Scammed by a Dragon
The moment Armin heard Sunghyun's words, she threw a full-blown fit.
"What? In there? No way! Are you crazy? That place is completely insane!"
Huh? Was it really that bad?
"You've never even gone inside?"
"Of course I haven't. Look at me standing out here—doesn't that tell you everything?"
Her face flushed even redder as she snapped back.
"So the first person to ever set foot in there is supposed to protect me somehow?!"
Wait—had he ever said that?
"I never said I'd protect you. You're a half-breed of a Red Dragon and a Gold Dragon, right? Doesn't that mean you're good with magic? You're fighting too."
Armin whipped her head side to side so fast it was a blur.
"What? No, no, absolutely not! It's terrifying, okay?!"
Ugh, why was she being so stubborn?
"What do you mean 'no'? Yes, you are."
Sunghyun grabbed the thrashing Armin around the waist and hoisted her up.
"Alrighty! Shall we go?"
"Kyaaaaah! A human is kidnapping a dragon! Daddy! Mommy!"
Yeah, nobody was listening to her.
"Ah! Fine! I get it, so put me down! I'll walk myself!"
She should've just done that from the start.
Still, having a conversation partner improved his mood considerably. Sunghyun turned his head so Armin wouldn't see and allowed himself a small smile.
This was what adventure felt like.
Only now did it truly feel like another world. Until this point, everything had felt more like a survival story.
But that thought didn't last long.
"Kyaaaaah! It's disgusting! Sunghyun-nim, save me!"
The instant they stepped into the Forest of Death, Sunghyun found himself face-to-face with a centipede the size of an apartment building.
"Hey, damn it—can't you use magic? At least try something."
Armin hastily sketched magic circles all around herself and blasted fire at the centipede.
Then—
Hissssss—.
Purple smoke began seeping from the centipede's body. The fire caught on the smoke and transformed into something like a cloud of flame.
Except it wasn't just a fire cloud. It was a poison-fire cloud.
Watching the plants that touched the cloud not burn but blacken and wither on the spot made a chill run down his spine all by itself.
"What the hell do we do about that?"
He had already handled the plants here. Their elasticity, durability, and heat retention were on a completely different level from anything before. For those same plants to die in an instant made the poison's potency obvious without any further explanation.
Sunghyun immediately generated a bolt of lightning and hurled it at the centipede.
Crack-boom—!
The lightning drove between the plates of the centipede's armor, and for a moment its movements froze.
"Oh! It works."
His senses had told him it would work and to just shoot, but staring at that brilliantly gleaming armor made it hard to believe. Still, senses were senses—they never fed him false information.
The centipede slowly turned its gaze toward Sunghyun, the one who had thrown the lightning.
Armin seized his arm in a panic and yanked.
"That just now! How many of those can you fire?! When you were trying to catch me you were spamming them like crazy—can you still do that?!"
Ah, of course he could.
Instead of answering, Sunghyun simply smiled and generated lightning in his hand. Not just in his hand—dozens of spears made of pure lightning materialized all around him.
Seeing that, Armin silently praised her past self for surrendering to him.
Ah, past me. You did so well. Good job.
Just imagining those bolts aimed at her made her certain she wouldn't have stood a chance.
Sunghyun didn't care what expression Armin was making behind him. First priority was that centipede.
He thrust his hand forward.
Then—
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crack—!
Dozens of lightning bolts poured down on the centipede. It twisted and coiled desperately to dodge, but lightning was lightning. How exactly was something supposed to dodge lightning?
Unless, like Sunghyun, your entire body became lightning and rode the atmosphere itself, a creature crawling on the ground simply could not evade it.
In the end the bolts drove between every gap in the centipede's armor, displaying their full might. Of course, that alone wasn't enough to stop it completely.
Sunghyun stretched his hand out in front of him.
The technique he had used against his final opponent.
Cloud Thunder
"Cloud Thunder."
Sensing the ominous power, the centipede tried to flee, but every time it moved the lightning lodged between its armor plates paralyzed it. The sight was more than enough to make even Armin tremble in terror.
Wh-what is that technique? Does that even make sense? A human wielding death itself? That is…
She had seen something similar once before. It resembled the instant-death magic used by the Black Dragon, leader of all dragons—a technique that struck the soul directly. In short, a law-defying art that completely ignored the opponent's defenses.
In that moment, Sunghyun no longer looked human to Armin. He looked like something else entirely.
Ahh… that isn't a human. I have to catch him. And I have to learn from him.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity handed down to her.
Found him.
But separate from that resolve, the lightning itself was still terrifying.
"Strike."
KRA-KOOM—!
"Kyaaaaah!"
The moment the lightning crashed down, Armin clamped her hands over her ears and eyes and collapsed right where she stood. The centipede struck by the bolt had no chance of enduring—it crumbled into powder and vanished.
The instant he used Cloud Thunder, Sunghyun's body staggered. The mana consumption was extreme.
"Ugh. Can't use that twice."
If he ever reached the point where he could spam that technique freely, the Demon King would probably be reduced to something people called "whatever."
Sunghyun entertained the idle thought as he rested a hand on Armin's head.
"Kid, you scared?"
Watching Armin bawl her eyes out with tears streaming down her face made him feel oddly guilty.
Maybe I shouldn't have brought her…
Then Armin suddenly snapped her eyes open and dropped into a full formal bow toward him.
"Wh-what the hell."
"Please accept this humble one as your disciple."
For some reason, every last trace of her previous bratty, teasing attitude had vanished without a trace.
"Hey, hey, enough. Get up."
"Yes, sir!"
Look how snappy she was. If only she'd been like this from the beginning.
Sunghyun couldn't be bothered to clear up the misunderstanding, so he decided to play along for now.
"So you want to be my disciple?"
Armin's eyes sparkled as she nodded rapidly.
"Yes! Yes, yes!"
That pure, innocent look almost made him burst out laughing, but he covered his mouth with a hand and held it in.
"Hmm. Is that so? But what exactly do you plan to learn from me?"
"That lightning just now! Please teach me so I can use that lightning too!"
She's talking about Cloud Thunder? I have no idea how I'd even begin teaching that.
Other things he could at least explain somehow, but Cloud Thunder was something he used purely by feel.
This is awkward. Ah, wait!
"Hmm? You? You can already handle lightning to some degree, right?"
At his words, Armin sparked lightning in her palm and looked up at him with shining eyes, as if to say, See? I can use lightning too!
Wait, that doesn't look like magic…
"That's not magic, is it? How did you do that?"
Armin took the question as recognition and immediately puffed out her chest.
"Gold Dragons are born able to command lightning! Reds get fire, Blues get water, Grays get earth, Greens get poison—like that!"
Even Sunghyun was hearing for the first time that Gold Dragons commanded lightning.
But—
"Lightning that weak is nowhere near enough."
He ordered her to go all out.
"That can't be your maximum. Make it as strong and dense as you can."
Armin's face turned bright red as she strained with everything she had.
"What? This is my maximum. Lightning isn't exactly easy to control in the first place."
?
That tiny little baby spark was her max?
It looked weaker than the lightning he'd used back when his trait was still C-rank. Either Gold Dragons were far weaker than he imagined, or the Armin standing in front of him was far worse at handling lightning than he imagined.
Or… she was lying to him.
"Compared to other Gold Dragons, how well can you actually handle lightning?"
"Eep!"
Armin looked away like she'd been stabbed right in the heart.
As expected. If that pathetic spark was the maximum, she wouldn't be a Gold Dragon—she'd be a Trash Dragon. At that level, a pocket monster's Pikachu would hit harder. That feeble lightning probably couldn't even charge a phone.
"So. What exactly were you planning to do with that pathetic lightning?"
Only then did her spirit finally break; her voice shrank into a mumble.
"Still… if you just help me a little…"
He'd already planned on helping her, but seeing her like this made it impossible not to tease her.
In that case—he'd combine training and teasing into one package!
"Listen, Armin. See the spear in my hand?"
"Yes! Yes, sir!"
"Make five of the exact same thing at the same time. Then I'll teach you."
She'd never manage it in her lifetime. Not with that pitiful lightning.
At his words, Armin hung her head low.
Heh heh. Perfect.
Suddenly a soft laugh rose from that bowed head.
Crackle-crackle-crackle—.
Huh.
Oh, damn it!
"You little liar!"
He'd suspected, but he never thought she'd actually pull one over on him.
Armin immediately formed five spears nearly identical to his own in her palms and set them floating in the air.
"You little—! If you could do this the whole time, huh? Then why the hell did you just stand there watching when we fought the centipede instead of helping?!"
Sunghyun's genuine anger made Armin flinch, but she still answered every point one by one.
"If I'd told you from the start that I could do this, would you have spared me?"
If she'd used it on him… well…
"See? You can't even answer! And against the centipede, you finished it so easily there was no need to bring them out. Plus, looking at you, you're clearly soft on kids."
Ah, so she'd noticed.
"What's with that 'did she figure me out?' face? I'm two hundred years older than you—you think I wouldn't notice?"
Even so, Sunghyun simply could not forgive Armin.
So—
"Aaaaagh! Stop! Stop it! My head! My heeead!"
He clamped her head between his fists and ground it mercilessly.
Hoo.
That much would do for forgiveness.
"So! I made the five spears just like you said. You're keeping your promise, right?"
Haa…
Let me tell you about the time I got scammed by a dragon.
"Yeah. Of course I am…"
I'm screwed. How the hell am I supposed to explain this?