Chapter 369 First Day in the Hidden Kill Sec
The next morning, Daneel woke up to a knock on the door.
Opening it, he saw that the Sect Leader himself was standing outside the door.
With a smile on his face, he greeted Daneel, saying, "Good Morning, Master. Once again, I apologize for what happened yesterday. Today, we shall go to the heart of the formation. Even though the auspicious time is not yet here, I thought that you would like to study its structure. What do you say?"
"All right. Just remember our agreement. One item belongs to me. And apologies aren't enough for the incident yesterday."
"Of course, of course. How about this. I will have our head instructor give you a crash course on the most effective assassination techniques. Would that be enough?"
Hearing this, Daneel couldn't help but pause.
It was this easy?
Before sleeping, he had already decided that he would try to obtain the techniques of the Hidden Kill Sect one way or another.
The best method was, of course, to bring up the incident yesterday.
However, as these techniques were the lifeblood of the Sect, he had assumed that it would be very difficult.
So, he had settled on asking for the secondary request of going through their library.
After all, information was power, and it wouldn't hurt to assimilate more knowledge in the system.
Daneel was about to feel happy that the best case scenario had played out, but he stopped when he saw the expression on the Sect Leader's face.
Although he was reptilian, except for the angular nature of his face, the scales and the slits in place of the nose, Daneel could still comprehend his emotion to some degree.
The smile was cold, and the Sect Leader almost appeared to be…gloating.
Daneel didn't understand, but he had a feeling that he would find out soon.
Yawning in reply, he said, "I guess that's fine."
"Great! Please meet me at the Central Tower when you are ready."
Leaving these words, the Sect Leader walked away.
Closing the door, Daneel started to freshen up.
Only, he couldn't get the image of the Sect Leader out of his mind.
The most obvious interpretation was that they would not be teaching their core techniques.
However, this didn't make sense as he was an 'expert', who would throw a fit if he was shown mediocre or weak techniques.
So, anyone with common sense would definitely bust out the good stuff if they promised the crash course in the first place.
After reaching the tower, Daneel saw that the Sect Leader was looking out at the surroundings while standing at the edge of the cliff.
Walking up to him, Daneel couldn't help but raise his eyebrows on seeing the breathtaking view.
Although there were only clouds for the most part, he could see some patches of Angaria.
Very few birds flew at this altitude. After all, they were 8000 meters in the air.
Only, one thing didn't make sense.
There were a few other mountains around him which popped up through the cloud cover, but all of them were snow-tipped.
It was an obvious fact that the higher one went, the colder it would be.
But since Daneel had stepped through that teleportation door, he had only experienced a pleasant temperature.
The Sect Leader answered his unspoken question.
"Our core formation monitors the temperature of the upper part of the mountain, and it is one of the few grand formations remaining."
Well, it made sense.
After all, whoever decided to build their base here wouldn't do so if it meant that everyone would be freezing at all times.
Turning around, the Sect Leader led the way to the tower without a word.
There was no reason for small talk; Daneel was here for a business transaction, and that was the way he acted.
However, he quickly started to realize that this attitude was hardly conducive to his goal of finding a way to subdue this sect.
Yet, when he was just about to speak, they reached their destination.
On entering the tower, the Sect Leader pricked his finger and drew a symbol on the floor in the center of the winding staircase.
With a rumbling sound, a passage opened which lead downwards.
Without a word, the Sect Leader started to descend, and Daneel followed.
[Ultra high-grade Energy Source detected nearby.]
Hearing this notification from the system, Daneel was slightly shocked.
The last time he heard this, he had been at the location of the core of the formation in the Palace of Lanthanor.
Now, they were also going to the core of this formation.
Could the two be related somehow?
"Do you have any idea who set up this formation?", he asked, making the Sect Leader turn around with a surprised expression on his face.
"I am sorry, but this is something that I cannot answer. There are certain secrets that cannot be revealed to any outsider. For instance, what would you tell me if I asked who set up the Dragon-Heart Formation?"
"The First King Lanthanore, of course."
Hearing the response, the Sect Leader actually scoffed.
"Ah, I forgot that your disciple is still weak. Ask him the same question when he becomes powerful enough to take full control of the Dragon-Heart Formation."
The Sect Leader did not say anything else, but he had already blown Daneel's mind.
The man was dropping bombs like they were nothing!
The Dragon-Heart Formation wasn't set up by King Lanthanore?!
Daneel always had a suspicion that there were secrets about the Kingdom of Lanthanor that he would unveil when he grew strong enough, but this was the first confirmation he got regarding them.
He had been hoping that the Empire Spirit would shed some light, but its first layer had contained something else. Still, he was thankful as he had been very much in need of something to boost his power level.
System upgrade!
If only he could get this damn thing, he would be able to take full control of that formation to find out the secrets of Lanthanor.
Well, this had been something that was bugging him ever since he became King, so he looked forward to it more than ever now that this Sect Leader had rekindled his interest in it.
RUMBLE
Looking up, Daneel saw that they had arrived at a stone door.
They had been descending in a cylinder-shaped tunnel that led straight downward while using a fireball for light. Now, the winding steps had ended.
For some reason, Daneel's heart started to beat faster as the door slowly opened.
Only, after entering, he felt disappointed.
There was nothing there.
It was a large empty stone room, so tall that he couldn't even see the ceiling with the dim light given off by the fireball conjured by the Sect Leader.
"This is where the heart of the formation will appear when the auspicious time arrives. Please carry out your investigation. I will wait here."
Saying so, the Sect Leader stood beside the door and closed his eyes.
Investigation? What investigation?
There was nothing here!
Still, Daneel walked in and activated the Hidden Item Detection skill in the system.
[Basilisk Heart Formation found. Status: Locked. Conditions must be met for unlocking the formation.]
Well, at least this formation wasn't so complicated that the system didn't even recognize it.
Just to make a show, Daneel walked to all 4 ends, marveling at the sheer size of this room.
It seemed to be a perfect cube with a length of 100 meters, making Daneel wonder why and how someone had gone to great lengths to excavate this much stone from the interior of the mountain.
He wanted to ask, but knowing that the Sect Leader might just blow him off like before, he let go of the idea.
Walking back to the entrance, he said, "Let's go. The formation is here. I can only find out more after it unlocks…I mean, when your auspicious time arrives. I'm itching for a fight. How about we start that crash course now?"
The Sect Master responded with that same cold smile as before and started to climb back up, but Daneel couldn't have guessed that he would find out the meaning behind it in just the next 20 minutes.
.....
"Pathetic!"
"Loser!"
"Go back where you came from! Worthless piece of crap!"
"Come on, my 3-year old fights better than that!"
Cursing vehemently in his mind, Daneel got up and tasted blood in his mouth.
BANG
However, in just the next second, he was on his ass again, knocked back by a lightning-fast punch.
His whole body felt as if it had just been put through a meat-grinder. Only, the insane thing was, there was no mark or injury on the outside.
No, if anyone looked at him, they would think that he was 100% healthy.
But if they saw the status of his internal organs, they would faint with shock.
Struggling to hold on to his consciousness, Daneel looked up to see stalagmites and stalactites hanging above him.
All around him, the shouts continued.
He was in a large oval stadium, which had marvelously been built on the inside of the mountain.
The stands were filled with thousands of spectators, all practically howling for his blood right now.
No. If he was going down, he would go down fighting.
Using a last spurt of energy, Daneel got up again, but the next blow which was aimed at his head succeeded in making him pass out.
After an unknown amount of time passed, Daneel woke up on a soft bed.
"Sir, I and my father warned you. But you insisted. This is the only 'crash course' we have. I understand if you would not like to continue."
In front of him stood his opponent, Skrrag, who was taking off the mask and the strength limiter that both of them had worn.
Only, how much ever he tried, he couldn't get the satisfied expression off of his face.
Clearly, the revenge for having had to beg earlier must taste very sweet.
It was Daneel's oddly enthusiastic response which made him freeze, before breaking out into an even wider smile.
"You punch like a wimp. Keep it coming, or I'll have to start calling your sect the 'Hidden Wimp Sect'."
Daneel was also smiling when he said these words, but it was because of the notification that had just sounded in his head.
[Analysis in progress.]