A New Trait
A dark, gloomy basement. The bodies of Bagan and Barret hung on either side of the long chamber, casting a grim atmosphere over the space. Meanwhile, Bagan was charging straight at Palamus. His movements were sharper than ever before.
Palamus sneered at the approaching figure. “Foolish insect. ‘Stop!’”
The Dragon Words carried an unknown power. A dragon could imbue its will into spoken commands, forcing reality itself to obey. The force was so immense that even the air currents in the room froze in place.
“?!”
Bagan’s body halted mid-stride. He tried to move, pouring every ounce of strength into his limbs, but nothing happened. Strangely, there was no pain. He had simply stopped because he was told to stop. Because of that, Bagan watched Palamus with unexpected calm. He had expected this outcome.
He understood the mechanics of Dragon Words well. It wasn’t a technique unique to Palamus; he had confirmed its effects countless times in duels against dragons. Through those battles, Bagan had learned both its strengths and its weaknesses.
Its greatest flaw was simple: it could not be used indefinitely.
Dragon Words consumed an enormous amount of mental energy. While the caster wouldn’t die from the drain alone, Palamus’s situation was different. His body was already at its limit. The more mental energy he expended, the faster he would deteriorate. That was why Bagan, even while bound, remained relaxed. He intended to wear his opponent down.
“You don’t look so comfortable, Palamus!”
Palamus took the bait immediately. “Hmph! Even if my lifespan is ending, dealing with the likes of you is nothing!”
Bagan kept the conversation going, searching for an opening. “That’s a bit disappointing for a dragon, don’t you think?”
Veins bulged on Palamus’s forehead. Bagan paid no attention to the dragon’s rage. Inside, he was counting.
Three, two, one. Now!
He had been timing the duration of the Dragon Words. At Palamus’s current level, the command couldn’t last longer than twenty seconds. Twenty seconds was both long and short—long enough for a few exchanges, short enough to pass in an instant.
The moment the effect ended, Bagan moved. He didn’t charge blindly this time. That reckless rush had only been meant to force Palamus into using Dragon Words again.
Crack. Crack.
He rolled his shoulders a few times and flexed his ankles. Even though he had escaped the binding, the forced restraint had left his body stiff.
“Coming through.”
“Hah. You think being able to move changes anything, you dimwit?”
Palamus was still trapped in his own arrogance. After all, Bagan was only a first-circle mage who had barely begun learning swordsmanship. To the ancient dragon, he was nothing more than an insignificant insect.
But Bagan hadn’t been idle. His body, once unfamiliar, had become completely his own. And then there were his traits.
Bagan shot forward at a speed that made his previous charge look sluggish. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from Palamus’s sight, leaving only an afterimage behind.
“You intend to fight me without a weapon?”
Palamus scanned the room with feigned leisure, but Bagan already knew the dragon wouldn’t find him with his eyes alone. Even if Palamus tried to locate him with mana, Bagan could disrupt that search by deliberately releasing his own mana in scattered bursts, creating confusion.
Palamus struggled against the interference. The basement was now thick with Bagan’s mana. The sheer volume Palamus sensed left him momentarily stunned.
Bagan didn’t waste the opening.
“A dying dragon like you doesn’t need weapons.”
He appeared behind Palamus and pressed his right hand against the dragon’s back.
“Release!”
He drew up every drop of mana from his heart and unleashed it in one explosive burst.
Boom!
An overwhelming shockwave engulfed Palamus’s body. Yet the dragon remained unfazed.
“You’re underestimating a dragon’s scales. You’ll need at least a magic sword to wound me!”
Palamus absorbed the impact and transformed. His human form swelled hundreds of times larger, revealing the massive body of a dragon. Golden scales brighter than sunlight illuminated the dark basement in an instant. It was the kind of radiance that made it clear why he was called the Gold Dragon.
“Inferno!”
The moment the transformation finished, Palamus cast a seventh-class spell without any incantation. As a ninth-circle being, he stood at the pinnacle of what any living creature could achieve. He was the master of magic for a reason.
Flames erupted from Palamus’s mouth and rapidly expanded, swallowing the entire area. The inferno rushed toward Bagan’s face.
Left with no choice, Bagan retreated and spread his hands.
Absorption!
Using his exceptional reflexes, he began absorbing the flames bit by bit. He still couldn’t take in an entire spell at once, so he focused on neutralizing the immediate threat. Even with all his training, absorbing a seventh-class spell was a gamble.
“Ghh…!”
As the massive mana flooded into his heart through absorption, he felt his limits shatter again and again. After dozens of seconds of desperate struggle, he finally managed to absorb the entire spell. The basement, once a sea of fire, returned to its original state, leaving only heat behind.
Done.
Seeing that he had absorbed a seventh-class spell, Bagan felt a surge of pride. All his effort hadn’t been in vain.
Still, this feels unpleasant.
The fire-attribute mana that had filled his heart after absorbing the spell was raging violently. The oppressive aura radiating from the dragon’s body was no exaggeration—the mana born from it was equally ferocious. If he didn’t release it immediately, his heart felt like it would burst.
“I’d love to say ‘Inferno,’ but I’m only first-circle.”
He raised both hands toward Palamus and fired the stolen fire mana back at him.
Whoosh!
If Bagan had been a seventh-circle mage, the same spell would have carried real physical force. Right now, that was nothing more than a dream. All he needed was for the flames to obstruct the dragon’s vision.
Then he targeted Palamus’s back once more. His movement was smooth, like that of a seasoned assassin.
“What?”
Palamus had been certain Bagan would be writhing in the flames, unable to move. Instead, the sudden burst of fire mana had blinded him, and he had no idea where Bagan had gone. Searching with mana yielded the same result as before.
“Right here, you stupid lizard!”
At the sudden voice from his right, Palamus whipped his head around. Bagan was charging at him, the dead man’s sword wrapped in mana. Normally, coating a blade with energy would mean aura, but Bagan had clearly used mana instead. Though they shared the same root, the effects differed. Aura might have dealt serious damage, but mana only increased the sword’s physical strength.
“That’s—?!”
Palamus was startled by the bluish glow on Bagan’s sword. He had mistaken it for aura. That misdirection had been part of the plan.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Palamus twisted his body in a hurry and blocked the strike with his claws.
“Kuhuhu. You really are different.”
Palamus was genuinely impressed. He had never created a homunculus capable of pushing him this far. In other words, the situation was absurd.
“Enough! No—more than enough!”
With those words, Palamus unleashed the mana sealed within himself. He was preparing to use the forbidden art of black magic.
“Soul Bind!”
“So it really was black magic.”
Bagan had expected this as well. The Palamus from the game had also used black magic. The problem was that he hadn’t prepared a countermeasure. Black magic was simply too powerful; he hadn’t found a proper way to deal with it.
I can’t even pray without a baptism.
As if responding to his thoughts, Soul Bind extended its sinister mana toward him. With the spell already at his nose, Bagan had no choice but to reach out.
Please… absorb this too.
The only thing he could rely on was his trait. The moment the black mana entered his body, everything could fall apart, but there was no other option.
Whoosh!
Bagan began absorbing Soul Bind. Palamus watched in disbelief. As the black mana flowed into him through his outstretched hand, Bagan’s mind grew hazy.
Ghh…
He had to endure. Black magic didn’t follow the usual class distinctions, but it was undeniably more repulsive than any other magic. Finally, after absorbing the entire spell—
Thud.
Bagan dropped to his knees.
“Yes! That was always your fate!”
Palamus hadn’t expected this outcome, but he sneered at the sight of Bagan collapsing. His mockery quickly turned to shock. An enormous surge of black mana was now erupting from Bagan’s body.
***
Where is this?
After absorbing the repulsive mana of Soul Bind, Bagan had lost consciousness for a moment. When he came to, he found himself in a place where nothing existed. Even his body and his sense of self felt faint.
He tried to force his way out of the space, but the effort was meaningless. Nothing happened. Just as everything began to feel pointless, a single ray of light caught his attention.
A spotlight seemed to switch on in the empty void, illuminating something pure white. At its center stood—
That’s me.
More precisely, it was Seunghwan, not Bagan. Seunghwan was huddled under a blanket, completely absorbed in his computer, just as Bagan had once been. A storm of emotions washed over Bagan at the sight—disgust, doubt, revulsion, pity, anger, sorrow, happiness—each one cycling through him.
How is it?
A voice came from elsewhere. It wasn’t the Seunghwan glued to the screen.
Click.
Another light turned on in a different part of the space. Another Seunghwan appeared there.
How does it feel?
Bagan couldn’t answer. Or rather, he chose not to. After all, it was himself. He didn’t want to voice the thoughts he had only ever kept inside.
Seunghwan slowly walked over and slung an arm around Bagan’s shoulder as if his body were solid.
Pathetic, isn’t it?
No. I don’t want to say that.
But you just thought it.
Bagan recalled the moment he had been playing games. It had been happiness. In that instant, he had been happy. But looking at it from a distance…
Isn’t it tragic? You and I are both watching me.
Seunghwan sighed and continued.
It struck a nerve, didn’t it? Because I am you. I’m only saying what you already think.
Bagan couldn’t deny it.
Yeah. Pathetic. Disgusting. Revolting. What else should I say? I don’t even know why I ended up like that. If I had just stepped outside with my eyes closed, I could’ve lived just fine. …I regret it.
Bagan finally spoke. It felt relieving. Or maybe not. “Bittersweet” was probably the right word. He had thought these things about himself and now said them aloud.
Heh heh heh. Yeah, that’s what you are. A loser who died holed up in his room playing games. A pathetic, miserable bastard. Got it?
You’re me too. Why are you talking like that?
…So you’ll realize it. You lived like that and died, and now you want to die again? You’ve already changed. Both your body and your mind.
But I don’t know how.
No, you do. And so do I.
In that moment, something flashed through Bagan’s mind, and he understood.
Ah. I did know. Yeah… I know.
That’s more like it.
Seunghwan released his shoulder and walked over to the Seunghwan who was still gaming. He sat down beside him. The gaming Seunghwan welcomed him. The two merged into one while watching the screen.
Then the gaming Seunghwan spoke to Bagan.
There won’t be a next time.
Bagan nodded. He wasn’t sure if he actually nodded, since he no longer had a head, but since they were both Seunghwan and Bagan, he believed the message had been conveyed.
***
“Hey.”
Palamus couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. Bagan, who had been lying on the ground moments ago, was now standing upright and calling out to him. The dragon’s face was filled with confusion.
Bagan smiled. It was thanks to the new energy he felt coursing through his body.
How should I even describe this?
It was a power he couldn’t explain. There was no way to understand how he had suddenly obtained it.
Let’s just call it a new trait.
He didn’t know its name, but it was something far stronger than Absorption and Release. In the end, it was still an inner power. With that thought, he continued speaking.
“Round two starts now.”