Chapter 78

A notification of acquired experience confirmed the end of the Jade Dragon.

*shiik!*

Jae withdrew the blade from the Dragon’s chest and, without bothering to clear it of the blood, simply threw it into the Inventory.

Gazing upon the lifeless corpse, he felt a mix of emotions.

Sorrow, yet satisfaction.

Disgust, yet enlightenment.

Guilt, yet refreshment.

Through all of this, Jae thought about what he must do next.

「Mark of Death」now could not be used for another 48 hours. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t be much of a problem because the land was so vast that it would take a long time to encounter even one new enemy. However...

Shit... What timing.

―They had also now arrived at the Outer Layer. This meant the likelihood of a Dragon’s appearance would significantly increase the longer they were here.

Thus, they would need to be that much more cautious as they travelled, or at the very least, for the next two days.

「Mark of Death」was a key skill Jae possessed that allowed him to dominate any foe he battled up to this point. Without it, he wasn’t sure that he could’ve even beaten Salamander back then.

Despite its limitations, it truly was a skill worthy of being called overpowered.

If we come across another Dragon before the cooldown is up, all I’ll have to face it is「Belladonna」... No, like she said, maybe I should stop assuming that they all need to die before we even meet...

It was much better than nothing thanks to the effect, but Jae didn’t know if his stats were enough to take on a Dragon head-on yet. Of course, it was easy if they were bound with「Mark of Death」, and thanks to these first two experiences, he knew that he had enough damage to kill them fairly easily, but it was a whole different story compared to fighting them head-on.

In the first place, with how strong Dragons are, wouldn’t he just die in one hit? Since he had yet to be hit by an attack from a Dragon, he had no idea, but it probably wasn’t a good idea to find out, just in case.

...Actually, why not?

However, after thinking for a moment, Jae changed his mind.

It’s not like I’ll actually die, and I’m pretty confident in my defensive skills. No, with the addition of「Dragon Body」, wouldn’t it be easy? Everyone else knows that I revive too, so they shouldn’t be that worried.

Was there anything to lose from experimenting like this? At a glance, maybe not?

Either way, as he was thinking this, Jae’s ears perked up at the sound of people approaching―the group were all running towards him at a high speed, quickly closing in.

Wasting no further time, he placed a hand on the Jade Dragon’s dead body and began to circulate the mana within, forcing it back into its original appearance. The process was many times faster than with Salamander, perhaps because of「Draconic Magic Comprehension」.

As he did so, he marvelled at the wondrous sight of the mana flowing through and around the Jade Dragon’s transforming body with「Draconic Eyes」. Like this, and with the help of「Draconic Magic Comprehension」, he was able to quickly understand how mana behaved when entering the body and exiting, its role, and why exactly it did so.

Dragons... So, this is why they are so good at magic, huh...

He came up with a hypothesis, but unless he tested it by studying a live Dragon, he wouldn’t know for sure. If he was right, however, he might be able to considerably increase his magic abilities, as well as teach it to the others.

“Master!”

As his voice was called, Jae turned to see everyone slowing down as they finally arrived. It was quite the long distance they had run to catch up to him, but they were not the slightest bit out of breath.

Staring at them, his vertical slit eyes gleamed a vivid golden colour. They were stunned at the sight, as it was the first time they had seen him with「Draconic Eyes」activated, but no one said anything out loud. Even if they did, he wouldn’t have heard them.

He was too focused on what those very eyes were looking at, after all.

The mana flow... Why is it so inefficient...?

He had never looked at a human with these eyes before, but now that he had, he could tell instantly―they were not creatures born to wield magic.

It’s so wasteful!

The atmospheric mana enters the body via breathing. It starts at the lungs, and is gradually absorbed as it sits there―this alone is far too inefficient in that it takes too long and the quality of the mana itself degrades as it sits in a person’s lungs for too long.

Anyway, after the mana is absorbed from the lungs, it gets transported to the heart. Apparently, the heart is where mana is stored.

From there, depending on how you use magic, the mana can either stay idle in the heart or can circulate around the body through invisible ‘mana veins’, ready to be used around the body at any time.

The first method is used primarily by magicians and mages who stock up on mana to cast spells, whilst the second method is generally for those who use strengthening magic, such as warriors, and is the basis of how the skill「Power Burst」works.

Skills such as「Automatic MP Recovery」and「Greater MP Regeneration」seem to originate from the development of the breathing process to take in mana, but again, such an archaic and wasteful method of recovering mana can only go so far.

That was only for humans, however.

When he looked at Rena, a half-Spirit-half-Demon, Jae noticed that the process was ever-so-slightly different. Instead of being restricted to every time she inhaled, the mana in the air would permeate her entire body all the time, resulting in not only a much higher rate of absorption, but also a higher efficiency. Thus, her mana recovery was realms above any human mage.

Then, as she absorbed the natural mana constantly, of course, there would be too much of it for a child to handle―a Demon’s horns helped with this. Jae wasn’t sure exactly how it worked biologically, but he knew the anti-magic property would suppress a Demon’s mana just enough so that it could be controlled without issue.

Other than that, they stored it in the heart just like humans. Still, because she was only half-Demon, Rena was different.

Instead of storing it in her biological heart, Jae saw a second heart, created entirely from mana, that stored mana and pumped it around her body dozens of times more efficiently than humans and Demons did it.

This was her Spirit blood coming into play, and frankly, Jae was impressed. Did she do this unconsciously, or was it there from birth? There was no way to tell as of now, but did it really matter? If he could get himself one of those hearts, it probably wouldn’t be of much help, honestly, but it would be better than not having it.

From what he saw when looking at the Jade Dragon’s body, Dragons have six such artificial mana hearts, in addition to their three biological hearts.

Hmm... I’ll have to try and create one later. For now, let’s clean up the situation. I should make amends.

Deactivating「Draconic Eyes」, his iris returned back to its original black, and he looked each member of the group directly in the eyes.

“I apologise for my behaviour.”

Recalling everything the Jade Dragon reprimanded him for, he felt deeply ashamed. Not only had he hurt these people, but he had also dismissed their concerns and opinions. As such, there was a need to apologise.

“Wha... What do you mean, apologise? Is this about earlier?”

It was Kaitlyn who asked with narrowed eyes. She was most likely still mad about what Jae had said before, about them being free to leave. After he said he came into this Dungeon to rescue them, he could see now why that might piss someone off to go back on that.

“That, too... Look, I’m not asking for you to forgive me. I don’t expect you to, since I admit I did say some pretty horrible things. Still, I’m now saying I regret that and I’m sorry to you all. And...”

Briefly moving his gaze to someone else, his head reflexively turned towards the floor and his tone deepened.

“Amelia... About what I said that time...”

He couldn’t see because his head was down, but her eyes shook with incoming tears, gazing at the top of his scalp.

“It probably sounds like an excuse, but I swear that I don’t truly mean those words.”

Both Astrantia and the Jade Dragon had said it. What his mistake was, and how to fix it.

“I can’t apologise enough--No, I know that apologising itself isn’t enough. I don’t need you to forgive me. All I want is for you to understand that what I’m saying is real.”

―Right here, right now, he will clean up the huge mess he made.

The next day. Whilst everyone was training and sparring, Jae was harvesting every possible material he could get from the Jade Dragon.

He felt a tad awkward about desecrating the dead like this, but it would be far too big of a waste to just let him rot away like that. The Jade Dragon, being ranked within the Top 5 of the Pride Dungeon, made the quality of his body’s materials incomparable to those of Salamander.

Instead of mindlessly harvesting away, he thought about the agenda.

After this is done... Well, firstly, we’re looking for Aphy, who, if the Jade Dragon’s assumptions are correct, should be wandering around the Outer Layer to the southwest. Then, we’ll begin to make our way to the northeast side of the Dungeon, killing Dragons on the way to get as much out of the Dungeon as we can before finding Astrantia and killing her to open up the exit.

[What, why me? It would be far quicker for you to kill her, instead of travelling for years just to find me.]

You know why. Don’t bring up such an awful suggestion.

Refusing to argue with her, Jae ended the subject quickly. He stood up from his crouching position and stretched, gazing over the land from atop the Jade Dragon’s corpse.

At the end of his gaze were the other party members sparring. This was a method they seemed to prefer over the usual dull and repetitive training, and as they grew stronger, it became more effective to spar with each other than to just train by themselves.

Jae let out an unconscious breath of relief looking at them, who all seemed to be in far higher spirits than just the day before. Even he, himself, felt better after apologising, though of course, it didn’t mean that was the end of it or that everything was back to normal―it would likely be a long while until relations can be fully repaired.

Well... At least, it’s good that things seem to be looking up.

As soon as he thought that, Jae turned around to get back to collecting when something caught his eye.

“Hm?”

In the distance, he spotted something odd. At a glance, it appeared like a huge wave of dust approaching, but upon sharpening his vision, he found that it was far from it.

“What’s...?”

It was then.

*RUMBLE--!!*

“!?”

Like an earthquake, the ground tremored violently. Not only that, but all the hot air began whirling powerfully around them.

Staring at what seemed to be the cause of all this―a tremendous mass of something grey approaching from the horizon―two glowing orbs appeared within, and gazed back.

―Eyes.

With that alone, Jae already understood the situation.

Ah, shit! A fucking Dragon...!

The one thing he was trying to avoid came straight at him. Just what was this rotten luck?

Seriously, why now of all times!?

Clicking his tongue, Jae wasted no time. Jumping down from the corpse of the Jade Dragon, he sent a warning to the others via telepathy as he threw to them some emergency health potions.

[It’s a Dragon, take cover quickly and don’t let out any magic whatsoever. I’ll get close and cripple it, so as per yesterday’s promise, you can make your way over once I send the signal.]

There was no need to reply; everyone immediately took action at his words, using the Jade Dragon’s gigantic carcass as protection. Seeing this, Jae nodded and began moving towards the distant Dragon, which was of a size slightly bigger than Salamander, with Sloth.

Considering that it’s attacking out of the blue like this, it’s a natural hostile. Is it another guy who knows me as Aphy’s disciple and wants revenge on her? No need to hold back.

Traversing the barren, rocky wasteland at extraordinary speeds, the image of the grey Dragon ahead grew increasingly larger, the tremors more powerful, and the gusts of wind more violent.

Red sky overhead, Jae’s body began to transform. Scales covering his body and a tail all appeared, and his physique was embiggened to fit the immense growth of his physical stats.

Skill「Dragon Body」has activated

Golden eyes with a black vertical slit, glossy black scales, and a long, flexible tail were the most prominent features of his new form. There were no horns like a Dragon as the skill wasn’t yet a high enough level, but it was good enough for now.

By this point, the distance between Jae and the Dragon had shrunk considerably. Using Sloth a final time to blink just before the attacking stranger, he placed his scaly palm on the first place he could get his hands on.

Skill「Belladonna」has activated Target has been successfully afflicted by the Nymph’s Curse Target’s link to all magic sources has been severed

Glowing symbols like a myriad of flowers connected by thick and thorny vines suddenly appeared and rapidly spread across the whole of the Dragon’s body, like tattoos that originated from the spot his hand touched.

Perhaps because he had used「Mark of Death」the previous two times, which had obfuscated this effect, he had never noticed this before. Either way, it was unimportant. With the Dragon branded like so, it was as good as any big lizard with wings, as magic was no longer an option for the creature.

{Graaaaaooooowwwwhhh...!!??!}

(What the hell happened to my magic...!!??!)

Experiencing the terrible restriction first-hand, the Dragon cried in shock, and due to the translation of「Draconic Language Comprehension」, he could understand it perfectly. A good side-effect of unprecedented skills like these is that they buy time while the enemy is confused by what happened.

Jae used this opportunity to grab the Death God’s Scythe from the Inventory and simultaneously activate all kinds of power-up skills and enhancement magic at once.

Skill「Power Burst」has activated

[Hey. Hey. Master? Master? Jae. Master?]

Sorry pal, your master ain’t here yet...!

Swinging the scythe that hadn’t changed a bit with full force, a massive roar soon erupted from the Dragon.

{GRAAAAAAAOOOOOOOWWW!!!!}

(AAAAAGHHHH, FUCKER!!!!)

*THUD!*

Red blood spewing like a fountain and dyeing the surroundings crimson, the Dragon’s left forelimb was completely severed and fell crashing to the ground.

Good! My stats are high enough to cause significant damage!

He thought that if things continued like this, then Dragons wouldn’t be a problem to fight at all.

Suddenly, however, he noticed the end of the wounded foreleg bubbling like boiling water. As soon as he saw the limb beginning to regenerate at a frightening pace, Jae flinched.

Eugh, this bastard--

*BOOM!*

The Dragon’s right claw smashed down upon where Jae was standing merely a split-second ago.

{GRAAAAAOOOOOOOOHHHH!!}

(DIEEE!!)

Lifting his right foreleg from the enormous crater, it looked just as if a meteor had struck, and seeing there was no indication at all that Jae had survived, the Dragon almost relaxed.

“―Bitch.”

From behind, an attack came without time to react.

*Woosh--!*

{GRAAAAAOOOWWWHH...!?}

(AAAAGGHH...!?)

This time, it was the right forelimb that had been severed, forcing the ash-coloured Dragon to stand on its hind legs. Although, using the regeneration rate of its left leg, which had already been restored down to its wrist, it wouldn’t last for long.

So, Jae quickly cut it again, and farther up the leg this time so that it would take longer to recover.

Then, wasting no time, he blinked up to its head and put strength into his arms as he stared the Dragon in the eyes.

{ROOOAAAAAARRRR!!}

(Rat bastard! So arrogant, just because you have the Tyrant’s backing!! I’ll show you--!)

――*Woosh--!*

Cutting off its words, Jae brought down the Death God’s Scythe with the intent to separate the Dragon’s head from its shoulders.

What...?!

However, it could only cut halfway before the scythe halted in its tracks. The Dragon’s defences were higher than he had estimated, to survive even the explosive power of the Death God’s Scythe on top of his own greatly-enhanced stats, but it wasn’t a huge problem.

Such a deep wound would immobilise it for at least a couple of seconds, which was enough time for Jae to teleport over to the Dragon’s hind legs and sever them with but two swings of the scythe, causing the mountainous body to succumb to gravity and collapse on the ground.

*BOOOOM...!!!*

The force of such a colossal creature impacting the ground resulted in a powerful shockwave that spread for miles.

With all four of its legs gone, all the Dragon could do now was to fly away by manoeuvring its wings.

“Don’t even think about it.”

―Before it was even given the opportunity to do so, though, it was stopped.

Prevented from fleeing by Jae, who stood atop the Dragon’s back and disconnected its wings at the roots by swinging the scythe, there were no other options left for the crippled creature.

Taking note of how long each of its limbs and body parts would take to regenerate, Jae had already confirmed it to be his win. Nodding to himself, he detonated a spark high in the sky―the signal that the rest of the group could come over.

*BANG-!*

Honestly, this couldn’t even be called a fight; it’s more like a one-sided domination.

If the Dragon had access to its magic, then it would be a whole other story, but fortunately, that could be easily avoided. Giving a glance to the illuminated tattoos of thorny vines and flowers decorating the Dragon’s bland and ashen scales, Jae was glad.

If「Belladonna」wasn’t an option, I don’t know what I would’ve picked. I’m sure I could’ve made whatever it would’ve been, work somehow, but man...「Belladonna」really makes it this easy, huh.

He recalled the description of the skill from the time he first read through it.

「Belladonna [Upgraded]」- Allows the user to temporarily borrow the power of a Nymph, a high-ranking Spirit of Nature, to [Brand] the target.

[Branded] targets have their link with all existing sources of magic completely cut by the power of the Spirit King until the [Brand] is removed by the user. Additionally, [Branded] targets will be unable to enter the Spirit World under any circumstances and will have a forced favourability of Spirits to be permanently significantly lowered.

Cannot be used on those with a considerable favourability of Spirits.

Costs 10% Current MP.

Only usable by a [Dryad].

Upgrade: Can be used regardless of Race

It was thanks to this skill that Jae was able to fight the Dragons head-on, even without「Mark of Death」. Because they can’t use magic, the main thing to watch out for when opposing a Dragon, they literally become nothing more than oversized lizards.

As he patiently waited for everyone else to arrive for the free experience points, Jae repeatedly cut off each of the Dragon’s limbs every time it came close to regenerating.

{GROOOAAAAAOOOWWWW...!!!}

(OOOWWWWWW, FUUUUUCK...!!!)

Tsk. So fucking loud...

“Listen, you keep doing that and I’ll cut out your tongue.”

[Ooh, so brutal~ When you act like this, you really do resemble someone known as the ‘Tyrant’s Disciple’, you know?]

“Are you insulting or complimenting me?”

[I wonder. Anyway, please, keep doing this. You’ll keep getting stronger, right? I don’t want our fight to be disappointing, now.]

“What’s wrong with you...”

[Just don’t be a letdown, Jae. I’m not scared of those two skills you seem to be so proud of, but try your best anyway! With or without them, I hope you don’t underestimate me.]

Her words turned sinister, causing Jae’s expression to harden.

...Like I would underestimate a monster like you.

Ending their brief talk like that, Jae simply took a seat on the Dragon’s writhing face and waited.

Incidentally, he decided against reversing his Polymorph despite the potential reduction in stats, since it would be harder to deal with―a smaller body is easier to miss, after all, so leaving him as a giant would make for a much simpler target to hit.

As he thought about this and that, all of a sudden, Jae noticed a change in the air.

Immediately, he stood up and checked around each of the Dragon’s limbs to ensure they were still cut―cutting them again just to be safe―then moved on to the surroundings.

This... is it more humid than before...?

That wasn’t all, either. It wasn’t just the humidity that had abruptly increased so much that it was akin to the atmosphere within a tropical rainforest, but something else...

...It smells sweet?

Thinking that something like this has never occurred before, Jae was on full alert. Watching out in all directions for what may possibly be a consecutive attack, he didn’t let his guard down for a second.

――And then, he was struck. Literally.

*BOOM!*

Leaving him without a moment to react, a vicious bolt of lightning struck Jae, briefly disorientating him.

Regaining his senses as quickly as possible and healing himself, Jae had no clue what happened. He never sensed magic being used, and when he looked up, the red sky was as clear as ever―rainy days didn’t exist in the Pride Dungeon, nor did storms.

Fortunately, although the lightning was dozens of times more powerful than ordinary lightning, he was able to get by without much issue. The「Burn Resistance」,「Heat Resistance」and「Magic Resistance (ALL)」skills helped reduce the damage considerably.

Of course, a singular bolt of lightning wasn’t all there was to worry about.

*RUMBLE-!*

The earth and sky trembled as one. This time, however, it was not the fault of an earthquake.

Jae stared up at the sky and witnessed something incredible.

―An incomprehensible number of dark clouds and dazzling orbs gradually appeared, swirling like a vortex and orbiting one specifically large, incandescent ball floating in the centre, which just so happened to be right above Jae’s head.

Just looking at it, it brought to mind the famous image of the Andromeda galaxy.

The stars―countless huge orbs of greatly condensed lightning magic―swirled faster and faster alongside the dark clouds which spread across the sky rapidly and in all directions, blanketing the world in shadow.

The seven suns were no longer visible through that seemingly impenetrable ceiling that had been placed on the world, so the only source of light available was the foreboding yet strangely captivating ‘thing’ happening in the sky.

The longer he stayed gazing at it, the more beads of cold sweat fell.

A feeling of something sinister.

This ‘Andromeda’―

Skill「Instinct」has activated

―It wasn’t going to end as a simple attack.

Ah...

Jae felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“A-ahh, no....”

Mumbling subconsciously, he unusually stuttered. His neck, craned upwards, strangely felt sore.

“He-... hey, now...”

A nervous gulp to quench the chattering of his teeth.

“Th-that's not... not fair...”

When was the last time he had felt like this? It was impossible to recall. He was sure that the creator of this... Andromeda, was nothing special―probably on par with this nameless ash-coloured Dragon, or perhaps a slightly bigger deal.

Nevertheless...

“Aha... Fuck...”

Instinctively, Jae could tell at a glance. This attack...

―If that hits me, I’m fucking gone.

It was both an instinct and an「Instinct」.

If Jae was so much as grazed by that attack, he would instantly vaporise. If that happened, he had a feeling deep within him, that no matter how strong of an ability his resurrection was, it wouldn’t be able to regenerate him back from nothingness.

...Shit... Shit...! What the fuck do I do against that!?

Perhaps the reality of the situation had finally hit him.

No matter what, getting hit by that attack would mean his demise, and if there was even a sliver of a chance of it being permanent, he would have to do everything he could possibly do to prevent it.

There’s no dodging an attack of that magnitude, so I have to block, but can I even do that? How the fuck do you block something like that...?

Even though his mind had no clue, his body moved on its own. Creating layer upon layer of magical barriers of various properties, Jae acted as fast as his physical limits would allow.

Unfortunately, he was never satisfied, even when there were ten, one hundred, a thousand layers of barrier shielding him. So, in addition to adding more, he condensed them.

Though the attack appeared to be so large at first, it was likely to only target a specific area, which of course, would be Jae. If he only focused on protecting himself, he could amplify the defensive power of each barrier by quite a lot.

Still, even with this, he felt it wasn’t enough. Sure, there was a chance that he might not die now, but against an attack of such sheer scale as that one, Jae had no idea if even a million of such barriers would even be close to stopping it.

Eventually, he had reached the limit. Not his limit, but the time he had left―going off of the increasingly fast swirling of the Andromeda above him, the endless ‘stars’ all slowly coalesced into the centric ball, combining into one mass.

Even from where he stood, all the way on the ground, he could feel the absolutely insane magic energy emitted from the mass. Truly, it was a phenomenal attack, out of this world.

If there were to be one example of magic to showcase a Dragon’s prominence, this Andromeda would be it.

Aaah, fuck...

Internally, Jae swore as he stood helplessly before his impending doom. The mass of lightning magic then began to spin rapidly, producing even more energy and giving off constant sparks, each of which contained more than enough power to demolish a city.

It spun wildly like a generator until Jae couldn’t bear to keep his eyes open and so slammed them shut, waiting for his end. He had done all he could up until this point, so all he could do now was hope. Suddenly, he realised something.

Why had Astrantia not been saying anything all this time?

There was no time to think about the answer to that question, however, as the Andromeda attack had finally finished its preparation. At this point, even if he were to kill the one behind the attack, it would be too late to stop it from unleashing mass destruction.

As the spinning mass shot out a single, immeasurably potent lightning bolt, Jae felt as if the world slowed down.

The lightning, which signified the likely end of his life―he could watch it travel, slowly making its way towards him, despite the fact that it was travelling at light speed.

Now that he saw it more closely, he thought that all his previous efforts were in vain.

There was not a snowball’s chance in hell of stopping this attack.

――Is what he thought, when all of a sudden, he spotted something appear. Did he unconsciously create a final barrier out of fear? It wouldn’t have any effect anyway.

He was convinced as much, but no matter how much time passed, the lightning never struck him. Looking again, he realised.

The thing that spontaneously appeared.

It was snow.