The Dragon Slayer Who Regressed After 1,000 Years - Chapter 46

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Dragon Slayer Who Returned After 1000 Years – Episode 46
Crunch, crunch—
Even as Erika walked through the corridors of the Magic Tower, guiding him toward the location of the Gem Box, she couldn’t make sense of what had just happened.
‘Me—a disciple of the continent’s greatest mage—defeated so effortlessly like this…’
And by an unknown young mage, no less.
For Erika, who had reached the 6th Circle in her late twenties and earned the title of prodigy, it was utterly incomprehensible.
‘This doesn’t add up. He looks younger than me…’
She had been outmatched in every regard—the sophistication of his spell formulas, the speed of his calculations, the density of his mana.
At minimum, he would need to be 7th Circle to explain such prowess.
Yet even that seemed impossible to believe.
‘He looks like he’s in his early twenties, and 7th Circle? That’s something even my teacher couldn’t achieve.’
Kasien, the Tower Master, had reached 6th Circle in his mid-twenties.
With such a narrow gap compared to Kasien, Erika’s talents were beyond question.
That was surely why she had been accepted as his direct disciple despite her lower Circle rank.
‘Where did this talent even come from? If the Tower Master had been present, he would have surely taken him as his disciple…’
“Is this the right way?”
“Ah…”
“Don’t daydream. Guide me properly. Unless you value your life cheaply.”
“…I understand.”
Had it not been for the threats, they might have become master and disciple.
‘Damn it. How did things come to this?’
This was a disaster of the highest order.
She’d been trying to steal the Poison Pouch, and now look at her situation.
Of course, she wasn’t simply surrendering without resistance.
‘I need to contact someone when I get the chance.’
While she couldn’t overpower him alone, if senior mages of a higher Circle stepped in, she could escape this predicament.
‘Best would be to call my teacher.’
If that 9th Circle mage intervened, resolving this situation would be child’s play.
Contacting her teacher at the first opportunity was the wisest course of action.
But her pride wouldn’t allow her to call for help.
‘I’ll have to find another way.’
Erika changed direction toward the chamber where Illusion Magic lay woven throughout.
With dozens of traps that shifted according to set patterns, this place was perfect for separating him from her.
It had been designed with exactly that purpose in mind, after all.
Just as she was about to open the door, a wary voice came from behind.
“Wait. You’re actually guiding me properly, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said you’d guide me to where the Gem Box is kept, didn’t you?”
“That’s what I’m doing. We have to pass through here to reach that location.”
“…”
He remained silent for a moment, as if sensing something amiss, then nodded.
“Then guide me.”
Even as Erika entered the chamber, she couldn’t help but click her tongue inwardly.
‘How did he figure out that I’m leading him into a trap?’
It was a sense that bordered on madness.
‘So she’s leading me into a trap.’
Cain, who possessed the Seer’s Eyes, could see it clearly.
All the Illusion Magic woven throughout this chamber.
‘She means to confuse me, trap me in here, and separate herself from me.’
But that future would never come to pass.
The moment he read the future, it ceased to exist.
Cain followed her in anyway, fully aware of this.
Because the possibility remained that what lay beyond this chamber was genuine—that the Gem Box truly waited there.
The moment he stepped into the room, the environment transformed.
Chirping birds and massive leaves, trees packed densely together.
‘All of it is fake, constructed from illusion.’
Soon, the first trap appeared.
A pattern of collapsing ground.
He saw the future where the moment his foot landed, the earth beneath him would crumble, trapping him in another illusory space.
And Erika, watching from above, was smiling down at him mockingly.
But.
‘I won’t fall for this so easily.’
Cain adjusted his stride with microscopic precision and passed through untouched.
As if he’d known the trap’s location from the start.
Erika’s expression hardened.
‘Coincidence……?’
The second trap appeared shortly after.
A section where space itself twisted.
The ground fractured at regular intervals, and a wrong step would splinter you into a separate dimension with no way out.
It lay hidden beneath Illusion Magic, utterly invisible to the eye.
Even the Magic Tower’s own mages were lost here on their first visit, wandering in confusion for hours.
Cain pressed himself close against Erika’s back just before the junction and fell through into the same space as her.
“Please don’t stand so close…….”
Erika said it, but Cain caught the alarm flickering across her face.
‘Who is this person……? How did he evade twice in a row?’
He’d cleared both the floor-collapse trap and the space-warping trap.
He’d broken through the Illusion Magic realm she’d poured her heart into creating.
‘It has to be coincidence. There’s no way he gets past the third one.’
The third trap was a vortex pattern.
The floor rotated every second, shearing pursuers away from you.
It was known as a trap even the Magic Tower’s mages struggled to clear without proper training.
You had to time the rotation perfectly to drop into the same space, and gauging that timing was anything but simple.
‘He absolutely cannot escape this one.’
Erika declared it to herself with absolute certainty—but that confidence crumbled just as fast.
Tap.
Cain had dropped into the exact same space.
“Surprisingly entertaining place, this.”
His calm tone made Erika struggle to suppress the seething beneath her skin.
The traps continued beyond that.
Thirty-eight in total.
Mirror labyrinths, gravity-inversion zones, phantom-noise fields, time-delay circuits—and more.
Not a single one was a simple trap.
They were Chief Mage Erika’s pride, refined over years of meticulous work.
Yet none of them could shake Cain loose.
He evaded with leisure, as though he’d known every answer before entering.
Zing―
Erika glared silently at the figure still clinging to her back.
Her eyes asked: You know all the answers, don’t you?
You’re toying with me right now, aren’t you?
Her gaze spoke volumes, but Erika didn’t know.
That her companion was a master of deception.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
“More importantly, when exactly do we arrive?”
“It’s……originally quite far.”
“And it feels like we’ve been going in circles on the same path.”
“That can’t be.”
“Look.”
He pointed to the dense trees surrounding them.
“The shape of the trees and the leaf patterns are identical to when we first entered, aren’t they?”
He remembers that?
Impossible.
“You must be joking…….”
“I’m not joking.”
Cain reached into empty air.
Creak―
“See? It’s the door we came through at the start.”
Alarm flooded Erika’s eyes.
She had no idea how he’d discovered the location of the illusory door and opened it.
‘Damn it……he really was toying with me the whole time, wasn’t he?’
Hoping Erika would fall into the illusion trap turned out to be nothing but a vain wish.
“Ah… thinking about it now, this isn’t the place… I must have made a mistake.”
Erika let out a hollow sigh and withdrew from the illusory chamber.
“This time you’d better guide me properly. Play tricks and you’re dead.”
“…I understand.”
Having grasped that no method would work against this man, Erika moved forward.
This time she guided him correctly.
Toward where the Gem Box lay.
‘The moment he touches the Gem Box, Master will be notified at once.’
In the end, there was no choice but to summon the Tower Master.
That was the only way to stop this man.
The place Erika arrived at was before a door guarded by two sentries.
“Moren, you’ve arrived. And this person is…?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Erika placed her hand on the crystal orb.
These guards were no match for this man.
Rather than create unnecessary casualties, there was nothing for it but to retrieve the Gem Box quickly.
As magical power flowed into it, the crystal orb read the registered pattern.
Click—
The door opened and she stepped through.
“What is this place?”
“A storage vault for various research materials.”
Erika answered his question readily, moving toward the center.
A luminous Gem Box with red and blue light interweaving lay there in the middle.
“We’ve kept it here because there’s been no progress for fifteen years.”
Erika lifted the Gem Box.
In that instant, relief flickered across her eyes.
‘The signal should have reached Master by now.’
She concealed her elated expression and extended the Gem Box toward him.
“This is it, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Here you go.”
Cain took the Gem Box.
He’d finally found the family heirloom he’d traded for a few loaves of bread fifteen years ago.
“It’s an object with magical power, so we tried studying it, but we couldn’t determine where the power was emanating from or what function it possessed. We even attempted to destroy it, but it didn’t sustain a single scratch.”
Erika regarded Cain with a meaningful gaze.
“You know, don’t you? How to use it and what it’s worth.”
“I do.”
“What exactly is that object?”
This was the moment she might finally learn the answer to the question that had plagued her for fifteen years.
“I have no reason to tell you that.”
Cain answered coldly and placed the Gem Box inside his garments.
“Now that you’ve found the object, surely you could tell us its identity…?”
“Why would I tell the people who tried to kill me and steal my Poison Pouch?”
“….”
Finding nothing to say, Erika fell silent, and Cain gave her a glance.
“I’ve got what I came for. I’m leaving.”
“Wait!”
Erika grabbed at him urgently.
She had to buy time until Master arrived.
“Didn’t we have a deal? You have to give me the Poison Pouch before you go.”
“Oh, right.”
Cain pulled the Poison Pouch from his garments.
“Here.”
He tossed it carelessly, and Erika’s pupils dilated.
Barely catching it, she cried out with a reproachful stare.
“Are you insane? You can’t just throw something this dangerous around!”
By then Cain had already reached the door.
“Wait, hold on just a moment!”
Erika sprang up to chase him, but the door was already opening.
Just as she thought they might lose him, something shifted.
Erika felt her anxiety lift in an instant.
“Master!”
Her master and the Tower Lord of the Esthar Magic Tower, the continent’s mightiest ninth-circle mage—Kasien Astron.
He stood between them and Cain.
“I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“Master! He’s trying to steal the Gem Box!”
Something hardened in Kasien’s gaze.
“Then I cannot simply let him pass.”
His voice dropped an octave.
“Hand it over. That object belongs to me.”

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