Chapter 36: Determination
After observing the demons for two days Zac also was certain that they were real living, breathing beings. He had always had a sneaking suspicion that they might be puppets, or NPCs if you will, created by the system to give a challenge to Zac and earth.
But the last two days he had watched them go about their day. They had worked, they had joked around and played cards. He had seen a few start a fierce brawl until a leader ran up and broke them apart. In essence, they were alive.
He hadnt really thought about it properly before, but they were just like him. Did they even want to be here, or were they forced by the system just like him? Could he just keep regarding them as the enemy, and killing them simply a means to an end?
But Zac soon had soon steeled his heart. The world has fallen, and chaos reigned. They were invaders on the island, HIS island. From everything he had seen and hypothesized since the integration in the multiverse he knew he couldnt go soft and hope for a peaceful solution.
Even if that somehow was possible before, he already had pulled the trigger and killed a bunch of their kind. Any opportunity for negotiation was already out the window. He would sooner or later have to decide how to act if he ever managed to reunite with humans again, but for now, the only diplomacy hed deliver would be with the swing of his axe.
He couldnt and wouldnt give up on his goal of finding his family, and he knew that he had to become powerful to accomplish that. He had to become a true Defier as Abby called it, someone defying fate and breaking through his limits. Just his small island was fraught with danger, and this was only a small corner in this world. He had no idea how the rest of the world looked since the system merged it with multiple others, but he held no illusions that it had become some sort of paradise.
If he had to sacrifice these demons to reach his goals, then so be it.
Besides, Abby had warned him of not completing quests given by the System. It could have unexpected and horrific consequences it seemed. It meant that people like Zac were almost like slaves to the System, forced to play its games. Unfortunately, he was incapable of doing anything about it, and could only play along.
Zac started heading back to his own camp after his second night at close proximity to the incursion. He had seen what he needed to see and now needed to get back. Being away from his camp from prolonged times filled him with anxiety, especially with the new larger war parties roving through the island for some reason. If a party found his camp while he was gone he would be forced to hide in the tree crowns and caves until he finished the quest, and he had no desire to do that.
Still, he made himself stop at the demonized part of the forest and farm out barghest and gwyllgi for a good 10 hours before continuing on. He could never stop fighting and killing in order to progress his skills. Besides, the density of beasts in the central area was so high that he was gaining coins and cosmic energy at a furious rate.
The only difficulty was that they were in such close proximity with each others that often one or a few demons would hear the sounds of battle and join the fray. He got a few gashes and cuts from the onslaught, but nothing that would impact him.
Eventually, he left the area and started heading towards the south. Finally late at night he started to arrive at more familiar parts of the island. He had seen signs of the demon parties on the way and had made a hasty retreat in order not to get entangled with them.
After a while he finally arriving back at his camp he kicked off his shoes and sat down on his comfortable newly acquired throne. In the beginning he had felt isolated and afraid as he was stuck in his little camp, fretful when hearing roars in the distance. Now it felt like a safe haven, a home.
Even with the dried viscera from the exploding demon, the still somewhat visible aftermath from the first fight with the demonling, and the bloodied indoors of the camper, he felt his heartbeat and breath calm down just from entering through the illusion array. In this little bubble, he didnt need to be a walking slaughterhouse wreaking havoc on the demon population, he could just be.
He just sat on his new chair and closed his eyes. He felt the luxurious rug between his toes, and the wind caressing his hair. For a second he could forget the hellish existence he had led lately.
A bestial roar in the distance woke him up from his revelry. Zac sighed and got up on his feet. He still didnt have the luxury to relax, there were things to do.
His scouting excursion had given him most of his answers, but he was struggling with coming up with a plan that might work. From his guesswork, he believed one of the heralds was somewhere up on the mountains, while the other was still unaccounted for.
Finally he had to kill a general, and Zac guessed he would be the big boss. It likely was one of the fancier-looking demons in their city, but he had no idea as of yet how to actually get to him, or how strong he was.
He held no illusions that he would be able to take the straight-forward approach and kick in the gate down and charge his way through. Hed be punched full of holes before he knew what happened.
There was the possibility of sneaking in during the dead of night and assassinating the general. But Zac felt that this was unlikely to succeed as well. For one he didnt know who the general was, but more importantly, he didnt have the skill-set to pull off such a caper. He wouldnt have any problem scaling the wall or climbing into a window in the palace.
But doing so soundlessly and without any of the numerous guards noticing was the real challenge. While the scouts at the edge of the valley had been very lackadaisical about their task, the military command seemed far stricter in the actual town.
There were guards in the towers and in the walls around the clock, with changes at intervals Zac couldnt figure out. It seemed almost randomized. He saw no chance to sneak in during a guard change. Furthermore, most of the vegetation had been cut down in the vicinity of the town, making a stealthy approach nigh impossible.
Zac had even considered tunneling into the town, but that felt much too risky. If a demon party found his entrance hed be stuck inside. Besides, he had seen that the demons had multiple stone mages who built the palace. They might be able to detect him even when underground with some spell.
He had also toyed with the idea of trying to destroy the crystal. But he eventually gave that up as well. For one it contained such extreme amounts of energy that he was afraid it would explode and obliterate the whole island if he managed to crack it.
But more importantly it seemed that the demons were not worried in the slightest about the crystal. They just left a few men there and then left to build their town further north. If the crystal was instrumental to their invasion theyd surely protect it far better, as it seemed to be no effort for them to erect walls quickly.
Zac could only put it aside for now as he had gotten nowhere the last two days. He would focus on what he could do for now.
He had missed a few days of cutting wood while outside and had some catching up to do. His killing speed on this 3-day expedition had been astonishing, mostly due to the sheer number of targets in the center of the island. As he rhythmically swung his axe down, he mentally brought up his quest panel.
Active Quests
Dynamic Quests
Off With Their Heads (Unique): Kill the four heralds and the general of an incursion within 3 months. Reward: 10 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, E-Grade equipment, unique building depending on performance. (2/5)
Incursion Master (Unique): Close or conquer incursion and protect town from denizens of other alignments for 3 months. Reward: 5 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, outpost upgraded to town, status upgraded to Lord. (0/3)
Class Quests
Axe Mastery (Class): Mastery is born through battle. Fell 1000 enemies. Reward: (548/1000)
Chop (Class): First chop Wood. Then their bodies. Reward: (1240/10 000)
Forester's Constitution (Class): Fight in the forests, be one with nature. Reward: (3/30)
He still hadnt gotten any new active quests since finishing the class quest. He was starting to suspect that the active quests were locked to certain areas and events. He wouldnt get anything like an upgrade class quest for some while he suspected, as he just had gotten his class. Meanwhile, maybe the demon slaying quest he got was tied to the island, and hed have to leave it for another area to get another.
Either that or he was missing something about the quests. Perhaps they simply were quite rare. The one he completed did give him a title after all, and those were permanent upgrades.
Zac kept cutting wood long into the night, before finally sitting down for a few hours of sleep. He still stayed outside, as he didnt want the walls of the camper to dampen any sounds of a potential demon war party heading his way.
The next day he woke up early and immediately headed out. He had decided to stop killing any demons close to his camp. He was afraid that a complete lack of beasts around a certain area would alert the demons. He headed toward the center, this time toward the eastern part.
He was planning on grinding beasts while looking for clues about the fourth elusive herald. UrKhaz had been killed in the south as it occupied the same space as him, and he had killed Vul in the western area. The monkey king was likely somewhere in the mountain to the north and that left the eastern quadrant. He thought that he would try gather some more intel while finishing up the class quests.
He went back to camp when the night approached and chopped wood for a few hours. He was lucky that he had found the pouch, as he was starting to accumulate a ridiculous amount of firewood. He had decided to leave most of it in a few dry spots around the island. Just for safety hed construct a simple roof with some branches and leaves to protect the lumber from a downpour. The lumber was proof of his effort, and it felt wasteful to just throw away.
He kept this routine going for a few days. His intense activities left him with less than 4 hours of sleep, yet he felt refreshed when he woke up. He wondered if hed get to a point where he didnt have to sleep at all if his vitality and endurance got high enough.
Suddenly, as Zac slammed down his axe into the head of a barghest, a huge surge of cosmic energy entered his mind, causing him to almost black out.
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