Dragonslayer’s Class Regression Chapter 105

Chapter 105

Melissa asked in shock.

“The transport unit’s destroyed?! What do you mean?!”

The unit commander said with a pale face.

“Th-those monsters appeared again, they say.”

Melissa’s expression twisted.

Zeke asked Melissa.

“Princess, what happened?”

“It seems those monsters I mentioned before have appeared again. Last time they only targeted the transport carriages, but this time they killed the entire unit…”

If they could annihilate the knights of Allensia, one of the powerful nations in the Central Kingdom, these so-called monsters must be no ordinary beings.

‘Did the Empire’s Hounds attack?’

Zeke said to Melissa.

“I need to see the scene. Please assign me one swift soldier who knows this area’s geography well.”

Zeke decided to inspect the scene with Felix, Liam, and one border guard that Melissa selected.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

Upon arriving at the scene on horseback, Zeke asked the guard.

“Is it this way?”

“Yes, Sir Zeke. They were attacked near that ravine.”

Zeke’s group left their horses and went down into the ravine.

Looking around, the terrain was rough and the path narrow, making it vulnerable to attacks.

“A perfect place for an ambush. Was there a reason they chose this transport route?”

The guard said with cold sweat.

“This path is much faster. Taking the detour around the ravine would take at least two more days.”

Hearing the guard’s words, Zeke nodded and asked.

“Is this ravine route frequently used when crossing the border?”

The guard shook his head.

“No. Since this area has many outlaws, regular people use the safe main road. If they had enough time, the transport unit would have safely used the main road too.”

Due to delays in medical supplies, they were short on time, so they chose the ravine route despite knowing it was vulnerable to attacks.

‘Somehow I feel like they were guided to move the transport unit this way.’

It seemed like an organized attack carried out under thorough planning rather than a spontaneous assault by monsters.

Zeke went down into the ravine to examine the massacre site.

“Ugh.”

Felix frowned at the horrific scene.

Zeke understood why Melissa called them monsters after seeing the scene.

There were more corpses torn apart limb from limb as if mauled than those killed by sword wounds.

Zeke approached to examine the corpses that were horrible just to look at.

He carefully checked how the wounds were made by examining the cut surfaces of the corpses.

‘Something’s strange. These aren’t normal wounds. It feels like they were attacked by monsters.’

However, it didn’t seem like monsters had attacked.

If monsters did it, there should have been bite marks on the corpses.

‘Would tearing apart people at once with strength greater than an ogre’s result in this?’

Zeke grew more curious about the monsters’ identity.

He examined the scene with his dragon eyes.

He could find traces left by the monsters as his vision expanded to areas invisible to human eyes.

Surprisingly, Zeke discovered those traces led up the steep ravine cliff.

Zeke asked the guard.

“What’s up there?”

The guard looked at the location and said.

“Th-that path leads to the bird tribe ghetto.”

Zeke grabbed the guard’s nape and flew up the cliff following the traces.

Felix and Liam hurriedly climbed up the ravine wall following Zeke.

“M-master. Please tell us before you go…”

Ignoring Felix’s words who barely managed to follow, Zeke examined more of the remaining traces.

“Is this direction also towards the ghetto?”

The guard nodded.

“I see. You may return now. Liam, Felix, follow me.”

Since he had a minimap and the guard likely wouldn’t be more helpful, there was no need to keep him along.

Zeke headed towards the bird tribe ghetto area with Felix and Liam, following the monsters’ traces.

That’s when.

[Detected traces of tainted energy.]

‘Tainted energy?’

Zeke knew that the system referred to demonic energy as tainted energy. But why was demonic energy appearing in the heart of the Central Continent?

As Zeke tilted his head, he recalled that Cain, who previously possessed ancient Hersion, was also corrupted by mana.

‘This could be related to the monsters who attacked the transport unit.’

Zeke changed direction to follow the traces of taintec energy.

Going inside, red sandstone walls rose like spires.

Inside the sandstone walls were traces of ancient bird tribe dwellings here and there.

There were traditional bird tribe house forms carved into rock inside caves and crevices in the ravine walls.

That’s when.

Zeke’s senses detected something strange.

“Liam, Felix. Guard the surroundings.”

Liam and Felix drew their weapons.

Suddenly, something sprang out from a cave in the sandstone wall.

A suspicious-looking giant swung a huge iron club toward Zeke’s group.

BANG!

The place where the iron club struck was deeply carved, and red sand scattered into dust.

GRRRR.

Though it had a human form, it was hard to see it as human.

It was over 2 meters tall, and its build was so large that it was closer to an ogre than a human.

It wore a white mask with only holes for eyes on its face and wore rough leather clothes reinforced with thick iron plates.

At first glance it looked like a barbarian, but the outfit was completely different.

GRRRRRR.

The monster, more beast than human, raised its iron club again and swung it violently.

Zeke ran toward the monster holding Bahamut.

BANG!

The monster’s club and Bahamut collided.

Even though it collided with Zeke’s sword imbued with gold power, the monster’s club was unscathed.

It was a strength far surpassing human capability.

“KRAAAH!”

When its iron club didn’t crush Zeke, the monster started screaming.

Then it wildly swung the club toward Zeke.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Though the swings were random, the power and weight behind them were so immense that ordinary knights would have struggled to endure.

Having somewhat gauged the monster’s strength, Zeke deflected the club with his sword.

TUNG!

When its swung club bounced back without dealing damage, the monster stared at Zeke in confusion.

Soon after, an aura blade rose from Zeke’s sword.

WOOOONG!

Zeke swung his sword toward the monster’s club.

SLASH!

The solid iron chunk was cleanly cut by Zeke’s sword strike.

Sensing the extraordinary energy emanating from Zeke’s body, the monster seemed to instinctively cower in fear.

“GRRRR.”

The monster unconsciously tried to back away.

But then something strange happened.

“GRRRRK!”

The monster’s body swelled up and its muscles became even thicker.

“KRAAAK!”

The eyes visible through the mask became bloodshot.

The monster, its eyes now like those of a beast, charged at Zeke.

“KRAAAK!”

The monster swung its pot lid-sized palm down at Zeke.

KWAKWABANG!

The ground where the palm struck was deeply dented.

After that, the monster continued wildly swinging its fists at Zeke.

Avoiding the fists using Shadowless step, Zeke swung his sword and struck the monster’s side with the flat of the blade.

CRACK!

When Zeke’s sword imbued with Aura struck its side, there was the sound of bones breaking.

But amazingly, the monster got up unaffected and charged at Zeke again.

‘What, could this thing also have an ability like Healing Factor?’

Zeke experimentally cut the monster’s arm with his sword.

But unlike Zeke, the wound didn’t heal.

Only then did Zeke realize the monster’s condition.

‘It’s not healing,it’s in a berserk state so it can’t feel pain. This is troublesome.’

Perhaps this monster was an imperial test subject.

Zeke decided to capture this monster as evidence.

He took out Agamemnon’s Mask from his inventory.

Holding the golden mask, Zeke cast a wide-range purification buff skill toward the monster.

WOOOONG!

The light of purification seeped into the monster.

“KRAAAK!”

The monster writhed in pain trying to avoid the purifying light.

“Liam! Felix!”

Understanding the situation immediately at Zeke’s call, Liam and Felix blocked the monster’s escape route.

Zeke’s purifying light seeped into the monster again.

“URRRRRR!”

The monster’s body started shaking and something began pouring from its mask.

After spewing black liquid from its eyes, ears, and nose, the monster soon collapsed to the ground writhing.

Then suddenly, like a deflating leather bag, its entire body began rapidly shrinking.

The ogre-like body soon transformed into an emaciated frame.

Zeke approached with a frown to examine the monster.

The monster was already dead.

“Keep watch here. I’m going to look inside the cave.”

Leaving Liam and Felix behind, Zeke entered the cave alone where the monster had emerged from.

Shortly after entering the cave, Zeke briefly turned away from the intense stench wafting from inside.

‘What is this smell?’

Going deeper inside, amazingly there were traces of stolen transport carriages.

Though Zeke quickly examined inside the carriages, all the medicines were already broken.

Seeing this, Zeke thought the terrible stench might be from rotting medicines, but the smell was too intense for that.

This time examining around rather than inside the carriages, Zeke discovered something sticky scattered around them.

Looking at the ground with dragon eyes, a horrific scene was revealed.

‘What’s this?…’

It was traces of melted flesh and bones from monsters, and the stench was from those remains rotting on the ground.

It seemed the other monsters had died and only that one monster from earlier had survived.

Zeke searched for signs of battle in the cave but found nothing notable.

There were only traces of writhing in agony inside the cave.

Zeke sealed some of the melted monster remains from the ground in an empty potion bottle before leaving the cave.

At that moment, Felix and Liam called out to Zeke.

“M-Master! L-Look at this!”

Parts of the dead monster’s corpse were rotting and decaying.

The parts Zeke purified hadn’t decayed, but the arms and legs that weren’t purified seemed to have rotted.

‘It seems the monsters’ bodies couldn’t withstand the demonic energy and melted.’

Feeling the need to examine the corpse, Zeke had Felix and Liam collect and bring it along.

After passing through the ravine to where the horses were, Zeke’s group moved back toward the border headquarters.

But upon arriving at headquarters, the atmosphere seemed unsettled.

Zeke caught a guard who was standing at the entrance, perhaps waiting for his group, and asked.

“What’s happening?”

He replied with a grim expression.

“Sir Zeke, you’re here. The Empire has brought knights to headquarters.”

“The Empire came?”

The knight shook his head and said.

“The border garrison’s corps commander came personally.”

There was a big difference between sending an envoy and knights coming personally.

Usually, knights coming in person was tantamount to a show of force.

Zeke told Felix and Liam to store the corpse, then asked the guard where Melissa was and went up.

Entering the conference room, he saw not only Melissa but also a knight in Imperial attire.

Zeke’s face hardened upon recognizing the Imperial knight.

‘That guy…’

He was one of the people Zeke had bad blood with in his past life.

Morgan Buffon, knight of the Snake Palace, one of the Empire’s Thirteen Palaces.

Despite his youth, his receding hairline was similar to when Zeke saw him in his past life.

“Sir Zeke Draker.”

Upon seeing Zeke enter the conference room, Morgan approached him with a friendly smile.

He took Zeke’s hand and said.

“It’s an honor to meet the continent’s most famous genius here.”

Morgan welcomed Zeke warmly with an exaggerated tone.

“Pleased to meet you, Sir Morgan.”

Morgan was overjoyed that Zeke recognized him.

Morgan smiled and asked Zeke.

“But what brings Sir Zeke of House Draker all the way to Allensia ?”

Morgan brazenly asked questions despite not being the host.

Looking at Morgan, Zeke said.

“I heard there were thieves repeatedly climbing over people’s fences, so I came to catch them.”