The physical exertion worsened his wounds even more , and he suddenly puked out a mouth of blood with chunks of something else .
But he didn’t stop . Zac drudged on almost like a zombie , felling any foolish oncoming beasts in an eye-for-an-eye type of disregard for his own body .
After either a few minutes or a few hours the onslaught of demons had ended , a familiar sight jolted his almost dormant consciousness awake . It was a large oak standing solitary in a glade , with an assortment of flowers strewn across the ground . The sight gave almost a spiritual impression , like the oak was a spirit tree of some woodland elves .
And more importantly , this tree actually represented salvation for Zac . He shakily put his axe into his belt , and started to slowly climb the tree . His left arm didn’t quite respond , and he had to arduously move upwards with his right arm and legs . On a normal day he could be at the top of the tree in seconds , but now it felt like climbing a mountain .
He had completely run out of cosmic energy , and it felt like each cell in his body had been completely wrung out . Every movement was powered by force of will rather than anything else .
Finally he was roughly five meters above the ground , and crawled up on what looked like a plateau . It was three sturdy branches that grew in a close proximity in a row , with the middle branch grew slightly lower . They had together had formed almost an enclosure . Along the branches there were vines wired to make walls and flooring , and finally some cut of branches full of leafy growth had been placed around to insulate and hide the enclosure .
It was one of the many camps Zac had created over the last few weeks . Every time he found a tree , a cave , or some other natural formation that could be turned into a secluded resting stop he had stopped and turned it into a camp .
One never knew when one had to hide from beasts or wouldn’t be able to get back to camp , so he had prepared these as a precaution .
Zac slumped down on the blanket of leaves that were placed on the middle branch and dragged out a bottle of water placed next to the trunk . It had been placed by him there when building the hideout . He greedily drank half the bottle before the pain in his ribs simply stopped him from continuing . Finally he could take it no longer , and drowsily closed his eyes and passed out .
He spent the next few days stuck in the tree . For the most part he had slept , as he had problems staying awake when he was so utterly drained of cosmic energy . His amulet helped , but it seemed it would take a few days for him to recharge .
Even though he had survived , it did not feel like a victory anymore . The glorious feeling from right after the kill was long gone . He was incapacitated from pain and blood loss , and even with his high vitality it would take time to heal . His left arm was broken and possibly a few ribs as well , and the large gashes that crossed his whole back felt inflamed . Every time he moved different parts of his body screamed in protest , and he could only helplessly stay in the tree .
It was first after three days that he felt strong enough to get ready to head down . He could actually move his arm somewhat , but he wouldn’t try putting any force on it yet .
By now he was ravenously hungry , and couldn’t wait to get back to his camp . He hadn’t left any food in the small tree hideout , and had actually resorted to eating leaves and acorns the last two days . He had no idea if it was poisonous , but it felt like he had no options . Since his body had gotten stronger from the system he also had to eat a lot more compared to before . That’s why the food he and his friends had prepared had run out in only one week instead of two .
It was with a tinge of bitterness he prepared to get back . The three day convalescence unfortunately meant that he had failed in his goal , as the deadline of finishing within a month passed yesterday .
He still had two more heralds to kill , and also the general which he still hadn’t seen . He could only hope that he had been paranoid , and that nothing bad had happened now that a month had passed . He was however quite disappointed that he might have missed out on some extremely powerful building awarded for a quick completion of the quest .
Zac guessed that he would find out during the coming days , and it was no point to ruminate over it now .
He slowly got down from the tree after making sure no beasts were in the vicinity and started making his way back towards his camp .
Zac tried to glean if anything had changed on the island since the deadline had passed , but he could find no indication of that happening . The two suns still shone in the sky , and the malevolent pillar of energy from the incursion still glared in the distance . It did seem to have intensified somewhat , but Zac wasn’t sure if it wasn’t just his imagination .
The oak he had stayed in the last days were close to the edge of the island , in the western direction , and it would take a some hours to get back to his camp .
This time he walked carefully as he felt he was in no condition to fight any demons . Especially not if they had gotten empowered even further .
His axe was for all intents and purposes now simply a blunt weapon after the herald had slammed down on it . Killing monsters now would require a higher energy expenditure than before as he couldn’t simply bleed them out with a quick swing .
So it was with great care Zac made his way through the familiar forests until he suddenly heard rustle in the bushes ahead .
He immediately crouched down and hid behind a tree and some bushes while trying to see what lay ahead . After a quick glance he almost instinctively got up and shouted out to get attention , as what he saw was three people slowly making their way through the forest .
Luckily he managed to stop himself in time as he noticed a jarring discrepancy ; the people had horns .
Chapter 22 - Scouts
Azzun walked through the forest with his two companions , irritably swatting branches and flies away . It was his first time off-world , and the change in climate was jarring . He missed the soothing monochromatic environment of his clan . Now the only reminder of the familiar red was the incursion in the distance .
Of course they knew that being able to invade a newly integrated world was a great opportunity . The House of Arh’Rezak had celebrated for 10 days and sacrificed 10 000 slaves for luck when they had found out that they had actually managed to get a slot . They were only a medium sized clan in their sector , but this opportunity meant a chance to grow to a large clan . Maybe they could even gain enough resources to overthrow the regional Lord .
Everyone knew that that The Ruthless Heavens mainly opened up the passageways to introduce a challenge to the indigenous inhabitants of the planets . The Ruthless Heavens wanted to test if the original inhabitants were worthy to stay alive , and whether any powerhouses would emerge among them . That was why it let invaders through , but imposed limits on how strong they could be . The challenge needed to be hard , but possible to overcome .
Of course , most powers in the multi-verse was more than happy to be treated as a test by the System . The potential gain of both rare treasures and new domains to own far outweighed the potential sacrifice of some of their young and their untalented . It worked as a great training ground for their young elite , providing both an opportunity to lead , battle and gain precious resources .
The elders of the clan were even more ecstatic then they learned that the world had been given a D-rank classification . It was no secret that when the system integrated new worlds the huge influx of energy could create all sorts of rare and invaluable treasures all over the fresh worlds . The higher grade the new world was , the more treasures would appear . A fresh D-class planet wasn’t top tier , but at least it was above average .
It usually wouldn’t be the turn of some middling clan to get access to this type of smorgasbord . Normally some arch-daemon would have nudged the heavens and snatched it from them , but luckily the Great War was reaching a white-hot intensity . All the real powerhouses had their hands full , and couldn’t focus on this matter even though the potential gain was great .