Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 96: Terror of the Mountains

“Assistance?” Zac asked skeptically.

“As you know wildlife is quickly changing. A beast has appeared in the mountains, and we fear it will evolve soon if left alone. It has started hunting citizens of Winterleaf Village and the neighboring settlements. In the beginning it was just for food, but lately it seems it hunts us for Cosmic Energy judging by the numbers it’s killed. The people are unable or unwilling to join us in fighting it.

“Most of the other citizens in neighboring settlements feel they can simply leave the forests if it gets too dangerous. But this is our ancestral home, we can’t just abandon it. That’s why we pooled our resources in order to find new allies through the teleportation array,” Selas said, with multiple eyes staring hopefully at Zac.

“If the monster is causing trouble for your town, why don’t you buy protective arrays?” Zac questioned. A beast evolving seemed troublesome, but they could just trap it with an array and then throw something like a Thunder Punishment at it. Zac doubted even the Fiend Wolf would survive if it got stuck in the middle of that crazy lightning barrage. For the money they spent on a teleportation array they could have blasted even Zac to kingdom come.

The townspeople glanced confused at their leader who only looked a bit depressed.

“Unfortunately my achievements in the tutorial weren’t enough to unlock those items. I have a quest to unlock it, but it is far outside the scope of what Winterleaf village can handle at the moment, much more difficult than simply killing the beast,” he explained.

Zac was surprised but careful to not let anything show on his face. He had no idea that different Nexus Nodes possessed a different collection of options. It wasn’t anything Ogras or the others mentioned either. He thought that the System was uncharacteristically generous by allowing him to buy things such as the Thunder Punishment and the arrays. But perhaps it was because of his achievements. It was either that or the fact that he gained his town by defeating an incursion instead of getting it in the tutorial.

He sighed and looked around the table. He could sympathize with these people, but he was not some savior who had time to go around and save the villages. His goal was simple, find his hometown and his family. It was already a daunting enough task without making detours all the time. He was about to reject their request for assistance, but a window popping up stopped him in his tracks.

[New Active Quest: Monster hunt (Normal): Slay the beast in the mountains. No assistance allowed. Reward: [F-Grade Automatic Map] (0/1)]

This development surprised him. Was anyone simply able to give out quests? But it didn’t look like it was something the people around the table did, as they were simply looking at him hopefully. He guessed that it likely was the System which wanted to force him to fight the beast.

“The beast is not only a threat to us, but to all the settlements in the area, both Ishiate and human lives are at stake,” another person added, taking Zac’s silence as hesitation.

“Have you heard about something called an Automatic Map?” Zac suddenly asked, confusing the people at the table who looked at each other.

“I know!” one of the younger people suddenly piped up. “I heard about it in the Tutorial. It’s a spiritual map that shows the area around you almost no matter where you are. It marks any settlements and towns on itself. The better the grade the more detailed it is, and the larger area it covers.”

Zac started to get eager, as this was something that would be really useful for him in his travels. He felt a bit helpless that the System once again dangled something he needed in front of his nose, but was starting to feel that was simply how it operated. Unless the rewards were tempting enough many wouldn’t risk their lives.

“What type of animal is it?” Zac probed.

“It is a mutated Mink. It is around three meters long and extremely aggressive. We have tried to kill it but itʼs extremely nimble. It sneaks into the towns at night and kills until it is discovered, and is gone before we can mount an effective counter,” Selas answered with a sigh.

“And itʼs level?”

“Last time it was spotted it was level 68. That was five days ago. It might have gained a level or two since, as it levels up quite quickly”.

Zac mulled over what to do. The animal sounded strong, but not overly so. He possessed his new weapon and the Seed of Sharpness which increased his lethality quite a bit against solo enemies. The monster wasn’t evolved either, and wouldn’t be anywhere as strong as the Fiend Wolf he fought recently. But it wasn’t some weakling if multiple villages couldn’t kill it, and he needed to solo kill it to receive the map.

The deer-people thought Zac’s silence was an expression of hesitance, and Selas added some incentives.

“Of course we don’t expect you to do this for free. I gained two spots to the worldwide treasure hunt in three months during the tutorial. I am willing to cede one of those spots to your town if you decide to help us,” the leader added with a serious face.

“Treasure hunt?” Zac asked confused.

“It is a limited event the System arranges seven months after the fall, where participants will be teleported to some unknown area like with the tutorial. It was possible to gain entrance tokens to the event during the tutorial, but it was notoriously hard,” the leader explained, and couldn’t help but straighten his back as he did. “It contains various valuables, from gear to herbs. There’s even limited titles available inside from what the pixies said.”

“Can anyone go?” Zac asked interested, as it sounded like a pretty amazing opportunity. He was ahead of the curve in terms of power, and there likely weren’t many places on Earth where he could keep his empowerment going. This event sounded like a good opportunity that normally wouldn’t have anything to do with him since he wasn’t a cultivator.

“Anyone can go as long as one is a native of this planet and has an entrance token. I believe it will be the first gathering of the elites of all the races.”

The slot was something he would definitely want. He should be able to sell it for a great sum even if he didn’t end up using it. The map itself was reason enough for him to fight the super-mink, and this was a great bonus. Still, he wouldn’t jump into it blindly and asked some more questions about the monster. Finally satisfied he was ready to set out, not wanting to waste any more time.

“Ok, deal. Lead me to its den,” Zac said as he stood up.

However, none of the beastmen stood up, and instead glanced at each other doubtfully.

“We… um… appreciate your enthusiasm, but killing this beast will take the cooperation and planning of a few villages. We are not ready to challenge it from our end,” the old huntsman said with some hesitation.

“I need to observe its habitat and hopefully its power personally to report back home, otherwise they will not send man-power here through the portal,” Zac decided to lie. It felt like too much of a bother to convince the group that he was powerful enough to do this alone.

Still, no one seemed ready to set out and just looked down with troubled faces. Finally Selas sighed and stood up.

“I will lead you to its habitat. But beware, it is extremely fast. If it targets us I will only be able to protect myself, if even that,” he said. It looked like many of the other beastmen in the meeting were about to protest, but he silenced them with a wave of his hands.

“Give me ten minutes and we will set out”.

Soon the two walked along a path in the forest, heading toward one of the mountains in the vicinity. It was believed the mink lived by a river that ran through the mountain, claiming the area as its habitat.

As they walked Zac learned various things of interest. The history of the Ishiate was quite interesting. Apparently, their society was on the cusp of industrialization when they got integrated into the multi-verse along with Earth. However, their society held nature in high regard and even saw the forests and mountains as their gods.

It caused a schism between those who chose to live as one with nature and those who embraced technological progress. Conflict was common lately between the two camps, one trying to stop the desecration of their gods, the other trying to move their race forward. The Winterleaf village was part of the former group, consisting mainly of simple hunters and foragers. Zac believed that this lifestyle likely helped them survive far better in this new reality than the average people of earth.

He also learned that apart from humans and the beastmen there was at least one more race that got thrown into the mix. However, Selas didn’t know much about them as he had never seen them himself. From the description they sounded like humanoid insects, and they kept to themselves. They made no contact with the other two races from what the hunter knew, and they were extremely territorial. Anything that came close to their hives was met with furious and unrelenting violence.

There also wasn’t any incursion in the vicinity, and Selas had only heard about their existence from the lessons in the tutorial. That gave Zac some hope that they weren’t peppered across the globe, so his hometown could very well be in a more peaceful area as well. If he had to choose between the wildlife and the organized forces of the incursions as an enemy, he’d pick the stupid beasts every time.

He also tried asking some questions about the tutorial, but Selas clearly grew suspicions from the questions. Zac didn’t want to broadcast the fact that he, or his “faction”, didn’t know anything about the tutorial, and could only put those questions aside for the moment. Soon they arrived at the foot of the mountains and could see the river cutting a path through it.

“We really shouldn’t venture further in than this my friend. There have been multiple reports about the beast in this area, and it could pop up at any moment as long as we walk along the river.”

Zac nodded and took out his [Verun’s Bite] from his pouch. This was the second time he properly glanced at it.

The axe was slightly larger compared to the military axes of the demons, and the adjective that would best describe it was primal. It had a large almost straight edge that ran roughly 40 centimeters long, moving some ways alongside the handle. The metal of the head looked worn, with multiple scratches and imperfections. However, Zac knew that the edge was razor sharp after testing it out a bit before.

On top of the head there were grisly teeth of some unknown beast embedded that were blackened and serrated. The same type of teeth were fastened at the bottom of the slightly uneven handle. The handle itself was made of some wood, and almost fully wrapped in coarse leather. All in all, it looked like something Zac imagined an Orc war-chief would use, and it even emitted an air of danger.

Selas backed away warily as he saw Zac arm himself.

“What are you doing human? You can’t possibly be…”

“I am heading in. Please do not follow me. Anyone that approaches me during battle will be considered an enemy, and I will attack,” Zac said as he unleashed his presence.

The hunter was clearly shocked by the terrifying force that suddenly was gushing out of Zac, as he further backed away. After making sure that the Ishiate wasn’t following he simply nodded and headed toward the river, each step moving him over five meters away.

Soon he was walking alongside the water, carefully on the lookout for any type of domicile like a cavern. The beast was quite large and it shouldn’t be too hard to find as long as it stayed somewhere close to the river.

A tingling of danger made him instinctually swing his left hand back as he moved his head sideways. The punch resulted in a deep thud and Zac was actually pushed forward a bit as he heard a pained yelp. He quickly turned around and saw that his target had found him instead.

The huge mink stood a few meters away from him, a bit hesitant now that its ambush failed. Zac wouldn’t give up this opportunity and quickly charged up [Chop] while swinging down his weapon. The teeth fastened on the axe possessed a magical effect, making it almost sound as the axe growled as it ripped through the air.

The mink was elusive and it felt like it didn’t contain a single bone in its body as it dodged the swing, jumping between outcroppings along the rock wall. Zac grunted and copied five large edges to his axe. The new cosmic energy blades looked a bit different now that they copied [Verun’s Bite] instead of the old blade.

In almost impossibly quick manner he threw out the five blades, both trying to hit the animal and any places where it could try to dodge. Their distance wasn’t too large, and five blades each five meters long covered a huge area, cutting off all paths of retreat for the beast. It managed dodge four of the blades, but the fifth slammed into its front leg, cutting a deep gash.

With a pained screech it fell down toward the ground, and Zac immediately used [Loamwalker]. As the beast was falling down, an axe imbued with the Dao of Sharpness rose to meet it. And like that the terror of the area was slain.