The Confucian Dragon
"Master. You're studying architecture, right?"
"Huh?! Wh-what? You said you were going outside the tower, when did you get back?"
I shot a glare at my staff-wielding master, who was now sweating bullets.
"Master, if you're not busy, help me out a bit."
"What kind of trouble are you in that you're actually asking me for help?"
Sun Wukong finished speaking and leapt down from the tree, landing lightly. A quick glance at the tablet tucked under his arm showed a game running instead of the study materials I'd given him.
"The thing's too heavy for me to lift."
"......Are you dating someone?"
"What the heck are you talking about?"
"That's how it goes in the comics...... Otherwise, how does a kid who swings the Yeoui-bong around like a madwoman with one hand say something like that?"
"Ah, damn it. I'm seriously telling you it's heavy."
"Hmm......"
Still giving me a suspicious look, Sun Wukong watched as I opened my inventory space. He scratched the back of his head and stepped outside.
—Click, click.
"Huu—"
After lighting a cigarette, I followed Sun Wukong out and found him poking his face right up to Dan-pung.
"Master, what are you doing?"
"Huh? Wait, who is this little guy? Never seen him before."
"That's Dan-pung. My new friend."
"Piiit?"
"Oh? Nice to meet you. I'm Sun Wukong. Take good care of me."
"Piiit!"
He'd already gotten along well with Baek Seol, and being a monkey himself, he seemed to have a natural affinity with animals.
"So where's this thing you said you couldn't lift?"
Sun Wukong stretched and turned to look at me.
"Here."
I opened the inventory space again. With a doubtful expression, Sun Wukong approached and stuck his hand inside.
Crack.
"Guh?!"
A gruesome sound echoed from Sun Wukong's waist.
"Can't pull it out?"
"Ow, my back. You should've warned me it was this heavy. I almost threw my back out just now."
"I told you it was heavy."
"......So you did."
Sun Wukong scratched the back of his head.
"Want me to take it out?"
"Yeah, please."
Grind.
"Pii?"
"Gah!"
The two fluffy balls that had been playing with a ball stared with wide eyes. It was probably their first time seeing a lifeform this enormous.
Grind. Gr-gr-grind——
Sun Wukong dragged the pulled-out object away, growing smaller and smaller in the distance. Even so, the corpse was so long that its end was nowhere in sight, continuously spilling out of the inventory space. The space itself began to stretch wildly to accommodate it.
"Gyaaaah! I-it's tearing!"
Gr-gr-grind——
After a long while, the thing finally finished emerging. Sun Wukong was already more than three hundred meters away.
Bang!
The dot that had been Sun Wukong appeared right in front of me in an instant, the sonic boom arriving late.
"It's disgustingly big."
"Told you."
"Where'd you catch this?"
"Remember when Zeus blasted me off to some weird place last time? There was a black dragon or evil dragon or whatever there. I caught it then."
There was no end in sight. You had to crane your neck all the way back just to look up at it.
"What are you planning to do with it?"
"Thanks to this, I've got two identical corpses now. I'm going to assemble them like a toy."
"Oho."
"Master, there's one more smaller corpse in the inventory. Can you take that out too?"
"Sure."
Sun Wukong rummaged inside the space and casually tossed out another dragon corpse.
BOOOOM!!
"Ow, the dust. Be gentler next time."
"They're both lizard corpses, so why is this one so light?"
"That's the normal one. The first one was abnormally huge, wasn't it?"
"Was it?"
I shrugged, and Sun Wukong shrugged along with me. Neither of us had seen many dragons, so we had no real basis for comparison.
"So you're finally trying this out."
"It's that thing you had at home last time, right?"
"Yeah. Thanks for helping, Master."
I handed Sun Wukong a Choco Songsong bar, which he happily accepted.
"For our fluffy ones too."
Ding! Ding!
One was a white diamond bellflower, the other a sunflower seed infused with magic power.
"Nice!"
"Piiit!"
"Then let's begin the dinner show. Please enjoy the show while eating something delicious."
Clap clap clap. Tap tap. Pong pong. The applause came in all different styles. Baek Seol enthusiastically patted the two fluffy balls, while Dan-pung tapped the ground with his tail. When I looked back, everyone had already taken their seats.
—Click, click.
"Huu—"
Two skeletons of the same type. The conditions were met, but I had no idea if this would work.
Crack!
"Synthesis!"
Rumble——!
The hide of the mountain-sized black dragon corpse and the smaller red dragon corpse began to melt and drip onto the ground. At the same time, an enormous amount of energy started pouring out like water from a broken dam.
"Kgh......"
My insides felt like they were being churned. I'd never had my energy drained during synthesis before, so this was an unexpected variable.
"Hnn!"
In the blink of an eye, all the accumulated energy vanished. My vision began to darken.
"What?! Are you okay?"
Having noticed something was wrong, Sun Wukong rushed over from where he'd been watching. Unfortunately, this wasn't something he could fix. If I opened my mouth, my body would probably collapse.
I could only shake my head weakly. Sun Wukong's outstretched hand stopped.
"Kgh."
My organs felt damaged. Something hot and metallic welled up and trickled from my mouth. I'd held on as long as I could.
Grade: Epic
○ Mana +25%
○ Mana Regeneration +50%
◈ Vibrant Starlight: Recover 50% Mana (Cooldown: 24 hours)
Activating the item's ability received from the Star Maiden through a trade, clusters of light like fireflies appeared around me and began absorbing into my body.
"Haa, haaa! I really thought I was dead."
Just as I was about to let out a relieved sigh thanks to the rapidly refilling energy, it started draining away again in chunks.
"Ah, damn it."
"Don't push yourself! You'll hurt yourself!"
Crack! Crack!
"Almost...... almost done."
Crack!
The bones that had been assembling with loud noises were just about to take on a complete form.
"I'll lend you some energy."
"No...... don't."
The energy Sun Wukong wielded after attaining Buddha's position was either mana or divine qi—and overwhelmingly powerful divine qi at that. If I accepted energy from someone as rough as him, the balance would shatter and I'd be marching straight to the afterlife.
"Don't...... give me energy......"
"O-okay...... Then what do I do?"
Receiving energy from Sun Wukong would be closer to poisoning. If I died from it, I'd have to write in my dying message that I was poisoned by a monkey out of sheer resentment.
Crack! Crack!
Even now, the assembly was steadily completing. I thought it would end with just the bones, but a dark-red armor-like carapace began covering the dragon's entire body. A trait that only appeared in high-grade undead was manifesting in this dragon at stage one.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Ding!
"Haa!"
Just as the refilled energy was about to run out completely, a notification sounded and the energy reversal finally stopped. A sigh of relief escaped me.
The synthesis had taken only a few seconds. Even so, my entire body felt drained to the point of collapse.
"Huu, huu......"
"Good work."
While I was catching my breath, Sun Wukong came up behind me and patted my shoulder.
—Click, click.
"Huu— You really worked hard."
"But what are you going to use that for?"
"I just made it for fun?"
"Huh? Really?"
"Yeah. It's entertaining."
It was still huge, but relatively smaller than before. Considering the size of the main material, it should've been at least twice as big. The smaller one used as a sub-material was probably the issue. Since I hadn't even known if it would work, this was already a successful first attempt.
"There's someone I know who's been having a hard time because of me. I was thinking of using it to help them."
"How are you going to help with that?"
"My kids caught a lizard living in that neighborhood and brought it back. The locals are making a fuss demanding it back. If I send this over, won't they be happy?"
"......Do you really think they'll be happy to receive that?"
"Wouldn't they? I gave them what they asked for, so they'll like it."
Sun Wukong tilted his head at my words.
"This is outside the tower, right?"
"Yeah."
"How strong are the residents outside the tower?"
"Have you seen the three I sent to Heracles?"
Sun Wukong nodded.
"Think of them as elite candidates taking their first steps to get on stage. In tower terms, they're the ones who barely made it through the tutorial after heavy filtering?"
"And you're sending that?"
Sun Wukong looked up at the dragon, then back at me. His gaze was skeptical.
"Not good?"
"I don't think they'll like it very much."
While we were talking with the creature right in front of us, its massive head suddenly lowered toward me. Each claw was several times my size, blocking my view entirely.
"What's wrong? Want me to give you a name?"
Groooar——!
A chill ran down my spine at its cry. It sounded similar to the wailing of the Crimson Knight.
"You're well-behaved and polite when answering, so let's go with Yugyo."
I tapped its snout, and it raised its head again. It seemed to like the name.
"Cute little guy."
Groooar——!
[Han Ga-eul]↑
***
"Dan-pung."
"Pii?"
Dan-pung's mouth was wide open in surprise after seeing Yugyo's transformed appearance.
"If you open your mouth that wide, all the sunflower seeds in your cheeks will spill out."
"Piiit!"
His cheeks were puffed up. He'd apparently stored all the sunflower seeds I'd given him for the dinner show into his cheek pouches.
