This made him form a hypothesis . The beasts were slowly getting stronger , and maybe they would gain a power spike once each month . That was what the Abby the eye was indirectly warning him about .
He didn’t think that the Incursion summoned stronger demons , but rather that they were strong from the start , but was somehow restricted . That was because he didn’t actually get more cosmic energy or Nexus Coins from killing the empowered beasts compared to the old weaker ones .
It made him once again think about how the system seemed to operate . It rewarded people who dared take risks and strove to improve . That was shown through the title system , and also Abby’s comments .
Perhaps this was a gift from the system . If someone dared leave the tutorial village to kill magical monsters at incursions they’d be rewarded with the cosmic energy and Nexus Coin that generally was given out by far stronger beasts . Like an XP-boost from a MMORPG game .
Or perhaps the demons simply weren’t adapted to Earth’s atmosphere . He always imagined in his head that these beasts came from some lava world full of fire and brimstone . He really had no idea which was correct , but his days in solitude allowed him to conjure endless theories .
Furthermore , with risk also comes reward . What Abby meant with her last comment might be related to the quest .
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 . (1/5)]
The last reward was a unique building depending on performance . He guessed that the better performance the higher ranked the building he would receive was . He was by now well aware both how powerful some buildings were , but also how extremely expensive they were . He had scoured through the registry for weeks after all .
Getting a good grade might greatly help him later , provided that he actually survived this ordeal .
So it was with a mix of self-preservation and greed he had grit his teeth and finally decided to assail the first of the Heralds tomorrow , even if he wasn’t at the power level he’d like . The last few days he had scouted his target out , and he thought he had a fighting chance after observing it .
He woke up with the dawn of light the next day , and after his preparations he immediately set out . He had limited time until his self-imposed time limit . Depending on how the fight went , he might try to kill a second Herald today as well .
He walked through the forest with practiced ease , avoiding twigs and roots while still keeping a high tempo . The forest had changed considerably during the past weeks . It had grown extremely lush , gaining almost a primordial unsullied air . The trees had grown more robust , and the undergrowth was varied with both bushes , vines and a medley of flowers .
He did not know where they had come from , but it seemed that there were far more critters and other animals as well roaming both the forest floor and up in the crowns . However it always was quiet around his camp lately , as if the animals instinctively avoided his domain .
Zac made a beeline towards the western central area from the southern edge where his camp was located . During his excursions in the past weeks he had actually found the second herald , while last two still eluded him . He guessed that one of them resided in the mountains though , as it seemed that each Herald lorded over a cardinal direction of the Incursion . He hadn’t ventured into the mountain as of yet , as he had his hands full grinding monsters closer to home .
The unlucky Herald Zac had obliterated with a lucky roll had been in the southern part of the island . Zac had occupied the domain of the herald in a sense . That had explained why there were relatively fewer demons close to his base , as it was far from the lairs of the three remaining Heralds .
Chapter 19 - Vul
Even though Zac moved like a specter through the woods he couldn’t always avoid fights . A barghest was lying hidden behind a few bushes , and noticed Zac before he could reroute around it .
It immediately got up and without hesitation charged upon him .
Zac was completely unfazed by the oncoming beast , and circulated a small amount of cosmic energy through his body down to his legs . With a quick step he avoided the beast at the last second , giving it no time to adjust . He then followed up with a vicious swing down the throat of the passing beast . The barghest would have been decapitated had it not been for the limited size of Zac’s hatchet .
Instead he tore a huge gash that severed both muscles and jugulars from the top and then continued until exiting down on the bottom , resulting in the head barely staying on .
The demon continued for a few meters before collapsing with a thud . Zac continued on while going over the state of the axe . By now he had killed hundreds of barghests and the recent fight barely registered in his mind , even with the power-up of the beast . Even if the barghests had become stronger , they still were the most common and stupid of the monsters on the island .
The empowered Gwyllgi that focused on speed were far more annoying to deal with . He still had a hard time dealing with them without getting a cut somewhere .
When looking over the hatchet he couldn’t help feeling a sour lump in his throat . The axe was in a state of disrepair with scratches all over . The head had become a full two centimeters shorter from repeated sharpening against rocks . Zac knew the only reason the weapon still somewhat held together was that it was made from a solid piece of steel . Still , the shaft had started to bend , showing the strain it had been put under .
The combination of Zac’s superhuman strength and the hardness of demon bones had slowly warped the metal . He was quite worried , as he did not know what he’d do when his weapon finally broke . He would be able to buy a shop and hopefully get a weapon that way when he finally upgraded the outpost to a town . But until then there simply seemed to be no weapons on the island .
Zac sighed and continued on his way .
He barely used any energy during the fight , only enhancing himself for a few seconds . With the help of the gathering array he would be topped off again within a minute .
Zac kept stalking through the woods like death incarnate . Anything that was foolish enough to attack him was quickly ended with a swing .
He had initially been afraid that his daily excursions would we found out by the demons , but after a few days of observation he was quite content knowing he was safe as long as he did not hunt too close to the Heralds .
Every day new monsters would appear in the woods , likely summoned through the Incursion . More astonishingly , the demons killed each other far more than Zac killed them . He had lost count of the times that he had found a demon hunkered over a corpse of the same race , feasting on its carcass . There seemed to be simply no familiar affection between the demons . That Zac was responsible for a small part of the deaths seemingly went by completely unnoticed .
Finally he arrived at the area where he had spotted the Herald earlier . He immediately became more alert of his surroundings , not wanting to create a stir with his target so close . He soon found the target , and it wasn’t hard to notice .
The Herald was huge .
Vul , Level 45]
That was all the information that the Eye of Discernment] gave him . Either his mastery over the skill was too low to show more information , or the skill was simply too basic .
It at least showed that its level was over twenty levels higher than his . He did not know whether Vul was its name or its race . His skill hade only showed the race when fighting the random beasts in the forest , but here it also showed a level . The system somehow made a distinction between this herald and the other demons .
He was leaning towards the theory that Vul was a name , because the monster clearly looked a lot like a barghest . If a Barghest had been supercharged . Instead of three pairs of legs it had four , with the additional being positioned closer to the hind legs .