Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player
chapter-171

With just the tiny amounts of knowledge Kieran extracted from his surroundings, he could tell this place was part of an elaborate layout designed to keep intruders at bay and possibly even entrap them for eternity.

"I sorely believe this isn't the main entrance. Why so complex? We must have missed something," Kieran said.

"I don't think we missed anything. Think about it. Sand Manipulation was the key to opening the door and finding this place. Wouldn't that mean Sand Manipulation is key to knowing the true path?"

Altair's point made sense.

The different entry points seemed to come from many other areas, not just this one entrance. Several tunnels converged at the enormous underground clearing, so perhaps Kieran jumped to a conclusion too quickly.

"What do you suggest? I'm open to everyone's inputs," Kieran said. He wasn't like most leaders who operated on their hunches and ignored to inputs of their subordinates.

Sometimes, viewing an issue from several angles was more practical rather than having a single approach.

"How much time do we have left to clear the quest?" Altair asked. Although they possessed the shared quest, the timer on their quest read: Linked to the primary quest holder.

"We have just over two days remaining on the timer," Kieran answered.

"Two days…" Altair rubbed his chin in deep thought. His eyebrows furrowed as his eyes sparkled with a dark light. Unlike other classes, Assassin specialized in darkness. So, after reaching level 40, Altair obtained the passive known as Eyes of Night.

This passive skill increased his visual prowess in dark places. With the improvements delivered by this passive, Altair's current vision wasn't too far off from his vision in well-lit areas.

"I count hundreds of pathways. As I said earlier, it's a maze. A difficult one at that. Even if we go through the pathways one by one, two days isn't enough to use the trial by error method."

Altair groaned and rhythmically tapped his finger against the ground. "Some pathways aren't complete and fork into another direction, creating unlimited variations. The creator orchestrated this place to entrap anyone that isn't knowledgeable of its exit."

"Shhh!"

Lux suddenly hushed everyone and placed his ear against the wall while his ears darted about as if moving in rhythm with the sounds he sensed.

"Someone is coming."

The party grew quiet and peered around the corner in wait of this newcomer.

A Desertborn Henchman with a pouch draped over their shoulder appeared from one of the lower paths not too far away.

Everyone took a step back as the Desertborn Henchman looked around and made three distinct steps before disappearing into the maze.

"Can you still see them?" Kieran whispered.

"I can," Altair nodded. However, before he knew it, his brows furrowed, and his expression darkened. "I can't… Something is blocking my vision. Their disappearance was too abrupt to be natural."

"Damn," Kieran cursed underneath his breath. "This leader has thought of everything, even employing countermeasures against anyone spying on their entry method."

"Do you think it's perfect, though?" Bastion asked. What he gained from his experiences thus far was that everything had a solution. Although some may require more improvisation, a solution was a solution at the end of the day.

"Probably not. There's nothing perfect per se, especially not at our current level. Perhaps it might exist at some unknown ancient level, but everything has a weakness for now. There has to be a way to overpower the countermeasure—"

Realization struck Kieran midsentence as he grinned. "We need to cause a commotion soon. Lux, are you confident in pinpointing the exact location of these brigands?"

Lux gauged his capabilities before answering. "Not all of them, but a few should be possible. What do you have in mind?"

"I need to heighten my Perception, even if it's by a slight amount. For that, we need to start some drama. Just tell me when and where you sense people." Kieran directed.

Afterward, he snuck down the downward slope that led toward the maze area beneath.

However, he didn't go too far down. Once he made it halfway down where all the other entry points were located, Kieran retrieved two daggers from his inventory.

With skillful movements, Kieran plunged the daggers into the wall and used them to scale above the wall where the entry points were most dense and gave a clear line of sight to many of the maze's entrances.

Kieran gave a silent signal that indicated his success in finding the perfect position. Afterward, he sat still, perching on the greatsword he kicked into the wall. It was of little to no value, so Kieran had no problem losing it.

"Is that guy part monkey?" Lux muttered to the others.

"What did he do? I couldn't see," Bastion whispered back.

"He… he scaled the wall easily like a professional rock climber. The only difference is he used what I believe to be daggers," Lux explained.

"Oh, meh. That's nothing crazy. Stick around. You'll see that guy do even more mind-blowing things," Nemean waved off Lux's comment.

As long as it didn't involve baffling damage numbers, Bastion and the others had essentially become inured to Kieran's athleticism.

"Shhh!" Lux hurriedly shushed everyone and placed his head against the wall. He focused more than before. After confirming what his passive picked up, Lux mimed the number 7 and pointed at a specific hole below Kieran.

Kieran's eyes glinted as he received this information and extracted one of the daggers from the wall. He analyzed his surrounding before finding the best place to obscure his position.

A few seconds later, a Desertborn Leader followed by six Desertborn Henchmen appeared from within a tunnel on Kieran's left. But, at that moment, Kieran was astonished.

〈System: «Revenge Predator» has activated and marked [7] individuals as enemies. 〉

Revenge Predator wasn't as simple as Kieran thought. He thought he'd have to first receive damage from an opponent for this combat system to trigger. But, that didn't seem to be the case.

Kieran viewed all Desertborn Brigand members as an enemy in his mind, so his Revenge Predator must have activated based on that notion.

'If that's true… then my class truly is one that feeds off pure emotion. It's even strong enough inadvertently activate my skills,' Kieran thought.

Although he was curious, Kieran didn't lose sight of the task at hand. Not only did he use six stacks of Hunt to mark the Henchmen as Prey, but as soon as the team of Desertborn Brigands approached the maze's wall, Kieran flung the dagger at a position he chose earlier.

Ting! Pcht!

The dagger ricocheted off the wall and punctured the closest Desertborn Henchman's neck.

"!!"

The team's eyes widened as Kieran's accuracy confounded them. What kind of bank shot was that?!

The Desertborn Leader launched an instinctual Sand Twister where the dagger ricocheted against the wall but failed to hit anything.

However, Kieran used the disturbance from the attack to stealthily drop down behind this group.

Kieran switched from the dagger to Crimson Ashrune faster than a blink of the eye before unleashing a strengthened Crimson Barrage that swept through the Desertborn Brigands, leaving only the leader alive.

The Desertborn Leader froze in shock. But, by the time they recovered their wits, Kieran's large hand was wrapped around their throat, slamming them into the wall.

Kieran's first thought was to monitor this team as they entered the maze, but after learning about Revenge Predator's acute activation mechanism, he decided to change his plan.

A hostage was much better than his original plan potentially failing.

The Desertborn Leader's eyes filled with fear as they gazed upon their fallen subordinates. Kieran noticed this fear and preyed upon it.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way—the choice is yours. All I want to know is how you enter the hideout. If your answer is satisfactory, I may let you live." Kieran's tone was playful and mischievous, but above all, it was menacing and incited fear.

Kieran used the effects of marking a target as Prey to his advantage.

The Desertborn Leader gulped and tapped on Kieran's hand. "Have you come to rob us?!"

"Perhaps…" Kieran shrugged.

"You'll never succeed the Head Brigand—"

Kieran clenched his hand around the Desertborn Leader's throat. "I didn't ask for your opinion; I asked for information. Will you give it to me or not?"

As he spoke, Kieran continued to tighten his hand until the Desertborn Leader's eyes widened, and they could barely breathe. The fear of death was often a good incentive to cooperate.

Mmmf!

Kieran loosened his hand and once more listened to what the Desertborn Leader had to say.

"Will you actually let me live if I tell you?"

"As I said, it depends."

The Desertborn Leader seemed conflicted. They didn't want to die, but they also feared the retaliation of the Head Brigand if their betrayal was revealed.

"You have three seconds. Whether or not you cooperate, I will raze this place to the ground," Kieran said coldly.

The Desertborn Leader jerked after hearing this. "You can't enter without me! I'll tell you. A certain sand signature is required to reveal the true pathway. I'll guide you if you truly raze this place to the ground."

Kieran knew better than to trust the words of a brigand. But, whether or not they were being truthful, he didn't care. After all, he wasn't being honest either.

Eventually, Kieran released the Desertborn Brigand and whistled. The party received the signal well because Nemean and Altair revealed its meaning.

Kieran looked to the others with a cryptic grin. "We've found someone to lead us inside."