Ch.55. Choi Yu-na (2)

However, she couldn’t keep running forever.

Yuna wasn’t a warrior with abundant stamina, but a fragile priestess who needed protection from such warriors.

Her stamina had clear limits, and knowing this, Yuna fought against the goblins chasing her just as she had fought against zombies before.

“Ugh…!”

But unlike the mindless zombies, goblins were capable of making judgments.

They could coordinate with their companions, and when Yuna fought back fiercely, the goblins calmly began to drain her energy like hunters stalking wild prey.

“I’m being hunted!”

“Kraruk! Kiruk…!”

Yuna realized she was being hunted like an animal by these goblin hunters, but by the time she noticed, she had already fallen into their trap.

She ran along the hiking trail trying to escape the snare the goblins had set, but they had no intention of letting a female like Yuna escape.

With tongues hanging out and eyes clouded with lust, they chased after Yuna’s fleeing figure with expressions full of anticipation as she ran for her life, until finally…

“Is this the end?”

She reached a dead end.

Not exactly a dead end, but a cliff. If she jumped off, she could escape the pursuing goblins, but the height was considerable.

It appeared to be well over 100 meters high.

Falling from this height would mean instant death for an ordinary person, and even an Awakened with greater durability than normal people couldn’t guarantee survival.

But behind her were green monsters with lustful gazes pursuing her.

“Uh… Uhhh…”

A cliff ahead. Green monsters with lewd intentions behind her.

Faced with the choice between physical death or mental death, Choi Yu-na was forced to make a decision.

“If I’m lucky, I might survive!”

Yu-na didn’t want to lose her chastity to such monsters, so she closed her eyes and threw herself off the cliff.

The floating sensation throughout her body and the rough, strong wind told her that she had indeed jumped.

“Kyaruk! Kyaruk!”

“Go to hell…!”

Yu-na hurled an insult at the green monsters who would be staring in bewilderment at her cliff dive.

But soon, fear and dread of falling from the cliff enveloped her entire body.

She hoped she would die without pain, and if by chance she survived, she wondered if she could heal herself with her skills.

As she felt the endless floating sensation, waiting for the impending pain or explosive death, Yu-na…

“Huh?”

Felt no pain at all.

All she could feel was the endless floating sensation.

Even though she should have hit the ground by now after falling from the cliff, her body continued to fall.

When she opened her eyes, Yu-na realized she had somehow reached the ground without knowing it.

“Not a single wound… What happened?”

She had reached the bottom of the cliff without any injuries or pain.

In this miraculous situation, Yu-na felt like praying to whatever god might be in heaven, but before that, she noticed something suspicious.

“What’s that? A cave?”

It was a cave.

The cave Yu-na found appeared to be a natural cave formed by the collision of natural elements, not one artificially created by humans.

Yu-na questioned the sudden appearance of the cave but decided it would be a suitable place to hide from the monsters living in the mountains.

There was a possibility that the cave might be a monster’s dwelling, but Yu-na could see no footprints or traces of monsters or animals near the cave.

None of the usual footprints or traces commonly found in the mountains were present around this cave.

So Yu-na was confident that this cave had not been discovered by anyone else recently.

“…Wow.”

At first, she simply thought she had found a place to temporarily take shelter, but Yu-na soon felt her thoughts changing.

While the entrance was a natural cave, the interior was filled with intricately carved artificial images and unknown symbols that seemed to represent something.

It appeared to be some kind of relic site bearing the marks of unknown hands.

“So it’s a relic site.”

Never having imagined that such a relic site would exist on Namsan in Gyeongju, Yu-na slowly moved forward, relying on her smartphone’s light.

“A statue?”

After exploring for a while, she discovered an intricately carved statue.

Around it, as if praising the achievements of the figure depicted in the statue, there were several images portraying these accomplishments, and nearby were the same symbols she had seen at the cave entrance.

The images depicted a giant dragon and a woman communicating with it.

And then…

“W-what is this!? What’s happening?”

As Yu-na approached to examine the statue more closely, the relic site began to welcome its visitor as numerous flames started to bloom, beginning with the statue she was gazing at.

The flames seemed to illuminate a path leading deeper into the cave—no, the relic site—as if expressing an intention for her to proceed in that direction. Yu-na felt both bewilderment and fear at this mysterious sight she was experiencing for the first time, but also…

“What could be at the end of this?”

Curiosity and awe.

Even at first glance, this was no ordinary cave… no, relic site.

So what could be at the end of this shrine?

Could there be treasure or artifacts like those in fantasy novels?

Or perhaps something that could resolve the current grim situation?

Normally, this would be nothing more than useless adventurousness bordering on delusion, but having experienced the disaster of a zombie apocalypse straight out of a story, Yu-na simply trembled with the burning sense of adventure she felt in her heart.

“Let’s go in. It’s not like I have anywhere to go back to anyway.”

Having witnessed the mysterious sight that sparked countless imaginings, Yu-na overcame her fear and slowly made her way into the shrine.

“It’s deep.”

The deeper she went, the more statues and images she found.

Realizing that the engraved symbols followed a certain pattern, Yu-na thought that the statues leading to the shrine might be some kind of historical record.

While the gender and appearance of the statues varied, what was consistently depicted was the image of a human communicating with some dragon.

“Is this a shrine dedicated to a dragon?”

Yu-na wondered if this might be a relic site dedicated to some dragon.

And soon, reaching the end of the site, she discovered stairs that seemed to ascend endlessly upward.

“Wow… feels like I’m at a temple.”

She thought climbing those stairs would be difficult with no escalator in sight, just a bleak landscape of endless steps, but as an Awakened, Yu-na had better stamina than ordinary people.

Though it was tiring, Yu-na diligently climbed to the top of the stairs and…

“…”

Fell silent.

What she saw at the top of the stairs were seven massive dragon statues and an altar.

Seven dragons with human-like bodies but dragon faces stared at Yu-na.

She instinctively shrank back at their overwhelming presence, and despite them being mere stone statues… she couldn’t help but feel reverence.

“Hahaha… they’re just statues. There’s nothing to worry about… yeah, nothing at all.”

Right, they were just statues.

Their enormity and intricacy… and the magnificent sight that seemed beyond human creation inspired awe in her, but they were still just statues.

Just as she thought there was no way these statues could come to life…

“…I never expected a visitor to come here.”

“Huh? A voice? Where? Who is it!?”

A majestic voice echoed throughout the shrine, shattering Yu-na’s naive thoughts.

Startled by the deep, dignified voice that filled the room, Yu-na looked around in confusion.

There were only dragon statues around, with no living beings in sight.

Just as she was beginning to entertain the grim thought that the statues before her might actually be living creatures…

“Look down.”

Following the voice’s guidance, she instinctively looked down.

Only then did Yu-na notice something beneath her feet.

Distracted by the massive dragon statues, she had failed to notice the enormous, overwhelming presence beyond the transparent wall she was standing on.

“A dragon?”

It was a massive dragon.

Beyond what appeared to be a transparent glass barrier, the dragon sat majestically on what looked like a stone chair.

The dragon gazed at Choi Yu-na with gentle blue eyes, and Yu-na now realized that this dragon beyond the transparent barrier was the source of the voice that had called to her.

“Let me welcome a visitor who has come after such a long time.”

“By visitor… do you mean me as the visitor to this place?”

“Yes. Or perhaps ‘guest to my shrine’ would be the most appropriate term?”

I don’t know.

Yu-na looked at the dragon with a fearful expression.

For now, nothing was happening because the massive dragon remained still, but if that dragon harbored ill intentions, Yu-na realized she would be nothing more than prey for those enormous hands.

Overwhelmed by its massive form, Yu-na felt fear and dread toward the unknown being before her, and was about to sink to the floor in despair.

“Cast aside the fear in your heart. I am… Bahamut. A benevolent dragon who protects humans. I am a dragon who protects the weak and does good. So there is no need to fear. For you are one of the weak I must protect.”

But the dragon gently told Yu-na its name, declaring that it had no hostile intentions toward her.

It had no intention of harming Yu-na; rather, it would protect her as one of the weak and do good. At the dragon’s solemn appearance, Yu-na gazed at it with trembling eyes.

“Wow…”

Now abandoning her fear and gazing at the dragon, Yu-na marveled at its appearance.

The dragon’s sculpted body was covered mostly in navy scales, with gold and red scales standing out in places.

The dragon, dozens of times larger than herself, had wing-claw-shaped appendages similar to its scales on its back, and it rested what appeared to be its chin on its hand.

It seemed to be pondering what to do about Yu-na’s presence, but she was so overwhelmed by the massive and solemn appearance of the dragon visible through the transparent wall that she could hardly think of anything else.

“Visitor, for what reason have you come here?”

“W-well… I was running away from monsters and came here by chance.”

While admiring the dragon’s appearance, Yu-na honestly explained her reason for visiting this place with a sense of reverence.

“Monsters?”

“Y-yes, green monsters… Oh, do you know what goblins are?”

“Ah. So that’s what you meant. I understand.”

The dragon nodded heavily with a solemn expression, as if sympathizing with Yu-na’s situation, and at this, she felt comfort and relief for the first time in a long while.

Feeling a sense of ease and relief she couldn’t experience at the survivor camp, Yu-na sank to the floor as if all her strength had left her.

However, her eyes, which seemed about to close in sleep at any moment, were forced to stay alert for the next part of the conversation.

“This is a sacred shrine where contracts are formed. A shrine completed by my power. Those who contract with me here can obtain my power.”

“P-power? You mean I can obtain your power?”

She could gain power here.

Shocked by the dragon’s words, Yu-na asked the dragon below her.

“Yes. But I cannot say there is no price. Through your contract and power, I will appear in the mortal world. In exchange, I lend you my power. It can be seen as a kind of contractual relationship.”

The dragon drew a line, saying there was indeed a price.

At the dragon’s explanation that it was a kind of contractual relationship, Yu-na fell into brief contemplation.

‘If I can borrow that dragon’s power, that’s not just a price. It’s basically borrowing the dragon’s power without any real cost.’

But her contemplation was very brief.

Yu-na thought that the price the dragon mentioned was too trivial to be called a price.

If there was one problem…

‘But can someone as ordinary as me really contract with that dragon?’

Did someone as ordinary as herself truly deserve to contract with such a magnificent being?

‘I’m a sinner who killed my father and mother.’

The next thing Yu-na felt was guilt from her past.

Was it really okay for her to escape alone and receive salvation alone?

“…Your arrival here suggests that you have the potential to grow into a being who will one day have a profound influence on the entire world.”

And as if understanding Yu-na’s feelings, Bahamut opened its mouth comfortingly.

“Me? Such a magnificent being?”

“Whether that will benefit the world or destroy it, I know nothing about that.”

She couldn’t believe that she would become such a being.

But the dragon’s solemn appearance seemed to confirm that this was the future awaiting her.

“So I promise, by my name, that if you prove your justice and beliefs, I will lend you my power.”

“I… I…”

And it says it will help her on that path.

Yu-na didn’t understand anything the dragon before her was saying.

But she knew one thing:

“I want to live! I want to normalize this cursed world and live again!”

That this was the last chance given to her.

Without hesitation, Yu-na shouted to the dragon that she wanted to live and wanted to return the zombie apocalypse world to its original state.

“That is good. If that is your wish, I swear to lend you my power. In the name of Bahamut.”

[You have changed class.]

[Job: Dragon Priestess has been unlocked.]

Seeing the status window indicating that the contract with the dragon had been completed following Bahamut’s declaration, Yu-na felt relief… and fainted.

“…Eh?”

It seemed Yu-na’s body, exhausted from coming all this way, demanded rest.

Watching Yu-na collapse like a puppet with cut strings, the dragon beyond the wall stared at the unconscious Yu-na with a very perplexed expression.

“It’s okay. No problem. At least nothing’s ruined.”

What do you mean “no problem,” you foolish dragon?