Defiance of the Fall: A LitRPG Adventure

by TheFirstDefier

  Most of the other castaways were faring even worse, as they backed away with pale faces. Some even knelt down on the floor, unable to stand in front of the monk’s towering aura. The pressure was so all-consuming that Megan only noticed that the gray man wasn’t actually wearing a crown when he was right in front of her. She was looking on a bona fide demon from mythology, and her terror only intensified.

  What kinds of monsters inhabited this island?

  “Control your aura, human. You will kill these weaklings,” Ogras said with a subdued voice.

  Zac drew a sharp breath in realization before quickly taking control of the energy naturally coursing through his body, making sure that nothing leaked. He had forgotten about that lesson from Alyn after spending time with the demons for so long. As a warrior became stronger, their presence intensified as well, and if the discrepancy in power was too large, it could even be considered a weapon. It wasn’t something like the Dao Field, rather just an effect of beings in different stages of existence. There wasn’t any point in controlling his presence among the demons, as most of them were actually higher level than himself and immune to its effects. But against low-level individuals with weak willpower, he might actually be harmful.

  The fact that these humans were ready to keel over was quite telling about their power. Zac quickly used his [Eye of Discernment] on the twelve people, and to his surprise, the highest leveled person was only level 21.

  “Pathetic,” was the only comment from Ogras, who’d obviously performed the same type of scan, and Zac had to agree. How could people survive with such low power? If these humans were representative of the average population, then Earth was well and truly doomed. His image of the outside world was maybe skewed from looking at the Ladder, which only showed the powerhouses. Maybe the average humans were as weak as these people, who probably couldn’t even kill a barghest.

  “Ahem… Welcome to Port Atwood. I’m Zac. What brings you here?” Zac tentatively asked, unsure how to proceed from here.

  The group only stared fearfully at the two, no one daring to step forward. Zac was starting to think that his language skill wasn’t working with the humans until a thought struck him, and he turned to his companion.

  “You’re scaring them. Go away,” Zac said, making a shooing motion.

  “Yeah, I’m the problem. Why don’t you blast off your Daos as well while you’re at it?” Ogras retorted with a roll of his eyes, but he walked some distance away and picked out a chair from his pouch. Next he took out a piece of fruit and started eating while pointedly ignoring the humans. The Creators also took this as a signal their work was done and wordlessly headed toward the huge warehouse.

  It seemed to calm the people down somewhat to be left alone, but they still looked very warily at Zac. Finally, a woman who was the second strongest in the group stepped forward. The strongest person was actually an old Asian man sitting down, clearly still nursing some old wounds. That revelation only lowered Zac’s opinion of the youths in the group, letting an old man stand on the front line while they cowered behind.

  “I’m Megan. We’re from an island two days’ sailing from here. Um… what’s going on with your friend?” she said as she fearfully glanced at the demon loitering in the distance.

  “That’s Ogras. He lives on my island.”

  That answer seemed to only make the group more fearful, but Zac couldn’t be bothered to explain any further. Going into the demon’s origins would be too troublesome, and Zac and Ogras had long ago decided that they were going to pretend the demons were natives who were brought here during the integration. That little lie should hide the fact that there had been an incursion here, and that the demons were actually invaders. At least for a while.

  “Young man, how come I can understand you? I don’t believe you are speaking Vietnamese,” the old man sitting on the pier said with a weak voice.

  Zac willed the screen for the language skill into being, making it hover in front of the group.

  “It is a skill I have that allows me to understand and be understood when speaking with anyone,” he answered.

  “Skills, what’s that?” the girl called Megan asked as she looked at the screen in wonder.

  That question made Zac realize that these people were even worse off than him during his first months on the island. They obviously had no idea about many aspects of the System, not even knowing about skills. He realized he only knew about skills because of Abby and the Nexus Node, where he’d bought [Eye of Discernment].

  He was lucky in a sense that an incursion had spawned on top of him. If he hadn’t gotten to build an outpost, he would have been as ignorant as these people, fumbling around in the dark. The first time they came in contact with skills would be at level 25 when they got their class. If they could even attain a class on a deserted island.

  “You still haven’t explained why you people are here,” Zac said as he ignored the question.

  “The animals became crazy on our island. They kept growing, and even the rats were as dangerous as wolves in the end! We couldn’t stay anymore, so we left to find a safer place. After two days at sea, we saw your harbor and thought that there might be a town here,” the girl explained.

  “We’re from Chicago. Is there an airport close? Have you had any contact with the government? Why hasn’t there been any rescue operations?”

  The girl kept peppering Zac with questions, giving him a headache.

  “The governments have likely fallen. You should have heard the voice in the beginning. The world has been integrated into the Multiverse, Earth got fused with a few other planets, and everything got mixed together.” Zac sighed.

  The castaways looked ready to explode from that declaration, but a voice cut through the mounting chaos.

  “Can we stay here, young man? There is safety in numbers.”

  It was the old fisherman. The three other Asian men looked at Zac with some hope, whereas the Caucasians looked confused, prompting Zac to translate the question.

  “Mr. Trang is right, there’s safety in numbers! We have become quite strong over the past months and were only forced to leave the island due to the huge number of rats!” one of the young men said.

  The proclamation elicited a derisive guffaw from Ogras in the distance. He obviously was listening in on the conversation using some skill, and he looked very entertained.

  Zac pondered what to do about the small group. It wasn’t really any problem to let them onto the island, as they didn’t lack food or water. But there were also many secrets on the island, things that he didn’t want to make public to the world. Besides, he wasn’t sure that letting them stay was doing them any favors, with the next beast wave coming in less than two weeks.

  “You can’t let them leave. This place can’t be discovered yet, there are too many treasures here, so you need to solidify your position as Lord first. You either need to kill them or let them stay on the island.” Ogras’ voice could be heard from the shadows.

  “What if they leave and they tell the story of the island with demons and superpowered humans? People will rightly think that there’s some secrets on this island and set sail in search of treasure,” the demon continued. He used some sort of skill that projected his voice from a distance, and it didn’t seem that the other people could hear him at all.

  Zac sighed, as he knew that putting them back on the ship was out of the question now. Ogras would likely sink it with a shadow spear the moment it left the pier in order to protect his interests. Besides, he agreed with his points. He wanted to turn this island into a true sanctuary for those close to him and didn’t want random people to come here for some sort of treasure hunt.

  “You can stay here. But you should know that this island is likely far more dangerous than your old home,” Zac said after some deliberation. “We don’t need freeloaders. You will have to work to earn your keep. There are some areas that are off-limits on the island, and this shipyard is one of them. I’ll show you the way t
o the town.”

  When told that this place wasn’t safe as well, the group started to hesitate. But the old fisherman got to his feet with a grunt and without hesitation, followed Zac, who turned to leave. The other fishermen followed suit, and soon the Caucasian youths followed as well.

  Zac saw Ogras flash over and put the boat in his pouch, which caused some alarm and shock to the refugees, but he only said a few comforting words and continued on. As they walked some way, the people started to find their courage and pelted Zac with various questions. They asked about everything from what amenities the island had, to how the System worked, and the situation of humanity.

  These people were thirsting to know what was going on, just like Zac had been before he finally got things explained by Alyn and Abby. He tried to answer as much as possible, but by the time they arrived at the tent town, he was thoroughly tired of answering questions.

  The refugees were dismayed to see that the whole population was demons, and two actually tried to run away in panic. Zac could only sigh and flash over with [Loamwalker] and carry the struggling people back. It took some time to settle the refugees, and Zac couldn’t be bothered with them anymore afterward. He pawned them off to Alyn and Zakarith, who both had the language skills that could help them acclimatize. He also had a few warriors keep an eye on them just in case they tried something stupid.

  Zac held mixed emotions as he walked away from the inquisitive group. It almost felt like he had been robbed of something from the encounter. One of his largest wishes over the past months was to reunite with humanity, but he didn’t expect it to be like this. A group of listless people who’d barely scraped by the past months. Obviously, none of them had left the safety of their village overly much. Otherwise, they’d be at a higher level by now.

  His own countrymen were the worst. They clearly were mainly concerned about their own well-being, focusing on questions such as food and lodging for themselves. None of them asked how they could help or listed things they could do for a town. The fishermen mostly kept quiet after a few questions about humanity. Zac had hoped that his first encounter with humans would finally allow him to get some news about the state of the world, but it looked like he needed to switch back to his original plan.

  He informed Ogras of what he was about to do, and the demon seemed to think that it was truly foolish. Zac didn’t care. Almost four months had already passed since the world changed, and it felt like ants were crawling all over his body by now.

  He opened up the Town Shop interface as soon as he arrived at the spot designated by the city planners and bought an [E-Grade Teleportation Array] for ten million Nexus Coins. A new interface opened up, and his heart sped up when he saw that there actually was a destination available.

  [Winterleaf Village. Public. Fee: 0 Nexus Coins]

  After making sure he had everything he needed in his Cosmos Sack, he took out a hooded cape that covered his elaborate clothing and a pair of leather shoes that one of the craftsmen had made for him. Ogras told him that it was easy to see that his gear was valuable and something provided by the System, and since he didn’t want trouble, he simply covered it up. Next he set his own teleportation array to private in order to make sure only he could use it. He didn’t want anyone using it either to teleport in or out while he was gone.

  Finally done, he gazed around at the island that had been his home, and prison, for four months. With a sense of trepidation and excitement, he stepped on the engravings on the floor with determination in his eyes.

  With a flash of light, he was gone.

  95

  Winterleaf Village

  Selas sighed as he stood in front of the teleporter, waiting alongside the rest of the village leaders. His nerves were fraying, as he didn’t know what would step through the magical inscriptions. As Leader of the Hunt, he had always been in charge of protection of the village, even before the Great Fall, but it was different now.

  Everything kept changing, and as an old huntsman, it was getting increasingly difficult to keep up. Gone were the paths that he and his ancestors had walked through the mountains, the songs detailing the hunting grounds all but irrelevant by now. In just a few years, he should have retired to teaching the art of the hunt to the next generation, but now he was stuck as some castellan of the town.

  When the fall arrived, he’d found himself transported to a fantastical world with some of his village members. Determined to keep the youths safe against the twisted challenges of the System, he pushed himself beyond what he knew was possible, and for his struggle, he was rewarded with a Nexus Node. But even with all his effort, he couldn’t keep everyone safe, as many of his villagers perished, one of them his son Winterleaf.

  Not even allowed to properly mourn the death of his progeny, he was instantly pushed into one desperate situation after another since he was returned to his village. Even now, the village was teetering on the brink of ruin despite everyone’s efforts.

  It was their tree whisperer who came up with their current gambit after using his Soothsayer class’ limited skill. He said that salvation would come through the light, and urged the town to pool their Nexus Coins to build this teleporter. But as the days passed and nothing happened, anger and unrest started to build against the elder.

  There were even rumblings about putting the elder in house arrest for the time being. Ten million Nexus Coins was a huge amount and could have bought weapons, armor, and precious herbs at the store. Many felt that they should have made a last stand before the beast, using everything at their disposal instead.

  That all changed when the teleporter blazed into life, its inscriptions lighting up by themselves. Selas had barely managed to gather the elders when he got the notification that a new teleportation point was added before it blazed to life, indicating that someone was already coming over.

  Selas stood with his spear at the ready, staring at the light that shone with increasing intensity. Behind him stood his hunting party at the ready to protect the villagers against whatever came through that gate.

  Whether it would be salvation or damnation was still to be determined.

  Zac only felt darkness for a little over a minute before he once again gained his sight back. The first thing he noticed was that the climate was clearly different, with an autumn chill in the air. Next he glanced around and found himself placed in the middle of a village square. The buildings were foreign to him, though, being medieval but not of some style that he recognized.

  Soon he understood why, as a group of people approached. Zac’s heartbeat sped up in alarm when he saw that it wasn’t actually humans that greeted him. Did he teleport himself into an incursion? Ogras and the crystal both said that invading forces couldn’t build teleporters since the System wanted to limit their expansion, but perhaps they were wrong.

  The humanoids who closed in on him made him think that they were a mix of humans and animals. They seemed to have normal hands and feet, but they also possessed clear animalistic features.

  They wore simple but seemingly high-quality gear and carried various weapons, mostly spears and bows. Most of their exposed skin was covered in brown or white fur, sometimes mottled with spots. They had large black eyes and a normal face and a mouth. Their ears somewhat resembled those of an elf’s, though. His assessment was that these beings were a seventy-thirty mix of a human and a fawn.

  They didn’t look frail, though, as even the fur couldn’t hide their sturdy frames and muscles. They also carried themselves with the grace of warriors, and these people were clearly different from the hapless humans he’d encountered earlier. The group stopped some distance from him, and they simply stood staring at each other for a few seconds.

  “It’s one of the hairless monkeys. What do we do?” Zac heard one of the fawnmen mutter.

  “Onyx, you learned some of their words in the Tutorial, right? Greet him,” another one said as he prodded one of the females in the group.

  That made Zac relax somewhat. If these peo
ple had been in the Tutorial together with humans, then they shouldn’t be invaders. It looked like when Earth got mashed together with other planets, new civilizations were added after all.

  The female hesitantly looked at the leader of the group, a middle-aged man holding an intricately carved spear with a long line of leather bands attached, and took a step forward after an encouraging nod from him.

  “H-Hello, human,” she stuttered, but before she continued, Zac smiled and spoke back. At least he thought he smiled since it almost felt like he had forgotten how to do it by now.

  “Hello. No need for a translator. I understand your words,” he said.

  The group looked a bit surprised, but not overly so.

  “Welcome to Winterleaf Village, human. I am Selas, castellan of this town,” the middle-aged warrior said. “May I ask what brings you here?”

  “Our town is located in an extremely isolated area, and we couldn’t find a single person nearby. So we bought a teleportation array in hopes of finding other humans,” Zac answered.

  It wasn’t exactly his reason, as he’d bought the teleporter in order to start looking for his hometown during the downtime of the quest. He finally had the resources and the time to put his plan into motion, and even though the expense was high, he felt it worth it. If he ran out of Nexus Coins, he would simply extort some of the demons, as they’d all made a fortune from his monster horde quest.

  “I am sorry, but what… are you people?” Zac tentatively followed up, unsure how to properly frame such a question.

  “You must really have been isolated if you haven’t met any of the Ishiate so far. We may be the most populous species apart from you humans on this new world of ours,” Selas answered with some surprise. “Please join us in our town hall. Meeting of new friends is always a joyous occasion. I can fill you in on the area as we walk.”