Chapter 236: Anzonil (1/2)
Between the 17th and 18th marks that he carved there was a convergence of energy flows that could be somewhat discerned if you watched it for about 20 minutes. That meant there hopefully was a weak spot in the array there, and Zac’s best bet in getting out.
Swapping over to his human form would increase his attack power, but Zac still chose to try it out in his undead form first. He wanted to grind his Undead class a bit and it was far harder to transform into a Draugr than it was to turn back into a human.
Zac took a few steadying breaths before he infused his arm with as much miasmic energy it could bear, and with a roar slammed his Dao-infused axe right into the floor right at the intersection of energies he had spotted.
Suddenly it almost felt like he was drunk as he was seeing double. Two realities were superimposed on each other, and the endless hallway he’d been stuck in for a week was just one of them. The other one stopped just ten meters away from him with an intricately carved door.
Zac didn’t hesitate and pushed more miasma into his legs as he leaped toward the gate before the entrapment array could stabilize again. He slammed into the gate with enough force to knock the breath out of him, but he wasn’t angry in the slightest.
He had finally escaped his entrapment. Zac looked back toward the other end of the hallway, and he spotted the door leading out to the square with the obelisk a few hundred meters away. But just a second later the door disappeared, being replaced once more with the endless hallway.
His swing hadn’t been enough to destroy the array, but it had been enough cause some chaos at the endpoint, allowing him to exit it. Zac was already itching with impatience from a week of inactivity, and he couldn’t help opening the ladder in to check the status, and he couldn't help being shocked by what he saw.
He had been kicked down all the way to the 11th spot on the Gatherer ladder, which was somewhat of a surprise to him. While it was true he’d lost a whole week down in this tunnel, he still only really had Emperor Nenothep to compete with earlier. That ten people had managed to pass the huge amount of wealth he'd accumulated was quite shocking.
A few of the names weren't surprising, such as Starlight, Beruv Ylvas and another of the Medhin powerhouses. But he was somewhat happy to see that Thea had kept going as well, being at the 6th spot. Even more surprising was the appearance of Thomas Fisher in the 8th position.
Zac had only kept his eye on the top positions of the ladder, and he was sure that he hadn't seen Thomas in the top 100 of either list before. For him to suddenly spring up to the 8th position could only be explained with him getting the help of the whole organization.
It also proved that Thomas was more than just one of the many leaders of the New World Government. Between the fact that he was chosen to experiment with holding on to massive amounts of wealth, he was also the one they chose to hold onto the wealth of the hunt.
Zac had a generally positive opinion of Thomas, though it was marred by the various insidious things he had found out about the government. It was also somewhat a relief that the man was still human since the shapeshifters shouldn't be able to get here.
But the truly shocking change was on the Hunter ladder, with him being relegated down to the 443rd position. Before he got fell down into the chasm he was at the 8th position, with the Emperor, the Dominators and a few more above him.
That loss in positions was huge, and it made Zac realize that something must have changed on the surface. He suspected that there must have been something like beast hordes completely flooding the mountains as a result of the System making the area of the hunt smaller over time.
There was no way to gain that many points by only hunting cultivators since there were simply not enough of them to go around. It would also explain why he only lost 10 spots in one ladder, but over four hundred in the other. The huge loss in positons only served to make him even more impatient, and it was without hesitation he pushed open the door.
This was already the 20th day of the hunt, and Zac only had ten days to catch up to those above. However, he did take out the thick shield he got from Thea’s bodyguard before stepping inside. He didn’t have access to the swirling leaves of [Nature’s Barrier], so he would have to make do with a normal tool for protection.
The room he entered was massive, and it almost felt like he entered a grand cathedral carved into the mountain. The roof was over fifty meters above him and held up by massive pillars covered in both reliefs and fractals. Even the walls and the ceiling was the same, both being covered with marvelous pieces of art
It the grandeur felt a bit reminiscent of the Towers of Myriad Dao back on his island, but there was more substance to this place. Zac couldn’t help being awed as he slowly walked inside, his eyes drifting to the beautiful engravings.
Zac immediately started formulating ideas of how to somehow swipe this whole place clean. Everything from the small statues placed in various alcoves to the huge pillars supporting the vaulted ceiling felt like a treasure, and Zac didn't want to leave it behind.
But he suddenly stopped in his tracks when his eyes moved to a podium on the other end of the room because he finally realized that he wasn’t alone. There was a humanoid sitting in a meditating position on the podium as four braziers lazily burned around him.
The looked mostly human, though he had a third eye in his forehead forming a vertical slit. He had a long white beard, and it was clear that he was elderly from his appearance. Worse yet, he had already spotted Zac and was looking at him with steady eyes.
“Welcome young… Draugr? Huh? An undead?” the man slowly said with a powerful voice that felt full of wisdom.
Zac sensed no malice from the old man, and it wasn’t like he had many other places to go, so he walked closer to the old man. As Zac got closer he realized that there was not a single ripple of power coming from him, making him wonder just who he was and how he got here.
It was even odder that there was simply no vitality around the old man. When he was in his undead form he could even see the life in a stalk of grass, but the man in front of him might as well not exist going by the metric of lifeforce.
There were two possibilities as Zac saw it. The old man might be a spectral being such as the things in the darkness since they shouldn’t possess any vitality either. The other possibility was that the old man was just an illusion or a projection without any power.
“Hello, I am Zac. Are you a part of the hunt as well?” Zac hesitantly asked after he stopped ten meters away from the platform on which the old man sat.