Chapter 217: Ransacking (1/2)

Just as he took his first step inside the building his danger sense sparked to life. To Zac’s surprise it actually came from behind, rather than from something inside the palace. He stood completely frozen, and a second later a dagger appeared out of nowhere.

It headed straight toward his neck through a brief crack in the defensive wall of the whirling leaves around him. But he was already ready for the attack and quickly moved his head out of the way and simultaneously grabbed the hand holding the weapon.

The next moment he held the rogue who tried to sneak attack him by his neck, and it was actually an Ishiate. Zac frowned a bit over what to do with the beastman draped in black. He was on a good foot with both camps of the beastmen, but that didn’t mean that he was going to allow people who tried to kill him to roam free.

The Ishiate was trying to say something, but Zac ignored him as he walked inward, holding his captive as a shield. So far there had been no arrays activating, but he didn’t believe that a summit palace would have no protections at all.

He passed the inner courtyard, that seemed to have once been a garden but now was only covered in windswept weeds and twisted trees. As he walked the Ishiate tried to wrest himself free with desperate effort, but a slap on the back of his head rendered him unconscious.

Soon Zac stood in front of the main doors into the proper structure, and he used the unconscious beastman to push the door open. It was a bit callous to use him as a human shield, but the man did try to kill him after all.

Nothing happened as the huge door swung open, but he saw there was a mostly translucent shimmer in the air inside. Something was fishy about it, so Zac splashed some water in the face of the assassin until he woke up, and then unceremoniously threw him inside.

The Ishiate quickly regained his senses, and gracefully twisted in the air to land with his feet down, but the moment he touched the ground it was as though the air itself combusted, causing an inferno to erupt around him.

The assassin screamed and tried to run out again, likely forgetting about the token in his muddled state. Zac waited at the door and struck him dead the moment he came within reach. Next Zac took out one of the soldier corpses and threw it inside as well since he still saw that odd shimmer in the air.

This time nothing happened and the corpse lay in the hall unassailed. Perhaps the arrays were smart enough to not expend their energy on people who were already dead, meaning collecting bodies to test the waters might be useless.

Judging by the half-burned state of the assassin it was a purely offensive array that protected the entrance. Zac was even less worried about those than the mental arrays though, and unhesitantly stepped inside as he infused some of his Dao of Trees into the leaves whirling around him.

A large reason he once chose [Nature’s Barrier] before heading to the Dead Zone was that it gained power based on his Endurance, which meant that the skill had received a huge upgrade in the past weeks. The leaves were far sturdier compared to before, and Zac believed not even the dangerous sniper rifles would be able to get through them any longer.

Just like when the Ishiate was thrown inside an inferno erupted around him the moment he took his first step inside, but the leaves staved off most of the flames before they could reach him. Some of it still snuck past though, but between his flame-proof robes and his high Endurance it only stung a bit.

Zac kept walking through the flames for a few seconds. He didn’t dare to run since his visibility was practically zero, and there might be more arrays superimposed on the first one. But soon the flames winked out of existence, leaving Zac slightly toasty but otherwise fine.

He found himself in a large hall, but unfortunately there were no piles of wealth lying around. In fact, the whole place felt very austere, with only a couple of paintings similar to the one from the temple adorning the walls. A central staircase stood right in front of him, lined with crystals that gave off a soft glow.

Zac pondered whether to walk up the stairs or head down to some subterranean basement but quickly chose to walk to a higher floor. If this was a medieval castle there might be a treasury at the bottom floor, but with arrays and Cosmic Sacks, it felt more likely the best treasures would be in the owner’s quarters.

After trying a few doors upstairs he found the one that should lead to the private area of the owner of the mansion, but the moment he walked through it felt like he was slammed in the head with a hammer. He only saw white until he finally came to again, and after taking a glance at his watch he was shocked to see that he’d been out of it for over 10 minutes.

He was hit with something like a mental concussion attack, and he was lucky he was alone inside the palace. It was a great lesson for him, no place was safe. He once again entered the room, and this time he wasn’t attacked.

The room was quite sparse, housing only a desk and some decorative paintings and crystals. He sensed that the crystals in the walls were probably Divine Crystals, but unfortunately the arrays that kept this place going had exhausted pretty much all energy inside them, making them worthless.

He walked over to the chest and found there was a token and a sack on it. The token looked a lot like the depiction of the placements of some array, and it was the same as the design he saw on the front of the Array Crystal he looted earlier.

Zac suspected it was the logo for the Eastern Trigram Sect, and that the sect actually focused on arrays. Either that or this specific mountain housed people who focused on arrays. He picked up the token and imbued some energy into it, and found it was an identification token for an elder.