Chapter 52: Odor
Zac let out a breath of relief as he saw the beast lumber off. Not that he was afraid of fighting it, but the enemy of his enemy was his friend, even if the monster itself didnt know it.
Zac moved some distance away and applied some more Aloe cream on his burns. His skin looked grey and sickly, but not like a desiccated corpses like it had the first time he fought an imp. His endurance was quite a bit higher by now, and while the fireballs still hurt like hell it took them longer to drain his body.
Zac felt he was at the cusp of leveling up, and continued onward through the tunnels. It didnt take long until he found another cave with sleeping imps. This time it was a bit smaller, with only 15 imps. This group also seemed to be a bit more vigilant with one imp standing guard. It seemed to barely understand the concept of being a lookout though, as it was leaning against a wall half-asleep. Occasionally it would rouse itself, but only to scratch its butt then go back to dozing off.
Zac saw no way to get next to it without being spotted, even if it wasnt too vigilant. He really wished he could get the skill the crafty swordsman used, and turn invisible for the approach. Even the lackadaisical imp would notice his approach and warn the others if he tried to sneak up on it.
Seeing no alternative he took out another throwing knife and threw it at the guard. It hit straight in the middle of its torso, almost instantly killing it. It slumped down into the ground with a small whimper and then stopped moving. Zac froze, waiting for any reaction from the rest of the group.
However, they snored away contently, oblivious to their impending doom. Satisfied Zac ventured in and repeated his grisly assassinations. This time he managed to keep going unnoticed until only 3 were left before they were alerted, but Zac finished off the last stragglers with a few quick chops.
The kills in the second cave gave Zac another level up, bringing him to level 33. He put in 1 point in Strength and two points into Endurance, bringing the attributes to 171 and 99 respectively.
Zac soon trudged on, continuously looking through the seemingly endless tunnel system. He found a few more imp camps on the way. Not all the camps were sleeping though, and he skipped the ones who were awake for now. He was forced to eat four fireballs earlier which hurt quite bad, and didnt want to imagine how getting bombarded by twenty of those infernal balls would feel.
After traveling for an hour he felt that he should be below sea level by how much he had descended. Of course, it was hard to get an exact feeling when everything felt the same. But it opened up a new avenue of escape for him. He had been pondering whether he should build a raft to leave the island if the demon quest didnt pan out.
But the thought of being stuck at sea on a crudely built raft and no knowledge of how far he was from land soon quenched that idea. Besides, who knew what kind of monstrous things lurked in the depths after the integration into the multi-verse.
The caves felt like a safer option. Even if he found no way out, he could always back-track to the island. The only downside was the claustrophobic feeling of these tunnels. The tunnels were quite beautiful right where he was, but he guessed it was due to the high amount of cosmic energy in the surroundings. If he left this area the tunnels would likely be far more dour and oppressive.
As he continued his exploration he started to smell a very acrid odor, differing greatly from the earthy scent of the vegetation or the putrid stench of the imp camps. Intrigued he decided to find the source and started to slowly follow the smell.
After a few twists and turns, he finally managed to find the right direction. It seemed that none of the stats really improved his senses overly much, so his plethora of titles hadnt given him eagle eyes or a super sniffer. He, therefore, made some wrong turns before being able to tell what direction the smell came from.
As the smell got stronger and stronger he saw that the tunnel was starting to change. There were signs of mining activity in the area, with holes in the walls peppered about. Most of the greenery had also been ripped out, leaving only some of the luminescent moss for some lightning. It looked like the source of the smell was man-made rather than something natural.
He started to take greater care for any potential enemy or trap cropping up, but still decided to continue toward the source of the smell. As he peeked around a corner he saw a few imps milling about near the mouth of a large cave. He couldnt properly see what was going on inside the cave due to the distance, but it was well lit up and he could see a purplish smoke wafting about inside.
It would be impossible to approach without alerting whoever was in the cave, so Zac retreated to find another entrance. After twenty minutes of looking around, following his nose, he found another cave mouth, but this one was guarded as well.
He turned toward the last path he found that had a stronger smell compared to the others and tried his luck one last time. This time he was lead to a dead end, the path simply stopping after a while. The acidic smell was extremely strong though, almost to the point of making Zac lightheaded. After looking around for a while he found a small crack in the wall behind some luminescent moss.
He ripped down the moss and another light shone from the wall, but this time it was light bleeding through a small crack. It appeared he was right next to the cave, but with a thin layer of rock in between.
He tried to look through the crack but it was too small for him to see anything, so he brought out one of his thin throwing knives from his pouch and started to carefully carve out the crack. It was a slow process as he didnt want the sounds to alert anyone inside, and it took almost half an hour until the hole was large enough for him to be able to see through.
He eagerly glanced inside, and what met his eye made his heartbeat speed up. The cave was one of the largest ones he had seen so far, being a full 30 meters across. The first thing he noticed was the large cauldron in the middle of the room, and it was the source of the smell and the purple smoke he had seen. It was almost as tall as Zac was, and held in the air by a crude rock and lumber contraption.
The source of the fire confused Zac, as it didnt produce any smoke. He only saw a handful of the raw Nexus Crystals placed seemingly haphazardly on the ground, and above them a blue-white flame was steadily emitted, heating the bottom of the cauldron. Zac made a mental note, because if he could burn crystals without creating smoke he would be able to provide warmth and cook food without having to worry about demons finding out.
Next to the cauldron were various mounds of resources. Zac recognized almost all of them as the various herbs and plants he had seen while walking the tunnels. There were mushrooms, vines and purplish grass neatly separated into their own piles. He also identified a few plants that he had seen above ground in the transformed area close to the incursion.
On a stool stood an imp, slowly stirring the contents of the cauldron with a large wooden ladle. At least he thought it was an imp, but he couldnt be sure as because it was almost as large as an adult human. But it shared many features with the imps such as its purplish skin and bat wings.
In contrast, its skin wasnt mottled and irradiated like it seemed like with most imps, but rather smooth and clear. It also wore a proper, albeit simple, robe. The most advanced clothing he had seen on an imp thus far was a dirty rag used as a loincloth, while most of them were simply naked.
It lacked any horns or ears, and as it turned its head to grab a mushroom to throw into the pot he could also see its face, making him sure he was dealing with an imp and not a demon. It had the extra set of eyes placed in its forehead, just as the normal imps.
He had found his fourth Herald. He couldnt see any other explanation than that. It looked far too different compared to its brethren, and its intelligence seemed to be on another level if it cared about things such as clothing.
Zac didnt dare to use [Eye of Discernment] l to make sure though, as even the normal imps could sense it when he used the skill on them.
The Herald wasnt alone, unfortunately. There currently were a group of roughly 10 imps milling about in the cave. They were sorting a pile of resources and moved them to their respective mound close to the cauldron. When an imp made a mistake it was ruthlessly slapped in the head with the bosss ladle, eliciting a scared whimper.
Zac decided to wait for a while in order to let them finish their task and then hopefully leave. Between this group and the ones just outside there simply were too many imps for comfort. But before they were even halfway done with the task a few imps entered the cave and dumped an armful each of various plants.
Meanwhile, the herald kept throwing some plant or mushroom into the pot every now and then, constantly stirring. Zac started to feel that the cauldron had to be a magic item like his pouch, as it never seemed to flow over, even after Zac had watched the Herald throw things into it for an hour by now.
It looked like the imps wouldnt leave the cave in the end. Zac deliberated whether he should wait some more or fight. By now he was more or less completely restored from his escape from the monkey Herald, apart from being covered in tender bruises. Finally, he opened up his quest page to make sure of the progress of his dynamic quest, slowly reading through it.
With all preparations done, he threw his worries and doubts out of his mind and hefted his axe.
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