I’m not a Regressor

I’m Not a Regressor

Chapter 252: The Thousand Curse Dragon (4)

“Tada! It’s complete!” Sihoo yelled after Ha-eun and Ohjin returned the next week. He handed them a luxurious silver case.

Ha-eun carefully opened the case to see black leather gloves with a simple design. Embedded near the glove's knuckles were red starstones the size of fingernails.

Fwoosh—!

Ha-eun put on the gloves and lightly gathered her mana, causing the red starstones to vibrate and heat up, as if resonating with her.

"Wow!" Ohjin reflexively exclaimed. He felt that the heat was stronger than when she usually made the flame with her bare hands.

"This… is the relic I got after selling your body, Ohjin…" Ha-eun said.

"The expression is very unpleasant." Ohjin, who was standing behind her and observing, frowned.

Sihoo smirked. "I considered Ha-eun’s characteristics and made a relic that only amplifies Yang energy! It will be less effective if someone else uses it, but you, an Awakener of Draco, shouldn’t be able to find anything better!"

"Did you make this in a week?" Ha-eun asked.

"Making it wasn’t tricky. Relics with mana amplification properties are expensive because the materials needed are so absurd." Even so, making a relic like that in a week was only possible because Sihoo was a genius.

"Thank you. I'll use it well," she said.

“Don’t break it every time you’re bored, like Ohjin does. If you break it, it’ll cost at least a few million to repair.”

"I'll put it in the cabinet and not touch it!" Wouldn’t it be meaningless to spend so much on the relic if she never used it?

"Come visit me again if you have anything else you need! Oh, you can come even if you don't!" Sihoo said.

"Hehe. I'll buy you something delicious."

"Thanks!" Ha-eun stroked Sihoo's head as if she were proud.

Sihoo laughed as if he was in a good mood.

"I'm leaving~!" Leaving the lab behind, Ohjin and Ha-eun headed straight home. They’d already waited a week for the relic to be completed, so they no longer had time to procrastinate. A Cologrande helicopter was already waiting for them on the roof’s landing pad.

-Dudududud!

Isabella, dressed in comfortable clothes instead of her favorite dress, approached Ohjin and Ha-eun. "Did you get the relic?"

"Yeah. I tested it once, and it was amazing." Ha-eun smiled and raised the black leather gloves she wore on her hands.

"That's a relief. Oh, by the way. Everyone, please take one of these." Isabella offered a bag the size of a palm to Ha-eun and Ohjin.

When they looked inside, they saw several amulets with complex patterns on them. "Are these relics effective against curses?"

"Yes, that's right," Isabella confirmed. Isabella had also been preparing over the week of waiting by traveling the world and finding relics that worked well against curses. "First of all, I prepared something for Riak and Vega," she said.

"Tell me when they arrive later," Ohjin said. He intended to call Vega and Riak when they got closer to the nest to make things as simple as possible. Carrying the bag in his arms, Ohjin looked at Isabella. "Thank you for following through with my excessive demand."

From Ha-eun's equipment to talismans that were effective against curses… Though Isabella never mentioned it, it was clear that everything cost an astronomical amount. No matter how much wealth the Colagrande family had, nobody could spend millions lightly.

"Haha. I can spend as much as I want on you." Isabella laughed as if nothing was wrong. She was rich, sweet, good at cooking, and even devoted.

‘Didn't I destroy the world in my previous life?’ Ohjin laughed at Isabella's kindness. "If we get the Thousand Curse Dragon this time, I'll leave all of the starstones and the body to the Colagrande family."

A monster as big as the Thousand Curse Dragon would easily earn at least 7.5 million dollars if the remains of the body and starstones were sold. Of course, even if you put that all together, it would be less than half of the amount Isabella spent, but they couldn’t just receive, could they?

"Hmph. I'd rather go on a date with Ohjin." Isabella gave an alluring smile, sticking out her pale pink tongue and licking her lips—it looked like she was peering at a delicious dinner.

"That’s…" Ohjin swallowed saliva and avoided her gaze.

“Don’t act like there’s just the two of you when the girlfriend is right here,” Ha-eun said with a pout as she moved toward the helicopter. "Let's get going."

"Yes," Ohjin replied.

"Yes, Ha-eun," Isabella said as all three of them got into the helicopter.

"Well, then…" Ha-eun, who put out her cigar on a portable ashtray, stretched her arm northward. "Let's go!"

North!

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Translator - Rainypup

Proofreader - ilafy

* * *

They soon arrived in Pyongyang, the city where Barbatos the Thousand Curse Dragon had been photographed, by helicopter. "Drop us off somewhere around here."

"Ugh… No matter how much I look at it, I can’t get used to this place." After getting off the helicopter, Ha-eun clicked her tongue and looked around at the ruined city. Pyongyang, formerly the capital of North Korea, was an uninhabited ghost town after being destroyed by the Thousand Curse Dragon and the monsters six years prior.

Seoul would’ve been in a similar state if it weren’t for the sacrifices of Ha-eun and other Awakeners.

"Vega…" The first thing Ohjin did when they arrived was call Vega by channeling mana into his pendant, bringing out the celestial and Riak in a flash of silver light.

“Is this where the nest of the magical Thousand Curse Dragon is?” Vega asked.

"Yes."

"Grrrrrr. I can’t smell anything, but… where is the nest?” Riak sniffed and looked around—there was no place for a dragon to hide itself amidst the stumps of ruined buildings.

"Here and down." Ohjin pointed to the cracked concrete ground, which looked to have taken a large impact from something falling on it.

"Under the ground… The subway?"

"That's right," he confirmed. According to Shinhyuk's memories, the Thousand Curse Dragon's nest was located near an underground railway deep beneath Pyongyang.

“Pyongyang's underground railway goes down to a depth of 100 meters for wartime air defense purposes.” It was just deep enough to hide the dragon’s enormous size, and it was made of very sturdy materials thanks to its original purpose. If anything, it was almost ideal.

"It seems like a nice lair… but Valhalla couldn't find it when it was in such an obvious place?" Ha-eun asked. Valhalla, which had been searching for where the dragon was, should’ve thought of the subway. Dragon-type monsters liked to build nests in caves and steep canyons, after all, and Valhalla had also thought of that.

"Even though they thought about the subway, it would have been hard to get to the station," Ohjin said as he narrowed his eyes. “The Thousand Curse Dragon’s nest is located at a station not on the normal route, after all.”

In the past, North Korea had a secret station that normal people weren’t allowed access to, and the Thousand Curse Dragon's nest was in that hidden station, which didn’t even have a name. It would have been extremely difficult for the members of Valhalla to find the station since they didn’t work for the National Intelligence Service.

‘Lee Shinhyuk only managed to find it while going around all kinds of railways in person later,’ Ohjin thought. The Thousand Curse Dragon's lair could not even be accessed in a normal way.

"Should we go down to the station first?" Ha-eun asked.

"No." Ohjin shook his head. "There's no reason to fight in its home." The Thousand Curse Dragon was a monster who could, as its name implied, cast a thousand curses—there were probably a lot of curses around its lair. Looking back on Shinhyuk's memories, Ohjin saw that he had a tremendously hard time getting into the nest

"The plan is to lure the enemy to the battlefield in our favor, huh…?” Riak mumbled. “Indeed, that's a good idea for a rookie."

“How are you going to bring the dragon out?” Vega asked, flying into the sky and sitting on Ohjin's head. It was not easy to bring out a monster hiding deep underground.

"That's—"

"Oh! I got it!" Before Ohjin answered, Ha-eun clapped her hands and smirked. "Couldn’t I start a fire?" There was nothing like a fire to bring out the enemy forces hiding in their fortress.

"That won’t be enough," Ohjin said.

"Not enough?"

"Smoke rises, remember?" It wouldn’t work for smoking out a dragon that was deep underground.

"If I go down and set the fire myself…" she tried to argue

"As soon as you go down, you will be detected by the Thousand Curse Dragon," Ohjin explained. The dragon was not a monster that only moved on instinct. As expected of a named monster, the dragon was just as, if not more, intelligent than a human. If it had built a lair underground, of course, it would have prepared.

"Then what are you going to do?"

"If a fire doesn't work, you can use water."

"Water?" Ha-eun tilted her head.

"There's a sewage system down there as well," Ohjin said. Shinhyuk had thoroughly investigated the entire Pyongyang area to find the Thousand Curse Dragon's lair, and since Ohjin had the man’s memories, he also knew where the sewer system flowed.

"If we redirect the sewage and let the water flood the subway, it’ll have no choice but to crawl out."

"…Is that possible?" Ha-eun asked, narrowing her eyes. Clearly, planning to flood the lair didn't make sense to her.

"Well, I'm a little skeptical, too." Isabella also frowned and shook her head. "Even if you redirect the sewage, you won't be able to flood the entire station." The water would go up to the ankle at most. It was impossible for the subway to flood unless it rained a river’s-worth of water.

"Huh? I never said I would flood the station," Ohjin said.

"What?"

"I told you, all we have to do is 'direct' the water toward the lair."

"Then… why would that make it come out?” Isabella asked. There was no reason for the Thousand Curse Dragon to run out of its lair when the water wasn’t drowning it out. It may be uncomfortable for people to be submerged to their ankles, but considering the size of the dragon, that much water would be like a minor spill.

"No, it will come out," Ohjin said with full confidence. If the Thousand Curse Dragon had the same sort of intelligence as humans, then it wouldn’t be comfortable. "When do you think the sewage treatment facility here broke?"

"What?"

“The Thousand Curse Dragon destroyed the city… let’s see, it was roughly six years ago.” There was more than just ‘water’ in the sewage system… "That means the water is mixed with filth that has been stagnant for six years."

“…” Ha-eun and Isabella seemed to realize something.

"So…" Ha-eun put a hand on her forehead as if she were dumbfounded. "You want to pour six years of poop water into that bastard’s lair?"

That wasn’t the magic ‘plan’ they were expecting.