Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 39: Guidance

Next Zac wanted to check out the Dao seed. Soon he managed to open a new screen in the system.

It didn’t have a lot of information, just a list in the same manner as the titles.

[Dao seed of Heaviness – Early. Strength +10, Endurance +5]

While the menu or information wasn’t very spectacular, the stat bonuses were quite good. As Zac’s main stats were Strength and Endurance this seed’s bonus was a perfect gift. Perhaps a reason why he learned the Dao seed so smoothly was due to this.

It also made him understand the importance of Dao to the system. He just gained a seed of the Dao of Heaviness, and it was only an early seed. Both things indicated that he had just taken the first steps to understand this concept, but it already gave a boost worth a few levels.

What would it give if he managed to improve it to a higher level, like the Late stage? And what happened if it stopped being a seed and turned into the real thing? The boost it gave would likely be astonishing.

Zac felt that the seed and the fractal in his mind were somehow connected. He gained it while trying to emulate the powerful feeling in that axe swing after all. He once again turned his sight inward and gazed upon the axe fractal again.

He couldn’t tell exactly how, but he sensed that the pattern of the fractal somehow subtly changed. It also no longer seemed inert as it was before, but emitted an aura that gave Zac the familiar sense of weight and intractability.

It was the same sense of heaviness that he somewhat managed to instill into his swings while trying to emulate the axe-man. Now that he could contrast it to the aura in the illusion, he understood that the Dao of Heaviness was only part of the whole picture, and the suffocating aura of the axe was something far greater.

Still, it was a step in the right direction. His seed was only at the early stage. There surely were ways to improve upon it, and perhaps someday his axe aura, or Dao, might be as mighty as the one he saw.

Now that the fractal felt active again, he once more tried to circulate cosmic energy through it. This time it actually worked, and the fractal lit up.

Suddenly his vision changed, and fractals started appearing. Some shone up like glowing footprints in the ground, and others were lights forming arcs and trajectories around him. The lights seemed to have no effect on its surroundings, not lighting the ground or trees up in the slightest. Furthermore, when Zac moved his head the lights moved with him and slightly adjusted. Meaning it came from the system in the same manner as his different menus.

It felt like he was wearing augmented-reality goggles, giving him an extra layer of reality that only he could see. At least he assumed only he could see the lights and the menus, as they only seemed to respond and change in reaction to Zac’s movements and commands.

He tried to touch the fractals that formed the trajectories, but it was like trying to touch a rainbow. Furthermore, as he moved his hand the lights adjusted and moved as well. After adjusting to his new vision he tried stepping on the glowing footprints and moving his body according to the illuminated trajectories. He found himself swinging his axe in a slanted upwards motion. The movement felt smooth and natural, and it felt like he was able to bring the full force of almost his whole body into the swing.

He kept following the glowing instructions and found himself performing a multitude of attacks. There were not only normal swings, but every part of the axe was used. From the butt of the haft to the spike on the back-side of the head, everything was used in an array of methods to maim and kill enemies. It even showed how to use the rest of his body, such as grabbing with his off-hand, footwork and tackles.

It couldn’t be said that the fractals in the air taught him actual Skills, but rather basic guidance on how to properly move and handle an axe.

Every strike had one thing in common, it contained the mass and intractability of his Dao. It made him realize many aspects of his weapon of choice as well. An axe differed from a sword in that it was balanced toward the head, whereas a sword was closer to the handle. This gave an axe a higher forward momentum and higher destructive power.

To master the axe he should focus on the part where it excelled, meaning this power and forcefulness. Its disadvantage was that it wasn’t as flexible as a sword was. The bladed area was also far shorter with an axe, so some precision was needed for a killing strike. At least until he could swing his axe in the fantastical manner of the man in the vision.

Zac kept going through various motions as he moved toward the camp. He was entranced by the beautiful simplicity in the moves, and the power they managed to bring out.

Suddenly he stumbled and fell down, shocked to notice that he was completely and utterly drained. He hadn’t completely recovered his energy from his vision earlier, and it seemed like using the axe fractal consumed large amounts of cosmic energy.

At least Zac finally felt he had figured out how the [Axe Mastery] skill worked. It wasn’t what he expected, but he was still very happy with the result.

He initially thought he would get a bonus to stats similar to the Demon Slayer title, like bonus stats while wielding an axe, and perhaps generally get imparted some knowledge about axes. The reality actually trumped his expectations, and the rewards were twofold.

The first part was the vision, which Zac now was certain was showed to him so that he could plant his Dao Seed. The other part was this guidance system that could help him improve his form and fighting abilities. It might have been more convenient if the System crammed his head full of these things, making him master these aspects immediately.

Perhaps that wasn’t possible, as it was related to the Dao. Or perhaps the system didn’t want to just hand things out willy-nilly. The guidance system was a god given in any case as Zac had missed the tutorial and sorely needed some guidance.

Of the two he felt the Dao-vision was the most valuable. One might be able to gain those seeds by themselves by meditating or being an expert on a subject, but Zac’s intuition told him that it wasn’t that easy. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been the third, but the 3rd millionth, to attain a Dao Seed. The world was full of experts, after all.

He decided on the spot to use the time he earlier spent on cutting wood on practicing his axe-form in the future. That time would be freed up as soon as he finished the second class quest in any case.

Zac sat down to recuperate and devoured some meat from his pouch, before continuing back home. It was dark when he returned to camp, as usual, this time due to his new skill rather than grinding monsters all waking hours.

Still, he couldn’t rest, as he was too excited about what his other skill would be like. He started cutting wood in a furious speed, lumber flying left and right. After roughly 90 minutes he slowed down and caught his breath. He was only 10 swings away from finishing the quest for the [Chop] skill, and he wanted to be in rested condition just in case.

He drank a mouthful of water and steadied his breath before once again hefting his axe and swinging the 10 final strikes.

This time cosmic energy didn’t enter his mind, but information. This time the impartment was akin to when he bought [Eye of Discernment] from the Nexus Crystal. Zac was a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t get another vision that could give him another Dao seed or the like, but he knew that was a rare opportunity he gained.

The skill was another fractal, and the usage was similar to the identification skill. It needed him to circulate cosmic energy through his energy pathways in a specific manner, then imagining it entering this fractal. The difference was that while [Eye of Discernment] placed the fractals inside his eyes, the new one was on the top of his right hand. It wasn’t a physical manifestation, rather it superimposed itself on his pathways.

This was different from his eye skill, which was isolated fractals in his eyes. The [Chop] skill’s fractal seemed to actually merge with his Class-pathways. It didn’t look out of place or messy, but it felt as a missing piece of a puzzle was added.

When Zac rewrote his pathways there were many parts that looked blurry and missing. It seemed that from his new skill that they were slots for his skills. Maybe even other skills, like [Steps of Gaia] that he was eyeing in the store, could be slotted into his pathway gaps.

He tried doing the same with his ocular skill, but it was a closed circuit fractal, giving no opportunity to integrate with his pathways. The axe mastery fractal was in an enclosed space in his mind, and he had no way to connect it to his pathways either. Unfortunately, he lacked any more skills to experiment with. He actually had enough Nexus Coins to buy the cheapest skills by now, but he didn’t want to burn his hard earned cash for an experiment.

He wasn’t sure what benefits there were to slotting it into his pathways compared to simply having them like his identification skill. He would have to test it and find out.

Even though it was late at night he couldn’t wait, too eager to find out the effects of his new skill. Even if he realized it would be nothing like the great spells he saw in the vision, he had already fought against someone with an impressive skill. It was the demon leader with the great sword, whose furniture now adorned his campsite.

The black arcs of lightning had almost gotten him killed a few times. From the simple name of his own skill he realized that it might not be as extravagant though. But he did get it from a rare class after all, so it shouldn’t be useless.

He planned to try out the skill by using it a few times, then finding a demon beast to test it on, so he left his camp in search for a decent target.

As he walked some ways from the camp he made a new discovery. A skill screen had been added to his various prompts. It hadn’t been there when he bought the identification skill, which is why it had taken him all day before trying it. He surmised it must’ve activated when he got his class skills.

Normal Skills

Eye of Discernment - Proficiency: - . A glimpse into the unknown. Upgradeable

Class Skill

Axe Mastery - Proficiency: Early. The seed of Dao is planted. Upgradeable

Chop - Proficiency: Early. There is greatness in simplicity.

The screen showed scant information, but it did give Zac a few answers to things he had been wondering about. The class skills seemed to have proficiency, and both were at early stage. His Dao seed was at early stage as well, and he guessed that if he progressed in [Axe Mastery], the seed might follow.

[Chop] would likely simply get stronger if the proficiency increased. His identification skill had no proficiency, and it seemed that it wouldn’t get stronger. He had wondered about whether he could improve his skill and get more information about enemies, or even be able to identify items.

It was, however, upgradeable. He saw no hint of the requirements, but it was good to know that he could improve the skill into a better one. [Chop] wasn’t upgradeable, which was a bit disappointing. He could only hope the description was true, that there was greatness in simplicity.

If he went by his knowledge from video games, then he’d likely need to raise proficiency to the max before somehow upgrading [Axe Mastery] into a higher tiered skill. As that option wasn’t available for [Eye of Discernment], he could only hope to find out some clues at a later date.

Of course, even if he wouldn’t be able to upgrade [Chop] he’d still try to max out its proficiency. Who knew if the System would reward a Title, or new class quests if he did. The system did like it when people put in effort, after all.