Key

While going through the pile of papers hurriedly, his fingers came across one that sent shivers down his back. His whole body came to a halt as if there was no life in it and it was some statue by the side of the road.

His pupils were all dilated in the shock of what he had witnessed. Countless thoughts were running through his mind with the speed of light inside his mental consciousness.

The note that had sent him reeling in shock was another report, an assassination report, his assassination report.

In place of the name of the target was his own name staring back at him. It was the cause of death that shocked him further.

"Target 'Zavier Adam' was confirmed to have drunk poison, Mission Completed."

Being the party that had died as a result of the assassination attempt, Zavier felt affronted that the assassin hadn't even filed the report accurately. He had clearly died of strangulation instead of poison.

"Wait a minute…poison?"

Only then did a thought struck Zavier, who filed the report when the assassin that had successfully assassinated him had already become a corpse under his Necromancer system.

The fact that there was an assassination report meant that the attempt had been successful and the killer had returned to file the report.

"Could it be another Zavier?"

But that was highly unlikely.

And then it struck him with all the ferociousness of thunder and lightning and illuminated every part of his brain with enlightenment.

How was he able to take over the body of the original Zavier? He should have died in order for him to take over.

Maybe this was the reason for the death of the original Zavier since after his rebirth, he had never drunk any kind of poison.

According to the report, the assassin hadn't truly witnessed the death of the target but had seen him drinking the poison.

So, when the target was still parading in front of the world after having drunk that deadly poison, the assassin must have made another attempt to put him down. And his strangulation might have been the assassin coming back to finish the job.

If that was the case, there was also a high chance that the report in front of him might have been filed by Pacer himself after the first successful attempt that had led to his arrival in this world.

This might have even been the reason that he was able to so easily take over the body of Zavier without any resistance. After all, the dead never struggled for supremacy.

But if that was the case, then it was all the more reason to be worried because the assassination plan centred around Zavier had started long before he had even come to this world.

Zavier's body was trembling all over at this point, the information that he had gathered up to this point had been too much for him to handle at once. He wanted to sit down and take a minute to gulp down all that he had figured out first but the danger around him had yet to diminish.

The only good that came out of all this was that he had become sure of one thing at the very least. It was that for whatever it was that Zavier was being hunted down had nothing at all to do with the current Zavier and the enemy was unaware of the true strength of the Zavier they were trying to murder now.

At this point, Zavier could be a hundred percent sure that the person that his clone had been following had clearly led him up to this place.

It was either an elaborate plan to kill him or an attempt to bring him the information that he so desperately needed. The other person had not revealed even the tip of his killing intent until this moment. This was either because he was a top-notch assassin who could easily rein in his killing aura or he never intended to harm Zavier in the first place.

Could it be that the other person was trying to give him the information that his clone had been looking for?

But how did the other party know who he was or what he had been trying to do?

Zavier wanted to figure out the answers to those questions as soon as possible and he knew that the answers must be in the basement otherwise that person would have never brought him here.

Zavier operated his Time Space Eye once again and completely turned over the place with his vision. He looked in every corner and every nook and cranny in the tiny and cramped place.

Zavier was sure that there must be more hidden compartments and secrets, it being a place used by a bunch of assassins.

Putting in his best to search around was the minimum requirement for being able to find out something in this place especially in the dark.

Zavier searched to the point that his brain started to hurt. The headache returned with a screeching pain followed by the throbbing of his temple but Zavier forced himself to look, all the time believing that the answer was within the basement.

In the corner of the basement, behind a wooden plank covered by algae and fungus, lied an intricately carved wooden box that he was unable to see through even with his Time Space Eye.

The contents of the box were a mystery even to him and the curiosity of what was inside was killing him on the inside. But he maintained his calm so as to not miss something obvious that he might come to regret in the future.

He operated the highest level of vigilance in the opening of the box to be ready for any dangers that might emerge from the box.

He started by using low level lock picking magic often employed by low end thieves first but to no avail.

He slowly made his way forward towards higher level magic but the lock didn't budge in the slightest. This made him unsure whether magic even had any effect on the box at all.

Zavier decidedly brought out the bigger guns. He used the cold blaze that was currently his most powerful offensive magic. Even that didn't produce any obvious results instantaneously.

Only after the box had been doused in the cold flame for a while that it started to creak and break open. This was an indication of how strong the box actually was.

Zavier was consuming his strength at a rapid pace since the requirements for cold blaze were quite high for the current him. Fortunately, the box broke open before he had spent all his strength otherwise it would have taken him even longer to recover his strength to continue.

Inside the box was a key. It looked quite ancient based on its looks but there was no carvings or description along with it to determine where it could be used.

Zavier couldn't figure out what the key was for after deliberating over it for a while. He kept it in his pocket and was about to head out when the system prompted him for the first time since all this fiasco started.

[User is advised to keep his items in the system storage.]

[This will give all your clones access to your items at all times and will increase your survival probability.]

Zavier felt that the system had told him this specifically for the key. Maybe the system knew something about the key but hadn't told him about it.

He knew that doubting the system wouldn't do any good at all since they were both on the same side as the system was designed to support him. Also, its advice had never turned out to be an impediment to his own designs.

Another thing that helped make up his mind was that the key could be used by any of his clones regardless of the location of the original body and the location of the key.

When he had finally made up his mind, Zavier wanted to share the memories of the incident with all of his clones to get them in the loop about the whereabouts and the source of the brass key in the system storage.

He had already had a splitting headache ever since he had over used the cold blaze to split open the box. He was very tired at the moment so he rested up a bit to wash away all the exhaustion before sharing his memories with all the clones.

He sat down in a corner of the basement and regulated his breathing. He was so tired that his eyelids were droopy and his face looked haggard like he had pulled an all-nighter to prepare for an exam in the morning.

Zavier was not such a fool as to fall asleep in such a hostile environment. There was no guarantee that his enemies were not lying in wait for him to show an opening.

So, he had to force himself to stay awake while trying to recover. It was hard but had to be done for his own safety.