The mist was so thick I could barely see an inch ahead, but I sprinted at full speed toward the direction of the monstrous shriek.
Along the way, I spotted a few people collapsed on the street.
They were all wearing the same uniforms and insignias.
…Black market employees.
They were squirming grotesquely, dragging themselves across the ground.
Vanek’s poison might’ve lacked killing power, but its paralyzing effect was top-tier.
That creature’s specialty was swallowing up paralyzed prey just like that.
I’d better be careful too.
I had to keep channeling mana to make sure the detoxification spell didn’t wear off.
Back then, even doing just that would’ve been a bit much for me, but now that the burden squeezing my heart had vanished, it was way easier.
More than anything, linking with the Dragon Heart brought some extra perks.
No risk, big return.
“Hey… wait…!”
“……?”
While I was running, someone’s voice reached me.
One of the writhing figures on the ground was calling out.
“Help me…! My body… won’t move… I… can’t breathe—”
“No thanks.”
I ignored the pathetic plea and kept running.
If they were black market employees… then they were just pawns of those bastards.
Honestly, even if they died right here, it had nothing to do with me.
But seriously, where did the other chimeras go?
In the game, the situation would have gone straight into the boss fight, leaving no way to understand the surrounding situation.
However, during this black market event, it was only natural that the other chimeras should have escaped and caused chaos as well.
For some reason, aside from one distant screech echoing from far away, there were no other signs of life.
Judging by the fact that those things sprawled across the street were still alive, it was clear that some unexpected variable had come into play.
Thud!
While I was still deep in thought.
I finally arrived at the source of the screech.
The already thick mist grew even denser in color.
Even though I was casting a detoxification spell, my whole body was tingling.
…This was worse than I had expected.
Now, I could say for sure.
The thing had already entered its berserk phase.
“Wind Area.”
I chanted the trigger word while focusing the mana I had drawn up.
A sixth-circle wind spell. It was a high-level spell that was rather difficult to use alongside detoxification magic.
Thankfully, thanks to the Dragon Heart, I could just barely manage to pull it off.
The wind began to swirl around me and gradually expanded its range.
The green mist that had surrounded the area was also swept away and disappeared in the wind.
Finally, I had a clear line of sight.
And what that revealed was a street in utter ruin.
Scratches and destruction everywhere. Most of the buildings had been half-destroyed.
…Damn, he really went all out by himself, huh.
That was when it happened.
Boom!
A huge tail came crashing down toward where I stood.
Luckily, with my view now cleared, I had no trouble dodging the attack.
As I followed the huge body connected to that tail with my eyes,
Eventually, a familiar-looking monster came into view.
“Kiieeeeeek―!!”
The thing let out a grotesque, ear-splitting shriek.
Green mist spewed from the lion-like head.
A human upper body. And a lower half like that of a quadrupedal horse.
On top of that, its tail stretched several meters long, like a snake.
…Wow. I’ve seen it in the game before, but it’s even uglier in real life.
Was this what they called the uncanny valley?
Its appearance alone stirred instinctive disgust.
And then—
“Looks like it really did eat that thing.”
“Kieeeek!”
It had always looked grotesque, but now—
The chimera’s entire body had turned a shade of red.
All of it was a result of the berserk symptoms.
The black market was full of dangerous goods beyond just chimeras.
Especially when it came to drugs. Among them were substances that triggered excitement in monsters.
Given the nature of chimeras, which were a blend of multiple creatures, it was only natural for it to go beyond mere excitement and fall into a berserk state the moment it ingested such a drug.
A sudden spike in difficulty.
The game I played had trash-tier choice mechanics, but—
Especially in the combat system, there were way too many random elements.
Like, for instance, before that chimera even engaged the player in combat,
What were the chances it might randomly smash through buildings and get exposed to the drug?
…And the moment that low probability triggered, the game’s difficulty skyrocketed exponentially.
That’s how dangerous berserk mode was.
“Kiek―!”
“Ghk!”
Boom!
Boom!
Even though it had clearly recognized me as an enemy,
Its wildly flailing tail kept slamming the ground in vain.
It was certainly a fast and dangerous attack, but the trajectory was so simple that it wasn’t hard to dodge.
It was one of the drawbacks of berserk mode.
Still, even a single hit would probably mean instant death.
If the Adventurer’s Guild were to assign a danger rating, it would’ve easily received an A-rank.
After all, it had been one of the high-difficulty random events in the game.
“Kieeek!”
A violent burst of green mist spewed from its mouth.
Once again, poisonous fog spread across the area.
But—
Whooosh—!
The spell I had cast wasn’t a one-time effect.
The mist it released was swept away by the wind, just like before, and driven far off into the distance.
The chimera let out a furious roar, enraged by a situation that wasn’t going its way.
That should be enough for confirmation.
Thanks to the Dragon Heart, using magic had become noticeably easier.
At this level, if I pushed myself, I could probably cast even higher-circle spells.
I was now more or less prepared for the upcoming main episode.
Just one thing left now.
What remained was a kind of experiment.
Or rather, something closer to a gamble.
If it succeeded, the chances of success in what lay ahead would increase significantly.
“Kieeek! Kieeeek!”
Enraged that its attacks hadn’t landed,
It stopped swinging its tail and immediately charged at me, powering forward on its four legs.
Its huge body which was easily several meters long closed the distance in an instant.
It was already too late to dodge.
“…Hoo.”
Can I pull this off?
—That worry came first, but even so, I had no choice but to do it.
Since Lilith was still asleep, taking down the creature would require quite a bit of strain.
However, if I pushed my body any further, it was certain to cause serious problems in the near future.
This time, I need to take it down without taking any risks.
Ah.
Though… could I really say there were no risks involved?
Thump.
Thump.
In the focused stillness of my mind, only the sound of a heartbeat echoed.
It wasn’t my heartbeat.
To be precise, it was the Dragon Heart of someone connected to me, someone who must have been inside the lair.
That strange sense of connection settled deep within me.
And then, I remembered.
Memories of a certain member of the dragonkin that I had seen within the Dragon Heart.
They were only fragmented memories, but even so, there were things I had gained from them.
While I was recalling those fragments,
The chimera, now right in front of me, lunged with its mouth wide open.
“Kieeeek—”
“■■.”
Stop.
“Kie—ek?”
With just that one word I uttered,
The creature froze in place with its mouth still hanging open.
It trembled, clearly straining to move, but couldn’t even twitch.
“…Hoo. I actually pulled it o—Ugh!”
Bleeergh!
The thrill of success lasted only a moment.
A sharp, metallic scent of blood rose from my throat.
And soon, I began to vomit it all out.
The thudding heartbeat grew even louder.
As I thought, perfectly mimicking it was impossible.
Word Magic.
Power embedded in the words themselves.
It was another power possessed only by dragons.
Commonly, people referred to it as their exclusive language. Dragon Tongue.
It was truly one of the powers closest to omnipotence.
But no matter how mighty a dragon was, it was a dangerous power for any mere mortal to wield.
That was why even among the dragonkin, those capable of wielding Word Magic were exceedingly rare.
Ignis had been one of those few.
“…Tch, haah…! The performance really was insane.”
Memories I saw through the Dragon Heart—
Thanks to them, I too had been able to recall a part of that language.
Of course, as a human, it was impossible for me to fully reproduce their language.
The vocal organs and the very power we possessed were fundamentally different, so normally, even mimicking it was near impossible.
Had it not been for the help of the Dragon Heart, I wouldn’t have even been able to attempt it.
It really can be applied to magic.
The magic circle used to cast spells—
And the language inscribed within those circles, the runes.
Very few people knew the truth, but in fact, the origin of the runes lay in the dragons’ language.
So then, what would happen if the current magical system replaced runes with Dragon Tongue?
This result was the answer.
The chimera that had just moments ago threatened my life now couldn’t even struggle.
For this moment, I had gone through countless revisions and had completed the magic circle in advance.
…The risk is still way too high. It’s hard to use recklessly, and I’ll need to revise it even more going forward.
Even so—
There was no doubt that I now had a hidden card up my sleeve.
“Ki, ee, eeeeh—”
“…You can’t even move your mouth, so where the hell is that sound coming from?”
While catching my breath, I stared blankly at the unmoving chimera.
…As much as I wanted to check the duration of the spell, if it happened to break free, that would be a whole new headache.
I drew up my mana and moved to finish the boss fight.
***
As the chimera died, the being that had been spewing mist disappeared as well.
The dim green light that had filled the area gradually began to fade.
The random event had come to an end, for now.
I quickly began preparing to head upstairs.
Unlike when I first entered, the exit path was now wide open.
…Where the hell did the other chimeras go?
Could they really have gone up through the passage?
Just in case, I picked up the pace even more.
And just as I was about to reach the entrance to the passage—
I caught sight of chimera corpses scattered nearby.
Cleanly severed bodies were strewn all around the area near the passage.
It really did look like they had tried to escape that way.
Who took them out?
Was there anyone among the black market staff skilled enough to cleanly deal with them like this?
That question was soon answered.
“Ain!”
“…Ah.”
Ren who was drenched in blood was standing there.
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