Transcendent Warrior with a Dimensional Shifting Inventory

85

Just as he was about to pull the trigger,

[Stop! I am no enemy!]

Unexpectedly, the dragon declared its lack of hostility.

Unlike the others that had attacked on sight.

However, Minhyuk didn’t lower his gun.

It could suddenly attack after approaching like that.

Deceiving the enemy was also a tactic during battle.

So, one should never let their guard down in any situation.

It would be useless to complain about being cowardly after getting hurt.

Thud-

Minhyuk fired a warning shot at the dragon’s feet.

[Please put down your weapon! I just came to talk to you. I am also a guest of the Tower of Trials, just like you.]

The dragon was one of the ‘three guests’ the guide of the Tower of Trials had mentioned.

Somehow, Minhyuk also found it a bit strange.

Until now, he could only obtain the map and Northcore by eliminating the beings he encountered in the Tower of Trials, but no additional return time was accumulated.

However, the dragon before him was different.

＜Killing the Dragon (Yak) will accumulate 120 hours of return time.＞

Killing it would accumulate return time.

That meant it was not a slave of the Tower of Trials but an actual living being.

By the way, the return time that could be accumulated by killing it was 120 hours, which was half of the time that could be accumulated by killing a dragon.

The amount of accumulation could roughly indicate the strength of the target.

The dragon was weaker than a dragon, but it couldn’t be categorized as a remnant.

“Is there a rule that guests can’t attack each other?”

[There is no such rule, but please trust me. I just came here to talk to you.]

“What do you want to talk about?”

[Didn’t you come from another world?]

Minhyuk was momentarily flustered but maintained his poker face.

“No, I didn’t.”

[Don’t try to deceive me. I can sense a very unique aura from you.]

“What kind of aura?”

[The aura of chaos. A unique aura emitted only by Visitors.]

Aura of chaos, Visitor.

These were unfamiliar words to Minhyuk.

“What the heck are you talking about? Talk in a way that’s easy to understand.”

The dragon explained to Minhyuk in detail about them.

Those who came from other worlds are called Visitors here,

and Visitors each have special abilities and share the commonality of emitting a unique aura.

[Visitors are completely different from the slaves of the Tower of Trials whose souls are trapped here. You came to this world alive. You all possess tremendous power, which is why dragons fear you greatly… Have you ever encountered dragons?]

Minhyuk nodded.

Then the horned dragon let out a sigh.

[Oh dear! That means those creatures already know that you are a Visitor!]

The horned dragon continued the conversation as if it were a given that Minhyuk was a Visitor.

Minhyuk could no longer deny it.

“Is that so important?”

[It is! Dragons will try to eliminate Visitors by any means necessary. Please be careful!]

“That’s perfect. As it happens, I need more dragon hearts.”

[More? You mean you’ve killed a dragon?]

“I’ve killed two.”

Minhyuk’s success in killing dragons was already known to Asdel and Melbeck’s Manablack.

So there was no point in hiding it from the horned dragon.

[Oh, you’re amazing! Among Visitors, even those with great power, it’s rare to find someone who can kill a dragon… Anyway, I’m glad I met you today. You need more dragon hearts? I’ll tell you where their nest is.]

That was very helpful.

Just because he had the ability to kill a dragon didn’t mean hunting them was easy.

Even if he was lucky enough to encounter dragons, he would be helpless if they flew away at their incredible speed.

The reason he had been able to kill two dragons before was because they were foolish and had let their guard down.

Now that the dragons knew of Minhyuk’s abilities to some extent, he wouldn’t be able to hunt them using similar methods.

To kill a dragon, Minhyuk would have to chase them down.

It would be much easier if he knew where their nest was.

However, he wondered why the horned dragon was giving him such information.

“Why are you telling me this?”

[There’s a saying: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.]

“You’re not on good terms with dragons?”

Hmm—

The horned dragon let out a long sigh.

[Dragons killed all of my kin.]

Horned dragons were similar to dragons in appearance and abilities, but they were actually completely different creatures.

Their very ecologies were different.

Unlike dragons, all of whom were male except for the Great Mother of the Sky, horned dragons reproduced like ordinary beasts, with males and females forming pairs.

[Just because we resembled them, dragons hated us.]

Long ago, there had been many horned dragons.

There were many different species, and they were numerous.

However, they had been slaughtered by dragons, and now only one remained.

The Azure Horned Dragon had fled into the Magic Tower to survive.

The horned dragon in the Magic Tower was like a trophy that the dragons had won after wiping out an entire race.

[They don’t need to bother killing me. The horned dragon race will soon disappear anyway.]

Since there was only one male horned dragon left, it could not reproduce.

The dragons knew this as well.

If they just left it alone, it would eventually die out.

[I can’t just die in vain like this. They are underestimating me!]

The Jiao Dragon planned to play a trick on the dragons.

For the past thousands of years, he had gathered information about dragons by talking to those who visited the Magic Tower.

Those who set foot in the Magic Tower all had outstanding abilities and were full of adventurous spirit.

So, there were many among them who had seen a dragon’s lair while exploring the continent.

[I can’t guarantee that the dragon’s lair is actually where they said it was. But, based on the information I have, it’s much better than wandering the continent aimlessly, looking for dragons.]

“You’re giving me such valuable information for free?”

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[I’ll be satisfied if you kill the dragons for me. But, if you really want to thank me… remind them of my existence before you kill them. Tell them that the Jiao Dragon of the Magic Tower is not a mere worm.]

“That’s easy enough.”

Puck-

Several pieces of parchment appeared in the air between the Jiao Dragon and Minhyuk.

The Jiao Dragon had taken them out of his inventory.

Thud-

They flew towards Minhyuk.

Minhyuk received them and looked through them.

They were all maps.

One was a map of the Lania continent, with the locations of the dragons marked on it.

Among the markings was the ‘Palace of the Red Dragon’, the sanctuary of the dragons.

Professor Raymon had told him about it.

The red dragon that lived there possessed very rare treasures.

If he hunted it, he could get his return time, magic beads, and even treasures.

It was killing three birds with one stone.

‘If it’s real, it’ll be a jackpot.’

And the rest of the parchments were maps of the Magic Tower.

There were maps of every floor except the top floor where the master of the Magic Tower stayed.

With these maps, he could climb the Magic Tower at super speed.

Minhyuk smiled at the Jiao Dragon and said,

“Why are you giving me so much?”

[Since you’re in the Magic Tower, you should go up to the top floor and meet the master of the Magic Tower. You can get treasure.]

“What kind of treasure?”

[I don’t know that either. I haven’t been able to go up to the 9th floor yet.]

“Then how do you know he gives treasure?”

[It’s written on a stone monument in the 8th floor. It says you can get a very precious treasure from the master of the Magic Tower.]

The Jiao Dragon had intentionally not gone up to the 9th floor.

If he went up to the top floor and met the master of the Magic Tower, he would be automatically moved outside the Magic Tower afterwards.

The Jiao Dragon, who had escaped from the dragons and entered the Magic Tower, could not have wanted that.

He spent thousands of years in the Magic Tower, going back and forth between the 1st and 8th floors.

Anyway, thanks to meeting the Jiao Dragon, he had obtained information about the dragons and maps of the entire Magic Tower.

However, it was a little disappointing that he had not obtained the Jiao Dragon’s heart, which was his original goal.

Now that he had received everything he could from the Jiao Dragon, he could kill him and take out his heart.

However, Minhyuk had a conscience.

‘Let’s not live like that.’

Even if he couldn’t get the dragon’s heart right away, he could go outside the Demon’s Tower later and hunt dragons to get better magic beads.

“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll be going.”

As Minhyuk was about to head to where Nosco was, the dragon called out to him.

[Wait.]

“Why?”

[Take my heart.]

Unexpected words came out of the dragon’s mouth.

“Are you asking me to kill you right now?”

[Yes. My lifespan is ending, and I don’t have much longer to live. So, open my chest and take out my heart.]

It was a grateful offer, but he didn’t understand.

“Is there a reason you have to do that? Just live until you die naturally. The scenery here is nice.”

[It seems you misunderstand something. I am asking you a favor. Please kill me. I can only become a slave of the Demon’s Tower if I am murdered.]

The dragon wanted to become a slave of the Demon’s Tower and exist forever.

If one is murdered inside the Demon’s Tower, their soul is bound and they become a slave.

That rule applied to Minhyuk as well.

He had already heard about it from the Demon’s Tower’s caretaker.

“Do you hate disappearing like that?”

[I can accept my own death. However, the extinction of my race is an unbearable sorrow. If there were any other dragons alive besides me, I would never have made this choice.]

The dragon lived in deep agony as the last survivor of its race.

The fact that his race would become extinct as he disappeared was a greater emptiness that could not be compared to the death of a single individual.

His wish was to exist forever as a slave of the Demon’s Tower so that people would not forget the existence of dragons.

Swish-

Minhyuk drew his greatsword.

[Thank you.]

Thud-

He cut the dragon’s neck.

＜Yak the Dragon has been defeated.＞

＜As a reward, 120 hours of precious time have been accumulated.＞

Rip-

Minhyuk cut open the dragon’s chest to take out its heart.

Then, a magic bead with a dense glow was revealed.

＜Large High-Grade Magic Bead＞

-A large bead where magic power is concentrated.

-The bead can be used to infuse magic tools with magic power.

It was a high-grade magic bead with the same concentration as a dragon’s heart, but it was smaller in size.

Minhyuk pulled the magic bead out of the dragon’s body.

Whoosh-

The dragon crumbled into dust and scattered.

He had become a slave to the Tower of Trials.

The slaves of the Tower of Trials who had turned to dust would be revived the moment the next customer paid the entrance fee to enter the Tower of Trials.

Minhyuk, who had been looking at the spot where the Azure Dragon had disappeared for a while, put the magic bead in the refrigerator.

“Return.”

Thud-

He moved to the underground parking lot with a flash of light.

When he opened the refrigerator door, there was a ceramic item inside.

It was a pale celadon.

It was a plum vase with a small spout and bulging shoulders.

Although he was not an expert on ceramics, he could tell that it was quite an old item.

‘Could it be real Goryeo celadon?’

However, there were Chinese characters written on the surface of the ceramic item.

Minhyuk began to hesitantly interpret the Chinese characters.

Minhyuk, who had an excellent memory, had memorized all the Chinese characters he had learned in middle and high school.

However, it was still difficult to interpret the sentence accurately.

The only thing that was certain was that what was written on the ceramic item was not modern Chinese.

Because it was not simplified characters but traditional characters.

It was likely that it was written by our ancestors hundreds of years ago.

Anyway, even if he couldn’t interpret it perfectly, there was something he could be sure of.

What was written on the ceramic item was the manufacturing method of some items.

‘Oh my god!’

The manufacturing methods of lost Goryeo celadon and blue and white porcelain were written on it.