Chapter 121: Dragon’s Resting Ground (4)
A pure wall of white was exposed on the spot where the blue crystals were blown away.
No, to be accurate, it wasn’t a ‘wall’.
‘Bones.’
—Bones of an entity so enormous that its size was unfathomable.
‘Then…’
Ohjin gulped and looked up.
—A massive cave that reached 200 meters high.
‘This isn’t a cave… but inside the body of something gigantic?’
Based on the fact that the interior was covered with solid crystals and Reptilians were running amok, it wasn’t the body of a living organism.
“Just how large was this thing?”
The inside of its corpse could become its own ‘dungeon’. It was hard to estimate how large its body would’ve been when it was alive.
[This is… the skeleton of an elder dragon.]
“Elder dragon?”
[It is a creature that lives in the Demon Realm. One of the beings that are the nearest to ‘celestials’.]
A certain being naturally surfaced in his head from the word ‘dragon’.
‘Thousand Curse Dragon, Barbatos.’
—The 9-star monster that took away Ha-eun’s sight.
Once the dragon that was no different from a calamity had massacred the hundreds of Awakeners who gathered to subjugate it, it leisurely disappeared to an unknown place.
‘…After cursing Ha-eun, that is.’
Ohjin’s eyes shone coldly.
“Dragons could get this large?”
According to what he had heard from Ha-eun, Barbatos was around 50 meters. Even that was large enough to name it a calamity, but compared to the elder dragon that made up the dungeon, it was the difference between a Golden Retriever and a Chihuahua.
[Not all dragons are like this. Only an extremely small minority of dragons that were selected can become elder dragons.]
“Hmm.”
Anyways, it meant the dragon was made from the corpse of an elder dragon.
‘So that’s why the dungeon is named ‘Dragon’s Resting Ground’.’
Ohjin narrowed his eyes and got on his feet.
“Ohjin, what are you doing there?”
“Come over here.”
He explained the identity of the dungeon to them.
“Wh-What? Then this entire dungeon is the corpse of a dragon?”
“Most likely.”
“Wow. That’s information that not even our house was able to figure out.”
Isabella’s eyes glimmered as she shook her head.
“Well, let’s head a little deeper inside.”
Whether the dungeon’s identity was the corpse of an elder dragon or not, there was a need to head deeper inside in order to clear it.
“Ugh. Thinking about how we’re roaming inside a corpse feels somewhat unpleasant.”
“Fufu. It feels like we’re in a fantasy movie. I like it.”
“Ehh, you have weird tastes.”
“What’s wrong with my tastes?”
Putting behind him the two women who seemed to have gotten closer than when they first met, Ohjin walked deeper inside the dungeon.
When they walked for a couple more minutes—
“…Wait.”
—Ha-eun raised her hand once again.
“Are they Reptilians?”
“There are Reptilians… but they’re dead.”
“Dead?”
Ohjin furrowed his brow and headed to where Ha-eun pointed to.
As she said, Reptilian corpses were piled up there.
“Did they fight amongst each other?”
“…”
Ohjin attentively examined the corpses.
‘Stigma of the Hunting Dogs.’
Thousands of smells rushed into his nose as soon as the stigma was activated.
—The smell of moss stuck between crystals, the fishy smell of the Reptilians’ blood, the smell emitted from rotting flesh, and… the foul smell of sticky mana.
‘They didn’t fight amongst each other.’
Someone had killed the Reptilians.
‘And that means…’
Ohjin’s party wasn’t the only one that came to that place. Others had entered the dungeon before them.
“Ohjin? What’s wrong?”
“Isabella. You said that only the Colagrande House knows the location of this dungeon, right?”
“That’s right.”
“When was the dungeon found?”
“Two days ago.”
“And there were no traces of anyone else?”
“…”
It seemed that only then had she sensed something was wrong as she stared at the corpse of the Reptilians.
“We weren’t able to find any traces… but it seems that some people came in before us.”
“Wh-What? Then the ones who killed those Reptilians are another party?”
“Probably.”
Ohjin put his nose near the Reptilain’s corpse and sniffed the smell.
“Seeing how much its rotted, it’s been over three days”
“…Then that must mean other people were already in the dungeon when our house discovered the gate.”
“Yeah.”
He nodded his head and got up.
‘Other people are already inside, huh.’
Ohjin narrowed his eyes and thought of the thick smell of mana.
‘Pseudo Star Cult? Or maybe the Black Star Organization?’
He couldn’t figure out which one of the two they were—
“What should we do, Ohjin?”
“We’ll have to keep going.”
—but he couldn’t go back now.
“I guess we’ll just have to clear the dungeon before the people who came in before us.”
Ha-eun grinned and nodded.
“Let’s up the speed.”
“Okay!”
“Alright!”
Ohjin’s party went deeper into the dungeon at a faster pace than before. Great numbers of Reptilians ambushed them now and then, but they were rid of without much difficulty by Ha-eun, who specialized in eliminating groups of monsters. They even skipped past harvesting the starstones of dead Reptilians and quickly advanced forward.
* * *
* * *
“Ohjin, isn’t something written there?”
Ha-eun pointed to the cave’s wall.
There were the words of an unidentifiable language engraved on the wall she indicated.
“What does this say?”
“I don’t know.”
Ohjin narrowed his eyes and approached the wall.
-Ring!
[You have obtained a clue about the clear condition of the ‘Dragon’s Resting Ground’.]
[This is where the elder dragon, Evergrace, returned back to nature. Stories say dragons confine their heart in mana and turn it into a crystal at the densest area of a dragon vein before they return to nature.]
[Clear Condition: Obtain the ‘Dragon’s Heart’.]
“Dragon’s Heart…”
‘Is that the star relic hidden inside this dungeon? Just its name makes it sound extremely precious.’
Ohjin looked at the blue message in front of his eyes and gulped.
[It appears that obtaining the Dragon’s Heart is the clear condition.]
“Then I guess that means the people who came in before us weren’t able to find the Dragon’s Heart yet.”
“Hehe! Let’s go get it first, Ohjin!”
“Let’s—”
When he was about to suggest speeding up even more…
Ttututututu!—
Crack!—
Black feathers that shot from an unknown place dug into the ceiling.
Crackle!—
A huge crack appeared in the cave’s ceiling.
Rumbleeeeee!!!—
“Ahh! Wh-What’s going on all of a sudden?!”
“Ugh! Ha-eun!!”
“Ohjin!”
The cave started to rumble as if an earthquake had occurred, and the blue crystals that were stuck to the ceiling started to fall down like rain.
“Damn it…!”
Ohjin used his lightning to fend off the raining crystals.
[D-Danger!]
Simultaneously with Vega’s yell—
Boooooooooom!!!—
“Kugh!”
—the blue crystals that met with the lightning caused a powerful explosion.
‘Is the mana contained inside of the crystals exploding due to the impact?!’
In that case, he couldn’t block using lightning.
“Ohjin!”
“Avoid it, Ha-eun!!”
Bang! Boom! D-Doom!!—
The blue crystals that fell to the ground caused consecutive explosions. The crystals that fell like a carpet bombing caused a crack in the dungeon’s floor.
In an instant, the floor started to collapse.
“Argh!”
Bang!—
Ohjin stuck to the wall by shooting his wire.
“Ha-eun! Hold my hand!”
He extended his hand out to Ha-eun.
Rumble!—
Ha-eun roughly bit her pink lips and kicked off.
“Alright!”
Like passing across stepping stones on a lake, she stepped on the falling stones in the air using agile movements.
Tak! T-Tak!—
The distance between them quickly shortened.
When the tip of Ohjin’s extended finger lightly touched Ha-eun’s finger…
Crack!—
“—Ah.”
Due to her sudden, intense movements, the prosthetic leg that supported her beneath her right thigh broke into two.
“Ha-eun!!!!!”
Ohjin urgently leaned forward but wasn’t able to catch her because of the raining piles of stone.
“Goddammit!”
He quickly took off the pendant around his neck and threw it in Ha-eun’s direction.
“Vega!”
[I got it!]
The pendant floated in mid-air and started to fly to where Ha-eun was.
[This lady shall take responsibility and protect Ha-eun!]
“I’ll leave it to you!”
Ohjin looked around for Isabella after confirming Vega turning into her original form and catching Ha-eun in the midst of falling.
‘Where did she go?’
It seemed that Isabella had already fallen under the collapsed floor, as she was nowhere in sight.
‘There’s no way she died.’
Isabella was the 3rd ranking Executor of the Black Star Organization. Dying to a mere explosion of that level was impossible.
Ohjin furrowed his brow and looked for Isabella.
Rumble!—
“Damn it.”
However, Ohjin had to stop his search soon after in order to avoid the continuously raining blue crystals and climbed up the cave walls. He passed where the ground collapsed and headed to the tunnel that led deeper into the dungeon.
Booooom!—
The entrance was completely blocked off by fallen rocks.
“…”
An eerie silence settled over.
Ohjin, who was left alone, turned his head around to face the dark tunnel.
‘Is this something Isabella planned?’
Ohjin furrowed his brow.
‘No, it isn’t Isabella. Black feathers were shot back then.’
—Feathers made by Awakeners of Noctua that Ohjin was now tired of encountering had destroyed the ceiling.
‘So the Black Star Organization is the one who came here first.’
—Cheon Doyoon and his direct subordinates, the Night Hunters.
He started to think the reason for their sudden absence was because of the dungeon.
Clap, clap, clap!—
“Wow~ I didn’t think you’d survive that explosion! The capabilities of a North Star’s apostle are extraordinary as expected!”
A young man with a bright smile started to walk towards Ohjin from the other side of the dark tunnel.
—Sharply raised brow, button nose covered in freckles, thin lips, and the creepy scorpion tattoo engraved on his neck.
He had a face Ohjin remembered.
‘Thousand Poison Stab, Kang Changhyuk.’
Kang Changhyuk was powerful enough to be ranked within Korea’s 30 strongest Awakeners, and he was the guild leader of the now nonexistent Pandinus guild.
“Kehehe. It looks like you know who I am.”
Intense killing intent blossomed as Kang Changhyuk’s lips curved up.
“I guess it’s only natural you know the leader of the guild you caused the destruction of. Isn’t that right?”
“…”
Ohjin looked behind Kang Changhyuk without responding to his question.
Thud, thud—
Mysterious men wearing pressed-down black robes were walking his way behind Kang Changhyuk.
‘Are they the Night Hunters?’
Kang Changhyuk being with the Night Hunters wasn’t all that surprising since the Pandinus guild were cooperating with the Noctua faction from a long time ago.
‘There are six of them.’
Ohjin’s eyes shone coldly.
“Kehe! What? Are you looking for a place to escape?”
Kang Changhyuk’s shoulders shook up and down as he exploded out in insidious laughter.
“Look as hard as you can. There’s nowhere to run away, alright? You’re completely locked here with us, dumbass.”
Kehehe!—
He took out a sharp dagger from his pocket.
“…I’m locked here?”
Smirk—
Ohjin’s lips twisted up as he took out his steel rod.
Click!—
The rod turned into the shape of a spear once he surged mana into it.
“None of you seem to understand…”
“Haah? What nonsense are you talking about?”
Cackle—
His shoulders shook as he laughed.
“I’m not locked in here with you…”
Sigh—
He exhaled out a low breath and raised his spear.
“You’re locked in here with me.”
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!!!!—
The blue lightning brightened the deep darkness and fiercely blazed up.
T/N: Evergrace is actually a dragon in the game Lost Ark. (The author is still currently playing this game and a top-rank player in Korean servers.)
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