If the beasts could use Cosmic Energy to evolve, then why couldn’t he? So he wanted to steal a large amount in order to experiment. Perhaps there was a method of usage that would evolve his body, but not improve his level.
Zac slunk back into his tunnel, moving further on. His target wasn’t these half-filled sacks. Moving onward, he spotted quite a few tunnels with miners, and rhythmic thumping on the walls filled the tunnels. He soon found a deserted tunnel whose crystals all had been extracted. He picked this tunnel and started moving through it, ascending slightly as he did. He wanted to get closer to the center of demon activities.
All these miners had sacks, but Zac never saw anyone carrying them back to the demon city. That meant that either they were collected and put in a pouch or were left here in the caves. In either case, they should be collected somewhere.
The tunnels that had been mined looked truly bleak compared to the magical feeling of the untouched ones. Not only were the crystals in the walls removed, but most of the vegetation had also been ripped out of the tunnel. The only thing left was a smattering of moss to somewhat illuminate the area. Luckily for Zac, these exploited tunnels were completely deserted, as anything of value had been taken. It made it easy for him to move around the active excavations and into the inner area closer to where he expected the cave mouth to be.
He really felt thankful that his titles had improved his mental stats quite a bit. Normally, he would be completely turned around after days in the tunnels. But while he couldn’t exactly pinpoint where he should be in relation to the mountain, he generally knew the layout of the tunnels he had traversed and the direction he was moving. This was completely different from the old Zac, who could almost get lost in his own neighborhood, and could only be attributed to either Intelligence or Wisdom.
Perhaps putting points in these stats wouldn’t be a waste for a warrior, and not because it would help with his lacking sense of direction. He had been pondering on attributes a lot while healing up from the poison. If he was to throw his one-stat-strategy out the window, he needed a new direction. One alternative was to focus on all his physical stats, including Dexterity and Vitality. Find a good balance between the stats that still had Strength as the main focus, but not as lopsided as now.
But a new alternative he hadn’t thought about was to start focusing on Wisdom and Intelligence. When he let go of his chosen path, he started to think more deeply about what the various attributes could help him with, and he believed the mental attributes might help him with the Dao and skill advancement.
If putting his free points in Intelligence allowed him to improve his Dao Seed faster and acquire new ones, it might be more effective compared to putting them into more physical stats. If putting ten points in Wisdom helped him get another Dao Seed that gave fifteen bonus attribute points, it was a worthwhile investment.
It might also be possible that even physical attacks needed those stats. His [Chop] skill was approaching the realm of magic, as it could be turned into a projectile now. Perhaps Wisdom and Intelligence would help it fly faster or further, rather than Strength.
He could only put aside those things for now, and for the hundredth time sighed that he had no one to ask about these things.
The sounds of battle in the distance interrupted his thoughts. Who would be fighting down in the tunnels? Intrigued, Zac moved toward the clangor. He soon arrived at the mouth of a cave and saw four huge salamanders in a pitched battle against twice the number of demons.
Earthen spikes were shooting at the monsters while warriors were keeping the lizards at bay. A pyromancer conjured a huge fireball that shot into the open maw of a salamander, burning it alive from the inside. It started to furiously thrash about, slamming one of the warriors into the wall, at least breaking a few bones.
It was clear that apart from the fireball, the salamanders held the advantage. Had the demons met only one or two of the monsters, they’d likely have been able to defeat them, but four were too many.
The warriors didn’t have the power to keep the monsters occupied, and the earth mages’ attacks were largely ineffective. After their kill, one of the warriors, sporting a large hammer and a shield, shouted something in demonic, and their party started to move backward.
Zac was happy to let this play out and hid behind a boulder, but the development put him in a predicament. The demons were moving in his direction.
After some deliberation, he picked up a few rocks and started pelting the demons. With his Strength, he could likely throw them hard enough to blast through their bodies like bullets, but he controlled his power output. The first stones hit one of the warriors in the neck and in the back of the head of another.
It didn’t knock them out but contained enough force to daze them. In a pitched battle like this, a brief mistake could be deadly, and the salamanders unhesitantly pounced. They bit onto the two demons and, after a few furious shakes, threw their mangled corpses away.
A small stream of Cosmic Energy entered Zac, and he was delighted to see that the System only awarded a small part of the full amount to him. It looked like the System did use some sort of distribution method that somehow gauged contribution or damage dealt.
He managed to throw another stone that actually knocked one of the mages out cold before he was discovered. One of the mages screamed angrily and shot a few earth spikes toward him. But a few hastily summoned spikes posed no danger to Zac, and he broke them off with a wave of his axe.
Zac moved forward, quick as lightning, and grabbed the scruff of the mage. Then, with a grunt, he threw her like a doll right at the warrior who ordered the retreat. She slammed into him with enough force that they both helplessly went sprawling on the ground.
The salamanders were quick on the uptake and started helping out with the pincer attack. The two downed demons were quickly dealt with, and suddenly, it was four demons left versus three salamanders and Zac.
With the front line down, the remaining mages were in dire straits. They desperately erected defenses against the hulking monsters and then tried to force their way through Zac. But Zac was well-versed in anti-mage tactics by now and quickly threw the pyromancer over the hastily erected wall. The mage wailed and then went quiet forever.
The salamanders weren’t standing idle either, and with a roar, the largest one slammed straight through the defenses and snapped up one of the demons. Another one followed and started biting one of the earth mages. The stone skin the mage used was completely ineffective against the lizard’s saliva and strong jaws, and he screamed as he was being eaten alive.
Only one solitary demon remained, and with a desperate roar, he started gathering Cosmic Energy from the surroundings. With the large density in the air, it felt like a whirlpool of energy was forming. Zac recognized that sign and immediately cleaved the demon in two from head to crotch, just before jumping for cover.
He held his hands over his head for a few seconds, but the expected explosion didn’t come. Perhaps Zac had managed to kill him before the energy managed to reach a critical mass. Somewhat embarrassedly, he got to his feet and found himself facing three salamanders silently staring at him.
“Hey there, buddy, let’s be friends,” Zac croaked toward the largest salamander, hoping to sound friendly.
56
Ill-gotten Gains
Zac spoke to the salamanders with the same voice he used to chat with his old neighbor’s dog. While he felt that fighting three salamanders wouldn’t be an impossible feat, he didn’t want to move closer to another level unless he needed to. Besides, who knew if they would remember him as an ally if he kept feeding them demons and imps. Having an army of giant lizards to help out against the demon city would be very handy.
One of the salamanders ignored his request for friendship and started lumbering toward Zac, who helplessly backed away with his hands held up in response. Thankfully, the leader’s maw opened, and a surprisingly childish squeak emerged from its mouth. The squeak stopped the advancin
g salamander in its tracks, and it lumbered back toward one of the demon corpses.
Zac surveyed all the corpses for anything of value. He quickly noted that none of them carried a magic pouch, and the only other gear he found interesting was the shield one of the warriors had carried. It lay flung to the side by the corner of the cave. In case he spotted anything of real value or a magic pouch, he would probably have initiated a fight, but he now saw no need to.
He briefly wondered what would happen if a monster ate one of the pouches, while he moved away from the cave. Would it explode like a magic piñata, spewing its contents all over the place? Or would the items simply be lost? Would a tear in space occur, sucking anything in the vicinity into some unknown void?
He waited some distance from the cave for fifteen minutes until the sickening sounds of feasting were gone, and sneaked back to the site of the battle. The salamanders were gone, apart from the dead one lying in a corner. All the bodies of the demons were gone as well.
Everything that the demons had worn seemed to have been ingested together with the bodies, but the things they had dropped were left where they lay. Zac went and picked up the shield from the corner and examined it. It was slightly dented and corroded from the battle, but overall in serviceable condition. He threw it into his pouch and left again, not bothering with the damaged swords on the ground.
He was happy to see that the salamanders were actively hunting the demons, as that would provide an explanation for why some demons went missing when Zac started his activities.
With gusto, he returned into the tunnels, looking for some stash house or clues where the mined crystals were gathered. But after looking around in vain for some time, he changed his strategy. He found another group of miners and made sure he could get to both sides of their tunnel through side paths.
After making sure he had a good grasp on the surrounding topography, he simply sat down in a tunnel close by, waiting to see what happened with the sacks. Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long, as the group of miners had been going at it for some time judging by the bulging sacks. Zac heard footsteps and hid his face deeper among the vegetation, hiding the rest of his body around the corner.
Five demons arrived at the tunnel, with the one in the middle wearing a fancy dress and having an air of haughtiness. The four others accompanying her were clearly bodyguards judging from their attire and how they encircled her. When she arrived, the miners immediately stopped their activities and saluted the lady.
With a few words, she brought out a clipboard from a pouch, and one by one, the miners brought their crystal sacks over to her. She lifted the first one up with her free hand, and after a comment, wrote something down on the clipboard. She then put the whole sack into one of the pouches in her belt.
One of the guards brought out an empty sack from a backpack and handed it out with an expressionless face. The miner bowed and went back to his position. This process went on for two more miners without anything of note happening. But when the lady commented on the fourth miner’s sack, he couldn’t help but grimace and hesitantly say a few words in demonic.
The bodyguards immediately perked up and started radiating a dangerous aura, but the lady waved them down. She simply pointed to the bag and said a few words with a smiling face. The miner looked horrified and went down on his knees, looking like he was begging for his life.
The exchange continued for some time until, finally, the lady put the sack into another magic pouch, and the miner could only return to his position with a devastated expression. The other miners simply stared down at the ground, not wanting to be implicated by their mouthy associate.
After the lady was done, she simply turned and left, with her four bodyguards in tow. The miners sighed and sat down to eat, conversing with subdued voices. Zac didn’t linger and instead crept behind the party of five.
Don’t worry, buddy, I’ll mete out justice for you soon. Zac gave a silent prayer for the unlucky miner as he skulked away. He kept a healthy distance from the group, afraid that any sound would alert the group and the walking treasure trove would slip out of his fingers.
The group soon arrived at another tunnel with a group of miners, and the process repeated itself. Zac kept following the group for an hour and watched them collect sack after sack of crystals. He wasn’t sure whether the group he first spied on was among the first the lady visited, but just going by what he had observed, the pouches on her belt contained an astonishing number of crystals by now and could only be counted by the thousands.
Zac felt he couldn’t wait any longer and got himself ready. He steadied his breathing and placed himself at a side tunnel that the party should be passing after finishing their collection. It was some distance from the mining group, so Zac had no vision of his target anymore. However, they were moving in a very systematic pattern through the tunnel system so far, and Zac could only assume they would continue.
Sure enough, soon the telltale echoes of the steps of the party were approaching. Zac held his breath, not wanting to give any indication of his presence. The first two guards came into view, but Zac didn’t react.
As if sensing something was wrong, one of the guards started to turn around, but it was too late. Zac entered the tunnel right behind the two and, without hesitation, swung a Dao-empowered strike at the lady in the middle. She looked shocked, but a golden sheen immediately enveloped her as an inscription pattern lit up on her dress.
Zac knew that inscription very well by now and forcefully stopped his swing. It hurt his muscles to do so, but it was better than getting the whole force of the strike redirected at himself. Instead, he lightly punched the golden barrier, and the recoil traveled through his arm, bringing some discomfort.
Having fulfilled its purpose, the golden layer shattered, leaving the lady once more exposed. Black lightning arcs flittered all over her body, but Zac swiftly decapitated her with a grunt. The black arcs traveled all over his body, making it feel like he was being electrocuted, and he actually blanked out from the pain for a second.
During the brief pause from the shock, a sword stabbed into his side, drawing a small gout of blood. The pain shook him awake, and he immediately pounced on the two guards who had stood behind the lady. They were alarmed, but still warriors. One had produced a spiked mace, whereas the other’s hands started glowing with lightning. From his muscles, he didn’t seem like a mage, but rather, a pugilist.
They tried to pincer Zac, with the mace-wielder swinging at him from the left and the pugilist attacking him from the right with a clawed hand. Zac ignored the martial artist and instead swung his axe to meet the mace.
The collision was completely one-sided, as the force from Zac’s swing slapped the mace out of his hand and made the demon lose his balance. Simultaneously, the clawed hand slammed into Zac’s back, easily destroying the leather protection and trying to tear into his flesh. Unfortunately for him, Zac’s skin was all the armor he needed, and the demon only managed to create a small flesh wound. The lightning entered Zac’s body, but by now, this level of power had scant effect on him.
He grabbed the mace-wielder’s neck with his free left hand and slammed him down on the martial artist. The sounds of bones breaking could be heard, but Zac was interrupted as he planned to finish the two. A blade was flying right toward his throat, and Zac activated his armor to block it.
But he was shocked, as no golden sheen enveloped him, and he could only desperately lift his arm to block the strike. The blade cut into his lower arm, only stopping after carving into bone. The pain was blinding but only served to enrage Zac. With a furious [Chop], the blade-wielder was bisected, and then the two demons on the ground followed him into death.
He turned toward the last bodyguard, only to see him desperately fleeing, heedlessly throwing away his weapon. Zac started running after him, throwing a few daggers his way. But the bodyguard was surprisingly nimble, managing to dodge most of them while running. One hit him in his back, but he only staggered slight
ly but kept moving.
Suddenly, he started shouting at the top of his lungs, horrifying Zac. He threw one more dagger at him, but the demon turned a corner and disappeared from his vision. He could still hear the screams, though, as they echoed through the tunnel system.
Zac hesitated a second, but then ran back toward the killed demons. With furious speed, he grabbed the pouches on the lady’s belt, then threw her headless body into one of them. He then ran away in the opposite direction from where the screaming bodyguard was fleeing toward.
After a minute, he stopped and quickly bandaged his wounded arm. It was bleeding freely and was currently creating a trail to his location. After making sure the blood didn’t get through the bandages and rags, he started running again. After he had run for an hour and completely left the area with mining activities or imps, he finally slowed down and found a good resting spot.
The fight wasn’t very taxing, but he was worried about the results. First, he dragged his chest piece off his torso and inspected it. The armor itself looked whole, but the inscribed fractal on the front had multiple cracks in it. That should explain why the shield hadn’t materialized earlier and he got maimed instead. But a smile crept on his face as he glanced down at his belt. He knew he would be able to afford to buy a new one with his ill-gotten gains.
57
Dressing Up
Zac suddenly remembered hearing a snapping sound when he’d used the shield against the imp herald. He had no idea how to fix the inscriptions and could only reluctantly put the armor into his bag. He didn’t want to risk damaging it further until he could fix it, as it had been a great life-saving tool so far.
He then brought out the headless body from his pouch. After a great deal of hesitation, he stripped the bloody dress from the body, leaving the corpse only in its undergarments. He then put the dress on himself with a sour face before putting the body back into the pouch.
Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure Page 30
