Chapter 131
Chapter 131
As soon as I said I’d take full responsibility, Ramin followed my words obediently. It was as if he’d just laid down a heavy burden.
He was the type of person I disliked, but it didn't matter. I wouldn't have to see him again once this Erosion Core was finished anyway.
More importantly, the problem was searching through this damn cave to find the teleportation jamming devices and the corrupted idols.
“This is driving me crazy, absolutely crazy.”
I already knew that class 1 Erosion Cores were incredibly vast. But this was a bit much. I felt like I’d been wandering around for nearly eight hours, and in that time, I’d only found four teleportation jamming devices.
This was going to be a long war. We used one more of the four teleportation jamming devices we discovered.
“The rate at which damage is occurring is getting faster.”
I checked the 3D map while surveying the surroundings and reached a conclusion. It was gradually getting stronger.
It seemed dangerous if I didn't deal with at least one corrupted idol soon.
— Found it. It’s not a teleportation jamming facility.
Han Sang-ah contacted me. I answered immediately.
“Good, I’m coming right now.”
I immediately headed back up through the cave and reached the rendezvous point, then sprinted after the markings Han Sang-ah had left behind.
— There’s an enemy. It’s incredibly strong.
That made sense. After all, the core we had to find in this cave was the corrupted idol.
“That’s proof you found the right place.”
— That’s a relief, but… I think I’m in danger right now. It’s not an opponent I can handle alone.
Han Sang-ah shouldn't be that weak.
“What kind of bastard is it?”
— Something like a dragon with only bones left is moving around alive.
I suppose you’d call it a Bone Dragon. It was one of those regulars that popped up in fantasy novels or games all the time.
According to Han Sang-ah’s statement, it breathed out a black mist from its mouth, and things that touched it would rot away.
What should I say? Listening to that description led to only one thought.
Could it be any more stereotypical? I didn't know who the creator was, but they were seriously lacking in creativity.
“I’m on my way. Hold on for a bit.”
Jung Oh-hoon and I were following the markings Han Sang-ah left behind.
— Got it. But if you’re too late, you might see me with my stomach wide open and my intestines spilling out.
“Oh dear, how much would you like for the funeral gift?”
Han Sang-ah replied to my words.
— What’s the point of giving money to a dead person? Just come and eat some spicy beef soup and assorted pancakes.
However, we succeeded in arriving at Han Sang-ah’s location in time.
“It looks like I’ll have to eat the spicy beef soup later.”
Han Sang-ah’s condition wasn't very good. It seemed that dragon-shaped corpse with only bones left was quite strong.
“Magic resistance, huh. And at an incredible level, too.”
Magic resistance was one of the basic defensive abilities a dragon possessed. It was one of the basic qualifications required to earn the name of a dragon in that other world.
It seemed this bag of bones was no exception. Inside a space large enough for its massive body to move freely, the bony dragon emitted a blue light from its eyes and let out a low growl.
Han Sang-ah seemed to have fought quite hard. Sword marks were carved here and there on the Bone Dragon’s thick bones.
“Stay back.”
Han Sang-ah needed to rest for a bit. There were wounds all over her body.
I spun my spear around and spoke to Jung Oh-hoon.
“You retreat with Han Sang-ah and search for more teleportation jamming devices. I’ll handle this big bone potato soup myself.”
Jung Oh-hoon immediately supported Han Sang-ah and backed away. At that moment, a roar erupted from the Bone Dragon’s mouth.
Jung Oh-hoon’s body, while supporting Han Sang-ah, momentarily froze stiff. Most experts would freeze in fear and lose the strength in their legs just by hearing that cry.
Moreover, since this was a cave, that shout echoed along the cave walls, amplifying its power. It wasn't that Jung Oh-hoon or Han Sang-ah lacked skill, but it would certainly be a burden.
“Why are you whining so much, are you looking for your mother?”
I chuckled and ran forward, kicking the Bone Dragon’s lower jaw upward while it was mid-roar.
With that strike, its upper and lower jaws slammed together like castanets, making a loud crack! sound.
“Does it hurt? I hope it does.”
Instead of an answer, that massive frame swung its tail like a whip toward me while turning its body. It was an agile movement that didn't match its size. Well, it was still a dragon, even if only bones remained.
Each joint of the swinging tail boasted a formidable size.
As my spear and its tail collided, an ear-splitting roar filled the cave.
The tail strike, swung with enough force to smash the entire cave, bounced off after clashing with the spear and hit the ceiling of the cave.
The shattered ceiling collapsed, stones poured down, and stone dust rose thick. I swung my spear.
The wind emitted from the spear swept away the fluttering stone dust, clearing my vision. Inside the wide cavern, the Bone Dragon, crouching low, moved its body around and flicked its front paws at me.
“Why, you little….”
After blocking a few times, I eventually thrust my spear into the swinging front paw with an absurd expression. The sound of bones crushing echoed, and the Bone Dragon hopped backward before staring at its own paw.
The shattered bones ground together and reattached.
“Do I look like a toy to you?”
This bastard was testing me right to my face. It seemed to be mistaken, thinking I was its snack.
If only I had a pot large enough to fit that massive size, I felt like boiling it whole.
I glanced at the 3D map, gave instructions to Ramin, and then lowered my stance.
“Alright, it’s been a while since I hunted a dragon.”
It was probably the first time since I’d hunted down the dragons nesting near the Red Mountains while scouring the place for an item I had to find in the previous world.
Well, in truth, this wasn't a real dragon but just a toy made from a dragon’s corpse.
“Is it a bad breath attack right off the bat?”
The bastard, having backed away, opened its mouth wide. Black smoke emitted from the bone jaw and rushed toward me.
If it touched, flesh would rot and bones would corrode. Of course, only if it touched. In a situation like this….
“It’s more like a fuse.”
The Paradoxical Flame, wrapping around my body and burning, spread out while incinerating the rushing black mist. Only then did the Bone Dragon, feeling something was wrong, stop its breath of corruption, but it was already too late.
“Magic resistance, huh.”
Back when I was traveling around the Siberian plains by train, I would've been quite troubled by that level of magic resistance. Because to utilize the Paradoxical Flame, it was necessary to strip away the magic resistance.
But now? There was no reason to strip it away. As I sprinted with strength in my legs, a boom like a cannon firing erupted, and my body accelerated in an instant.
And then, the skull of the Bone Dragon, its blue eyes shining, appeared right before me.
“If I just! Beat you up!”
As the spear I swung heavily struck the top of its head, its head snapped downward and hit the floor, then bounced back up like a rubber ball from the recoil.
Every time I struck its head in succession, the mana in my body drained out and was instantly refilled. The cave vibrated with every thud.
After bouncing off the floor about five times, the Bone Dragon finally regained its senses and swung its front paw at me.
“Good boy, give me your paw!”
Leaping onto the swinging front paw, I drove my spear in and used my strength to slice upward. The deeply embedded spear rode up its paw, leaving a deep wound.
The bones I shattered now would recover again. What I had to aim for was the core located in its chest. It was likely protected by the hardest bones among this corpse’s remains.
“If I keep pounding on it, it’ll open eventually.”
Once again, the bastard charged at me with its massive mouth wide open. Now I really had to hurry. I didn't dodge its charge.
Instead, I instantly swung my spear, creating hundreds of blue trajectories in the air.
One, two, three.
Calculating the time accurately, I charged into the bastard’s maw. The moment the jaw was about to close as if it’d been waiting, I slipped into the mouth, avoiding its massive teeth.
“This is the problem with undead made of bones!”
The inside was empty. There were no digestive organs, just bones. Having passed through the mouth, I successfully entered its ribcage in an instant. And then, I arrived before its core, encased in hard bone.
“Break! Break, you bastard!”
Sticking close to the bone surrounding the core, I activated the blue trajectories and battered the bone with my spear. A sound like bones being ground down echoed as dozens of attacks battered the bone protecting its core in a split second.
The bastard went wild and shoved its massive claws between its own ribs.
“Hahaha! You moron, who’s going to let themselves get hit by that?”
Between the ribs, I moved around and dodged its claws.
The bastard struggled and acted frantically to shake me off its core. And at the same time, it took a deep breath. The inside of its ribcage filled with a black aura of decay.
It seemed to want to do something about me, who’d gone inside its ribs, by using this.
“You know. This kind of thing doesn't work on me.”
The Paradoxical Flame wrapping around my body incinerated that aura of decay and neutralized it. That bastard now had no way to pull me out from inside its own body.
“Just get ready to die.”
As I continued to batter the encased bone, cracks finally began to appear in the hard bone surrounding the core.
Having confirmed the cracks, I began to batter that specific spot. Accurate and powerful strikes with zero margin of error repeatedly hit the cracked area.
The cracks in the bone grew larger. And through those cracks, a foul resentment began to seep out.
It was a resentment so dense that ordinary people would lose their minds just by touching it. However, for me, it was a stroke of luck.
“If resentment is leaking through the cracks in the bone….”
It meant that if I set the resentment on fire, I could reach the bastard’s core through the cracks. The Paradoxical Flame that flared up at the tip of my spear was extremely compressed and flickered fiercely.
“Goodbye.”
As if throwing a lighter into gasoline, the Paradoxical Flame at the spear’s tip instantly dug into the cracks in the bone.
“Magic resistance?”
That was limited to its body anyway. If I made a gap by battering the bones endowed with magic resistance, the core of resentment hidden inside had no magic resistance.
“It’s like opening a tank hatch and throwing a grenade inside.”
The shell is sturdy and wouldn't budge even from the grenade’s explosion, but if you kill the pilot by throwing a grenade inside, the tank is neutralized. Of course, only if that’s possible.
It was the same principle.
The Paradoxical Flame incinerated the seeping resentment and entered the cracks in the bone. And with terrifying momentum, it incinerated the driving force that allowed the Bone Dragon to move.
I slipped out between the ribs and landed on the ground.
Then, I watched the Bone Dragon, which was losing its power by the second.
“Damn it, I can't take all the bones since we’re inside an Erosion Core.”
If this bastard had been discovered outside an Erosion Core, I could've taken all the bones after killing it and handed them over to the Miracle Junkyard.
The Bone Dragon’s struggling movements stopped, and the blue light in its eyes faded.
“First,”
I approached the statue this dragon had been guarding and swung my spear. A succession of rapid strikes followed, leaving dozens of afterimages, and the idol was completely shattered.
“Is there only one left now?”
After shortening the spear and hanging it at my waist, I approached the Bone Dragon’s corpse. The hardest bone was the one surrounding the core.
“I should just take a little of this.”
I tore off about 500g of the bone protecting the core and kept it. At that moment, Jung Oh-hoon contacted me.
— Hey! Hey! We caught one too! Bwahahahaha! Cough, cough….