Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player-Novel

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Located before Kieran's eyes were a few pieces of heavy armor with traits only found in light armor. For example, the armor's joints seemed to be created from century-old beast tendon and ligaments, making this part of the armor delicate when compared to the entire piece of armor.

Although the armor gave off an ancient or archaic feel, it wasn't brittle to the touch. Contrarily, the soft material's elasticity greatly surprised Kieran. The creator unquestionably made these items for an individual who wanted to be well guarded but now have their movements overly restricted.

Furthermore, what truly excited Kieran was that the equipment before him was Set Equipment! Unlike the "set" obtained from the Unique Warrior Reward that only possessed a matching appearance, this equipment before Kieran included authentic set bonuses.

'Finally! I guess they're going to start appearing soon,' Kieran thought. Naturally, his thought referred to the Set Equipment in general. As the name implied, Set Equipment were items that bestowed extra effects depending on the number of pieces gathered.

Since Zenith Online rarely attached item abilities to armors themselves, Set Equipment became the focus of any player, team, or large guild seeking to become stronger. After all, the effects usually synergized well with the abilities and stats gained from weapons and accessories.

Thus, in Kieran's old timeline, Set Equipment rose to the height of popularity as any dungeon rumored to drop these items were flooded within an hour of these rumors surfacing.

Of course, just like other equipment, Set Equipment had an Item Level and most often a level requirement. The higher the Item Level of any set pieces, the lower the chances they could or would appear.

More importantly, these items were challenging to obtain since these items could only drop from Champion Rank or higher monsters. Alternatively, these equipment pieces could only be obtained through special rewards from certain difficult-to-clear dungeons or by forging them through super rare item recipes.

Nevertheless, Kieran wasn't troubled by this fact because the game had a long way to go until fighting against monsters required said pieces. For now, a player could get by with acquiring miscellaneous pieces of equipment dropped as loot from dungeons or monsters in leveling fields.

Kieran picked up the chest piece nearest to him and was immediately astonished by its weight. While, in Kieran's opinion, the armor looked incredibly light for its armor type, the truth couldn't be more different after he felt it. This impression was further solidified once Kieran scanned through the item's information.

「 Savage Beast Lord's Chestplate (Unique)

Armor Type: Heavy Armor

Item Level: 150

Physical Def +870

Attributes: Endurance +120, Strength +100, Vitality +80

Description: A heavy armor top forged by a skilled blacksmith using high-quality ores and the tendons of high-level boss monsters. This item is part of the Savage Beast Lord Set.

Set Effect:

Two-piece: Agility and Control increased by 15%.

Four-piece: Weight of attacks increased by 20%.

Six-piece: Strength increased by 20%. There is a 2% chance that attacks dealing over 10% of the opponent's Health have their damage increased by 300%.

Weight: 100 kg

Durability: 60/60

Requirements: «Heavy Armor Mastery», Level 40, 250 Strength 」

Inside Zenith Online, each class came with a matching armor mastery in the form of different passive skills. In Kieran's case, his mastery manifested as the passive Berserker's Burden. This skill allowed Kieran to equip heavy armor while somewhat reducing the weight limitations. This reduction was only possible due to the True Berserker's focus on extreme Strength, something required to wear this set.

Set Equipment generally consisted of six pieces of equipment–a helmet, a top piece, a bottom piece, a waist piece, a shoulder piece, and finally, shoes. Gloves also existed, but they were never part of a set because not only could they be easily created, but a user could choose whether to take a traditional or unorthodox route regarding this single gear slot.

As Kieran looked through the equipment detail, he was totally shocked by what he saw. Set Effects with stat modifiers! As mentioned before, items or titles bearing modifiers were scarce, and any one of them that hit the market could create a tidal wave.

Why? Because the higher one's stats grew, the more potent these modifiers grew. If a player with 10,000 Strength owned a modifier of just 10%, that would still be an additional 1,000 Strength without sacrificing any points!

Couple the effect of these modifiers with whatever gear they may be wearing, and this value grew to be astronomical! This became even more true if they possessed weapons of Epic quality.

Given Kieran's unusually excited expression, the others couldn't help but walk up behind him and peer past his shoulder to glance at the items themselves.

Bastion was the only one who seemed unusual out of everyone who looked. "Bah! What is this? All that trouble you went through and not a single Epic item? What do they think we are? Beggars or something? I demand an Epic Item!"

"Oh? You must think items like those grow on trees, huh? Just because something sounds better doesn't mean that it is better. Why ignore Set Equipment of grand value just because you expected something like an Epic Item? Besides, do you even know what warrants an Epic Item? A fight even more hellish than the one I faced before," Kieran commented with a sidelong glance.

How Kieran looked at Bastion revealed how laughable he thought Bastion's desires were. Even an Epic Boss only had a slim chance of dropping Epic Equipment; why would any be present inside this place?

The difference between an Epic Equipment and Epic Material were worlds apart. After all, a single material couldn't even begin to forge an Epic Item. Many such materials were required to create the item.

Nevertheless, as Kieran looked about, he noticed that aside from the Savage Beast Lord Set, there were a few more items that no one in the party could use. These items were polearms weapons for the most part, along with an enormous tower shield and heavy gauntlet. Currently, Bastion used a single large shield to maintain the freedom of his right arm.

With his arm free, he could wield his short sword to unleash the unique skills available to his class. Conversely, Nemean's class adhered to a strict usage of medium-sized shields. Not only did they give a decent amount of protection, but they allowed Nemean to maintain maximum mobility.

Thus, Kieran could only scratch his head softly because all of the items before him were Unique Items with Item Levels of 100 or higher. Since they weren't valuable to anyone present, Kieran decided to stash them for the time being. Lastly, there were a few other weapons that he claimed, but only one held any worth to the party―a staff.

Since Mages and Priests could benefit from staff, Kieran decided to give Alice the only staff hung along the walls.

"If not for your courage, we would have been stuck back there with our frightened bunch, so you are deserving of this item," Kieran said. In his hands was a brilliant staff with a multicolored orb placed inside a crescent-shaped frame. The area around the frame was beautifully carved with fine attention to detail, making it somewhat appear like a waterfall with a rippling current flowing through it.

At first, Alice was hesitant, but after realizing everyone's urging gazes, she grasped it. Of course, it couldn't be equipped just yet. The item similarly required that Alice reach Lv.40 before becoming equipable, provided her stats were up to par.

"Thank you. I will continue to prove my worth. I won't let this go to waste," Alice said with a faint smile. She hugged the staff as if it were the plushiest of teddy bears before finally storing it in her inventory. Afterward, Kieran glanced around at everyone.

"Should we meet more allies in the future, or if we have changes in our class masteries, I'll be sure to distribute proper equipment. However, you must be in need of equipment for me to do so. Now, before we leave this dungeon space…."

Kieran paused while glancing back at the opened gateway. There was still one matter he overlooked that needed to be taken care of before they left the dungeon.

'I've taken Rautori's head, but that cyclops outside is just as valuable. In fact, I may be able to get away with that,' Kieran thought.

Because he owned the Harvest lifestyle skill, Kieran could take body parts from fleshly monsters. However, merely claiming Rautori's head increased Kieran's skill by several levels, almost enough to improve from Apprentice-Beginner to Apprentice-Intermediate.

Eventually, Kieran guided the others out of the hidden area and back to the cyclops' body. Because he was no longer at the height of his power, Kieran couldn't claim its head in one fell swoop. It took five slashes for Kieran to finally sever the head.

Kieran panted as he stored the head. These movements were extremely taxing even though they were simple actions. Since Kieran's Stamina was essentially 0, even the easiest of activities became laborious. 'Damn… it sucks that we have to travel all the way back to the kingdom now.'

Unlike the Hero's Sanctuary, which possessed an illustrious teleportation hall capable of teleporting an individual to any desired location, the Aeredale Kingdom didn't own a high-quality hall. While it was valid that it possessed one, the spatial hall wasn't powerful enough to allow players to teleport back and forth at will.

For this to be possible, a powerful mage adept in spatial spells would have to interfere and establish several converging links. Only then would players gain access to items known as Teleportation Orbs and Return Scrolls, both of which became indispensable tools when leveling or setting out to conquer high-difficulty content.

Because of Kieran's haggard state, after teleporting back to the dungeon's entrance, it took nearly one hour just to come across Luna's party that battled with Forest Ogres after becoming bored.

However, that all changed after Kieran cleared the Underground Labyrinth. All of the monsters in the vicinity seemingly disappeared. It appeared the Forest Ogre roaming the Forest of Marshullum were indeed related to the goblins inside the Underground Labyrinth hence the reason for its distinction as a goblin-type.

Eventually, Luna reconvened with her party members.

"Woah… Luna is what I'm seeing real right now? Are you really Lv.30?" Luka gasped. Even after fighting with the Forest Ogres for more than 3 hours, Luna's remaining teammates only managed to level up twice, reaching just over Lv.26.

Compared to Luna's progress, it just wasn't worth mentioning.

"Yeah, it was as Aatrox estimated. We ended up coming across a frightening difficulty. In return, we were blessed for the challenges we faced. Speaking of which, we need to escort Aatrox back to the kingdom safely, is that understood?" Luna commanded with a posture completely different from inside the dungeon.

Luna's body exuded the air of a leader who wouldn't tolerate disobedience.

"Understood. I'll be happy to. It's only because of him that I've leveled up so much," Luka agreed.

"Let's get a move on. The day is still young, and we have much to accomplish, Leader," Zafir said while skillfully sheathing his sword at his side. Kieran looked around Luna's party and nodded imperceptibly.

'They're not a bad bunch at all. If we're lucky enough to have future collaborations, perhaps I should guide them in terms of how to maximize their classes,' Kieran thought. Afterward, he leaned on Nemean, who voluntarily offered his shoulder as they made their way back to Aeredale City.