Chapter 49: Spelunking
SinceZac felt somewhat refreshed from absorbing the Nexus Crystal he held off on sleeping, and instead decided to take a quick glance at his status screen.
Name Zachary Atwood Level 32 Class Hatchetman (F) Race Human (F) 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, Full of Class, Rarified Being, Trailblazer, Child of Dao, The Big 500 Dao Seed of Heaviness – Early Strength 164 Dexterity 59 Endurance 92 Vitality 69 Intelligence 49 Wisdom 49 Luck 67 Free Points 3 Nexus Coins 485286
The last few days had actually brought in almost all the coins he needed for the movement skill. Getting his skills and Dao boosts had increased his daily earnings tremendously. Of course he knew that this was the limit for now. The only targets more lucrative compared to the monkeys on the island were the demons and imps. But he held no illusion that he would be able to charge into 50 of them at a time and start a massacre as he had with the monkeys. He would be blasted to smithereens in no time.
Next, he opened up his quest menu to see the progress of his quest
Off With Their Heads (Unique): Kill the four heralds and the general of an incursion within 3 months. Reward: 10 E-Grade Nexus Crystals, E-Grade equipment, unique building depending on performance. (2/5)
He was quite disappointed to see that the monkey king apparently survived the slash. Of course, there was the possibility that it wasn’t a Herald, but he felt that the chance of that to be quite slim.
He had gained a level right at the start of the pursuit, and he sensed he wasn’t far away from reaching level 33 either. It was a shame that the System didn’t provide the same type of service as many games, restoring both health and mana at the level up. Then he might have actually have had a chance of turning things around and finishing off the monkey king.
The whole experience was quite a let-down and the first real setback except constantly getting hurt. He constantly went over things he could have done differently in order to actually kill the monkey. But soon he threw those depressing thoughts out of his mind, as he knew he had to work with what he got, and try to continuously improve.
As he waited for his body to get better he planned to meditate some on the Dao. He wished to both improve his current Seed of Heaviness, and get another seed, the Seed of Sharpness. These two forces were those he sensed to be strongest in the axe in his vision, and he felt that getting both of them was the first step on the path of true axe mastery.
Besides, the Dao of Sharpness might also be of some use for his throwing knives. Since [Axe Mastery] came with no manual how to progress the Dao or his other skills he could only fumble around in the dark. This time literally.
Unfortunately, he could only focus at the large axe fractal in his mind for a short while before his head started hurting again. It seemed that using Dao was still impossible after his overexertion. Zac wondered if there was something like mental energy or soul power that was used when pondering on the Dao or using it in battle, but he hadn’t been able to sense anything of the sort thus far. He only knew his head hurt and felt swollen like a bad migraine.
Helplessly he could only go to sleep. He would have preferred to take a look around the area, but his body didn’t really listen to his commands anymore. Besides any sound carried through the tunnels and amplified, and it was completely quiet apart from his breathing. There should be no monsters or creepy crawlies around at least this part of the subterranean system.
Zac woke up some time later, not being able to tell exactly how long he was out. His watch had broken long ago, and his cell phone ran out of charge as well. He had learned to tell the time somewhat accurately with the help of the suns, but down in the caverns this was useless.
Judging from the state of his body he felt that he had been out somewhere between 3 and 5 hours. He was still bruised all over but at least he could get by. He got up on his feet but stopped before setting out.
He was a bit unsure how to proceed from here on out. After some hesitation, he decided to look around the caves for a bit, and then find an exit. Nothing had really changed apart from the monkey king being hurt. The general and other herald were still unknowns.
The caverns were the last place apart from the city that remained uncharted on the island. There was a real possibility that the last Herald hid somewhere in here as he hadn’t even seen the shadow of it before. If he could find something out while he was stuck here anyway it would be great assistance to his quest. One of his fears was that he would fail his mission and get punished by the System, not due to a lack of trying, but because he simply couldn’t find his targets.
Since the System wanted him to kill these targets he felt that he should have been provided with some navigation and targeting method. But if mentally complaining about the system had any effect he’d long have solved all his problems.
But he also put a time limit on himself. He hadn’t given up on killing the monkey king, and would certainly try again. The reason for his failure was the horde of monkeys interrupting. He was quite certain that he would be able to kill him if he got him alone.
That’s why he didn’t try to rush back. For one he wasn’t sure how to get out, and besides, he believed that the monkey army would be on high alert for his return in the short run. It was a shame, as the monkey king was currently an easy target with its wounds. But he still had half a month until his 2-month deadline. He didn’t need to risk it all just yet.
Zac took a glance at his axe, confirming that it was almost completely repaired, and continued further into the caves. He still used only the glowing moss as a light source as he didn’t want to alert any enemies. Besides his eyes were getting accustomed to it by now and he could somewhat make out his surroundings.
Just before he ventured down he carved a small Z beneath the glowing moss to mark his passage. He could still track his progress in his mind, but better safe than sorry.
The tunnels he progressed through led steadily downward, and it felt like he was walking toward the foot of the mountain. That also meant that he was closing in on the cave system the demons explored so he was careful to not make any excessive sounds. He even ripped down some moss from the wall and tied it to the bottom of his feet to mask his footsteps. It was the non-luminescent kind of moss, of course, as he didn’t want his feet to become beacons for the enemy.
As he descended he sensed that the ambient cosmic energy was steadily growing stronger. Not only that, the tunnels started to change as well.
From being dark and dour, apart from the occasional weak blue luminescence from the moss, the caverns were turning into a vibrant fantasy world. Thick vines with purple flowers started to grow out of the ground, large glowing mushrooms lined the tunnels and the lights from the moss grew stronger and polychromatic.
Zac had never taken any hallucinogenic drugs, but it almost felt like he was high as he walked in these psychedelic tunnels. After walking along dazed for a few seconds he suddenly started, and then started to collect samples of all the various herbs and mushrooms. He was careful to not let anything touch his skin, just in case it was poisonous.
He still had no method to discern if they were of value, but he felt that at least some of the magical plants should be of some use. It seemed quite clear that they had grown due to the high density of the cosmic energy, so they might have some magical properties.
Zac started using the vegetation as a basis where to head when he reached crossroads. He simply chose the one with a higher density of subterranean growth, as that passage should have a higher density of cosmic energy.
He was starting to get very curious why there was so much energy in the mountain, and he believed that the demons were so interested in the cave for the very same reason. There should be something in the depths that either contained or produced an immense amount of energy, to the point that it leaked out into the whole mountain range and valley.
If the demons removed it and took it with them then Zac would lose a potential goldmine. He added the task of finding out what created the energy as well before leaving. If it was something small and portable he would try to steal it. If this much cosmic energy could be poured into a couple of arrays he wouldn’t have to worry about the demons ever again.
Zac had walked for almost an hour when a sound made him stop in his tracks and shrink into the wall. It was light hurried steps that echoed through the tunnels not far ahead. They didn’t seem to be coming toward him, so Zac slowly ventured forward, careful not to make a single sound.
The steps slowly were becoming a bit more distant, and Zac hurried up until he reached a crossing. He carefully looked around a corner toward where the sounds came from to see what made the steps. And just before it turned another corner, he could briefly spot a small imp trotting along.
Zac’s heartbeat started to speed up, as seeing the imp opened up a possibility. Perhaps the imps’ main area of activity was underground, which would explain why he had encountered so few up above ground. And if it was, then their herald was likely down here as well.