“The stats you get before your class are insignificant on the road of cultivation. If you believe that Wave Whisperer will be more beneficial, take it. You can make up the missing stats with natural treasures and training in the future,” Zac said.
“Sounds reasonable. I will do just that,” Sap Trang said with a nod.
Zac nodded and left the living quarters of the fishermen. He knew that the wily old fisherman actually didn’t require help but just wanted to show his sincerity to Zac by divulging his future class. He’d already tried to show his worth before the ant waves, and after seeing Zac and the others’ power, his desire to pave a path for his villagers only grew.
Next, he went to the Creators’ shipyard and ordered four of the small exploratory vessels for a million Nexus Coins each. Karunthel, the spider-foreman, was not around, as Rahm explained that he was currently occupied with some experiments. For people like Karunthel and the Creators, experimentation was in a way cultivation. If they created something functional and new, they would gain a huge surge of experience, maybe to the point of gaining multiple levels.
It was generally the same with many of the noncombat classes. A farmer who reaped a whole field after tending it for months could gain a handful of levels. The higher the difficulty and grade of the herbs or vegetables that were grown, the more energy would be awarded. That was why many blacksmiths and other crafting professions preferred to craft hard and high-grade items rather than mashing together an endless stream of low-grade items. The benefits, both in wealth and levels, if the craft succeeded far outweighed anything low-grade items could compare to.
Other noncombat classes were more of the slow-and-steady type, such as Adran’s Administration class, which consistently gained Cosmic Energy while handling town matters. There were certain events, though, that could award large sudden boosts in experience, such as a town upgrade.
Next, he walked over to the small house that Alyn resided in. He found the demoness sitting on the porch in the same comfortable chair she’d used down in the mines.
“How is Emily doing?” he asked.
“She has started following the methods to attain mage classes, but she still insists on training with an axe for a few hours every day,” she said as she put down her book with a sigh.
“Well, it’s her decision, so let her proceed. Who knows what class she’ll be able to get from the combination,” Zac said with a shrug.
“I’ve read that cultivators of newly integrated planets are far more likely to choose unique and unknown classes, but that is a dangerous game to play. You humans will soon see the folly in your ways. I wouldn’t be surprised if more than half the people on your so-called Ladder right now will be stuck at F-grade forever. If breaking through to the next levels was that easy, then Clan Azh’Rezak wouldn’t only have a handful of D-rank ancestors after thousands of years of accumulation,” the teacher said with a serious face.
“You need to have your people choose sensible and Common classes so that you can get some guaranteed E-rank Uncommon underlings. Who knows, perhaps some of them might even be able to evolve into D-rank in the distant future.”
“I am not going to tell people what classes they choose. None of the people on the island are really my subjects. Of course, it might change in the future when you create your academy,” Zac answered. “Actually, I have a question about class rarities,” he said as he changed the subject to the old fisherman. “He is a normal fisherman, but he’s got multiple Uncommon skills to choose from when you said that barely one out of a thousand got Uncommon classes after studying at an academy. How is that possible?”
“The first class is mainly based on achievements and experiences, since people rarely are in contact with the Dao at that stage. Someone old will have more of those than a youngster who’s only sixteen. However, that doesn’t mean one should wait when choosing a class,” the demon answered. “The older one is, the harder it gets to improve one’s race. I am not sure if Mr. Trang will be able to evolve his race, even with the medicinal baths. The optimal time for evolution has passed. Even if he managed to evolve, it will involve far more resources compared to someone normal,” Alyn concluded.
“What about me?” Zac asked curiously.
“Your prime age for evolution had passed, but you sidestepped that with the Fruit of Ascension. Now you’re a thirty-year-old whose lifespan is five hundred years; that’s almost a baby,” she said with a slight smile.
“But generally, it’s better to evolve as soon as possible. It will be cheaper, and you will avoid any risk of your body simply not being able to withstand another evolution. If it takes too long, your body might not be able to take that last step, precluding you from evolving. So as soon as you reach E-grade Class, you should start working on your race again,” she added.
“On another note. We do not have any cultivation manuals at the moment. Emily is turning sixteen in a month, and she should be using a cultivation manual from the start. It will help her immensely, as reforming pathways at a later date can be quite painful and dangerous,” Alyn said. “Using a fitting cultivation manual from level 1 will even adjust the pathways provided by the Class, resulting in a greater synergy.”
Zac could only grimace while nodding, remembering his own harrowing experience when he improved his pathways from his initial rudimentary ones. That was likely his first large mistake, and it almost got him killed.
Since there were some pretty good cultivation manuals in the contribution store, he decided to purchase a few of the cheaper ones. It was not only for Emily, but it would be needed if he wanted to create an academy in the future. There were not many other things that grabbed his interest in the shop anyway, and the expenditure seemed acceptable.
There was only one thing he was planning on buying before heading out again, a skill called [Mental Fortress]. It was a skill that both protected him from skills like [Eye of Discernment] and also boosted the defense against mental attacks and illusions. It cost 10 million contribution points, which made it one of the most expensive skills, but he could afford it. The battle against the ants had given him almost as much as the whole wolf horde, and he currently possessed roughly 34 million points.
Feeling done with everything he needed to do, he walked back to his camper and spent the rest of the day recuperating. His arm was still hurting quite badly, while his feet still had blisters from the acid bath.
Emily came back later that evening, preferring to stay at his camper rather than her assigned housing close to Alyn. He didn’t know if it was the familiarity of the camper or the presence of him that made her more comfortable, but he didn’t mind, as he had gotten used to falling asleep outside under the moonlight in any case.
“You know, I’m wondering what the world would think if they knew the strongest and the wealthiest man after the apocalypse lives like a hobo outside a camper in the woods,” she said with a grin, obviously having recovered from earlier.
Zac only rolled his eyes and motioned her to sit down. He took out his kit for grilling meat and started preparing some food for the evening. Emily sat down and took out something from her backpack. It was a covered tray, and when she lifted the lid, Zac noticed a couple of long pieces of dough.
“Give me two spits,” she said, and Zac curiously complied. “Mom made these during the summer. It’s really only water, flour, and salt, but it still gets pretty yummy when grilled. It’s a shame we don’t have butter, though.”
She took out one of the pieces of dough from the tray and wrapped it around the spit. She did the same with the second spit, and then she placed them some distance from the fire.
“I think it’s called caveman bread? I don’t remember anymore,” she added as she kept an eye on her spits.
Zac only smiled and salted the large slabs of meat. He made a mental reminder to get some stock of various things when he left next time.
“You’re leaving the island again, aren’t you?” she said as she kept spinning the spits.
“Yes, in a few days,” Zac answered.
“Let me go with you!” Emily immediately burst out, looking up at him.
“You know, I can’t go back through the beastman village. They closed their teleporter the moment after we used it. The portal I will use might lead to the opposite side of the planet, far from wherever your siblings might be.”
“You don’t know that. They might be right where you end up, and you will not be able to recognize them,” she retorted, starting to work up a huff.
It was true. One of the things he’d learned from Emily about the Tutorial was that the end-point of the Tutorial sometimes was randomized. Well, not really randomized so much as some were lucky and others weren’t.
As the cultivators were undergoing the Tutorial, the world was rearranged, and the System dropped off the cultivators at a spot of its choosing when it was over. Some were lucky that the System chose their own turf when they got returned, like the villagers of Winterleaf Village. But most were dumped at a completely unknown place.
Zac asked the demons about it, and they thought it sounded like a test. Many would start traveling home, braving dangers to find a way back to their families. Most would likely die, but some would emerge stronger from the experience. Others would give up and hide behind walls, becoming despondent shut-ins like the people of Fort Roger.
That explained why Hannah and the others were never returned, and also meant that Emily’s siblings might be anywhere.
“Come on, I will be very helpful. I have visited many towns and know how to find information. I will be useful to you. If you go alone, you might just make a scene and get in all kinds of trouble,” she quickly said. “Besides, I’m turning sixteen soon. Traveling might help me get a better class.”
Zac kept slowly spinning his spit, mulling things over. He wasn’t sure what to expect from his next excursion, and it was a bit troublesome to keep her safe, since she couldn’t use the defensive gear yet. However, she might actually be useful.
During the ant waves, there were actually two new choices that cropped up. One was called Cradle of God, and it seemed a bit too weird for Zac’s taste, and not somewhere he’d even consider bringing Emily. He actually had a suspicion that it was the home of Salvation, the second-place holder of the Ladder. Judging by the pseudonym he chose, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched he’d name his town like that. He knew nothing about that person, and he wouldn’t teleport there, since it might get extremely dangerous.
The second option made Zac far more hopeful, as it was called New Washington. It wasn’t very imaginative, but it clearly was an American town. The name implied it was government-run as well, and it might be the best bet for him to gain information. He realized it might be a trap, and that was another reason he was hesitant in bringing Emily.
The people who possessed access to an array would generally be elites, and you had to have some balls if you planned on doing something untoward. Besides, he already knew the System restricted the use of the array as some sort of deathtrap. He couldn’t place any offensive arrays around it or place it far underground, for example.
Still, he had a very clear goal, and bringing Emily would likely slow him down in addition to putting her in needless danger. He wasn’t heading out on a stroll, after all.
“I am sorry. You will have to stay here until you have started cultivating. At that point, you can use defensive treasures and protect yourself. I don’t know what I’ll encounter when I step out of the teleporter,” Zac finally said with a sigh. “But I will ask around for you about your siblings. My main goal is to find my hometown just like you, so I understand your feelings.”
Emily didn’t seem to care about the promise and angrily huffed as she ran toward the camper, completely forgetting about the bread.
112
Back to the Scene of the Crime
The next few two days went by excruciatingly slow for Zac, who just wanted to get up and leave. However, there were more and more things to do in order to keep his town running. He couldn’t wait for finishing the third horde in a few weeks. When he became a Lord, he’d get a System-trained Administrator, perhaps Abby, who he could leave most of the work to. Adran was a competent worker, but Zac felt it was much too early to start giving the demons real influence in his future town, especially since their alliances mostly lay with Ogras.
Ogras was someone who would take a bit of advantage and run away with it. Zac still believed that the demon would do his best in order to improve the state of Port Atwood, at least for ten years, but he wouldn’t lower his guard until he found some real assurances. Therefore, Zac still felt the need to personally oversee some details.
He met up with Alea and Janos, who were mostly fine, with the exception of Janos’ leg. The poison mistress looked a bit annoyed upon hearing Zac was leaving once again but didn’t say anything. Zac also talked with a few of the mages, who promised to start work on an improved home for him. Emily’s comment the other day made him realize he’d forgotten about actually improving his camp. He remembered Ogras’ lush palace over at Azh’Rodum, and even a tenth of that would be a nice upgrade to his own living situation.
The second thing he did was to travel to the mountains. He brought only Alea with him this time, pushing his speed to the limit. It wasn’t some romantic reasoning behind it; he rather needed her to spot any leftover poison.
Earlier when he’d traveled this distance, he usually had to be careful and moved at a normal walking speed, but now he ran, ignoring the occasional barghest. The trip would take over a day back in the day, but now it only took a couple of hours. Surprisingly, Alea seemed to have no problem keeping up either.
The mountain valley had finally cleared out enough for him to start collecting everything of value from his killing spree. He didn’t want to leave this treasure trove as he left the island again. And it was especially nice timing, since Ogras was occupied with absorbing the Fruit of Ascension. Zac learned that it could take weeks to absorb a treasure of that magnitude. A big reason he almost died in the pond was that the mix of Cosmic Water and the Fruit of Ascension made the absorption only take minutes rather than days, which overtaxed his body.
He didn’t set about collecting it all in order to hoard the wealth for himself. He planned on using much of it as rewards and salaries for the demons and other citizens in the future, or even stocking stores with the weapons that lay about. Besides, who knew what secret treasures all the elites of the demon army had pocketed for themselves.
They arrived at the mountain slopes at lunch, and after making sure that there wasn’t any poison around, they scaled the mountain from the same side as the demon army once did. From there the two followed along the path of the battle, picking up any armor and weapon that seemed useful. The corpses were quite decayed, but at least the scorching sun and blowing winds had caused them to dry out rather than rot, so the stench wasn’t as bad as Zac had feared.
Many of them lay in pools of dried but putrid-looking liquid, though, and Alea explained that the poison he’d thrown out would cause them to vacate from every orifice, completely drying them out, as the victims were dying. From that, it was pretty clear which ones died from poison and which ones were dead from the battle before.
The number of demons lying in a pool of waste was quite terrifying, even out at the rim of the valley. Zac mentally shut down and wordlessly kept collecting items. Even Alea seemed subdued by the sight as she helped him out with the collection. They kept moving about for most of the day, finally reaching the epicenter of the poison, the scarlet tree.
The tree still stood up, even though many of its branches were destroyed in the battle. However, its trunk was no longer red, but purple, reminiscent of the poison cloud. The once pristine white leaves were also changed, now having purple veins covering them.
It made a bit of sense, as the closer they got to the tree, it was obvious that the corpses were even more dried out. Perhaps the tree had absorbed the poisoned warriors to hea
l itself in the same way it had absorbed the trees earlier. From all the poison, it seemed that it mutated somehow.
“How magical! I wonder what kind of fruit a poisoned Tree of Ascension will sprout. I hope it survives its current ordeal,” Alea said as she stared at the changed tree in wonder.
“Can we cure it?” Zac asked, more interested in growing normal Fruit of Ascension instead of any weird mutated ones.
“Maybe a skilled botanist could, but the poison has reached its core from absorbing too much of it from the area. It might cleanse it by itself over time, or it might mutate. Or it will simply succumb and die. We’ll have to wait and see,” she answered with a shrug.
“If it makes a poison version of a Fruit of Ascension, I want it,” she added as she stared at him with serious eyes. “It might even give me a poison constitution.”
“We’ll see what happens with the tree before deciding on any allocation. There is a lot of gear to collect,” Zac answered noncommittally.
It was true, the area was packed with elite warriors. Many of those who fought close to the tree even owned their own Cosmos Sacks, making it easier to collect their wealth. They methodically went through the central battlefield, and by the end of it, Zac had another seventy pouches in his possession.
Finally, the two walked over to Rydel, lying close to the tree, a large grisly hole in his chest and a broken arm.
“This wound… Did Ogras do this?” Alea asked with surprise.
“I thought the four of you knew?” Zac retorted, equally surprised. “I battled Rydel and that monkey over there, but I only managed to break his arm and expend most of his aces. He was about to kill me when Ogras attacked.”
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 66