Defiance of the Fall

There were four heralds , and at least one herald was a pack leader of its race , the barghest . But he had only encountered imps and the Gwyllgi apart from the hunkering demonlings .

There should be a fourth type of beast as well somewhere based on this , and Zac guessed that they either were located around the incursion or had moved their territory into the mountain .

Zac kept a rapid pace , moving at a speed that could be considered a sprint for a normal human . Still he made no sound as he passed through the forest , instinctively knowing where to put his feet to soundlessly proceed .

During his travels he noticed that his third class skill , Forester’s Constitution , had finally had its first progression either during last evening or this morning , now showing 1/30 . The problem was that he wasn’t quite sure what he did to progress it . The system gave no ping or notification when his quests progressed , leaving him with no information on when it happened .

A log of his actions would have been very convenient , as then he wouldn’t have to estimate his nexus coin gain from monsters or how much energy they gave all the time .

After he had moved for roughly 10 hours he finally slowed down . He was far closer to the incursion now than he had ever been before . This close he started to notice some jarring changes . For lack of a better word , the forest was infected . The red light of the incursion suffused all the surroundings , and the trees looked different , almost sickly .

Some had weird growths on them , others seemed to completely have lost all their leaves even though the summer was in full swing . The grass on the forest floor was turning a purplish color . There were also many young sprouts of a pitch black tree Zac had never seen before , which seemed to thrive in this odd environment . The very air seemed to be different as well , having an almost astringent taste . It didn’t seem to be a problem for Zac luckily , apart from feeling uncomfortable .

It seemed like the red pillar was slowly transforming its surroundings , likely to better suit the invaders . This made Zac even more anxious to complete his quest , as he didn’t know if this effect was reversible , and whether it would spread outwards . He didn’t want to create his town on a desolate island that smelled a bit like farts .

He also was astonished at the amount of beasts he saw . It seemed that all the demons preferred to stay in this environment , and the forest was packed with monsters . He shuddered at the thought of this horde of beasts being unleashed upon a human city . Luckily they were stranded here on this island .

It also made him realize that it might not have been more beasts spawning during his month of grinding , it was enough that a few strays would leave the central area of the island for the edge of the island to be refilled .

What would’ve looked like hell for many , Zac saw as a treasure trove . He almost drooled at the prospect of grinding here , but he had a mission today . Most human cultivators would likely have trouble killing one barghest since they had their upgrade , but Zac had no trouble facing multiple at a time by now . He might get a few bites and scratches if there were too many of them , but that wouldn’t be anything new for him .

Those plans could only wait though . He needed to gauge the magnitude of the invasion to make a proper plan . There was a lot to do in the coming month . Of course , he wouldn’t hide from the beasts either , so everything that entered his path was met with a swift swing of his axe .

By now he was only a couple of kilometers away from the Incursion , so he started to slow down and focus fully on stealth . He did not want to enter combat again this close to the enemy base , who knew what kind of forces that they had .

The incursion was in a valley which stretched toward the mountain , and Zac gingerly moved toward the edge to see what was happening inside .

As he almost was at the crest he saw a solitary demon sitting next to a tree , currently napping . Zac was again shocked at their bad discipline , and it felt like the whole invasion was handled by a group of undisciplined children rather than an army . If he thought that the horde of barghest around the valley would be enough protection and give prior warning of an attack , then he was sorely mistaken .

After slowly looking at the vicinity to ensure there were no more scouts around he approached the demon soundlessly . He didn’t bother to identify him , afraid he would sense the scrying . When he was 10 meters away he switched gears to a sprint , brandishing his axe .

The demon woke in the last moment , and made a terrified expression . He didn’t have any time to activate any defenses or shout for help though , as the axe descended and cleanly decapitated him .