The Hero Becomes the Duke’s Eldest Son

Chapter 34

It was a nameless mountain next to a rural village.

The reason Aden had come to such a place was for one thing only: the gift left by his master for his future disciple was sleeping here.

In the past, his master had shown Aden a map and said:

“Disciple, when you become independent from me, find the pretty rock here.”

“What do you mean by a pretty rock? That sounds like such nonsense…”

Thud.

The master gave his disciple a good flick on the head for speaking nonsense.

“Ouch!”

“Hohoho! It’s a gift I prepared for when I would have a disciple someday!”

The master had laughed, saying he looked forward to the time when Aden would find it.

“What kind of gift…”

Remembering the past, Aden chuckled.

Aden stood before the ‘pretty rock’ that his master had mentioned.

He gazed at the rock with a troubled expression.

“As I thought before, my master’s sense is quite peculiar.”

The large rock, about 3 meters in diameter, was perfectly heart-shaped.

Looking at the cross-section of the heart rock, it was clear that it had been meticulously carved with an Aura Blade.

It was an incredible waste of talent.

“It’s just an ordinary rock with no mana or magic power. Why did your master leave something like this?”

Aden did not answer Curse’s question.

He simply drew his sword, wrapped it in Sword Aura, and then…

Swish! Swoosh! Slash!

He ruthlessly cut the heart-shaped rock into pieces.

Curse asked slyly.

“…Did you have a lot of grudges against your master?”

“That’s not it.”

It would be a lie to say there were none at all, but that wasn’t the reason he destroyed the rock.

‘It’s just the lid.’

As the dust settled from cutting the rock, a hidden cave was revealed behind it.

Aden let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the entrance of the cave.

‘I experienced this before, but this is just like my master.’

The gift prepared by his master was a hidden dungeon.

* * *

A dungeon.

A place filled with monsters and traps, while also being a location where treasures worthy of risking one’s life slept.

There were two main types of dungeons.

Natural dungeons formed by monsters being attracted to objects filled with large amounts of mana.

Ruins dungeons where security devices from the ancient divine era were still active.

The dungeon Aden entered was a ruins dungeon with brick finishes.

* * *

Entering the entrance, the system responded and informed him.

The system had three basic features.

One, you could check your status information.

Two, achieving certain feats would increase your stats according to those achievements.

Three, it would inform you of simple measures if there were anomalies in your body and would nullify mental and curse-type attacks.

Additionally, there were exceptional functions where the system would respond in special environments like dungeons.

‘This system is still a mystery.’

Originally, it was a power that only gods, dragons, and other transcendent beings could possess.

Aden had partially gained this authority when he accepted the mana of the Dragon King.

There were probably more hidden features he didn’t know about.

‘Well, that’s not important now.’

Aden entered the first room of the dungeon.

The moment Aden took a step inside.

* * *

– You have entered the Soldier’s Room.

* * *

Creak.

Clack, clack.

Rattle.

Skeletons, composed only of bones, approached Aden with clattering sounds.

‘Skeleton soldiers.’

Undead revived from death through dark magic.

They were monsters with no intelligence, attacking any living being in sight.

Click!

Creak!

About a dozen skeleton soldiers saw Aden and wobbled towards him with their white bone bodies.

One skeleton swung a rusty sword at Aden.

Crack!

Aden’s fist shattered the skeleton’s skull.

The skeleton’s body collapsed into a heap of bones after its skull was destroyed.

‘Skeletons are finished if you break their heads.’

Aden leisurely punched as he dodged the clumsy attacks of the approaching skeletons.

Crack!

Crack!

Every time, the sound of skulls breaking echoed.

His movements were so natural and relaxed that it seemed like the skeletons were intentionally getting hit by Aden.

There was no need to draw his sword.

‘I’ve fought these skeletons to death.’

In the past, Aden had hunted dark magicians.

They fought by moving corpses with dark magic.

The most common among them were skeletons, and thanks to that, Aden was used to dealing with skeletons.

Crack!

Snap!

Finally, the last skeleton’s skull was smashed, turning them all into piles of bones.

Aden moved on to the next room.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the village below where Aden was clearing the dungeon.

About a dozen people appeared in the village’s communal cemetery.

They were all wearing gray robes.

“To search all the way out here in the boondocks, the boss is too much.”

“Really, do you think it’s here?”

A woman in her thirties frowned at the two people complaining.

“It’s the boss’s order. Stop grumbling, Kelzas, Truman.”

“Yes, and this place is quite a likely candidate.”

The others, who had their hoods pulled low, stood still without a word.

They didn’t even breathe loudly.

Kelzas and Truman, grumbling and sarcastic, laughed after being sternly admonished.

“Well, if we’re clear on that, we’re good. Is it okay to take over this village?”

“There seem to be plenty of sacrifices here.”

Their gazes turned towards the villagers, licking their lips.

Greed and base madness flickered in their eyes.

After a brief contemplation, the woman nodded.

“Fine. I allow it. We need more people for the search anyway.”

“Great!”

“Kuhahaha!”

They chuckled and raised their hands.

“Rise, spirits of death!”

Black energy spread from their bodies, seeping into the ground.

“dhk! toswm!”

Then, the ground started to tremble, and something began to crawl out.

– Uuuuurgh…

– Aaaaah…

White bones broke through the graves, pushing their way out.

They were skeleton soldiers.

Their true identity was none other than dark magicians.

The middle-aged woman, still standing like a stone, ordered the seven who had been silent.

“Capture the people to use as sacrifices. Kill them if they resist.”

The seven, who hadn’t moved, simultaneously threw off their robes.

Revealing black armor beneath.

Red ghostly flames burned like eyes inside their helmets.

They were death knights.

All of them drew their swords from their waists and answered in voices like grinding metal.

– As the master commands.

* * *

– You have entered the Knight’s Room.

* * *

Upon entering, a heavy voice echoed.

– No living being may enter this place.

Three knights in black armor pointed their swords at Aden. Inside their helmets were only darkness, with red ghostly flames burning in their eyes.

They were death knights.

Aden almost burst into laughter at the sight of them.

There was not a single difference from his memories of the previous world.

Aden spoke with a touch of affection.

“Long time no see, tin cans.”

The death knights’ eyes flashed as if they were excited.

One knight in black armor drew his sword and shouted.

– How dare you insult us, the knights of death! Living being, we shall tear you apart!

Aden almost laughed at those words.

‘Knights, my foot. They’re just puppets.’

They weren’t real but were dolls imprinted with the thought of being ‘death knights’ and moved accordingly.

That’s why their speech and actions were archaic and awkward, talking about living beings and such.

The excited death knight swung his sword at Aden.

‘Aiming for the neck but striking the side.’

Aden read the trajectory of the sword and twisted his body to dodge.

He then moved inside the death knight’s guard.

Slash!

With Aden’s sword coated in Sword Aura, the death knight’s waist was cut in two, and the armor fell with a clunk.

‘One down.’

Aden had provoked the death knights to create an opening.

In the past, Aden had struggled against them when he first entered this dungeon.

Their coordinated attacks were like interlocking gears, making it impossible to find a gap.

‘But that means if I take down even one, the rest are easy.’

The remaining two death knights attacked Aden.

However, Aden skillfully dodged their attacks and counterattacked.

Dodge, and cut an arm.

Dodge again, and cut a leg.

Thunk. Clatter.

In the end, the remaining death knights lost their light and fell.

Aden moved to the next room.

* * *

– You have entered the Wizard’s Room.

* * *

It was a much larger space than the previous soldier and knight rooms.

– Kkulkul… I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve had a visitor.

A skeletal figure in a robe sat on a stone throne in the center of the room.

Dark blue ghostly flames burned in its eye sockets.

A lich.

A dark magician who had resurrected themselves as a corpse to avoid death, an undead.

A powerful undead that even dozens of veteran knights couldn’t defeat.

On the dungeon floor, there was an inscription.

‘A gift for my beloved disciple who will come someday! Kkulkul.’

Beloved, my foot.

Curse asked.

– Does that master of yours want to kill his disciple or something?

Curse’s remark accurately described the situation.

Aden couldn’t deny it.

In fact, when he first entered this place in his past life, he thought, ‘Oh, my master wants to assassinate his disciple.’

Indeed, his master’s training methods were hard to tell if they were for training

or attempted murder.

His master often said:

– For a man, it’s all about real combat!

It was a gift that reeked of his master’s way of thinking.

The lich laughed with a grim voice.

– Kkulkul, you have quite the skill to destroy my soldiers. I like you.

The lich was very pleased with Aden’s intrusion.

Most dungeons had the characteristic of selecting the strongest being inside as the dungeon boss and subjugating it to the dungeon’s defense system.

The lich was trapped by the dungeon’s subjugation power and couldn’t leave.

He wanted to get out.

He wanted to destroy the hateful empire and create a nation of dark magicians and undead.

There was only one way to do that.

To create a new dungeon boss to replace himself.

– I will kill you and make you my soldier to escape this wretched dungeon!

He intended to make the human who defeated his soldiers the perfect dungeon boss by turning him into an undead!

The lich raised his hand towards Aden.

Whirr.

A black swirl of magical energy gathered at the tip of his bony fingers.

– qjddldy!

The black sphere, fully formed, shot towards Aden. At that moment, Aden leaped backward.

Boom!

The black energy struck where Aden had been standing, causing an explosion.

The stone floor caved in.

If he had been there, it would have been dangerous.

The lich continued to fire the black spheres of magical energy at Aden.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Each time, Aden nimbly moved to avoid the explosions.

– Hahaha! You jump around like a flea!

The lich felt exhilarated by the stimulus he hadn’t felt in almost a hundred years.

– Yes, keep dodging! Then die miserably and become a servant of this great lich!

Then Aden’s mocking voice rang out.

“The great lich, my foot. You’re only half a lich.”

-…What?

The lich froze at Aden’s words.

Aden whispered the truth that the lich desperately wanted to forget.

“A true lich maintains a human-like appearance even after becoming an undead.”

Aden remembered.

The liches he encountered while hunting dark magicians in the past.

With beautiful faces like young men and women, they turned people into undead wherever they went, laughing maniacally at the sight of people turning into undead while screaming.

Aden sneered at the lich.

“You’re just an unfinished lich, lacking the ability to become a complete one.”

– Silence!

The lich’s body trembled.

The dark blue flames inside the lich’s skull burned fiercely with rage.

– Fine, you are hastening your death!

The lich stopped his barrage of dark energy and raised his hands.

– I will steal your light, rob your sight. I will oppress your freedom.

He was casting one of the special powers of dark magic, a curse.

– dksqhdlwlfhd apfhd!

The curse he cast was the Curse of Blindness.

Anyone afflicted by this curse would never see again unless the caster removed it.

The lich intended to hurl a black sphere at the now-blind Aden…

Clang.

He was horrified by the sound of something shattering.

– Guh…!

Aden’s sword, which had been in his hand, was now lodged in the lich’s chest.

Aden had thrown his sword like a spear and hit the lich.

To be precise, he had struck the source of the lich’s life, the life vessel.

The lich collapsed to the ground.

– How did you know the location of my life vessel…? No, more importantly, you should have been affected by the Curse of Blindness. How could you throw your sword accurately?

As his consciousness faded, the lich looked at Aden and was shocked again.

Aden was staring directly at him.

* * *

– System notification.

– Detecting mental curse.

– According to system authority, the curse is nullified.

* * *

“Curses like that don’t work on me.”

The system Aden possessed protected him from mental powers. Curses were fundamentally closely tied to the human mind and were mostly mental.

Thanks to this, Aden could deal with dark magicians much more easily after gaining the system.

Not knowing this, the lich could only be dumbfounded.

– This cannot be…

The lich couldn’t even finish his sentence before losing consciousness.

Soon, his white bones turned to powder and scattered.

Among the bone powder lay the shattered life vessel.

It was a clean and simple victory.

At that moment, the system responded.

* * *

– You have achieved the ‘Undead Hunter’ achievement.