Horus, a blond little kid who looked about seven or eight years old, scratched the back of his head a few times.
‘So, the Last Gold Dragon.’
It was something he already knew, but having the system officially certify it made him feel rather strange.
Especially since he had once wondered if there might be other members of the clan that Syurihateugen had missed, somewhere out there.
‘To think they’d count something like this as an achievement.’
Horus’s small, round head tilted slightly to the side.
Despite all the major events that had happened, there had been complete silence until now—who would have thought he’d finally be recognized for an achievement simply for becoming the last survivor of a fallen dragon clan?
Whether that meant the dragon race was simply that extraordinary, or whether the keyword “last survivor” was what had mattered, he couldn’t tell.
‘Should I count myself fortunate that it’s the Last Gold Dragon and not the Last Dragon?’
Well, he had already heard as much from Syurihateugen, so it wasn’t news.
Unlike the Gold Clan, which had been driven to complete extinction, the other clans were said to be barely maintaining their bloodlines.
‘I’d like to meet them someday.’
Of course, now was not the time.
He could afford to try contacting them after he had first sorted out everything he currently had on his plate.
Even if they were compatriots in similarly dire straits, they belonged to different factions; he couldn’t simply take them lightly!
‘Right. Not when I have him to think of, too. Anyway, shall I go over what I obtained earlier?’
Horus opened his eyes slightly, and his gaze turned toward the list of messages that had appeared earlier.
There were three major things he needed to check this time.
‘Privilege [Dragon Lair]. Literally, the ability to create a dragon’s nest. The special thing about it is… that the location is not in the material world, but in a subspace domain, right?’
In other words—this special nest’s location was not limited to a specific region, and in case of emergency, it meant an excellent hideout where he could take shelter anytime, anywhere.
It was certainly a magnificent privilege, more than sufficient as a reward for an achievement.
‘Then, next.’
Having nodded in satisfaction, his attention naturally turned toward the [Heart of the Elder Dragon].
A gift Syurihateugen had processed from his own flesh and blood to give to Horus, the hatchling who would be left alone in this world, just before he passed away.
An Elder Dragon had personally imbued it with his rank and forged it with his very life—there was nothing that could be more highly anticipated.
‘As expected, it’s monstrous.’
Horus slowly closed his eyes and clicked his tongue at the enormous density of energy writhing in one side of his chest.
He had watched with his own eyes as a considerable amount dispersed during the processing, yet what remained inside was overwhelmingly enough to easily surpass the total amount of mana he had possessed as a hatchling.
Though he couldn’t wield it freely just yet, that wasn’t what truly mattered right now.
The rise in potential, accelerated growth, and everything else that came from harboring this were merely side effects derived from the main effect.
‘…Yes, let’s begin now. Using this properly…’
Horus closed his eyes and immersed himself even deeper into the mass of energy lodged in his chest.
Thump—! Boom—!
As his concentration continued, fierce pulsations and repelling force surged through him.
After it repeated several times, he could endure no more and used [Polymorph] to revert to his original dragon form.
He could no longer withstand the pressure in the form of a human child.
“Kraargh—!”
A small dragon, no bigger than a calf, revealed itself and roared valiantly.
In its wake, a small storm raged, and the surrounding aura began to shake once more.
The momentum and power emanating from him approached that of an adult dragon, yet physical growth required physical time, so there was an unavoidable limit to his size.
Still, compared to the past when he had been merely the size of a large dog, having grown to about the size of a sturdy calf now could be considered considerable growth, but…
Of course, he was far from satisfied with that.
‘The [Heart of the Elder Dragon] is no simple Dragon Heart.’
It was everything of Syurihateugen, who had lived a tumultuous dragon life and departed; it was proof of the rank he had built up over time,
and it was little different from a black box containing all the physical information he had left behind—his muscles, bones, scales, and more.
And if he made use of that very point…
Paaah—
Light burst from Horus’s entire body as he spread his wings wide and raised his head.
Just like with Syurihateugen moments ago.
However, the reaction that followed was distinctly different from back then.
Unlike him, who had gradually shrunk while wrapped in light, Horus’s body was instead growing bit by bit.
Five meters… ten meters… fifteen meters…
Arms, legs, wings, horns, and so on.
All his body parts began to expand and grow rapidly.
And finally.
[Kwooooooo—!]
Flap—
—Flap—!
A single Gold Dragon appeared in the hollow that had been left empty after its master’s disappearance, spewing out a rough roar and flapping its wings.
***[Hick, heh—is this as far as it goes…?]
A golden creature lay sprawled on the floor, panting roughly with its tongue lolling out.
As if it had never displayed such fierce majesty, his insignificant form rolling around on the floor had returned to the size of a mere calf.
‘As expected, it’s not as easy as I thought.’
Unfortunately, there was a limit to the rapid growth achieved through the [Heart of the Elder Dragon].
About ten minutes.
That was how long Horus had maintained his transformed state on his first attempt.
Moreover, the strength he had actually been able to wield fell far short of what he had theoretically expected.
‘I didn’t even hope to reach Elder rank, but I thought I could at least manage a stage just below it!’
But that was nothing more than a pipe dream.
The realm he had been able to reach in his rapid growth state was limited to about mid-level among adult dragons.
Considering his normal mode fell just slightly short of an adult dragon, it couldn’t really be called a dramatic power boost.
‘Still, it’s better than nothing. Above all, the difference in physical abilities is overwhelming.’
Horus, who had been rolling on the floor, groaned and twisted his body.
The reason he was groaning so much now was, in fact, due to the gap caused by the difference in physical abilities.
No matter how much his combat power had been inflated by various corrections, a hatchling was still a hatchling.
Naturally, there was bound to be an extreme difference from the body of an adult dragon.
A hatchling, a dragon in its infancy, had softer scales, muscles, blood vessels, and magical circuits than an adult dragon.
A single attack from a strong opponent could inflict a fatal wound, and a single mistake could cause his own magic to backfire and injure him.
In other words, he was essentially a glass cannon without the stability to back him up.
Compared to an adult dragon that could endure ordinary attacks with its bare body and pour out magic without much burden thanks to its resilient circuits, the difference in actual combat power was even greater.
Srrk—
The hatchling, which had been rolling on the floor, smoothly returned to the form of a human child.
After wriggling on the floor for a moment, he twisted his whole body and rose to his feet.
“Kuh… cha.”
Despite having maintained it for a mere ten minutes or so, he looked far more haggard than before.
It wouldn’t matter to rest in dragon form, but since his main body was human, it was much more comfortable to rest like this.
‘Skills vary in power depending on proficiency, so it’s too early to be disappointed.’
If he continued to practice and research steadily, both the duration and the enhancement efficiency would increase.
Then the size when transformed would also grow larger than before.
‘As expected, even if I’m the irregular Horus, bigger is better when it comes to size.’
He had experienced it firsthand once again, but for dragons, for whom the formula “size = age = strength” held true, body size was an extremely important factor.
And above all, wasn’t it more impactful and cooler when someone with a massive body appeared!
“Haa, come to think of it, I need to check that too.”
Horus wiped the sweat from his forehead at the thought that suddenly occurred to him and muttered softly.
Checking the [Heart of the Elder Dragon] had taken longer than expected, but there was still one more thing left to confirm.
[Golden Treasury].
It was the secret vault of the Gold Dragon clan, passed down through the generations over a very long time.
‘Of course, I heard they expended most of the accumulated treasures fighting off two invasions by the Undead King.’
They say even a ruined rich man lasts three years, don’t they?
No one yet knew what mysteries might lie dormant in the storehouse of a super-prestigious household that had been passed down for tens of thousands of years.
‘Shall I go there now?’
With that in mind, Horus moved to one side of the hollow.
“Jya, open. [Golden Treasury].”
And the moment his words ended—
a huge metal gate made of gold appeared, as if rending through the air.
Squeeaak—
Slowly, and then wide open, as if welcoming a new master—
***The stronghold of evil, shrouded in darkness all year round—the Castle of the Undead.
“Aah— hm— aah—!”
An unfamiliar voice echoed from one of the laboratories there.
The voice, which had been clearing its throat a few times as if testing unfamiliar notes, soon let out a low laugh, seemingly satisfied with the result.
“Kekekek— This should do.”
He let out a laugh that seemed to suppress an inner darkness, pressed his throat a few times, and then turned his gaze to a mirror on one wall.
A middle-aged man with a cold impression stared this way with black hair, black eyes, and a short-trimmed black beard.
Just as he stared intently at his reflection for a moment and curled the corner of his lips into a smirk—
Squirm, squirm.
His mouth moved to his right cheek. His nose went below his chin, his right eye to his forehead, and his left eye spun 180 degrees before returning to its place.
His face began to move as if it were a separate creature, and his neatly arranged features twisted in an instant.
“…….”
Yet despite the chaos on his face, the middle-aged man simply stood still and stared into the mirror.
“…Tch, it still needs more adjustments.”
He muttered lowly, his mouth now turned toward the back of his neck.
Splaat—!
He raised one hand and ripped off his own face.
At that decisive motion, the facial area including the eyes, the scalp with hair, and even the part with the Adam’s apple cleanly detached.
What remained was nothing but a skull.
Squirm— Squirm—
“A… u… uh…”
Even in that situation, the face—no, the chimera in the shape of a face—moved as if it were a separate living creature, blinking its eyes repeatedly and letting out bizarre sounds through its mouth hole.
[I thought it would work properly this time. What a bother.]
The Undead King Hans, a skull blazing with light in its eye sockets, stared silently at the specimen in his hand and shook his head.
He then tossed it into a metal barrel in the corner as if annoyed, and began leafing through the research materials he had organized.
‘…Still, at this point, I should say it’s almost done. It’ll be finished within a few days.’
He was currently making preparations before going to Ganghwangye.
To hide his identity as an undead and disguise himself as a perfect human.
Just as Hugo had felt from the Unhyeon Jin-in of the Wudang Sect not long ago, the qi perception of Murim experts surpassed imagination.
No matter how well-crafted a mask might be, it would be of little use to them.
No, before that, Hans was not even among the living—to them, he would be nothing more than a jiangshi with self-awareness, neither more nor less.
‘Just charging in as I am and overwhelming them is one option, but I should at least make an effort first.’
For smooth operation execution, it was important to minimize any sense of incongruity and blend in.
He would already stand out due to his energy and abilities, but if he was not even human but a jiangshi, there would be no way to explain it away.
So what he had come up with was implanting a chimera—a “real living creature” meticulously crafted to deceive the eyes of Murim experts—into his own body.
A chimera that reacted to external stimuli and perfectly performed metabolism such as respiration and digestion, just like a human.
[I should mix E-3 and G-2N. To reduce variables and enhance reactivity…]
Creating a creature that could parasitize the body of the Undead King, who was death itself, while enduring; possessed assimilative power that moved exactly according to his will; and had the vitality to perfectly perform human metabolism was naturally difficult.
Moreover, since non-Awakened beings could not cross dimensions, he had to move the prepared materials in an inorganic state and finish the work on-site, did he not?
No matter how low-level and unconscious the target chimera was, creating a living creature was by no means easy.
But had his steady efforts borne fruit?
Just one day later.
“Keheheh— Good.”
A middle-aged man with a cold impression, black hair, and black eyes smiled gloomily, curling the corners of his mouth upward.
A smile so natural it sent chills down one’s spine.
< Legacy (2) > End