Chapter 272: Corpsebloom Mantra
Zac panted as he popped a healing pill while looking at the surroundings. The large fortress largely lay in ruins, and much of it was his own handiwork. The battle between himself and the Incursion leader had caused widespread destruction, especially due to the stone-thaumaturgy of the rockman.
He bent over and snatched the cosmic sack of his opponent, but he didnt join the efforts to drive the remaining rockn toward their nexus hub. This ti there were no quests rewarded or titles, just pure battle between two forces. The blitz of himself and Ogras had broken the defensive periter in a furious assault, and in just seconds a large part of the elite defenders was dead or dying from either his fractal blades or innurable stabs of shadowy spears.
When the defensive line was broken Ilvere had commanded the Demons and the Valkyries forward, and Zac was shocked by their improvent. Of course, Ilvere was doing the work of ten n, though most of his efforts were spent on making sure his soldiers stayed alive.
Any ti a skirmish seed to go awry his huge tal ball flew over with the force of a truck, instantly swinging the battle in their favor. There were a few strong rockn who had tried to do the sa, but they were t by insidious attacks from Ogras.
As for the leader, Zac took care of him. He had been quite powerful, but Zac got the sense that even Ogras would have been able to defeat him in a one-on-one. Then again the demon fought without any restrictions, while the power of the Incursion leader was still limited by the System's restrictions. But Ogras kept showing new cards, and even Ilvere seed surprised by the power of Ogras.
Zac finally learned what hid beneath that mold on his stump. It was like he had cramd thousands of shadows and forced them into the shape of his missing arm. But the arm was also able to change shape according to his will. It was very strong, but it was also clear that Ogras lacked proper control of it, and it started to fall apart after a short while in the open.
Zac hadnt even needed to go all out in his battle, and he was in much better condition after this fight compared to after his battle with Nenothep. But unfortunately, the battle didnt give him a level, and he realized that he would need to fight quite a few people to reach the two final levels before he reached his bottleneck. He had gained the past eight levels thanks to the rewards of the hunt, and the amount of energy that was required to reach level 74 shocked him.
The mont he killed the rockman leader the rest of the soldiers imdiately initiated an organized retreat through their Nexus Hub. The hub was located inside the battle, and the support staff of their incursion imdiately entered while the soldiers kept Zacs forces at bay.
Of course, he didnt push the matter. There was no way for them to kill all of the rockn before they managed to flee, so their force definitely would get a report of what transpired here. There was no need to go on a widespread rampage at this juncture, causing unnecessary enmities in the multiverse.
For for the rockn this was likely just business. They wanted access to resources and Origin Dao, and they were willing to risk their lives for it. That they would be ousted was always a real risk, and no one would waste their resources on finding Earth again. But it might be different if Zac caused a vendetta with them.
So the soldiers were mostly pushing the forces toward the Nexus Hub, killing anyone who tried to act out. In just 15 minutes no living rockn were remaining in the fortress, at least not that hey could find.
Interestingly enough, the mont the last rockman disappeared Zac got a prompt from the system.
[Annex RCKV-4433?]
Zac hesitated a bit about what to do before he agreed.
[Appoint Mayor?]
Zac frowned a bit before he hurried over to Ogras who looked a bit pale as he cradled the form that contained his weird shadow-hand.
You ok? Zac asked as he looked down at the slightly pale demon.
Just field testing. It drains more energy than I expected. Whats wrong?
I annexed this place. Can I elect a Mayor at a later ti? Zac asked.
Not sure, but I dont see why not? muttered with so uncertainty. What do you want with this shithole?
Its ti to build a presence on the main continent. Its good to have alternatives if our efforts at the coast doesnt work out, Zac said.
Fair enough, it would be nice to not have to rely on so random strangers to move about the continent. Besides, Nexus Hubs are strategic resources that are worth a lot," the demon agreed.
Zac nodded and opened the town shop. Most of the options he had available at his main town were available here as well, though it was clear that his population in Port Awood did not count here toward structures that had building restrictions.
He quickly bought a new defensive array and a teleportation array, creating a defensible position for his soldiers.
Well leave a few people here until Adran can send soone over to sort things out, Zac said.
I think the golems chose this place for a reason. Perhaps there are good things in the mountain, Ogras said as he looked over at the towering peaks right behind the fortress where theyd fought.
Zac nodded as he stepped through the teleporter, arriving back at Port Atwood. He didnt have ti to make the arrangents for the new outpost, and he left that for others to figure out. Instead, he headed over to The Thayer Consortia, and in minutes the Sky Gnos were back at his courtyard full of energy.
Your language crystals, Calrin said and handed over a box. The Undead Empire has five official languages. I could not get all of them though. The fifth one is apparently only used by the higher-ups, and it's not for sale.
Zac nodded in thanks as he opened the box. Four black crystals lay inside, each one with a different insignia engraved. Zac picked up the first one and placed it against his head, and the next mont it was filled with a burst of information. The transfer continued for a few minutes until the crystal finally cracked and turned to black dust.
The crystals were unfortunately one-ti use, but that made them much cheaper than the type of crystals that could be used repeatedly after allowing them to restore their energies. Zac was a bit woozy by the ntal shock, but he kept going and soon he had absorbed the information of all four languages.
He knew he was pushing it by doing so. Absorbing this much knowledge with his very limited Intelligence could hurt his brain, but he didnt have ti to let his mind rest. He quickly turned back to the gnos, who eagerly looked at his Cosmos Sack, and once again started to go through his treasures.
As they worked Abby also ca by, updating Zac on the tasks he had given out. The renovation of the area around The Towers of Myriad Dao was underway, and over a hundred people were working at it to get it done in record speed. They had also teleported over hundreds of Zhix workers to dig as far down as possible in their mines. Since they lived underground they were natural diggers.
Regarding the Zhix, Nonet wants to speak with you at your convenience, Abby said.
And I guess Nonet still does not want to leave its hive? Zac asked, to which Abby simply bobbed in confirmation.
I will try to make it, but honestly theres a bit much on my plate at the mont, Zac sighed.
I think its in regards to the Dominators, but I cannot be sure, Abby ventured.
Ill try to speed things up. Can you call over my sister? Zac asked.
Soon Kenzie ran over and took over the job of managing the four Sky Gnos. In a perfect world, he wouldnt need to waste his sisters ti for this. But he had caught every single Sky Gno trying to pilfer a few goodies for themselves multiple tis. The ancient one had especially sticky fingers, making him not a small source of exasperation.
So instead he released a small hill of treasure at the ti and had Kenzie watch over the proceedings as he started looking through the things that he had found in Mhals Cosmos Sack. The first things he took out were information missives similar to the one he got from Ogras, though they seed to be created by so intelligence faction in the Undead Empire.
They were quite exhaustive, and Zac learned about quite a few forces that he hadnt heard about before. There was even a pretty decent rundown of the Allbright Empire, the place where Average and Greatest resided. It was a strong C-Graded force that consisted of seven sectors, one of which was the Empyrean Sector. The Red Sector that Greatest ntioned was ranked in the middle, and it was run by low-tier C-Graded hegemons.
It was very valuable information since it gave him a pretty good gauge of the power level of not only Greatest but also The Great Redeer. Everything pointed toward Greatest being in the top tier of the Red Zone, though not necessarily at the peak. That ant he was likely at the bottleneck of the D-Grade.
That also ant the Great Redeer might be around that power level as well since he seed to be pretty close in power from the aura he released. It didnt really change things since he had no way to defeat that man no matter whether he was D-Grade or C-Grade, but finding protection against a peak D-Grade warrior should be far easier than from a C-Grade old monster.
Of course, that was all conjecture. Zac also learned the shocking reality of The Church of Everlasting Dao. Who would have thought that the zealous cult was just a front for a large corporation that collected bodies and sold them to people running out of their lifespan?
It made Zac rember what The Great Redeer had said when he asked if he was part of the Church. He had called them body-peddlers and that their path toward immortality was a dead end. Zac was shocked that it was even possible to transfer to a new body to prolong ones life, but he had a feeling there were severe limitations to such a thing.
Apparently, the Undead Empire and the cult were in constant war since they fought over the high-grade corpses wherever they t.
Apart from the information on the church and the Allbright empire, thousands of other forces were listed, which was too much for Zac to go through at the mont. He placed the information crystals to the side, and hed hand them over to soone else that could go through it all in case there was anything of importance.
The second thing he took out was the cultivation manual that Mhals clan used. It was called [Corpsebloom Mantra], and it said that it could boost compatible attacks up to 22% at E-Grade, and it was possible to use all the way to level 150 provided the cultivator's body was proficient enough.
Zac hadnt looked to much into cultivation since he found that he was a mortal, but he knew that 22% wasnt a bad percentage. Ogras had once said that a boost of 10% per grade up to D-grade was good, but after that, he wasnt sure.
That was also why he hadnt seen cultivators as a real threat so far. Even those with good manuals were only boosted to a pretty limited degree, but that would change in E-grade. 20-30% was completely possible, which was like a permanent boost of [Hatchetmans Rage] without any downsides.
Besides, those numbers ca from Ogras whose origin was a pretty weak D-Grade clan, so it wasnt impossible that the manuals from higher-tiered forces were even better. But that wasnt really what was on Zacs mind as he thoughtfully looked down at the manual.
He had already resigned to being a mortal until he could get his hands on one of those treasures that would enable cultivation, or reaching a high enough grade. But he hadnt considered one aspect. He now had two races, which was essentially like having two different bodies.
Was the second body truly unable to cultivate as well?
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