Defiance of the Fall

As he waited for his body to get better he planned to meditate some on the Dao . He wished to both improve his current Seed of Heaviness , and get another seed , the Seed of Sharpness . These two forces were those he sensed to be strongest in the axe in his vision , and he felt that getting both of them was the first step on the path of true axe mastery .

Besides , the Dao of Sharpness might also be of some use for his throwing knives . Since Axe Mastery] came with no manual how to progress the Dao or his other skills he could only fumble around in the dark . This time literally .

Unfortunately , he could only focus at the large axe fractal in his mind for a short while before his head started hurting again . It seemed that using Dao was still impossible after his overexertion . Zac wondered if there was something like mental energy or soul power that was used when pondering on the Dao or using it in battle , but he hadn’t been able to sense anything of the sort thus far . He only knew his head hurt and felt swollen like a bad migraine .

Helplessly he could only go to sleep . He would have preferred to take a look around the area , but his body didn’t really listen to his commands anymore . Besides any sound carried through the tunnels and amplified , and it was completely quiet apart from his breathing . There should be no monsters or creepy crawlies around at least this part of the subterranean system .

Zac woke up some time later , not being able to tell exactly how long he was out . His watch had broken long ago , and his cell phone ran out of charge as well . He had learned to tell the time somewhat accurately with the help of the suns , but down in the caverns this was useless .

Judging from the state of his body he felt that he had been out somewhere between 3 and 5 hours . He was still bruised all over but at least he could get by . He got up on his feet but stopped before setting out .

He was a bit unsure how to proceed from here on out . After some hesitation , he decided to look around the caves for a bit , and then find an exit . Nothing had really changed apart from the monkey king being hurt . The general and other herald were still unknowns .

The caverns were the last place apart from the city that remained uncharted on the island . There was a real possibility that the last Herald hid somewhere in here as he hadn’t even seen the shadow of it before . If he could find something out while he was stuck here anyway it would be great assistance to his quest . One of his fears was that he would fail his mission and get punished by the System , not due to a lack of trying , but because he simply couldn’t find his targets .

Since the System wanted him to kill these targets he felt that he should have been provided with some navigation and targeting method . But if mentally complaining about the system had any effect he’d long have solved all his problems .

But he also put a time limit on himself . He hadn’t given up on killing the monkey king , and would certainly try again . The reason for his failure was the horde of monkeys interrupting . He was quite certain that he would be able to kill him if he got him alone .

That’s why he didn’t try to rush back . For one he wasn’t sure how to get out , and besides , he believed that the monkey army would be on high alert for his return in the short run . It was a shame , as the monkey king was currently an easy target with its wounds . But he still had half a month until his 2-month deadline . He didn’t need to risk it all just yet .

Zac took a glance at his axe , confirming that it was almost completely repaired , and continued further into the caves . He still used only the glowing moss as a light source as he didn’t want to alert any enemies . Besides his eyes were getting accustomed to it by now and he could somewhat make out his surroundings .

Just before he ventured down he carved a small Z beneath the glowing moss to mark his passage . He could still track his progress in his mind , but better safe than sorry .

The tunnels he progressed through led steadily downward , and it felt like he was walking toward the foot of the mountain . That also meant that he was closing in on the cave system the demons explored so he was careful to not make any excessive sounds . He even ripped down some moss from the wall and tied it to the bottom of his feet to mask his footsteps . It was the non-luminescent kind of moss , of course , as he didn’t want his feet to become beacons for the enemy .

As he descended he sensed that the ambient cosmic energy was steadily growing stronger . Not only that , the tunnels started to change as well .

From being dark and dour , apart from the occasional weak blue luminescence from the moss , the caverns were turning into a vibrant fantasy world . Thick vines with purple flowers started to grow out of the ground , large glowing mushrooms lined the tunnels and the lights from the moss grew stronger and polychromatic .