Defiance of the Fall

Zac waited for a bit to make sure no other imp or demon was incoming before he ventured the same path he saw the imp take.

He surreptitiously glanced around any corners or crossroads, but even after a minute he still hadn’t seen any signs of the imp or anything else of interest. Either the imp was a lone explorer in the caverns or it was out of the way for some reason.

A scratching sound stopped his train of thought and Zac moved to the next intersection to see where the sound came from. He finally found the small imp again and it was just 10 meters away from him, currently digging through some moss. After it removed a top layer it sneakily put something inside, and then carefully put the moss back on top. It got up and turned around, and suddenly found itself staring right at Zac.

Zac didn’t hesitate and instantly killed it with a dagger. He walked up to the corpse and put it in one of his pouches, before walking over to where it dug around earlier. Initially he had wanted to follow it back to wherever he came from, but he had been too careless and immediately got spotted. He’d have to get better at sneaking in these tunnels unless he wanted to get mobbed down.

After removing the moss he actually found a small stash of Nexus Crystals. They weren’t polished and uniform like the ones he had taken from the demon leader, but rather looking like uncut raw gems. Some were as small as a fingernail while the largest was slightly larger than his own crystals.

It seemed like the imp actually was hiding away its wealth in this uninhabited part of the cave system like a cultivating squirrel. So it looked like it wasn’t heading to any other imps or demons, but rather away from them. Perhaps daylight robbery was a real problem amongst the imps, so hiding their cultivation resources was imperative.

The imp’s actions raised a few questions. First of all, could imps cultivate? They seemed to have some inherent proclivity for magic, as all of them thus far were able to shoot those nefarious fireballs. But it felt like all of them more or less were of the same strength, making him believe they couldn’t get stronger.

There seemed to be some fundamental differences between the imps and the demons or himself. They didn’t have levels when he inspected them with [Eye of Discernment], and it didn’t look like they had classes either as everyone used the same attack. That’s why Zac placed them in the same group as the other beasts in his mind.

So what was the use of the crystals? The most likely explanation he could find was evolution. He had seen all kinds of mutations and evolutions in the flora on the island caused by the cosmic energy. Who’s to say it didn’t work with the fauna as well. Perhaps the crystals could help a normal imp to evolve into something greater, like the Heralds.

It was a bit worrying, as normal imps were deadly enough. If suddenly a throng of them evolved into super-imps wouldn’t they burn down the whole island? He could only hope that evolving wasn’t that simple a matter for now.

The second thing on Zac’s mind was the crystals themselves. Where had it found them? If there were a bunch of them it would explain many things, such as why the density of cosmic energy was so high in the mountains. It could be due to the proximity of a large amount of Nexus Crystals, whose energy bled through into the surroundings.

It would also explain the unceasing flow of demons coming into the mountains. A mountain full of Nexus Crystals should be the equivalent of a multi-verse gold mine.

That, unfortunately, meant that the demons were continuously pilfering the resources that Zac would need to continue to improve and build up a town.

Zac was sorely lacking in Nexus Coins right now. He could barely improve himself, let alone build up a whole town. His gains lately from killing monkeys had been tremendous, but it was nothing compared to the costs of creating, and running, a town.

For example, there was an array called [E-Grade Medium Scale Town Defense Array] that was a combination of a defensive shield and some attacking functions. It looked like a good all-around addition for a newly established settlement. But that array alone cost 5 million Nexus Coins, and furthermore, it wasn’t free to operate.

There were defensive turrets and anti-siege weapons as well, each costing over a million coins. There was just no way for him to grind that kind of amount of coins. Even if he got twice as strong and murdered monkeys without rest or sleep it would take years before he got all the basic structures of the town.

But if he had a large number of Nexus Crystals he might be able to pay all this, and maybe even more. He didn’t have any means of selling the Crystals for Nexus Coins at the moment, but there were things such as shops and auction houses in the outpost store. If he purchased one of those he was sure they’d accept his crystals for some coin.

Of course, it all hinged on him actually getting the crystals. Driven by a renewed sense of purpose, Zac headed back toward where he came from. Since the imp went out of its way to hide the crystals out here, there shouldn’t be much activity in the surroundings as well.

Zac made a mental note of the area since he might need a base of operations down here. As he carefully proceeded through the paths the ambient cosmic energy kept increasing, now starting to reach the density that he had felt in the valley with the monkey king.

After continuing on for roughly 10 minutes he heard some shuffling further down the path. Zac immediately stopped, a glint of greed and anticipation on his face. Every demon he found down here would probably make him wealthier. He imagined looting magic pouches packed to the rafters with crystals, a creepy grin slowly starting to emerge on his face.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a walking nest egg he encountered, but a white crocodile.

At a second glance he realized it wasn’t actually a crocodile, but a supersized salamander. It had a thick build and was roughly four meters long. It was mostly white with some purple markings. Zac thought that subterranean species normally possessed no eyes, but this didn’t seem to apply to this specimen. It lazily ambled through a subterranean tunnel, swiping up various mushrooms and herbs with its mouth along the way. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛ ꜰʀᴏᴍ Nov(l)Fre .t

Zac didn’t know if it was a guard animal for the demons or just something that lived down here. He shrank into a side corridor to hide as he didn’t want to bother with this huge beast at the moment. The beast seemed oblivious to his existence until it suddenly exploded into motion just as it was next to the side-tunnel Zac hid in.

Its maw opened showing a line of large translucent teeth looking like huge salt crystals. The beast tilted its head and charged straight at Zac’s torso, but he was accustomed to this manner of attacks from the countless barghest he had fought.

Channeling his cosmic energy he grunted and punched the lizard in its head, slamming it into the wall of the tunnel, creating large cracks on the stone surface. That type of attack was usually enough to kill barghest by now, but it only seemed to enrage the salamander. He didn’t want a prolonged fight though and swung vertically with a maxed out [Chop], cleanly decapitating it.

A surge of energy entered his body and he saw that he gained roughly 800 Nexus coins. That was even more compared to some of the weaker demons, surprising Zac somewhat. It had been pretty quick for its large size, but it felt like less of a challenge compared to a demon.

As he was mulling it over a sizzling sound interrupted his train of thought, and he turned his head toward the sound.

Smoke rose up from the ground next to the chopped off head and a sizzling sound could be heard. He went closer to take a look, and was appalled to see that its saliva was highly corrosive. The sounds came from its tongue touching the ground, and it had already corroded a small hole where its saliva dripped down. Zac realized even a flesh wound from a bite might cost him a limb when fighting these salamanders.

It was a shame he couldn’t use his eye skill on it as it was already dead, but it didn’t matter much what the system called the animal. He went over to the headless carcass and observed the body. At least the blood wasn’t corrosive as well, otherwise, the huge pool of blood forming beneath the body would have carved out a new path among the tunnels.

Zac barely managed to cram the beast inside his smaller pouch after chopping off the tail as well, and then moved on. He didn’t want to leave a carcass out in the open that was clearly killed with something sharp. He still didn’t know what the relation between the demons and this animal was, and he’d just have to lug it along until he did. Or found somewhere to dump it where it wouldn’t be found.

Zac continued on, diligently marking crossroads with a Z. By now he was starting to fully acclimatize to the cold light of the moss and various other plants and had no problem discerning his surroundings.

After a while, the tunnels started to change once again, as he saw spots glimmering between the pieces of moss on the walls and ground. He walked over to the closest spot that shone and saw that it was a crystal.

His heartbeat quickened and he quickly pried it out with a knife. The stone was far harder than he expected, and the extraction taxed even him with his huge Strength. But he only increased his pace with a widening smile adorning his face, and soon he held his prize in his hand. The crystal he pried out truly was a Nexus Crystal, roughly half the size of the ones in his bag.

As he looked around the walls he saw glimmering crystals embedded all over the walls.

He was rich!