Dragon Slayer

“Kroooooooaaar—!!!”

A colossal roar shook the entire cavern.

It hurt so badly it felt as if his eardrums were about to rip apart.

The piles of bones scattered across the floor trembled from the vibration and flew apart in all directions, while fist-sized stones rained down from the ceiling.

And out of the darkness, it emerged.

The Red Dragon.

Its body alone was forty meters long.

Each ruby-red scale gleamed like a shield.

Even the hot breath rolling out from its curved neck warped the air around it.

With its wings folded tight, it still overwhelmed the entire cavern with its sheer presence.

“I’ve been curious about this for a while,” Kim Jun said. His voice carried a note of genuine curiosity. “Why the hell did you come down to the fifth floor?”

Kim Jun knew the Tower’s floors were each complete worlds of their own.

But those worlds were not entirely isolated. Powerful beings could cross the boundaries between dimensions and intervene in other floors.

But the fifth floor?

That was far too blatant.

There were only three places in the Tower that were friendly to hunters.

Thebes on the fifth floor, Artemis on the twenty-fifth, and Kaldion on the fiftieth—the final stronghold of humanity and the last foothold on the road to the Tower’s summit.

Among them, Thebes was the one place that could never be lost. A holy ground where rookie hunters received their classes, maintained their equipment, and laid the foundations for conquering the Tower.

If Thebes fell, Tower conquest itself would become impossible.

The fact that a Red Dragon from the eightieth floor had descended to the same level as Thebes could not possibly be a coincidence.

“I’ll ask again. Why did you leave the eightieth floor and come here?”

“Keh-keh-keh-keh.”

The dragon laughed.

“A mere human dares to question me?”

Fury burned in its red eyes.

How dare a human speak to one of the Tower’s absolute species with such insolent ease?

“Ah, but I suppose you’re trapped here too.”

“How insolent!”

Fwaaaaaa—!

The dragon jerked its neck back and unleashed a torrent of fire.

Kim Jun was already moving. Using the bones on the floor as footholds, he dropped low and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rolled to the side.

Chwaaaaak—!

The flames that swept past where he had stood licked all the way up the cavern wall. The bones instantly turned to ash and scattered in the wind.

Definitely something that should never have been on this floor.

A record from before his regression surfaced in his memory.

Chronicles of the Tower - The Guardian of Thebes.

Kaiser, father of all warriors, the first warrior class instructor, and founder of Thebes.

On the day a pair of Red Dragons appeared in Thebes, the record said he risked his life to lure them here and seal them within a barrier.

If not for his sacrifice, Thebes would have become ashes long ago.

But that barrier was not eternal.

Kim Jun remembered what had happened before his regression.

It had been right after he purchased information about the hidden class Dragon Slayer from an information broker on the fiftieth floor.

As if fate itself were mocking him, the instant he obtained the information, this Red Dragon broke through the seal and invaded Thebes.

The dragon’s heat, poured out over centuries, had eventually melted Kaiser’s seal away.

“Aaaaaagh!”

“Please, save us!”

“All units! Defend Thebes!”

The horror of that day was still vivid.

Thebes consumed by flames, people fleeing in terror, the city reduced to ashes in an instant.

Thousands of residents had lost their lives, and the beautiful city had become a ruin.

Such a tragedy can’t happen again.

Even if he hadn’t been after the hidden class, there was no way he could let it end here.

“You still have the luxury to think about something else in front of me?”

The dragon twisted its neck and glared at Kim Jun.

Thud!

Its massive hind legs drove into the floor as it rose to its full height. The sheer bulk of it seemed to dominate the cavern.

Kim Jun shifted his grip on the greatsword. A faint red aura curled around the blade.

I’ve seen it countless times in Dragon’s Plain.

He had watched dragons attack over and over, through the deaths of companions and even while watching Ryu Jia burn alive.

Fire breath, charges, tail sweeps, dive attacks. He knew every pattern.

Thud!

Its claws ripped across the floor. Kim Jun had already rolled away to dodge.

The dragon’s neck drew back. Deep in its throat, red light began to surge. The air grew hotter by the second.

Here it comes!

Kwaaaaaaaak—!

Its fire breath exploded outward like a waterfall.

He kicked off a fallen rock and threw himself behind it.

The searing flames licked the stone, and the hard rock instantly glowed red-hot and began to melt.

The heat bled through even to the far side of the boulder.

Not yet.

Whoosh—

He heard the cut of wind. The dragon’s tail swung toward the rock.

KWAANG!!

The boulder shattered to pieces. Shards flew everywhere.

But Kim Jun was already hanging from a stalactite on the cavern ceiling.

He clutched the stone with one hand and held the greatsword tight in the other.

“When did you—!”

“Too late.”

The dragon, that so-called transcendent existence, was covered from head to toe in scales harder than steel, each attack lethal.

What, then, was its only weakness?

The neck.

Tap—!

Using the stalactite as a foothold, Kim Jun launched himself into the air. Clenching the greatsword with both hands, he dropped toward the dragon’s neck.

The blade sliced through the air with a shrill whistle.

Ssiiiiii—

The dragon tried to turn its head to evade, but—

Puuuuuuk!!

“Kroooooaaar! A human dares—!”

The dragon writhed like a mad beast. It shook its neck side to side and thrashed its body, trying to throw him off.

“I’m not letting go.”

Like a viper that never released what it had bitten, Kim Jun refused to loosen his grip no matter how violently the dragon flailed, driving the blade deeper and deeper.

Then the words slipped from Kim Jun’s mouth.

“Slash.”

────!

A flash of light burst.

*

“Hah, just how far has hyung gone? We’re moving as fast as we can too.”

Park Minsu panted as he spoke.

“He must already be up to the fifth floor, right?”

The other four members of the Han Guild were forming a party and following behind after Kim Jun had run ahead alone.

S-class tanker Park Minsu, S-class healer Lee Seoyeon, S-class assassin Han Suin, and S-class mage Ryu Jia.

Aside from Kim Jun, they were the finest hunters in all of South Korea.

“This is strange. All the bosses are gone.”

Ryu Jia looked at her quest window and muttered.

“Looks like the guild leader handled them all,” Lee Seoyeon said in admiration. “To think he took down even the bosses by himself.”

The same had been true all the way up to the fifth floor. Every floor boss was gone, leaving only the regular monsters behind.

And yet, this party of four S-class hunters still couldn’t catch up to Kim Jun’s pace.

“Same rank as us, and I still keep thinking there’s something wrong with that.”

“Heh. A fool like you can’t compare to my brother.”

“Ryu Jia, you wanna keep running your mouth?”

Just as Ryu Jia was teasing Park Minsu and walking ahead, a city surrounded by enormous ramparts came into view in the distance.

White marble buildings, bathed in the light of sunset, made a breathtaking sight.

“There’s a city!”

“So it isn’t just monsters here?”

They were admiring the grandeur of Thebes and moving forward when, all of a sudden, the air flashed.

Ting—!

A massive notification window suddenly filled the vision of every hunter who had entered the Tower.

“A dragon was killed? Hyung?”

“What even was the warrior advancement trial for it to be impossible?”

“What’s a hidden class?”

“...”

*

“Cough!”

Kim Jun rose with a light cough. The dragon’s massive body lay collapsed on the cavern floor. It was no longer breathing.

“It’s ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over.”

His entire body was smeared with dragon blood, but seeing the massive amount of EXP only made him smile.

From level 6 to 30. He had leapt in one go.

And that wasn’t all.

“Sorry, but I’m going to have to take your body apart a little.”

For a dragon, the materials that could be harvested from it were just as vast as its existence.

Scrape, scrape—

First he peeled away the scales. Each ruby-red scale would become material for top-grade armor.

Rrrrriiiip—!

He separated the dragon’s bones. Dragon Bone, harder than any metal yet still light, was a core material for legendary weapons.

“Dragon eyes, dragon claws, dragon teeth…”

He gathered them one by one. Every part held value beyond money.

But then—

Thump. Thump.

A strange sound reached his ears.

He turned his head toward it. It was coming from the dragon’s chest.

“No way.”

Riiip—

When he split open the chest, a gigantic heart was still beating inside.

Dragon Heart.

The heart, as large as an adult man, pulsed like a red ruby.

Red veins spread across its surface like a lattice, as if rivers of lava were flowing beneath it, and with every beat, mana rippled outward in waves.

“Ha, hah!”

He couldn’t help but laugh in admiration.

A heart that, even after a dragon’s death, could continue beating independently under certain conditions. A legendary material whose value far surpassed S-rank.

Normally, even if you killed a hundred dragons, it was said to be almost impossible to find one still beating.

“Something I’d only expected to see on the eightieth floor…”

Thump—thump-thump-thump!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The Dragon Heart began beating even harder.

With each contraction, red flames flared within it, making it look like a miniature furnace. Life force and mana were concentrated and circulating endlessly inside.

“This’ll come in handy later.”

He carefully lifted the Dragon Heart. The moment it touched his hands, powerful mana and a fierce warmth flooded into him.

It’s heavy.

As expected from its size, it had serious weight. But there was no need to worry.

Kim Jun reached for the small leather pouch at his waist.

The subspace pouch.

A vital piece of equipment provided by default to every hunter entering the Tower.

It was a magical item that contained a separate internal space, allowing objects to be stored regardless of weight or size.

As he pushed the Dragon Heart into the dimensional pouch, the enormous organ dissolved into particles of light and vanished.

“Did I… disassemble it a little too cleanly?”

Seeing the dragon’s remains reduced to almost nothing, so neat it looked as though an expert butcher had passed through, he felt oddly guilty.

“Consider it karma from your past life.”

He shrugged.

“Exit.”

Srrrrrk—

*

“Niiigirl.”

Redel muttered to himself while staring blankly into the air.

The dragon’s nest. The minimum recommended level was fifty.

It was strange from the outset that they had chosen such a place as the warrior advancement trial.

Trying to cut the problem off at the root? Kaiser, what in the world are you…

How many had died over the Tower’s endless passage of time?

From outsiders to Tower residents. Even counting only those he could number, it had to be at least two thousand.

“A guy who’s already dead, and I’m supposed to sit here waiting for him? Tsk.”

Redel brushed off his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠butt and stood. He was about to end the pointless wait and return to Thebes when—

“Huh?”

Someone was walking out from the dragon’s nest.

“No way…”

Something felt off. An aura of a completely different level was pouring off that figure.

The pressure of a high-ranking existence, as if it came from a floor at least thirty levels higher.

It was an oppressive force he could never feel on a pitiful floor like the fifth. The air itself was being crushed under the weight of another dimension’s presence.

Redel’s whole body froze.

“W-w-w-what the hell! It breached again!”

Covered head to toe in red blood, exuding the terrifying energy only an upper-floor existence could possess, it was drawing nearer.

Only one thought filled Redel’s head.

He had to run.

Run, and warn Thebes that yet another monster from a higher floor had appeared.

As if a dragon wasn’t enough, now there’s another one!

“D-don’t come any closer! Stay back!”

He hastily yanked on the reins. But the figure was approaching far faster than he had expected.

“Aaaaaah!”

“Redel! Calm down.”

Kim Jun called out to Redel in alarm, looking utterly baffled as to why he was running.

But the moment Redel saw Kim Jun’s face clearly, he was even more shocked.

This face was definitely… that outsider who had gone into the dragon’s nest just moments ago!

“H-haaahhh!”

Redel’s face went ghost-white.

It was shocking enough that the person he’d thought had been eaten by the dragon had survived and come back out covered in blood—but what in the world was that aura?

5