Chapter 67: Dragon Slayer

“What’s wrong with everyone..?”

Seeing that the monster blood on their bodies hadn’t dried yet, not much time could have passed.

“What’s wrong..? Is this really how you should react?”

“Oppa, do you want a beating?”

“Should I lock you up..?”

The women reacted fiercely. If there weren’t people around, they looked like they would have devoured him.

“…For a very brief moment, you were really dead. I confirmed with Master’s acupuncture that your entire body had ceased all vital activity, but then the necklace suddenly shone, and you started to revive.”

Even Seung-ah, who seemed to be maintaining her composure, glared at him venomously.

She gave off a feeling that she wouldn’t let him off easy once they were alone.

‘Right… I didn’t explain anything, did I?’

Thinking back, only he knew about the function of the artifact Shin-woo had made; he hadn’t told anyone else.

That meant, for everyone except Seung-ah, this was the second time they’d witnessed his death.

They had calmed down a bit after confirming he was alive, but before the artifact’s effect activated, their reactions might have been even more desperate.

It was a somewhat complete plan in his head, but it wouldn’t have felt that way to his companions.

The situation had been too urgent, and there hadn’t been enough time to explain.

So, he could have made excuses, but he didn’t want to.

“I’m sorry, everyone. It was my fault.”

He apologized without making excuses or adding unnecessary words.

He didn’t want to get into a power struggle with people who only looked at him, and making excuses wasn’t something one should do to people who were worried.

Even if he explained why he did it later, apologizing now was the right thing to do.

“…Do you think a single apology will suffice? Look forward to me making you pay for this dearly.”

“That’s right. I was so shocked my heart almost exploded. Do you think that’s enough?”

“We should make a baby right now…”

Though their words were harsh, their expressions had softened considerably.

Having spent a long time with him, they couldn’t possibly miss the sincerity in his words.

“For now, maintaining the barrier is too much…”

Seung-ah, exhausted, dispelled the barrier that had been surrounding them.

It wasn’t surprising that she was out of energy, having used her awakening to kite a level 299 monster.

Even in that state, she had gone out of her way to hide their situation for him, so he was truly grateful.

However, before he could express his gratitude, the moment the barrier disappeared, he felt numerous gazes on them.

The association staff and Hunters who had faced Nidhogg in the area, and also numerous reporters, who seemed to have rushed over after seeing the broadcast that the boss had been defeated.

Flashes went off repeatedly, and at the same time, a huge number of people approached him.

Normally, he would have run away to avoid getting involved in troublesome matters, but this time was different.

‘The more famous I become, the more Estelle, who fought alongside me, will benefit from the spillover effect.’

He could feel that Estelle’s total energy had increased slightly compared to before he defeated Nidhogg.

Seeing her recover that much power after depleting her energy to the bottom, it could only mean her total capacity had increased.

So, this interview would also empower her.

Just as he was preparing for the interview, people blocked their way.

“These Hunters are extremely exhausted from the raid just now. Please conduct interviews later.”

They were association agents in tattered uniforms.

It seemed they were trying to shield them, who had just finished a raid, from the reporters so they wouldn’t get tired.

One of them even winked, as if signaling them to trust them.

‘But I was planning to do it anyway…!’

It was a golden opportunity to help Estelle grow, but if they blocked it like this, it would be strange for him to step forward and say, “I’ll do the interview.”

And since they were doing this out of goodwill towards him, reversing their actions here would be a great discourtesy to them.

‘Well… it can’t be helped.’

He could tell the story on Shin-woo’s broadcast. Even if he didn’t do an interview, articles would come out, and the video of him catching Nidhogg would spread.

Even if only a short clip spread, those interested would search for the full video and surely become interested in Estelle, who appeared at the beginning.

He had no choice but to believe that for now.

“Then shall we head back..?”

Since things had turned out this way, there seemed to be no need to linger here any longer.

Everyone needed to treat the minor injuries and contamination they’d sustained while fighting monsters, and they must have accumulated fatigue.

Especially since everyone had used their strength to the point of near exhaustion, their mental fatigue would be immense.

It was a raid that happened consecutively after expending energy to subdue monsters, so everyone was bound to be tired.

Still, they couldn’t leave in this state, so they lightly washed off the blood with water from their inventories, everyone drank a potion, and then they entered a nearby building to change clothes.

This was possible because Seung-ah had multiple sets of women’s clothing in her inventory.

Some were loose-fitting, so even Estelle, with her considerable bust, could wear them without issue.

Looking much better than before, they managed to get home after politely declining people who recognized them along the way.

And the moment they arrived home, he began to be scolded relentlessly.

He even thought it would be better to fight Nidhogg one more time.

He played the sinner, enduring nearly three hours of scolding, and was finally released from that endless hell after dinner.

He decided to check his current status first and opened his status window.

***

‘Status window. Excluding skills.’

He didn’t need to check his skills, as he could feel them, so he didn’t bother.

[Name: Kim Yu-won (Lv198/81%)

Age: 137

Gender: Male

Race: Giant

Stats▼

Strength: 103

Agility: 69

Stamina: 90

Intelligence: 49

Demonic Energy: 70

Mental Strength: 104

Charisma: 30

Luck: 20

Remaining Points: 15

Traits▼

Five Lives (S), Lightning God’s Body (S), Savior of the World (S), Unwavering and Unyielding (S), Primordial Giant (SS), Dragon Slayer (S), Poison Immunity (S)]

‘Why did my level increase so much?’

This level system didn’t simply give a lot of experience for successfully defeating a high-level enemy.

It was a structure that gave more experience the higher one’s understanding of the opponent, so a deep understanding of the opponent was usually necessary.

But he hadn’t made such an attempt against Nidhogg.

In the first place, it wasn’t an enemy weak enough for such an attempt to be possible, and he had focused solely on killing it, so he’d thought he would only gain about 10 levels at most, even with the large disparity.

“It might be related to what Nidhogg said.”

Hadn’t that sparrow that appeared then said something as if it knew something about him before Nidhogg went berserk?

Perhaps his understanding of Nidhogg was measured as high because of something related to that. Well, there was no harm in receiving a lot of experience, so he decided to move on.

‘Worrying about it more won’t give me an answer.’

It would be difficult to find out more without catching that sparrow.

For now, the important thing was the accumulated experience, which was enough to reach the Transformation Realm after just one more Gate.

Looking at his stats, there were more changes than he’d thought. Stamina, Intelligence, Demonic Energy, and Charisma, all of which had broken the 90-point barrier, stood out.

Intelligence, in particular, had not only broken the barrier but also increased by an additional 9 points, reaching a new barrier. Combined with the 3-point increase in Agility, the simple stat increase from this battle alone was 16.

His stats, which hadn’t risen easily even with daily training, had shot up after a single fight with an absurdly strong enemy.

Considering he’d experienced death once, this level of growth wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.

‘For now, let’s invest the free points into Stamina.’

Once he broke through the Transformation Realm’s barrier, the entry barrier to summoning the power of his Transcendent Realm days would also be lowered.

Furthermore, if his Stamina stat, along with his Strength stat, also transcended, he would be able to use even stronger power without having to push his body to the point of death.

He raised his Stamina to 99 and felt much healthier than before the fight.

Though he still felt a slight lack in drawing out the full power of his 103 Strength.

After checking his stats, he saw two newly acquired traits: Dragon Slayer and Poison Immunity.

He already knew both traits, but he didn’t know why the latter had appeared.

‘The Dragon Slayer trait appeared when I killed a transcendent dragon.’

It was a trait imprinted on the body, so it couldn’t be inherited.

And its abilities varied depending on the dragon killed.

The Poison Immunity trait was acquired by mastering the Hundred Poison Immunity skill, starting from the basic Poison Immunity skill, but he didn’t understand why the Hundred Poison Immunity skill had suddenly been mastered.

He thought the answer might lie in the Dragon Slayer trait and opened its information.