Defiance of the Fall

Zac sat naked , except a pair of ragged underpants , in a cross-legged position by the now died out fire . The ground all around him was red with his blood . There was not one spot on Zac’s body that wasn’t damaged and bloody .

He had relentlessly continued to improve his circulation pattern the whole night , and he was almost completed by now . It had felt like he had been thrown into hell and had been tortured for an eternity . He had wanted to stop so many times , but had summoned a willpower he didn’t know he had to keep going .

Of course , that didn’t mean that he had stoically endured the pain like some battle-hardened warrior . Luckily there had been no one around to see him scream himself hoarse , roll around on the ground and cry until snot ran down his face .

Right now only the part around his brain remained to be changed . In the class pattern it was a dense web of fractals that covered his whole head .

Zac hadn’t stopped due to changing his mind , but the pain in his head had made him pass out for a few minutes after he tried it the first time . He was currently steadying himself for another try .

He shakily got up and snatched all the remaining dried meat he had left over . He felt severely drained , and needed some energy before trying again . He also filled his water bottle from his array and poured it over himself to clean away some of the blood . The sting of cold water over his countless cuts jolted him properly awake .

Finally he sat down again to complete the fractal . He was afraid if he didn’t complete it now he wouldn’t dare to sit down and do it in the future . The pain was to the point of creating a mental scar , and he needed to do it immediately to get it done .

He started changing the pattern a small bit at a time , afraid that he’d pass out again if he improved too large a chunk in one go . Still , the pain was barely within the realm he could tolerate . It felt like a spike was stabbed through is eye right into his head , and then started grinding around in there for good measure .

Zac arduously pressed on , tears flowing like a waterfall . Finally after an hour the last piece was changed , and the fractal was whole and connected . Zac suddenly puked out a mouthful of blood , but immediately after felt very refreshed .

He still had an acute bloodloss and was hurting all over , but his body still felt lighter and better . He tried circulating some cosmic energy and was chocked at the improvement . To compare it with before it felt like previously he had breathed and blinked manually when pushing cosmic energy through his body , and now it was an automatic and natural process .

It was if the energy knew what he wanted to do , and followed his will automatically . It also seemed that he absorbed energy from the surroundings faster , and not by a small margin . It wouldn’t help with his level , but it would help him to heal and restore his energy reserves faster .

Finally done with the fractal he closed eyes and had a dreamless sleep .

Zac woke up again roughly three hours later . While he felt drained and still hurting , he didn’t bleed anymore . With his improved stats he only needed to sleep a few hours a day to feel rested , and he had no problems skipping sleep entirely for a night or two . The combination of high endurance and vitality showed its value once again .

He had initially planned on scouting out the actual incursion today , but decided against it . He wanted to be in optimal condition for whatever waited for him at the end of the rainbow . He needed to find something to eat as well , and it felt safer to grind out some lower beasts while he was incapacitated .

His wounds from yesterday’s battle had also improved significantly , with only the leg still smarting .

There was one thing he had to do before setting out though . An important reason why he had tortured himself during the night was the inscribed gear .

Zac was relieved to notice that he could project energy easily now from his upgrade . He couldn’t actually see the cosmic energy with his eyes , but he could sense it . It was a weird feeling , it was as though he had gotten a new sense since starting using cosmic energy , and with his upgraded pathways the sense only seemed stronger . The cosmic energy was floating like an invisible mist above his hand that projected it , not showing any signs of dissipating .

His first goal was to check the pouch , as it contained the most mystery for him . He picked up the small pouch and carefully infused some energy into it . He was shocked to notice that the pouch actually suddenly absorbed all the dried blood on his hand .

He didn’t have time to think it over though , as he suddenly saw a large space in his mind . The space was roughly 3 by 3 meters , and was filled with an assortment of items .