Chapter 158
Arthur Draker was standing next to Baron Draker, the Black Corps commander with a fierce appearance, hairless head and no eyebrows.
Arthur looked beyond the snowy field and said.
“It’s noisy. Did the Empire find something?”
Baron adjusted his gloves and replied.
“If they found something, wouldn’t they be working more quietly?”
Arthur nodded at Baron’s words.
It had already been 5 years since they started exploring the Ice Mountains while keeping each other in check with the Empire to find the Elder Dragon’s relic.
Neither Draker nor the Empire had made any significant progress yet.
Feeling dissatisfied about this, Baron said to Arthur.
“The mages have decoded the third sentence, so we should see results soon.”
“That would be good. Then it would be worth enduring the sharp nagging of the Standing Committee and securing the budget.”
“We’ll do our best.”
Arthur nodded at Baron’s words and put his fingers to his mouth to make a sound.
WHEEEEE!
As the sound spread, something descended from the sky.
CAAAAAAW!
A wyvern with a saddle attached landed quietly in front of the camp and bowed its head.
Arthur leaped onto the saddle on the wyvern’s back.
He looked at Baron and said.
“Report immediately when results come in.”
“Understood.”
When Arthur pulled the reins, the wyvern flapped its wings and took off into the sky.
Baron watched Arthur Draker flying gracefully into the sky before returning inside the camp.
Zeke held his breath while maintaining Will of Concealment until Arthur’s wyvern-mounted figure completely disappeared.
‘I never expected the head of family to be here.’
He remembered overhearing Duke saying they would empty the Four Seasons Castle to search for the relic. But that was a long time ago.
He didn’t know they were still paying attention to this.
‘So Draker and the Empire have been fighting in unseen places.’
Given that Arthur Draker had previously said the Ancient Dragon’s relic must never fall into the Emperor’s hands, it seemed he knew something about the relic’s identity.
Zeke released Will of Concealment and headed towards the back of the camp while maintaining his stealth skill.
Black Corps members were guarding the entrance to the snow mountain.
Zeke summoned a Dragon Knight to draw the Black Corps members’ attention.
RUSTLE!
The highly sensitive Black Corps members’ attention was easily drawn by just a slight presence revealed by the Dragon Knight from afar.
SWOOSH!
One Black Corps member ran towards where they sensed the presence.
Zeke didn’t miss the moment when the Black Corps members were distracted by the Dragon Knight and used Will of Concealment again to enter inside the entrance undetected.
The Black Corps member only felt the wind blowing and didn’t notice Zeke entering the entrance.
Zeke who entered the snow mountain’s entrance carefully went down into the cave.
‘Is it this way?’
Since there were multiple caves, it was difficult to distinguish which entrance led to the real ruins.
Then, a message appeared before Zeke’s eyes.
[Elder Dragon’s Resting Place detects the title ‘Heir of Terakan Draker’.]
[Detecting another title.]
[Elder Dragon’s Resting Place detects the title ‘One Blessed by the Great Dragon’.]
[Recognizing code.]
[Code recognition error]
[System user already possesses Kabbalah System user authentication code.]
[Recognizing results that cannot exist in the physical plane.]
[Proceeding with new calculations for results beyond predicted range.]
[Back-calculating related karma data from Sephirot dimension server.]
[Deriving emergency measure route result value of ‘Irreversible Promised Power’.]
[Recognizing system user as regressor.]
Zeke focused on the unfamiliar words while looking at the messages that appeared.
‘Kabbalah? Sephirot? Dimension server? Karma data… what are all these?’
[Karma data is being rearranged according to regressor’s scenario based on new result values.]
[Proceeding with guidance to Kabbalah System terminal.]
[Corresponding route is being transmitted to administrator system.]
WOONG!
A map automatically appeared before Zeke’s eyes.
The location of the Elder’s Dragon’s relic was marked on the map of the intricately intertwined ruins.
Although Zeke was confused by the suddenly appearing system window, he quickly regained his composure.
‘First, secure the Elder Dragon’s relic.’
Zeke entered deeper into the cave following the route shown on the map.
While Zeke had no restrictions entering deeper into the cave, there was actually an invisible barrier blocking the way ahead.
What the Draker affiliated mages had been researching was none other than how to remove this invisible barrier.
This was also why the Emperor couldn’t get his hands on the Elder Dragon’s relic in Zeke’s previous life.
A massive door appeared before Zeke who passed through the cave with ease.
Zeke felt the door’s shape and size were similar to the ruins’ door he saw when finding the Sacred Relic before.
The difference was that there was an unfamiliar pattern engraved on the door.
‘What is this? A bird?’
A giant bird with spread wings was engraved in the center of the door.
The bird, which looked as if its entire body was burning, seemed to contain the sun within itself.
And beneath it, there was a familiar pattern.
‘The Emblem of the Sun.’
Agamemnon’s mask and ark, the necklace that Claudia Lubern wore in past memories.
They all commonly had the ancient sun emblem drawn on them.
‘Does this mean everything is connected?’
Zeke placed his hand on the door and infused it with mana while pondering.
WOONG!
Since the code verification was already complete, the door slowly opened without any special message.
KUGUGUGU!
Zeke entered through the fully opened door.
As he entered, magical lights automatically turned on from the ceiling and floor.
“Wow.”
An amazingly large temple spread out before Zeke’s eyes.
From the entrance, dozens of giant dragon-human hybrid statues wearing armor were lined up.
Zeke was startled by the statues.
‘Could these all be Guardians?’
When Zeke reached out his hand toward the statues with doubt, there was no response.
Unlike other temples, they could just be ordinary statues, but Zeke couldn’t let go of his lingering attachment and only moved on after tapping the statues here and there and thoroughly examining their dragon faces.
“Are they really just statues? If these were all functional Guardians, they would be an incredible force.”
Zeke pushed aside his disappointment and went deeper into the temple.
A hall that was incomparably larger than other sanctuaries or defense bases appeared.
In his previous life, he had gone straight into the space at the very end of the temple, so he didn’t even know a place like this existed.
Looking at the hall that could accommodate dozens of giant dragons with room to spare, Zeke’s jaw dropped.
“Wow, who on earth made this and how?”
It was hard to believe that such a massive structure was built in the ice mountains that were difficult to access.
The hall was so wide that it would be difficult to cross just by running.
Zeke summoned Bucephalus.
NEIGH!
Bucephalus whinnied happily as if it had been a while since seeing Zeke.
Zeke stroked Bucephalus once before mounting its back and flew across the wide hall.
Bucephalus leaped up the hundreds of stairs piled at the front of the hall in one bound.
After climbing up the stairs, there was another door inside the wall with dragon relief murals.
Zeke slowly approached the door.
This time, the door opened by itself without him having to infuse any energy.
As Zeke entered the space inside the door, he felt a sense of déjà vu.
‘This is it.’
It was the room where he had found the Elder Dragon’s relic in his previous life.
Unlike the massive hall, the room with the relic wasn’t that large.
In his previous life, Zeke had come directly into this room through a crack in the broken cliff, found the relic, and taken it outside.
There were stairs built up like an altar in the center of the room.
Zeke stroked Bucephalus’s mane once, told it to wait, and climbed up the altar stairs.
In his previous life too, Zeke had climbed these same stairs and discovered a box placed on top.
‘I wondered if it would be gone, but it’s exactly the same as back then.’
A black box without any patterns.
It wasn’t even locked.
Zeke reached out and opened the black box. Even the contents inside existed exactly as they were.
A dark dragon statue.
It was the Elder Dragon’s relic that had led Zeke to death, and brought him back to the past again.
Zeke slowly reached out and picked up the dragon statue.
Zeke expected some message to appear, but nothing happened.
“What’s this?”
He removed the box that had contained the statue and examined under the altar here and there, but still there was no response.
Zeke tilted his head.
Unlike other ruins, there was absolutely no response, which made it feel rather unfamiliar.
“Is it because I’m already registered as an administrator?”
While the relic itself remained the same, he wondered if its effects had already been exhausted.
Zeke opened his inventory window to store the dragon statue.
That’s when it happened.
[System is rebooting.]
[Temporary administrator mode is terminating.]
[Kabbalah system’s administrator mode is activating.]
[Applying already opened functions to Kabbalah system.]
[Administrator system manual is activating.]
Suddenly a new window appeared before Zeke’s eyes.
“What is this?”
Unlike the temporary administrator window that only displayed text, the new system window was shown with images.
Zeke examined the categories of the newly changed administrator mode.
“Status window, shop, security vault, quest list, inventory, equipment list, summon list…”
Having the system functions organized to be visible at a glance made it much easier to view.
Zeke clicked on the status window.
[Intermediate Administrator Status Window]
Name: Zeke Draker
Class: Immortal (Unique Grade)
Titles: One Blessed by the Great Dragon, Successor of Terakan Draker, Inheritor of Sword Saint, Dragon-being, Knight of Light
Powers: Dragon Race domination, Corruption, Luck
Constitution: Heavenly bone body Poison Immunity
System Functions: Inventory(500 slots) / Mini-map (Portal Movement) / Shop / Intermediate Quest Book / Skill Shortcut Slots / Potion Shortcut Slots
Passive Skills: Healing Factor / Sturdy Mental Defense / Infinite Stamina / Beast’s Senses
Special Skills: Wind Storm Technique[Grade A (Proficient)] / Elemental Sword[Grade S (Proficient)] / True Dragon Sword Technique[Grade S (Proficient)] / Soul binding Technique[Grade A (Beginner)] / Soul Technique[Grade S (Beginner)] / Sun’s Golden Swordsmanship[Grade A (Beginner)]
Active Skills: Lightning[Grade A(Beginner)], Sun Bomb[Grade B(Beginner)], Dissonance[Grade C(Proficient)] Magic Reflection[Grade A(Beginner)] / Area Buff[Grade A(Beginner)] / Curse Reflection[Grade A(Proficient)] / Light Shield[Grade B(Proficient)] / Light Mace [Grade B(Proficient)] / Purification Blade [Grade A(Beginner)] / Hydra’s Poison [Grade B(Beginner)] / Sacred Fire [Grade S(Beginner)]
Dragon Race Skills(3rd Level unlocked ): Dragon Eye (Expert) / Dragon’s Dignity (Expert) / Gluttony (Expert) / Incantation (Proficient) / Dragon Scale Armor (Proficient) / Dragon’s Claws(Proficient) / Dragon’s Sense (Proficient) / Dragon’s Breath (Beginner) / Dragon Warrior (Proficient)
Current Karma Points: 3835 points
Looking at the status window after a long time, the content had increased significantly.
Zeke examined the changed contents while clicking through the system functions one by one.
Then he discovered a new list.
“Settings mode?”
It was a category he hadn’t seen before.
Zeke clicked on settings mode.
Then the system window changed and new lists began to appear.
-Administrator System Settings
-Defense Mode Settings (Locked)
-Karma Data List (Not Accessible)
“Defense mode? Karma data?”
Since these were terms he was seeing for the first time, it was difficult to grasp what they meant.
Even when trying to click to check the contents, they were locked and inaccessible so he couldn’t check them at all.
“Hmm, can’t open the bottom two. Should check the administrator system settings first.”
When he clicked on administrator system settings, new lists appeared below it.
“Let’s see. Summon management settings, karma point management settings, management system voice recognition settings, search function settings… wow, there’s so many.”
While examining the many setting lists one by one, something caught Zeke’s eye.
“Karma point management settings?”
Previously, Zeke had tried to find a way to strengthen Bahamut and other summons using karma points.
But no matter how much he searched the system window, he couldn’t find such a function.
He had almost given up, but when it changed to the new administrator mode, the related list appeared.
Zeke brightened and clicked on karma point management settings.
Then the screen changed and complicated figures and diagrams made of points and lines appeared.
They were the kind of contents that mages would look at.
“So this is the ability score, and this is the growth value.”
At first it seemed complicated, but upon closer inspection there was no problem understanding the contents.
While examining everything one by one like that, a message window appeared.
[Current karma points are set to automatic distribution. Point distribution can be adjusted according to the administrator’s growth direction.]
“You’re saying point distribution can be adjusted?”
[Would you like to run a simulation of the point distribution according to the manual?]
Although Zeke didn’t know what simulation meant, he said he would try it anyway.
Then the window changed again and various examples of point distribution appeared.
And after spending over an hour looking at the distribution simulation, Zeke gritted his teeth and shouted.
“Damn it! I’ve been totally losing out on point distribution all this time!”
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