Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 207: Titles

Zac could only nod at what Brazla said, his own thoughts running along the same lines. He had started to believe that one wouldn’t become truly strong by brainlessly copying others. That’s why he never had any interest in checking out the heritages he owned.

That wasn’t to say that one couldn’t benefit from the knowledge of the previous generations. However, one first had to understand oneself and keep useful information, discarding the useless.

“Have you also heard of specialty cores?” Zac interjected, satisfied in simply knowing Dual Classes was a possibility, though clearly extremely rare.

“Of course,” Brazla said. “A few of the inheritances of this very building even contains the means to create one. Those I’ve studied extensively.”

Zac felt a bit troubled that the tool spirit somehow had managed to weasel itself into the inheritance zones to mess around. He could only hope that Brazla hadn’t destroyed anything inside.

“What would happen if a Specialty Core is currently is taking the spot of where the Cosmic Core would normally go?” Zac asked.

“Well, they’d probably explode when the Cosmic Core was created,” Brazla said. “Unless it’s a Modifier-type, I suppose.”

“What’s that?” Zac asked with anticipation.

Brazla only snorted in response, and from somewhere got a golden nail file and started using it. Zac had to push down his rising exasperation. He knew that the tool spirit only acted like this to annoy him since it was just a hologram and didn’t even possess real nails. But that fact only made it more annoying, which was a source of frustration in of itself.

“Great Sage Brazla, surely someone with your magnanimity wouldn’t hold back this small amount of knowledge from your admirers?” Kenzie said with a wink.

“Hmm, true. This little information means nothing to The Great Sage of Ages,” Brazla nodded, putting away his file. “Modifier-cores are Specialty Cores that directly interact with a Cosmic Core in various ways. The most common example is the Specialty Core called ‘Shield’, which simply acts as a shield around a Cosmic Cores to protect it from attacks.

“But they can be much more integrated than that,” the tool spirit continued. “I’ve heard about one from my master that had the Cosmic Core grow inside it. The purpose of the Specialty Core was to extract energy faster than normally possible. It resulted in extraordinary firepower, but also hurt the cultivator’s body.”

Zac’s eyes lit up from the information. He didn’t believe that sort of core had anything to do with his own, but it told him that it wasn’t necessarily a problem with his position of his Specialty Core. If his real core simply grew inside his Duplicity Core, everything would work out okay. Perhaps it was even needed if he wanted to be able to switch between living and dead sides.

With the help of Kenzie buttering the megalomanic tool spirit up, they soon had the answers they needed. Unfortunately, it didn’t know of any other open titles that could be attained by abusing the discrepancy between his level and strength.

According to Brazla, there were a few titles that could be awarded to youths who showed great potential at an early stage, even before they were able to cultivate. It could, for example, attaining Dao Seeds or upgrading their Race, even killing cultivators.

These were the so-called Heaven’s Chosen who were able to blast out with awe-inspiring power right out of the gates, and accumulating more and more advantages through their great start, just like himself. But since he was already level 1 he couldnʼt get these titles since he was supposed to get them before turning 16.

The rest of the titles were generally trials and hidden Mystic Realms with known rewards. But those kinds of things were all locked out of reach for Zac since the Nexus Hub would stay inoperational until he managed to unlock its functions with some quest.

After a particularly hair-raising tirade where Kenzie spoke at great lengths about the greatness of Brazla he was even so happy that he fished out a crystal containing a basic rundown of publicly known titles.

Zac threw a glance over at his sister, who only smiled mysteriously. Zac started to understand why she visited the tool spirit every day. Just what kind of valuables had she managed to squeeze out Brazla simply by throwing away any shame and butter him up?

The crystal confirmed what the spirit had said. There weren’t a lot of public titles, and Zac had pretty much all of them. He also had a few that werenʼt listed, such as Luck of the Draw. It did however show that the next attribute-linked title would come at 5000 points total points, but only if those were gained while still in E-Grade.

It also confirmed that there was a title higher than Slayer of Leviathans, which was great news to Zac. But otherwise, it was mostly mentions of various public trials or mystic realms, and a short comment about recommended strength before attempting them.

It seemed that his dream of cheesing a large number of extra titles wasn’t meant to happen. Still, there were a few of them. Not counting the Core skill, it was perhaps possible to gain another set of his Class-related titles, doubling up on the rewards. And perhaps there were additional titles for having two classes.

Judging by the title guide there wasn’t much of a reason to stay at level one, so the next goal would be killing the E-Grade beast. However, he honestly wasn’t too certain about his chances. Since his pathways were gone, so were his skills, leaving him only his Dao Seeds and his brawn.

The only thing that remained seemed to be the effects of [Forester’s Constitution], and Zac guessed it was because the skill worked like a title, giving a passive attribute boost.

It truly depended on what kind of monster lurked in the crater containing the entrance to the Mystic Realm. If it was something with roughly the power of the Fiend Wolf he wasn’t too worried. He was far stronger than he was back then, and he was confident he’d make short work of that animal as he was right now.

But it was another matter if he encountered something like the Star Ox. That thing was exceedingly dangerous, and if he didn’t possess [Loamwalker] he would have perished from its devastating beam. Perhaps he would actually need to enlist a certain Demon for this excursion, just in case.

“If you see Ogras, can you tell him I need to see him?” Zac said as he exited the towers with his sister.

“Why don’t you call him?” Kenzie asked, looking a bit confused.

“What?” Zac asked confused. “Are phones operational again?”

Kenzie only rolled her eyes at him as she took out a crystal.

“It’s Kenzie. My brother needs to see you,” she said and put away the inscribed gem. “You two really are boneheads, you two haven’t even exchanged means to communicate?”

Zac could only awkwardly shrug and head back toward their home. It as a relief to leave the Towers of Myriad Dao behind, as he was afraid he would get blinded if he stayed much longer. Ten minutes later the demon appeared in Zac’s courtyard, immediately sitting down with a grunt.

“Your girl has been put in custody, I have Janos taking care of the situation until we can get a Desolation Array in place. Janos said that she’s been subject to some mental manipulation skills, something far more skilled than what the bumbling hypnotist did at Refugee’s Harbor. Not even he can unravel it in a short while,” Ogras said.

Pain and shame filled Zac’s heart, as he had no idea such things had happened right beneath his nose. But he forcefully pushed those thoughts away, focusing on what he could do at the moment.

“What about the Shapeshifter?” Zac asked.

“Gone in the wind. The island is just too big, he could be hiding anywhere. The barghest in the woods won’t be a hindrance to him. I guess he never stayed inside the town for long periods in order to not be exposed. I asked around, ‘David’ was rarely seen after arriving in Port Atwood,” Ogras said as he took out a bottle of wine and took a swig.

Zac could only nod with some annoyance. He knew just how easy it was to slip by unseen on this huge island, as that was exactly how he’d survived for over a month with a demon army around. And this cultist was likely far better at sneaking around than he ever was.

“But we did find the real David in a hidden basement beneath his home. He’s still alive, if barely. The physicians are working on him, and they don’t expect him to wake up for a few weeks. So, unfortunately, we won’t be able to get any real clues from him,” the demon continued.

Zac perked up at that. David was a good guy, and he hoped that he would pull through this calamity that had befallen upon him.

“Good. We’ll take a tour of the town later to see if I can spot any other Shapeshifter. I need you to kill them, as I cannot gain any energy at the moment. But more importantly, I need you to accompany me somewhere,” Zac said.

“Spot them? How? Just what’s going on with you?” Ogras said skeptically.

Zac hesitated for a while, but he finally relented. Ogras knew about so many secrets of his already that it didn’t feel like another one would matter.

“Why don’t you just inspect me, and you’ll understand,” Zac said.

Since his pathways were gone his skill [Mental Barrier] was no longer there either, which in of itself was a problem that needed to be addressed.

“Are you playing with me? I can’t see shit,” Ogras said, a bit annoyed after a few seconds.

Zac was confused until he felt some warmth on his arm. It was the bangle from Greatest. It looked like hiding his core wasn’t the only function of the item. Instead, he shared the first rows of his status screens. Of course, it was only up to his alignment.

“What the hell?” Ogras said, shocked. “Level one? Draugr? Miasma acting up my ass.”

Zac only snorted and shared the ladder next.

“So it’s like this,” Zac started, and explained about his core and what he believed it meant.

Ogras only looked at him for a few seconds afterward, until he shook his head with disgust and took a large swig of his wine.

“I should just strap myself to your back, and sooner or later a Divine Treasure will randomly land on my head. Your luck is just disgusting, makes me want to ram my head into a wall,” Ogras spat out.

Zac’s lips slightly moved upward. It was always fun to get a rise out of the demon.

“Well, you can try getting stabbed by the Corpse Lord’s scythe if you want to try replicating it,” Zac said.

“So, why are you telling me all this?” Ogras said, not wanting to entertain Zac.

“I want to hunt an E-Grade beast while still level one,” Zac said.

Ogras’ eyes widened a bit.

“You’re going to perform the Legendary Hunt? Shit, that’s a pretty good idea.”

“Legendary hunt?” Zac asked confused.

“That’s what it’s called among demons. I heard that some families try for that tile on the higher grade planets. No one on my planet was ever close to trying it though. It would be amazing if someone even managed to get a Dao Seed before embarking on the road of cultivation in Clan Azh’Rezak for example, much less fighting an E-ranked beast,” Ogras explained.

“Well, what are you waiting for, letʼs go,” the demon added, actually looking a bit excited.

“Are there any other advantages you can think of I should do before moving past level 1?” Zac asked, just to make sure.

“There’s none I can think of. If you didn’t get any titles for having seeds or evolved race at this stage the other low-level Titles are likely not possible. The only other possible exploit I can think of is if you entering the Tower of Eternity after your main class already has evolved. You’d be able to run straight through it like a bull,” Ogras said.

Zac’s eyes lit up at that. As Ogras said, that might be the biggest exploit possible. Reaching the top floor of the Tower of Eternity should give insane rewards.

“Well, let’s go then, I want to reach as high a level as possible with this class before entering the Treasure Hunt,” Zac said, heading to his private teleporter array.

Soon the two found themselves walking through the dense forest on Mystic Island, as Zac had decided to call the island with the entrance to the Mystic Realm. Zac had quickly found another use for his new sight upon entering the forest.

He could essentially spot any living creatures from a great distance away since they lit up the forest like a beacon due to their life force. It allowed them to avoid almost every battle as they walked toward the core.

Now and then Ogras was forced to quickly and quietly kill a beast though, as even with them avoiding beasts as much as they could they were still spotted occasionally. But soon they found themselves at the edge of the crater, looking down at the forest beneath.

“Well, Mr. Hunter,” Ogras said, looking over at Zac with a grin. “Letʼs see if you have what it takes.”

The next moment the two were swallowed by the shadows.