Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure

by TheFirstDefier

  Zac felt that it made a lot of sense. He hadn’t thought about it before, but if he was really put against the wall, he could instantly buy the strongest array he could afford and immediately improve his outpost by a few grades. It was essentially the time-tested strategy of throwing money at the problem until it went away. That kind of strategy was impossible unless you had access to the outpost shop.

  “Can you explain what you need to accomplish to become a Lord, human? And you have me at a disadvantage, as I still don’t know your name,” Ogras continued.

  “I’m Zac. It says I need to protect the outpost. I have a timer that counts down toward the three-month mark after Earth entered the Multiverse as well,” Zac explained, and Ogras visibly relaxed.

  “I think I know what that means, but could you share the quest just to be sure?”

  Zac’s eyes immediately thinned at that, rife with suspicion. If he shared a quest, wouldn’t Ogras become a Lord as well? Could he usurp him if that was the case?

  “You misunderstand, hu… Zac. Sharing the quest just means showing me the quest prompt from the Heavenly Screen. Just focus on that particular quest and make it visible with your will,” Ogras quickly explained when he saw Zac’s distrustful face. “I’m sure you and your allies have shared various prompts with each other,” he added with a slight smile.

  Zac had a distinct feeling the jig was up, and the demon knew he was alone. But he chose to keep the charade going in any case, not wanting to give out any confirmation to the demon’s suspicions.

  Deciding there was no harm, he decided to try it out. He singled out that particular quest, and it appeared alone in a blue window. He then focused on making that particular window visible. And soon it got “fixed” in the air instead of following his vision. He even managed to adjust what was shown so that the reward wasn’t visible to the demon.

  Incursion Master (Unique): Close or conquer incursion and protect outpost from denizens of other alignments for 3 months. (0/3) [43:01:17:47)

  Ogras’ eyes lit up, and he looked through the quest. But soon his face went from interested to grimacing.

  “It’s actually a monster horde quest…” Ogras said with a frown.

  “What does that mean, and how can you tell?” Zac asked, eager to know more about how the quest system worked.

  “It says denizens and not forces or factions, which means it will send beasts rather than intelligent forces such as us demons or other factions in the Multiverse. It is one of the more annoying quests the Ruthless Heavens can throw at a Lord,” Ogras explained with a dour face. “A few thousand years ago, a city on my home planet was overrun by millions of Blight Rats. When the quest ended, the whole city was just a huge crater with everything from its structures to citizens eaten.”

  Zac didn’t know if it was true, but if millions of anything attacked him, it would be a quick game over unless he learned how to make his [Chop]-edge a kilometer long. He could only hope the System adjusted the difficulty for his power level.

  “When will it start?” Zac probed.

  “After the timer. It seems like a normal monster horde quest, so the Ruthless Heavens will likely send one horde a month for three months. The faster you kill the monsters, the more time you will have to prepare in between. Too slow and you will be facing multiple waves at the same time.”

  If the demon could be trusted, it meant that he had one and a half months to strengthen himself and the town as much as possible. He grimaced at the thought of having to fight a horde of beasts constantly for a month, only for it to be topped up with another horde. Besides, he was sorely lacking Nexus Coins to get anything worthwhile for his outpost.

  “Where are the crystals your faction has mined? If we are going to work together, then your kind needs to contribute to the town construction.” Zac immediately went into fundraising mode now that he knew he had to fend off hordes of beasts.

  “I’m afraid they all got taken with them by our clansmen when they left through the Nexus Hub,” Ogras answered without hesitation with a completely straight face.

  “…”

  “…”

  The two only silently stared at each other for a full minute until the demon finally coughed and added a sentence.

  “Well, maybe they didn’t find them all, and I can go back and see if they forgot to look in some places?”

  “I’m sure you can find some,” Zac answered with an equally straight face. “If a foreman could steal hundreds of crystals in only one day, I’m sure there are quite a few crystals hidden through the town.”

  “Ah, yes, Azra. Can I ask why you are wearing her dress? And why the sudden interest in raw crystals? They’re not very efficient for leveling up,” Ogras asked, seemingly eager to change the subject of how many crystals he had stashed away.

  “I’m planning on buying a store in the shop and selling them for Nexus Coins. That way, I can buy defensive structures to survive the quest,” Zac answered, completely ignoring the part about wearing a dress.

  “Usually, I’d say that it’s a waste to use crystals to get some Nexus Coins, but it’s our best bet right now, I suppose. But I’d suggest that we buy a smelting furnace as well to turn the raw crystals into proper graded ones first,” Ogras agreed.

  “Our? We?” Zac said skeptically, still not having decided what to do with the demons.

  “Yes, we. You should understand how useful it is to have us around after our short talk. Even for your own plan, we’re integral. After all, are you planning on mining the whole mountain range for the crystals by yourself?” Ogras said with a smile.

  “Maybe the two of us can work together since I’ve seen you kill that Rydel person. And you helped me kill half your army, so you seem to hate your kind far more than I do. But would the others even work with me?” Zac was highly doubtful that he could get a successful partnership going after what he had done to the demon ranks over the past weeks.

  “Most of those left behind have some grudges with our previous clan in any case, so they aren’t too upset with the armies dying. There are a few who might be troublesome. But I am sure we can handle that.”

  “Like you handled Rydel?” Zac asked, to which Ogras only smiled slightly.

  “Well, regarding that, let’s keep that little detail between us, shall we? I won’t go into it, but it was either him or me. Everyone who witnessed that is dead by now, so only the two of us know. But if the citizens of Camp Azh’Rezak find out that I was up in the mountains helping your rampage, and not staying in my castle, they might lose trust in me. And our partnership would suffer in turn.”

  Zac mulled it over for a long time. He’d rather not work with a snake like this man, to be honest, as he would have to constantly watch his back. But he had made a few good points. Zac desperately needed assistance, both in the form of information and manpower, if he wanted to create a successful town and a sanctuary for his family. Since there was no one else to turn to, he could only enter this dubious alliance.

  Besides, just having someone to talk to, even if it was a sneaky demon, felt extremely good.

  “Okay, I’ll keep quiet about it. So, what else can you tell me that’s useful for our short-term goals?” Zac asked, hoping for some simple tips that would save him some coins or increase his chances of beating the quest.

  “Well, now that you asked, are you aware that you have been drinking poison?”

  68

  Progenitor’s Advantage

  “WHAT?!” Zac immediately jumped to his feet, with his axe at the ready, afraid he had fallen into some trap of the demon’s making. He charged up [Chop] to a meter-long edge and advanced on Ogras.

  “Calm down, calm down!” Ogras screamed and scrambled out of the chair. “The Cosmic Water you have been drinking!”

  “You poisoned the pond as well? Why?” Zac glared angrily at the demon, ready to start a war.

  “What poisoned? It was poison from the start. Only lunatics drink that stuff raw. It burns your pathways from inside
. Haven’t you noticed?” Ogras spat back and waved his hands.

  The trees rustled in the wind, and shadows were flickering all over the ground as Zac glared at the demon, but he eventually stopped his advance.

  “Explain,” Zac growled through gritted teeth, extremely pissed off that the demon hadn’t mentioned anything about this for the whole duration of their conversation.

  “That kind of water can be born in areas where there is extremely dense Cosmic Energy. It was probably created when the Ruthless Heavens crammed a Nexus Vein into the mountain range,” Ogras grumpily explained. “It is pretty rare and somewhat expensive. Normally, it’s used as an ingredient in alchemy, but some forces give their death squads some of it to use just in case. It restores your Cosmic Energy in seconds, but it damages your body and can even kill you.”

  “But I feel fine?” Zac said doubtfully.

  “You just used some Cosmic Energy; try restoring it naturally without using any tools,” Ogras said as he sighed and sat down in his chair again while he muttered something under his breath.

  Too stressed out to care about any glib remark from the demon, Zac unsummoned his enlarged blade and tried to sense the Cosmic Energy entering his body. He wasn’t a cultivator, but even mortals could naturally restore their Cosmic Energy as the ambient energy slowly entered their bodies. It was normally a slow but steady stream that entered his body, but now it could barely be called a trickle.

  Zac’s face went white, and he stared at the demon. He was still suspicious but somewhat believed the demon told the truth. It took him hours to restore his Cosmic Energy even with a crystal, but it almost happened instantly with the azure water. He hadn’t reflected on it before, but how could there be such a good thing with no side effect?

  He simply didn’t notice the effect since he’d used crystals or more water every time he needed to restore after chugging the Cosmic Water the first time. He had been strapped for time and didn’t have time to wait for his energy to naturally restore itself. He had been angry that he wasn’t given a power boost from bathing in the stuff earlier, but now he was just happy to still be alive.

  “How do I fix this?” Zac asked.

  “I’ve heard that there are pills for it, but I don’t know where to get them. It’s extremely rare, because idio… individuals who drink it almost always die within a day, you know?” Ogras said. “I think I’ve heard that spending time in energy-rich areas can help your body slowly heal various types of damage to your pathways. So that might work, but I’m not sure how much time it would take. And that is if you still can absorb some energy. If it’s a full stop, it’s over for you, I’m afraid.”

  “What happens if I keep using it? Can’t I just refill my energy with crystals if I can’t naturally absorb energy anymore?” Zac asked. He had enough for a lifetime or two in the pond, and while not being able to naturally restore was regrettable, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

  “You need to heal up your ruined pathways. If you keep cramming energy into your body in your current state, even if it’s from crystals, you will keep getting worse. First it’s natural energy that stops; then it’s Nexus Crystals. Soon not even the Cosmic Water can restore your energy, and you truly become a cripple until you die of energy starvation. Then what good are you?”

  Zac was horrified at that outcome and quickly unequipped his amulet. The good news was that at least his situation wasn’t completely irreversible, and it almost seemed a miracle that he was still alive from how Ogras described it. Death Squad members died after chugging that stuff just once, but he’d used it multiple times in the duration of a day. The first time was after the ambush in the tunnels, but after that, he’d used it multiple times during battle. It sounded crazy, but it almost felt like taking the bath actually saved him. His body was unceasingly refined after he ate the Fruit of Ascension, and perhaps it did something to increase his resistance or heal up irreversible damage.

  But the predicament was extremely troublesome since there was a monster horde coming. If he wasn’t healed by the time the monsters arrived, he would have to fight without using any Cosmic Energy. If he kept using [Chop] like with the monkeys, he’d soon have to use crystals to restore himself. It would be a vicious circle that would end up with him in the same situation as now.

  He swore to do everything that he could to get healed in time, and he needed to go to the mines anyway to prospect as many crystals as possible to get Nexus Coins. Zac asked a few more questions about how to improve his recuperation, but Ogras either didn’t know much more or was holding back on him. Zac could only sigh and move to the next subject he needed to know about.

  “What are the attribute limits when you’re an E-grade Race?” He really wanted to know where the limits lay now that he was E-grade. He didn’t want to lose any more points than he already had. With his Title boosts, he’d already lost over 10 Strength, which by no means was a small amount.

  “Attribute cap? Why do you…” Ogras stopped himself and stared blankly at Zac for a few seconds. “You goddamn progenitors just make my teeth itch. And you even got a Fruit of Ascension to save your ass! Just disgusting. Well, don’t worry, attribute caps are not something you will need to worry about for a long time now.”

  “Progenitors? What are you talking about?” Zac wondered. Abby had called him a Defier, not a progenitor.

  “You first-generation cultivators of a baby planet,” Ogras spat out, looking loath to even think about the subject. Zac didn’t feel the need to correct him that he wasn’t a cultivator at the moment, as the demon was starting to work himself up in a huff.

  “Haven’t you realized? You have many advantages that your descendants won’t get. The Ruthless Heavens gives you a running start. There are many unique titles, the System crams the planet full of unique treasures, and you even get the Tutorial. It’s even easier to gain Dao Seeds for some reason. It just makes us normal cultivators want to lie down and die of jealousy.”

  Ogras looked about ready to explode with greed and jealousy as he talked about it. Zac felt he had found his match in his quest for wealth, and he also vowed to never show the demon his Title page. The demon might just fall into an apoplectic rage and start swinging that scary spear at him.

  The demon soon found his bearing again and, with a cough continued, “Cough… In any case, those who manage to grasp a decent number of the limited advantages a new world provides will have a lifelong advantage compared to most people in the Multiverse. These individuals are called their planet’s progenitors, as they usually end up creating influential clans or sects on their home planets. On the off chance they don’t get killed, that is.”

  Zac thought that made a lot of sense. So far, he had only compared himself with the cultivators and tried to keep his head start going. He hadn’t even thought about the following generations and how they would grow up in this environment. But it was true, many of the titles he snatched would probably never appear again on this planet, closing that door for an advantage forever.

  As time progressed, most limited titles would be taken, leaving only maybe the most obscure and well-hidden ones for future generations. Otherwise, they would have to settle for the mediocre unlimited ones, such as the Adventurer title.

  Ogras was a veritable treasure trove of answers after having fumbled about blindly for so long. For example, it was very interesting to know that normal cultivators in the Multiverse didn’t get access to the Tutorial, making it an even more rare opportunity. Zac kept coming up with various questions that had hounded him and threw them at the demon randomly as he thought of them. The smiling façade of Ogras soon cracked, and his answers got shorter and terser until he slammed his hand on the armrest of his chair.

  “Goddamn it! Do I look like a Tutorial fairy to you? I’ll be back tomorrow,” he spat out and threw a crystal at Zac, who deftly snapped it out of the air. “Read that instead of pestering me.”

  “Read? How?” Zac looked at the crystal in his hand, confused. It look
ed similar to a Nexus Crystal, but the color was green like a watered-down emerald. It was also covered in intricate golden fractals.

  “Just imbue some energy in it.” The demon sighed, obviously still annoyed, and walked toward the edge of the camp. “I’m done answering your inane questions, human. Put your energy toward survival instead.”

  Ogras soon left the camp and afterward disappeared like he had up on the mountaintop. There were many questions that were still unanswered, but he had gotten many of the more pressing issues cleared up. He looked at the crystal in his hand and, after a long hesitation, poured a minuscule amount of Cosmic Energy into it. The demon was very helpful so far, and it felt unlikely he would give him a bomb after all this. Still, he was ready to hurl the crystal far away if needed.

  A screen similar to the ones the System provided suddenly popped up as the crystal lit up. The design of the window was a bit more intricate, though, and covering it was an image of a grand pavilion with a Stargazer floating on top of it. It clearly was a man-made item, and the intricacy made Zac marvel. It was something on a whole other level compared to the cruder enchantments on the demon’s gear pieces.

  Soon the image changed, and it turned into what could best be described as a web page. There were menus with various categories and images. Luckily, Zac could understand the content just fine and was amazed at what was written. The crystal contained a thorough guide of what happened when a world was integrated into the Multiverse.

  Granted, it seemed to be written for the invading forces, but still, most of the information was very helpful to Zac. But the more he read through, the more troubled he became. It became very apparent that the natives were largely discounted, and that the web page considered the other incursion forces the only challenge for a successful invasion.