ALL NOVEL Chapter 15
Chapter 15
The Draker Household’s academy was a knight training institution admired by aspiring knights across the continent.
The reason for its fame was none other than the fact that it had been established by the hero of the Liberation War, the Dragonslayer Terakan Draker himself.
Terakan, who had slain the Evil Dragon Bahamut, was hailed as a great figure who ushered in a new era for humanity.
For a hundred years after Bahamut’s death, people referred to this period as the Golden Age.
This was thanks to the dragon’s corpse, the treasures amassed by the Dragonslayers, and the ancient ruins uncovered beneath the Lair, which yielded a wealth of artifacts.
Among these, the objects that drew the greatest interest from mages were the ancient relics.
Some of these relics, remnants from the era of the Hero King—a civilization predating the Golden Age—surpassed the current level of magical technology.
The highly compressed mana crystal that Fainon had mentioned was one such relic.
Zeke made his way to the least frequented area of the academy to obtain this highly compressed mana crystal.
‘The library, of course.’
About ten years from now, news would break about the discovery of underground ruins from the Golden Age beneath the academy’s library.
‘If I recall correctly, the highly compressed mana crystal was unearthed here.’
In his previous life, Zeke had frequently used the library during his academy days.
It was the perfect place to spend time when he wanted to avoid being bullied.
Seeing the library’s entrance again after so long stirred a wave of nostalgia in Zeke.
The academy’s library was larger than the national libraries of most countries.
Since Terakan, the academy’s founder, had personally overseen its construction, it was meticulously maintained even if it wasn’t heavily frequented.
Zeke slowly entered the library.
As in the past, the library was quiet and sparsely populated.
Only the librarians moved about, organizing new books or assisting the occasional visitor in finding what they needed.
‘It should be this way.’
It had been a long time since Zeke had been in the library, so he felt a bit disoriented.
He carefully recalled his memories of the past.
‘Let’s see. It was the underground records room in the central wing.’
During an expansion project to reorganize the records in the underground archive, the entrance to the ruins had been accidentally discovered.
Upon investigation, it was revealed to be a large-scale ruin. Excavation efforts involved the Mage Tower and even the mages of the Nirvana Household.
Surprisingly, it was identified as a ruin from the Golden Age, yielding a trove of precious relics.
Zeke, in his future life, had read about this in the news and remembered that the highly compressed mana crystal was among the relics discovered there.
The ruins were something that wouldn’t be discovered for another ten years, so for now, no one knew about them.
‘I’ll sneak down, take the highly compressed mana crystal, and gradually smuggle out the rest later.’
Zeke descended to the underground section of the central wing.
Since the library was scarcely visited, no one paid attention to him as he moved around. Without any interference, he headed toward the underground records room.
“This is it.”
The smell of aged paper filled the air.
As he looked at the shelves densely packed with records, he tried to recall the image of the ruins’ entrance he had seen in the news.
“It’s been so long that I can’t remember clearly.”
When nothing came to mind, Zeke frowned. Digging up the entire records room wasn’t an option either.
At that moment, something flashed through his mind.
‘Maybe if I use Dragon’s Eye…’
He immediately activated his skill.
[Skill Dragon’s Eye has been activated.]
The moment the skill was activated, his vision changed.
Not only did it adjust to illuminate dark areas, but various pieces of information began to surface before him.
As he scanned the records room, he noticed a section of the floor in one corner marked with a red glow.
‘Over there…?’
Approaching the spot, Zeke tapped the floor.
Thump. Thump!
A hollow sound echoed from below.
Zeke cautiously looked around.
There were no signs of anyone nearby.
‘Perfect.’
Spreading his palm wide, he gathered power from his Ether Hall.
Vwooom!
A faint vibration emanated as mana enveloped his hand.
He initiated the Soul-Body Technique that he had learned from his master in his previous life.
‘Sever.’
With Zeke’s intent to cut focused, the energy in his hand sharpened.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
The floor split cleanly, as if sliced by a sharp blade.
‘As expected, this leaves me a little dizzy. I should avoid using it until my Ether Hall is fully recovered.’
Since the Soul-Body Technique was a skill not meant for humans, it came with side effects. This was precisely why Zeke was determined to forge the Sun Blade Gram.
He lifted the cut portion of the floor like a door. A hollow space beneath was revealed, sending up a puff of dust.
“Let’s see what we’ve got here.”
Brushing away the dust, Zeke used Dragon’s Eye to peer into the dark passageway inside.
A path leading downward was visible.
Without hesitation, Zeke leapt into the passage.
Swish!
Landing deftly at the bottom, he stood upright.
As the effects of the Dragon’s Eye skill faded, the surroundings grew dark again.
Having personally experienced the consequences of overusing skills, Zeke pulled a small firestarter from his pocket.
Using the firestarter, Zeke fashioned a torch and examined the surroundings of the passage.
‘It looks just like a dungeon.’
After being expelled from the academy for the first time, Zeke had survived for a while as a porter for adventurers in dungeons.
Through his repeated dungeon explorations with adventurers, he learned the harsh realities of life.
When unlucky with his party, he had come close to death at the hands of monsters. Still, he clung to life with sheer determination.
While working as a porter and toiling in dungeons, he was deceived by a swindler and sold into slavery on the southern continent.
In the southern continent, controlled by cartel organizations, Zeke endured countless unspeakable hardships before finally managing to escape. In the Forbidden Forest of the Forgotten, he encountered his master.
‘Whether meeting my master was good luck or bad, I’m still not sure.’
Momentarily lost in memories of the past, Zeke quickly refocused his attention on the path leading deeper into the ruins.
‘The passage goes down farther than I expected. This much detail wasn’t mentioned in the news back then.’
Staying vigilant, Zeke ventured deeper into the passage.
Then, he sensed faint movement ahead.
‘Could someone have already discovered this place?’
Tensing up, Zeke extinguished the torch and activated the Dragon’s Eye skill.
His vision shifted to a green hue, making it easier to distinguish friend from foe.
He carefully moved closer and examined the movement.
‘What? That’s…’
It was a skeleton.
Zeke, now alert, scanned the area for more threats.
The presence of skeletons often implied the possibility of a higher-tier monster nearby.
However, even with the Dragon’s Eye, he couldn’t spot any other monsters in the vicinity.
This time, he carefully inspected the skeleton’s condition.
It wasn’t wielding a sword or shield but rather a pickaxe and shovel.
In such cases, it was unlikely to have been created by a high-tier monster. Instead, it was probable that the corpse had turned into a monster due to the residual influence of an ancient dungeon.
Zeke slowly straightened his posture.
“It’s been a while since I’ve gone monster hunting.”
Before his regression, a significant portion of Zeke’s missions involved hunting monsters.
Clenching his fist, he approached the skeleton.
Clink, clink!
The skeleton reacted to Zeke’s presence, showing hostility as all monsters instinctively did toward living beings.
“Keerrraah―”
The skeleton charged at him with its pickaxe.
Remaining composed, Zeke assumed a defensive stance and retrieved a claymore from his inventory.
Boom!
[Skill Critical Strike has been activated.]
With a single strike, the skeleton shattered into pieces.
Zeke turned and struck down another skeleton with his sword.
Boom!
As expected, it was destroyed in a single hit.
Ding!
[You have defeated a skeleton. You have gained 1 Karma Point.]
[You have defeated a skeleton. You have gained 1 Karma Point.]
“Huh?”
He opened his status window and saw that his Karma Points had increased by 2.
Nodding as he observed the shattered skeleton, Zeke muttered, “Now that I think about it… undead are mana-infused monsters.”
A grin spread across Zeke’s face as he looked at the remains of the skeleton.
“Skeletal monsters like this, naturally formed ones, are something I can handle easily right now.”
Realizing this was an opportunity to gain Karma Points, his eyes gleamed with excitement.
Previously, he thought he’d need to at least reach the rank of a Purple Knight to hunt monsters effectively, but he had found an unexpected solution.
Zeke started roaming the ruins, searching for traces of more skeletons.
Grrraaah―
Given the ruins’ age, it was no surprise that naturally occurring skeletons were scattered throughout.
Zeke enthusiastically swung his sword at them.
Ding!
[You have defeated a skeleton. You have gained 1 Karma Point.]
The pleasing notification sound repeated again and again.
Zeke sprinted through every corner of the ruins, determined to wipe out every skeleton he could find.
Soon enough, his focus had shifted entirely from searching for the entrance to the ruins to solely hunting skeletons.
After several hours, no more skeletons appeared.
“Let’s see. How many did I take down?”
A notification popped up in his mind.
[Defeated skeletons: 30]
“Oh, not bad. Let’s see. Open status window.”
[Lower Administrator Status Window]
Name: Zeke Draker
Class: Immortal (Unique Grade)
Title: Blessed by the Ancient Dragon
System Functions: Inventory (25 slots) / Mini-map (Locked) / Beginner’s Questbook (Locked)
Passive Skills: Healing Factor / Unyielding Mental Defense / Endless Stamina / Combat Instinct
Active Skills: Precise Stab [E-rank (Expert)] / Consecutive Slashes [D-rank (Beginner)] / Critical Strike [D-rank (Skilled)] / High-Speed Movement [C-rank (Beginner)] / Mana Reflection [A-rank (Beginner)] / Area Buff [A-rank (Beginner)]
Draconian Skills (Stage 1 Unlocked): Dragon’s Eye (Beginner) / Dragon’s Majesty (Beginner)
Karma Points: 40
Zeke scrolled through the options available for unlocking with Karma Points.
“Mini-map costs 20 points, Beginner’s Questbook 45 points, Gluttony 50 points, and Draconian Skills Stage 2 Unlock 50 points.”
With his current 40 points, the only option he could unlock immediately was the mini-map.
After some deliberation, Zeke decided to activate the mini-map.
“I don’t know exactly what it does… but since it’s called a map, it should help me find my way.”
Zeke pressed the option to activate the mini-map.
[Mini-map functionality is now activated.]
Suddenly, a small map appeared before Zeke’s eyes.
“Oh?”
A compass icon floated on one side of the map, and the terrain features were displayed like an illustration. In the center, a red dot pulsed.
“No way. Is this a real-time map? It shows my position and the surrounding terrain?”
Zeke recalled learning how to read maps directly from the Northern Rangers. To the Rangers, maps were as vital as life itself, but finding maps with accurate scales and detailed topography was next to impossible.
The most reliable maps were created by mages, but they were prohibitively expensive, far beyond Zeke’s means.
Yet now, he had access to an exceptionally accurate map.
As he fiddled with the mini-map, Zeke couldn’t help but admire its features.
“You can adjust the scale, and it even shows directions automatically. With this, I’ll never get lost and die in some random place.”
Muttering to himself, Zeke adjusted the scale and studied the overall layout of the ruins.
While examining the mini-map, he noticed a spot marked differently from the usual terrain features.
“What’s this?”
When he touched the marked spot, a message appeared.
[Would you like to enable navigation to the selected location?]
“Navigation?”
After selecting the option, the mini-map displayed the shortest route to the destination in a different colored dotted line.
Zeke’s jaw dropped.
“Wow, this is incredible. Why didn’t I activate this sooner?”
Amazed, he began walking along the path indicated by the mini-map.
As he followed the designated route, another message appeared.
[You have arrived at your destination.]
Looking around, Zeke spotted a massive door directly ahead. He approached it cautiously.
“So this is it. The ruins.”
Standing right in front of it, Zeke pushed against the door.
It didn’t budge. It seemed to be magically sealed.
With a frustrated expression, Zeke muttered, “Damn it… Now that I think about it, they brought in a ton of mages when they excavated this place.”
The relics, including the highly compressed mana crystal, were undoubtedly behind that door.
Faced with this new obstacle so close to his goal, Zeke clutched his head in frustration.
“Ugh… Can’t anything ever go smoothly?”
Ding!
Just then, the system notification sound rang out. Zeke quickly read the text that appeared.
[Would you like to enter the Dragonslayer’s Tomb?]