[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
Chapter 33
'Saturn Draker?'
It was shocking enough that Saturn was the one who first created the aura cultivation technique.
But he had never imagined that the noble knight Saturn was actually a descendant of Draker.
'Why wasn't this fact known to later generations?'
Until now, the origin of the aura cultivation technique itself was unclear.
It was simply thought that each clan inherited and developed the cultivation techniques passed down through their lineage.
This was the moment the secret of the origin of the aura cultivation technique was revealed.
Zeke, recovering from the shock, calmed down the agitated Kaisir.
And by gently coaxing him, he began to extract information about the Elemental Sword.
* * *
Kaisir was foul-mouthed, but he tried his best to share what he knew.
"Hmm, you're a bit better than the others. You understand what I'm saying."
For the next few weeks, Zeke was able to learn the theory of the Elemental Sword from Kaisir.
Surprisingly, the Elemental Sword was a much more systematic swordsmanship than he had expected, and many of Kaisir's legendary feats had been downplayed.
"You say you defeated the Gorgon alone, Your Majesty? The legend says that all twelve knights of the Clock Tower joined forces to defeat it."
"Knights of the Clock Tower? I don't know what that is, but anyway, I went there and wiped them out in one go. The others probably just cleaned up afterward."
Listening to Kaisir's detailed account of the unrecorded history of the past, Zeke couldn't help but believe that the person in front of him was indeed Kaisir himself, in spirit form.
Once he left his physical body and went to the spirit world where the elves resided, it was impossible to return to the physical world.
However, he had placed restrictions on himself to remain in this place as a spirit and prepared the ruins.
"How is that possible?"
Kaisir said in a casual tone,
"It was possible because the dragons helped me."
"What? Dragons?"
Seeing Zeke's surprise, Kaisir was even more surprised.
"Why are you surprised that dragons helped me?"
"Well, dragons are enemies of humans."
"What are you talking about? Why would dragons be enemies of humans? There's no being that cherishes humans more than dragons."
Kaisir pointed at Zeke's sword and said,
"Didn't Bahamut give you that sword and heart?"
Zeke's eyes wavered intensely.
"W-well, yes."
If he misspoke here and provoked Kaisir, all his efforts to appease him could go to waste.
Zeke cautiously asked Kaisir,
"Your Majesty, have you ever... heard of Dragon Slayers?"
Kaisir gritted his teeth at those words.
"Are you talking about those damn Dragon Slayers who act all high and mighty? I remember when they sneaked into a lair, captured a precious hatchling, and bragged about hunting dragons. I went and chopped off all their heads."
Zeke remained silent.
If he said that his ancestor had cut off Bahamut's head and displayed his fang and heart, Kaisir might do the same to him as he did to those Dragon Slayers.
Kaisir, quickly calming his anger at Zeke's silence, suddenly looked at Zeke with curiosity and asked,
"By the way, how did you get the fang and heart from that ill-tempered Bahamut? He's the most disagreeable dragon I've ever met."
Zeke lied without batting an eye.
"My Murray clan has been friends with Lord Bahamut for generations. As you can see, my constitution is unique. He found me interesting and shared his fang and heart with me."
Kaisir nodded at his words.
"Well, he was indeed interested in things that seemed interesting. That's why Chronos scolded him a lot."
'Chronos?'
Judging from the context, it seemed to be the name of a dragon.
It was a name that didn't appear in the Dragon Slayer records.
Zeke cautiously asked Kaisir,
"Was the Chronos kingdom named after Lord Chronos?"
"Well, yes. Since I was Chronos' contractor, I received a lot of help when establishing the kingdom. I was thinking about what to name the kingdom, and since Chronos was hovering around, I just decided to name it Chronos because it was convenient."
It was absurd to learn that the name of the legendary kingdom was chosen for such a trivial reason.
'But a contractor of Chronos... Can dragons make contracts with humans?'
He wanted to ask many questions, but Zeke was worried that if he asked too deeply, he might reveal that he was a descendant of the Dragon Slayer clan, so he cautiously asked questions as if he were simply curious.
After a long conversation, based on Kaisir's words, it seemed that in his time, humans and dragons had a very good relationship, and dragons helped humans a lot as they were less civilized.
The dragons at that time played the role of 'world adjusters', so they couldn't provide unconditional help to the physical world.
He said that only after making a contract with a human, polymorphing into a human form, and placing restrictions on themselves could they help their contractor.
Otherwise, the balance of the world could be disrupted, endangering the physical world.
'This is so different from what I know.'
There were many records of the history after the Evil Dragon Bahamut was slain by Terakan Draker and the continent was saved from crisis, but the history before that was mostly lost.
Because so little was known, some scholars even argued that ancient civilizations were far more advanced than the present.
And listening to Kaisir, Zeke felt once again how little information there was about ancient times.
At that time, there were dragon contractors everywhere, and the polymorphed dragons seemed to have helped humans greatly, to the extent of influencing human history.
Among the ancient items discovered in ancient ruins, there were some that couldn't be understood with current magical knowledge, and Zeke wondered if they were perhaps created with the help of dragons.
Zeke was curious about why the relationship between humans and dragons, which had been so close, became so distant.
'I should watch the chronicle videos left by Kaisir later.'
After organizing his thoughts, Zeke decided to focus on completely mastering the Elemental Sword first.
He had told everyone he was in Argos for a vacation to avoid the eyes of his clan, so there wouldn't be any major problems, but he had to return to Atlas before the Valhalla semester started.
Mastering the Elemental Sword went more smoothly than expected.
However, Zeke unexpectedly struggled at a certain stage.
"Hey, hey, that's not it. You're doing everything else well, so why do you keep getting this wrong?"
He couldn't quite grasp the 'Chapter of Water Power', which dealt with the power of water among the four elements.
Zeke once again drew upon the power of water and swung his sword.
A powerful force, like a waterfall crashing down, swept through the surroundings.
Kaisir whacked Zeke's head with his scabbard.
"You idiot! Is this the power of water or the power of a waterfall! The essence of water power is gentleness. Don't you know the saying that gentleness overcomes hardness?"
"I've never heard that before."
"This brat... It seems like he just says he doesn't know anything that's disadvantageous to him.
Anyway, the power of water isn't just about using force. Look here."
Kaisir raised his sword and drew upon the power of water.
His sword flowed calmly, like a still water surface.
It flowed leisurely like a flowing river, sometimes slowly like a calm lake, and sometimes struck powerfully like a waterfall.
Kaisir sheathed his sword and said,
"All four elements are important, but water is the most important of them all. Life began from water, and over 70% of our body is made up of water. Do you understand, you idiot?"
In his previous life, Zeke had pursued extreme strength with the determination to survive, driven by the need to become stronger.
It was only natural that he wasn't accustomed to swordsmanship that emphasized yielding and gentleness.
His head and body understood the movements, but his heart couldn't fully grasp the concept.
Kaisir decided to start again from the basics.
Because of this, Zeke had to sit in a cross-legged position, like Kaisir, and meditate for hours every day.
He was frustrated because he had to sit still for hours when he needed to quickly master the Elemental Sword and go to Valhalla.
Whack!
Whenever he had distracting thoughts, Kaisir's scabbard would hit his head.
"Clear your mind and look deep within yourself."
Kaisir spoke like a priest, which didn't suit him at all.
Just like that, a month passed.
Despite this, Zeke still couldn't understand the power of water.
On the contrary, his impatience only increased his distracting thoughts, and he ended up getting hit on the back of his head even more by Kaisir.
In the end, Kaisir decided to take a different approach.
"I can't believe the only one who can inherit my legacy is such an idiot."
"Perhaps there's a problem with Your Majesty's teaching method?"
"Shut up. This won't do. You'll have to learn in a different way."
"Was there a different way? Why didn't you teach me that from the beginning? We've wasted so much time."
"You'll regret those words."
Kaisir's method was simple.
The key to the power of water was 'relaxation'.
In other words, it was important to release power, and Kaisir's method was to forcibly exhaust the body and instill relaxation.
Zeke smirked as he listened to Kaisir.
He had the passive skill Infinite Stamina, so he couldn't feel the sensation of fatigue.
But that was Zeke's misconception.
"Gasp! Gasp!"
Intense training that even Infinite Stamina couldn't keep up with began.
It was endless sparring with Kaisir.
Without eating or sleeping, he had to fight and fight against Kaisir without rest.
On top of that, Kaisir used the 'Chapter of Metal Power' to increase the gravity on Zeke's body tenfold.
With his heavy body, he had to somehow dodge or block Kaisir's attacks.
"Move faster!"
Crash!
The Storm Sword, using the Chapter of Wind Power, swept towards Zeke.
Zeke also used the Chapter of Wind Power to block the Storm Sword.
However, Zeke's elemental power was no match for Kaisir's power.
He was swept away and crashed into the wall.
Perhaps because he had grown stronger than before, he thankfully didn't lose consciousness.
And Kaisir didn't let Zeke rest.
He made him get up and pummeled him with new techniques.
After realizing that Zeke had Healing Factor and Infinite Stamina, which healed most wounds instantly, he was having even more fun beating him up.
"This is fun! This kind of stimulation is hard to come by in the boring spirit world!"
Zeke was tormented by Kaisir for a whole month, forcibly instilled with relaxation.
At the moment when he felt like he couldn't move a finger, Zeke swung his sword and practiced his footwork with his body completely relaxed.
Swinging his sword in a state of utter exhaustion, he couldn't tell if he was the sword or the sword was him.
It was a sensation he had never experienced in his previous life.
Zeke swung his sword, lost in a trance.
When he completely relaxed his body, the sword softly and smoothly found its own path.
He understood the forms that made up the 'Chapter of Water Power', which he couldn't grasp no matter how hard he tried.
At that moment, enlightenment came to Zeke.
Wooong!
Zeke, having grasped the principle of relaxation, swung his sword in a different way than usual.
He used the Elemental Sword, then the Gale Force, and even used the Dragon Slayer Technique by raising his aura.
Unconsciously, his hands moved and moved as they pleased.
The energy that had been swirling around Zeke's body was then contained within him.
He had broken through the wall of the Red Knight, surpassing the Blue Knight.
Zeke opened his eyes.
[Sudden Chain Mission successful.]
[Tears of the Elf King awarded as a reward.]
[500 Karma Points awarded as a reward.]
[Main Quest Mission successful.]
[System administrator privileges upgraded to intermediate administrator as a reward.]
[Intermediate administrator system privileges activated.]
[System functions have been unlocked as you have been promoted to intermediate administrator.]
[Beginner Quest Book changed to Intermediate Quest Book.]
[System linkage function activated.]
[Skill shortcut slots unlocked. (Only active skills can be used)]
[Item shortcut slots unlocked. (Automatic equipment and potion consumption enabled)]
[Portal movement system on the minimap activated.]
[500 Karma Points awarded as a reward.]
[Three Random Skill Cards and three Random Boxes awarded as a reward.]
Messages continued to appear.
[You have learned King Kaisir's Elemental Sword.]
[Elemental Sword (S-grade) added to special skills.]
[Your soul has grown.]
[The power of your inherent authority has grown stronger.]
[The seal on Bahamut's heart has been partially released due to the growth of your soul. Current compression seal level is 90%.]
'This is amazing.'
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]