Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 162: The Great Sage Brazla

“Whatʼs a Global City?” Zac suddenly asked, having forgotten about the matter from the excitement of the various upgrades.

“At this stage of a world it is not too different from a normal City. Only global cities can have off-world teleporters, but you can’t build this while the planet still is in its emerging stages,” Abby answered without missing a beat ”But the System works with a very strict hierarchy. A Global City is a step above a normal City. The next, and final, step for a D-graded world is a World Capital.

“It means if you manage to upgrade Port Atwood again the System will essentially consider you the owner of this planet. Right now you can kind of be seen as a king of a country. How did you even manage to get an upgrade this early?” Abby curiously asked.

“I guess the system must like me,” Zac said with a sardonic smile. “It changed the rewards when it decided to throw three incursions at me.”

Ogras only snorted but didn’t deign to comment.

“Well, it means you are one of the main contenders for becoming a Monarch. A Lord first has to upgrade their City to a Global city before trying to turn it into a capital. Generally, there can be no more than ten World Cities on a planet,” Abby said.

“All that doesn’t matter in the face of power though,” Ogras added in. “If you’re strong enough you can just walk up to the Capital and kill the leader, and you’re the new owner of the planet.”

At the moment it didn’t seem very useful to have a Global City, as it was once again related to long-term benefits. However, most things related to building a kingdom was related to long-term planning and benefits.

“I’ve seen administrative centers in the town shop who handles taxes and contribution systems. Can you do that instead?” Zac asked with a glance over at the hovering eye.

“Well… No,” Abby said, looking a bit embarrassed.

Zac only shook his head and kept walking. Soon they found themselves where Zac placed the Dao Repository. There were already a few people standing around the construction, as the placement wasn’t too far-off from the temporary town.

Zac understood why the onlooking demons and humans looked surprised, as they gazed at the extremely conspicuous building. The best adjective Zac could find to describe his new repository was… Gaudy.

It wasn’t overly large, with a circular area perhaps fifty meters across. However, within those fifty meters, tens of spires and towers were crammed, reaching for the sky in various directions.

Besides the spires there were golden pillars and crystals of various sizes, seemingly fighting tooth and nail for the limited space. Multicolored lights were shining out of the various structures, and it looked like most of the radiant rays were decorative rather than functional.

“Uh… Do the repositories usually look like this?” Zac could only ask his two companions.

“Well, maybe if the patriarch of the force is overly wealthy hand has no taste. I’ve never seen such a shitty design,” Ogras muttered, but his eyes suddenly widened as the lights from one of the towers congealed into an actual lightning bolt that flew straight toward him.

The demon barely had time to teleport out of the way before the bolt slammed into the ground where he stood earlier, and Zac’s brows rose when he sensed the power contained in the strike. He looked over at the structure, hesitant over what to do. It seemed there was someone inside, someone who could actually hear them.

“I’ll go inside and take a look,” Zac said with a shrug, passing by the onlookers who hurriedly backed away.

He was the owner of the structure, so it shouldn’t attack him. At least Zac hoped so. While the Repository consisted of dozens of buildings mashed together there was only one entrance as far as Zac could see, an ostentatious gate radiating divine light.

It actually reminded Zac a bit of his first Dao-vision. The celestial army that fought the axe-man summoned a mysterious gate radiating the power of the heavens. The design of the entrance to his new building looked a bit similar, but it felt like a stage production or a cheap mimicry of the real thing he had seen.

While the lights shimmered it didn’t contain any sense of power or awe, which was why not only the gate, but the whole structure, gave off the feeling of something not being quite right. It all felt like empty bluster, and Zac was starting to wonder whether there actually would be anything valuable inside.

The gates opened themselves as he got close and something sounding like harp music started playing as he stepped through them. Zac couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes, but he made sure not to mutter anything derogatory. While the whole thing felt pretty stupid it couldn’t be denied that the lightning bolt packed some real punch.

The ostentatious style of the structure was very much the same inside as on the exteriors. However, Zac noticed there was some spatial manipulation at play. It was the same as with the Ayr Hive, as the insides were far larger compared to the outside.

Zac found himself in a gigantic hall, lined with eight enormous statues of various beings. He saw one human holding a scepter, and the other statues depicted other types of humanoids. The floor was made of gold and platinum, and still felt quite over-the-top, but at least the atmosphere was more solemn inside compared to the outside.

“Welcome, human, to the Hall of Endless Skills,” a booming voice echoed through the large hall, and Zac looked around for the source of the voice.

The air shimmered in front of him, and a translucent humanoid decked in an obscene amount of jewelry appeared. He looked mostly human, apart from the fact that he was a bit thinner, and there were golden scales inlaid in his face.

“Uh, hello, I am Zachary Atwood, leader of Port Atwood,” Zac said hesitantly. “I’m told this is a Dao Repository, are you its castellan?”

“The Towers of Myriad Dao is a Spiritual Treasure, and I am its Spirit. You can call me Great Sage Brazla. I manage and oversee every function of the repository.”

“Nice to meet you, great sage,” Zac said, deciding to play along for now. “Can you tell me what you contain?”

“The Hall of Endless Skills has four levels. The bottom floor contains 81 F-Graded skills, the second 14 E-Graded skills, the third floor 3 D-Graded skills,” the man said while puffing out his chest.

Endless Skills my ass, Zac thought but had to admit that there even being E and D-graded skills was quite impressive.

“Do you mind if I peruse the skills for a bit?” Zac asked.

A large screen appeared in front of Zac, listing all of the skills. Zac was pleasantly surprised when he read the descriptions. Not one of the 81 F-Graded skills were something that he had seen before, and all of them seemed pretty strong.

“How do I control who gets to use the skills?” Zac asked.

“The first floor is free to use. After that you need to defeat the floor challenge to gain access to the skills. If you unlock a floor, you can use whatever means you want, The Great Brazla won’t interfere. But any aptitude tests will be conducted by me.”

“Since the Great Sage Brazla is a benevolent spirit he will give you the standardized test for the E-Graded floor. You only need to defeat a few D-Graded Golems to open it up. But if you don’t improve the pitiful surroundings of his body by the time you want to undergo the challenge he might just do something… Unexpected with the tests,” Brazla said, his hands moving about erratically.

“Uh.. what? Shouldn’t your creator have set certain rules when he created you?” Zac asked, a bit uncomfortable that his new neighbor seemed to have access to D graded golems, and perhaps even more dangerous things.

“Well yes, but that was millions and millions of years ago. The Great Brazla has grown beyond the scope of his creator’s imagination,” the projection said with his nose in the air.

A bad feeling was starting to overcome Zac, as he heard the Tool Spirit had gone from speaking in first to third person in just a few sentences. Abby said that someone likely found this thing in a mystical realm. Had the spirit gone crazy from eons of being alone?

“I’ll arrange for your surroundings to be improved. But it might take some time to find materials that can match with your... splendor,” Zac said. “Is there something else apart from the skills? Like cultivation manuals?”

“We have two side halls, the hall of Celestial Artisan, and the Hall of Blade Emperor. Both were friends of my creator, and they each set up a branching heritage in the great Brazla’s body,” Brazla said.

“Branching Heritage?” Zac said confused.

“One F Graded class leading to multiple E-Ranked, leading to a few D-ranked classes. Various paths for various needs. Ways to get into the heritage path from various common classes,” the Tool Spirit said with some disinterest.

Zac was quite excited, as it sounded like he got a combat and a non-combat heritage at once. Two heritages were enough to base a sturdy force on, just like Clan Azh’Rezak. Furthermore, his heritages were branching to boot, giving more options.

The only problem was who would get access, and who wouldn’t. But that was a problem for later, there was more to explore in here.

“You said there are four floors in the main hall, but you only mentioned the first three. What’s on the fourth floor?” Zac continued, changing the subject.

“The fourth floor holds the Eight Grand Inheritances. Eight powerhouses left their skills, treasures, and their insights here, waiting for the right successor. The Celestial Artisan and the Blade Emperor are two of them. You can see the others around you,” the spirit said as it waved at the huge statues.

”Each inheritance can only be taken by one at a time, and they contain their own trials. If the inheritor fails a trial, he is barred forever from continuing, and the trial will be locked until his death,” Brazla explained.

Zac’s heartbeat finally started to speed up. The skills were good, and the heritages were even better. But this felt like the crown jewel of the Repository. Full inheritances with not only skills, but Dao insights and treasures as well? It sounded extremely valuable.

Brazla seemed to notice Zac’s change in demeanor and it bent itself back so much that its nose was literally pointing straight up in the air.

“You like that human? Let me tell you. Two of the inheritances are even C-Ranked, left by lofty C-ranked Hegemons. Their means and insights are beyond your scope of understanding. But not beyond the great mind of The Great Brazla, of course,” the spirit tool boasted.

“How do I get access to those inheritances?” Zac asked, not even bothering with refuting the golem.

“Each person can only inherit one inheritance, and only has one try. You are the unworthy owner of the Great Brazla, so, for now, you will decide who gets to try which trial. The only requirement is that the trial taker needs to be F-graded when they start their inheritance. But remember, if the one you pick fails, then that inheritance is locked forever for that person,” the specter responded.

Zac asked a few clarifying questions from the Tool Spirit to make sure he understood everything, and after thinking it over decided to leave the Inheritances alone until he was right at the edge of pushing through his bottleneck.

Messing up a C-graded inheritance since he was too impatient and try it out right away would be a huge loss. As for the other spots, he would save them for close friends or promising people. Perhaps even to his children. If he let any random try it out the inheritance would be locked out for hundreds of years unless he killed the trial taker.

In the end he refocused on the F-Graded skills. It was something that could benefit him right now. He noticed that the skills were split up into 3 categories; High, Middle and Low. It was a way to distinguish between the top tier and the average skills Zac guessed, as there were only 9 High-Graded skills out of the 81 in total.

There were another 27 Middle Ranked skills, while the rest were low-ranked. However, it looked like even the ones Brazla considered low-tiered were much better than the things he could buy at the Nexus Node.

In the end Zac chose to add two skills to his repertoire, things he suspected he might not get in any case judging from the characteristics of his class. He noted that most of the skills on the F-Graded floor could be taught around three to five times a year, after which the crystals needed to restore themselves.

The procedure for learning the skills was as easy as when getting them from his class. He only needed to touch the crystals containing them, after which he received a stream of knowledge right into his mind, and the fractals appeared in their slots.

“I will take my leave, Great Sage Brazla, I will meet you again soon. Do not let anyone approach anything for now,” Zac said as he left.

“Of course. And remember, a piece of art such as myself need to be surrounded by beauty,” the Tool Spirit answered as he dissipated into thin air.

Zac left the repository, eager to get back to his mansion and get used to his new skills, but as soon as he exited the doors of the so-called Hall of Endless Skills he was met with a wall of people looking at him like starving ghosts.

“Is it true what it says?” Ogras said, his eyes glittering with greed.