Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 80: Loamwalker

Zac woke up, disoriented for quite some time before he found his bearings. This vision was even more impactful compared to the last in a sense. Living millions and millions of years was a completely surreal experience for someone who hadn’t even turned 30 in reality. Luckily the passage of time was made fuzzy somehow for him, otherwise he might have turned mad.

The vision showed him the peak of power just like the one with the axeman, but in a completely different sense. That tree he had grown into was truly gargantuan and reminded him of the old tale of Yggdrasil, the world-tree. It was larger than a star by the end, but more importantly, it contained an endless source of life.

Zac closed his eyes again and started to imprint the feelings he felt in his mind. He knew this time was critical, and wouldn’t waste it. It was only hours later he once again opened his eyes and checked out his new skill.

[Foresterʼs Constitution - Proficiency: Early. Man and Nature One Entity. Endurance +5%, Vitality +5%. Effects doubled while in a forest. Upgradeable.]

Next, he quickly checked his monster horde quest and breathed out in relief as he saw the timer. Only one day had passed in the real world, even though it felt like eons in his vision. He was once more happy he didn’t finish this quest in the caves. While everything looked fine on the surface, he didn’t relish the thought of going into a trance for a whole day right in front of a bunch of demons. Who knew which one of them held a secret grudge for a friend or family member killed, just waiting for an opportunity to strike? Relaxed, he once more refocused on the skill.

He had initially thought the Forester’s Constitution would be some sort of defensive skill like the Stone Skin he saw the earth mages use, but he was only partly correct. It was rather a passive buff skill that worked like a title that improved his survivability. The bonus was quite good, especially considering it would give double the bonus at most parts of the island.

Zac wondered if he could carry around a patch of forest in a pouch, and throw it out whenever he was entering a battle. That way he’d always have the improved bonus. He was curious if there were any other functions of the skill, as [Axe Mastery] had given him the training system, so he tried finding another pocket space in his body.

As he suspected, when he turned his gaze inward he found another area in his body, this time in his chest. The last fractal he gained in this manner looked like a large axe, emanating the Dao of Heaviness. This fractal rather looked like the Tree of Life he saw in the vision, but inert.

Next, he checked out his status page to see what other changes might have occurred.

Name

Zachary Atwood

Level

36

Class

Hatchetman (F)

Race

Human (E)

Alignment

Human (Earth)

Titles

Born for Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon Slayer I, Full of Class, Rarified Being, Trailblazer, Child of Dao, The Big 500, Planetary Aegis

Dao

Seed of Heaviness - Early, Seed of Trees - Early

Strength

189

Dexterity

69

Endurance

147

Vitality

105

Intelligence

57

Wisdom

57

Luck

77

Free Points

3

Nexus Coins

538317

He actually already acquired another Dao Seed during his meditation without even noticing it. It was called the Dao Seed of Trees, and a prompt showed its properties.

[Dao Seed of Trees – Early. Vitality +10, Endurance +5]

The properties of the Dao indicated that it wasn’t a Dao meant for battle, but he was fine with that. He already had the Dao of Heaviness for battle, and he was making inroads on the Dao of Sharpness from his activities in the mines. Having a defensive Dao to accompany the offensive ones seemed quite good. And if he was going to fight in a sea of beasts, having an improved Endurance and Vitality would come in quite handy.

He was a bit disappointed that the Seed he gained felt pretty distant from the supreme entity that was the Tree of Life. Then again, the vision of the axeman was quite distant from the seed of heaviness as well. Besides, Ogras had already warned him from hoping he would gain some high tiered concept as a Dao.

Zac knew what to do now that he knew he had a new Dao Seed, and started channeling the Dao of Trees into the fractal, and it lit up with a green luster.

The once dead tree started to emanate an aura, but it wasn’t oppressive like the one from his axe. Instead, it gave a refreshing feeling, but also spoke of unyielding perseverance. Of course, the aura was like a firefly against the towering sun that was the Tree of Life in his vision.

If the endpoint of his first vision was the Dao of Axe or Dao of Destruction, then this one rather led toward the Dao of Life or Dao of Nature. The duality of his vastly different Seeds reminded Zac of Yin and Yang, and he felt that it was an extremely well-balanced foundation to build his future upon.

No prompts lit up his surroundings like with the last skill when he infused the tree made from fractals, and the only discernible difference was that he felt it started to emanate a warmth that spread out throughout his body. It felt a bit like when he drank the azure water, but he instinctively knew that this warmth wasn’t hurting him.

He tried swinging his axe a bit while he was infused with the Dao of Trees, but he felt no improvement in his speed or strength. He was even having trouble keeping the Dao active as he moved around, the warm feeling noticeably subsiding. It made sense since trees weren’t really mobile unless ents were a thing in the multi-verse. Besides, Zac had already surmised that the new Dao wasn’t meant for battle from the attributes it awarded, and this somewhat confirmed it.

Having an idea he cut a wound on his left arm, and once again sat down. As he started to infuse the Dao and some cosmic energy into the tree again, he felt the warmth properly spread out once more. The wound on his arm started itching within seconds, and Zac felt how the warmth moved towards his wound and started healing it. It wasn’t to the point that he could see the improvements with his naked eye, but he knew it was improving his recovery rate. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work on his damaged pathways, at least not with Early mastery.

Satisfied he once again focused on the status screen. He noticed that there was no new title this time for attaining a second Dao. He felt it should be due to the fact that there was no award for a second Dao, rather than multiple people having beaten him to it. There shouldn’t be too many who already had a second Dao, it wasn’t like one could just stare at a fire for a few days and suddenly know the Dao of Fire.

He realized he still had three free points from his level when the Herald died. After some hesitation he allocated them into Dexterity, bringing the stat to 73. Alyn toldhim earlier that the general view on the connection between Dexterity and Strength in the multiverse was that one of the stats shouldn’t be more than 100% larger than the other. After that, the effectiveness started to wear off.

For example with great Dexterity but no strength one would be able to hit the enemies in a dizzying blur, but each strike would be too weak to do proper damage. Conversely, Zac’s case was that he possessed monstrous Strength, but very low Dexterity. His strikes would be strong, but they would be slow and clumsy, making it easy to deflect or dodge them.

It had only really been a problem when he faced Rydel so far, but in the future he would meet more and more enemies with stats that could match his, so he needed to get his stats balanced as soon as possible.

It felt a bit weird to forgo his min-max strategy that always had been his method when playing games, but he needed to get used to the fact that video game knowledge could only take him so far in this reality. Of course, there were exceptions to the general guidelines of stat-allocation, but you really needed to know what you were doing.

Zac felt that he should stick to the most-accepted route for now at least, and only change it up in the future if he was absolutely certain. Besides, his Strength would keep increasing through his Dao and his class-bonuses even if he didn’t specifically allocate any more stats there for a while.

Finally done with everything he set out toward Port Atwood, but only after an hour of walking he was once again interrupted. This time it was his [Loamwalker] quest that was completed. Eagerly he checked the skill out, and as he expected this time it was a fractal that went on his legs. More specifically it was two identical fractals that were placed on the soles of his feet, directly touching the ground below.

Zac didn’t hesitate and immediately infused the new fractals with energy. As he stood still he noticed no difference, but when he took a step the world turned blurry for an instant. Afterward, he found himself standing two meters away from his original position. The skill actually increased the distance he traversed somehow.

Zac kept trying to figure the skill out by repeatedly moving around, but he had a hard time grasping what the skill actually did. Initially, he thought that it teleported him small distances, but he noticed that the movement wasn’t instantaneous. Next, he guessed that he got super speed while he moved, but he felt that wasn’t quite right either. He tried swinging an axe while he moved, but the movement was far quicker compared to his swing. It was as though the earth moved around him, rather than him moving on the earth.

Did the skill somehow disconnect him from earth’s rotation? That couldn’t be correct either, as he had no problems moving in any direction. After a while he gave up trying to explain it with logic, and could only conclude he magically moved quickly somehow. As long as he was touching the earth, that is. He also tried jumping and running, but as soon as he stopped touching the ground with at least one foot, the effect disappeared.

He kept using [Loamwalker] as he walked toward his camp in order to get used to the skill. It was an odd feeling to move faster when he leisurely walked compared to when he ran. After a while he was forced to stop using the skill, as the consumption of Cosmic Energy was quite high. It wasn’t made for long-distance movement, but all in all he was quite happy with the skill.

He wouldn’t be able to do magical feats such as strolling in the air as Rydel did, but the skill would be quite convenient in battle. He could keep moving between targets deceptively fast, and both use the skill for ambush and retreat. Of course, it would take some practice until he was proficient in combining the movement skill with battle skills.

His grasp over how far he walked right now was terrible, and he slammed into trees like a barghest four times in a short duration due to his lack of control. He could only put it aside for now and keep walking until he arrived at Port Atwood.

The wall was coming along nicely, and it was even taller compared to the one in the Azh’Rodum. The demons knew a Beast Horde was coming and didn’t dare slack off. If the town fell their settlement would be next, and they wouldn’t have the defenses of strong arrays or System-bought fortifications helping them out there. Saving Port Atwood was essential, even from a selfish standpoint.

He entered through a gate and started to look for Ogras. He couldn’t find him anywhere, and he wasn’t able to ask the resting demons either, as none of those present seemed to possess [Book of Babel]. He first went to the merchant compound to check whether the demon was there. Calrin met up with him, and after a few pleasantries explained that the demon hadn’t been there today.

Zac also asked for a status update regarding his order, but Calrin explained he still hadn’t been able to acquire a pill that could heal pathways, looking a bit embarrassed. Zac sighed in disappointment but thanked him and left, heading for the shipyard.

Ogras shouldn’t have any reason to approach the Creators, but he couldn’t be sure. As he closed in on the shipyard, he actually heard some subdued voices. Suspicious, he brought out his axe and closed in on the source of the sounds. Soon he saw Ogras, and together with him were two other male demons Zac hadn’t seen before.

“Ah, you’re here. That makes things easier,” Ogras said, as two spears wrought from shadows impaled the chests of the demons, instantly killing them.