Chapter 32 - It's No Coincidence

An emperor who united the continent with a sword blessed by a dragon.

'If that's true...'

It reminded me of something Sia had once told me. Everyone who had drawn out the power of a Dragon Bone Sword had left their mark on human history, whether by becoming a Swordmaster and making a name for themselves with their blade or by becoming an emperor who united a continent.

I didn't know whether the “dragon-blessed sword” in the inscription was actually a Dragon Bone Sword. But perhaps this dungeon called the Garden of the Dragon Sword was a memorial park for an emperor who had wielded one.

'I hope there's something in it for me.'

Of course, looking at it objectively, the odds didn't seem good. I wouldn't know until I entered the gate, but for now it was nothing more or less than a slightly unusual gate. Maybe “dragon-blessed sword” was just a grand name for an ordinary sword with a dragon carved into its hilt.

'Still... it would be too much of a coincidence.'

While I was lost in thought, Taeseong asked, “What are you thinking about, Minjun?”

“I was just thinking how fascinating it is that they mention a dragon-blessed sword. We haven't even established whether dragons exist.” I said it casually, pretending I knew nothing.

After all, there hadn't been any reports of dragons yet. Officially, at least.

Juwon, who had helped Taeseong explain the gate to me earlier, joined in. “We've got gates and orcs and everything else. Who says dragons can't exist? For all we know, they might already be living among us.”

He said it lightly, as if making a passing joke. Did he have any idea that it was true?

SCREECH.

Before long, the vehicle arrived at the dungeon gate. We put on our equipment and entered one by one.

The raid had begun.

* * *

The first things I saw upon entering were a bright sky, countless swords embedded in the ground like gravestones, and weeds that had grown to about a child's knee height.

Of course, most gates offered strange sights you couldn't see on Earth. But the scenery here went beyond strange. It was downright bizarre. The name “Garden of the Dragon Sword” made it sound grand or beautiful, but the reality was anything but. To me, it was almost grotesque.

'What kind of combination is this?'

Looking past the countless planted swords, I spotted the huge statue Taeseong had mentioned. A statue of a dragon coiled around a sword, towering amid weeds and hundreds of swords stuck in the ground. I didn't know who had made this place, but their sense of aesthetics was terrible.

“Strange, isn't it?” a hunter said as he approached while I was looking around. “Today's my first time here too, Minjun. Doesn't this place feel different from the dungeon gates we usually go to?”

“I was thinking the same thing. I just can't seem to get used to it.”

As we chatted, Taeseong clapped his hands to get our attention. “The monsters will be swarming in soon. Everyone, get ready.”

Already? That meant monsters would appear from somewhere, but I couldn't see any no matter how I looked around.

Just as I was thinking that, black smoke began rising from the swords embedded in the ground.

No way.

“... Ghost-type monsters?”

“Oh, I forgot to explain. I'm so used to coming here with the same people.” According to Taeseong, there was only one kind of monster we'd face in this dungeon gate.

“It's a monster you can only find in this gate. It doesn't have an official name, so we call them ‘Sword Wraiths’ among ourselves.”

That reminded me of something I'd learned at the academy: dungeon gates could have unusual monsters you wouldn't encounter in other gates.

“Is there a particular way to fight them?”

“It's similar to fighting other ghost-type monsters. And—”

Before Taeseong could finish, the smoke pouring from the swords swelled into a large mass. Then the shapeless, gloomy cloud let out an eerie cry and charged at us.

How was a swordsman supposed to fight a ghost-type monster again? I recalled what a professor had told us at the academy.

[“Swordsmen are a terrible match for ghost-type monsters. If you ever have to face one, focus on concentrating even more mana than usual at the tip of your sword.”]

The point was that, against a ghost-type monster, where and how a swordsman swung mattered less than concentrating mana at the blade's tip. I gathered as much mana there as I could and swung as fast as possible.

SLASH!

A single blow split the black smoke cleanly in two.

But given how ghost-type monsters worked, splitting one in two didn't mean I'd defeated it. Sure enough, the two halves of the Sword Wraith rushed at me as fiercely as ever, as though my slash meant nothing. At the same time, they began joining back together.

I didn't give it time to recover. Pouring even more mana into my sword, I swung again. The second slash scattered the wraith completely into smoke.

“Phew.”

I'd grown a little stronger, and my equipment was incomparably better than before. Even so, that had been far too easy. Ghost-type monsters were normally a struggle to kill. They were tricky to begin with, and I was a swordsman on top of that.

I dealt with the wraiths charging at me the same way and checked on the other hunters.

Taeseong, a B-rank mage well suited to fighting ghost-type monsters, had climbed onto the statue at the center of the dungeon. Like a leader, he watched over the hunters, myself included, and kept the monsters in check as needed. Since this gate was used to train lower-ranked hunters, he seemed ready to step in if anyone's lack of experience left a gap in our defenses.

The other hunters, meanwhile, were having a hard time holding off the Sword Wraiths. I was the only swordsman among them, so in theory, I should have been struggling most of all. Instead, I was cutting them down with an ease that surprised even me. Taeseong looked amazed too as he watched from his perch on the statue.

A hunter passing by said, “Minjun, are you really D-rank?”

“Yes.”

“You should get retested. You look at least C-rank to me.”

If other people thought so too, maybe I was growing faster than I'd realized. But that was beside the point.

'When will this end?'

The Sword Wraiths attacked so relentlessly that I didn't even have a chance to look at my watch. I had no idea how long we'd been inside. Gate raids were hard by nature, but I'd never seen monsters come at us nonstop like this.

No sooner had I cut one down than the same black smoke rose from a sword again. The moment I cut that one down, another appeared to torment me.

“This is killing me.”

Even if these had been slimes, classified among the weakest monsters, their sheer numbers would have been overwhelming. The hunters elsewhere seemed to be in the same position, panting and grumbling. The healers' constant, intensive care had kept anyone from getting injured, but fighting monsters for two hours without a moment to catch our breath was another matter.

'So that's why dungeon gates are often used to train hunters.'

Exhausting as it was, this seemed like a good way to gain a lot of combat experience in a short time. But I had something more important to do.

'I should have been focusing on mastering the dragon's power.'

I always told myself to keep that in mind, yet sometimes I forgot. Like right now. I wasn't sure when it had happened, but I'd become so preoccupied with fighting monsters I was poorly matched against that I'd lost sight of my ultimate goal.

'It's not too late to start.'

What was the most effective way to draw out the dragon's power in this situation?

“One hour left!”

Taeseong's booming voice announced that we had an hour until the dungeon gate was cleared. Two-thirds of the three hours had already passed. The other hunters probably wished that last hour would hurry by, but I couldn't afford to think that way.

This was a precious opportunity, and I didn't know when I'd get another. In the hour I had left, I needed to draw out the dragon's power dormant within me to its limit.

'What should I do now?'

Should I keep swinging my sword as before while reflecting on the two words Rokan had given me, “dominion” and “will”? This time, though, I wanted to make my will a little more concrete. For example, I could resolve to root out every last one of these seemingly endless Sword Wraiths.

How could I make that resolve a reality? I might have been jumping to conclusions, but will alone didn't seem enough. I needed another strategy, something groundbreaking enough to turn the whole situation around.

There was a B-rank hunter backing us up, so our safety was reasonably assured. I decided to change tactics.

The strategy I chose was to subtly change the structure of the mana in my sword. I wasn't a mage who handled mana professionally, so making such a fine adjustment would be difficult.

'I have to do it.'

Until now, I'd focused on releasing mana. From here on, my aim was to absorb mana and every other kind of energy. If I absorbed the wraiths into my sword instead of cutting them down, something new was bound to happen. Those wraiths defied the natural order, so I had no choice but to do the same.

I didn't know what would happen if the sword absorbed those pitch-black wraiths, but surely it would be all right. This was a Dragon Bone Sword, after all, one that could hold its own against any famed blade. And with this dungeon named the Garden of the Dragon Sword, perhaps it was an even better place for a Dragon Bone Sword to shine.

“Ah.” A realization struck me. Could the reason I'd been having such an unusually easy time against ghost-type monsters be this sword?

As I sorted through my thoughts, I let my guard down for a moment. A wraith larger and darker than the others came hurtling toward me. It was too close for me to react properly. I twisted to avoid it as much as I could, but it still brushed against me.

Yet instead of the sharp, jolting pain I'd expected, I felt almost nothing. It hurt about as much as a light pinch.

Why? The Sword Wraith had clearly charged at me full force, just as hostile as it was toward the other hunters. How could I be so unaffected?

'I can afford to be a little bolder.'

I abandoned any thought of defending myself and tore across the battlefield like a wild beast. The wraiths came at me viciously, exploiting the openings I'd left by going all-out on offense, but as before, their attacks barely hurt.

“Minjun!” Taeseong shouted urgently when he saw how exposed I was. I signaled that I was fine and swung my sword even more aggressively. The other hunters seemed just as startled, but I had no time to pay attention to their reactions.

The more I swung, the more I felt unknown energies gathering. Could this be the dragon's power?

'I don't think so.'

I couldn't be sure, but it seemed unlikely that all these wraiths were connected to dragons. Then what were these energies?

My sword began moving faster and faster. At some point, it felt less as if I were swinging the sword and more as if the sword were swinging my hand. It was similar to how I'd felt when I released that aurora-colored sword energy. But it was unmistakably different.

As the energy gathered, the Dragon Bone Sword began to hum and emit a gray glow instead of releasing sword energy as it had back then.

“Wh-what?”

WHOOSH!

Before I could react, my sword flew from my hand toward the statue of the dragon-blessed sword.