Chapter 261 - The Hoarder (1)

Yeon-woo felt strange feeling the fire flowing through his body.

‘Yeah. This is it.’

This was the peak of all three parts of the self—mind, energy, and body—becoming one. As the Head Elder had realized right away, Yeon-woo hadn’t been able to grow much after becoming expert-level.

He had hit his physical and spiritual limits. No, to be exact, it was like all his potential had evaporated. Growing from here was pretty much impossible.

Still, he tried to attempt other things such as training his magic, creating Consciousness, or pouring Wave of Fire into Aura.

However, these attempts all reached their limits.

His mind and body had been pushed to the limits so perfectly that his ability to grow further was stopped. Of course, it wasn’t like there wasn’t any way at all to fix it.

‘I could awaken the 4th step or absorb more Dragon and Demon’s Blessings…but then the balance could be broken.’

There might’ve been other ways as well.

‘But it’s not like they’ll happen right away the way I want it to.’

However, Yeon-woo had other artificial ways for growth. It was a method that others never would’ve been able to use.

‘The Summer Queen.’

All he had to do was swallow the person he had tied inside the dungeon.

But what would happen if a mere Dragon Human swallowed a great Dragon? He didn’t know for sure, but his potential would increase, and his explosive growth would definitely continue.

And right now, with his attempt at absorbing the Summer Queen, Yeon-woo felt something explode from within him. A warm energy was flowing inside of him.

The Summer Queen was a Red Dragon. All Draconic species could deal with various elements, but each of their specialties were different.

Red Dragons dealt with fire especially well. They were even called the kings of fire. Of course, the element that the Summer Queen’s soul consisted of was fire.

It was like the warmth of being wrapped inside a blanket on a cold winter day. The Magic Circuit and the Philosopher’s Stone slowly led the warmth inside his body.

From his muscles, veins, Magic Circuit, Cores, and marrow. It melted inside his cells and mixed with his Blessings. The Dragon’s Blessing especially pulled it closer like it had met a close friend.

The fire energy would probably pass his consciousness, soul power, and his subconscious to go into his soul.

However, Yeon-woo felt a bit anxious.

‘I have to control this using whatever means possible.’

The Summer Queen was able to control the power because she was a dragon from birth. That wasn’t the case for Yeon-woo. He had to go through all the work of becoming used to his Demonic Dragon Body. But if it was the real strength of a dragon, he would have to do more than that.

If so, he had to control it before it completely settled in his body.

However…..

‘What?’

Yeon-woo couldn’t control the energy he gained from the Summer Queen’s soul.

He tried to dominate it with Consciousness, but the energy of the fire moved like a separate organ. The Philosopher’s Stone helped as well, but the energy still moved independently.

The energy of the fire continued to flow into his soul power across different organs.

It was a path that should’ve emitted Consciousness, but the energy of the fire was using it to get to his soul.

Yeon-woo’s back stiffened. For a moment, he felt anxious. A soul was a land of mystery no player had been able to properly use yet. His brother had only formulated a theory, but he hadn’t been able to create something stable.

Invading such a place? He felt concerned that his soul might be shaken up from the energy of the fire. He tried to control it somehow, but—

『You’ve brought something fun.』

The Demonism that was always observing Yeon-woo within the abyss laughed. Yeon-woo felt even more worried.

The energy of fire continued to spin around Yeon-woo’s body to mix with his soul power, then synchronized with his soul pressure.

In that process, Yeon-woo could slightly feel what a ‘soul’ was.

He realized it as the energy of fire moved around it.

It was a large bundle of energy.

However, it wasn’t able to move, like it was trapped inside a heavy iron cage like the Summer Queen’s soul had suffered through.

His soul tried to expel its energy out, but his body had become a prison.

In that place, Yeon-woo’s soul expanded like it was going to explode after absorbing the energy of fire.

His level was growing.

[You have succeeded in seizing Ismenios’s soul. Your Dragon’s Blessing accepts the soul of the dragon.]

[Your soul level increases.]

[Your soul level increases.]

[All traits, skills, and Authorities related to the Draconic species increases by 1 level.]

[You have earned a piece of a Red Dragon.]

[You are able to have absolute control over the fire property.]

[You have gained the title ‘Controller of Fire.’]

Yeon-woo felt like his body was floating. It was an effect of his level rapidly increasing. He felt like he was going to fly up in the sky.

As he did, Yeon-woo got himself together with the sound of something being cut apart.

Hwa—

The energy of fire flowing along his skin settled down.

[Congratu. Lations.]

Boo, who had been standing next to him, bowed.

Yeon-woo nodded and looked down at his hand. His forehead wrinkled.

‘It doesn’t seem like much has changed.’

He couldn’t feel any physical change. He spun his Magic Circuit around, but it wasn’t like its quality or amount had changed.

He entered the world of his consciousness wondering what had happened.

“……!”

He gasped.

The small and frustrating world of his mind had endlessly expanded. His head felt bright, like all the fog was swept away, and the range of his thinking and the amount of information that he could learn was amplified.

He immediately ‘understood’ the laws of the world around him.

When he activated his Draconic Eyes, he could see more flaws swirling around, and after projecting his Extrasensory Perception, he sensed countless things.

All kinds of laws of physics were bound tightly together, and these things all bound him. Was this the principle of causality that he had only heard about?

Beyond that, Yeon-woo felt the different gazes that were watching him. On the other side of the world, past the sky, earth, and rocks, there were gazes everywhere.

He had been able to feel these faintly before, but it was incomparable to now.

They were absolutely clear. Some gazes were warm, and some were cold. They were filled with curiosity, playfulness, or rage.

‘It’s unpleasant.’

Yeon-woo thought about how to get these gazes off of him, but there didn’t seem to be a way for now. He wasn’t even able to escape the laws of physics that bound him, so how would he shake off the observing eyes of the gods and demons?

He didn’t know how the Martial King and the other high rankers lived with this feeling.

Yeon-woo focused his senses elsewhere to escape the gazes just for a little while.

He could see tiny sparks in the air. When he lightly touched them with his fingertip, they suddenly burst into flames and disappeared.

Looking at them now, there were so many things he didn’t understand.

However, Galliard had said that he needed to be able to control his body during times like this.

‘Consciousness.’

He needed to read his body while expanding the world of his mind and begin to completely control it.

As he did, Yeon-woo was able to realize something.

His body didn’t change noticeably after absorbing the Summer Queen’s soul. Although his level increased, he still had his limits, and there were only a few Dragon Authorities he could touch.

Instead, he gained something else.

Latency.

The limits of his body and soul expanded to unimaginable depths. The abilities that had been blocking his path had changed.

Maybe. Just maybe, he might surpass his brother.

He would need to work harder to digest this latency, but so what?

Yeon-woo had accomplished enough just by shaking off his constraints.

* * *

“Then I’ll be off. I’ll make nice items for you by tomorrow, so don’t act out like you did with the Walpurgisnacht.”

“Thank you for your help.”

“I didn’t do it to help you! I just did it for the money! How will I get the money if you’re hurt?”

Henova complained with a red face.

There were a lot of items behind him. They were remnants of the Summer Queen.

He was planning on changing them into different weapons on Yeon-woo’s request. There were items that Yeon-woo could use and items that the clan that would be made could use.

Brahm smiled faintly watching Henova leave through the portal.

“I felt this from before. The relationship between you and Henova is quite strange.”

“I’m scolded one-sidedly.”

“Haha.”

Brahm snorted. He could hear a respect for Henova in Yeon-woo’s voice. Henova complained too, but his eyes when speaking with Yeon-woo were warm, like a father.

Brahm didn’t ask why Yeon-woo didn’t reveal his identity to Henova. He didn’t want to get in between them, and he felt like Yeon-woo had something planned. On one side, he was jealous.

Thinking of Ananta being unable to wake up, he felt pained. What was making his daughter suffer so much?

“Then I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“I understand, so just focus on subjugating floors now. If there are good items or specimens, bring them here.”

“Yes, sir. Understood.”

He spoke like he was telling Yeon-woo to bring home stray cats. Yeon-woo smirked and left the dungeon.

He had left everything else that he needed to do to create the clan to Brahm and Galliard.

Brahm must’ve been busy taking care of Ananta, but he had been a great help restoring the Outer Space all this time. He was planning on finishing his lab to create Ananta’s antidote in there.

Galliard would take care of the rest, so he didn’t need to worry about much.

And with this, everything was finished.

All he needed was one more thing – people.

Yeon-woo was planning on focusing on climbing again. However, there was one thing different. He was also keeping in mind to gather people who were worth knowing.

There were a few people he had already chosen.

‘Kahn and Doyle. It would be nice if we had them.’

But he couldn’t find them no matter what he did, so it was frustrating.

Of course, there were also a few other people he had thought of. There were many people he saw in his brother’s diary.

He couldn’t bring in just anybody, so he would carefully scout them.

Even if he had opened up, Yeon-woo was still mostly closed off.

[Would you like to enter the Tower?]

Yeon-woo entered the Tower as he read the message. As he saw the Tower while surrounded by a bright light, a thought occurred to him.

What did the sky at the top of the Tower look like?