Defiance of the Fall

Perhaps something had changed with the passage of the first month for the animal kingdom , just as it had with the incursion . Zac didn’t mind , as it only meant that there were more targets to practice on now .

It was a marvelous feeling fighting with his new and improved circulation pathways . Being able to use magic items and project cosmic energy wasn’t the only benefit . His powers hadn’t really increased , as there still was the limit of how much cosmic energy his muscles could take in . But the energy flowed far more smoothly through his body , making it effortless to switch between attack , defense and movement seamlessly .

He also seemed to use up less energy while fighting , as somehow the new pathways were more efficient . He wasn’t too surprised from that , as he had surmised that his usage before had been inefficient since the start . He had noticed how much energy was wasted pushing it into his muscles , compared to using his skill Eye of Discernment] .

Higher efficiency meant he’d fare better in a protracted battle . Maybe he wouldn’t have been so haggard after killing Vul if he had this level of endurance .

He kept killing demons and animals for the rest of the day , only returning to camp when the suns had practically set . His pouch was full of various large beasts he had killed . He thought he might as well stock up on dried meat in case something happened .

He also wanted to try just leaving some slabs of meat in the pouch , just to see how well they kept .

The fruits that the demon had kept in the pouch before were things he had never seen before , meaning it should have brought them from his home planet . They still looked pristine as though they were just plucked , so Zac hoped that the pouch would also work like a portable freezer .

That would come in handy in case of the weather changing . The weather had been great since the world changed , with only a smattering of clouds in the sky every now and then .

It seemed the trees didn’t suffer from the lack of rain . On the contrary , the forest had kept growing and mutating at an astonishing rate . Zac assumed it had to do with the cosmic energy in the atmosphere . It might work as a substitute for both sunshine and water for all he knew .

The island felt tropical by now , like the island was a primordial forgotten vestige at the edge of the world , where dinosaurs and other prehistorical beasts could be found .

That meant that there might come a tropical rain season . Zac really didn’t hope that was the case , seeing as everything got bigger and more extreme since the integration into the multi-verse . What would a torrential downpour powered by cosmic energy look like?

It took the better part of the night to skin and clean the beasts . He simply threw the skins on top of the car , not really bothered whether they dried properly or not . He didn’t really have any use for skins anymore , as the pouch and better armors kept him covered .

He was somewhat disappointed to see that he was unable to absorb cosmic energy from a Nexus Stones while doing other tasks . He first tried putting it in a pocket while he was cleaning a carcass , but he couldn’t sense the stone when he did .

Having it in one of his hands was too unwieldy , and slowed down his progress on the meat considerably . Finally , he stuffed the crystal in his mouth , hoping the contact to his body would make it possible to absorb the energy without occupying a hand .

The only result from that was that he almost choked himself to death on the energy rock . After a few more experiments he could conclude that he only could absorb cosmic energy from one crystal at the time and that he had to completely focus on the absorption for it to work . As soon as he tried to multi-task while absorbing a crystal the absorption simply would stop .

Disappointed , he could only put aside the crystal and keep it for a later date . He was planning on saving some of them in any case , as he wanted to give them to his father and sister when they met again . They were nifty , but only of limited use for him . But for people of lower levels , they’d be a great tool .

If they could be used to help his family protect themselves better it was worth saving , even if it meant slowing down his own leveling speed slightly .

Chapter 33 - Infection

Zac awoke at the dawn of light , and after preparing an assortment of tools in his pouch he set out . Today he would properly gather intelligence . His wounds were largely better now , just a bit red and sore .

He made a beeline for the incursion this time , heading straight toward the center of the island . Large parts would be uncharted territory for him here , as he had stayed somewhat at the outer edge since the start .

He had a theory that there should be a fourth kind of beast somewhere on the island that he still hadn’t seen .