Chapter 121: If You Can’t Communicate, Change Your Conversation Partner

Horaru, with hands clasped together, was sweating profusely.

She attempted to empathize with the dragon larva.

Crack.

“Oh no..!”

“What was that just now!?”

“To think the mana wavelength would spark visibly. This is driving me crazy. To that extent? Even though it’s not an adult?”

“No, what was that just now?”

“The larva twitched.”

It sparks just from twitching?

Shit, what the hell is that thing. Are dragons that strong?

-They are strong. You wouldn’t know if you haven’t seen it directly.

‘Just how strong are they?’

-With just their breath, they can tear the air, and with just their killing intent, they can stop the breath of a high goblin shaman.

‘…..’

It’s like a living natural disaster. It seems to be on a completely different level from those weaklings whose heads get cut off by a hero’s sword.

“Hmm… This. Should I really continue? It could be an act of awakening a calamity.”

“Can’t you do it?”

“Hmm. It’s not that I can’t. But the result is completely unpredictable.”

Horaru asked again. Saying that if we make a mistake, an irreversible catastrophe could occur.

To begin with, Horaru and Mabel know nothing about dragon ecology. They don’t even know if the dragon larva state is normally part of the molting process or not.

“Is it not in the Monster Dismantling Guide?”

“There were only strange contents like how to cook dragon and how to effectively avoid dragon breath. The growth process of hatchlings wasn’t recorded.”

“This is really hopeless.”

There’s no answer. If I didn’t have Helena with me right now, the fate of the Magic Tower might have ended today.

‘Will it really work?’

-It will. Probably.

If we follow the method Helena told me, we can make the dragon larva mine. It’s not 100%, but Helena said it’s possible with quite a high probability.

-It’s possible if you have the spirit tree’s heart.

The spirit tree’s heart I bought from the frogman.

According to the original plan, following Olivia’s advice, I was going to take it to the president of the Druid Club to use as a catalyst for a spirit tree contract.

Until just a little while ago, I still had a thought in the back of my mind that it might be better to just get a summon rather than use it to tame a dragon.

But looking at the lizard that causes sparks in the air just by twitching, I became convinced that it would be okay to use the spirit tree’s heart here and now.

-If you fail the spiritization, you’ll lose the growth bracelet. Will you still do it?

‘You said the chance of failure is only about 10%, right?’

-That’s right. But shouldn’t we always assume the worst?

‘If the failure rate is 10%, it’s worth trying.’

There’s a 10% chance that the growth bracelet will burst and the dragon larva will die.

Conversely, it means there’s a 90% chance of keeping the dragon larva alive and making it my servant.

I absolutely have to do this. If there was a 50% chance of the growth bracelet bursting, I wouldn’t have attempted it.

If the failure rate was even around 30%, I would have just given up.

“Hmm. Then I’ll empathize again.”

“Alright. I’ve prepared protective magic, so let’s do it.”

While Helena and I were making plans assuming failure, Horaru started empathizing with the dragon larva again.

Mabel, looking anxious, chanted 8th circle protective spells while staring at Horaru and the dragon larva in her hands.

Horaru will probably succeed in empathizing with the dragon larva. But she won’t be able to control it.

What Helena and I are aiming for is the situation where the dragon larva goes berserk.

“Hmm.”

“What’s wrong? Is something not working?”

“Well.. I’ve definitely connected but. Something. Something strange.. Hmm.”

Sometimes it’s hard to read Horaru’s expressions, perhaps because she’s a bear, but right now she looked clearly serious.

Horaru trembled, restless as if sweating cold.

“Hmm. Th-This…!”

Suddenly, Horaru’s body was thrown backwards. At the same time, an unknown mark started to appear above Horaru’s head.

“Uooh. Uoooooh!!!!!”

At Horaru’s roar, the glass bottles inside the lab shattered.

Also, her eyes shone brightly and flashed as if burning, and Horaru floated halfway in the air, shaking her limbs and spewing out pain.

Smoke flowed from her mouth.

‘A mark… A curse is being engraved.’

And I already know that mark. No, I can’t not know it. It’s a mark symbolizing a quite famous curse in the labyrinth city.

“This can’t be..!”

The highest-grade curse, ‘Ember of Madness’, was being engraved on Horaru.

The moment the mark is completed, Horaru will lose all her memories and her ego will collapse.

Her personality will burn and disappear so thoroughly that even the Goddess’s power can’t reverse it.

That could be seen as the death of Horaru’s existence.

No, I expected it to fail, but I didn’t expect that crazy curse to suddenly pop out. The situation is strange. I need to respond quickly.

“Mabel!!!”

I hurriedly shouted at the Tower Master to do something, and Mabel started using magic while sweating cold.

“I offer the blood of sinners, to summon the subject of pain.”

After saying the activation words, Mabel burst into tongues like a madwoman.

Then, just before Horaru’s mark was about to spew out the curse…

Slash-!!!

Mabel drew a dagger and cut her left hand, sprinkling the overflowing blood on the floor.

With that, not magic, but an ancient spell was completed.

“Sacrifice.”

A statue began to be summoned in the center of the lab.

A statue of a man with twisted limbs.

As soon as I saw the statue contorted in pain, I could immediately guess.

That thing is alive.

‘No way.’

My prediction was correct, and Mabel put her bloody left hand on the back of the statue, then pointed at Horaru as if showing a target and whispered in the statue’s ear.

“That impurity is yours. Take the curse into your filthy flesh.”

Whoosh-!!!!

Wind blows in a sealed room with no wind.

The mark that had started to engrave above Horaru’s head wavered and distorted, swept away by the wind.

At the same time, the wind that had swirled around Horaru once returned to the statue, and the statue swallowed both the curse and the wind.

“Return. To your place.”

As the order of expulsion fell, the statue that had been forcibly dragged out disappeared as if sinking back into the floor.

Carrying the Ember of Madness.

‘That just now was…’

-It’s switching the target of the curse. It’s a trick that can only be used before the curse activates. Human rights, justice. They used to go on about useless ideals and say they’d never use it. But now they’re using it quite well.

‘Did you teach her that too?’

-Yes. We can’t just stand by and be cursed. When there’s no other way, we have no choice but to summon sinners and use them as scapegoats.

‘No, that’s sorcery. Doesn’t sorcery come with a price?’

-That’s something that child has to pay, so you should never get involved.

‘….’

Right, it’s not my business. This incident stemmed from the Tower Master’s greed, so it’s right for the Tower Master to solve it and take responsibility.

If I unnecessarily meddle and care, I’ll only suffer. I know that well. I just need to pursue my own benefit like an opportunist. I didn’t come this far to serve in the first place.

“Horaru! Are you okay!?”

“Ugh.. It hurts.. I think I got a bruise on my back.”

“Is anything else wrong?”

“Hmm? Hmm. My head feels refreshed.”

“Ha. Haha… That’s a relief.”

Fortunately, Horaru seemed fine. She even smiled happily, saying her head felt refreshed.

In contrast, Mabel, who had used sorcery with unforeseeable consequences, put the dragon larva back into the glass container while sweating. Then she apologized to Horaru.

“I’m sorry, Horaru.”

“Hmm? Did something happen?”

“Don’t you remember anything?”

“Hmm?”

“Horaru, how much do you remember?”

“Hmm. I drank the tea I was given. The dragon larva… Hm. I see. A few minutes of my memory are gone.”

Only then did Horaru realize there was a gap in her memory.

“It must be because of that?”

“…That’s right.”

“Hmm. Tower Master. I’m going to step away from this now. If I lost just a bit of memory, if we continue, I might die without even getting married.”

“I understand….”

The Tower Master, completely fallen into despair, visibly slumped.

If even Horaru withdraws, it can be said that using the dragon larva has become quite difficult.

Now, from here on is my and Helena’s time. Originally, you should buy when it’s at the bottom, right? Let’s try requesting the dragon larva whose expected value has plummeted.

“Mabel.”

“Hmm..? Ah. Right… You came to talk about the bracelet..? But.. I’m a bit upset right now.. Shall we talk next time….?”

“No. I’m not here to talk about the bracelet. That. The dragon larva, that thing.”

“Hm? Hm. Why… It’s a failure. If we wake it up, it’ll just be a killing machine that murders people..? I should dispose of it before the city leaders notice… I even named it Yongyong…”

Your naming sense is fucking terrible.

“Are you just going to throw away that Yongyong or whatever as it is?”

“I have to throw it away… It’s an unusable murderous monster…”

“If you’re going to throw it away, give it to me.”

“…..?”

“If you’re going to throw it away anyway, give it to me.”

“What are you saying..?”

“I think I can tame it.”

At my words, life began to return to Mabel’s expression, which had been so gloomy it looked like she might wither and die at any moment.

Also, her eyebrows raised as if in anger.

“What? You want me to give you that for free? How are you going to tame it? Even Horaru, the highest authority in empathy, failed.”

“I can’t do empathy or anything like that. Instead, I’ll dominate it.”

“So how..?”

“I have my ways. So, will you give that to me? My situation is in a mess too, you know. I have to pioneer the underground city. And explore the ideal world. If you give that to me, I’ll open the new era you want, Tower Master.”

“You say you’ll explore the ideal world? You?”

“Yes. I have to go down whether I like it or not.”

“Can you really tame that? As you just saw, if you fail, it’s over. Just waking the sleeping one brought a highest-grade curse flying.”

It’s probably a security measure set by the parent dragon of that hatchling.

So that their child doesn’t easily fall into the hands of lowly creatures. I guess it’s like that, immediately unleashing a highest-grade curse if someone tries to touch it maliciously.

“It’s not a problem.”

It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to talk to that thing, and I have no intention of getting friendly with it.

What I’m going to do is pull out the soul of that hatchling from its body.

“So what will you do? Will you give that to me? Or will you just dispose of it? If you give it to me, I’ll grant a few of your requests while I have ownership of the dragon. If you want to just dispose of it, you can do that too. Then the Magic Tower will disintegrate that day.”

“The Magic Tower won’t disintegrate. I’ll be dismissed and that’ll be the end of it.”

“Do you want to be dismissed? Or do you want to try saving Yongyong by joining hands with me?”

Mabel bit her lower lip and fell into thought. With an uncertain expression, she was choosing which side would be more beneficial.

“…You’ve become quite bold. Has your fear disappeared a lot?”

“I’ve been in tune with the Inquisitors for a long time.”

“Huh. Alright, give it a try. But if you die from a highest-grade curse, I won’t help you like I did with Horaru. And if you succeed in dominating it, you have to let the Magic Tower have a foot in the underground city pioneering you just mentioned.”

“You’ll cooperate with the pioneering project? That’s something I was going to ask for, this is great.”

“It feels like I’m the only one losing out here… But I guess there’s no other answer but you.”

The Tower Master stepped back as if to say do as you please.

“Hmm. Can you do it? It’ll be dangerous, right? Communication doesn’t work. It’s trying to attack humans blindly. How should I put it. It just seems to hate people in general?”

“It’s fine. I’m not going to talk to that bastard.”

If communication doesn’t work, I’ll just get rid of it.

“Well then, I’ll start.”

The current state of the hatchling can be considered ‘weakened’ and ‘nervous’.

That state that Mabel named dragon larva is the evidence.

In short, it can be seen as having stopped physical growth while withering halfway in a place lacking in mana, with a weak mind and body.

Therefore, its soul is very weak. I don’t know about the defense system on its body, but since the soul is weakened, I can just bind it with a soul chain and pull it out.

-Have you taken out the spirit tree’s heart?

‘Yes.’

-From now on, I’ll borrow your left arm. Some of the mana circuits in your left arm might burn out. Is that okay?

‘Yes. It’s worth sacrificing.’

It’s not like I’m going to live as a magician. And it’s not all burning out, just half, so I should be able to recover it later.

-Good. Let’s start.

Above all, it’s a chance to get the strongest summon, so it’s worth giving up the mana circuits in my left arm.

If I can get a hatchling of a calamity-class dragon, it’s not a loss.

“Hup…!”

I shot out a soul chain with my right hand.

At the same time, my left hand, occupied by Helena, crushed the spirit tree’s heart and converted it into a catalyst.

The key is to make the spirit tree’s heart permeate her soul. From now on, Helena becomes my subordinate and summon. At the same time, she is linked with the growth bracelet.

For a dragon to endure without weakening in an environment lacking mana, it needed a nest that met the conditions. We decided to use the growth bracelet as a temporary nest.

‘Got it!’

The chain touched the weakened soul of the hatchling.

Sparks flew in all directions, scorching my right arm. My teeth chatter from the extreme pain.

-Pull it out more strongly!

‘Fuck..!!!’

I clenched my teeth and pulled on the chain.

Gradually, the baby dragon’s soul started to be pulled out of the hatchling’s body.

The act of pulling out only the soul without touching the larva at all, without inflicting any damage to the hatchling’s body.

As calculated, the defense system engraved on the baby dragon is not activating. This is it.

I can pull it out.

‘Now!’

The moment the soul was pulled out of the hatchling’s body, I put Helena’s soul, which I was grasping with my left hand, into the dragon’s body.

“Kuheurk…”

Blood poured out of my mouth like water.

It feels like my left arm is burning up. I’m dizzy. My right arm is trembling and not responding, as if the nervous system has melted, and my left arm is shaking in extreme pain as the mana circuits have burned out.

“Um, Tower Master.”

“Did you succeed!?”

“Please call a doctor.”

I succeeded.

I put Helena into the baby dragon’s body.

Also, before putting in the soul, I crushed the spirit tree’s heart and made her my subordinate and summon, so…

‘I can summon her anytime, anywhere through the growth bracelet.’

Since we’ve even avoided the worst-case scenario of the growth bracelet bursting, it can be considered a great success.

I did it.

I got a dragon.

By putting in a comrade’s soul.