Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Blue Dragon's Demise
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At that very moment, the moment Go Cheonsu fell in defeat and all his blessings and powers were stripped away as payment, utter chaos erupted within the Blue Dragon Guild.
Even now, the members out in dungeons and those locked in fierce battles with scavengers were hit by sudden calamity.
“G-God, my power’s...”
“Blue Dragon Quick... Why’s my qi vanishing?”
“Uwaaaagh!”
“Blue Dragon-nim! Blue Dragon-nim! Blue Draaaagon-nim!”
Screams of agony rang out as every member of the Blue Dragon Guild, robbed of their blessings, grew dramatically weaker. Their weapons and armor crumbled to dust or vanished into thin air.
It was a stark demonstration that even a guild once hailed as Korea’s finest became nothing the instant its constellation abandoned it. In the midst of this upheaval, the monsters and scavengers they faced claimed unearned victories.
“What the hell? They’re suddenly going nuts on each other?”
“The constellation Blue Dragon’s gone? What happened?”
“Uwaaaaaah!”
Even those on the artificial island serving as the Blue Dragon Guild’s stronghold caught wind of it.
Go Cheonyong and Chae Jiyeong felt the power and blessings from Blue Dragon drain from their bodies, realizing that Go Cheonsu, who had ventured out for the duel, had ultimately been defeated.
“Big bro...! Kugh!”
“He was so damn cocky, and now he’s crushed. Sigh~”
“Something’s gone wrong, no doubt! That bastard must’ve pulled some dirty trick...”
“If he had, Lord ‘Blue Dragon’ wouldn’t have withdrawn his blessings. It’s a total defeat. Our guild master... sigh~ Downleveled, lost all his passives and skills, even his treasured sword’s gone. He’s barely hanging on at B-rank now.”
Go Cheonyong hung his head wordlessly at Chae Jiyeong’s assessment, delivered as she checked her own status and skills.
Yeah, big bro lost, and in the fallout, Blue Dragon was so disappointed that it abandoned them.
If the opponent had won through some cowardly scheme, it would’ve surely come straight to them, demanding revenge and issuing a new ‘battle’ command.
“Damn it... Shit!”
“We’d better hide fast. Once word gets out we’re all down to B-rank scrubs, no one’s gonna leave us alone.”
“I’m still A-rank!”
“Ugh, good for you. But we’re screwed all the same. Get your family and hide, quick! You think only a couple people hold grudges against us? Hurry! Hurry!”
Thus, even Go Cheonyong and Chae Jiyeong—key executives of the Blue Dragon Guild—plummeted from their special S-rank status to ordinary hunter ranks the moment the constellation’s blessings vanished. Knowing they’d become targets for all their enemies, they hurriedly prepared to flee.
Word of this spread to the association at the same time, throwing it into turmoil once more as Yoo Seongwon, who’d been lying low without incident for so long, triggered yet another massive uproar.
The association president immediately dispatched someone to Iron Fortress to demand answers.
“No way... Seriously! Isn’t this too much? How the hell did you do it? How do you wipe out the Blue Dragon Guild in one shot?”
“The guild masters went all-in with a constellation-sworn duel and I won. What more do you want?”
“...Even so, you didn’t have to wipe them out. There had to be... a gentler way... No, this drops Korea’s S-rank count by three in a flash...”
“Not my problem. They challenged me to the duel, it ended clean enough for the constellation to approve, and this is the result. We’re busy, so head out.”
But with Yoo Seongwon insisting the phenomenon itself was constellation-sanctioned, the association had nothing left to say.
What could they demand of an absolute being beyond the starry sky?
They could only curse Go Cheonsu for suggesting such a duel in the first place.
The association executive returned and briefed the president with a lost expression, leaving him at his wit’s end as Korea’s S-rank landscape shifted dramatically yet again.
“In just one year, we’ve lost five S-ranks. Haaaah~”
“This leaves Yoo Seongwon Hunter dominating the Korean hunter world. No real rivals left.”
“His influence on national policy and the country’s fate has become even more absolute.”
Among Korea’s S-rank hunters, those untouched by Yoo Seongwon’s sway were now just Jeon Ji-a handling the southern region, the association president, and Olympus Guild.
Everyone else was dead or rank-downed.
Meanwhile, Yoo Seongwon’s side boasted at least four S-ranks or higher—Choi Choongseon, Baek Ga-yeon, Shin Somi, and himself—plus his knights, numbering beyond count.
From here on, everything would require minding Yoo Seongwon’s mood.
“Whew~ Everyone, we absolutely cannot cross him, not even a little. Summon all the mid-to-upper guild masters. We need to establish a new order.”
“Y-Yes! Got it.”
“And clamp down hard on the scavengers from now on. They’ve lost their backing, but that guy won’t tolerate reckless behavior.”
Determined to do whatever they could before it was too late, the association president scrambled desperately to keep the nation from sliding into chaos and ruin.
The era of the three great guilds was effectively over.
A new era had dawned, and now they had to set it right.
***
Iron Fortress.
With the association executive gone, Iron Fortress now faced a different kind of chaos.
Blue Dragon had reclaimed all the blessings it had scattered across Earth and redistributed them to Yoo Seongwon and his subordinates. Yoo Seongwon had figured it went only to him, his knights, the Heavenly Sword Army soldiers, and Shin Somi’s family.
And sure enough, Krokbane showed up soon after with blue scales sprouting across his body and boosted stats, while Gauwolf wielded a new blue sword he hadn’t had before.
Akaron sported an extra energy pack, and Seom-myeol proudly showed off her new mount, a ‘Blue Drake.’
Yucheong and Jinseong were thrilled about their new passive skills, and Shin Somi and Shin Ayoung were equally excited over their advanced skills...
The problem came next.
“250 kids suddenly awakened?”
“That’s right. Plus, disabled children and elders suddenly cured or jumping to their feet—their conditions all vanished. What did you do?”
“Like I said... I made a deal with Lord Blue Dragon. He pulled back all his blessings and power from Earth and redistributed them to me and my subordinates... Wait, no, the kids aren’t my subordinates! Lord Blue Dragon! Blue Draaaagon-nim!”
“Haaa~ So that’s how it is. The Blue Dragon Guild was the nation’s largest force, after all, so the sheer scale of its power is immense. Assuming it all got reclaimed and redistributed, it couldn’t just stop with you and the knights—it had to trickle all the way down.”
He’d tried limiting distribution to knights and close allies, but that would’ve meant handing out far too much power and blessings.
So, to spread it properly, it kept trickling down, down, and down—eventually reaching children compatible with Blue Dragon’s nature. Even then, surplus remained, enough to heal everyone under their care with disabilities.
“The kids and adults who got better are all in an uproar, thanking you profusely. Can’t blame them—they’ve come out ahead.”
“Well, getting healthier is a good thing, at least.”
“Oh, and they were shouting ‘Long live Your Majesty!’”
“...Not a good thing. Argh! Anyway, the kids... the elders will watch them, right?”
“I’ve got my hands full as is... Send ’em to Academia?”
“That’s the problem—they won’t want to go. They’ll get scared if we ship them off somewhere.”
Living too comfortably at Iron Fortress had created one drawback: the kids didn’t want to leave.
Yoo Seongwon worried whether awakened kids could even go to Academia, and if they did, whether they’d adjust.
“...Might as well go all-in and have Jinseong and Yucheong handle it.”
“What are those two, some kinda do-it-all dream team? They pop up for everything.”
“In exchange, I promised to summon that supply captain knight who’s either mid-tier or heavy-duty or whatever. Plus, my new skill, Aura of Battle, slashes mana costs for Heavenly Sword Army summons even further—10 points per soldier now, so 300’s doable.”
“You’re making less and less sense by the minute. That’s 800 pure soldiers under you, plus 250 hunter hopefuls—over a thousand total.”
Goblin soldiers were iffy, but Heavenly Sword Army troops were full-fledged active-duty hunter level, and 250 awakeners were a massive force boost.
Every crisis cleared seemed to balloon their scale absurdly, leaving both men dumbfounded.
“And the original four knights get along great with the kids and help keep things in line, so it should be fine. With Blue Dragon Guild down, things’ll finally be peaceful now.”
“Well, no real opposition left, so yeah. Congrats anyway—heavenly unification achieved.”
“Yeah, yeah. Oh, right. And...”
“Too early to let your guard down. The guilds suppressed by the three greats will probably fight tooth and nail to form a new order under you. Could you block C-rank dungeon monopolies? ...What?”
“Nah, it’s fine. Later.”
Yoo Seongwon shelved it as other matters took priority.
Everything had gone smoothly, but a suspicious new message had appeared in his status window—one he couldn’t make heads or tails of.
Listening to Baek Ga-yeon, Yoo Seongwon subtly pulled up his status to stare at it.
[???]
[1/???]
‘...No clue what this is. Hmm~’
From circumstantial evidence, it had started counting the moment Blue Dragon left Earth—that much was clear.
So that number likely tracked constellations he’d driven from the planet.
The problem was the ‘???’ labels... What did they mean?
‘The question marks after the number probably mean the total constellations on Earth? Too vague to display properly... But the top one’s the real issue...’
The unknown top label gave off vibes of forcing something new on him, but Yoo Seongwon gave up pondering it.
Roughly, kicking constellations off Earth would raise the count, and at some threshold, a proper name would appear. But he was the type to never open Pandora’s box if told not to.
‘...Lucky the numbers lined up by coincidence this time. Dealing with other constellations is no small feat anyway... Whew~’
Even evil mega-factions meant tackling apostle-infested ‘Core Dungeons,’ and friendly ones to humanity risked backlash, painting him as scavenger or demon.
Best to forget the new status window for now, Yoo Seongwon decided, focusing instead on the mountain of Iron Fortress tasks piling up before him.