Various screens illuminated by crystals and flames. And a space filled with various magical tools and flasks.
“Bring more magic stones here.”
“Hasn’t the leg part been finished yet?”
Numerous dragonkin were busy moving around. Interestingly, they were all wearing white gowns or robes.
“You still haven’t finished that one thing!”
“You useless bunch. Can we even call you the researchers of the Third Dragon Emperor!”
“Until tomorrow. If it gets any later, I’ll throw all of you into the soul furnace!”
From half-Draconian hybrids to Lamias with their half-human, half-snake forms.
Even among the dragonkin, those with exceptional intelligence or magical abilities raised their voices, handling unknown magical devices, documents, and test tubes.
And watching over them was a green-haired woman.
“Hmm…”
A beautiful woman full of vitality tapped her white chin.
One unique point was that
“You’re progressing too slowly. At this rate, I won’t have anything to report to Aphophis-nim.”
The tip of her white chin and the hand tapping it were covered in reptilian scales. Her green hair, scale-like eyes, turned to the side.
“Hmm?”
Soon, in one corner of the busy laboratory, the green-eyed beauty looked at the screens showing black smelting furnaces.
“Why have all the monitoring units on the transport route stopped working?”
She stared at several screens where nothing appeared on the black displays for a while, then raised her hand loosely.
Then, “You called for me, Deputy Manager-nim.”
A huge figure covered in green scales. The only physical dragon among this research-intensive place that didn’t fit in. A Drak approached and bowed. The green-eyed lady snorted in response.
“Call me Sartini. Only those below mid-rank are not allowed to use my name. As a superior, you have the right to use it.”
“It’s my honor, Sartini-nim.”
“Hmph. You’re still being overly respectful.”
Sartini spoke sharply, but Drunk’s response seemed to please her.
“Even though you’re superior, you’re a dragon with the traits of the Green Clan.”
Her gaze and tone softened.
“Perhaps you’ll even be recruited into the Squama Circle.”
“It’s quite unexpected. How dare I…”
“Even that useless Drahel is a member of the Squama Circle. What’s wrong with you?”
“Aren’t you the outstanding one among the Draks?”
“Hmph. Among the Draks, there are so few Dragonics, so he was chosen to prevent discrimination. Are there dragonkins who don’t know that?”
“S-Sartini-nim!”
“Tsk. Large as a mountain yet so cautious… well.”
Sartini’s eyes and the corners of her mouth curved softly as she rested her chin on her hand.
“You’re so delicate, you must have manifested the traits of our Green Clan. How about it?”
She turned fully toward the green Drak.
Then, folding her arms across her chest,
“Even now, why not try mating with this body?”
She looked over the Drak with a suggestive gaze.
“You and I could produce an excellent Green Clan offspring.”
“S-Sartini-nim!”
A blush spread over the Drak’s face. The green Drak quickly averted his gaze from Sartini. Sartini’s lips pouted slightly.
“Honestly. For a Drak, you’re too timid about physical matters.”
“Sartini-nim. Please, maintain the dignity of a Draconian…”
“Enough of that. Spare me the boring talk.”
Sartini sighed deeply and sharply turned her head.
“Speaking of which, has that fool Drahel still not arrived?”
“No, we haven’t been able to contact him. I’m worried something might have happened…”
“I hope so.”
Sartini’s eyes turned cold as she answered.
“Just a mere member of the Squama Circle, trying to rival Sargas-nim every time was always irritating.”
Softly, like lush green foliage growing, her alabaster hand quickly became covered in green scales.
“If he can’t even manage trivial tasks like transporting supplies, it will be an excellent reason for punishment, wouldn’t it?”
Preferably a death sentence. Sartini, murmuring to herself, clenched her now completely transformed green hand tightly.
As if she were snapping someone’s thick neck. At that moment.
Snap.
The abrupt movement of Sartini’s hand, clenched in a fierce gesture, came to a halt. And the ferocity was captured perfectly.
“Who’s there?”
She swung her hand backward.
Swish!
A viscous liquid spurted from her transformed green hand, a deadly venom that flew through the air in an instant and grazed something small.
Sizzle.
It melted deep into one side of the wall.
Although it was Sartini who initiated the attack,
her face stiffened slightly.
The reason was simple.
‘To not even flinch at my attack…’
A venom so deadly that it could melt the walls of the Black Forge, a dangerous attack that could kill even high-ranked dragons with just a touch.
Yet, the intruder made no move at all.
As if…
‘Did they know that they wouldn’t be affected by my venom?’
It was as if they had known from the beginning that they were not susceptible to her venom.
Soon, Sartini’s head tilted slightly.
‘No. It’s impossible to shrug off a direct hit.’
It meant…
‘They didn’t dodge my attack after seeing its trajectory.
‘
If this thought was correct, it was even more concerning. The opponent was not simply relying on psychology or magic to stay still.
‘Did they dare to predict my attack?’
Sartini’s head, which had been staring at the small entity, lowered slightly again.
‘No. It can’t be.’
It wasn’t due to mere pride.
“Kid, who are you?”
Could such a small child possibly predict a Draconian’s movements?
Fortunately.
“Me? I’m Shiyeon!”
Her expectations were not completely off-target.
The little child answered with such innocence that it was hard to imagine she had just been under attack.
‘As I thought… it was just luck.’
Sartini let out a relieved sigh.
“Shiyeon? That’s a name I’ve never heard before.”
As she repeated the child’s name, her gaze naturally shifted to the side.
The green Drak also shook his head.
“I haven’t heard of that name either. Besides, only mature dragonkin get assigned to the Black Forge.”
“I know that too. But how did a kid like that get here…”
Sartini abruptly stopped mid-sentence.
Slowly blinking,
“Wow! It’s a really big bang-bang!”
she looked at the black-haired child, whose tiny hands were clenched tightly while shouting.
‘Come to think of it… I didn’t notice the child’s approach at all?’
A top-rank dragonkin, a Draconian.
Moreover, Sartini, who possesses the traits of the Green Clan.
Yet she hadn’t noticed the approach of this small child at all.
She had just made a threatening attack due to the sudden presence.
As she reached this realization,
“Kid, are you really… a dragonkin?”
Finally, she took in the child’s appearance.
‘No matter how I look at it, this is a human.’
No scales, no elongated pupils,
none of the distinctive features of a dragonkin were there.
But,
‘Why does this child have such extraordinary Dragon Force?’
She had felt the Dragon Force from the child since their first encounter.
And it was an incredibly refined and perfectly controlled Dragon Force.
In such cases, there are two possibilities,
‘It can’t possibly be a polymorphed dragon, right?’
“But the child is too young for it to be a Polymorph…”
Either a dragon with a peculiar personality enjoying a strange game or,
“Could it be an evolved species?”
An evolved species that has surpassed their racial limits and can transform into another species.
“But discussing an evolved species seems off given the child’s mental age…”
Both examples didn’t quite make sense to her.
At that moment, “Wow!”
“Huh!”
Sartini swiftly retreated, raising her guard in response to the sudden exclamation. Her startled gaze fell upon the scene.
“It’s not just one, it’s all thud-thud! They’re making thudding sounds?”
Hanging onto the second-floor railing, she looked down at the laboratory.
And then, “I… am not sure where you came from, noble dragon, but this place is off-limits to unauthorized individuals…”
The green Drak hurriedly reached out a restraining hand. Just as his hand was about to grab Shiyeon’s body, “Move.”
A voice that was hard to believe belonged to the cheerful child a moment ago flowed out. Even more astonishingly, the green Drak, who had been approaching, literally staggered in his tracks.
But that wasn’t all.
“What in the world!”
Even Sartini, a Draconian with the traits of the Green Clan,
found herself involuntarily taking a half-step back, her stance awkward.
However, the shock was short-lived.
“You little…!”
Crack.
As the Drak, now twice his size, loomed larger, Sartini, with her transformation into a Draconian, also inadvertently took a step back, adopting a defensive stance.
But then, “You stop right there.”
With a thud, the Draconian frozen in response to Shiyeon’s words.
After a moment,
“You, who on earth…!”
Quickly, Sartini loosened up from her stiffness. However, her face was trembling in shock.
“Umm… I guess I can’t be like my dad. Heh, appa is indeed something!”
Shiyeon looked at Sartini with a bright smile.
By then, Shiyeon’s eyes had—
“Still… it won’t be a problem to play.”
become long and sharply slit like those characteristic of dragonkin.
* * *
Clang. The heavy shackles fell to the ground.
“Ah!! Dayna-nim!”
“We thought you were alive!”
“You came to rescue us!!”
The cheers and gasps of the dark elves who wore the shackles followed. However, it was short-lived. The brief moment of rest and relief faded in an instant.
“Uh…”
“But who is this person?”
Eyes filled with both fear and curiosity turned towards the liberator of the shackles. It was not an exaggeration.
Saaah. An eerie grey aura that seemed to repel anyone with life force. The translucent being emitting that aura was a race that had been persecuting them, the dragonkin’s scales sporadically adorning its body.
Moreover, “If there’s such a strong demonic aura, it must be…”
“Dayna-nim, isn’t it?”
Isn’t there a being that reminds one of both the aura of death and the dragonkin?
Dayna also knew this well, “No, the person you’re thinking of is definitely not him.”
Shaking her head quickly, Dayna refuted the dark elves’ thoughts.
“Committing such sacrilege has greatly weakened your vitality.”
On Dayna’s bitter face, the dark elves looked at Shimun again with scrutiny, their eyes now widened in alarm.
“Now do you understand? Do you dare comprehend what sacrilege you have committed?”
Dayna sternly scolded the dark elves.
“You may know your situation, but equating that wretched creature with him is unforgivable.”
“O-Of course!”
“Noble one! We apologize!”
“Please forgive us, noble one!”
It must have been difficult for them to stand. The dark elves with feeble and deteriorated bodies bent down to the ground, bowing to Shimun,
『The Philosopher’s Stone applies the refund effect.』
『Depending on the grade and level of the Philosopher’s Stone, 100 achievement points are returned.』
Taking off the scattered pieces of Kynee from the refund,
“Don’t overdo it when your body is not in good condition.”
Shimun quickly clapped his hands.
“It was not intentional, and the situation was easily misunderstood. Please get up right away.”
Although it’s uncertain who they mistook Shimun for, she helped the dark elves stand up. Their physical condition wasn’t good, but.
‘This is no small burden.’
The sight of thousands of dark elves bowing their heads was indeed daunting. To lighten the awkward atmosphere, Kim Shimun changed the subject.
“Alright, Dayna. Since all the shackles are off, let’s search for an escape route.”
He steered the conversation in a different direction. Fortunately, it seemed Dayna understood his intentions.
“I appreciate your broad-mindedness.”
She nodded towards the dark elves bowing in unison.
“This is the transport route. It’s a passage used to transport various materials to the Black Forge.”
Kim Shimun nodded in response to Dayna’s words.
“So, in other words, this transport route connects to various locations of the Black Forge. Naturally, there should also be an exit.”
“That’s right. There’s a path I used to escape before. Let’s head there first.”
Upon hearing Dayna’s reply, Kim Shimun briefly scanned the dark elves preparing themselves.
‘The primary goal of this arena is to rescue Dayna’s fellow dark elves.’
It was a hidden quest that even involved using entry items. Therefore, rescuing the dark elves should be the top priority. Now that the escape method was presented, if they were to take the dark elves away, the special arena and hidden quest would be cleared.
However, ‘If we leave like this, we won’t be able to clear the mission given by the Constellations of Death.’
Although the morale stats were not very useful, missing out on the conditional rewards that increased with performance wasn’t ideal.
Thus, to also fulfill the Constellations’ mission, ‘We have to send all the dark elves into hiding and infiltrate again.’ Since Kynee was superior to Dayna’s stealth, Dayna could take charge of protecting the dark elves with the golems.
“Alright. Dayna, let’s move…” Just as Kim Shimun finished his thoughts and was about to move, a menacing voice echoed down the transport route, leaving everyone taken aback.
“You’ve become bold in my absence. Dayna, dreaming of escaping once again from the place you escaped before.”
Like a tiger’s roar, the threatening voice settled upon the transport route. Did anyone recognize the owner of the voice?
“T-This voice!”
Dayna’s face turned pale as a sheet. There was no time to admire her expression that was completely out of place. With a stern expression, Kim Shimun glanced up at where the threatening voice came from.
“Or perhaps you have underestimated me? Thinking I would allow the same mistake twice.”
At the top of the transport route, the dwarf-like figure seated there rose to his feet.
“Before that…”
He grimaced. A strong vibration spread throughout the transport route, and the figure landed not far from Kim Shimun.
“I’ll ask. Human. Just who are you? How did a human come all the way here?”
With a patch covering his left eye, a reptilian face exuded an air of mystery. Simultaneously…
『Due to special circumstances, all dialogue and certain contents being broadcasted will be censored.』
– Damn! What is this nonsense?!
– Not again, even while watching?
– How many times does censorship pop up during an arena match, lol?!
– They should at least compensate the viewers by now!! The chat window of Kim Shimun was bombarded with criticism.
『The five Constellations watching over you express intense displeasure and curses.』
『The Constellations of Death watching over you spit out fury.』
The constellations who were observing Kim Shimun also reacted intensely.
And the main culprit of this entire situation,
“Silence? Ha… this Sargas has suffered many humiliations today.”
The 5-meter giant, who called himself Sargas, hesitated for a moment.
“Ah, I see. So that’s how it is.”
He muttered to himself,
“It was you. The one who twisted the fate lines of the Dwarves.”
Glaring at Kim Shimun with his single gleaming eye.
TL’s Corner:
The undefeated Sargas appears.