Chapter 55: Hey There Buddy
Zac wished he had a mirror to more sneakily look around the corners, but could only work with what he got. He rubbed some dirt on his face and singed scalp to cover his skin, and then wrapped some of the vines around his neck and head. Somewhat satisfied with his camouflage, and carefully peeked around a corner, mostly hidden behind a huge mushroom.
The tunnel Zac peered into contained five miners, and he was surprised to see that most of them used different means to extract the crystals.
Two were using basic pick-axes to gradually chip away at the walls. But each swing only made some tiny chippings fall, proving that their strength was nowhere near Zac’s. If he used one of those pickaxes he would likely be able to slam a decent hole in the wall, even if the rock was strengthened.
Another two of the miners were actually mages, and they simply held their hands to the wall. It took some time to see what they were doing, but he saw that a Nexus Crystal slowly was emerging out of the wall after a while. Apparently, the rock was even resistant to spells, as the earth mages Zac encountered so far usually had a far easier time manipulating stone.
The last miner was slamming away at the wall with a mace, and his Strength was overbearing. Every slam created a reverberating thud that made stone chippings fly.
The miners were all demons who looked well fed and cared for and didn’t really look weaker compared to the scouts he encountered. He had hoped that the demons placed their weakest in the mines, which would make Zac’s next actions more convenient. But the Strength of the mace wielder seemed to be even higher compared to the demon with the great sword and black arcs of lightning.
Next to their feet, they each had a sack of extracted Nexus Crystals. The mace-wielder’s sack was filled the most and the mages were second. It was all these sacks that were the goal of Zac. He had decided to scout out the demon activity in the cave for a bit, and steal as many Nexus Crystals as he could. He wanted to see if the crystals could help him in evolving his race or class before biting the bullet and gaining a level to see what happened. He knew he was grasping at straws, but he was really out of options.
Zac based his guess on two things. First the monkey packs. The higher density of energy the packs stayed in, the larger they became. The packs closest to the valley sported the largest monkeys, and a few even evolved to the point of using skills. The second clue came from the imp that was hiding crystals in a stash. He guessed that it maybe wanted to use the crystals for evolving as well.
If the beasts could use cosmic energy to evolve, then why couldn’t he? So he wanted to steal a large amount in order to experiment. Perhaps there was a method of usage that would evolve his body, but not improve his level.
Zac slunk back into his tunnel, moving further on. His target wasn’t these half-filled sacs. Moving onward he spotted quite a few tunnels with miners, and rhythmic thumping on the walls filled the tunnels. He soon found a deserted tunnel whose crystals all had been extracted. He picked this tunnel and started moving through it, ascending slightly as he did. He wanted to get closer to the center of demon activities.
All these miners had sacs, but Zac never saw anyone carrying them back to the Demon City. That meant that either they were collected and put in a pouch or were left here in the caves. In either case, they should be collected somewhere.
The tunnels that had been mined looked truly bleak compared to the magical feeling of the untouched ones. Not only were the crystals in the walls removed, but most of the vegetation had also been ripped out of the tunnel. The only thing left was a smattering of moss to somewhat illuminate the area. Luckily for Zac, these exploited tunnels were completely deserted as anything of value was taken. It made it easy for him to move around the active excavations and into the inner area closer to where he expected the cave mouth to be.
He really felt thankful that his titles had improved his mental stats quite a bit. Normally he would be completely turned around after days in the tunnels. But while he couldn’t exactly pinpoint where he should be in relation to the mountain, he generally knew the layout of the tunnels he had traversed and the direction he was moving. This was completely different from the old Zac who could almost get lost in his own neighborhood, and could only be attributed to either Intelligence or Wisdom.
Perhaps putting points in these stats wouldn’t be a waste for a warrior, and not because it would help with his lacking sense of direction. He had been pondering on attributes a lot while healing up from the poison. If he was to throw his 1-stat-strategy out the window he needed a new direction. One alternative was to focus on all his physical stats, including dexterity and vitality as well. Find a good balance between the stats that still had Strength as the main focus, but not as lopsided as now.
But a new alternative he hadn’t thought about was to start focusing on wisdom and intelligence. When he let go of his chosen path he started to think more deeply about what the various attributes could help him with, and he believed the mental attributes might help him with the Dao and Skill advancement.
If putting his free points in Intelligence allowed him to improve his Dao Seed faster and acquire new ones it might be more effective compared to putting them into more physical stats. If putting 10 points in wisdom helped him get another Dao Seed that gave 15 bonus attribute points, it was a worthwhile investment.
It might also be possible that even physical attacks needed those stats. His [Chop] skill was approaching the realm of magic as it could be turned into a projectile now. Perhaps Wisdom and Intelligence would help it fly faster or further, rather than Strength.
He could only put aside those things for now, and for the hundredth sighed that he had no one to ask about these things.
The sounds of battle in the distance interrupted his thoughts. Who would be fighting down in the tunnels? Intrigued, Zac moved towards the clangor. He soon arrived at the mouth of a cave and saw four huge salamanders in a pitched battle against twice the amount of demons.
Earthen Spikes were shooting at the monsters while warriors were keeping the lizards at bay. A pyromancer conjured a huge fireball that shot into the open maw of a salamander, burning it alive from the inside. It started to furiously thrash about, slamming one of the warriors into the wall, at least breaking a few bones.
It was clear that apart from the fireball the salamanders held the advantage. Had the demons met only one or two of the monsters they’d likely have been able to defeat them, but four were too many.
The warriors didn’t have the power to keep the monsters occupied, and the earth mages’ attacks were largely ineffective. After their kill, one of the warriors sporting a large hammer and a shield shouted something in demonic and their party started to move backward.
Zac was happy to let this play out and hid behind a boulder, but the development put him in a predicament. The demons were moving in his direction.
After some deliberation, he picked up a few rocks and started pelting the demons. With his Strength he could likely throw them hard enough to blast through their bodies like bullets, but he controlled his power output. The first stones hit one of the warriors in the neck and in the back of the head of another.
It didn’t knock them out but contained enough force to daze them. In a pitched battle like this a brief mistake could be deadly, and the salamanders unhesitantly pounced. They bit onto the two demons and after a few furious shakes threw their mangled corpses away.
A small stream of cosmic energy entered Zac, and he was delighted to see that the System only awarded a small part of the full amount to him. It looked that the system did use some sort of distribution method that somehow gauged contribution or damage dealt.
He managed to throw another stone that actually knocked one of the mages out cold before he was discovered. One of the mages screamed angrily and shot a few earth spikes toward him. But a few hastily summoned spikes possessed no danger to Zac, and he broke them off with a wave of his axe.
Zac moved forward quick as lightning and grabbed the scruff of the mage. Then with a grunt he threw her like a doll right at the warrior that ordered the retreat. She slammed into him with enough force that they both helplessly went sprawling on the ground.
The salamanders were quick on the uptake and started helping out with the pincer attack. The two downed demons were quickly dealt with and suddenly it was four demons left versus three salamanders and Zac.
With the frontline down the remaining mages were in dire straits. They desperately erected defenses against the hulking monsters, and then tried to force their way through Zac. But Zac was well versed in anti-mage tactics by now and quickly threw the pyromancer over the hastily erected wall. The mage wailed and then went quiet forever.
The salamanders weren’t standing idle either, and with a roar the largest one slammed straight through the defenses and snapped up one of the demons. Another one followed and started biting one of the earth mages. The stone skin the mage used was completely ineffective against the lizard’s saliva and strong jaws, and he screamed as he was being eaten alive.
Only one solitary demon remained, and with a desperate roar he started gathering cosmic energy from the surroundings. With the large density in the air it felt like a whirlpool of energy was forming. Zac recognized that sign and immediately cleaved the demon in two from head to crotch, just before jumping for cover.
He held his hands over his head for a few seconds, but the expected explosion didn’t come. Perhaps Zac managed to kill him before the energy managed to reach a critical mass. Somewhat embarrassedly he got to his feet and found himself facing three salamanders silently staring at him.
“Hey there buddy, let’s be friends” Zac croaked toward the largest salamander, hoping to sound friendly.