The Golden Dragon’s Breath
Fighting the Caterand Pirates at full strength would have been insane. There was no chance of winning.
Kim Tae-hyun didn’t do insane things like that.
But the Caterand Pirates were currently fighting the Specter of the Ancient God, and before long, the kingdom’s navy would come swarming in too.
A battle where all he had to do was swoop in at the end and claim the rewards. A fight very much worth taking.
That changed everything.
“Isn’t this too dangerous?” Rufo asked hesitantly.
“What, you want to abandon those people and run? You’re colder than I expected.”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant…”
“Weren’t you cursing that pirate vanguard captain’s mother earlier?”
“I said that’s not what I meant!”
Hearing the exchange, the merchant group employees began whispering among themselves.
“Mr. Rufo did that?”
“No way…”
Under the sudden barrage of stares, Rufo’s face flushed red.
“I said no! I only meant we should rescue the people we came for and leave! The pirates are in chaos right now, aren’t they?”
The Specter of the Ancient God was rampaging through the middle of the island. Rufo thought they could use that confusion to rescue the captives.
Kim Tae-hyun disagreed.
“I don’t think that works. It’s only this manageable here because this is where the ships are. The people are being held near the pirates. If we go there, we’ll have to fight no matter what. That bastard Denelson isn’t some idiot. If he sees us again, he won’t care about the Specter of the Ancient God—he’ll come after us first.”
Considering how furious Denelson must be, that was only natural. If the two of them showed their faces again in the middle of all this, he’d stop at nothing to kill them.
“Then what do we do?”
“I don’t mind fighting. But if we’re going to do it, we prepare properly first.”
At Tae-hyun’s words, Rufo looked around.
There was nothing.
Very few of the merchant group’s employees could fight. And a merchant ship didn’t exactly carry weapons.
“Prepare with what?”
“I’m thinking of trying out the new Authority I got.”
He’d been planning to save it for later, but if he didn’t use it now, it might be too late.
Rufo’s eyes widened.
“Of course…! In that case, we might actually have a chance!”
“And if it turns out to be useless, we run.”
“…”
Rufo turned his head, pretending he hadn’t heard that.
“Excuse me… if you two are done talking, would you mind getting off me now?”
When the conversation ended, Count Marcel, who had been pinned underneath them the whole time, asked cautiously from below.
Summon Divine Beast.
A skill that permanently consumed Luck in order to summon a divine beast.
Just from the description alone, it was obvious the summoned beast would be incredibly powerful.
Once summoned, a divine beast cannot be summoned again until it is dismissed.
If I rush this because I’m in a hurry, I’ll regret it the whole time.
How much Luck should he spend?
Tae-hyun fell into thought.
There was no right answer for something like this.
In the end, he had to choose for himself.
“M-Mr. Tae-hyun!”
“What?”
He was in the middle of something important. Why the hell was someone interrupting him now?
One of the merchant employees was pointing toward a distant hill.
“...?”
“Did you really think you could get away?!”
“...!”
Denelson and his elite pirate crew were scrambling up over the hill in a wave.
What the hell?!
Tae-hyun was genuinely stunned.
The Specter of the Ancient God was obviously a monstrously strong boss. No matter how strong Denelson and his pirates were, there was no way they could deal with it and get here this quickly.
How?
The answer became clear a moment later.
Behind them, the Specter of the Ancient God was charging after them, roaring at the top of its lungs.
“You cowardly wretches! You dare flee from me?!”
Denelson wasn’t brainless.
The moment Tae-hyun made the Specter of the Ancient God and Denelson fight each other and escaped, Denelson realized exactly what had happened.
The only reason he’d been forced to keep fighting it with his men was because the specter had gone berserk.
But as more and more of his men fell, and the pirates from the area Tae-hyun had fled toward came running back to report disaster, Denelson made his decision.
Forget the center of the island!
Even if that meant letting the Specter of the Ancient God take over part of the island, he would kill Kim Tae-hyun first.
That was how much hatred had piled up.
Once he made up his mind, Denelson barked the order at once.
“All of you, with me! We’re withdrawing from that bastard!”
“?!”
Abandoning the fight with the Specter of the Ancient God and charging wholesale in the direction Tae-hyun had fled—a truly extreme choice.
“What kind of lunatic does that?”
Tae-hyun clicked his tongue.
No matter how furious he was, throwing away the whole center of the island just to come after Tae-hyun?
“Mr. Tae-hyun! This is not the time to be wondering about that!”
“I know. I’m summoning it now.”
Now that the enemies were rushing them and the situation had become truly dangerous, Tae-hyun, if anything, grew calmer.
Some people made mistakes when things got dangerous.
Others became sharper.
Tae-hyun was the second kind.
Summon Divine Beast
How much Luck would you like to use?
Tae-hyun looked at the pirates in the distance, and beyond them, the Specter of the Ancient God pursuing them.
That settled it.
Luck to be consumed: 1105
Current Luck: 2605 → 1500
Tae-hyun’s current Luck was 2605.
If he spent 1105, it would drop to 1500.
That was an enormous investment—nearly half.
But Tae-hyun had done the math.
Even at 1500, my evasion was absurd. Sure, I’ll take losses across the board, but my other stats have gone up a lot too. I can hold out.
Summon Divine Beast has been activated.
Luck consumed: 1105
Current Luck: 2605
Please choose your divine beast.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, time stopped, and the world turned to blinding light.
Then shadows appeared.
One shadow was small, but stable in shape. It didn’t waver at all.
The other was much larger, but unstable. It flickered and rippled constantly.
Does that mean something?
He could tell those two shadows represented different divine beasts.
But he couldn’t tell what the exact difference was.
One’s stable, and the other’s stronger but more unstable?
Tae-hyun made his choice quickly.
This was not the time to hesitate.
The big unstable one.
He reached out and seized the shadow.
Divine beast selected.
The divine beast is being summoned.
Please choose a name for your divine beast.
“A name?”
Come to think of it, he hadn’t prepared one.
If this thing was going to stay with him, then it needed a proper name.
Tae-hyun opened his mouth with complete confidence.
One thing he had always been confident in was his naming sense.
“KingGodEmperorMajestyGeneral—”
That name is too long and cannot be used.
“...Then just KingBestAweso—”
The divine beast’s affinity may change depending on the name you give it.
“Haha. I was kidding.”
Tae-hyun retreated immediately.
“Can’t I at least see what kind of divine beast it is?”
Information unavailable.
“In that case… let’s go random.”
Proceed with randomized naming?
The system will select a name suited to the user’s tastes.
That was one of the methods available when naming a player character. It analyzed the user’s tastes and preferences and picked the most appropriate result.
If he did it that way, at least there’d be no mistake.
“Fine.”
Your divine beast’s name is Yong-yong.
“What?”
Returning to the original world in 5 seconds.
5... 4... 3...
“Hey! Not Yong-yong!”
Tae-hyun could not accept that something like that had come out of his tastes. What kind of divine beast would like a name like that?
The voice, indifferent as ever, continued counting.
2, 1.
The light before his eyes vanished.
“What the hell is that?!”
He heard the voices before he saw anything. People were screaming.
Tae-hyun lifted his head, anticipation surging through him.
Just what kind of magnificent creature had he summoned?
“It’s a dragon!”
“...!”
A huge tear opened in the sky.
A complex magic circle formed and vanished, and from within it emerged an enormous golden dragon.
A Gold Dragon?!
Tae-hyun was impressed.
A dragon.
There still wasn’t a single player who had actually killed one. Plenty had found dragon lairs and died, but that was another matter.
It was difficult even to see dragons.
Normally, dragons sent their subordinates to deal with intruders.
They were such popular monsters that a special broadcast episode about them had become a massive hit.
Worth the investment.
For the first time, the Luck he’d spent didn’t feel painful at all.
The Gold Dragon beat its wings once in midair, then looked down over the island.
The whole place had turned into utter chaos.
“That’s right!”
“...Yong-yong...”
The Gold Dragon shook its head.
Tae-hyun tensed.
Don’t tell me it’s going to stop listening to me over the name...?
“...?”
“??”
Tae-hyun tilted his head.
Then he thought:
Feels like it would’ve liked KingBestAwesome too.
If the Gold Dragon had heard that, it probably would’ve taken offense.
“Th-that thing is...”
“Don’t panic! There’s no way anyone could control a dragon! It’s an illusion!”
“An-illusion?”
“Yes. An illusion, obviously.”
Denelson tried to steady his panicking men.
He himself was shocked out of his wits, but retreat was no longer an option.
A dragon? There was no way a human could control a dragon.
“Charge!”
The Specter of the Ancient God was still roaring furiously from behind them.
The specter warriors were climbing the hill in pursuit of the pirates.
The Gold Dragon looked down at them all with open displeasure.
“Smart little guy. That’s exactly it.”
Fwooooooosh—
In an instant, the air began to vibrate.
“...!”
One of the pirate mages cried out in horror.
A terrifying amount of mana was gathering around that dragon.
There was no mistaking it now. This was no illusion.
“Th-that really is a drag—”
The collected mana condensed into a mass of shining gold.
Then it focused before the dragon’s mouth.
Everyone present realized what it was.
“Dragon Breath!”
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
A gigantic pillar of golden light crashed down across the island.
The people on the ship had no idea what was happening, but they cheered anyway.
Whatever it was, it was attacking the enemy.
“Mr. Tae-hyun. I’m moved beyond words!”
Rufo stared at Tae-hyun as though he might burst into tears.
Yes. That was the incarnation of a god.
KWAAAAAAAAA!
“...?”
The Dragon Breath didn’t end with a single blast.
The Gold Dragon kept firing, one breath after another, with the force of a bombardment meant to wipe the whole island off the map.
“This is convenient and all… but isn’t it overdoing it a little?”
Cough.
“You just coughed, didn’t you?”
“Don’t hit the place where the captives are being held!”
Every time the Gold Dragon’s breath struck the ground, a massive golden sphere bloomed and exploded outward.
The power was overwhelming—far beyond anything any mage’s spell could match.
The supposedly impregnable fortress of Caterand Island was being annihilated.
The artificial cliffs no one was ever supposed to be able to climb. The magic cannons that had rained spells down without pause. Every trap laid around the island…
Before Dragon Breath, all of it went down in a single hit.
Everything was being swept away so cleanly it looked less like reality and more like a film.
Tae-hyun found himself thinking it was a waste to watch this alone.
I’m the one who ordered it, but this really is incredible.
Of course, he wasn’t the only one watching.
Among the captives, some were already broadcasting the entire scene from the other side.