Dragonslayer’s Class Regression 196

Chapter 196

‘Trial of the Battle God Tyr? The Inverted Tower?’

The place he thought was just a dungeon turned out to be the ruins of Tius, the Knight of Valor – Tyr.

Zeke’s eyes lit up at this unexpected message.

‘Tyr’s shield is likely to be inside.’

Rex Tourn said he reached the 90th floor in the Trial of Struggle, but from the 91st floor, the door was blocked and he couldn’t go down further.

‘A ruin’s door that hasn’t opened since the Tourn family managed it. The perfect place to store the holy relic, Tyr’s shield.’

Zeke slowly entered inside.

This place was more like a labyrinth than a dungeon.

Among dungeons, those whose construction period cannot be estimated and whose scale is immeasurable are called ‘labyrinths.’

During his Highlander days, Zeke had experience entering labyrinths following his master.

Unlike ordinary dungeons, labyrinths were places full of ancient magic and mysteries whose nature couldn’t be understood.

The Trial of Struggle felt similar to such labyrinths.

Zeke recalled the explanation about the Trial of Struggle he heard from Rex Tourn.

‘He said all sorts of magical beasts appear from floor 1 to 90.’

Similar types of magical beasts were placed on each floor, and when the boss-level beast at the innermost part was defeated, a path to the lower floor would appear.

The strange thing was that when the magical beasts were killed, they disappeared without leaving a trace, as if scattering into ashes.

So even after eliminating those magical beasts repeatedly, when leaving and re-entering the Trial of Struggle, everything would return to its original state.

Rex Tourn speculated this phenomenon seemed to be a type of ancient magic.

While listening to his words, Zeke had one point that stood out.

‘Spirit form. Lord Hoshgar, who was a dragon, also left himself in spirit form. If it was a dragon… they could have left such magic throughout the entire labyrinth.’

He couldn’t understand why Tyr borrowed the power of dragons to leave such a labyrinth.

Perhaps going down to the very last floor would reveal his intentions.

Going a bit further inside, stairs leading down became visible.

Zeke slowly stepped down the stairs.

[You have reached floor 1 of ‘The Inverted Tower’.]

[The challenger is granted a choice.]

[Please select the difficulty.]

[Choose between Easy Mode, Normal Mode, or Hard Mode.]

[Higher difficulty levels offer greater rewards.]

Zeke tilted his head at the message that appeared.

‘What’s this about?’

Though not exactly sure what it meant, it seemed that choosing a harder option would yield more rewards.

Since this wasn’t mentioned in Rex Tourn’s explanation, it seemed like an option only visible to the system administrator.

“Is Hard Mode the highest difficulty? Then Hard Mode it is.”

At that moment, another system message appeared.

[Difficulty set to Hard Mode.]

[Evaluating target]

[The Battle God’s domain has detected dragon’s energy from the target.]

[Difficulty adjustment beginning.]

[Difficulty has been adjusted and Hell Mode will be applied to the target.]

“What? Hell Mode?”

The name itself sounded ominous. Simultaneously, new messages appeared in succession.

[Hell Mode adjustment: Authority usage disabled.]

[Hell Mode adjustment: Passive skill usage disabled.]

[Hell Mode adjustment: Active skill usage disabled.]

[Hell Mode adjustment: Dragon race skill usage disabled.]

[Hell Mode adjustment: Summoning disabled.]

‘What?’

Most of Zeke’s abilities were completely blocked.

WOOOONG!

The change was immediately noticeable as his abilities were restricted. His body felt much heavier than usual.

“Is it because passive skills are restricted too? This feels quite awkward.”

[Mission assigned to challenger.]

―Inverted Tower Quest Mission―

[Clear floor 1 of the Inverted Tower by defeating the boss and proceed to floor 2. (No time limit)]

[Quest Mission Reward: Title – Conqueror of Floor 1 (Hell Mode)]

Rex Tourn had said that a Blue Knight could pass through floor 30 without much difficulty, but from floor 31, the difficulty changed drastically.

However, since Hell Mode, the highest difficulty, was applied to Zeke, the situation might be different from what Rex Tourn described.

“Not having Healing Factor and Infinite Stamina is definitely critical.”

Zeke realized he had become heavily dependent on his passive skills.

‘Perhaps I couldn’t break through walls because I was relying too much on these convenient abilities.’

Zeke regained his past life’s sensations and steeled himself.

“Huu, alright. Let’s go down first.”

Reaching the end of the stairs to floor 1, Zeke drew out Bahamut and stepped forward.

All of Zeke’s skills and abilities were blocked, so he used his innate senses to observe his surroundings. Then he felt something strange.

‘What’s this?’

SWISH!

Zeke swung his sword at something rushing toward him.

SLASH!

Zeke’s sword cut through the magical beast.

“What is this.”

Zeke bent down to examine the fallen magical beast.

It was a rabbit-like creature with protruding fangs. Text appeared above the dead magical beast’s head.

―Vampire Rabbit Level 1―

This seemed to be the creature’s name.

“Vampire Rabbit? This is different from the floor 1 beast Rex Tourn mentioned. And what’s this about levels?”

Then the dead Vampire Rabbit’s body turned to ash and disappeared.

This was exactly as Rex Tourn had described.

Another message appeared simultaneously.

[You have gained 1 Experience Point.]

“You get experience points for killing magical beasts?”

It was an unexpected reward. Perhaps because it was made of spirit form rather than being a real magical beast, it gave experience points instead of karma points.

Zeke opened the system window to check the experience list.

He checked the ability distribution settings he had readjusted when regaining the Elder Dragon’s relic.

Currently, it was set to focus on growing Spirit Power which could raise his soul’s caliber.

After some consideration, Zeke changed the setting from automatic to manual distribution.

Going down to floor 100 while continuously killing magical beasts would accumulate quite a lot of experience points, so it seemed better to grow abilities as needed.

Zeke closed the system window and caught his breath. Taking up his sword again, Zeke began sweeping through the Vampire Rabbits on floor 1 like a storm.

[You have gained 1 Experience Point.]

[You have gained 1 Experience Point.]

[You have gained 1 Experience Point.]

* * *

“250 experience from floor 1. Still a bit lacking but… it should accumulate more as we go down.”

Even with restricted abilities, floor 1 magical beasts like Vampire Rabbits posed no threat to Zeke.

Then Zeke reached the innermost room.

Opening the door and entering, a boss-like magical beast howled fiercely at Zeke.

―Vampire Rabbit Boss Level 3―

As expected of a boss magical beast, its level was higher than other Vampire Rabbits.

The Vampire Rabbit Boss rushed at Zeke.

SWISH!

But it made no difference. With a casual swing of Zeke’s sword, the Vampire Rabbit Boss was split in half and disappeared.

[You have gained 3 Experience Points.]

At least it gave more experience points for being a boss.

Then something appeared where the Vampire Rabbit Boss had died.

“This is a random box?”

He hadn’t heard about this from Rex Tourn either.

It seemed the different difficulty level resulted in different rewards.

Zeke immediately opened the random box.

―Glove Information―

Description: Gloves made from Vampire Rabbit fur

Unique Ability: Blood Absorption

Special Note: Gloves made from Vampire Rabbit fur. Very warm. When absorbing blood, slightly recovers the user’s health.

“Huh? An artifact as a reward from floor 1?”

Though not powerful magic, items with magic itself were valuable.

Additionally, artifacts that recovered health were quite rare.

Zeke put the gloves in his inventory and smiled.

“Experience points and artifacts. This place has more to offer than expected.”

Zeke whistled while carrying Bahamut down to floor 2.

He was able to pass through floors 2 to 10 without difficulty.

After defeating the floor 10 boss, Vampire Platypus, Zeke caught his breath. As a reward item, he received boots made from Vampire Platypus fur.

“Hmm, all artifacts up to floor 10 have vampire abilities. I’ll keep these. Time to organize experience points.”

Zeke checked the experience points accumulated while descending to floor 10.

[Current Experience Points: 4,309]

Being still on lower floors, not many experience points had accumulated.

Still, it was a meaningful amount, so Zeke considered where to invest the points first among his abilities.

Categories available for experience point distribution were Spirit Power, Active Skills, Dragon Race Skills, Equipment, and Summons.

After consideration, Zeke decided to invest in Spirit Power first.

“Since I can still use Soul Technique and system functions here, raising Spirit Power seems most rational.”

Zeke invested all 4,309 experience points into Spirit Power.

[Spirit Power has increased, slightly growing soul caliber.]

[Bahamut’s Heart seal partially released. Current compression seal level: 69.5%.]

When Spirit Power increased, both his soul caliber and Bahamut’s Heart compression seal level decreased.

“0.5%, huh. Though minimal, I’ll accumulate more experience points as I go down.”

Zeke checked the passive skills section in his status window.

Passive Skills: Healing Factor / Sturdy Mental Defense / Infinite Stamina / Beast’s Senses / Breakthrough (Locked)

He focused on ‘Breakthrough (Locked)’.

‘It can be unlocked when soul rank increases. Breakthrough will make it easier to break through the wall needed to become a Black Knight.’

Zeke decided to gather as much experience points as possible.

He took some food and water from his inventory, ate, and then took a sufficient rest.

‘’infinite stamina is really an overpowered skill.’’

After eating and resting, he descended to floor 11.

Floor 11 had a different atmosphere with undergrowth and trees breaking through walls to cover the ceiling.

Zeke examined a fruit from one of the trees, it was real fruit growing inside the labyrinth.

Zeke picked a fruit from one of the trees and split it open.

‘This is… really a fruit.’

There were trees with fruits like this growing throughout the maze.

“This is such a strange place. Fruit growing inside the maze. What on earth was Tyr trying to create?”

Then something approached.

GRRR.

―Hob Goblin Level 5―

Larger and stronger than normal goblins, they attacked in groups. One shot spit at Zeke.

Zeke quickly dodged the incoming spit by leaping into the air.

At the same time, the other HobGoblins charged at him, wielding weapons.

He swung his sword at one of the HobGoblins charging in midair.

SCREECH!

With a sharp sound, the HobGoblin’s body was sliced in half.

Without stopping, Zeke used his Wind Slash to slice through the HobGoblins.

Slash!

In an instant, Zeke’s sword severed the heads of five HobGoblins. They collapsed in a single breath.

The dead HobGoblins quickly turned to ashes and disappeared.

Zeke continued to sweep through the maze, dispatching the charging HobGoblins.

“Haah…”

After clearing all the HobGoblins for experience points, Zeke headed to the boss room, first preparing by stocking potions and recovering stamina.

‘I don’t know how strong the boss on the 11th floor will be, so it’s better to be prepared.’

Zeke bought some necessary potions from the shop and placed them in his automatic slot, then ate some food and rested to replenish his health.

Having finished his preparations, he approached the boss’s room door, and it slowly opened.

Crrrr!

Zeke crouched down and cautiously entered the boss’s room.

Crrrr!

Inside was a HobGoblin twice the normal size, wearing armor.

―Ferocious HobGoblin Warrior Level 10―

The word ‘fierce’ was attached to his title.

KAAAK!

The fierce HobGoblin Warrior charged at Zeke.

Zeke deflected the Warrior’s sword and immediately swung Bahamut to slice his waist.

Clang!

Surprisingly, Zeke’s sword couldn’t cut through the HobGoblin Warrior’s armor in one strike.

‘For a goblin, it’s wearing armor that Bahamut can’t cut through in one go.’

The fierce HobGoblin Warrior sneered and laughed, looking at Zeke with wide eyes.

Zeke, facing this, quietly murmured.

“Equip Hersion.”

CHAKARAK!

Shrrrr!

Zeke’s body was surrounded by Hersion, and the Hobgoblin stepped back in surprise.

Zeke slowly approached the HobGoblin Warrior, holding Bahamut, now wrapped in an Aura Blade.

Kaaaargh!

The HobGoblin Warrior charged fiercely, but with a flash of light, his head was sent rolling to the floor.

Soon, the HobGoblin Warrior’s body turned to ashes and disappeared.

Zeke confirmed the death of the boss monster and deactivated Hersion.

“Haah…”

After deactivating Hersion, Zeke exhaled heavily.

“Goodness, Theia’s Hersion. It consumes too much mana! Can’t use it with Aura Blade.”

Without passive skills, the mana and stamina consumption was too high.

Zeke felt that he should avoid using Hersion unless absolutely necessary and looked at the spot where the HobGoblin Warrior had vanished.

Unlike the bosses of other floors, instead of a random box, it seemed that the reward was the armor the HobGoblin Warrior had worn.

Zeke walked up, picked up the armor, and checked the information, only to be shocked.

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