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 until 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: [Earth] Human
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.
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 in the coming months if he wanted to survive. He was supposed to kill three more heralds somehow but had almost died twice to low-tier monsters 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 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 would it just be assigned to him?
“System…? Are you there?” Zac once again tried to get some information out of the System, but was met with silence. “Can you tell me about stat points?” he entreated, trying hard to hide the rancor he was feeling toward 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 were a video game, he would likely dump all the points in the main stat of a class, such as Strength for a 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 at 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 because 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 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. Five 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 in 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 the 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 nine times out of ten, 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 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, and the feeling of immortality disappeared 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 twenty 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 the carcass and finally scraped as much of the leftover flesh as possible off of 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 had been 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 in 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 su
pposed to do something else, and could only leave it like that overnight 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. He took thirty minutes to clean up the campsite 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 three to five centimeters and about six meters long. With a few quick swings with his hatchet, he cut off roughly two and a half 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 in the last few days he couldn’t even have imagined, and it would only get crazier.
Tomorrow, he would have to go hunting demons.
13
On the Hunt
Zac crept through the woods, slowly making his way more inland. He was hefting the 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. It 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 from the amulet without noticing while he was asleep. 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’d allocated the points, he had felt the energy rushing into his cells again, albeit far weaker when compared to when he’d allocated 30 points.
The goal of today was simple. He needed to kill monsters. Almost a week had passed since the world had been 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 thirty 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’d 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 a 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 thirty meters in the distance. It was the same sort of demon as he had fought before, a six-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 had 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 toward 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, standing in full view of 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 the last minute before lunging two meters to the side. The demonling zoomed past him, and with 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 fifteen-centimeter 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 to also do 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 the 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, he 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. Zac 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.
14
Zombie Hound
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.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 7