The Black-Gold Dragon.
A colossal demonic beast that was currently asleep but would awaken in three years.
There was one simple reason the final boss of Act One was so difficult to oppose.
It could summon every Berserk Dragon in the world.
‘Berserk Dragons are far more ferocious than ordinary dragons and cause catastrophic destruction.’
The ability to gather such disaster-like dragons in one place more than justified the claim that the Black-Gold Dragon would determine the fate of the continent.
‘Of course, that outcome is only possible after developing the Secret Art to an extremely high level.’
In any case, the Secret Art was extraordinarily useful.
No—it was more than useful. It was horrifyingly dangerous.
One wrong move could cause the summoned Berserk Dragons to devastate the entire region.
‘And this tiny hatchling has learned such a vicious decisive-battle technique.’
Naturally, the Secret Art was currently only Level 1.
However, that did not matter.
The seed of an immensely powerful being had already begun to sprout.
‘This is a Secret Art no one could even dream of obtaining at this point in the story.’
Secret Arts referred to the most advanced techniques and powerful legacies that could not be learned through ordinary means.
As a Secret Art belonging to the Black-Gold Dragon, ‘Summon the Berserk Dragon’ was naturally exceedingly difficult to acquire.
Following the proper progression route, the hatchling would have needed to evolve twice and then engage in a lethal struggle against one of her own kind.
It was a power the gentle, delicate hatchling of the present could never have obtained.
Yet she had learned that brutal Secret Art while still so young that even her scales remained soft.
It was an enormous gain.
‘As expected of an Act Three item. It can even defy the proper flow of time.’
Kranol intended to raise these young calamities as properly as possible.
However, that method of education had both advantages and disadvantages.
It would reduce the number of human casualties, but the calamities would have to abandon much of their naturally violent power.
‘This item allows them to preserve a proper disposition while still learning those vicious Secret Arts.’
Once again, Kranol marveled at the power of the Orb of the Malformed Future.
At the same time, however, he was overwhelmed by the absurd scale of Act Three.
Morgon was treated as nothing more than a combat slave, yet even it could drop loot of this caliber.
Then what kind of rewards would come from the ‘Commander of the Angelic Faction’ or the ‘Ruler of the Demonic Faction’?
An extraordinary reward meant that its owner possessed an equally extraordinary presence and power.
Once again, Kranol was reminded that this world was needlessly vast in scale.
“SKRREEE?”
The hatchling looked confused.
She appeared startled by the new knowledge that had suddenly flooded into her mind.
Kranol crossed his arms.
“I have just taught you a new Secret Art. It is a power stolen from a malformed future version of you.”
“Really? That’s incredible! Teach me one too, Mister!”
The girl enviously clung to his side.
Kranol firmly shook his head.
“Not yet. If you misuse your Secret Art, you might kill me as well.”
“Hmph! That’s unfair! I’m going to live as a good person!”
The girl puffed out her cheeks in displeasure.
That was the disadvantage of the Orb of the Malformed Future.
The power ultimately came from a future in which its target had become twisted, committed massacres, and transformed into a calamity.
Among those futures were ‘suicidal techniques capable of overthrowing nations’ and ‘powers that invited the destruction of the world.’
If he carelessly extracted an excessively dangerous Secret Art, it could adversely affect the present.
“In any case, I want to see your Secret Art. Try using it.”
“SKRREEE....”
The hatchling quietly closed her eyes and lowered her body.
She swallowed nervously while concentrating with all her might.
Then her eyes snapped open, and she roared powerfully.
“SKRREEEEE!”
[The Exclusive Secret Art, ‘Summon the Berserk Dragon (Lv. 1),’ has activated!]
[「The Abandoned Hatchling」 is still insignificant and immature.]
[No Berserk Dragon has answered the summons.]
[The level of the summoned entity has been drastically lowered.]
Magical power surged as a shape formed in midair.
Something appeared amid a burst of dazzling light.
It was a large, foul-smelling chunk of rotten meat.
[A scrap of meat lodged in the fangs of Ribzaut, the Great Forest Berserk Dragon, has been summoned!]
“SKRREEE....”
The result was pitiful for something produced by a Secret Art.
The hatchling looked dejected.
The girl embraced her tightly and offered encouragement.
“Cheer up, Hatchling! Next time you summon something, a much more impressive dragon will appear!”
“Her name is not Hatchling. It is Chubby.”
“SKREEEEE!”
Tears welled in the hatchling’s eyes as though Kranol were deliberately mocking her.
He frowned, unable to understand her reaction.
Was the name truly that terrible?
He had assumed she would naturally accept it with time.
“If you both dislike such excellent names, what exactly do you want to be called?”
“SKREE! SKRREEE! SKREE!”
“Hmm. The hatchling says she wants an elegant name that suits her! I want a beautiful name too! Names like Chubby and Plumpy are ugly and terribly unfashionable!”
This was a matter that required serious consideration from Kranol.
He could not continue calling them Hatchling and Girl forever.
It appeared he would need to settle their forms of address soon.
“First, we should deal with those people.”
“SKREE?”
“What do you mean, Mister?”
Kranol gripped the hilt of his sword.
Several travelers were approaching in the distance.
They appeared to be ordinary civilians, but they could not deceive his eyes.
“It’s an ambush.”
***
The Lord of Birsi was no fool.
His target was Mad Dog Kranol, a famous figure throughout the territory.
Moreover, he was a capable man who had returned alive from the Vortex Cavern.
That was why the lord had dispatched assassins from the surrounding region rather than ordinary mercenaries.
Their skill could not be compared to that of common thugs.
They had originally planned to avoid a troublesome battle by poisoning him.
They had even approached in disguise, wearing ordinary clothing over their light armor.
However, the moment Kranol gripped his sword, their eyes sharpened.
“He noticed us.”
“Kill him immediately!”
The assassins disguised as civilians revealed their true abilities in an instant.
They crossed the considerable distance between them and Kranol with astonishing speed.
Yet the mercenary known as the Mad Dog did not flee.
He had already summoned something that could fight without requiring him to intervene personally.
“AAAAARGH!”
Everyone turned around in alarm.
The scrap of meat summoned by the hatchling—
It suddenly writhed like a living creature and pounced upon one of the assassins.
“Wh-What is that?”
“Th-The lump of meat is moving!”
“It’s eating my leg!”
Dragons were powerful.
Those classified as Berserk Dragons were even more formidable.
They possessed both vicious temperaments and tremendous strength.
However, their infamy alone made it difficult to understand their actual power.
How great was the difference between a human and a Berserk Dragon?
‘The answer is right there.’
Assassins were people who prided themselves on their skill with blades.
Yet one such assassin was being overwhelmed without resistance.
By nothing more than a scrap of meat once stuck between a Berserk Dragon’s teeth.
“SKREE?! SKRREEE!”
“My goodness! Mister, what exactly did the hatchling summon?”
“A scrap of meat. However, it contains the mingled instincts of the monsters it once belonged to.”
A mighty Berserk Dragon did not hunt and devour ordinary prey.
They consumed Ogre Warriors, Starving Yetis, Enraged Giants, and occasionally even Fallen Fairies.
However, creatures with tenacious vitality or bodies that transcended dimensions could become troublesome.
Their muscle tissue and traits intermingled, eventually transforming the scraps into a Slime.
It was a mass of flesh driven solely by the instinct to devour combat life-forms.
“There is no reason to be disappointed merely because you failed to summon a Berserk Dragon itself.”
Berserk Dragons were creatures ordinary civilians on the continent could not even hope to resist.
This outcome was only natural at the hatchling’s current level.
As the Secret Art increased in level, it would summon increasingly horrific powers.
‘Even if the skill level rises steadily, summoning a fully grown Berserk Dragon will not be easy.’
Rallying Berserk Dragons required supreme dignity and charisma.
That was not something one could easily acquire merely by growing stronger.
However, as Kranol had said, there was no reason to be disappointed.
Merely obtaining the Secret Art was already an absurd gain.
‘It means we now have a means of communicating with Berserk Dragons we would otherwise never be able to approach.’
Countless reckless ideas were already forming in Kranol’s mind.
He looked forward to discovering how many of them he could put into practice.
“AAAAH! M-My body! Damn it, get off me! Urgh...!”
Meanwhile, the Flesh Slime had already devoured the lower half of the assassin’s body.
Even a scrap of meat trapped between a Berserk Dragon’s teeth could overpower an assassin.
It demonstrated just how terrifying Berserk Dragons truly were.
Then how powerful was the Black-Gold Dragon, the strongest among them?
“Urgh! Damn it!”
The assassins hacked the Flesh Slime apart with their swords.
It was fairly powerful, but not strong enough to slaughter them all.
Even so, it had devoured half of one assassin and killed him.
‘Of course, these are merely assassins employed by a provincial lord, so their abilities are nothing exceptional.’
Still, it was an absurd achievement for a scrap of food lodged between a dragon’s teeth.
“Damn it! One of us is already dead!”
“There’s a strange dragon and a little girl over there!”
“Do not panic! We still outnumber them!”
Unfortunately for the assassins, Kranol had not remained idle.
He held the Venom Fang Sword in one hand and tore open a scroll with the other.
It was one of the precious scrolls he had received from the demonic beast hunters as payment for saving their lives.
“The lord sent you, didn’t he?”
It was obvious.
They had attacked immediately after Kranol received his rewards.
Moreover, their clothing and blades had been fashioned in the local style.
The assassins ignored his question and threw their daggers.
What kind of fool would reveal the identity of their employer to the person they had been hired to kill?
However, the flying daggers were stopped by an invisible barrier and fell to the ground.
“If you refuse to answer, I will assume the lord sent you.”
It was the effect of the ‘Low-Rank Protection Magic Scroll’ he had just torn open.
Kranol calmly clenched one hand.
Black electricity began flowing around his fist.
The assassins flinched.
“What is that strange magic?”
“If you attempt to evade the question, I will also assume the lord sent you.”
They did not foolishly retreat.
Instead, they closed the distance and swung their swords simultaneously.
Their timing was perfectly synchronized, as expected of trained professionals.
CLANG!
The thin barrier shattered, and the blades drove forward.
That was the limit of low-rank protection magic.
Kranol’s head was about to be severed before the lightning could be prepared.
However—
CLASH!
The advancing blades suddenly collided with one another.
Kranol’s body had vanished.
The startled assassins’ eyes darted around without finding a target.
CRACKLE!
Black lightning suddenly descended from above.
Kranol had used the Sky Boots to teleport seven meters into the air.
“Urgh!”
Two assassins collapsed after being struck by the lightning.
However, the boots had no means of protecting Kranol from the resulting fall.
Just as he began plummeting, someone grabbed him around the waist.
“SKRREEE!”
The hatchling had swiftly flown over and caught him, flapping her wings to stop his fall.
Perhaps she had consumed a large amount of mana by summoning the Berserk Dragon.
She was breathing heavily and could not immediately unleash her White Flame Breath.
“Damn it! What is that little dragon?”
“It’s still small and young! Ignore it and kill them!”
“Once they’re dead, we can capture that creature and sell it too!”
The remaining assassins gritted their teeth and prepared to throw more daggers.
However, they had forgotten another enemy.
“Mister, you can use it like this too! Hiyah!”
The girl had been watching quietly with her wings concealed.
She abruptly extended her hand and unleashed Black Lightning.
Thin branches of black electricity chained between the assassins and ensnared them.
“Urgh!”
“M-My legs have gone numb...!”
They had never imagined that such a delicate-looking little girl would suddenly attack them.
The remaining assassins were electrocuted by the Black Lightning and collapsed where they stood.
[Calamity, ‘Celestial-Demonic Hybrid,’ has subdued the enemies.]
[Black Lightning’s skill level has increased! (Lv. 2 → Lv. 3)]
[One additional chain branch has been added to the black lightning.]
She had not inherited a demon’s bloodline for nothing.
Her method of fighting was genuinely impressive.
‘By dispersing the power, she can paralyze multiple enemies at once.’
There was a reason Kranol intended to develop the same skill along a different path.
Even identical powers varied in usefulness depending on how they were primarily employed.
“C-Cough!”
The paralyzed enemies could not flee because their legs had lost all strength.
Kranol killed every assassin except one.
The last survivor trembled but clenched his teeth defiantly.
“I-I will not tell you anything!”
“Insisting that you cannot speak confirms that the lord sent you.”
Kranol had already decided upon the answer.
He drew the blade across the assassin’s chest several times.
The Venom Fang Sword’s poisoning effect activated, and venom spread through the wounds.
The final assassin’s strength gradually faded as he slowly approached death.
‘The location and the time of day are both suitable. This should be enough.’
Kranol’s true objective was to find a miracle and cure his madness.
He had no time to waste on a petty act of revenge.
However, he had no intention of allowing the lord who tried to kill him to escape without punishment.
When someone crossed him, Kranol preferred to retaliate mercilessly.
“Urgh! Cough!”
Kranol sat beside the assassin as his breathing weakened.
He began writing something.
It was a brief note.
“Mister! What exactly are you doing?”
“I’m calling someone here.”
“SKRREEE....”
The hatchling lowered her head dejectedly.
Kranol shook his head.
“Not a Berserk Dragon. Something even more terrifying.”
“SKRREEE?!”
“Eek! What could possibly be more terrifying than that?”
The hatchling and the girl widened their eyes in alarm.
Their expressions seemed to ask whether such a horrifying thing could truly exist.
Kranol silently continued his work.
There was exactly one such person.
The madman who had torn out the throat of Act One’s final boss in the original story.
‘Automated hunting truly is the best.’
Kranol intended to outsource his revenge.
To the protagonist of the original story.