Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 161: Rewards

The stargazer floated a few meters away from Zac, warily looking at him. She seemed to barely be able to reconcile the unkempt hobo from a few months before with the man in front of her.

“It’s only been a few months, but you’ve changed quite a bit,” she said, her beautiful eye shimmering with stardust.

Zac turned over and looked straight into the huge eye that looked like a cosmic cloud surrounding a black hole.

“Yes, well, someone told me that the system would kill me unless I defeated the demon incursion. Five months of constant battle will change you,” Zac said, not being able to really hide his irritation.

“Ah well, about that…” Abby said, her eye uncomfortably looking away.

Zac only snorted and opened up his menu. Abby could stew in uncomfortable silence a bit.

Name

Zachary Atwood

Level

56

Class

Hatchetman (F)

Race

Human (E)

Alignment

Port Atwood – Lord (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, One Against Many, Butcher, Progenitor Hegemon

Dao

Seed of Heaviness - Middle, Seed of Trees - Middle, Seed of Sharpness - Early

Strength

311

Dexterity

158

Endurance

212

Vitality

165

Intelligence

83

Wisdom

78

Luck

93

Free Points

0

Nexus Coins

30 694 153

He’d had quite a boost in attributes in the past day. The largest improvement was in vitality, which had increased by over 50 points. While it wasn’t enough to start healing up the wound in his side, it still was a great help. The higher Vitality he had, the less mental energy he would have to expend on the Dao of Trees to keep the miasma in check.

The largest source of his improved attributes clearly came from his new Title.

[Progenitor Hegemon: First to become a Lord in world. Reward: All stats +10.]

Unfortunately, it didn’t give out any new percentage bonus, but it gave the largest flat bonus of any title he possessed so far. Judging from how highly the System regarded lordship, he guessed that becoming the world leader would give quite a boost. Besides, there was the possibility that he only got the Quest update because the was about to become the first lord, and that update vastly increased his rewards.

Next, he opened up his Dao Menu, and the changed line clearly showed where most of the added vitality came from.

Heaviness (Middle): Strength +15, Endurance +10, Wisdom +5

Sharpness (Early): Dexterity +10, Intelligene +5

Trees (Middle): Endurance +5, Vitality +25

Just as he suspected his Dao of Trees had evolved, this particular improvement giving only Vitality. His insight into the Dao was in regards to the unrelenting life in a tree, and he felt it was a great complement to his other attributes. His Vitality had started to lag behind his other stats, as he’d been forced to focus on Dexterity lately to complement his absurd Strength.

Zac actually also put his 6 free points from last his two levels into vitality as well in order to combat the wound, since he didn’t know he would have a sudden breakthrough in his Dao.

Finally, he opened up his Quest Screen to take a look.

Active Quests

First step of Hegemony (Unique, Limited): Enter the first trial within a month. Defeat the challenge. Reward: [Tower of Eternity] token, [F-Grade Dao Treasure] (0/1)

Dynamic Quests

Incursion Master (Unique): Close or conquer incursion and protect Town from denizens or forces of other alignments for 3 months. Reward: Limited Structure depending on Grade, Town upgraded to Global City, status upgraded to Lord. Road to Hegemony opened. (3/3) [Complete]

Class Quests

Incursion Master was still was there even though the timers were gone, so Zac guessed he once again would have to go to the Nexus Node in order to cash out his new building. The other two rewards he already had received.

He was more interested in the other quest though. It was clearly related to the Road to Hegemony. He also knew about both of the rewards. A Dao Treasure was something he had been trying to get since the start, as he felt that improving the Dao to a high enough tier would be the largest trouble for him when trying to upgrade to an Epic-graded class.

As for the Tower of Eternity, he had heard of it as well. Alyn mentioned it long ago, though he would have to look it up at a later point. He wasn’t able to do it right now, but he would probably try it after having found his sister. Zac got to his feet with a grunt and turned toward the Stargazer floating close-by.

“You know, violence against System-employees is strictly illegal,” Abby said with a nervous shake in her voice.

“Come with me,” Zac only said as he walked out of the courtyard.

“I see your home looks much better,” Abby said, seemingly desperate to change the subject.

“So why are you back here?” Zac asked, even though he knew the answer. “Another tutorial?”

“No, this time I am here for good. You’ve become a proper lord, and I’ve been sent to manage your estate. Powerhouses seldom have the time nor the interest for the management of their domains, as they are busy exploring mystic realms or cultivating. They therefore need a functioning support system to take care of the minutia of running anything from a City to an Empire,” Abby quickly explained as she hovered next to Zac who was walking through the mansion.

“So you want to run my town? Why should I let you? Someone already told me that you spewed those lies earlier to get yourself a promotion. I am not sure that I want to hand over Port Atwood to someone like that,” Zac said as he stepped into the hall that contained the Nexus Node.

“Who told you something like that?” Abby angrily said. “I might have bent the truth a bit, but it was for your sake. I even got punished for helping as much as I did, I almost lost my job!”

“So this is the lying Stargazer that caused so much trouble?” a clearly annoyed voice echoed through the hall as the shadows congealed into Ogras.

“A demon? Why are you still here? Lord Zac should have defeated you,” Abby said with a frown.

“Zac and I came to an agreement, we’re staying behind,” Ogras said. “Someone has to make sure a power-hungry star-humper doesn’t go out of line.”

“Hey! It was ONE Stargazer who tried to impregnate a star. Out of an endless number of our kind,” Abby angrily screamed at the demon.

“Wait, what?” Zac said, who largely had been ignoring the two bickering. “One of your kind tried to have sex with a star?”

“One of the greatest powerhouses of the Stargazers fell in love with a god damn star. Made it his wife, there was a ceremony and everything. The whole multi-verse has been laughing about it for millennia,” Ogras said, barely containing his laughs, and Zac couldn’t stop his mouth from tugging upward as he threw a glance at the irate Stargazer.

“It’s not that simple. And for your information, the two are still happily married 800 thousand years later,” she defensively said.

Unfortunately her explanation didn’t have the desired effect as Ogras started to laugh loudly, and Zac couldn’t stop a snort as he turned back and touched the crystal.

[Calculating. Grade Awarded: B. Contribution rank: 1. Grade Awarded increased to A]

Zac frowned as he saw the prompt showing up in front of him.

“Did you get some treasure from being second place on the contribution ladder?” he asked, causing a pause in the squabbling behind him.

“No, no one got anything. Pisses me off, but then again we got quite the haul from the shop itself,” Ogras said with a grimace as he looked down to the stump on his arm. “Might not have gone as hard at it if I knew there was no bonus at the end. Why, what did you get?”

“Nothing either, that’s why I asked,” Zac answered, feeling a bit bad about the situation.

He was quite excited about the A-ranking on the quest, though he would honestly have preferred something that would provide him with a direct power-up. A Dao-Treasure or some fruit that improved all his attributes, for example.

A high graded structure would likely be extremely beneficial in the long run, but right now he was facing enemies from all directions. There were the Incursions, the Undead, the Dominators, and even Humans. He needed short term boosts at the moment.

“Oh WOW!” Abby suddenly exclaimed as she floated over to Zac. “Just what have you done to get these rewards?”

Zac looked over at the Stargazer confused, not understanding what Abby talked about. He had only just touched the crystal, but he hadn’t seen the structure yet.

“What are you talking about?” Zac asked.

“Well I’m your assistant, so I have access to the administrative functions of your town. With the help of my class I can see even more than you,” she said looking proud.

“Also known as spying,” Ogras sneered from the side, drawing an angry glare from the Stargazer.

“It’s not spying, you know we Stargazers do not play politics, we work for the System itself, or the Lords we get assigned to.”

“Yet the Pavilion of Myriad Eyes, that happens to be run by Stargazers, seems to know everything. How about that?”

“That’s because Lords voluntarily sell information, not because we’re spying,” she retorted with an angry huff.

“Lords sell their own information? Why would they do that?” Zac asked skeptically.

It was a big problem if the Stargazer started sending back information to an information network, especially if she had an insight into his limited structures. A frown started to emerge on Zac’s face as he considered his options. He wouldn’t allow the fact that he had a Creator Shipyard be sent to the Pavilion of Myriad Eyes, even if he had to take drastic measures.

Abby saw the look on Zac’s face and slowly floated away.

“I swear we don’t, and we can’t, divulge anything of our administrative districts. Most lords sell the public information of their town since the Pavilion of Myriad Eyes pays well. But those packages don’t include any sensitive information, just the standard things that anyone visiting could find out in a few minutes. Lords consider it free money,” Abby said defensively.

“She’s probably telling the truth. This time. Almost all Lords in the multi-verse have assistants like this thing, they wouldn’t keep them around if there were some loopholes,” Ogras shrugged.

“Thing? We’re stargazers, born of the Cosmos,” Abby huffed, a cloud looking like a nebula forming in the hall.

“Fine, fine,” Zac sighed. “What about the reward? How can you know what it is? It hasn’t even been built yet.”

“I put a hold on the construction so that you can decide where you want it.”

“So, what is it?” Zac asked curiously, and even the demon shut his mouth and looked over in anticipation.

“Shouldn’t we do this without… Any security risks?” Abby asked, making no effort to hide what she was referring to as she looked straight at Ogras.

The demon only snorted and ignored her comment.

“Ogras is the second in command of the town, and he already knows about the Creator Shipyard. We’re already stuck together for good or bad. Now, what is it?”

“It’s an Ancient Dao Repository. Probably someone sold it to the system after finding it in some mystic realm,” Abby said, no longer able to contain her excitement.

“A what?” Zac asked confused, but the demon looked clearly agitated.

“You and your System-blasted luck. I’m surprised it doesn’t rain Nexus Crystals where you walk,” Ogras spat out, looking disgusted.

“A Dao Repository is usually one of the most important areas to any force. It contains the accumulation of skills and techniques they’ve gathered over the eons. A proper repository has an autonomous defense system,” Abby explained. “How they work are extremely varied, it depends on what goal the force who built it had. I don’t have that information available.”

“So it’s a building that contains skills that I can get for free?” Zac asked, getting excited.

“Perhaps, perhaps not,” Ogras said. “Even the permanent skill crystals can’t be just used willy-nilly. There are limitations such as a maximum amount of usages per month or year. The more complicated the skill, the less the crystal can be used.”

“So, you have to pay to use the crystals?” Zac asked.

“Usually you have to prove yourself somehow. Imagine if some rich wastrel used the crystal for a top tier skill in a force, and suddenly none of the real warriors could learn the skill for a thousand years. Things like that could ruin a force. So there are often checks put in place. Who knows, maybe not even you will be able to gain access to the best skills even though you own the building,” Ogras said, looking a bit amused.

“It doesn’t sound like Dao Repositories are kept a secret,” Zac said as he took out a blueprint for the future Port Atwood. “Place the structure within the inner wall, but closer to the wall than my compound. Also, I need an array to protect the whole inner area, from the Repository to the Shipyard. I don’t want prying eyes, and I don’t want people sneaking in.”

Since apparently Abby was already hotwired into his Town System Zac thought he might as well let her work a bit. It wasn’t like he was too angry with her in any case. Her lies back then might have been partly to give herself a shot at a cushy job, but it was also thanks to those lies he was even alive today. Otherwise, he would have focused on getting off this demon-infested island, trying to get home. He would have died out on the sea.

Abby looked quite excited that Zac seemed to have accepted her, and quickly nodded her huge eye. Only seconds later a large rumbling could be heard, reminiscent of when the shipyard was created. The three looked at each other and without another word headed toward the source of the sounds, all looking very curious.