Chapter 161

The Grave of the Dragons was where the Monarch of Shadows, Sung Jinwoo, had fought a final war against Antares, the Monarch of Destruction and King of Dragons. The war between those powerful forces had been as intense as it had been terrible, and it was Jinwoo’s shadow army that had won out in the end. As a result, the land had been filled with the ashes of countless dragons, carried along by the wind like snow.

It was into this barren and ruined land that Cha Haein and Sirka had come in order to restore the power of the shadow wyvern Kaisel. Kaisel had weakened considerably over time while protecting Haein, and he had fallen into a deep sleep in her arms as soon as they arrived. It was a state similar to hibernation. He looked to be simply sleeping, but he was actually absorbing the tiny bits of residual power in the gray dragon ashes.

While Kaisel recovered, all Haein and Sirka had to do was wander through the wasteland without any destination. At first, they’d intended to find themselves a place to rest until Kaisel had fully recovered, but when they did this, the wyvern had soon woken up with a great yawn. It was clear he wanted them to stay on the move. There was a limit to how much power he could absorb from a single location, which was a given, in a way. The energy of the dead dragons in the ashes was extremely slight. They might have to explore this entire world before Kaisel, now at his weakest, could absorb enough to fully recover his strength.

Haein and Sirka, having understood how this worked, continued to wander about in search of new places in an effort to help Kaisel. They had done this for a while when a vast, imposing silhouette appeared before them.

“Cha Cha! I’ll protect you from the rear!” called Sirka.

Wide-eyed, Haein stared into the drifting ashes. She drew her sword and slowly walked forward.

After she’d moved through the ashes, the huge form finally came into view. “Unbelievable...”

Both Haein and Sirka were in shock.

“So they didn’t all turn into ashes?” Haein muttered. Shockingly enough, what they were seeing was a huge pile of bones that had not yet turned into ashes. “This feels like a giant dinosaur museum.” She felt a little overwhelmed by the giant bones.

Kaisel seemed to wake up then, looking around with sleepy eyes and growling. Haein stroked his back. “How do you feel? Do you think you’re recovering faster here?” The wyvern closed his eyes pleasurably at the touch, growling some more.

Sirka noticed this and said happily, “That’s good. The bones are probably much better sources of energy than just ashes. The remains of dragons are extremely valuable in their own right.”

Haein nodded. She knew from her memories of her past life that dragon bones were an amazing resource indeed. They were strong and durable enough to bear the extreme body weights of the dragons, and they were naturally extremely resonant with mana.

“Yes, this is great,” Sirka continued. “It’ll be a huge help to Suho if we can take all these bones back to Earth and make weapons from them.”

“You’re right. They’re a bit weathered and old, but if we look closely, I’m sure we’ll be able to find pieces that are still intact—” Haein was reaching for her necklace so she could access her inventory when she suddenly felt a chill.

“Get out of the way!” Sirka shouted.

The sudden hostility they felt caused them to jump in opposite directions at the same time, as if acting on cue. A massive explosion struck the spot they had just been standing in, and the bones near them tumbled down. They hurriedly avoided being hit by the bones as they prepared for battle.

“I’ll cover you!” Sirka dashed back, pulling her bowstring taut.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Haein drew her sword and lunged forward. She finally saw the individual responsible for the explosion.

“Kirraka!”

“Kirukadra!”

Haein went wide-eyed. Shockingly enough, they were warriors and sorcerers made of bones. They were not humanoid, however.

Sirka, who’d been firing arrows from behind, recognized them and shouted in shock, “They’re Spartoi!”

“Spartoi?”

The Spartoi were a mythical race. Their name meant “sown men” in Greek, and as it implied, they rose from dragon teeth that had been planted in the ground.

“The dragon teeth that didn’t turn into ash must have been reborn as magic beasts!” Sirka cried. She recalled Antares, the Monarch of Destruction and King of Dragons. More often referred to by the latter name, he had been the strongest of all the Monarchs. He was the most powerful dragon in existence, and the dragons that he had led made up an invincible army with extreme power and mana. Over the long years that the dragons’ bodies had remained in this place, not yet turned to ashes, the power residing in their bones had apparently resulted in the formation of these creatures.

There was something that wasn’t quite right about this, however. “But they have no masters! How is this possible?” Sirka said, taken aback.

“What do you mean?” Haein shouted as she fought the Spartoi. The warriors were incredibly numerous, presumably matching the number of dragon remains in this world. They continued to crawl out of the ground, surrounding Haein and Sirka.

“Storm of White Flames!” Haein lifted the Demon King’s Longsword high into the air, and hundreds of lightning bolts dropped out of the sky.

“Kirakura!”

“Karka!”

The Demon King’s Longsword contained the power of Baran, the Monarch of White Flames. It had the power to create a storm around the user that dropped lightning bolts incessantly. The Spartoi were unable to fight destruction on such an overwhelming scale. They screamed, crumbling as they were hit.

“They can withstand this?” Haein exclaimed, her eyes widening. This storm had done significant damage even to a follower of the Itarim, but the Spartoi were getting back up as soon as they crumbled.

“Cha Cha! I heard that the Spartoi have high defense because they’re born from dragon teeth!”

“It seems that way,” Haein said, adjusting her grip on her sword carefully.

Kaisel snarled.

“Don’t worry, Kaisel,” Haein told the wyvern. “You can go back to sleep.” Noticing that something was amiss, Kaisel had opened his eyes with a worried look. Haein simply smiled and soothed the dragon, then looked back at the Spartoi.

“It still damaged them...” Haein was right. The Spartoi who had been hit had visibly slowed down. If she took them down one by one, they would eventually be defeated. She swung her weapon, slicing the Spartoi closest to her at the waist, then turned to Sirka. “What were you going to say? You said something was strange.”

“Oh...!” Sirka shot an arrow at a Spartoi sorcerer, who was firing a magical attack from the farthest point. “I don’t know much about them, either, but I do know one thing! No Spartoi can exist without a master!”

“A master?”

“Yes! I heard that dragons will pull out their own teeth to create the Spartoi! They’re meant to protect the dragon who creates them, of course. To be more precise...” Sirka’s eyes moved to Kaisel, who was sleeping on Haein’s shoulder. “The reason they exist is to protect the dragon while it sleeps! That’s their purpose.”

“What?” Realizing something odd, Haein looked around her. “But there are no living dragons here.”

“That’s exactly what I find so strange! Spartoi who have no master are supposed to return to being the dragon teeth they once were!”

“So how are they still...”

It was odd, to be sure. In order for there to be this many Spartoi warriors, there had to be a great many living dragons as well. However, there seemed to be no dragons around them at all. That suggested that the Spartoi here had indeed spawned from the teeth of the remains. “Then maybe... they have a new master now?” Haein guessed.

“Or someone has appeared that can create Spartoi with the teeth of other dragons.”

“So the conclusion is similar. It doesn’t seem as though they’ll tell us even if we ask, though.” Thanks to the necklace, which had interpretation abilities, Haein had been able to understand the Spartoi’s speech for a while now.

“Kirkara!

(Kill the invaders!)

”

“Invaders, huh?”

That means we’ve intruded upon a location we shouldn’t have, or that they don’t like seeing us here.

Where are we, then?

Haein looked around calmly while cutting down another Spartoi and shouted, “Sirka! I can hold out here for a second. Make a prayer to Sillad!”

Sirka was a descendant of Sillad, the Monarch of Frost, and was capable of transferring her thoughts to him. As a shaman, Suho had even been able to awaken Sillad’s spirit from his slumber, but Sirka wasn’t capable of this. She could send one-way messages, however, in the form of prayers. Such messages would then pass from the Monarch to Suho, the shaman.

“This isn’t the way the prayers are supposed to be used, though...” The ice elf looked a little embarrassed as she began to pray to Sillad. “So what am I supposed to tell Suho?”

***

At around the same time, Suho and Dogyoon were in Busan. Their goal was naturally to clear dungeons, but this time they were here for something a little special.

“Are you the guild master of the Woojin Guild, perhaps?”

“No. I’m the vice guild master, Lim Dogyoon. This is our guild master—”

“Oh, pardon me!” The female hunter who’d come to greet the members of the Woojin Guild blushed and quickly apologized. She approached Suho, looking embarrassed. “Hello! I’m Lee Joohee, a healer from the Knights Guild! Welcome to Busan!”

“Oh, yes. Nice to meet you. I’m Sung Suho, the guild master.”

For some reason, Joohee suddenly stared at Suho’s face with an odd look.

Suho was puzzled. “Is there something wrong?”

“Oh. Not at all! I beg your pardon. Why do I have the feeling I’ve seen you before? I must be mistaken.” While Suho looked confused, Joohee seemed embarrassed and apologized immediately.

What is the matter with me?

How could I know someone this young?

He probably wasn’t even born yet when I lived in Seoul.

She reprimanded herself for making more mistakes than usual today, then got right to the point. “Ahem... In any case, Guild Master Sung. Thank you for coming to help us. Mr. Lim is waiting for you at the guild office. I’ll show you there.”

Dogyoon gulped anxiously at being told that his father was waiting.