Zac Atwood

Zac Atwood is the founder of Port Atwood and the central defender of Earth. Thrown into the Multiverse without a tutorial, he builds an empire while pursuing an abnormal path that joins life, death, conflict, and the Void. His Duplicity Core eventually leaves him as one person with two equally real bodies: a human Evolutionary Precursor and the Draugr known publicly as Arcaz Black.

Biography

Origins and integration

Before the integration, Zac was a marketing consultant whose outdoorsman appearance concealed a sedentary life. A camping trip separated him from his friends just as the System remade Earth, and a failed lottery placement left him alone on an island occupied by an invading demon force. Survival rather than ambition drove his first weeks. He learned the System through repeated near-death fights, claimed an outpost, reached level 25, and chose the Rare Hatchetman class because its direct power offered the best chance of living long enough to find his family. (Chapters Prologue–24)

Conquering the island brought Zac into conflict with Ogras Azh’Rezak, an ambitious demon who had survived the collapse of his own incursion. Zac had every reason to treat Ogras as an enemy, yet recognized that the demon's knowledge was indispensable. Their wary bargain became the foundation of Port Atwood: Zac supplied overwhelming force and control of the Nexus Node, while Ogras supplied information, organization, and a far clearer understanding of the Multiverse. That choice moved Zac from solitary survivor to a leader responsible for humans, demons, and displaced civilians. (Chapters 60–93)

Zac crossed the newly fused Earth to search for Kenzie and their father, only to discover Robert Atwood had died while looking for his children. He promised at Robert's memorial to find Kenzie, recovered her after the conflict around Kingsbury, and drew her into the growing settlement's leadership. The same period transformed his identity: exposure to death-attuned energy created the Duplicity Core and a true Draugr side with its own race and class. Zac used both aspects during the Eastern Trigram Hunt, defeated threats far beyond ordinary F-grade warriors, and accepted that protecting Earth required a path no established guide fully understood. (Chapters 116–284)

Building alliances and authority

The expanding conflict pushed Zac beyond straightforward monster hunting. He negotiated with the Underworld, fought Technocrat forces, and learned that Earth's factions could be destroyed as easily by hidden agendas as by open incursions. Instead of trying to rule every group directly, he built alliances with people such as Thea Marshall, Billy, Verana, and Sap Trang while keeping Port Atwood as the military and logistical center. His choices were often ruthless, but they were aimed at creating enough unity to survive the Great Redeemer and the larger powers already treating Earth as a resource. (Chapters 285–377)

The Tower of Eternity forced Zac to confront the weakness beneath his enormous attributes. He met Catheya and Iz Tayn, gained access to new factions, and refined separate axe, life, and death insights into a more coherent path. Yrial's earlier instruction had exposed Zac's poor control and warned him against imitating a conventional life-death cycle; the Tower's trials made him build around his own strengths instead. His willingness to carve new pathways through his body produced tremendous attacks but also repeated injuries, while his choices around the Arcane class showed a growing preference for a difficult personal path over a safer inherited one. (Chapters 378–486)

Earth's invasion crisis turned those gains into responsibility. Zac fought the Lich King's forces, used the Divine Investiture Array to bind the chained coffin preserving Alea, and accepted Love's Bond as both weapon and continuation of their relationship. He also received conflicting warnings from Leandra, whose messages made clear that Kenzie, Jeeves, and the Technocrat presence were tied to their mother's plans. Rather than retreat from the uncertainty, Zac prepared Port Atwood for a planetary war and entered the hidden research complex, prioritizing Kenzie's safety even when the facility reacted to his heritage in ways he could not explain. (Chapters 480–569)

Family, identity, and widening conflict

Inside the Mystic Realm, Zac and his allies faced collapsing space, Technocrat machinery, ancient experiments, and the Great Redeemer's attempt to seize a path to higher cultivation. Zac repeatedly chose to push deeper because withdrawing would leave Earth exposed and Kenzie within Leandra's reach. He helped overturn the Redeemer's plans and survived the realm's destruction, but victory carried a harsher consequence: Leandra removed Kenzie and severed her own relationship with Zac. The loss turned rescuing his sister from a general promise into the central long-term purpose behind his cultivation and empire-building. (Chapters 570–674)

Unable to pursue Leandra immediately, Zac consolidated his soul, completed his first reincarnation, and traveled to the Twilight Harbor for strength and information. He entered the Twilight Ocean as Arcaz Black, presenting his Draugr body as a separate imperial identity while concealing the truth from Catheya's party. The disguise let him move among the undead and protect his human identity, but it also tested his divided life: choices made as Arcaz created enemies and obligations that Zac could not simply discard when he changed form. His renewed partnership with Catheya gradually replaced deception with practical trust. (Chapters 667–746)

The Twilight Ascent pushed Zac's Daos from Fragments into Branches and gave shape to two complementary combat ideals: Evolutionary freedom for his human path and Inexorable control for his undead path. He fought through the collapse of the Twilight realm and the struggle surrounding multiple Monarchs, only to be trapped in the Orom World afterward. There he refused to accept imprisonment as the limit of his future, cultivated through the restrictions, built alliances with other captives, and exploited the conflict among the Orom's powers to escape. Returning to Earth gave him greater strength, but also a clearer sense that frontier resources alone could not carry him to Kenzie. (Chapters 747–856)

Off-world trials and transformation

Back in the Atwood Empire, Zac expanded the shipyard, obtained the Yphelion, and turned his attention toward the Ultom inheritance and the coming Kan’Tanu war. His motives remained personal and political at once: every new vessel and alliance strengthened Earth's defenses, while every inheritance offered a possible route toward Leandra and Kenzie. Iz became a crucial partner in the Ultom struggle, and Zac's dealings with Vilari, Ogras, and the empire's commanders increasingly resembled those of a ruler managing independent specialists rather than a lone fighter carrying every danger himself. (Chapters 857–950)

The Perennial Vastness gave Zac the environment needed to prepare for Hegemony. He raised all three Dao Branches, advanced his soul and body, and assembled an Evolutionary Core from materials aligned with conflict, life, death, Creation, and Oblivion. The process did not produce the fusion he expected. Instead, his shared soul and Cosmic Core supported two complete bodies, each carrying a D-Arcane class: Evolutionary Precursor for the human body and Inexorable Apostle for the Draugr body. Zac recognized the tactical potential immediately, yet also saw the central limitation—his eventual goal was one holistic path, while his breakthrough had made his two perspectives physically separate. (Chapters 951–1066)

Early Hegemony let Zac intervene on a larger stage, but it did not remove the costs of his path. His bodies could fight together and share a soul and core, yet their overlapping senses disrupted the meditative unity required by his combat techniques unless one body blocked out its surroundings. He awakened the Branch of Eoz in the Draugr body, rebuilt skills for D-grade combat, and committed imperial forces to the warfront and ancient inheritance sites. By the time he reached the Left Imperial Palace conflicts, he was no longer merely collecting opportunities; he was balancing the lives of his followers against trials whose rewards could change the fate of Earth. (Chapters 1061–1143)

War, inheritance, and the latest turning point

The campaigns around Everfast and the ancient courts forced Zac to prove that his Hegemony was more than an unusual core. Seeing Emily wounded sharpened his protective fury, but he increasingly paired that instinct with restraint and delegation rather than charging blindly. He reached Middle Hegemony at level 175, advanced his core without abandoning either body, and formed the Earthly Dao of Defiant War. Soon afterward, Reborn Life and Sealed Death joined it, giving his two stances Earthly foundations that reflected his actual convictions: growth through resistance and renewal, and finality imposed through control. (Chapters 1144–1242)

Zac broke into Late Hegemony to counter temporal backlash and continued through the Million Gates conflict, ancient imperial memories, and the struggle over Ultom's legacy. Taking the Fuxi Mountain Gate gave him both a powerful bridge artifact and a deeper connection to histories hidden in the Void. His alliance with Esmeralda and rivalry with Kator repeatedly forced him to weigh immediate advantage against the danger of becoming trapped in someone else's design. Even as the Atwood Empire grew, Zac's authority remained grounded in movement: he sought resources, paths, and allies that could keep Earth from becoming dependent on his constant presence. (Chapters 1243–1393)

The late trials brought the instability of Zac's entire path to the surface. While attempting to reach Peak Hegemony, the Duplicity Core sealed him out of its Quantum Space and forced a desperate bloodline advancement before his Cosmic Core could be completed. Zac survived, reached level 225, and emerged as a Peak Hegemon with a C-grade human race, but initially concealed the core's continued transformation from Esmeralda. The process ultimately fused his Soul Aperture and Quantum Space into an incomplete foundation for an Inner World rather than recombining his bodies. He then pressed into the Hollow Court's memory realms and the mirrored world beneath Fuxi Halls, choosing dangerous insight over easy treasure as he traced connections among the Ninth Hell, the Primo, Fuxi, and the Void. (Chapters 1394–1433)

Appearance and personality

At the integration, Zac stood five feet eleven with broad shoulders, an even beard, and a slight belly that reflected office work more than wilderness experience. Weeks of solitary fighting ruined the groomed image: his hair became an uneven hatchet-cut mess, his beard was torn and burned away, and repeated injuries left a distinct scar near his mouth. Cultivation replaced the softness with a massive, durable physique suited to his axe-centered style. His Draugr body retains his underlying identity but has pitch-black, abyssal eyes and an unmistakably death-attuned presence. (Prologue; Chapters 17, 165, 416, and 424)

Zac is cautious with information, stubborn under pressure, and willing to suffer extreme pain when he believes the risk has a concrete purpose. He is not naturally diplomatic, but he learns to rely on people whose talents differ from his own. His protectiveness can become tunnel vision—especially where Kenzie, Emily, Alea, or Earth are concerned—and his readiness to use violence makes him frightening even to allies. At the same time, he repeatedly rejects power that requires abandoning his identity or treating companions as expendable. Dry humor and discomfort with ceremony persist even after he becomes an emperor in practice. (Chapters 3, 84, 291, 665–674, 1061, and 1427–1428)

Abilities and cultivation

Zac's cultivation combines the System's level and class structure with three Earthly Daos, a Void Emperor bloodline, soul reincarnation, body tempering, and self-created combat techniques. His latest confirmed state is level 225 at Peak Hegemony. His human body holds the D-Arcane Evolutionary Precursor class and a C-grade Human–Void Emperor race still marked as Corrupted; the linked Draugr body holds the D-Arcane Inexorable Apostle class and the awakened Branch of Eoz. Both bodies share one soul and one C-grade Evolutionary Core. (Chapters 1061, 1090, 1361, and 1428)

Duplicity Core and twinned existence

The Duplicity Core began as a mutated specialty core created when life and death energies tore through Zac's body. It let him switch between a human Hatchetman path powered by Cosmic Energy and a Draugr Undying Bulwark path powered by miasma while preserving a common identity and attribute foundation. The core could absorb incompatible life or death attacks, but Zac never had complete control over its behavior, and its unknown design repeatedly complicated class evolution and core formation. (Chapters 203–210, 256, 279–294, and 381–394)

At Hegemony, the core's interaction with Zac's Soul Avatar and Cosmic Core produced two complete bodies instead of a fused dual-aspect body. They share one soul and core and possess identical fundamental attributes, but each retains its own race, class, skills, and cultivated perspective. The arrangement permits simultaneous action and unusual karmic separation, yet sensory overlap makes it difficult for both bodies to enter their highest technique states together. The Duplicity Core remains partly autonomous; during the Peak Hegemony breakthrough it sealed Zac out of its Quantum Space, forcing him to solve the crisis indirectly. (Chapters 1059–1066 and 1423–1428)

When that breakthrough finishes, the Duplicity Core does not recombine the two bodies. It merges Zac's Soul Aperture with the Quantum Space holding his Cosmic Core, placing the two Soul Cores like suns around the core and improving energy attunement, soul nourishment, and coordination between his cultivation systems. The result is only a provisional Inner World foundation, not Pseudo C-grade: the soul remains externally targetable, an imperfect boundary still separates the joined spaces, and the realm slowly loses spatial integrity because Zac's formal soul cultivation lags behind his Peak-Hegemon core. (Chapter 1428)

Void Emperor and Branch of Eoz bloodlines

The Void Emperor bloodline compensates for Zac's zero affinities by interacting with energies through specialized nodes rather than ordinary attunement. Void Heart devours and refines foreign energy, poison, and even portions of tribulation power, but its appetite and timing are not fully voluntary; it can steal useful medicinal energy or leave impurities that Zac must purge. Spiritual Void stores and releases Dao-like Void states that can suppress or redirect hostile principles, while Purity of the Void filters corruption. These functions make Zac unusually resistant and adaptable, but they do not make every foreign force harmless. (Chapters 493–516, 556–585, 640–650, and 1262)

The Draugr body's Branch of Eoz provides a separate undead lineage. Awakening directly into the Early Shallows skips earlier major stages and reinforces the body's relationship with death, the Abyss, and its Inexorable class. The two bloodlines coexist because the bodies are distinct, while their shared soul and core allow discoveries on one side to affect the whole cultivation project. Their latest advancement also raises a danger: bloodline growth can trigger changes in the Duplicity Core before Zac understands the mechanism, as shown during the forced breakthrough preceding Peak Hegemony. (Chapters 1090, 1423–1428)

Earthly Daos of war, life, and death

Zac's conflict path develops from axe and heaviness insights into the Earthly Dao of Defiant War. It strengthens weapon affinity, technique development, and the ability to turn resistance into momentum. Rather than representing indiscriminate battle, Defiant War expresses his refusal to accept imposed limits. It supports both bodies and binds the life and death sides into a shared conflict framework, making it the central pillar around which his later Earthly Realm is organized. (Chapters 38–39, 376, 748, 975–976, and 1227–1237)

The Earthly Dao of Reborn Life embodies adaptation, reinvention, and growth that survives constraint, while the Earthly Dao of Sealed Death expresses finality, suppression, and the control of fate. Reborn Life feeds the Evolutionary Stance; Sealed Death reinforces the Inexorable Stance and stabilizes death-aligned skills such as Profane Exponents. Both interact with the Creation and Oblivion remnants, but Zac distinguishes his own Daos from those overwhelming external truths. By chapter 1361, Reborn Life and Sealed Death have reached Middle mastery while Defiant War remains Early. (Chapters 1242–1249, 1275–1298, and 1361)

Evolutionary and Inexorable Stances

The Evolutionary Stance is the human body's adaptive combat system. Its movements avoid fixed repetitions, treating every defense or failed attack as information for the next variation. It works best when Zac can read the opponent, change rhythm, and let Reborn Life and Defiant War guide continuous improvement. This flexibility helps him break calculated defenses, but sufficiently skilled opponents can still anticipate or overpower him, and the stance initially integrated his skills poorly compared with its pure weapon movements. (Chapters 704–727 and 797)

The Inexorable Stance controls tempo rather than chasing constant change. Zac uses restraints, chains, domains, wraiths, and death-attuned pressure to narrow an enemy's options until the intended end becomes unavoidable. It can manage whole formations by breaking cooperation as well as isolate one target, but it struggles when an opponent's attributes or technique prevent Zac from establishing control. Both stances reach Late Integration, where trials synchronize their movements more closely with skills and Dao, though the two-body sensory problem still prevents effortless simultaneous perfection. (Chapters 710, 724, 769–770, 774, 978, 1298, and 1414)

Soul and body cultivation

The Nine Reincarnations Manual tempers Zac's shared soul through alternating life- and death-attuned arrays. Each cycle builds two opposed soul seas whose clashes refine the central soul structure; failure risks cracking or destroying the soul. Zac completes the first reincarnation after forcing a dangerous breakthrough, uses Twilight energies to accelerate the second, and later reaches the third. The fourth remains unfinished, so the promised Nine-Samsara Soul and its near-total resistance to soul attacks are future goals rather than current abilities. (Chapters 431–432, 514–515, 667–670, 696–701, 796–799, and 1022)

The Void Vajra Sublimation is Zac's principal body-tempering method. It uses destructive forces, hostile energies, and repeated refinement to build a Void Vajra Constitution, complementing the devouring and purification functions of his bloodline. Its layers provide persistent physical and attribute improvements, but advancement subjects the body to dangerous foreign influences and can cause deviation if the energies overwhelm his control. The fifth layer is his latest confirmed stage and gives its strongest documented emphasis to Vitality, Endurance, and the effect of Vitality. (Chapters 956, 995, 1143, 1175, and 1375)

Class skills and battlefield applications

Zac's living arsenal grows from direct axe skills such as Chop, Deforestation, and Nature's Punishment into D-grade abilities suited to Evolutionary Precursor. His attacks combine overwhelming Strength with weapon Dao, while movement and defensive skills create room for the stance to adapt. Earlier failures with Cyclic Strike exposed his poor control of opposed Daos; repurposing its pathways eventually became part of his self-created system. This history remains a practical limitation: Zac excels at force, improvisation, and integrating hard-won insights, but elegant energy control must be built through repeated combat rather than assumed. (Chapters 40, 289–300, 383–443, and 462)

The undead arsenal favors attrition and control. Fields of Despair creates a temporary death-attuned zone that weakens enemies and recovers some miasma from deaths, but it can poison living allies and costs more than it returns under heavy pressure. Profane Exponents deploys spectral forces, while Pillar of Desolation, chains, and defensive manifestations establish an area where Zac can dictate movement. These powers combine naturally with Sealed Death and the Inexorable Stance, yet high upkeep, friendly-fire risk, and opponents capable of breaking the domain prevent them from being effortless victory conditions. (Chapters 239–246, 334–365, 417–418, 724, 751, and 1249)

Items

• Verun's Bite: Zac's evolving axe Spirit Tool and principal living-aligned weapon; Verun is its resident Tool Spirit and bonded combat partner.
• Love's Bond: An evolving coffin-and-chain Spirit Tool wielded by Zac and inhabited by Alea as an increasingly autonomous Tool Spirit.
• Leandra's Necklace: A maternal keepsake that functions as a Technocrat access token and message vessel.
• Stone of Hope: A cultivation accessory Zac wears to protect his fate during dangerous node-breaking and refinement.
• Ocean Chart: A specialized mapping sphere used to record and merge route information in the Twilight Ocean.
• Mind's Eye Agate: A soul-cultivation crystal used to stabilize the mind and support difficult cultivation sessions.
• Book of Duality: A layered impartation text that helps Zac reason about paired and opposing forces.
• Warstone: A Conflict-attuned natural-treasure remnant consumed as a foundational resource for Zac's core.
• Rageroot Oak Seeds: Limited berserking consumables that provide emergency combat power at a severe physical and mental cost.
• Lucky Beads: A prayer band that sharpens Zac's danger and fate sense without making those impressions infallible.
• Court Cycle Token: An ancient credential and key connected to Ultom and Starfall Court installations.
• Fuxi Mountain Gate: An ancient bridge artifact used for spatial passage, defense, and access to Void-linked imperial memories.
• Yphelion: The Atwood Empire's Iliex flagship, supporting travel, war, cultivation, and the sealbearer expedition.

Power progression

Relationships

• Ogras Azh’Rezak: Former incursion enemy turned closest long-term companion, adviser, co-conspirator, and foil. Their trust is expressed through shared risks more often than open sentiment.
• Kenzie Atwood: Zac's younger sister and central family bond. Protecting and recovering her shapes his alliances, cultivation goals, and willingness to confront Leandra.
• Alea: Lieutenant and intimate partner whose death and continuation within Love's Bond leave a permanent mark on Zac's emotional and combat life.
• Thea Marshall: Rival, ally, and former partner. Their relationship grows through shared battles but diverges as their duties and paths pull them apart.
• Emily: A younger companion and protégé whom Zac trains and protects; her growth into an independent commander gradually changes the relationship from guardianship toward mutual reliance.
• Catheya: Undead ally, guide, and increasingly personal partner whose knowledge helps Zac navigate the Tower, Twilight Ocean, and imperial factions.
• Iz Tayn: Friend, patron, and inheritance partner whose resources and ambitions repeatedly intersect with Zac's pursuit of Ultom and higher cultivation.
• Leandra: Zac's mother, hidden experimenter, and adversarial sponsor. Her treatment of Zac and Kenzie turns family history into one of his defining conflicts.
• Jeeves: Kenzie's synthetic companion and power source, but also a constraint tied to Leandra's agenda and the separation of the siblings.
• Kator: A recurring rival whose strength, discipline, and competing interpretation of ancient opportunities make him a mirror for Zac's own path.
• Joanna: Trusted commander whose leadership lets the Atwood Empire function when Zac is absent.
• Vilari: Lieutenant and disciple whose soul, void, and Epiclesis Bell path Zac supports while respecting her need for an identity beyond his fate.