Zac had walked for almost an hour when a sound made him stop in his tracks and shrink into the wall . It was light hurried steps that echoed through the tunnels not far ahead . They didn’t seem to be coming toward him , so Zac slowly ventured forward , careful not to make a single sound .
The steps slowly were becoming a bit more distant , and Zac hurried up until he reached a crossing . He carefully looked around a corner toward where the sounds came from to see what made the steps . And just before it turned another corner , he could briefly spot a small imp trotting along .
Zac’s heartbeat started to speed up , as seeing the imp opened up a possibility . Perhaps the imps’ main area of activity was underground , which would explain why he had encountered so few up above ground . And if it was , then their herald was likely down here as well .
Chapter 50 - Crystals
Zac waited for a bit to make sure no other imp or demon was incoming before he ventured the same path he saw the imp take .
He surreptitiously glanced around any corners or crossroads , but even after a minute he still hadn’t seen any signs of the imp or anything else of interest . Either the imp was a lone explorer in the caverns or it was out of the way for some reason .
A scratching sound stopped his train of thought and Zac moved to the next intersection to see where the sound came from . He finally found the small imp again and it was just 10 meters away from him , currently digging through some moss . After it removed a top layer it sneakily put something inside , and then carefully put the moss back on top . It got up and turned around , and suddenly found itself staring right at Zac .
Zac didn’t hesitate and instantly killed it with a dagger . He walked up to the corpse and put it in one of his pouches , before walking over to where it dug around earlier . Initially he had wanted to follow it back to wherever he came from , but he had been too careless and immediately got spotted . He’d have to get better at sneaking in these tunnels unless he wanted to get mobbed down .
After removing the moss he actually found a small stash of Nexus Crystals . They weren’t polished and uniform like the ones he had taken from the demon leader , but rather looking like uncut raw gems . Some were as small as a fingernail while the largest was slightly larger than his own crystals .
It seemed like the imp actually was hiding away its wealth in this uninhabited part of the cave system like a cultivating squirrel . So it looked like it wasn’t heading to any other imps or demons , but rather away from them . Perhaps daylight robbery was a real problem amongst the imps , so hiding their cultivation resources was imperative .
The imp’s actions raised a few questions . First of all , could imps cultivate? They seemed to have some inherent proclivity for magic , as all of them thus far were able to shoot those nefarious fireballs . But it felt like all of them more or less were of the same strength , making him believe they couldn’t get stronger .
There seemed to be some fundamental differences between the imps and the demons or himself . They didn’t have levels when he inspected them with Eye of Discernment] , and it didn’t look like they had classes either as everyone used the same attack . That’s why Zac placed them in the same group as the other beasts in his mind .
So what was the use of the crystals? The most likely explanation he could find was evolution . He had seen all kinds of mutations and evolutions in the flora on the island caused by the cosmic energy . Who’s to say it didn’t work with the fauna as well . Perhaps the crystals could help a normal imp to evolve into something greater , like the Heralds .
It was a bit worrying , as normal imps were deadly enough . If suddenly a throng of them evolved into super-imps wouldn’t they burn down the whole island? He could only hope that evolving wasn’t that simple a matter for now .
The second thing on Zac’s mind was the crystals themselves . Where had it found them? If there were a bunch of them it would explain many things , such as why the density of cosmic energy was so high in the mountains . It could be due to the proximity of a large amount of Nexus Crystals , whose energy bled through into the surroundings .
It would also explain the unceasing flow of demons coming into the mountains . A mountain full of Nexus Crystals should be the equivalent of a multi-verse gold mine .
That , unfortunately , meant that the demons were continuously pilfering the resources that Zac would need to continue to improve and build up a town .
Zac was sorely lacking in Nexus Coins right now . He could barely improve himself , let alone build up a whole town . His gains lately from killing monkeys had been tremendous , but it was nothing compared to the costs of creating , and running , a town .
For example , there was an array called E-Grade Medium Scale Town Defense Array] that was a combination of a defensive shield and some attacking functions . It looked like a good all-around addition for a newly established settlement . But that array alone cost 5 million Nexus Coins , and furthermore , it wasn’t free to operate .
There were defensive turrets and anti-siege weapons as well , each costing over a million coins . There was just no way for him to grind that kind of amount of coins . Even if he got twice as strong and murdered monkeys without rest or sleep it would take years before he got all the basic structures of the town .
But if he had a large number of Nexus Crystals he might be able to pay all this , and maybe even more . He didn’t have any means of selling the Crystals for Nexus Coins at the moment , but there were things such as shops and auction houses in the outpost store . If he purchased one of those he was sure they’d accept his crystals for some coin .
Of course , it all hinged on him actually getting the crystals . Driven by a renewed sense of purpose , Zac headed back toward where he came from . Since the imp went out of its way to hide the crystals out here , there shouldn’t be much activity in the surroundings as well .
Zac made a mental note of the area since he might need a base of operations down here . As he carefully proceeded through the paths the ambient cosmic energy kept increasing , now starting to reach the density that he had felt in the valley with the monkey king .
After continuing on for roughly 10 minutes he heard some shuffling further down the path . Zac immediately stopped , a glint of greed and anticipation on his face . Every demon he found down here would probably make him wealthier . He imagined looting magic pouches packed to the rafters with crystals , a creepy grin slowly starting to emerge on his face .
Unfortunately it wasn’t a walking nest egg he encountered , but a white crocodile .
At a second glance he realized it wasn’t actually a crocodile , but a supersized salamander . It had a thick build and was roughly four meters long . It was mostly white with some purple markings . Zac thought that subterranean species normally possessed no eyes , but this didn’t seem to apply to this specimen . It lazily ambled through a subterranean tunnel , swiping up various mushrooms and herbs with its mouth along the way .
Zac didn’t know if it was a guard animal for the demons or just something that lived down here . He shrank into a side corridor to hide as he didn’t want to bother with this huge beast at the moment . The beast seemed oblivious to his existence until it suddenly exploded into motion just as it was next to the side-tunnel Zac hid in .
Its maw opened showing a line of large translucent teeth looking like huge salt crystals . The beast tilted its head and charged straight at Zac’s torso , but he was accustomed to this manner of attacks from the countless barghest he had fought .