The wide plain stretched out before me, the horizon visible in every direction. The wind carried the scent of dry grass and rich soil, a far cry from the fresh air of downtown Seoul.
My gaze fell upon the dry, warm expanse that seemed out of place beneath the Han River, and I couldn’t help but purse my lips.
I still hadn’t cracked the underlying principle behind all this, but the sky remained clear, the days sunny, and the temperature just right. A gentle, cool breeze swept through.
Despite the pleasant weather, a deep discomfort gnawed at me.
“Damn it! It’s always the same!” My frustration boiled over, and I spat out my anger, the ground bearing witness to my ire.
Yusu regarded me with a soft, concerned gaze. “Is it futile, then?”
This place was a sub-space nestled beneath the Han River’s surface, a plain within White Deer Village. I was scattering over a thousand pink maggot-like transformed dragons in the field, attempting to figure out which one was Earth’s Truth-Seeker.
Yet, it proved far more challenging than I had anticipated. Initially, this magic should have provided a strong, unequivocal sense of the direction in which the Truth-Seeker’s soul resided.
Instead, the results mirrored those of its activation in a different world.
Now, I experienced a vague, elusive sensation, akin to a mist shrouding the plain, rendering individuals indistinguishable.
Yusu finally broke the silence. “If only we understood the technique’s principle, we might have a chance.”
I sighed, the weight of our predicament settling upon me. “We might if Parvache was in his normal condition, but teaching you this magic is beyond my capacity at the moment.”
This was advanced magic, delving into the soul based on true names and fragments of the body’s information.
To impart these spells to the residents of White Deer, whose fundamental knowledge of magical science differed greatly, I would need to initiate them into the basic theories with my own skills. Such a task would span several years.
Naturally, I had taken some shortcuts while learning Maek’s magic. Parvache had adapted and taught their magical theory in a way that felt familiar to me. Ultimately, I owed my progress to Parvache’s guidance and support.
“Parvache?” I called out his name, anticipation dripping from my words.
I had lugged a robot toy with its mental core all the way here, gently placing it on the ground. Still, it remained unresponsive, moving only when I manipulated it, behaving no differently from a regular toy.
“Damn it,” I grumbled in frustration, my brow furrowing in disappointment. “This is driving me crazy!”
There had been two theories regarding why my magic failed in another dimension.
First, it might have been an issue with the dimension of the magic itself. Second, the problem could have stemmed from the environment where the dragons had congregated.
Yet now, neither of these explanations seemed to hold water.
Garam, who stood beside Yusu, offered his thoughts. “Even if you take them out one by one from the subspace bag and identify them, can you sense the presence of the Black Hermit? If so, it suggests that identifying them shouldn’t be difficult because they’re gathered together.”
“That’s a valid point,” I conceded, running my hand through my hair as I contemplated the situation. “Oh! Could it be that the soul has split and shared itself among all these creatures? It would be enough to drive anyone insane!”
Then, an elderly man standing behind the young Maeks interjected. He wore an outfit reminiscent of a hanbok and boasted a long, flowing white beard, giving him the appearance of a character from a historical drama.
“That’s impossible. The soul cannot be divided,” he asserted firmly.
I turned my attention to him, recalling his introduction as Hamum, an elder among the Maeks in this village.
While he hadn’t ventured to another world due to his village-bound existence, Garam had brought him here, insisting that his ability to perceive souls surpassed that of any other Maek.
“It cannot be divided. That’s correct,” I affirmed.
Parvache, indeed, could divide his ego and consciousness, but they shared a single soul. I glanced at the lifeless toy, deep in thought.
In that instant, Garam turned to Hamum, his gesture pointing to the pink maggots scattered across the plain, their wriggling resembling sporadic twitches.
“Father, does this mean you can’t see the souls of these maggots?” It felt somewhat peculiar to witness Garam, who appeared as young as a great-grandchild, addressing such an elderly man as father.
Hamum shook his head, his hands clasped behind his back. “It seems they obey the octopus, but the mental barrier remains intact. I can’t perceive their souls in their current state. They must be a formidable race. In the ancient wars, we had waged fierce battles against Black Hermit. He evolved from such a race, surmounted two barriers, and ascended to a higher rank.”
Of course, the octopus to which Hamum referred was Maru. This led me to pose another question. “Maru, can you tell them to release the mental barrier now?”
It required a specific language system to trigger a command embedded in the dragon’s genetic code.
Maru seemed to ponder for a moment before responding from within my hoodie. “No, not yet.”
Well, that was hardly surprising.
“There’s no other way. Should we compel them to release their mental barriers?” I twirled my finger, generating a thumping sound. “Perhaps if I use some demons, even the Dragon Emperor’s mental barriers would crumble, right? So, if I place all those maggots in the liquid demons and then pull them out…”
Then, Yusu’s hands shot up in surprise. “Oh, no! Releasing those creatures here would spell trouble.”
I knitted my brows, confusion etched on my face. “Why?”
Back when I first confronted Fake God and bested him, Yusu had been right there with me. He knew exactly what these demons were.
“Because they absorb mana? But, from what I can sense, this place is brimming with mana…”
Yusu shook his head. “They’re priests in service of other gods. Their ability to siphon mana from others is a form of divine power, too.”
“Ah!” It suddenly made sense.
Kaidemos, a god known by the true name Contract of Faith. The term demons referred to those who had entered into a pact with this god, becoming his devoted priests. They were a unique race, distinct from ordinary beings from their divine power, not genes.
“It’s fine for priests of other gods to enter this space. However, wielding the divine powers of different gods here will be a tough endeavor,” Yusu explained. He, along with the previous generation of village priests, had served a god known by the true name Land of Blood and Oil. Most likely, this god was the source of the power sustaining this place.
I nodded in agreement, finding his explanation quite plausible. “Then I’ll have to take care of that outside.”
But before proceeding, I needed to investigate further. Gathering additional clues was a wise move.
“Yusu, can I open a channel here now?”
He nodded. “I’ve seen Master Yoon open these portals countless times, and it doesn’t involve divine power.”
I’m well aware of that. As long as it wasn’t divine power, it should be fine, right?
However, this place wasn’t in a state where god itself descended or where dimensions overlapped, like the sanctuary of Kylgeniapros. So, opening a Channel here didn’t make space unstable.
With Yusu’s confirmation, I initiated the channel from my chest with a humming sound. After a moment, a black-haired beast gracefully stepped onto the green grassland.
***
“Hmm?” Yodmo, who had just arrived, sniffed the air and looked around.
“This place... it’s so odd. A sanctuary, maybe? But the air is stifling. Why does it reek of blood? I can barely stand the stench,” Yodmo commented with a puzzled expression, causing Yusu to flinch.
Does it really smell bloody? I found the air quite pleasant.
In contrast to the somewhat plump summon’s reaction, someone else seemed genuinely excited.
“Hoh! It’s amazing!” The speaker was Hamum, who looked at Yodmo with wide-eyed surprise. “The guest from another dimension doesn’t seem like someone who has lived this long, but their soul is truly exceptional.”
Realizing he was referring to itself, the beast turned its eyes toward the old Maek, now in a human form.
“You have existed in a low-level dimension like this for so long. I can see that you’ve accumulated an enormous amount of memories,” Yodmo remarked, wiping its mouth with a long, thin tongue, reminiscent of an anteater.
“Hey, Yodmo. Just in case…!” I interjected, trying to warn the beast.
“Don’t worry. I’m not hungry yet,” the summoned beast responded with a huff and a snort. It hadn’t gained any more weight since it returned ninety percent of my memory, and its body hadn’t gotten any skinnier or fatter. Presumably, Yodmo could sustain itself just by digesting the remaining ten percent of my memory.
No, this beast claimed it wasn’t hungry in the first place, but why was it sticking its tongue out?
“Low-level dimension, huh?” Hamum wore a contemplative expression as he echoed Yodmo’s words.
Yodmo gave him a quick glance and said, “Seems like this dimension hasn’t grown much since its creation.”
My thoughts circled back to the conversation between Gramiel and Song of Chaos. It appeared that Truth-Seekers had two options when it came to the souls they gathered: they could enhance their own abilities or raise the world’s level.
It seemed that Gramiel had been unable to enhance her own abilities due to certain limitations, which led her to accumulate harvested souls. Hence, she had offered to use them to elevate our world after she succeeded becoming the Earth’s Truth-Seeker.
“Do all beings in higher-level dimensions possess souls as advanced as yours?” Hamum inquired.
“It appears so, in general. The higher the world’s level, the more advanced the souls of its inhabitants. However, I don’t have access to the specifics of causality or context. Honestly, I’m not interested. Only the Truth-Seekers hold that knowledge.” Yodmo nodded thoughtfully before shifting its gaze toward me. “The reason you summoned me. It’s just as I suspected, right?”
“Yeah. The dragon’s memory. Has the digestion progressed even further?”
Yodmo nodded in understanding. “You’re looking for information about whether any of this certain world’s dragons have had unusual experiences in the last two years, and… details that might expose their weaknesses.”
“I no longer need the latter.”
“What?”
“I don’t need information about the dragons’ weaknesses. Instead, inform me about the dragons that have undergone something out of the ordinary.”
Yodmo regarded me with a puzzled expression before speaking firmly. “Well, unless you’re absolutely mad, there’s no need for you to confront dragons. I’m talking about those creatures that mainly inhabit the low-level dimension, possessing immense transcendent power without even crossing the wall. To make matters worse, if you accidentally kill one, all the dragons from that dimension gather for revenge, making them a tremendous nuisance.”
Then the beast asked, “So, have you abandoned your conflict with the dragon and returned to this world? You don’t even require information about a specific entity now?”
I shook my head. “No, provide me with that information. As much as you’ve managed to digest.”
“What’s your plan then? I comprehend your request, but if I mention the names of these dragons, are you intending to return to that dimension to seek them out?” The beast appeared perplexed. “Shall I furnish you with their respective locations? That could be quite cumbersome. To provide location information, I’d have to convert it into a format familiar to you.”
I shake my head. “No need for that. Just provide me with the names. I don’t require location details.”
“You can determine a dragon’s location just from its name?”
“Regardless, they’re all here.”
“What nonsense is that–”
I interrupted the summoned beast’s confusion. Then I pointed to the plain and explained, “They’re all dragons, right here.”
“What? What do you mean?” Yodmo asked repeatedly, struggling to comprehend. I kept explaining until Yodmo finally grasped the situation and spoke in astonishment.
“You’re saying you turned all the dragons from that world into those pink maggots and brought them here?!”
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“But why pink maggots!”
“It wasn’t my choice.” I replied. It was an uncontrollable outcome.
Of all the words that could have settled in Maru’s mind, this was the last thing I expected. I had no say in it.
Selecting the right size posed a challenge; it had to be big enough for storage but not too small to manage or locate. Somehow, the term referring to these creatures had become fused with Maru’s language center.
“Human... You truly are something else,” Yodmo commented, his tone a mixture of amazement and bewilderment.
“I don’t have much time. Tell me quickly what you’ve discovered,” I pressed, my patience wearing thin.
***
Yodmo emerged from a moment of confusion, ready to share the contents of the memories it had digested. Later, it shook its head in disbelief and returned to its original dimension.
Surprisingly, there weren’t as many dragons with recent unusual experiences as I had initially thought. Everyone present heard the information Yodmo conveyed, and it was Hamum who began to consider a particular possibility.
“No way!” everyone exclaimed in disbelief.
Pointing to one of the dragons mentioned by Yodmo, Hamum continued, and Garam responded with a shake of his head.
“We’ve encountered that dragon before! It woke up outside, missing its memory, remember? I remember what it looked like,” Garam persisted, his conviction unwavering. “I personally checked it. Even after removing the mental barrier, there was only one soul. It was too weak to be the soul of a Truth-Seeker. Black Hermit’s soul was not in that dragon.”
Hamum lowered his voice thoughtfully. “But have you checked the mental barriers on that side?”
“Ah!” Garam’s expression contorted as realization struck him. It was only then that Garam comprehended Hamum’s point. “No, I didn’t know that in the first place, so I can’t check that far! You don’t mean–?”
“It’s worth investigating regardless,” I intervened in their conversation. I relayed the name of the dragon I had heard from Yodmo to Maru. “Can you communicate this much in that language?”
Maru confirmed, “Yes, it’s possible.”
“Alright then, find a dragon with this name.”
Maru’s voice echoed across the plain, resonating through the language system transmitted by the Root Stone.
After a resounding echo, an entity among the thousand wriggling maggots on the green grassland showed visible movement.
“I called its name and said come here!” Maru said, a sense of accomplishment in his voice.
I extended my Mana towards the approaching pink maggots, catching one in the air and placing it a short distance away from the rest, ensuring it had ample space.
“Now, tell it to revert to its original form,” I said to Maru.
It had been confirmed that the term “transform” was already learned by Maru. Once more, Maru’s voice resonated, and the maggot began to shift its form.
After a while, a wounded giant body stood before us. The dragon, now back in its original form, had bent wings, broken scales, and flowing blood.
“Grrr!” A deep mournful groan emanated from it.
I remembered. This dragon had been carrying those injuries from its fall all this time, yet it miraculously didn’t affect its life.
Nonetheless, it was an impressive sight. I wondered what kind of enhancements they had undergone to achieve this.
“Now, then.”
I observed the dragon, its appearance strikingly familiar. It was a dragon I had encountered previously, a young gray dragon whose mental barrier had been shattered when liquid demons were sprayed into its mouth, and Garam had identified its soul.
“This one is named Lucette-Eigar, right?”
“Yes, I called it by that name and it came.” Maru confirmed.
I looked at the young dragon’s body while pondering the information Yodmo had provided. “So, inside this dragon’s stomach, there’s an egg that hasn’t hatched yet, right?”
The wide plain stretched out before me, the horizon visible in every direction. The wind carried the scent of dry grass and rich soil, a far cry from the fresh air of downtown Seoul.
My gaze fell upon the dry, warm expanse that seemed out of place beneath the Han River, and I couldn’t help but purse my lips.
I still hadn’t cracked the underlying principle behind all this, but the sky remained clear, the days sunny, and the temperature just right. A gentle, cool breeze swept through.
Despite the pleasant weather, a deep discomfort gnawed at me.
“Damn it! It’s always the same!” My frustration boiled over, and I spat out my anger, the ground bearing witness to my ire.
Yusu regarded me with a soft, concerned gaze. “Is it futile, then?”
This place was a sub-space nestled beneath the Han River’s surface, a plain within White Deer Village. I was scattering over a thousand pink maggot-like transformed dragons in the field, attempting to figure out which one was Earth’s Truth-Seeker.
Yet, it proved far more challenging than I had anticipated. Initially, this magic should have provided a strong, unequivocal sense of the direction in which the Truth-Seeker’s soul resided.
Instead, the results mirrored those of its activation in a different world.
Now, I experienced a vague, elusive sensation, akin to a mist shrouding the plain, rendering individuals indistinguishable.
Yusu finally broke the silence. “If only we understood the technique’s principle, we might have a chance.”
I sighed, the weight of our predicament settling upon me. “We might if Parvache was in his normal condition, but teaching you this magic is beyond my capacity at the moment.”
This was advanced magic, delving into the soul based on true names and fragments of the body’s information.
To impart these spells to the residents of White Deer, whose fundamental knowledge of magical science differed greatly, I would need to initiate them into the basic theories with my own skills. Such a task would span several years.
Naturally, I had taken some shortcuts while learning Maek’s magic. Parvache had adapted and taught their magical theory in a way that felt familiar to me. Ultimately, I owed my progress to Parvache’s guidance and support.
“Parvache?” I called out his name, anticipation dripping from my words.
I had lugged a robot toy with its mental core all the way here, gently placing it on the ground. Still, it remained unresponsive, moving only when I manipulated it, behaving no differently from a regular toy.
“Damn it,” I grumbled in frustration, my brow furrowing in disappointment. “This is driving me crazy!”
There had been two theories regarding why my magic failed in another dimension.
First, it might have been an issue with the dimension of the magic itself. Second, the problem could have stemmed from the environment where the dragons had congregated.
Yet now, neither of these explanations seemed to hold water.
Garam, who stood beside Yusu, offered his thoughts. “Even if you take them out one by one from the subspace bag and identify them, can you sense the presence of the Black Hermit? If so, it suggests that identifying them shouldn’t be difficult because they’re gathered together.”
“That’s a valid point,” I conceded, running my hand through my hair as I contemplated the situation. “Oh! Could it be that the soul has split and shared itself among all these creatures? It would be enough to drive anyone insane!”
Then, an elderly man standing behind the young Maeks interjected. He wore an outfit reminiscent of a hanbok and boasted a long, flowing white beard, giving him the appearance of a character from a historical drama.
“That’s impossible. The soul cannot be divided,” he asserted firmly.
I turned my attention to him, recalling his introduction as Hamum, an elder among the Maeks in this village.
While he hadn’t ventured to another world due to his village-bound existence, Garam had brought him here, insisting that his ability to perceive souls surpassed that of any other Maek.
“It cannot be divided. That’s correct,” I affirmed.
Parvache, indeed, could divide his ego and consciousness, but they shared a single soul. I glanced at the lifeless toy, deep in thought.
In that instant, Garam turned to Hamum, his gesture pointing to the pink maggots scattered across the plain, their wriggling resembling sporadic twitches.
“Father, does this mean you can’t see the souls of these maggots?” It felt somewhat peculiar to witness Garam, who appeared as young as a great-grandchild, addressing such an elderly man as father.
Hamum shook his head, his hands clasped behind his back. “It seems they obey the octopus, but the mental barrier remains intact. I can’t perceive their souls in their current state. They must be a formidable race. In the ancient wars, we had waged fierce battles against Black Hermit. He evolved from such a race, surmounted two barriers, and ascended to a higher rank.”
Of course, the octopus to which Hamum referred was Maru. This led me to pose another question. “Maru, can you tell them to release the mental barrier now?”
It required a specific language system to trigger a command embedded in the dragon’s genetic code.
Maru seemed to ponder for a moment before responding from within my hoodie. “No, not yet.”
Well, that was hardly surprising.
“There’s no other way. Should we compel them to release their mental barriers?” I twirled my finger, generating a thumping sound. “Perhaps if I use some demons, even the Dragon Emperor’s mental barriers would crumble, right? So, if I place all those maggots in the liquid demons and then pull them out…”
Then, Yusu’s hands shot up in surprise. “Oh, no! Releasing those creatures here would spell trouble.”
I knitted my brows, confusion etched on my face. “Why?”
Back when I first confronted Fake God and bested him, Yusu had been right there with me. He knew exactly what these demons were.
“Because they absorb mana? But, from what I can sense, this place is brimming with mana…”
Yusu shook his head. “They’re priests in service of other gods. Their ability to siphon mana from others is a form of divine power, too.”
“Ah!” It suddenly made sense.
Kaidemos, a god known by the true name Contract of Faith. The term demons referred to those who had entered into a pact with this god, becoming his devoted priests. They were a unique race, distinct from ordinary beings from their divine power, not genes.
“It’s fine for priests of other gods to enter this space. However, wielding the divine powers of different gods here will be a tough endeavor,” Yusu explained. He, along with the previous generation of village priests, had served a god known by the true name Land of Blood and Oil. Most likely, this god was the source of the power sustaining this place.
I nodded in agreement, finding his explanation quite plausible. “Then I’ll have to take care of that outside.”
But before proceeding, I needed to investigate further. Gathering additional clues was a wise move.
“Yusu, can I open a channel here now?”
He nodded. “I’ve seen Master Yoon open these portals countless times, and it doesn’t involve divine power.”
I’m well aware of that. As long as it wasn’t divine power, it should be fine, right?
However, this place wasn’t in a state where god itself descended or where dimensions overlapped, like the sanctuary of Kylgeniapros. So, opening a Channel here didn’t make space unstable.
With Yusu’s confirmation, I initiated the channel from my chest with a humming sound. After a moment, a black-haired beast gracefully stepped onto the green grassland.
***
“Hmm?” Yodmo, who had just arrived, sniffed the air and looked around.
“This place... it’s so odd. A sanctuary, maybe? But the air is stifling. Why does it reek of blood? I can barely stand the stench,” Yodmo commented with a puzzled expression, causing Yusu to flinch.
Does it really smell bloody? I found the air quite pleasant.
In contrast to the somewhat plump summon’s reaction, someone else seemed genuinely excited.
“Hoh! It’s amazing!” The speaker was Hamum, who looked at Yodmo with wide-eyed surprise. “The guest from another dimension doesn’t seem like someone who has lived this long, but their soul is truly exceptional.”
Realizing he was referring to itself, the beast turned its eyes toward the old Maek, now in a human form.
“You have existed in a low-level dimension like this for so long. I can see that you’ve accumulated an enormous amount of memories,” Yodmo remarked, wiping its mouth with a long, thin tongue, reminiscent of an anteater.
“Hey, Yodmo. Just in case…!” I interjected, trying to warn the beast.
“Don’t worry. I’m not hungry yet,” the summoned beast responded with a huff and a snort. It hadn’t gained any more weight since it returned ninety percent of my memory, and its body hadn’t gotten any skinnier or fatter. Presumably, Yodmo could sustain itself just by digesting the remaining ten percent of my memory.
No, this beast claimed it wasn’t hungry in the first place, but why was it sticking its tongue out?
“Low-level dimension, huh?” Hamum wore a contemplative expression as he echoed Yodmo’s words.
Yodmo gave him a quick glance and said, “Seems like this dimension hasn’t grown much since its creation.”
My thoughts circled back to the conversation between Gramiel and Song of Chaos. It appeared that Truth-Seekers had two options when it came to the souls they gathered: they could enhance their own abilities or raise the world’s level.
It seemed that Gramiel had been unable to enhance her own abilities due to certain limitations, which led her to accumulate harvested souls. Hence, she had offered to use them to elevate our world after she succeeded becoming the Earth’s Truth-Seeker.
“Do all beings in higher-level dimensions possess souls as advanced as yours?” Hamum inquired.
“It appears so, in general. The higher the world’s level, the more advanced the souls of its inhabitants. However, I don’t have access to the specifics of causality or context. Honestly, I’m not interested. Only the Truth-Seekers hold that knowledge.” Yodmo nodded thoughtfully before shifting its gaze toward me. “The reason you summoned me. It’s just as I suspected, right?”
“Yeah. The dragon’s memory. Has the digestion progressed even further?”
Yodmo nodded in understanding. “You’re looking for information about whether any of this certain world’s dragons have had unusual experiences in the last two years, and… details that might expose their weaknesses.”
“I no longer need the latter.”
“What?”
“I don’t need information about the dragons’ weaknesses. Instead, inform me about the dragons that have undergone something out of the ordinary.”
Yodmo regarded me with a puzzled expression before speaking firmly. “Well, unless you’re absolutely mad, there’s no need for you to confront dragons. I’m talking about those creatures that mainly inhabit the low-level dimension, possessing immense transcendent power without even crossing the wall. To make matters worse, if you accidentally kill one, all the dragons from that dimension gather for revenge, making them a tremendous nuisance.”
Then the beast asked, “So, have you abandoned your conflict with the dragon and returned to this world? You don’t even require information about a specific entity now?”
I shook my head. “No, provide me with that information. As much as you’ve managed to digest.”
“What’s your plan then? I comprehend your request, but if I mention the names of these dragons, are you intending to return to that dimension to seek them out?” The beast appeared perplexed. “Shall I furnish you with their respective locations? That could be quite cumbersome. To provide location information, I’d have to convert it into a format familiar to you.”
I shake my head. “No need for that. Just provide me with the names. I don’t require location details.”
“You can determine a dragon’s location just from its name?”
“Regardless, they’re all here.”
“What nonsense is that–”
I interrupted the summoned beast’s confusion. Then I pointed to the plain and explained, “They’re all dragons, right here.”
“What? What do you mean?” Yodmo asked repeatedly, struggling to comprehend. I kept explaining until Yodmo finally grasped the situation and spoke in astonishment.
“You’re saying you turned all the dragons from that world into those pink maggots and brought them here?!”
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“But why pink maggots!”
“It wasn’t my choice.” I replied. It was an uncontrollable outcome.
Of all the words that could have settled in Maru’s mind, this was the last thing I expected. I had no say in it.
Selecting the right size posed a challenge; it had to be big enough for storage but not too small to manage or locate. Somehow, the term referring to these creatures had become fused with Maru’s language center.
“Human... You truly are something else,” Yodmo commented, his tone a mixture of amazement and bewilderment.
“I don’t have much time. Tell me quickly what you’ve discovered,” I pressed, my patience wearing thin.
***
Yodmo emerged from a moment of confusion, ready to share the contents of the memories it had digested. Later, it shook its head in disbelief and returned to its original dimension.
Surprisingly, there weren’t as many dragons with recent unusual experiences as I had initially thought. Everyone present heard the information Yodmo conveyed, and it was Hamum who began to consider a particular possibility.
“No way!” everyone exclaimed in disbelief.
Pointing to one of the dragons mentioned by Yodmo, Hamum continued, and Garam responded with a shake of his head.
“We’ve encountered that dragon before! It woke up outside, missing its memory, remember? I remember what it looked like,” Garam persisted, his conviction unwavering. “I personally checked it. Even after removing the mental barrier, there was only one soul. It was too weak to be the soul of a Truth-Seeker. Black Hermit’s soul was not in that dragon.”
Hamum lowered his voice thoughtfully. “But have you checked the mental barriers on that side?”
“Ah!” Garam’s expression contorted as realization struck him. It was only then that Garam comprehended Hamum’s point. “No, I didn’t know that in the first place, so I can’t check that far! You don’t mean–?”
“It’s worth investigating regardless,” I intervened in their conversation. I relayed the name of the dragon I had heard from Yodmo to Maru. “Can you communicate this much in that language?”
Maru confirmed, “Yes, it’s possible.”
“Alright then, find a dragon with this name.”
Maru’s voice echoed across the plain, resonating through the language system transmitted by the Root Stone.
After a resounding echo, an entity among the thousand wriggling maggots on the green grassland showed visible movement.
“I called its name and said come here!” Maru said, a sense of accomplishment in his voice.
I extended my Mana towards the approaching pink maggots, catching one in the air and placing it a short distance away from the rest, ensuring it had ample space.
“Now, tell it to revert to its original form,” I said to Maru.
It had been confirmed that the term “transform” was already learned by Maru. Once more, Maru’s voice resonated, and the maggot began to shift its form.
After a while, a wounded giant body stood before us. The dragon, now back in its original form, had bent wings, broken scales, and flowing blood.
“Grrr!” A deep mournful groan emanated from it.
I remembered. This dragon had been carrying those injuries from its fall all this time, yet it miraculously didn’t affect its life.
Nonetheless, it was an impressive sight. I wondered what kind of enhancements they had undergone to achieve this.
“Now, then.”
I observed the dragon, its appearance strikingly familiar. It was a dragon I had encountered previously, a young gray dragon whose mental barrier had been shattered when liquid demons were sprayed into its mouth, and Garam had identified its soul.
“This one is named Lucette-Eigar, right?”
“Yes, I called it by that name and it came.” Maru confirmed.
I looked at the young dragon’s body while pondering the information Yodmo had provided. “So, inside this dragon’s stomach, there’s an egg that hasn’t hatched yet, right?”
