The suns were starting to rise over the small campsite.
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.
There was another sword inside, also with inscriptions. But this one had a far more normal size compared to its monstrous brother. There were some random tools, a water bottle and a flagon made in silver in one corner. The flagon seemed to have similar fractals as the water bottle, albeit a bit more intricate.
There was also a large reserve of luxurious dishes and fruits in another corner.
More surprisingly there was an actual table, a parasol, a rug, and two ornate chair in the space. Zac dumbly stared at the furniture, not knowing how to react. Was the demon invading another world, or was he out on a picnic?
He didn’t dare take any of the food, as he had no idea whether the food demons ate was edible for humans. While it looked perfectly normal, who knew if they used cyanide as a spice?
The final items in the corner were a few books and a small pile of crystals. Each crystal was uniform in shape and roughly the size of his palm. He couldn’t understand the language in the books at all, and could only put them aside for now.
The crystals were more interesting, and he tried mentally extract it from the pouch. Suddenly the crystal appeared next to the pouch. Zac grabbed it in the air and started to examine it. It wasn’t translucent, but rather a milky white, and cool to the touch. It seemed to emit a faint white light as well.
More interestingly, Zac could feel that the small stone was packed with cosmic energy. It was as if his senses were telling him that he wasn’t holding a small shiny crystal, but a shining sun of energy.
He remembered that his quests had something called Nexus Crystals as a reward for completing, and guessed he was holding one right now. More impressively he had roughly 100 of them in his pouch.
Of course, Zac knew that there was a distinct possibility that this was an F-Grade Nexus Crystal, rather than an E-Grade crystal like the ones that the quests rewarded. It would be odd if he got 100 crystals from just one enemy, if he only got 10 for conquering a whole incursion by himself.
He tried absorbing some energy from the crystal, and a pure stream of energy quickly entered his body and energized him. His slightly depleted body was quickly energized, and he was happy to notice that the absorption continued even after his body was “satiated”. That meant that absorbing the crystals would work toward gaining levels, and not only be a tool for recuperating after a draining battle.
Zac sat and absorbed the crystal for roughly 30 minutes before he stopped. After scrutinizing the crystal it seemed that he had absorber roughly a quarter of the stored energy. So completely absorbing it would take roughly two hours. Furthermore, absorbing just one crystal seemed equivalent of killing roughly 10 barghests and absorbing their energy.
That meant if he only sat down and used these stones to cultivate it would actually be more effective compared to running all over the island killing demon dogs with all his might.
Of course, he wouldn’t get any Nexus Coins, but still.
These crystals would be a huge asset for him. There were always time he couldn’t be killing beasts. Like when cooking, chopping wood and even moving between the demons while out hunting. If he could keep absorbing these crystals during all this down-time he could double his leveling speed.
Next he walked over to the great sword and tried infusing it with cosmic power as well. However, it was as though the energy was blocked when trying to enter, which stumped Zac. After a brief hesitation he cut his finger and dripped a few drops of blood on the runes before trying again. He had remembered the pouch absorbing his blood, and could only try the same method again.
This time he felt no resistance, as the blood was absorbed into the sword. Information once again entered his mind, this time the usage of the sword. It seemed that the sword could increase and decrease its weight, albeit the effect was quite limited. That might have explained why he slammed into the ground so helplessly in the first clash between him and the leader, he might have maximized the weight for the overhead swing.
Next he did the same procedure on his axe. Infusing it with energy had no earth-shattering effect. It had a weak auto-repair and sharpen feature. As long as he infused some cosmic energy into it, it would gradually fix nicks in the edge and re-sharpen.
It didn’t improve the lethality, but it was convenient for him who didn’t have proper facilities for weapons maintenance.
He finally turned to his last inscribed gear, and with the same procedure tried to activate the bracers he had nabbed from the leader. To his surprise, nothing happened when he tried activating them.