The dragon that had been charging at me like mad stopped. No matter how ferocious it was, even a dragon could not attack its own egg.
The dragon stomped the ground a few times in anger, then made a whining sound like an anxious dog.
It was frantic because it could not retrieve its child even with it right before its eyes. Of course, I did not feel the slightest pity.
It had been seen by me as a nutritious snack.
The dragon’s claws scraped and tapped at the entrance to the Subspace. But as though trapped behind some sort of barrier, it could neither touch the egg nor enter.
At that moment, I was certain.
‘It can’t come in.’
Was it because I hated it? I felt a little relieved, but nothing was certain yet.
Just because its body could not get through did not mean its breath could not.
Mr. Deoksu had even been struck by magic and turned into frozen meat.
Then the dragon brought one of its eyes up to the door to the Subspace.
“Eek.”
I could see a reptilian eye through the narrow gap between the egg and the door. It rolled about rapidly, as though searching for me.
I met that eye, filled with rage. My body stiffened slightly again, as it had before. But there was nothing it could do.
“Shit, that scared me.”
What was it going to do even if it could see me?
It was infuriating. I nudged the egg aside a little, then thrust the sword I held through the gap between the egg and the door.
SQUELCH—!
Even if the dragon’s scales were hard, its eyes apparently were not. The sword went in smoothly.
“SKREEEE!”
The dragon thrashed about with a piercing scream. As the sword pierced its eye, the egg slid aside slightly. Startled, I grabbed the egg with both hands.
Although I had let go of the sword, its crossguard caught against the entrance to the Subspace and the egg, pulling it out automatically.
Something hot splattered onto my hands and face through the opening the egg had made as it slid aside. I had no time to pay attention to it.
I hurriedly blocked the entrance again with the egg.
“Phew.”
That had almost been bad. If I had dropped the egg in surprise, I might have been hit by breath or magic.
That was when something appeared before my eyes.
[Dragon’s blood has touched your body. Since ancient times, dragon’s blood has been considered sacred.]
[Stamina and Mana increase by 10.]
It seemed that what had splattered on me earlier was dragon’s blood. It was unexpected, but it benefited me.
I had only stabbed it because the anger I had been bottling up burst out, but it had produced a rather good result.
Of course…….
There was something chilling about it as well. If blood could get through even when its body could not, could magic or breath get through, too?
“Damn.”
And it was true. Perhaps the enraged dragon had fired its breath somewhere, because heat rushed in through the gap.
Fortunately, it had not fired at the egg. Sweat poured down like rain.
Magic came next.
Something whooshed past near the entrance to the Subspace, then BOOM—! An explosion rang out.
-GRRRRR!
But perhaps the dragon was worried about its child as well, because it did not fire directly at the egg. I clung to the egg, sweating like rain.
This bastard was my lifeline.
…And for six hours, the dragon did not harm the egg.
That was right.
It meant I had survived.
With the time I needed to rest considered, it took twelve hours. It had been the hardest fight of my life.
.
.
.
[Subjugation complete: transformed Gate ‘Storm of the Firmament’.]
[Experience acquired.]
[Level increased.]
[Level increased.]
[Level increased.]
[Level increased.]
[Level increased.]
An exhilaration I had never felt before rose from deep within my body. This was leveling up.
I had thought my arms and shoulders would cramp from holding the egg steady for six hours, but that sensation vanished all at once.
The level-up notification sounded exactly five times.
Five levels. That was the maximum.
If you entered a Gate with too large a level gap, you could not gain the full experience. The same was true of rewards.
That was why my level had risen only to the limit. Even if Earth’s strongest Awakened had come, the result would probably have been similar.
But the notifications did not end there.
[As a Gate subjugation reward, you acquire ‘Sun Blossom (A-Grade)’.]
“A-Grade?”
An A-Grade elixir commanded whatever price people named.
There might have been others unknown to the world, but fewer than ten A-Grade elixirs had appeared so far.
The most famous was Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng.
It had come from a transformed Gate. A Russian Awakened with ice abilities had consumed it and risen from an A-Grade hunter to an S-Grade hunter.
“Urgh.”
Suddenly, I felt as though my body were being sucked somewhere. The Gate subjugation had ended, and I was being transferred outside the Gate.
When I opened my eyes after closing them, I was back outside the Gate—back on Earth.
“Oh, someone came out!”
The air felt fresh. It was not that the Subspace was stuffy, but the dragon had made it feel quite suffocating.
Maybe because I had leveled up, my body seemed to have more strength, too.
“Huh? You’re alone?”
“I’m alone.”
The two Gate supervisors in front of me were staring at me in surprise.
“What on earth happened? Where are the others?”
Because I had come out alone, the Association employees made a fuss as they fired questions at me.
There was something I had thought about while holding out inside the Subspace for several hours.
“Ah, well…….”
Would these people believe me?
*
The highest recommended level among all Gates that had appeared on Earth so far was 60.
The levels of Gates had gradually risen over the past ten years, but they were still only at 60.
And the highest-level Awakened was level 58.
The Gate I had subjugated was level 90 or above. And a dragon, which no one had ever seen, had appeared.
If I had been at home and came across the news on my phone, I would have thought it was a lie.
-Looks like she lost her mind in the Gate.
-Is she an attention seeker?
That would be what ordinary people, including me, thought. Of course, there was a way to prove it.
Show them the dragon egg.
[Red Dragon’s Egg]
-An egg from a dragon that is close to hatching.
-Heat is required for hatching.
This was the information about the dragon egg that I had checked inside the Subspace. If I showed it to them, I could convince them.
‘…Why would I?’
What happened after that was obvious.
Could I, someone who had only just awakened, have my ownership of the dragon egg properly acknowledged?
I did not think so.
The guild of the Awakened who had entered the Gate with me—or the government—would probably try to take the egg away first.
But this was an egg I had brought back by risking my life. I did not want to hand something like that over to someone else for the sake of some rule.
…More than anything, the egg was something I wanted to test.
-The Ground Tremor caused the Gate to transform into a survival-type Gate. And a Great Worm appeared.
So I changed the story.
I said that I had desperately fled because there had been little time left, and that I did not know what happened to those who entered with me.
I had only changed the dragon to a Great Worm, so it was not a lie.
I felt no particular grief. Whether Awakened or unawakened, hunters had jobs that kept them close to death.
‘Gate transformations happen from time to time, too.’
The Gate supervisor let me go. They generally refrained from asking too many questions immediately after a Gate subjugation.
The fact that I looked terrible after just leaving the Gate probably helped as well.
Of course, I would have to go to the Association and write a report, since a Gate transformation had occurred.
-I did awaken while running away, but…….
-You can tell us that tomorrow as well. Please be aware that if you do not come, the Association may visit you directly.
After that procedure, I drove my junk-like car back to my small studio apartment. I did not even know how I got there.
Only after washing up did it finally feel real.
‘I……am an Awakened hunter?’
I had been too flustered to process it and was still dazed, but I had awakened. What was more, I had a rare class and an S-Grade skill.
And the skill actually worked!
Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Healer, Martial Artist.
According to statistics, 97% of Awakened were assigned one of those five classes based on their aptitude.
Even within the same class, they were not all alike. The skills received upon awakening or leveling up differed from person to person, so their growth and fighting styles differed as well.
And beyond those five classes, there were rare classes like mine.
‘You get a rare class at roughly a 3% chance.’
But rare classes were not necessarily good. Even when they looked impressive, something was strangely off about them.
The examples that immediately came to mind were Telekinetic, Druid, Bard, Paladin, and Dragon Knight.
They were classes that sounded tempting from the names alone. But their fatal drawback was…….
Practical constraints. They might be ill-suited to killing enemies, or their skills might not work.
-I’m a Dragon Knight, but if there’s no dragon, I can’t use my skills. lol
-A Paladin can’t use holy skills;;
Unlike their appearances, these classes had demanding prerequisites.
A Dragon Knight needed a ‘dragon’, while a Paladin needed a ‘god’.
……Of course, there was no way such things existed in reality. There were no dragons, and no religion on Earth could grant divine power.
It was not for nothing that 60% of rare classes were called garbage.
‘Even if their skills work, many abilities are ill-suited to hunting monsters.’
As a result, Telekinetics went to construction sites, Druids to zoos, and Bards to orchestras.
In the early days of the Gate Crisis, these rare classes had caused many incidents.
[‘Dragon Knight’ Choi Cheolgi, approached by 50 countries, decides to remain in Korea.]
-What a legendary patriot.
-That’s insane;; I would’ve gone to the U.S.
.
.
.
[‘Dragon Knight’ Choi Cheolgi, unable to use skills without a ‘dragon’?]
-For real?
-LMAOOO, a Dragon Knight can’t use his skills because there are no dragons LMAOOO.
-Then isn’t he just a knight? (I genuinely don’t know;;)
-Maybe he could be a designated driver, lol.
-Fuck, then what happens to the signing bonus paid with taxpayer money?
.
.
.
[Dragon Knight Choi Cheolgi, mindful of public opinion, decides to voluntarily return the signing bonus.]
-YESSS!
-At least that bastard has a conscience.
A Paladin in the Middle East had even been subjected to a religious trial as an unbeliever because they could not use holy skills.
That was why I had worried first after awakening a class with the bizarre name Void Master.
Fortunately, unlike the other rare classes, my skill worked.
‘……I should celebrate, right?’
I immediately grabbed my wallet. I needed to go out.
There was one person with whom I wanted to share the happy news that I had awakened.
‘What should I eat? Beef?’
I made up my mind. Although I lived in a studio apartment smaller than my Subspace, I had saved a little money working as a porter.
It was nine o’clock in the evening. The time was just right. If I did not eat beef on a day like today, when would I?
***
[Dragon Dragon Pork Belly]
I went to the barbecue restaurant in front of my home. Nine o’clock was a little late, but there was not a single customer.
I scratched the back of my head. How could there not be a single occupied table?
“Is the food bad here? Why is there no one at all?”
As I opened the restaurant door and went in, I said the thought that crossed my mind without filtering it.
The owner standing at the counter frowned. He had a sturdy build.
“Look at the manners on this bastard.”
“Bastard? To a customer?”
“In my shop, the owner is king, you bastard.”
The man grinned as he said that.
“Did the Gate go well?”
“Yeah.”
I grinned. We were that informal with each other. In my shitty life, he was one of the rare good people I could count on one hand.
When everyone else was in high school, I had no home and wandered around. He let me work here and sleep here as well.
“When is this place ever going to do well? Won’t it go bankrupt like this? There used to be some customers. Now you don’t even hire part-timers?”
“Hoo. Hye, you really want to get hit.”
The man raised his right hand.
“Now, now, you’ll regret kicking me out. I’m a customer who’s going to order beef.”
“Huh?”
The man’s eyes widened, then he led me over with a sly expression.
“Oh, dear customer. Please, sit here.”
“Give me three servings of Korean beef.”
When I said that boldly, the man sat across from me with a curious look on his face.
“Did you get a bonus? It’s not like you would get one at your level just because a few more magic stones dropped. Did you find a hidden piece or something?”
I grinned.
“I awakened.”
“What? Really?”
“Yeah.”
“H-Hye. Congratulations. Really? How did this happen?”
The man was truly happy. He knew how badly I had wanted to awaken.
Of course, as a good adult, he had tried to stop me at first. He asked why I wanted to do something so dangerous.
Even when I said I wanted to take revenge on the monster that killed my parents, he had tried to dissuade me. He supported me now, though.
When I smiled faintly at him, he stood up.
“Let’s go. We should close up for today.”
“What are you talking about? I came to eat beef.”
“You should eat beef at a beef restaurant. Why would you come to a pork belly restaurant for it?”
“You don’t have any at all?”
“Would I?”
The man glared at me.
Come on, could he not take a joke?
I had been coming here for years. There was no way I had mistaken the menu.
“I’m joking. I bought some.”
“What? Beef? You came empty-handed.”
That was true.
I had come to this restaurant empty-handed.
“I put it in my Subspace.”
“What?”
If I used my ability, I did not need to carry a heavy load.
WHUMMM—
I opened the space and took out a black plastic bag.
The bag was full of the beef I had mentioned.
“…….”
The man seemed to be in shock.
I continued.
“I’m a rare class.”
The man’s face looked complicated. Joy and surprise coexisted there. It could not have been otherwise, since few had suffered as much because of a rare class as he had.
“Fuck.”
“Huh?”
“One person enters a Gate holding a lizard, just in case…… And another person’s skills just work?”
Dragon Knight Choi Cheolgi.
In the early days of the Gate Crisis, he was the man who had made his name known around the world.
The man standing before me was him.