Chapter 25: Stronger


    A strong surge of cosmic energy inundated Zacs whole body. It felt like his whole being was purified and reshaped. Instinctively he felt an enormous fractal imprinting itself and covered his whole being. However, most parts of the fractal was indistinct and blurred.


    He also felt the powerful rush into his cells which indicated the improvement of his stats. Zac waspletely oblivious of his surroundings as he was drowning in the sensations. Unfortunately the feeling didntst long, and he soon came down from his rush.


    From a first look he didnt feel that different, apart from his condition had improved significantly. It felt like his wounds hadrgely healed, even his broken arm.


    But when he opened his status page he was shocked. His stats had made a great leap.


    <strong>Name</strong>


    <strong>Zachary Atwood</strong>


    <strong>Level</strong>


    <strong>25</strong>


    <strong>ss</strong>


    <strong>Hatchetman (F)</strong>


    <strong>Race</strong>


    <strong>Human (F)</strong>


    <strong>Alignment</strong>


    <strong>Human (Earth)</strong>


    <strong>Titles</strong>


    <strong>Born for Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, yer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon yer I, Full of ss, Rarified Being, Trailzer</strong>


    <strong>Strength</strong>


    <strong>92</strong>


    <strong>Dexterity</strong>


    <strong>48</strong>


    <strong>Endurance</strong>


    <strong>51</strong>


    <strong>Vitality</strong>


    <strong>57</strong>


    <strong>Intelligence</strong>


    <strong>38</strong>


    <strong>Wisdom</strong>


    <strong>38</strong>


    <strong>Luck</strong>


    <strong>54</strong>


    <strong>Free Points</strong>


    <strong>0</strong>


    <strong>Nexus Coins</strong>


    <strong>14690</strong>


    All his stats had gained a jump of 9 points, except strength which had increased a whopping 28. As he had noticed that every stat point gave arger increase in improvementpared to the one before, he knew he likely had doubled his actual physical power from the increase in strength.


    He noticed that his ss was added in a row, with F denoting the grade of the ss. He was surprised to notice that his Race had also gotten graded, as it was nk before. He was excited at the prospect that he could actually evolve his race somehow.


    Hopefully it meant that his power would rise, rather than growing a tail or a third eye though.


    He had gained three new titles from getting a ss as well. Zac focused on them to get a description


    <strong>[Full of ss: Reach level 25 and attain a ss. All stats +1]</strong>


    <strong>[Rarified Being: Attain a ss graded as Rare. All stats +1]</strong>


    <strong>[Trailzer: First to gain a ss in world. All stats: +5] </strong>


    That exined where the all-around improvements to his stats came from. The first two titles were things that anyone could attain. However the Trailzer title was another title that only he would get on Earth.


    Zac felt aforting from what that title represented. He still managed to keep his lead, even over the chosen cultivators who got help in the beginner viges. Even if he was deemed trash by the System and left to rot to this ind, he had defied fate so far and was still on top.


    He had to admit that the feeling of power was somewhat addicting. Finding his family was still his priority, but he also craved the feeling of bing stronger and stronger. He lived for the moment after every battle where he absorbed the cosmic energy, and having the pure unadulterated force of life course through his veins.


    He had started to think more and more about where the limits of strengthy. By now he could punch arge rock and it would shatter, and only one month had passed. How powerful would he be in a year? A decade? Just thinking about it made him excited. Of course, he would never let himself forget that to get there in one piece he would have to walk through an ocean of blood.


    He didnt linger on the subject as he was anxious to look through his other changes. He thought ss and a new window appeared


    <strong>[ss: Hatchetman, Grade-F, Rare]</strong>


    <strong>Strength +10, +10%.</strong>


    <strong>Level: +3 strength, +1 endurance, +1 free point per level.</strong>


    <strong>Skills: </strong>


    <strong>Axe Mastery (LOCKED)</strong>


    <strong>Chop (LOCKED)</strong>


    <strong>Foresters Constitution (LOCKED) </strong>


    Followed that were rows of blocked out information. At least that showed where therge strength boost came from. The +3 strength per level didnt seem to be retroactive, otherwise hed have almost twice the strength by now. But it showed that every level from now would give a muchrger boostpared to before.


    Zac was annoyed to see that he actually didnt get any skills for free as he had hoped. There were 3 skills listed that seemed somewhat intuitive. Axe Mastery and Chop seemed offensive, and Foresters Constitution was defensive. At least he hoped Chop was an offensive skill, and not a woodworking skill.


    He didnt quite understand how Chop would be better than what he had been doing before, but he guessed he would find out. It seemed that he couldnt get any information about the skills until he unlocked them.


    The next problem was how to unlock the skills. Soon he found the method in the quest tab. It showed a new category, which was ss quests. Each skill needed a quest to bepleted.


    <strong>Axe Mastery (ss): Mastery is born through battle. Fell 1000 enemies. (0/1000)</strong>


    <strong>Chop (ss): First chop Wood. Then their bodies. (0/10 000)</strong>


    <strong>Forester''s Constitution (ss): Fight in the forests, be one with nature. (0/30)</strong>


    None of the quests seemed very hard to aplish. The Axe Mastery made no distinction of the strength of the enemies, and with his improved physique he could grind it out in a week or two if he just focused on ying barghests.


    The chop quest seemed to take time rather than being hard, but if he changed his daily work-out routine to chop wood it would be done sooner orter. Chopping wood was a great work-out anyways.


    Thest quest seemed either extremely easy or rather hard. Just 30 fights and it would be done. The whole ind was arge forest so finishing it seemed to be the easiest of the three. It depended on what be one with nature meant. If it was just some random words, great.


    If he actually had to somehow merge with nature, or be a tree-hugger it felt far more annoying.


    Finally it seemed that he found out everything that he could for now. He had entered the outpost shop as well, but it seemed nothing new was added from gaining a ss.


    There were a few new skills added at the Node, but they were prohibitively expensive, with the cheapest being 500 000 Nexus Coins.


    All in all it had been a fruitful day. He was disappointed that the demon had self-destructed rather than answering questions. There were so many things he needed to know. To be fair, Zac would likely have killed him after questioning the demon in any case. That the demon chose making ast ditch effort to bring Zac with him to hell was a logical choice.


    Luckily the gear he gained and the strengthening made the sting less severe. He still looked positively insane from the blood and broken gear, and didnt want to put on the gear while looking like this. He left the camp to patrol the vicinity for a while, and then went back.


    This would likely be a new addition to the daily routine. The humanoid demons seemed far more organizedpared to the dumb beasts that hade came through the incursion first.


    Satisfied that there were no enemies nearby, he moved water from the water array into the tankers reservoir. Finally he ripped the patchwork armor off, and took the first good shower in over a week. It was a risky move, but the grime and blood was making even him crazy, and he needed to get it off. He brought his new axe with him into the bathroom in case he was ambushed while in there.


    It took half an hour to scrub theyers of dirt and blood of himself before stepping out of the shower.


    Even cleaned up he could barely recognize himself in the mirror. His whole body had undergone a metamorphosis during thest month. Almost all of the fat was gone, leaving only a thinyer covering his muscr frame.


    His physique looked <em>hard</em>. His muscles werepact and wiry rather than big and swollen like a body builders. He thought he actually might be smaller nowpared to when he worked out at the gym.


    Of course he knew that an explosive power was contained in these muscles, and that they were so dense that maybe not even a bullet would prate them by now. All over his body were scars of varying size and severity. His tactic of boosting his vitality and taking blows fornding killing strikes had been effective, but it had left an undeniable mark.


    He looked down on his rough and calloused hands. It was hard to believe what these hands had done thest weeks. Once he had actually ripped the jaws of a Gwyllgi straight apart when he had dropped his hatchet.


    Zac sighed and put on one of hisst whole t-shirts and undergarments. He didnt want to use his rags together with his new gear.


    Unfortunately the chest pieces of both the males leather armors had been sted to shreds so he could only put on the females armor. He didnt worry about it too much though, as he had a strong suspicion that there would be many more demons in the woods that could supply new gear.


    To get adjusted to his new weapon he dragged over a thick log. He reactivated his gravity array, and started cutting the log into firewood, working out and working on his quest simultaneously. It was alreadyte, and he would not go out hunting anymore today. As he was methodically swinging his axe a trace of anticipation could be seen on his face.


    For the first time since the world changed, he looked forward to go out and test his might.