“It’s a large demon dog that looks like it has been turned inside out,” Zac answered. Ogras looked like he was about to correct Zac but, after some thought, nodded his head.
Zac turned to Emily after some thought.
“How do most human towns handle people who can’t fight?”
“Eh… Some get jobs doing various things, I guess? There are still people needed for all kinds of things. The people who have simply given up are usually ignored or kicked out of town. I heard the most ruthless leaders have even used them as human shields against monster waves,” the girl answered after some thought.
“There’s an idea,” Ogras muttered.
“Where are they now?” Zac asked with a sigh.
“We put them in the infirmary since it’s empty by now.”
“How’s Alea?” Zac quickly asked, reminded of the demoness.
“She’s up now, but still not completely restored. She’s been asking about you,” the demon answered with a devilish grin.
“Who’s Alea?” Emily perked up.
“Why do you care, little brat?” Ogras grinned at her.
“Whatever,” she answered with a pout.
Already regretting coming back this early, Zac sighed as he started walking toward the infirmary.
“More importantly, did you find any?” Ogras asked.
“Any what? Humans? Yeah, I visited a human settlement,” Zac distractedly answered.
“Who cares about that? Movies, human? Did you find any movies?”
Zac stopped and glanced at the demon.
“Are you really that free right now?”
“The wall is essentially rebuilt, and I still can’t buy anything with contribution points. I’m just waiting around,” he answered impatiently.
Zac shook his head but took out the large box containing the TV, and the small mountain of videos. Ogras inspected the things with glee, but he looked a bit confused.
“What are these things?”
“The large box contains a much larger screen to watch the movies. The small packages each contain one movie or a series. That box over there contains the device to play them. Both the large screen and the player need a steady stream of electricity through a cable. You can plug them into the camper, but you need to figure out how to keep the battery charged yourself.”
Ogras nodded excitedly and put all the things into his pouch.
“I’m sure you have many things to do. I’ll help this kid get used to the area,” he said, and as he grabbed the shoulder of Emily, both of them disappeared, leaving only a startled shriek in the air.
Zac smiled a bit and continued on toward the infirmary. He wasn’t afraid that he’d hurt the teenager, but rather knew he’d need some tech support. Actually, it even looked like he approved of her ferocity. Soon he arrived outside the infirmary and, to his surprise, saw Janos sitting outside the door.
“What’s going on?”
“Kept escaping. Put them in illusion,” the demon tersely answered.
“Uh, okay. You can turn it off. I’m going in,” Zac said with some annoyance. He didn’t know if these people really were a handful, or whether the demons were too heavy-handed, but something needed to be done. He didn’t have the resources to baby these people all the time.
With a sigh, he entered the infirmary. As he entered, the humans saw it was Zac and rushed toward him with a litany of complaints. Zac simply released some of his aura to silence the group, then stared at them until they had calmed down.
“I hear you have been asking for me?” Zac said.
“You lied to us! We want off this hellhole of an island. Those demons said you have a method to leave the island. We want to go home,” Megan angrily huffed.
“You’re safe, clean, and fed. That’s better compared to most of humanity right now. You have access to a Multiverse Town Shop that has the herbs needed to evolve your race. You have a forest full of prey that gives a huge amount of Nexus Coins and Cosmic Energy. And you sit here complaining,” Zac retorted as a twinge of anger flared up at these people. Their situation would likely cause envy from most people, even cultivators, yet they only sat here thinking life was unfair.
“You want off this island with your powers? You’d die within a day. And even if you somehow survived and got to a settlement, you’d be made slaves or worse, since you’re powerless.”
The castaways hesitantly looked at each other before the girl once again gathered her courage.
“Those hellhounds in the forest? We saw it bite clean through a thick tree. You want us to fight that? We aren’t suicidal. And do you think we’ll just believe you when you say that the world outside is dangerous?” she angrily said, and from the looks of the faces of the others, they agreed.
“I am sorry we haven’t been able to help out very much, young man. Us old folks have some trouble adjusting to this new reality,” the old fisherman suddenly interjected.
“I currently have 46,000 Nexus Coins from fighting animals on our old island. If possible, I would like to borrow 36,000 Nexus Coins in order to buy the [Water Spear] skill from your Nexus Node for 70,000 coins. The remaining coins I would like to use to buy some of your crystals at 50 coins per Nexus Crystal,” the old fisherman said.
“Your name is Trang, right?”
“My name is Sap Trang. What do you think of my proposal? I know it is a lot of coins, but with it, I hope to be able to kill the demons you call barghest, and from there, slowly get stronger. The crystals are mainly for my fellow villagers, who plan to become what your… friends… call noncombat classes. They have slowly gotten levels from fishing, but the crystals would speed it up substantially. It looks to me that you are founding an island kingdom, and us old folk have lived on the sea for all our lives. We believe we can be helpful even in this new world.”
Zac was a bit surprised. This old man clearly was no fool like the brats. Sap Trang had learned everything he could from Alyn and Zakarith and formulated a path for himself and his villagers. He also didn’t mention Megan and her clique, so he guessed he wasn’t too fond of them either.
And it was true, having a couple of seasoned seamen would be convenient. A goal of his was to explore the neighboring islands when time permitted. Who knew what treasures the System had put there.
Besides, what Sap Trang said was true. He did want to create a sphere of influence, and since he was situated on an island, it would pretty much have to be an island kingdom.
102
The Day before the Storm
“I’ll give you 100,000 Nexus Coins as an investment to get you and your fellow villagers on the right track. You should know that the number of crystals I can sell is limited at the moment, as we need them for the war preparations. But enough to last you for a few weeks of cultivation shouldn’t be a problem,” Zac said after mulling it over for a few seconds.
There were only six villagers, with four elderly men and two old ladies, and their expenditure shouldn’t really impact their daily production. He didn’t mention anything about paying it back, as he might as well consider it a gift in case they proved useful. If not, he could always come to collect at a later date.
The Vietnamese villagers looked excited and quickly got to their feet and bowed toward Zac, who lightly nodded back. However, frowns appeared on the other group of people, who also started to glare at the fishermen.
“Why are you only giving them all those resources? What about us?” one of the men angrily asked.
“They seem like they can be useful to my town. You do not. Why should I spend Nexus Coins on you?” Zac said with a dismissive glance, which only made the former tourists angrier.
“There are various tasks that need to be completed on this island. Go earn your keep if you want coins but don’t want to fight. Mr. Trang, take your villagers and come with me,” Zac continued and started to head out.
The fishermen quickly followed in tow, but when the tourists tried to follow, a glare from Zac stopped them in their tracks.
As he left the infirmary, he briefly updated Janos, who sighed and reactivated his illusion, keeping the humans inside.
Next, he walked over to Adran’s canopy. Adran was a stocky demon who was in charge of the logistics of the temporary town, and one of the people who had been present at the meeting discussing the town design some time ago. He was a Common noncombat class called Administrator, Zac had learned earlier, which was an important reason for his current position.
It was apparently quite similar to the Scribe class that Zakarith possessed, but their differences lay in their upgrade paths. The Scribe class had upgrade paths that veered toward the Mercantile class. It could actually also be upgraded into Inscriber, a Craftsman class that focused on inscribing fractals onto gear.
Administrator focused more on the management of towns and countries. It could be upgraded to things like Magistrate in the future, where the individuals almost became like supercomputers, keeping track of innumerable things in their heads. It apparently also could be upgraded into certain Mentalist classes.
There actually wasn’t a too rigid system that split up the types of classes, but it was rather fluid. Some classes were mixes of various things, and the type of class could change when evolving it. Of course, planning out your path from the start often was preferable in order to not allocate attribute points in the wrong direction.
Zac had Adran make arrangements for the humans. He simply provided the Nexus Coins and different lodging for the fishermen. For anything else, they first would have to prove themselves. As for the tourists, he set some ground rules to whip them into shape. If they didn’t volunteer to do some tasks around the camp, then work would be handed out. If they didn’t complete it, then no food or lodging that day.
He didn’t want groups of people who just drifted about like in Fort Roger. And if they wouldn’t pick themselves up like the fishermen, then Zac would drag them forward no matter their opinion. Besides, he had a feeling that incoming second monster horde would help them realize their new reality. If thousands of monsters charging at them didn’t wake them up, nothing would.
After dealing with his latest citizens, he left to look for Alea. After asking around, he found she was meditating on top of the repaired wall. He soon found her sitting down with the sun at her back, illuminating her horns to truly look as though they were licks of fire.
Zac did not want to interrupt her meditation and simply sat down close to her and gazed out over the mostly prepared battlefield.
“You’re back,” Zac suddenly heard Alea say after some time and looked over at the demoness.
“I am glad to see you’re better,” Zac said after some hesitant silence.
“Your pill was very effective,” Alea answered as she looked calmly at his face.
The intent stare was starting to make Zac a bit uncomfortable, and he tried to come up with something to discuss. Finally, he detailed his excursion through the teleportation. The Ishiate, the mink, and Fort Roger. Alea calmly listened through the story, seemingly content to let Zac blabber on, until he got to Emily.
“This human, is she cute?” she asked with a light voice.
“She’s just a kid,” Zac answered with a roll of his eyes. Then he caught himself, as it felt like he was defending himself to a girlfriend.
“Hmm…” was the only answer from the demoness as she slowly closed her eyes to keep meditating. Zac felt that he was approaching a weird territory and, with a grunt, got up to his feet. Before he jumped down off the wall, he looked down on the meditating demoness a few seconds.
“Thank you,” he said before he left. That was the real thing he wanted to convey. Alea had risked her life to help him in the battle against the Fiend Wolf and was still recuperating from its attack. She was under no obligation to do that, but she still did it, and Zac was truly grateful.
With that, he was done with everything he needed to do for now. The demons knew what they needed to do, and Zac’s only goal now was to get stronger. He didn’t want to get mired down in weeks of battle again. The few days of freedom as he explored the new planet made him feel alive, and he was anxious to get back to it.
The fact that the beastmen had closed their portal was a bit troubling, as it threw a wrench in his plans, but since that small village had managed to buy a teleportation array already, then many other towns would likely follow suit soon. Perhaps even a government-run one that wanted to gather people.
He went back to his camp, and to his surprise, saw Ogras and Emily sitting under a red canopy in a comfortable chair each, contentedly watching a movie. They obviously were successful in setting up the new television, as it currently was showing a rom-com movie with an extension cable running through the illusion array, presumably toward the camper.
He wanted to kick the demon and make him do something more productive, but he also felt that it might be good for Emily to have some company. The apocalypse obviously had toughened her up, but both her parents had been killed just a week ago, and no one could simply shake that off.
“I am going to absorb some crystals before the next horde arrives. Don’t disturb me unless it is something important,” Zac said as he looked over at the demon.
“No problem; I can charge up the energy storage of your tin can through that wire, so we won’t need to disturb you,” Ogras answered without taking his eyes off the TV.
Zac blanked out a second before he understood the demon meant the camper’s battery and the extension cord.
“What are you doing?” Emily perked up as she looked over at him.
“I need to train and get stronger,” Zac answered.
“Can I do it too?” she eagerly asked. Zac had noticed her hunger for power since they started traveling together, and was very much in favor of it.
“Not until you turn sixteen. Find Alyn later. She’ll help you prepare. If you follow her instructions, you will have better prospects in the future,” Zac answered with a shake of his head.
“Oh, the disgraced teacher will finally have a student again,” Ogras said with a pitying glance at Emily.
“Wait, what do you mean?” Zac asked with a start.
“She got fired because of her, uh, unusually strict training methods in our clan. She was mainly brought over here because she already had the language skill, and people figured she would make a good slave driver,” Ogras said with a widening smile. “Otherwise, what use would a teacher be during an invasion? Did you think we would go around opening a bunch of schools for you humans?”
The eyes of both Zac and Emily widened at this, and Zac’s image of the calm and proper lady clashed with the image of Alyn screaming at the top of her lungs while whipping a bunch of slaves.
“Well… don’t let her overdo it. Emily, stay strong,” he said as he entered his camp.
“Wai–” the teenager tried to interject, but another shield superimposed over the illusion array. It was an [F-Grade Small-Scale Defensive Array], the cheapest and weakest defensive option in the Town Shop.
It wasn’t something Zac bought to protect himself, but rather a means to show the surroundings he didn’t want to be disturbed. It only cost 75,000 Nexus Coins, and a random punch by him or Ogras would break it. It was, however, effective against a girl who still hadn’t started on the path of cultivation.
For the next four days, he simply sat down and absorbed his [E-Grade Nexus Crystals]. He was able to absorb roughly two a day, and he’d already consumed two of them before. He left his tenth and last crystal for emergencies, though. During the whole time, he barely slept or ate; he just sat down and let the huge power wash over him.
He stood up, and after a quick shower and dinner, he opened up his quest panel.
Incursion Master (Unique): Close or conquer incursion and protect town from denizens of other alignments for 3 months. Reward: 5 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, town upgraded to City, status upgraded to Lord. (1/3) [1:03:22:34]
A little over a day remained until the next wave started, and only the finishing touc
hes were needed now. He removed his defensive array and walked out to the makeshift movie canopy. During the four days, it had gotten some upgrades, with walls that kept the glare off the TV, and a rug and coffee table. It was, however, empty, so he headed toward the town.
After asking around, he learned Ogras was with Adran, and walked over. As the two saw Zac approach, they nodded toward him.
“How are the preparations?”
“Everything is finished. This time, we had time left over to create a few siege weapons. They may be useful, and they can even be manned by the noncombat classes or your new citizens after some training. The only thing remaining is purchasing the aces with Nexus Coins,” Ogras answered. “I have taken the liberty of collecting 3 million Nexus Coins for the war effort. I mean, 5 million,” he continued, correcting himself after a glare by Zac.
Zac nodded and, after some discussion, purchased a few defensive measures.
“How are the humans?” Zac asked Adran after that was done.
“The old people are working hard cultivating with Nexus Crystals. Their leader has even gained a decent speed at killing barghest by now. He has been getting assistance, though, of course,” the administrator answered.
“The youth are a bit more troublesome, but they’re getting there. Nothing is as effective in getting people in line as a few days of filling old latrines and digging new ones,” Adran continued with a small smile while Ogras openly snickered. “Oh, and speaking of the last little human, here she comes.”
Zac turned around and saw Emily approach like a small thundercloud. Next to her a visibly irate Alea and Alyn were walking along. Zac sighed and stood up and unhesitantly started to power-walk away.
103
The Second Horde
“Zac!” a few voices shouted after him. And he could only sigh and turn around.
Since he saw her last, Emily had undergone a drastic transformation. She was properly cleaned and wore new clothes. Zac noted with some interest she had chosen the men’s style with the pants and leather armor rather than the dress robes that the two demons by her side wore. Her messy hair also was turned into a pixie cut instead of the uneven mess of a crazy person.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 60