Chapter 1
To put it bluntly, the operation had failed.
It was because Sangwon Lee, who was dissatisfied with the distribution of dungeon byproducts, had defected, taking his team members with him. Without Sangwon, the alliance team was practically useless. The alliance team was at fault for not stopping Sangwon from leaving despite knowing his intentions—all for the sake of pride—but Sangwon truly wasn’t in his right mind.
Whether he believed in his own strength or underestimated the dragon, he jumped into the fire pit not only carrying straw but also drenched in oil.
He seemed to have relied on his flame resistance when he jumped in, but his opponent was an S-class monster. A dragon.
Well, whatever. If they defected out of greed for items in the dragon’s lair, believing they could kill it themselves, they should never have returned.
Whether they fled in fear when they actually confronted it, or came back seeking help because they couldn’t handle it alone, the reason didn’t matter. Sangwon, who had left to hunt the dragon, returned to the base camp with an enraged dragon chasing after him.
As a result, the six teams of 10-person units standing guard were completely annihilated, and the food storage burned down. That alone was a desperate situation, but as Sangwon was crushed under the dragon’s front paw, the weapons storage collapsed as well.
After burning the entire base camp, the dragon, still unable to calm its excitement, snorted and began searching for survivors. Hearing its breathing, Yeonwoo clenched his trembling hands.
He couldn’t die like this.
He had read the “book” countless times for this day and had devised all sorts of strategies to vanquish the dragon. After setting coordinates far away, Yeonwoo took a deep breath and folded space. He wasn’t confident he could kill the dragon, but he was confident he could run away. If the gate didn’t open even though the time for the subjugation team to return had passed, the Center would find it strange and send a follow-up team.
The problem was not knowing when that would happen.
When the vibrations created by the roaming dragon faded slightly, Yeonwoo poked his head out and examined what used to be the base camp. The sight was far more miserable than expected.
If they had just compromised and been considerate of each other, they would have already vanquished the dragon and returned. Then Yeonwoo would have returned to the Center, fallen asleep with relief knowing that Yeonhwa hadn’t died.
But before they could properly begin their strategy, a fight broke out over the distribution of byproducts. The alliance team scattered, and Sangwon defected and died. Thanks to this, Yeonwoo was now in a position to flee from the dragon in a place without food or weapons.
Useless bastard, anyway.
Yeonwoo clicked his tongue and looked around for a place to hide from the dragon. The dungeon’s boss was a quadrupedal, fire-type dragon without wings. Without water nearby, a high place would be relatively safe… As Yeonwoo tilted his head back to survey the dungeon, he noticed ice stairs lining the cave wall.
“Kang Chahun.”
Before he realized it, Yeonwoo had muttered the name and jumped to his feet. The cloudy, pale blue ice stairs—not transparent—were clearly made with Kang Chahun’s mana.
Of course. There was no way Kang Chahun wouldn’t have entered. The Center Director’s eyes were bloodshot trying to add even one more line to Kang Chahun’s career.
But he wasn’t sure if this was fortunate or unfortunate.
Just as Espers hunted monsters to obtain magic stones, monsters also attacked Espers to obtain mana cores. There were monsters that craved mana cores so much that they would sense an S-class ability user’s mana and cross over from other dungeons.
Because of this, most dungeon conquests followed a hit-and-run format: quickly dispatch the monsters and close the gate. However, without Sangwon or the alliance team, they could neither hit nor run now.
But if Kang Chahun remained in the dungeon, it was a different story.
Kang Chahun was a multi-type who could defend despite being attack-oriented, and most importantly, he was the protagonist of the book. In the book, Kang Chahun had several near-death experiences but ultimately vanquished the dragon alone.
…Should I confront it?
Looking at the rising ice wall, Yeonwoo bit his lip. Kang Chahun was the protagonist of the book with a guaranteed future and an S-class Esper capable of vanquishing the dragon. If Yeonwoo, who knew the dragon’s weakness, joined hands with such a Kang Chahun…
While debating between hiding until the follow-up team arrived and vanquishing the dragon with Kang Chahun, Yeonwoo folded space.
In truth, even taking time to contemplate was a luxury. Without Kang Chahun, he would have just kept running away, but with Kang Chahun, they needed to kill the dragon and escape the dungeon as quickly as possible, before monsters from other dungeons crossed over targeting him.
“Chah—ugh!”
“What the—!?”
Before he could even call out the name, Kang Chahun’s fist flew at him. After quickly folding space to avoid the incoming fist, Chahun aimed an arrow at Yeonwoo. He seemed so tense that he couldn’t distinguish whether what stood before him was a monster or a person.
Standing in front of the fiercely glowing ice arrow, Yeonwoo calmly raised his hands.
“Calm down. I’m Han Yeonwoo from the Korean Esper Agency.”
He could see the sharp black eyes inspecting the ID card around Yeonwoo’s neck and his training uniform.
“I didn’t see you when we entered.”
“As you can see, I’m C-class.”
Usually, subjugation teams consisting of higher ranks would enter first and advance by killing larger monsters, while attack teams of lower ranks would follow and handle the smaller ones. One side was the subjugation team, the other was the attack team, so there was no reason for them to meet.
Recognizing the familiar Center’s training uniform, Chahun breathed roughly and slowly lowered his guard. Yeonwoo grabbed him and moved to the cave he had scouted earlier.
Leaving Chahun to stagger, apparently experiencing motion sickness from the spatial movement, Yeonwoo looked down. The ice wall Chahun had created was melting from the dragon’s breath.
“Hey, at least say something first.”
“Can you build an ice wall here? Like before?”
At those words, Chahun, who had been standing awkwardly, made a displeased expression and waved his hand. After confirming that the ice wall was rising, Yeonwoo turned to look at the dragon. The dragon, with its neck raised, was running toward them, making the ground rumble.
Waiting for the dragon to approach within reach, Yeonwoo grabbed Chahun, who was raising his bow, and folded space again. After watching the dragon’s tail, with spikes larger than a human, shatter the ice wall, Yeonwoo gestured to Chahun.
“Here?”
“What? Oh, yes.”
As Yeonwoo answered, the ice wall rose. Watching the approaching dragon, Chahun extended his hand to Yeonwoo. Taking that hand and moving through space, Yeonwoo quietly marveled.
He’s more cooperative than I thought.
He had expected that, like other S-class users, Chahun would reluctantly use his ability only after lengthy explanations. Or, like Sangwon, he might stubbornly insist on doing things his own way, saying he couldn’t trust Yeonwoo.
But without separate explanations, Chahun seemed to understand Yeonwoo’s strategy and was timing their escape. Seeing this, Yeonwoo became confident that they might actually be able to take down the dragon together.
“Can you see that?”
Folding space to avoid a breath attack, Yeonwoo pointed to the dragon’s nape. Among the black scales covering the nape, there were occasional golden scales that shimmered.
“Yes.”
Pointing to just below the left ear, Yeonwoo looked up at Chahun.
“That’s the dragon’s weakness.”
“So what?”
Chahun retorted as if asking what he was supposed to do about it, but then, as if realizing something, he slowly wrinkled his face.
“Are you crazy? Are you saying we two should catch that thing?”
“Yes.”
When Yeonwoo nodded, Chahun shook off Yeonwoo’s hand and whispered shoutingly.
“Weren’t you just planning to run away? How can the two of us—”
“If you don’t intend to provoke the dragon, be quiet and listen to the rest. To protect its reverse scale, the dragon doesn’t use its left front paw and only attacks with the right front paw. I’ll try to stay on the left side to attack, but as you can see, its tail is long and flexible, and the tail horn is coated with neurotoxins, so we must always be wary of the back. I’ll take care of that, and Esper Kang Chahun, you attack the reverse scale there.”
Before Yeonwoo could finish speaking, Chahun, shaking his head as if dumbfounded, glared at the dragon with his lips curled inward. After a moment’s hesitation, Chahun took his bow and shot an ice arrow. With a swooshing sound, the arrow melted in the surrounding heat before the dragon could even swing its front paw.
Chahun looked down at Yeonwoo as if to say ‘See?’, and Yeonwoo grabbed Chahun and folded space to avoid the charging dragon.
“Arrows will never work. A spear would be best—”
“The weapons storage was destroyed earlier.”
“I know. But even if it hadn’t been, it wouldn’t have helped. Most of what’s kept in the weapons storage are ordinary weapons.”
“Then—”
“You’ll have to make the spear, Esper Kang Chahun.”
“…Me?”
Chahun pointed to himself with an expression asking what nonsense this was. Nodding, Yeonwoo gestured to the ice arrow in Chahun’s hand.
“Just like you make ice arrows, make a large spear.”
“Me?”
Should I do it instead?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
