Draconic Word – 1

“……”

“……”

Minerva and I couldn’t hide our bewildered expressions. Even if it was me, Minerva, who had experienced almost every conceivable situation, reacted like that, which meant it was absolutely no ordinary matter.

And indeed, it was no ordinary matter.

The dragon’s corpse, which had flown at least a dozen meters and was embedded in one side of the crater wall, slowly slid to the ground, leaving flesh and blood on the wall. *Thud!* The sound of the corpse falling echoed throughout the entire crater.

Its exact weight was unknown, but its size was estimated to be at least tens to hundreds of tons. It was a weight that would be far from easy to even move from its spot, let alone send flying.

A corpse of such weight and size wasn’t simply pushed, lifted, or thrown; it was propelled with enough force to embed it into the wall and crush it. And that, purely with a shockwave.

“Child, what was that just now…?”

“I don’t quiteㅡ”

I instinctively opened my mouth to answer, then paused. It was because I didn’t know if another shockwave might burst out. Just now, something like that had happened at an unexpected moment in a completely unforeseen situation.

I alternately pointed at my mouth and the dragon’s corpse. Minerva, who had been looking at me with a puzzled expression, seemed to catch my meaning, let out an “Ah,” nodded, and then enveloped herself in a blue protective shield.

“It’s alright to speak now, child.”

Minerva smiled contentedly and gently enveloped my hand.

Honestly, if that shockwave from just now had flown towards Minerva instead of the dragon, I didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened next. It was incredibly fortunate that she had turned her head.

Even if it was Minerva, if she had been hit by a shockwave powerful enough to send a dragon’s corpse flying, at close range and undefended, she would have had to brace herself for significant injuries.

In the worst case, it would have been even more severe.

“Do you perhaps have any guesses…? Judging by your expression, child, it seems you don’t.”

“It’s not that I have absolutely nothing, but it won’t be of much help in the current situation.”

Since one of the key conditions for the boss battle against the World Eater was Draconic Word, players could indeed use a few other Draconic Words besides that specific one. Literally, only a few.

Moreover, they weren’t powerful enough to send a tens-of-tons corpse flying dozens of meters as soon as a soul was absorbed, like just now.

In terms of lore, it was supposed to be incredibly powerful, a language containing concepts used by dragons! However, its actual in-game performance was so underwhelming that it made the user embarrassed, so it wasn’t used much.

‘It’s not entirely impossible, though.’

Just as an Easter egg weapon, which was treated as a mere flashlight in the game, was reborn as a holy relic in the Pope’s hands, who knows if Draconic Word has also been revamped here?

To do that, I first had to find a certain NPC. Only by clearing various quests received from that NPC would I finally be able to wield something worthy of being called a ‘Draconic Word’.

Or learn it from Minerva, provided certain conditions were met.

“For now, as you were about to say, child, we should deal with the corpse first.”

Minerva infused mana into her staff. The corpse, embedded in the wall on the other side of the crater, floated up and then, enveloped in a teleportation magic circle, vanished somewhere.

“Where did you send it?”

“To the Magic Tower, child. They’ll sort it out themselves, so don’t worry.”

“Is it alright to just send it off like this?”

“Of course it’s alright, child. They’ll probably be delighted to have new experimental material. A dragon’s corpse isn’t something you can just get your hands on whenever you want, is it?”

Hearing that, it seemed there was no need to worry.

Recalling the actions of the mages when they discovered the crystal scrolls, they would surely be delighted to have new experimental material rather than struggling with having to dissect it.

Minerva, who had easily dismissed my concerns, lightly waved her staff.

“Now, then, let’s go do what we need to do separately, child.”

To get straight to the point, the power that had embedded the human Scaled Dragon into the wall did not activate again.

In preparation for any unforeseen events, I even enveloped myself in a thick protective shield and recited thousands of words, but the Draconic Word never activated even once.

I had a rough idea why this had happened. At the time, my thoughts were too complex for my mind to process, but after my head had calmed down a bit, the difference became clear.

Immediately after absorbing the dragon’s soul, my entire body felt like it was boiling, but now it was similar to normal. When I explained that difference, Minerva nodded as if she understood.

“It might have been a one-time use, then.”

Once absorbed, the soul would remain permanently, but there was a possibility that the Draconic Word activating on its own was a one-time occurrence.

This was outside of my game knowledge, so I had no choice but to rely entirely on speculation.

“What will you do now, child? If you can’t think of a method right away, it wouldn’t be bad to rest for a bit and clear your head.”

“It’s not that I have absolutely nothing. Minerva-nim, do you happen to know anything about Draconic Word, or have you ever wanted to research it?”

“Draconic Word, you say…? I have heard of it. But that’s not magic, is it, child? The old me, burdened by boredom, might have been interested, but not anymore. I still have six more scrolls to research; wouldn’t it be impossible to divert my attention elsewhere, child?”

‘That’s a relief.’

Enabling Minerva to learn Draconic Word. The condition to trigger that was originally to kill the NPC who taught Draconic Word.

After absorbing the dragon’s soul, if you went to Arcana, Arcana would show interest in that power. And she would say that she would help the player if they allowed her to research it.

If you accepted that offer, she would give you a magic scroll. The quest was cleared by possessing the scroll, killing the relevant NPC, and bringing the soul contained within the magic scroll back to her.

The quest had no particular reward, its content was extremely unsettling, and above all, the NPC was quite friendly to the player, making it a quest that was almost never encountered unless one deliberately set out to do it.

‘Minerva wouldn’t be like Arcana.’

In the game, Arcana had no interest in anything other than magic, not even the continued existence of the Magic Tower or the Empire. She was the type who was content as long as she could research magic.

Because of that personality, she could casually say that if you killed someone and brought their soul, she would take on that role herself.

“I need to make one more stop for a moment, Minerva-nim.”

“As you wish, child.”

My decision was swift. It was better to resolve this as quickly as possible rather than remain in this state of uncertainty.

The dragon I was about to meet-no, honestly, that NPC was ambiguous to even call a dragon. Although it had once been a dragon, now it was just like any ordinary human.

It was certain that its species was a dragon, but it had never revealed its true form, only its human appearance.

It was to the extent that even when it was betrayed and killed by the player, it would pitifully ask why, but never revert to its dragon form. Moreover, its corpse remained in its human form.

Because of this, some players suspected it was a con artist suffering from mythomania, but since it was genuinely capable of teaching Draconic Word, most just accepted it.

According to it, it had lived for such an incredibly long time that it grew tired of it, transformed into a human form once, found that form more appealing than expected, and thus never reverted.

“First a snowy mountain, and now a poisonous swamp, how peculiar.”

At the terrible stench rising from the poisonous swamp below, Minerva lightly waved her staff. Every place visible to the eye immediately froze over.

The swamp’s characteristic pungent smell slowly subsided. The minor collateral damage of hundreds of monsters freezing along with it was lightly ignored.

“Perhaps it’s because of its peculiar personality that it’s a dragon but transformed into a human.”

Minerva chuckled upon hearing my answer.

“I understand, child. In that case, is there anything I should be wary of?”

“There shouldn’t be anything in particular. Just talk to them like you would any ordinary personㅡ”

At that moment, a deafening roar that tore through heaven and earth was heard. It wasn’t a metaphor; it was literal.

Minerva pressed her lips together and used teleportation with an infinitely serious expression. As soon as we arrived at the source of the sound, a breath attack made of lightning flew towards us.

However, the lightning breath couldn’t penetrate the protective shield that enveloped Minerva and me. The breath, deflected by the shield, twisted and turned, creating large craters in the innocent ground.

The surrounding landscape was desolate, as if a natural disaster had occurred.

From a distance, the mountainside burst open, causing a landslide, and the clouds in the sky evaporated without a trace. A moment later, *Rumble!* Thunder echoed.

The mountain peaks, which should have soared high, collapsed from their midpoints, burying everything beneath them, and craters the size of ordinary castles were visible everywhere.

Lightning bolts striking from the sky caused explosive sounds as they immediately dug into the ground, tearing up the nearby earth. Ancient trees in the vicinity were uprooted in clumps.

At the center of that destruction were one human and one dragon.

As the dragon flapped its wings, the sheer wind pressure uprooted the trees below en masse and tore up the ground. Even the trees that barely survived swayed like reeds.

The surrounding terrain was practically a barren wasteland, making it easy to discern faces.

The woman below, though different from the game, was probably the NPC I was looking for, judging by the horns sprouting from her head, and the one in the sky was….

‘…Why is that guy here? And why does he look like that?’

It was a dragon that breathed lightning and made lightning fall around its body.

But its appearance was a bit strange. In my memory, it clearly had dark gray scales and gray eyes, but this one had black scales and red eyes.

If its scales had been a bit more indigo, if its overall size had been larger, and if it hadn’t used lightning, its appearance was so similar to the World Eater that I might have mistaken it for him.

“Minerva-nim. Would you be able to fight that one?”

The human and the dragon were fighting.

It certainly hadn’t resisted even once when attacked and killed by the player, but now it was fiercely fighting, even spewing flames from its tiny mouth.

ㅡKwagwagwagwang!

However, it was clear who had the upper hand. Unless it released its polymorph and returned to its original form, given the size difference, there was no way it could win.

The flames were soon overwhelmed by the lightning and pushed back, and a breath attack made of lightning swept over its slender body, embedding it into the mountainside.

“Its appearance is similar to the one that appeared in the Imperial Palace, but it doesn’t seem as strong as that one, child. Should I kill it?”

I hesitated for a moment. Looking at the current situation, it seemed like it absolutely had to be killed, but there might be some hidden circumstances I didn’t know about.

For instance, they might have simply been having an argument.

“…If possible, I would ask you to subdue it. Only if it’s possible, of course. If it seems like Minerva-nim might get hurt, you can just kill it.”

“I understand, child. You can rest assured and go help that dragon first.”

Minerva aimed her staff. Then, a massive lump of mana appeared in the sky. It seemed to be at least twice the size of the dragon.

The dragon flinched upon seeing it, then unleashed a lightning breath towards the lump of mana. Yellow lightning tore through the air and flew towards its target.

But it was useless. The lightning futilely pierced through the lump of mana, and the lump of mana slammed directly into the dragon’s body. The dragon plummeted to the ground without even a squeak.

Taking that opportunity, I approached the woman lying prone on the mountainside. Her entire body was scorched, her clothes had turned into something less than rags, and she was covered in blood, but she was still alive.

The woman slowly opened her eyes. The dragon’s characteristic vertical pupils looked at me.

“A human…?”

“The situation is urgent, so I’ll ask my question first. That one, should I kill it, or save it?”

I pointed at the black dragon, which was shattering the lump of mana and soaring high into the sky. Next to Minerva, the next spell appeared. A blue magic circle began to glow ominously.

“…You can kill it… but human, before that, help me a little.”

Saying that, the woman tore off all her clothes, which had become no better than rags.

Her naked body, covered in blood and soot, was revealed.