Zac had sensed a few improvements during the battle, but he didn’t feel comfortable checking things out while he was still in the middle of battle, waiting for a potential ambush. But now it was about time he looked things over.
His attributes, mainly Endurance and Vitality, had taken a large leap forward. But he noticed that he had gained more attribute points than expected, and he looked at the usual source of unexpected boosts; his title list.
[Promising Specialist: Reach 1000 points in a single attribute before evolving to E-Grade. Reward: All stats +5, Endurance +5%.]
Zac had mixed feelings of seeing his new title, realizing it might cause some turbulence in his cultivation path. He had gained more Endurance and survivability, but the result of the title itself might prove problematic for his future progression. He had likely gotten the class option for Big Game Hunter due to his Apex Hunter-title, and he was worried the same thing would happen now that he was closing in on his next selection.
Would the system try to force him into another tank class now that it considered him a specialist? Yrial even mentioned that the System only allowed people to pick Classes that would suit their talents.
It might not be the first time that someone got 1000 points into the wrong attribute by accident, but Zac reckoned that it was extremely rare at best. He would much rather have gotten the title for reaching 1000 points in Strength, but beggars couldn’t be choosers at a time where he desperately needed power-ups. Hopefully the title only meant that he would get an additional option for a tank class without losing his other options during his evolution.
Zac was actually a bit surprised that the title only appeared now. He had already passed 1000 Endurance in his human form even before his latest improvements, but he didn’t get the title then. Perhaps the System didn’t count boosts like [Forester’s Constitution] to avoid people cheating with the help of skills like [Hatchetman’s Rage] and Emily’s boosts.
His gain in attributes wasn’t actually what he wanted to look for when he sat down, even though it was a welcome bonus. It was the fact that he sensed something change in his movement skill as he ran atop the lava. He still sunk into the molten rock in the end, but he managed to move quite a bit faster than he used to, allowing him to catch up to his squad with record-speed.
As expected he saw that [Loamwalker] had reached Late Mastery, and even [Nature’s Barrier] had improved a step as well. He wasn’t quite sure what made the skills suddenly evolve, but he was happy to take it. Both had been subject to lava before they broke through, perhaps that was a clue to push the two skills one step further?
Zac closed the screens after seeing the changes, but he didn’t exit the arrays just yet. He first summoned the emerald leaves out of curiosity, and he noticed that the defensive skill didn’t have any great changes. The leaves were larger, and they seemed to contain more energy. Zac deactivated the skill and focused on restoring his Cosmic Energy for two hours as he tried to familiarize himself with his improved Dao Seed next.
The two intense fights had not been too draining, apart from the final strike with [Nature’s Punishment]. His energy was soon enough at an acceptable level, at which point he exited the array. Zac wryly smiled when a few councilors ran up to him. He had seen them impatiently walking back and forth in the distance while he sat in his array.
The Underworld Council had sent four of the human councilors, perhaps in hopes that Zac would be more amenable to give some concessions to his own people, but they were sorely mistaken. Their roundabout questions of reopening negotiations regarding the mine were immediately shut down. Zac made no decisions on the spot, as he had people better suited at figuring out a plan for the mine than himself. He would let them deal with it while he focused on the Incursions.
But Zac still stayed on to discuss a few other topics, and the meeting took 20 minutes before Zac excused himself. The members of the Underworld Council could only watch in disappointment as Zac bought a teleportation array and disappeared in a flash of light.
The council needed twelve hours before they got their real armies ready, and Zac left a few people to help guide them to the main continent. He wasn’t too worried about them trying to doublecross him and take control of the town above, as he had made backup plans.
Mr. Trang and his squads had been busy setting up not one but three back-up towns on the unexplored continent, making sure that Zac never lost the means to get back. If the Council tried something he could descend upon them within a day. A transit station on a separate island from Port Atwood had also been set up, meaning that there was no risk of his town getting infiltrated.
The air on Port Atwood smelled extraordinarily fresh as he stepped out of the teleportation array. He headed over to the Academy when he couldn’t find his sister anywhere, and he found her in the middle of setting up the arrays she mentioned the other day. A new and completely circular structure was being erected, and Zac could see that it held three very distinct layers just like they had discussed.
Ogras and the army had left a few days ago as planned, and they rejoined the extremely harried Sino-Indian Alliance to finally stop the second zombie horde in its tracks. The demon had even entered a heated battle against the Zombie General in the air above the sea of undead, though neither was able to gain an advantage according to the report.
The fight ended with both of them backing away, with Ogras sporting light wounds. Zac guessed that the demon wanted to solidify his Dao through battle, so he had sought out the strongest opponent he could find. Hopefully it would pay dividends with the funnel later. The fact that they managed to force one of the main armies to a halt was a great sign, but he wasn’t sure how long they could keep it up after Ogras left the frontlines.
But it would hopefully buy them a couple of more days before the enormous array truly activated, which was great since Kenzie needed some more time to prepare.
Zac couldn’t just sit around and wait until the array was finished, and he was torn between a few options. He first considered joining the battle against the Undead Horde, but eventually discarded the idea. He needed to fight in his Draugr-form since he lacked two levels, and he didn’t want to alert the Undead Empire about that persona unless necessary.
Eventually he decided to take down another surface incursion in the meantime, as many of the invaders still focused on enriching themselves rather than helping in the fight against the Undead Empire. He had no problem with using those people like a whetstone for his final levels.
Seeing the Flame Golem’s actions were also a bit worrying, filling Zac with some urgency. It would become a problem if the invaders decided to follow suit and escape through the Nexus Hub before Zac could get his hands on them. It would both result in loss of experience for him, and that the massive wealth they plundered from stolen land would be permanently lost.
He wanted to take down as many as possible before they cashed out and fled to their homeworlds, and Zac guessed that many were already planning on leaving due to the Undead Empire.
So he ordered a Valkyrie who was on standby in the Academy to head over to the Fire Golem Incursion and tell his elite squad to join him. Soon enough Verana and a squad of elites met up with ‘Mr. Black’ outside a teleporter in a town hidden in the wilderness. Apart from Verana and Tylia there was also Harvath and his squad of demons.
Smaug had somehow joined the squad as well, and he looked about ready to cry as he looked up at the sky. He stood still like he was frozen and took one deep breath after another.
“Wait, we have two suns now?” the merchant finally exclaimed after a few seconds.
“And four moons,” Joanna smiled.
“Four of them? Wonder if there are treasures up there just waiting for the first person strong enough to grab them,” the demon muttered.
“Most moons are pretty desolate places,” Verana said from the side. “Few of them have a planet core that generates Cosmic Energy. But those that do are often turned into private residences as the density of Cosmic Energy becomes pretty extraordinary. There would no doubt be treasures for the first explorers at such a place.”
Smaug whistled with interest before he finally looked down again and joined the squad as they finished their preparations. All of them looked rested and ready for battle, which wasn’t surprising since Zac had essentially carried out the whole battle against the golems himself.
The group set out without preamble, and things went as expected. After having fought against four above-average Incursions in the unfamiliar terrain of the Underworld, assaulting a much weaker Incursion on the surface provided little challenge for the group.
The moment they reached the incursion Verana silently summoned Grub, and Zac jumped on its head before they rammed the defensive array. The two had acted as a wall breaking team a few times already, and the defenses that the invaders set up proved far too weak to handle their assault. It cracked like brittle glass, and a handful of the feathered humanoids of the incursion coughed up blood from the backlash.
Zac jumped down from Grub and stomped in the ground, teleporting himself over to a section of the invader army where a group of birdmen emitting the powers of E-grade warriors stood. He directly activated [Profane Seal], for the first time seeing the skill after he managed to upgrade it to Middle Mastery.
The five sinister towers had gotten an addition of five gates that were placed in the gap between the towers themselves. It looked a bit funny with gates that had open space on both sides, but they emitted a terrifying enough aura for anyone to take them seriously.
Zac couldn’t figure out any purpose of the gates apart from the fact that he sensed he was able to open and close them at will. It was pretty convenient as it would allow him to get reinforcements while he fought inside the cage.
On top of the gates the same types of azure fractals as the ones on top of the towers hovered, each of them summoning another spectral chain. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to be much stronger since he upgraded the skill, meaning that a strong warrior would be able to rebuff or break them.
But Zac had already found another usage of the chains as he only commanded five of them to start harassing the Incursion leader and the two guards he had by his sides. The other five started to whip around the large number of birdmen who were also caught inside the large cage as well.
Streams of energies almost immediately started to flood into his body as he started to fight the leader with the help of [Hunger] and [Unholy Strike]. It was the chains that managed to impale one of the average warriors after another, killing them before the corpses were dragged along toward the next victim.
A few of the warriors survived having their torsos penetrated by the spectral chains, and wails and screams of fear started to echo in the area as the chains ruthlessly started to drain them of their life-force. In just a minute the chains were studded by rows of desiccated husks as they whirled around in the air, creating a truly horrifying spectacle completely irreverent of the dead.
He finally understood what the profane part of the skill name was referring to.