A Sacred Relic and a New Journey

To some, it was a sacred relic. An ancient dungeon core was different from the standard cores of the 72 Dungeons in every conceivable way.

Most importantly, unlike standard dungeon cores, it placed no restrictions on who could absorb it. This meant that even I, who wasn't a true dungeon boss, could absorb an ancient dungeon core.

I was likely the only one who knew its location, which was harder to find than any ancient ruin. Actually, calling it a "location" was a bit of a misnomer. It was more accurate to say I knew of a definitive landmark, and I was going to use it to track the place down.

'If I can just absorb that, I'll basically become a cheat character.'

Every single ancient dungeon core boasted power that easily eclipsed those of the 72 Dungeons. Was it because they had aged over time? That was true, but there was also one incredibly broken mechanic at play.

When the boss of an ancient dungeon died, its entire life force was preserved directly within the dungeon core. The Grave of the Ancient Dragon, my upcoming destination, was no exception. The Dragon Heart left behind by the ancient dragon upon its death had fused with the dungeon core.

As a result, absorbing the core would allow one to wield the traits of that ancient boss. Of course, it wasn't something you could just use indefinitely at will; the effects were temporary, and there were numerous other restrictions. Simply put, it was a conditional cheat mode, but even that was something to be incredibly grateful for.

With just Isabella and Charlotte by my side, the raid on the Grave of the Ancient Dragon already felt like a guaranteed success. Just as I was making up my mind to start preparing for the journey...

"My Lord. May I attempt to raise Wilhelm as an undead?"

Charlotte's voice, speaking as she entered the boss room after a polite knock, reminded me of something I had completely forgotten.

Wilhelm! He was a Hero to begin with, so if this went well, he would make a top-tier undead.

Moreover, unlike Valmonk's case, his corpse was completely intact and undamaged.

Without his Holy Sword, Wilhelm's level was 84. If the undead transformation succeeded, I could realistically hope for him to reach level 85 or even 86.

Whatever the case, if this succeeded, our chances of clearing the ancient dungeon would shoot up to at least eighty percent. Since it was such a crucial matter, I maintained my composure and spoke with deliberate calm.

"Are you certain of success?"

"Yes. I have read the treatise on Dullahan transformation twenty times over. I will absolutely not disappoint you. Please, grant me this opportunity."

Charlotte spoke with a face more solemn than ever. Beneath her expressionless facade, I could feel a grim, unyielding determination. She was confident, and above all...

She had somehow gained another level in the meantime.

Despite already being in the high-level range of the 80s, she had experienced a steep climb of three levels ever since I gave her the Necronomicon. As expected of the combination of the Necronomicon and the Demone Charlotte.

"I permit it."

"I will succeed, without fail."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Come to think of it, she had developed deep dark circles under her eyes since I last saw her. She must have stayed up all night, every night, studying necromancy. My, how admirable.

While I left the boss room and waited in the hall of the tenth floor, Charlotte headed off somewhere. She was likely going to thaw Wilhelm's corpse, which had been kept frozen in storage with ice magic.

Before long, I saw skeleton soldiers carrying Wilhelm's corpse from a distance.

They carefully laid the body and the head down on the floor, separate from each other.

Charlotte stared intently at me, then spoke.

"I shall begin."

'Please, please, please. Let this succeed.'

Even though I was sweating bullets, Charlotte looked perfectly calm. With both hands outstretched, Charlotte began to mutter an incantation. The ominous energy radiating from her fingertips grew increasingly vivid. Each particle of dark mana began to materialize.

'The start is definitely promising this time.'

Once the dark mana made contact, the corpse began to twitch intermittently. The ink-colored mana, rising like incense, drifted in and out of the corpse's airways, such as its nose and mouth.

Whoosh! At that moment, a green flame flared up from the severed neck.

With the screech of grinding metal, the twitching torso stood upright, bold as brass. As the Dullahan opened its hand, the shadows receded, and a pitch-black greatsword materialized in its grasp. Its other hand was already cradling its own head.

"I shall follow my master."

With a heavy thud, the Dullahan dropped to one knee before Charlotte.

From 84 to 86. This was a triumph that could only be described as a massive success. It was proof that all her hard work had not been in vain.

Sensing my presence, Charlotte immediately looked up and met my eyes.

"You succeeded. Well done."

"...Thank you."

Looking closely, I noticed the tips of her fingers trembling ever so slightly. Only now did I realize that Charlotte had been the most nervous of us all. Since she had overcome the immense pressure and succeeded, she deserved all the praise in the world. I decided to reward her by evolving her creation.

...All conditions? Wilhelm's death certainly shouldn't have counted as a sacrifice.

'Or was it? I suppose staying behind to let his comrades escape and dying alone counts as a sacrifice in its own way.'

I thought the criteria for a "sacrifice" depended entirely on one's mindset, but it seemed there was more to it than that. Well, a win is a win. I leisurely walked over and placed my hand on the Dullahan's shoulder.

Since his potential had already been partially unlocked in life, a double evolution was out of the question. Still, a guaranteed hundred percent success rate was plenty to be happy about.

Whoosh! Following the evolution, the flame on his severed head shifted from green to a deep purple.

A Dullahan's strength was measured by the color of its flame. There were three tiers: blue, green, and purple.

I recalled that Karleon's flame was exactly that shade of purple.

He was now at the exact same level as Karleon.

Sensing a gaze on me, I looked over to find Charlotte staring. Her lips parted slightly, and she stepped forward to stand before me. Once she reached me, she bowed her head deeply before speaking.

"Thank you for always making up for my shortcomings."

"Shortcomings? Nonsense. You did exceptionally well."

I wasn't just saying that to be polite; I meant it. I patted her on the shoulder to encourage her, causing her shoulders to tremble slightly.

And her level color... Honestly, I was getting tired of pointing it out. Lately, I'd been seeing hot pink far more often than dark green. Just like right now.

As Charlotte turned her back to the Dullahan, the undead knight dissolved into the shadows, sinking into the floor.

High-tier necromancers usually kept their summons hidden away like this, summoning them only when needed. Charlotte had officially joined their ranks.

'The time has come.'

The raid on the ancient dungeon. Charlotte, Isabella, Wilhelm, and Bargore. Let's go.

Before leaving the dungeon, I snapped off my horns and concealed my face beneath a helmet. Even though the horns would eventually regenerate, it still broke my heart.

'Honestly, those horns were so badass.'

I also wrapped the Holy Sword tightly in bandages, making it look like an ordinary sword at a glance.

Charlotte had changed into travel clothes as well: a linen tunic, a sheepskin coat, and leather trousers. Since a light drizzle was falling, she had also oiled her traveling cloak to repel the water.

Charlotte insisted on carrying the travel pack herself. I had originally offered to carry it, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but she adamantly refused. Then again, it would look pretty ridiculous for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a dungeon boss to act as a pack mule.

"Oh. This might actually be pretty convenient."

Flap, flap.

I only found out later, but Isabella could polymorph into a bat, meaning she didn't need any disguise magic. I recalled reading in the game's lore that a Vampire Queen could transform into a bat, though I had never actually seen it in-game.

Since claiming she was a pet bat would make for a flimsy excuse, we agreed that she would simply fly at a distance, tailing us from afar.

Charlotte took one last look in a hand mirror. Her disguise magic was working perfectly; her magic-circle pupils had reverted to normal human ones. It was a hassle, but all of this was necessary to pass through the cities of the Empire.

"By the way, Boss. What business do we have in the Frozen Lands?"

Hearing a bat talk was honestly pretty bizarre.

Earlier, since I couldn't think of a good excuse, I had simply told them I had some business to attend to. I had added that I was bringing them along because they were my two most trusted guards.

Charlotte had accepted it without a word, but Isabella was brimming with curiosity. When I met her question with silence, she threw another one my way.

"So, how long are we going to be there?"

"At least a week."

"Ugh..."

"I do not mind. I will stay close and guard you, Boss."

It would take at least a week, and could easily stretch to a month. Even so, for an ancient dungeon core, it was a journey I had to make.

There were two abilities to be gained from the core of the Grave of the Ancient Dragon. First was Dragon Fear. Second was the authority of the Dragon Tongue.

Fear was a murderous aura akin to the overwhelming pressure emitted by the bosses of the Abyss Palaces. In fact, dragons were the originators of Fear, and it had once been their exclusive domain.

For someone like me, who was currently posing as a lord of the Mugan 7-gung, it was an absolutely vital ability. With Dragon Fear, no one would ever dare to doubt my identity.

The second ability, Dragon Tongue, allowed one to imbue a single word with mystical power. It was the ultimate evolution of power words, capable of subduing or even killing an opponent with a single spoken word.

Actually, calling the Dragon Tongue "speech" was a bit vague, and calling it a "sentence" was flat-out wrong. It was literally a single word or phrase. It ranged from a single syllable to four syllables at most, so "word" was the most accurate description.

The funny thing was, to use the Dragon Tongue in the game, you actually had to type it out in the chat. That was why the chat function had remained active even after I was pulled into this reality.

'To think my memories of spamming Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V during raids would come in handy here.'

The reason I had copy-pasted those short chat commands back then was simple: I wasn't very familiar with Hanja.

From a modern person's perspective, the ancient dragon that ruled the dungeon was far from a purebred Western dragon. Although the game's lore classified all of them as dragons, to my eyes, it looked like a hybrid with an Eastern dragon.

'Its design certainly suggested as much.'

Of course, it was already dead, so it wouldn't actually appear. However, the developers had once shared the ancient dragon's concept art on their social media.

While its limbs and body were mostly dragon-like, its horns were like those of a deer, and it carried a bead in its mouth like a Yeouiju.

Even the Dragon Tongue used by the ancient dragon consisted of Hanja characters rather than Western runes. I had a strong suspicion that the Dragon Heart fused with the dungeon core was actually a Yeouiju.

But hey, if the developers officially insisted it was a purebred dragon, who was I to argue? I just had to roll with it.

"Boss. I am terribly sorry. I realized I forgot something."

I was slightly surprised to hear those words from Charlotte. It was unlike her to be so forgetful.

"I shall wait."

"My apologies."

Charlotte quickly hurried back toward the dungeon. As I watched her retreating figure, an idle thought crossed my mind.

'...Wait, now that I think about it, doesn't it look like my horns?'

Only now did I realize that my horns were deer-like, just like the ancient dragon's. What a strange coincidence.

At that moment, Charlotte was thoroughly searching the fifth floor. Before long, her eyes caught sight of two horns that resembled deer antlers.

She couldn't believe how such precious things had been discarded like common trash.

Hastily gathering the horns, Charlotte made her way toward her office with stealthy yet rapid steps.

She made sure to keep a vigilant eye on her surroundings, ensuring no one would spot her.

Slipping quietly into her office, she carefully placed the horns inside a secret drawer.

Her next destination was the boss room of the Tomb of Faith.

Stepping quietly into the boss room, Charlotte scanned the area.

Her gaze landed on Hellboki, who was busy tearing into a piece of meat.

Even though it was cheap, gamey meat purchased from a merchant guild, he was devouring it with relish.

Pant, pant.

Noticing Charlotte, Hellboki stopped eating and trotted over to cling to her.

Charlotte stroked the scruff of his neck while continuing to look around.

Soon, her eyes fell upon a bone lying carelessly on the floor.

'...The Boss's bone.'

She had been keeping a close eye on it, so there was absolutely no way she was mistaken.

She swallowed hard, her throat tight with anticipation.

"Woof! Woof, woof!"

The moment Charlotte reached for the bone, Hellboki began to bark. It seemed he didn't want his toy taken away.

Left with no choice, she immediately summoned a skeleton and dismantled it.

As a heap of bones clattered to the floor, Hellboki began to bounce around in excitement.

"You may have all of these. If it is not enough, I shall provide more."

Pant, pant. "Woof!"

Taking that as an agreement, Charlotte took a deep breath and reached out.

Her trembling fingertips gently grasped the Boss's rib bone.

"..."

After caressing the bone all over, Charlotte unbuttoned the front of her tunic.

She slipped the bone inside, placing it right against her chest where her heart beat, before fastening her clothes once more.

Whimper...

Was it because it was his very first toy, or did he recognize that it was no ordinary bone?

Hellboki stared up at Charlotte with a look of profound loss.

"This is absolutely not a toy. It is a sacred relic."

Whiiiimper...

"Do not look at me like that. I shall treasure it and put it to good use."

She stroked the bone through the linen fabric. Perhaps due to her pounding heart, she felt a faint, echoing vibration.

"Thanks to you, I depart with a sacred relic."

Charlotte murmured with a faint, soft smile as she patted Hellboki's head.