A mountain rose. When the Supreme Dragon, massive enough to be mistaken for a mountain, lifted its body, the sky was blotted out.
“Uh, uh-buh-buh?”
In an instant, the sun was eclipsed, and darkness fell over the Dragon Soul Corridor.
‘Human. State your business. You solved the riddle and found me, so I shall permit a conversation.’
Before that colossal form and overwhelming presence, enough to make his mind drift far away, Sinhyeok felt as though he might black out.
The Supreme Dragon gazed at the dazed Sinhyeok with expressionless pupils.
‘How insignificant.’
It slowly moved its body. It tried to lay back down the body that had covered the sky.
Slowly, the dragon’s pupils began to close, as if it were returning to being a mountain once more.
“Ghh, ghh-eup.”
The fear and terror filling his brain kept trying to seal his mouth shut, making him unable to move.
‘Return once you are at least capable of speaking. Mortal.’
Just before the dragon’s pupils fully closed.
“Con.”
At the tiny sound from his barely opened mouth, the dragon paused for a moment.
But it did not open its eyes.
“Contract!”
Even as his entire body trembled, he shouted toward the Supreme Dragon.
“Let’s. Make. A. Contract!”
The Supreme Dragon lifted its falling eyelids.
The irresistible pressure grew fiercer.
‘Good. One of meager level, yet mighty will. Come closer.’
The pressure vanished, and the enormous mountain shrank.
“Haaah……”
The strength drained from him all at once.
Sinhyeok sank down where he stood and stared far ahead.
‘Find the lake.’
Only that voice remained, dropped into his mind.
Sinhyeok staggered to his feet at the dragon’s voice in his head.
“Wh-where is it?”
‘Straight ahead.’
Sinhyeok walked forward.
The dragon’s voice rang out like an echo.
Following that echo, he walked and walked.
After walking on and on, he saw, far in the distance, a vast blue lake like a mirage.
The color held by the lake was like clear, pure mana.
‘It looks just like blue mana herb.’
As he approached.
Around the lake, especially vivid red mana herbs were in splendid full bloom.
“There’s so much.”
Every bit of ground visible to the eye was filled with red mana herbs,
and the bottom of the lake was densely carpeted with blue mana herbs.
At the exact center of the lake stood a single small pavilion.
There was a human with long black hair, wearing not a single stitch of clothing.
He looked at Sinhyeok, who had found the lake, with indifferent eyes.
Curl.
Then he curled a finger.
At that gesture, Sinhyeok cautiously approached the lake.
Before Sinhyeok touched the lake water, he gestured again.
“Stop?”
Sinhyeok’s body stopped, and the man opened his mouth slightly.
“Do you desire a contract?”
Nod.
He gazed at Sinhyeok with a faint smile.
“How curious. You were born with a strange fate. Born a hero and savior, yet you keep resisting. Or perhaps not—perhaps someone beside you is interfering.”
The Supreme Dragon muttered something.
And yet, strangely, the sound was as loud as if it were being spoken right beside him.
“Pardon?”
He erased his smile and said,
“It seems there is no need for you to know that right now.”
“Ah? Yes.”
He was beating the drum and playing the janggu all by himself. Dumbfounded, Sinhyeok stared at him.
“So, you said you wanted a contract?”
“Yes! If you tell me anything, I’ll definitely—!”
The Supreme Dragon smiled and pointed at the lake.
“Pardon?”
“Can you see this lake?”
Sinhyeok looked at the broad lake.
When he glanced down, it grew deeper toward the center, and its width was considerable as well.
“Turn this entire lake into red and blue potions.”
Then he lay down in the pavilion and crossed his legs.
“As quickly as possible, if you would. Before the sun sets.”
When Sinhyeok turned around, the sun, which had always been high in the sky, was moving, and the clouds were moving as well.
“D-damn it.”
The Supreme Dragon gave a soft laugh at Sinhyeok’s reaction.
“Get to it. You’ll run out of time.”
He lifted his gaze slightly and looked at Sinhyeok, who was at once flustered and burning with determination.
“It has been a long time, welcome one.”
The final words he spoke did not reach Sinhyeok.
With a blank face, Sinhyeok scooped up water from the broad lake with his hands.
Drip, drip.
Watching the droplets fall, Sinhyeok was flabbergasted.
“I know I’m good at making things in large quantities, but this is a bit much.”
He had once made red potions as if he were making kimchi in bulk, but this was truly hopeless.
“Will you give up?”
The Supreme Dragon’s mocking words came from far away.
Sinhyeok answered at once.
“No!”
“Good. And of course, the potions must be top-grade.”
The Supreme Dragon expected Sinhyeok to look flustered, but his answer was unexpected.
“That works out! I can only make top-grade anyway!”
“Hmm. How peculiar.”
“Ah, yes~ I know. I’m peculiar. And, uh, it’s a little uncomfortable, so how about you put on some clothes? I can see everything.”
The Supreme Dragon laughed and crossed his legs the other way.
“Ah! You! Seriously! That’s filthy!”
Laughing heartily, he curled a finger.
The mana around him was seized and solidified as it was.
It then fell over the Supreme Dragon, covering his entire body.
The naturally hardened mana flowed down and transformed into a blue gown.
“You have yet to make even a handful of potion. Can you truly obtain a contract like this?”
For some reason, that expression of the Supreme Dragon, as though he was enjoying himself to death, irritated Sinhyeok immensely.
‘Why am I thinking of that bastard I Gangyeol?’
Remembering that man training him with that infuriating expression made his temper rise.
“Ugh, damn it. I’ll do it, then.”
He quietly put his hand into the water and stirred it around.
‘My hands are all-purpose, sure, but.’
He plucked a red mana herb right beside him and tossed it into the lake. Then he rubbed it in the water.
“Come out, come out, come out.”
The Supreme Dragon turned over and lay watching Sinhyeok’s bizarre act, laughing.
“Kup, kkh-heup.”
Ignoring the laughter coming from far away, Sinhyeok kept rubbing.
For a moment, the lake water turned red, but it soon dispersed.
“Damn it.”
“Is that perhaps a new recipe that came out while I was hibernating?”
At the Supreme Dragon’s teasing, Sinhyeok glared daggers at him.
“Ah, yes, it’s a new kind of recipe.”
“Kkh-heup, kkheup.”
That strange laughter truly grated on his nerves.
Sinhyeok sat on the shore for a moment and thought.
‘Do I have to scoop up the lake water bit by bit, make it separately, store it, and then pour it all in at once?’
But for that, he had neither a container to hold it nor a tool to scoop up the lake.
‘That won’t work.’
There was only one way.
“I’ll rip them all out and rub them in the lake.”
The Supreme Dragon raised his hand to ask a question about this novel method of potion-making.
“Human over there, are you not going to heat the mana herbs to extract their essence, mix it with water at the proper ratio, and go through the processes of condensation and transmutation?”
Sinhyeok gave a small laugh and held out both palms.
“These are all-purpose hands. With these palms, I can make any potion.”
“Kkh-heup, hmm? Is that so?”
At that strange, nerve-grating laughter and sarcasm, Sinhyeok held in his anger.
“Ah~ yes, that’s so. Just watch.”
The Supreme Dragon chuckled and added,
“Are you claiming, by any chance, to be the ‘First Alchemist’?”
“Yes, what? Something like that?”
Seeing that he seemed not to understand the meaning at all, the Supreme Dragon waved his hand.
“No, never mind. I see I cannot have a conversation with an ignorant human.”
At the Supreme Dragon’s words, deliberately mocking him even more blatantly, stress welled up in Sinhyeok.
“Ah, I know. An alchemist! That’s it!”
“Khh-heup, yes, though it is a little different. Similar, perhaps. You could say they were the source. Alchemy is nothing more than lowly creatures imitating their authority.”
At those words, Sinhyeok briefly lifted his head and stared at the Supreme Dragon.
“I am curious whether you truly are the same as that.”
Sinhyeok answered confidently.
“You’ll know when you see it.”
“Very well. I shall watch closely. Go on, try it.”
Sinhyeok sprang to his feet, took off his upper garment, and began plucking red mana herbs.
Snap, snap.
He plucked them with the heart of a farmer carefully harvesting his crop.
Feeling as if he had been plucking them for quite a while, he looked back, only to find the amount was modest.
“Haa, uh, Supreme Dragon sir. A little help should be possible, shouldn’t it?”
The Supreme Dragon answered with his arm pillowing his head.
“Well, doing it for nothing would be boring.”
“Then should I perform a trick or something? How about an impersonation? I’m good at those.”
He turned only his head to look at Sinhyeok and asked,
“I will ask a question, so answer it.”
“Ah, yes, ask me anything.”
‘Since what he knows is limited anyway.’
“When you meet I Gangyeol, that human, again, will you kill him?”
Flinch.
He had been about to give an obvious answer, but the Supreme Dragon’s question gouged at his heart, and his thoughts stopped.
“Why are you asking that?”
“Simple curiosity. Among those who recklessly wrote their names in my scribble pad, he is the one I am most curious about. I read that letter well, too.”
Sinhyeok was annoyed by the contents of the letter that every dog and cow seemed to have read.
“Is there no such thing as privacy here?”
“If it was that important, you should have put it in a safe. Not left it in my scribble pad as you pleased.”
Sinhyeok was dumbfounded by the fact that the stele had become his personal scribble pad.
“I will… kill him.”
“Even though he has no sin?”
Flinch.
The Supreme Dragon merely watched Sinhyeok’s reaction, then gave a small laugh.
“Good. I shall take that as your answer.”
When he raised a finger, all the red mana herbs were pulled from the ground.
They floated up and stopped just above the lake.
“Now then, the second question remains. How shall I help you?”
Sinhyeok checked the blue mana herbs thickly lining the bottom of the lake.
Then he sighed and nodded.
“Then, the second question.”
With mysterious eyes, he pierced through Sinhyeok’s mind as he spoke.
“Will you save the world, or abandon it?”
Flinch.
Once again, his thoughts stopped.
“Do you want to save the world, or do you wish it would vanish as it is?”
Sinhyeok let out deep sighs and said,
“Just because some nobody like me sits still doesn’t mean the world will end.”
“Hmm, I am merely asking.”
The answer did not come easily.
“I don’t want to save it, and I don’t want to… abandon it either.”
“I suppose not.”
The Supreme Dragon’s interjection, as though he somehow knew, was strangely irritating.
“Are you reading other people’s memories or something?!”
“What am I supposed to do about what I can see? Besides, who told you to enter my world as you pleased?”
His mouth shut at once.
Immediately, the blue mana herbs at the bottom of the lake were torn up in great quantities and floated upward.
Above the lake’s surface gathered the red mana herbs, and just below the surface gathered the blue mana herbs.
“I have heard your answer well.”
“Aren’t you going to offer some meaningful advice? You seemed exactly like someone building up to deliver a famous saying.”
The Supreme Dragon laughed and said,
“Why would I bother interfering in the fate of a single humble, tiny mortal? You will roll this way and that on your own.”
“That’s really annoying.”
The answer of an absolute being who transcended the world was truly irritating.
“Still, say something. I’d like to at least hear the advice of an elderly gentleman of advanced age.”
At that shameless human’s reply, the Supreme Dragon ended up laughing instead.
“Kkhahahaha, you want to at least hear an elder’s advice? Haha, what an amusing fellow.”
He raised himself and gazed at Sinhyeok.
“You already know. You are merely wandering. Rage surges within you, but there is no way to release it. You merely hurl it at whoever is placed before your eyes.”
His words dug into Sinhyeok.
“And yet, if you try to stop it, that rage gnaws away at you, so you cannot endure it.”
“Haa, seriously, what am I supposed to do!”
He smiled meaningfully and said,
“You will soon come to know. The direction you do not want will appear before you. And within it, you will walk again.”
‘The path of the noble hero and savior.’
Then the Supreme Dragon lay back down in the pavilion.
“So, what will you do with those?”
“Grind them all up and pour them into the lake, please. I’ll mix them around.”
“Kkh-heuheup, very well.”
When he curled his fingers slightly, all the mana herbs were crushed.
Plop.
They dropped into the lake just like that. The mana herbs spread freely through the lake.
“The sun is slowly setting.”
The Supreme Dragon smiled and tested Sinhyeok.
“How will it be possible?”
Sinhyeok showed his confidence.
“Of course.”