Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player

Unlike most people, who reacted poorly when targeted by countless Champion Monsters, Kieran remained unperturbed as he momentarily shifted his gaze to the nearby Deranged Maimed Chimeras.

Their actions clearly indicated that they were beings with one-track minds made to follow the orders of this Hellion Mutation.

If not, they wouldn't resemble miniature versions of Moribun if they did.

All of a sudden, a clear voice with a hint of iciness rang out in the dungeon room.

"Compressed Magic: Binding Overbloom!"

As Alice's voice echoed throughout the dungeon room, several lasso-like constructs shot out from a magic circle conjured over her head. The bindings were made from pure Mana, so there was no elemental advantage or disadvantage. 

However, with the amount of Mana embedded in this technique, it was clear Alice had consumed a substantial chunk of her Mana Pool to execute this spell.

Surprisingly, many of the maimed creatures were entrapped by the bloom of these countless bindings. However, because they were regarded as Champion Monsters, Khaos doubted that Alice's singular efforts would suffice to hold them for the required amount of time.

After all, Alice was still a simple Elementalist. Not to mention, she had yet to record her Elemental Specialization.

"Spell of the Permafrost: Worldly Snowdrift!"

A layer of whitish-blue snow suddenly appeared across the floor outside the Indomitable Field, where many of the maimed creatures were located. 

As the snow continued to spread, it was soon uplifted by a gentle yet chilly breeze that began freezing the partly immobile creatures in place. 

A layer of frost soon started to envelop their bodies, spreading out from their limbs submerged in the sudden appearance of snow. Some weren't affected properly, but Khaos was nevertheless satisfied by the results. 

After all, those that roamed free should be well within Kieran's realm of skill. Based on the skill he exhibited thus far, less than ten of such monsters was far from enough to warrant Kieran's panic.

In fact, Kieran tightened his grip on Crimson Ashrune before turning swiftly, facing the incoming creatures. The energy of the Dread Circlet then roared like a flickering flame of imminent doom.

A second later, Kieran's blade danced across the air at a slight upward angle, producing a subtle diagonal lean on his otherwise disastrous attack. In wake of his devastating attack, the lunging chimera creatures, which numbered less than ten, were reduced to nothing more than desecrated flesh strewn across the damaged ground.

In place of their death, Kieran gained an abundance of EXP. It was so abundant that it brought him closer to the inevitable precipice before him.

〈System: You have gained …EXP.〉

〈System: Congratulations, you have leveled up! [Lv.48→Lv.49]〉

〈System: You have received 20 Unassigned Attribute Points and 12 Skill Points.〉

The remnants of Kieran's attack similarly landed on some of the bound and frozen monsters, however, it wasn't enough to claim their lives. Then again, as it wasn't his intention, Kieran would leave the resolution of that matter up to his teams.

On the other hand, the final attack of his Dread Circlet was naturally reserved for Moribun. At least, the last usage of this Dread Circlet. 

Thanks to his attack killing several of the Deranged Maimed Chimera, Kieran triggered Dread Culling's culling effect numerous times.

As a result, the cooldown timer was reduced by 25% of its current value each time. Contrary to Kieran's expectations, the reduction was compounded rather than stacked together to achieve a 100% cooldown reduction.

Despite this outcome, Kieran was overall satisfied by his situation, simply because the 12-hour cooldown period had been reduced to mere minutes. 

While the exact limits of this culling effect weren't stated within the skill description, Kieran doubted it could be exploited endlessly. 

In any case, endless exploitation was beyond his current means. For one, he simply didn't have the Mana Pool to support the repeated activation of such a skill. Even ignoring the 15% Health consumption, one activation sapped half of his Mana Pool! 

Kieran walked toward Moribun calmly, dodging many incoming frantic attacks in the form of flame and poison projectiles.

With each step, the aura surrounding Crimson Ashrune grew more and more dangerous as the look in Kieran's eyes chilled, turning cold-blooded and ruthless.

"Tell me, everyone. Is this enough to deem me king? Do you believe Daedric possess the ability to trample a Hellion Mutation unique to a dungeon's Hell Mode beneath their feat? The ability to cull several Champion Monsters with the stroke of his blade? If these feats are outside the realm of his abilities, how can he be king?"

Kieran's voice was deep and thick with arrogance, yet it also held uncontestable might. Even the people that joined his stream solely to hate on him couldn't refute his words. After all, which other player could claim they were capable of such feats?

At this stage in the game, a single Champion Monster was enough to trouble a team of elite players for quite some time. 

Rankers on the Exemplar Records might fare better in terms of their casualty rate against such an enemy, but they would require an ample amount of time as well.

Even a team outfitted with Bastion and Khaos required several tens of minutes to deal with two to three Champion Monsters. That being said, the overpowered nature of Kieran's actions was truly brought to light by his seemingly arrogant statements and questions.

Kieran felt he had been humble for long enough, and amidst those humble mannerisms, people took his name lightly. Thus, it was time to be more forceful and make his position undeniably clear.

Moribun emitted frantic screeches once it understood the threat of death, however, those panicked cries fell upon helpless support. The chimeras that it was trying to signal were all caught up within the combined effects of Khaos and Alice's straits to bind them.

"Don't despair. You were fated to become a source of EXP for me… and nothing more," Kieran expressed calmly, slowly raising his blade in a crescent shape. 

Time seemed to slow down as Kieran left afterimages of his actions despite him taking his time to increase that gnawing sensation during times of looming dread.

After Crimson Ashrune reached the peak above Kieran's head, he brought it down without any exaggerated movements. The only notable movement was his arm straightening out from its bent position as the blade went down.

…Fwim…. BOOOM!

The eerie silence that followed Kieran's actions was soon followed by drawn-out thunderous rumblings of devastating proportions. Large rocks quickly fell from the wall, filling the immense crevasse with debris that enveloped Moribun's body underneath.

Although Moribun was buried by the rocks, Kieran didn't need to check for signs of life simply because of the message he received.

  〈System: You have gained 2,700,690 EXP.〉

〈System: Congratulations, you have leveled up. [Lv.49→Lv.50]〉

〈System: You have received 20 Unassigned Attribute Points and 12 Skill Points.〉

〈Notice: You have reached the Intermediary Peak. Due to your possession of the special trait, Zero Loss of Potential, your EXP bar will be sealed until the completion of your Class Advancement.〉

〈Notice: …Zero Loss of Potential's EXP Pool is now activated. All surplus EXP gained during the period of your sealed EXP bar will be accumulated until the seal is lifted.〉

〈System: Now that you have reached Lv.50, you have gained access to the final skills in the True Berserker's Skill Tree.〉

〈System: Please meet with your Exclusive Teacher to obtain your respective Class Advancement Quest.〉

Upon reaching Lv.50, Kieran was immediately bombarded with notifications, all of which he expected.

As there was nothing out of the ordinary, Kieran dismissed the large cluster of notifications as the Dread Circlet's remnant quickly dissipated.

Once that happened, Kieran retrieved an Intermediate Mana Potion before immediately downing its contents. If left to his natural Mana Recovery Rate, it would take far too long for his skills to become usable again.

The moment his Mana Pool returned to a viable level, Kieran unleashed his Sanguinem Tempest skill, conjuring five such tempests with tremendous capacity to inflict damage. 

Since the bindings around the maimed chimeras were not meant to hold them for long, by the time Kieran finished preparing his bloody tempests, the creatures broke from their restraints and emitted strange, irritating noises.

"Boss, please shut them the hell up!" Bastion shouted, covering his ears.

Kieran glanced in Bastion's direction in response before giving a subtle nod followed by a simple command. "Howl."

With the way the Sanguinem Tempests acted in unison and unleashed brutal amounts of destruction, it was more fitting to refer to them as a deadly hurricane of blood energy rather than tempests.

Soon, numerous notifications that mentioned absurd EXP gains flashed before everyone's eyes, but Kieran quite frankly ignored the ones he got, simply because they served absolutely no purpose to him right now. 

Once the notifications stopped rolling in, Kieran brought up the Party Menu and headed to the settings, more specifically, the Auto Loot option. All of the loot was gathered within seconds and everyone received an alert about it, but Kieran was more interested in the bodies that piled up before him.

"Any accessories?" Kieran questioned, but his gaze was fixated on the corpses he began harvesting with training swiftness.

"Accessories? I'm not seeing any. Are you looking for anything in particular?" Alice responded, occasionally glancing at Kieran's harvesting speed.

"Nope. My accessories are simply lacking compared to my other equipment, so I felt that I should try my best to correct that issue," Kieran answered. His hands moved lightning-quick, separating the bone and skin of these maimed creatures.

"If we come across any worthwhile accessories in the future, I'll surely let you know," Alice responded, earning a faint nod from Kieran.

Once he was finished with harvesting the corpses to increase his tradeskill progress, Kieran then shifted his attention to something more worthwhile—the skills he could learn now that he had reached the peak of his current class.

┌───────────────────

«True Berserker Skill Tree»

«Lv.50»

Ruthless Valor - S - «Passive» [Cost: 50 SP]

Baneful Cyclone - S - «Active» [Cost: 50 SP]

Destruction Cleave: Outbreak - S - «Active» [Cost: 50 SP]

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