Chapter 82 (Patreon)

EDIT: Changed Chapter number. Original Number: 80

Only wind and creaking from leather armors interrupted the silence as Zac stared out from his fortified position, a steely glint in his eyes. He was trying to gain any hint of what was to come when the timer went to zero in ten minutes. Everything that could be done to prepare had been finished in the last month, and the only thing remaining was to actually fight the hordes.

The once lush forest next to his camp was gone, replaced instead with a forest of jagged spears jutting out of the ground. Thousands of poles that reminded him of his first fight with the Herald was embedded in the earth, and various moats ran along the wall at various distances. Apparently no one would get any Nexus Coins if an enemy impaled itself or fell down a trap while they stood up on the wall, but from what Ogras had told him about beast hordes it wouldn’t matter. What made the beast horde a horde was the seemingly endless amount of beasts, more than anyone could possibly finish by himself. No one would have to worry about not finding targets after the traps did their job.

He wasn’t alone on the battlements, as roughly two hundred demons stood on the wall with him. Most had eager expressions in their eyes, while some looked quite pale. Down at the ground the rest of the demons were at the ready, preparing to serve as various types of support. Zac had at first been confused why the demons happily had agreed to man the wall without any persuasion needed, but Ogras explained it with only one word; money.

A beast horde was extremely dangerous, but it could also be considered an endless stream of Cosmic Energy and Nexus Coins. The demons who stayed on had lost most of their wealth, and needed to refill their pockets. Many of them were mortals just like Zac, and needed millions and millions of Nexus Coins to be able to advance past their bottle-neck. The cheapest method to become E-Rank Race was a medicinal bath that you took over and over that incrementally improved the constitution. But this method took years and cost hundreds of thousands of Coins each bath, making the monster horde a prime chance to be able to afford some more ingredients. The method Zac had used with the Fruit of Ascension was apparently considered an extreme luxury and a waste, as the fruits were prohibitively expensive if you could even find a seller.

“Are you ready to make some money?” Zac heard a voice from his left, and saw Ogras approaching. With him he had his four underlings, each with enough power to contend with the top tier warriors of the invasion. Zac had sparred a bit against them the last few days as he waited for the monsters to arrive and had been surprised to see that none of them used classes from Clan Azh’Rezak’s heritage.

They were Ogras’ hidden ace that he had recruited and trained using his family’s wealth, in order to have some back-up against the main branch forces in case it came to blows. He had smuggled them in after killing a few of his clan-mates without any strong connections or close friends, having these four take their places.

Ilvere was a burly man who had masqueraded as a farmer when he entered through the incursion. He fought with a flail whose chain could prolong to over ten meters according to his will. He was actually trying to gain insight into the Dao of Heaviness in order to combine it with Dao of Lightness. That would apparently create the Dao of Momentum which could imbue the spiked ball with a terrifying force as he swung the weapon. When he had heard that Zac actually possessed the Seed of Heaviness he had plastered himself next to Zac, to the point that Ogras finally had to kick him away due to the annoyance. His class was only an uncommon class called Strongman, and it didn’t give him any class skill that helped him with the Dao, and he desperately wanted to observe and feel Zac’s Dao to gain some insights.

Janos was a thin dignified-looking man who compulsively adjusted his spectacles as he looked around. He was quite terse in his communication, and seemed to enjoy solitude over company. That made it a bit surprising for Zac to learn that the demon actually was a support-mage that couldn’t really fight on his own, making him require teammates to fight. He walked the path of gravity, and used skills that reminded Zac of his strengthening array. When in battle Janos would continuously mess with the gravity of the enemies. It wasn’t enough to kill them, but it would completely disrupt their rhythm and making it hard to fight properly.

Namys was whirling her blades as she looked provokingly at Zac. She was one of the few in the camp who was a truly willing follower of Ogras. She even had a class that looked similar to his, as it utilized darkness and shadows to create an assassin-type combat style. She was extremely unhappy that Ogras was placed as a sort of second in command behind Zac, and his spars with her had been the most dangerous. More times than one Zac felt that she had truly tried to hurt him with her large daggers.

Alea was his largest headache though. The beautiful demoness looked like a devoted housewife, even wearing an apron as she approached Zac with a demure smile. She apparently had asked Ogras how wives on planet Earth dressed, and Ogras had explained in detail, armed with outdated information from old-timey movies on Izzie’s device. Alea liked the strong and ruthless, and Zac fit the bill nicely as being able to single-handedly thwart an incursion was something out of a hero’s tale in her book. Furthermore, she had a class related to poison, and the fact that Zac had essentially poisoned two armies to death was a cosmic sign that they were destined for each other in her eyes. The fact that one of the poisoned armies was her own clan members seemed to be completely irrelevant to her.

Zac wasn’t sure if her infatuation was real, or whether Ogras tried to plant a honeypot by his side, but in either case Alea was a continuous source of exasperation. Ogras hadn’t kicked her away as he did with Ilvere, leaving Zac to fend for himself. In confidence Ogras had told him that he didn’t want to poison test every swig of water or bite of food he took due to angering Alea, as she was slightly crazy like all other poison masters. Something about breathing poison fumes for years made their wiring a bit off.

Even the schoolmistress Alyn would hastily make a run for it when Alea found him in the mines, and the poison master sometimes took over the role of lecturer. It was from Alea he found out the general rules of grinding beasts. He had asked why she had chosen a poison class when poisoning enemies to death didn’t seem to reward Nexus Coins or Cosmic Energy. If it did he would be quite a few levels higher after throwing out the cauldron up on the mountain. But he was surprised to hear that she actually got rewards from poisoning enemies.

She had explained the distinction the system made was whether effort, or skill, was involved in the kill. In her case, she concocted the poisons herself and disseminated them using her class skills. The system awarded her cosmic energy for that. Zac just snatched a bunch of poison and threw it out, and the System didn’t consider it enough effort. For the same reason getting a machine gun or even an atomic bomb couldn’t help you gain levels at all. The System considered those types of tools not to require skill. It did consider using a bow and arrow requiring of skill though, and would award everyone, not just archer classes, cosmic energy from that type of kill.

Zac thought that many armies in the world would be in for a rude awakening after hearing that. He believed that many would have a hard time letting go of their weapons, and instead fight monsters hand-to-hand in order to gain levels. That would mean that the beasts would get continuously stronger due to the System pumping them full of cosmic energy, whereas the armies stayed stagnant. Sooner or later it would reach a tipping point, where conventional weapons were useless. Zac was pretty sure that he was bulletproof by now for example. It might hurt, but a bullet should barely be able to penetrate his skin. Especially if it hit his E-graded clothing.

“You all seem to be in a chipper mood” Zac said dourly. He didn’t relish the thought that he would have to spend the next three months continuously fighting for his life.

“Birds die for food, men die for money.” Ogras answered with a shrug. “If worst come to worst we can just jump ship and sail for kinder shores.”

Ogras was referring to a small Creator-vessel that Zac had bought for one million Nexus Coins. It was powered with Nexus Crystals and could comfortably house 10 people, or 30 if people covered every inch of the deck as well. It was one of the cheapest creations available for sale at the Shipyard, and Zac planned on using it for exploration, or fleeing if necessary.

Now that he knew the System wouldn’t punish him for failing a quest or fleeing for his life, he wasn’t as ready to risk everything just to finish the quest and become a Lord. He had confirmed that what Ogras had said was true from a few sources, and that Abby had in fact lied. The largest punishments for failing quests were that he couldn’t get them again. However if he failed too many quests he risked not getting awarded new ones for a while. For example Ogras would likely not get any quests for a couple of years due to eating The Coward’s Escape-pill. But for a cultivator whose life could be counted in the thousands, it was a small price to pay.

That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t diligently try to complete the quest and rebuff the three monster waves. The more he learned about cultivation and the multi-verse he knew he was sitting on a rare chance. The island was likely one of the safest places on Earth right now. There were no dangerous beasts skulking around apart from the salamanders, and they kept to their caves. The reason for this was simple, it was the hordes of barghest. They had hunted everything that started to evolve since they arrived, stopping any species from gaining strength.

That made this island a haven, and an amazing source of wealth, for himself and his family. As he was the lord that wealth would turn into further safety as he could keep buying defenses if some force meant him harm. To give up this would mean he would turn from a so-called progenitor to another refugee without a place to call home.

Alea walked over and hooked her arm in his, and Zac could only bear it for now with a grimace. He knew from experience that telling her off or pushing her away wouldn’t work, and if he got too insistent she might poison him in a rage. Nothing lethal, of course, but something strong enough for him to be puking his guts out for a few hours.

So they stood at the top of the wall surveying the battlefield looking like an old couple, until the timer finally the timer went to zero.

[Ladder activated, struggle for supremacy.] The emotionless voice of the System entered his ears just as the third month ended and the timer went to zero.

“Huh, what’s this ladder that the system mentioned?” Zac said as he turned to Ogras. But immediately afterward he turned back toward the forest as he saw tens of grey pillars zap into existence roughly a kilometer away. They looked just like the incursion, just in a different color and a lot smaller.

“The Ruthless Heavens spoke to you? Ladder? Must be some function it is using on this baby planet. It has all types of modes that it can activate that changes how –“ Ogras explained but was interrupted by the System itself, this time speaking so everyone was hearing.

[Special Dynamic Quest activated. Defend what’s yours and vanquish the hordes. The strong will be rewarded.]