Chapter 20
Sparkle—
“….”
I spotted a glimmering light somewhere on the ground.
And then, the scent of treasure coming from the direction Ha-eun was in.
“You finally did it, huh.”
When the crimson-black flames came into view, I gave a small laugh.
That was about five years sooner than I’d expected.
Kclang!—
“Hey, Dragon, don’t get distracted!”
“It’s fine. I have two eyes.”
“What does that even….”
Anyway, after taking my combined breath attack head-on and continuing to fight me hand-to-hand, the dragon was nearly out of stamina.
It must have realized that it would lose if things continued like this.
On top of that, I’d been collecting and selling the scales that fell off without melting, and I’d raked in a whopping 200 million won.
At this point, it felt like I couldn’t lose even if I tried.
Flap!—
Maybe it thought the same thing, because it spread its enormous wings.
With a single flap, the Red Dragon created a storm of wind and lifted itself into the air.
Was it trying to escape?
Tap—
I flew up faster, landed on its nose, and said,
“Your breath didn’t even reach the World Tree. Why don’t you give up already?”
[….]
Ruuumble!—
“Whoa?!”
But it didn’t seem inclined to stop.
It shook its head, flinging me off.
Then a magic circle appeared in front of its enormous maw.
I tried to follow the connecting lines with my eyes, but this magic was different from the kind I used, and I couldn’t understand it.
The next moment, the enormous magic circle flashed and dissipated in a burst of light.
Tudududung—
Hundreds, thousands of tiny magic circles appeared all around me.
What kind of magic was this?
Whoosh!—
“Oh?”
Then beams of light linked two of the magic circles.
Then the beams lost their strength and crumbled away.
So it was magic that connected line to line with light.
[Withdrawal 500,000 won - Details: [Dragon Eyes Awakening] skill usage fee]
When I opened my Dragon Eyes, thousands of lines became clearly visible.
Seeing them all at once, I folded my wings and flew in quickly, slipping through the gaps between them.
Pabababak!—
I weaved through the beams of light around me as if performing aerobatics.
While I was at it, I tried to reverse-engineer the magic circle’s structure with my Dragon Eyes as I passed.
But then.
‘I can do this.’
This magic circle was simpler than I’d expected.
The enormous magic circle I’d seen at first seemed to have done nothing but summon these tiny ones.
Should I try copying it?
I drew a line through the air.
One stroke, two strokes, three…
Then, if I designated the starting and ending points and infused it with mana—
[Withdrawal 50,000 won - Details: [White Line] skill usage fee]
Flash!—
Kclang!—
“Oh….”
I deflected the beam of light about to appear in front of me with the exact same magic, creating a blind spot.
Not bad for the cost.
Beyond them, I could see the Red Dragon, whose scales had mostly melted after being swept up in my breath attack.
It also seemed to have used up nearly all its mana with that spell just now.
Time to finish this.
I couldn’t see anything else worth ripping off.
Flick—
I raised my hand.
Then I slowly lowered it and used a skill.
[Withdrawal 3,000,000 won - Details: [Gravity Enhancement] skill usage fee]
Kuuung!—
[Guh….]
Maybe because it had already used up all its strength, even though I only adjusted gravity slightly to match its size, the Red Dragon immediately fell to the ground.
That was anticlimactic.
Oh, I’d built up a lot of money, too.
Maybe I should use a divine power for the first time in a while?
“Hey, guys. Want to see something cool?”
- What is it this time
- Upvote if you get excited every time the streamer says that nowㅋㅋ
- Then turn that dragon into gold for us
“Gold? Should I?”
- ?
- What
- You can turn living things into gold?
- [LushGreen] Alchemists are crying
- Why is alchemy even a thing lol
- [Alchemist, Rank 1] Wtf?
Named dragons with epithets each have their own unique divine powers.
Naturally, I, a Gold Dragon, had a few of them too.
And the one my viewers were talking about was probably this.
[Midas’s Touch]
A divine power that turns anything I touch into gold if I want it to.
Of course… it has the drawback that if I don’t have enough mana, it quickly turns to sand.
Still, I’ve turned plenty of things to gold with it before.
I’ve used it on wyverns that invaded my lair, then sold them to humans as golden statues a few times.
They seemed to like those quite a lot.
Anyway!
It’d cost a fortune to turn that entire enormous thing into gold, so it was practically impossible.
But.
What’s wrong with turning it to gold for a little while, just for show?
It was hostile to us anyway.
Turning it to sand would be perfectly legal.
Just as I was about to use my divine power, thinking more or less along those lines,
[If you use this skill, you will be unable to reach the truth of the World Tree.]
A status window appeared.
Oh, come on….
“Uh, guys? The status window says I should stop doing that.”
- Huh?
- Even the status window says no to thatㅋㅋㅋ
- Yeah, it was definitely inhumaneㅇㅇ
- Upvote if Goldie is just pretending the status window stopped her after randomly claiming she couldn’t do it~
- [LushGreen] Upvote
- [Dodger] Pretty good at dodgingㅎㅎ
“I’ll make it a viewer-participation stream next time. I’ll bring in one of the people who just chatted and use them instead.”
- [LushGreen] I’ll write an acrostic poem with “Lush”
- [Dodger] I’ll write one with “Dodger,” too.
- What are those guys doing?
- [NotASuspiciousPerson] I don’t mind becoming gold, so before I die, please let me touch Goldie’s plump, springy, soft, round tail just once
“Ugh… Ban that guy.”
- [NotASuspiciousPerson] !+!+!+!+!
- The streamer’s look of contemptㄷㄷ
- This is its own kind of…
For a moment, I couldn’t hold back and let my true feelings slip out.
No?
Maybe I can let a little more of my true feelings show.
These guys kept getting bolder and bolder since I’d been going easy on them—
Tap—
“You’ve driven that one this far, my friend. As king and representative of the elves, I offer you my gratitude!”
Kairan came rushing out from behind me, gripping his sword hilt.
…This guy is still taking himself seriously.
“No, I did all the work, so of course it’s mine—”
“Unnie!”
Just as I sighed and was about to say something to Kairan, Ha-eun came running over and called out to me urgently.
When I turned around, I saw that Kairan and I were both fine, but Ha-eun was covered in cuts and her clothes were torn.
Her left arm hung completely limp, cradled in her right hand.
“Ah! Ha-eun, are you okay?!”
I’d been so engrossed in fighting that I’d forgotten about Ha-eun.
…This was why I should’ve been careful not to get carried away.
Sometimes, when something fun happens, I have a tendency to lose myself in it….
Still, Terra seemed fine.
“I-I’m okay, Unnie.”
“You don’t look okay. Want me to put some saliva on it?”
“W-What?!”
- Gasp
- Lick lick
- [LushGreen] FYI, the bodily fluids of dragons and wyverns have disinfectant properties.
- Why is this true;
- [LushGreen] That’s why the streamer never catches colds
- Brutal, merciless bacteria murderer
- The streamer would be immune even if a zombie apocalypse happened
At Ha-eun’s horrified expression, I chuckled and held out a leaf from the World Tree.
This thing was really doing the most work.
Should I ask the elves if I can take a few more?
“A-Anyway! Unnie! You have to give that person the Red Dragon’s head!”
“Uh… I don’t want to.”
“I agree.”
Beren, who had also suffered a few minor injuries, came over with a short sigh, looking like he was starting to get tired.
“Doesn’t the treasure we’ll find at the end of the truth excite you? If this place is a recreation, then we must fulfill the conditions.”
“Ha-eun told you to say that, didn’t she?”
“I can’t deny it.”
No, but I caught it. It’s mine.
What did those swordsmen even do?!
- The seniors have been Hunters longer than the streamer. Shouldn’t you listen to them?
- Bullshit. To put it bluntly, the streamer practically soloed it. Why give it to them?
- Looks like the streamer already got all the scales, anyway.
- Isn’t now the perfect time to cash out?
- Gasp, cash out??
- That’s not what that means.
“Jeez. Fine, fine. If the treasure’s better than that guy’s head, then fine. But what if there’s no treasure?”
- Then that’d be a shameㅇㅇ
- Still, you got closer to the truth, so have a drink
- [I’mGonnaDie] What a cowardly dragon, meow
…These people.
“No. The more I think about it, the more I feel like I should be the one to finish that thing.”
“Now—”
“You only need to give him the head, right? Tell him to cut it off. I’ll land the final blow.”
….
- Wow, genius?
- Yeah, just take it by forceㅋㅋ
“…It’s coming. Get ready.”
Thud—
“The elves’ fate has already tipped, but even so, I cannot stop now.”
Shing—
A colorless sword was drawn.
Then, as Kairan tilted his sword, the blade gradually turned red.
As he took up his stance, Beren and Ha-eun looked at me.
“You stay back and watch. Ha-eun, get some rest.”
I said that without even waiting for a reply.
Tap!—
Taat!—
Kairan and I both charged at the Red Dragon almost at the same time.
The sword tilted diagonally.
It looked similar to Beren’s swordsmanship from our sparring match the other day.
Thwack!—
Perhaps to stop us, the Red Dragon launched a huge fireball into the sky in one last act of desperation.
Pwaang!—
Then it exploded in midair, and its fragments came raining down like countless meteorites.
Ha-eun… she should be fine with Beren and Terra there, right?
Thwack!—
I glanced back for a moment and kept going, smashing the fragments flying toward me with my fist.
Looking to the side again, I saw that everything flying toward Kairan was being cut apart by the sword aura surrounding him.
What is this, auto-hunting?
I should learn how to do that, too.
Tap—
We quickly reached the area beneath the Red Dragon’s jaw.
Kairan took a stance in midair.
As his eyes flashed, I summoned a platform for him. He stepped on it and prepared to leap once more, then—
Sweeeung!—
As he leapt, he focused the sword aura enveloping his entire body into one spot.
The sword, trembling with power, settled calmly in an instant.
The moment he guided it and drew a single stroke—
Moonlight Final Execution—True (月光終斬殺-眞).
Seogeogeogeogeok!—
A massive slash cut through space in an instant.
What filled the cleaved space was moonlight.
Amid that chill, I led with my claws and leapt into it.
[Withdrawal 100,000,000 won - Details: [Heavenly Chain Rending Claw (天鎖裂爪)] skill usage fee]
Seogeok!—
After my claws slashed through, I summoned another platform in front of Kairan and me.
And the moment I looked back.
A beat later.
Paaaaak!—
The moonlit slash was torn to pieces by my claws, whipping around like chains.
The Red Dragon’s blood burst out.
And between the massive body falling to the ground behind it,
I heard a dragon’s voice once more.
[Head for the roots of the World Tree. And with your own two eyes, witness the atrocity you committed….]
Before it could finish speaking.
KWAANG!—
The Red Dragon’s head fell before the World Tree.