I Got a Pet
Sunghyun had deliberately postponed his level-ups, saving them for the explosive surge of power that came the instant they triggered.
And so, the moment the hatchling appeared—
Body Level has reached 70.
Account Balance: 12,496C
Body Level has reached 80.
Account Balance: 6,096C
Sunghyun spent the coins to rebalance his mana and physique.
Crack-crack—
His muscles and bones hardened and refined until they rivaled any metal, growing denser and more precise. That was only the beginning. His senses sharpened to a razor edge; he could now pick out every sound, every scent, even the faintest currents of air around him. Looking out through newly heightened eyes, the world itself seemed to slow, as if someone had dropped an anime scene to half-speed.
A deep, rising pressure built inside him. His emotions surged higher and higher, and the atmosphere answered in kind, flooding with his mana until the air itself crackled.
The hatchling closing in on him felt the shift. Moments earlier it had been certain of victory. Now the creature before it was no longer prey—it was something to flee from. Power like that belonged in the next zone, not here.
The hatchling had deliberately neglected its own growth, walking a tightrope of restraint. Even with the natural gifts of a king, it had refused to advance into the deeper forest. That alone had made it unchallenged in this part of the woods. Sunghyun’s sudden appearance shattered that premise completely.
Challenge him? No. The instant their eyes met, the hatchling knew it had to run.
Sunghyun locked gazes with the distant hatchling. In that same heartbeat the hatchling whipped its head away. It had to escape—yet the moment their eyes connected, it had already entered his range.
A bone-deep chill raced down its spine. The hatchling twisted its body hard.
CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACKLE—!
A spear of pure lightning tore through the air, aimed to pierce it clean through.
“Ah, missed? One more time.”
The casual tone of a child toying with an insect. Humiliation the hatchling had never known in its life flooded through it—but there was no time to voice the feeling. Lightning kept coming, relentless, each bolt threatening its life.
Sunghyun was testing his newly evolved traits, shaping the lightning into spears, altering its state mid-flight, experimenting freely. Yet after a while his brow furrowed at the hatchling that did nothing but dodge.
“Hah, are you just going to keep dodging forever? Boring. Weird. My skill says twenty-one thousand C, so why are you this weak?”
His skill was not wrong. The hatchling’s raw power truly measured twenty-one thousand coins. But decades had passed since it left its parents and buried itself in this forest. It had forgotten how to fight. All it knew was to charge, breathe fire, and rake with claws until the target stopped moving. Even when opponents threw their lives away in desperate attacks, its hard scales simply bounced everything off. With no real need to learn technique, combat skill had withered away.
Watching that pathetic display, Sunghyun let out a heavy sigh.
“Haa… I didn’t want my final revenge to end this hollow. Why does this feel so empty?”
He rode the charged air upward. Crackling lightning trailed behind him as he closed the distance in a blur and appeared right in front of the hatchling. Having shattered his sword in the previous fight, he simply drove a fist into its face.
THUD!
He half-expected some last-second awakening. What followed was even more ridiculous. The hatchling’s head snapped sideways from the punch. Tears welled in its eyes as it flapped its wings uselessly, staring at him with a look that screamed it had no idea how to respond.
Sunghyun sighed again.
“Haa… what am I supposed to do with this thing?”
He formed a sword of lightning in his hand. The hatchling immediately rolled onto its back in midair, belly exposed in clear submission, and plummeted.
THUD!
Even after hitting the ground it kept wriggling on its back, belly still bared. Sunghyun pressed a hand to his forehead as a headache bloomed.
“What is this now?”
Wriggle, wriggle. The hatchling flopped around like a puppy begging for affection, wings flapping against the dirt. Sunghyun released the lightning straight into the sky.
BOOOOM—!
The hatchling flapped even harder, desperately trying to catch his eye.
“Haa… I’m going crazy. Hey, get up. Can you talk?”
On the off chance it might, he spoke to it. The previous earth rival had managed speech; maybe this one could too.
Might as well raise a dragon pet while I’m at it.
Dragon riding. Every man’s dream, right? How was he supposed to kill something that flopped around so helplessly begging not to die? Coins were useful, sure, but he had no desire to slaughter a creature that no longer needed killing. Drawing a blade on something that wasn’t even trying to harm him felt like crossing a river he could never recross. Truthfully, he had been the one who fled from the hatchling earlier; the hatchling itself had never struck first.
When he asked if it could speak, the hatchling gave a small nod. Its eyes were clear and transparent, a striking golden color.
“You’re actually pretty cute. Peak male fantasy material right there.”
Crimson scales, golden eyes.
“If you can polymorph on top of that, aren’t you straight out of a novel?”
The hatchling’s eyes lit up.
If I polymorph, will you spare me?
“Huh? Was that you?”
A voice slammed directly into Sunghyun’s mind. It felt like magic; even without shared language, the meaning arrived fully formed.
“Go ahead and try. If it looks decent, I’ll let you live.”
He had already decided to spare it, but he still played it cool.
Whoooosh—
A brilliant multicolored radiance enveloped the hatchling’s entire body. The light gradually shrank until something smaller than Sunghyun himself stood in its place.
“Uweh?”
The hatchling was gone. In its place stood a young girl with vivid red hair and golden eyes.
“There! Done! So you’ll spare me now, right?”
Sunghyun stood frozen with his mouth open. The girl waved her hands in front of his face.
“Hellooo? We’re good, right? I’m leaving…?”
The moment she turned to go—
Grab—
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Sunghyun caught her by the head.
“Eeeek! You said you’d let me go! You said you’d let me go!”
She acted exactly like the child she now resembled. Sunghyun’s strength drained out of him in another long sigh.
“Ah… I didn’t expect a little kid.”
In situations like this, wasn’t a glamorous older beauty supposed to appear? What was he supposed to do with a girl who looked young enough to be his daughter? He had harbored a few quiet fantasies about the other outcome, and now they were thoroughly dashed.
He was finished. There was no way he could punch that face.
I’m weak against kids.
That was exactly why he had gotten involved with Hayato’s mess in the first place—well, that and the fact that it looked fun.
“Haa, what now… Hey.”
When he called out, the girl who had been thrashing to escape his grip went still.
“What’s your name?”
For the first time, genuine curiosity about the hatchling stirred in him.
“Eeeek! Let go of my head first and then talk!”
Having just watched him forge lightning in his bare hands, she trembled every time his palm came near.
I feel like the villain here.
Sunghyun released her head and crouched down. Their eyes met, and he caught his own reflection in hers.
Right. I’m still naked.
A naked man about to hit a little girl. Peak criminal energy. Even with no one watching, he couldn’t stand the image of himself. He hurriedly bought random clothes from the shop and threw them on.
The girl’s eyes sparkled as she bounced closer.
“Whoa! What was that just now? Something went whoosh through the air and you just snagged it and put it on and all the dangly bits disappeared!”
Ah. She saw that. Moving on.
“So. Your name?”
He put a little threat into the question. The girl answered in the most obedient tone imaginable, carefully enunciating every syllable.
“Y-Yes! My name is Armin Rom Goldired!”
Armin Rom Goldired? What kind of name was that long?
“What does it mean? Wait—Rom? As in the Rom Kingdom?”
Hermes had mentioned that his saint was there.
“Oh! You know of it? The current king of the Rom Kingdom is my father! Father is a Gold Dragon, Mother is a Red Dragon, so—Goldi-Red!”
So Hermes’s saint was a Gold Dragon? He had never mentioned that. Knowing Hermes, he probably also knew this girl was here. Next time they met, teacher or not, Sunghyun was going to punch him first and ask questions later.
More importantly—
“Why is a king’s daughter playing tyrant out here?”
“Ah! There’s a rule among dragons. Every dragon over two hundred years old must leave their parents and grow in the Forest of Demonic Beasts until they become adults. That’s the national rule among dragons!”
Every dragon over two hundred? That made no sense. Nothing in this zone was as strong as the Armin standing in front of him.
Sunghyun fixed her with a questioning stare. Armin turned her head and pretended to look elsewhere. Did she really have to say it out loud?
“What about the other dragons? Don’t tell me there aren’t any?”
Armin’s body flinched.
“The other dragons all went past the next zone, didn’t they? And you’re stuck here because you’re scared, just playing tyrant?”
Hermes seemed quite fond of the king of the Rom Kingdom. His daughter, on the other hand…
“But… it’s too scary in there…”
Armin fidgeted with her fingers and stared at the ground. Sunghyun understood instantly.
This was a trial. Fate itself was telling him to drag this girl into the deeper forest. Disagree? Too bad. If he said it was so, then it was so.
“Hey, Armin. I’m going in there. You coming?”
Whether she agreed or not, he planned to drag her along. He had to reach the Rom Kingdom eventually. Arriving with the king’s daughter in tow wouldn’t hurt. Bonus points for helping the daughter of someone Hermes cherished grow stronger.
It was absolutely not because he wanted to become a dragon rider.
Definitely not.
And so, Sunghyun acquired a dragon pet… correction: a companion.