Sacrificing My Life Savings for a Dragon

The Constellation's Game [Laika]

So, I seemed to have briefly lost consciousness.

Losing film footage inside a Gate.

I never thought I'd experience something this horrifying on the live server, of all places.

Rustle—

Either way, it was a relief that I came to without incident—and an even greater relief that the place I woke up in was a familiar one.

The spot where I'd opened my eyes was… the stone chamber with the statue where my class main quest had first begun.

Which meant the very first thing I did upon waking was ask the Constellations.

Judging by how many viewers were still watching, it hadn't been that long.

Come to think of it, something was a little off.

From roughly the moment I possessed Raphael's mind near the end of the quest… my communication with the Constellations seemed to have cut out.

Apparently the Constellations hadn't seen the final moments of the quest.

Which meant they had no idea it had been cleared.

Whatever the reason, it didn't really matter. My live viewer count had dropped about forty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠percent, but experience told me these were exactly the kind of friends who'd come flooding right back the moment I showed them something entertaining.

And after a quick check of my quest information window…

It seemed I was about to give the Constellations something very entertaining indeed.

Honestly. Have these Constellation punks spent their whole lives getting fooled and liking it?

It was really true, I'm telling you.

Whew.

The Laika system does glitch out once in a while—what don't these hyung-nims know? It happened at least once every two loops back in the day, I swear.

Of course I did, hyung-nims.

That's right as well.

Heh heh.

Well then, since we're on the subject… shall we get right into it, hyung-nims?

The first order of business was opening my quest window. Clearing the first class main quest had triggered the follow-up chain quest.

And just as I'd expected, the moment the Constellations laid eyes on the quest details, all hell broke loose.

Since I'd been sharing a good chunk of the quest progress with them, it wasn't entirely out of the blue…

But they'd had no way of knowing I'd actually walked away with a dragonkin's transmutation formula.

At any rate, the Constellations' ruckus meant one thing: their anticipation for this quest was skyrocketing…

And that could only be good news for me.

[ON Air : ☺ 437]

So—strike while the iron is hot. In other words, push the quest forward without a moment's hesitation.

To be honest, when I'd first received the skill points, I never imagined I'd be spending them this quickly. Back then, I had no clue which skill to invest in at all.

By my count, I had all of three class-exclusive skills—and with my understanding of them sitting at basically zero, I'd planned to play around a bit before committing any points.

But the instant I opened the transmutation formula to advance the quest, my mind was made up. Clean and final.

Because it had become painfully, blindingly obvious which skill would deliver maximum efficiency right now.

Setting everything else aside—it was a Mythic-grade item, for crying out loud.

And just how big a deal is the Mythic grade? It sits above the rarity of Zerathus's Flag, that literal legion commander's artifact. Up through tier 8 to 10, it's a grade you'd struggle to even glimpse—and I'd picked one up in the early twenties of levels.

So of course the obvious move was to dump every last resource into it.

The heartbreaking fact that I'd only get a single shot at the synthesis was, if anything, further justification for going all in.

Whew.

So this is how my dream of dragon-scalp cash-farming folds, just like that.

I'd briefly dared to fantasize about becoming rich through dragon byproduct harvesting…

'This one kind of hurts, doesn't it?'

But heartache aside, that was no reason to hesitate. The quest itself left no room for putting off Drakiel's synthesis anyway.

Delaying a class main quest is the single dumbest thing a player can do. Class main quests are the only way to earn class experience, after all.

Put it off and just grind player levels instead, and your foundation rots from the inside out.

Sorry—that explanation ran a little long.

My point was simply this: if a Mythic-grade synthesis can't be deferred, then slamming every resource into it for the best possible result is just plain common sense.

In other words—

The Constellations who checked the formula's grade put on their usual, well-worn show of disbelief…

And I breezily ignored them, sinking my skill points straight in.

The system messages then flowed along, naturally pointing me toward my next step.

No reason to hesitate—I used it on the spot.

And I began preparations for the synthesis in earnest.

But then, just as everything had been gliding along as smoothly as water—

An entirely unexpected system message scrolled into view.

And when I saw what came next… my brain flat-out crashed for a moment.

So what this is saying…

Is that I'm supposed to strip my entire life savings down to the bolts and hand it all over. Right?