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Chapter 233: 233

Grrr, grrrr—

Kii-ah, kiii-aaah—

It was really noisy in there .

Frowning deeply, Su-hyeun covered his ear with one hand . The loud growls and screeches that belonged to various monsters would obviously not sound good to anyone .

Gya-ong—!

Miru let out an irritated growl as if the noise was getting on its nerves as well .

Su-hyeun and his dragon were currently in the middle of a horde of monsters . The reason for that was pretty simple .

“All kinds of countless monsters” was this dungeon’s theme .

Inside that place that resembled a cavern located deep underground, monsters maintained some sort of an ecosystem where they devoured each other .

It was fairly similar to Earth’s ecosystem in a certain way . Plant-type monsters were devoured by the insect types, while the latter group would get eaten by other types of monsters .

And a monster bigger and stronger than them would devour them all .

Eat or be eaten—it was that kind of a dungeon .

However, Su-hyeun’s appearance pushed them into acting as one group . They must devour the living human—that was the hostility innate in every monster .

“So many of them have shown up, alright . ”

[Provocation]

He went to the center of the dungeon and began attracting the monsters toward him to save time, even if only by a little .

“There aren’t any monsters that we missed, right?”

Gya-ong—

Su-hyeun asked Miru as it flew back after it took a look around their surroundings . The dragon shook its head in response . He smirked and then studied a particular monster that had pushed its heads above the other monsters below .

Kiii-aaaah—!

This monster had nine heads . It was a Hydra, a creature that showed up only within legends . It was also the boss of the blue-colored dungeon and lorded over the others as the top dog of the food chain .

It wasn’t that big all in all . Of course, it was still the biggest monster around, but as a boss of a blue-colored dungeon, it was certainly on the smaller side of the scale .

The real problem with this creature isn’t its size but its toxins .

The venom from that creature’s fangs and blood was far more lethal than any other poison known to man . It was so strong that, as a matter of fact, merely getting sprayed with its blood during battle was enough to melt down a person’s entire body . Plus, its regeneration capability was more outstanding than any monster Su-hyeun knew .

Excluding that, this monster’s characteristics are a bit lacking overall as a boss of a blue-colored dungeon, but…

That no longer mattered .

Maybe not right now, but something of a Hydra’s level could certainly morph into a very promising summoned monster in the future .

Su-hyeun extended his hand forward . Right after he did that, Death Aura began leaking out from his fingertips .

[Trait “Necromancer” has been activated . ]

[By using “Death Aura,” you can see or command the dead . ]

Su-hyeun’s eyes turned pitch-black when his trait was activated . The monsters that were seemingly ready to pounce on him at any second shrunk back instantly for a moment .

He stared at them and murmured softly, “Arise . ”

The moment he said that…

[“Dead Summoning” has been used . ]

[“Ouroboros” is being summoned . ]

[“Ouroboros’s offspring” is being summoned . ]

[“Cerberus” is being summoned . ]

[“Death Knight” is…]

… .

Gu-gugugugu—

Crack, crack—

Khiii-aaaah—!

The first thing to happen was the rearing from beneath the ground of a massive snake’s head made out of nothing but bones .

All the monsters that surrounded Su-hyeun got swept up in an instant by the Ouroboros’s entrance . The gigantic snake opened its bony maw wide and swallowed up the monsters in one go . Dozens upon dozens of monsters lost their lives in the blink of an eye .

That wasn’t all .

Although just a snakelet, the Ouroboros’s offspring that made its appearance next was still at least 1 . 5 times bigger than the Hydra . Then, around 20 other undead also showed up, which included the Cerberus, reputedly the gatekeeper of the underworld .

The overall number was fairly small . However, the forceful aura that each of them exuded simply overwhelmed the monsters before Su-hyeun .

Especially when it came to the Ouroboros, the number of hostile monsters meant nothing in front of the creature .

“Sweep them all away,” Su-hyeun ordered .

All at once, around 20 creatures summoned by Su-hyeun made their move .

Miru did as well .

The red dragon had grown so much that using Breath many times didn’t quickly tire it out anymore . The moment Su-hyeun gave his order, Miru flew up high in the air and began pouring out Breath into the middle of the monster horde .

Meanwhile, Su-hyeun stared at the Hydra . The monster’s initial triumphant air lasted only for a brief moment, and then, it looked somewhat scared .

Step—

He began to walk slowly toward the nine-headed monster .

His steps gradually became faster . After taking a few more steps in that manner, Su-hyeun’s figure simply vanished from the spot .

Kii-aaaah—!

Fwhooooosh—

The Hydra opened all of its nine mouths and spat out its venom .

The toxin was strong enough to instantly melt his body just from touching it . As Su-hyeun wasn’t visible anymore, the monster decided to melt down the ground around it and put up a wall of green fog next .

“I guess you guys are also scared of dying, then . ”

The Hydra’s heads hurriedly spun to look behind it where the voice came from .

Rumble—

Slice—

A blade enveloped in the divine Flame sliced off all of the Hydra’s nine heads in one swing .

Originally, cutting one head off would mean two other heads would regenerate . However, the dark blue-colored flames scorched the necks of the Hydra, so it couldn’t regenerate all of its lost heads . The monster eventually lifelessly crashed to the ground .

Thud, boom—

Su-hyeun stared at the sliced heads of the Hydra before dusting off the venom from his body .

“Well, that stung more than I thought . ”

After taking care of his surroundings, he extended his hand toward the Hydra’s corpse . He had one last thing to do now .

[Soul Accumulation]

You can now accumulate a targeted individual’s soul . The number of souls you may accumulate will depend on your proficiency and the soul’s grade .

Proficiency: 12%

LV: 4

The number that can be stored: 80

The number currently stored: 21

[Dead Summoning]

Summon a body without a soul . The designated body will not decompose and will be stored away . The number that can be stored will rise with your proficiency .

Depending on your proficiency, the target’s body can be summoned in a more intact state .

Proficiency: 48%

LV: 2

The number that can be stored: 30

Application rate: 45%

Su-hyeun confirmed his proficiency in his two skills and saw some improvement in the past 15 days .

Soul Accumulation’s possible number of souls that could be stored had increased to match the improvement in his proficiency . As for the Dead Summoning skill…

The application rate’s improvement is just too low .

The “application rate” represents the percentage of how much of the dead creature’s original abilities would be brought back after it had been summoned . In other words, the application rate of 100% meant that the summoned creature would retain all of its powers and abilities when it was still alive .

It would be great if I can raise this one up to 100%, but…

But he might need a long, long time to get there . More importantly, though…

Is five minutes my limit for summoning and maintaining everyone at the same time?

The number of summons wasn’t that many, but the Ouroboros alone possessed a massive physique . Plus, its soul’s superiority alone was far greater than all the other monsters added together .

I’ve gathered enough monsters to summon now .

For his current ability, this group of summons was already beyond adequate and already downright overabundant .

As an example, summoning them for around five minutes was enough to completely sweep away a blue-colored dungeon . More than anything else, the Ouroboros’s corpse proved to be the biggest help of them all .

“Okay, Miru . Let’s get out of here . ”

They confirmed that no more monsters remained in the dungeon . As they had no other reason to get hung up over this particular raid, he was thinking of going back to South Korea as soon as possible .

But then…

Gya-ah-oh-ong—

Miru’s voice sounded off somehow as it replied to him .

“Miru?”

Su-hyeun quickly looked back in surprise at the dragon walking behind him . Miru was sweating profusely from its entire body . At the same time, it made a pained expression and began coughing and wheezing as if something was stuck in its throat .

“What’s the matter?”

Feeling worried, he quickly rushed to Miru’s side . The dragon began retching for a while before finally spitting something out .

Ptooi—

Tumble, roll—

It was a small red marble that was slightly smaller than an adult’s fist .

Is that a Cintamani?

He knew that Miru had swallowed up the Cintamani in the past, but this particular red marble it just spat out was far smaller than the one he remembered .

What exactly is going on here?

While feeling somewhat bewildered, Su-hyeun reached down to pick up the red marble, but right at that moment…

Plop—

Miru collapsed on the spot .

Act 7

Snore, snoooore—

Miru was currently snoring away . It was curled up into a ball and wouldn’t wake up no matter what Su-hyeun tried .

This wasn’t the first time something like this happened . A similar thing happened back when Miru suddenly began experiencing the so-called growing pains stage .

Su-hyeun didn’t know much about dragons . What he knew about them all came from some books that he read, and that’s it .

However, he did know of a specialist on the subject, at least .

Slam—!

“Where is it?!”

A man kicked Su-hyeun’s front door down and barged inside without any warning .

Song Hyeong-gi looked around, discovered Miru, and entered the apartment while hurriedly taking off his shoes . Su-hyeun stared at these exaggerated actions in dismay as he sat on his living room couch .

“Why are you breaking someone’s door down?!”

“You said it’s sick!”

Although that reply lacked the “who,” it was rather obvious who Song Hyeong-gi meant just now . Su-hyeun nodded his head and looked at Miru currently snoozing away in the middle of the living room . “Well, I think it’s sick, but I’m not sure . ”

“What do you mean, you’re not sure?”

“Honestly speaking, I really don’t know . Miru just kind of collapsed and didn’t want to wake up . So, I can’t tell whether it’s genuinely sick somewhere, or it’s simply going through another growing pains thing like the last time . ”

“So, it’s not really sick?”

“We don’t know that yet . ”

“But you still called me regardless? By lying about the dragon being sick and all? You son of a… actually, you did well . ”

Song Hyeong-gi lightly patted Su-hyeun’s shoulder .

He was a firm subscriber of a certain opinion . If it’s for the sake of any divine beast accompanying him, stop at absolutely nothing to make sure for real .

Therefore, he quite liked that Su-hyeun was worried about Miru being potentially sick and decided to lie to him to get him to come over as soon as possible .

Song Hyeong-gi began taking a good look at Miru up close . The red dragon continued to snore away, not even aware of the guest’s presence .

“Its complexion looks fine, so is its breathing . ”

“Are you saying Miru’s not sick?”

“Honestly, even I don’t know much about red dragons . What I do know for sure is that your Miru did go through the growing pains stage and grew in size instantly like my own Yong . This looks really, really similar to that, but…”

“A dragon can go through that stage twice?”

“Well, my Yong went through it only once . Most other dragons are like that, too . ”

“Does that mean you’re just as clueless as I am, Mister Song Hyeong-gi?”

“How dare you look down on me?! It’s a bit weird, but for some reason, I get to experience a lot more trials related to divine beasts compared to other people . One of them happened to be related to dragons . So, it’s not like I can’t think up of a possibility or two . ”

“Can you tell me about them?”

Song Hyeong-gi lightly brushed Miru’s head as he answered Su-hyeun’s question . “Dragons experience two transformations throughout their lives . The first one is the growing pains stage that we talked about earlier . Now, normally, a dragon will go through this transformation about one year after their hatching . ”

Su-hyeun knew that much already .

Not to forget, Miru had gone through this stage already . However, it didn’t grow much bigger than its size before, which was unlike other dragons .

“As for the second one… I can’t be sure about this one . It kind of lines up with the symptoms that I know of, but it’s just too early for that, you see . ”

“How early are we talking about here?”

“About a thousand years or so . In any case, when a dragon’s age reaches a thousand years…” Song Hyeong-gi paused and looked at the slumbering Miru . “It goes through the awakening period, you see . ”