Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 319: Sugar Daddy

Zac was a still bit muddled from getting the news that Salvation had managed to kill so many people as a final act of lunacy that he didn’t quite understand what Emily was getting at.

“Who found what?” he asked while looking around.

“Mr. Trang and his squad finally managed to set up a base camp. It took some time because they needed to finish a quest, but they succeeded because of his Kraken. When they bought the teleporter there was already a public teleporter in range that we can't see here. It's probably the underworld," Emily explained, the words tumbling out of her mouth.

The eyes of both Ogras and Zac lit up at the news. Getting to the underworld before the fire golems destroyed the whole thing was of the highest priority. For Ogras it was about resources, while Zac also considered the humanitarian component. But the exciting news were suddenly eclipsed by a snippet of information from Emily's report.

“His WHAT?” Zac exclaimed, looking at Emily with some horror.

“His pet Kraken,” Emily said with a wide grin. “He’s named it Little Bau, which apparently means treasure in Vietnamese? I heard it’s crazy strong.”

Zac didn’t know how to react. He was reminded that the old fisherman’s class was something like a maritime beast tamer, but he didn’t expect him to snag such a scary thing. It also made him a bit leery about having an island kingdom if Kraken were swimming about in the depths. Would they start getting harassed by Lovecraftian nightmares in the near future?

“Anyway, how’s their situation?” Zac asked.

“We still don’t know, we’ve been waiting for you,” Emily explained. “Our teleporter is hidden because of your settings, so they shouldn't know about us. And all the strong people here were occupied so we didn’t dare open it.”

“That’s good,” Zac said with a nod. “We can’t go right now though. My arm is broken in multiple places and Ogras is wounded as well. Salvation was even stronger than expected.”

“Wounded? That guy was that strong? He was only level 61 right?” Emily said with some confusion.

“Girl, he had an army of half a million puppets that exploded in our faces,” Ogras snorted. “It’s a miracle we’re even still alive. The underworld will still be there in a few days. Go punch some barghest or something.”

Emily looked disappointed at the news, but she soon nodded. Zac knew she wanted to get down there as quickly as possible as the underworld was the last hope she had of reuniting with her siblings. Unfortunately, he simply wasn’t in any condition to battle a supposed high- or even top-tier Incursion at the moment. So, for now, it was best to keep their presence hidden in case some unexpected dangers lurked on the other side of the teleporter.

“I’ll go train then,” she said as she hurried away.

“I need money, I’m flat broke,” Ogras suddenly said from the side.

“What?” Zac asked with some skepticism as he threw the demon a glance. “I’m not your sugar daddy.”

“My what? Anyway, between the Origin Array and the temporary gate to the Mystic Realm I barely have enough resources to even support myself,” the demon said. “Remember, we couldn’t bring Nexus Coins here either.”

“What do you need?” Zac finally said after a brief pause. “And isn’t your income from Calrin’s enough? The revenue should have exploded recently.”

Truthfully, Ogras had provided a lot of assistance not only in battle but also in management and setting a course for the force as a whole. If he needed some Nexus Coins it wasn’t the end of the world since Zac had hundreds of millions to his name, and even more in the form of treasures and Nexus Crystals.

“That money won’t arrive for a while yet,” Ogras said with a shake of his head. “To begin with I need a hundred million to upgrade the temporary array into a permanent one. It’s especially important if we want to set up the hidden outpost to research Salvation.”

Zac sighed and transferred the money to Ogras, not bothering to investigate how much was actually needed. It truly felt like a worthy investment. They still didn’t know how The Great Redeemer tracked his targeted planets. Perhaps even killing his people wasn’t enough. Throwing anything with a connection to him into the Mystic Realm felt like the best solution for the moment.

“It’ll take a day or two to get the needed components from the blue one,” Ogras nodded. “What do you want to do afterward?”

“How long until you are back to fighting condition?” Zac asked.

“Three days at the maximum. That golden light tried to drag my soul out of my body, but it didn’t cause any real lasting damage,” the demon said after thinking it over.

“We’ll head down to the Underworld immediately after,” Zac said. “The other incursions aren’t critical, and it should take a while to whittle down the zombies to a manageable number.”

“Great,” Ogras said with naked greed on his face. “Can’t let those people below us wait for too long, and they can incidentally help me with my financial situation. I’ll handle the gate immediately.”

Zac snorted as he watched the demon get swallowed by shadows before he stepped into the teleporter again to head to his cultivation cave. As he expected he found his sister sitting with closed eyes on one of the mats he acquired in the hunt. She opened her eyes and smiled at him when he approached, before her eyes suddenly widened at the sight of his arm limply dangling to the side.

“You’re hurt?” she said as she hurried over to him.

“My ultimate skill is pretty taxing to my body, I need to get a bit stronger,” Zac shrugged.

“At least that lunatic is dealt with. But don’t take on more than you can handle,” she said and looked relieved when she realized he was in decent shape at least.

“I’m fine,” Zac smiled. “How are things on your end?”

“I’m making amazing progress in this cave!” she said, her eyes brightening up again. “I think I will enter the level ladder soon. And the other one I have already entered.”

“What?” Zac said with confusion as he opened up his ladder system.

The only one that made sense was the Dao Ladder since Kenzie didn’t possess a lot of wealth. She didn’t handle any of Port Atwood’s finances or fought beasts to level up, so she shouldn’t have a lot of Nexus Coins. So Zac quickly read through the ladder for her name, but he instead found another moniker.

[63 - Pretty Pretty Mega Kenzie]

Zac wryly smiled as he saw the name he hadn’t heard in almost twenty years. It was the moniker Kenzie had given herself when she was four to match his Super Brother-Man alias. Her superhero costume had been a Halloween princess costume and a cape made from a blanket.

“I can’t believe you chose that name,” Zac said with a shake of his head.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter,” Kenzie laughed. “I have already confirmed that these pseudonyms only count for Earth’s ladders, not on other things in the multiverse.”

Zac sighed in relief when he heard that since it had actually been a small worry of his own. He already knew there were ladders in the Tower of Eternity to both showcase historic records and the current status of trial takers. It would have been a bit embarrassing to have Super Brother-Man show up at such a place when he was looking for a strong force to join.

“What level is your Dao to get placed at the 63rd spot?” Zac asked with some curiosity.

“I have the Seed of Tinder at the late stage, and I recently got the Seed of Loam,” she said. “When I only had the late-stage seed I didn’t get a placement,”

“Seed of Loam?” Zac asked with a raised brow.

“It’s a basic elemental Seed,” Kenzie explained. “Jarvis wants me to get seeds for the four elements before evolving. So I have earth and fire now, but I still need water and air.”

Zac nodded, feeling it made sense since her class was Elementalist. He also felt a bit surprised how quickly people had advanced on the Dao Ladder. He knew he was still far ahead of the curve, but the fact that a Late-Stage seed wasn't alone to enter the ladder was pretty surprising to him after hearing how hard it was for the demonkin soldiers to gain Dao Seeds back home. It was truly no surprise that The Great Redeemer wanted to get his hand on their Origin Dao.

“Loam doesn’t assist me in battle at the moment, but it does improve my healing and it helps the flower grow,” she added and nodded at the small lotus.

It hadn’t been that long since Zac saw it the last time, but it had actually grown quite a bit and now had the diameter of a dinner plate. But it still emitted almost no life-attuned energy, proving it was still in an extremely early stage. Who knew how many years it would take until it possessed the supreme energies of the one that the Abbot possessed.

“Have you heard anything from the battle with the Zombies?” Zac asked.

“I get an update every evening from Adran. They have started clashing a few days ago, but no big battle has taken place yet. They are essentially nipping at the Zombie’s sides as the horde pushes forward. They’re trying to split up the horde, but that requires killing the high-grade Zombies who keep the dumber ones in line, and those creatures are hidden in the middle of the horde,” Kenzie said.

Zac nodded, feeling more confident in his plan now that he knew the situation likely wouldn’t get too out of hand in the short run.

“I’m heading to the underworld next,” Zac said. “Will you stay here?”

“I have no interest in fighting with a bunch of fire golems,” Kenzie said with a wave of her hand. "I'd rather stay here for now."

“Are you changing to a non-combat role?” Zac asked curiously since Kenzie rarely fought since she arrived at Port Atwood.

“No, but I don’t need as much practical battle experience as others thanks to Jeeves,” Kenzie said. “But I think I will get a secondary job when I reach E-Grade. Alchemist perhaps? It seems pretty fun.”

Zac’s eyes lit up when he heard her mention alchemy. That was one field where they were sorely lacking at the moment, and after hearing what Dao Seeds Kenzie possessed she felt perfect for the job. Fire and Earth could both help in concocting pills, and the precise energy control she got with the help of heir AI could boost her skills even further.

And no one would be happier than Zac if she focused on a non-combat profession since that would keep her out of harm’s way. As long as she still possessed a mage-like class she would be able to defend herself. Besides, Alchemists were always extremely wealthy and had great powerhouses protecting them. It would help secure her future in case something ever happened to him since skilled Alchemists were welcome no matter where they went.

“That sounds like a good idea. I did find that nice cauldron earlier, you can have it,” Zac said and immediately took it out and placed it in the cave. “Just tell me if you need anything to train your skills. Port Atwood could really use a skilled Alchemist.”

“Are you trying to turn your poor sister into a money printing machine?” Kenzie giggled. “In any case, it would have to wait a bit. I want to focus on my Dao while the Origin energies are still abundant in the atmosphere. Dao is the one thing that Jeeves can’t help with, so I need to do that one myself.”

“Ogras and I got our hands on something nice earlier which might come in handy,” Zac said and told her about the golden fractal. “Do you think Jeeves would be able to figure out a way to extract the energy?”

“It’s impossible to tell without looking at it,” Kenzie said with hesitation. “I need to borrow the crystals on formations and inscriptions as well to give Jeeves a better understanding of fractals.”

“Sure, just tell the Merit exchange I gave the go-ahead to browse them,” Zac agreed without hesitation.

The crystals had already been put into the merit exchange. But the cost of reading them could be waived for whoever Zac wished since they were his possessions. In fact, anyone could put information or skill crystals into the merit exchange, and any time the information was perused that individual would get most of the charged Merit.

It was a way to make people share their knowledge with the others of the force instead of hoarding it. Right now there were essentially no information or skill crystals except Zac’s own though, but that would probably change as the years passed.

“The others will complain of nepotism,” Kenzie said with a smile.

Zac only rolled his eyes, completely uncaring what the others thought.

“Oh, by the way, the Abbot's custodian came here and asked for you while you were gone,” Kenzie said. “You should probably visit him before you leave for the underworld.”