Chapter 340: Tablet (2)

Uuung—!

The moment the two tablets perfectly meshed into one.

Geometric magic circles intertwined in layers in the empty air, and along with a roar that sounded like space and time tearing apart, a dimensional gate the size of a house opened.

A swirling pitch-black portal.

The aura flowing out from beyond it was spewing a heavy and primordial sense of oppression, enough to make even an SS-rank gate look like a joke.

Isabella swallowed her saliva.

Her instincts were warning her. That something out of the standard was lurking beyond this.

However, she did not hesitate and took the lead, moving her steps toward the portal.

“I will go in first.”

Her figure completely disappeared beyond the portal.

Kim Minwoo also formed a party with her without delay, and then leisurely stepped into the dimensional gate.

Paat—!

His vision flashed white and then soon reversed into an unfamiliar landscape. A massive ancient hideout that looked as if it had been neglected for tens of thousands of years. And the eerie and bizarre breath of a maddened giant dragon, crushing the atmosphere, welcomed them.

[You have entered the unknown dimension, Ainel's Hideout!]

[Party Members: Kim Minwoo, Isabella.]

[Warning! This is a forgotten space cut off from the outside for a long time. An unknown, terrible madness rules the entire dimension.]

It was the moment the curtain rose on a new stage.

“……Ugh.”

As soon as they entered, Isabella furrowed her brow and covered her mouth.

It was a miasma potent enough to instantly disrupt the breathing of even someone like her, a top-tier ranker renowned even on Earth.

Mixed within the thick blood-red mist floating in the air was pure madness that gnawed at the minds of living beings.

She glanced to the side.

Kim Minwoo was far too calm.

It was because the Death Emperor's Heart transplanted in his chest was pulsating heavily, bouncing off the madness so that it could not even approach.

Kim Minwoo leisurely scanned his surroundings while dusting off the hem of his coat. The sky was dyed blood-red, and on the ground, instead of plants, massive bone fragments and bizarrely twisted obsidian pillars formed a forest.

And from between those pillars, an unpleasant sound of tearing air rang out.

“Release me…….”

“It hurts…… it's hot. The King has gone mad…….”

“Run away……. No, let's get trapped together…… hihi. Hihihit!”

Monsters poured out, piercing through the mist.

The proud Dragonkin who would have served the giant dragon in the past.

However, now they had become terrible undead mutants with rotting bones and flesh.

Having lost their focus, they spewed murderous intent toward the intruders while leaking bizarre laughter and nonsense.

Every single one of their momentums exceeded that of a decent A-rank boss.

Seeing their hideous appearances, Kim Minwoo's eyes narrowed.

‘They look like something I've seen a lot somewhere.’

Looking closely, the structure of their skeletons and the texture of the mana they exuded were familiar. They were similar to the guys he had encountered in the Dragon's Corridor when he fought the Dragon Lord Arcaia in the past.

‘Could it be, is this place related to the Dragon Lord?’

The word 'King' muttered by the crazy Dragonkin. It was the moment doubts were blooming.

“I will clean up this level of miscellaneous mobs.”

Isabella clenched her two fists tightly and stepped forward.

A heavy Ancient Grade gauntlet was equipped on both of her hands. As much as she owed Kim Minwoo a debt, the will to prove herself could be seen in her eyes.

As she kicked off the ground, a blinding fighting spirit tore through the blood-red mist.

Peo-eo-eo-eok—!

Kwajik!

Heavy striking sounds erupted in succession.

Every time Isabella's fists cut through the empty air, the heads of the mutant Dragonkin burst apart like watermelons.

There was no need for cumbersome weapons. She pierced and crushed their vital spots using only her overwhelming physical abilities and martial arts realm.

The martial arts of the French ranker, condensing mana into a single point and bursting it, was ignorantly destructive.

Kim Minwoo leisurely watched the sight with his chin propped on his hand.

‘She has become much stronger than when I saw her before.’

The unnecessary movements had disappeared, and the speed and destructive power of her gauntlet combos had become even sharper.

Since she was refreshingly clearing the path on her own without him having to go out of his way to summon the Legion Commanders, he felt like a comfortable bus passenger.

It was while they had been advancing for a long time, crossing the blood-red ruins. Beyond the horizon, a black mountain range of an overwhelming size that seemed to cover the sky could be seen.

The shape of a massive canyon soaring through the clouds.

At that time, Kim Minwoo's shadow churned, and Cedric smoothly revealed his form.

His bones, which had swallowed the soul of the Dragonkin Drakan—formerly Agares's proxy—were resonating minutely in response to the aura of this space.

—This is, strange.

Cedric readjusted his grip on his spear and muttered low.

“What is?”

—The mountain range seen far away. That massive entirety…… seems to be breathing.

“……What?”

Isabella, who had been taking the lead and smashing the monsters' heads, stopped her fists and looked at the horizon with an astonished gaze. As soon as Cedric's words finished…….

Kugugugugung―!!!

Along with a massive earthquake that seemed to shatter the entire dimension, the mountain range that had been asleep for tens of thousands of years slowly twisted its body and began to soar.

The massive thorns they thought were mountain peaks tore through the sky, and the two red moons floating at the edge of the horizon blinked simultaneously and looked down at them.

It was the blood-red pupils of the giant dragon, seemingly containing the death of stars.

“M-My god. How can its size be…….”

Isabella stepped back with a pale voice.

A meat mountain far too bloated and hideous to be called a dragon.

Looking up at that overwhelming majesty, Kim Minwoo's eyes narrowed.

‘That familiar aura. It's definitely similar to the Dragon Lord's, but…….’

No matter how old an ancient dragon was, that kind of bulk was physically impossible.

The Dragon Lord's power was compression.

Arcaia even had the appearance of a little kid altogether.

But conversely, an ancient dragon giving off the Dragon Lord's aura is that massive?

‘Could it be, instead of compression, what was suppressed expanded in reverse?’

A bizarre body that had endlessly expanded while losing reason and losing control, devoured by the Outer God's madness.

That terrible result must be exactly that bloated bulk. The true identity of the mad King the Dragonkin had been crying out for.

[The ancient mad giant dragon, ‘???’ has noticed the intruders.]

The moment he confirmed that phrase, Kim Minwoo's eyes shone chillingly.

‘An ancient dragon?’

He thought it was merely a monster whose bulk had ignorantly grown, but it was an ancient dragon officially recognized by the system.

In an instant, Kim Minwoo's eyes sparkled wildly.

‘If it's an ancient dragon…….’

He could solve two problems he was currently looking for most eagerly.

First, the special material to liberate his terrible physical potential that was completely blocked at -999, the Heart of an Ancient Dragon (over 10,000 years).

On top of that, the final material to craft the ultimate mount that would draw out Dragon Knight Cedric's true power, the Divine Dragon Gleipnir, was exactly the corpse of an ancient dragon that had lived for over 10,000 years.

He had long since gathered the Abyss Lord's bloodline and other rare materials to make Gleipnir. He had just been keeping them in his inventory until now simply because he couldn't obtain that single corpse of an ancient dragon over 10,000 years old. But that precious material had now appeared right before his eyes on its own feet.

Kim Minwoo opened his mouth, unable to hide the twitching corners of his lips.

“Hey, Cedric.”

―Speak, Master.

“With that kind of size and aura…… it should easily surpass 10,000 years, right?”

Cedric's blue eye glints clashed with the giant dragon's blood-red pupils covering the sky.

Gauging the heavy spirit that seemed to scrape at his bones, he muttered low.

―Ten thousand years? Hah. In my opinion, with that level of density and mana…… it might be at least thirty thousand years or more. Although it has gone completely mad, the years it harbors are real.

“Really?”

Kim Minwoo grinned while readjusting his grip on Hell Rhapsody.

“Then if we catch that, we can make Gleipnir, right? We gathered all the rest of the materials.”

As soon as those words dropped…….

―……Oh.

The blue flames inside Cedric's empty eye sockets blazed fiercely.

It was a monotonous exclamation, but the desire and murderous intent contained within it were by no means light.

Because to a Dragon Knight, being bestowed the strongest dragon perfectly suited to him was practically his reason for existence.

Cedric gripped his ink-black spear shaft tightly with his bone fingers as if to crush it. The golden dragon scale pattern engraved on his bone armor began to pulsate as if it would burst.

―I will…… cut off its breath, Master.

“Do as you please. I just need to dig out the heart intact.”

The two monster-like master and servant looked up at the giant dragon with greedy eyes.

The ancient disaster that had been spewing cosmic horror until just a moment ago had long since been reduced to perfectly aged, highest-grade farming material in their eyes.

“Cedric, try piercing it.”

At Kim Minwoo's short command, Cedric kicked off the ground and soared.

A blue spear strike condensed with the power of Drakan and Carnos plunged like a thunderbolt toward the giant dragon's massive front paw.

Kwaaaang―!

Chaeng―! Jjijijik!

In the place where blood should have splattered and scales should have torn, geometric chains of light floated up like holograms and bounced Cedric's attack away.

It was a tens of thousands of layered ancient seal formation tightly wrapping the giant dragon's entire body.

[Warning! The target is in a sealed state!]

[To prevent dimensional destruction due to madness, the space itself is synchronized as a prison.]

[No strike can reach the target until the seal is released.]

To prevent the giant dragon from destroying other dimensions after being swallowed by madness, someone had used this space itself as a prison and slapped on absolute shackles.

As long as the seal was not released, no physical force could touch that giant dragon's skin.

Kim Minwoo's gaze headed toward a massive padlock-shaped core located on the giant dragon's chest at the center where the chains of light gathered.

‘Is it some kind of keyhole?’

It was that moment.

Uung―!

Uuung―!

Deep inside Kim Minwoo's inventory, something began to vibrate intensely.

‘……Huh?’

Feeling doubtful, Kim Minwoo reached out and took out the cause of the vibration. An item of unknown use he had purchased in the past from the VIP shop paying a huge sum of exactly 5 million Achievement Points.

[Rusty Key].

That key, which had been nothing more than a clunky lump of iron, was now spewing blinding golden light and resonating madly with the padlock on the giant dragon's chest.

At the same time, a heavy system message popped up in Kim Minwoo's vision.

Ttiring―!

[Condition 6 of the ‘Path of Growth’ for Demon Eye (EX) is activated!]

[Condition: Use the ‘Rusty Key’.]

Confirming the message, the corners of Kim Minwoo's mouth slowly went up. A puzzle piece perfectly falling into place from a completely unexpected location.

“Aha.”

Kim Minwoo held up the glowing Rusty Key and put on a deep smile.

“A 5 million point keyhole was hiding in a place like this, huh.”