Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: The Dragon's Forge
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“Hah…”
Julius let out a sigh of pleasure at the tingling sensation coursing through his body.
Beside him, several unique glass bottles of various colors lay scattered on the floor.
As he focused his mind, a vastly increased amount of prana circulated stably within him. An insignia shaped like a lightning bolt was now etched onto his lower abdomen.
‘The Mark of the Thunder God.’
The Thunder Spirit Body he had obtained from the free draw had made him consider acquiring this.
He couldn't use it fully yet.
‘But…’
This body was special.
No matter what elixir he drank, no matter what potion he consumed. It even accepted and absorbed mystical powers like insignias without any trouble.
As if even this wasn't enough, the body absorbed everything voraciously, a movement that slightly surprised even Julius, who knew of the original protagonist.
With a body like this, couldn't he compare his physical talent to that of the original protagonist?
He quickly changed into the clothes Reina had prepared, then left the secret chamber within the ruins.
Over the past month, he had plundered numerous ruins.
Ancient imperial currency, treasures like jewels and gold bars. From artistically valuable artifacts to the ancient relics many coveted.
He could only carry a few ancient relics out at a time, but after raiding so many ruins, the number had become substantial.
“Is this the last one here?”
Julius looked back at the ruins he had just exited and surveyed his surroundings.
He felt a sense of deep emotion seeing that the red sunset of evening had already arrived.
To think he had entered the ruins in the morning and only emerged in the evening.
It seemed absorbing the elixir had taken a bit of time.
‘I definitely can't take this lightly.’
He had pushed himself hard, determined to raid every last ruin within the county.
In the process, he had also plundered a ruin where a hidden piece lay dormant and had even managed to bring along Anya, an important supporting character of the future.
However, he was still short of the strength Julius aimed for.
“Ugh… this ruin was so difficult. I would have preferred a guardian, but a knowledge puzzle….”
As Anya spoke with a weary face, Julius nodded in agreement.
“We owe a lot to Reina for this one.”
Ancient ruins were classified into two types.
Hidden and not hidden.
Whether by design or by chance, hidden ancient ruins offered far more than those that were wide open.
However, many ruins were guarded by protectors established by their original owners or were locked without ancient knowledge.
As Julius explored the ruins, a few questions arose in his mind.
It seemed the purpose of every ruin was not to protect it, but to test intruders.
As if to say, if you are worthy, take the knowledge, the items, whatever you wish.
This was a question the original protagonist had also felt.
‘Though it was never revealed in the end.’
Perhaps, he thought, the goal was to preserve knowledge on the brink of destruction.
Wasn't that a rather common story?
Julius looked at Reina, who was silently following behind him, and spoke.
“Reina, is there anything you want? If there's something you need, let me know. I’ve gained a lot thanks to you.”
Reina shook her head and replied to him.
“No, Your Young Lordship. I was merely fulfilling my duties as a handmaiden.”
“Does that include following me into ruins?”
“Yes.”
As she expressed her refusal as if stating the obvious, Julius let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
“I wonder…”
I don’t think so.
No matter how much a handmaiden attends to a noble, it made no sense for her to follow him into a place that was clearly dangerous.
Julius took out a small bottle from his pocket. An elixir shimmering with a faint blue light.
[Tears of the Sea Nymph (S)]
An elixir the protagonist obtained in the middle of the original story. Its effect was to improve the circulation of prana within the body.
To put it bluntly, it was a downgraded fantasy version of a complete rebirth.
‘I was originally going to give this to my brother…’ For a fleeting moment, seven colors flickered in Julius's eyes as he looked at Reina. Yellow talent. Orange might have been acceptable, but yellow was far too lacking to accompany him on his journey.
His brother’s talent was black, unlike in the original story, so he would be fine.
Besides, hadn't Reina believed his crude excuse about hitting his head and devoted herself to him silently all this time?
‘I’ll have to give Allen something else.’
There was no guarantee Allen would be with him until the very end. But Reina was highly likely to follow Julius to the end.
Therefore, he offered her the elixir.
“Here.”
“Young Lord, this is…”
She wore a shocked expression.
“I've set aside something for Lord Allen, so this is your share.”
“But, even so, for a mere handmaiden like me…”
“No, this is a fair reward. Are you trying to make me into a lord with no principles?”
At his words, Reina accepted the elixir with a hesitant hand.
*Clap, clap, clap*
“Wow… so this is a real master-servant relationship!”
Anya watched the scene with great interest, then exclaimed with a bright smile.
“Now, let's return to the manor. It seems we've excavated most of the ruins within the county.”
Back at the manor, there would be an overwhelming amount of work, from sorting the discovered relics to dispatching soldiers, but it didn't matter. It wasn't his job, after all.
‘Father is competent, so he’ll handle it.’
With joyful hearts, they raced down the road bathed in the sunset's glow, heading for the manor.
***
Talent is unfair.
When was it that he first felt his own inadequacy?
Perhaps, when he was first initiated into magic.
Allen stared into the empty air with unfocused eyes.
His condition was wretched.
He had soiled himself, reeking of filth, and his body, which had collapsed and risen repeatedly for weeks, was covered in wounds.
His unrested muscles were tearing.
Auditory hallucinations, now nothing but noise, filled his ears, and his entire body was riddled with stab wounds, the result of countless self-inflicted cuts.
He swung his sword.
No consciousness, no will. Forgetting even what he was doing, Allen gazed into the deep recesses of his past.
He still remembered vividly the moment he became aware of his own incompetence.
*Swoosh—*
The scabbard, battered and misshapen from repeated use, screamed.
*Clang!*
‘The day I first perceived the form of prana after a week of effort.’
His younger brother, before Allen who was childishly boasting of his achievement, displayed his absurd talent.
‘He perceived the form of prana after seeing it just once.’
His brother was a genius.
One who drove people to despair, who rendered a week's effort meaningless. Incomparable to the likes of him. For the first time, he felt the unfairness of the world.
‘It was the same when I first formed a circle.’
The Heart's Circle, the Circle Magic system.
While Allen was making slow progress, repeating minor mistakes, his brother succeeded in forming a circle in his heart in less than three days.
At first, he was jealous.
Wasn't it just too unfair?
They came from the same mother's womb. He wasn't discriminated against for being the older brother, nor was his brother for being younger.
If anything, he bore a greater duty as the heir.
But what was the result? Talent? Was that invisible something so different? Different enough to display such injustice?
‘So what about me?’
He was no genius.
Even a fool would know. No matter how much the family elders or the invited mages praised him, there were things even a child could see. The look in their eyes when they looked at his brother, so different from when they looked at him.
Expectation, longing, pride, admiration, awe.
‘What did I receive?’
Perfunctory flattery and actions that dismissed him as a child.
So of course he was jealous.
He was just a child.
For children of that age, the attention of adults was their entire world, the driving force behind their actions. To him, his brother was a monster stealing that attention, an obstacle to be removed.
He was jealous, so he bullied him. And then he was jealous again.
To his actions, Julius's response was simple.
[Are you playing around again today? Hehe.]
He didn't resist. He didn't rebel. He dismissed it as a small prank.
Unlike the older brother who acted out of jealousy for his talent, the younger brother was mature.
Feeling ashamed of Julius's reaction, he stopped the bullying. And he bowed his head in earnest and offered an apology. He said he was sorry, that he was wrong.
Julius replied with a smile.
[It was just a prank, brother.]
That day.
Allen reconciled with Julius.
‘That's how it was.’
That was the kind of brother he had. A brother too good for his lacking older sibling. No matter how monstrous his talent, he was his younger brother.
They were brothers who fought sometimes, a family who went on outings together.
But.
‘Why.’
His unfocused eyes began to regain their clarity. The pain from wounds he hadn't even registered now pierced his entire body.
Why.
Power filled his previously listless sword strikes. A menacing venom began to flow in his eyes. He bit his cracked lips and steadied his buckling legs.
*Clang—*
“Why!”
The stinging sensation of his torn palm stimulated his nerves. His cold heart began to pound violently. In the static space, he alone burned brightly.
Like a candle flame.
*Clang!*
His strikes grew faster.
“Who are you to pretend to be my brother!”
Rage boiled within him. He was lucid now. His heart was being gnawed away. He swallowed the excruciating, never-before-felt agony that came with the pain in his heart.
Whose fault was this ordeal? Who was to blame?
*Clang—*
“What are you, who are you to steal my brother's body.”
Blood welled up in his raw throat.
Weren't there others? Yes, there were the elves in the northwest, and the dwarves in the east. There were the beastkin in the north, and the demi-humans in the northeast.
Among humans, there were nobles and commoners.
Of all the countless people, why!
*Clang—*
“Why did it have to be my brother!”
It could have been anyone else.
Anyone would have been fine.
As long as it wasn't him. Isn't that what everyone thinks? But why. Why him? It was his brother who had become a wastrel because of him.
He would have lived a life of atonement, would have done his best to heal his body.
But who was that bastard? Who was he to act that way?
Who in the world was Kim Woojin!
His heart began to change. Prana swirled around him, and his whole body trembled from the agony of his heart's complete transformation. And yet.
“Please,”
He didn't stop talking. He couldn't stop.
He needed something to distract him from the pain. In truth, he could barely hold on any longer. His frayed mind begged him to give up, and his firm will was eroding with time.
He was too much of an ordinary person to endure such an ordeal with a clear mind.
He wished he were a hero.
Isn't that how it is? The heroes in stories are admired by all and can do anything.
They wouldn't have locked themselves in a room in despair like him, nor would they have made a pact with a demon.
If he had been that kind of brother, he would have saved him long ago.
He moved his arms, forced his legs forward. It was closer to thrashing, crawling forward so as not to stop. Allen himself didn't know what he was saying now.
A storm of prana roiled around him like a living thing.
He slammed his fist on the floor as the pain turned his vision white.
*Thud— Thud—*
He had to endure.
“I have no talent. So I have to do it this way.”
He lacked talent.
Talent, talent, that damn talent had held him back in his past life and was doing so again now.
What was so special about it?
The heart, now completely transformed into a Dragon's Heart, pulsed, releasing its presence in a great surge.
The dragon bones quickly crumbled to dust, and Allen stumbled several times before getting back on his feet.
“…Next is the giant's skeleton.”
Allen's head turned.
He knew his shortcomings.
So what should he do? Give up quietly?
The conclusion was the same then, and it was the same now.
In his past life, he had consumed his lifespan to make up for his deficiencies.
The inspiration that wouldn't come, he obtained by sacrificing humans. Even if things were a little different now that he was back, his fundamental nature hadn't completely changed.
*Rumble—*
The heart, transformed into a Dragon's Heart, beat with an intense pulse, as if about to burst.
“Keuk.”
His heart was beating.
Though it was a natural occurrence, Allen's body teetered precariously, on the verge of exploding from the immense, uncontrollable prana. Something hot bubbled within his jeweled heart.
How long could he last?
‘A few minutes, maybe.’
That was enough.
*Flick—*
When Allen flicked his hand, thousands, tens of thousands of threads, incomparable to before, shot out from the air and pulled at the giant's skeleton that occupied the entire cavern.
Allen formed a hand seal.
He had already planned many things.
The advantages and disadvantages of the Draconic system, and even the way to overcome them.
What if his body was too weak and burst?
‘Then I just have to become strong enough to handle it.’
The chances of success?
He didn't think about it.
If he had considered such things, he wouldn't have come here.
The hand seals changed rapidly.
He didn't need to think too much. He imagined a furnace. Then, its use and transformation.
With a rough roar, the bones gathered toward Allen.
The threads connected.
‘Can I become a weapon?’
A living being cannot be tempered, but steel can.
And so, tempered steel becomes a sharp blade and a sturdy shield.
He had to become like that, too.
The formless things he had only been able to create before, under the endlessly surging prana, connected and connected, as if they had always been one.
The bones formed a single shape, enveloping him in a sphere. Trapped inside the round ball, Allen resembled a prisoner behind iron bars.
The preparations were complete.
“If possible, I’d like to become a sharp sword.”
A sword that could cut through anything.
The first Dragonfire inside his heart bubbled, screaming to be let out.
Dragon's Breath, Fantasy Fire. It was called by different names, but the effect was the same.
To incinerate all things.
Even now, curled up inside his heart, he could feel an unimaginable heat.
It was obvious what would happen to his body the moment it burst out of his heart.
Allen finished the hand seal, thinking of the transformation that would follow the pain.
*Rumble—*
As he made a final gesture with his hand, the sphere began to shrink toward him with the sound of the floor scraping, exerting a transcendental pressure.
A rough and wild yellow energy was extracted from the bones, hovering around him like steam.
*Fwoosh—*
At the same time, Dragon's Breath spewed from his mouth and began to incinerate him.
The Dragonfire, surging hotly from his throat, burned his body, and as his skin cracked and crumbled black like a tortoise shell, the yellow energy swirled around him, regenerating it.
A furnace made from the giant's skeleton and the Dragonfire emitted from the Dragon's Heart.
His body began to be tempered.
‘This time…’
Allen smiled wryly as he felt his vision flash white from the immense pain.
He was already sick and tired of a month of suffering.
The pain of being burned was no different. It didn't matter how long it took. Hadn't he already made his choice? If he couldn't turn back, all he could do was push forward stubbornly.
Just like before.
‘I hope I can have a good dream.’
He earnestly wished that when he awoke, he would have become a sharp sword.
In the empty cavern, where the dragon bones and the giant's skeleton had all vanished, only the greatsword stuck in the center silently watched over him.