The final realization was that his method likely was extremely cost-ineffective. When he used his identification skill, the Cosmic Energy entered the fractals that somehow existed in his eyes. The fractal not only enabled using the specific skill, but also made usage of Cosmic Energy more effectively.
Far less energy was wasted when the energy was focused with the fractal. If Cosmic Energy could be considered a raw material like crude oil, then the fractal refined it into something better and more efficient.
Zac guessed a combat-oriented skill would work in the same way. He would gain new fractals, which he could use to waste less Cosmic Energy while fighting, and also gain a higher power than simply channeling raw Cosmic Energy into his arms. Unfortunately, even the cheapest of the options cost 150,000 Nexus Coins, which was far out of his current price range.
Zac finished his meal and scooped up a glass of water from the pit where he had placed a water-gathering array. The bottled water he and his friends had brought had run out two weeks ago, and the closest fresh water was close to the incursion. Luckily, the System had a cheap solution, namely the [Small-Scale Water-Gathering Array], which slowly gathered moisture from the air to create roughly ten liters of drinking water per day.
For the first time in weeks, he turned off the gravity array when he went to sleep. He needed to be completely rested, as tomorrow he would assail a herald.
Zac had wrestled with himself whether to actually go through with it or not the last few days. At times, he felt it would be safer for him to simply grind for a few more weeks and get a class and skill before going after the big bosses.
He had, however, noticed a very worrying trend over the last few days. The beasts in the forest were getting more powerful. The demon hounds were getting even faster, and the barghest were getting stronger. He had actually seen one charge straight through a tree. The barghest had been completely incapable of such a feat just a week ago.
This made him form a hypothesis. The beasts were slowly getting stronger, and maybe they would gain a power spike once each month. That was what Abby the eye had been indirectly warning him about.
He didn’t think that the incursion summoned stronger demons, but rather that they were strong from the start, but were somehow restricted. That was because he didn’t actually get more Cosmic Energy or Nexus Coins from killing the empowered beasts compared to the old weaker ones.
It made him once again think about how the System seemed to operate. It rewarded people who dared take risks and strove to improve. That was shown through the title system and also Abby’s comments.
Perhaps this was a gift from the System. If someone dared leave the Tutorial village to kill magical monsters at incursions, they’d be rewarded with the Cosmic Energy and Nexus Coins that generally were given out by far stronger beasts. Like an XP boost from an MMORPG game.
Or perhaps the demons simply weren’t adapted to Earth’s atmosphere. He always imagined in his head that these beasts came from some lava world full of fire and brimstone. He really had no idea which was correct, but his days in solitude allowed him to conjure endless theories.
Furthermore, with risk also comes reward. What Abby meant with her last comment might be related to the quest.
[Off with their heads (Unique): Kill the four heralds and the general of incursion within 3 months. Reward: 10 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, E-Grade equipment, unique building depending on performance. (1/5)]
The last reward was a unique building depending on performance. He guessed that the better the performance, the higher ranked the building he would receive was. He was by now well aware both how powerful some buildings were, but also how extremely expensive they were. He had scoured through the registry for weeks, after all.
Getting a good grade might greatly help him later, provided that he actually survived this ordeal.
So it was with a mix of self-preservation and greed he had gritted his teeth and finally decided to assail the first of the heralds tomorrow, even if he wasn’t at the power level he’d like. The last few days he had scouted his target out, and he thought he had a fighting chance after observing it.
He woke up with the dawn of light the next day, and after his preparations, he immediately set out. He had limited time until his self-imposed time limit. Depending on how the fight went, he might try to kill a second herald today as well.
He walked through the forest with practiced ease, avoiding twigs and roots while still keeping a high tempo. The forest had changed considerably during the past weeks. It had grown extremely lush, gaining almost a primordial unsullied air. The trees had grown more robust, and the undergrowth was varied with both bushes, vines and a medley of flowers.
He did not know where they had come from, but it seemed that there were far more critters and other animals as well roaming both the forest floor and up in the crowns. However, it always was quiet around his camp lately, as if the animals instinctively avoided his domain.
Zac made a beeline toward the western central area from the southern edge where his camp was located. During his excursions in the past weeks, he had actually found the second herald, while the last two still eluded him. He guessed that one of them resided in the mountains though, as it seemed that each herald lorded over a cardinal direction of the incursion. He hadn’t ventured into the mountains as of yet, as he had his hands full grinding monsters closer to home.
The unlucky herald Zac had obliterated with a lucky roll had been in the southern part of the island. Zac had occupied the domain of the herald in a sense. That had explained why there were relatively fewer demons close to his base, as it was far from the lairs of the three remaining heralds.
19
Vul
Even though Zac moved like a specter through the woods, he couldn’t always avoid fights. A barghest was lying hidden behind a few bushes and noticed Zac before he could reroute around it.
It immediately got up and without hesitation charged upon him.
Zac was completely unfazed by the oncoming beast and circulated a small amount of Cosmic Energy through his body down to his legs. With a quick step, he avoided the beast at the last second, giving it no time to adjust. He then followed up with a vicious swing down the throat of the passing beast. The barghest would have been decapitated had it not been for the limited size of Zac’s hatchet.
Instead, he tore a huge gash that severed both muscles and jugulars from the top and then continued until exiting down on the bottom, resulting in the head barely staying on.
The demon continued for a few meters before collapsing with a thud. Zac continued on while going over the state of the axe. By now, he had killed hundreds of barghest, and the recent fight barely registered in his mind, even with the power-up of the beast. Even if the barghest had become stronger, they still were the most common and stupid of the monsters on the island.
The empowered gwyllgi that focused on speed were far more annoying to deal with. He still had a hard time dealing with them without getting a cut somewhere.
When looking over the hatchet, he couldn’t help feeling a sour lump in his throat. The axe was in a state of disrepair with scratches all over. The head had become a full two centimeters shorter from repeated sharpening against rocks. Zac knew the only reason the weapon still somewhat held together was that it was made from a solid piece of steel. Still, the shaft had started to bend, showing the strain it had been put under.
The combination of Zac’s superhuman strength and the hardness of demon bones had slowly warped the metal. He was quite worried, as he did not know what he’d do when his weapon finally broke. He would be able to buy a shop and hopefully get a weapon that way when he finally upgraded the outpost to a town. But until then, there simply seemed to be no weapons on the island.
Zac sighed and continued on his way.
He barely used any energy during the fight, only enhancing himself for a few seconds. With the help of the gathering array, he would be topped off again within a minute.
; Zac kept stalking through the woods like death incarnate. Anything that was foolish enough to attack him was quickly ended with a swing.
He had initially been afraid that his daily excursions would we found out by the demons, but after a few days of observation, he was quite content knowing he was safe as long as he did not hunt too close to the heralds.
Every day, new monsters would appear in the woods, likely summoned through the incursion. More astonishingly, the demons killed each other far more than Zac killed them. He had lost count of the times that he had found a demon hunkered over a corpse of the same race, feasting on its carcass. There seemed to be simply no familiar affection between the demons. That Zac was responsible for a small part of the deaths seemingly went by completely unnoticed.
Finally, he arrived at the area where he had spotted the herald earlier. He immediately became more alert of his surroundings, not wanting to create a stir with his target so close. He soon found the target, and it wasn’t hard to notice.
The herald was huge.
[Vul, Level 45]
That was all the information that the [Eye of Discernment] gave him. Either his mastery over the skill was too low to show more information, or the skill was simply too basic.
It at least showed that its level was over 20 levels higher than his. He did not know whether Vul was its name or its race. His skill had only showed the race when fighting the random beasts in the forest, but here it also showed a level. The system somehow made a distinction between this herald and the other demons.
He was leaning toward the theory that Vul was a name, because the monster clearly looked a lot like a barghest. If a barghest had been supercharged. Instead of three pairs of legs, it had four, with the additional pair being positioned closer to the hind legs.
Does that mean that it’s a spider rather than an insect… Zac mused with a dark sense of humor while looking over the beast.
Vul was also far larger than its barghest brethren. If a normal barghest could reach up to Zac’s chest with its head, then this monster was a full head taller than him. It was even larger than a bear and, from its oversized muscles, looked like the bear would rather be prey than a competitor.
Just like the normal demon dogs, it had an oversized head with an abyssal maw, with three rows of sinister fangs lining it. With its size, the monster could easily fit both Zac’s head and torso in its mouth for a quick bite. The paws, which looked like talons, had the same three long claws attached, but on Vul, they were as long as small kitchen knives.
It seemed to be the alpha of the barghest pack, although it didn’t seem very interested in anything except lazing about and eating.
Zac had observed the monster from a distance a few times in the last week and had also realized that it not only was larger, but it was also a bit smarter. Certainly, it was still a meathead, but he had noticed some burgeoning intelligence from its actions. It luckily didn’t seem overly alert, as Zac had used the [Eye of Discernment] on it without any reaction.
Perhaps only magically inclined beings such as the imps could actually notice being screened by the skill.
He knew his customary method of killing a demon dog would not work with this monster; it simply was too large a risk. He had gotten swiped almost countless times the last month, each time having a new wound to show for it. A similar swipe from this monstrosity could instantly end him if unlucky, and he was not ready to take that chance.
He slowly eased back into the vegetation after ascertaining the herald’s position. Taking down a beast like this would take some strategy.
Zac slowly made his way a few hundred meters away, where his final piece of the puzzle lay hidden. Luckily, Vul mostly stayed in the same area except for when it went on patrols in random directions.
He finally reached his destination, a particularly lush bush that had a thick leafy crown that was roughly the same height as Zac himself. After glancing around, he gingerly made his way into the bush.
Inside, there were four trunks of trees, each roughly three meters long and almost as thick as his thigh. One end of the tree was sharpened into a point. They looked as if they were made to form a palisade, but the real purpose was monster hunting.
The spear he had used the first time he hunted broke on the first demon, so he had learned his lesson.
During his weeks of fighting, he had found a type of tree that had a dark trunk but white-gray veins. He hadn’t recognized it and had tried to cut down a branch with a swing of his hatchet, and to his surprise, he found that the tree was extremely dense and hard.
Cutting down the trees to make the four supersized spears had tired him out, even with his superior physique.
He gingerly dug roughly half-a-meter-deep holes with some distance from each other, then placed the wooden stakes into them at a slanted angle. He had placed them so that the spear tips were hidden within the bush at roughly 150-to-180-centimeter height. Finally, he covered the holes and placed down secondary smaller stumps beneath the stakes so that they wouldn’t tip over from their own weight before they could be used.
This was the only trap he could figure out that could help in his fight against the huge beast. The only other idea he had come up with was to dig a pitfall. But he did not have the tools for the massive undertaking of digging a pit large enough to trap and kill a monster the size of a large minivan.
He took one more glance at the bush to inspect his work. He would only get one shot at this and didn’t want anything to give it away before it was too late.
Satisfied with his work, he finally turned toward the herald and started walking.
20
Fighting the Herald
Zac had slowly inched his way back toward the herald. It was currently lying on a rock, and it was actually eating a gwyllgi it had caught somewhere.
All eight of its legs except the front pair were lying on the same side, exposing its back toward Zac. He was currently crouching behind a tree only five meters away from the huge barghest. He barely dared to breathe for fear of being exposed too early. He couldn’t get any closer without entering an open area and being completely exposed.
Zac’s heart was beating furiously, and his hands were nervously shaking. It was one thing to make plans and preparation, but a completely different thing to actually turn those plans into action. Now that he was this close, it was as though he could sense a primal pressure emanating from the beast.
He knew he couldn’t wait any longer, as this was a golden opportunity. The beast was feeding and was distracted. If he kept waiting, he would miss his chance and also tire himself out by stressing and fretting.
Zac soundlessly got to his feet and circulated Cosmic Energy through his body. Wasting no time, he pumped his legs full of energy and shot toward the exposed herald like a bullet. His hatchet fell with an empowered swing, striking down at the lower spine of the beast. He was hoping to use the same tactic as he had in the beginning against killer Vul’s smaller brethren.
The axe sank into the back of the beast, but it felt like he had tried to chop through reinforced steel when he reached the bone of the spine. His plan had failed, as it ended up as only a flesh wound. His right arm ached from the impact, but he quickly adapted and swung down and created a deep gash down along its side.
He planned to strike its belly as well and hopefully damage some organs, but a thundering roar interrupted him. The herald had finally reacted, and with a jerk, pushed back with all its legs, forcing its whole body toward Zac.
The monster’s back slammed into Zac like a truck, and he flew a few meters backwards, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
As he got up, so did the herald. Suddenly, they stood facing each other, and a low growl emitted from the beast’s mouth. Its wound was bleeding freely, but that didn’t seem to have incapacitated it at all.
Rage was burning in the beast’s beady eyes, and it let out another tremendous roar that seemed to cause the very air to vibrate.
Zac wasted no time and i
mmediately ran into the forest. He wanted to make use of the complicated terrain to keep the large, lumbering beast at bay. He kept infusing his body with energy, not daring to let up. The sounds of loud thuds and branches breaking behind him proved that the herald was hot on his heels.
Zac was dismayed to find out that the terrain didn’t seem to impair Vul in spite of its huge size and stocky build. It was far more nimble than the barghest, even though it seemed even bulkier than its smaller brethren. Finally, he tried to use another tried and true trick and ran straight toward a thick maple. He could hear that the beast was ever closing in on him and now was only a few meters away from him.
This was a test of sorts of the herald, to see if it would fall for this simple trick. He had his doubts about it after observing it, and didn’t want to blow his best shot for killing it. He therefore held off on running straight toward his pikes.
He waited until the last minute until finally jumping to the side and dodging the tree. He turned around in midair, hoping to take advantage of the beast knocking itself out.
Unfortunately for Zac, a herald was appointed a leader for a reason. Zac’s suspicions about the herald’s superior intellect proved true as he saw the beast’s reactions.
Noticing the incoming tree, the herald stopped in his tracks with his front legs while he sidestepped away from Zac’s direction with the hind legs. Its front legs carved a deep groove for a few meters before it stopped, while it changed angle to point toward Zac. This resulted in the beast still moving toward the tree, but it instead slammed into it with its shoulders rather than its head.
Due to the braking, the slam seemed to enrage the beast further rather than hurt it. It hadn’t lost much time from the slam, and now Zac was in a precarious situation.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 10