Dragonslayer’s Class Regression Chapter 108

Chapter 108

‘Oh no…’

While looking at the fragment painting, the monster seemed to have sensed his presence during his moment of carelessness.

Zeke drew his sword and pointed it at the monster.

KRAAAH!

The monsters charged at Zeke.

KWANG!

Zeke swung his sword with golden power.

Sparks flew as Zeke’s sword clashed with the monster’s iron club.

Although he wasn’t completely defenseless, he wasn’t fully prepared either, causing Zeke to be pushed back by the monster’s tremendous strength.

Zeke readied his stance with his sword.

He planned to use his soul technique against the monster.

‘Sever’

As he activated his soul technique with incantation, a divine energy gathered on Zeke’s sword.

WOOOONG!

The will of severance was imbued in Zeke’s sword.

Sensing the unusual energy, the monsters charged at Zeke all at once with their iron clubs.

Kaaaak!

Zeke swung his sword at the three monsters.

SLASH!

The power of the soul technique with incantation was astonishing.

With a single strike, it not only cut through the monsters’ iron clubs but also split their bodies in half.

SWISH!

THUD!

The upper bodies of the monsters whose waists were cut fell straight to the ground.

Having unleashed a complete soul technique, Zeke was momentarily dazed by the scene he had created.

‘Huh, I didn’t expect a single spell to have this much power. It’s definitely different from aura.’

If Kaisir had seen the complete soul technique, he wouldn’t have called it pseudo like before.

The Meins who were struck by Zeke’s sword spilled black blood and died instantly.

And the moment they lost their lives, their bodies began to decay at a rapid pace.

CHIIIK!

Their skin and flesh rotted, and bones crumbled.

Zeke frowned as he watched the Meins decompose at an incredible speed.

He went deeper into the dungeon to find evidence of the Empire’s atrocities.

While concealing himself with his stealth skill and observing the surroundings, he heard sounds coming from inside.

‘What’s that?’

The sound of chains clashing and people moving heavy objects could be heard together.

Zeke once again carefully concealed his presence and looked inside.

‘What is that?’

Surprisingly, dozens of people inside the dungeon were digging the ground and moving dirt while bound in chains.

“Move faster!”

Zeke looked toward the person who shouted.

‘It’s those Hounds.’

As he expected, the Empire’s Hounds were conducting excavations in this dungeon.

They were clearly trying their hardest to take control of the Joint race ghetto to completely possess this underground dungeon.

The Hounds whipped the slaves to make them speed up the excavation.

Just then, one of the slaves who was moving dirt staggered and fell.

THUD!

One of the Hounds examined the fallen slave and raised his hand toward someone.

Then people wearing robes rushed out and took the slave away somewhere.

‘Where are they taking them?’

Usually, those wearing robes were likely to be mages.

Moreover, considering the southern dungeon, there was likely to be a secret laboratory here as well.

Zeke stealthily followed them.

As he passed by, he saw that this wasn’t the only excavation site.

Since it was such a large dungeon, they seemed to be dividing areas and using slaves for excavation.

Zeke followed them past the excavation site to a cavity located deep inside the dungeon.

“One more has arrived!”

When those who brought the slave called out toward the inside, another person came and examined the slave’s condition.

They checked the eyeballs and body structure.

“The condition is better than expected. We’ll use them as a test subject. Put them in.”

The robed figures lifted the slave and moved them inside a cage.

Inside the cage, not just that one, but other slaves were also sprawled on the floor.

Zeke, hidden with stealth, realized this was also a human experimentation lab like the southern dungeon.

‘What the hell are these Empire bastards doing here?’

Just then.

“AAAAARGH!”

A horrific scream echoed from deep inside the cavity.

The screaming continued for a while before suddenly going quiet.

Soon, the sight of a bloodied corpse being carried out appeared, along with equally blood-covered mages.

The oldest-looking mage among them threw his blood-stained robe and said:

“Damn, the test subjects lately are completely unsatisfactory. The numbers aren’t coming out right.”

Then another mage beside him said:

“You’re right, Master. Because of that damn Hong-hwa disease cure, the number of test subjects has decreased, so the experiments themselves aren’t progressing.”

The old mage gritted his teeth and said:

“How the hell did those Allensia bastards make the cure? Damn it. At this rate, the entire project might get scrapped.”

“We’re sending low-level modified beings to block the transport of the cure itself, so the number of test subjects should increase again soon.”

“Damn it, it’s already annoying enough having that Lion Sword bastard running around causing trouble, and nothing’s going right.”

Hearing the conversation between the two mages, Zeke clenched his fist.

‘So the Empire was behind spreading the Hong-hwa disease. Not only that, but they kidnapped people infected with Hong-hwa disease to use as test subjects. Modified beings, do they mean those monsters from earlier? And the Lion Sword… seems Abel has some connection to this.’

If he could prove Abel was involved in these inhumane experiments by the Empire, it would be possible to banish him from Draker.

‘System, can you save this too?’

[Video recording can be saved to secure storage in conjunction with activated Dragon’s Eye function.]

Although he wasn’t sure if he could transfer the video stored in the system to a video recording device, he decided to save it for now.

As Dragon’s Eye activated, everything Zeke saw was being recorded.

After recording the experiment site, Zeke decided to secretly sneak inside to find materials that could serve as evidence.

While gathering some documents, Zeke was able to discover the identity of the modified beings through them.

‘They’re test subjects whose bodies were enhanced by transplanting magical beast blood into humans?’

It was practically nonsensical madness.

Not just magical beast blood, but even regular monster blood was like poison to humans.

Only troll blood, which becomes a raw material for recovery potions, could be used after going through various processing steps. So naturally, magical beast blood corrupted by magical energy couldn’t possibly be accepted by humans.

Zeke could understand why the monsters’ bodies decayed instantly.

‘To think they would conduct such insane experiments. I knew the Emperor was mad, but I didn’t know it was to this extent.’

Zeke put all the materials in his inventory and explored the surroundings further.

Then he discovered what appeared to be ancient artifacts excavated from here in one corner of the laboratory.

There were many artifacts with bird head decorations that seemed to be ancient Bird tribe  relics.

He examined what kind of artifacts they were with Dragon’s Eye, but there weren’t any special functions attached.

‘The artifacts don’t seem to be anything special, what exactly are they looking for here?’

Zeke turned to another direction and began examining the interior further. Then he discovered a painting attached to one wall of the laboratory and looked at it closely.

It depicted a Bird tribe  warrior of massive build wearing thick armor, but looked quite different from the traditional Joint attire that Zeke knew.

‘Is this ancient Bird warrior attire?’

But something felt strange about that too.

The painting looked as if the Bird  warrior had been made into a bronze statue. Since the painting showed nothing special even with Dragon’s Eye, Zeke moved his gaze away and looked elsewhere.

After gathering all the materials, Zeke was convinced there was nothing else special and decided to leave this place first.

Just as he was about to leave the laboratory using his stealth skill, he heard a strange sound.

KIIING!

It sounded like space itself was being torn.

Then the empty space suddenly split open and from within emerged someone wearing a black robe along with another wearing black armor.

Then they pointed at Zeke who was concealed with stealth skill and shouted:

“Intruder! Catch him quickly!”

At the mage’s shout, the black armored knight charged at Zeke.

WHOONG!

He swung his sword precisely at Zeke who was hidden with stealth skill.

KLANG!

Zeke blocked the black knight’s sword with his Cloud Iron Sword.

The black-robed mage who was watching this spoke in an eerie voice:

“Cut off his limbs but keep him alive. We need to find out where he came from.”

Then the black knight’s eyes glowed red.

Zeke sensed that his energy was similar to the black armored knight who had been guarding the dungeon entrance earlier.

WHOOOONG!

The black knight swung his sword quickly at Zeke.

Unlike the monsters who swung their clubs randomly, the black knight’s movements were disciplined and powerful like a trained knight.

CLANG!

Even though he received the black knight’s sword with golden power, his wrist went numb.

His strength was as great as the monsters but his technique and movements were no less than a trained knight.

While not quite at Blue Knight level, he was well beyond Purple Knight class.

Zeke infused his sword with soul technique power.

WOOOONG!

His sword imbued with the will of severance clashed with the black knight’s sword.

KWACHING!

Against a blade sharper than aura, brute strength was meaningless.

Zeke’s sword cut right through the black knight’s sword.

Klang!

The cut sword fell straight to the ground.

The black-robed mage watching from behind spoke again in an eerie voice:

“You’re no ordinary person.”

Then he swung the staff he was holding.

KIIIIIING!

Space tore apart with a horrible sound.

Three black knights emerged from the torn spatial gap.

A total of four black knights surrounded Zeke and began approaching.

Zeke pointed his sword at the black knights without being intimidated.

‘Even if it’s a bit risky, I need to take these guys out and capture that mage.’

That black-robed mage seemed to be the key to these experiments.

Zeke swung his sword imbued with the will of severance.

CRACK!

Whether sword or armor, everything that touched Zeke’s blade was cut.

The black knights cut by Zeke’s sword fell while bleeding black blood like death.

They too must have been modified with magical beast blood, as the cut parts began rapidly decaying.

The mage watching from behind examined Zeke’s sword with amazement.

“Do you possess a magic sword? To so easily cut through modified beings with skin tougher than ogres… impressive.”

After swiftly taking down the black knights, Zeke charged straight at the mage.

Whoosh!

Then the mage tore space again and this time hid himself inside.

When Zeke swung his sword, the mage had already concealed himself.

‘Damn it. I should have caught him before he escaped.’

The magic used by the black-robed mage felt different from magic used by ordinary mages.

Above all, the magical wave that should be felt before casting magic wasn’t felt at all.

‘Just what is that guy’s identity?’

Zeke felt the sensation was somehow similar to the mysterious necromancer he had seen at Don Juan’s mansion before.

Having lost the mage, Zeke thought he should get out of here first.

PEEEEP!

It was a familiar sound.

It was the Hounds’ whistle. Once this sounded, it would be impossible to escape easily.

‘I took too long.’

Zeke tried to find a gap to escape while hiding himself with stealth.

But when the Hounds burst into the laboratory, the mage who had concealed himself appeared again.

Then he pointed exactly where Zeke was hiding with stealth.

“He’s over there! Catch him!”

He couldn’t understand how his presence was detected despite being concealed with the stealth skill obtained after devouring Gaguk.

The Hounds charged in the direction the mage indicated.

Zeke concentrated fire power into his sword.

WHOOSH!

Then he unleashed flames toward the charging Hounds.

“KAAAK!”

The Hounds who couldn’t prepare while approaching quickly rolled on the ground screaming in pain as they were engulfed in flames.

Zeke seized that opportunity to unleash his magic reflection skill and charge at the mage.

KIIING!

Perhaps because of Zeke’s magic reflection, the mage couldn’t tear space and enter as quickly as before.

Zeke swung his sword at the mage.

SLASH!

The mage’s arm was cut off by Zeke’s sword.

“Kugh!”

The mage clutched his severed shoulder and stepped back.

Then he glared at Zeke and spoke in an eerie voice:

“How dare you meddle with the Abyss…?”

The word ‘Abyss’ that the mage said caught Zeke’s ear.

‘Abyss? Isn’t this what Dario Totolino mentioned back then?’

The mage brought his staff to his severed shoulder.

Then red organisms suddenly wriggled out from the shoulder.

The organisms clumped together and grew, taking the form of an arm.

He had regenerated his arm in an instant.

He glared at Zeke and said.

“I’ll make you neither dead nor alive and mount you in my laboratory.”

Black energy gathered in the mage’s staff.

[Detected condensed demonic energy.]

Kwakwakwakwa!

Black energy poured toward Zeke.

Simultaneously, Zeke used his flash bang skill toward the mage.

Flash!

The laboratory was filled with white light.