Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure

by TheFirstDefier

  Besides, his goal was to build a town, and that had to happen around the Nexus Node. He couldn’t move the crystal very far, and the area where he could place town structures from the outpost shop was limited as well. As soon as he walked too far from his camp or the crystal, the shop turned to a browse-only mode. The area would probably grow along with the population, but for now, it was only a few kilometers in every direction, far too short to create a town on other sides of the island.

  “I will do a mix. I’ll wall off the area from my camp to this shipyard to make it my private property, and then build a town outside. Inside the inner wall will be my residence, the shipyard, and other critical structures I might build in the future. It should look like I’m just protecting the important parts of the town and not raise too much suspicion,” Zac decided.

  Ogras mulled it over a bit, then nodded. Zac glanced in the demon’s direction, and his thoughts started to turn in another direction. The demon seemed very helpful right now, but he clearly was ambitious and ruthless. Now that Zac was sitting on an even greater pile of treasure, how would the demon act? Should he nip the problem in the bud and kill him?

  But Zac soon gave up that idea. Ogras was still needed to control the demons, and he didn’t want to fight against the former general unless absolutely necessary with his current condition. Such a battle would take all the Cosmic Energy he had, and if he was forced to drink the azure water just to defeat him, it would truly be a pyrrhic victory.

  Maybe just as important, he didn’t want to become the kind of person who started to preemptively murder people in cold blood to protect his wealth against possible perceived threats. He didn’t want to devolve into a crazed paranoid dictator. Certainly the number he had killed by now would horrify anyone in a civilized world, but it had been done out of necessity. And it wasn’t like he would adapt to some naïve no-kill policy in this ruthless new world. His hands were already bloodied, and he knew that this was only the start. But there needed to be balance.

  Ogras seemed to measure his choices by how many benefits they would bring, and Zac was convinced that he was more valuable alive than dead after reading the contents of the crystal. He knew Ogras was unable to forcefully seize the town for roughly a decade due to being locked out of that system. If he were Ogras and were planning long term, he’d do everything to make the town as successful as possible for now and then forcefully seize it in the future.

  But a lot could happen in ten years, and Zac planned to keep utilizing his advantages to get stronger to the point that betrayal would be more foolish than staying on as a confidant.

  Ten years sounded like a long time, but Zac knew it might not be too long in this new reality they lived in. He had been surprised by Ogras telling him that longevity actually increased as people got stronger. As he increased his Race-ranking to E-grade, his life expectancy had actually increased to a full five hundred years.

  It was crazy to think that he already had the life-span like some elf, and that was just after one upgrade. Furthermore, Ogras told him that the life-span of a D-ranker was counted in the thousands rather than hundreds of years, and the grandfather he’d mentioned was over 1,600 years old. Above that, he seemed unclear, as apparently that was the highest official rank on his home planet apart from some mysterious emperor.

  Zac had initially thought that, in the Multiverse, there would be no limit to the powers of the factions. As long as one had time, they could keep killing monsters and level up. But apparently, it got harder and harder to increase Strength, and many bottlenecks kept peoples’ power in check.

  Generally, the powerhouses of a planet held the same Class-rank as the planet itself, meaning that the general limit of Earth was D-ranked classes. If someone wanted to break through their limits, they were forced to venture out into the Multiverse and look for enlightenment or lucky opportunities. Eager to find out more, Zac had pestered Ogras about the details of getting stronger and ranking up, but it was around this time he flipped out and left the camp.

  “I will keep any demons away from this area for now. Though I don’t think anyone has the guts to seek you out anyway. Between your actions and your… fashion sense… you have cultivated a rather strong image among my people,” Ogras said and woke Zac up from his thoughts. He realized he’d have to stay out of his own head a bit more now that there were actually others around. He couldn’t just be blankly staring out into the distance like an idiot.

  After exhorting Zac some more about the importance of secrecy, Ogras once again left toward the center of the island.

  Still curious, Zac wanted to enter the shipyard to look around, but first, he wanted to check out the gear. He looked insane at the moment, and from how Ogras had explained it, there should be the very famous Creators inside. He didn’t know if they were peculiar about propriety, but first impressions were important.

  The larger box was brought out of the purse, and Zac opened it eagerly. Inside was actually a full set of clothing neatly packed. As he lifted it up, he was initially confused, as it seemed the System had gifted him another dress. Did the System have a sense of humor?

  But soon he realized that wasn’t the case, but the item was rather a robe that felt distinctly Eastern in its make. It was of excellent quality and had a deep green color. He wanted to try it on but once again was reminded how grimy he was. Being bathed in the poison water had at least cleansed him somewhat, but he was still pretty disgusting.

  After hesitating a bit, he ran back to camp and threw himself into the shower. After furiously scrubbing himself for a few minutes, he finally was clean again for the first time in a long time. He stepped out of the shower and took a look at himself in the mirror.

  Zac was shocked to see what was looking back at him. It was him, but better. Most noticeably, most of his scars were gone. Only the worst ones were still there, such as the nasty wound on his cheek. But even those had faded considerably and turned into thin white lines.

  Not only that, his body looked like perfectly sculpted marble, and even his face seemed to have improved somehow. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but it felt like small adjustments had been made to enhance imperfect features. If some old friend saw him, they’d probably think that he had gotten some plastic surgery done. Of course, he didn’t look like a movie star or something, but he had gone from average to above average at least.

  Of course, the fact that he still was completely hairless since the fight with the imp herald detracted from the image somewhat. At least it looked like some stubble was coming along, and he wouldn’t look like a monk much longer.

  He guessed that it was a result of evolving his race. New benefits kept cropping up, it seemed. When he reached D-rank, all the scars might be gone, and he would become a real hunk, he thought with some eagerness.

  Finally clean, he quickly donned all the new items the System had gifted him. After checking himself out in the mirror, he could only say he looked pretty dashing.

  71

  First Impressions

  The clothing consisted of two layers. The inner layer was essentially a long-armed shirt, with the exception that it didn’t have any buttons. Instead, one side was wrapped above the other, and both sides were fastened with a clasp to stay snugly on his chest. The arms and shoulders had a slightly looser fit and didn’t restrict his movements at all. It fit perfectly, and Zac felt it must have been custom-made for his frame.

  His pants were made in some smooth cloth as well, and were a darker brown compared to the beige of the shirt. They were slightly baggy at the thighs but snugly fit around his calves, and they reminded Zac of some jester’s pants. But at least they weren’t tapered in bright colors or had bells attached.

  The outer layer was a green robe that was put on in the same manner as the inner shirt, with one side placed over the other. But instead of being kept in place with clasps, it stayed fastened with a wide leather girdle. It was sleeveless and went down to his knees just like the dress he’d used earlier, which w
as why he got turned around earlier. Adorning the hem of the robe was intricate fractals in the same style as the array flags, meaning they likely were put there by the System, or its own craftsmen at least.

  No shoes were provided, though, by the System, which was fine by him since he couldn’t wear them at the moment in any case. All in all, it seemed the System tailored the rewards to his needs, which he guessed was due to getting such high marks on his completion.

  A stream of information entered his mind as he touched a fractal, and he was delighted to know that the gear had quite a few features. It was self-cleaning and self-mending, which translated into Zac not looking like a murder-hobo again in a few weeks. It even had two forms of protection.

  One was that it displaced force over his whole body instead of only at the point of impact. Quite some force was needed to break through that passive defense, and Zac wouldn’t keep getting the small flesh wounds from bites and arrows. That should come in quite handy when fighting the hordes of beasts in the future.

  It also carried a similar protection such as the one on the demons’ armors, except that it didn’t provide any recoil force. Instead, it could be used twice in a day and could stop a much stronger attack, which was far more valuable, as Zac saw it. His strongest Dao-empowered strike had been able to break through the golden shield in his fight with Rydel, so he knew roughly where its limit lay.

  Looking fresh and presentable, except for his bare feet, Zac once again headed back to the shipyard. It still seemed deserted, as there were no sounds of activity breaking the silence. Still, Zac entered a building next to the huge warehouse that seemed to be either an office or rec house.

  The inside was made of stone, cut and polished to perfection. All the furniture and details were created in heavy stone as well, and Zac couldn’t see one curved line. Everything was squared, and the whole lobby gave Zac a truly brutalist impression.

  The room clearly was a lobby. Apart from some stone furniture, a huge counter was placed in the middle, and behind it stood a statue of a humanoid. It had no facial features, and its face was instead covered in a large fractal in the computer font. It was dressed in a simple silver-colored robe and looked somewhat human apart from the fact that it had a few extra fingers on each of its hands. All in all, it looked like a robot statue carved out of soapstone or onyx.

  It was completely still, and Zac wasn’t sure whether this was one of the so-called Creators or just an elaborate decoration. Ogras had called them living golems, and this kind of fit the bill.

  “Hello? I’m Zac Atwood. Am I disturbing you?” He tentatively tried to call on the statue.

  “Greetings, Mr. Atwood. I am Rahm, liaison of Iliex Pre-cosmic Shipyard Nr. 65,238 now located at your planet. Future inquiries are preferably directed at me, and I will endeavor to resolve any issues and complaints in an expedient and equitable manner.”

  The statue came to life and answered in a perfunctory and slightly lifeless voice. It then even followed up with an aristocratic bow in Zac’s direction. It seemed that the Iliex conversed in the same manner as Abby had, using some magic instead of a mouth. Zac quickly bowed back with far less grace, flustered at the cordiality.

  “Ha ha, don’t mind Rahm, that rigid old goat. We’re not some dour robots like he would have you believe,” boomed a similar, but far rowdier voice from the interior of the building as deep thuds approached the lobby. Soon the speaker entered through a passage, and Zac had to stop himself from taking a step back.

  It was a three-meter-tall amalgamation between spider and robot. It had five huge legs that bent at the middle, each over three meters long. If they stretched upward, the weird-looking Creator would stand at over four meters. The torso itself was largely humanoid, with the face sharing the characteristic fractal. It did, however, have four arms instead of two, and it actually looked like the body was full of either tools or weapons.

  Zac could only stare at the monstrosity with mouth slightly ajar, which seemed to please the spider robot immensely.

  “Pretty impressive, isn’t it, brat? Took me the better part of three hundred years to fuse form and function into the great body before you. Even had to steal some C-graded nebulous copper to finish it. Well, I guess that’s why I was demoted to the foreman of this shithole. No offense,” he shouted as he slapped one of the metallic legs, creating an echoing clangor throughout the building.

  The more normal-looking Creator didn’t react at all to the entrance and tirade of this fantastical being, seeming used to its antics.

  “So, kid, what do you wanna build? Terrornaughts? Modified destroyers? If you can get some D-graded crystals, we can make some nasty cosmic bombs, blow one of the neighboring islands off the face of the earth! Attack is the best defense; who knows what kind of assholes live there!”

  The man’s legs started tap excitedly at the floor as he started to list what could only be terrible weapons, each tap actually punching a hole in the ground. Zac was unable to react for a second, his mind working overtime to grasp the new information. Luckily, the liaison saved the day with a timely interjection.

  “D-grade battleships such as terrornaughts and destroyers are not within the accord with the Great Shaper. Please review the preapproved designs.”

  Two crystals appeared in its hands, of which Zac graciously accepted one. The metal spider-being waved his copy away, though, and Rahm could only put it back.

  “May I present Karunthel, foreman and foremost expert of this shipyard. And he was relocated here after a few… unfortunate… experiments, not some minor item acquisition infraction,” the liaison, who started to feel like a long-suffering butler, said as he gestured toward the spider.

  “Bah, I know, I know, no blowing up any islands or continents of the baby world,” Karunthel said as he rolled his shoulders.

  “Actually, I’m not here regarding any ships at the moment. I was wondering if it was possible to, uh, camouflage the fact that this is a Iliex shipyard, make it look like it’s a normal one?” Zac asked tentatively, gauging the reactions of the two golems.

  “Ha ha, afraid of a little heat, brat? Any greedy forces nearby? You should just carpet bomb anything that looks at your stuff, far more effective,” the foreman said with a booming laugh.

  “Well, I guess we could make it look like a human dock, hide the inscriptions and such. But such changes are not included in the standard package,” Karunthel continued, seemingly entering into business mode.

  “What do you mean?” Zac asked with a sinking feeling.

  “Money! We don’t work for free, and restructuring the whole thing to make it look uglier is gonna cost you.”

  “How much?” Zac asked, determined to just grit his teeth and bear the cost, almost no matter how large.

  “Eight millio–”

  “Five hundred and twenty-five thousand Nexus Coins,” the liaison quickly interjected, only to be lightly kicked with one of the spider legs as the foreman muttered something Zac couldn’t discern.

  Zac was starting to get a headache, as it seemed everyone entering his life lately was filled with greed. Luckily, Rahm had come to his rescue, and he helplessly accepted the reconstruction, leaving him with a huge hole in his pocket. A window looking like a purchase confirmation appeared in front of him, and he accepted.

  “Remuneration confirmed. Expected duration for project, four hours. May this be the start of a long and mutually beneficial cooperation,” Rahm said and once again bowed toward Zac.

  More impressively, his whole body started flickering, and he changed into an actual human. Of course, there was a tinge of lifelessness in the Creator’s eyes, belying his real identity to Zac. Though that might just be the personality of this particular individual rather than a failure in the camouflage. But after watching its movements and mannerisms for a few seconds, he saw some imperfections in the disguise. But from a distance or for a short while, no one should be able to tell at all.

  “Bah, how boring. Call me when you want to creat
e things that go boom. And don’t expect me to turn into a stupid bipedal after getting these shiny legs. But don’t worry, no brat on a baby world will be able to expose me, native or foreign,” the foreman said and started to walk away with a wave.

  “Um, are you able to build anything that can help against a monster horde?” Zac asked, as this was the most pressing issue now that the reconstruction was dealt with.

  Karunthel stopped in his tracks as he was leaving and eagerly turned toward Zac once again. But after a few seconds of hesitation, he answered.

  “I’m sorry, kiddo, but most of what I’m allowed to create right now is meant for naval exploration with limited functions for naval battle. It’s cheaper if you buy the fortifications and arrays from the shop. It’s not Creator quality, but it’s more effective against beast hordes. And don’t expect us to help you kill any critters. We’re only here to build things.”

  Having nothing else to do at the shipyard, Zac thanked the two golems and left. As he left, he saw quite a few humans efficiently scurrying about as they remodeled the whole area. But he knew that it wasn’t actual humans, rather more camouflaged Creators.

  He was very pleased with the result of the visit, apart from having been forced to spend most of his hard-earned coin. But since there might arrive more people or demons at any moment, he didn’t hesitate to spend it. If what Ogras said was true, then not even a whisper of any rumors could be allowed to grow.

  He was a bit disappointed that they wouldn’t provide any assistance in case of an attack. But he had a feeling the System put various restrictions on those who worked for it. Abby wasn’t allowed to explain certain things, and Rahm had told him they were only allowed to build preapproved ships. It meant that the golems likely weren’t even allowed to provide assistance outside doing their jobs. Otherwise, Zac believed that the crazy foreman wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to blow up hordes of monsters, even if it was just for fun.