The Wyvern's Fall and Nangkangi's New Trick
The wyvern's body, no longer able to transmit the bio-signals that had become habitual in its skull, rapidly lost its strength and plummeted toward the ground. But then came the chapter of binding from Sahonroeju—the puppeteer's threads haphazardly woven across its entire form. As mana flowed through them once more, they twisted in eerie motions, shooting out like roots toward the stone pillars and surrounding natural features, anchoring the massive wyvern's body in midair.
Kuuuung!!! A fierce gust of wind and dust scattered from its weight, leaving the wyvern's corpse suspended in the air like a hanged man. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of its eyes still rolling around, not quite dead yet. Standing near its neck, I lifted my head toward the enormous stone pillar—far larger than the others it had been aiming for.
"The eggs should be in the nest, right...?"
"Nang!!"
Nangkangi suddenly appeared and reacted to my quiet mutter. I was about to pout at its cowardly habit of hiding until the fight was over, but then...
"Huh...? Have you gotten a bit bigger?"
"Nang...?"
The mana flow connecting me to Nangkangi and such internal changes were erratic during growth spurts anyway, nothing worth fussing over. But the size of Nangkangi that had just popped out was unmistakably larger than before—not the tiny bean it used to be, but clearly grown. Feeling the changed weight as it skittered across my body, and noting its sharper contours, I nodded proudly.
"Yeah, fuck yeah—this is the real reward. Heh."
Compared to the monsters that spawned while climbing the tower, my abilities were so superior that I'd long since given up on loot or useful skills. But seeing Nangkangi—born from my mana and seemingly linked to me—grow from my exploits filled me with satisfaction, drawing out a grin.
"Heh. Nangkangi, what's different now?"
Nangkangi, momentarily flustered by its unnoticed growth in size and power, tilted its body side to side before hesitantly bringing a pointed foreleg to the air.
Swoosh.
As the fidgeting foreleg traced downward through empty space, alien mana flowed out, fixing a small thread-like line in the shape of Nangkangi's leg in midair.
"Whoa... again! Do it again!"
Nangkangi tilted its head as if unsure, but with my enthusiastic cheering, it gained confidence and used its opposite foreleg to draw the same line in the air.
Two tiny lines, about the size of a person's pinky finger, now complete. Staring blankly at me as if to say this is all—now you do something, I grabbed its careless foreleg without hesitation and shoved it into one of the lines it had made.
"Nang?!?!"
"Ooh...!"
It flailed wildly, as if protesting being the guinea pig for an untested ability, but a jumping spider's resistance meant nothing when I could beat a wyvern barehanded. Ignoring its struggles and squeaks, I gaped at the result before my eyes.
Nangkangi's leg, shoved into one line, was poking out from the other.
I'd hoped after seeing it handle its own subspace, but I'd agonized endlessly over when it might gain something useful to me, and when it would finally repay the favor... Seeing this blatant spatial transfer right in front of me—even if small—I nodded vigorously.
"Fuck me, you little shit... You're a dutiful daughter through and through. Heh."
"Nang...?"
When I lifted it up and roughly rubbed its cheeks as the test subject, it looked puzzled. But sensing my full satisfaction with the new skill's result, it proudly raised a foreleg and wagged it excitedly side to side.
Now casually slicing space with whoosh whoosh motions and poking its leg through.
Oh... Wonder if the old bald bastard will use it like that?
In case—just in case—I ever clashed with the principal, having a sparring partner or not made all the difference. Watching Nangkangi excitedly poke around with its fun new power, I racked my brain and then spoke up.
"Listen up, kiddo. From now on, that thing... uh... let's call it a Gate. It involves a door concept, so yeah... Anyway, work on making the gate bigger and researching all kinds of uses for it. Got it?"
"Nang?"
"Fuck. I'll give you plenty of spider silk, so spin when I say spin, you little bitch."
"Kki, nang!"
I didn't fully get the words across, but naturally understanding its intent, I stopped gently petting and scowled harshly. Having achieved its goal, Nangkangi saluted smartly with a leg and nodded.
"Heh... That's the spirit."
Honestly, I had confidence I could use a spatial ability more creatively and usefully myself, but as I'd thought before, acquiring an active S-rank hunter-level ability would cost an insane amount of points. Shaking off the lingering thought, I stood up.
The wyvern's pulsing under my feet had stopped, its head limp—cleanly dead. Touching the dangling corpse suspended by nearby threads, I stored it in my Inventory.
To fully utilize this thing, revealing my Inventory to the guild master was inevitable. With this haul, no way to process it in reality, and wuxia or apocalypse worlds made it impossible anyway...
Plus, the old man's making me an accessory. Toss him some parts, butter him up, and he'll spit out something usable.
The thought crossed my mind that, beyond my own agreed accessory, I should overhaul my party members' weapons and armor with wyvern materials before seriously climbing. Even today, all eyes were on my women—if they wore mediocre gear and let guys gossip about their skills, that'd be unacceptable.
I've got money, pride, and dick to spare. Heh.
With ample materials suddenly sparking new needs everywhere, I snorted, but that was the adventurer's truth: hunt monsters, dismantle them, craft better gear, hunt stronger ones, grow—like a straight-up RPG. Grinning crookedly at the situation, I looked up.
"Alright, last thing—grab the eggs and head back."
The shockwave from piercing the wyvern's throat had licked every corner of the ravine, and between the stone pillars, monsters still hiding alive fixed fearful eyes on my back. To them, it must've been the birth of a new king—the path to the wyvern's nest was lined with reverent gazes following me endlessly. Thus, the guild master's request and floor conquest wrapped up.
"You little shit! Once the request's done, I'll make 'em proper and hand 'em over, so hurry up and climb the tower! Ugh! Those empire bastards are hounding me nonstop, and my direct subordinate's just dawdling like this..."
After finishing the floor conquest, I headed straight to the forge of Guild Master Haron. From his perspective, I was just an adventurer in the prep phase of a less-than-week-old request, so he flew into a rage the moment he saw me, bitching that the accessories weren't ready yet.
"Come on, old man. Don't you get reports from the guild staff?"
"What the hell? I've been too busy making your damn accessories to check guild work, and you're bitching at me?!"
I couldn't believe he was blaming me for his neglected duties—my lips puffed out in disbelief. A few hammer swings should've finished those accessories...
For a dwarf, this is pathetic processing speed...
Shaking my head in pity and doubt for a moment, I realized arguing would just rile him up and trash the forge, delaying my gear. So I got straight to the real purpose of coming here.
"Here. You ordered a wyvern egg, right? Checked it out—only one there. You didn't specify quantity, so no issue, yeah?"
With my words, a man-sized wyvern egg popped out of my Inventory. There were actually two...
One for reality, as our house pet. Heh.
Living lifelong with my siblings made me love the chaos, and Park Jisu sometimes seemed bored—so the spare was picked as her pet. I pictured riding giant Nangkangi around while she soared on wyvern-back—a ridiculous future that drew an idiotic grin from me unbidden.