Chapter 135

The graveyard of berserk dragons.

It was the dimension where Sung Jinwoo, the Shadow Monarch and King of the Dead, had fought his final war against Antares, the Dragon Emperor, King of Berserk Dragons and Monarch of Destruction.

The strongest of the eight Monarchs born from primordial darkness. The only Monarch ever to overwhelm the Shadow Monarch.

Antares, King of Berserk Dragons and Monarch of Destruction.

He was destruction incarnate, willing to embrace even his own ruin for a war in which blood, screams, madness, and destruction roiled together.

But in the end, Sung Jinwoo defeated him, and the army of destruction he had commanded was absorbed in its entirety into the shadow army.

As a result, all that drifted through the dimension once called the world of dragonkind were the ashes of dragons' corpses, crumbling away after being stripped of their souls.

Those immense quantities of ash spread through gaps between dimensions, eventually drifting into Echo Forest, where dimensional rifts happened to have opened in numerous places.

Looking back now, it was a miraculous coincidence that, of all the dimensional rifts, Cha Haein and the wyvern Kaisel had entered this one.

Had they entered another dimension instead, Kaisel might have vanished without ever recovering his strength.

In any case, strangely enough, Kaisel's depleted strength had begun replenishing little by little the moment he entered the area where gray ashes drifted through the air.

And the farther they ventured into the heavier gray snow, deeper into Echo Forest, the faster his strength recovered, if only by tiny increments.

Then what would happen if they went directly to the source of those gray ashes—the graveyard of berserk dragons?

Perhaps Kaisel could recover all his strength.

"That is my thinking as well."

Beru nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing with Cha Haein's conjecture.

Just then...

"If Chacha's going, I'm going too!"

"Huh?"

Sirka suddenly cut into the conversation, clinging tightly to Cha Haein's arm with a fierce look in her eyes.

"Leaving you alone this time worried me sick, Chacha. From now on, wherever you go, I'm always coming with you."

[The King of the Snow Folk, the Monarch of Frost, readily grants his permission.]

"No, wait. Don't just give permission on your own."

Suho was flustered when even the Monarch of Frost suddenly joined in.

He had finally found his mother after years apart, and now it looked as though they would have to say goodbye again as soon as they were reunited.

Worse, she wanted to go to an entirely different dimension.

Wasn't she saying she would pass through a dimensional rift beyond Echo Forest and enter the graveyard of berserk dragons?

"There must be a dungeon somewhere beyond there filled with dragon ashes. Once we get inside, Kaisel should recover his strength much faster."

"I agree with you. But in that case, let me come too."

"No. Absolutely not."

Cha Haein looked at Suho firmly.

"You go back to Korea first. We don't know when or where another apostle of Itarim might appear, just like this time. You need to stop them in your father's place."

"But an apostle of Itarim could appear where you're going too, Mom."

"And what if one does?"

At Suho's protest, Cha Haein's eyes curved into a confident smile. She spun the Demon King's Longsword in her hand, plunged it into the ground, and asked him a question in return.

"Son, don't tell me you're worried about your mother?"

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

Suho looked at the vivid blue lightning coursing over the Demon King's Longsword.

Come to think of it, his mother was an S-rank hunter who had cleaved an apostle of Itarim in two with that sword.

With a mischievous smile, Cha Haein launched into a playful scolding.

"Who's worrying about whom here? Go back and do some leveling up. How can you even sleep at that level? I'll be checking your level when I get back, you know."

"Ugh."

Suho genuinely felt wronged.

Mom, you never said anything like this when I played games as a kid...

Even Beru was nodding, visibly gratified by Cha Haein's words.

"Indeed, Young Monarch. You have grown stronger than an ant larva of late, but I still worry myself sick whenever you go anywhere."

In the end, Suho sighed and decided to let his mother go.

"Then at least let me help you find the Gate to the graveyard of berserk dragons. That's all right, isn't it?"

He had things to do here for a while anyway.

The so-called aftermath cleanup.

* * *

"Haeiiin!"

Ahjin Soft's private aircraft arrived off the coast of Pasad Island.

The instant Yoo Jinho heard that Cha Haein had been found, he had rushed across the Pacific.

"Bwaaah! Haein, you must have been through so much! You have no idea how worried I was... Sob!"

"J-Jinho. I'm fine, so p-please stop..."

As Yoo Jinho blubbered in front of her, tears and snot streaming down his face in a display hardly befitting his age, Cha Haein glanced behind him awkwardly.

His accompanying secretarial staff stood farther back, at a loss over this side of their CEO that was so unlike his usual self.

But Jinho paid them no mind.

"Waaah! Haein! I remembered everything! All of it came back! I mean, Jinwoo, Jinwoo—!"

"Yes, yes, Suho told me about that. I understand, so stop crying already!"

"Hic! Hic!"

But no matter how she tried to stop him, Jinho kept blubbering for a long time.

Ever since his memories of his previous life had returned, his tears simply refused to dry whenever he thought of Sung Jinwoo, who had sacrificed himself alone without anyone knowing.

And now it turned out that Cha Haein remembered those days too, and had spent all this time stranded alone in some strange dungeon!

If he didn't cry now, when would he?

"Waaah..."

"Jinho, please... Act your age. People are watching."

But what could she do?

The man standing here was no longer Yoo Jinho, the iron-willed CEO behind Ahjin Soft's spectacular success.

He had gone back to being the naive young heir in his twenties who, so long ago, had followed Sung Jinwoo everywhere with a bright smile.

Knowing exactly how he felt, Cha Haein could only smile in fond resignation.

Then, suddenly, Jinho's eyes, swollen from crying, met Suho's as the young man stood beside his mother.

"... Ahem. Anyway, I'm glad you're safe, Haein. Suho, you've been through a lot too."

"..."

He belatedly tried to recover his dignity in front of Suho, but it was already too late.

Suho merely shook his head.

Once Jinho's tears had subsided somewhat, Suho brought up the reason he had summoned him all this way.

"Anyway, Uncle. Please lend me some money."

"Oh, right. You said you wanted to buy exclusive rights to the Glacier Dungeon?"

"Yes. I'll pay you back soon by selling the Spring Water of Echo Forest."

At the mention of business, the look in Jinho's eyes changed.

Of course, with his eyelids so swollen, he lacked his usual commanding presence.

Along with the news that he had found his mother, Suho had told Jinho about the difficulties the Glacier Dungeon was causing Pasad Island.

The situation was roughly as follows.

"We can't clear the Glacier Dungeon anymore. We can't wipe out the magic beasts living inside."

Clearing the Glacier Dungeon would ultimately require exterminating the entire ice elf tribe, Sirka included.

Now that this was no longer an option, they had to consider what came next.

"Right, I understand that much. If the ice elves are Haein's friends, of course we can't kill them. Then how about relocating them outside the dungeon altogether?"

"You mean having the ice elves live on Earth?"

Bringing every ice elf out of the dungeon would effectively count as clearing it too.

But the ice elves themselves had rejected that option.

"Absolutely not. We of the Baruka tribe have a duty to protect the Monarch's sanctuary. We're staying in the forest."

Jinho met the glare of Sirka, who had suddenly appeared before him.

"She's really cute. What's she saying, though?"

"..."

To Jinho, the sight of Sirka babbling in the language of magic beasts was simply fascinating.

"Anyway, let's assume relocation is off the table. You're saying this antidote potion called the Spring Water of Echo Forest from the Glacier Dungeon will make money?"

"Yes. It's groundwater, so it shouldn't run dry easily, either."

Of course, even groundwater wasn't limitless. If they kept pumping it out, it might eventually be depleted.

But that wasn't a problem either.

"Hmm. Flooding the market would only drive the price down anyway, so the key will be releasing appropriate quantities a little at a time. And... we don't yet know how effective it is as an antidote."

Jinho calmly ran the numbers in his head.

The item description merely stated that it neutralized poison.

They would need a series of experiments to establish exactly which poisons it worked on and how effective it was.

Understanding a product's true value before selling it was among the most basic principles of business.

Naturally, that process would require considerable manpower, time, and money.

That was precisely why they needed Yoo Jinho the businessman.

"Before that, Suho, let me confirm one thing. Strictly speaking, you only tagged along with the Scavenger Guild on this raid. Didn't they want the exclusive rights themselves?"

Jinho was curious.

After all, this business was literally selling water.

They only had to enter the Glacier Dungeon, scoop up the hot spring water, and sell it. It was a gold mine.

Why wasn't Scavenger eager to claim such an easy, lucrative business?

Just then, Thomas Andre's secretary, Laura, approached from the Scavenger group.

"We do find that most regrettable ourselves, but the ice elves say they will only permit Mr. Sung Suho access to the Spring Water of Echo Forest."

Laura looked genuinely disappointed.

But from the ice elves' perspective, it was only natural.

The spring in Echo Forest was the Monarch of Frost's sanctuary, a forbidden place that was certainly not open to just anyone.

For an ordinary human, even navigating Echo Forest through that mana blizzard would be exceedingly difficult.

Ultimately, they had no choice but to ask the ice elves to go there themselves and bring back some spring water...

"And they say they'll only honor that request from Mr. Sung Suho or Ms. Cha Haein."

It was only natural.

Suho and Cha Haein were friends of the ice elves, acknowledged even by the Monarch of Frost.

"So we at Scavenger have a proposal we'd like to make to Mr. Suho—"

"One moment."

Jinho raised a hand, cutting Laura off.

At that instant, his secretarial staff surged to his side, thick stacks of documents in their hands.

Overwhelmed by the sight, Laura swallowed involuntarily.

'... This won't be an easy battle.'

Yoo Jinho, the naive young heir who had blubbered before Haein until his eyes swelled shut, was gone.

CEO Yoo Jinho had already returned to being an iron-willed businessman, looking down at Laura with an icy air.