Mightiest Melee Magician
Chapter 13
After the end of , I saw an unexpected person after exiting the testing grounds.
“Professor?”
Professor Hydel, without an expression on his face, walked up to me.
“Seems you’ve had an accident.”
“…accident?”
“Come with me.”
The way Professor Hydel was going was towards none other than the stairway entrance to the Basement.
It wasn’t hard to guess that the ‘accident’ Professor Hydel was talking about was related to the points I got.
“I’m genuinely curious. How did you get in good favour with Kingram?”
“Ah, that’s…”
“It was a rhetorical question. Magicians have the right to keep their own secrets.”
I jokingly asked the professor,
“Are you going to tell this to my father as well?”
“Why? Do you not want me to?”
“No, but if you’re going to tell him, you should tell him soon. Since he’ll be worried.”
“Heh. This kid.”
Professor Hydel had an odd expression that said he was enjoying this.
He pulled out a parchment from his garment and held it up.
It was an entry permit with the stamp of Director Tirion on it.
He called out to the ‘Mana Guardian Spirits’ that looked impenetrable while they guarded the stairs to the artifact room.
“This is the entry permit of the director. Please authorise our entry into the artifact room.”
After the Mana Guardian Spirits had confirmed the authenticity of the entry permit,
Check! Check!
They moved in perfect order and turned their bodies out of the way.
Professor Hydel continued to walk forward, and down the stairs into the basement.
I hurriedly followed behind him.
“Woah… This is my first time here.”
“Of course it would be. This is one of the only places in the academy that is off-limits.”
An ever-present cold atmosphere rested on my skin.
But the area looked well managed, as the stairs had not even a speck of dust.
The warm glow of the lamps illuminated the stairs and the hallway.
At the end of the hallway was a huge steel gate that looked to lead into a room.
It felt quite weird thinking that this spacious underground area only had one room, but Professor Hydel gave an explanation that let me understand instantly.
“They haven’t activated as we have received the permission of entry, but the traps installed in this hallway exceed 100 types, so don’t touch anything carelessly.”
“…Oh.”
The hallway was a field of traps.
They activate in response to trespassers and can detect ‘Stealth’,’ Invisibility’, and other such types of magic.
No matter how strong the intruder was, they would be stopped before reaching the artifact room.
The place that was restricted from students.
The place that completely stopped unwanted individuals from approaching.
What treasures lay inside that warranted such tight security?
I felt a little nervous as I followed the Professor deeper into the hallway.
At the entrance to the artifact room closed by the huge steel door, Professor Hydel stopped to retrieve a cigar from his pocket.
“You’ll be the only one going into the room.”
“…I’m going alone?”
“Yes. I’m only allowed up to this point. Go. I’ll wait for you here.”
Professor held the cigar in his mouth and clicked his figures to create a flame.
I was going in alone…
“Then, I’ll be back.”
I breathed in a deep breath and opened the heavy doors to the artifact room.
Creak~
The steel gates created a strange sound as I opened them.
They weren’t heavy, they were light, as if light-weight magic was cast on them.
On the other side of the steel gates, deep darkness covered everything.
I gulped a little and stepped in.
Step… Step…
Creak─ Click.
The steel gates closed and simultaneously, a bright green glow nearly blinded me.
The artifact room, now illuminated by the green glow, was the definition of a treasure room.
“Woah…”
Staffs, magic wands, robes, pendants.
Just the weapons hanging on the walls numbered well in the double digits.
Multiple seals were here, as well as some rings and necklaces that looked like some high-ranking magic had been cast on them
In one corner of the artifact room, numerous magical books that, at a glance, looked precious were tightly stored in bookshelves.
A scene that inspired awe.
Could this be called the storage room of the archmage Frolian Ignit?
However, even amongst these treasures, the most precious artifact was by itself.
“You look like a fool, looking around like that. Not even knowing the true value of yourself.”
“…Kingram, sir.”
The living artifact, Kingram.
His worth was priceless, unable to be measured in gold.
But… something was a bit off.
Kingram, who should be inside his specially enhanced platinum statue, was standing there in his physical form.
That’s right.
He was currently a living ogre.
“Wha- How?”
Hearing me stutter, Kingram spoke to me.
“This place here is a unique place. I’m allowed to use my physical body.”
“Ah…”
A thin trace of ancient mana had filled the artifact room.
Thanks to this ancient mana, Kingram could exist not as the ‘artifact Kingram’ but as the ‘ogre Kingram’.
Even though I spent 6 years at the academy, there were a lot of things I still didn’t know.
“…So it’s like that.”
I gulped at the imposing aura emanating from the ogre.
A large form that was twice as big as the average ogre.
The aura exuded from just an imposing build.
Most people would have been crushed without a chance to resist.
Even I could only barely resist, but I remained standing.
Because I had a question that must be answered.
* * *
* * *
So, I asked,
“Just then, you said I don’t know my own ‘true value’.”
“I did.”
“What did you mean by that?”
The phrase that Kingram had thrown at me while I was looking dazed at the artifacts.
‘Not even knowing the true value of myself.’
It was like he knew my power came from an artifact.
What Kingram said next proved my hypothesis.
“Draka… because you and him both use the same artifact.”
My power.
An ancient artifact named ‘Player’.
Kingram knew exactly about my condition.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind artifact. I only said what I said because I was frustrated and annoyed. Even though you possess such a powerful artifact, you were impressed by those useless, trash items.”
“……”
This ogre.
How much did he know?
“Where did you get that? Also, how are you connected to Draka?”
I couldn’t give any answers.
Because…
I really didn’t know anything.
Anyhow, I told him a shortened version of my life story.
“Before that… I’ll tell you a bit about me.”
How I showed talent in magic from a young age
But a curse that had overshadowed this talent, Magic Evocation Disorder.
The lowest scoring student of the academy.
And how an accident had nearly cost me my life.
And how I obtained that artifact, ‘Player’.
Even how it was connected to Draka.
While silently listening to my story, Kingram talked while nodding his head.
“Draka couldn’t evoke his magic either. It looks like he had chosen you from a long time ago.”
I asked Kingram in response,
“Draka, who is he, really?”
“Hmm! You ask who he is?”
“Yes.”
His next words were a shocking masterpiece.
“A being that desired the form of a god.”
* * *
Destroyer of Worlds, Draka.
Before archmage Folian Ignit was even conceived.
An even older story.
One day, a human had found the ‘Sky Phoenix clan’ that the ancient ogre Kingram was a part of.
They say he was short and weak in stature.
But he had an overwhelming level of power that was hard to believe came from a human.
His strength was comparable with the ogres and became even stronger day by day, and at some point, even if multiple ogres charged at him, he would defeat them all single-handedly.
“He was extremely strong. Enough for us to stop thinking of him as human. I could talk about his strength forever. I’ve never seen a human stronger than him since then.”
This was Draka.
As a species that revered strength, the ogres naturally started to respect him.
Even though he was a human, he remained in the ogre tribe as a part of the family.
He had also taught Kingram, the next chieftain, language and magic.
For over 100 years.
I could only be shocked at this revelation.
“100 years? How could a human teach for 100 years…?”
“It’s possible. Since he wasn’t a human.”
“……”
Not a human?
I squinted my eyes a bit and asked him,
“If he wasn’t a human… what was he?”
“Black dragon Drakagonia. That was his true form.”
“……”
I held my breath.
What?
Dragon?
Weren’t dragons only creatures of myth?
If another person had said this, I would’ve asked if they were joking.
But he was the Ancient Ogre Kingram.
He wasn’t someone to make trivial jokes or babble nonsense.
“Is that… the truth?”
“Since you’re a magician, you should know that the origin of magic is from the dragons.”
“Ah… yes. But the existence of dragons isn’t something that has been confirmed…”
The origin of magic.
It was a topic popular amongst gossipers.
If the origin of magic was dragons.
Or if magic was something humans had sought after and developed.
These two opinions had clashed for a long time.
But there was no resolution, as proving either side was deemed impossible.
However, this ogre here who had lived with and learnt from a dragon for over 100 years had finally put the nail in.
“It’s all true. Dragons do exist. Even if they currently look extinct.”
“……”
Look extinct?
Did he mean they could exist or could not?
It was an ambiguous statement.
In any case, I had finally found more about this Draka.
But before even the shock of finding he was a dragon and not a human faded, Kingram told me another thing.
“As I said before, the origin of magic is dragons, but Draka himself couldn’t evoke magic, like you. Do you understand what this meant?”
“……”
A dragon that couldn’t use magic…
I wasn’t completely sure, but it would be like a human missing something that fundamentally made them human.
There were humans in the world that couldn’t use magic.
But humans without feelings didn’t exist.
Humans without thought or contemplations didn’t exist either.
Maybe, a dragon that couldn’t use magic would’ve been treated like that as well.
Since even I, until recently, was treated like that in the academy.
“I think… I understand a little.”
As I nodded my head, Kingram continued to talk.
“That’s why Draka created a power that only he could wield. To use magic and strength in tandem. That’s the ability that you’re using.”
Through this, Draka became stronger.
Stronger than any being in the world,
Stronger than any dragon in the world.
He cultivated enough power to challenge the gods.
And did so at the end.
However,
A little more.
A little bit stronger.
A little bit more.
After becoming stronger by his endless greed, Draka’s final moments were miserable.
“After endlessly bloating his strength, Draka was driven to his downfall. He destroyed all the other dragons who treated him like trash and self-destructed.”
“……”
A suicide bomb.
A being that perished along with his world.
Destroyer of Worlds, Draka.
This was the reason why the ‘dragon’ species could only exist as legends and stories.
I gulped while listening to this story.
A turbulent whirlpool was stirring within me.
Not because of the unbelievable story.
But because I couldn’t understand the scope of this ‘Endless Power’.
It was then.
A new window popped up in front of my eyes.
——
