Defiance of the Fall

His next guess was poison , and it felt far more likely . He was somehow poisoned during his fight , and it started taking effect on him after he left and settled down . His first guess would be the cauldron . He just barely touched it when he put it in his pouch , but he did breathe its fumes for a good while .

And it felt far more likely that a creepy imp was concocting poisons down in a subterranean cave rather than a healing potion . If so he felt that he scored an amazing weapon by chance . If just the run-off fumes were this poisonous , he didn’t even dare imagine what the liquid inside would do .

It didn’t help him with his current predicament of course . The most advanced healing tinctures in his possession were some aspirin and aloe cream meant for sunburn , neither likely to be effective against demon poison . He did have the mysterious azure water from the pond , but he didn’t dare drink it in case it only made things worse . He could only hope to slowly flush it out by drinking lots of normal water .

He had no real appetite at the moment but forced himself to drink a large amount of water . He tried eating some rations as well , but his stomach started churning threateningly at the mere smell of food . He arduously moved some distance in the tunnel as well , as a pool of his puke had turned the area quite putrid .

Zac took out a Nexus Crystal and started absorbing it after he found a new resting place . Being full of cosmic energy couldn’t hurt in case something happened . He actually felt that his body was getting slightly better as he was absorbing the energy , but it could be his mind playing tricks on him .

After a few hours he had absorbed all the energy he could . If he continued it would turn from restoration to cultivation , and he didn’t want to gain any experience before he made sense of his situation .

The poison had interrupted his train of thought , but he was still met with the same problem , his capped Strength . If he returned to the mountain it would only take a day or so of furious monkey slaying to reach level 35 , something he was loath to do before he knew his options .

He decided to slow down leveling speed for now , and even stop pondering on the Dao . He even took off his gathering array amulet and put it into his bag in order to not even passively move toward the next level .

He’d focus on his axe technique instead as that was the only safe option left . Lost over what to do he opened up his status screen again , staring at the free attribute point . He knew he likely would have to gain a level to see what would happen , risking throwing away his Strength points . But for now , he wanted to look for another method at least for a while .

His conviction of focusing on only one stat had taken a hit from reaching the Strength cap . For now it was only Strength , but Endurance would be there sooner or later as well if he threw all his points into it now that he couldn’t put anything into Strength .

His eyes lingered on the other attributes , hesitating over what to do . Finally , his eyes landed on Luck .

It was an attribute he had completely put aside since the beginning , as he didn’t want to hinge his survival on something as unreliable as luck . But by now he was a walking juggernaut . The last fight was risky , but he had completely overpowered the Herald . The Monkey King wasn’t his match either and only survived due to his reinforcements .

By now he could put some points into luck , as his basic survivability was taken care of . He might not be exactly sure how it would help him , as he couldn’t quantify it . But since he desperately needed a solution to both his Strength-predicament and finding the general , getting some more Luck couldn’t hurt .

Satisfied with his plan he placed his remaining free point into Luck , but once again was stopped from actually allocating it .

God damn it… - he muttered under his breath . - System , could you explain what’s going on? - he entreated while looking up .

It was the first time in a month he had tried to communicate with the System , but he was still ignored like the last times . Maybe the System lost interest in the world soon after the integration and left everything on auto-pilot before leaving .

He felt that the situation with Luck wasn’t the same as with Strength . He only had 67 points in Luck at the moment , a far cry from the 175 point cap . All his luck came from titles , and he never allocated any points into it so far , and Zac realized that might be the only way to increase his luck .

Luck had a major difference from the other attributes . All the other stats could be improved even before the integration into the multi-verse . Strength and Endurance were the most obvious , but even things like Intelligence could be slightly improved with active training and a good diet . But there was no way to train up your luck .