◈ Chapter 243. Like a Dragon (5)
Antique spectacles perched on the bridge of his nose.
His back held reverently straight.
In his hand was an ornate fountain pen.
Scratch, scratch—Skal, who had been writing something for quite some time, opened his mouth.
“No……”
Then came a scream loud enough to fill the Rothschild manor.
“This isn’t it!!”
What was he writing?
No one who saw it would ask.
At this moment, the players were all writing for a single purpose.
The only path by which they could enter the Arcana Continent. To receive Hoyeol’s permission to use the access device.
That declaration had been announced at the Magic Tower’s Round Table Conference, but its targets were not limited to the mages of the Magic Tower. What mattered was a justifiable purpose, not one’s affiliation.
Thanks to that, not only players,
but even the Arcanians,
were all suffering through an untimely ordeal of creation.
After briefly tearing at his hair,
Skal gripped the fountain pen properly once more.
Even at this very moment.
“……
Endure it, Skara.”
His competitors would not have stopped their hands.
But Skal could say with certainty.
There was no one with a purpose more desperate than his own.──────To Sir Hoyeol, who is worthy of respect, affection, and worship.──────It was a greeting that would make the person concerned faint if he read it.
With a grave expression, Skal placed a period at the end.
Then he moved his gaze to the quest window.[Class Quest: Muster of All Dragons (全龍召集)]
The old dragon cried out.
That the “Great Family” had returned to the Arcana Continent.
All dragons wish to determine the truth of this event.─Witness the dragons gathering upon the continent. (Failed)─Encounter the dying old dragon. (In Progress)
A dragon, of all things, was dying……!
Of course, the old dragon could hardly be the only dragon in Arcana.
But Skal had some sense about him too.
In other words, the story of the class quest had taken shape in his mind.‘I save the old dragon in danger, our affinity rises thanks to that, and for the first time, I get to ride a dragon……! Just looking at it, that’s obviously the way this quest is supposed to unfold……!’Of course, he had no idea how to revive a dying dragon.
However, for now, his goal was simply to encounter the old dragon.
If he could enter the Arcana Continent through the access device,
then there would be tremendous progress in his class quest.
He would be one step closer to becoming a Dragon Knight.
“There truly won’t be a player more desperate than me, Sir Hoyeol……!”
He was not wrong.
At that same hour, there was one man writing an application for permission to use the access device with a fervor even more fanatical than Skal’s. But he was a senior mage of the Magic Tower, not a player.
The agony did not end easily.
This wasn’t it.
This wasn’t it either.
This too……!
Only after tearing apart several more sheets of parchment did Skal change his mind.
“A purpose dressed up to sound plausible……”
If it was Sir Hoyeol, he would see through all of it anyway.
It might be better, he thought, to lay his purpose bare.
After all, had Sir Hoyeol not known something about the old dragon as well?‘He even knew the name Yunaxus.’Perhaps I
might become necessary for Sir Hoyeol’s course of action.
With swelling expectations, Skal carefully moved his fountain pen.
It was then.
“……?”
His vision flickered.
Skal flinched.
He had only been writing with his fountain pen, so it could not be a notification that his experience or level had risen. There was no way a skill’s proficiency had increased either. There was only one thing that could possibly flash like this: a quest.
Goosebumps rose along his spine.
“……
N-no way?!”
Had the dying old dragon died?
In an instant, dark clouds settled over Skal’s face.
Skal forced himself to calm down and checked the quest.
Then he let out a single exclamation.
“……
Huh?”─Encounter the dying old dragon. (Failed)
It had failed, for now.
But if one were to ask why he had uttered a question rather than a scream,
it was because he realized it from the message that appeared next.
That it had not failed because the old dragon had died.[World Quest: The Old Dragon’s Final Flight]
The dying old dragon has made his decision.
He will burn away his end for the sake of his kin’s future.
The old dragon’s rebuke shall make the continent tremble.─Witness the old dragon’s end. (In Progress)
“Wh-what is this!”
He could not help but be flustered.
Had it not been a dying old dragon just moments ago?
In the time I was scratching away with my fountain pen,
what on earth happened……?
“For the sake of his kin’s future? The continent will tremble at his rebuke……?”
A new quest had appeared!
Wondering if perhaps someone knew something,
Skal accessed the community.
“Nothing.”
But there was no difference.
Everyone was tossing around topics about the access device and Sir Hoyeol’s greatness.
No matter how hard he looked, he could not find a single story about the old dragon.‘……
It’s a quest that appeared only to me.’Dragon Knight.
Because he possessed a hidden class related to dragons.
Though he did not understand the reason,
and though he was in reality, a completely different world,
there was no doubt that the world quest had appeared.
In that sense, Skal burned with even greater motivation.
“This isn’t the time to be discouraged.”
If he had failed the class quest,
then all he had to do was succeed at the new world quest.
Skal’s eyes flew wide open as he continued writing his application for permission to use the access device.
Sometimes ignorance was bliss…….*
My apologies, Skal.
Somehow, it ended up like this……!
I checked the message floating before my eyes.[Achievement: King of All Things, Ride Upon a Dragon.]
Mounts.
Ever since the days when Arcana was nothing more than a game,
they had been one of the extremely important elements for players.
The Arcana Continent was vast.
In cities where portals were always active, mounts were unnecessary, but once one left a city, mounts such as carriages and horses became essential.
If you tried to run long distances, neither your time nor your stamina would survive.‘Back in my day, carriage fees were no joke either.’That was also why knight classes had been popular among players without capital. Once you changed your class to a knight and joined any knight order, you could acquire an expensive horse for free.
Of course, it was such an obvious thing it hardly needed to be said.
But Demon Hunters and mounts had absolutely nothing to do with each other.
You could tell just by looking at Akshan’s daily routine, couldn’t you?
They were Demon Hunters who did nothing but physical training day after day.
With two legs made that sturdy, what use was a mount?
No, there was no need for a long explanation. Just looking at the skill window made it obvious.
Only [Natural Enemy], [Exorcism Ritual], and [Silver Mastery].‘There’s no way there’d be a skill related to horseback riding.’So when Yunaxus made the suggestion, I was a little worried.
What if I climbed on for no reason and fell from the horse……
No, fell from the dragon,
and lost my precious one and only life? But it seemed Skal had not been obsessed with mounting a dragon for nothing.[Effect: Proficiency with all mounts rises to the maximum.][Duration: Permanent]
Is this really just the effect of achieving an achievement?!
Even if it was a first-time achievement,
proficiency with all mounts rose to the maximum, and permanently at that. It was an effect so astonishing that my eyes would not merely widen, but nearly pop out.
As expected, however, I showed nothing.
“This kind of view is not bad either.”
I was the same as always.
As though it had nothing to do with the effect of the achievement.
As though I had always been accustomed to mounts.
I was standing upright on Yunaxus’s back.
“I thought I would never fly again.”
Perhaps he was deeply moved by the feeling of gliding once more.
Yunaxus spoke in a voice that sounded slightly overwhelmed.
I am not showing it either, but I feel the same, Yunaxus.‘I didn’t think it would turn out like this either.’According to Skal,
riding a dragon could be considered the ultimate goal of the hidden class, Dragon Knight.
In other words, the scenery one could witness only by completing the Dragon Knight class quest to the very end
was the scenery I was now witnessing from Yunaxus’s back.
In that sense…………
Just how many intermediate steps did I skip?
There was only one reason I could skip them.‘……
Claudi.’Yunaxus’s stubbornness was no ordinary thing.
One need not look far; it was enough to recall “that day,” when heavenly fortune had followed us.
The youngest, Hiel, had tried to stop him.
Yet Yunaxus had merely left behind the words, “Do not worry,”
and had truly intended to see things through to the bitter end.
In that sense.‘Does the halo of Claudi carry more weight than the World Tree’s family tree……?’……
The Claudi family is truly terrifying!
While I was inwardly sighing,
speak of the tiger—no, the dragon—and it appears.
Yunaxus politely asked me.
“May this lowly old dragon ask for the name of Claudi?”
My name.
Well, telling him my name was not difficult.
I answered without hesitation.
“Lee Hoyeol. That is my name.”
If you thought I would answer with that dreadful full name, you were mistaken.
By the way……
He isn’t going to tell me to get off now, saying he mistook me for someone else, is he?‘It’s complicated to explain, but in any case, both are me.’Fortunately,
it was nothing more than needless worry.
Yunaxus continued in a satisfied voice.
“I will not forget this grace, Lee Hoyeol Claudi.”……
Wait. What did you just say?!
What is with that bizarre fusion name, as grotesque as Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo?! I mean Hoyeol of the Lee family, not Lee Hoyeol of the Claudi family……!
In that world.
In the Republic of Korea, the surname comes first and the given name comes after.
So please, don’t call me by a dreadful name like Lee Hoyeol Claudi……!‘But when am I supposed to explain all that……?’If I had my way, I would have liked to kindly explain what a real family register was, rather than the World Tree’s broken mess of a genealogy, even down to ancestral seats and generation syllables.
But there was no time for that.
All of a sudden,
my vision flickered.
It was an appearance message.[Ice Dragon (氷龍), Froznax appears.]
In an instant.
Whooooosh—!
A cold that could not be controlled swept through the dimensional rift, where nothing but darkness had existed. No, it was not merely energy. Frost was truly whirling before my eyes.[Froznax’s cold transforms the area.]
Indeed, he was a dragon, king of all things.
To think he could transform even the dimensional rift as though it were his own parlor.
As the darkness lifted, a world of ice revealed itself.
At the summit of a towering iceberg that had risen at some point,
I saw the ice dragon spreading his wings like a statue carved from ice.[You have entered the Hidden Piece, Ice Dragon’s Snow Mountain.]
A Hidden Piece.
I should have been delighted.
But once again, there was no time to be delighted.
Because Yunaxus immediately roared savagely.
“Froznax!!”
Still, since they had met before and were of the same kin,
I had thought it might be better for Yunaxus to step forward before me.
I hereby withdraw that naive thought in its entirety.
“Do not utter my name, hypocrite, Yunaxus!!”
You lot truly have neither blood nor tears!
Because I was standing on Yunaxus’s back, I could feel it.
The heartbeat growing uncontrollably rough.
The two dragons truly intended to see this to the end.
Shaaaaaak—!
The blowing snow was bitterly cold.
If not for the effect of the elixir I had consumed to open my circle, the Perennial Snow Flower, I would have frozen solid from the cold long ago. I spoke to Hiel, who was trying hard not to show it.
“From here on, withdraw, Hiel.”
“I am ashamed that I cannot be of help, my lord.”
“There is no need to apologize. You have done well.”
A cold that even the unique spirit Hiel could not endure.
To think he could project such a fearsome place by himself.
Indeed, he deserved the grand title of Ice Dragon.
However, perhaps it was thanks to the frigid air.
I was able to look at the situation with a cooled head.
First, I could sense no trace of demons in the dimensional rift.
Because of that, [Natural Enemy]
had not activated.‘I should consider my combat power cut down to a quarter of a quarter.’In that state, I had been properly caught in a domestic quarrel between an old dragon and an ice dragon. No matter who saw it, this was a situation where Lee Hoyeol’s back would be broken in a battle between dragons.
However.
“Rather than chilly, it is supremely refreshing.”
I spoke as calmly as ever.
Was it thanks to Grandfell’s noble pride,
which would not bend under any circumstances?
Of course, pride could not be ignored.
“Is this the end of your welcome, Ice Dragon?”
But do not underestimate me, king of all things.
“Then this time, it is my turn—the Magic Tower’s turn.”
When it came to temperament,
the Magic Tower and its mages were second to none in holding grudges……!
Dragons are a race unaccustomed to defeat and humiliation?
The same goes for the mages of the Magic Tower.
What do you think the Magic Tower did after taking the Dragon-Magic War’s defeat as a lesson? Did they decide dragons were beings that must not be touched and tremble in fear forever?
As if that could be true!
Especially “he,” whom I knew, was extremely fanatical in matters like this.
To such a man, the Ice Dragon?
Perhaps it might have felt like looking into a mirror.
In that sense,
Ice Dragon, he must have understood your weakness better than anyone.
A single magic tome left in the Magic Tower’s library.──────Thirty Ways to Bring Down an Ice Dragon──────The name of its author was Senios of the Perpetual Snow.
I looked at the Ice Dragon,
Froznax, and recited.
“In the Dragon-Magic War you all regarded as mere amusement, the Magic Tower gained a lesson. Because they were incomplete humans, they agonized, struggled, crawled along the ground, and moved forward. And once more, they have arrived before you.”
Then I drew forth the first method to bring down an Ice Dragon.
“?!”
At that moment, a message appeared.[‘Thaw’ occurs on Ice Dragon Froznax.]
“Does it still feel like amusing sport to you?”