Dragonslayer’s Class Regression 16

Chapter 16

‘The Dragon Slayer’s Tomb?’

As Zeke thought about going in, he was reminded of the message again.

[Opening the Dragon Slayer’s Tomb.]

Whiiiiir!

Click!

The gear-like decorations attached to the door rotated and the lock opened with a sound.

“Did it open?”

Zeke approached the door and slowly pushed it once more.

Rumble!

Originally, this was a door that fifty wizards from the Empire’s Magic Tower and Nirvana barely managed to open after a month of mind-breaking calculations.

However, Zeke, who had received the Great Dragon’s blessing, was able to open the door and enter inside far too easily.

Upon seeing inside the ruin, Zeke’s jaw dropped.

“Why is everything so massive?”

Huge statues of knights were lined up on both sides, and an enormous stone wall spread out in front of them.

Zeke swallowed dryly as he looked at the thick stone wall blocking his path.

He couldn’t believe that such a massive structure, which seemed beyond human capability to create, existed beneath the Academy library.

Zeke quickly looked around.

“This must be larger than ten central training grounds combined.”

Admiring the magnificent scale of the Dragon Slayer’s Tomb, he opened his mini-map.

“There should be a place storing relics somewhere around here.”

While the mini-map showed a path leading inside, he couldn’t find the entrance.

Eventually, Zeke activated his Dragon Eye again and scanned various parts of the stone wall, but still couldn’t find any trace of an entrance.

Then suddenly, Zeke looked up at the top of the stone wall.

‘Wait a minute…’

Zeke examined the terrain using his mini-map.

He then changed the mini-map settings.

Instantly, the perspective of the flat mini-map changed to show the terrain features in three dimensions.

“Found it.”

Through the now three-dimensional map, Zeke confirmed that the entrance existed above the stone wall.

He pondered while looking at the smooth stone wall that appeared to be at least a hundred meters high.

“How am I supposed to climb up there?”

While the Zeke from his past life might have managed somehow, it was impossible now as he couldn’t properly use his mid-level powers.

“There must be some way to climb up.”

He said desperately.

“Find a way to climb up there.”

Surprisingly, a message appeared before Zeke’s eyes.

[Accessing control device as per administrator’s request.]

‘Oh? It actually works?’

Another message appeared.

[Automatic transport device is unavailable.]

[Activating manual transport device.]

Simultaneously, the stone wall began to vibrate.

“W-what?”

Footholds began to protrude one by one from the previously smooth stone wall.

These protruding footholds extended all the way up to the top of the wall.

Zeke was startled by the suddenly created stairway.

“W-what is this? Magic?”

He started climbing up the stairs that extended along the wall.

“Phew…”

Upon reaching the top of the wall, there was another large door similar to before.

As Zeke approached, another message appeared.

[Would you like to open the Dragon Slayer’s Tomb storage?]

Seeing the word ‘storage’, Zeke grinned.

“Of course I’ll open it.”

Whiiiiir!

Click!

The door opened just like before.

Zeke opened the door and entered the storage room.

Inside the storage were dozens of display stands with boxes of various sizes stacked on them.

Zeke examined the boxes on the display stands.

“Wow! These are sealed boxes. Finding just one of these in a dungeon would have been incredible!”

These sealed boxes were known as treasure boxes among adventurers.

Usually, the boxes contained not only precious relics but sometimes even runestones, making them items that could bring in substantial income.

Hundreds of such sealed boxes were displayed here.

Zeke started opening the boxes one by one while humming.

“Let’s see. What’s this? A runestone? I can give this to Professor Feinan later as payment for the design. And this is…”

Every single item inside the boxes was a valuable relic.

The larger boxes contained weapons and equipment from the Golden Age or ancient times.

“Whew, it would be difficult to take all of this with me right now.”

Zeke began sorting out items that he could use immediately.

It consisted of rare practical items that were hard to obtain, such as rust-proof daggers, cold weather gear, and backpacks that reduced weight.

He put boxes of compact, valuable runes into his inventory and neatly packed regular items into his backpack.

Zeke grinned while looking around the storage room.

“I’ll have to smuggle things out little by little while I’m at the academy.”

He thought he could make at least 100,000 gold by selling items on the black market through his known routes until graduation.

After organizing his belongings somewhat, Zeke started opening the sealed boxes again while humming.

At that moment, Zeke shouted in joy after opening a box in one corner.

“Yes! Found it.”

He found the high-compression mana stone that was his original purpose for coming here.

The blue mana stone contained in a sturdy cylindrical glass bottle was emitting a mystical light.

Zeke opened all the surrounding boxes.

And he was able to find about four more high-compression mana stones.

“Four of these precious things. Let’s take them all for now.”

Zeke tried to put all the obtained mana stones in his inventory but ran out of space.

After contemplating what to remove but concluding nothing could be removed, he decided to use 10 of his remaining karma points to expand his inventory slots.

[Inventory slots have been expanded to 65 slots total.]

40 slots were added at 4 slots per point to the original 25 slots.

Zeke put the high-compression mana stones into his inventory and added more items he couldn’t fit earlier.

“It fills up quickly as I add things.”

Unlike lightweight backpacks or void storage boxes, the inventory wasn’t affected by weight or volume itself.

Moreover, from Zeke’s experiments, it could preserve food items in their original state, making it more useful than anything else when exploring dungeons or remote areas.

‘I should expand the inventory as much as possible as I accumulate karma points.’

After gathering all the high-compression mana stones, Zeke put on his backpack and was about to leave.

However, as he was about to exit, Zeke felt something strange from the wall at the end of the storage room.

“What’s this?”

A cool, ticklish sensation on the nape of his neck.

Zeke unconsciously followed the feeling toward that spot.

A blank wall.

He slowly reached his hand toward the wall.

[Would you like to move to the Dragon Slayer’s Rest?]

‘Dragon Slayer’s Rest?’

Zeke chose to move.

Woong!

Suddenly, the wall began to vibrate.

Zeke was startled to see ripples appear on the wall.

“A portal?”

Large-scale portal devices capable of long-distance travel were operated throughout the continent, centered around magic towers.

However, this small-scale portal technology was lost before the Golden Age, so its presence here made no sense.

‘This is the first time I’ve seen one in the Forest of the Forgotten.’

While puzzled, Zeke slowly approached the portal.

And he put his body into it.

Woong!

The characteristic vibration of the portal swept through Zeke’s body.

He felt slightly dizzy as he passed through the portal.

When Zeke opened his eyes, a completely different scene unfolded.

“What is all this…?”

It was a tomb.

On both walls of the vast underground space, coffins modeled after warriors’ figures were stacked in layers.

Vertically, there were over twenty layers, and horizontally, more than a hundred compartments stretched densely.

Zeke was shocked by the enormous scale of the tomb.

“I don’t understand what’s what. This wasn’t in any newsletter I’ve seen before.”

Zeke approached a nearby coffin and opened its lid.

Thud!

Inside the coffin were armor, sword, and shield instead of a corpse.

Ding!

[?? Dragon Slayer exclusive equipment discovered.]

‘Dragon Slayer exclusive equipment?’

Only after thoroughly examining the coffin did Zeke confirm that the owner’s name was written in ancient language.

He looked around at the layered tombs.

“Could it be that all these tombs belong to Dragon Slayers?”

In the Draker family, Dragon Slayer referred to Terakan, the founder who defeated the evil dragon Bahamut.

To honor the Dragon Slayer, the greatest of knights, the Drakers learned the dragon-slaying techniques left by Terakan and grew into the continent’s finest knight family.

However, if all these were Dragon Slayers, defeating the evil dragon Bahamut might not have been Terakan’s achievement alone.

Zeke examined the armor placed in the tomb.

Its form and shape were quite different from typically excavated armor.

When he picked up and turned over the armor for closer inspection, he found a groove carved into the back.

“What’s this?”

As Zeke touched the armor’s groove, he recalled something.

‘High-compression mana stone…’

Zeke took out a box containing the mana stone from his inventory.

He discovered that the mana stone fit perfectly into the groove on the armor.

Zeke slowly inserted the mana stone into the groove of the armor.

Click!

As expected, the mana stone fit perfectly into the groove.

At that moment, a message appeared before Zeke’s eyes.

[Mana battery installed in Dragon Slayer exclusive equipment.]

[Equipment cannot operate due to deterioration.]

“Installing a mana stone into armor?”

This was information he hadn’t seen even in the future.

Even in the future he saw, they hadn’t figured out the exact purpose of high-compression mana stones, as opposed to regular ones.

Although they had put forward various hypotheses, if the standardized high-compression mana stones were used to operate armor exclusive to Dragon Slayers, it meant that many of the mages’ hypothesis and speculations were all wrong.

“Why would they specifically install this precious high-compression mana stone into armor?”

Though he discovered how to use it, it was an incomprehensible concept by current common sense.

‘There seems to be some reason, but I can’t understand it with my magical knowledge.’

Professor Feinan, being a researcher, might be able to figure out the reason by examining the armor.

Zeke removed the high-compression mana stone from the armor and put it back in his inventory.

He walked past the massive tomb towards the inner area.

Unlike regular tombs, there was a huge stone monument erected inside.

Zeke slowly approached the monument.

‘What is written here?’

There was writing, but it was in ancient language rather than the continental common language, so he couldn’t read it.

That’s when it happened.

Ding!

[Management system automatically connecting to control device.]

[Disabling central secure system of Dragon’s Rest.]

[Opening legacy registered by Administrator Terakan Draker.]

“What?”

Rumble!

Suddenly, as the monument moved backward, something began to rise from the ground.

Zeke stepped back cautiously.

Boom!

A transparent glass tube rose from the ground.

Inside the glass tube, a crimson orb the size of a fist was floating while emitting a mysterious glow.

Zeke slowly approached the glass tube.

“What is this? Terakan Draker’s legacy…”

When Zeke’s gaze fell on the crimson orb, a message appeared.

[Discovered ‘Cursed Light Dragon Bahamut’s Heart’.]

Zeke was startled by the message.

“B-Bahamut’s heart?”

The reason Terakan Draker received the title of Dragon Slayer.

It was because he eliminated the evil dragon Bahamut who had been ravaging the continent while leading monsters.

‘The heart of Bahamut?’

Dragons create mana from their hearts.

Because of this, dragon hearts contained mana far stronger than even high-compression mana stones.

When mages discovered even a fragment of a dragon’s heart, they would try to acquire it even if it cost them a fortune.

That’s how incredibly valuable dragon hearts were.

“Even finding fragments causes a commotion, but a perfectly preserved dragon heart like this…”

Moreover, it was the heart of Bahamut, known as the strongest and worst dragon in continental history.

He couldn’t understand why the founder Terakan Draker had hidden this priceless treasure beneath the academy library.

While questioning this, Zeke reached out toward Bahamut’s mysteriously glowing heart.

DING!

[Cursed Light Dragon Bahamut’s heart is reacting to user.]

[Powerful curse engraved in the heart attempts to overwhelm user’s reason.]

Zeke momentarily lost himself in the mysterious glow of the heart.

[Skill Sturdy Mental Defense activates.]

[Defending against Light Dragon’s curse.]

Zeke suddenly regained his senses.

“Wh-what?”

Zeke realized why Terakan Draker had sealed this heart here.

Because for a brief moment, he had been caught up in the Light Dragon’s temptation and possessed by the urge to destroy everything.

If not for the ‘Sturdy Mental Defense’ skill that blocks all status effects, he might have instantly become a madman.

“Phew, that thing is extremely dangerous.”

DING!

Another message appeared.

[Endured the Cursed Light Dragon’s temptation.]

[Met legacy inheritance conditions.]

[Acquired ownership of legacy.]

[Would you like to absorb the Cursed Light Dragon Bahamut’s heart?]