Pride (3) - Death
The boar had fallen.
Its claws were ripped free.
Thwip-
Brain matter spilled out.
Drip... drip....
For a moment, silence reigned.
The goblins froze as they stared at the sight before them.
Their eyes widened.
Then, all at once, sounds that were almost screams burst forth.
Keeaaaeek!
Kieeeek!
Kraaaak!
So loud that the birds in the forest took fright and scattered into the air.
Cheers erupted.
One goblin dropped to its knees before Dohyun.
Another pressed its forehead to the ground.
They were all different, but each one bowed to the great master.
Dohyun was too absorbed by the blue window that had appeared before his eyes to pay attention to his surroundings.
The core absorbs enough experience.
The core levels up.
The core levels up.
The core levels up.
The core grew hot.
The core levels up.
It felt as if a passage had opened in his chest.
Core level has reached 10.
I and the core were growing more tightly connected.
Thump... thump...
His heart pounded hard.
Level 10. Now...
For a moment, silence hung in the air.
Then a new window appeared.
The Class System is now open.
So the class window really did open.
He thought back to the level-up process.
It was different from the game.
Remote experience.
This was the first time.
Because I’m the boss?
The moment the boar died, scattered spiritual energy passed through his body.
And flowed into the core.
At the same time, dungeon energy flowed back out from the core.
In that instant, his heart began to race violently.
As the dungeon energy rose, some barrier deep inside him slowly collapsed.
Instinct surged awake.
Grrr...
He was starving.
The hunger came crashing down on him as if his stomach had been pasted to his back.
Then came a fragrant scent that seeped into his nose.
A supreme fragrance, one he had never smelled in either this life or the last.
It was something seductive, almost as if the scent itself could pierce the soul.
Before he realized it, Dohyun had brought a piece of the boar’s cooked flesh to his mouth.
The meat dissolved on his tongue.
He didn’t even need to chew.
It slid down his throat like honey.
A hot lump of fire crawled through his veins.
Eat.
Saliva ran from his mouth on instinct.
Dohyun, leaving the goblins' cheers behind him, thought it over.
Now was the best time to eat.
The corpse still had energy left in it, and it was at its freshest.
The outer flesh was fragrant enough, but his instincts wanted something else.
With sharp claws, he split open the fallen boar’s belly.
Hot steam rose as the innards were exposed.
At the center.
There was a heart where energy had gathered into one place.
The most intoxicating fragrance was pouring from within it.
Dohyun’s jaws opened wide.
Crack.
The tough membrane tore.
Hot blood washed over his tongue.
The heart throbbed.
His whole body grew hot.
Gulp-
He devoured it in an instant, and a fullness spread through him.
From the deepest part of his body, a faint warmth of life surged forward and raced through every limb.
He heard a soft sound, as if something had just awakened, and his joints opened up.
His scales took on a sheen, and his vision sharpened.
Kraaaak.
"Dragon, isn’t it good? The foundation of a yokai is the development of blood and vitality. Blood and vitality grow when you eat well and live well."
For the first time, he understood what it meant to be full, and he felt that those words were true.
Across the clearing, countless goblins were watching Dohyun eat.
Their eyes held joy, but also a hesitant uncertainty over what they were supposed to do next.
Rest was over.
Move all the boar meat into the dungeon.
At Dohyun's command, the goblins began hauling the remaining boar carcass away.
They tied it with ropes prepared in advance and rolled it along with wooden logs.
Watching them move, Dohyun spotted a broken chunk of flesh in one corner.
He paused for a moment.
His fingertips twitched briefly.
....
Take the corpse too.
If it was left behind, morale would drop. That would become a loss in itself.
The transfer to the dungeon was completed without issue.
"Since it's practically a yokai corpse already, if you eat it, Dragon, you'll grow even more."
So that’s how it is.
After answering, Dohyun called for roll call.
He checked the numbers.
He deployed every individual that had been produced up to that point before the battle.
The result.
A total of 1,000 goblins had marched out.
And about 900 had survived.
He counted the remaining number and clenched his fist.
...Next time, reduce it.
They were still being replenished in the dungeon, but there was no point in meaningless losses.
"Hmm, yes. It would be better to cut it down."
What do you mean?
"Something interesting came out of this fellow’s innards."
As he spoke, Heok-o pointed at the boar carcass, which the goblins were now expertly dissecting.
Among the guts the goblins had pulled out, Dohyun spotted a seed mixed with a thick, half-digested mass of fruit pulp.
What is that?
"I never thought I’d find a fruit of the first-rank Bai Spirit Life Tree here."
Is it valuable?
Heok-o narrowed his eyes and asked,
"Dragon, do you want to keep it?"
Would it be good to have?
"Of course. Dragon, this is a spirit treasure humans love."
Spirit treasure? What’s that?
"Later. It just means something good for the body."
Good for the body?
"You don’t know? Then I’ll eat it. In exchange, I’ll tell you about it."
No need. I can figure it out myself.
At some point, he had begun sensing the dungeon energy in the air the same way he felt the dungeon’s energy inside the dungeon.
That was why.
A small seed.
Dungeon energy pulsed within it.
Seeds are meant to be planted.
It looked like something that would enrich the forested territory.
By nature, seeds carrying mysterious power were well suited to strengthening the dungeon’s theme.
"Dragon, I know what you’re thinking. It’s a good idea, but spirit treasures also attract bloodshed."
Doesn’t matter. Just because it’s dangerous doesn’t mean I’m going to stop proper growth.
At Dohyun’s words, the crow gave a low caw.
"Kihihi. You’re interesting. I’ll tell you one thing: the Bai Spirit Life Tree doesn’t bear just one fruit."
What does that have to do with me?
"Humans are quick to come when they need something. And when they need something, they come to take it."
Dohyun remained silent for a moment.
His eyes narrowed.
Send the goblins toward the boar’s territory.
The dungeon goblins immediately headed for the boar’s domain.
They needed to deal with it quickly.
Humans search for traces? Then erase the traces.
"And do you think that will work?"
The crow still hadn’t wiped the amusement from its face.
Leaving the crow behind, the remaining scout party from the dungeon set out.
They gathered their weapons and moved with light steps.
Their speed was faster than before, and their motions were familiar now.
Seeing how skilled they had become, the crow tilted its head.
"What is this? Something’s different, Dragon."
It’s because I gained a class.
"Krrres? What’s that?"
A class.
"A class?"
Don’t know it? I’ll tell you if you pay the price.
"Dragon... you’re getting more and more interesting."
At the crow’s words, Dohyun fell silent and checked the new class slots that had appeared.
Class.
It was a system from his past life’s Dungeon Masters.
Dohyun opened the system’s class window.
First-Class
Worker - Increased work efficiency.
Hunter - Tracking/stealth bonus.
There were two.
No combat class, huh...
Classes were usually completed through experience.
The goblins had fought enough.
But there was no warrior class.
Does that mean the standards are higher and more systematic?
He could see that goblins who met the qualifications were advancing into class changes.
Their experiences were gathering.
They were being shared within the framework of the First-Class system.
Looking at that, he felt the need to study the game’s system and reality together.
*
After the boar’s death, time began to move again.
As they explored the boar’s territory, Heok-o had the goblins bring back several seeds into the dungeon, and he ordered them to collect the roots of the tree called the Bai Spirit Life Tree, leaving not a single strand behind before bringing everything back to the dungeon.
It was so clean that one might have thought no traces had ever been left behind.
He spent time looking for the system as well.
But Dohyun’s attention had turned elsewhere.
Staring at his five-fingered hand, he clenched and unclenched his fist, lost in thought.
Three days passed.
His body had grown.
Sixty centimeters.
And then one meter.
While sleeping, eating, and thinking, his body had continued to grow.
That was not all.
He scraped his claws against the wall.
Krgrgrg.
The dragon’s claws were so hard that they left scratches even on the dungeon’s sturdy wall.
"Dragon, are you sharpening your claws?"
Heok-o asked with curiosity as he watched Dohyun work on the wall.
Training.
Dohyun had already learned from direct combat that his claws were hard and very sharp, but remembering the sensation of driving them through the boar’s skull, he knew they were anything but ordinary.
The dragon’s weapon was its claws.
He was a dragon, but when he was hungry he ate like a beast, and when he was full he liked to sprawl out and sleep without moving.
Rather than simply lying around, he decided to move.
To survive.
Once Dohyun realized this was a xianxia world, he had a goal.
Survive.
Even if he calculated it coldly, this was a world with no real survival rate.
Everything had to be devoted to the most primal thing of all.
He scratched at the wall with his claws, entering a kind of trance.
Heok-o seemed to read the room.
When Dohyun was training, it didn’t come near him, and when it looked like he was done, it approached again.
The forest within the dungeon deepened little by little, all kinds of preparations were put in place, and they moved in anticipation of the day the barrier would vanish. At that time,
In the forest that had once belonged to the boar.
People appeared there.
Each of them carried a weapon, and they walked through the woods without hesitation.
But.
There were no footprints or sounds of movement aside from theirs.
Not a single goblin could be seen within the territory.
Only the faint smell of blood drifted on the air,
and silence hung over the forest.