[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
Chapter 31
Zeke's unique ability, 'Dragon Domination', obtained by absorbing Bahamut's heart, activated.
[Do you wish to subdue the target dragon?]
"I don't know what it is, but let's try it."
But soon a warning message popped up.
[Your authority is insufficient to subdue the target dragon.]
[Failed to subdue the fallen dragon.]
It seemed that even with the authority, he couldn't subdue just any dragon.
Just then, a thumping sound echoed from outside the door, as if the Hydra had abandoned its severed heads and left.
Zeke looked at the Hydra heads stuck in the door and pondered what to do, then used the Gluttony skill.
Rumble!
Zeke's shadow wavered and spread out towards the Hydra heads.
The three severed Hydra heads slowly sank into the shadow as if being swallowed by a black swamp.
It took quite a while to absorb all three Hydra heads.
When the absorption was complete, a message popped up.
[You have devoured the severed heads of the fallen dragon corrupted by tainted energy.]
[Your depleted stamina, mental strength, and mana are restored.]
[As a reward for devouring a designated extermination target, your Gluttony skill level increases.]
[You have imperfectly absorbed the bloodline ability of the devoured creature, gaining the constitution of Poison Immunity.]
After devouring the Hydra heads, his depleted energy was replenished.
Zeke confirmed that 'Poison Immunity' had been added to his constitution category.
In addition, his Gluttony skill level increased from beginner to expert.
"Designated extermination target. Does that mean the reward is higher for eliminating dragon-type monsters like the Hydra?"
Zeke closed the status window and, after confirming that the door was completely closed, finally entered the ruins.
The structure of the ruins was similar to the Dragon Slayer's resting place.
While the Dragon Slayer's resting place was mostly made of gray material, Kaisir's ruins were made of a smooth, white material.
According to legend,King Kaisir was a half-human, half-elf born between a wise sage and an elf king.
However, due to the scheme of an evil wizard, Kaisir was separated from his parents and abandoned alone in the mountains.
A sacred wolf found the young Kaisir crying in the mountains, nursed him with her milk, and raised him, allowing him to grow up safely.
Kaisir used his unparalleled strength to save persecuted humans and established 'Chronos', a kingdom exclusively for humans, in the Central Continent.
Of course, since the Chronos kingdom was also a nation from legends, it was unknown whether it actually existed.
However, the royal family of the Rom Empire had long claimed to be descendants of King Kaisir.
The sacred wolf, the symbol of the Rom Empire, originated from this legend.
Although the King and the Chronos kingdom remained as legendary figures, these ruins were evidence that the Chronos kingdom might have actually existed.
Zeke marveled at the solid structure with its high ceiling.
It was surprising that a structure built more than two thousand years ago was still intact.
He opened the minimap and went deeper into the ruins.
A long corridor stretched between the giant pillars lined up on both sides.
Zeke walked down the corridor cautiously.
As he went further down the corridor, he came across a door.
When Zeke reached out to the door, a message popped up.
[Opening the resting place of King Kaisir.]
Simultaneously, the door opened.
The space inside was unexpectedly small.
It was a circular space made entirely of white material, with an altar-like structure in the center.
The map indicated the altar as the destination.
Zeke cautiously crossed the space, climbed the stairs, and went up to the altar.
When he reached the altar, he saw a pedestal in the center.
A large, iridescent sky-blue gem was floating on the pedestal.
'A gem? Not the King's secret swordsmanship manual?'
He had to find the swordsmanship manual to complete the mission.
Zeke looked all over the pedestal, but the swordsmanship manual was nowhere to be found.
Then, as Zeke's hand reached towards the gem,
[You have found a permanent record left by King Kaisir.]
[Transferring and saving the permanent record to the system.]
Seeing the system message, Zeke looked at the gem on the pedestal.
[The message left by King Kaisir will automatically play.]
At that moment, a video appeared before Zeke's eyes.
The face of a delicate young man with snow-white hair and eyebrows appeared on the screen.
The young man's eyes shone beautifully with a clear sky-blue color.
His appearance was reminiscent of a legendary elf.
The young man in the video began to speak.
However, Zeke couldn't understand a word he was saying. As he frowned in frustration, a message popped up.
[Ancient Chronos language detected. Automatically converting to the common language of the Central Continent.]
Simultaneously, the young man's words began to be translated into the common language.
"So, I climbed the mountain and said, 'Hey, are you the Giant King?' And he immediately tried to mess with me, right? In the past, I would have just grabbed him by the neck and smashed his head! But at that time, I had a family to take care of, and I had a reputation to uphold. So I asked him politely, 'Why do you keep crossing into our territory?' Then he rolled his eyes and started acting crazy. So I... Hey, hey, hold it steady! The screen is shaking. Saturn, damn it! Are you going to keep messing around? Where was I? Oh, man, you made me forget!"
Zeke blinked.
He was confused about what he had just heard.
Judging from the situation, the foul-mouthed man in the video seemed to be the King Kaisir, but something felt off.
"The records and Kaisir's face are too different. Besides, if that's Saturn, he's the most loyal knight of the Clock Tower and a symbol of nobility..."
For the next thirty minutes, Kaisir continued his tirade, a mix of colorful curses, self-praise, and harsh criticism of Saturn.
[You have finished watching 1 of 546 episodes of the King Kaisir Chronicles. Do you wish to continue watching?]
Zeke, finally seeing the message that appeared after the video ended, was shocked to learn that there were over five hundred such videos.
Moreover, he was so bewildered by how different Kaisir was from what he had imagined that he couldn't think straight.
In any case, the important thing was Kaisir's secret swordsmanship.
Zeke held his aching head and said to the system,
"Find me information about Kaisir's secret swordsmanship here."
Zeke was now getting the hang of using the system.
Then a message appeared.
[Searching for videos about secret swordsmanship in 546 chronicle videos.]
[12 videos found.]
Zeke was surprised to see the search results.
"There are over five hundred videos, but only twelve are about secret swordsmanship?"
His already aching head started to hurt even more.
He had to watch the twelve videos that were found, so he started playing them.
Soon, Kaisir appeared on the screen again.
Unlike before, he was holding a sword.
He looked at the screen and raised his sword.
"What is a sword? A sword is a sword, what else would it be? It's because those old geezers who don't even know how to swing a sword spout nonsense that the kids get confused. A sword is just something you can stab and slash well with. There's no need to overthink it, that's what I'm saying. Hey, that was good. Saturn, write this down in the annals later. What? The annals aren't an autobiography? Just do it when I tell you to, why are you so talkative? Just shut up and do as you're told, damn it!"
Kaisir continued to curse at Saturn for a while, then, perhaps having vented enough, he suddenly grabbed his sword and stood up again.
"So, that's what a sword is. Then how do you use a sword well? Just swing it hard and often. That's all there is to it. Just swing it. Like this!"
Kaisir suddenly took a stance with his sword.
Wooong!
Something like heat haze emanated from his body.
The heat haze enveloped Kaisir's body and his sword.
In that state, he swung his sword.
Whoosh!
Zeke felt as if his neck had been cut by Kaisir's sword in the video.
"Gasp!"
Zeke unconsciously used Phantom Step and jumped back.
That's how much momentum was contained in Kaisir's sword.
Zeke paused the video.
"Wh-what was that? That just now... It didn't seem like he used aura."
Zeke rewound the video and watched Kaisir's sword strike again.
It was a chilling movement, even on second viewing.
Just then, a system message appeared.
―Sudden Chain Mission―
[Learn the secret swordsmanship left by King Kaisir. No time limit.]
[Sudden Mission Reward: Tears of the Elf King]
[Caution: You cannot leave Kaisir's resting place until you learn the secret swordsmanship.]
"What the...?"
Zeke looked bewildered at the sudden chain mission that had appeared.
It came with the condition that he couldn't leave this place until he learned Kaisir's secret swordsmanship.
"This is crazy! How am I supposed to learn Kaisir's secret swordsmanship just by watching this video!"
Although there was no one to hear him, Zeke shouted in frustration.
He turned off the video and tried to open the door by controlling the system.
[A mission is currently underway. You cannot open the door until you clear the mission.]
"This is driving me insane."
It was a frustrating situation, but he couldn't stay discouraged forever.
Zeke came down from the pedestal and decided to explore the space first.
There were three doors on the circular wall, and they opened automatically as Zeke approached.
The first one seemed to be a food storage. Various foods were stored in thousands of preservation boxes.
The second room was a space for sleeping and washing.
The last room contained various weapons, armor, and books from the Chronos era.
Kaisir's name was written on each item, as if he had used and read them all.
The books were written in ancient Chronos language, but fortunately, they were automatically translated thanks to the system correction, making them readable.
It was as if everything had been prepared in advance for him to train in seclusion here.
It seemed he was stuck here, forced to train.
Zeke let out a deep sigh and played the video again.
Sword in hand, Zeke followed Kaisir's movements one by one, appropriately skipping the useless curses in the video.
This was possible thanks to Zeke's Divine Body.
After watching all twelve videos and familiarizing himself with the forms of the swordsmanship, Zeke tried to perform the movements from beginning to end as he had learned them.
But no matter how much he swung his sword, he couldn't replicate the feeling of Kaisir in the video.
Just then, a message appeared again.
[You have learned the basic form of the Elemental Sword left by King Kaisir.]
[The basic stage is complete, moving on to the practical stage.]
[Summoning the Hero King's spirit.]
Rumble!
Suddenly, the altar in the center of the space began to descend.
When the altar had completely descended, only the pedestal with the sky-blue gem floating on it remained in the center of the space.
Soon, light flickered from the sky-blue gem, and something appeared in front of it.
"Wh-what's this?"
A human figure gradually formed within the light.
Surprisingly, it was Kaisir from the video, appearing right there.
Zeke, utterly astonished, gaped at Kaisir before him.
"I-is that really Kaisir?"
Kaisir frowned, then immediately drew his sword from its scabbard and swung it towards Zeke.
Whoosh!
Zeke hurriedly raised Bahamut and blocked Kaisir's sword.
Clang!
The force contained in Kaisir's sword was so strong that Zeke was sent flying and crashed into the wall.
Crash!
Kaisir, casually resting his sword on his shoulder, said to the fallen Zeke,
"Get up this instant."
A stern rebuke pierced Zeke.
"With those skills, you dare try to learn my swordsmanship? The knights of old would be rolling in their graves."
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]