Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player

The message appeared right on time, just as Kieran had planned it.

The three-minute delay of his stream activation wasn't an arbitrary action with no meaning. After approximating how long convincing his teammates and reaching the first dungeon milestone would take, Kieran decided the delay.

The milestone, or rather hurdle, was the three Shadow Wolves before them.

Only two wolves could be handled with the tree gimmick, while the third would always escape in the nick of time, which is why Kieran had Altair entertain the last beast.

As they had stepped inside the Forest of Beasts' greatest difficulty, hoping to handle the monsters through normal means at their current level was somewhat foolish.

The Agility required for that feat was higher than what Kieran currently possessed. That's why the Shadow Wolves gained on him quickly.

Nevertheless, Kieran didn't concern himself with the what-ifs. He merely acted upon what needed to be done.

Because the immense tree crushed the Shadow Wolves, their Health each decreased by 1,000 points. Damage inflicted by the environment typically appeared as fixed damage, which ignored the affected party's Defense.

Without this feature, Kieran wouldn't have targeted the putrescent tree. Trying to knock down the tree would be pointless if it couldn't entrap the two Shadow Wolves by doing so.

'Great, the Forest of Beasts is somewhat tricky because some parts require sufficient Agility and others require a designated tank. But, as long as you know what you're doing, it possible to clear it with our current composition,' Kieran thought to himself.

He looked down at the Shadow Wolves howling weakly, unable to move due to the gigantic tree pinning them in place.

After gazing at the pinned wolves, Kieran glanced in the right corner of his peripheral vision. A minimized version of a simple user interface floating in his sights.

It consisted of an eye, which symbolized the viewers currently watching the stream, a typical textbox icon representing the chat feature, and an obscure icon resembling a coin below it to indicate the number of donations made.

Every icon currently read zero as the stream had just started. Since Kieran was unknown, the beginning of his stream garnered little to no attention. Most players weren't aware that an active streaming platform already existed.

After all, their time was spent leveling up and becoming accustomed to fighting inside Zenith Online.

Streaming, although highly profitable, was the least of their worries.

How could they manage a successful stream if their content wasn't entertaining? No one wished to watch a slow-paced battle where one made several clumsy mistakes.

GamerHub existed for elite players with charismatic personalities to showcase their skills.

Nevertheless, Kieran's current situation was temporary because a notification spread throughout Zenith Online and flashed on the official forum to alert players of an unprecedented change.

〈System: Attention all players, the Gamer Republic Connect, specifically the GamerHub.tv platform, has gone live! If interested, please check the «Zenith Online» category for active streamers!〉

Following the announcement, the Gamer Republic Connect tab flashed with a faint blue light. The flashing persisted until players, whether reluctantly or curiously, clicked on the tab to explore it in greater detail.

The feature was considered annoying, but it was efficient in terms of generating exposure.

'The streaming service was generally used to broadcast walkthroughs, events, or even PvP matches, but none of that is possible right now. At least… now for other players. As I need to create a name for myself to generate to receive special rewards, hiding my actions is essentially impossible. But, I can limit what I reveal.'

GamerHub.tv would undoubtedly become a lucrative platform in the future, so Kieran could only take advantage of the famous gamers' unfamiliarity with the game and claim initial advantages.

All he had was slightly less than $5,000 to his name. So Kieran needed money, and he needed it quickly, considering correcting his condition wouldn't be cheap.

Once the stream began accruing viewers, Kieran added a clickbait title that would attract greater attention later on: [Steamrolling a Beginner Dungeon: Forest of Beasts Very Difficult!]

After witnessing the Shadow Wolves' Health instantly deplete by 1,000 points, Sithik and Cygnus furrowed their brows.

Sithik even rubbed his eyes to ensure they weren't tainted or playing tricks on him.

"This is…" Sithik muttered incredulously, unsure of what to say. Were their doubts unwarranted? Could this party member truly be someone of godly skill?

Kieran ignored the reactions of his teammates and prepared to eliminate the pinned Shadow Wolves quickly.

〈System: You are using 6 SP to increase «Charge» from Lv.2 to Lv.5. Do you wish to continue? [ Y | N ]〉

Kieran agreed, producing significant changes within the customary Warrior skill.

Every five levels served as a small watershed where substantial empowerment occurred. And with the skill leveling up from Lv.1 to Lv.2 being effortless, Kieran only needed to use his remaining SP to push it to that small watershed.

「Charge (Lv.5)

Skill Rank: E

Mastery (00.00%)

Skill Description: After the user channels their force to empower their leg, they can charge forward with a large burst of momentum. An enemy hit during this dash suffers damage equal to 205% of the user's Attack Power. After being hit, the enemy is left «Stunned» for 2.5 seconds. The user's next attack deals 20% increased damage.

Consumption: 3 Mana

Prerequisites: Warrior Class

Cooldown: 30 seconds 」

The cooldown of Charge was higher than Force Slash and between Savage Break. But that was expected of skills with a utility effect. It was general knowledge that skills with utility effects possessed longer cooldown than pure damaging skills.

'The current stun period is perfect. Not too short but not long either such that it removes all difficulty from a fight,' Kieran thought.

2.5 seconds might seem like a lackluster period, but when utilized correctly, it could be the perfect window to overcome one's enemies.

After leveling up Charge, Kieran rushed toward the downed Shadow Wolves while horizontally brandishing his greatsword. Once he was close, Kieran angled himself to avoid hitting the tree.

Bang!

A loud noise resounded as Kieran rammed into the nearest Shadow Wolf.

-100

Considering his Attack Power and the damage value of Charge, it was safe to say the Shadow Wolves' Defense was decent despite it not being its forte. The wolf's stats were pretty high as an Elite Monster, especially since it was five levels higher than Kieran's.

Altair similarly frowned when he noticed his regular attacks dealt anywhere from 5 to 11 damage per strike.

"Elite Monsters are pretty sturdy," Altair remarked.

"Yeah, if you're not careful, they're enough to thrash us. But, I don't need to say much about your skill; I've seen it firsthand," Kieran replied.

Altair's brows furrowed the longer he dealt with his Shadow Wolf. "Bro, are you sure this is clearable if the first set of monsters is this difficult?"

Rather than respond, Kieran smiled cryptically. 'You'll see why it is clearable soon enough.'

A second later, Kieran turned toward Aspaira with a swift demand. "Don't just stand and stare; help him. We need to conserve our Mana and Stamina. Otherwise, the run will be drawn out."

"O-Okay!" Aspaira stammered after recovering her wits.

She then pointed her staff at the Shadow Wolf and performed a brief chant. The chant influenced her Mana, driving it to coagulate until it became a small water ball.

Afterward, Aspaira fired it toward the Shadow Wolf.

This skill was known as Aqua Bullet, an essential E Rank skill with a relatively short cooldown and high fire rate.

However, everyone's jaw dropped when Aspaira accomplished the unexpected. Her Aqua Bullet completely missed the Shadow Wolf!

"Oh, what the hell," Kieran groaned after watching this scene. He couldn't understand how she missed that shot if she had experience with the former difficulty.

Meanwhile, Altair kept the wolf locked in a small area by keeping it hit-stunned with a flurry of dagger strikes. Hit-stunned differed from the effects of Charge because it could be broken once the opponent found an opening.

Hit-stunning was more or less considered a temporary immobilization tactic.

"Ah—! So sorry," Aspaira muttered before conjuring another Aqua Bullet roughly five seconds later. Unfortunately, the outcome of this strike was even worse than the initial shot.

Altair had to abandon the Shadow Wolf and dodge! Because there was no friendly fire system in Zenith Online, players could inadvertently damage their teammates. So, Mages were somewhat spurned at this stage in the game.

'Crap… I forgot about this,' Kieran inwardly groaned.

A Mage's spells had to be aimed well, or they'd become useless!

"Damn! I don't need a bath, lady. I need you to dish out damage!" Altair exclaimed with a hint of frustration in his voice.

The Shadow Wolves couldn't regenerate, but they did possess a ton of Health. So even though triumph was inevitable, it would be delayed if the party's DPS wasn't up to par.

'I can't waste too much time here,' Kieran thought.

He decided to unleash a strike powerful enough to enhance the damage of his next strike.

"Savage Break!"

Boom!

-636! [Critical Hit]