Meanwhile, Emily carved the words Remembered by E+J+O in a tree with a dagger she got from Zac. They simply stood staring at the grave for a few minutes before she silently climbed up on Zac’s back, and they wordlessly left the glade. Zac had offered to bury them on the Island, but Emily wanted to bury them closer to their home.
Zac prepared a small fire in silence as Emily was looking at the dagger Zac gave her earlier.
“What level are you?” she suddenly asked as she looked up at Zac, who froze a bit.
“Um…” he said, unsure how to respond. He wasn’t sure whether exposing the fact he was over level 50 was such a good idea.
“Well, are you on the Ladder?” Emily changed her question when she saw Zac’s troubled face.
“Yes. Can you see the Ladder?” Zac asked, a bit surprised.
“I knew it. You are way too strong to not be a Ranker,” she said, looking a bit excited. “Everyone can see the Ladder. I guess that you are considered role models by the System? So it wants to display you for us as well.”
“Do you know if there are any other Rankers close by?” Zac probed, a bit curious.
“No idea. I know that the government is looking for you people,” she answered as she started cutting the air with her dagger. However, her movements and technique were horrendous.
Zac took out a spit and large chunk of meat from his sack and placed it on the spit close to the fire. He had grown tired of the tough dried meat long ago and now preferred to barbecue. Now that he was forced to stop for Emily, he had the time to spare.
He sprinkled some salt over the slab and left it to slowly be grilled. He mentally kicked himself for not looking for some spices at Fort Roger, as the ones from the camper had been used up long ago. Then again, he felt that any foodstuffs should have been pilfered long ago in a wretched town like that.
“Why are they looking for us? No, not like that; move like this,” Zac asked as he showed how to properly distribute her weight.
“I dunno. They are trying to get all the cultivators to register and become like an army or something? Maybe they want the Rankers to lead the cultivators?” she answered as she mimicked Zac’s movement.
“Hmm…” Zac only answered as he kept moving. He felt that it wasn’t that simple. The world was collapsing, and from his brief visit to Fort Roger, he knew that the government’s control was tenuous at best. Perhaps they needed Rankers to keep people in check. “Are many cultivators complying?”
“I don’t think so. We tried going to the government when we looked for Johanna and Oscar, but from what we heard, most people haven’t joined yet. But new people join every day, and the government offers pretty good things,” she distractedly answered without stopping her stabs.
“Like what? Now shift your weight like this. It gives more reach to your stab,” Zac asked as he kept moving.
“Access to system-exclusive things like training facilities. Good salary. Oh, and they have claimed good areas that have a lot of monsters. Anyone who wants to train there has to be a part of the government; otherwise, they are attacked,” she explained.
“Aren’t there monsters everywhere? Why would that matter?”
“That forest is good because it doesn’t have any very strong monsters, it seems. It’s a pretty safe spot to level up. Most places have a random mix of animals, and it’s super dangerous to fight there. Some super-strong monster can pop out anytime and kill you. So finding good spots is very important.”
Zac nodded, as it made a lot of sense. His situation was the same. His whole island had turned into a farmer’s paradise in a sense, as the demonic beast hordes killed off any normal animals that could have become a real threat. There was no supercharged mink on demon island, only barghest and gwyllgi. They were dangerous compared to most animals, but there would never be any surprise beast or boss jumping out of the bushes.
They kept going for some time before they sat down to eat. Zac was by no means a knife-master, but some things he’d learned from his guidance system were universal.
“Do you know why so many towns have Nexus Nodes?” Zac suddenly asked.
He knew that he wouldn’t be the only one with a Town Shop system, but after seeing Fort Roger, he was a bit surprised to see just how low the bar was set.
“Um, because people like to live together?” she answered, looking a bit confused.
“What?”
“Well, those crystals appear when enough people live together in a town, right?” Emily answered.
“Hmm…” Zac only answered.
“Then everyone gets a quest to fight for ownership. It can get pretty crazy. My parents got such a quest once, but we immediately left town and hid out until it settled down. But I heard those crystals are always the worst ones and only give classes,” she continued after looking at Zac. “Only those who get their crystals from the Tutorial can actually build things with it, and it is different there as well. Like if they impressed the System in the Tutorial, they get to buy more things. I’m not sure.”
It looked like Lesser Nexus Nodes could pop up just from population density, and a quest like the one for the Fruit of Ascension would start. These nodes gave almost no options, but he was sure that the one who claimed ownership would get some quest to evolve the crystal.
He was a bit irritated earlier that others already had towns when he created his, since he might have missed out on some good titles. It took him a few days to figure out how to create an outpost, after all. But it seemed their progression was limited. After all, he doubted the people of Winterleaf Village had single-handedly closed a freaking incursion in order to establish theirs.
Emily soon fell asleep, since she was tired from today’s events, but Zac only needed a few hours of rest. He sat down with his back against the wall and started pondering the Dao. There was no fourth Dao Seed he felt close to attaining, and instead, he needed to focus on upgrading the ones he had.
He turned his eyes inward toward the axe fractal in his mind. Since he’d gained the Seed of Sharpness, the axe had two colors, with one side being dark blue with some brown, and the other a steely gray. The colors represented the two seeds he possessed, Sharpness and Heaviness. There was a clear line of demarcation between the two Daos, and the auras didn’t mix in the slightest.
He knew that one of the things he needed to do in the future was to fuse these two, but it was very far off. Alyn explained that there were two ways to improve the Dao. The first was fusion, and it was the path he had been walking since the start. Since the day he saw the vision, he knew that the Seed of Heaviness he’d gained was only part of the terrifying aura in the axe-man’s swing. He would have to fuse more concepts into it to create a true Dao of Axe.
The path of fusion often walked from simplicity to complexity. It combined simple concepts into something greater than the sum of the parts. The other path was generally referred to as evolution. It meant pushing a Dao Seed to its limit, and from there letting it evolve into a higher Dao of the same category.
That was his plan with his Dao of Trees. There might be a possibility to fuse it into his Dao of Axes as well, but Zac felt it would weaken it rather than strengthen it. Instead, he’d work toward evolving it by itself. Unless he suddenly gained a fourth seed somewhere and tried his hands on fusing that as well.
Neither fusion nor evolution was better than the other, according to Alyn; they were just different. However, she told him that most focused on evolution since fewer Daos were necessary to progress with that path. With fusion, he’d always need to gain enlightenment on at least two Daos.
Dao was generally considered the true watershed in the path to power. Over time, most people were able to hit their level cap, and money could solve the issue of Race evolution. But Dao was something you needed to figure out yourself. There were some tools and treasures that could help out, but it mostly depended on personal aptitude and insight.
Zac felt he probably wasn’t some genius since all three of his seeds essential
ly came from his visions. He did gain the Seed of Sharpness a few months later, but the foundation for learning it came from the same vision as the Seed of Heaviness. He was afraid that evolving all three at the same time would be more than he could chew.
He still was hesitating whether to put aside two of the seeds and only focus on one, or to focus on both the offensive ones. The Dao of Trees was the lowest priority for now, as its use simply didn’t feel as readily apparent.
Finally, he made a decision in his mind. He would focus on the Dao of Sharpness, at least for now. It was the seed he’d had for the shortest time, but it felt like the most useful one. He stared at the axe in his mind, trying to glean anything out of the silver fractals.
He also played the vision of the axe-man in his mind, feeling the terrifying force of the strike. Finally, he revisited the fight with the Fiend Wolf. He remembered the feeling of standing in the Dao Field, where even the air turned sharp from the Dao. He remembered how the casual swings of the beast rent long lines into the earth without any Cosmic Energy needed.
He also pondered upon what sharpness actually meant. It wasn’t as simple as the thinner the edge, the more damage he could do. Sharpness needed control and technique to be properly applied as well. He remembered seeing clips before the fall where people tried using razor-sharp swords and barely were able to cut anything since their technique was bad.
He kept going for a few hours before the mental strain became too much, and he fell asleep. He woke up a few hours later, only to find Emily intently staring at him.
“Are you Abbot Everlasting Peace?” she asked curiously.
“Urh… what?”
“Well, you look like a monk, and when I woke up during the night, I saw you meditating. You already told me you are on the Ladder. So are you Abbot Everlasting Peace? Or Boundless Truth? Is that why you weren’t interested in me? Is there nothing down there?” she peppered off, almost overtaxing Zac’s exhausted brain.
“Boundless? Wait, what? I’m no monk. My hair only got singed off in battle recently. And I’m not missing any goddamn parts, okay?”
101
First impressions
After another day of travel, they finally reached Winterleaf Village. Zac slowed down before entering the town though, not wanting to make it look like he charged at them.
“Careful. This is a beastman village! They are usually very strong,” Emily hastily said as she pulled at his cloak.
“I know. I am friends with them,” Zac offhandedly answered as he entered the town. He slightly frowned as he saw that the village was almost completely deserted, with no one in sight. Had something happened?
He quickly calmed down, though, as he soon saw Selas run toward him.
“Greetings, Zac. We didn’t expect to see you for a few more days.”
“My trip was cut short, so I’m heading back, I hope you don’t mind. Is everything okay here? It looks a bit… empty?”
“Stupid, they can’t understand English,” the girl softly said by his side, but Zac only rolled his eyes in response. It was a bit cumbersome when only one party had the language skill in these situations.
“Not a problem. I’ll lead you to the teleporter. Most people are just out working for now,” the Ishiate answered with a cough as he ushered them toward the array.
Zac felt that the beastman was lying but couldn’t be bothered to untangle that. They simply walked back toward the teleportation array, making some small talk, while Emily looked on, confused. Next to the array, a large package was placed.
“The package contains the fur and a few tokens of thanks by the villagers for the help you provided us. Good luck with your endeavors, my friend. I hope to see you again in the treasure hunt,” Selas said with an awkward smile.
Zac nodded and, after placing the crystals needed to teleport the two of them, stepped on the array with Emily in tow. He initially had wanted to discuss some matters of trade, such as keeping a channel open for goods between the two. However, it seemed pretty clear that they were worried he’d go berserk, to the point they’d even evacuated the town to avoid him.
With a flash followed by some darkness, he once again materialized. To his surprise, he only saw walls and quickly looked around. With a sigh of relief, he headed through a door, and the familiar sight of Port Atwood came into view.
It seemed that someone had erected a small house to shield the teleportation array while he was gone. Initially, he thought that Ogras had planned some trap for him, but that clearly wasn’t the case.
“Wow, that was so cool. Were we teleported?” Emily exclaimed next to him.
“Yeah, it’s a teleportation array. It can take us almost anywhere on the planet, as long as there’s another array there,” Zac answered. The way Selas acted was quite suspect, so he brought up the teleportation interface just to make sure of his suspicions.
Just as he opened the window, he saw the line with Winterleaf Village wink out of existence, no longer available to choose. Zac only sighed and closed the interface. It looked like the beastmen were careful after all. His plan to visit Fairfield after the next wave would have to be canceled.
“Let’s go,” he said as he headed toward the temporary town.
Zac noticed that the progress was coming along well as they walked toward the center of Port Atwood. The wall was almost completely fixed, and new poles had been erected on the outside. Their use had been limited the last time, but it was better to have something than nothing. There was, however, an extremely unsettling smell in the air, and Zac furrowed his brows.
“Wow, your town smells like poop,” Emily exclaimed, and Zac was forced to agree with some embarrassment.
As they closed in on the town, the shadows flickered, and the familiar demon appeared in front of them. Emily shrieked in surprise and jumped back a few steps, her dagger immediately in her hand.
“This one seems a bit better than the last ones, even if she looks a bit feral. I didn’t know you liked them this… young. If that’s your taste, you can always pursue Zakarith. Your names match and everything,” Ogras said with a half-smile.
“She was in trouble, so I picked her up along the way,” Zac answered with a roll of his eyes. “How are the preparations going, and what the hell is this smell?”
“WAIT! Why is there a demon here, and why is it speaking English?” Emily shrilly interjected as she started tracing large crosses in the air to ward off evil.
“What is she doing? Is she brain-damaged?” Ogras skeptically asked as he gave a glance of mock pity.
Zac only half-grinned and briefly told him about the demons in Christianity and other folklore.
“Hmm, very interesting. It might be a coincidence, or perhaps your planet had visitors from the Multiverse a few thousand years ago, and the details got jumbled over the years,” Ogras mused.
“Wait, people could come from the Multiverse even before the integration?” Zac asked.
“Well, yeah, but it would be like finding a needle in a galaxy, so to speak. Your planet would be almost impossible to locate, but nothing is stopping you,” Ogras answered with a shrug.
“This is Ogras. He’s living here along with a few hundred more of his kind. Actually, the town mostly consists of demons. They’re like the beastmen,” Zac explained to the frazzled girl.
That seemed to calm her down somewhat as she curiously glanced at the demon.
“I know I’m handsome, but don’t go falling in love with me. I prefer mature ladies,” Ogras said as he struck a pose.
She only blushed a bit and moved a bit further away.
“Are there no other humans here except you?” she curiously asked Zac.
“Well, there are a few more, but they arrived just recently,” Zac answered.
“Pah, don’t remind me of those wastrels,” Ogras spat. “Pain in the ass every single one of them. Well, the old guy is okay, I guess.”
“What’s going on? And the smell?” Zac reminded the demon.
�
�Entitled little shits. They keep complaining and don’t want to work. They just hide in their house after seeing one little barghest, crying and demanding to see you. When they found out you weren’t here anymore, they flipped out,” Ogras said with disdain. “As for the wretched odor? You try tanning tens of thousands of wolf hides at once without making the area smell like a Devourer’s asshole.”
“How did they come in contact with a barghest? There shouldn’t be any alive this close to town, right?” Zac asked.
He knew that they would treat the hides, as the noncombat classes had arduously skinned and salvaged anything of value from the monster hordes. He hadn’t expected this level of stench, though. Most of the parts of the beasts were useless since the grade was too low to trade with the Mercantile System, but some things might become useful, and with the volumes they were handling, they would make a decent profit.
The hides of the more sturdy ones could be made into F-grade leather armors, which would sell for a decent penny, especially on a newly integrated world like Earth. With their almost infinite stock of leather, they planned on using it as a selling point for visiting the town when they opened the gates for the public in the future.
“They said they wanted to get stronger, and since none of them are cultivators, Ilvere took them to hunt a few barghest,” Ogras answered in response to the question about the humans. “If they worked together, they shouldn’t have any problems killing such a dumb beast. But apparently it was chaos, people fleeing for their lives, even pushing each other down to escape. Ilvere had to kill the beast before a fight even started.” He snickered.
Zac could only sigh, feeling a bit embarrassed on their behalf.
“What’s a barghest?” Emily asked curiously.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 59