Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

“It’s Goldstaff’s lair. It hasn’t even been seven years since it became an adult-class…”

“Well, seven years, huh.”

It was said that Goldstaff was already an adult-class dragon by the time players started the game.

“Even after the Dragon Raid was successful, the number of dragons remained relatively the same. Their memories were being manipulated.”

Excluding dragons that disappeared through events or quests like Kuzgunak’sh’sh, the memories of young dragons that players successfully hunted were often vague.

“Such a dragon never existed in the first place; it was a narrative that another dragon with a similar gender, species, and age to that dragon had just newly emerged and become independent, according to Alexander.”

It was only now that the statement made by Alexander about not needing to memorize the names of young dragons made sense.

If Goldstaff, the dragon, wasn’t part of a special event or quest, it would soon be reset in the memories of all dragons and recreated as a new gold dragon with a similar age and personality.

“Is there something?”

“No. Are you sure there’s really nothing?”

Leeha asked, surveying the interior of the lair while recalling the hierarchy of dragons.

From Blaugrunn to Kuzgunak’sh’sh, Arzenmacht, and Bahamut. Even to Leeha, who had examined four dragon lairs, Goldstaff’s lair appearance seemed unmatched.

It wasn’t just because it had recently become an adult-class.

“Isn’t there at least some items, considering it’s a dragon lair…?”

“Well, it might seem like nothing in the blink of an eye, but they’ve probably collected things in their own way. Even Juvnile uses their parents’ items, but adults start collecting their own.”

“That’s right. Blaugrunn had a lot of items in his lair too.”

“Please don’t compare me to them! I’m just a little kid compared to them-“

“Huh? Who’s calling who a little kid?”

Blaugrunn shut his mouth as Leeha glared at him.

Seeing Blaugrunn’s puffed-up cheeks, Leeha felt an urge to tease him, but they maintained a serious demeanor for the time being.

“Since it’s easy to raid, the rewards wouldn’t be too shabby. But even if there weren’t many, there should be at least 10 heroic-grade items. There would have been gold, gems, and other jewels to some extent. Including various scrolls, there should be at least one or two scattered around here.

Yet, Goldstaff’s lair, an adult gold dragon of seven years, was literally empty.

Leeha immediately understood Lark’s words.

“Any traces of mana or something?”

“Wait a moment. Hmm…,” Blaugrunn immediately used mana detection. However, he soon shook his head.

“I can’t pinpoint anything right away. I do sense something very faintly, but it’s hard to catch exactly.”

“What is it?”

“I can’t quite catch it precisely. There seems to be something there, but it’s like they’ve covered their tracks with mana perfectly. Could it be stronger in this direction or that?”

Blaugrunn, like testing the waters, roamed around the rare interior following the flow of his mana detection. Since there were no signs or traces of any items around, there was no choice but to follow his lead.

With the dragon’s body needing to be maintained, the rare interior was quite spacious. True to the nature of the extravagant Gold Dragon, there were quite a few rooms.

The fact that not a single item was left in any room once again whetted his appetite.

“It’s this way… This way.”

“Oh, great. Great. It’s true that Blaugrunn is needed after all.”

“I can sense it now. Mana… This mana is-“

whoosh,

whoosh,

“Bait? What’s bait?”

At the sound that suddenly reached his ears, ihap listened closely. However, Blaugrunn was still silent.

As Blaugrunn’s expression stiffened, a sound echoed once again in Leeha’s mind.

whoosh,

whoosh,

“Alert? What, what is this? What’s this sound? An alarm?”

Alarm.

Chills ran down Leeha’s spine, but he quickly snapped back to attention. If it was an alarm, hadn’t he heard it before?

“The alarm from Bluebeard wasn’t like this. It was more of a ringing, jingling bell sound. So what’s this?”

As Leeha pondered the puzzling sound in his mind, Blaugrunn finally spoke.

“It’s a necromancer’s mana.”

“A necromancer?”

“If I remember correctly… it’s not a magic that summons zombies or skeletons, but a magic that turns corpses into undead beings.”

It took a moment for Blaugrunn to fully grasp the situation in order to understand. Nevertheless, he couldn’t comprehend it properly.

“… Are you trying to say that ‘Golshutaf, the gold dragon, became undead’?”

Blaugrunn nodded.

※ ※

“Th-this is nonsense! What are you talking about? Who? What crazy person would do such a thing?”

“I don’t know! It’s a magic that I can’t use, but- I still know about it! The mana energy is definitely female…”

Blaugrunn looked at Leeha with a face that even he couldn’t believe.

Leeha was equally dumbfounded. Even though it had only been 7 years since it reached adult level, the difference between Juvenail level and dimension was the growth of a dragon.

It was more of a transcendence, closer to evolution rather than the concept of growth.

“To even attempt raiding with just this adult dragon, you need at least 50 people that are at least at level 200. No, maybe even more. If the characteristics and strategies of the dragon are not properly shared… sometimes you might need over 125 members depending on the raid standards! But then, to feel only the undead transformation magic energy in the midst of no one else’s aura or any other magic energy?”

It was natural that Leeha couldn’t immediately accept it.

“Then, could you please turn off that alarm-like sound?”

“Alarm? What alarm?”

“I don’t know. It seems like some trap magic used in Gold Dragon’s Lair… making a buzzing noise.”

Leeha scratched its head and pointed to its temple. Blaugrunn looked at Leeha in that state for a moment.

“Hi-Leeha, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t feel ‘any aura of mana’ here. There’s no magic left by Golshutaf or anything.”

“What? Then what’s with this? It’s not a Bluebeard alarm either. Why do I have another alarm-“

The moment.

Leeha’s jaw dropped naturally.

An alarm?

It was there.

It was an alarm that had been acquired not long ago, something that Leeha couldn’t even imagine would be triggered for a while— one of the rewards received for the achievement: ‘Nightmare of the Setting Sun (S-)’. Not new skills like stat points or body buffs and debuffs, but a new ability.

An alarm function when vampires are nearby.

“What the hell! Undead, really!”

“What? What’s happening all of a sudden-“

“They say a fart turns into poop when it gathers! Those… no, it was them!”

In that moment, all the pieces of the puzzle clicked in Leeha’s mind.

“Faust?”

“Igor?”

“No, vampires? Are there monsters like that?”

“Chiyou is Bathory? Bluebeard’s Second in Command?”

“If it’s an undead dragon, could it be like a Bone Drake? No, Bone Drakes and dragons are different, so a Bone Dragon?”

In a small meeting room at the headquarters of the Sacred Knights of Sacred, Lark and Shin Nara took turns speaking, their strange synergy evident.

Watching the oddly well-matched pair, Leeha rubbed his chin.

“You won’t make me repeat everything after I’ve explained, right?”

“At the very least, it’s certain that a dragon named Golshutaf has been turned undead. Whether it’s in the form of a [Bone Dragon] or a [Lich Dragon], we can’t be sure…”

As if refusing to provide further explanation, blaugarun wrote sternly.

Despite the dignified posture and serious tone, it was still a soft voice, prompting Shin Nara to briefly flash a ‘motherly smile’ at Blaugarun.

“This is troublesome. When did those things cross over? We’re still on high alert near the mana transmission towers and warp gates…”

Kaztor’s manhunt was still ongoing.

Although the border forces had decreased compared to before, the main warp gate connecting the continents, as well as the general warp gates of each country, were being closely monitored.

Leeha chuckled as he listened to Lark’s complaints.

“You still don’t know Chiyou. Could they have come through the warp gate? There’s that man over there.”

“That man… Ah, yes, you mean the ninja. Can they hide not only themselves, but others too?”

“Ninja? How do you know?”

Shin Nara didn’t miss even the slightest clue Lark dropped.

Sasuke was one of the few individuals who had never shown themselves in official settings.

“Not to mention he was not a member of Byulcho or a user of Fibiel, the chance of Lark meeting with Sasuke is zero!”

“Oh, um… Well, you know how things can be. Anyway, what happened back then is in the past! Please don’t forget that I made a clear [choice] back then.”

The incidents involving the Paleos in the New Continent, the riots, and so on. They never properly asked and Lark never explained everything. They just understood each other implicitly and left it at that. And now, I didn’t have any intention of probing into that matter.

Seeing Lark flustered as usual made me want to comfort him, but there was no room for that now.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but please focus on the current issue! Handle one thing at a time!”

“Right, of course, Nara-ssi!”

When Shin Nara broke the tense atmosphere between Leeha and Lark, Lark quickly saluted her. Leeha chuckled softly as she organized the situation.

Chiyou still couldn’t connect. So, who orchestrated this? Leeha didn’t need to ponder separately; there was only one left. Blue beard.

Only him.

“At least one of them became a vampire. Maybe both. No, not just them.”

What happened to Yamato’s members? Can Bluebeard create vampires randomly, limitlessly? If so, Yamato’s outsiders would also have become vampires. And in great numbers.

“Moreover, there could be surviving vampires. Damn, I thought Arzenmacht and Blaugrunn killed them all… It was almost negligible. But were there others? Could there be a few more castles like that? If there were hundreds of vampires in a few more castles, that would be truly…?”

It was a nightmare. Leeha couldn’t dare to imagine further. It would make them seem so pitiful.

“First, let’s assume the worst-case scenario that Faust has five adult-level undead dragons. And… considering Chiyou’s side, or the possibility of vampires under Chiyou’s command, we should think about that, too.”

“But at least it was revealed that only one was responsible for destroying the village, so it shouldn’t be a group of that scale.”

“I agree with you, Nara-ssi! Igor and Faust. Or one of them is likely to be a vampire. If it’s one of them, the probability that Igor is the vampire is high.”

Leeha made an ‘Ah’ expression. It was when things she couldn’t think of alone were coming to light.

Even the best among users in terms of judgment, administrative skills, and reading comprehension were present here.

“Igor probably crossed the level 300 mark a long time ago. But with so many users close to level 200, it would have been impossible to hide him completely. In that respect, Ha Leeha-ssi mentioned that the ‘vampire’ Igor, with enhanced physical and magical abilities, is highly likely.”

“You mentioned Blaugrunn, right? Um, could a regular level 300 user – no, a human… turn an adult dragon into an undead?”

“It would be difficult.”

“Bingo! So, we should consider Faust as a vampire too. Realistically, the worst possible scenario would be vampire Igor, vampire Faust, and a cunning ninja, along with… five undead dragons.”

Alone, Leeha managed to plant the seeds of ideas that were difficult to unravel quickly, and they bore fruit in an instant.