Arcana Online
Bell-noona looked at me with a grave expression, then put some distance between us and drew a staff out of thin air.
With a single sweep of her hand, the world turned upside down.
The boundary between sky and earth vanished, and in the blink of an eye the scenery changed. I found myself standing in a pure white space where nothing existed at all.
Just as I was still reeling, Bell-noona’s voice reached me.
“I’ll introduce myself properly. I’m Beliar, one of the seven archmages who exist on the Arcana Continent.”
As soon as the introduction ended, nothing happened.
The scenery returned to normal as though nothing at all had occurred.
Bell-noona was smiling at me, and for some reason it sent a chill down my spine.
How much stronger is an archmage than an ordinary mage?
She gave a blunt proposal to me, who was just staring at her blankly.
“Become my disciple.”
Light Archmage Beliar has proposed that you become her 101st disciple. If you accept, you can advance to the hidden class Light Mage.
Do you accept?
YES / NO
“No, I’m okay.”
[Hidden Advancement Quest Rejected.]
“...Pardon?”
“My dream is to be a summoner, so I don’t want to be a mage.”
Bell-noona stared at me in disbelief, and the next thing I knew, she was grabbing my clothes and trying to drag me away toward the village!?
“Why would you refuse!? The chance to become an archmage’s disciple is harder to get than plucking a star out of the sky!”
“W-wait, Bell-noona!? Don’t pull me like that!”
We wrestled for what felt like forever before Charles-ajusshi finally stepped in and separated us.
“First, calm down and let’s talk this through.”
“No, I just offered to make her my disciple and she turned me down!? And now you want me to calm down!? Do you even know how many people on this continent would kill to be my disciple!?”
After she finished her long, exasperated complaint, Bell-noona let out a sigh.
“Fine. If you say you don’t want it, I won’t force you. But Yuna is in a very dangerous situation right now. You’ve been marked by a dragon.”
With those words, she flicked her staff, and a sigil rose above my head.
“This is the mark left by a dragon.”
So this was the mark I’d obtained from Ernia the other day.
“Ah, so this is Ernia’s mark.”
At that moment, Bell-noona dropped the staff she’d been holding.
Then she started shaking my shoulders without mercy.
“W-what did you just say!? Say it again!”
“Ernia’s mark! Stop shaking me! I’m getting dizzy!”
Thanks to Charles-ajusshi stepping in yet again, I finally managed to escape her grip.
Bell-noona muttered something under her breath, then suddenly fixed me with a sharp look.
“Hah. I didn’t want to go this far, but I suppose I have no choice.”
Prove to Light Archmage Beliar that you are worthy of the summoner class.
Clear Condition: Obtain a summoned beast within one week and prove it to Light Archmage Beliar.
Success: Beliar’s treasure.
Failure: Advance to Light Mage.
“Not a bad deal, right? I mean, there’s no way you’d fail, but if you do succeed, I’ll give you the treasure I’d been saving for myself: the Light Crystal.”
At that moment, the item information surfaced.
Light Crystal
It can awaken a dormant power.
After looking over the item information, I decided it was finally time to ask.
“Why do you want me to become your disciple?”
“Archmages and dragons once made a pact.”
A long, long time ago.
The archmages who had lost precious disciples to dragon tyranny gathered in one place.
The seven archmages of the continent joined forces and began hunting dragons.
As for dragons, they were fiercely individualistic.
They would sneer at their kind being hunted by humans, but they would never help one another.
As a result, one dragon after another was hunted down, and when the damage became impossible to ignore, the lord of the dragon race finally stepped forward.
The first pact between humans and dragons was forged then.
They agreed not to lay a hand on an archmage or that archmage’s disciple.
Likewise, archmages and their disciples were forbidden from touching dragons.
If I became an archmage’s disciple, Ernia would no longer be able to lay a hand on me.
The only way to protect me.
“And besides, I’ve heard plenty of rumors about Ernia. No, about the Dragon King Ernia.”
Long ago, because of some incident, she had gone to war with the red dragons, only to be sealed away by betrayal from the dragon tribe.
And I was the one who had broken that seal.
Mm. Serves her right, then?
But there was one problem.
I couldn’t lose this bet.
“Just give up and become my disciple. It’s impossible to obtain a summoned beast within a week.”
While Bell-noona explained that time was money, I took the incubator out of my inventory and showed it to her.
“......”
Bell-noona froze, her mouth hanging open.
After standing there dazed for a long moment, she carefully opened her mouth.
“Uh, how about we pretend this never happened? Or I can give you something better! No, more importantly, I only made this proposal to save Yuna! I never intended to actually give it to you! Do you know how hard I worked to get that thing!?”
But the system was different.
Reward granted.
“No, wait!”
Magicians’ contracts are sealed by spoken law.
Once a contract is made, it must be upheld even in death.
Light Crystal appeared in my arms.
I’d thought it would only arrive in three days, but the system was surprisingly flexible.
I offered the Light Crystal to Bell-noona, who was collapsed on the ground in despair, with a sympathetic look, but it did no good.
“It’s too late already. You’ve been recognized as its master, so I can’t use it.”
She looked at me with vacant eyes, then said I should rest for now and talk more tomorrow before leaving first.
Was it really that precious an item...?
Yawn. I’m sleepy too, so I might as well rest and continue tomorrow.
*
*
*
A place thick with the smell of blood.
The cold corpses of dragons—those called calamities by humankind—were strewn across the ground in several places.
The last living dragon, blood pouring from its body, was bowing and begging pathetically before a being that had taken human form.
“E-Ernia! You know that! We were deceived too! By that vile red dragon!”
“Shh.”
Ernia whispered softly.
If it said one more word, she really would kill it.
The situation was such that, drenched in cold sweat, it could do nothing but beg for mercy.
“The betrayal doesn’t matter.”
“T-Then was it because of the child who died!? Th-that—!”
Those were the last words it would ever speak.
With a heavy thud, the dragon collapsed limply to the ground.
“My baby is not dead.”
We had just met a moment ago.
Though a curse had stolen her memories and turned her into a human, how could a mother fail to recognize her own child?
That special feeling that could only be sensed in our baby.
That was how I knew.
Just how much hardship she must have suffered, losing herself among humans all this time.
I’m sorry, my dear child, for having such a useless mother.
Once everything is finished, I’ll come get you. Let’s live together—just you and me.
Forever.
Slowly, I moved forward and wiped the blood from my hand.
But first, there was something I had to deal with.
For our baby and me to live happily ever after, there could be no one standing in the way.
It was time to eliminate the red dragon that had sealed me away.
*
*
*
You made a major contribution to the elimination of the black dragon tribe.
Reputation Points: +100,000
You made a major contribution to the elimination of the red dragon tribe.
Reputation Points: +100,000
When I logged in the next morning, a flood of messages was waiting for me.
Elimination? No, more importantly, what are black dragons, and what are red dragons!?
A pile of incomprehensible messages had arrived, and they even kindly explained how to use the reputation points I’d earned.
“Use reputation points.”
Reputation Point Shop
[Equipment]
[Accessories]
[Consumables]
[Other]
I already had a staff for equipment, and I’d gotten an accessory too, so maybe I should buy consumables?
[Consumables]
Strength Potion - 1,000P
Intelligence Potion - 1,000P
Luck Potion - 1,000P
Agility Potion - 1,000P
:
:
:
As I browsed the consumables, none of them meant anything to me.
Should I take a look at Other?
[Other]
Random Draw - 10,000P
Even someone who didn’t know games at all knew what a random draw was.
It probably gave you a random item, right?
Should I try it once...?
Congratulations! You obtained a pebble!
Pebble
It hurts if it hits you.
“This piece of junk costs ten thousand points!?”
Haaah, no matter how you look at it, this is a loss.
Even if the reputation points came easy... still.
Should I try just one last time...?
*
*
*
Congratulations! You obtained glutinous rice cake!
Glutinous Rice Cake
Chewy and delicious.
Congratulations! You obtained a shark plushie!
Shark Plushie
Comfortable to sleep while hugging.
Congratulations! You obtained nitrogen!
Nitrogen
The snack inside the bag is a freebie.
At some point, I’d drawn so much random junk that it had piled up into a mountain of clutter.
And then the last chance was left.
The moment I used my final points to buy one last random draw, a small box appeared, glowing with brilliant gold light and adorned with an ornate pattern.
With trembling hands, I opened the box, and there it was: a bead.
Yeouiju
An item stolen just before an imugi could ascend, after a thousand years of cultivation in the cold depths. If consumed, it grants tremendous power.