The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years (Web Novel KR)

The Ancient Dragon, which was the size of a small mountain and covered in jet black scales that seemed to devour the moonlight, finally opened its golden eyes.

‘Overwhelming.’

That was the only way to describe this monster.

Only Dragons that had survived for at least a few hundred years were qualified to be called

‘Ancient Dragons’.

Lukas had realised that the wilderness of the Heavenly Realm was a place ruled by the primal rules of the jungle. In fact, it was very similar to the Demon World from his home universe, a place where the desire to become strong was embedded into the very roots of every being.

After all, only the strong had the right to survive in such places.

Ancient Dragons had survived not for decades, but for centuries in such an environment. That fact alone was proof of just how strong they were.

[Warning!]

[Immediate escape is strongly recommended.]

[At the participant’s current level, it would be extremely difficult to face such an opponent.]

The voice’s warning sounded in his ear once again.

Even so, it was already too late.

The burning gaze of the Ancient Dragon had already pinpointed Lukas as something that had to be exterminated. It was clear as day that even if he were to turn around and run with all his might, the Ancient Dragon would chase him to the ends of the world.

At that moment, however, Lukas was only wondering if there was any way to turn off the annoying voice.

[There is no way to disable the advisory function.]

“…”

He shook his head with a sigh.

‘Then at least you can be quiet for now.’

After he snapped inwardly, he no longer heard any response from the voice. Maybe it was just him, but it almost felt like the voice was sulking.

Nevertheless, Lukas decided to ignore the voice as he analysed his current strength.

He could only use 7-star and lower spells. That meant that his options were incredibly limited. And to make matters worse, the Ancient Dragon was certain to have annoyingly strong defenses.

Suddenly.

[Rooaar!]

The Ancient Dragon let out a loud roar before charging towards Lukas.

As if to vent its rage, it simply charged towards him without any technique, but when one put the Ancient Dragon’s size into consideration, such a sight was terrifying.

It was as though a natural disaster was rushing towards him. Trees were sent flying in every direction, heavy winds buffeted the entire area, and the ground shook heavily.

Lukas avoided the attack by rising into the air with the Fly spell.

However, the speed of the Ancient Dragon’s rush belied its enormous size, so he was only able to barely avoid it after using Blink as well.

Boom!

The ground where Lukas had been standing sank.

Based on the extent of the damage, it would probably take a few decades before the forest would be able to recover to its former state. While the thought buzzed in the back of his mind, Lukas analysed the Ancient Dragon’s state.

‘It’s angry.’

Incredibly so, in fact.

The reason for this wasn’t too difficult to guess.

The mutated Dragonling that Lukas had killed was probably its child.

Lukas cast a spell at the Ancient Dragon’s defenseless back.

Bang!

It was just a spell to test the strength of its defenses.

A sphere of energy formed in his palm before shooting down towards the Ancient Dragon at so fast a speed that the air split apart.

The Ancient Dragon sensed the attack, but it didn’t try to avoid it. Clearly, it had great faith in its defenses.

But apart from that, it was a bit confused.

In the hundreds of years that it had been dominating this island’s wilderness as the top predator, it had never encountered such a fighting style. It was very strange. To avoid its attack, this tiny being had flown into the sky with strange movements.

For the Ancient Dragon, Lukas’ magic was unknown.

Lukas, on the other hand, was very familiar with beings like the Ancient Dragon.

He had fought many monsters of similar size and he already had an idea of their habits and attack style.

Clang!

The energy sphere directly hit the back of the Ancient Dragon.

However, if others were to view this scene, they would not have believed the spell he had just cast was Hyperbolt.

The destructive power of this spell was immense.

That was a fact. The spell Lukas had just cast, in theory, contained the maximum output one could compress into a Hyperbolt.

In theory, it should be impossible for any Wizard to truly achieve a 100% magic power output, but Lukas had just done this.

There were two reasons for this.

One was the abundant mana which seemed to fill the Heavenly Realm to the point of saturation.

[…]

The other was the fact that Lukas was no ordinary Wizard, he was the Great Mage.

After a short while, the smoke cleared up and he was able to inspect the Ancient Dragon’s back once again.

There, he saw faint scorch marks on its scales. The Ancient Dragon was jet black, so one really needed to concentrate in order to see the faint marks.

Lukas nodded inwardly. It seemed that even an enhanced Hyperbolt was only able to leave a few scorch marks at best.

[Rooaa-!]

The Ancient Dragon began to let out another roar, but it was forced to stop in surprise.

Papapa!

For a moment, it couldn’t help but wonder if it was already dawn. But instinctively, it knew that there was still a short while before dawn arrived.

If that was the case then…

Where had this bright light that instantly washed away the darkness of the forest come from?

“…”

Lukas wasn’t chanting any spells at that moment. He didn’t need to.

At his current level, it was possible to cast spells just by thinking about it. With just a little hand gesture, he could cast dozens of spells at the same time.

This wasn’t possible for normal 7-star Archmages, but it was possible for Lukas because he had only been suppressed to this stage by a special force.

The restrictions limited his state, but it didn’t limit his mind.

Earth Fang, Flame Ball, Frost Scream, Hyperbolt, Howling Tempest.

Most spells from 4 to 6 stars were sent towards the Ancient Dragon at the same time.

The Ancient Dragon felt as though it had been placed into a magical storm. The sight of dozens of spells created a beautiful image that lingered in one’s mind.

It was like an illusion.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t lethal.

Boom!

Dozens of spells rained down upon the Ancient Dragon like an aerial bombardment. It was as if its scales were being struck by extremely powerful hail.

The image of a supreme Wizard pouring countless spells onto a large black Dragon had such a classic feel that it would almost make one laugh.

This was a story that could only be found in those old hero tales that no one read anymore.

Of course, Lukas’ expression didn’t show any of the determination or ferocity one would expect when fighting against a deadly foe.

Instead, he watched on in silent contemplation as the spells crashed into the Ancient Dragon’s body.

Burns, cuts, and other injuries were slowly accumulating.

This proved that the Ancient Dragon’s scales were not invincible.

In fact, its defense didn’t seem to be much higher than the mutated Dragonling from before. Or maybe it just didn’t have a way to cope with magic.

‘Or is it both?’

Lukas had this thought, and he came to a conclusion as he looked at the damage.

It wouldn’t be possible to kill the Ancient Dragon with just this much. At best, it would only make it feel pain akin to being continuously slashed with a knife.

‘I’m glad I can use up to 7-star spells.’

Otherwise, it would have taken him much longer to deal with this monster.

Lukas’ eyes narrowed slightly as he observed the Ancient Dragon’s body.

He hadn’t just cast dozens of spells without thinking.

Every living creature had its own unique trait.

This was especially true for beings that had lived for a long time.

Living for a long time meant that it had polished the talents, traits, and characteristics gained at birth over time. For non-human beings, these traits tended to have greater influence on their outside rather than their inside.

For the Ancient Dragon, its black scales were one such trait.

Lukas judged that the Ancient Dragon’s scales had been ‘transformed to have strong physical defense’.

And from what he could tell, its mutated Dragonling baby had inherited this trait.

That was why he had poured spells from multiple different elements onto it.

From the basic elements like water, fire, earth and wind, to lightning, light, and darkness.

In terms of pure power, each spell was about the same, but some only lightly scratched the Ancient Dragon’s scales while others successfully sliced through the scales to reach the flesh beneath.

‘As expected, it seems that ice magic is the most effective.’

This was something he believed to be highly likely.

After all, it was the ice spell, Frost Scream, that had killed its young.

By the time Lukas finished his analysis, the Ancient Dragon spread its wings once again.