a bit , and then find an exit . Nothing had really changed apart from the monkey king being hurt . The general and other herald were still unknowns .

The caverns were the last place apart from the city that remained uncharted on the island . There was a real possibility that the last Herald hid somewhere in here as he hadn’t even seen the shadow of it before . If he could find something out while he was stuck here anyway it would be great assistance to his quest . One of his fears was that he would fail his mission and get punished by the System , not due to a lack of trying , but because he simply couldn’t find his targets .

Since the System wanted him to kill these targets he felt that he should have been provided with some navigation and targeting method . But if mentally complaining about the system had any effect he’d long have solved all his problems .

But he also put a time limit on himself . He hadn’t given up on killing the monkey king , and would certainly try again . The reason for his failure was the horde of monkeys interrupting . He was quite certain that he would be able to kill him if he got him alone .

That’s why he didn’t try to rush back . For one he wasn’t sure how to get out , and besides , he believed that the monkey army would be on high alert for his return in the short run . It was a shame , as the monkey king was currently an easy target with its wounds . But he still had half a month until his 2-month deadline . He didn’t need to risk it all just yet .

Zac took a glance at his axe , confirming that it was almost completely repaired , and continued further into the caves . He still used only the glowing moss as a light source as he didn’t want to alert any enemies . Besides his eyes were getting accustomed to it by now and he could somewhat make out his surroundings .

Just before he ventured down he carved a small Z beneath the glowing moss to mark his passage . He could still track his progress in his mind , but better safe than sorry .

The tunnels he progressed through led steadily downward , and it felt like he was walking toward the foot of the mountain . That also meant that he was closing in on the cave system the demons explored so he was careful to not make any excessive sounds . He even ripped down some moss from the wall and tied it to the bottom of his feet to mask his footsteps . It was the non-luminescent kind of moss , of course , as he didn’t want his feet to become beacons for the enemy .

As he descended he sensed that the ambient cosmic energy was steadily growing stronger . Not only that , the tunnels started to change as well .

From being dark and dour , apart from the occasional weak blue luminescence from the moss , the caverns were turning into a vibrant fantasy world . Thick vines with purple flowers started to grow out of the ground , large glowing mushrooms lined the tunnels and the lights from the moss grew stronger and polychromatic .

Zac had never taken any hallucinogenic drugs , but it almost felt like he was high as he walked in these psychedelic tunnels . After walking along dazed for a few seconds he suddenly started , and then started to collect samples of all the various herbs and mushrooms . He was careful to not let anything touch his skin , just in case it was poisonous .

He still had no method to discern if they were of value , but he felt that at least some of the magical plants should be of some use . It seemed quite clear that they had grown due to the high density of the cosmic energy , so they might have some magical properties .

Zac started using the vegetation as a basis where to head when he reached crossroads . He simply chose the one with a higher density of subterranean growth , as that passage should have a higher density of cosmic energy .

He was starting to get very curious why there was so much energy in the mountain , and he believed that the demons were so interested in the cave for the very same reason . There should be something in the depths that either contained or produced an immense amount of energy , to the point that it leaked out into the whole mountain range and valley .

If the demons removed it and took it with them then Zac would lose a potential goldmine . He added the task of finding out what created the energy as well before leaving . If it was something small and portable he would try to steal it . If this much cosmic energy could be poured into a couple of arrays he wouldn’t have to worry about the demons ever again .

Zac had walked for almost an hour when a sound made him stop in his tracks and shrink into the wall . It was light hurried steps that echoed through the tunnels not far ahead . They didn’t seem to be coming toward him , so Zac slowly ventured forward , careful not to make a single sound .

The steps slowly were becoming a bit more distant , and Zac hurried up until he reached a crossing . He carefully looked around a corner toward where the sounds came from to see what made the steps . And just before it turned another corner , he could briefly spot a small imp trotting along .

Zac’s heartbeat started to speed up , as seeing the imp opened up a possibility . Perhaps the imps’ main area of activity was underground , which would explain why he had encountered so few up above ground . And if it was , then their herald was likely down here as well .

Chapter 50 - Crystals

Zac waited for a bit to make sure no other imp or demon was incoming before he ventured the same path he saw the imp take .

He surreptitiously glanced around any corners or crossroads , but even after a minute he still hadn’t seen any signs of the imp or anything else of interest . Either the imp was a lone explorer in the caverns or it was out of the way for some reason .

A scratching sound stopped his train of thought and Zac moved to the next intersection to see where the sound came from . He finally found the small imp again and it was just 10 meters away from him , currently digging through some moss . After it removed a top layer it sneakily put something inside , and then carefully put the moss back on top . It got up and turned around , and suddenly found itself staring right at Zac .

Zac didn’t hesitate and instantly killed it with a dagger . He walked up to the corpse and put it in one of his pouches , before walking over to where it dug around earlier . Initially he had wanted to follow it back to wherever he came from , but he had been too careless and immediately got spotted . He’d have to get better at sneaking in these tunnels unless he wanted to get mobbed down .

After removing the moss he actually found a small stash of Nexus Crystals . They weren’t polished and uniform like the ones he had taken from the demon leader , but rather looking like uncut raw gems . Some were as small as a fingernail while the largest was slightly larger than his own crystals .

It seemed like the imp actually was hiding away its wealth in this uninhabited part of the cave system like a cultivating squirrel . So it looked like it wasn’t heading to any other imps or demons , but rather away from them . Perhaps daylight robbery was a real problem amongst the imps , so hiding their cultivation resources was imperative .

The imp’s actions raised a few questions . First of all , could imps cultivate? They seemed to have some inherent proclivity for magic , as all of them thus far were able to shoot those nefarious fireballs . But it felt like all of them more or less were of the same strength , making him believe they couldn’t get stronger .

There seemed to be some fundamental differences between the imps and the demons or himself . They didn’t have levels when he inspected them with Eye of Discernment] , and it didn’t look like they had classes either as everyone used the same attack . That’s why Zac placed them in the same group as the other beasts in his mind .

So what was the use of the crystals? The most likely explanation he could find was evolution . He had seen all kinds of mutations and evolutions in the flora on the island caused by the cosmic energy . Who’s to say it didn’t work with the fauna as well . Perhaps the crystals could help a normal imp to evolve into something greater , like the Heralds .

It was a bit worrying , as normal imps were deadly enough . If suddenly a throng of them evolved into super-imps wouldn’t they burn down the whole island? He could only hope that evolving wasn’t that simple a matter for now .

The second thing on Zac’s mind was the crystals themselves . Where had it found them? If there were a bunch of them it would explain many things , such as why the density of cosmic energy was so high in the mountains . It could be due to the proximity of a large amount of Nexus Crystals , whose energy bled through into the surroundings .

It would also explain the unceasing flow of demons coming into the mountains . A mountain full of Nexus Crystals should be the equivalent of a multi-verse gold mine .

That , unfortunately , meant that the demons were continuously pilfering the resources that Zac would need to continue to improve and build up a town .

Zac was sorely lacking in Nexus Coins right now . He could barely improve himself , let alone build up a whole town . His gains lately from killing monkeys had been tremendous , but it was nothing compared to the costs of creating , and running , a town .

For example , there was an array called E-Grade Medium Scale Town Defense Array] that was a combination of a defensive shield and some attacking functions . It looked like a good all-around addition for a newly established settlement . But that array alone cost 5 million Nexus Coins , and furthermore , it wasn’t free to operate .

There were defensive turrets and anti-siege weapons as well , each costing over a million coins . There was just no way for him to grind that kind of amount of coins . Even if he got twice as strong and murdered monkeys without rest or sleep it would take years before he got all the basic structures of the town .

But if he had a large number of Nexus Crystals he might be able to pay all this , and maybe even more . He didn’t have any means of selling the Crystals for Nexus Coins at the moment , but there were things such as shops and auction houses in the outpost store . If he purchased one of those he was sure they’d accept his crystals for some coin .

Of course , it all hinged on him actually getting the crystals . Driven by a renewed sense of purpose , Zac headed back toward where he came from . Since the imp went out of its way to hide the crystals out here , there shouldn’t be much activity in the surroundings as well .

Zac made a mental note of the area since he might need a base of operations down here . As he carefully proceeded through the paths the ambient cosmic energy kept increasing , now starting to reach the density that he had felt in the valley with the monkey king .

After continuing on for roughly 10 minutes he heard some shuffling further down the path . Zac immediately stopped , a glint of greed and anticipation on his face . Every demon he found down here would probably make him wealthier . He imagined looting magic pouches packed to the rafters with crystals , a creepy grin slowly starting to emerge on his face .

Unfortunately it wasn’t a walking nest egg he encountered , but a white crocodile .

At a second glance he realized it wasn’t actually a crocodile , but a supersized salamander . It had a thick build and was roughly four meters long . It was mostly white with some purple markings . Zac thought that subterranean species normally possessed no eyes , but this didn’t seem to apply to this specimen . It lazily ambled through a subterranean tunnel , swiping up various mushrooms and herbs with its mouth along the way .

Zac didn’t know if it was a guard animal for the demons or just something that lived down here . He shrank into a side corridor to hide as he didn’t want to bother with this huge beast at the moment . The beast seemed oblivious to his existence until it suddenly exploded into motion just as it was next to the side-tunnel Zac hid in .

Its maw opened showing a line of large translucent teeth looking like huge salt crystals . The beast tilted its head and charged straight at Zac’s torso , but he was accustomed to this manner of attacks from the countless barghest he had fought .

Channeling his cosmic energy he grunted and punched the lizard in its head , slamming it into the wall of the tunnel , creating large cracks on the stone surface . That type of attack was usually enough to kill barghest by now , but it only seemed to enrage the salamander . He didn’t want a prolonged fight though and swung vertically with a maxed out Chop] , cleanly decapitating it .

A surge of energy entered his body and he saw that he gained roughly 800 Nexus coins . That was even more compared to some of the weaker demons , surprising Zac somewhat . It had been pretty quick for its large size , but it felt like less of a challenge compared to a demon .

As he was mulling it over a sizzling sound interrupted his train of thought , and he turned his head toward the sound .

Smoke rose up from the ground next to the chopped off head and a sizzling sound could be heard . He went closer to take a look , and was appalled to see that its saliva was highly corrosive . The sounds came from its tongue touching the ground , and it had already corroded a small hole where its saliva dripped down . Zac realized even a flesh wound from a bite might cost him a limb when fighting these salamanders .

It was a shame he couldn’t use his eye skill on it as it was already dead , but it didn’t matter much what the system called the animal . He went over to the headless carcass and observed the body . At least the blood wasn’t corrosive as well , otherwise , the huge pool of blood forming beneath the body would have carved out a new path among the tunnels .

Zac barely managed to cram the beast inside his smaller pouch after chopping off the tail as well , and then moved on . He didn’t want to leave a carcass out in the open that was clearly killed with something sharp . He still didn’t know what the relation between the demons and this animal was , and he’d just have to lug it along until he did . Or found somewhere to dump it where it wouldn’t be found .

Zac continued on , diligently marking crossroads with a Z . By now he was starting to fully acclimatize to the cold light of the moss and various other plants and had no problem discerning his surroundings .

After a while , the tunnels started to change once again , as he saw spots glimmering between the pieces of moss on the walls and ground . He walked over to the closest spot that shone and saw that it was a crystal .

His heartbeat quickened and he quickly pried it out with a knife . The stone was far harder than he expected , and the extraction taxed even him with his huge Strength . But he only increased his pace with a widening smile adorning his face , and soon he held his prize in his hand . The crystal he pried out truly was a Nexus Crystal , roughly half the size of the ones in his bag .

As he looked around the walls he saw glimmering crystals embedded all over the walls .

He was rich!

Chapter 51 - Stench

After a bout of excitement Zac suppressed his giddiness and refocused . As much as he wanted to , he couldn’t start a mining operation at the moment . He had things to do .

Besides , it likely was more effective to let the demons mine the crystals , and then commandeer it when it was all extracted and gathered . They shouldn’t have sent their most powerful warriors to mine , so an assault wouldn’t prove to be too difficult . He longingly took another look at the glistening walls and then kept going .

This obsession with wealth was something new he had started to develop . He hadn’t really cared too much when the world still was normal , and he just was a white-collar worker . He was happy as long as he had enough to live a comfortable life .

But lately he was running toward corpses like it was Christmas morning and the bodies contained presents . It was a weird type of callousness that translated corpses into loot . He had always enjoyed the grind in video games , waiting for that rush of seeing some glimmering unique or valuable item drop . He was starting to get the same feeling in real life as well . Just the thought of finding a magic pouch full of crystals made him want to forget about the Heralds and go on a treasure hunt instead .

But he knew he couldn’t , at least not for now . As he walked , he started to gradually hear rhythmic sounds of metal hitting rock . It was still far in the distance , but Zac presumed he was hearing mining operations .

He hesitated for a bit , but then reluctantly decided to go in another direction . There was no real need to see the miners at the moment , and he wouldn’t risk getting exposed this early just to steal a peek . What he currently wanted to explore was whether the thrifty imp was a loner who had snuck into the caves , or whether it was part of a larger group .

As he crept along the paths the sounds of pick-axes hitting rock didn’t diminish , rather it was a constant drone in this part of the cave system . This made Zac realize that the mining operations were on a larger scale than he had expected . After walking for 30 minutes the sounds finally started to diminish , letting him know he was moving away from the mining operations .

Suddenly he heard another sound and he stopped in his tracks . It was the familiar sound of light scuffling on the ground that the imp had made , but this time it sounded like came from multiple sources . It was accompanied by some clanking and subdued inane chatter that didn’t quite sound like a language .

He gingerly crept forward , careful not to make a sound . He wasn’t sure how sharp their senses were , and he didn’t want to find out . Zac took quick peek around a corner and saw that the tunnel led into a cavern that was roughly 10 by 10 meter large . The roof was also higher compared to the usual 3-4 meters of the tunnels .

The first thing he noticed was that he didn’t have to be careful of the imps smelling him out , as a wall of overbearing stench hit him as soon as he looked around the corner . It seemed that sanitation and hygiene were alien concepts to the small humanoids , as that level of smell could only come from a buildup of waste and excrement .

What entered Zac’s vision could tenuously be called a camp . Moss had been ripped from the walls and placed on the ground to make simple bedding , and in the middle of the room was a handful of lumber together with vines making a fire whose black smoke polluted the cave . Luckily for the imps there seemed to be some cracks in the roof which kept the cave ventilated , otherwise they might have killed themselves accidentally by inhaling all that smoke . Piles of food waste and other unmentionables were strewn randomly about the camp , and in a corner there was a large rotting carcass of a smaller version of the salamander Zac fought earlier .

There were roughly 20 imps that inhabited the disgusting campsite , and it looked like they were turning in for the night . Zac was a little fuzzy about the exact time but felt that it should be somewhere around 4 to 6 am . He had assaulted the Herald in the evening , and after his escape spent a few hours on absorbing energy , then a few hours of sleep .

From what he’d seen from his travels across the island the imp’s weren’t nocturnal and guessed that their sleep schedule had gotten messed up from living in this subterranean cave .

Most of the imps were already lying on the ground snoring away , while a few lazily milled about . Two had a small scuffle over a moss bedding , and after a short while the victor lay down while the loser skulked away . It seemed the beddings closest to the fire in the middle were the most desirable , and the losers had to pick some spot further out .

Zac waited and only 15 minutes later the whole group was fast asleep , and they didn’t bother with sentries or the like . Perhaps that was what the bedding arrangement was for . If they were attacked the weaklings in the outer rim would be attacked first , and their death wails would be the warning alarm for the others .

Zac deliberated whether to attack or to go around the camp . He felt that such a large group of imps indicated that the caves might very well be the main area of the imps . The imps he encountered in the forests had been mostly solitary , but here he immediately saw two dozen of them .

That meant that the likelihood of the herald being down here had gone up by quite a few points . He didn’t want a repeat of the battle of the monkey Herald , where it summoned a throng of subordinates to wear him down . And being attacked by hundreds of imps seemed far more deadly compared to the monkeys . He’d be blasted to smithereens in no time .

But he also was still quite unclear about things down in the tunnels . He only possessed a shaky grasp of the layout down here so far . But soon he came to a decision and brought out some rags from his pouch . They had once been a shirt of his but were ripped up for bandages long ago . He wrapped the rag around his mouth and nose , and then brought out a large dagger he had taken from the last fight with the demons .

The rags were a small defense against the smell . He was already getting nauseated just smelling it from a distance , and he did not look forward to experiencing the stench point blank . He crept forward , with his dagger at the ready .

He soon arrived at the mouth of the cave , and the overwhelming stench almost made his eyes tear . He forced himself to ignore it and moved over to the closest imp . He bent over , and with quick movements put his padded hand over its mouth and simultaneously cut a huge gash over its throat , almost completely decapitating it .

The imp had no time to scream or struggle , and after a few shudders it was dead . Zac stopped for a second to survey the surroundings , but they were all still fast asleep . He kept going and moved to the second one , repeating his actions .

In short order he killed 8 of the imps without alerting anyone , and he moved to the 9th . He was approaching the innermost circle of beddings now and was quite close to the fire . As he did he reflected that the only thing that smelled worse than imp excrement was hot imp excrement .

Zac was starting to wonder if a stench could physically hurt someone , as his eyes were tearing up from the stink . If he was forced to sleep in a camp like this he’d rather sleep on the edge of the cave at risk of getting eaten by a salamander , compared to sleeping next to this putrid flame .

The smell was so bad that he couldn’t properly focus and he accidentally hit the sleeping imp with his foot as he approached . He quickly bent down and finished it off , but not before it managed to release a high pitched screech .

Zac knew he wouldn’t be able to sneak around anymore , and immediately swapped out the dagger for his axe . He activated Chop] and with three quick swings another five imps were dead before they managed to properly wake up .

By now the surviving imps were up , and all of them charged up a purplish-black fireball without hesitation . Zac managed to kill another two before they were done charging , but afterwards four fireballs slammed into him . The cave was simply too small , and he had no time to dodge them . Normally he would have used his chest piece here , but he wanted to save it unless it was a true life-and-death scenario . He might meet a Herald soon , so he needed all the tools at the ready .

Zac could only grit his teeth as the nefarious flames hit him , sticking to him like glue . He knew that the fires would die out when their owners did , so he wasted no time and charged at the remaining four imps . They screeched and started to flee towards a tunnel opposite where Zac came from , but Zac wouldn’t give up .

Ignoring the impractically large consumption of energy , he elongated the Chop] edge and managed to hit two of the fleeing imps , bisecting them in an instant . Their two compatriots didn’t care and only started flapping their wings more fervently in order to escape .

Zac fished out a throwing dagger out of his pouch , and as he followed he threw it into the back of one of the two imps . He took out another dagger , intending to quickly end the fight . But as he prepared the throw a huge white maw suddenly emerged out of a side-tunnel , snapping shut over the imp in a lightning-quick manner .

It was another salamander that emerged from the tunnel , contentedly chewing on the small demon . It lumbered forward toward the other imp that Zac had downed and gobbled up it as well , knife and all .

Zac wasn’t in a mood to fight against the salamander unless needed , as he liked the idea of these huge lizards walking around in the tunnels and helping him out by whittling down his enemies . Therefore he quickly receded into a side-tunnel in order to avoid its approach . The huge monster soon came to the entrance looking toward Zac’s direction , and seemed to be hesitating for a few seconds . Zac didn’t understand how they kept sensing him , as this time he had fled even further back , but he could only get ready to kill this white giant as well .

Finally it turned around and ambled away , toward the now deathly silent imp camp .

Chapter 52 - Odor

Zac let out a breath of relief as he saw the beast lumber off . Not that he was afraid of fighting it , but the enemy of his enemy was his friend , even if the monster itself didn’t know it .

Zac moved some distance away and applied some more Aloe cream on his burns . His skin looked grey and sickly , but not like a desiccated corpse’s like it had the first time he fought an imp . His endurance was quite a bit higher by now , and while the fireballs still hurt like hell it took them longer to drain his body .

Zac felt he was at the cusp of leveling up , and continued onward through the tunnels . It didn’t take long until he found another cave with sleeping imps . This time it was a bit smaller , with only 15 imps . This group also seemed to be a bit more vigilant with one imp standing guard . It seemed to barely understand the concept of being a lookout though , as it was leaning against a wall half-asleep . Occasionally it would rouse itself , but only to scratch its butt then go back to dozing off .

Zac saw no way to get next to it without being spotted , even if it wasn’t too vigilant . He really wished he could get the skill the crafty swordsman used , and turn invisible for the approach . Even the lackadaisical imp would notice his approach and warn the others if he tried to sneak up on it .

Seeing no alternative he took out another throwing knife and threw it at the guard . It hit straight in the middle of its torso , almost instantly killing it . It slumped down into the ground with a small whimper and then stopped moving . Zac froze , waiting for any reaction from the rest of the group .

However , they snored away contently , oblivious to their impending doom . Satisfied Zac ventured in and repeated his grisly assassinations . This time he managed to keep going unnoticed until only 3 were left before they were alerted , but Zac finished off the last stragglers with a few quick chops .

The kills in the second cave gave Zac another level up , bringing him to level 33 . He put in 1 point in Strength and two points into Endurance , bringing the attributes to 171 and 99 respectively .

Zac soon trudged on , continuously looking through the seemingly endless tunnel system . He found a few more imp camps on the way . Not all the camps were sleeping though , and he skipped the ones who were awake for now . He was forced to eat four fireballs earlier which hurt quite bad , and didn’t want to imagine how getting bombarded by twenty of those infernal balls would feel .

After traveling for an hour he felt that he should be below sea level by how much he had descended . Of course , it was hard to get an exact feeling when everything felt the same . But it opened up a new avenue of escape for him . He had been pondering whether he should build a raft to leave the island if the demon quest didn’t pan out .

But the thought of being stuck at sea on a crudely built raft and no knowledge of how far he was from land soon quenched that idea . Besides , who knew what kind of monstrous things lurked in the depths after the integration into the multi-verse .

The caves felt like a safer option . Even if he found no way out , he could always back-track to the island . The only downside was the claustrophobic feeling of these tunnels . The tunnels were quite beautiful right where he was , but he guessed it was due to the high amount of cosmic energy in the surroundings . If he left this area the tunnels would likely be far more dour and oppressive .

As he continued his exploration he started to smell a very acrid odor , differing greatly from the earthy scent of the vegetation or the putrid stench of the imp camps . Intrigued he decided to find the source and started to slowly follow the smell .

After a few twists and turns , he finally managed to find the right direction . It seemed that none of the stats really improved his senses overly much , so his plethora of titles hadn’t given him eagle eyes or a super sniffer . He , therefore , made some wrong turns before being able to tell what direction the smell came from .

As the smell got stronger and stronger he saw that the tunnel was starting to change . There were signs of mining activity in the area , with holes in the walls peppered about . Most of the greenery had also been ripped out , leaving only some of the luminescent moss for some lightning . It looked like the source of the smell was man-made rather than something natural .

He started to take greater care for any potential enemy or trap cropping up , but still decided to continue toward the source of the smell . As he peeked around a corner he saw a few imps milling about near the mouth of a large cave . He couldn’t properly see what was going on inside the cave due to the distance , but it was well lit up and he could see a purplish smoke wafting about inside .

It would be impossible to approach without alerting whoever was in the cave , so Zac retreated to find another entrance . After twenty minutes of looking around , following his nose , he found another cave mouth , but this one was guarded as well .

He turned toward the last path he found that had a stronger smell compared to the others and tried his luck one last time . This time he was lead to a dead end , the path simply stopping after a while . The acidic smell was extremely strong though , almost to the point of making Zac lightheaded . After looking around for a while he found a small crack in the wall behind some luminescent moss .

He ripped down the moss and another light shone from the wall , but this time it was light bleeding through a small crack . It appeared he was right next to the cave , but with a thin layer of rock in between .

He tried to look through the crack but it was too small for him to see anything , so he brought out one of his thin throwing knives from his pouch and started to carefully carve out the crack . It was a slow process as he didn’t want the sounds to alert anyone inside , and it took almost half an hour until the hole was large enough for him to be able to see through .

He eagerly glanced inside , and what met his eye made his heartbeat speed up . The cave was one of the largest ones he had seen so far , being a full 30 meters across . The first thing he noticed was the large cauldron in the middle of the room , and it was the source of the smell and the purple smoke he had seen . It was almost as tall as Zac was , and held in the air by a crude rock and lumber contraption .

The source of the fire confused Zac , as it didn’t produce any smoke . He only saw a handful of the raw Nexus Crystals placed seemingly haphazardly on the ground , and above them a blue-white flame was steadily emitted , heating the bottom of the cauldron . Zac made a mental note , because if he could burn crystals without creating smoke he would be able to provide warmth and cook food without having to worry about demons finding out .

Next to the cauldron were various mounds of resources . Zac recognized almost all of them as the various herbs and plants he had seen while walking the tunnels . There were mushrooms , vines and purplish grass neatly separated into their own piles . He also identified a few plants that he had seen above ground in the transformed area close to the incursion .

On a stool stood an imp , slowly stirring the contents of the cauldron with a large wooden ladle . At least he thought it was an imp , but he couldn’t be sure as because it was almost as large as an adult human . But it shared many features with the imps such as its purplish skin and bat wings .

In contrast , its skin wasn’t mottled and irradiated like it seemed like with most imps , but rather smooth and clear . It also wore a proper , albeit simple , robe . The most advanced clothing he had seen on an imp thus far was a dirty rag used as a loincloth , while most of them were simply naked .

It lacked any horns or ears , and as it turned its head to grab a mushroom to throw into the pot he could also see its face , making him sure he was dealing with an imp and not a demon . It had the extra set of eyes placed in its forehead , just as the normal imps .

He had found his fourth Herald . He couldn’t see any other explanation than that . It looked far too different compared to its brethren , and its intelligence seemed to be on another level if it cared about things such as clothing .

Zac didn’t dare to use Eye of Discernment] l to make sure though , as even the normal imps could sense it when he used the skill on them .

The Herald wasn’t alone , unfortunately . There currently were a group of roughly 10 imps milling about in the cave . They were sorting a pile of resources and moved them to their respective mound close to the cauldron . When an imp made a mistake it was ruthlessly slapped in the head with the boss’s ladle , eliciting a scared whimper .

Zac decided to wait for a while in order to let them finish their task and then hopefully leave . Between this group and the ones just outside there simply were too many imps for comfort . But before they were even halfway done with the task a few imps entered the cave and dumped an armful each of various plants .

Meanwhile , the herald kept throwing some plant or mushroom into the pot every now and then , constantly stirring . Zac started to feel that the cauldron had to be a magic item like his pouch , as it never seemed to flow over , even after Zac had watched the Herald throw things into it for an hour by now .

It looked like the imps wouldn’t leave the cave in the end . Zac deliberated whether he should wait some more or fight . By now he was more or less completely restored from his escape from the monkey Herald , apart from being covered in tender bruises . Finally , he opened up his quest page to make sure of the progress of his dynamic quest , slowly reading through it .

With all preparations done , he threw his worries and doubts out of his mind and hefted his axe .

Chapter 53 - Blitz

The wall separating Zac and the cavern was less than a decimeter thick , and wouldn’t be able to hold against him kicking it down . Luckily there were no crystals embedded that strengthened its integrity as well . He moved his axe to his left hand and gripped a throwing knife in his other .

After a few deep breaths , he put all his weight on his left leg and kicked forward with all the power he could muster . A deep thud echoed out and a large part of the wall completely crumbled . Zac shouldered his way through the newly created crevice , not caring about the few cuts he got from the sharp rocks .

He immediately threw his dagger with full force at the Herald , hoping for a quick conclusion . Unfortunately , it didn’t work , as the blade seemingly combusted by itself and turned to ashes as it approached the large imp .

Zac wasn’t surprised , and without hesitation pushed forward . He managed to kill two of the smaller imps with daggers on his approach , and then he was instantly within 10 meters of the herald .

The boss roared angrily and lifted the ladle , using it as a staff . A huge wave of pitch-black flames rolled outward toward Zac . Anything it touched turned to ashes immediately , even a few unfortunate imps that were incinerated since they stood at the wrong position in the cave .

A golden sheen enveloped Zac completely , and he jumped through the wall of flames . He could hear a peal of eerie laughter and a snap , then he was through the flames . He didn’t hesitate and pushed all cosmic energy he was able to gather into the fractal on his hand , creating a five-meter blade which whooshed toward the herald .

The blade slammed into an invisible barrier and started sizzling , causing extraordinary pain somehow transmitting into Zac’s mind . But Zac’s power wasn’t for show , and after a brief struggle the blade pressed on , slamming into the Herald’s body .

Zac expected the Herald to be bisected , but with a shocked expression saw its seemingly simple robe light up and protect its body . The robe couldn’t remove the huge momentum from the swing though , and the monster was shot into a close wall like a rocket .

Zac rushed after it and was almost upon it to end the fight .

The Herald spat out a mouthful of purple blood from the impact and screeched angrily at Zac . Its four eyes started blazing ominously , and once again summoned flames . This time nothing in the cave was safe , as black insidious waves billowed in all directions from floor to ceiling . The Herald was like a demonic sun that radiated nefarious flames that wanted to consume the world . The mounds of resources instantly turned to ashes , and the few leftover imps perished as well . The only thing that could stand the onslaught was the cauldron which seemed completely unaffected by the flames .

Zac had already used his armor’s one-time defense inscription , and could only grit his teeth and force his way through the sea of fire . The fires would extinguish as soon as the Herald died , so he placed a bet that the fight wouldn’t last long .

The scorching pain that enveloped him was far worse compared to the normal hellfire of the smaller imps , and it caused him to scream and stumble . The swing that was supposed to cleave the Herald in two lost much of its power and his aim got off-kilt . But he at least managed to slice one of the Herald’s arm clean off spraying blood everywhere .

He shakily prepared to swing his axe once more , but the Herald had had enough . With a few flaps of its wings , it desperately tried to flee , leaving a trail of burning blood in its wake as it escaped through the flames . Every flap of its wings caused the flames to erupt in the air , creating a natural barrier from chasing it .

Zac couldn’t afford to let yet another Herald to flee his pursuit , and charged most of his remaining energy into Chop] once again , and furiously swung a five meter edge after the fleeing imp . But the imp was quick and he saw that his edge wouldn’t reach even when maxed out .

That was extremely bad news as the whole cave was still covered in the black flames , and they were quickly consuming him whole . If he didn’t kill the Herald he would likely perish before getting out of there . Anger and desperation filled Zac’s mind as he maniacally tried to increase the reach of the blade .

REACH! - he roared as the edge was moving horizontally in the imp’s direction .

Suddenly , the blade detached from his axe , and continued outward like a wave . It moved as fast as his swing did , and soon reached the back of the fleeing Herald . It proceeded and penetrated the imp without any resistance from the magic robe , Splitting its torso and wings in two .

The body various body parts of the Herald fell to the ground , and Zac thankfully saw the flames covering the cavern quickly snuff out . He didn’t have time to go over the battle scene , as a gang of screeching imps entered through the entrances . Now that the hellscape had subdued , the back-up could finally enter without being incinerated .

Zac was in no mood to fight these little demons , and threw out the huge salamander carcass to block the incoming fireballs . With the newfound room , he placed the Herald’s cauldron in his magic pouch and dashed out the same way as he came .

He kept running through the tunnels to create some distance from the area controlled by the imps , elated with the result of the fight . His bet had been successful .

He had planned to avoid a drawn-out fight with the Herald , and thrown everything he got on it from the start . With how dangerous the small imps were he knew that the Herald would be a true terror if allowed to fire off its attacks . He hadn’t even taken time to use his Eye of Discernment] on the boss , afraid it would slow him down a fraction of a second .

He had also learned his lesson from the fight with the Monkey King , ending the battle before reinforcements could arrive . Certainly , last time he had been tricked into thinking he killed all the backup until they sprang out of the ground like mushrooms . But that only showed that anything could happen in a fight , and the longer it dragged on the more variables could crop up .

With his blazing speed the imp boss only managed to shoot two attacks before he was killed , and only one of them had managed to hit him .

Zac touched to his scalp as he ran and grimaced as he felt that all the hair on his head was singed clean off . After a quick confirmation , the same held true for his eyebrows and beard . He didn’t have a mirror with him but he could only assume he looked like a beggar monk by now .

His felt body felt drained and burned , and he stopped as soon as he felt the distance was enough . He had consumed almost all his cosmic energy during the fight , and the hell flames the imp spewed out burned his vitality or soul as well , making him feel truly wrung out .

He sat down on some moss , brought out a bottle of water , and opened up his status page .

Name

Zachary Atwood

Level

34

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 , The Big 500

Dao

Seed of Heaviness - Early

Strength

175

Dexterity

59

Endurance

100

Vitality

69

Intelligence

49

Wisdom

49

Luck

67

Free Points

3

Nexus Coins

545716

The battle had only given him one level , compared to the almost 3 from the last Herald he killed . He currently felt he was roughly halfway to level 35 . That showed just how much harder it was getting to level up the higher his level became . The only reason he kept leveling quite quickly was that his killing speed had improved faster compared to the increasing level requirements .

Before doing anything else he quickly opened his quest page as well to make sure whether what he killed was actually a Herald or not .

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 . (3/5)

It was indeed the third Herald he killed . He sighed in relief , elated with finally having moved his quest forward . He had been looking for this boss for weeks and started to worry whether he would find it in time to complete the quest . But this part was finally solved .

He already knew where the last herald was located , and it was badly wounded to boot . The last missing piece of the puzzle was the general . Zac still had no idea how to locate and eradicate him or her , but one step at a time .

However , the good news didn’t continue .

Zac closed down his quest page in order to allocate his points into Strength and Endurance as usual . This time something went wrong , however , and he was unable to put his free point into Strength . He put two points into Endurance without a problem , bringing his total to 103 . But no matter how many times he tried , he simply couldn’t allocate his last free point into Strength . Zac started getting a sinking feeling in his stomach , worried he might have screwed up quite badly .

It looked like he had reached his cap for Strength . This was extremely bad news as his main stat was Strength , and he automatically got 3 points allocated every time he leveled up . Would he able to level up at all? Would he just loose those 3 points if he gained a level? What if his Dao Seed improved or he gained a new Title?

He didn’t believe that 175 Strength was the limit of what was possible in the multi-verse . Those titans he saw in the vision should have had thousands in Strength from the aura they emitted . Therefore the problem came down to how to increase his limit .

Zac pondered for a few minutes and came up with a few ways that might work . The simplest method , and the one he desperately hoped was true , was that the cap would increase with a set amount of points every time he got a level . Then his problem would be taken care of . If the increase per level was low he could simply allocate his free points into more Endurance or a third stat .

But if this wasn’t the case his problem got a lot thornier , because the only other method he could think of currently was getting an upgrade . Both his Race and Class were currently F-Graded . If he upgraded one of them , his limits might get increased as well .

The problem was that he had no idea how to do that . Usually , in games , you got a class upgrade when you reached a set level . Unfortunately , Zac didn’t know whether this was at level 35 , 50 or even 100 .

As for Race , he was even more clueless . He had seen no indication anywhere what to do about race , and the only hint he had gotten that it was actually upgradeable was that the grade got added when he attained a class .

It might take a long time until he found a solution to this problem . The thought of losing tens of levels worth of attributes while he waited for getting an upgrade made Zac truly sick to his stomach .

Zac’s vision started to close in on him , and his thoughts were getting scattered . Suddenly he puked out a large mouthful of blood and bile , before falling down on the ground .

Something else is making me sick as well’ Zac realized , just before passing out .

Chapter 54 - Luck

Zac woke up woozy and disoriented , and his innards felt like they were on fire . A sheen of sour perspiration covered his whole body and he was weakly shaking .

If he didn’t know better he’d think that he had caught a bad case of the flu . However , he felt that he should be immune to things like the flu or a common cold since his constitution improved .

His next guess was poison , and it felt far more likely . He was somehow poisoned during his fight , and it started taking effect on him after he left and settled down . His first guess would be the cauldron . He just barely touched it when he put it in his pouch , but he did breathe its fumes for a good while .

And it felt far more likely that a creepy imp was concocting poisons down in a subterranean cave rather than a healing potion . If so he felt that he scored an amazing weapon by chance . If just the run-off fumes were this poisonous , he didn’t even dare imagine what the liquid inside would do .

It didn’t help him with his current predicament of course . The most advanced healing tinctures in his possession were some aspirin and aloe cream meant for sunburn , neither likely to be effective against demon poison . He did have the mysterious azure water from the pond , but he didn’t dare drink it in case it only made things worse . He could only hope to slowly flush it out by drinking lots of normal water .

He had no real appetite at the moment but forced himself to drink a large amount of water . He tried eating some rations as well , but his stomach started churning threateningly at the mere smell of food . He arduously moved some distance in the tunnel as well , as a pool of his puke had turned the area quite putrid .

Zac took out a Nexus Crystal and started absorbing it after he found a new resting place . Being full of cosmic energy couldn’t hurt in case something happened . He actually felt that his body was getting slightly better as he was absorbing the energy , but it could be his mind playing tricks on him .

After a few hours he had absorbed all the energy he could . If he continued it would turn from restoration to cultivation , and he didn’t want to gain any experience before he made sense of his situation .

The poison had interrupted his train of thought , but he was still met with the same problem , his capped Strength . If he returned to the mountain it would only take a day or so of furious monkey slaying to reach level 35 , something he was loath to do before he knew his options .

He decided to slow down leveling speed for now , and even stop pondering on the Dao . He even took off his gathering array amulet and put it into his bag in order to not even passively move toward the next level .

He’d focus on his axe technique instead as that was the only safe option left . Lost over what to do he opened up his status screen again , staring at the free attribute point . He knew he likely would have to gain a level to see what would happen , risking throwing away his Strength points . But for now , he wanted to look for another method at least for a while .

His conviction of focusing on only one stat had taken a hit from reaching the Strength cap . For now it was only Strength , but Endurance would be there sooner or later as well if he threw all his points into it now that he couldn’t put anything into Strength .

His eyes lingered on the other attributes , hesitating over what to do . Finally , his eyes landed on Luck .

It was an attribute he had completely put aside since the beginning , as he didn’t want to hinge his survival on something as unreliable as luck . But by now he was a walking juggernaut . The last fight was risky , but he had completely overpowered the Herald . The Monkey King wasn’t his match either and only survived due to his reinforcements .

By now he could put some points into luck , as his basic survivability was taken care of . He might not be exactly sure how it would help him , as he couldn’t quantify it . But since he desperately needed a solution to both his Strength-predicament and finding the general , getting some more Luck couldn’t hurt .

Satisfied with his plan he placed his remaining free point into Luck , but once again was stopped from actually allocating it .

God damn it… - he muttered under his breath . - System , could you explain what’s going on? - he entreated while looking up .

It was the first time in a month he had tried to communicate with the System , but he was still ignored like the last times . Maybe the System lost interest in the world soon after the integration and left everything on auto-pilot before leaving .

He felt that the situation with Luck wasn’t the same as with Strength . He only had 67 points in Luck at the moment , a far cry from the 175 point cap . All his luck came from titles , and he never allocated any points into it so far , and Zac realized that might be the only way to increase his luck .

Luck had a major difference from the other attributes . All the other stats could be improved even before the integration into the multi-verse . Strength and Endurance were the most obvious , but even things like Intelligence could be slightly improved with active training and a good diet . But there was no way to train up your luck .

If this was true then getting the titles gave an even greater advantage than he thought , as they improved an attribute that should be static . He still didn’t understand how the Luck stat worked , but it might help him win a battle against someone equally strong but less lucky .

He suddenly wished that Charisma existed as an attribute as well , as getting that stat to over 60 points might have turned him into a handsome hero instead of his current look of a bald creeper .

With a sigh he allocated the last free point into Vitality , hoping it would speed up his recovery a bit . There was one last thing left that he needed to check out . He brought up his skill window to take a look .

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 : Middle . There is greatness in simplicity .

Chop] had improved as he suspected . In his fight with the Herald , he’d actually shot out the edge like a projectile , something he hadn’t been able to do before . The desperation in the fight helped him breakthrough from Early to Middle stage of the skill .

He truly hoped he didn’t need to be on the verge of death to improve his skills in the future , but it seemed that pushing oneself to the limits was effective in improving not only levels and titles , but even skills as well .

As he was done with everything he could do for now , he closed his windows and helplessly closed his eyes .

It took a whole day before he could move about again , and another until he felt strong enough that he dared resume exploring .

He set course for the area where he had heard sounds of mining a few days earlier . As he approached he heard some shuffling ahead . He hid in an unlit side-tunnel , getting ready for a battle in case the imps discovered him .

To his surprise , the two imps weren’t alone but accompanied by three demons . They did not seem like miners , as they all were holding weapons and carefully looked around . They all seemed to be warrior classes as none of them held staffs or tomes or the like , and Zac’s eyes lit up when he saw one of the demons actually held an axe of exactly the same make as his own .

He originally planned on avoiding the fight as he didn’t want to rack up a body count , but now he charged at them as soon as they were within a few meters . With a Chop] two of the demons instantly died , not even having a chance to react . Zac grabbed the remaining one with his free hand and threw the terrified demon down on the ground . With a mighty swing , he ended him as well , leaving only the imps standing . The imps barely managed to start summoning their fireballs before one was decapitated and the other was kicked into the wall , the force breaking most of its bones and killing it .

Zac looted the corpses then threw them into his pouch . He didn’t love the idea of carrying around a bunch of corpses , but he also didn’t want to just leave them lying there to be discovered . As if answering his prayer a salamander lumbered into view a few minutes later , and Zac tried throwing one of the demons at it .

It quickly snapped up the body and with a few disgusting chews had eaten him whole , the saliva creating a sickening sizzling sound as it acidic nature quickly melted parts of the body before even swallowing it .

Zac continued to throw bodies at it , and it actually managed to eat the whole party except one of the demons . But it grabbed him with its mouth , and after a glance at Zac turned around and returned to wherever it came from . It looked like the salamanders truly weren’t a part of the demon’s forces .

Zac continued forward , now holding an axe in each hand . He was delighted to see that the Axe Mastery] skill still worked while dual-wielding the axes . But after trying it out for a bit he felt it was very hard and unwieldy to use . He preferred using only one axe , and having a free hand seemed more convenient for him . Even using a dagger in his off-hand felt more natural .

He reluctantly put back his second axe in his pouch and continued on . He might just be lacking experience , and he would have a lot of time to train his axe-work if he couldn't level up for a while . As he walked through the shimmering tunnels he finally started hearing the droning sounds of tools hitting the hard walls .

Zac knew by now the effort it took to mine the Nexus Crystals . It had taken him quite some effort to dig out only one crystal from a wall , and that was with maxed out Strength . It seemed as though the dense cosmic energy empowered the rock that encased the crystals , making it far harder than it normally was . It was no wonder that new demons kept streaming down into the tunnels from the demon town .

Chapter 55 - Hey There Buddy

Zac wished he had a mirror to more sneakily look around the corners , but could only work with what he got . He rubbed some dirt on his face and singed scalp to cover his skin , and then wrapped some of the vines around his neck and head . Somewhat satisfied with his camouflage , and carefully peeked around a corner , mostly hidden behind a huge mushroom .

The tunnel Zac peered into contained five miners , and he was surprised to see that most of them used different means to extract the crystals .

Two were using basic pick-axes to gradually chip away at the walls . But each swing only made some tiny chippings fall , proving that their strength was nowhere near Zac’s . If he used one of those pickaxes he would likely be able to slam a decent hole in the wall , even if the rock was strengthened .

Another two of the miners were actually mages , and they simply held their hands to the wall . It took some time to see what they were doing , but he saw that a Nexus Crystal slowly was emerging out of the wall after a while . Apparently , the rock was even resistant to spells , as the earth mages Zac encountered so far usually had a far easier time manipulating stone .

The last miner was slamming away at the wall with a mace , and his Strength was overbearing . Every slam created a reverberating thud that made stone chippings fly .

The miners were all demons who looked well fed and cared for and didn’t really look weaker compared to the scouts he encountered . He had hoped that the demons placed their weakest in the mines , which would make Zac’s next actions more convenient . But the Strength of the mace wielder seemed to be even higher compared to the demon with the great sword and black arcs of lightning .

Next to their feet , they each had a sack of extracted Nexus Crystals . The mace-wielder’s sack was filled the most and the mages were second . It was all these sacks that were the goal of Zac . He had decided to scout out the demon activity in the cave for a bit , and steal as many Nexus Crystals as he could . He wanted to see if the crystals could help him in evolving his race or class before biting the bullet and gaining a level to see what happened . He knew he was grasping at straws , but he was really out of options .

Zac based his guess on two things . First the monkey packs . The higher density of energy the packs stayed in , the larger they became . The packs closest to the valley sported the largest monkeys , and a few even evolved to the point of using skills . The second clue came from the imp that was hiding crystals in a stash . He guessed that it maybe wanted to use the crystals for evolving as well .

If the beasts could use cosmic energy to evolve , then why couldn’t he? So he wanted to steal a large amount in order to experiment . Perhaps there was a method of usage that would evolve his body , but not improve his level .

Zac slunk back into his tunnel , moving further on . His target wasn’t these half-filled sacs . Moving onward he spotted quite a few tunnels with miners , and rhythmic thumping on the walls filled the tunnels . He soon found a deserted tunnel whose crystals all had been extracted . He picked this tunnel and started moving through it , ascending slightly as he did . He wanted to get closer to the center of demon activities .

All these miners had sacs , but Zac never saw anyone carrying them back to the Demon City . That meant that either they were collected and put in a pouch or were left here in the caves . In either case , they should be collected somewhere .

The tunnels that had been mined looked truly bleak compared to the magical feeling of the untouched ones . Not only were the crystals in the walls removed , but most of the vegetation had also been ripped out of the tunnel . The only thing left was a smattering of moss to somewhat illuminate the area . Luckily for Zac , these exploited tunnels were completely deserted as anything of value was taken . It made it easy for him to move around the active excavations and into the inner area closer to where he expected the cave mouth to be .

He really felt thankful that his titles had improved his mental stats quite a bit . Normally he would be completely turned around after days in the tunnels . But while he couldn’t exactly pinpoint where he should be in relation to the mountain , he generally knew the layout of the tunnels he had traversed and the direction he was moving . This was completely different from the old Zac who could almost get lost in his own neighborhood , and could only be attributed to either Intelligence or Wisdom .

Perhaps putting points in these stats wouldn’t be a waste for a warrior , and not because it would help with his lacking sense of direction . He had been pondering on attributes a lot while healing up from the poison . If he was to throw his 1-stat-strategy out the window he needed a new direction . One alternative was to focus on all his physical stats , including dexterity and vitality as well . Find a good balance between the stats that still had Strength as the main focus , but not as lopsided as now .

But a new alternative he hadn’t thought about was to start focusing on wisdom and intelligence . When he let go of his chosen path he started to think more deeply about what the various attributes could help him with , and he believed the mental attributes might help him with the Dao and Skill advancement .

If putting his free points in Intelligence allowed him to improve his Dao Seed faster and acquire new ones it might be more effective compared to putting them into more physical stats . If putting 10 points in wisdom helped him get another Dao Seed that gave 15 bonus attribute points , it was a worthwhile investment .

It might also be possible that even physical attacks needed those stats . His Chop] skill was approaching the realm of magic as it could be turned into a projectile now . Perhaps Wisdom and Intelligence would help it fly faster or further , rather than Strength .

He could only put aside those things for now , and for the hundredth sighed that he had no one to ask about these things .

The sounds of battle in the distance interrupted his thoughts . Who would be fighting down in the tunnels? Intrigued , Zac moved towards the clangor . He soon arrived at the mouth of a cave and saw four huge salamanders in a pitched battle against twice the amount of demons .

Earthen Spikes were shooting at the monsters while warriors were keeping the lizards at bay . A pyromancer conjured a huge fireball that shot into the open maw of a salamander , burning it alive from the inside . It started to furiously thrash about , slamming one of the warriors into the wall , at least breaking a few bones .

It was clear that apart from the fireball the salamanders held the advantage . Had the demons met only one or two of the monsters they’d likely have been able to defeat them , but four were too many .

The warriors didn’t have the power to keep the monsters occupied , and the earth mages’ attacks were largely ineffective . After their kill , one of the warriors sporting a large hammer and a shield shouted something in demonic and their party started to move backward .

Zac was happy to let this play out and hid behind a boulder , but the development put him in a predicament . The demons were moving in his direction .

After some deliberation , he picked up a few rocks and started pelting the demons . With his Strength he could likely throw them hard enough to blast through their bodies like bullets , but he controlled his power output . The first stones hit one of the warriors in the neck and in the back of the head of another .

It didn’t knock them out but contained enough force to daze them . In a pitched battle like this a brief mistake could be deadly , and the salamanders unhesitantly pounced . They bit onto the two demons and after a few furious shakes threw their mangled corpses away .

A small stream of cosmic energy entered Zac , and he was delighted to see that the System only awarded a small part of the full amount to him . It looked that the system did use some sort of distribution method that somehow gauged contribution or damage dealt .

He managed to throw another stone that actually knocked one of the mages out cold before he was discovered . One of the mages screamed angrily and shot a few earth spikes toward him . But a few hastily summoned spikes possessed no danger to Zac , and he broke them off with a wave of his axe .

Zac moved forward quick as lightning and grabbed the scruff of the mage . Then with a grunt he threw her like a doll right at the warrior that ordered the retreat . She slammed into him with enough force that they both helplessly went sprawling on the ground .

The salamanders were quick on the uptake and started helping out with the pincer attack . The two downed demons were quickly dealt with and suddenly it was four demons left versus three salamanders and Zac .

With the frontline down the remaining mages were in dire straits . They desperately erected defenses against the hulking monsters , and then tried to force their way through Zac . But Zac was well versed in anti-mage tactics by now and quickly threw the pyromancer over the hastily erected wall . The mage wailed and then went quiet forever .

The salamanders weren’t standing idle either , and with a roar the largest one slammed straight through the defenses and snapped up one of the demons . Another one followed and started biting one of the earth mages . The stone skin the mage used was completely ineffective against the lizard’s saliva and strong jaws , and he screamed as he was being eaten alive .

Only one solitary demon remained , and with a desperate roar he started gathering cosmic energy from the surroundings . With the large density in the air it felt like a whirlpool of energy was forming . Zac recognized that sign and immediately cleaved the demon in two from head to crotch , just before jumping for cover .

He held his hands over his head for a few seconds , but the expected explosion didn’t come . Perhaps Zac managed to kill him before the energy managed to reach a critical mass . Somewhat embarrassedly he got to his feet and found himself facing three salamanders silently staring at him .

Hey there buddy , let’s be friends - Zac croaked toward the largest salamander , hoping to sound friendly .

Chapter 56 - Ill-gotten Gains

Zac spoke to the salamanders with the same voice he used to chat with his old neighbor’s dog . While he felt that fighting thee salamanders wouldn’t be an impossible feat , he didn’t want to move closer to another level unless he needed to . Besides , who knew if they would remember him as an ally if he kept feeding them demons and imps . Having an army of giant lizards to help out against the demon city would be very handy .

One of the salamanders ignored his request for friendship and started lumbering toward Zac , who helplessly backed away with his hands held up in response . Thankfully the leader’s maw opened , and a surprisingly childish squeak emerged from its mouth . The squeak stopped the advancing salamander in its tracks , and it lumbered back toward one of the demon corpses .

Zac surveyed all the corpses for anything of value . He quickly noted that none of them carried a magic pouch , and the only other gear he found interesting was the shield one of the warriors had carried . It lay flung to the side by the corner of the cave . In case he spotted anything of real value or a magic pouch he would probably have initiated a fight , but he now saw no need to .

He briefly wondered what would happen if a monster ate one of the pouches while he moved away from the cave . Would it explode like a magic piñata , spewing its content all over the place? Or would the items simply be lost? Would a tear in space occur , sucking anything in the vicinity into some unknown void?

He waited some distance from the cave for fifteen minutes until the sickening sounds of feasting were gone , and sneaked back to the site of the battle . The salamanders were gone , apart from the dead one lying in a corner . All the bodies of the demons were gone as well .

Everything that the demons had worn seemed to have been ingested together with the bodies , but things they had dropped was left where it lay . Zac went and picked up the shield from the corner and examined it . It was slightly dented and corroded from the battle , but overall in serviceable condition . He threw it into his pouch and left again , not bothering with the damaged swords on the ground .

He was happy to see that the salamanders were actively hunting the demons , as that would provide an explanation of why some demons went missing when Zac started his activities .

With gusto he returned into the tunnels , looking for some stash house or clues where the mined crystals were gathered . But after looking around in vain for some time he changed his strategy . He found another group of miners and made sure he could get to both sides of their tunnel through side-paths .

After making sure he had a good grasp on the surrounding topography he simply sat down in a tunnel close by , waiting to see what happened with the sacks . Luckily he didn’t have to wait long as the group of miners had been going at it for some time judging by the bulging sacks . Zac heard footsteps and hid his face deeper among the vegetation , hiding the rest of his body around the corner .

Five demons arrived at the tunnel , with the one in the middle wearing a fancy dress and having an air of haughtiness . The four others accompanying her were clearly bodyguards judging from their attire and how they encircled her . When she arrived the miners immediately stopped their activities and saluted the lady .

With a few words she brought out a clipboard from a pouch and one by one the miners brought their crystal sacks over to her . She lifted the first one up with her free hand , and after a comment wrote something down on the clipboard . She then put the whole sack into one of the pouches in her belt .

One of the guards brought out an empty sack from a backpack and handed it out with an expressionless face . The miner bowed and went back to his position . This process went on for two more miners without anything of note happening . But when the lady commented on the fourth miner’s sack he couldn’t help but grimace and hesitantly say a few words in demonic .

The bodyguards immediately perked up and started radiating a dangerous aura , but the lady waved them down . She simply pointed to the bag and said a few words with a smiling face . The miner looked horrified and went down on his knees looking like he was begging for his life .

The exchange continued for some time until finally the lady put the sack into another magic pouch , and the miner could only return to his position with a devastated expression . The other miners simply stared down in the ground , not wanting to be implicated by their mouthy associate .

After the lady was done she simply turned and left , with her four bodyguards in tow . The miners sighed and sat down to eat , conversing with subdued voices . Zac didn’t linger on and instead crept behind the party of five .

Don’t worry buddy , I’ll mete out justice for you soon . ’ Zac gave a silent prayer for the unlucky miner as he was skulked away . He kept a healthy distance from the group , afraid that any sound would alert the group , and the walking treasure trove would slip out of his fingers .

The group soon arrived at another tunnel with a group of miners , and the process repeated itself . Zac kept following the group for an hour and watched them collect sack after sack of crystals . He wasn’t sure whether the group he first spied on was among the first the lady visited , but just going by what he had observed the pouches on her belt contained an astonishing amount of crystals by now , and could only be counted by the thousands .

Zac felt he couldn’t wait any longer and got himself ready . He steadied his breath and placed himself at a side-tunnel that the party should be passing after finishing their collection . It was some distance from the mining group , so Zac had no vision of his target anymore . However , they were moving in a very systematic pattern through the tunnel system so far , and Zac could only assume they would continue .

Sure enough , soon the tell-tale echoes of the steps of the party were approaching . Zac held his breath , not wanting to give any indication of his presence . The first two guards came into view , but Zac didn’t react .

As if sensing something was wrong one of the guards started to turn around , but it was too late . Zac entered the tunnel right behind the two and without hesitation swung a Dao-empowered strike at the lady in the middle . She looked shocked , but a golden sheen immediately enveloped her as an inscription pattern lit up on her dress .

Zac knew that inscription very well by now and forcefully stopped his swing . It hurt his muscles to do so , but it was better than getting the whole force of the strike redirected at himself . Instead , he lightly punched the golden barrier , and a recoil traveled through his arm bringing some discomfort .

Having fulfilled its purpose , the golden layer shattered , leaving the lady once more exposed . Black lightning arcs flittered all over her body , but Zac swiftly decapitated her with a grunt . The black arcs traveled all over his body , making it feel like he was being electrocuted , and he actually blanked out from the pain for a second .

During the brief pause from the shock , a sword stabbed into his side , drawing a small gout of blood . The pain shook him awake , and he immediately pounced on the two guards that had stood behind the lady . They were alarmed , but still warriors . One had produced a spiked mace whereas the other’s hands started glowing with lightning . From his muscles he didn’t seem like a mage though , but rather a pugilist .

They tried to pincer Zac , with the mace-wielder swinging at him from the left and the pugilist attacking him from the right with a clawed hand . Zac ignored the martial artist , and instead swung his axe to meet the mace .

The collision was completely one-sided , as the force from Zac’s swing slapped the mace out of his hand and made the demon lose his balance . Simultaneously the clawed hand slammed into Zac’s back , easily destroying the leather protection , and trying to tear into his flesh . Unfortunately for him , Zac’s skin was all the armor he needed , and the demon only managed to create a small flesh wound . The lightning entered Zac’s body , but by now this level of power had scant effect on him .

He grabbed the mace-wielder’s neck with his free left hand and slammed him down on the martial artist . The sounds of bones breaking could be heard , but Zac was interrupted as he planned to finish the two . A blade was flying right toward his throat , and Zac activated his armor to block it .

But he was shocked as no golden sheen enveloped him , and he could only desperately lift his arm to block the strike . The blade cut into his lower arm , only stopping after carving into bone . The pain was blinding but only served to enraged Zac . With a furious Chop] the blade wielder was bisected , and then the two demons on the ground followed him into death .

He turned toward the last bodyguard only to see him desperately fleeing , heedlessly throwing away his weapon . Zac started running after him , throwing a few daggers his way . But the bodyguard was surprisingly nimble , managing to dodge most of them while running . One hit him in his back , but he only staggered slightly but kept moving .

Suddenly he started shouting at the top of his lungs , horrifying Zac . He threw one more dagger at him , but the demon turned a corner and disappeared from his vision . He could still hear the screams though , as they echoed through the tunnel system .

Zac hesitated a second , but then ran back toward the killed demons . With a furious speed he grabbed the pouches on the lady’s belt , then threw her headless body into one of them . He then ran away in the opposite direction from where the screaming bodyguard was fleeing toward .

After a minute he stopped and quickly bandaged his wounded arm . It was bleeding freely and was currently creating a trail to his location . After making sure the blood didn’t get through the bandages and rags he started running again . After he had run for an hour and completely left the area with mining activities or imps he finally slowed down and found a good resting spot .

The fight wasn’t very taxing , but he was worried about the results . First he dragged his chest piece off his torso and inspected it . The armor itself looked whole , but the inscribed fractal on the front had multiple cracks on it . That should explain why the shield didn’t materialize earlier and he got maimed instead . But a smile crept on his face as he glanced down at his belt . He knew he would be able to afford to buy a new one with his ill-gotten gains .

Chapter 57 - Dressing up

Zac suddenly remembered hearing a snapping sound when he used the shield against the imp Herald . He had no idea how to fix the inscriptions and could only reluctantly put the armor into his bag . He didn’t want to risk damaging it further until he could fix it , as it had been a great life-saving tool so far .

He then brought out the headless body from his pouch . After a great deal of hesitation he stripped the bloody dress from the body , leaving the corpse only in its undergarments . He then put the dress on himself with a sour face before putting back the body into the pouch .

It wasn’t ideal , but the dress had the same inscription as his armor , and it could be the difference between life and death . The dress he put on was strapped was a neutral beige and reached down to his knees . The design was luckily armless and somewhat nondescript , making it almost look like an overly long tank top . He put his belt over the dress then turned his eyes to the pouches .

A creepy grin was slowly surfacing once again , as he grabbed the closest one of the three he looted and took a peek inside .

If this was an old school cartoon then Zac’s eyes would have turned into dollar-signs by now . The bag was almost filled to the brim with sack after sack of raw Nexus Crystals . If he had to guess he’d have to say there was at least an equivalent of 10 000 crystals in the pouch . The shapes and sizes were completely random as well , ranging from the size of a finger to almost a whole hand . Most of the crystals were encased in some stone and needed one last processing before being pure .

The second bag was unfortunately empty except a few solitary sacks , likely a spare in case the first one was filled up . The third one was the personal pouch belonging to the noble lady herself . It held various personal effects such as daily necessities , clothes , and jewelry . It also had a nasty-looking claw weapon with fractal inscriptions . Zac brought it out and tried to put it on his hand , but it seemed to have been custom made for the demoness , or at least made for ladies , as his hand didn’t fit .

Most noticeably in the pouch there was a sizeable mound of raw crystals . There even were a few sacks as well . It looked like that the lady foreman was skimming off the top after all , as crystals worth a couple of hundred standard-sized ones could be found in the pouch .

Satisfied with his haul he took out some food and water from his pouch to have his dinner . As he did he started to plan his next step . He had planned on stalking the tunnels for a while longer , but unfortunately , he was already exposed . He didn’t doubt that the fleeing demon soon would warn all his superiors about Zac . The demon had seen the whole fight where Zac showed many of his cards as well .

After half a month of living with the demons , he was finally exposed . It was better than he expected to be honest , as he wasn’t really the stealthy type . It seemed he could only begrudgingly give up on finding any more mining foremen , and instead refocus on the monkey king . It was time to head back the way he came from , and search for an alternative exit .

But suddenly Zac got an acute sense of danger , and instinctively dove to the side . A soundless black arrow flew past him where his head had just been and a throng earth spikes followed right after . Zac scrambled to his feet and found himself face to face with over twenty demons swarming into his cave from all exits .

This clearly was an ambush that they prepared for some time , as they entered from both exits simultaneously . Feeling like a caged animal , Zac growled and immediately ran toward one of the groups , trying to avoid a pincer attack .

As if practiced beforehand , the group started to back away from him , with all the mages erecting barriers to keep him at bay . There were the translucent magical barriers accompanied by earth walls and earthen spikes . There was even a tree mage who manipulated the subterranean vines to ensnare his feet .

Meanwhile , Zac got pelted by the other group of demons with an array of ranged attacks . He could only give up his charge in order to avoid most of it . As he dodged he turned around toward the attackers who harassed him from behind and swung his axe in a mighty horizontal arc .

A translucent blade grew to four meters long in an instant and then shot toward the surprised group . Only a few in the back managed to dodge in time , and the others could only hastily erect defenses .

With Zac’s power the defenses of the average demon were simply insufficient , as it tore through them one by one . The blade wasn’t perfectly stable though , and after slicing through 6 demons it flickered out of existence .

Two daggers came whooshing straight behind the huge blade , one slamming into an eye and the other into the gut of another demon . Satisfied , Zac turned back and started pressing forward through the defenses of the group .

He summoned his large edge but kept it at maximum stable capacity for now . As the attacks from behind had paused from his strike he could once again focus fully on the group he had initially charged at .

He slammed the axe down on one of the translucent barriers and it cracked like fragile glass . Two spears stabbed into him as he advanced , one lodging itself in his side and the other got stuck on the bone of his pelvis .

It was two warriors who used their long weapons trying to keep him at distance . Zac ripped one of the spears out of the hands of the demon , making him stumble forward , and slammed the butt of the spear at the other warrior . The spear broke in two and made the demon fly into the wall with a thud .

Immediately after he actually threw his axe straight in the chest of one of the mages . He didn’t know which kind he was , but he died instantly from the strike . He brought out his identical axe from his pouch and continued to press forward .

A few arrows slammed into his back , but only elicited a grunt in response as he pressed forward . He once again got the prickling sensation of danger and sidestepped without hesitation . An arrow flew straight past him and once again missed his head . Unfortunately , the archer that shot the super-powered black arrows still was alive .

He kept pushing forward , and with a great leap he was within the group of demons . He ate a spear strike and two stalactite attacks by the earth mages due to his reckless charge but now he was within striking distance of the demons . Zac started madly swing his axe , with Chop] charged to its limit .

He kept taking various hits but for every strike he received , he returned one in kind . And with Zac’s far superior stats he whittled down the group to only 3 combatants from 9 in under 10 seconds . The survivors from the other group joined their brethren in the fight , and Zac found himself encircled by the 6 last surviving demons .

Zac was completely drenched in blood by now , both his own and the demon’s , and filled with small wounds from head to toe . Almost ten arrows were sticking out of his body at various spots , making him look like a demonic porcupine . He was panting and it looked like it was a chore to keep his axe raised , but he was still standing . Fighting twenty demons at once was a bit more than he could confidently handle , even in an enclosed space like this .

None of the demons were keen on being the first to attack , as over 15 demons already had made the ultimate sacrifice and they didn’t want to be next in line . They seemed to be content to simply watch as Zac slowly bled out .

They all kept a healthy distance from him , making him unable to reach them even with Chop] , and he currently didn’t dare use his ranged attack due to the huge consumption of energy .

Zac knew he couldn’t keep stalling and threw a dagger at one of the mages , who quickly summoned a barrier . The translucent wall shook when the dagger hit it , but it held true and the dagger dropped to the ground . Zac didn’t want to throw his axe as his other one still was lodged in the mage some distance away .

Needing to break the status quo , he moved his hand down to his belt , and with underhand throw hurled a large crystal sack at another demon . The demon slightly froze from seeing a small mountain of wealth flying in his direction , and even instinctually reached out his hand to catch it .

But how could a heavy sack thrown by Zac be so easy to catch? It hit the demon who crashed into the wall behind with a wet thud . He slumped down on the ground and didn’t move . The other five demons all charged at him as if by command , throwing desperate attacks at him .

With only 5 demons left Zac finally threw his axe at a mage keeping his distance . He hastily erected an earth wall , but the axe had the momentum of a meteor and passed the rising wall and blasted a hole through the mage before he could also activate his stone skin .

He took out one of his large swords out of his pouch and with a sweep slapped away two incoming spears . He then charged straight at the closest warrior . The warrior tried to keep Zac at bay with his spear , but Zac simply swung his sword at it with enough force that it broke the fingers of the warrior , and continued into melee range .

With a growl , he stabbed the great sword into the demon’s gut , and with a ferocious upwards tug ripped him in two , drenching the surroundings in a storm of blood . A second spear stabbed into his side , but it only added yet another shallow wound to the tally . The three remaining demons seemed to understand that they didn’t have the power to contend with him , and simultaneously started absorbing inordinate amounts of cosmic energy .

Zac didn’t want to see what a triple suicide explosion looked like , and desperately ran toward the closest target and decapitated him . He continued toward the next immediately , but as he approached a resounding explosion threw him ten meters away and straight into a wall .

Zac puked out a mouthful of blood , and his wounds only got worse . Just as he shakily got up to his knees his vision filled with a bloated demon falling down in front of him . It was the last living demoness , chock-full of cosmic energy . The demoness stared into Zac’s eyes as she shed one solitary tear before she blew up with a tremendous explosion .

Chapter 58 - Quest

The world was shaking nauseatingly and an incessant ringing filled Zac’s ears . He shakily got to his feet but immediately fell down again . His state was already pretty bad , but the last blast completely messed him up . His new dress had used the golden protection just a few hours ago , making it unusable for another day .

Luckily he managed to drag a corpse over at the last second to use as a shield from the blast , otherwise , he might have bit the bullet , 103 Endurance or not . And now he was covered in a blood mush from the demon shield to boot . However the last minute protection was far from enough , and it felt like everything in his body was broken .

But he knew he couldn’t stay where he was . The demons somehow knew his position , and he had no other recourse but to flee . He shakily got to his feet and collected his two axes , and only swiped up a few knives if convenient . Zac didn’t dare to properly loot the bodies as he needed to put distance from the cave .

His movements were extremely slow , even if he mentally screamed at his legs to move faster . He desperately wished he had some health and stamina potions right now like in a game , but the only thing he got was a cauldron full of poison .

After hesitating for a few seconds he took out his canteen with the azure water from the pond . The water was crammed full of cosmic energy and might help him recover enough for him to properly flee from the area . The problem was that he had no idea whether it also contained something else lo poison or deadly super bacteria .

Zac knew he couldn’t be picky at a moment like this , and had to risk it . With a few chugs he downed a couple of mouthfuls of the azure water . It tasted sweet and cooling in his mouth , and was hands down was the best tasting beverage he ever had . But as soon as the water entered his throat it started burning worse than the strongest spirits he knew , making him feel like he swallowed a sun rather than some water .

The burning feeling didn’t abate in his stomach , but rather kept intensifying . He felt his body was turning into a pressure cooker that was ready to burst . Veins popped out all over his body and he was forced to stop walking from the intense pain . Sweat was pouring down his face like a waterfall and even his eardrums popped from the pressure .

Zac was starting to worry for real that he might explode like the demons any time now . But soon the intense pressure abated , and the scorching heat in his belly turned into comforting rays of warmth that spread all through his body .

Zac felt his cosmic energy reserves rapidly filling up , but his wounds were barely reacting to the water . He thought he might be seeing some improvement but couldn’t be sure . It rather felt like he had taken a dozen shots of adrenaline and simply couldn’t feel the pain any longer .

It was better than nothing Zac thought as he continued onward at a brisker pace . As he walked he dumped everything from the lady foreman’s pouch onto the ground , leaving only the Nexus Crystals . He still didn’t feel secure though and started to meticulously scan through the bag containing most of the crystals .

He went through them one by one to see if anything was amiss , trying to find out how the demons were able to track him . Perhaps there were bugs planted in one of the sacks he had stolen from the lady foreman , as that was when the trouble started . Soon his scanning stopped at an inconspicuous rock that was placed in one of the sacks . Most of the sacks had some rock chippings mixed in with the crystals , but this was the first time he saw a rock of that size . He brought out the sack and groped around inside until he found the stone .

As he glanced at it did not seem overly suspicious , but he could see some slightly odd veins on the stone . He brought out his flashlight for the first time and shone it on the rock . In brighter lighting he could see that the veins actually were fractals . Zac grimly stared at it for a second , before he crushed it under his foot .

He immediately backtracked a bit and changed direction . As he walked he kept checking each and every bag , and eventually found two more similar stones . Finally sure that was the last of them he sped off , ignoring any wounds protesting .

As he walked he multitasked by checking his status page . The fight with the demons pushed him over the limit and gotten him to level 35 . He had already been somewhat close to leveling again after killing the Herald , and the melee was all that was needed .

His fears were unfortunately realized and he saw his Strength still was stuck at 175 instead of increasing from the class bonus . It looked like he really had to try and evolve somehow . He helplessly allocated his 3 free points into Vitality , as he didn’t dare put any more in Endurance for now either .

Hoping for a class advancement quest activating from reaching a - big - level , Zac opened up his quest window next . Things weren’t that convenient , as no advancement quests popped up .

He did , however , receive a new class quest .

Loamwalker (Class) : Walk a thousand kilometers touching the earth . Reward : Loamwalker Skill (0/1000)

He suddenly was pretty happy that he didn’t spend a few days to grind in order to buy Steps of Gaia] from the shop . He only lacked 5000 coins for the skill by now , and could now use them to improve other things instead . Loamwalker] was clearly some type of movement skill , just like Steps of Gaia] .

Honestly , his class skill sounded quite a bit blander compared to the one in the shop , but he had learned not to underestimate the dull-sounding skills he received from his class . It was also very convenient to complete , as he only needed to walk around .

A slight scuffling interrupted his thoughts , and he could only bring out his axe again with a grimace . He placed himself at a corner in wait , and soon a demon came into view . This one was highly alert , and immediately noticed Zac’s presence .

But Zac was ready and the axe was falling down on the demons head as just as he appeared , instantly killing him . He immediately entered the tunnel and unleashed a maximized Chop] edge that flew outward before he could even register what was in the tunnel .

A few screams and groans were heard , and the demons were almost all dead before they knew what hit them . There were two that were badly hurt but alive , but Zac made short work out of them as well .

There was one final demon who for some reason had been doubled over when the edge passed through the party and was completely unharmed . Horrified he started running but Zac wouldn’t let yet another straggler escape . With a grunt , he threw his axe at the demon and then started his pursuit .

Luckily this time he hit , and the party was no more . He stopped by the fallen body and ripped out the embedded axe while glancing at the bloodied tunnel . He didn’t know who made the sound while walking , but that mistake cost the whole group their lives .

It looked like the demons hadn’t given up the chase . They had finally identified him and seemed determined to remove the problem . He quickly threw all the bodies and gear into his empty pouch and continued on until he found a secluded cave where he dumped them all , including their things . He actually wanted to bring them with him to hide his pathing , but who knew what else the demons could detect .

His speed slowed down somewhat due to taking even greater care to be completely silent , and thoroughly checking side-tunnels . But as he moved he was steadily moving upward . Zac figured the Demons might be impeded by the monkeys if he managed to exit into the mountains again . It was easier for him to hide as a solitary person , compared to their large groups .

He saw a party again as he checked a tunnel , but this time they were moving away . Zac kept completely still until they moved far away before skulking forward . At least it was clear that they couldn’t locate him anymore . It had just been a guess , but it truly seemed that those stones were some sort of tracking device .

He kept skulking forward and avoided any demons that he came across . He was lucky that the tunnels amplified sounds and it was almost impossible for a group of 10 people to be completely silent at all times .

He was forced into one more fight but ended it quickly before moving further up . After another hour he hadn’t seen any demons for 30 minutes and finally sat down and brought out a crystal . He should be some ways up the mountain by now , and could happen upon an exit at any time . Even if he didn’t want to stop he needed to recuperate before reentering the mountains .

The tunnels were endless and even if the demons sent hundreds of them into them it was still somewhat unlikely for them to happen upon him , as there was so much ground to cover . Meanwhile , he was afraid that the Herald had prepared an ambush for him the moment he reemerged .

So he finally allowed himself a break , eating some dried meat and then quietly waited for his wounds to get better . After two hours of quiet rest a loud ding entered his ears and forced him to his feet , warily looking around . But the area around him was completely deserted , with not a demon in sight .

Special Dynamic Quest activated . Emerge victorious and seize the Fruit of Ascension . Struggle for supremacy

It was the familiar emotionless voice of the System entering his ears , but Zac barely had time to reflect on its words before his vision changed .

He suddenly was up amongst the clouds and stared down toward the familiar sight of his island . He could clearly see the whole topography , but the sea around it was blurred somehow . The vision moved and he closed in on the island with terrifying speed , hurtling toward the mountains .

Soon he arrived at the valley where he fought the monkey king earlier , but it looked different from how it did when he visited . The zone of death around the red and white tree had expanded to stretch across almost half the valley , and even the azure pond was shrunken down to half its size .

After having almost exploded from the energy contained in just a few mouthfuls he was shocked at the amount the tree had absorbed .

The vision kept moving and in seconds he was next to the tree . Zac would have thought it would be even lusher after absorbing the surroundings and the lake , but it actually looked a bit dried out . A couple of leaves had even fallen to the ground .

Neither the herald nor any other monkeys were anywhere to be seen , but Zac didn’t ponder about it overly much as his eyes were glued to a pair of fruits that had grown on the tree . They were similar to a cantaloupe apart from their color . Instead , they were a glistening red mixed with white lines that almost looked like fractals .

The fruits were beautiful , but more importantly , they had some magical effect on him even though it was just an illusion . It felt like every cell in his body was screaming in desire , wanting nothing more than to consume the fruits . He hated the fact that he was just there in a vision , and not in reality .

As quickly as the vision appeared it suddenly ended , leaving Zac in the cave with a mixture of greed and hesitation .

Chapter 59 - Now or Never

That fucking monkey! - Ogras roared , this time enraged for real . No wonder it sent its underlings to keep his search parties out of the peaks . He thought it was just posturing that he’d allow for some time before setting monkeys straight . But Cindermane had likely found the Tree of Ascension long ago and just waited for its fruits to ripen . Somehow the monkey must have broken free of the clan’s mental restrictions , otherwise it would have been compelled to report such a find .

But if you think that breaking free from my grasp is that easy you’re in for a rude awakening… - he muttered and then turned to his aide . - Assemble the regiments , we’re heading toward the mountain . -

Yes , sir . What about the search parties in the mines? - The aid asked .

Leave them . Hopefully they will keep that human busy while we deal with this . -

He had been shocked to learn that the group of natives he discounted earlier actually was only one human . At least he hoped there was only one of them , as his power seemed high enough to give even him a headache . Of course , the human wouldn’t be a threat to him if all the limitations on him were removed though .

Worse yet the human killed Qugo and stole the poison that was supposed to be one of his aces in case everything went south . Ogras had actually decided to hide the news of the third Herald’s demise , afraid that his clan members would chain him up - for his own protection - , while gleefully stealing all the loot Ogras had rightfully pilfered .

As if summoned by his thoughts Rydel walked in through the door , as always unheeding or dismissive of proper protocol . He wore a resplendent silver battle armor that matched his long white hair well . Strapped to his back were two swords with intricately carved hilts .

Cousin , I assume you have seen the proclamation by The Ruthless Heavens? - he said with a smile .

I’m not blind Rydel , of course I’ve seen it . The army is setting out immediately . And here on the baby planet I’m General , not cousin . - Ogras spat out in annoyance .

It is ironic , wouldn’t you say cousin? It was you who championed sending the beast hordes through the gate first . But it seems they have only turned into lucrative target practice for the humans instead of paving our way , and now one of the hordes is even revolting . I wonder how the elders will react when they hear of this . - Rydel smilingly continued , seemingly unperturbed by the troubling developments .

That’s not for you to worry about Rydel , know your place . I’m leading the armies myself to fix the monkey problem , and that human hiding in the tunnels will soon be caught . - Ogras couldn’t stand being in the same room as this thorn in his side any longer and prepared to set out .

Ogras didn’t actually want to lead the army , but faced with the emergence of a D-ranked treasure such as a Fruit of Ascension , he couldn’t sit still . He needed to secure it by himself , and if that failed destroy it so that Cindermane or some crony of Rydel didn’t get it .

If someone from the main branch managed to get the Fruit of Ascension he might as well lay down and kill himself , as the family assassins would find him as soon as the incursion stabilized anyway . His plan was to turn the wealth of the crystal mine into acquiring a treasure like the Fruit of Ascension , and use that as a springboard to become the future hope of the clan . But if suddenly Rydel had the fruit as well , then he knew who the clan would favor .

I’m sorry cousin , but I need to correct you on a few accounts . - Rydel said while holding up a hand to stop Ogras’ exit , his smile slightly widening . - The human has escaped the ambush , leaving at least thirty corpses behind by now . He also seems to have figured out the tracking stones , and now we can’t locate him . Furthermore , the one who will lead the army to fix your mistakes is me , not you . -

Are you revolting against the clan precepts Rydel? You know the elders appointed me at least until the incursion stabilized . Are you sure you want to face the wrath of my grandfather? - Ogras spat out , a dangerous glint entering his eyes .

Your grandfather is well-aware . As you were untested when appointed general , the elders came to an accord with your ancestor . - Rydel retorted as he retrieved a parchment from his bag . - In certain events that are deemed to be critical to clan Arh’Rezak’s future developments , the military command is temporarily transferred to me . Just to make sure nothing goes wrong due to inexperience . -

The bright smile looked like a death sentence to Ogras , as he snatched the parchment with a snarl . After reading through it he saw it was true . He immediately sensed his grandfather’s magic sigil on the decree , telling him that this was real . The parchment detailed certain events that would result in a transfer of leadership to Rydel , and the emergence of a D-class treasure or higher was one of them . It looked like his grandfather had been forced to make some concessions in order to snatch the leadership position for him .

But not to worry cousin . As soon as this matter is dealt with I will return the command to you as per the instructions . I suggest you stay in your beautiful castle for now , as your safety is paramount to the clan . I have allocated a few of my guards to protect you . We have to make sure that the humans don’t assault you while we’re up at the mountain . - A cold ray flashed through Rydel’s eyes as he retrieved the parchment from the now mute Ogras . - Well then , I have a fruit to retrieve . I will be seeing you later cousin . - He said as he exited Ogras’ study , the last sentence rife with hidden implications .

Ogras briefly considered having it out with Rydel then and there , but soon gave up the thought . Rydel likely was ready for him , and he could also see multiple main branch members standing outside , sneering at him .

Ogras glared after Rydel , looking like a volcano ready to erupt . The aide sensed the atmosphere and made a quick excuse and fled the room , closing the door behind him .