Even with the dried viscera from the exploding demon , the still somewhat visible aftermath from the first fight with the demonling , and the bloodied indoors of the camper , he felt his heartbeat and breath calm down just from entering through the illusion array . In this little bubble , he didn’t need to be a walking slaughterhouse wreaking havoc on the demon population , he could just be .
He just sat on his new chair and closed his eyes . He felt the luxurious rug between his toes , and the wind caressing his hair . For a second he could forget the hellish existence he had led lately .
A bestial roar in the distance woke him up from his revelry . Zac sighed and got up on his feet . He still didn’t have the luxury to relax , there were things to do .
His scouting excursion had given him most of his answers , but he was struggling with coming up with a plan that might work . From his guesswork , he believed one of the heralds was somewhere up on the mountains , while the other was still unaccounted for .
Finally he had to kill a general , and Zac guessed he would be the big boss . It likely was one of the fancier-looking demons in their city , but he had no idea as of yet how to actually get to him , or how strong he was .
He held no illusions that he would be able to take the straight-forward approach and kick in the gate down and charge his way through . He’d be punched full of holes before he knew what happened .
There was the possibility of sneaking in during the dead of night and assassinating the general . But Zac felt that this was unlikely to succeed as well . For one he didn’t know who the general was , but more importantly , he didn’t have the skill-set to pull off such a caper . He wouldn’t have any problem scaling the wall or climbing into a window in the palace .
But doing so soundlessly and without any of the numerous guards noticing was the real challenge . While the scouts at the edge of the valley had been very lackadaisical about their task , the military command seemed far stricter in the actual town .
There were guards in the towers and in the walls around the clock , with changes at intervals Zac couldn’t figure out . It seemed almost randomized . He saw no chance to sneak in during a guard change . Furthermore , most of the vegetation had been cut down in the vicinity of the town , making a stealthy approach nigh impossible .
Zac had even considered tunneling into the town , but that felt much too risky . If a demon party found his entrance he’d be stuck inside . Besides , he had seen that the demons had multiple stone mages who built the palace . They might be able to detect him even when underground with some spell .
He had also toyed with the idea of trying to destroy the crystal . But he eventually gave that up as well . For one it contained such extreme amounts of energy that he was afraid it would explode and obliterate the whole island if he managed to crack it .
But more importantly it seemed that the demons were not worried in the slightest about the crystal . They just left a few men there and then left to build their town further north . If the crystal was instrumental to their invasion they’d surely protect it far better , as it seemed to be no effort for them to erect walls quickly .
Zac could only put it aside for now as he had gotten nowhere the last two days . He would focus on what he could do for now .
He had missed a few days of cutting wood while outside and had some catching up to do . His killing speed on this 3-day expedition had been astonishing , mostly due to the sheer number of targets in the center of the island . As he rhythmically swung his axe down , he mentally brought up his quest panel .
Active Quests
Dynamic Quests
Off With Their Heads (Unique) : Kill the four heralds and the general of an incursion within 3 months . Reward : 10 E-Grade Nexus Crystals , E-Grade equipment , unique building depending on performance . (2/5)
Incursion Master (Unique) : Close or conquer incursion and protect town from denizens of other alignments for 3 months . Reward : 5 E-Grade Nexus Crystals , outpost upgraded to town , status upgraded to Lord . (0/3)
Class Quests
Axe Mastery (Class) : Mastery is born through battle . Fell 1000 enemies . Reward : (548/1000)
Chop (Class) : First chop Wood . Then their bodies . Reward : (1240/10 000)
Forester's Constitution (Class) : Fight in the forests , be one with nature . Reward : (3/30)
He still hadn’t gotten any new active quests since finishing the class quest . He was starting to suspect that the active quests were locked to certain areas and events . He wouldn’t get anything like an upgrade class quest for some while he suspected , as he just had gotten his class . Meanwhile , maybe the demon slaying quest he got was tied to the island , and he’d have to leave it for another area to get another .
Either that or he was missing something about the quests . Perhaps they simply were quite rare . The one he completed did give him a title after all , and those were permanent upgrades .
Zac kept cutting wood long into the night , before finally sitting down for a few hours of sleep . He still stayed outside , as he didn’t want the walls of the camper to dampen any sounds of a potential demon war party heading his way .
The next day he woke up early and immediately headed out . He had decided to stop killing any demons close to his camp . He was afraid that a complete lack of beasts around a certain area would alert the demons . He headed toward the center , this time toward the eastern part .
He was planning on grinding beasts while looking for clues about the fourth elusive herald . Ur’Khaz had been killed in the south as it occupied the same space as him , and he had killed Vul in the western area . The monkey king was likely somewhere in the mountain to the north and that left the eastern quadrant . He thought that he would try gather some more intel while finishing up the class quests .
He went back to camp when the night approached and chopped wood for a few hours . He was lucky that he had found the pouch , as he was starting to accumulate a ridiculous amount of firewood . He had decided to leave most of it in a few dry spots around the island . Just for safety he’d construct a simple roof with some branches and leaves to protect the lumber from a downpour . The lumber was proof of his effort , and it felt wasteful to just throw away .
He kept this routine going for a few days . His intense activities left him with less than 4 hours of sleep , yet he felt refreshed when he woke up . He wondered if he’d get to a point where he didn’t have to sleep at all if his vitality and endurance got high enough .
Suddenly , as Zac slammed down his axe into the head of a barghest , a huge surge of cosmic energy entered his mind , causing him to almost black out .
Chapter 37 - Monstrous Power
While having some difficulty staying conscious Zac finished off the other three beasts that had arrived due to the noise of the fight . Luckily the surge of energy soon dissipated .
He quickly retreated after the kills , not wanting to keep battling any more barghest for the moment . After running for a few minutes he reached one of his hideouts , another construction high up in a tree .
As he sat down on the bedding on leaves he could finally focus on the new things in his head . Just as he suspected he had completed the quest for Axe Mastery with his last kill . His speed of killing had far surpassed his expectations . He had given himself a 10-day deadline but had finished it in just below a week’s time . It was mostly thanks to the high density of monsters in the central part of the island . The monsters were everywhere , and he didn’t have waste a lot of time traveling looking for his next target .
Zac closed his eyes to go over his new skill and was surprised to suddenly find himself standing on the edge of a cliff . Jolted by the change in scenery he immediately opened his eyes , only to once again see the familiar sight of his hideout .
It had only been an illusion or something created in his mind , but it had felt so real he had thought for a second he had been teleported somewhere . Zac calmed his breathing and slowly closed his eyes again .