Arcana Online
For every player logged into Arcana Online, a quest alarm window suddenly popped up.
Not the blue window they were used to, but a golden one unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
CHAPTER 1: Protect the World Tree.
Time remaining until the invasion begins: 719 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds
For players who had been grinding away without even knowing the main scenario quest existed, it was a shocking revelation.
The news was posted across countless community sites and shot straight to the number one spot in real-time search rankings.
And so a few players moved quickly.
The World Tree was located in the forest inhabited by the Forest Tribe.
The Forest Tribe—no, the elves—were each stronger than a high-ranking player, so if you got on their bad side, you could be shot dead by an arrow the moment you set foot in the forest.
More than anything, fighting elves in their own forest was madness.
How were you supposed to beat elves who darted through the trees like flying squirrels?
If you wanted to take part in the main scenario smoothly, you had to build some kind of relationship with the Forest Tribe ahead of time.
The problem was that elves were infamous for being utterly impossible to deal with.
When countless players came to visit, half of them were driven out, and the ones who resisted were killed.
So many players had been kicked out over something like this that they were completely oblivious to the Forest Tribe’s side of things.
They had finally resolved the noise problem and were just trying to get some decent sleep at last, but thanks to the endless stream of players showing up day and night, they couldn’t sleep properly at all.
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I didn’t go back to the hotel just because the market only opened at night—I headed straight for the black market instead.
In my hand was a ticket.
Black Market Ticket
You need this ticket to enter the black market.
The entrance changes location every day, and the place is written on the back of the ticket.
When I went to the marked location, two burly men were standing guard at the door.
“Please present your ticket.”
“Here you go.”
They checked it and opened the door for me.
As I stepped inside, a stunning sight spread out before my eyes.
Rows of stalls were doing business, and in front of them, people from all sorts of races were buying things or simply browsing.
Humans, elves, beastkin, dwarves—every kind of race was gathered there, and the place was packed.
I stared fixedly at a dwarf I was seeing for the first time, and as if he’d felt my gaze, he looked back at me.
“What’s a little miss staring at this old man for?”
“Sorry! I’ve never seen a dwarf before. Your muscles are amazing.”
“Kwahaha! You’ve got a good eye, little miss! Come by our shop sometime, and I’ll make sure to throw in some service for you!”
I watched the dwarf walk away laughing, then started toward the stalls to look around.
As I browsed the various booths, I noticed that they were even selling Magic Stones.
Magic Stone of unknown grade.
It was a Magic Stone, but its grade wasn’t shown.
“Miss. Why don’t you pick one? If you’re lucky, you might get a Supreme Magic Stone.”
“Is it random?”
“That’s right! Only 50,000 gold a try!”
A Low Magic Stone cost 1,000 gold each.
A Medium Magic Stone cost 100,000 gold each.
A Low Magic Stone was just a pretty rock with no real use.
When I gave Yongyong a Low Magic Stone, he spat it out.
Lately, his tastes had gotten so picky he wouldn’t even eat Medium ones properly, but maybe I could do a few rounds for fun?
Who knew? I might get a Medium grade or higher.
“Kkyu-ung.”
“You’re telling me not to?”
“Kkyu-uuuung!”
“With my luck, buying it outright would be cheaper!?”
I pulled 50,000 gold out of my inventory.
“One try, please.”
“Kkyu-ung!?”
“Go on, pick carefully.”
Out of the many Magic Stones, I chose one—and the tiny stone suddenly swelled to the size of a bowling ball as information appeared.
Magic Stone used when researching supreme magic.
“Uh...?”
“W-what!? Why was that in there!?”
“Kkyuuuung!?”
The three of us were so shocked we couldn’t close our mouths.
No, hold on. Sir, what do you mean by that?
The black market’s rule was simple.
Once you bought or sold something, there were no take-backs.
If you broke that rule, a fixer from the underworld would come looking for you in the dead of night.
I gave the stall owner, who was staring at me with tearful eyes, a polite goodbye and started walking away, but behind me I heard the sound of something being brought down hard.
I didn’t hear a thing.
“Kkyuuung?”
“Oh? What was it that Yongyong said earlier? That buying it would be cheaper?”
“Kkyuung.”
“That’s right, you were wrong, weren’t you? So I’m not giving it to you.”
“Kkyuuung!”
“Was that supposed to be a joke? You’re mad at me?”
Yongyong pouted, and his reaction was just too funny.
Teasing Yongyong was surprisingly rewarding.
Still, the streets were crowded, so when I said I’d give it to him back at the hotel, he finally broke into a bright smile, and it was ridiculously cute.
More to the point, did he even know how expensive this thing was when he was eating it?
A Low Magic Stone was 100,000 gold.
A Medium Magic Stone was 1,000,000.
A High Magic Stone was 10,000,000.
As for Supreme Magic Stones, the price was whatever the seller said it was.
“Do you know how much this is worth, Yongyong? It’s insanely expensive.”
“Kkyuung!”
“You’re saying you’ll pay me back later?”
My Yongyong really did love to brag.
He proudly declared he’d pay me back ten times, no, a hundred times over, and he was just too adorable.
I wandered through the other stalls, chatting with Yongyong, but there was nothing especially interesting.
In novels, they always sold holy swords, demonic blades, or at least an ego sword, but there was nothing like that here.
After walking around for quite a while, I checked the time and realized it was almost time for the auction to begin.
I headed to the auction venue and showed the ticket again, and this time they handed me a mask along with a placard.
My placard number was 44.
“Please put on your mask and go inside.”
“Thank you!”
I wasn’t thrilled with the number, but there was nothing to be done about it.
After putting on the mask and going deeper into the auction house, I found a large crowd of people, all of them wearing unusual masks.
Was it to keep anyone from knowing who won the bids?
I took a seat in one of the empty chairs and waited until a man who looked like the auctioneer stepped onto the stage.
“Thank you for your patience! We’ve prepared a dazzling array of rare and valuable items to make this night shine, so please bid generously! Now, then—our first item!”
At the auction house, you couldn’t inspect items in advance.
You had to judge them with your own eyes alone, but there wasn’t anything that really grabbed me.
From beads to swords, staves, and accessories, all sorts of items came up, but I couldn’t tell what any of them were.
“Now! The item I’m about to introduce is something every summoner dreams of owning! A magical tome!”
For a standard combat class, a magic tome was priceless.
And yet no one was bidding on it?
Were summoners really that unpopular?
The auctioneer had started at 10,000,000 gold, but before I knew it, he was down to 100,000.
“No one for 100,000 gold!?”
The moment I raised my placard, it was mine.
Was the auctioneer trying to rush it off the stage before I changed my mind?
Summoners are nice...
After the auction ended and I picked up my item, I looked around the black market some more, but there was nothing else worth buying, so I went back to the hotel.
Lying down and feeling the soft bed beneath me, I heard a cute little sound.
“Kkyuung-kkyuung.”
“Is our Yongyong acting cute!?”
“Kkyuuung!”
“Of course I should give it to you!”
I took a Supreme Magic Stone out of my inventory and handed it over, and he happily gobbled it up.
“Is it that tasty?”
“Kkyuung!”
Who knew whose summon this was, but wasn’t he just way too cute!?
After recording a video of our Yongyong eating the Magic Stone for a good long while, I lay back down on the bed.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Kkyuung.”
I wish Yongyong could come with me into the real world too.
*
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*
Haaah. Life is hard.
For thousands of years as a dragon, he had never experienced anything so humiliating.
Though he had only turned into a dragon less than a year ago, he was still a dragon, wasn’t he?
He looked at his sleeping contractor with a complicated expression, then turned his gaze to the view outside the window.
Countless stars hung in the night sky.
No, should he call them constellations?
Each and every one of them was a sly thing, watching humans with greedy eyes.
He didn’t know what was so wonderful about them that people made such a fuss.
Among them, one that radiated a particularly sinister aura began to stare intently at his contractor.
Don’t even think about it. She’s mine.
The brightly shining star vanished in that instant, and another one appeared in its place.
They were all lurking, waiting for a chance.
It was time to issue a warning.
He looked up at the sky and warned them.
The day I ascend—if you don’t want to stand against me, then get lost.
At that moment, the countless stars shining in the sky vanished all at once.
For an instant, the city was swallowed by darkness and chaos broke out, but he slipped into his sleeping contractor’s arms and settled in comfortably.
He had thought that after sleeping in cold water for a thousand years, he would never again know a place like this in his life.
But in his contractor’s arms, he could sleep as much as he wanted.
Was that how warm and soft it was?
He closed his eyes and waited.
For his contractor to wake up.