Dragonslayer’s Class Regression Chapter 157

Chapter 157

Zeke immediately hid behind a rock upon seeing the wolf flag.

Those wearing armor made of thick monster hide and carrying claymores on their backs.

At first glance they looked like mercenaries, but they emitted a much fiercer and ominous aura.

‘Why are Himonas knights here?’

Usually, the Ice Mountains were patrolled by Northern Rangers, so there was rarely a reason for Himonas knights to come here unless it was special.

This was because Himonas itself had frequent monster appearances, so they lacked the forces to dispatch to the Ice Mountains.

The fact that the knights, Himonas’s most important military force, were in the Ice Mountains meant that something was happening here.

Zeke hid with stealth and raised the Will of Hearing with his soul power.

He heard the knights’ conversation.

“I can’t believe what’s happening because of those damn Central Continent bastards.”

“Knights hiding around like rats. If I catch them, I’ll split their skulls right open.”

While most Northern Continent knights were rough, the elite knights of Himonas under the Northern Grand Duke were famous for being the roughest and fiercest among them.

In his previous life, Himonas was the only place that the Imperial Army, which had set the entire continent ablaze, failed to conquer until the end.

The Himonas knights said they would rather take their own lives than surrender, burning their castle and poisoning their wells before retreating to fortresses deeper in the Ice Mountains.

Even Draker, second to none in ruthlessness, clicked his tongue and wanted to avoid getting involved with Himonas.

“Anyway, those Imperial rats and damn Draker bat bastards… if I catch them, I’ll skin them alive.”

Zeke was startled by the knight’s words.

Those referred to as bats in Himonas were none other than Draker’s Black corps.

‘The Black corps are here too?’

Zeke recalled how a few years ago, the family head Arthur Draker had mentioned the Elder Dragon’s relic hidden in the Ice Mountains.

It had been 5 years since Zeke entered the academy.

Quite some time had passed, and though he thought they had given up the search after finding nothing, it seemed they were still looking for the relic’s location.

Officially, the Ice Mountains and Northern Continent were the Northern Grand Duke’s territory, where Northern Rangers usually stayed at fortresses to prevent monsters from coming down from the mountains.

While the Northern Rangers, veterans of mountain warfare, weren’t knights, their unique techniques passed down through generations were often more effective than Aura Blades in the mountains.

But now was an exceptional situation.

Problems arose when the Hound unit, knights who weren’t like knights, and Draker’s Black Corps invaded the Northern Rangers’ territory.

That’s why the Himonas knights seemed to have been dispatched.

‘I didn’t expect to see those crazy bastards here.’

Though his expression was rough, there was longing and affection in Zeke’s heart.

In his previous life, Zeke also belonged to the Northern Alliance Forces, so he had formed bonds with them as comrades, but now the situation was different.

Not only did Himonas have bad feelings toward Central Continent people, but they also extremely disliked the Draker family, so it would be difficult to have the same relationship as before.

That’s when it happened.

“Rats!”

With those words, the Himonas knights drew their swords.

“Let’s go, bastards!”

Speaking roughly like Northerners, the knights ran toward where the signal rang.

A battle broke out inside the forest.

CLANG! CLANG!

Looking through his dragon eye, Zeke saw the Himonas knights clashing with the Imperial hounds.

THUD!

The Himonas knights, swinging their claymores roughly without shields, were like gray wolves running across the snow field.

Like wolves that never let go of their chosen prey, the Himonas knights roughly pushed back the Imperial hounds.

“Imperial rats! How dare you bring your filthy bodies here?!”

A Himonas knight’s claymore split a hound’s head right open.

Though the hounds were incredibly persistent, they were merely prey to the Himonas knights.

WHEEEEE!

The hounds blew their whistles and fled urgently.

But the Himonas knights had no intention of letting them go.

They chased the retreating hounds to the end, trying to drive their claymores into their backs.

The white snow field was stained red with Imperial hounds’ blood.

The Himonas knights searched the hounds’ belongings for anything useful and cut off each corpse’s head to record their military achievements.

The severed heads were counted and recorded, then the skulls were processed to make cups or bowls, and the hair was collected separately to make armor or clothes.

The remaining headless bodies were tied with ropes and hung on nearby trees, with traps set around them.

These were traps to catch monsters or mountain beasts that would come for the corpses.

In the resource-scarce North, not even enemy corpses were wasted.

‘I was used to it when I was with them, but seeing it after so long, I can’t get accustomed to it.’

After setting all the traps, the Himonas knights moved to another patrol zone, cursing and grumbling.

Once the Himonas knights who had swept through like a storm disappeared, Zeke finally revealed himself.

‘Himonas knights, Imperial hounds, and Draker’s Black Corps.’

The three worst groups of the continent had gathered in the Ice Mountains.

Zeke carefully examined the surrounding terrain on his map.

While examining it, he realized something.

‘This isn’t far from the cave where I got the Elder Dragon’s relic.’

In his previous life, he met a cruel death by the hounds while searching for that relic.

After much hardship he obtained the relic, but died before using it and experienced the bizarre event of returning to the past.

‘I guess I did use it since it helped me return?’

Zeke smirked briefly before deciding to secure the Elder Dragon’s relic first.

Since many things had changed from his previous life due to his return, there was no guarantee that the Black Corps or hounds wouldn’t accidentally discover the relic.

‘The chances are high that the relic isn’t there anymore since I obtained its power… but I should check to be sure.’

Being thorough was the way to avoid problems.

Zeke traced his past memories and moved to where the Elder Dragon’s relic had been.

* * *

“WHEW.”

Zeke stood before an endless ice wall cliff.

“This is still dizzy to look at.”

In his previous life, Zeke discovered the Elder Dragon’s relic through this cliff.

Back then, it was pure coincidence upon coincidence that allowed him to enter the cave with the relic.

After the Continental War ended, Zeke, who had nowhere to go, happened to take on work for the Syndicate and completed several missions.

During that time, he formed a connection with Kei, who was then a Syndicate executive.

Thanks to Zeke securing an important transport route, Kei was able to firmly establish his power base as a Syndicate executive.

Because of this, Zeke was able to obtain much information from Kei, including information about the ‘relic’ that the Imperial Emperor was searching for.

Since it was a relic that the Imperial Emperor had been searching for over ten years, it clearly had tremendous value, so Zeke headed to the Ice Mountains with information from Kei.

Actually, the Imperial side had already found the entrance to the ruins. However, even mobilizing all their magicians, they couldn’t figure out how to get inside and couldn’t claim the relic.

In the end, the Empire mobilized hounds to search the entire Ice Dragon Valley looking for another entrance.

After obtaining this information, Zeke trusted his instincts and began searching the Ice Dragon Valley secretly from the hounds.

And importantly, following the Southern Continent saying to hide things where others don’t want to go, he chose to search the most undesirable place.

That place was this ice cliff.

The Northern Rangers said this place was created during a month-long fierce battle between an ice dragon and a fire dragon ten thousand years ago.

Whether true or not, the endless cliff brought a primal fear to humans, so even the rough Northern Rangers wouldn’t approach this place.

The previous life’s Zeke was considered crazy even by the harsh Northerners. He tried to find traces while hanging from the endless cliff.

He spent over a month repeatedly searching for traces while hanging from the cliff, then hiding in shelters to warm up.

Then one day, while hanging from the cliff as usual, he nearly died in an avalanche.

Barely surviving the avalanche, Zeke looked around and discovered a crack in the cliff caused by the avalanche’s impact.

Instinctively feeling an opportunity had come, Zeke used a chisel and hammer to make a small gap in the cracked area. Surprisingly, the space connected to that gap was the cave where the Elder Dragon’s relic was hidden.

Originally, one had to go through a more complex process from the ruins’ entrance to reach the relic, but the collapsed cliff had created a shortcut to where the relic was.

Zeke shook his head while looking at the cliff, recalling his previous life.

“Hmm, I can’t figure out where exactly that crack was back then.”

Since he had discovered the entrance purely by chance through an avalanche, it was difficult to specify the exact location.

Even with the map on, he couldn’t use the pathfinding function since terrain details weren’t shown beyond a certain range.

Zeke decided to change his plan.

“I’ll have to enter through the entrance the Imperial guys found.”

While the Imperial magicians couldn’t find a way to enter through the entrance back then, Zeke’s situation was different.

Since he had already found the relic in his previous life and received the title Dragon’s Blessing, there was a high chance the ruins would recognize Zeke as an administrator.

Zeke moved toward the ruins’ entrance that the Imperial side had discovered, tracing his memories.

Just as he arrived at the entrance area across the snow field, Zeke sensed a presence.

‘Don’t tell me the Imperial guys are herealready?’

Zeke looked around with his dragon eye while hiding his presence with stealth.

But surprisingly, those there weren’t Imperial forces.

Those bearing the mark of two pairs of black wings.

None other than Draker’s Black Corps had set up camp near the entrance and were stationed there.

Zeke was startled to see the Black Corps bearing the black wing emblem.

‘Why the Black Corps instead of Imperial forces…?’

In his previous life, the Imperial forces had set up camp at the entrance with hundreds of hounds guarding the place.

‘Did the past change because of my return? Or… maybe Draker’s side was the one who originally discovered the entrance.’

After Abel Draker became family head, everything of Draker’s passed to the Imperial side.

During that process, the ruins’ entrance could have also passed into Imperial hands.

Zeke frowned while watching the Black Corps members stationed near the entrance on the snowy mountain.

‘If it were the hounds, I could just sweep them aside and enter.’

Draker’s Black Corps was different from other Draker knights.

Being an intelligence unit, they were mostly composed of those who couldn’t or didn’t have connections or sponsoring houses within Draker.

Because of this, Black Corps members were mostly recruited separately during their training period or specially selected and trained separately.

Only after completing a much harsher training than Draker knight training could they wear the black wing emblem.

Draker’s Black Corps were those who couldn’t use the Draker name despite being Draker, living as shadows while maintaining strictly secret identities.

As a result, Black Corps members had exceptional unit loyalty and pride.

Messing with them would mean getting into unmanageable trouble.

‘Rather than disturbing those wasps’ nest bastards, maybe I should just find the entrance by hammering the cliff.’

While contemplating, Zeke suddenly had a good idea.

‘I’ll use the hounds.’

He planned to lure the Black Corps with the hounds to divert attention, then quickly enter the ruins.

Zeke had already identified several hound unit camps while crossing the snow field.

He summoned dragon warriors to simultaneously raid several hound unit camps.

As expected, the surprised hounds started appearing like cockroaches, blowing their whistles.

Zeke controlled the dragon warriors to lure the hound units toward the snow field.

Then he detonated pre-planted magic bombs.

BOOM!

With the massive explosion, the Black Corps members also began taking defensive positions.

When word came from members on external guard duty that hound unit members were moving in large numbers, the Black Corps members also moved out to assess the situation, leaving minimal personnel.

Zeke observed all this while hidden using his dragon eye.

‘Good, this should let me get inside without being discovered.’

Zeke stealthily infiltrated toward the Black Corps camp while using his stealth skill.

Befitting the wealthy Draker intelligence unit, cutting-edge security equipment was installed throughout the camp.

Fortunately, his dragon eye could detect the security equipment, so Zeke could avoid magic detectors and alarm devices to get inside.

Checking the map, there was an entrance leading to the ruins under the snow mountain behind the camp buildings.

Zeke carefully headed toward the entrance.

That’s when it happened.

Someone came out from inside the camp.

Zeke quickly hid and completely erased his presence using both his stealth skill and the Will of Concealment soul technique.

‘That’s…!’

The person who came out of the camp was none other than the Draker family head, Arthur Draker.