Chapter 164 (Patreon)

Zac felt paralyzed for a second, unsure of what to do now that he  found her. But after slightly shaking his head he walked up and sat down  next to her.

“Are you here to thank me again like last time?” Alea said with some annoyance when he sat down in the gazebo.

“I’m  sorry I doubted you back there. I wasn’t thinking straight at the  moment,” Zac said as he looked over at her. “You have been a great support from the start, and I won’t forget that again.”

The  demoness looked mesmerizing in the sunset. Her long silver hair danced  in the wind, and her two horns looked like aetheric fire. She looked  back at him only giving a roll of her eyes in response.

“I know.  You keep getting hurt because of me, is there anything I can do to  return the favor?” Zac asked, his eyes staying on her this time.

Suddenly  she moved straight at him, and this time Zac repressed his instincts to  block her. If she wanted to punch him to vent some anger, so be it.

But  Zac's eyes widened as her mouth closed in on his as her hands wrapped  around his head. His arms wrapped around her slender frame as if by  instinct, and the two shared a passionate kiss in the sunset.

Long  repressed emotions were surfacing in his mind, making Zac a bit dizzy.  The dizziness intensified, and a loud gurgling in his stomach quickly  told him that what he felt might not have an emotional root. A sense of  unease quickly doused any passion as Alea slipped out of his hands.

“That’s for pointing your big thing at me,” she said with a giggle and winked at him, before she left Zac to his own devices.

“A night on the toilet might help you remember to think straight in the future,” was the last thing he heard before he unhesitantly unleased [Loamwalker] to rush back to his mansion.

That  night Zac truly understood what it meant to anger a poison master. He’d  never felt so empty as he did after his tenth trip to the outhouse, as  he’d been exploding out of every orifice with each visit. There were  even times where he wondered if he would have even survived if it wasn’t  for his high vitality. However, he almost felt it was worth it as he  thought back to the passionate moment in the gazebo.

The next day a  pale-faced Zac walked over to the Academy, meeting up with the girls  there. The mood was a quite heavy, as a noticeable part of their small  army died during the Zombie horde.

“We heard from Joanna that a  group of warriors will go to another Incursion in a few weeks,” one of  the Valkyries suddenly said. “We want to go.”

“You want to go?  That fight will be brutal. The Ratmen won’t be as strong as the demons,  but they’ll likely be stronger than the Zombies. And they’ll also be  more cunning,” Zac said skeptically. “It’s good to strive for power, but  don’t bite off more than you can chew. There is no rush.”

“We know that. But we finally understand just how far we are from people like you,  or even the demon soldiers. We could only stand on the sidelines for  most of the battle, completely useless. We came here because we want to  get stronger. Some more of us might die if we go, but death is  inevitable. Those who survive will be more powerful on our return,” the  girl continued.

“Besides, pretty much all of us gained enough  experience to get our class. When we go to the next incursion we will  have finished our skill quests, and we will be far stronger than now,”  another girl added.

“Oh? What class are you getting?” Zac asked curiously.

“We’re  all getting the Warrior class. Alyn says it’s best for us to all have  the same starting point, as that will help with War Arrays in the  future. From there we will start to specialize.”

“That’s good,” Zac said with a nod.

Honestly, he was happy that he’d listened to Alyn to have them all get a common class. With the new heritage  their future might look far better compared to if they got some odd  class that became available due to their specific circumstances.

“Work  hard, you have improved, but there is a long way to go. You can go to  the Incursion if Ilvere and Alyn judge you’re ready when the time for  the operation starts. They have a better grasp on both the power of your  squad and of the Ratmen,” Zac said as he walked into a walled-off area  of the gravity array and sat down.

It was a small secluded spot  that he kept for himself when he came her to utilize the array. The  first thing Zac did after settling in was to use the rest of the rewards  he bought with his Contribution Points. The Fruit of Endurance  unfortunately only gave a 3-point boost, but it was better than nothing.

The quest for the upgrade to [Eye of Discernment] proved quite simple. He only needed to inspect a thousand people with the skill, and it would be upgraded.

Of  course, it was only simple since Zac could essentially inspect anyone  without fear of repercussions on the island. If it was some weaker  person the quest might be impossible to finish, as the wrong inspection  might result in a beatdown or even death.

Next  he sat down and started meditating again. He already had respecable  gains from the last fight with his breaktrough in the Dao of Trees, but  he wasn’t content with just that. He was already in the last stretch of  his F-Grade class, but he was far from reaching his target for  progression in the Dao.

In fact, even with his recent break-throughs he was still only third place on the Dao Ladder, with Abbot Everlasting Peace and Guru Anaad Phakiwar firmly ensconced in front of him.

The  days passed and Zac was getting less and less communicative, mainly  holing up to practice his skills or meditating. However, progress was  limited. Impatience was gnawing at him as he waited for the deadline to  arrive. He hadn’t expected the final horde to end so quickly and now was  stuck waiting for a week until Bernard would open the portal.

Every  evening he would sit down at the array at the appointed time in hopes  that the town leader would open his array in advance. Each time both  Ogras had Alea silently stood with him, and wordlessly left when he  stood up with a shake of his head.

Meanwhile  Port Atwood was springing up with tremendous speed, the earth and wood  mages working overtime in creating one structure after another. The  humans weren’t just lounging around either, and their speed in erecting  buildings would give Amish barn raisers a run for their money.

Even  the Academy was quickly changing, and another contingent was slowly  taking form. Quite a few young men had signed up to become soldiers,  many actually taking Zac as a rolemodel, hefting various Axes they'd  found or bought.

According to Alyn she believed that after  she rooted out those without aptitude or the neccessary drive perhaps  less than 10% would remain, but at least it was a start.

Even the  empty slots in the Valkyrie squad had gotten refilled with former  refugees from the islands. Zac was even more surprised to find out that  the new recruits insisted on giving the same pledge as the old members.  Zac could only shake his head in confusion, but eventually he relented and accepted, bringing their numbers back up to 80.

Finally  the day Zac had waited for arrived and he sat down on the teleporter  array, even though there were hours before the array would open.  Outwardly he was unperturbed, but his heart was hammering, waiting to  see whether his gambit would work out.

The minutes passed, and finally  they reached the agreed-upon time. Still, nothing appeared in his  teleportation menu. Only The Cradle of God was public. One minute  passed, then another.

Zac was starting to wonder whether the man  had succumbed to the poison he force-fed him. Perhaps he even found a  cure somehow. However, a new town name suddenly appeared on the menu,  and Zac immediately stood up and looked over at Alea and Ogras, who once  again accompanied him.

“I will be back within the month,” Zac said, and with unwavering determination on his face disappeared through the teleporter.

He soon found himself in a small room, and from the first look around it seemed it was a garage.

“The antidote. Hurry, give me the antidote!” a wheezing voice came from a corner.

Zac looked over and saw John Bernard stand there huddled over. When Zac saw the man his eyebrows rose in appall and shame filled his heart. The man had been quite portly just a week ago, but now he looked like a pale shadow of a man.

He  had lost almost all his body fat and had thick black lines under his  eyes. If Zac didn’t know any better he would have guessed the man in  front of him had undergone months of chemotherapy treatment.

Without hesitation  he threw over the small white bottle, and John swallowed the contents  without giving it a second glance. Zac also transferred over 2 500 000  Nexus Coins to the man. He had planned to give him a million coins, but  after seeing his wretched appearance he changed his mind.

“I am  sorry about putting you through this suffering, but these are desperate  times,” Zac said with a shake of his had, and then took out one of the  small roots that had weeded out the infiltrating monks.

“I will  give you a piece of information that might save your life. One of the  invading Incursions is called the The Church of Everlasting Dao. They  possess infiltrators who essentially have shapeshifting capabilities,  they can turn into any person. No scouting techniques can spot the  disguise.

“This root is harmless to humans but deadly to the  infiltrators. It’s what we used to root out all the spies in our own  City. We expect your New World Government is already infiltrated,” Zac  said as he threw over the root to John.

The man was absorbed in feeling the effects of the antidote, but Zac’s words woke him up and he caught the root hesitantly.

“You  know, you’re a wanted man now. That demon’s actions in New Washington  has made you the enemies of the whole government,” John said just as Zac  was about to leave.

“Oh? Is there people outside planning to catch me?” Zac asked.

“Do  you think I’m suicidal? I want nothing to do with your conflict. The  sooner you’re out of my life, the better,” John said with grumpily.

Zac  only shook his head and stepped out. It was night-time here as well, so  Zac had no problem to slip into the darkness unencumbered.

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“It’s me,” John said into the radio as he looked himself over in the mirror.

He  was already starting to look better, the dark circles under his eyes  already gone. It also felt like he finally would be able to eat again,  without it feeling like his teeth were shattering and his throat catching fire.

He  was already so engrossed in planning out the feast that he would  prepare for himself to celebrate, that he almost forgot he was on a call  with a superior.

“Did he come?” a rough voice answered after a few seconds.

“Yes  Sir, he stepped though as soon as I opened it. He immediately left town  afterward it seems,” John answered as he went over the list in his  head.

He’d definitely open up the bottle of 21-year-old scotch  he’d been saving for months now. And a mountain of ribs. They killed  that huge boar the other day, and it barely contained a trace of miasma.

“Good, you’ve done well. We’ll take it from here,” the man on the other end said.

“What are you going to do? He’s the Super-Brother Man, after all. He’s not  some nobody,” John asked skeptically as he put down the mirror. “He  also said something about shape-shifters infiltrating the government,  and-“

“You don’t need to worry about that. You are hereby relieved.”

A window shattered and John only felt a blazing pain in his head, before all turned to darkness.