Chwaaaaaaaa!
The barrier, which began to split cleanly as if the Red Sea were parting, surged widely to the left and right, and soon revealed the real cliff it had been hiding behind an illusory barrier.
– This can’t be possible…!!
A nameless dragon’s exclamation forced its way through that gap.
Of course, it was closer to shock.
So it was thrilling.
All this time, how much venom had that nameless dragon… no, that damned lizard bastard, been whispering right into his ear?
Su-ho gave a small snort of laughter toward the opened barrier and shrugged.
“Dragons aren’t anything special either.”
– ……!!
“Then this lowly, foolish, stupid being is going in now.”
If you won’t come out, I’ll go in—boom chajajaja boom chajajaja.
Bring it.
No matter what happens, I have to see your face.
As the barrier collapsed, what had been just a blocked wall revealed itself as the entrance to a massive cave.
Su-ho strode in like a triumphant general.
Swaaaaa!
The moment he stepped into the cave, a chilly, mist-like presence pierced through him as if drilling straight through.
Cold.
Heavy.
A strangely unpleasant presence.
But there was nothing in the system notifications.
Then it was nothing more than a feeling—nothing more, nothing less.
Still, Su-ho didn’t let his guard down, and reactivated the various skills he’d left off while training True Origin Slash.
[ Blessing activates. ]
[ Mana Detection activates. ]
[ Endurance activates. ]
[ Enhancement activates. ]
[ Wildsmith’s Eye activates. ]
Fortunately, the cave itself didn’t look like it had traps.
If it did, he would’ve seen an abnormal convergence of mana.
Su-ho slowly moved deeper inside.
He thought the cave would be pitch-black, but surprisingly, the interior was faintly lit.
It was a strange place.
With a cave this big, he expected stalactites and the like—some kind of cave-specific environment—but the inside was extremely neat, like a paved road or a tunnel.
After passing through the cave that was like a long, long tunnel, a single huge door appeared.
‘A door?’
The moment he found the door, Su-ho immediately scanned the area.
Nothing particularly special.
Just a pair of giant double doors, about the size of the cave entrance.
Reassured, he approached and touched the door.
There was no reaction.
He thought at least a system notification would appear, or sparks would fly like that barrier, but nothing happened.
Looking closer, there was no handle on the door.
Instead, at about Su-ho’s eye level, there was a palm pattern drawn on each side.
‘A hand?’
Since it was there, he placed his hand against it first.
Nothing changed.
Then was he supposed to push?
He put strength into his arms and pushed.
It was stiff.
It didn’t budge.
Then what was the point of this door even existing?
Su-ho shouted.
“So what now?”
– …….
No answer came back.
Ah, this bastard’s sulking.
Or did it finally realize it?
That if it kept mocking and provoking him and I actually pulled it off again, then this time it really would scratch its pride.
When no answer came even after time passed, Su-ho decided to figure it out himself.
[ Blood Armor activates. ]
He summoned the blood sword into his hand.
Then, when he focused, the world inverted into black and white, and the tangled laws of the world began to come into view.
But among them, he couldn’t see any Ring of Runes entwined with the door.
In other words, the door really was a pure door with no device on it at all.
The surroundings were the same.
He couldn’t see or feel anything like booby traps or special mechanism arrays.
If so, then the only thing left was to push his way in for real….
‘Fine. I’ll just push my way in.’
If it doesn’t work, I’ll just break it and go in.
Su-ho rolled up his sleeves and began preparing in earnest to push the door.
– …….
The dragon watched that scene.
The dragon, the owner of this place, didn’t say a single word anymore. It just narrowed its eyes and watched Su-ho.
There were a few reasons, but the biggest reason right now was exactly as Su-ho had guessed: it didn’t want to get humiliated by running its mouth again, only for him to pull it off.
So the dragon was grinding him down in its mind so Su-ho couldn’t hear.
Idiot.
You got lucky and broke my barrier, but you’ll never be able to open that door.
Its name was the “Door of Qualification.”
It had no device on it at all, but it was made from pure Dragonstone, so unless you had strength on the level of the dragonkin, no matter what you did, it could never be destroyed.
Because that door had the power to thoroughly block any other kind of energy except a dragon’s mana.
That was why, if you wanted to open that door, you had to push it open using only your pure physical strength.
So can you really do it?
You might’ve gotten your hands on my kin’s blood somehow, but in the end, you’ll break here.
The dragon held its breath and watched.
In that moment, Su-ho swallowed his breath, fixed his legs, and stretched his arms out.
“Hup!”
He pushed the door.
It was stiff.
Like pushing Mount Taesan.
But he didn’t give up, and squeezed out every last bit of strength and pushed.
Ugh, does this even open?
But somehow, it feels like there’s a bit of reaction.
Am I imagining it?
At that moment—
Drk—
The door reacted slightly.
– ……!!
At the same time, the dragon’s eyes widened.
“It works?”
After confirming the door’s reaction, Su-ho let out the breath he’d been holding and stepped back.
Then he shook out both hands and grinned.
“That’s a relief. It’s not completely sealed shut.”
What was lacking was my strength.
Then I can just supplement my strength and raise it.
He’d found the point to exploit.
Then all he had to do was prepare the strategy that fit it and execute it.
The door that had been pushed returned to its original place, but that was fine.
You could just push it again.
After taking enough rest, Su-ho immediately began preparing to open the door again.
[ Blessing activates. ]
[ Rage Mode activates. ]
[ Foxfire activates. ]
Techniques that inflated his stats.
He popped them all at once and clung to the door again.
Bang!!
As his stats explosively rose, even the sound of him slamming into the door changed.
The effect was tremendous and immediate.
Drrrrrk!
The door began to push open. And by quite a lot.
Su-ho pushed until his face turned beet red.
The door opened more and more.
At the same time, the dragon’s expression darkened in real time.
But once he reached a certain point, the door stopped moving any farther.
Seeing that, the dragon’s complexion changed again.
It was then.
“Ugh!”
Kooong!!
Su-ho finally hit his limit and let go of the door he’d been pushing.
The door closed again, and Su-ho didn’t just get pushed back—his strength gave out and he collapsed.
“Wow, this really isn’t easy.”
In the end, he failed to open the door.
The dragon laughed.
But that laughter didn’t last long.
Because there wasn’t even a hint of frustration or sadness anywhere on Su-ho’s face.
– Why?
It couldn’t understand.
Judging by what it had felt just now, the bastard had clearly used every card he had and exploded his strength.
But whether Su-ho knew what was going on in the dragon’s head or not, Su-ho flopped onto his back.
Then he started resting comfortably, and when his skill gauges had filled back up, he stood again and started using his skills.
[ Blessing activates. ]
[ Rage Mode activates. ]
[ Foxfire activates. ]
The same skills.
The same amount of increased strength.
The dragon’s eyes narrowed.
Don’t tell me he thinks he just has to not give up?
Just as it was thinking that, Su-ho used one more skill.
[ Giantification activates. ]
Hwaaaak!
The skill he activated was Giantification.
This was the alpha and omega of Su-ho’s explosive strength boosts.
It was just that the conditions were strict, so he couldn’t use it easily.
But here was fine.
He wasn’t exposed to danger, and even if the risk backlash hit, he could rest with peace of mind.
That was why he used it without hesitation.
He minimized the increase in body size, and raised the explosion of strength to the maximum.
Thanks to that, the dragon’s eyes became the biggest they’d been yet.
“Hwaaaaaaaap!!”
With a shout, Su-ho started opening the door again.
Drrrrrrrrrr!
The door began to open with a rough sound and good momentum.
And finally—
Bang!
With strength exploding as he shoved, the doors fell to both sides and struck the walls behind them, and Su-ho slipped through the gap and was finally able to pass through the door.
Right after passing through, Su-ho immediately released Giantification.
“Hwaaaaaa….”
As Giantification ended, the risk backlash drained all the strength from his body.
The risk backlash was shorter than he’d expected.
It had to be.
The Giantification he used this time wasn’t the “bulk up” style that consumed the most stamina.
And he’d only used it briefly to open the door, then canceled it right away.
A situation where the risk had to be low.
“Phew, success.”
Pleased, Su-ho stretched out into an X again and rested.
It was then.
[ You have passed through the Door of Qualification. ]
[ You are moving to ???’s Dragon Lair. ]
Huh?
All of a sudden?
But before he could even react, Su-ho’s body was wrapped in a cluster of light, and soon the scenery changed.
And when his vision returned again, Su-ho found himself facing an old man with a nasty-looking face.
He was tall and broad, with clothes that covered down to the tops of his feet, white hair slicked neatly back, and red eyes—an old man who looked fairly hale.
His expression was just kind of filthy, that was all.
Su-ho sprang to his feet and asked.
“Who are you?”
– Who do you think? I’m the owner of this place.
“Ah?”
A voice that rang in his head.
The moment he heard the old man’s voice, Su-ho knew.
That nasty-looking old man was the owner of the nameless voice that had been tormenting him all this time.
So Su-ho’s brow seemed to tighten for a moment, but soon smoothed out again.
The lifted corner of his mouth was a bonus.
Su-ho dusted off the dirt stuck to his body and said.
“Ah, so that’s who you are.”
– What?
“So, what do you want? Ah, before that, we should introduce ourselves, right? My name is An Su-ho, and the Grand Hunter Association—no, you don’t need that kind of thing with a dragon. Then… ah, I’m a Middle-ranked Player. You are?”
– You lowly bastard—what are you…!
“Why are you getting angry?”
– What?
“You’re the one who called me. And yeah, judging by the way you look, you called me because of a promise with the System. So I opened the barrier and the Door of Qualification according to the rules. That’s why you summoned me here, right? Oh—does the summoning to the lair also happen automatically by the System?”
– …….
The dragon shut its mouth.
Because every single word was correct.
Su-ho kept going.
“I already know you’ve got a filthy personality, so I’ll pass on that. Just tell me what you want already. Oh, and I don’t think you had some circumstances and that’s why you talked like that either. If you did, I wouldn’t have felt such thick sincerity in those filthy words of yours. So I’ll ask again: what do you want? What is it that you called me for?”
– …….
Su-ho asked calmly and rudely.
Because that was the best he could do for that damned lizard.
The dragon stared at Su-ho without speaking for a long while.
Su-ho didn’t avoid its gaze, either, and met the dragon’s eyes.
How long was it like that?
Finally, the dragon opened its mouth.
– Yes. I called you because of a promise with the System. So I’ll introduce myself properly. I am Omega, the final Dragon Lord and the last Arch Dragon.
