Episode 257:
As I was chasing after Draculea, I felt it again.
It is impossible to chase after a monster that has decided to run away.
Originally, this part was not a cause for concern. Monsters that follow their instincts often hit them head on instead of running away until they are in disgrace, and even if they get scared and try to run away later, they are easily caught because they are seriously injured.
However, when they reach the level of fighting skills, they develop to a level where they can think, and they have the intelligence to run away when they are at a disadvantage. In this case, I have to chase after it and eliminate it, but I can’t chase it at my own speed.
[Let’s go!]
I was able to keep my distance thanks to Yongyong, but I can’t rely on him forever.
I solved the issue of damage through force refining, but I never thought this would be a problem.
It’s hard to catch up with transference, so I’ll have to think about how to improve this area.
It feels like once one thing is resolved, something else appears that needs to be overcome.
In the absence of long-distance attacks, you can kill enemies without chasing them one by one by sniping. With Force refinement, you can hit monsters with horns, and now there is a need to catch up with their running speed.
The method of chasing Drekulea was that I followed behind, and when the distance widened, Yongyong narrowed it by moving in space.
Because Yongyong was able to move freely through space, he was able to maintain a certain distance.
The place we arrived was not land, but the Black Sea.
[Huh?]
“What’s wrong?”
I also felt puzzled by Yongyong’s strange reaction.
[Trying something!]
“Trying?”
As I fixed my gaze ahead, I could sense a strange current of power. At the same time, Draculea’s flight speed, which was flying fast, was gradually decreasing.
This is the Black Sea, where there is nothing to be found. What on earth is that guy trying to use in a place where no one is around?
There are more than one strange thing.
[It’s a space-type ability!]
“Move him in front.”
[Okay.]
The moment Yongyong brought me to Draculea, a huge space crack appeared in front of him.
Kieeek!
The guy who saw me got scared and screamed. At the same time, a crack in space swallowed him up. I hurriedly stretched out my hand, but I only managed to tear off part of the skin and the thing disappeared without a trace beyond the space crack.
After seeing this, I decided I had missed it. His faint presence was connected to the piece of leather I had taken.
“Goes.”
[Yes.]
I followed his traces and immediately cast transference. After moving beyond the space rift, I was able to confirm that I had arrived in a cavity covered in pitch black darkness on all sides.
Is it a space located under the sea? Where are we?
[I don’t know either. I’ll figure it out. It’s not far from where we first moved.]
Then it’s somewhere in the Black Sea.
As I looked around, I sensed Draculea’s energy. It was out there.
however.
“What are you doing?”
Draculea’s vital response was weaker than at first. Are your injuries so severe that your life is in danger? For that to be the case, it was moving well enough.
There is something.
First of all, this space was also strange.
Transference did not activate properly. If it had been activated properly, I would have arrived in front of him.
[It feels familiar. But it’s so faint that it’s hard to see in detail.]
Yongyong said that something familiar distorted my transfer results. Then I guess I’m not alone in my delusion.
I walked through the cavity. The space I was currently walking through was covered in thick darkness, but as I went forward, faint light was coming in.
There will be Draculea ahead. What had not been bothered by my senses at first slowly returned to its original position and I sensed a presence in front of me.
But the strange thing is.
Two?
[Two?]
I agreed to Yongyong’s question. One is Draculea’s and I’m not sure what the other is. It feels a bit calm to say it belongs to a monster. It seemed similar to Yongyong, but it was too weak.
When I finally reached the end of the aisle, I was greeted by another joint.
There was Draculea, whose injuries were not fully healed. It was curled up with its eyes closed and its wings wrapped around its body, as if it had fallen asleep.
And in front of him…
“Huh?”
There was something huge that could not even be compared to Draculea. At first I thought it was a rock. However, as I looked at the faintly radiating vitality, I realized that it was a living thing.
Yongyong’s reaction upon discovering its existence was fierce.
[What is this! Who are you?]
Draculea did not respond to Yongyong’s shout, but the gigantic being did. The eyes of the being whose closed eyelids were opened were those of a gold-colored reptile. And after looking at the entire fuselage, I was able to figure out what it was.
“Dragon?”
[I didn’t know humans would come here. And that too with my people.]
My people?
[Hey Shinsoo!]
Yongyong’s words gave me confidence. The fuselage, which was visible at least 200 meters in length, was suitable to be seen as a new beast, but the response was weaker than expected.
Do you think you’ll die if you hit me once?
“Why is Shinsoo so upset?”
[Huh!]
At my words, the dragon’s mouth curled up and smiled.
It soon turned into something eerie and lifelike and started pouring out on me.
[It’s you. The guy who ruined my plan to punish the traitor!]
Although he was on the verge of death, the pressure of his very existence was intense.
The guy tried to suppress it with the presence of the bell.
To me, it’s just clumsy pressure. Everyone dies if their head is broken, so there is no reason to be afraid of a divine beast.
I lightly repelled the guy’s momentum.
“You’re buzzing annoyingly.”
I could have smashed his head right away, but the reason I didn’t use my hands was not out of respect for the troublemaker, but out of a little curiosity. Draculea also stayed still.
“But what do you mean by traitor?”
[If it weren’t for that guy…]
He expresses his anger again at my words. Yongyong, who was watching the scene, hastily stopped him.
[Stop it! Then you disappear!]
[Thank you. If I had a friend like you, I could have avoided destruction.]
[What happened? Tell me.]
[It’s a story that’s nothing special. It’s a story about a guy who betrayed his friend and a fool who was betrayed.]
The dragon began to tell about what happened in the past as if he was complaining.
* * *
In Eastern Europe, after the appearance of monsters, two divine beasts began to form beings in close proximity. The two have been aware of each other for a long time and have been together for a long time, sometimes seeing themselves as collaborators and sometimes as competitors. And after the appearance of the monster, a cooperative system took shape.
[He and I each established our own territory. I wasn’t interested in human gaze. I thought it would be enough as long as we didn’t get disturbed in our own territory.]
But that was Dragon’s only illusion.
What came back was a cruel betrayal. As a result, the dragon lost all its essence and had no choice but to escape here.
Losing its essence meant that it could not exist as a Shinsu. The dragon was angry at this situation that had befallen him.
[I have no choice but to burn everything he holds dear. But I don’t have the strength to do that. So I created a tool that would burn everything on my behalf.]
That is how Draculea was born. The dragon was convinced that if the monster Draculea came forward, he would have no choice but to watch his territory burn without being able to show himself.
The prediction was correct, as it never showed up while the northern and eastern parts of central Romania were burning.
Now that I think about it, is there a reason why Shinsu doesn’t want to show himself in front of humans?
The dragon’s golden eyes sparkled at my question.
[Huh, I guess I’m curious. Didn’t you know that while you were taking Shinsu with you? Shinsoo was originally in the world….]
[Wait!]
Yongyong interrupted what the dragon was trying to say. It seems quite urgent, but is there some kind of restriction? I felt puzzled, but the dragon didn’t say anything more.
It seemed like important information, but it turned out to be a shame.
I hoped he would say more because of his stubbornness, but he didn’t say anything more because of what Yongyong had done.
It’s a shame.
“So I guess revenge failed.”
[If it weren’t for you, human, my plan would have succeeded.]
“Well.”
[Now that I have explained the whole story, please step aside.]
A dragon speaks as if it is obvious.
I made eye contact with him and gave him a puzzled look. Did he really think that if he told me about his shitty past, I would sympathize with him and walk away?
“why me?”
I only expressed my thoughts, but it was conveyed that I was being brutally killed. Either way, I have no reason to step down. There’s no reason to let go of the two-horned monsters you’ve caught?
[Are you saying you just won’t step down? Then how about this? I can give you something in return.]
“What are you going to give me?”
[What do you want?]
I pointed to Draculea.
“It would be nice to have his corpse.”
[I’m saying that now…]
“I don’t like it if it’s not that one.”
[I’ll give you something else.]
“That’s enough. “I want that guy and your eyeballs too.”
[uh? Wait a minute!]
Anyway, even though he was a Shinsu, he was just a shell of a person. I approached the dragon without any hesitation. Until then, the dragon couldn’t even react. The eyes that were chasing me only contained emotions.
I heard Yongyong trying to stop me from behind, but I didn’t care and used my hand.
Kwasik!
The dragon’s head shattered like a rotten twig. The light disappeared from the golden eyes and the eyelids closed.
I guess I’m going to die soon. A guy who can barely breathe is talking smugly.
I didn’t stop there and rushed towards Draculea who was trying to react. Perhaps because I was under the dragon’s control, I couldn’t react as if there was a momentary lag, and when my attack, which activated force refining on the mine, hit my head one after another, my brain shattered like a watermelon.
Kieee…
Leaving behind the faint sound of crying, I inserted my hand into Draculea’s heart and tasted the blood.
Except for [Vampirism], which quickly recovers stamina, and [Ultrasound], which causes confusion, all of them were garbage. Blood sucking was meaningless, and after thinking about ultrasound for a while, I gave up. I didn’t think they would freely use something I couldn’t hear.
“It actually got easier because of that stupid guy.”
[….]
“Why?”
[Did you have to kill him?]
“What if I don’t kill him? Do you think this guy who is obsessed with revenge will be persuaded and come back to his good self?”
[That must be difficult. Still, I wanted to talk more and get more information…]
“I don’t think any important information would have come out anyway.”
The dragon’s words were enough to stimulate my curiosity, but while listening to him, I focused on Draculea’s condition. And as a strange air current arose, I realized that it was recovering Draculea.
Even though we met as enemies, we had a lot of conversation at this level. The dragon took advantage of the pun and I just saw through it and gave him the end.
“Let’s go out now.”
[….]
“Are you upset?”
[no. It’s not like that.]
Still, the horse seemed to be thinking a lot. Well, I don’t care about that.
This is a twisted space, so as long as the dragon is dead, it will soon return to its original state. Well then, you can just take Draculea’s body with you.
“I want that too.”
I fixed my eyes on the dragon’s corpse. I didn’t feel alive to begin with, but wouldn’t I still be able to carry it out?
However, as if to laugh at my thoughts, when I touched it, the dragon’s body began to collapse like a sand castle.
In the place where everything was destroyed, a spot of light the size of a small candle was fluttering. Even that disappeared, as if it had been hit directly by the wind.
There was just enough strength left to take its own form. I could see how crazy he was about revenge.
Although I was curious about who the target was, I decided not to bother looking for it. If he is as ambitious as a thunderbird, I will meet him someday.
“let’s go.”
[Okay.]
I took the body of Draculea and left the twisted space with Yongyong.