Chapter 211: Experimentation

Chapter 211: Experimentation

Zac also figured out how to advance his quest for [Bulwark Mastery]. There were various ways to block a strike, but the only one that seemed to work was using a shield.

Unfortunately only had an old rusty shield he pilfered when he hunted the Imp Herald in the tunnels. It only lasted for 5 blows at the required power before it broke. That forced them to stop grinding his quest for the moment and instead focus on the other tasks at hand. There were infiltrators to hunt.

By now it was close to 8 am, which was a good time to hunt for shapeshifters. Most people were starting their day, heading out toward either their work or the academy. The sight was almost blinding to Zac, as everyone on the street was lit up like a beacon of life-force.

But Zac inspected each and every one beneath his hood, not wanting to let anyone slip by. So far they hadnt found a single shapeshifter, which was both troubling and a relief. The problem was that they had no idea just how many were still on the island.

According to Ogras there had been a mass exodus for the cultists when Ogras decapitated their leader. A good portion of them immediately ran for the Nexus crystal and teleported away. A few others, likely the more pious ones, had wanted to avenge their fallen leader, even to the point of self-destruction.

Ogras hadnt stayed at that time, instead heading over to the undead incursion to pick up Zac. When the demon later returned to farm the stronger invaders for contribution points the crystals had disappeared, and only some stragglers were left.

They simply had no idea what happened between the moment the two of them fled, until when Ogras returned. For all they knew there might be a whole contingent of lizardmen hiding in the woods somewhere, though that seemed unlikely.

The remaining cultists had been swarmed by undead almost as soon as the Corpse Lord fled, and they were barely holding on when Ogras arrived. As for the black golemoids, if there were any stragglers they were killed by the uncountable zombies as well. But it seemed that their leader had already ordered his troops to fall back before heading over for one last try at Zac's head.

But since one shapeshifter was still skulking around on his island, there could be more. Zac and ogras therefore patrolled the whole town twice, including the commercial district and the academy. At least it appeared that no shapeshifters hadnt replaced anyone else in the town proper, or any key personnel.

Zac also took the time to visit the unconscious David, and he couldnt help but feel enraged when he saw him. Even after a few days of intensive care he still looked like he was on the brink of starvation, with his whole body covered in scars. The shapeshifter had thoroughly tortured the poor man, likely to gain the intelligence needed to keep up its charade.

After two hours of patrolling Ogras was clearly bored, and Zac could only give up for now. Since he had to prepare for the treasure hunt he tasked Ogras with devising some method to cleanse the island from any interlopers.

That left Zac to figure out what to do next. There werent too many days left until the treasure hunt, and he had a hard time deciding what he should do. He wanted to start experimenting to become a human again so that he could gain access to his offensive skills.

But at the same time he was unsure of how often he could change his form. If he changed now he might not be able to freely change back, which meant he wouldnt be able to farm any more levels before the treasure hunt.

Since Undying Bulwark was an Epic class every level would come with a huge amount of attributes from now on, each one giving a great boost to his survivability. If he went all out for the following three days, leaving the last day to swap back to human, Zac expected that he would be able to gain between five and ten levels.

Hed already decided to skip getting the other two skills for now. He had no shield that could last him through the quest at the moment, and he honestly didnt dare step through the teleporter to Mount Everlasting Peace as he was right now.

He was afraid those tens of thousands of scripts on the mountain would blaze to life and smite him out of existence if he appeared. He knew that the mountain itself had been instrumental in fending off and defeating the Undead armies that had tried to raze it.

After some hesitation, he first went to the Thayer Consortia to speak with Calrin. The gnome was shocked enough to fall out of his chair when he saw Zacs appearance, and it took some time to calm him down.

Odd choice of a skill, transforming into an undead, the Sky Gnome muttered.

I thought it would be a good skill to infiltrate the Undead Incursion, but changing back was harder than I expected, Zac said with a smile as he took out the huge horn from the Star Ox from his pouch. In any case, Id like you to take a look at this.

Hmm, pretty, Calrin said as he looked at the horn with interest until he looked up at Zac. What kind of beast is it from?

Unfortunately, he didnt manage to make much headway on his Dao, and he knew he would have to use his Dao Treasure for it after he got home. Since he decided he was done he quickly headed toward the hidden camp to teleport back. Finally home he left a message for Kenzie telling her he was back and to come over after she woke up, before once again settling himself in his courtyard.

A large reason he dared to wait until the day before the Treasure hunt to experiment with turning back was that he had found some clues to turning during his fight with the tiger. That battle had almost completely exhausted all his miasma, and at that point hed felt that the Duplicity Core was starting to wake up.

It was in line with how he turned the first time, with his life-force being stolen by the dagger. The only problem was that when he got close to running out of miasma he started to feel like he was about to die and that the remaining miasma in his body was all that prevented his true death.

It was a weird distinction Zac hadnt realized before now. The miasma was not only the source of power in battle but also the source of life for the undead. If Zac ran out of Cosmic Energy in a fight he would feel weak, but he would be fine after resting.

But running out of Miasma for an undead seemed to be a death sentence. It gave a new meaning to the expression tired to death. He needed to find out if his theory was correct, but it would be crazy not to take some precautions.

It took an hour before Kenzie came to his courtyard after reading his note, and Zac immediately erected the arrays before taking out an E-Grade Divine crystal and an E-Grade Miasma crystal.

I am going to try to turn back into a human now, Zac explained. If it looks like Im dying, try using the Divine Crystal first. If it doesnt work, try the Miasma crystal.

Are you sure about this? Kenzie hesitantly asked as she picked up the two crystals.

Pretty much, Zac lied. I just wanted you here as a precaution. Here I go.

The next moment Zac started to expel his Miasma though his whole body, and a cloud of death-attuned Cosmic Energy started to form above him. When he was reaching the last of his miasmic reserves the was overcome with a sense of dread, and he instinctually wanted to reabsorb the energy in the air before it dissipated.

But he ignored his instincts and expelled the last of his Miasma. As the last of the energy left him everything turned black, and the last thing he felt before losing consciousness was falling down.

The next thing Zac felt was a burning fire in his belly. He didnt know if hed been unconscious for a second or for hours, but he knew his idea was correct as his Core had sprung to life. It felt as though it shone like a sun inside his body, giving off a healing warmth.

However, that warmth was quickly turning into a blistering heat as fire radiated out through it, covering every inch of his body. It felt as though he was being burned alive, and he barely was able to contain a cry of pain. It took all his effort to keep his mind steady as the fire raged through his body, and he didn't even have the energy to get up from the ground.

But finally the Core calmed down, and he opened his eyes with a shaky breath.

How do I look, he said with a hoarse voice.

Kenzie stood in front of him, looking worried.

Tired, but human. It looked like you died there for a bit, she said.

Life through death, Zac muttered to himself before once again turning to his sister. How long did the change take?

Not too long, around two minutes? she answered.

Zac could only sigh and shake his head in disappointment.