Should I try Zig? I wanted to learn something that's more low level than the JVM/Node and i have been contemplating rust and go. zig never occurred to me until now.

I think it's simpler than rust, the basics are easier to learn and will get you a long way before you need the more advanced stuff. Go might be easier because it's garbage collected. If you want something closer to C, but not C itself, Zig is a good choice.