He also seemed to use up less energy while fighting , as somehow the new pathways were more efficient . He wasn’t too surprised from that , as he had surmised that his usage before had been inefficient since the start . He had noticed how much energy was wasted pushing it into his muscles , compared to using his skill Eye of Discernment] .
Higher efficiency meant he’d fare better in a protracted battle . Maybe he wouldn’t have been so haggard after killing Vul if he had this level of endurance .
He kept killing demons and animals for the rest of the day , only returning to camp when the suns had practically set . His pouch was full of various large beasts he had killed . He thought he might as well stock up on dried meat in case something happened .
He also wanted to try just leaving some slabs of meat in the pouch , just to see how well they kept .
The fruits that the demon had kept in the pouch before were things he had never seen before , meaning it should have brought them from his home planet . They still looked pristine as though they were just plucked , so Zac hoped that the pouch would also work like a portable freezer .
That would come in handy in case of the weather changing . The weather had been great since the world changed , with only a smattering of clouds in the sky every now and then .
It seemed the trees didn’t suffer from the lack of rain . On the contrary , the forest had kept growing and mutating at an astonishing rate . Zac assumed it had to do with the cosmic energy in the atmosphere . It might work as a substitute for both sunshine and water for all he knew .
The island felt tropical by now , like the island was a primordial forgotten vestige at the edge of the world , where dinosaurs and other prehistorical beasts could be found .
That meant that there might come a tropical rain season . Zac really didn’t hope that was the case , seeing as everything got bigger and more extreme since the integration into the multi-verse . What would a torrential downpour powered by cosmic energy look like?
It took the better part of the night to skin and clean the beasts . He simply threw the skins on top of the car , not really bothered whether they dried properly or not . He didn’t really have any use for skins anymore , as the pouch and better armors kept him covered .
He was somewhat disappointed to see that he was unable to absorb cosmic energy from a Nexus Stones while doing other tasks . He first tried putting it in a pocket while he was cleaning a carcass , but he couldn’t sense the stone when he did .
Having it in one of his hands was too unwieldy , and slowed down his progress on the meat considerably . Finally , he stuffed the crystal in his mouth , hoping the contact to his body would make it possible to absorb the energy without occupying a hand .
The only result from that was that he almost choked himself to death on the energy rock . After a few more experiments he could conclude that he only could absorb cosmic energy from one crystal at the time and that he had to completely focus on the absorption for it to work . As soon as he tried to multi-task while absorbing a crystal the absorption simply would stop .
Disappointed , he could only put aside the crystal and keep it for a later date . He was planning on saving some of them in any case , as he wanted to give them to his father and sister when they met again . They were nifty , but only of limited use for him . But for people of lower levels , they’d be a great tool .
If they could be used to help his family protect themselves better it was worth saving , even if it meant slowing down his own leveling speed slightly .
Chapter 33 - Infection
Zac awoke at the dawn of light , and after preparing an assortment of tools in his pouch he set out . Today he would properly gather intelligence . His wounds were largely better now , just a bit red and sore .
He made a beeline for the incursion this time , heading straight toward the center of the island . Large parts would be uncharted territory for him here , as he had stayed somewhat at the outer edge since the start .
He had a theory that there should be a fourth kind of beast somewhere on the island that he still hadn’t seen .
There were four heralds , and at least one herald was a pack leader of its race , the barghest . But he had only encountered imps and the Gwyllgi apart from the hunkering demonlings .
There should be a fourth type of beast as well somewhere based on this , and Zac guessed that they either were located around the incursion or had moved their territory into the mountain .
Zac kept a rapid pace , moving at a speed that could be considered a sprint for a normal human . Still he made no sound as he passed through the forest , instinctively knowing where to put his feet to soundlessly proceed .
During his travels he noticed that his third class skill , Forester’s Constitution , had finally had its first progression either during last evening or this morning , now showing 1/30 . The problem was that he wasn’t quite sure what he did to progress it . The system gave no ping or notification when his quests progressed , leaving him with no information on when it happened .
A log of his actions would have been very convenient , as then he wouldn’t have to estimate his nexus coin gain from monsters or how much energy they gave all the time .
After he had moved for roughly 10 hours he finally slowed down . He was far closer to the incursion now than he had ever been before . This close he started to notice some jarring changes . For lack of a better word , the forest was infected . The red light of the incursion suffused all the surroundings , and the trees looked different , almost sickly .
Some had weird growths on them , others seemed to completely have lost all their leaves even though the summer was in full swing . The grass on the forest floor was turning a purplish color . There were also many young sprouts of a pitch black tree Zac had never seen before , which seemed to thrive in this odd environment . The very air seemed to be different as well , having an almost astringent taste . It didn’t seem to be a problem for Zac luckily , apart from feeling uncomfortable .
It seemed like the red pillar was slowly transforming its surroundings , likely to better suit the invaders . This made Zac even more anxious to complete his quest , as he didn’t know if this effect was reversible , and whether it would spread outwards . He didn’t want to create his town on a desolate island that smelled a bit like farts .
He also was astonished at the amount of beasts he saw . It seemed that all the demons preferred to stay in this environment , and the forest was packed with monsters . He shuddered at the thought of this horde of beasts being unleashed upon a human city . Luckily they were stranded here on this island .
It also made him realize that it might not have been more beasts spawning during his month of grinding , it was enough that a few strays would leave the central area of the island for the edge of the island to be refilled .
What would’ve looked like hell for many , Zac saw as a treasure trove . He almost drooled at the prospect of grinding here , but he had a mission today . Most human cultivators would likely have trouble killing one barghest since they had their upgrade , but Zac had no trouble facing multiple at a time by now . He might get a few bites and scratches if there were too many of them , but that wouldn’t be anything new for him .
Those plans could only wait though . He needed to gauge the magnitude of the invasion to make a proper plan . There was a lot to do in the coming month . Of course , he wouldn’t hide from the beasts either , so everything that entered his path was met with a swift swing of his axe .
By now he was only a couple of kilometers away from the Incursion , so he started to slow down and focus fully on stealth . He did not want to enter combat again this close to the enemy base , who knew what kind of forces that they had .