Defiance of the Fall

The grunts gave way to sobs as Zac collapsed next to the headless snakes , his whole body shaking . He had messed up , that had been way too close . Not finding any more demons the last two days had made him complacent , barely looking around for threats . The Stargazer had even warned him just yesterday about the world changing due to absorbing cosmic energy , but he hadn’t even reflected on what that meant . There shouldn’t have been snakes of this size in the woods where he was , but the energy in the world had not only increased its size and strength but made it more aggressive . Had that been a venomous snake instead of a constrictor he would be a bloated corpse by now .

He finally understood that there was simply no such thing as safety in the wild , and he had to start taking things more seriously . Not even the last near-death experience had really woken him up , as the stats and quests made him subconsciously consider it all a game . But this was life and death , and he had to treat it as such .

Zac shakily got on his legs and started to make his way to the top of the hill again . His hatchet was still left in the tree , and he refused to go anywhere without it again . It felt like he had been hit by a truck but he could only grit his teeth and trudge on .

At the crest there were fallen leaves and broken bloodied branches all over the floor . Luckily it seemed that the snake had taken the brunt of the damage from the fall , otherwise , he might not even have survived just from the height . He didn’t want to linger at such an exposed location , so he quickly ripped the axe out of the tree and made his way back down the hill .

When he reached the snake once again he hesitated for a few seconds , but then gripped the reptile and wired it around his torso a few turns then put the end up on his shoulder . He had to think like a survivor now , and the snake might both give food and its scales could be fashioned into some sort of protection .

Any other exploration would have to wait , he needed to get back to base . On the way back he walked with much higher care , trying to avoid stepping on twigs and staying close to the trees for shelter . However the only sounds from the forest were the sleepy rustling of the trees , only occasionally interrupted by a distant roar . After another 15 minutes , he was finally back in the camp .

He had planned to go over his strategy for the town once more but currently felt intensely unsafe right now , and decided to not drag things out any longer . He brought up the base building interface and bought an F-Grade Small Scale Illusion Array] for 2000 Nexus Coins . Suddenly as if it had always been there a small wooden box appeared in front of him . Zac opened the box and inside were 8 intricately carved wooden poles . They were each roughly 30 cm long and 3 cm thick , in a glossy black coating . One end was sharpened down into a needlepoint while the other was completely flat . The carvings were in a golden hue , and it seemed the carvings were depictions of intricate fractals rather than words or pictures .

When Zac picked up the poles suddenly 8 small yellow pillars lit up around the camp . He wasn’t surprised at this as the shop had mentioned the usage method . When holding the poles , or flags as the system had called them for some reason , the system would guide him where to place them . As soon as all the flags had been placed the formation would activate . There also was a cheaper alternative of the same array , but it wouldn’t have the guidance system , leaving the user to figure out correct placement according to energy-flows and ley-lines . Zac quickly placed down the flags according to instruction , and suddenly a translucent dome shimmered into being around the small camp-site . It initially looked like uneven glass , distorting the outside , but soon turned invisible . Not sure if it had any effect , he walked outside of the camp and took a look .

What met his gaze was just a normal-looking forest , albeit slightly denser than around it . The trailer , campfire , and car were completely gone . Even the bloody smell from the snake was removed , replaced with only the fresh earthy smell of the forest . There were some thorny bushes between the trees looking almost like a natural wall , which would hopefully encourage nearby enemies to walk around the camp rather than straight through .