Leveling Up through Eating

PR: MattForgenti

Baaaaaaang―

When they heard the sound of explosion from inside the boss room of the Dungeon of Sin, Barchel and his knights shrugged their shoulders as they laughed merrily.

“Oho~ I guess that poison dragon bastard is very excited today.”

“Fufufufu. If Sir Barchel successfully hunts the poison dragon then you will be more powerful. You have the chance to become the deputy tower master now.”

The corner of Barchel’s mouth curled up in joy. If he became the deputy tower master then he would become more powerful in terms of the sword in the country compared to Carr.

Then, one of the ambitious knights spoke.

“Just like the stories and legends of the past, a hero will appear to come and hunt the poison dragon.”

“Keuhuhuhu. So, are we the villains?”

Barchel found their words funny.

Well, what if I’m a villain? Anyway, this is just a game.

Even if a hero appeared, they would not be able to kill the poison dragon. 

“Not too long ago, the Bone Dragon Lord appeared. It’s not one of the four legendary dragons but it’s true that they were the first dragon to show up.”

He could remember that day clearly. He heard that ATV had reached their highest rating of 60% that day. In fact, more than half of the tv viewers watched their broadcast so it was only natural that they achieved such ratings. It was safe to say that more than half of the entire country had watched the broadcast including those who watched Ztube on the internet. And the Bone Dragon Lord there…

“That bastard was killed by a foreigner.” 

“A, a foreigner?” 

“Yes.” 

Barchel shook his head as he saw the knights look at him in surprise.

The fact that a foreigner killed a dragon was extremely surprising. Of course, the dragon was already dead and was infinitely weaker compared to a regular adult dragon but nevertheless it was still surprising. Regardless of that, even if foreigners grew surprisingly quickly their strength was still insufficient compared to the guardians that dominated the Athenae worldview. So they were wondering how, how was he able to kill the dragon?

“According to the information that I gathered, the bone dragon lord is infinitely weaker than the four legendary dragons. I also heard that there were dragons of fire and ice present back then, but they still needed a long time to grow. So what if they grew up? Even if there were three bone dragon lords, they still wouldn’t be able to handle one legendary dragon. On the contrary…”

Barchel looked at the cave that wasn’t that far from them.

“The poison dragon is the third among the four legendary dragons. And it also achieves full growth as soon as it breaks out of its egg.”

“What an amazing bastard.”

“So even if a hero appeared, he won’t be able to kill that unless he’s a lot stronger than all of us combined. Also, Poison Dragon Ambacca is a being that spits out extremely terrible poison. There are only a select few people who can handle that poison.”

Barchel shrugged his shoulders.

It was the unmistakable truth. He had already reached Lv490. But even if that was the case, hunting the poison dragon inside would only be possible if he did it with the three knights together. In addition, they also procured the ‘Poison King’s Potion’ from the Knight’s Tower just for this occasion. The Poison King’s potion would be able to increase their poison resistance by 60%.

‘Ah, but what if…’

What if it’s the Frying Pan Killer? Perhaps it’s possible?

However, he just smirked at such an impossible thought.

***

Minhyuk could hear the children’s cries as he buried his head on the floor while pretending to be afraid. 

“Noona, I’m scared……”

“I want to live…… I don’t want to die yet!”

“Mom, mom, mom! Waaaaaah!”

The reason why Minhyuk wanted to hunt Poison Dragon Ambacca was because he wanted to eliminate the root of everything. If the Dungeon of Sin and Poison Dragon Ambacca remained, the creation of chimeras and the atrocious deeds that Count Peru did would most likely continue. 

Another reason was because the Dungeon of Sin was located at the end of the basement. It was a convenient space that was small enough to prevent a lot of enemies flocking towards him.

When Minhyuk heard Haze’s voice, he realized that they were trying to kill themselves. It seemed like these kids grew up too fast during the time that they stayed in this hell.

The reason why Minhyuk hid his identity from the children was also simple. There was a saying that birds listen during the day and rats listen during the night. Count Peru might have installed some device that could listen in on the situation of the children or perhaps he might have hidden his own person among the children. Was it not natural for him to be suspicious? After all, he was a human who had been creating chimeras for a long time so he should not be someone stupid. 

When Haze and the other children decided to kill themselves, Poison Dragon Ambacca flew towards her at a breakneck speed as he tried to devour her completely. That was when he knew that this was the right time. If any of these children were Count Peru’s men, then they would already be out of this place.

Minhyuk quickly enlarged his frying pan as he ran while triggering ‘Food God’s Blessings’. Three black knives popped out from his back while he summoned Kongie. Minhyuk quickly slammed Poison Dragon Ambacca with his frying pan. The dragon flew backwards after receiving a fierce smash from his frying pan. 

Baaaaaaang―

The long priestly robes covering his body was pretty annoying so he quickly tore it off of his body.

“Wh, who are you……?”

Haze’s expression was clearly bewildered. It was because the man that was crying and begging that he wanted to live suddenly stood up and smashed the Poison Dragon Ambacca. 

Minhyuk pondered over how he should answer that question. These children were dyed with despair due to the evil deeds that were done by adults. These children suffered from hunger due to the adult’s greed for the ‘essence’ that would be squeezed out from them. He did not know what to say to these kids. So he approached her as he gently wiped the tears off of her cheeks.

“A good adult…… or something like that?”

He wanted to let them know that the world was not filled with bad adults. 

At that moment…..

Baaaaaaang―

Poison Dragon Ambacca jumped out of the wall where he was rammed in earlier.

“Kiyeeeeeee!”

When Minhyuk first saw him, notifications rang loudly in his ears.

[You have met with one of the Four Legendary Dragons.]

[Poison Dragon Ambacca is a dragon that has achieved full growth.]

[You have gained 50 reputation points.]

[Whoever hunts Poison Dragon Ambacca will gain plenty of rewards.]

A dragon that had achieved full growth! 

Minhyuk’s father, Black Dragon, was someone who was better at handling dragons than anybody else. Britney and Destiny, the dragons that Black Dragon had tamed, were dragons that were still at their infancy. Compared to them, Poison Dragon Ambacca, who was standing in front of him, had already achieved full growth. This meant that he was not an easy opponent.

Then, he flew towards Minhyuk.

“Kihaaaaaaa!”

Ambacca roared loudly.

Kongie quickly led the children towards a fairly hidden corner. Then, Kongie took something out. 

[You have torn the Space Protection Parchment.]

[All attacks within a 1-m radius will be nullified.]

This was an item that was also sold in the Royal Shop and it was very rare that there was only one copy sold in the shop. It was only available since the war episode was still not completely over yet. 

The children huddled into the small magic camp created around Kongie. At the same time, poison bursted out from Poison Dragon Ambacca’s body as he flew fiercely towards Minhyuk.

[Poison Dragon’s Wrath.]

[You will receive 2.4% damage per second once you inhale the poison from the Poison Dragon’s body.]

“……!”

The degree of damage was too horrendous. 2.4% of damage every second would cause a huge drop in one’s HP.

As soon as Minhyuk breathed in, the revolting poison was also inhaled through his nose.

[You have an invincible body that can ignore and resist all abnormal states.]

[You have resisted an abnormal state.]

However, it was useless for someone like Minhyuk. In other words, Minhyuk might have just been the worst opponent for Poison Dragon Ambacca.

[Human…… What in the……!]

Minhyuk was shocked. The sound that came out of the dragon’s mouth was not a roar but a clear voice. But Minhyuk couldn’t understand what he was saying because did not know the ‘Dragon Language’.

At the same time, dozens of giant poison spears sprang up around Poison Dragon Ambacca. 

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Dozens of poison spears flew towards Minhyuk.

Minhyuk quickly used Like the Wind to approach Poison Dragon Ambacca and narrow the distance between them. As soon as he was near him, he used his Rampant Sword.

Pipipipipipipipipi―

The sword lights slammed on Poison Dragon Ambacca’s body but none of them could get a scratch on his sturdy and solid scales.

‘Are you telling me that it still wouldn’t work even after using Rampant Sword with extremely high additional attack power?’ 

What was worse was that he couldn’t use the special privilege from his holy power since this bastard was not classified as a demonic beast, demon or undead. 

Then, Minhyuk quickly struck out his reddened sword. It was none other than his Splitting Sword. Two crescent-moon sword lights flew straight towards Poison Dragon Ambacca. Minhyuk ran together with the sword light. 

At the same time, he found something unusual somewhere near Ambacca’s mouth. 

‘A dragon orb?’ 

The orb looked like a huge pearl with its gleaming white color. However, it quickly disappeared from his sight. 

[Dragon Orb]

[With the help of the power of the Dragon Orb, Ambacca can exert a greater strength and force.]

At the exact same moment……

Kuhaaaaaaaak―

Terrible poison suddenly started bursting out from Poison Dragon Ambacca’s body. With the poisonous explosion, the two crescent sword lights also disappeared from the air.

“……!”

Minhyuk was shocked. But just before he could stop running, a green light suddenly flashed in front of him as it penetrated his chest.

Thwaaaack―

[Poison Dragon’s Poison Spear.]

[The Poison Spear has been influenced by the Dragon Orb and is now 2x more powerful than before. The chances of triggering a fatal hit has also increased by 80%.]

[Fatal blow!]

[The Poison Spear has inflicted x3 damage.]

“Keuheop!”

Minhyuk tried to stop the spear from penetrating through his chest but to no avail… He flew together with the spear before being smashed directly on the wall.

“Ugh!”

Crash―

[Your HP has fallen below 10%.]

Strong.

The single word floated in his mind. He realized how powerful a dragon was once it achieved its full growth. Just hitting a vital point could cause x3 damage on him.

“Ah, ahjussi!”

Haze shouted at Minhyuk when he crashed down on the floor. She was trying to run out of the safe space without realizing it.

“Oink!”

But Kongie blocked her way. His expression was quite somber as he firmly said no to her. Kongie believed in Minhyuk more than anybody else so he would do what he was tasked to do to support him.

Haze was helpless as she looked at Minhyuk worriedly. He was the only adult who had offered to protect her and the children who were abused and hurt by other adults. She was very grateful to him and that was why she was more worried about his safety than anybody else.

Then……

Flash―

An intense light flashed from Minhyuk’s body. The deep wound caused by the spear that looked like it was impossible to recover from had completely recovered. It was the effect of the Armor of Immortality’s special ability. 

“Haze.”

Minhyuk slowly stood up as he called her name. Haze looked at him with tears in her eyes as she listened carefully to his words.

“I’m not an ahjussi, I’m an oppa.”

“……”

It seemed like he felt bad because he was called ahjussi.

***

Black Dragon had reduced his log-in time as much as possible in Athenae recently because he was busy working as the president and chairman of the Ilhwa Group. However, he made sure to log-in at least one hour every day.

His reason was simple. It was because he needed to feed Britney and Destiny a delicious meal. Black Dragon treated these kids as his own child and would give them special treatment. Perhaps that was the reason why a skill like this appeared in his skill window.

It was a passive skill called ‘Communication’. The Communication Skill allowed him to understand and feel what they were trying to convey even if he did not know their language or he could not hear their voice.

And today, Black Dragon also heard their voices through the Communication Skill.

[I want to become stronger……]

[I want to protect you, Black Dragon.]

[I don’t want to watch helplessly like what happened back then.]

Black Dragon felt moved. Remembering their helplessness during the fight with the Bone Dragon Lord, Britney and Destiny spoke of those words every day as if there was a clot in their hearts that they could not remove. 

Black Dragon couldn’t help but find ways to help them. He had asked Abel, an informant, about ways to make them grow faster.

“Britney, Destiny. I’ll be back again tomorrow.” 

Black Dragon tried to cancel the Communication Skill with a bit of regret.

“Kkiiiii……” 

“Kkiiiyeeeee……” 

The two majestic and lovely dragons approached him. They bowed their heads and rubbed them on him as much as they could. 

“S, so cute…..!” 

This is why I can’t quit Athenae!

Black Dragon petted their heads gently. It was time to say goodbye. But at that moment……

[Abel: I found an artifact that can help Britney and Destiny grow faster.]

“……!” 

Black Dragon’s eyes widened. 

There’s finally a solution that can quell these children’s sad cries every day! And it’s an artifact that can help me see these kids grow even more!

[Black Dragon: W, what is it?]

Not long after, Abel’s whisper came back.

[Abel: It’s the Dragon Orb.]

***

Notes

[birds listen during the day and rats listen during the night] 낮말은 새가 듣고 밤말은 쥐가 듣는다 하였다. – A saying that’s similar to walls has ears. Basically someone could listen in on their conversations.

[Dragon Orb] 여의주 – It’s literally an orb that dragons hold on their mouths or palms. This is a term that you can usually find in fantasy stories. You can imagine the pearl that’s usually held in the claws of a dragon in sculptures.