Ch.47Upper Level – Communal Space (2)

Ignoring the heat that was cooking my body, I blocked the breath for several seconds.

I could feel its power gradually weakening. Thanks to that, I knew the breath that seemed like it would last forever was also coming to an end.

‘Now.’

At the tail end of the breath, as the final exhalation was released, I kicked off the ground.

Click-

In that moment, the world in my vision completely changed. Normally, no matter how quickly I jumped, I should have only reached the Lesser Dragon’s head.

But now I was right behind the Lesser Dragon’s head. This was the effect of the temporary teleport ability of my boots.

‘Two uses remaining…’

I slashed at its neck with the maximum output blade energy I had been maintaining to cut through the breath.

“■■■■…?!”

Perhaps because I had released too much aura to use the blade energy? The Lesser Dragon sensed my aura and immediately twisted its body to react.

Swoosh-!

Because of that, I was able to damage it but failed to deliver a fatal wound.

“■■■■—!!!”

The Lesser Dragon let out a thunderous roar filled with rage and pain. It was a disappointing result for me, but it seemed to be an extremely humiliating one for the creature.

It must have spent its entire life just growing here, so it might be feeling this kind of pain for the first time.

While it writhed in pain, Kitsune and I regrouped.

I returned the excessively drawn blade energy to its original state and maintained it, while Kitsune began to move, riding Kirara.

“Phew, let’s continue.”

I restored my depleted health and aura with potions, returning to peak condition.

During this time, the Lesser Dragon also regained its senses and looked at me. More precisely, it was looking at my sword that had wounded its body.

“■■■…”

After staring at my sword for a moment, it made some kind of sinister expression. I didn’t have the ability to read a Lesser Dragon’s expressions, but its emotions were conveyed through its gaze.

The next moment, the Lesser Dragon’s entire body was covered with magical power similar to its scales. Though still crude, it looked good enough to be called a protective aura.

It was just a lump of magical power forcibly crammed together without any technique or finesse, but an aura was still an aura.

“This is a bit frustrating. Even I haven’t mastered aura yet.”

Did it think it was some kind of promising rookie? I couldn’t help but laugh at its insane learning ability.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t given much time to laugh.

Kwagagak–!!

The Lesser Dragon, now covered in protective aura, charged at me.

It was an even more reckless and direct charge than before, abandoning defense. I could see this action came from its confidence that my sword could no longer wound its body.

And that confidence proved to be completely correct.

Kkagagak-

I dodged the charge and tried to attack, but all my strikes were blocked by the protective aura without damaging even a single scale.

Seeing this, Kitsune, who had been making her own preparations, asked me in a worried voice:

“Do you have a way to break through that?!”

“There are plenty of ways~”

No matter how solid the protective aura was, there were definitely ways to break through it.

The first option was to ask Lilly for help.

It sounded like a cheat key, but if I asked Lilly, she could resolve this situation in an instant.

But that wouldn’t help me grow, so I ruled out this option unless absolutely necessary.

The second option was to wait until its magical power was depleted.

The creature had already used a breath attack that consumed a lot of magical power.

In that state, even with abundant magical power, maintaining a protective aura around its entire body wouldn’t last very long.

‘But I don’t like this method either. I’ll break through with full power.’

Isn’t it a gamer’s nature to take on challenges they’re told to avoid? I intended to use my full power to break through its protective aura.

“Please continue what you’re doing. I’ll keep handling this one.”

“Understood.”

At my words, Kitsune focused on her task, and I concentrated all my attention on the Lesser Dragon.

I sharpened my blade energy while watching the Lesser Dragon. The Lesser Dragon also lowered its stance, looking at me as if ready to charge at any moment.

Click-

Without any signal, the Lesser Dragon and I charged simultaneously.

Just before collision, I twisted my body and slashed at its side with the momentum from my acceleration. But still, my sword couldn’t reach its scales.

Since my attack failed, the initiative naturally passed to the Lesser Dragon.

The massive tail of the Lesser Dragon, accelerated by its charge, swung quickly. Having moved in deeper to target its side, it was too fast for me to dodge.

Even if I defended, it didn’t seem like I would come out unscathed, so I activated the temporary teleport once more.

‘That leaves just one use.’

Although it could be recharged, I had to wait 30 minutes each time, so it was right to assume I couldn’t use it again in this battle.

Having teleported above the Lesser Dragon, I plunged my sword into its body as I fell.

Clank-

With the sharp thrust, I seemed to penetrate deeper than before, but I had barely touched the scales. It was insufficient to completely tear through the protective aura.

“Sigh… So I really do need aura to break through aura.”

Sword aura. The advanced stage of blade energy, and also the standard that separated merely promising talents from true powerhouses.

I doubted whether I could use it now, and even if I could, how long I could maintain it was questionable.

“Sigh… If a snake that couldn’t become a dragon did it at once, why couldn’t I?”

If the Lesser Dragon had overflowing magical power, I had technique and sharp senses to move forward.

I had gathered enough reference material by testing its aura.

What remained was sufficient time to concentrate on creating sword aura.

And Kitsune would buy me that time starting now.

“I’m… ready..!”

“There’s a reason I brought you along. Please activate it right now!”

While I was buying time, Kitsune had quickly moved around preparing a barrier. It was her plan after realizing the limitations of restraining with Shikigami.

The barrier she created utilized the magical power spread throughout this area.

It was impossible for Kitsune to restrain the Lesser Dragon with her magical power alone, but the magical power here was different.

This was because it was the same magical power from the Orichalcum that the Lesser Dragon had fed on and grown with.

Crackle-

The talismans that Kitsune had placed at various locations activated and connected, forming a single barrier.

And the completed barrier began to restrain and press down on the Lesser Dragon.

“■■■■■—-!!!!!”

However, the Lesser Dragon wasn’t staying still either. It continued to struggle and writhe, trying to destroy the barrier.

“It won’t last long..! The barrier can hold for about 3 minutes at most!”

“For a hastily made barrier, 3 minutes is excellent.”

I took my stance and focused on my sword.

Forgetting everything—the Lesser Dragon before me, Kitsune, Lilly, and eventually even myself—I concentrated solely on my sword.

Though I casually called it a temporary sword, it was still too good for me.

That was because it was a sword directly forged by Arges himself. While it didn’t contain legendary materials like Mithril, it was made with the highest quality materials personally obtained by the dwarves.

The sword I was holding now was one that any swordsman would covet and desire, willing to pay a fortune to acquire.

‘First, I need to properly handle this sword.’

I slowly infused aura into the sword. I started with an extremely thin layer of blade energy. Then, I built up layers of blade energy as if stacking them.

One layer. One layer.

I stacked them neatly. Trying to improve the completeness of my usual blade energy consumed twice the concentration.

As a result, the blade energy became more solid and sharper, but the aura consumption also accelerated proportionally.

The rapidly depleting aura soon hit bottom, and I didn’t have the luxury to leisurely drink potions to recover.

This was because I didn’t have enough leeway to convert the magical power from potions into the necessary aura. So, as a second choice, I took out an inner core I had saved.

The inner core I had obtained from Owl, the first wolf I defeated. It was an inner core containing pure magical power without any special attributes or bias.

‘Using it directly without absorbing it is like throwing the inner core away, but I have no choice.’

I began to directly use the magical power from the inner core and continued stacking blade energy. And the neatly stacked blade energy eventually showed an end.

“Phew…”

The final layer.

Completing the last layer would complete the sword aura. That’s why it was also the most difficult task.

But that final task was accomplished surprisingly easily. The sword showed me the path I needed to create, as if responding to my will.

‘Indeed, an excellent sword.’

It wasn’t enough to call it an ego, but it responded with its own will. It was also a tantrum demanding to be used properly.

“I’ll use you properly, starting with… cutting down that Lesser Dragon.”

I gripped the sword aura I had created with the sword’s help and looked at the Lesser Dragon. The Lesser Dragon, having finally escaped the barrier, didn’t seem to notice the change in my sword.

Since it had forcibly created its protective aura with a lot of magical power, it probably didn’t have the ability to distinguish whether what covered my sword was blade energy or sword aura.

“Charge at me like before. This time, I’ll meet you head-on.”

“■■■–!!”

At my words, the Lesser Dragon seemed to think I was underestimating it and took a proper stance. Its intent to kill me was palpable, as if asking if I could really withstand it.

Boom–!

It charged at me at full speed. If I collided with that, it was questionable whether there would be anything left of me to defend.

But I stood my ground without dodging.

‘I can only swing this sword aura once.’

The most appropriate way to finish it with a single strike was to behead it.

And the creature kindly abandoned its defense and charged at me in a straight line, offering its neck to be cut.

Then.

Slash-

My sword cut through its crude protective aura, tore apart its scales, and finally severed the snake’s neck.

However…

Writhe… Writhe…

The snake was still moving despite having its head cut off. It was even maintaining its protective aura.

I remembered seeing a video once about snakes still moving after being beheaded, but I never expected it to actually happen.

“Looks like we need to extract its inner core…?”

But seeing that the severed head wasn’t moving, it seemed the inner core in the body was playing a major role.

Boom-! Kwaaang–!!

The headless body of the Lesser Dragon began to rampage without knowing what it was doing.

Thanks to this, the threat of being attacked decreased, but approaching it didn’t seem easy.

As I was contemplating what to do about this unexpected second phase, Lilly approached and asked:

“You look quite tired. Should I handle it?”

“No, I think I can manage this much.”

The protective aura was still spread out, but perhaps due to losing its head, there were sporadic areas where it wasn’t deployed.

And I could clearly sense the location of the Lesser Dragon’s inner core.

“Phew…”

I drew out blade energy with my last strength. Thanks to having wielded sword aura once, it was a more complete blade energy.

‘Now.’

Approaching the rampaging Lesser Dragon as much as possible, I activated the last remaining temporary teleport and moved to the location of its inner core.

Then, by swinging my sword and cutting out the flesh at that location, I extracted the inner core.

“Phew… I’m exhausted.”