Dragon Tongue's Reckoning
You have drunk Baras's essence.
You gain absolute resistance to all poisons.
Absolute resistance to all poisons!
It was an ability that drew a gasp of admiration.
Among the lords, there were some who used poison in wars, and Arthur himself had readily employed it when necessary.
That was why he had collected Baras's poison.
Being able to ignore all such poisons was more than satisfying.
After emerging from the passage, Arthur was covered head to toe in dust.
He brushed the dirt from his body, then unsummoned his Death Painting minions.
Then he exited the boss room. Lauden stood waiting anxiously ahead.
Though he must have had a mountain of questions for Arthur, he didn't pry into anything specific.
As they walked, both Lauden and Arthur were lost in thought.
Acaus, who had saved the territory.
And the years of atrocities committed by Colos and his cronies.
It was all over now.
He had righted every wrong.
And for this resolution to be perfect, one more thing was needed.
"Now..."
Arthur turned to Lauden with a faint smile.
He might have already known.
That Lauden had worked tirelessly in secret to protect him and his family.
And that he was someone trustworthy.
At the very least, far more capable and decent than Colos.
That was why Arthur could say it.
"The knight captain will be Sir Lauden."
Plip plip.
A green-tinged liquid that Black had completed flowed into a small empty vial.
Squish squish.
Black pressed the cork in.
'This place is done for now.'
He sneered at the thick book laid out before him.
He reached out and stroked its cover.
Dragon Language Alchemy Grimoire.
The cover was black, with a dragon emblazoned on the front.
Obtaining this Dragon Language Alchemy Grimoire had completely upended Black's life.
He had been wandering the continent, town to town.
Meeting new people each time, adopting a new face every time.
It was about time to leave Kallis Territory behind.
'But before that.'
Black's cracked lips twisted, and his thick Adam's apple bobbed heavily.
Gulp.
Just thinking about it sent shivers of delight through him.
Loris.
She had drunk the polymorph potion he made for her and become a completely different person.
'Impressive.'
It was essentially a beauty he had crafted himself, yet even Black marveled at the sight.
Before leaving this place, he planned to indulge in her to his heart's content.
Using the alchemical products he had just made, he could take her—and a hefty fortune in gold and jewels from her father's merchant guild.
Once he had it all, he would vanish like a ghost.
"Kuhuhu."
He rubbed his dry face to stifle the laughter bubbling up.
Whoooosh.
"Hm?"
The window was definitely closed.
Yet he heard wind blowing in.
Instinctively, Black whipped around.
At that moment.
Thwack!
A fist slammed squarely into his chin.
Clack clack.
Two front teeth hit the floor, blood dripping steadily.
Clutching his mouth, Black stared at the figure before him, eyes trembling.
"Y-You... you're..."
It was the boy Colos had tried to kill.
The boy cracked his neck and eyed the Dragon Language Alchemy Grimoire on the desk.
Black instinctively reached for the grimoire.
Arthur's spear pierced straight through Black's hand into the desk.
Squelch!
Thud!
"Gaaahhh!"
The hideout Black had chosen deep in the remote mountains ensured no one would come running, no matter how he screamed.
The very seclusion he sought for hiding had become his grave.
"Guh... h-how... how the hell..."
The boy had entered the dungeon with seven knights, and Colos had confirmed it.
So how had he come back alive?
Black strained to pull his hand free.
The spear, firmly embedded through the desk, wouldn't budge.
Arthur stepped forward slowly and reached for the Dragon Language Alchemy Grimoire.
"N-No! You can't! You can't do that, you bastard!"
Black screamed like a madman.
Perhaps the grimoire itself had corrupted him this deeply.
Forgetting his pain, he thrashed wildly despite the spear in his hand, blood gushing even more.
But Arthur ignored him and picked up the Dragon Language Alchemy Grimoire.
It didn't just brainwash people—it altered their very appearance.
And as far as Arthur knew, it had even broader applications.
He had witnessed alchemist Lime perform impossible feats with alchemy many times.
It was a treasure too precious for a wretch like this.
And it shouldn't be used this way.
"I'll put it to good use."
At Arthur's words, Black, who had been raving, dropped his head and chuckled.
"Puhehehe..."
The laughter grew louder until he threw his head back and howled.
"Kahahahaha!"
Black's maniacal laughter filled the room.
Arthur watched impassively.
"You can't use it. You can't even own it."
Arthur listened silently.
"There aren't even ten people on the continent who can decipher that language."
Indeed, Black's father had been a researcher of dragon tongue.
Black had learned it piecemeal from his father.
His father had retired to become a farmer.
A terrible one at that.
Black's childhood had been hellish.
Skinny build, creepily dark features, introverted personality—he was scorned by all.
Then it appeared before him.
The Dragon Language Alchemy Grimoire.
It had changed his life from the ground up!
One day, he would shake the entire continent with this one book!
Black believed that. And it wasn't impossible.
Besides, scarcely anyone on the continent could interpret the Dragon Language Alchemy Grimoire.
It was his alone. Something only he could wield.
A gift from the gods, made for him!
"Kuhuhuhu!"
Knowing that, Black cackled.
How the bastard knew to target his grimoire didn't matter.
"You can't kill me. If you do, you won't be able to decipher it..."
"חהאמפעסנץלליטחז (Can't decipher it?)"
"...!"
Dragon tongue spilled from Arthur's lips.
Black's face froze solid.
He couldn't believe it.
No, it was impossible.
There were fewer than ten who could interpret dragon tongue on the continent.
Maybe not even five now.
No one researched it anymore, and the old experts might all be dead.
But what had just come from Arthur's mouth was unmistakably dragon tongue.
Arthur turned the grimoire's first page.
"חהאמפעסנץחךלליטחזחהאמפעסנץחךלליטחז…… (Polymorph potion recipe. Listing the ingredients for this polymorph potion...)"
Arthur read smoothly.
Black couldn't accept that Arthur read more fluently than he did.
"Wh-what the... hell..."
His eyes bulged in horror.
Arthur had learned dragon tongue in his previous life.
In the Monarch Game.
On Asgard Continent, few could learn it.
But in the upper world, true dragonkin existed, and many knew dragon tongue.
So it was only natural that Arthur surpassed Black.
As Arthur flipped through the pages, after the densely packed twenty, they turned blank.
Information cannot be viewed.
'The Dragon Language Alchemy Grimoire is a growing artifact.'
Not a divine growth artifact, but similar to how Arthur viewed Uroboros as "simple growth."
Arthur summoned the grimoire's info as a hologram.
Special Abilities:
⦁ Craft items using dragon language alchemy up to page 20.
⦁ Intelligence +5
Description: A book describing the exquisite alchemy used by ancient dragons. Merely gathering materials won't enable dragon alchemy. Only when the grimoire meets crafted items does its power manifest, growing upon completing all described recipes.
'Hm.'
Arthur nodded.
Currently, up to twenty pages were accessible.
One recipe per page, roughly speaking.
A quick skim revealed some impressive ones among them.
The explanation that identical materials and methods didn't guarantee true dragon language alchemy.
In other words, the grimoire had to empower it for the effects to manifest.
As the grimoire grew, pages would increase, and items would become more potent.
Arthur spread the grimoire wide, showing the blank pages to Black.
"You can't see these either, right?"
Black didn't answer.
But his expression confirmed it.
Squelch!
"Gack..."
The spear was yanked from Black's hand.
"M-Mercy..."
Arthur drew his sword from his inventory.
Shing!
Thud.
Roll roll.
Black's head hit the floor.
"They'll all gather soon enough."
Late at night.
Colton snickered, lugging a barrel of oil.
"Kuhuhu. Arthur, you pathetic shit. You dare lay hands on me?"
The barrel was filled with oil.
He planned to douse the Press family mansion and burn them all alive.
Then.
A strange voice echoed in his ears.
'חהאמפעסנץחךלליטחזחהאמפעסנץחז (Follow me, follow me.)'
"Eek?"
Startled, Colton looked around.
But no one was there.
He smacked his ears repeatedly. The voice persisted.
Then, his eyes turned pitch black, no whites visible, and he began to walk.
Toward the mountains.
"Young Master Colton?"
The guards at the territory entrance sounded puzzled.
"I have business to attend to."
"At this hour?"
"Don't ask."
His icy tone cowed them into nodding.
"Must... follow... him..."
Muttering like one possessed, he climbed the mountain.
Flash!
Loris jolted awake.
"Wh-why am I here...?"
She was in an unfamiliar place.
After dinner, her head had started throbbing.
Then everything went black.
Looking around, she saw Colton entering and Colos already there.
Nearby lay Black's cold corpse.
"Kyaaahhh!"
She screamed at the sight of Black's body.
Her gaze landed on one person amid her shrieks.
Arthur sat in a chair, leg crossed, sword tip tapping the floor, head tilted, staring at her with a chilling expression.