Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The wall had been dug out far too easily, like soft, yielding soil.

Stone dust had fallen to the floor.

Flustered, Woo-jin made a fist and thumped the wall a few times.

There was no doubt about it. This was an incredibly hard stone wall.

“Soil Tilling.”

[Soil Tilling Lv. 3 proficiency has increased slightly.]

CRUMBLE!

Rattle, rattle…….

Just as expected, the wall was dug out easily.

‘Could one Soil Tilling skill really do this?’

[Soil Tilling Lv. 3]

-Description: Allows you to dig deeper when tilling soil. Also allows you to dig the soil evenly so that there are no stones or clumps.

Woo-jin read the skill description again.

Then he thought about whether digging out the wall was truly the right thing to do.

The space Woo-jin was currently in was the Dragon Lair.

Presumably, it was the Dragon Lord’s lair.

There was a high chance the Dragon Lord was somewhere inside.

He could not rule out the possibility that this wall was protecting him.

‘...Should I leave it alone for now?’

He had scraped away a little of the wall.

But it was not as though he had opened a hole all the way through.

However, human curiosity was said to overcome reason.

Telling himself that he could not live trapped forever, Woo-jin resumed scraping away the wall.

This time, instead of the trowel, he brought over the sort of shovel one might use on a construction site.

“Soil Tilling, Soil Tilling!”

CRUMBLE!

CRUMBLE!

Compared to using a trowel the size of something kindergarteners would use when experiencing seedling planting at a daycare center, digging out the wall with a rough shovel that looked like it belonged on a construction site felt satisfyingly easy.

CRUMBLE!

[Soil Tilling Lv. 3 proficiency has…….]

That was when it happened.

WHOOSH!

He learned what it felt like to swing a shovel into empty air.

Woo-jin nearly fell forward, but he barely managed to keep his balance.

A hole had opened in the wall.

The wall separating one space from another was about one meter thick.

It was neither especially thin nor especially thick. Woo-jin examined the space visible beyond the hole.

‘I can’t see anything.’

It was not that dark.

Sunlight was coming in over there too, as if the ceiling was not completely closed off.

Woo-jin carefully moved forward one step at a time. Then Woo-jin nearly felt the strength leave his legs.

[Dragon Lord][Lv. 9999]

‘Aaaaaaagh!’

He clamped his hand over his mouth.

It was not that he could not see anything.

The Dragon Lord’s body was so enormous that he had mistaken it for part of the wall.

Woo-jin thought he was going to die right then and there.

However, nothing happened.

“……?”

He looked more carefully.

An enormous dragon the size of an apartment building.

When he lifted his head until his neck hurt to look at the dragon’s face, he saw that its eyes were closed.

Was it sleeping?

Woo-jin let out a sigh of relief.

So I haven’t been discovered yet.

‘But telling me to kill a monster like this?’

The 99th Floor Objective.

The difficulty was Mythic.

Slay the Dragon Lord.

Woo-jin shook his head.

He realized it even more clearly now.

No matter what amazing item existed in this world, it would be impossible to kill the Dragon Lord before his eyes.

Woo-jin walked lightly back into the space where he had originally been. In the middle of doing so, he acquired a skill called Stealthy Footsteps.

[You have learned Stealthy Footsteps Lv. 1.]

[Stealthy Footsteps Lv. 1]

- Description: Allows you to move while making almost no sound.

Was it unexpected luck?

To think he could acquire a skill this easily.

Woo-jin scratched his cheek as if he could not understand it.

‘Does that mean skills are easy to acquire on Mythic difficulty?’

It was possible.

The skills Woo-jin had obtained so far.

Soil Tilling, Seed Planting, Harvest, Cooking. And now Stealthy Footsteps too.

Common knowledge held that, in order to gain a skill, one had to obtain a skill book that could be acquired randomly while climbing the Tower.

Naturally, the probability of obtaining a skill was extremely low.

According to the official statistics released by the Tower Management Bureau, one skill book appeared for every 10 floors climbed.

Though he had no combat skills.

Woo-jin currently possessed five skills.

Going by statistical probability, Woo-jin had the same number of skills as an adventurer who had climbed to the 50th floor of Normal difficulty.

‘Ah, but what do I do with this hole?’

Anxiety crept into Woo-jin’s heart after he realized that the Dragon Lord was right next to him. Since a hole had been opened, would all the sounds of his daily life and the smell of food not reach the Dragon Lord from now on?

Of course, its eyes were not open.

.

.

.

He thought about several methods.

Filling the hole again with the mounds of dirt that had fallen after he dug out the wall.

Or getting cement and plastering it shut completely.

And finally, the method of saying, whatever, and just leaving it alone.

Growl.

He was getting hungry.

For now, he would eat first and think afterward.

Woo-jin stealthily checked the Dragon Lord’s mood.

He could see the Dragon Lord’s skin beyond the opened hole.

‘Now that I think about it, if it was going to notice me, it would’ve noticed me ages ago.’

Could it be hibernating? Something like that?

In modern society, where even residents living in the same apartment building had trouble over noise between floors, it seemed unreasonable to think the Dragon Lord could not hear the sounds of his daily life just because there was a wall only one meter thick.

Unless it was in such a deep sleep that it would not notice even if someone carried it away.

Woo-jin decided to think positively.

The Dragon Lord was hibernating.

Now that he thought about it, the weather was a little cold too!

“...Ah, whatever.”

Woo-jin scooped lake water into the aluminum pot and placed it on the gas burner.

He turned on the flame and boiled the water.

He decided to eat Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size.

What if he got caught?

Then he died. So what?

What could he do?

If the Dragon Lord decided to kill him, then he would have to die.

Riiip.

He opened the cup noodle lid halfway and added the soup powder.

Then he poured in the boiling water and closed the lid again.

He slightly split a pair of wooden chopsticks, wedged them in place to hold the lid down, and waited three minutes.

Three minutes later.

Riiip!

He tore the lid off completely.

Hot steam billowed up from the cup noodle container.

He immediately snapped the wooden chopsticks apart with a crack! and stirred the cup noodles, loosening the noodles.

He picked up a big mouthful of noodles with his chopsticks.

Slurp!

“Khhhh.”

The familiar, stimulating MSG flavor of Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size, spread through his mouth. He even slurped down the broth. It felt as though his insides were warming up.

By the time he had almost finished eating.

He felt some kind of presence.

Woo-jin instinctively looked at the “opened hole.”

And froze on the spot.

He had not actually frozen. It meant he was shocked.

Because a huge eye was watching Woo-jin.

- What are you eating?

---

Woo-jin swallowed hard at the voice he heard.

He instinctively realized that the eye watching him belonged to the Dragon Lord.

“This... is called cup noodles.”

-It smells good.

The Dragon Lord’s eye was still gleaming.

Woo-jin swallowed hard.

His first meeting with the Dragon Lord did not seem all that bad.

“W-would you like some? I’ll make you a new one.”

- I will wait.

“Y-yes, sir!”

Woo-jin put down the Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size, he had been eating. There was still about one chopstickful left, but that was not what mattered.

The Dragon Lord was asking for Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size.

In order to survive, Woo-jin had to complete the Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size, with every ounce of effort he had.

Riiip!

He tore the lid halfway open, added the soup powder and hot water, then closed the lid again. Woo-jin counted exactly three minutes in his head before opening the lid completely and loosening the noodles with the wooden chopsticks so they would be easy to eat.

Scurry!

Carrying the finished Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size, he ran over to the Dragon Lord.

Unlike a moment ago, the Dragon Lord’s eyes were open.

But if it was that huge, this tiny cup noodle would not even make it feel as if anything had entered its stomach. What was he supposed to do? Just as that thought crossed his mind.

Sss.

The Dragon Lord’s body began to grow smaller.

Rather than growing smaller, its entire form itself was changing.

It was the form of a “human.”

A handsome man with long, dark-red hair swept back.

The identity of the man, who was wearing only a single robe that looked something like a dopo from the Joseon Dynasty, was the Dragon Lord.

“It is called Polymorph.”

“...Yes, sir!”

“Let me try it.”

The Dragon Lord accepted the Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size, that Woo-jin handed him. It seemed he already knew how to use chopsticks.

After receiving the wooden chopsticks, the Dragon Lord smelled the Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size, then lifted a large portion of noodles and slowly put them into his mouth.

Slurp.

The Dragon Lord’s eyes widened.

After that, he began inhaling the noodles as if possessed.

Woo-jin was unintentionally watching the Dragon Lord eat.

At last, after even drinking down the broth.

The Dragon Lord slowly put down the container of Yukgaejang cup noodles, small size.

“I have eaten well.”

Woo-jin did not ask whether it suited his taste.

Anyone watching the Dragon Lord eat would have known he had eaten it “incredibly deliciously.”

The Dragon Lord sat down on a large stone and asked,

“So. How exactly did you find your way here?”

Woo-jin decided to speak honestly.

He judged that there was nothing to gain by lying.

Because he had no idea where to begin.

He started from the part where he had become a Tower Management civil servant.

Two years ago, he had entered public service.

He told the Dragon Lord that while working as a civil servant, he had awakened by chance.

Awakening meant that he had received a “Tower invitation” message.

Woo-jin also confessed, without the slightest exaggeration, the absurd fact that he had planned to clear only the 20th floor of Normal, pocket one billion won, put it into index-tracking funds and dividend stocks, and join the FIRE crowd, only to open his eyes and find himself not on Normal’s 1st Floor, but on the 99th floor of Mythic difficulty.

The Dragon Lord, who had quietly listened to the story, nodded.

“It is true.”

Apparently, the Dragon Lord seemed to have the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood.

“...What happens to me now?”

In any case, his life was in the Dragon Lord’s hands.

The objective of the 99th floor of Mythic difficulty was to slay the Dragon Lord.

In other words, an “adventurer” and the “Dragon Lord” were officially enemies.

The Dragon Lord looked down at Woo-jin with a piercing gaze.