Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure

by TheFirstDefier

  It did mention that there was a small chance of encountering extremely strong forces on an integrated planet, but most civilizations couldn’t even be considered F-grade. From how the text described it, Zac knew that Earth’s civilization wasn’t considered anything much and was not what it meant when it mentioned strong forces.

  For normal civilizations like Earth’s humans, the missive simply stated that enslavement usually was most convenient. It would increase the resources that could be gained on a new planet, as manpower usually was limited.

  It also listed the most common tactics of various forces in the Multiverse, and Zac was shocked to find out that the demons truly were some of the more decent forces. They usually created a country and entered trade negotiations with surrounding forces, native or foreign, to amass wealth. They did enslave the native populations on their lands, though.

  But there were many forces that simply eradicated everything and ceaselessly strove to increase its influence until the whole planet was theirs. There was even a force that entered incursions just in order to annihilate the natives and didn’t care about the resources at all. It was a cult that called itself the Church of Everlasting Dao.

  Unfortunately, the missive gave no information about the forces themselves, so Zac couldn’t find out more about them. But it was clear that almost none of the forces cared an iota about the natives and only considered newly integrated worlds treasure troves of wealth.

  All in all, the crystal was just what Zac needed, and he swore that he’d pester the demon until he handed out more goodies. The crystal said it was the first crystal of two, so hopefully, he could annoy another out of the paws of the demon tomorrow.

  69

  Rewards

  Even if the demon was gone, Zac stayed put for some time, going over the conversation he’d just had. Everything that came out of the mouth of the demon seemed to be the truth, but he didn’t feel it was that easy. He guessed that many of the things he learned today weren’t any hard-to-gain secrets, maybe with the exception of the things in the crystal he received.

  How things like quests, races, and classes worked should be the most basic of things and not something that the System would keep hidden. Still, he would work under the creed “Trust but verify.” He believed that he would get access to a secondary source of information soon now that various buildings were unlocked in the Town Shop. It would be easy to compare and contrast the words from the demon with what he learned in other places. From there, he might actually be able to learn the demon’s agenda, from finding out what he lied about through omission, for example.

  Satisfied, he turned his attention to the Nexus Node. It was time to do what he’d initially returned to the camp for. He had some rewards to cash in on.

  Off With Their Heads (Unique): Kill the four heralds and the general of an incursion within 3 months. Reward: 10 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, E-Grade equipment, unique building depending on performance. (5/5) [COMPLETE]

  Not wanting to wait any longer, he walked over to the crystal. Zac knew Ogras might actually be spying on him from the shadows, but he didn’t have any means to locate him at the moment and could only let him be.

  As he placed his hand on the crystal, it started pulsating for a few seconds until the familiar voice of the System appeared.

  [Incursion subjugation complete. Calculating personal contribution. Contribution 88%. Time taken: 47 days. Support: 1. Completion Grade: A. Distributing rewards.]

  Two boxes appeared on the ground, and Zac picked up the smaller one first. Zac still felt it was unsettling that the System could just make things appear out of nowhere. There was no sound, no ripples of power, nothing. One second emptiness, the next the boxes just were there.

  As he opened the lid of the smaller box, a blinding light radiated out from its contents. They were the E-grade Nexus Crystals from the reward. Zac could easily discern that anything he had seen so far was F-grade at best, as these crystals were on a completely different level.

  Each crystal contained a terrifying amount of energy inside, perhaps as much as a thousand crystals in his bags. But it was condensed into the small space of his hand. Zac felt that one single crystal might hold enough power for him to gain more than a level, and if these crystals could be absorbed as quickly as an F-graded one, he would instantly skyrocket in power.

  But unfortunately, he didn’t dare try them at the moment, not while his predicament with his energy poisoning still remained. He could only reluctantly close the lid of the box and place it into his pouch with a sigh. Next he picked up the larger box, which should contain a set of equipment from the reward.

  But before he had time to check it out, a large rumbling interrupted him. The ground was ominously shaking, and a deafening noise could be heard from somewhere close by. Zac instantly got a bad feeling from the sound. Had Ogras lied, and the demon horde was already upon him? He quickly threw the box into his pouch and summoned his axe instead.

  He quickly looked around but saw no change. The noise clearly came from the south, so he ran there after a brief hesitation. The only thing to the south was the ocean, and Zac was afraid an aquatic beast horde had started if it wasn’t the demons making trouble. As he ran, he opened up his Town Shop, ready to buy a defensive array at a moment’s notice.

  He soon arrived at the edge of the island and immediately spotted a familiar figure. Ogras was staring out over the cliff with his mouth ajar.

  “What did you do?” Zac angrily huffed at the demon as he ran up to him, axe at the ready.

  “What did I do? Nothing. I heard the noise and thought you had done something crazy. And it seems that I was right,” Ogras snappishly retorted and gestured at the odd scene in front of them.

  The cliffs were magically rearranging themselves in a baffling manner. It was as though an earth mage untold times more powerful than the demon mages was reconstructing the whole shoreline to his liking. The previously natural cliffs flattened out into orderly land.

  Huge rectangular breakwaters grew out from the land and created a sheltered basin hundreds of meters across, and two piers emerged out of the sea, displacing all the water into mighty waves. Furthermore, fractals appeared on the emerging rock formations as all the various changes took place, glimmering in a mysterious golden hue. They expansively covered the whole shoreline, the piers, and the breakwaters. The script itself differed from both the System’s fractals and the simpler demonic inscriptions, and it actually reminded Zac of the squarish text in very old computer environments.

  The changes didn’t only happen on land, though, and the duo was forced to scramble to safety as the ground gave out and created a wet dock where they stood. Next, various buildings flashed into existence. The largest was an enormous warehouse-looking building that was at least three hundred meters long and a hundred meters wide, where one of the short sides ended close to the sea-line. It was probably the largest building Zac had ever seen, and he thought few structures on Earth would be able to match it.

  Soon the rumbling subsided, and Zac looked out over the majestic harbor that had cropped up in under a minute. The design was cubic and looked extremely robust, and Zac felt that not even the worst storm would be able to do any damage to the structures. The cubic fractals covered all the structures as well, and Zac started to believe that they were some sort of protective inscription.

  [E-Grade Medium-Scale Iliex Shipyard Awarded]

  The System blared in his ears, but Zac had no time to react before he was interrupted.

  “What the FUCK!” Ogras screamed as he agitatedly grabbed on to Zac’s arm. “Is it upgradeable, IS IT UPGRADEABLE?” Gone was the wiseass know-it-all, replaced with a spluttering madman who seemed to have fire in his eyes as he glared at Zac.

  “Goddamn, calm down,” Zac said and freed his arm from the crazed demon. “What are you talking about?”

  “Inspect the building from your town menu and share the information,” Ogras hastily said, almost dancing on the spot in excitement
.

  Zac didn’t know what Ogras was talking about. But from his face, it looked like he would explode from impatience at any moment, so he tried various mental commands instead of asking anymore. As he used the command “Town,” a new menu opened up. He knew he had tried that command a long time ago with no result, and guessed it had been activated when he’d completed the incursion quest. His camp should still be classified as an outpost, though, as it was only promoted to city upon completing the next quest.

  The new menu was a list of all the structures he had bought or gotten from the System. Everything between the water-gathering array to this huge construction in front of him was there. However, his camper or the car was not listed, so only System-structures were included, it seemed. He focused on the shipyard but stopped himself from sharing the prompt.

  [E-Grade Medium-Scale Iliex Shipyard. Upgradeable.]

  “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” Zac defensively said, feeling that this might be important information from the demon’s reaction.

  “Just how high is your Luck, human? A Creators’ shipyard. This changes everything,” Ogras said, ignoring Zac’s attitude.

  “It says it’s an Iliex shipyard, though? And why are you getting so excited?” Zac couldn’t understand his reaction. It was a nice-looking shipyard, but that was it. He was likely going to build or buy one like this sooner or later since he was on an island, so it was nice being able to save on that expenditure. But he’d much rather have a town protection array or some turrets as a reward since there were monster hordes incoming.

  “Truly pearls before swine. The Iliex are a race of living golems who are among the greatest builders in the Multiverse. Most just call them Creators, since that’s pretty much all they do. A shipyard that’s manned by the Creators will create faster, stronger, and more durable ships compared to normal ones. But more importantly, the shipyard is upgradeable.”

  Zac was starting to get excited as well since it seemed the System had actually given him something pretty good. But still, Ogras’ reaction seemed exaggerated if that was it.

  “So what else?” he asked the excited demon.

  “Well… Creators can also make some of the most sought after cosmic ships and sky fortresses. Owning a shipyard means you can sell those in the future. It can net the Lord hundreds of times more income compared to the crystal mines in the mountains,” he explained after a brief hesitation. “I haven’t heard of a single faction that actually has access to the Creators.”

  “Cosmic ships? Like spaceships?” Zac asked, now starting to get excited as well.

  “Something like that. Ships that can traverse the endless distances of the Multiverse. They can travel to any points on a planet in seconds as well, very convenient. But they are not ‘spaceships.’ They are Spiritual Ships that travel using the Dao of Space and Cosmic Energy rather than relying on technology.”

  Now Zac was on board the hype train as well. Travel anywhere on the planet in seconds? This was exactly what he needed in order to search for his friends and family.

  “How much do you think it costs to buy one of those cosmic ships?” Zac asked eagerly.

  “Slow down. An E-grade shipyard can’t create things like that. I think it must be D-grade, maybe even C-grade before you can create those kinds of things.” Ogras immediately doused the burning desire Zac was building up. “We need to upgrade the shipyard first before we can start reaping the benefits. And before that we need to keep it safe and hidden.”

  “How do I upgrade it? And why hidden?” Zac asked, confused, but the next second froze, knowing that he had exposed himself.

  “Yes, hidden. This shipyard is a treasure, and any force would drool after it. If the word spreads that you control a Creator shipyard, you will have endless troubles coming your way,” Ogras said after a smug smile at Zac’s mistake. “As for upgrading it? No idea; try asking the Creators.”

  “I mean, I get that this is a good thing, but why would even you foreign forces go crazy for it? Can’t you just buy your own?” Zac asked, starting to feel he was sitting on a hot potato.

  “You can’t just buy a shipyard from the Creators when you wish. There are so many requirements that have to be met. They are extremely picky whom they work with and where they work. You’d never be able to build such a thing on this planet if it weren’t a reward from the System. This applies for most of the good things. Just check your Town Shop,” Ogras impatiently explained. Clearly he knew it wasn’t a purchase of Zac, rather a reward, just from how rare this thing was.

  Zac opened up the Town Shop, and the screen displayed the various shops. He had looked it over briefly as he trekked back toward his camp, as he’d needed to buy a shop to sell his crystals. But now the screen was changed. The shops were now actually purchasable, but almost all of them shone with a red light on the screen. Confused, Zac focused on one of the red ones called [Parlaz Consortium – General Store].

  A new window with deeper information about the shop opened, something he hadn’t been able to do before. A list of what type of services it provided was listed on one side, and it truly seemed comprehensive. It sold everything from seeds for farming to construction materials to weapons and armor. It also dealt in basic information, having stocks of crystals explaining most things, from plants to blacksmithing to even town-building.

  On another row, a number of requirements were listed. Zac’s outpost didn’t actually fulfill a single one, except having enough space. There were requirements for minimum town size, population, town daily turnover, and security. Since Zac’s town was just an outpost and a shipyard with no inhabitants, it wasn’t possible to fulfill those demands.

  As he flipped through various buildings, he saw that most of them had varying severity of requirements. Some even demanded a town population of a hundred million, or that it was the planet capital. There were myriad choices, but the ones he could actually choose were a scant few. It seemed that the merchant conglomerates of the Multiverse were quite picky.

  70

  Town Shop

  Frustrated, Zac focused on the shop he actually could buy. It was actually just called [F-Grade General Store] with no mention of a faction or company behind it. Confused, he turned to Ogras.

  “I can’t buy almost anything in the store. Most things are restricted. But there is a shop called F-grade General Store that has no requirements. Why’s that?”

  “That’s the Ruthless Heavens’ store,” Ogras answered.

  “Wait, the System runs stores as well?”

  “The Ruthless Heavens is the largest employer in existence, though it’s not a very hands-on boss. Running a Multiverse takes many hands, after all,” the demon explained with a roll of his eyes.

  “So why should I get any other store if I can just get the one from the System?” Zac knew he was straying from the subject of the shipyard, but he felt another opportunity to drag information out of the contrary demon had appeared.

  “Because the Ruthless Heavens is goddamn greed… ehm, economical. It provides basic facilities in almost all fields that have no requirements, but its prices are between 50 to 500% higher compared to the average.” Ogras looked like he would be sick as he talked about the daylight robbery of the System-run stores.

  The image of the almighty system being an intergalactic price-gouging bodega owner gave Zac’s image of the System somewhat of a thorn, but he guessed running a universe, or multiple universes, wasn’t cheap.

  “The corporations have far better rates on almost everything and can also procure things for you if you’re in need of a specific item. For a fee, of course. But they operate for profit and would never open up a branch if they weren’t sure if they’d be able to turn a profit in the location. The corporations have to foot most of the bill of coming here themselves, and it’s not cheap, from what I understand. Therefore, they’d never open a branch without some assurance,” Ogras continued.

  “Some factions have even more requirements. The Creators, for example, I thi
nk they normally only open a branch in B-graded worlds or higher. You also need to have a referral from an actual Creator to even get the application process going. And getting that from one of those living machines is almost impossible. Well, I’m not sure about the details since that is so far above my pay grade. Even my grandfather has no qualifications to know about what goes on in B-ranked worlds. So you see why this shipyard is so valuable.”

  Excitement and unease were building up simultaneously in Zac once again. He might actually have gotten a curse rather than a treasure. The shipyard was extremely valuable, but one needed to be alive to reap its benefits.

  “So what do you suggest we do?” Zac hoped for some input from the demon. He was crafty, and he knew how the various forces worked.

  “Two options. Either hide it completely, buy a huge illusion array to start. An E-graded one at least, as many can see through an F-graded one. As soon as you can, upgrade it to a D-graded one. Then we build walls around the whole area and say it’s the Lord’s residence, only giving you access. Later, you can add on slaughter arrays to the illusion array, killing any trespasser. Then you build your town far away.” The demon clearly had a meticulous mind, already having formulated strategies.

  “Second is to hide in plain sight. Ask the creators to redesign their shipyard and hide their characteristics. Make it look like a normal shipyard. Don’t make a big deal out of it;] just make it look like a decently important place with some defensive arrays protecting it.”

  Zac mulled it over and preferred the second option if it was possible. He didn’t believe an illusion array was the answer. Sooner or later, something similar to the peeing demon would happen, and he would be exposed. Then everyone would know he was hiding something and would get even more curious.