Zac was starting to wonder if a stench could physically hurt someone, as his eyes were tearing up from the stink. If he was forced to sleep in a camp like this, he’d rather sleep on the edge of the cave at risk of getting eaten by a salamander, compared to sleeping next to this putrid flame.
The smell was so bad that he couldn’t properly focus, and he accidentally hit the sleeping imp with his foot as he approached. He quickly bent down and finished it off, but not before it managed to release a high-pitched screech.
Zac knew he wouldn’t be able to sneak around anymore and immediately swapped out the dagger for his axe. He activated [Chop], and with three quick swings, another five imps were dead before they managed to properly wake up.
By now, the surviving imps were up, and all of them charged up a purplish-black fireball without hesitation. Zac managed to kill another two before they were done charging, but afterwards, four fireballs slammed into him. The cave was simply too small, and he had no time to dodge them. Normally, he would have used his chest piece here, but he wanted to save it unless it was a true life-and-death scenario. He might meet a herald soon, so he needed all his tools at the ready.
Zac could only grit his teeth as the nefarious flames hit him, sticking to him like glue. He knew that the fires would die out when their owners did, so he wasted no time and charged at the remaining four imps. They screeched and started to flee toward a tunnel opposite where Zac came from, but Zac wouldn’t give up.
Ignoring the impractically large consumption of energy, he elongated the [Chop] edge and managed to hit two of the fleeing imps, bisecting them in an instant. Their two compatriots didn’t care and only started flapping their wings more fervently in order to escape.
Zac fished a throwing dagger out of his pouch, and as he followed, he threw it into the back of one of the two imps. He took out another dagger, intending to quickly end the fight. But as he prepared the throw, a huge white maw suddenly emerged out of a side tunnel, snapping shut over the imp in a lightning-quick manner.
It was another salamander that emerged from the tunnel, contentedly chewing on the small demon. It lumbered forward toward the other imp that Zac had downed and gobbled up it as well, knife and all.
Zac wasn’t in a mood to fight against the salamander unless needed, as he liked the idea of these huge lizards walking around in the tunnels and helping him out by whittling down his enemies. Therefore, he quickly receded into a side tunnel in order to avoid its approach. The huge monster soon came to the entrance, looking toward Zac’s direction, and seemed to be hesitating for a few seconds. Zac didn’t understand how they kept sensing him, as this time he had fled even further back, but he could only get ready to kill this white giant as well.
Finally, it turned around and ambled away, toward the now deathly silent imp camp.
52
Odor
Zac let out a breath of relief as he saw the beast lumber off. Not that he was afraid of fighting it, but the enemy of his enemy was his friend, even if the monster itself didn’t know it.
Zac moved some distance away and applied some more aloe cream on his burns. His skin looked gray and sickly, but not like a desiccated corpse’s like it had the first time he fought an imp. His Endurance was quite a bit higher by now, and while the fireballs still hurt like hell, it took them longer to drain his body.
Zac felt he was at the cusp of leveling up, and continued onward through the tunnels. It didn’t take long until he found another cave with sleeping imps. This time, it was a bit smaller, with only fifteen imps. This group also seemed to be a bit more vigilant, with one imp standing guard. It seemed to barely understand the concept of being a lookout, though, as it was leaning against a wall, half-asleep. Occasionally, it would rouse itself, but only to scratch its butt, then go back to dozing off.
Zac saw no way to get next to it without being spotted, even if it wasn’t too vigilant. He really wished he could get the skill the crafty swordsman had used, and turn invisible for the approach. Even the lackadaisical imp would notice his approach and warn the others if he tried to sneak up on it.
Seeing no alternative, he took out another throwing knife and threw it at the guard. It hit straight in the middle of its torso, almost instantly killing it. It slumped down onto the ground with a small whimper and then stopped moving. Zac froze, waiting for any reaction from the rest of the group.
However, they snored away contently, oblivious to their impending doom. Satisfied, Zac ventured in and repeated his grisly assassinations. This time, he managed to keep going unnoticed until only three were left before they were alerted, but Zac finished off the last stragglers with a few quick chops.
The kills in the second cave gave Zac another level-up, bringing him to level 33. He put one point in Strength and two points into Endurance, bringing the attributes to 171 and 99 respectively.
Zac soon trudged on, continuously looking through the seemingly endless tunnel system. He found a few more imp camps on the way. Not all the camps were sleeping, though, and he skipped the ones who were awake for now. He had been forced to eat four fireballs earlier, which hurt quite bad, and didn’t want to imagine how getting bombarded by twenty of those infernal balls would feel.
After traveling for an hour, he felt that he should be below sea level by how much he had descended. Of course, it was hard to get an exact feeling when everything felt the same. But it opened up a new avenue of escape for him. He had been pondering whether he should build a raft to leave the island if the demon quest didn’t pan out.
But the thought of being stuck at sea on a crudely built raft, with no knowledge of how far he was from land, soon squelched that idea. Besides, who knew what kind of monstrous things lurked in the depths after the integration into the Multiverse.
The caves felt like a safer option. Even if he found no way out, he could always backtrack to the island. The only downside was the claustrophobic feeling of these tunnels. The tunnels were quite beautiful right where he was, but he guessed it was due to the high amount of Cosmic Energy in the surroundings. If he left this area, the tunnels would likely be far more dour and oppressive.
As he continued his exploration, he started to smell a very acrid odor, differing greatly from the earthy scent of the vegetation or the putrid stench of the imp camps. Intrigued, he decided to find the source and started to slowly follow the smell.
After a few twists and turns, he finally managed to find the right direction. It seemed that none of the stats really improved his senses overly much, so his plethora of titles hadn’t given him eagle eyes or a super sniffer. He, therefore, made some wrong turns before being able to tell what direction the smell came from.
As the smell got stronger and stronger, he saw that the tunnel was starting to change. There were signs of mining activity in the area, with holes in the walls peppered about. Most of the greenery had also been ripped out, leaving only some of the luminescent moss for some lighting. It looked like the source of the smell was man-made rather than something natural.
He started to take greater care for any potential enemy or trap cropping up, but still decided to continue toward the source of the smell. As he peeked around a corner, he saw a few imps milling about near the mouth of a large cave. He couldn’t properly see what was going on inside the cave due to the distance, but it was well lit up, and he could see purplish smoke wafting about inside.
It would be impossible to approach without alerting whoever was in the cave, so Zac retreated to find another entrance. After twenty minutes of looking around, following his nose, he found another cave mouth, but this one was guarded as well.
He turned toward the last path he found that had a stronger smell compared to the others and tried his luck one last time. This time, he was led to a dead end, the path simply stopping after a while. The acidic smell was extremely strong, though, almost to the point of making Zac light-headed. After looking around for a while, he found a small crack in the wall behind some luminescent moss.
He tried to look through the crack, but it was too small for him to see anything, so he brought out one of his thin throwing knives from his pouch and started to carefully carve out the crack. It was a slow process, as he didn’t want the sounds to alert anyone inside, and it took almost half an hour until the hole was large enough for him to be able to see through.
He eagerly glanced inside, and what met his eye made his heartbeat speed up. The cave was one of the largest ones he had seen so far, being a full thirty meters across. The first thing he noticed was the large cauldron in the middle of the room, and it was the source of the smell and the purple smoke he had seen. It was almost as tall as Zac was, and was held in the air by a crude rock and lumber contraption.
The source of the fire confused Zac, as it didn’t produce any smoke. He only saw a handful of the raw Nexus Crystals placed seemingly haphazardly on the ground, and above them, a blue-white flame was steadily emitted, heating the bottom of the cauldron. Zac made a mental note, because if he could burn crystals without creating smoke, he would be able to provide warmth and cook food without having to worry about demons finding out.
Next to the cauldron were various mounds of resources. Zac recognized almost all of them as the various herbs and plants he had seen while walking the tunnels. There were mushrooms, vines, and purplish grass neatly separated into their own piles. He also identified a few plants that he had seen above ground in the transformed area close to the incursion.
On a stool stood an imp slowly stirring the contents of the cauldron with a large wooden ladle. At least he thought it was an imp, but he couldn’t be sure because it was almost as large as an adult human. But it shared many features with the imps, such as its purplish skin and bat wings.
In contrast, its skin wasn’t mottled and irradiated like it seemed with most imps, but rather smooth and clear. It also wore a proper, albeit simple, robe. The most advanced clothing he had seen on an imp thus far was a dirty rag used as a loincloth, while most of them were simply naked.
It lacked any horns or ears, and as it turned its head to grab a mushroom to throw into the pot, he could also see its face, making him sure he was dealing with an imp and not a demon. It had the extra set of eyes placed in its forehead, just as the normal imps.
He had found his fourth herald. He couldn’t see any other explanation than that. It looked far too different compared to its brethren, and its intelligence seemed to be on another level if it cared about things such as clothing.
Zac didn’t dare to use [Eye of Discernment] to make sure, though, as even the normal imps could sense it when he used the skill on them.
The herald wasn’t alone, unfortunately. There currently was a group of roughly ten imps milling about in the cave. They were sorting a pile of resources and moved them to their respective mounds close to the cauldron. When an imp made a mistake, it was ruthlessly slapped in the head with the boss’ ladle, eliciting a scared whimper.
Zac decided to wait for a while in order to let them finish their task and then hopefully leave. Between this group and the ones just outside, there simply were too many imps for comfort. But before they were even halfway done with the task, a few imps entered the cave and dumped an armful each of various plants.
Meanwhile, the herald kept throwing some plant or mushroom into the pot every now and then, constantly stirring. Zac started to feel that the cauldron had to be a magic item like his pouch, as it never seemed to flow over, even after Zac had watched the herald throw things into it for an hour by now.
It looked like the imps wouldn’t leave the cave in the end. Zac deliberated whether he should wait some more or fight. By now, he was more or less completely restored from his escape from the monkey herald, apart from being covered in tender bruises. Finally, he opened up his quest page to make sure of the progress of his dynamic quest, slowly reading through it.
With all preparations done, he threw his worries and doubts out of his mind and hefted his axe.
53
Blitz
The wall separating Zac and the cavern was less than a decimeter thick and wouldn’t be able to hold against him kicking it down. Luckily, there were no crystals embedded that strengthened its integrity. He moved his axe to his left hand and gripped a throwing knife in his other.
After a few deep breaths, he put all his weight on his left leg and kicked forward with all the power he could muster. A deep thud echoed out, and a large part of the wall completely crumbled. Zac shouldered his way through the newly created crevice, not caring about the few cuts he got from the sharp rocks.
He immediately threw his dagger with full force at the herald, hoping for a quick conclusion. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, as the blade seemingly combusted by itself and turned to ashes as it approached the large imp.
Zac wasn’t surprised, and without hesitation, pushed forward. He managed to kill two of the smaller imps with daggers on his approach, and then he was instantly within ten meters of the herald.
The boss roared angrily and lifted the ladle, using it as a staff. A huge wave of pitch-black flames rolled outward toward Zac. Anything it touched turned to ashes immediately, even a few unfortunate imps that were incinerated since they stood in the wrong position in the cave.
A golden sheen enveloped Zac completely, and he jumped through the wall of flames. He could hear a peal of eerie laughter and a snap; then he was through the flames. He didn’t hesitate and pushed all the Cosmic Energy he was able to gather into the fractal on his hand, creating a five-meter blade, which whooshed toward the herald.
The blade slammed into an invisible barrier and started sizzling, causing extraordinary pain somehow transmitting into Zac’s mind. But Zac’s power wasn’t for show, and after a brief struggle, the blade pressed on, slamming into the herald’s body.
Zac expected the herald to be bisected, but with a shocked expression saw its seemingly simple robe light up and protect its body. The robe couldn’t remove the huge momentum from the swing, though, and the monster was shot into a close wall like a rocket.
Zac rushed after it and was almost upon it to end the fight.
The herald spat out a mouthful of purple blood from the impact and screeched angrily at Zac. Its four eyes started blazing ominously, and once again, it summoned flames. This time, nothing in the cave was safe, as black insidious waves billowed in all directions from floor to ceiling. The herald was like a demonic sun that radiated nefarious flames that wanted to consume the world. The mounds of resources instantly turned to ashes, and the few leftover imps perished as well. The only thing that could stand the onslaught was the cauldron, which seemed completely unaffected by the flames.
Zac had already used his armor’s onetime defense inscription and could only grit his teeth and force his way through the sea of fire. The fires would extinguish as soon as the herald died, so he placed a bet that the fight wouldn’t last long.
The scorching pain that enveloped him was far worse compared to the normal hellfire of the smaller imps, and it caused him to scream and stumble. The swing that was supposed to cleave the herald in two lost much of its power, and his aim went off-kilter. But he at least managed to slice one of the herald’s arms clean off, spraying blood everywhere.
He shakily prepared to swing his axe once more, but the herald had had enough. With a few flaps of its wings, it desperately tried to flee, leaving a trail of burning blood in its wake as it escaped through the flames. Every flap of its wings caused the flames to erupt in the air, creating a natural barrier from chasing it.
Zac couldn’t afford to let yet another herald flee his pursuit, and charged most of his remaining energy into [Chop] once again, then furiously swung a five-meter edge after the fleeing imp. But the imp was quick, and he saw that his edge wouldn’t reach even when maxe
d out.
That was extremely bad news, as the whole cave was still covered in the black flames, and they were quickly consuming him whole. If he didn’t kill the herald, he would likely perish before getting out of there. Anger and desperation filled Zac’s mind as he maniacally tried to increase the reach of the blade.
“REACH!” he roared as the edge was moving horizontally in the imp’s direction.
Suddenly, the blade detached from his axe and continued outward like a wave. It moved as fast as his swing did, and soon reached the back of the fleeing herald. It proceeded and penetrated the imp without any resistance from the magic robe, splitting its torso and wings in two.
The various body parts of the herald fell to the ground, and Zac thankfully saw the flames covering the cavern quickly snuff out. He didn’t have time to go over the battle scene, as a gang of screeching imps entered through the entrances. Now that the hellscape had subdued, the backup could finally enter without being incinerated.
Zac was in no mood to fight these little demons and threw out the huge salamander carcass to block the incoming fireballs. With the newfound room, he placed the herald’s cauldron in his magic pouch and dashed out the same way as he came.
He kept running through the tunnels to create some distance from the area controlled by the imps, elated with the result of the fight. His bet had been successful.
He had planned to avoid a drawn-out fight with the herald and had thrown everything he had at it from the start. With how dangerous the small imps were, he knew that the herald would be a true terror if allowed to fire off its attacks. He hadn’t even taken time to use his [Eye of Discernment] on the boss, afraid it would slow him down a fraction of a second.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 28