Zac carved a chunk of meat from the rabbit leg and stuck it to a fork . He then walked over to the Nexus Node while gnawing the gamey meat . Zac looked at the list of available things on it daily hoping for something new to pop up every day since the day he bought it . He knew he would be disappointed once again . The skills available were too expensive for him , and the inventory hadn’t changed so far .
The only skill that was in his price range was called Eye of Discernment] . And he had already bought it for the price of 20 000 Nexus Coins . When he had bought it a stream of energy had entered his head , and new information suddenly formed like an ingrained memory . It was the manual for the skill .
The purchase had taught him a bit about how skills worked with the System . Having a skill did not mean you could simply use it as you wanted . For a skill to work he needed to actually move the cosmic energy built up in his body towards his eyes . From there he had to imprint the image of a specific fractal on his eyes . The fractal was the same type of pattern that were on the array flags he had bought earlier .
Zac had tried furiously to move the energy around in his body for days . He had felt that his cells were imbued with this extra power , but he had a hard time actually doing anything with it . Finally after days of trying he had found a solution .
While sitting in the gravity array he had imagined a separate set of veins spread all through his body like his circulatory system . In these veins only cosmic energy flowed . He was surprised that it actually worked , and a stream of his cosmic energy slowly started traveling along the paths he had imagined .
It took a few days more to learn to keep the circulation going even when not actively focusing on it . Finally he tried gathering cosmic energy on his eyes to imprint the fractal of the skill . This part went smoother than expected , as he had an extremely precise design in his memory thanks to the Nexus Node .
As soon as he wanted to use the skill he only needed to focus a small amount of cosmic energy to flow into the fractals on his eyes , and it would activate immediately .
Zac was quite glad that the System did not require people to shout out the skill’s name like a lunatic .
The Eye of Discernment] was a basic eye skill that essentially worked like an identify- or spy-skill from a video game . It let Zac glean some basic information on certain things .
It was this skill that had let him know that the stocky 6-legged demons he had fought ad nausea the last month was actually called a Barghest , and the zombie-looking greyhound monster was a Gwyllgi .
The imps were actually just called Lower Imps , and they had taught him another valuable lesson when using the Eye of Discernment] on them . Even though he had used it from the cover of some bushes the imp had felt the skill being used on it . It reacted by immediately throwing a fireball at the bush he was hiding in , leading to another desperate fight .
The memory of that fireball still filled him with some trepidation as he stared into the fire , slowly finishing his meal .
Chapter 18 - Cosmic Energy
Actually , apart from teaching him the names of his different enemies , the most important thing the skill had taught him was something completely different .
Zac had thought that the stats represented a static change in his prowess , and to a certain degree he was right . He was far stronger now compared to before thanks to the stats . But there was more to it . Learning to circulate his cosmic energy had opened up a whole new world for him .
At first he had simply focused on learning the skill . But afterwards he had started experimenting with the cosmic energy in his body , and had come to some astonishing conclusions . He could actually force more cosmic energy into different parts of his body , strengthening them . For example he could force energy into his arm and back muscles when swinging his hatchet , which resulted in a far more powerful swing .
Forcing energy into his legs would increase his speed and he had even managed to imbue his skin for a while , making it more durable . There were many different venues to utilize it , and he likely only had figured out a few . The strengthening wasn’t limitless , however . It acted as a multiplier on his base stats , but the multiplier was limited . After some experimentation he had realized he could output almost twice his normal power while circulating his energy into a specific part of his body .
He had gone above this amount once , which had resulted in being incapacitated for days . He had tried increasing the amount of energy in his arms too much in order to perform a particularly mighty swing . His muscles couldn’t withstand that much cosmic energy forced into them , and ruptured into a fountain of blood . It reminded him of a balloon . If he blew too much air into it , it would pop . Same with his body and cosmic energy .
The experiment had left him lying weakly in base for three days , only being able to train with the amulet and the gravity array for some minor gains .
The second conclusion was that his usage of cosmic energy was limited . The more he circulated his energy and empowered himself , the more drained he would feel . When empowering himself to the limit he only lasted a few minutes before he was completely spent .
The energy used in empowerment was consumed , and he would need to gather more from the environment in order to get back into fighting condition . His amulet helped him recover faster . But when the amulet focused on replenishing consumed cosmic energy , it did not actually work towards increasing his level .
In other words using empowered strikes or skills would slow his leveling speed , as some of the cosmic energy gained would be used on replenishment . So it was a trade-off between long term gains and short-term burst of power .
The final realization was that his method likely was extremely cost-ineffective . When he used his identification skill , the cosmic energy entered the fractals that somehow existed in his eyes . The fractal both enabled using the specific skill , but also made usage of cosmic energy more effectively .
Far less energy was wasted when the energy was focused with the fractal . If cosmic energy could be considered a raw material like crude oil , then the fractal refined it into something better and more efficient .
Zac guessed a combat-oriented skill would work in the same way . He would gain new fractals which he could use to waste less cosmic energy while fighting , and also gain a higher power than simply channeling raw cosmic energy into his arms . Unfortunately even the cheapest of the options cost 150 000 Nexus coins , which was far out of his current price range .
Zac finished his meal , and scoped up a glass of water from the pit where he had placed a water gathering array . The bottled water he and his friends had brought had ran out two weeks ago , and the closest fresh water was close to the incursion . Luckily the System had a cheap solution , namely the Small Scale Water gathering Array] , which slowly gathered moisture from the air to create a roughly ten liters of drinking water per day .
For the first time in weeks he turned off the gravity array when he went to sleep . He needed to be completely rested , as tomorrow he would assail a Herald .
Zac had wrestled with himself whether to actually go through with it or not the last few days . At times he felt it would be safer for him to simply grind for a few more weeks , get a class and skill before going after the big bosses .
He had however noticed a very worrying trend over the last few days . The beasts in the forest were getting more powerful . The demon hounds were getting even faster , and the barghest were getting stronger . He had actually seen one charge straight through a tree . The barghests had been completely incapable of such a feat just a week ago .