Chapter 23: Do you Understand My words?
Zac sighed and slung the unconscious Azzun over his shoulder, and the action caused him to whimper in pain. He would have preferred to drag him, but he didn’t want to leave a trail straight to his campsite.
He wasn’t far away from home now, and slowly walked the last bit. When he was a hundred meters away from the camp, he stopped and put his captive down. After making sure that the demon was still unconscious but alive he got a few vines and tied him up. Then he slowly made a circle around the camp, looking for any sign that there had been foot traffic in the vicinity.
A drawback of the illusion array was that he had no idea if 10 demons were waiting inside his camp without him seeing it, so he wanted to make sure that his surroundings were undisturbed. He couldn’t find any signs of anyone having walked through here lately, so he quietly skulked towards the camp, and took a peek inside illusion array.
Luckily the camp was undisturbed, so Zac went back and got his demon, and then walked back into the safety of the illusion array.
Finally back he let out a long sigh that had felt lodged in his chest for the past few days. A growl from his stomach reminded him he had only eaten nuts and leaves in the last days and he quickly went over to his car and snatched a handful of dried meat he had hung on a line between the trailer and SUV.
He sat down in his camper chair with a grimace, and started devour the meat while staring at his new captive.
He truly looked exotic, with a skin that was tinted in a greyish-red. The skin looked coarse and almost like a cross between scales and normal human skin. Red tattoos which reminded Zac of the fractals from the skills and arrays adorned his upper arms.
He was donned in a formfitting leather armor, which seemed to be made for an agile fighter or scout, rather than a dogfighter. It had vambraces inlaid with a metal plate which covered his forearms, but left the upper arms bare.
The chest plate was formed by a woven mesh of leather strips which seemed both pliable and durable. He had on a belt where he had kept his weapons until Zac stole them, and a pair of dark grey leather pants.
It wasn’t only the craftsmanship that was far superior in the gear, the materials were as well. When zac tried to cut through the leather with one of his kitchen knives he couldn’t even make a scratch, even after applying pressure. Zacassumed the leather came from some strong beast on the demon’s home planet.
Oddly neither this demon nor the others wore any shoes, but after an inspection it made some sense. The demon’s feet looked like a slimmer version of the barghest’s taloned paws, with three sharp claws in the front.
Finally the pair of horns that had warned him from approaching them. They were a blood red color, and looked like an artist’s rendition of fire. They started in his upper forehead, and was bent backwards along his skull. It looked like tongues of fire were reaching upwards along the horn.
It did not seem that they used them for goring enemies, rather it looked largely ornamental.
The demon was still out cold, so Zac took the opportunity to go over his status window while getting another helping of dried meat.
Name
Zachary Atwood
Level
25
Race
Human
Alignment
Human (Earth)
Titles
Born For Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon Slayer I
Strength
59
Dexterity
39
Endurance
42
Vitality
48
Intelligence
29
Wisdom
29
Luck
44
Free Points
4
Nexus Coins
14030
Active Quests:
- Unlimited Potential (Normal): Reach level 25. Reward: Unlock class system. (25/25) [COMPLETE]
Dynamic Quests:
- Off with their heads (Unique): Kill the four heralds and the general of 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 base from denizens of other alignments for 3 months. Reward: 5 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, outpost upgraded to town, status upgraded to Lord. (0/3)
Zac had gained two levels from killing the Herald and the other monsters while escaping. From how thick the cosmic energy felt, he wasn’t far from gaining another level either.
He also noticed that he had gained roughly 8000 Nexus coins from his attack on the Herald, and the subsequent escape. His quests had also been updated, with the quest called Unlimited Potential showed [COMPLETE] at the end. His demonslayer quest had just disappeared after completing, but Zac guessed that this quest remained as he still hadn’t chosen a class.
Zac immediately placed 4 points into strength. He had noticed during the last month that each additional point in a stat had a greater effect than the earlier points. It was like the gains were exponential. This had made him feel that specialization was more highly rewarded compared to putting points in every stat.
Besides, with his large amount of titles all his stats were quite high in any case, affording him the opportunity to go deep in a specific attribute.
Since then he had put all his points from level ups into strength, unless he felt that some other stats was truly lacking. He thought about placing some more points in vitality due to his condition, but discarded that idea after a brief hesitation.
He was extremely eager to choose a Class, but barely managed to contain himself. The reason was the unconscious captive in front of him.
Zac had already stumbled along for a long time, using guesstimation to guide his choices. He was hoping to use Azzun to get some answers about the system and many other things before he did something irrevocable to himself. He didn’t even dare to touch the Nexus Node, as he was afraid some class change process would start that couldn’t be stopped.
Zac felt a lot better after having finished his meal. With a grunt he got back to his feet, and filled a bottle with water from the water array.
He walked over to the demon and poured the contents over his face, resulting in the demon sputtering and waking up.
Azzun had a look of shock and horror on his face as he woke up to the sight of Zac, who still hadn’t bothered to change or remove the blood that was caked all over him.
“So uh… I guess I am sorry about your friends. Do you understand my words?” Zac said with a coarse voice. He realized that those were essentially the first words he had spoken in weeks. In the beginning he had muttered and mumbled things to himself, but soon he had grown accustomed to the silence.
Zac didn’t know if it was because of what he said, but the demon snarled and desperately tried to get himself free from the vines. Zac sighed and brandished his hatchet, and with a grunt he slammed it straight next to the tied up demon. It produced a loud thud, and a small crater was formed. Had he swung just a decimeter to his right then one of Azzun’s leg would have been mutilated by now.
The demon immediately stilled, as it perhaps remembered the ending of his two companions thanks to the hatchet.
“Do you understand my words?” Zac repeated. He wasn’t really expecting the demon to actually speak his language, but rather that the system provided some translation feature. Language would be a pretty large issue if the system connected endless amounts of worlds.
The demon simply stared at him, then suddenly closed his eyes.
“Hello?” Zac prodded once again, unsure what the demon was planning. Suddenly Zac could sense how the cosmic energy in the surroundings started to move toward them, and the demon’s body started to shake.
Zac got a sinking feeling in his chest, and didn’t dare hesitate. He immediately swung his hatchet down on the skull of the demon, crushing it like he had done with the other two.
The body slumped down, and blood gushed out of his nose. Zac got a confirmation that the demon was dead from the influx of cosmic energy, but the uneasy feeling did not disappear. Suddenly the body started expanding, and Zac’s eyes went wide with alarm.
He barely managed to throw himself away and down on the ground, before the corpse exploded with a tremendous bang.
Zac slowly got up on his knees, disoriented and ears ringing. Somehow the demon seemed to have made the energy in his body go haywire and he actually had exploded like a bomb. The camp was in chaos, with the windows of the car having cracks all over, the closest had completely shattered. Things were thrown around haphazardly and there even was an indent on the exterior wall of the camper.
Luckily he had killed the demon in time, or he might have been able to gather even more energy and created a far more deadly explosion, wiping out both him and the camp.
‘These demons are going to be a pain.’ Zac thought with a grimace while looking at the mess.