Defiance of the Fall

Zac wasted no time and with a swing completely decapitated the demon . He felt almost no resistance when cutting through the spine of the demonling , and the axe continued down with such ease that he almost cut into his own leg before he could stop the descent . He knew the axe was extraordinarily sharp since yesterday , but he was still shocked how easy it went through . .

As he continued on he wouldn’t avoid any beasts anymore , rather he’d go out of his way to kill them if he found them . He looked forward to getting the Axe Mastery skill , and wouldn’t miss an opportunity to work on his 1000 kill goal .

He had been annoyed when he had noticed that only the Axe Mastery quest progressed from kills , not the Forester’s Constitution quest . He would have to figure out what was missing later . He also confirmed that the Chop quest did not progress from battling , even though it mentioned chopping bodies .

As he was advancing he noticed that the beasts had indeed improved . They were stronger , faster , and more impressively they seemed smarter . It was as if a limiter had reduced all stats , including intelligence . Then it had been lifting gradually during the last week of the month , and as the last day passed the limit had been ripped off completely .

Overall he gauged that the beasts’ stats had improved by roughly 50% since four days ago . The danger improved more than that though , as they had started doing feints and use tactics while attacking compared to before . The barghest were of course still dum-dums , but not to the point that they’d mindlessly charge into a wall anymore .

The rewards for killing the beasts hadn’t been improved with their improved performance . It seemed that Zac truly had gotten a bargain when hunting during the first month . Zac snickered as he imagined the cultivators in the beginner villages hunting rabbits and boars around the edge of the village for a mere 2-3 Nexus Coins a piece , like in some RPG .

The increase in strength didn’t bother him when it came to the fodder demons that was peppered through the island . They had improved , but so had he . Even the empowered demons were defenseless against his new weapon . It felt like proper gear actually had a greater effect compared to attaining a class .

Of course , the effect of a class would show over time rather than immediately it seemed . Also the immediate effect on him was not too large , as he already had such high stats from his titles . If someone with only the basic stats got this class with accompanying titles , it’d likely been a pretty large boost to him .

As he killed another demon with a lazy swing he felt the familiar burst of cosmic energy that came with a level up . He was delighted to see that he did get his class stat points in addition to his two free points , rather than instead of . So every level he now got 7 points instead of two .

He paused a second to go over how to allocate his points again . He had thought about it a bit yesterday , and had come up with a plan . As his class seemed to focus on Strength and Endurance , so Zac would do the same with his free points .

He felt that the skills and class itself might somehow synergize with these stats , so getting them as high as possible would be a good option . Even if he was wrong it would be ok , as both these stats was strong on him in any case .

If vitality helped him heal up after getting wounded , then endurance would protect him from getting wounded . Endurance didn’t only help with his stamina , it also toughened his body up . Now that he had a high enough vitality that he wouldn’t die from ordinary wounds , he could focus on endurance to make him even harder to kill .

The other option he had considered was to put the put the points in dexterity , making him quicker . However , for most of the fights so far speed had not been an issue or limiting factor for him , so he decided to hold off on that for now .

Furthermore , among the skills that was added to the Nexus Node after he got his class was one that he felt might be able to substitute the need for Dexterity . It was called Steps of Gaia] and cost 575 000 Nexus Coins . It was a huge amount of coins , far more than he had gathered in total .

But it seemed to fit him perfecty . It was a movement-type skill , which he assumed would help him move quicker . It would both help him charge at enemies faster , and also allow him to easier dodge attacks . It also seemed to be connected to the earth and nature , same as his class , so he felt there might be synergy along the road .

He therefore had decided to start saving up for the skill . He believed that it shouldn't take too long to get the neccessary coins , as his speed of killing beasts had improved significantly with his gear and higher stats .