I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 1298: Unavoidable

The old man studied Eccar with sharp vigilance, his gaze steady and cold. The caution in his eyes bordered on hostility. It was clear that he did not like anyone stepping into this place, especially someone who had slipped through the building unnoticed and reached the deepest level.

His fingers moved slightly beneath the cloak, subtle but deliberate, as if he were ready to cast a spell at any moment.

"You," the old man said slowly, his voice echoing softly across the chamber. "Are you the one causing the commotion outside?"

Eccar hesitated for a brief moment. "Probably better to be honest."

He nodded.

"Yeah. That was me," Eccar replied calmly. "I didn't want to hurt anyone. That's why I pulled the beasts toward the canyon instead of attacking them."

The old man's expression hardened slightly.

"The beasts from the forest beyond the ridge are dangerous. You made them attack this place," he said. "Driving them here changes nothing. They would have hurt people."

Eccar tilted his head a little.

"I doubt it," he said with a small shrug. "The ones I gathered were weak. Really weak. The only reason they looked dangerous was because there were a lot of them."

The old man's eyes narrowed. He clearly did not believe that explanation.

In truth, he was not just listening to Eccar's words. He was studying him carefully. Measuring him. Trying to understand exactly what kind of threat had walked into this chamber.

As a high-ranking mage and guardian of this place, the old man had faced many powerful people in his life. Normally, he could estimate someone's strength within seconds.

But this man standing in front of him felt… strange.

There was power there. Vast power. Yet it was impossible to measure.

It was like staring into an endless sky with no horizon. Boundless and unreadable.

That uncertainty made the old man uneasy.

Anyone who attempted to enter this building without permission rarely had good intentions. And as the guardian of what lay below, he could not allow such a person to walk freely.

Still… attacking blindly would also be foolish.

Meanwhile, Eccar sighed softly and scratched the back of his head.

"Well… this turned awkward."

He should have expected someone guarding the deepest part of the building, but somehow he had hoped the place would be empty.

Apparently not.

"Listen, old man," Eccar said with a relaxed tone. "Why don't we handle this peacefully? I really don't want to fight you."

The old man remained silent for several seconds. His eyes never left Eccar.

Finally, he spoke again.

"What do you want here?"

Eccar answered without hesitation.

"I just want to take a look at the Sky Anchor."

The old man's eyes sharpened. "Why?"

Eccar shrugged lightly. "I need to know what it is."

For a moment, the chamber became silent again. Then the old man asked another question.

"Are you a traveler from another world?"

Eccar blinked in surprise. "How did you know that?"

The old man did not answer immediately.

In truth, he had already heard the news.

Some time ago, he had received a message from Archmage Velrion in the city of Leanor. Velrion had spoken about three mysterious individuals who had appeared recently, beings he strongly suspected were travelers from another world.

The old man trusted Velrion's judgment. They were equals in both knowledge and Magical mastery. When Velrion spoke seriously about something like that, it was never a joke.

And now a man had appeared who could quietly gather large numbers of Magical beasts with ease, infiltrate this heavily protected building without detection, and stand before him with power that even he could not measure.

The conclusion had become obvious.

The old man looked at Eccar again, his blue eyes calm but sharp.

"Yes," he said quietly. "I know you are one of them."

Eccar smiled helplessly.

At this point, there was no real use in hiding it. The old man standing in front of him clearly was not a simple guardian. Anyone who could recognize what he was, even indirectly, already possessed insight far beyond the ordinary.

"Right," Eccar admitted calmly. "You're correct. But I don't mean any harm. I just need to—"

Before he could finish the sentence, something changed.

A sudden force seized him.

It did not feel like a physical grab. There were no hands, no chains, or visible spells forming around him. Yet the pull was undeniable. It was as if the entire space around his body had suddenly begun dragging him somewhere else.

The chamber blurred.

The pillars, the torches, and the dark stone walls stretched and twisted like reflections in disturbed water. The world itself seemed to fold inward.

Eccar frowned slightly as the strange sensation intensified.

"Ah… I see."

Even while everything around him was distorted, he kept his eyes forward.

The old man was still standing in the same place. Unmoving. Watching him.

Those cold blue eyes remained locked onto him with sharp focus as if the old man were carefully observing how he reacted.

Then the pull grew stronger. The underground chamber dissolved completely.

For a moment, there was nothing but rushing darkness around him.

Then it abruptly stopped. The dragging sensation vanished instantly.

The space around him snapped back into clarity.

Eccar blinked and slowly looked around.

He was no longer inside the underground chamber.

Instead, he stood in the middle of a vast and rocky terrain. The ground beneath his feet was uneven and dry, scattered with stones and cracked earth. The air here felt colder and strangely hollow, as if sound struggled to travel very far.

Not far away stood several trees. But they were not alive.

Their trunks were twisted and blackened, their branches bare and brittle like skeletal fingers reaching into the sky. They looked as though they had died long ago, yet somehow still remained standing.

Eccar turned his head slowly, examining the surroundings.

There was no building, torches, or underground walls. Only the barren landscape stretching outward in all directions.

Finally, he lifted his gaze toward the sky. It was dark.

Not the gentle darkness of a normal night. The sky above him was a deep, endless black, empty and silent.

There was no moon and stars. Nothing at all. Just a vast void hanging over the dead landscape.

Eccar sighed softly.

"Well. I didn't expect this."

Then he shifted his attention forward.

The old man stood several meters away from him, exactly as before. His cloak moved faintly in the still air, and his long silver beard swayed slightly as he watched Eccar without speaking.

The same sharp blue eyes remained focused on him. But now the pressure in the air had changed. It felt heavier and isolated.

Eccar looked around once more, slowly piecing things together.

Then he looked back at the old man and smiled faintly.

"So," he said calmly, "you pulled me into your own space."

It was not a question. It felt exactly like he had been dragged into a separate dimension created and controlled by the old man himself.

The old man did not respond. He stood several meters away with the same rigid posture as before, his shoulders straight and unmoving beneath the heavy cloak.

His blue eyes never left Eccar with readiness.

The old man clearly understood that the man standing in front of him was not someone who could be treated lightly. Every line on his face showed caution, as if he had already prepared himself for a difficult battle.

Finally, he spoke.

"In this place," the old man said, his voice heavy with authority, "you will not be able to use your full strength. But my strength will be enhanced."

Eccar blinked and lifted his hands in front of him and slowly flexed his fingers.

He wrapped and unwrapped his knuckles, testing the feeling in his arms and shoulders. The air around him felt slightly heavier than normal, almost as if an invisible pressure had settled across his body.

After a moment, he exhaled softly.

"You're right," Eccar admitted calmly. "I do feel a little weaker than usual. But do you really think this is enough to hold me?"

A crooked smile appeared on Eccar's face.

The expression carried a playful teasing tone.

However, the old man did not look amused.

Not even slightly.

Instead, the muscles along his jaw tightened.

The calm expression he had maintained until now slowly hardened. His eyes grew colder as a faint spark of anger flickered beneath his composure.

Without another word, he raised both of his hands slowly above his head.

"Which is why," the old man said, "I do not intend to hold back."

The moment the words left his mouth, the air above him began to distort.

A ripple spread through the dark sky.

Then something large began forming within the empty void above his raised hands.

A creature appeared in the air, descending slowly from the darkness.

It was a wyvern. Its scales shimmered with a deep green color and its long wings stretched wide as it circled above the old man.

However, its body looked strange. The creature was not completely solid. Its form flickered as if it existed somewhere between reality and spirit.

The wyvern released a low, hollow screech as it hovered above the battlefield.

Eccar raised both of his hands halfway in front of him.

"Hey, hey," he said quickly. "I just told you I don't want to fight."

But the old man did not respond.

His face remained cold and focused as he made a sharp gesture forward with one hand.

At once, the ethereal wyvern folded its wings and dove.

Its enormous body lunged toward Eccar.

The wind howled as the creature descended with claws stretched forward and jaws opening wide.

Eccar sighed.

"…Yeah," he muttered. "So much for talking."

At that point, he realized the fight was no longer avoidable.

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