“Long time no see.”
“So, you’re the human who drove those filthy things away. I remember you.”
It seemed the two were already acquainted.
Se-un had heard from the angel who guided him here that they knew each other, so he had expected it.
The Red Dragon, Kashalaka. Even she couldn’t stop the Outer, but Ella had driven them underground, so it was natural she would remember Ella.
Perhaps finding and processing the meteorite, and preparing to face the Outer, was largely due to her resentment.
“The Outer I brought down here, she annihilated them all.”
“Ahem….”
Kashalaka swallowed a groan.
She had seen Ella leading all the Outer underground more clearly than anyone.
Logically, Ella’s testimony was highly credible.
“How did you do it? You don’t know how to extract the power of the meteorite, and you don’t seem to be wearing equipment made of it either.”
“Meteorites are good, but I have a power that’s the complete opposite, specifically for Outer.”
Se-un shone his stigmata.
Then, a unique crimson divinity blazed like fire.
The power of destruction.
Even Kashalaka, a dragon, was seeing this power for the first time, staring intently with curious eyes.
“I’ll believe the truth of your words. So, how did you get that power?”
A question born out of pure curiosity.
He intended to maintain a friendly relationship with her, so he could just answer, but Se-un didn’t.
“The method to extract the power of the meteorite. Tell me that, and I’ll tell you too.”
“This body has been researching for years. Are you saying you want me to tell you that so easily?”
“You must already realize it, right? That this power I have can annihilate the Outer more effectively than the power extracted from the meteorite.”
“Ahem.”
Kashalaka snorted as if something displeased her.
It was just a snort, but it was a flame that felt hot even from a distance.
After pondering for a moment, she nodded and emitted a red light from her entire body, transforming into a human form.
“I understand. Let’s trade.”
Polymorph.
A transformation magic mainly used by dragons when they enter the human world for amusement.
It’s not just about changing the appearance, but the best transformation magic that completely transforms the race itself into the desired species.
In her human form, she was armed with armor made of red scales, and her bright red long hair extended down to her waist.
“The unpleasant smell I felt while climbing the tower. The unpleasant sensation. I realized it was all because of those things. Perhaps, I might encounter them again as I go up.”
She felt the presence of the Outer while climbing the tower? Even Se-un had struggled to find the Outer, as expected of a dragon.
No, even for a dragon, sensing the presence of the Outer was not normal. Perhaps she was special.
“That’s why I want to obtain that power.”
Kashalaka approached Se-un and extended her hand.
Se-un also accepted and took her hand.
A promise with a dragon.
This was a mana promise that could never be reversed.
The contract could leave one unable to use mana for life… a disabled state if rejected.
After completing the promise, Se-un finally opened his mouth.
“First, the Outer you felt while climbing the tower, I’ve cleared them all.”
“All of them?”
“Skave, Kaier, Desert, etc. All the Outer hiding in each shelter.”
“Ahem… You’re quite something. Well, good. What’s the answer?”
In fact, Se-un doesn’t know the exact circumstances of how he obtained the power of destruction.
However, he roughly guesses how the Constellations obtain their authorities.
“I’m a regressor.”
“…What?”
“The tower before the regression was destroyed by the Outer. I regressed to defeat them, and perhaps… this power was born from that desire.”
In the end, she didn’t achieve what she wanted. If Se-un’s words were true, she would never be able to obtain the power of destruction.
However, what she focused on was not that she couldn’t obtain the power of destruction.
“Regressor? The tower’s destruction? What are you talking about?”
Dragons sense the truth.
She could tell that Se-un’s words were not false, but grasping the truth isn’t perfect either.
If the other party is determined to deceive, deceiving a dragon isn’t impossible.
Just as she was being wary, an unexpected person joined the conversation.
“It’s true, Kashal.”
“…What?”
“Kaion Della Kashalaka. You hated your father’s name and liked being called Kashal the most, right?”
“How do you know that… Could it be.”
“Of course, I know. My old friend. It’s been too… long.”
Kashalaka was flustered.
Se-un was also surprised.
There were only a few people among all the players in the tower who knew her full name. And to know her nickname.
Perhaps, she’s talking about their relationship before the regression.
“Are you also a regressor?”
“Yes, that’s right. Thanks to Chronos.”
“How….”
“Actually, I wanted to greet you as soon as I saw you. I missed you so much. But the Outer came out right away, so I couldn’t. I’m sorry.”
“Wait, just a moment. This is….”
Kashalaka touched her forehead. Her head seemed to be overloaded.
Suddenly hearing about regression, the tower’s destruction, and a past friend, it was inevitable.
Even if she and Ella were close, it was just a story of the past.
“My… reverse scale is?”
“Inside the left shoulder blade. Should I tell you the specifics? Is it okay for him to hear? Then it will be difficult to hide it elsewhere.”
“Heh, I see. Is that so. I acknowledge it. Your relationship, and both of your regressions.”
Kashalaka nodded.
If it were someone else, they would be flustered and have difficulty understanding or accepting the situation, but as expected, dragons are different.
“Did this kind of thing happen before the regression too?”
“No. Back then, they attacked all at once a bit later. I didn’t know there were so many under Shainel.”
“So, the two of you regressing caused a distortion?”
“I’ll explain that.”
Se-un stepped forward.
The changes that occurred after the regression. He couldn’t be certain, but most of those changes pointed to one being.
“The Fallen King.”
“Fallen King?”
He remembered the time before the regression.
Did he also regress?
He didn’t know how it happened, but it was clear that he was the most threatening existence in the world after the regression.
Se-un spat out everything he knew about the Fallen King.
He would have hesitated to give information at other times, but now, Ella, who is also a regressor, and Kashalaka, who is called the strongest among the players, are by his side, right?
There was no harm in sharing information.
No, it was rather good. If these two were on the same side, they would be more reliable than anyone else.
“According to him, he seems to be ‘teaching’ the Outer.”
“Teaching? You mean he’s teaching them something?”
“That’s right. At first, it was just resistance to cold, but the level of learning gradually increased.”
“For example?”
“They hardened their surfaces to create tails like crustaceans, and they used their properties like poison. They created spawning grounds to increase their numbers and even devised tactics.”
“They’re already difficult to deal with. Ahem….”
Kashalaka swallowed a groan.
Ella also felt the same way.
She clearly remembered how threatening the Outer were before the regression, but now the Outer were even stronger than before.
And they were getting stronger even at this moment.
She had been using her authority, trapped in the underground of Shainel to hold onto the Outer since the moment of regression, so the shock was even greater.
“Then what… should we do?”
It was pure worry.
She regressed to change the future, but the world after the regression was even more dangerous than before.
However, Se-un answered her question as if it were obvious.
“We need to prepare for it.”
“It wasn’t just about the promise. I’ll support you as much as I can. I’ll properly teach you how to extract the power of the meteorite. It would be troublesome if the tower collapses before we climb it all.”
“What’s your goal?”
“My goal….”
No one knows Kashalaka’s goal.
No one knows why a dragon could enter the tower as a player, or why she was staying in Shainel.
And Se-un was able to hear the reason for the first time.
“To become an overwhelming Dragon God (龍神) so that my dead father’s existence is forgotten.”
* * *
After that, Kashalaka’s lecture immediately unfolded.
In fact, meteorites are difficult to process and have almost no elasticity, so they are useless as equipment except for their hardness.
Go Chang-seok couldn’t shake off his disappointment when making something out of meteorites because of this point, but if he could extract only the power, the story would be completely different.
He could infuse only the power of the meteorite into equipment that is much better than what is made of meteorite.
That alone could greatly increase the power when dealing with the Outer.
“Heh, amazing.”
“The blacksmith’s skill is amazing. Elder of the Stonehead Tribe. Even the dwarves weren’t this good.”
Go Chang-seok quickly absorbed the technology.
Of course, magical utilization was also necessary to extract the power of the meteorite, so it was impossible for Go Chang-seok to extract the power alone.
His role was to create the best equipment to infuse the power of the meteorite.
Naturally, the results were enormous.
“Is this the new equipment?”
“Wow….”
Diablo and Cheonghae, and even Valhalla, who climbed the tower with them this time, all received new anti-Outer equipment.
Extracting the power of the meteorite was more efficient than making weapons using the meteorite itself, so they could create more and better equipment.
Besides, Se-un had been storing all the meteorites he had obtained while climbing the tower in his residence.
‘I should make plenty of them.’
With this equipment, all the players in the tower will be able to face the Outer.
Just giving this equipment to the players in the previous shelter, Plaka, would be a great force.
And perhaps, he thought, he could give this weapon to the Constellations as well.
– The Constellation, ‘The Crow Who Bows His Head,’ nods.
– The Constellation, ‘The Crow Who Bows His Head,’ murmurs that if you extract the power of the meteorite and make it into an essence, you can imbue the power of the meteorite into all divine weapons.
– The Constellation, ‘The Crow Who Bows His Head,’ advises that gods are suspicious and will not use the essence carelessly.
– The Constellation, ‘The Crow Who Bows His Head,’ advises that it is most important to create enough essence first, and then the subsequent ‘negotiation.’
Se-un nodded at Mamon’s words.
Essence.
He had to find a medium to store the power of the meteorite and the method would be more difficult, but it was definitely a good method.
‘But I can’t settle down here.’
While dealing with the enormous amount of Outer sleeping in Shainel, Se-un’s plan also became higher.
The goal he had originally considered as a last resort.
He was thinking of ascending to the path of the Constellation.
That way, he could share the power of destruction with those who followed Se-un, and even with the gods.
Originally, he didn’t even know the method, so he was just building up divinity, but this time he was able to know the method for sure.
“Dragon God?”
“That’s right.”
“Are you saying you’re going to become a god?”
“Didn’t you know? The 100th floor of the tower judges the myth that the player has built up so far and gives the final trial. If you pass the trial, you can become a god.”
“How did you find out about that?”
“…I heard it from my father.”
“Katalaka?”
“That’s right. I heard it from that bastard who I can’t even chew and spit out. But I actually chewed him up.”
In the dimension she lived in, Katalaka was trying to ascend to the position of God.
However, unlike the mediator of the intermediate world, it was in a destructive direction.
He was trying to build a myth by becoming a Mad Dragon and burning the world.
Kashalaka said that she was climbing the tower to wash away the stigma of the dragon that had been placed on her because of that.
Se-un listened to those words and nodded, making a firm decision.
“I’ll go that path with you.”
Chapter 630