Chapter 68: Progenitor's Advantage
WHAT?! Zac immediately jumped to his feet with his axe at the ready, afraid he had fallen into some trap of the demons making. He charged up [Chop] to a meter long edge and advanced on Ogras.
Calm down, calm down! Ogras screamed and scrambled out of the chair. The Cosmic Water you have been drinking!
You poisoned the pond as well? Why? Zac glared angrily at the demon, ready to start a war.
What poisoned? It was poison from the start. Only lunatics drink that stuff raw, it burns your pathways from inside. Havent you noticed? Ogras spat back and waved his hands.
The trees rustled in the wind and shadows were flickering all over the ground as Zac glared at the demon, but he eventually stopped his advance.
Explain. Zac growled through gritted teeth, extremely pissed off that the demon hadnt mentioned anything about this for the whole duration of their conversation.
That kind of water can be born in areas where there is extremely dense cosmic energy. It was probably created when The Ruthless Heavens crammed a Nexus Vein into the mountain range. Ogras grumpily explained. It is pretty rare and somewhat expensive. Normally its used as an ingredient in alchemy, but some forces give their death squads some of it to use just in case. It restores your cosmic energy in seconds, but it damages your body and can even kill you.
But I feel fine? Zac said doubtfully.
You just used some cosmic energy, try restoring it naturally without using any tools, Ogras said as he sighed and sat down in his chair again while he muttered something under his breath.
Too stressed out to care about any glib remark from the demon he unsummoned his enlarged blade and tried to sense the cosmic energy entering his body. He wasnt a cultivator, but even mortals could naturally restore their cosmic energy as the ambient energy slowly entered their bodies. It was normally a slow but steady stream that entered his body, but now it could barely be called a trickle.
Zacs face went white and he stared at the demon. He was still suspicious but somewhat believed the demon told the truth. It took him hours to restore his cosmic energy even with a crystal, but it almost happened instantly with the azure water. He hadnt reflected on it before, but how could there be such a good thing with no side-effect?
He simply didnt notice the effect since he used crystals or more water every time he needed to restore after chugging the Cosmic Water the first time. He had been strapped for time and didnt have time to wait for his energy to naturally restore itself. He had been angry that he wasnt given a power boost from bathing in the stuff earlier, but now he was just happy to still be alive.
How do I fix this? Zac asked.
Ive heard that there are pills for it, but I dont know where to get it. Its extremely rare, because idio individuals who drink it almost always die within a day you know? Ogras said. I think Ive heard that spending time in energy-rich areas can help your body slowly heal various types of damage to your pathways. So that might work, but Im not sure how much time it would take. And that is if you still can absorb some energy. If its a full stop its over for you Im afraid.
Ogras was a veritable treasure trove of answers after having fumbled about blindly for so long. For example, it was very interesting to know that normal cultivators in the multi-verse didnt get access to the tutorial, making it an even more rare opportunity. Zac kept coming up with various questions that had hounded him and threw them at the demon randomly as he thought of them. The smiling faade of Ogras soon cracked, and his answers got shorter and terser until he slammed his hand on the arm-rest of his chair.
God damn it! Do I look like a tutorial fairy to you? Ill be back tomorrow, he spat out and threw a crystal at Zac who deftly snapped it out of the air. Read that instead of pestering me.
Read? How? Zac looked at the crystal in his hand confused. It looked similar to a Nexus crystal but the color was green like a watered out emerald. It was also covered in intricate golden fractals.
Just imbue some energy in it. The demon sighed, obviously still annoyed, and walked toward the edge of the camp. Im done answering your inane questions human. Put your energy on survival instead.
Ogras soon left the camp and afterward disappeared like he did up on the mountain top. There were many questions that were still unanswered, but he had gotten many of the more pressing issues cleared up. He looked at the crystal in his hand and after a long hesitation poured a minuscule amount of cosmic energy into it. The demon was very helpful so far, and it felt unlikely he would give him a bomb after all this. Still, he was ready to hurl the crystal far away if needed.
A screen similar to the ones the System provided suddenly popped up as the crystal lit up. The design of the window was a bit more intricate though, and covering it was an image of a grand pavilion with a Stargazer floating on top of it. It clearly was a man-made item, and the intricacy made Zac marvel. It was something on a whole other level compared to the cruder enchantments on the demons gear pieces.
Soon the image changed, and it turned into what could best be described as a web-page. There were menus with various categories and images. Luckily Zac could understand the content just fine, and was amazed at what was written. The crystal contained a thorough guide of what happened when a world was integrated into the multi-verse.
Granted, it seemed to be written for the invading forces, but still most of the information was very helpful to Zac. But the more he read through the more troubled he became. It became very apparent that the natives were largely discounted, and that the web-page considered the other Incursion forces the only challenge for a successful invasion.
It did mention that there was a small chance of encountering extremely strong forces on an integrated planet, but most civilizations couldnt even be considered F-Graded. From how the text described it Zac knew that Earths civilization wasnt considered anything much, and was not what it meant when it mentioned strong forces.
For normal civilizations like earths humans, the missive simply stated that enslavement usually was most convenient. It would increase the resources that could be gained in a new planet as manpower usually was limited.
It also listed out the most common tactics of various forces in the multi-verse and Zac was shocked to find out that the demons truly were some of the more decent forces. They usually created a country and entered trade negotiations with surrounding forces, native or foreign, to amass wealth. They did enslave the native populations on their lands though.
But there were many forces that simply eradicated everything and ceaselessly strove to increase its influence until the whole planet was theirs. There was even a force that entered incursions just in order to annihilate the natives and didnt care about the resources at all. It was a cult that called itself The Church of Everlasting Dao.
Unfortunately, the missive gave no information about the forces themselves so Zac couldnt find out more about them. But it was clear that almost none of the forces cared an iota about the natives, and only considered newly integrated worlds treasure-troves of wealth.
All in all the crystal was just what Zac needed, and he swore that hed pester the demon until he handed out more goodies. The crystal said it was the first crystal of two, so hopefully he could annoy another out of the paws of the demon tomorrow.