The Dragon's Breath
“Alright, everyone in order. Going in early doesn’t get you anything special.”
First-years forming parties together was normally forbidden. The sole exception was our party. Other cadets might have protested… but of course they didn’t.
Vanguard Department top seat Radion, second seat Luca. Assault Department top seat Estellia, second seat Dierban. Mage Department top seat Kanahan. Support Department Elessia, Special Forces Department Eileen.
Three top seats and two second seats. We were stronger than most parties made entirely of fourth-years. Naturally no one objected. We even had a future duke and a sitting count among us.
“By the way, Dierban. You’re fine with the family head being here?”
“Huh? Of course. Don’t you know our house?”
The Silvere family was a famous archery house that regularly produced Expert-level bowmen. The reason they had never become a ducal house was simple: loyalty. They took pride in being a pillar of the Ermadin Kingdom without needing the ducal title, and their ancestors had deliberately left no room for future generations to rebel. The Ermadin royal family knew this and treated them better than dukes—almost like members of the imperial house itself. In fact, Dierban’s mother was said to have been one of the kingdom’s princesses.
“Our turn. Shall we?”
“Hell yeah!”
This time Dierban had flexed the count’s power and booked a restaurant far more expensive than the one Radion had reserved. Radion immediately threatened that next time a party formed he would drag us all the way to an imperial restaurant. Naturally the rest of us had no reason to refuse free food.
“This the place?”
“Not a cave this time.”
Most dungeons formed in caves. The reason lay in how dungeon cores were born. Miasma—the energy of the demon race commonly called demons. Demons themselves still existed, hiding across the continent and sowing chaos. When that miasma drifted through the air and finally pooled densely in one place, a core formed. That was why cores, pure lumps of miasma, were so valuable.
“Orc village. Miasma would pile up here for sure.”
Any place packed with monsters naturally accumulated thick miasma. Monsters handled miasma by nature. Long ago they had used mana, but after the Great War between humans and demons they accepted miasma and had been able to wield it ever since.
“Eileen, scout first. Estellia, have your spirits recon for us.”
“Got it!”
“Alright.”
For the record, Radion had become vice-party leader. He won rock-paper-scissors. Come to think of it, Radion and Estellia had known each other so long that she used casual speech with him.
…That kind of pisses me off.
I’d have to talk to Estellia about it after the subjugation.
“Alright. Let’s get ready for combat.”
“Valter… ah, is it okay if I call you Elessia?”
“Ah… yes!”
“Then Elessia, set up a simple base so we can rest.”
“L-leave it to me!”
Elessia hurriedly opened the subspace bag she had brought and began constructing a base. Against an orc village the textbook method was to thin their numbers by carefully eliminating scouts first.
Rustle…
The instant the sound reached him, Radion shifted his grip on his sword toward it.
“Owl?”
“Pasta.”
Eileen emerged from the underbrush. Her expression was hard.
“The miasma’s way too thick. There might even be a shaman.”
“Numbers?”
“A lot. The examiner said five hundred, but there’s easily over a thousand.”
Radion’s face twisted. A shaman didn’t worry me—I was here—but the numbers did. We had to fight while protecting Elessia and Eileen, and we still had to watch for a possible surprise attack from Belpherno’s side.
“Estellia. Your take?”
“Eileen’s right. Over a thousand. The miasma concentration is so high the spirits can’t go deep. An upper-rank spirit could, but then the shaman would notice.”
“We take the scouts first. I think we can handle it. If it really goes south, we tear the return talismans.”
Originally they used buttons, but I had spoken to Pinya and distributed return talismans I made myself. Each person carried one; tear it and you automatically returned to the Academy. Since everyone had their own, even if someone lost theirs you could just hold hands and tear one. They worked even if the gate buttons failed, and because monsters could pass through an open gate, the talismans prevented monsters from following us back.
“Those return talismans were a nice little earner. A hundred gold each. Looks like the Lucian Kingdom paid well this time.”
Which meant the Lucian Kingdom’s situation was that bad.
Snap!
I stuck simple illusion talismans on the surrounding trees. Sound-sealing talismans and twenty layers of barriers went up as well.
“Elessia’s safe now. Even a demon couldn’t find her. So go wild.”
I grinned.
“Really appreciate it, Kanahan.”
“Oh, come visit the count’s house later. I protected the future countess, after all.”
“W-what are you saying…!”
Classic no-filter straight-shooter Dierban. Beside him Radion’s face crumpled at having the first move stolen.
“Haa… can we just start already?”
“Ahem. Let’s go.”
We left Elessia to finish the base and stationed Eileen there as well just in case. Leaving the two behind, we moved out carefully.
“Ku…hwek?”
Luca cut down the orc that pushed through the brush with a single stroke. She shoved the body aside and it toppled. Four more orcs stared in shock at their fallen comrade. With numbers this high they were running five-man teams instead of three.
“Spirits.”
Grrrrrk…
The earth beneath the orcs turned to thick mud and sucked their feet in. Then, as if drought had struck, the mud hardened completely and bound them fast.
“Kurorororok!”
An orc screamed for its comrades.
“No use. I already put up sound-sealing talismans.”
Shing…
Fwoooooosh!
Radion moved to finish them, but a single arrow from behind punched clean through the brows of all four orcs in a perfect line.
Dierban. A Bow Master. His arrow drew a graceful arc and ended them. Even Expert Advanced Radion hadn’t been able to react to an arrow that broke the sound barrier.
Clap clap clap.
“Damn, not bad. Pretty solid.”
“To receive such praise from Lord Kanahan… I hardly know where to put myself.”
A hundred points! A perfect hundred!
I clapped and hyped him up; Radion snapped irritably,
“…We’re moving.”
After that it was easy. I always carried sound-sealing talismans. Radion and Dierban slaughtered orcs like they were competing. Luca eventually told them to leave some for her.
“How many today?”
“Two hundred.”
In just four hours we had taken down two hundred. Even the orcs would realize something was wrong.
And the next day, we underestimated orc intelligence.
“What? Numbers dropped so they switched from five-man to three-man teams…?”
Classic orcs! Far smarter than we expected. There was a shaman around and they still acted this stupidly. On the second day our kill count fell from two hundred to a hundred fifty. Fewer of them wandering around; nothing we could do about it.
“Damn… Estellia. This is actually delicious.”
“I want a bite too… never mind.”
Eileen had been about to ask for a taste, saw Elessia looking dejected, and backed off. The delicious soup Estellia had made just for me. For the record, Elessia’s soup was merely okay. Estellia’s was the real deal.
“I want some too!”
“…Alright. Here.”
Estellia must have accepted Luca as well; she spooned some for her. Of course I fed her myself. In the end Radion, Dierban, and Eileen ate with Elessia. Luca and I ate with Estellia.
Complaints? None. They were my women. And from a medieval perspective this was completely normal. Medieval utilization rate: one hundred percent.
“What do we do tomorrow? Just start with a bombardment?”
“Not a bad idea. Whatever the party leader wants.”
“Nice… then Elessia and Eileen stay here. The rest of us go full frontal tomorrow. How much should I put out?”
I hadn’t joined a single fight so far. Why bother when auto-hunting worked fine? So I asked the kids how much power I should use this time.
Dierban, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
“Please grant us the chance to witness Lord Kanahan’s power.”
I grinned.
“That’s what I wanted to hear.”
I had been stacking Law Power without using any; my body felt stiff and heavy. As someone loved by the stars it was like constantly drinking water even though I wasn’t thirsty. The Talisman Spirit kept spitting out talismans, but nothing felt better than burning power in actual combat.
Day three. Normally I would have fed them to Cheongbing and her young, but this time I wanted to play a little myself. And I had some other business to take care of while I was at it. No harm in preparing early.
Behind me the others, lightly armed, watched. We stood on a mountain ridge that overlooked the entire orc village.
“Alright… time I showed you why I’m a talisman mage.”
Rustle… whisper…
The talismans that had been resting quietly against my chest floated into the air as if excited. Of course I kept them in the star-space I created with shamanism. Talismans poured out of the star-space like mad and blanketed the sky.
These weren’t attack talismans like Ignition Talismans. Guardian Talismans. Not painstakingly crafted ones—mass-produced ahead of time using the Talisman Spirit. Still better than anything a normal talisman mage could make.
“Using all of them would be a waste, right? So I had a good idea.”
“What are you suddenly talking about…”
Radion looked at me with uneasy eyes.
I grinned.
“Let’s take care of the demon while we’re at it.”
The moment the words left my mouth, the building in the center of the orc village exploded.
BOOOOOOM!
Black smoke billowed. From within it something emerged.
Crunch… crunch…
Red skin. Black eyes. A demon.
“What the hell…!”
Dierban hurriedly nocked an arrow; I caught his bow with one hand.
Stay still. That’s my prey.
Understanding my intent, Dierban lowered his bow with a complicated expression.
“This… is an original talisman I made myself.”
Even among mages, those who entered the Support Department might have lower magical ranks, but they were masters of their level. Embedding magic into artifacts was difficult. The same applied to shamans. Putting power into a talisman required that much effort and talent. Being good at driving a car didn’t mean you were good at building one. Think of it that way and it made sense.
“Have any of you ever seen a dragon?”
“No.”
Dragons. The beings commonly called dragons. True to romance-fantasy form, the author treated “yong” and “dragon” as synonyms and mixed them freely. Sometimes dragon, sometimes yong. And in this romance fantasy, dragons were sacred, noble beings that could incinerate mere demons in an instant.
“I’ve met one. In the North.”
And fought one.
“This is the talisman I created after gaining enlightenment from that battle.”
Not ordinary yellow paper. Special orange paper I had crafted myself covered the sky. And the characters written on them:
Dragon Breath Talisman (龍息符)
For an instant the world lost all sound.
———!
The Dragon Breath Talisman was modeled after the highest calamity of the North—the White Dragon. A dragon that commanded ice like a god. A dragon that had lived for thousands of years. When I took its breath head-on I had felt pure exhilaration. That something could be this powerful.
And now—
“Heh… heheh… Kuhahahahahahahaha!”
The Dragon Breath Talisman, refined and refined and refined again. A breath that surpassed even a dragon’s. I could say it with absolute certainty: this was the strongest attack I had ever unleashed.
KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG———!
Of the twenty-layered barriers I had set up in advance, only three survived. Every Guardian Talisman floating in the sky shattered as well—from the sound waves and shockwaves alone. And the dragon’s breath… no, the shamanic breath that erupted from the talismans reduced the orc village to absolute rubble. A massive crater as if a dragon had appeared and taken a single bite. An enormous pit yawned before our eyes.
“Is that… the same species as us?”
The demon? Nowhere to be seen. Reduced to dust and gone. The dungeon core likewise. None of that mattered to me. I had come this far for this single moment.
Gulp… gulp…
A rare elixir that temporarily allows the user to ignore the laws of causality.
Effect:Temporarily ignore Causality
“Haa… haa…”
Crunch…
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
“What in the world…?”
Dierban stared in horror. My body began to rearrange itself.
The Causality Potion temporarily allowed one to ignore Causality—the force that upheld the world. Even though I had created this talisman, I had been unable to use it because I first had to break through the limits of being human. And now I had drunk the Causality Potion and reproduced a dragon’s power with my own hands.
Do you know what the result was?
Hissssssssss…
“Haa…”
Steam poured from my body. Every party member watching felt it.
Kanahan, face filled with pure exhilaration. He was no longer the same kind of human as them.