The Dragon Slayer Who Regressed After 1,000 Years - Chapter 42

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Dragon Slayer’s Return After 1000 Years — Episode 42
The moment the Barrier Stone activated, Cain drew the Explorer’s Cloak around himself.
The shabby garment would shield him from the forest’s toxic corruption.
‘And there’s one more thing. I need to use the Seer’s Bracelet.’
With a bracelet that could conceal all aura and presence, not even a dragon would sense him.
To Diolramir’s senses, Cain simply did not exist.
‘Still, I’ve set bait just in case.’
While the bandits drew attention from three directions, Cain moved.
Crack!
His body launched off the ground and crossed the outer perimeter of the Toxic Mist.
As he breached the section where the Toxic Mist thickened sharply, the entrance to the Lair came into view.
It was entirely different from the cave in Glacione.
A vertical mine shaft that plunged deep underground.
The bedrock around the entrance had corroded black, with viscous venom trickling down its surface.
It was a mark of the Black Dragon’s poison gradually warping the terrain itself over long ages.
Cain’s eyes shifted to violet.
Through Future Foresight, he read the trap layout inside the shaft.
‘Fewer traps than in Glacione. But instead…….’
Every single trap was coated with venom.
Pressure plates that fired poison needles the moment they were stepped on.
Wire traps that showered venom from the ceiling.
Poison spore pouches camouflaged against the walls.
Trigger even one, and the entire shaft would flood with toxic mist.
‘If I disturb a trap, vibrations spread, and in that instant my concealment is compromised. I must pass without touching anything.’
Cain descended the shaft, placing his feet with precision in the safe zones between traps.
Without sound.
Without presence.
Only after leaping past several traps did he reach the bottom of the shaft.
There lay Diolramir.
The creature had its eyes closed, whether aware of Cain’s arrival or not.
‘It’s monitoring the territory through the Toxic Mist.’
Relying solely on the toxic mist’s perception, it had dropped its guard completely regarding what lay within the Lair itself.
Understandable.
In all of history, no creature had ever pierced the Toxic Mist and safely crossed the traps.
And with concealment maintained by an artifact’s power, it could never imagine an intruder had entered.
‘That is your mistake.’
Cain placed his hand on the Dragon Breaker.
Maintaining his concealment, he closed the distance slowly.
Ten paces.
Five paces.
Three paces.
Even as he drew close enough to manifest his Sword Aura, Diolramir did not open its eyes.
Completely undefended.
Had the creature looked, it might have received quite the shock, but Cain had chosen a different way to startle it.
A terrible agony that would linger even beyond death.
Slash!
The Sword Aura carved diagonally beneath the creature’s jaw.
[CRAAAAGH?!]
Diolramir’s eyes snapped wide with shock.
Before pain came confusion.
The Toxic Mist had sensed nothing.
The traps had not activated.
Yet a human now stood at the deepest chamber of the Lair, beneath its very jaw.
In eight hundred years of life, the Lair had never been breached.
Diolramir unleashed a roar that mingled fury and terror.
[You, you cursed creature……! How did you……!]
Cain ignored the question and widened the distance.
Black blood fountained upward.
Not merely the scales but the blood itself carried venom.
“Bernatus.”
Yes!
Light poured from Diolramir’s blind spot.
A 9th Circle spell—Blight Cannon.
The sickly green ray erupting from the spirit form struck Diolramir’s flank dead-on.
Boom!
[Screeeech!!]
The impact shook the entire tunnel.
Diolramir’s massive frame skidded sideways and crashed against the wall.
Cain didn’t waste the opening—he sprang upward.
He condensed his Aura across the entire blade.
The amplified Sword Aura fell in a vertical arc.
Crack!
[Nooooo!!!]
Not a pierce. A cleave.
Diolramir’s neck was nearly severed in two.
Black blood sprayed, but the cloak shielded him, and he drove deeper still.
Thud.
The moment the blade passed through the brain, the screams that had echoed through the tunnel cut off.
Diolramir’s colossal body convulsed once, then went limp.
Cain stood on the fallen Diolramir’s chest and exhaled.
From setting the bait, to entry, to the hunt’s end—the time elapsed.
‘Seven minutes.’
He hadn’t even used half the Barrier Stone’s duration.
‘Without the Seer’s Bracelet, this wouldn’t have been so simple.’
Completely deceiving the Toxic Mist’s sensory web had been decisive.
Diolramir died without ever understanding how Cain had breached the Lair.
Cain withdrew his blade and pressed its point against the scales of Diolramir’s chest.
Scrape.
Knowing the exact location, peeling back the scales posed no difficulty.
Between the ribs, a blood-red heart still beat—faintly, weakly.
Without hesitation, Cain reached down and seized the heart in his grip.
It was hot.
Different from Glacione’s heart—a sickly, venomous heat that nauseated him.
But Cain paid it no mind.
He’d repeated this act dozens of times in his past life.
Chomp.
He took his first bite.
Black blood ran down his chin.
[…….]
Bernatus turned away once more.
[……I shall survey the treasure vault instead.]
“Very well.”
After Bernatus vanished, Cain chewed methodically on the heart.
The toxin burned down his throat.
A venom potent enough that any ordinary human would have died from a single bite.
But when consumed through a dragon’s heart, the poison is absorbed into the body along with the Mana.
Once he finished consuming the heart, Cain settled into a cross-legged meditation.
The Mana within his body began to circulate violently.
He guided the flow of essence, layering new rings atop his existing 5th Circle.
Half a day passed before Cain opened his eyes.
‘6th Circle.’
The Circle had formed stably.
He’d reached a level where he could manifest the full output of a 6th Circle without the Mana Amplification Necklace.
‘Now, with the necklace, I can draw upon the 7th Circle.’
The necklace was a rare treasure that elevated one’s Circle by a stage, but regrettably, the 7th was its limit.
Anything beyond that could not be amplified.
‘That’s fine. Now I can finally balance Aura and Magic together.’
7th Star with 7th Circle.
By aligning both evenly, he could now wield the true power of a Spellblade, fusing Aura and Magic as one.
‘At this level, I might even stand against an Adult-Rank Dragon.’
An Ancient-Rank Diolramir like the one he’d just killed would be far easier to capture.
As Cain rose to his feet, Bernatus approached.
[Seer, there was nothing unusual in the treasure vault.]
“No artifacts?”
[None.]
“I see. The Glacione Lair must have been an exceptional case.”
He needed to take the venom pouch with him.
The Black Dragon Venom Pouch—the very item the Magic Tower in Estral had been searching for.
The information he’d gleaned from his conversation with the merchant lord had conveniently connected to the creature he’d just hunted.
‘If I bring this, I’ll have grounds to make contact with the Magic Tower.’
He needed to establish a connection with the Magic Tower if he was to pursue the heirloom.
Cain carved open the flesh below the Diolramir’s neck and extracted the venom pouch.
A fist-sized pouch of violet hue glistened with moisture.
He wrapped the pouch in cloth, stowed it in his pack, cleaned himself with Clean Magic, and climbed out of the tunnel.
The metallic stench of blood lingered at Cain’s nostrils as he emerged from the Lair.
It wasn’t dragon’s blood.
The keen nose of a Sword Master detected the scent of bandits’ blood.
‘It seems the time limit has passed.’
He’d said fifteen minutes, but with no precise means of measuring time, they would have struggled to gauge when to flee.
Still, a few had escaped beyond the Toxic Mist and now stood leaning against tree trunks, staring blankly at their comrades’ corpses.
‘Lucky bastards.’
He’d never expected them to survive in the first place.
Bait had served its purpose.
Then Walter came rushing from the distance.
He remained unharmed, having stayed outside the Toxic Mist’s range.
“Prince Cain! You’ve emerged at last? The men……!”
“Poisoned, by the look of it.”
Cain’s reply was measured.
Even those who had escaped beyond the Toxic Mist were in poor condition.
Where the poison had grazed their skin, it had turned black, and several had already ceased breathing.
“How many are dead?”
“Six, sir…… The rest aren’t in much better shape…….”
“We take only those who can still move. The dead are beyond help.”
“Is there no antidote? If we leave them as they are, the others will…….”
“Black Dragon venom has no antidote.”
Walter’s face went ashen.
“Then these men are simply to die……?”
“They have to. There’s no help for it.”
Walter fell silent.
It wasn’t a lie.
In truth, Cain himself had no means to counter Black Dragon venom.
“Prepare yourself quickly. We have far to go.”
“Wait. Surely we ought to give them a proper burial, shouldn’t we?”
“Have you grown sentimental over a child’s game?”
……
There was no reason to pay respects to men who’d once fed on the backs of others.
“Follow me. Don’t waste time on things that don’t matter.”
Cain walked on without turning back.
‘This should be sufficient.’
He didn’t need to see Walter’s face to understand.
How much resentment and rage Walter would harbor toward him.
How he would nurture thoughts of vengeance, muttering someday he’d have his due.
To an outsider, it would seem foolish to sow such enmity—but Cain knew this action would become a cornerstone for drawing the dragon into his web.
‘The Black Dragon is particularly sensitive to scent.’
As the distance between them grew, Walter looked among his men with deliberation.
He gazed down at each of his fallen men’s faces one by one, then squeezed his eyes shut.
“……I’m sorry.”
That single phrase was the entirety of the funeral rite.
Walter roused the few unpoisoned men and followed in Cain’s wake.
“Where are we headed?”
“To Estral.”
Walter asked nothing more.
There was no point—asking wouldn’t change the situation.

* * *
As magic advanced, so too did human civilization.
And the kingdom that stood at the pinnacle of that civilization was Estral.
An enormous dome woven from eighty thousand Barrier Stones enveloped the entire kingdom, and within it rose the Magic Tower, symbol of all mages.
From within that tower, a figure known as a legend among mages regarded the man before her with grave, unyielding eyes.
“You still haven’t found it?”
“I apologize, Master.”
“Did I not grant you six months?”
“I’ve been searching relentlessly through merchant guild heads across numerous kingdoms, but… the item itself is…”
“Are you calling that an excuse?”
“My apologies.”
Kasien Astron, the Tower Master, clicked his tongue sharply and fixed Erika with a gaze of crystalline cold.
“Press the merchant heads as hard as necessary—I want the Black Dragon Venom Pouch obtained at any cost. Commit all available resources to acquiring it.”
“Yes, understood. I’ll begin immediately.”
The moment Erika stepped from the chamber, her feet found the Teleport Gate.
There was no reason to delay.
She intended to move at once.
Whooooooom—
Even as the apparatus hummed to life, Erika’s mind had already sifted through the countless merchant heads she’d contacted, settling on one.
‘I should go there first.’
The Karvan Merchant Guild in the Assel Kingdom.
Though not the largest operation, they were resourceful—able to procure even the rarest of items through sheer determination and reach.
Years ago, they’d even brought her something entirely unexpected.
‘Let’s hope they can deliver this time.’
A brilliant flash erupted, and the ground lurched beneath her.
She blinked once, and the world around Erika transformed completely.
It appeared to be an ordinary dwelling, but in truth it was a hidden waypoint of the Magic Tower planted deep within the Assel Kingdom.
No one would ever suspect that such a massive magical apparatus as a Teleport Gate lay concealed within its walls.
Erika shed her robes and dressed in plain garments, then stepped out into the street.
The altered landscape drove home the truth—she had crossed an entire kingdom in a heartbeat.
‘For the Master’s sake, I must obtain that item quickly.’
Erika’s steps carried her toward the Karvan Merchant Guild’s storehouse.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————