Dungeon Changes (1)
Thud.
Thud.
A dull, heavy sound echoed through the Dungeon.
It was the sound of stone and flesh colliding.
In the training grounds, one goblin was hammering a stone scarecrow like a madman.
Thud.
Again.
Thud.
Sweat streamed down his body.
Blood spattered.
His arms were already torn open.
And yet he did not stop.
He drew back his fist and brought it down again.
Thud.
The goblin’s eyes never wavered.
He was the first goblin to obtain the Musha class.
He was up before anyone else, and he trained longer than anyone else.
His movements were still crude.
But he did not stop.
With his mouth shut tight, chewing down the pain, the goblin’s eyes shone bright with resolve.
He trained without rest, sweat pouring from him.
Every time he forced himself harder, his muscles swelled as if they might burst.
The goblin finally paused and gulped water from a jar set nearby.
He snatched up a piece of raw meat another goblin had left behind.
Then he swallowed it whole.
After that, he chewed through a pill stored in a jar at the side.
His face twisted in pain.
The pain of training and the pain of the pill.
The wounds on his body were rapidly knitting back together.
It was all thanks to the pill, which gnawed away at his lifespan.
He returned to the stone scarecrow.
Training by shaving away at his own life.
Clenching his fist, he poured his soul into each strike, one after another.
Thud!
At last, the stone scarecrow cracked.
The goblins training nearby paused for a moment.
“Kiek…”
A low cry escaped them.
Not fear.
Awe.
Even though they were the same kind of goblin, that one was different.
An arm streaked with blood.
Fingers broken.
And still he did not stop.
Watching that sight, another goblin quietly picked up a stone.
Seeing it, Dohyun’s own heart grew hot.
Dohyun’s breathing roughened.
Even standing still, his tail twitched with restless energy.
He closed his eyes.
He sought the light rippling within himself.
It revolved through his whole body along with his breath.
Softly, Dohyun’s body grew lighter.
His form became a line, skimming the wall as it passed.
Screeeech—
A single white streak was carved through the air, leaving a long shadow across the wall.
Marks dug deep into the stone.
They slowly healed under the Dungeon’s energy.
But in that instant, he saw it.
It’s deeper now.
Since becoming a dragon, he had never skipped his practice on ordinary days.
But there had never been a time when his focus was this sharp.
The body of a dragon was different from a human’s.
With the flow of spiritual energy alone, the nature of movement itself changed.
His body slid through the air as if drifting across water.
With a little more familiarity, he might awaken the ability to fly through Dungeon energy.
I should name it Dragon Flowing Movement.
From escape techniques to offensive forms.
He developed and honed techniques on his own.
Dohyun’s goal was simple.
To survive.
It was the most primal instinct of a living being.
Death is cold.
He could not forget the sensation of nearly dying to that Musha not long ago.
A gray world.
He never wanted to enter it again.
Dohyun lashed out with his claws once more.
He compared the new marks to the ones left before.
They were a little deeper.
He was definitely improving.
The vessel inside him was growing little by little as well.
What had once been the size of a grain of millet was now the size of a bean.
“Kaaawk.”
“Dragon, you’re working harder than usual.”
Heok-o flew over and said it with obvious amusement.
Yeah. I need to get stronger.
Dohyun shifted his gaze.
It was the training grounds.
The sound of stone being struck.
Goblins crowding in so they wouldn’t be outdone by the first Musha goblin.
The mood of the training grounds was changing around that goblin.
There, the heavy breathing of goblins and the impact of things striking one another filled the air.
Since the training grounds had been built, the Dungeon’s atmosphere had changed a little.
Now that they had finally felt the edge of their limits, the goblins were training with weapons in hand.
They were still awkward.
But little by little, they were changing.
The sounds of stone being struck grew louder and louder, and their motions took shape.
The rhythm became steady.
The Musha class.
For now, only a few goblins had attained it.
But it was enough to mark the beginning of change.
Dohyun’s gaze settled on another goblin.
A body covered in wounds.
Splints that looked like crude braces had been strapped to his arms and legs.
And yet he did not rest.
Thud.
Thud.
He lifted a boulder.
I’ll need to expand this further.
A soldier.
If they grew that strong, they would make good soldiers.
That was when Heok-o asked, “Dragon, what’re you going to do about the pills?”
Dohyun fell silent for a moment.
That’s the problem.
There were still plenty of pills left that he had taken from the cultivator before.
But once he calculated the amount they were burning through while training the goblins, it would run out before long.
“Kaaawk—Dragon, lucky for you, I’ve got hands. I’ll teach you how to make pills.”
It was strange how cooperative Heok-o was being.
That would be great.
That day, with Heok-o’s help, a new class was born in the Dungeon.
Herbalist.
A first-stage class in the truest sense of the name.
From the moment one learned the names of herbs, their properties, and how to gather them, the next path opened as well.
Second-stage class.
Spirit Herb Farmer (27%)
- Cultivation of spirit herbs
- Management of spiritual energy in soil
- Pill-field creation method
It was knowledge left behind by the cultivators.
It was not merely identification of herbs, but their cultivation methods as well.
Wouldn’t some easy cultivator show up somewhere?
Dohyun, after enduring one crisis, briefly entertained dangerous thoughts, because cultivators carried their entire fortunes in Spatial Bags.
Kyieek.
Kiiik...?
In one corner of the training grounds, a goblin was becoming a Herbalist while staring at herb illustrations that Heok-o had taught them in advance and that some of the goblins had worked hard to draw.
Heok-o looked at the goblins discussing the drawings and said, “These idiots are smarter than I expected.”
The intelligence of humans and goblins is about the same.
Dohyun recited the game’s setting with quiet composure.
What the Musha goblins needed now were not spirit herbs, but poisonous plants.
Apparently they were common in the forest.
“Dragon, there’s a lot of Black Vein Grass and Blood Poison Grass in the boar territory.”
Is that so.
Good.
Those were ingredients used in the pills consumed by the goblin who trained harder than anyone else over there.
So it’s perseverance, huh.
Ball Assault Body Refinement Method.
It was the technique chosen by the first Musha, a way of forging the body with stone balls.
The other goblins were learning the art by following him as well.
After watching their training, Dohyun turned to the advance team that had become Herbalists.
Go to the forest.
Find the herbs.
Once the dragon’s command was given, things were no longer the same.
Before, the losses had been severe.
So the number of goblins spent just to send them out had never been something he could ignore.
But now it was different.
The goblins moved.
They spread out into the forest with stone hoes and stone knives in their hands, leather bags strapped to their backs.
As he watched them slip into the woods, Dohyun turned his head when a shadow fell across him.
“Geoung, came!”
A hulking orc strode out from behind him.
He met Dohyun’s eyes.
“Geoung, working.”
The orc beat his chest.
Thud. Thud.
Protect the goblins.
With a message sent through will alone, Geoung nodded.
“Geoung, protects.”
Then he slung his club over one shoulder and pushed without hesitation into the forest.
Behind Geoung came two other orcs as well.
In the quiet woods, scratch-scratch.
One goblin was squatting at the boundary of the former boar territory, using a hoe to dig up herbs.
His nerves were fixed entirely on the herbs, so he barely paid attention to anything around him.
Swish, shrrr…
The leaves rustled unnaturally.
Something was moving along the trees.
The thing in motion came to a stop above the goblin.
Whoosh—!
Something intangible lashed out like a whip, aiming for the goblin.
But the goblin, too focused on the herbs, never noticed.
However.
Wham—!
A rock-thick forearm caught it in midair.
“Geoung, protects.”
“Kiek?”
For a moment the goblin made a face as if to ask why a huge orc was here.
Geoung ignored him, and with both arms he seized the sticky thing clinging to his arm.
“Geoung, pull!”
BOOM!
The moment Geoung yanked, something heavy crashed out of the tree and slammed into the ground.
Tremble… tremble…
The transparent shape peeled away little by little.
And a spider with long legs revealed itself.
“Kyaaek?!”
The goblin immediately remembered the transparent spider of terror he had heard about from his seniors and passed around in whispers.
The spider’s fangs flashed as it hit the ground.
Its sharp, sawlike teeth gaped wide.
All six of its legs kicked off the earth.
Geoung didn’t even try to dodge the jagged fangs snapping up at him.
Crk-crk-crk…
The teeth that had supposedly shredded goblins could not even pierce the orc’s rock-like skin.
“Geoung, itchy.”
Geoung simply reached out.
With a wet tearing sound, he grabbed the spider’s body and ripped it away, broken fangs falling loose.
Clack! Clack!
The spider clicked its broken teeth together like a wolf, unable to believe it had snapped, but Geoung’s muscles rippled down his arms.
Bang—
The spider’s body was crushed between his hard forearms as if it had been caught in a press, then burst apart.
“Geoung, spider weak.”
The goblin stared at Geoung with a look of utter disgust.
“Geoung? Smell good?”
In the meantime, Geoung had realized that the spider’s white flesh gave off a surprisingly appetizing scent.
Lick.
At first he tasted it with his tongue.
Crunch.
He chewed the shell like a cracker.
Geoung tasted the spider’s crisp outer layer and moist flesh inside.
Something hot deep in his stomach began to rise.
“Geoung…? Getting stronger…?”
Geoung’s muscles twitched and swelled.
He looked even stronger than before.
He’s growing…?
Dohyun, who had been watching with a combat reflex still in mind, saw it with his own eyes.
“Dragon, don’t you already know? You’ve eaten it before.”
Right.
“Isn’t it natural to get stronger if you eat something good?”
Dohyun’s eyes darkened at Heok-o’s words.
He already remembered what had happened when he ate the boar.
Back then, he had felt himself grow. He had not forgotten that memory.
Geoung, bring it here.
At his command, Geoung answered, “Geoung, was eating it?”
I don’t care.
With a sullen look, Geoung gathered up the spider at once.
From that day on, one more thing was added to Dohyun’s training.
When he was hungry, it would no longer be ordinary animals like rabbits or squirrels.
Demon beast meat had been added to the menu.
He hesitated for a moment at the sight of the spider’s split-open flesh.
Then he tore into the meat and put it in his mouth.
Briny flesh. A tough texture.
But beyond all that, a fundamental life force writhed within him.
Vital blood energy. The power that strengthened the body, the foundation of demon beasts. It was said to be a force that stood shoulder to shoulder with spiritual energy.
It surged.
...I need more demon beast meat.
There were quite a few spider-level creatures scattered through the forest.
He recalled the rough map of animal distribution around the Dungeon he had made through a little sacrifice in his head.
The calculation was done.
Hunt them.
That day, the Dungeon’s army bared its teeth toward the forest.