Chapter 134

“Irurin, is there still a mage on this continent powerful enough to summon a Dragonfang Soldier?” Woojin asked, barring the creature’s path.

“A mage who can summon a Dragonfang Soldier? No, not as far as I know. You can’t create them without a dragon’s mana in the first place!”

“Then this wasn’t a human’s doing...”

That wasn’t entirely impossible.

‘Leaving aside Harper Gawain, the Human Dragon...’

There were four dragons on the continent. The Mad Dragon Damune, the Ice Dragon Belian, and the Black Dragon Bensina. Raoul had hunted down only three of them.

‘There’s still one left.’

“Could... the Fire Dragon still be alive?”

“The Fire Dragon? I’m not sure. I’ve heard rumors that even the Dragon Hunter couldn’t find it...”

“I’ve never seen it.”

Thirty years ago, Raoul had been pursuing the last dragon. That meant it hadn’t shown itself since then.

The Fire Dragon, Ribellaon.

‘Could these Dragonfang Soldiers be the Fire Dragon’s doing, then?’

He had no way of knowing. They would have to find out whether the Fire Dragon was behind this.

“... Has anyone here fought a Dragonfang Soldier before?”

Unsurprisingly, both women shook their heads.

BOOM!

For now, Woojin swung his sword at it.

GRRRIND!

The Dragonfang Soldier raised its spear to block his attack.

CRACK! CRRRACK!

Cold Wave spread beneath his feet, freezing the creature’s entire body in an instant. Unlike Irurin’s magic, his title’s effect seemed to work on it.

“Hup!”

Drawing a deep breath, Woojin gripped his sword tightly in both hands and swung it horizontally like a bat.

It was [Mighty Strike].

CLANG!

Metal rang against metal. His wrists tingled from the impact, but he didn’t stop. Bringing his rebounding sword around, he slashed diagonally.

Dragon Heaven, First Gate — Severance

GRIND... GRRRIND...

He had put everything into that blow, but the sword lodged in the Dragonfang Soldier’s shoulder went no farther.

“Damn, you’re tough.”

Woojin scowled at the Dragonfang Soldier, which stared back as though nothing had happened. It devoured magic, and physical attacks couldn’t get through its body of dragon bones either.

‘How am I supposed to beat this thing?’

No strategy for defeating a Dragonfang Soldier was known. In the game, it was such a high-level monster that no one even dared to hunt it.

[“SKREEEE!”]

Just then, the creature let out a shrieking roar.

Pain pulsed through Woojin. Feeling as though something were squeezing his heart, he staggered and dropped to one knee.

‘A small monster using Fear...?’

It was a skill generally considered exclusive to large monsters. Small as it was, this creature apparently did possess a dragon’s power.

His head spun as though he were motion-sick.

Until now, he had worn [Magic-Infused Ancient Leather Armor], and its [Valor] Trait had made fear-based attacks relatively easy to handle. But taking a mental attack head-on without that Trait caused pain beyond anything he had imagined.

SHHHH!

At that moment, a round membrane formed around the party amid motes of light.

“Master!”

Setsuna flew to his side.

“I’m sorry! Healing took me too long!”

As her Soul Guardian took full effect, his pounding headache vanished.

“Don’t be. You saved me.”

[“SKREEE!”]

The Dragonfang Soldier roared again and charged, seemingly enraged that its attack had been nullified. Fear no longer worked, but its oncoming charge was still menacing.

“How’s Goun?”

“Well...”

Woojin bit his lip. A single high-grade potion was all he had left in his bag.

‘Lesser Healing isn’t enough...’

He had to decide. Should he use the potion he had kept as his last resort?

“... Don’t worry. I won’t die.”

Just then, Goun stirred, face deathly pale.

Anyone could see that Goun was pushing too hard, but Woojin said nothing. It was a determination not to become a burden.

He tucked away the potion he had been fingering.

“Keep that promise.”

Goun nodded.

It might seem coldhearted. But without that cold resolve, they wouldn’t survive. A Dragonfang Soldier stood before them, and they didn’t even know who was behind it. He had to prepare for the worst.

WHOOOSH!

The Dragonfang Soldier swung its spear.

‘I’ll be dead if I try to block that.’

Even in the narrow passage, the wind pressure bursting from its spear was enough to take his breath away.

CRUNCH!

He drove his sword into the floor, creating a Barrier before him.

CRAAASH!

The spear struck the Barrier and shattered it mercilessly.

WHOOSH!

Woojin hurled himself beneath the fragments of the crumbling Barrier.

“Setsuna!”

At his shout, giant hands burst from the walls on either side of the Dragonfang Soldier and closed around it.

[“Grrk...?!”]

Suddenly immobilized, the Dragonfang Soldier thrashed, trying to shake off their grasp.

“Everyone, run!”

Woojin shouted as he hoisted Goun, who had been leaning against the wall, over his shoulder.

“Wh-where are we supposed to go?!”

“I don’t know either.”

For now, all they could do was run.

* * *

The party raced through the maze. They could no longer afford their earlier caution of marking intersections and drawing a map. Instead, they turned right at every junction they reached. It was the bare minimum of planning, but they had no idea whether it was taking them the right way.

“Hah... hah...”

How long had they been running? By the time Irurin, who had little stamina, began panting painfully, the Dragonfang Soldier’s footsteps had also stopped.

“... I don’t think this is the Fire Dragon’s doing.”

Supported by Ruen, Irurin spoke between ragged breaths.

“What makes you say that?”

Woojin slowed to catch his breath as he asked.

“For one thing, we don’t even know whether the Fire Dragon is alive... But aside from that, dragons don’t travel with Dragonfang Soldiers.”

“They don’t?”

“No. Dragons don’t create them because they need guards accompanying them. They make them to protect their lairs while they’re away.”

She had a point. As the strongest species on the continent, dragons had no need to burden themselves with an entourage of summoned creatures.

“Then...? You said there weren’t any mages who could create Dragonfang Soldiers.”

“Yes. No matter how powerful a mage is, they can’t wield a dragon’s mana. But...”

She trailed off, her expression rigid. An uneasy feeling crept over him.

“An alchemist might be able to.”

Her words brought one person to Woojin’s mind.

“... Juter.”

An alchemist connected to the labyrinth. And the bastard was still alive.

[Failed Experiment No. 8701]

Woojin recalled the hideous monster he had encountered in Baldoa.

‘And he’s hardly living an ordinary life.’

He had become an Awakened by receiving demon blood and was still continuing his research decades later.

[“He stole the Queen of Nemes’s key and made an identical copy. Then he tricked the gravekeeper, stole all manner of the Black Dragon’s treasures, and fled.”]

But one thing bothered him. Naiad, the great spirit, had clearly said that Juter had taken the treasures inside the labyrinth. Why, then, had he returned?

Woojin briefly tightened his fingers around the Black Dragon’s key tucked inside his clothes.

‘When Bensina gave me this, he told me to use the equipment in the tomb.’

Thinking back now, that was a little odd. If Naiad’s account was true, Juter had already plundered the labyrinth before Bensina gave him the key.

Could Bensina really have been unaware of that? No, that was impossible. If someone without permission had opened the burial chamber, Bensina would never have stood idly by.

The labyrinth was a dungeon too. Those who challenged it received rewards—something other than the burial chamber treasures Bensina had left behind.

‘Juter never got the real treasures in the burial chamber.’

It was a dragon’s key. There was no way it could be copied so easily. If Juter had returned to the labyrinth, that meant...

‘He’s obtained the real key. Or...’

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The Dragonfang Soldier’s footsteps began drawing closer again.

‘He’s obtained a dragon’s power.’

They started running again.

* * *

“Juter Boas.”

Irurin nodded.

“You know him?”

“Yes. He’s notorious. The last surviving alchemist. A turncoat who sold his soul to demons. A walking disaster... Shall I go on?”

“No. I think that’s enough.”

In the past, information about him had been so scarce that investigating him had proved difficult. But apparently he had been busy over the decades, because he had become quite a well-known figure.

“It’s only natural. Some even say he may have killed more people than the demons have.”

“In Baldoa, I saw people burying corpses, supposedly on his orders. And a Human Golem too.”

“So he’s... still carrying on that research.”

Irurin grimaced at his words.

“Teacher once asked me which was the better way to attain eternal life: dark magic or alchemy.”

“You still call him your teacher?”

“Well... I’m used to calling him that. It doesn’t mean anything.”

She was, after all, the one who had showered her teacher with flames.

“That Ratan was ridiculous. Asking his apprentice which side he should join.”

“In the end, he chose dark magic and wound up like that.”

A monster neither living nor dead.

“Maybe that was better. If he’d joined Juter, he might have had his head and body chopped apart for golem materials.”

The branching paths seemed to have ended. As they followed the straight passage, its end finally came into view: a massive door in the distance.

“We’re lucky, aren’t we? We managed to reach the burial chamber without even checking our route.”

Irurin sounded relieved as she gazed at the stone chamber’s door.

“You should thank me for that. I’m the one who altered the paths, you see. So that whichever way you went, you’d end up here.”

“...!”

Their relief was short-lived. As they approached the dark door, they found someone waiting to greet them.

“Made your journey nice and easy, didn’t it? To be honest, I never expected anyone to come here.”

Woojin’s heart gave a thump. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who sensed something wrong. They hastily backed away.

The man was clearly alone. They vastly outnumbered him, and Ruen and Irurin were by no means weak.

And yet...

What was this?

The moment Woojin saw his face, his heart began pounding like mad.

“Juter Boas?”

“That’s right.”

The man smiled at Woojin.

He was draped in hide that reeked as though it had been rotting for a long time. Though patches had decayed and changed color, the hide was pitch-black.

On his head, he wore a dragon-shaped mask. There were bits of white in it, and blue as well. Stitched together from colorful scraps of hide, it looked as crude as a child’s handiwork.

Woojin swallowed involuntarily at the sight, his throat dry.

[“If he’d joined Juter, he might have had his head and body chopped apart for golem materials.”]

He had said that without much thought. Yet now it had become reality before his eyes.

Woojin thought he finally understood how the man could command Dragonfang Soldiers.

The hide draped around him belonged to Bensina.

THUD.

Atop the staff he held, a large blue eyeball dangled like a bell. Woojin had seen it somewhere before.

It belonged to Belian.

And the white hide in the mask... There was no question. That had to be Damune’s.

“... Ratan really did make the right choice.”

The remnants were visible everywhere. All of it had been fashioned from pieces torn from dead dragons’ corpses.

Everything Woojin had experienced thus far was warning him.

Run...

His hand tightened around his sword.

Or kill him first.