[This is the last chapter by the old team. Future chapters are work from the new team. The quality is much better! The s have been edited and rewritten by floating editors from different teams. This includes chapters 1-13 that were previously completed by Asada.]
Episode 43
Jung Si-woo dreamt a scenario where he hovered over the sky like a dragon. Whether he was an oriental dragon with an elongated body or a dragon in a western story that looked like a lizard, he didn’t know. He just knew that he was a dragon. It was only a dream, but everything felt vivid. Jung Si-woo could sense his presence and the world’s mana reacting to him. He was the Absolute Ruler, and the world was merely his subordinate.
[I cannot understand.]
It was his voice.
[I am not burdened. If I survive alone, that will be enough.]
He didn’t even know who he was talking to. He hadn’t heard a response.
[But it’s also true that you can’t stop like this.]
His dragon form stopped moving. It had an intense flow of energy; Jung Si-woo’s energy. It was the same as his mana. The overwhelming energy covered the sky, the ground, and everything his eyes could see. Jung Si-woo was thrilled with the violence that split the world’s will. He infused his own will into the mana emanating from his heart, strengthening it. Now he was one with the world. No, he controlled all of it!
[I can’t go ahead, but I can’t stop, so I’m turning back.]
Mana was quickly scattered around the world. The dragon’s two enormous eyes could see it all, but with Jung Si-woo’s low mana ability, it was impossible to know what effect it had. He only felt the overwhelming mana, unable to bear it because his heart was overwhelmed. This was pure, violent mana, mana that amplified power by simply interacting with the body! All things lost their meaning before the mana. Everything was the same. They just changed their appearance.
[So I…in the end, I will beat all the gods.]
After those words, Jung Si-woo’s consciousness became blurry. He tried hard to hear more of his voice, but it wasn’t possible anymore. Even with only a small fraction of the mana scattered towards the world, its existence was erased. However, the mana remained. Just as he was immersed deep in the water and pulled out to the ground, he was suddenly released from the comfortable sense of floating and came to his senses. When he opened his eyes, he could see the ceiling of his resting place. It wasn’t strange at all.
[All stats have increased by 10]
[Mana has increased by an additional 10]
[Chaos Tail skill has become Lv.2]
[The tail is harder, sharper, and thicker.]
[Living changed to Dragon’s Dignity (Passive)]
[Dragon’s Dignity Lv.3]
[The absolute presence, revealing the power engraved deep in the soul, presses the enemy.]
“…What?!”
Jung Si-woo was stunned as he saw the notifications pop up in front of his eyes and could feel that his body was changing, becoming even stronger. Pristine mana pumped out from his heart and quickly circulated throughout his body. He instinctively sensed it, and with his will, he grabbed the mana string and began to tune it. Although it was too weak to be comparable to the dragon he saw in his dream, his body and mana were synchronized, and he began to resolve the imbalance he felt before.
“That’s why it didn’t seem like a dream!”
“…Si-woo?”
As Jung Si-woo rustled, Soo Ah-rin, who was sleeping by his bedside, rubbed her eyes and woke up.
“Oh my God! What happened…?”
“Well, this is it.”
Soo Ah-rin soon noticed the unusual energy coming from Jung Si-woo. She knew that sleep could lead to skill growth and power recovery, but to grow tremendously overnight was impossible, at least until now.
“Did you leave me to go hunting alone?”
“No, I just woke up from a strange dream…”
Jung Si-woo was baffled, but he soon managed to find clues to explain his situation.
“When did this get out from my inventory?”
“It’s broken…”
Jung Si-woo felt a foreign object under his blanket. When he lifted it, he saw that the Drops of the Heavenly Spirit had been shattered. Could he have taken it out of his inventory while sleeping and crushed it with his body? No way! He quickly looked at the item’s information, but he found it was no longer an artifact. The mana in it had been consumed. Suddenly, Soo Ah-rin lightly clapped her hands as if the mystery had been solved, then spoke.
“That is an artifact that permanently enhances the user’s capabilities. There was definitely something like this among the rewards you get from the dungeon. Something like that.”
“Then I had such a dream because of the drop…?”
“Dream?”
“Oh, no. It was just a strange dream.”
If Jung Si-woo told Soo Ah-rin that he was a dragon who soared over the sky, she wouldn’t understand it. She would probably refuse to believe the overwhelming, ecstatic sense he felt like a dragon, so he decided to push it aside. It was still unknown whether the dreams were unconditionally made when the Drops of the Heavenly Spirit were consumed or if they were tailored to the individual.
However, the dream Jung Si-woo had was too vivid, and the image remained intact in his head. Even if he wanted to know more details, there was no way to because the Drops of the Heavenly Spirit had already been completely broken. Jung Si-woo materialized his tail and brought it in front of his eyes. Rising to level 2, his tail was now visibly longer, thicker, and harder. It was even harder than his sledgehammer.
“It’s a dragon’s tail.”
“Yes! It’s more like a dragon’s tail than a snake’s tail. A dragon is an image that matches you!”
Soo Ah-rin cheered, and Jung Si-woo smiled at the thought. Would he be able to become as powerful as his dream-self someday? He couldn’t tell. But at least for the time being, he wouldn’t be wandering about searching for a goal. At that moment, a goal crystallized in his heart.
“I have slept long enough. I need to configure my body.”
“I’m sorry, Si-Woo, but I have to sleep a little more.”
“Okay.”
Jung Si-woo wiped the fragments of the Drops of Heavenly Spirit from his bed and began training. No, to be precise, he recognized the body was already trained, and the mana that filled his body had already begun to circulate like it had been there since the beginning. The Drops of Heavenly Spirit brought tremendous changes to his body. He thought it would take long to adjust and adapt to the mana, but he was mistaken. His spirit naturally handled his body’s growth and the mana as if it had been there before. In an instant, he had exceeded his previous limit, then, clenching his teeth, Jung Si-woo quickly realized the reason.
“This is all thanks to that dream.”
Jung Si-woo had just undergone an overwhelming growth in both body and mana. Because he had dealt with it indirectly, it became easier for him to control both. He now realized how intense the dream was.
“It was a good choice to get the Drops of Heavenly Spirit!”
If she had known that the item had such power, Marina wouldn’t have withdrawn that easily. But it was too late for her. Jung Si-woo had already absorbed the effect of the Drops of Heavenly Spirit. She would probably have forgotten all about it by now.
“Woohoo!”
The transformation wasn’t to the extreme of the skills completely evolving, but his stats had increased. The experiences and perceptions that Jung Si-woo underwent through the Drops of the Heavenly Spirit were engraved in his body, helping him get more effects each time he grew. Just as how he now had a mutual exchange between mana and body.
[Grant has become Lv.25]
[Strike has become Lv.20]
[Battle Sprint has become Lv.21]
Jung Si-woo had increased his skill levels by simply dealing with mana in all kinds of possible ways within his resting place. Since his basic view of mana had changed, he now handled mana more efficiently and smoothly. It was so natural that the skills’ growth rate has become incomparably faster than before. The change would probably become even more intense once he started practicing again. This was because the mana would transform, and the idea of his own body would change from the root. Both active and passive skills would be able to grow at a faster rate.
He was so fired up that he wanted to start running at that moment; he wanted to unleash his power. Meanwhile, Soo Ah-rin and Yong Se-ha were still comfortably sleeping.
“God, let’s do all the things we can do in the resting place as long as it’s like this.”
Jung Si-woo diligently trained himself while the two fairies were fast asleep. Almost all of his active skills leveled up by the time they woke up.
“How did you get so strong overnight!?”
Unlike Soo Ah-rin, Yong Se-ha hadn’t woken in the middle of the night, so he had no clue about the change that Jung Si-woo had gone through. He was astonished at the overwhelming power emanating from Jung Si-woo. Still, Soo Ah-rin had the same reaction despite knowing things beforehand.
“You got stronger in that short time?”
“That’s right because I adapted to my strength and developed my skills.”
“You’re a monster.”
“I hear that often.”
“What the hell happened?”
Jung Si-woo roughly explained to Yong Se-ha what happened last night. Naturally, the little fairy was enviously groaning.
“A person who is already very strong got even stronger just like that…you really must’ve been blessed by God.”
“I’m not sure about that.”
Jung Si-woo wasn’t sure what those Gods were doing. He hadn’t seen them directly, but the image was getting worse and worse. He was also unsure about what Marina Bissett said about then and what the God-believing monsters meant by altar and sacrifice. He also thought about what the dragon had said in his dreams, something about beating the gods and killing them.
“God, God.”
“Are you planning to be religious now?”
“No, no matter how much I was thinking, I was wondering if God could really be killed.”
“How did you even get around to thinking like that?!”
It was a very important matter. No matter how strong Jung Si-woo was, he still didn’t think he could kill an enemy like God, especially when he couldn’t even guess their shape. He was frustrated, but after calmly calculating the situation, he decided that he would either devote his whole life to killing God or to live peacefully.
“Oh, with all this talk about God…”
Jung Si-woo pulled out the Thunder God’s Rifle from his inventory. The body was made of dark blue metal, and the barrel was very long and thick, making it look more like a cannon than a rifle. This was the artifact he received from Marina Bissett in exchange for the information on Critical Bullet synthesis. He was worried that Marina might report it to the Fair Trade Commission later.
“How should I use this?”
“If I had known how to deal with Magic Shot and had such a great artifact, I would’ve turned into a shooter without hesitation. But I’m not like you.”
“Okay. I would rather take this and use it instead of a stick.”
It would be effective. Thunder God’s Rifle boasted tremendous weight and strength. He hadn’t yet fought with this weapon, so he didn’t know if it would hurt more than his sledgehammer, Black Wolf’s Paw. But, of course, the Thunder God’s Rifle wasn’t an artifact made for close combat, so using it in close quarters was discouraged.
“If it were a pistol, you could use it then, but it’s so long and heavy. It’s usually best to keep it in your inventory, then take it out quickly when you need it.”
“It’s called a swap. If you get used to it, it will feel like second nature later on.”
There were quite a few players who dealt with various weapons according to the situation. Dealing with the inventory relied on awareness, but if one were to master the tricks of getting things they wanted out the way they wanted them, it might lead to surprising results.
“Okay, I’m going to practice that later. Should I go try this gun first?”
The gun’s power and nature were very different from the M16, which was handled by the military, but Jung Si-woo still felt the familiar rush of longing running through his veins. It was time to return to his stage.
