A Dragonslayer’s Peerless Regression – 196



Episode 196

‘The Test Grounds of the Fighting God Tir? The Inverted Tower?’

The place I thought was just a dungeon was actually the ruins of the knight Tius Tyr the valiant knight.

Zig’s eyes lit up at the completely unexpected message.

‘There’s a good chance that Tyr’s shield is inside here.’

Rex Turin said he reached the 90th floor of the ordeal but was unable to go down any further because the doors were blocked from the 91st floor onwards.

‘A gate to the ruins that has never been opened since the Turn family took care of it. It is the most suitable place to store the sacred relic Tyr’s Shield.’

Zeke slowly went inside.

This place was more like a labyrinth than a dungeon.

Among dungeons the relics that are so large that it is impossible to estimate the time of construction or measure them are called ‘labyrinths.’

During his time as a Highlander Zeke had the experience of following his master into a labyrinth.

Unlike regular dungeons the labyrinth was a place full of ancient magic and mysteries of unknown origin.

The trials of struggle felt like a labyrinth.

Zeke recalled the account of the ordeal of struggle he had heard from Rex Turn.

‘They said that all kinds of monsters appear from the 1st floor to the 90th floor.’

It was said that similar types of monsters were placed on each floor and that if you defeated the boss monster at the innermost level a path leading down to the lower floor would appear.

But the strange thing is that when you kill a monster it turns to ash and disappears without leaving a trace.

So even if you kill and kill the monsters again when you go through the ordeal and come back in it will return to its original state.

Rex Turn speculated that this phenomenon may be some kind of ancient magic.

As Zeke listened to him one thing struck him.

‘Embodiment. Lord Hoshigar who was a dragon also left behind an ethereal form of himself. If he was a dragon… he could have left such magic throughout the labyrinth.’

It was unknown why Tir had borrowed the power of the dragon to leave behind this labyrinth.

If I went down to the very last floor I might be able to find out what his intentions were.

As we went a little further inside we saw stairs leading down.

Zeke slowly walked down the stairs.

[You have reached the first floor of the ‘Inverted Tower’.]

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[The challenger is given a choice.]

[Choose difficulty level.]

[Choose between Easy Mode Normal Mode and Hard Mode.]

[The higher the difficulty the higher the reward you can receive.]

Zig tilted his head at the floating message.

‘What does this mean?’

I don’t know exactly what it was but it seemed to be saying that the more difficult the choice the more you get in return.

I don’t think this is an option that is visible only to system administrators as I didn’t see anything like this in the explanation I heard from Rex Tourn.

“Is hard mode the most difficult? Then go with hard mode.”

Then a message popped up in the system again.

[Difficulty is set to Hard Mode.]

[Determining the target]

[The realm of the devotee has discovered the energy of tolerance in the target.]

[Difficulty adjustment begins.]

[Difficulty is adjusted and Hell Mode is applied to the target.]

“What? Hell mode?”

The name itself was unusual. At the same time a new message came to mind.

[Power cannot be used due to Hell Mode correction.]

[Passive skills cannot be used due to Hell Mode compensation.]

[Active skills cannot be used due to Hell Mode correction.]

[Dragon skills cannot be used due to Hell Mode correction.]

[Summoning is not possible due to Hell Mode correction.]

‘what?’

Most of Zeke’s abilities were blocked.

Woohoo!

As soon as my abilities were limited I felt the change right away. My body felt much heavier than usual.

“Is it because the passive skills are also limited? It’s quite awkward.”

[The challenger is given a mission.]

―Flipped Tower Quest Mission―

[Break through the first floor of the inverted tower eliminate the boss and go down to the second floor. (No time limit)]

[Quest Mission Reward: Conqueror of the 1st Floor (Hell Mode)]

Rex Tourn said that if you’re a blue knight you can pass up to the 30th floor without any problems but the difficulty level changes significantly from the 31st floor onwards.

However since Zeke was in Hell Mode which has the highest difficulty there was a possibility that the situation in the labyrinth would be different from what Rex Tourn had said.

“Not having a healing factor or infinite stamina is definitely fatal.”

Zeke soon realized that he had been relying heavily on his passive skills.

‘It may be that I was unable to break through the wall because I was relying too much on convenient abilities.’

Zig regained his senses from his past life after a long time and felt refreshed.

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“Whew good. Let’s go down first.”

Zeke reached the end of the stairs leading down to the first floor took out Bahamut and stepped forward.

With all his skills and abilities blocked Zeke used his natural senses to the best of his ability to look around. Then he felt something strange.

‘What is this?’

Whoosh!

Zeke swung his sword at something rushing toward him.

Chomp!

Zeke’s sword cut through the monster’s body.

“what’s this.”

Zeke bent down and examined the identity of the monster that had fallen to the ground.

It was a rabbit-like creature with sharp fangs protruding. Words appeared above the dead creature’s head.

―Vampire Rabbit Level 1―

It seemed to be the name of this monster.

“A vampire rabbit? It’s different from the monster on the first floor that Rex Turn mentioned. But what does level mean?”

At that moment the body of the dead vampire rabbit slowly turned to ash and disappeared.

This is exactly what Rex Tourne said.

At the same time a message came to mind again.

[You earn 1 experience point.]

“If you kill a monster you get experience points?”

It was an unexpected reward. Since it was a spirit and not an actual monster experience points were given instead of karma points.

Zig opened the system window and looked at the experience list.

When I got the Elder Dragon Relics again I checked the readjusted ability distribution settings.

Currently the focus is on the growth of ‘spiritual power’ that can raise the level of the soul.

After much thought Zig changed the setting from automatic distribution to manual distribution.

If you continue to kill monsters while going down to the 100th floor you will accumulate quite a lot of experience points so it would be a good idea to develop the abilities you need at that time.

Zig closed the system window and took a deep breath. Zig took up his sword again and began sweeping away the vampire rabbits on the first floor like a storm.

[You earn 1 experience point.]

[You earn 1 experience point.]

[You earn 1 experience point.]

* * *

“On the first floor you have 250 experience points. It’s still a bit lacking but… you’ll gain more as you go down.”

Even though his abilities were limited the vampire rabbits on the first floor were no threat to Zeke at all.

Then Zeke reached the innermost room.

As he opened the door and went in a monster that looked like a boss roared ferociously at Zeke.

―Vampire Rabbit Boss Level 3―

As expected of a boss monster it was of a higher level than the other vampire rabbits.

The vampire rabbit boss rushed towards Zeke.

Whoosh!

But even so it didn’t make much of a difference. With a light swing of Zeke’s sword the vampire rabbit boss’s body was torn apart and disappeared.

[You earn 3 experience points.]

Still I gave him more experience points because he was the boss.

Then something appeared where the vampire rabbit boss died.

“Is this a random box?”

I had never heard anything like this from Rex Turn.

Perhaps there was a difference in the rewards depending on the difficulty level.

Zik immediately opened the random box.

-Glove Information-

Description: Gloves made from the fur of a vampire rabbit.

Unique Ability: Vampirism

Special Features: Gloves made from the fur of a vampire rabbit. Very warm. Absorbing blood slightly restores the user’s stamina.

“Huh? Artifacts come out as rewards from the first floor?”

Although it wasn’t a strong magic the item that was enchanted was valuable in the first place.

Artifacts that restore stamina there were quite rare.

Zeke put the gloves in his inventory and smirked.

“From experience points to artifacts. There’s more to gain here than you might think.”

Zeke went down to the second floor whistling while holding Bahamut.

I was able to get through the 2nd to 10th floors without any problems.

Zig took a breather after defeating the 10th floor boss the Vampire Platypus. As a reward he received boots made from the fur of the Vampire Platypus.

“Hmm all the artifacts up to the 10th floor have blood sucking abilities. Keep these. I guess I should start organizing my experience points.”

Zeke checked the experience points he had accumulated while coming down to the 10th floor.

[You currently have 4309 experience points.]

Since it’s still a low level there aren’t that many experience points accumulated.

Still since it was a meaningful number Zigg thought about where to invest points among the abilities first.

The categories where experience points can be distributed were spirit power active skills dragon skills and equipment summons.

After much thought Zeke decided to invest in spiritual power first.

“Since you can use the functions of the soul machine and the system here it would be most reasonable to increase your spiritual power.”

Zig invested all 4309 experience points into Spirit Power.

[Spiritual power has increased and the soul’s rank has grown slightly.]

[Bahamut’s Heart Seal is partially released. Current compression seal level is 69.5%.]

As the spiritual power increased the soul level and Bahamut’s heart compression seal degree decreased.

“It’s 0.5%. It’s a small amount but the more experience you have the more you’ll be able to accumulate.”

Zig left his regret behind and checked the passive skill slot in the status window.

Passive Skills: Healing Factor / Strong Mental Defense / Infinite Stamina / Beastly Senses / Limit Break (Locked)

He focused on the passive skill ‘Limit Break (Lock)’.

‘When the soul’s rank increases it can be released. When the limit breakthrough occurs it will be easier to break through the wall that must be overcome to enter the Black Knight.’

Zig decided to collect as many experience points as possible.

He took some food and water from his inventory ate some and then took a good rest.

“I can definitely feel that infinite stamina is a fraudulent skill.”

After recovering his strength he went down to the 11th floor.

But the 11th floor had a different atmosphere from the 10th floor.

The atmosphere of the labyrinth was similar but there were bushes here and there and trees could be seen growing through the walls and covering the ceiling.

Zik picked a fruit from the tree and split it open.

‘This is… a real fruit.’

Throughout the labyrinth trees bearing these fruits grew.

“What a strange place. Fruits growing inside a labyrinth. Why on earth did Tir create a place like this?”

Then something approached Zeke.

Krrrrrr.

Zeke checked the monster’s information.

-Hobgoblin Level 5-

It was a monster that was larger and had stronger fighting power than a typical goblin.

Then another group of hobgoblins came rushing in from behind.

And at that moment one of the hobgoblins behind him shot a spit at Zeke.

Shhh!

Zeke quickly dodged the flying spit by flying away.

At the same time the hobgoblins charged at Zeke with their weapons drawn.

He swung his sword at the hobgoblin that leapt into the air.

Crunch-

The hobgoblin’s body was torn in two with a sharp sound.

Zeke continued to cut through the hobgoblins’ bodies with his whirlwind without stopping.

Choaaaak!

In an instant Zeke’s sword blew off the heads of the hobgoblins. Five hobgoblins fell in one breath.

The dead hobgoblins soon turned to ash and disappeared.

Zeke swept away the hobgoblins that rushed at him as he broke through the labyrinth.

“Phew.”

After going around the labyrinth and killing all the hobgoblins to gain experience Zeke slowly headed to the boss’s room.

‘We don’t know how strong the boss on the 11th floor will be so let’s prepare thoroughly before going.’

Just in case Zeke bought the necessary potions from the shop in advance and put them in the automatic slot then ate food and rested enough to replenish his stamina.

As he finished his maintenance and approached the boss’s room the door slowly opened.

Kurururur!

Zig slowly entered the boss’s room his body lowered.

Krrrr!

In the room stood a hobgoblin twice as large as a normal hobgoblin. Unlike other hobgoblins he was wearing armor.

―Ferocious Hobgoblin Warrior Level 10―

Moreover the modifier ‘ferocious’ was added in front.

Kaaaak!

A ferocious hobgoblin warrior charged toward Zeke.

Zeke slid the hobgoblin warrior’s sword aside and cut Bahamut open in the waist.

Bang!

Surprisingly Zeke’s black sword failed to cut through the hobgoblin warrior’s waist in one stroke.

‘A goblin wearing armor that Bahamut can’t cut through in one shot.’

The ferocious hobgoblin warrior snickered at the wide-eyed Zeke.

Zig who was faced with it quietly muttered.

“Equipped with Hersion.”

Clang!

As Hersion wrapped around Zeke’s entire body the hobgoblin stepped back in confusion.

Zeke slowly approached the hobgoblin holding Bahamut wrapped around his auror blade.

Kaaaak!

He charged forward with great momentum but in a flash of light the hobgoblin warrior’s head rolled to the ground.

Soon the hobgoblin warrior’s body turned to ash and disappeared.

Zig confirmed that the boss monster was dead and removed Hersion’s equipment.

“Hoooo.”

Zigg who had released Hersion exhaled deeply as if he was tired.

“Oh my goodness Theia’s Hersion. This thing sucks up too much mana! I can’t use it with the Aura Blade.”

Since I can’t use passive skills the consumption of mana and stamina is too great.

Zeke looked around to see where the hobgoblin warrior had disappeared feeling that he should refrain from using Hersion as much as possible.

Unlike the boss monsters on other floors the reward seemed to be the armor worn by the hobgoblin warrior rather than a random box.

Zeke approached lifted the armor checked the information and was shocked.