Chapter 74 – Chapter 11: Sword Duke #5
The voice of the woman he had heard every time he used the power of Conquest…
The beautiful woman who emerged in his head in every moment of crisis.
It was only a cold, grey slab, but In-gong naturally coloured in the picture engraved on the slab.
A golden crown, white hair, mysterious red and blue eyes.
Conquest.
That was her name. She wore pure white clothes and led the group.
“War.”
He looked at someone behind the white woman and was naturally able to recall the colour.
If the woman wearing the crown was pure white, the woman in armour was crimson.
The woman surrounded by flames was wearing red, blood-like armour. Her eyes were thick and dark blue. They were eyes that reminded him of the sword duke.
Additionally, there were two men behind the women.
One was blue and the other was black. Unlike the previous two women, he couldn’t recall them in his head.
Four people.
Ainkel had called In-gong a Conquest Knight. If so, did the power of Conquest come from these four people, particularly the white woman?
In-gong’s eyes rolled as he thought. The four people had been drawn exactly opposite the elder dragons.
Why were they a mirror image? Did the four people and the elder dragons have a hostile relationship with each other?
The elder dragons were said to have godlike powers.
The four people were opposite them… This might mean the four people were god-like beings comparable to the elder dragons.
‘Watcher Ainkel.’
In-gong had only faced her for a short time. He had merely heard her voice emerge from Green Wind’s mouth.
However, In-gong hadn’t felt like she was an enemy. After conquering Green Wind and taking Ainkel’s dragon heart, instead of thinking of her as an enemy, he felt closer to her.
Why?
Didn’t the four people have a hostile relationship with the elder dragons?
Or did the composition of the picture mean something else?
In-gong tried to find any new clues in the slab, but the slab didn’t have any writing around the picture. He looked at other slabs nearby but couldn’t find anything related.
Conquest Knight…
Conquest and War…
The identity of the remaining two were unknown.
However, their relationship with the elder dragons…
Why did they have a record stored in Thunderdoom Fortress?
In-gong looked back at the white woman. She had a very determined and calm face. He had never seen a different expression on the white woman.
In-gong glanced at the picture one last time before putting it back where it had been originally. He wanted to take it but couldn’t put it in his inventory due to the special protection magic around the archives.
At that time, he heard a whisper from Green Wind,
‘Master, can you come over here? I have done something worthy of praise. Look quickly.’
There was a lot of excitement in her voice.
It was a cute child-like voice that bounced continuously.
In-gong smiled involuntarily and turned in the direction of her voice.
“What’s going on?”
‘I found a record for the elder dragons. The dwarves in this fortress seem to be really interested in dragons.’
Green Wind swung her arms while she sat on White Eagle. She was translucent like a ghost, but her smile was vivid.
‘This way, this way.’
Instead of a slab, a large book was waiting for In-gong. There was a stand that the book was placed on, but the stand was made for a dwarf, so it was a little uncomfortable to use.
In-gong solved the problem by sitting on White Eagle and Green Wind sat next to him, urging In-gong on again.
‘There is some related content here.’
She had been born from the fragment of Ainkel, so she could also read the dwarf characters. In-gong read the letters, that Green Wind was pointing at, slowly.
‘Violent Kaltein.’
An elder dragon with the power of fire.
‘Isn’t this useful information?’
He had just read the first line when Green Wind knocked against his side and asked, Instead of looking at Green Wind’s face, In-gong pulled back and looked behind her.
‘Master?’
“No, you don’t have a tail.”
If she did, it would be wagging wildly.
‘I don’t know what Master is talking about.’
Green Wind sounded puzzled, but In-gong just patted her head.
“Well done. I think it will help.”
‘Is that so? Then just read it. I will enjoy the praise after a while. Instead, I’ll ask for the praise to last a little longer.’
Her smiling face was really pleased. It wasn’t merely about the praise but because she had been helpful to In-gong.
In-gong patted her head a few more times before focusing on the contents of the book. It was a legend about the residence of Violent Kaltein.
The elder dragons had aliases that matched their characters.
Enkidu was the tyrant with the power of destruction.
Ainkel was the gentle mother and compassionate to all, while Queian was the wise and thoughtful sage.
Violent Kaltein was the warrior.
He was remembered as a hot dragon due to his ‘violence’, but he was closer to ice than to fire. Kaltein wasn’t easily rattled and he looked at everything with calm eyes.
A cold flame.
A silent warrior who didn’t pull out his sword easily, but once he did, the world would burn with his intensity.
Like the other elder dragons, he was missing. The information in the book was about an old lair that Kaltein had stayed in hundreds of years ago.
‘The book itself was created hundreds of years ago… So, it has been almost a thousand years?’
Suddenly, Ainkel’s death popped into his head. She had lost her life a thousand years ago. Ainkel’s death… The elder dragons disappearing from the world.
In-gong stopped those thoughts and focused on the book again. It was a map from hundreds of years ago, but he could instantly tell where the map was pointing to when he saw it.
‘It isn’t far.’
It was very far from where In-gong’s party was, but it was near to where they were going.
It was the place where Amita, the best blacksmith in the Demon World, was staying.
According to the sword duke, Amita was staying near Spider Forest. Spider Forest was close to the land of the lycanthropes while Kaltein’s old lair was at Sun Lake, to the north of Spider Forest.
An elder dragon with the fire attribute had his lair at a lake. Numerous Knight Saga fanatics had searched for Kaltein’s lair and hadn’t found anything.
‘It seems like this journey will be a set of destinations.’
After the work with Amita, he was going to meet Chris and Caitlin but he now added Kaltein’s lair as another destination.
If the journey went as planned, he could expect a nice upgrade in terms of equipment.
‘Have you read everything? Master, what do you think?’
Green Wind asked, having run out of patience. Instead of saying anything, In-gong just kept on stroking Green Wind’s head.
&
In-gong’s group stayed at Thunderdoom Fortress for four days.
After they finished going through the armoury and treasures, Felicia started exploring Thunderdoom Fortress as a ruins explorer, not a treasure hunter.
In-gong spent half the day in the archives and the other half in an empty room training. He had wanted to learn a few more things from the sword duke, but the sword duke left the fortress.
‘I will meet Prince again after you return to the Demon King’s Palace. I look forward to Prince being much stronger than you are now.’
It was a farewell that contained a lot of burden.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any more information on the elder dragons in the archives. It was the same for the four people, including the white woman.
If there was one consolation, it was Carack’s growth.
The King’s Knights was one of Conquest’s skills. Call was the only part of The King’s Knights.
“How is it? Don’t you think that you’ve become a little stronger?”
In-gong asked Carack with a voice filled with expectations. It was shortly after using Upgrade for the first time.
The King’s Knights- Upgrade.
It was appropriate compensation for something who achieved merits for the king. His position became higher and the power of the king could give him more strength.
Carack had achieved many merits after becoming In-gong’s knight and had already gathered enough merits for an upgrade. Carack, who had upgraded from a soldier to leader of the soldiers, looked at himself slowly. He punched his chest lightly before saying,
“It was worth all that hard work.”
His strength had increased. In particular, his mood had improved significantly. Even though he struck his chest, he never felt sick.
That wasn’t the only effect. Carack didn’t know yet, but his resistance to various attributes, including fire, had increased greatly. He also had a stronger resistance to poison which meant he could now endure a light poison.
‘Indeed, the king’s shield.’
Once Call was used, he would become In-gong’s shield, so In-gong nodded with satisfaction.
“Please keep working hard in the future.”
Carack made a strange expression after In-gong’s encouragement, but it was only for a short moment. Within seconds, he smiled and tapped the newly received dwarven magic shield.
Karma looked on with envy as she formed fists and declared.
“I’ll work hard as well.”
If Carack was his shield, then Karma was his shuttle. She was like a moving vehicle for others who weren’t In-gong, but it was still useful.
Looking at Karma’s shining eyes, In-gong was reminded of Caitlin.
‘Won’t she be amazed?’
In-gong’s current strength was no comparison to what it had been when he had last seen her. Caitlin would be greatly surprised at his appearance.
Once he was in the land of the lycanthropes, he was thinking of sparring against Caitlin. Even if he didn’t use Earth Quaker and White Eagle, In-gong felt like he could do fairly well against Caitlin.
‘Will she freak out if she knows about Divine Sura Authority?’
He was looking forward to Caitlin’s and Chris’ reactions.
The next morning…
After Felicia confirmed that the party from the Demon King’s Palace had arrived at the nearby village, In-gong’s group left Thunderdoom Fortress.
Felicia stared at Thunderdoom Fortress with eyes that were just as sad as when she had to leave the Thunder Light Anvil, but it was unavoidable. Although the sword duke had said it would be okay for at least half a year, she couldn’t rest assured after knowing about Amita’s wanderlust. It was better to hurry as much as possible.
Then three days after In-gong’s party had departed from the Thunderdoom Fortress, a new person arrived in order to lead the fortress exploration.
It was the 2nd Prince Zephyr Ragnaros.
&
The fact that General Kashubal’s death had been a trap to lure Zephyr had been reported to the Demon King’s Palace.
The draconians, who occupied prestigious positions in the palace, were furious that their prince was targeted, but Zephyr remained calm.
He chose the Thunderdoom Fortress exploration mission, but the demon king, Mitra, did not show any signs of interest.
There were many stories about Zephyr. There were those who called Zephyr arrogant and provocative while others praised the 2nd Prince.
Zephyr behaved as usual after he arrived at Thunderdoom Fortress. He examined the remnants of the shadow puppets, reviewed the progress of Thunderdoom’s exploration and, after completing various office work, looked at the traces of fighting.
He carefully examined the place where the man with the spear had self-destructed, then he visited the armoury, treasure rooms and archives.
Zephyr entered the records room alone and didn’t look at the list of information logged by Felicia. Despite it being his first visit, he moved forward without any hesitation.
A strong attraction that couldn’t be defined led Zephyr to one area.
Just like In-gong, Zephyr stood in front of a pile of slabs. He also pulled out the same stone slab that In-gong had chosen.
The picture of the six elder dragons and four people.
Zephyr knew three of the people.
There was only one face that he didn’t know.
The woman wearing a crown at the forefront.
Zephyr’s eyes narrowed as he turned his gaze towards the three people he already knew.
War, Famine and Death…
And the six elder dragons who were hostile to them.
The forgotten myths and legends. It was a picture from a long time past… a thousand years ago.
The crowned woman caught Zephyr’s eyes once again before he put the slab back where it had been. Rather than searching for other records, he recalled the feeling he had sensed at the central plaza.
The aura of death that remained in the place where the man with the spear had self-destructed.
Zephyr slowly closed his eyes.
That line that had once been broken was continuing again.
