Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 230
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 230
Episode 230. Ancient Dragon’s Spring (3)
* * *
Ancient Dragon’s Lair.
It was a forbidden domain located in the deepest part of Vilopozy.
This was a place where even the native dwarves dared not set foot. The legends passed down for hundreds of years had blocked their way.
‘Those who enter will be cursed and die.’
Because of this, the dwarves of the distant past had completely sealed this place. They had forbidden all access entirely.
However….
‘In truth, there’s no such thing as a curse.’
…I knew the truth behind that legend.
Ding-!
〔Vilopozy: You have entered a ‘Hidden Dungeon’.〕
A System Message appeared before my eyes.
This place was a dungeon.
A space from which escape was absolutely impossible until cleared. A place where the absolute rules enforced by the system applied.
‘That’s why….’
The dwarves who entered died without being able to clear the dungeon.
Either suffering from hunger and thirst in a maze with sealed exits. Or falling victim to the dungeon’s monsters.
…In reality, those who failed to meet this dungeon’s ‘conditions’ had no choice but to face death without exception.
‘Of course, I’m different.’
I knew the strategy for clearing this dungeon.
This was a place I had cleared repeatedly through 199 cycles.
Kuuuuung─!
The moment I stepped inside the sealed door, a heavy sound echoed from behind.
The entrance had been completely sealed. As dungeons typically do.
“This place is….”
Tyrant Dragon slowly looked around.
Dark red light seeping through rock crevices dimly illuminated the surroundings, and the sound of boiling lava echoed lowly from the distance.
Uneven basalt was spread beneath our feet, and small stones occasionally fell from the ceiling.
“…For some reason, this is a familiar place.”
That made sense.
The background of Tyrant Dragon’s 「Transcendence」 was precisely this place.
Swoosh-.
Tyrant Dragon’s gaze slowly moved along the wall.
Faint patterns carved into the rock entered his sight.
Though weathered over long years and nearly erased, the dragon figures were still recognizable.
“Could it be.”
Tyrant Dragon muttered calmly.
“Was this place Vilopozy the legendary mountain range where the primordial dragons were said to be born?”
It was more of a confirmation than a question.
When I briefly nodded, he continued with his questions.
“Then the ancient dragon’s remains left here are…?”
“The first dragon and the first great mage.”
A moment of silence passed. Only the low sound of magma boiling in the distance echoed.
“One of the Great Ones, 「The Master of Mana and Mysteries」. When she was still a mortal, she was born here and awakened the source of magic.”
“….”
“Deep within this volcano, she understood the essence of mana and created the first spells. Thus 「The Master of Mana and Mysteries」 pioneered her own path from mortal to transcendent.”
Tyrant Dragon silently listened to my explanation.
“And at the moment she finally gained the qualifications of a Great One and ascended.”
I turned my gaze to Tyrant Dragon.
“Her physical body was left here.”
“….”
“The trace of casting off her mortal shell and being reborn as a god. Those remains are sleeping in this Ancient Dragon’s Lair.”
* * *
Grind-.
Zahhar clenched his teeth.
He had been muttering to himself for several minutes, his words dripping with hatred.
“Tyrant Dragon, that damned bastard is in Vilopozy, right?”
“Yeah.”
Dorico Shiro answered with a reluctant expression.
Zahhar barely listened to her response and began muttering again.
“That incomplete thing, that half-wit….”
“Hey.”
“A stain that defiled the perfection of the dragon clan….”
“Zahhar?”
“With my own hands, directly….”
Dorico Shiro cautiously raised her hand and said.
“You’ve been muttering that for 30 minutes now.”
Mutter mutter-.
Of course, those words didn’t reach Zahhar’s ears at all.
To him, a pure-blooded dragon, the existence of a hybrid human-dragon was so disgusting it was intolerable.
The very fact that noble dragon blood had mixed with inferior human blood was blasphemy.
That hatred was so deep and thick it even consumed his reason.
‘Above all.’
Tyrant Dragon didn’t acknowledge the fact that he was an incomplete half-blood.
Far from being ashamed, he boldly called himself a dragon and walked around proudly.
That stupidity grated on Zahhar’s nerves.
“Dorico Shiro.”
“Yeah?”
Zahhar twisted the corners of his mouth.
Unlike the hatred boiling from within, his voice was cold and calculating.
“You know that dragons are creatures of obsession, right.”
“Ah! I’ve heard about that!”
“「The Master of Mana and Mysteries」, the first great mage, was also a dragon. Therefore, it’s fair to say that all mages have inherited the dragon spirit.”
“….”
“In other words, mages as a species have no choice but to be obsessed with something.”
Nod nod-.
Dorico Shiro silently bobbed her head.
This was all information she had already heard from the Black Mage.
Though that very Black Mage had been crouched in a corner trembling ever since Zahhar arrived at the laboratory.
Zahhar’s explanation continued.
“But among mages, there are those with particularly extreme obsessions.”
He paused for a moment and slowly exhaled.
“Namely, black mages.”
“….”
“Obsession driven to its limits becomes a heart demon that devours the mana heart. The stronger the obsession, the longer the deep desire remains unresolved, the deeper the heart demon becomes.”
The boundary line that separated black mages from ordinary mages.
It was precisely the ‘depth of obsession.’
When desire for something specific grows uncontrollably, it becomes a demon deep within that slowly devours the mage from the inside.
This was exactly what orthodox mages including Wintershield were most wary of.
A mage who has fallen to a heart demon cannot return.
They only run toward their obsession. Everything else becomes invisible to them.
Morality, ethics, even their own life loses all meaning.
That’s why black mages were dangerous. Nothing could stop them before their mad obsession.
“Therefore….”
Zahhar continued.
“All dragons who walk the path of magic are black mages.”
“….”
“Since they are beings with strong obsessions to begin with, the moment they learn magic, they inevitably become black mages. Although there are no records about The Master of Mana and Mysteries, surely she too was a black mage.”
Zahhar was also a black mage. That’s why he knew better than anyone what he was talking about.
“So what I’m saying is….”
Swoosh-.
Zahhar slowly turned his head to look at Dorico Shiro.
“Do you know what my obsession is, Dorico Shiro?”
“Hmm.”
Dorico Shiro cupped her chin and fell deep in thought.
The Zahhar she had observed was always neat.
His hair was swept back behind his forehead, and his clothes had not a single stain or wrinkle.
Even his nails were always perfectly trimmed.
“Cleanliness obsession?”
“….”
Zahhar fell silent for a moment.
Then he slowly shook his head.
“Similar, but a bit different.”
He raised one hand. The pure white glove glowed softly under the light.
“Perfection.”
“….”
“My obsession is precisely perfection.”
Zahhar’s gaze turned toward the black mage crouched in the corner.
“That’s also why I hold you in high regard, Hodupayi. The experiment of synthesizing chimeras. That is ultimately a process to birth the ‘perfect life form.'”
Dorico Shiro slightly furrowed her brow.
The bizarrely shaped chimeras contained in the cultivation tanks came to mind.
Ones with multiple eyes. Ones with twisted limbs. Ones whose forms were unrecognizable.
She honestly couldn’t understand calling those monstrosities a process toward perfection.
‘Do we have slightly different standards for perfection?’
But Dorico Shiro didn’t ask about that.
Something else had been bothering her since earlier.
─That’s also why I hold you in high regard, Hodupayi.
“But… what’s Hodupayi?”
“That’s that guy’s name.”
Swoosh-.
Zahhar looked at the black mage huddled in the corner and spoke matter-of-factly.
Hearing this, Dorico Shiro made an incredulous expression.
“How can someone’s name be Hodupayi? Weren’t you angry that your parents played around with your name?”
“I, I don’t have parents….”
“What?”
“I didn’t have parents to give me a name… so I just named myself after my favorite food….”
Pause-.
Dorico Shiro’s expression instantly hardened.
“Sorry. I was wrong.”
“….”
“I was also born without parents, so could you just pretend this never happened?”
“…Yes.”
An awkward silence flowed for a moment. Dorico Shiro looked at the black mage Hodupayi with an embarrassed expression, then turned back to Zahhar to continue the conversation.
“So….”
She tilted her head and asked.
“Why are you suddenly saying all this?”
“Imperfect chimeras are a process toward ‘completion.'”
Zahhar answered in a low voice.
“The possibility of someday being reborn as a perfect life form. As long as that exists, we Ataraxy will continue to support Hodupayi’s experiments.”
“Th, thank you…! I’ll work hard…!”
The black mage Hodupayi, crouched in the corner, muttered. Zahhar glanced at him briefly, then continued speaking.
“But Tyrant Dragon is different. He is already a completed being. He cannot change. His growth and evolution are finished.”
“….”
“That bastard’s very existence denies the perfection of ‘dragons’ – he’s an unclean life form. He has become a stain that can never be corrected.”
Zahhar slowly turned his head to look at Dorico Shiro.
“So, Dorico Shiro.”
“Yeah?”
“If a battle breaks out.”
Killing intent began to seep into Zahhar’s voice.
“Hand Tyrant Dragon over to me.”
“….”
“I will personally dispose of that imperfect thing with my own hands.”
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. It was closer to a predator’s sneer than a smile.
Sigh-.
Dorico Shiro sighed and shook her head.
“You’ve been saying that same thing for 30 minutes now…?”
* * *
Thud, thud-.
The narrow passage gradually began to widen.
With each step, the ceiling grew a little higher and the distance between the walls increased.
How much further had we walked like that?
“….”
A massive open field spread out before my eyes.
It was such a vast space that it was hard to believe this was inside a volcanic dungeon.
The ceiling was dizzyingly high, and traces of lava were clearly visible on the walls extending in all directions.
The ground was dotted with ancient lava that had long since cooled and hardened into black stone, with faint heat seeping through the cracks.
That’s when it happened.
In the middle of the open field, a stone monument standing tall caught my eye.
“What’s this?”
Tyrant Dragon furrowed his brow.
He strode over to the monument and began carefully examining the characters carved into its surface.
It was ancient script.
Though weathered by countless years and partially faded, most of the letters remained clearly visible.
“Damn it.”
Tyrant Dragon clicked his tongue.
“Ancient script. The only one who properly knows this is Pean…”
“It says this place is a space permitted only to those who carry the bloodline of the Dragon Clan.”
“…?”
Pause-.
Tyrant Dragon froze momentarily upon hearing those words.
He slowly turned his head to look at me. His expression was clearly one of bewilderment.
“I’ve been curious about this for a while now.”
Tyrant Dragon stared at me intently as he asked his question.
“What exactly are you? Now you’re reading ancient script fluently too?”
That’s right.
Tyrant Dragon still didn’t know that I was one of “The Primordial Beings.”
No.
Not that I’m actually a primordial being… well, anyway.
“Didn’t you hear from Pean?”
“…?”
Tyrant Dragon furrowed his brow. His expression asked what I was talking about.
“I am one of ‘The Primordial Beings.'”
“…”
Thud-.
A moment of silence passed.
Tyrant Dragon stared at me blankly.
Frozen with his mouth agape, he looked as if time had stopped.
“…What?”
Only after a long while did an inarticulate sound escape his lips.
Tyrant Dragon’s eyes slowly began to widen. As if puzzle pieces in his mind were fitting together one by one.
“Wait a minute. But you’re a dragon.”
“…?”
“Don’t tell me you were one of the primordial dragons? Then you would have known ‘The Master of Mana and Mysteries’ who owns this place…”
Tyrant Dragon babbled epic nonsense with an endlessly trembling voice.
“…You would also be my distant ancestor, wouldn’t you?”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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