章節 1: hhhj
Chapter 8 - Abby the Eye
A note from TheFirstDefier
A bit longer chapter. Not used to writing dialogue so if you have some feedback its appreciated.
"What are you doing?" a pleasant, decidedly female voice sounded from right behind him.
Zac, whose nerves already were frayed from the past days' events shrieked in a higher than desirable octave and jumped forward away from the sound before registering the words. Somewhat embarrassed he turned around while stuttering "Sorry about tha.." before once more shrieking and falling back after seeing the stranger. His fight-or-flight instincts also failed spectacularly, as he dropped the axe while falling.
What had entered his sight was not a beautiful female, as the voice had indicated. His dream of at least having a pretty girl to share this harrowing experience with died out as fast as it had flashed to life. In front of him was a floating eye, larger than his torso.
At least he assumed it was an eye. It looked as though a part of the cosmos had been taken and put into an eyeball. The pupil was a black hole, seemingly sucking Zac's soul in as he was looking at it. The monster had no iris, but rather a slowly rotating cosmic cloud, looking like it was slowly being absorbed into the pupil in the middle.
The sclera was not white as with a human, but a black studded with shining lights. It looked like the stars in the night sky. Surrounding the eye was a purplish-tinted skin and eyelid. It however had no mouth, making Zac confused how it could make any sounds.
It was beautiful and harrowing at once, and certainly not what Zac expected after hearing the pleasant voice.
"Rude." the eye muttered. "I am lucky enough to get an assignment at a newly initiated world, and I get to work with this rube. By the way, you smell."
Zac was still sputtering, unable to fully register what was going on. Unsure of whether to run, get the axe, or bow down to his new ocular overlord he compromised by simply staring dumbly with mouth ajar at the eye.
"Oh well. It makes sense that there were no Stargazers on your planet before the initiation, human. We usually only appear where the system sends us. My real name is a bit tricky for you to say with vocal cords but sounds something like Veth-Abarak. I am here to assist you in your endeavors regarding your outpost. You are welcome." the eye continued, somehow making a haughty expression with only the help of an eyelid. "I am sure you have some questions, though the tutorial should have explained most of what you can do."
"Um… Hello, my name is Zac… Err, Zachary Atwood. What do you mean assist me? And how are you talking without a mouth?" Zac responded, still having some problem adjusting to the situation. The eye, or Stargazer as it called itself, gave a long-suffering sigh, already seeming to have labeled Zac as a mental invalid.
"Did you not listen to the Pixies during the tutorial? I am the assistant assigned to you when you assigned this… Trailer? Why did you choose a trailer? Anyway, when you chose this trailer to be your outpost when assaulting the Incursion. I will help with answers regarding the choices you make, to get the ball rolling so to say. As for how I talk, magic of course." The Stargazer answered, a flash of what looked like cosmic mist grandly surrounding herself to accentuate her powers.
"What choices? And no I didn't listen to any Pixies or fairies because the stupid system never sent me to any tutorial. It left me in this crazy demon forest 3 days ago while it teleported my friends away." Zac responded, starting to feel a bit peeved by being looked down on by a floating eyeball.
"Oh, you didn't go to the tutorial. I guess tha… THREE DAYS? This world was initiated only three days ago? Don't you mean months?" The Stargazer started shaking, the pupil shrinking to a… well, not needlepoint, but from a basketball to a baseball in size. "Stop joking with me, how would you be able to create an outpost only after three days, even if you skipped the month-long tutorial?" Veth-Abarak shook and hovered closer to Zac's face, the grand mist surrounding it disappearing.
Zac, who had somehow starting to get acclimatized to talking to this odd being, sighed and briefly explained his experience starting when the world turned dark. The eyeball seemed harmless enough and appeared to be on his side. Furthermore, he really needed someone to talk to, both to unload and to make sense of the situation.
"Oh wow, I got assigned to a Defier. I guess I have some good karma after all! No returning in defeat for Abby!" The Stargazer suddenly seemed quite a bit more amiable, virtually shaking with excitement. It almost felt like the monster would start rubbing itself on him if it wasn't that he was still generally caked in grime.
"What's a Defier? It doesn't sound great. And wait, Abby? Wasn't your name Veth-something?" Zac questioned, seeming to get more and more confused the more the Stargazer spoke.
"Now now, don't be so formal. Just call me Abby." Abby answered. Gone was the slightly haughty tone, replaced with the mild pleasant tone from the beginning. "And I guess some explanations are in order. As you have figured out some people of your world have been moved to tutorial towns after your world was integrated into the multi-verse. However, some people have some sort of deficiency where they can't naturally absorb cosmic energy and the system deem them worthless. It doesn't bother with these people and leave them where they are. These people mostly die sooner or later as they are essentially defenseless at the beginning as the system generally vastly increase the danger of the surroundings."
"And these are the Defiers?" Zac interrupted a bit anxious "Is it genetic? Do you think my family is stuck somewhere as well?"
"It's not genetic as far as I know, and no they aren't the Defiers. These people are generally called mortals. Please let me finish, we have limited time. As far as research shows, it is random who can take in cosmic energy and who can't. However, in worlds with lower class energy mortals are more common. The higher the energy, the more common it is to be able to absorb the energy. On B rank planets and above almost everyone can absorb cosmic energy naturally."
"When I was in that black space the system said Earth had class F energy, and after the merge class D." Zac chimed in hoping for some additional information.
"Well, class F is the lowest of the low. I doubt there were people who could fly or use magic before the merge, right?" Zac nodded affirmatively. Abby shook her eye and continued "From what I've heard only 5-10% of the population turn out to be cultivators in an F-energy world. And most of those people are younger, as their minds haven't turned too rigid yet. Of course, this is for you humans. The Multi-verse consists of myriad races and civilizations and many races have natural advantages compared to you humans, who are notoriously average."
"Cultivators are what they call those who can naturally draw the cosmic energies into themselves by the way. Cultivators can be divided further into many types depending on class and skills, but that's for later. D-class energy is pretty good for a new world, most are E classed. So to recap, the world is populated by mortals and cultivators. This might mean your family is safe for now."
"Lucky how? It sounds pretty bad to me that my family are probably stranded somewhere with monsters spawning just like me, but without the Titles." Zac questioned testily.
"Well, if they all are mortals they haven't been split up. They are probably together in the city you lived in. Also, even if they are mortals there is strength in numbers. Even if the monsters are normally impossible to kill one on one, they should be able to kill the easier monsters using teamwork. And while they can't just get continuously stronger through cultivating, they still get stronger from killing monsters and leveling up like you did." Abby explained patiently. While not completely comforting, what she said did make some sense to Zac. He could only hope his family was being careful and safe right now.
"Anyway, that brings us to Defiers like you. In extremely rare cases a mortal gains power far above what's expected, either through luck, talent or hard work. There is no strict definition of them, rather a 'You know it when you see it'-attitude. The name comes from the fact that the System essentially has deemed you trash but you defy the system and fate and become strong. Your situation is extreme even for Defiers, I mean a Herald spawning on top of you and you survive? Stealing a bunch of exclusive titles? Crazy. I think it has only happened a few thousand times in the multi-verse." Abby seemed to get excited just thinking about it, happily bouncing up and down in the air.
"So it's not that rare? There might be even more on earth?" Zac interjected.
Abby rolled her eye in response. "I think you misunderstand Zac. A few thousand times in the multi-verse. Oh right, you missed the tutorial. Suffice to say the multi-verse is almost infinite, with endless worlds with life on them, most far larger and more populated than your earth. It has existed for at least hundreds of millions of years. And during all that time it has only happened a few thousand times. Which makes you an aberrant even among Defiers. You, and by extension me, have truly hit the jackpot. "
"So how does it help me?" Zac asked. "I understand that I have a leg up on others with all these strong titles, but I still can't absorb that cosmic energy you mentioned. What is that, anyway?"
"Cosmic energy is the building block of the multi-verse. It is energy, it is magic, and it is life. It is everything. You couldn't really see the effects of it earlier as your world had so little of it, but you will soon see the effects of it on everything around you." Abby said, almost having a reverent tone mentioning it.
"See how?"
"Some things in nature will be unable to take in the stronger energy and die out. But many things will be like the cultivators, naturally absorbing the energy. Essentially, things will grow big. Both the beasts and nature itself. Many things will also change in unpredictable ways. A tree might gain the properties of metal and be almost unbreakable, a mouse might grow wings and fly, or suddenly be able to spit thunder. It's quite spectacular." She explained.
"Not being able to cultivate will impede you somewhat, but not as much as you think. You have a massive advantage in the form of titles, strength and your newly created outpost. In any case, there are so many things to go over, but unfortunately, we are running out of time." Abby realized she had gone off on somewhat of a tangent, seeming a bit embarrassed.
"I will be summoned back in 10 minutes."
Chapter 9 - Forced to Fight
A note from TheFirstDefier
Was planning on publishing two chapters today, but ate too much tacos and fell asleep. Will have to write more tomorrow.
Zac was gobsmacked.
"You're not here to help out permanently?" He inquired hesitantly. While it took some time getting used to talking to an eyeball, he was pretty unwilling to be stranded alone in the forest again. Besides, there were so many things he still didn't understand about what was happening.
"Unfortunately, no. The system only summons an administrator such as myself for a short while when creating an outpost. Also, we only get summoned the first year after initiation. Something like an add-on Tutorial. But we got a bit side-tracked here, and need to hurry up with your outpost." Abby explained, seeming a bit embarrassed she got sidetracked from her duty.
"Outposts will evolve into full-fledged towns if you complete certain missions. The difference between a system-sanctioned town and a normal mortal town is that the city leader of a system-sanctioned town can use the system to summon buildings, tax the population and connect to other city leaders for example. The difference between an outpost and a town is that an outpost is temporary. Either you manage to turn it into a town by completing your quest, or the incursion over there will stabilize and turn to a town owned by the invading general. By then A LOT more demons will spawn, and unless you're already dead you will likely die then, titles or not."
Zac nodded, a better picture of forming in his head. Remembering the 3-month deadline in his quests he realized that what Abby described would happen in roughly 3 months. Still, there were some things he was unsure about.
"But do I really need to care about creating an outpost? My goal is to find my family, I can just leave before the demons arrive."
That question managed to elicit a full-body eye-roll from the eyeball.
"And go where? Couldn't go to the tutorial town so you can't learn skills or choose classes, making you quite weak compared to what you should be. There are monsters everywhere so you aren't safe anywhere. An outpost can help you get stronger through its facilities, and having a town would be the most effective way to look for your family, compared to manually looking everywhere like a vagabond. Besides, being the first to create a town has amazing benefits, just like with the titles. The system likes the people in the forefront." Abby one more went into lecturing mode.
"And if that's not enough, I can also tell you that the system hates cowards. You only get one shot at creating your outpost, if you fail the system deems you unworthy to be a Lord in the future. If you not just fail, but even abandon the mission, the system will also punish you. It would range from crippling you to outright killing you depending on how bad it judges your performance."
"WHAT?" Zac shouted aghast. "You mean I must complete this quest and kill all the other boss demons or the system might kill me?" The little goodwill Zac had been building towards the system during Abby's explanations were thoroughly erased.
"Well yes. So I suggest you improve your outpost as much as possible in order to have a chance at survival." Abby nonchalantly explained, as if risking life and limb fighting demons was completely normal.
"Well shit. So what do you suggest I build? " Zac hoped to get some guidance in order to create a good foundation for the outpost.
"I'm sorry I am not allowed to guide your choices of buildings, building a proper base properly is also a test from the system. I am only allowed to provide information. The system doesn't want to give too much direction or tips to newly initiated civilizations, as it wants to test their ingenuity. "
"Yeah, the system is a real asshole, isn't he?" Zac muttered. Abby's pupil enlarged and looked around nervously. Apparently speaking ill of the system seemed like some sort of blasphemy, which Zac guessed made sense as the system essentially was a god. Maybe speaking ill of a being that could spawn portals which puked out demons was a bad idea after all he reflected and vowed to try to keep a lid on his mouth.
"Err… Anyway. If you imagine the words 'Outpost base' a menu will appear with your options. Most of the options are unavailable at the start, but more and more gets unlocked as your outpost grows into a town and further. You use the Nexus coins you have to buy the upgrades, and you can get more coins from various sources. Nexus coins are the official currency of the multi-verse, and the only one used when trading with the system." Abby said, seemingly eager to change the subject.
This answered the question Zac had about the coins in his status screen. He still wasn't sure why he had 5100 of them though.
"Wait, is there some connection between Nexus Coins and Nexus Crystals?" Zac asked, remembering the rewards from his quests.
"Not really. Nexus Crystals are a cultivation resource in the multi-verse. Both cultivators and mortals can absorb cosmic energy from them. The higher grade the more energy it contains, and the faster you can absorb it."
"Well at this time I would normally have time to answer some specific questions about the different buildings, but we're out of time. Good luck Zac. If you somehow survive this remember me when you create your town!" It seemed the time for the outpost tutorial was coming to an end. Abby seemed to hesitate a bit but then apparently came to a decision.
"You… You should really try to complete the quests within a month, or at least within two months. That would…" She didn't get any further before a heavy pressure suddenly bore down on the camp. Abby's pupil dilated and red squirming veins appeared all over the eye. And suddenly she was gone.
Zac wasn't sure, but it didn't feel like this was how she was supposed to disappear, as she appeared completely without him noticing. He had been able to sense something that could almost be anger in the pressure that descended. Had Abby been punished for what she said at the end?
"Complete the quests within a month…" he mumbled, trying to glean any hidden meaning. Something obviously happened because of those sentences. If the system punished her for lying it could only mean Abby wanted him to run to his death like an idiot. But if it was for unduly helping it might be an important clue to help him stay alive. That meant something likely happened to the world or the incursion after a month had progressed. Something that was bad for him.
He just couldn't figure out why the Stargazer would just help him like that, even risking the wrath of the system, as she had already explained it didn't like her giving undue guidance. Zac couldn't figure out any real reason for that yet, and could only put it aside for now. Instead, he followed her instructions and mentally thought 'Outpost base'.
Suddenly a new window popped up in front of him. But while it still had the blue background and white borders, it rather reminded him of a web store than an old school RPG game. There were multiple categories of buildings and add-ons to choose from to the left and a seemingly unending number of products in the main window.
Zac took a bottle of now tepid water from the cooler the demonling had been rummaging through earlier and retreated to the camper. The suns were starting to set, which was a relief to Zac, as it proved that at least the daily cycles remained in the world, giving some normalcy.
Unheeding of the bloody mess inside, he cracked open a tin of beans from the cupboard. Luckily they had stocked the camper well before the trip, as they had planned to spend a week on the road, and most of it was non-perishables. He still had food and water for at least two weeks unless he gorged himself.
He sat down at the small dinner-area, and while slowly eating his beans he started mentally browsing through the shop. Zac noticed that the prices were denominated in Nexus coins, which he had 10100 of now. He had gained 5000 coins during the day, likely from creating the outpost.
If he was going to survive in this new world, it seemed the first step was getting the most out of this outpost of his.
Chapter 10 - Preparation
Zac woke up the next morning feeling sore, but his wounds had obviously healed even further. It no longer pained him overly to put weight on his wounded leg, and he could actually turn his midriff without a blazing pain erupting.
The smell in the camper was getting pretty bad though, and he knew he had to do something about it if this was going to be his base for the foreseeable future. He gathered the bloody bed sheets he had fallen asleep on when he passed out from his wounds and put them in a garbage bag. He didn't dare throw it outside yet though, afraid the smell of blood would attract beasts. With some detergent he spent another 30 minutes cleaning most of the blood away, making the trailer go from looking like the site of a vampire orgy to a serial killer hideout. The blood had badly stained multiple places, especially around the dining area, and it wasn't something he'd be able to fix in the short run. At least it smelled a lot better now.
Finally, he decided to waste some water for a quick shower in the trailer bathroom, even though the water was limited. After some intensive scrubbing away the blood caked all over him, the filth was mostly rinsed away. He stepped out of the shower and donned another set of clothes, feeling like a new man. When showering he had also noticed that he seemed to have actually gotten more in shape, with most of this gut gone and his muscles seeming, if not bigger, then harder and more compact than before. It seemed that the stats had some effect on his physical appearance as well. Hopefully, an increase in intelligence wouldn't make his head larger and larger though.
After a quick breakfast, he was finally ready to head out according to plans he had made yesterday after browsing through the shop. There were a dizzying array of possibilities to choose from when building an outpost, even when most of the options were disabled.
Many of them he could understand or at least somewhat intuit the purpose for using a lifetime of playing video games. There were buildings such as an inn, blacksmith, different types of stores, bank and so on. Most of these required a town though. There was also something he was extremely keen on getting, the teleporter. If he built that he might be able to actually teleport to his hometown in one go.
There was one confusing aspect of the buildings though, which was that there were often hundreds of versions of most of the buildings, especially the commercial ones. Even though they seemed to fill the same function they were of different design and some minor differences in the description. After a while he could only surmise that the different choices represented different factions or planets. It seemed that creating a store wouldn't actually create some NPC-style beings, but rather move people here from other planets or intergalactic corporations.
There was also a huge amount of supporting buildings that could improve the offense, defense or improve the town in other manners. There seemed to even be some sort of training facility that seemed to be able to slowly improve stat points without leveling. If possible Zac would have gone on a shopping spree, but he quickly realized the harsh reality that roughly 10 000 Nexus Coins would only be able to buy a few of the most basic buildings.
He had formulated a plan yesterday after browsing through his options for hours but needed to explore some more before actually spending the few coins he had.
Zac had seen a hill the day he had been forced to go out to gather firewood, and he planned to scale it to get a better lay of the land. Donned in a fresh set of clothing and his trusty hatchet he once again set out into the woods.
Soon he had walked up the hill, hunkered over to not be spotted by any potential threats. Luckily the hill was filled with lush bushes and even a tall tree at the top, making for some simple protection. Unfortunately the hill wasn't tall enough to give a complete overview of the surroundings as it turned out, with the crowns of larger trees still obscured the distance inland. Still, he could see his trailer and further on the ocean.
Still, he wanted to see whether he was actually on an island, or if the system had teleported any type of civilization in the vicinity. It would be a bit insane if he lived as a transient mountain man in the trailer if a town was just a few kilometers away.
He swung the axe and embedded it slightly in the tree, and then started climbing it for a better vantage. Zac once again marveled at the improvement of his constitution from his increase in stats. He felt like a gibbon, almost effortlessly dragging himself upwards along the branches with his arms, something that would have been an impossible work-out in the past.
Soon he was almost at the crown of the tree, afraid to continue up any further as the branches seemed inadequate to support his weight. A quick glance around unfortunately realized his fears. It very much seemed that he was on an island without any civilization in sight. However he couldn't be completely sure, as there was actually a mountain off in the distance. It wasn't gargantuan, but still large enough to solidly block any visibility of what was beyond. It looked quite odd to have a steep mountain right next to the ocean, but Zac guessed that was what happened when the system pressed the randomizer for a world. The good news that there was land in sight in the distance, though it looked like a few scattered islands, rather than a solid land-mass.
The island (as Zac decided to call it until proven wrong) he was on was huge, and he couldn't properly assess the size. He and his trailer were on the far edge of it, while the ever-shining red beam of light was almost on the opposite side, in a vale halfway between the center of the island and the mountain. He guessed that the reason why he still only had encountered one of the demon dogs was that they mainly spawned scattered around the incursion itself.
Zac didn't have time to analyze the situation any further, as a branch in the periphery of his sight suddenly exploded into movement and instantly was upon him. Before he had time to adapt to the situation, a brown snake had wrapped itself a few loops around his torso, leaving only the arm he used to hold onto the tree for leverage free. The snake seemed to be over 3 meters long and slightly thicker than his arm.
He immediately felt an intense pressure on his chest, the air leaving his lungs and wounds on his side screaming in protest. Zac strained until his face was red with exertion, but was unable to free his trapped arm at all. The snake had him in a vise, and even with his improved strength he could not get free. Its head slowly rose up towards his, a hiss escaping from its maws.
By now all air had been squeezed out of Zac's lungs, his consciousness starting to get fuzzy and lights flickered in his sight. Zac knew he was running out of time, it was time for a Hail Mary action. He suddenly let go of the tree with his free hand, grabbed the head of the constrictor and bashed it with all the force he could muster into the tree trunk. The slam obviously had an effect on the snake, as it slightly released him from its grip. With newfound strength from a ragged breath, he slammed the snake's head twice again into the tree with even more fervor.
However, just as Zac was feeling jubilant about escaping death's grasp he felt the branch he stood on give way, and both he and the still entwined snake came crashing down.
Chapter 11 - Upgrades
Zac woke up with a jerk, which caused a pained groan to escape from his mouth. There was not a single part of his body that didn't feel battered and broken. A quick look around showed that he was halfway down the hill, his whole body full of scratches. The snake lay lifelessly a few meters away from him, seemingly having uncoupled from him somewhere during the tumble downhill.
Not daring to take any chances due to negligence again, he ignored the screaming protests of his body and dragged himself towards the snake. There was a rock roughly the size of a head on the way which he ripped out of the ground. Finally he arrived in front of the beast, and with a snarl grabbed the stone with both hands and slammed with all power he could gather right in the forehead of the snake. The long body convulsed slightly but seemed not to react further than that. Zac wasn't done however, and with guttural grunts from deep within his throat he kept slamming the stone down again and again, each time eliciting a wet thud. After a few hits the body's death throes stopped, but Zac kept going until the bloodied stone finally slipped out of his hands. By then the head and neck was only a mess of broken flesh and brain matter.
The grunts gave way to sobs as Zac collapsed next to the headless snakes, his whole body shaking. He had messed up, that had been way too close. Not finding any more demons the last two days had made him complacent, barely looking around for threats. The Stargazer had even warned him just yesterday about the world changing due to absorbing cosmic energy, but he hadn't even reflected on what that meant. There shouldn't have been snakes of this size in the woods where he was, but the energy in the world had not only increased its size and strength but made it more aggressive. Had that been a venomous snake instead of a constrictor he would be a bloated corpse by now.
He finally understood that there was simply no such thing as safety in the wild, and he had to start taking things more seriously. Not even the last near-death experience had really woken him up, as the stats and quests made him subconsciously consider it all a game. But this was life and death, and he had to treat it as such.
Zac shakily got on his legs and started to make his way to the top of the hill again. His hatchet was still left in the tree, and he refused to go anywhere without it again. It felt like he had been hit by a truck but he could only grit his teeth and trudge on.
At the crest there were fallen leaves and broken bloodied branches all over the floor. Luckily it seemed that the snake had taken the brunt of the damage from the fall, otherwise, he might not even have survived just from the height. He didn't want to linger at such an exposed location, so he quickly ripped the axe out of the tree and made his way back down the hill.
When he reached the snake once again he hesitated for a few seconds, but then gripped the reptile and wired it around his torso a few turns then put the end up on his shoulder. He had to think like a survivor now, and the snake might both give food and its scales could be fashioned into some sort of protection.
Any other exploration would have to wait, he needed to get back to base. On the way back he walked with much higher care, trying to avoid stepping on twigs and staying close to the trees for shelter. However the only sounds from the forest were the sleepy rustling of the trees, only occasionally interrupted by a distant roar. After another 15 minutes, he was finally back in the camp.
He had planned to go over his strategy for the town once more but currently felt intensely unsafe right now, and decided to not drag things out any longer. He brought up the base building interface and bought an [F-Grade Small Scale Illusion Array] for 2000 Nexus Coins. Suddenly as if it had always been there a small wooden box appeared in front of him. Zac opened the box and inside were 8 intricately carved wooden poles. They were each roughly 30 cm long and 3 cm thick, in a glossy black coating. One end was sharpened down into a needlepoint while the other was completely flat. The carvings were in a golden hue, and it seemed the carvings were depictions of intricate fractals rather than words or pictures.
When Zac picked up the poles suddenly 8 small yellow pillars lit up around the camp. He wasn't surprised at this as the shop had mentioned the usage method. When holding the poles, or flags as the system had called them for some reason, the system would guide him where to place them. As soon as all the flags had been placed the formation would activate. There also was a cheaper alternative of the same array, but it wouldn't have the guidance system, leaving the user to figure out correct placement according to energy-flows and ley-lines. Zac quickly placed down the flags according to instruction, and suddenly a translucent dome shimmered into being around the small camp-site. It initially looked like uneven glass, distorting the outside, but soon turned invisible. Not sure if it had any effect, he walked outside of the camp and took a look.
What met his gaze was just a normal-looking forest, albeit slightly denser than around it. The trailer, campfire, and car were completely gone. Even the bloody smell from the snake was removed, replaced with only the fresh earthy smell of the forest. There were some thorny bushes between the trees looking almost like a natural wall, which would hopefully encourage nearby enemies to walk around the camp rather than straight through.
That was the disadvantage of the illusion array, and why it was so cheap compared to many other defensive options. Anyone could simply walk through it if they desired as it provided no stopping power. As soon as someone knew where to look or just was passing by it simply had no value. Also, it didn't work on stronger individuals, as they could sense something was wrong with the cosmic energy in the area. However, it was a cost-effective alternative right now which left Zac with more coins for other buildings. Later he would see if he could get some physical bushes transplanted at the edge of camp to dissuade any roving animal or monster from taking a path through the camp even further.
Zac was not done with that though and he made another purchase which spawned a box similar to the first one, but slightly larger. Inside were 12 poles, this time white but still engraved in gold. They were slightly larger than the illusion flags and had a different fractal engraved, but obviously they had the same purpose – to create an array. It was the [F-Grade Small Scale Mother-Daughter Gathering Array] and cost Zac a whopping 7500 Nexus coins, almost cleaning him out. The gathering arrays for sale in the shop was designed to gather cosmic energy from the void and increase the density of it within its borders. This would improve the cultivation speed of the cultivators, and was likely a must for any town of repute in the multi-verse. This normally was of no use to Zac, as he wasn't a cultivator and instead had to kill monsters to gain levels. However, the array he had bought had a special function which was highly desirable to Zac. The Mother-Daughter in its name referred to the fact that it actually was two arrays.
One of them was the normal gathering array, which was referred to as the mother array. The other array was actually a necklace which looked a bit like a small ship's wheel from a medieval ship attached to a silver chain. The unique function of the Mother-Daughter Gathering Array was that most of the energy that the mother-array gathered did not increase the density of cosmic energy within the array, but was actually transferred to the daughter-array.
As long as Zac wore the amulet and was within 50 kilometers from the mother-array, cosmic energy would continuously be transferred to the amulet, and from the amulet into Zac. In other words, the array essentially turned him into a cultivator who continuously drew energy into himself, as long as he was on the island.
The downside of this type of array was that the gathering efficiency was far lower compared to a similar F-Grade Gathering array, which would result in a far more sparse concentration of cosmic energy in a town. However, this didn't matter to Zac as he had no citizens that he needed to take into account, at least not for now. He quickly followed the instructions and placed the 12 flags around the camp.
This was Zac's main plan to have a chance to get strong enough to survive against the incursion. He had no experience of combat from his earlier life and needed to gain power from stats and levels to simply be able to overpower his enemies, at least he gained some actual combat experience.
There were more things Zac wanted to buy, but he simply had run out of coins. Finally, Zac Took a look at his status screen once more and saw that even though it had been a harrowing experience, killing the snake had not given him another level.
Name Zachary Atwood Level 16 Race Human Alignment Human (Earth) Titles Born For Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer Strength 31 Dexterity 25 Endurance 27 Vitality 27 Intelligence 29 Wisdom 29 Luck 44 Free Points 30 Nexus Coins 600
After checking out the menu he looked down on his battered and bruised body and felt embarrassed with himself. He had 30 stat points he still hadn't allocated. If he had done that this morning he might not have been in such a precarious situation as he was.
It was time to upgrade.
A note from TheFirstDefier
So for readers that are used to reading eastern fantasy/wuxia you can see that the multi-verse has some similiar elements, notably in the form of the arrays. There will be more of this further on.
I have been thinking of writing an intermission chapter that would explain some backstory to the system and multi-verse but haven't decided if its the right way to go or not. Would you prefer to read and learn about the world organically along with the MC, or would an intermission chapter with some backstory be good?
Chapter 12 - The Warrior-Route
Initially Zac had wanted to hold out on spending his points until he understood the class system better, maybe even waiting to allocate until level 25. He now realized that such thinking was naïve. He needed every advantage he could get the coming months if he wanted to survive. He was supposed to kill 3 more Heralds somehow but had almost died twice to low tier monster at the edge of the island.
Still, he didn't just want to do anything hasty, so he donned the amulet and sat down in a camping chair. Immediately he felt a warm pulse from the amulet, which entered his chest and spread through his body. Almost his whole torso and large sections of his body were purple from being first strangled and then falling down a tree. It seemed however that the amulet actually slowly alleviated his symptoms. Abby the eye had said that cosmic energy was life, so it made sense though that it would not only help with his cultivation.
When choosing stats one needed to plan for the long term, to make sure it was suitable to his class. The problem was that he had no idea how the class system worked. Could he even decide on a class himself, or whether it would be just assigned to him?
"System…? Are you there" Zac once again tried to get some information out of System, but was met with silence. "Can you tell me about stat points?" He entreated, trying hard to hide the rancor he was feeling against this unfeeling overlord.
With a lack of answers he could only make educated guesses and hope that any bad choices wouldn't haunt him in the future. If it was a video game he would likely dump all the points in the main stat of a class, such as strength for warrior and dexterity for a ranger. The difference was that in a game he could respawn if dying, whereas here it was game over for real.
If he could choose Zac would have preferred to be a mage. Then he could just stand safely in the distance throwing fireballs on unsuspecting monsters until they were burnt to a cinder. Yet he didn't dare go this route. He had no idea if he would be able to use magic even if he got a class, or how to progress in such skills.
He also skipped ranger-type classes, simply as he had no such weapon. His eyes swept to the hatchet lying down next to his leg. Even after his recent battles it looked almost as good as new. Luckily they had bought a fancier model, being a solid piece of metal with a plastic grip. If the handle had been made of wood it might have snapped by now.
"I guess it's the warrior-route…" Zac muttered and sighed. From the experiences since last week he was plenty reluctant to go choose this class type, but he saw no different option as of yet. Maybe the system would prepare other options he hadn't thought of yet when he reached 25.
Zac brought up and decisively spent his 30 free points. First, he placed 10 points in strength. In both fights so far he had been physically weaker, and he needed a boost in that department. What good was his hatchet if he couldn't give more than flesh wounds on his targets? He then spent 5 points in dexterity in somewhat of a test to see what improved. 5 Points also went into endurance. He would be moving and fighting a lot across the island, and he needed a sturdy constitution.
Finally he put 10 points in vitality. Vitality wouldn't help killing monsters directly, but he felt that it would help indirectly. He simply was in no condition to fight right now. With increased vitality and the amulet he should heal plenty faster compared to before. Secondly, he would be running around and fighting a lot the coming months. He couldn't take a few days off after every fight to nurse his wounds, or he'd likely never be able to clean out all demons before the three-month deadline. He also felt that a high vitality would help him in the future no matter which class he got, while strength and dexterity felt a bit more specialized.
Zac felt that Wisdom and intelligence were likely the staples of the mage route. Getting an increase in either wouldn't hurt, but he couldn't justify spending points there when there were more tangible improvements that the other stats could provide. He felt the same about luck. His high luck had likely helped him survive so far. It was thanks to a lucky roll that he was still standing here today. But Zac did not want to rely on luck to survive. Even if he somehow fell ass-backward into victory 9 times out of 10, he'd still die the tenth time due to lack of proper foundations. Luck was intangible and he couldn't even fathom what benefits he would get from putting points into that stat. It would have to wait until someone explained it to him.
With the points spent he closed down the screen. Suddenly a surge of warmth far stronger compared to what the amulet provided spread through his body. It felt like his every cell was vibrating with life, greedily absorbing the warmth and improving. He was shocked to see his various wounds were healing at a visible rate, and it felt like he could punch a hole through a mountain. This feeling of strength was quite addicting. Soon the warmth faded though, and the feeling of immortality dissapeared with it. The wounds stopped healing at an accelerated speed. Still, Zac felt a good deal better, with a good deal of the bruising and smaller cuts completely gone.
There still was some time left of the day, so after a quick meal he turned his attention to the snake carcass. After a few tries with a kitchen knives he knew the scaled leather was quite resilient to cuts and would make good protection. He brought a few knives from the camper and his hatchet and dragged the carcass some distance away from the camp, and then started skinning it.
He cut along the softer belly, and after 20 minutes he had cut all along the length of the carcass, ruining a knife on the hard scales while doing so. His forearms were burning with strain after the workout. He had ruined most of the meat along the way unfortunately, and it didn't seem that there'd be much left over to eat.
After that he dragged the skin off from the carcass, and finally scraped as much of the left-over flesh as possible off from the skin with his hatchet. From here he was not quite sure what to do. He had no idea of methods to cure leather. He was an office worker before the end of the world, and he was a few generations too young for these types of things to be considered common knowledge. Zac knew he had read somewhere that urine could be used somehow, but he was not about to experiment with that.
He put the skin aside and dug a hole which he pushed the now mangled carcass into, and filled it with soil. He didn't want anything to head this direction, even though he was some ways away from the camp.
Zac picked up the skin and made his way back to camp. The skin needed to dry out, so he placed it across the hood of the car, leaving both ends hanging down at the sides. He placed two large rocks down on both ends in order to keep it stretched and stop it from shrinking overnight. He had no idea if he was supposed to do something else, and could only leave it like that over the night and hope that it would work out.
It was starting to get darker, so he decided he was done exploring for the day. He was still feeling beat up even with the rapid healing as well. He took 30 minutes to clean up the camp-site and take stock of his things. Normally he wouldn't go through his friends' belongings but these were desperate times. Unfortunately there was nothing of value except some extra changes of clothes and some daily necessities.
With the last of the sunlight Zac found a long fallen branch near the campsite with the thickness of about 3 to 5 centimeters which was about 6 meters long. With a few quick swings with his hatchet he cut off roughly 2.5 meters where the branch was the most straight. Then with his improved strength he quickly sharpened one edge into a sharp point, turning it into a makeshift spear. It was likely too malleable to be able to stop anything large like the demonling in its tracks without breaking. However it could hopefully keep some monsters at length if needed. His hatchet was a good weapon, but its length was quite short. It was hard to use while keeping himself out of harm's way.
Zac finally sat down in the trailer for a meal, quietly staring out the window and seeing the ever-present red pillar. Had it not been for the incursion he might have been able to forget how messed up the world had become for a second.
Life had thrown things at him the last days he couldn't even have imagined, and it would only get crazier.
Tomorrow he would have to go hunting demons.
Chapter 13 - On the Hunt
A note from TheFirstDefier
First of two chapters today, forgot to post yesterday. Next will be up in a few hours.
So the result of the poll was pretty clear, will skip interlude-style chapters unless they are an actual part of the story.
Zac crept through the woods, slowly making his way more inland. He was hefting hatchet in one hand and his improvised spear in the right. He had found a camouflaged shirt in David's bag which he had donned which would hopefully help him blend in a bit. He had planned to make some makeshift bracers and shin guards from some of the snakeskin this morning. Unfortunately it was still a bit grimy, so he had to leave it for another day at least to properly dry out. He still wore the amulet of the gathering array underneath his shirt, which continuously imbued him with more cosmic energy. He had a black backpack on his back filled with a bottle of water and a small batch of medical supplies.
He had actually gained a level without noticing while he was asleep from the amulet. It was still hard for him to know how much the amulet was gathering for him, or how much experience killing other monsters gave. There was no experience bar or notifications of experience gain anywhere in the system that could give him a frame of reference. Hopefully he would learn more about it from today's excursions. The two free points he had he had split between strength and vitality. When he allocated the points he had felt the energy rushing into his cells again, albeit far weaker when compared to when he allocated 30 points.
The goal of today was simple. He needed to kill monsters. Almost a week had passed since the world was integrated into the multiverse, and in reality he had accomplished very little so far.
He didn't dare make a beeline for the incursion just yet. He was afraid that there would be monsters there that he still couldn't handle, such as the Heralds themselves. Instead, he was walking around the edges of the island while steadily making his way inland. He had been walking for roughly 30 minutes now and still hadn't seen any monsters. He had seen some animals though. Most were the same as before the change, but some obviously had evolved from cosmic energy. For example he's seen a squirrel as large as a golden retriever. Luckily it seemed very docile, and it immediately escaped into the tree crowns after noticing him.
Finally he heard the familiar menacing growl from ahead. Zac was afraid he had been spotted, and immediately hunkered down behind a bush. There was no charging demonling heading his way fortunately, so he crept forward again. While hiding behind a tree he finally saw the beast 30 meters in the distance. It was the same sort of demon as he had fought before, a 6 legged monstrosity of oversized muscle and maw. This one seemed a bit leaner than the first he had fought, but he couldn't be sure. It seemed like it was lazing about in the sun in a small clearing. There was a small animal carcass next to it, so it appeared that it recently had a meal and was now resting.
Zac had made battle plans based on his first experience fighting these monsters, and now it was time to use them. He inched towards a sturdy tree that was at the end of the clearing, leaving only open field between the tree and the demon. He placed down his spear two meters away from the trunk and picked up a small rock. By now his heart was racing, his hands almost shaking from a buildup of adrenaline.
"Calm down, calm down…" he whispered under his breath, nerves taut but with a glint of determination in his eyes. He had no choice, he had to push forward, for both his sake and his family's.
With a deep steadying breath he walked in front of the tree, making him stand in full view for the demon. The demonling immediately noticed him and stood up into an aggressive posture. Wasting no time Zac immediately chucked the stone with full force, and he managed to hit its torso which elicited a pained yelp.
Clearly the taunt worked well as the demon roared and barreled toward him like a runaway train. Zac held his position until last minute before lunging two meters to the side. The demonling zoomed past him and with a tremendous force head-butted the tree.
This was essentially the same tactic he had used on the first demon. The demons were powerful but seemed quite stupid, so he surmised the same tactic would work again. Now, handy boulders wouldn't be everywhere, but he was in a forest full of thick tree-trunks. This time he had help from being ready and having improved stats. Zac therefore managed to jump out of the way without either taking damage or falling over this time.
Knowing that time was of the essence Zac wasted no time and immediately was upon the beast. With a fierce overhead swing he severed the spine at the lower back. With his improved Strength it felt like cutting through dry wood, and he easily embedded the whole 15 cm axe head in the beast. With a tug he ripped it out of the body, and with it came a spurt of blood. He had planned on also doing the same at the neck of the beast, but the demonling was immediately woken up from the intense pain. With a pained roar it tried to turn and catch Zac with its huge maw. Luckily its maneuverability was already bad with all working legs. Now it was even slower with the two hind legs listlessly hanging backward.
Zac didn't want to take any chances, as a nasty swipe of the beast could easily make him bleed out in minutes. With a few seconds to spare until the demonling could turn he slashed a few deep bloody gashes on its side. Both blood and viscera immediately started pooling beneath it. By now the fight was essentially over, and Zac hurriedly backed off and picked up his spear he had placed down before the fight.
He planned to poke a few holes in the monster to bleed it out faster. However, reality is often disappointing. On the first stab he only made a flesh wound before the spear started to bend rather than push in further. On the second stab the demon snapped the spear in two by moving its head with surprising alacrity. The forward momentum of the stab almost made Zac fall right into the eagerly waiting rows of teeth of the beast. Luckily, he barely managed to get out of the way with a push of his left leg which made him fall to the right of the beast. Still the beast managed to get in a swipe on his left arm which left a shallow, but long gash.
Ignoring the burning pain Zac quickly scrambled to his feet and got out of the way. But it seemed that the escape was unnecessary, as the demonling had collapsed after the swipe. The grass beneath it was completely stained red, and a large chunk of intestines was hanging outside its body. It was seemingly completely out of steam, weakly growling between shallow rapid breaths.
Ideally, Zac would have preferred to wait it out and let it slowly bleed to death, but the monster's roars had been quite loud. He had no interest in sticking around in case there was backup on the way. He had to be calculative at times to avoid unnecessary risks, but sometimes he had to be decisive as well. Gripping the hatchet in a bloody hand he slowly circled out of sight of the monster. Then with a few quick steps forward swung down with force right behind the middle legs, cutting deep into what he presumed was lungs. The demon tried to rouse a retaliation but was completely out of power, resulting only in a feeble wave of a paw.
Zac repeated an identical slash on the other side, which should mean that both its lungs were punctured. Given that the demon's physique was somewhat similar to a normal mammal's, of course. The demon barely responded to the second swing apart from shaking with pain or death throes. Zac wasted no time and with one final swing cut right into its neck.
With one final spasm, the monster passed. He knew this without having to check as he suddenly felt the familiar warmth of cosmic energy entering his body.
A quick look around the corpse once again showed no sort of loot spawning or dropping. This made Zac more certain of the fact that there was no such thing as a loot system with the System.
With a last look at the surroundings for anything he might have missed, he once again receded into the cover of the forest. The hunt was not over.
Chapter 14 - Zombie Hound
A note from TheFirstDefier
Second of the day.
Zac sat on a rock with a bottle of water in hand. He had just finished bandaging up his arm from the swipe of the demon and was now taking a quick breather. The fight had gone far better than his expectation, but he wouldn't let himself get complacent.
Not wanting to fill his stomach with too much water and later cramping up he took a few small sips then put the bottle back. Checking that everything was in order he once again set out into the jungle, continuing his path of gradually moving inland. He did not bother remaking a spear for now, at least until he found some far stronger wood. Abby had talked about trees taking properties of metal, and he desperately hoped he could find a tree like that.
It was not long before he ran into another demon dog. This one was slowly moving around, almost looking like a scout or like it was patrolling. He quickly decided on the place of the battle after a quick look around the surroundings. From there it proceeded much like the last fight. A rock was thrown to taunt the beast and it almost knocked itself out cold on a boulder. This time Zac instead swung down his hatchet on the spine between the two sets of frontal legs. He strove to incapacitate two sets of legs and only leave the front-most legs in working order.
This was as close to the head as he dared attack at the moment though, as he had seen how fast the demonling had swung its head to snap his spear in two. He was somewhat certain that the demon was like a crocodile in that regard; if something entered the maw, it would not leave.
The attack proved far more effective than he could have imagined. The blade fell down right between two vertebras and continued almost unimpeded into the torso of the beast. Zac saw his opportunity and twisted while he tugged out the axe towards the side. He hoped to wreak as much havoc as possible in the demon's insides, destroying both lungs and heart. The axe was quickly completely ripped out of the chest, and a great gout of blood followed it and sprayed all over Zac.
The forceful tug swept Zac off his feet and he fell backward into the grass. He quickly got up to his feet axe at the ready, but soon realized it was unnecessary. The demon was lying on the ground listlessly. Blood was pouring out of the wound like a waterfall. After a shudder it stopped moving, and Zac felt the now familiar warmth once again enter him.
Zac realized he must have hit the heart of the beast. There seemed to be no other possible explanation to the copious amounts of blood that had streamed out of the wound. Seeing as how he wasn't even out of breath from the fight, he immediately left and continued to look for more prey.
Zac's day continued like this, and by evening he had killed roughly 20 demonlings with varied amount of success. He still had not leveled up to level 18, but he could somehow sense that he was close. After every kill during the day some of the cosmic energy had entered his body. And if his body could be considered a container, it felt as though the container was starting to get full. Zac guessed that the moment he felt "full" from the cosmic energy was the moment he leveled up.
Zac stood and overlooked the aftermath of his last victory. He had gained a few new wounds, but nothing threatening. This latest fight had been the most dangerous one so far, simply because he had fought two demonlings at the same time. The second one had burst through the vegetation while he was already fighting the first one.
Luckily the beasts were truly clumsy, and with dodging around the natural environment he managed to mostly keep out of harm's way until he could bleed them out. Zac hypothesized that the natural environment of these beasts likely had no greenery, and very little obstructions. The monsters simply seemed completely unaccustomed to fighting in this type of terrain.
Zac was about to leave when he suddenly heard a twig snap behind him. Taking no chances he lunged to his right. He just heard the sound of wind while falling, but suddenly his left shoulder explode in pain. Ignoring the pain for now he got to his feet and finally got a good look at his assailer.
It was a demon, but a different type from the ones he had fought so far. If the demon dogs so far had been depending on brawn, this one clearly leaned toward agility. Measuring up to his navel, the beast somewhat looked like an oversized greyhound dog. If the dog had turned into a zombie. Just like the other demon it looked almost like it had been skinned. There were some differences with a greyhound though, such as the head with the oversized maw. The three rows of sharp teeth were clearly showing as the monster silently growled toward him. It had no fur, and instead had a thin red skin with the wiry muscles clearly showing beneath. This beast also only had the customary 4 legs, compared with the 6 legs of the other demons.
Its paws were also larger than a normal dog's, and Zac could clearly see large sinister claws sticking out of them. The sinewy tail seemed overly long even for a monster of this size, slowly swaying behind it.
Finally he noticed that one of the front paws was bloodied, dying the grass red. That explained the burning pain on his shoulder. He had no time to come up with any fancy strategies at the moment and could only fall back on his go-to method for dealing with demons. He slowly repositioned himself so that he once again would have his back to a tree. He had immediately discarded the idea to run away. With its lithe build and long legs it obviously was built for speed, and he had no delusions of being able to shake it off. Hopefully the high speed would help come in handy for him when it slammed into the tree behind.
Suddenly the hound shot toward him. Zac knew it would be fast but it looked like the like it flew across the ground. The 30-meter distance between them was erased in seconds, and Zac barely had the time to jump out of the way to let the hound slam into the tree.
Just as the monster was about to slam into the tree trunk it swung its long tail. This somehow changed the direction of its momentum. Instead of slamming into the tree it actually used the trunk as purchase with its legs to push itself forward toward Zac's falling figure. Even before he had hit the ground from jumping away, the beast was upon him.
Zac swung the hatchet while midair, but the beast was to close for the blade to hit its head. He managed to punch the jawline with the haft of the axe though, stopping the maw from chomping down on his head.
Zac landed with his back on the ground, and the hound fell on him. All air was knocked out of his lungs, and he could taste the iron of blood in his mouth. He was face to face with the beast, its acrid breath filling his nose.
Zac desperately held the head at bay with his left arm, swinging the hatchet with his other. Dismayed Zac saw that he couldn't generate enough strength to create more than flesh wounds from this awkward position. The beast struggled to reach him with its maws, meanwhile clawing on Zac's chest. Each swipe ripped straight through his shirt and left a bloody gash on his torso.
This stalemate could not last, he would be cut to ribbons if he didn't do something. He swung the beast to the side and slammed it into the ground on his left, giving a brief moment of respite. He didn't dare hesitate and immediately swung his axe in a broad arc. His body screamed in protest but he could only grit his teeth.
The axe howled and swung down toward the demon hound.
Chapter 15 - Desperation
The axe swung down and with a thud sunk into the side of the hound. The hound tried to get up, but Zac still had his left hand clamped on its throat, keeping it down. A few more swings in quick succession and the beast was dead as well. He felt the warm cosmic force enter him again. This time it felt like he gained almost twice the amount compared to the demonlings. This was also the final amount he needed to gain a level, bringing him to level 18.
Zac was a bit shaky after the encounter, but a day's worth of bloodshed and risking his life had steeled his nerves somewhat. He immediately left the site of the battle, not bothering with the three carcasses lying there. He needed to find somewhere to bandage himself.
While walking he allocated the two points into dexterity and vitality. Zac felt that by now his strength was enough to seriously hurt the monsters he had encountered with a few swings, and speed would likely help him more than more strength. He still put a point into vitality as he kept getting hurt more and more.
Finally he found a secluded spot and quickly drank a few mouthfuls of water and patched himself up. Zac was bruised and battered, and completely unwilling to fight any more today. He had also run out of gauze after patching up his chest. The demon hound had carved a maze of scratches on his chest. The wounds were not deep, but together they had bled quite a bit. Luckily his high vitality seemed particularly effective against these type of smaller wounds. He sensed that the bleeding had already almost stopped, and scabs had started to form over the wounds. It seemed that he would be all fixed up in a day or two.
From the fight he also realized that the amulet from the gathering array was quite sturdy. The hound had clawed both the little wheel and the string multiple times, and not a scratch could be seen on it. It seemed that a stronger force than some dog claws would be needed to damage it. For a brief moment he imagined decking himself in hundreds of amulets, making him near-invulnerable.
Of course that wasn't realistic. But it showed that there were probably many sturdy materials in the multi-verse that could be made into extremely strong defensive gear. He put the stray thoughts out of his head and started his return trek.
On his way back he walked in an even more surreptitious manner, stealthily making his way back toward the base. He was forced to kill one more demonling which had accidentally found him while bounding through the forest. He had seen a few more demons but chose to ignore them. It was getting late and the suns were slowly setting. This made his vision limited and the forest was gaining a sinister feel to it. Zac decided that even if he wanted the extra cosmic energy, he should get back to camp. If another of the demon hounds ambushed him while fighting the demonlings he might be hard pressed to fight them off.
He simply was too tired and wounded, and vision was getting worse. He had accomplished what he set out to do today, and he couldn't get greedy.
As he passed one of the sites of his previous battles, he suddenly noticed movement by the corpse of the demon. Zac immediately stopped moving and hid behind a tree to scout out the scene.
At first he thought he saw a child standing by the carcass, but soon discarded that thought. The thing was roughly as large as a six or seven year old child, but it was clearly a new type of demon. The thing looked like an imp from old fairy tales. It was completely naked except a loincloth. It had a purplish skin full of scars and what looked almost be tumors, giving It a sickly look. It almost seemed like it was suffering from radiation poisoning. On its back was a set of bat wings with a span of roughly a meter per wing.
Zac was unsure if the wings were actually serviceable as the imp had a stocky build with a fat stomach. It had no hair and seemingly no ears. He couldn't make out any facial features as it was currently looking down and poking the corpse of the demonling. It seemed like it was examining the wounds and trying to figure out what had happened.
That was not good news for Zac. It was one thing if the island was full of deadly but dumb beasts. He could deal with that as long as he went out killing every day killing some at the time. But if there were smarter enemies who could team up he might start meet more and more organized resistance on the island. They might even send out search parties to look for him. The island was quite large, but a concerted effort would sooner or later flush him out of hiding.
He wanted to stay under the radar for a while longer. If the corpses were left alone hopefully the local wildlife would eat it. Then it would look like the beasts were killed in a fight with other beasts, rather from a few swings of an axe. His plans of slowly grinding levels and gaining battle experience would be over if this thing flew back and reported to its superiors.
There was only one solution, he had to kill it.
Luckily it did not look overly powerful with its small stature and scrawny arms. One good swing with the hatchet and it would be decapitated.
Zac did not want to take any chances however, and decided on a surprise attack. He slowly circled around and closed in on the imp from behind. He kept a careful watch for its reactions but it seemed absorbed in examining the corpse.
A snap was heard from beneath Zac's foot when he was only 5 meters away from the imp. The failing light had caused him to not notice a fallen twig lying in his path. He froze for a millisecond but then immediately charged at the imp with all speed he could muster.
The imp's preservation skills were impressive. As soon as it heard the sound behind it, it jumped over the carcass of the beast while letting out a high pitched screech. It managed to turn around midair with its wings and Zac saw its face. It had four pitch black eyes. One set was placed like a human's, and the other set were placed slightly more apart up on its forehead. It had no nose except two holes, and its mouth was a small circle full of sharp teeth. From the few flaps of its wings it seemed like it was unable to fly, but able to elongate its jump considerably.
Zac desperately tried to catch up, afraid it would be able to get away. The imp did some obscure gestures with its hands while floating away, as Zac was closing in on it and the carcass of the beast. Suddenly a purplish-black flame erupted on the imp's hand, and it somehow threw it straight towards Zac's head.
Zac barely had time to position his head out of the way, but a part of the sinister flame managed to land on his shoulder. Any plan of killing the imp flew out of the window, as Zac's mind turned white in a blinding explosion of pain. The black flame was far more dangerous than normal fire, and it seemed it that somehow managed to burn his soul. The pain on his singed flesh was nothing compared to that pain.
Zac was completely dazed by the pain and fell over the demonling carcass instead of jumping over it. The imp landed a few meters away, still screeching at him. After a few second of observation it once again started to summon a flame with its mysterious hand gestures.
With a shake of his head Zac managed to clear his sight. Unknowingly to him his eyes were completely red and tears were streaming down. As soon as he got back up on his feet he had to immediately jump out of the way from another of those black insidious flame balls. It missed him and fell upon the corpse of the demon instead. The fire caused the corpse to visibly shrink, as though all moisture was burned instead of the flesh.
He once again charged toward the imp but it simply kept jumping backwards. Its wings helped it gain momentum, and it was even slightly faster than Zac. It even had time to occasionally turn around to make sure it didn't run into anything.
The imp was essentially kiting him, throwing out a fireball every few seconds. The closer Zac got to it the harder it was to dodge. After a minute he had been hit another 3 times by the when he got close. The first time it barely grazed his arm so it was not too bad. If you could call the pain of getting stabbed a hundred times not too bad. The second hit him in the gut, which almost made him double over and puke his guts out from the agony. The final one hit his leg.
That hit had made him unable to keep chasing the imp. He could barely put any weight on the leg, it felt like it had been paralyzed. The pain was so bad he almost swung his hatchet to chop it off. He knew that he would not be able to dodge anymore when it threw its next fireball.
In a last desperate attempt to survive, he hurled his hatchet with all strength he could muster straight at the chest of the flying demon.
Chapter 16 - Choices
Zac was on his knees, panting heavily. His clothes were a completely burned and bloodied mess. All around him were signs of the imp's rampage, with pockets completely drained and devoid of life. Zac realized that the fire of the imp did not burn like a normal fire, rather it burned life-force or cosmic energy. His burns looked like all moisture had been drained from his skin and it now had a pallid grey color. It was like those parts of his body was like that of a desiccated corpse's.
The corpse of the imp was lying against a tree roughly 10 meters away from him, the axe still firmly planted in its chest. The constitution of the monster was quite frail, and it had died immediately when the axe hit.
As soon as the monster had died, it seemed as though the source of the fires had been removed. The fires had quickly extinguished, the marks left behind the only proof they had existed at all. Had it not quickly dissipated then the fire would fire would have completely destroyed him. Maybe not his body, but all his life-force.
Zac was nauseated and on the brink of passing out, but he somehow summoned power he did not know he had and got up on his feet. He shuffled over to the imp and yanked out the axe. He had no energy to look through the corpse, and simply continued his way back home.
He was almost delirious by this point and was barely able to keep his bearings. Luckily he was quite close to edge of the island now, and almost on the opposite side of the pillar. The monsters were pretty scarce this far out still, and he didn't encounter any more demons that night.
With the last strength in his body he managed to stumble back into his camp. As soon as he saw the familiar sight of the metallic camper his legs simply gave out. He fell down onto the ground end let the sweet darkness embrace him.
It was midday the following day when Zac woke up again. Body was stiff and he sported a splitting headache. It was as if he had been drinking until passing out last day. He spit out some gravel he had got in his mouth and slowly got up.
After a quick check-up it seemed that most of the wounds were in decent shape. None of the scratches and tears from the demons were still bleeding. Some of the more shallow wounds were just a white line today. A few of the worse wounds would have to stay in bandage for at least another day though.
The spots where the black fire had burned him yesterday were still a bit grey and shrunken, but had gotten noticeably better. He felt that he headache he had likely came from these wounds. The fire yesterday must have had some magic properties that damaged in other ways than just burning. He shuddered when he remembered the pain from those blasts.
He prepared some breakfast and sat down in a camping chair to go over yesterday's results. He brought up the status window with a thought to go over the gains.
Name Zachary Atwood Level 18 Race Human Alignment Human (Earth) Titles Born For Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon Slayer I Strength 46 Dexterity 33 Endurance 34 Vitality 43 Intelligence 29 Wisdom 29 Luck 44 Free Points 0 Nexus Coins 3 370
He had gained almost 3000 Nexus Coins with just one day of fighting, which seemed quite good. If he based the gains on the amount of cosmic energy he got from the different monsters he could somewhat guess how much each kill gave him. He would say that he had gained roughly 100 for each demon dog he had killed, and between half as much and double that from the demon hound. The largest amount was rewarded from killing the imp. He still remembered that burst of energy even though he was almost delirious. If he hadn't gotten that extra energy boost after the fight he might not have made it home.
Still, the amount gained yesterday was far short of most of the buildings he had seen in the town building interface. It made sense, as building a whole town was usually not done by the efforts of only one person. If he had a few hundred people who came together and gathered Nexus Coins the amount gathered would be massive, even if the other people were far weaker than himself. There simply was power in numbers.
The thought gave him a sense of urgency. It was undeniable that he had likely gotten a quite impressive head start compared to most people, even though he was not too happy with his current situation. But if some great leader emerged in a tutorial village and created a large force he might lose his head start. Abby had mentioned that the system liked those that stood in forefront. If someone was going to get titles and other advantages from building a town first, then it should be him.
It might be better for humanity if some country leader or military general got that head start. But it was the apocalypse, and he had his goals. He needed to be a bit selfish in that regard, and couldn't just give away opportunities to others and hope they would use them for good.
He also noticed that he had a new title, Demon Slayer I. It was from the quest he had received in the beginning, which had told him to kill 10 demons. The title gave him 1+ all stats when fighting enemies of demonic alignment. However, he didn't quite understand how the title worked. He should have activated that title somewhere mid-day, but he had felt nothing different when fighting afterward. Zac thought that the 1 stat point perhaps was too low a number for him to notice anything.
He was somewhat surprised that he hadn't received any sort of follow-up quest, along the lines of "Kill 100 Demons". The line behind the title indicated that it should be possible to upgrade it, but he hadn't been given any indication of how. Zac guessed he had to add it to the ever-increasing list of things he did not know.
After looking over the status page he opened the building interface. There were two things that Zac wanted to build, and they cost 3000 Nexus crystals each.
The first was called a [F-Grade Nexus Node] and looked like a large hovering crystal from the description. Its function was to access certain aspects of the System. Nexus Nodes seemed to have more functions depending on how high grade it was, with F being the lowest. The Node was the worst of the bunch in other words. But it gave access to two functions that Zac was extremely interested in. It gave access to the class system, and sold basic skills.
The other was another array, namely the [F-Grade Small Scale Gravity Array]. This was an array meant for strengthening oneself as he saw it. The subject of training was something he had mulled over from the start. Even before allocating the first 30 points he had gotten he had noticed that his stats were skewed.
When he counted backwards from his titles and the points he had allocated he had found out that his base stats differed quite a bit. Before the effect of the system he had 7 strength, 3 dexterity, 4 endurance, 5 vitality, 5 intelligence and 6 wisdom.
He assumed the normal stats were around 1-10 for most humans, as he was somewhat average before the System arrived. He wasn't particularly smart, and not extremely athletic. He worked out at a gym 3 times a week which would explain the strength. But he was not limber at all, and he rarely did cardio. Therefore he had lower dexterity and endurance. Vitality and intelligence seemed harder to train, as they seemed more of an inborn quality.
Since the stats differed and seemed to be affected by his actions before the System arrived, he assumed that he might be able to improve his base stats from training as well. He probably would not be able to improve infinitely, but every extra stat point counted.
That's where the gravity array would come in. It would affect the gravity in a zone, and could increase the gravity up to 10 times. At this point he had 46 strength and was likely stronger than any human that had ever lived on earth. Without this kind of array Zac didn't think he would be able to exhaust himself. He could do push-ups all day without breaking a sweat at the moment.
If he added the array to the camp he could potentially improve multiple stats, at least Strength and Endurance as they seemed most linked with the constitution of his physique.
Unfortunately the descriptions for the buildings were quite short, and both options came with a risk. He had no idea how skills worked and what they would cost. Buying a Nexus Node might be a complete waste of coins at this stage when every advantage was important. On the other hand he didn't know if the plan for training even worked with the system.
After some hesitation he finally turned his eyes towards the array.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票