TDGHR 45

Chapter 45

The Dungeon (Formerly)

‘He’s going to… turn that gate into a training ground?’

Who drops a line like that without any explanation?

At that point, he might as well have waited until later to tell me.

In any case, after Rokan declared that he intended to turn the gate into a training ground, my head filled with all sorts of distracting thoughts.

That dungeon belonged to the Maple Guild, so how did he plan to buy it? And why did he want to turn it into a training ground specifically for me?

There were far too many things I wanted to know and ask, but he had said he would explain after our spar. For now, the only thing I could do was spend the next hour swinging my sword with everything I had.

Gritting my teeth, I exchanged hundreds, perhaps thousands of blows with Rokan.

Swinging my sword nonstop was physically exhausting, and watching every single attack get blocked without resistance was mentally painful too. There were several moments when I wanted to simply let go of my sword, but I clenched my teeth and endured the brutal hour.

At long last, Rokan announced the end of the spar.

“Good work.”

The moment it ended, I collapsed where I stood without even having the strength to say anything.

After swinging a sword for more than an hour, my palms were flushed red, and my wrists throbbed so badly that even the slightest movement hurt.

At this point, wasn’t this closer to torture than sparring?

While I lay there unable to even open my mouth, Rokan used healing magic on me and brought me a bottle of water.

I drained the entire bottle in one go, gasping roughly afterward.

“…I thought I was going to die.”

“You did not, so is that not good enough?”

Even as he joked, Rokan did not hold back his encouragement, telling me I had done well to keep up despite how hard it must have been.

I took a sip of the additional potion he handed me and continued breathing heavily while silently staring at the sword Rokan had planted in the ground.

It had been perfectly fine before our spar, yet several parts of the blade were now chipped. Seeing that made me realize all over again just how intense today’s training had been.

After pulling the sword from the ground, Rokan used Dragon Tongue to return us to his lair.

I still had not fully recovered my strength, so I dropped into a chair and asked him, “Rokan, can you tell me now about the dungeon you mentioned earlier?”

He had said he would turn the entire dungeon called the Garden of Dragon Swords into my personal training ground.

Because he had spoiled that much in advance, curiosity had nearly driven me insane throughout the entire hour.

“Yes, I suppose I should. Were you very curious?”

“Of course. You could’ve just waited until now instead of telling me back then.”

When I complained lightly, Rokan smiled.

“I told you then on purpose. I wanted to see how well you could maintain your concentration even with something like that occupying your mind.”

‘Ah.’

So that had been another form of training after all, rather than him simply trying to mess with me.

‘…Does something like that really help with training?’

“In any case, I suppose I should begin with what happened when I went to the dungeon.”

Rokan explained that yesterday he had entered the Garden of Dragon Swords with representatives of the Maple Guild and the Hunter Association for a second investigation.

Originally, I had been part of the first investigation team instead of Rokan, but naturally, everyone had come away empty-handed.

We probably should have realized what was happening the moment we confirmed that the dungeon’s clear conditions had rolled back. Once we entered, the dungeon had returned as if by magic to the state it had been in before “that incident.”

At the time, one of the guild representatives had asked me, “Could there be some secret in Minjun’s sword?” and requested that I draw it and open the entrance leading beneath the tomb.

I had made an excuse that the sword had been completely broken after the incident and that I could no longer do it.

Letting the world learn the secrets connected to dragons did not seem wise.

As a result, the first investigation had no choice but to end without any real findings.

Apparently the Maple Guild was determined to uncover the secrets hidden in the dungeon, because they organized a larger second investigation. Rokan had quietly slipped into that team.

But even during the second investigation, the humans had once again come away empty-handed. Since entering the hidden section required an artifact containing dragon power, such as a Dragon Bone Sword, the outcome had been inevitable.

In the end, they had done nothing but waste their effort before leaving the dungeon with nothing to show for it.

“After confirming that everyone else had left, I slipped back inside.”

Rokan secretly infiltrated the dungeon alone, inserted a spare Dragon Bone Sword from his subspace, and opened the entrance leading beneath the tomb.

He thoroughly explored the inside of the burial chamber and eventually reached the space belonging to Minos where I had been trapped.

At first, I wondered how he could freely enter and leave that place. But thinking about it again, Rokan was a true dragon, so to him it was probably as easy as walking into his own room.

No matter how intricately constructed the dungeon was, there was no way a mere dungeon made by humans could imprison a dragon.

In any case, Rokan had entered what he assumed was the place where I had been trapped and started investigating.

I say “assumed” because the scenery I had first seen when I was trapped there and the scene Rokan found were apparently quite different.

He described an alien landscape that looked as though countless dimensions had been shattered into pieces and layered on top of one another. Cracks ran through the dimensions here and there as well, making the whole place unpleasant to look at.

In Rokan’s words, it was like watching performance art created by an artist suffering from hallucinations. Most importantly, he added, “That human called Minos was nowhere to be seen. A madman obsessed with Dragon Tongue failed to react even when an actual dragon personally arrived, so I suspect…”

“Because he was scared?”

“No. I could not find even a trace of his lingering thought. My guess is that after seeing you use Dragon Tongue, his long-standing regret was finally resolved, and much of the obsessive remnant that remained there disappeared.”

‘…So he really just wanted to see a human use Dragon Tongue?’

In a way, maybe that was the truest form of madness.

“However, that is not what matters most.”

Perhaps his throat had grown dry from the long explanation, because Rokan fetched a glass of water, drank it, and continued.

“That Minos fellow seems to have been insane in several different ways. Even for an emperor, I never imagined he would have gathered so many artifacts capable of manifesting dragon power.”

Inside the tomb, Rokan had found not only Dragon Bone Swords but a wide variety of artifacts designed to manifest, amplify, and sustain dragon power.

“He appears to have lived in a different dimension from mine, so this is only a rough comparison, but by the standards of the world I lived in… each individual item was worth about two or three years of the budget of a small or medium-sized territory.”

Rokan clicked his tongue, apparently remembering what he had seen.

Given Minos’s status as an emperor, there was nothing strange about him owning several precious treasures, but Rokan said he had found well over a hundred.

“All of the artifacts he gathered were connected into a single magic circle. When I analyzed it, I found the entire formation packed with formulas designed to assist in the use of Dragon Tongue.”

In other words, the space had not merely been designed to manifest and amplify dragon power. The entire environment had been constructed so that it could meaningfully assist someone in actually using Dragon Tongue.

“I intend to take Shasha there soon and show it to her as well.”

If a dragon like Rokan spoke of it this highly, the magic circle’s ability to assist Dragon Tongue had to be astonishingly effective.

The more I learned about Minos, the more incredible his madness seemed.

He had remained inside his own tomb as a lingering thought for an eternity just to see that one thing, and he had poured a colossal fortune into making it possible.

From Rokan’s explanation, the magic circle engraved throughout the tomb did not sound ordinary either.

‘I’m sorry for misunderstanding you, Minos. I thought you were a deranged psychopath, but you were actually just an unbelievably impressive lunatic.’

“There was only one thought that came to mind when I saw it.”

“That it would be… the perfect environment for me to train?”

Rokan nodded before answering, “Exactly. It will require some adjustment, but that place lacks nothing as a training environment for you. Constructing a system so perfectly suited to a human-born user of Dragon Tongue would not be easy even for us dragons.”

If Rokan was willing to go that far in praising it, there was nothing more to say.

The thought that I might be able to train even more systematically than I did now filled me with excitement.

But that excitement lasted only a moment.

Come to think of it, wasn’t that place a tomb?

In other words, I would be spending long periods training near where someone’s corpse was buried.

‘That’s going to feel pretty creepy.’

Who trained inside the tomb of an emperor from another world, especially one who had been revered by his people as a wise and benevolent ruler while alive?

As I sank deep into thought, Rokan chuckled.

“I can roughly guess what you are thinking, but endure it. It is also true that thanks to that human, you took your first real step toward understanding Dragon Tongue.”

‘…That’s true.’

I had suffered through every kind of hardship in that place, but the experience had also produced meaningful progress in my ability to use Dragon Tongue.

If anything, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Minos had brought me closer to the day when I could be with Sia more freely.

“…You’re right.”

“In any case, keep that in mind. I suppose I will be busy now, between purchasing the dungeon and modifying it.”

“But Rokan, what if the guild refuses to… sell the dungeon?”

Now that an imperial tomb had been discovered there, its value had probably skyrocketed. It was also an extremely useful dungeon for training rookies.

If I were the master of the Maple Guild, I did not think I would sell it easily.

Rokan responded as though I had asked something painfully obvious.

“They will sell it. You humans have a saying, do you not? If money cannot solve a problem, consider whether you simply do not have enough money.”

‘Ah.’

That was true. Even Sia carried around countless expensive artifacts, precious metals, and jewels. How much wealth must Rokan, a former Dragon Lord, possess?

While marveling at that unimaginable fortune, I also felt grateful to Rokan for being willing to spend such an enormous sum for my sake.

“Yes. Thank you very much, Rokan.”

“No need for thanks. Rest a little longer, then do some recovery training before you leave.”

“Thank you!”

“Ah, and one more thing.”

Rokan called to me, paused as though considering how to phrase it, then continued.

“It seems I have ended up giving you quite a lot of good news today.”

“You mean…?”

I looked at him, full of anticipation.

“I think it should be safe for you to spend a little more time with Shasha from now on.”