Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 122: Homecoming

Zac appeared in the familiar teleportation house and immediately heard some ruckus. He grimaced and quickly walked outside to see what was going on.

The response of the demons was surprisingly quick, with over twenty of them standing at the ready to blast his new soldiers to high heaven. The former slaves looked shocked at the sight of the demons, but Zac was happy to see that they didn’t forget their training, and formed a decent defensive line.

“That’s enough. These are new recruits of Port Atwood,” Zac said as he stepped in between the two groups.

Luckily the demons followed his standing orders, not wantonly killing anything coming through the portal. The array was only possible to use with his permission after all, so anything that came through should be an ally.

“You keep bringing back young girls to the island every time you leave. I’m starting to get jealous,” a light voice drifted over from the group of demons as Alea stepped out.

She scrutinized the girls, who warily looked back at her.

“Well, they’re pretty weak, but at least they’re better than those from the ship,” she said with a smile.

“Oh, you’re not happy with the assessment? You want to test your mettle, little girl?” she added as she saw one of the cultivators in the new group glare angrily at her.

“That’s enough. Where is Alyn? These people need basic training, I want them at fighting capacity as soon as possible,” Zac said.

“I’ll take you there,” Alea answered as she walked up to his side while throwing a teasing smile at the girls behind him.

Zac knew she was mostly messing around and didn’t mind it as he started walking, following the poison mistress’ directions.

“Um… What’s going on? Why are there… demons here?” one of the squad leaders hesitantly asked as they moved toward the temporary town.

“Well, that isn’t really important. You can see it as they’re another foreign race sharing our new planet. Besides, there are humans here as well, just not that many,” Zac said, still respecting the demons’ wishes to stay incognito as much as possible.

“Can you update me on what’s been going on since I left?” Zac asked as he turned to Alea.

“Ogras is still in seclusion, absorbing the fruit,” she started, looking prepared for the question.

“There was almost no reconstruction needed from the ant-wave. We have sent a few exploratory parties inside and killed off most of those still alive inside the hive. Unfortunately, those kills awarded no contribution points. Space inside has stabilized by now and is barely larger than the exterior. There are some interesting developments there, but I’ll let Alyn discuss that with you,” she said, drawing confused glances from the others.

“Ok, what about the exploratory missions?” Zac asked next.

“The last of them returned yesterday. Three of the vessels met no real troubles. Surprisingly most of the islands around us are populated. Most are populated with humans, but two are comprised of beastmen who seem to have a rudimentary grasp of the Dao of Technology. The parties mostly kept some distance to them apart from a few minor altercations or meetings. However, the last group only had two survivors of the 6 crewmen. Apparently they stepped on an island and after walking a bit they were assaulted by extremely aggressive insectoid beings”, she finished.

Zac was a bit surprised that there were so many encampments scattered around his island. The beastmen were obviously the Ishiate, and it sounded the camps close to Port Atwood were those that were starting to industrialize before the integration. He was a bit curious to meet these beastmen, but he didn’t have time for that at the moment.

It was more troubling to hear that a neighboring island held a Zhix Hive. Zac still knew very little about that race, apart from the fact that they were even more hostile than the Forces of the incursions. It was like having a crazy neighbor, never knowing when trouble would come knocking at your door.

“How far is the island with the Zhix? That’s the insectoid species,” Zac asked.

“It actually is one of the closest islands, just an hour or so away on your vessel to the northeast. It was the last island the group planned on visiting before returning,” Alea said with a sigh.

That was even worse news. It meant that the danger only increased further, and the Zhix might even land on his island without him noticing since almost all of the shoreline was unguarded. The last time the humans were only intercepted since they specifically sailed toward his shipyard.

He really needed some alert system and would take some time to look through the shop for something fitting, and even consult with Calrin if he didn’t find anything.

After ten minutes of walking they reached a house some distance from the town encampment, roughly somewhere around where the Academy would be located in the future. Still, the building looked very temporary, and the work done was mostly clearing out forest and smoothing out the ground.

A large area was covered in gravel, and it resmbled an outdoors gym from the various boulders and contraptions there.

“I see you got me some more students after all. I had a feeling you would want to increase the population soon, and had a few people arrange this space for me,” Alyn said with a smile as she exited the house.

“Low levels, but decent attitude. They are lacking in bloodlust and ruthlessness though, but that can be fixed. Not a bad first squadron,” she said after quickly glancing over the girls behind Zac and Alea.

“A few of them are cultivators, but the rest are mortals. I hope you can look over options for a good cultivation manual to give them,” Zas said.

After traveling with Ryan and the other cultivators for a week he’d learned a lot about the Tutorial. They had all been shocked when they learned that he wasn’t actually a cultivator himself, rather a mortal.

Everyone who entered the Tutorial got the same low tiered cultivation manual. It was without any element and not very powerful, but helped set a foundation to the pathway system that could later be changed into whatever pattern their class provided. To get a better and more suitable manual they had to earn them.

The first day in the tutorial was pretty relaxed. Everyone had been teleported to a large town and greeted by the workers of the system. They had gotten an orientation that explained what was going on and basic information about cosmic energy, the System and the Multiverse.

Many were skeptical, but it was hard to refute what was said when it came from a flying pixie who showed examples of magic as she explained it. They were even stuffed with some propaganda, as it was explained they were the ‘chosen ones’, and the hope of humanity. The mortals were essentially called lower life-forms by the pixies, not deserving of the system’s attention.

They were given the manual, which was simply called [F-Grade Cultivation Manual] and taught how to meditate to absorb Cosmic Energy quicker. They were also given a choice of a skill, ranging from weapon skills and spells. From the description of the skills it sounded to Zac it was an improved selection of the beginner skills available for sale in the Nexus Node.

People had been amazed by suddenly being able to strike out with weapons with the power to create cracks in the ground, or even shoot fireballs. They were even given an exclusive Title for being the ‘chosen’, that gave 5 points all attributes, just to show them how the Title system worked. However, the fun times didn’t last forever. Those five points also guaranteed that everyone, young or old, essentially was in peak condition for the following trials.

On the second day everyone was teleported away from the town. Some arrived in some dingy cave, others in some sort of frontier towns. There were all kinds of scenarios that appeared and the groups that got placed together ranged between five and over a hundred, but they had one thing in common. They all got a quest to either defend from monsters or to explore somewhere filled with monsters.

That first mission was one of the bloodiest, with almost a tenth dying. People weren’t able to adapt to the new change. Some took too large risks, feeling invulnerable with their new skills. Others simply froze like deers in headlights, getting mowed down by unforgiving monsters.

The missions were actually quite easy though, and the monsters very weak. It was only due to ineptitude people died this early. After the mission people got graded by their performance and rewarded accordingly.

Everyone got a “Tutorial”-Title after the first mission that started with no benefits. However, after the first mission its rewards increased. Some got a few stat-points while others with bad quest performance got nothing, their titles still giving out zero attributes.

What followed was a schedule of three days of quests, followed by one day of rest and meditation. After the first three missions a new option was added, where people could choose their difficulty, ranging from Easy to Impossible. There was even a mortality rate at the quest, with Easy having 5% and Impossible had a 99% chance to perish.

The higher quests obviously gave much higher returns, but most people still chose easy. However, a few people chose the more difficult ones, such as “Normal”. Their death rate was higher compared to the advertised stats, but that was likely from being unskilled beginners. Zac himself remembered his early battles, and he was still surprised he was alive today.

Over the weeks the distance between those who strove for power and those who only wanted to survive only got larger and larger. The elite’s Tutorial-title continuously filled up with more and more bonus attributes, and their levels were far higher as well. They also got other rewards, such as better gear, and in some cases even skills, Nexus Crystals, and Cultivation manuals.

Meanwhile, the weaklings, such as the cultivators like Ryan and the formerly captured girls, barely survived through the Easy quests, mainly relying on others to keep them safe.

They got almost nothing from the tutorial in the end, only the initial 5 to all stat bonus, plus on average ten additional attributes. Zac couldn’t help but grimace when hearing them squander such a once in a lifetime opportunity. Even the monsters that they fought gave huge bonuses to cosmic energy and Nexus Coins compared to normal beasts on New Earth.

Of course, that was only discovered when the cultivators returned and found further progression extremely tedious and dangerous. That’s why many plateaued in level and power soon after returning.

Ryan was an example of this. He was somewhere in the average middle of the cultivators during the tutorial. He only chose easy quests, but he was one of those who actually fought during the missions, instead of hiding. He left the tutorial as level 14 and having 15 bonus attributes on his Tutorial Title.

He tried to keep his progress going by heading out into the forests fighting beasts but was dismayed by the amount of cosmic energy he gained by the low-level critters. He gave up after a week when he had only gained a level. It wasn’t due to laziness, but rather a brush with death when a level 30 or so monster found him, and he barely survived the escape.

His last three levels he gained from his F-Graded cultivation manual, and he was close to becoming level 19. He, unfortunately, wasn’t able to get a real cultivation manual, and the basic one from the tutorial was tortuously slow in progress after the initial ten levels.

Zac knew that the system rewarded the brave, and he knew that some likely had survived through Hard, and even Impossible missions. He wondered what kinds of bonuses and rewards they’d gotten. Ryan and the others weren’t sure, as there were no real powerhouse in their group. Thom Sullivan was the strongest, but he reportedly mainly did a mix of Easy and a Normal missions.

It had reminded Zac that just because he had his titles and his level advantage he wasn’t invulnerable. Salvation and Thea Marshall were perhaps just as strong as him since their rewards from the tutorial might have been extremely extravagant.