The Bone Dragon
“I can refine souls too.”
If he could, he would be able to create far more powerful minions than anything he had now.
“And once I have minions that strong…”
Jinwoo’s lips curved into a sharp grin.
“Obviously I’ll gear them up with the best equipment and put them through their paces.”
Only then would he be able to draw out a hundred percent of that equipment’s performance.
“A whole new possibility.”
Soul refining. The Soul Forge.
“I’ve memorized it. I’ll pay a visit in the near future.”
The Lord of Souls and the Abyss awaits your visit!
A path to the Abyss World has been marked on your quest marker!
The Lord of Souls and the Abyss bestows a blessing upon you!
Blessing of the Abyss! Your highest stat increases by 50!
“Thank you.”
The moment the new furnace function appeared, I received this quest. The Lord of Souls and the Abyss really wants me to have the Soul Forge.
He’s been watching me longer than I thought.
All those messages about a new god keeping an eye on him—perhaps a good share of them had come from this Lord of Souls and the Abyss.
I owe this to Hepales.
It felt as though the support he had never been able to give Hepales had been transferred, intact, onto him.
“I’ll carry this class forward properly.”
Jinwoo immediately took up his hammer.
“Time for a new workshop.”
From here on, there was no holding back.
“I’ve got serious firepower now.”
He spun the hammer once with a sharp whirl.
“If you’ve got it, use it.”
Fwoooosh—
Jinwoo gazed into the dragon’s flame.
“Now this is proper heat.”
There was no reason to hesitate.
He set everything else aside.
Shaaaaa—
“Shadow Wing’s soul.”
And then:
“Shadow Wing’s bones.”
From the moment he had first laid eyes on Shadow Wing, one thought had never left him. The forge flame was one thing, but when you combined dragon and necromancer, only one creation truly fit.
“A Bone Dragon.”
A wicked little smile.
Among a necromancer’s minions, the Bone Dragon was famously prestigious.
“But for me it means something different.”
Jinwoo wasn’t just any necromancer.
“I can build one myself.”
It would be the largest minion he had ever created.
“Until now, Pin was the biggest.”
Pin was an excellent minion, but his flight had limits.
And hauling every minion around on his back isn’t exactly practical.
He needed a flying mount with a completely different purpose from Pin’s.
“Honestly, just riding a Bone Dragon is already enough of an impact statement.”
He wanted that sheer presence as well.
“All right, first things first.”
Jinwoo summoned the material spirit Dust.
“Pyorong.”
Dust appeared with a prim little air.
“I’m recycling these gems.”
The jewels taken from Shadow Wing’s lair were high quality, but their grades had been frustratingly low in several ways.
With Dust’s Recycle, I can put them to real use.
“Pyorong!”
Dust showed clear enthusiasm. From the look of things, its rival Coco had not been summoned. That meant this stage belonged entirely to Dust alone.
“Pyoroooong—”
Dust immediately fluttered over the gems. One by one they began to be absorbed into its body. Intense light poured out of Dust along with the swallowed jewels.
Recycle!
Yet something felt different from usual.
It’s glowing brighter than ever.
Exactly as Jinwoo had expected.
Dust’s level has increased!
Dust has become an Intermediate Spirit!
“!”
The once-cute Dust’s form shifted.
“You…”
Jinwoo stared.
“You’re as fluffy as a sheep now.”
Originally Dust had been a soft, powdery little spirit true to its name; now it looked far plumper and more cloud-like.
“Pyorong—!”
Dust spun in a circle, insisting he look at the gems instead.
Jinwoo examined the recycled jewels.
“!”
His eyes went wide.
“Every single one jumped to SR-grade? Wait—this one’s SSR!”
One full tier, even two. The ability had shown its full strength.
“Excellent!”
He ruffled Dust’s head.
“And the texture is ridiculously soft.”
For a split second his eyes gleamed.
“Pyorong!”
“I was absolutely not thinking about snipping a piece off just because it feels like fabric made with Flawless Tailoring. Never crossed my mind.”
Dust narrowed its eyes at him like little axes.
Jinwoo began absorbing every last gem through flame jewelry craft.
I’ll pour every melted jewel into the Bone Dragon.
“Hooo…”
He set to work on Shadow Wing’s bones.
“Deep Smithing.”
Shaaaaaa—
The soul was extracted from Shadow Wing’s bones.
Ssss…
The extracted soul carried heavy contamination. Jinwoo reached out and began stripping away the polluted portions with Deep Smithing. The corruption was severe, making the work far from easy—yet still far simpler than Flawless Tailoring.
I only have to purify it cleanly.
Shadow Wing’s bones have been purified!
The material’s potential has broken through its limit!
Jinwoo raised chisel and hammer.
Kwagak—!
The instant the tools touched bone, raw power slammed back at him.
“This won’t be easy.”
As expected of UR-grade material.
Feels a lot like working orichalcum.
Fierce power rejected his control, declaring that force of this level could never subdue it.
Even stronger rejection than orichalcum.
He was handling dragon bone—harder and higher-grade than any bone he had ever shaped.
Sak. Sak.
Kwang! Kwang!
Jinwoo set the chisel and drove the hammer down.
“Fire Build.”
Not ordinary Fire Build. He wrapped his hands in the forge’s dragon flame. Fire Build empowered by dragon fire flared around him. He spun the flames once through his fingers, then pressed the chisel and hammered with all his might.
Kwagak! Kwagak! Kang!
The fierce heat poured straight into Shadow Wing’s bones, shaving them away in an instant.
“Bone Making.”
He drew the obsidian dagger; dragon flame ignited along its edge as well.
Fwoooosh—!
“I’m cutting.”
Kwadeuk—!
First he had to section the enormous bones. Shadow Wing’s skeleton was so vast that reshaping it into the desired form required this kind of radical alteration—carve, cut, reassemble.
Kwak. Kwakak.
Suddenly Jinwoo’s body staggered.
“It’s pushing back.”
He struck again with chisel and hammer. This time the recoil shoved him even farther.
Working a bone of this size made the resistance natural—yet Jinwoo refused to treat it as natural.
“My power control is still crude.”
Fine then.
“I need to zero in the force.”
Kkaang! Kkaang!
He began searching for the exact level of strength that would optimally carve Shadow Wing’s bones.
Kwak! Kwak!
“Rune.”
He called on the power of the new Earth Rune he had obtained.
Earth Rune effect activated.
Receiving the power of the earth, strength temporarily increases!
After pushing his strength to the absolute limit, Jinwoo brought the hammer down hard. The blows looked rough, yet every strike was calculated. A few test hammerings had already told him exactly how deep the chisel would bite.
Kkaang!
One, two, three.
With the third blow he found the precise sensation of the chisel sinking cleanly home.
This is it.
This force.
He continued hammering at that exact same intensity.
Srrrk…
Jinwoo ran his hands over the bone. Material Insight. Which sections were weak, which were strong.
Because it’s so massive, I have to fine-tune the force for every single part.
Hitting every area with identical power would simply destroy those sections. So he mapped it all.
The entire bone.
He understood and read the dragon bone’s nature, then carved accordingly.
Sak.
Kwagak! Kwagak!
He carved and carved again.
There was once a man who tried to cut down a mountain with a single pickaxe.
If he couldn’t even shape one bone…
“I wouldn’t deserve to call myself a blacksmith.”
Stamina is falling!
“Light Nature Rune.”
Light Nature Rune activated!
Stamina recovery begins.
His depleted stamina began to recover. Jinwoo’s hands never stopped. Total immersion. For a moment his mind went completely blank. The chisel in his grip, the hammer—both began to feel like extensions of his own hands. Chisel was hand; hammer was hand. That meant he could move them with perfect precision, as if they truly were his flesh.
Kwagak.
Carve.
Carve until the dragon is complete.
Kwagak—!
The chisel sank deep. The final hammer blow followed.
Kkaang—!
◈ You have created an SR-grade skeleton frame!
◈ Bone Making proficiency has greatly increased!
Majestic. The finished frame looked as though an entire mountain had been carved into bone. Jinwoo gazed at his completed work and slowly drew a deep breath.
“Done.”
This was the absolute peak of what his current skill could produce in a skeleton frame. Carefully he pressed Shadow Wing’s soul into the structure.
Shaaaaa—
A powerful soul inhabits the frame!
Guung—
The inhabiting soul surged outward, flooding the entire massive Bone Dragon.
Srrrk…
Kwaak—
Shaaaaaaaa—!
With a tremendous roar the Bone Dragon’s wings stirred.
“Kh.”
Every single beat of those wings hurled a violent gale.
“From this day forward, your name is…”
Jinwoo named his new minion.
“Bon.”
The minion has been granted a name!
Named Bon unfurled its wings.
“Pur, First, Mortus.”
Jinwoo immediately summoned his three minions.
Shaaaaaaaa—!
“This is a new minion. Introduce yourselves. His name is Bon, and as you can see, he’s a Bone Dragon. I made him from the very dragon you were fighting just a short while ago.”
“!”
The three minions stared up at the Bone Dragon in open awe.
“To think you crafted this… with your own hands.”
“Truly magnificent, Master!”
“Number.one.on.the.continent.”
Each of them marveled at Jinwoo’s craftsmanship. Creating Pin had been impressive enough, but this Bone Dragon was on an entirely different scale of size. That a human pair of hands could fashion something so vast… and they had fought that dragon themselves; they knew exactly how powerful it had been.
The newly born Bone Dragon beat its wings once more.
“A great… an infinitely great being has been born!”
Then it looked down upon Jinwoo from on high.
“Are you my master?”
An enormous ego. Inevitable. A dragon forged from Shadow Wing’s soul could never possess a small sense of self.
At that insolent tone, Jinwoo only smiled wider.
“That’s right. I’m your master.”
The three minions watched in silence, then each took up their weapons.
“Crazy.bastard.”
The moment the words left First’s mouth, he gestured sharply.
“Education.begins.”