TRPM 388

chapter 388

Bang!

Bang!

Each time Woo Ji-min pulled the trigger, the heads of the monsters charging at us exploded.

Watching that, I used Telekinesis to recover the valuable parts from their corpses.

Well, since they’re all dragonkin, there’s hardly anything to throw away.

From quality meat to scales, claws, and teeth…
There really wasn’t a single useless by-product when it came to dragonkin.

Of course, compared to the boss monsters inside the crater, the other dragonkin around here were of lower quality.

“Ah… this one’s teeth are shattered.”

Among the loot, there were plenty of parts with reduced market value.
Still, I picked up everything.

Just because something had less value didn’t mean it was useless—alchemy, for example, could make use of it just fine.

In fact, dragon’s teeth—dragon fangs—weren’t used whole, but usually ground into powder anyway.

Shhkk!

While I was gathering loot with those thoughts in mind, Yeon Mirae suddenly swung her sword.

A monster had broken through Woo Ji-min’s barrage and gotten dangerously close to us.

I’d noticed the monster as well, of course, but since I trusted Yeon Mirae, I hadn’t intervened.

“Ji-min, please make sure no monsters get this close again.”

She slid her spotless blade back into its sheath as she spoke.

“Ah, sorry! Really sorry!”

Woo Ji-min apologized profusely while still firing, her eyes flicking toward us even as her aim remained fixed on distant enemies.

“… I knew Hero Woo Ji-min used firearms, but not to this extent…”

“Hm? Ah, Sophia, this is your first time seeing her shoot?”

“Yes… I can shoot too, so it feels even more impressive. That can’t possibly be easy…”

Sophia muttered while watching Ji-min fire away. Ji-min, noticing, shifted into flashy stances as if to show off.

Sophia’s verdict?

“…That just looks pretentious.”

“……”

A harsh critique.
She was impressed by the accurate blind shots, but the dramatic poses? Not so much.

Anyway.

Though this dungeon was known as “impossible to conquer,” we had made it past one of the main obstacles—the volcanic terrain—without much trouble. Reaching the crater where the boss waited didn’t take long.

“Whoa…”

“One misstep and it’s straight into the lava…”

“This really reminds me of the Pompeii Dungeon.”

The three with me gazed into the crater’s depths and muttered.

Pompeii?

“Ah… there was a famous volcanic dungeon in Italy. Since the city that appeared there was Pompeii—the one buried by the volcanic eruption—it got nicknamed the Pompeii Dungeon.”

That dungeon also had its boss inside a crater and went unconquered for years.

“How’d they beat it?”

“They lobbed in a ton of special cooling grenades filled with liquid nitrogen to damage the boss. But when the nitrogen hit the lava, there was a massive explosion. The casualties were huge.”

Well, of course. Liquid nitrogen vaporizes rapidly, expanding in volume violently.
Basic middle school science.

Did those adventurers not know that?

“The operation was a rash decision made by a guild that thought it could work.”

Which just goes to show: the world is big, and fools are many.

The important takeaway here was that even if the Red Dragon was resistant to fire, attacking with ice magic was a terrible idea.

Sure, water or ice would be more effective than most attributes, but…

It could trigger an explosion. Best avoided.

“Let’s see… the Red Dragon’s weakness is definitely ice, right?”

“Hm?”

“Hm?”

“Hm?”

We all froze at Ji-min’s words.

I had just been thinking how stupid it was to use ice, so hearing the exact opposite made me falter.

Mirae and Sophia seemed just as dumbstruck.

Bang!

And so, no one stopped Ji-min.

Screeech!
BOOM!

I yanked Sophia backward, dodging with her in tow. Mirae also leapt back at the sound of the blast.

That left only Ji-min standing there.

“Kyahhh?!”

Naturally, Ji-min bore the brunt of the consequences.

What the—yesterday she refused to use elemental bullets out of pride, but today she…

I glanced at Ji-min, grimacing in the steam, then checked on Sophia.

She was unharmed, thanks to the protective energy I’d been maintaining.

But if I hadn’t been shielding her…?

“Phew…”

“Ugh…”

I walked over to the suffering Ji-min.

Then grabbed her by the collar.

“Uuh…?”

“Are you insane?”

Her little stunt could have wiped out the entire raid party.

Sure, she probably thought it was the most efficient way to take down the Red Dragon—but still.

“S-sorry.”

“I’ll be reporting this to Chairman Shin Han-ji. He’ll make sure you get the education you clearly need.”

Her face soured, but she quickly resigned herself and nodded.

Then suddenly—

“Wait—behind you!”

Ji-min panicked, trying to push me aside.

But I didn’t budge.

I already knew what was behind me.

Screeeech!

The Red Dragon, enraged after being struck by her ice bullet, had crawled out of the crater for revenge.

Thunk!

“…Ugh—what’s that smell? Sulfur?”

I also knew I was strong enough to grab the dragon’s jaws barehanded.

Its breath reeked of sulfur—expected of a volcano dweller.

“Cleanse. Deodorize.”

I used Word Magic to erase the stench from its maw.

And then—

BAM!

—smashed its face with my fist.

Screeeech!

It wasn’t even a full-strength punch, yet its face caved in grotesquely.

Just a light blow, but…

Ah. I had protective energy layered around my fist, didn’t I.

The same defensive aura cloaking Sophia and me had amplified the strike.

Fwoosh!

Apparently deeming me a serious threat, the dragon flapped its wings and retreated—back into the crater.

“Ah, damn…”

Mirae frowned, staring into the crater.

She probably thought the hunt had failed, with the dragon fleeing.

But then—

“…What?”

Seeing what the dragon did inside the crater, Mirae’s eyes went wide.

Sophia and Ji-min, noticing her reaction, looked too—

“…Even for a Red Dragon, swimming in lava? Really?”

“With its fire resistance, it can probably withstand the heat. So… not impossible.”

The beast, its face mangled by my punch, had plunged into lava, dousing itself with it.

…Does lava actually heal it somehow?

If not, then—

WHOOSH!

Before I could finish my thought, it burst forth again, coated head-to-toe in molten rock.

“…It knows that other creatures avoid lava, huh.”

Most awakened fighters would be unable to attack properly against such a threat.

Most, that is.

“Master, allow me.”

“Alright, try.”

At Mirae’s words, I stepped aside.

She shifted into a perfect thrusting stance, waiting for the dragon’s charge.

Splatter…

Deeming Mirae dangerous, the dragon stopped short, flapping its wings to fling lava everywhere.

I quickly threw up my aura shield in front of Sophia and Ji-min.

And then—

Heaven-defying Sword, Form One: Sky-Piercing Thrust.

Mirae ignored the molten barrage, her blade driving straight into the dragon’s body.

The dragon itself wasn’t as strong as expected.

The real difficulty lay in dismantling its corpse afterward.

As if mocking the idea of dungeon “loot,” the Awakener System didn’t turn its body into an artifact. The spoils of this dungeon were the corpse itself.

So we had to carve it up ourselves.

Not that dismantling it was the problem.

The real issue was…

“Ugh, hot.”

“Careful there, lava’s flowing.”

The lava it had smeared over itself—plus the lava constantly bubbling from the crater.

Trying to butcher a corpse while dodging lava wasn’t exactly easy.

“Let’s head out soon.”

“Agreed~.”

“…Even so, don’t think I’ll cancel my report to Chairman Shin Han-ji.”

“Ugh…”

We chatted like that while making our way out.

And as we emerged from the dungeon—others were waiting.

Their outfits were… peculiar.

…That’s the same heatproof suit Sophia wore when she first entered.

That was all the clue I needed.

This must be the guild that managed the dungeon until now.

They’d come in full heatproof gear, ready for group exploration.

“What the… you actually cleared it? Without heatproof suits?”

They stared in shock as the dungeon gate vanished behind us.

Apparently, they’d only heard that someone was attempting the dungeon, so they’d been waiting outside.

Some of them, realizing what had happened, angrily tore off their heavy suits.

“All that trouble wearing this stupid thing for nothing…”

“Damn it… why’s this so hard to take off…?!”

“Hey! Don’t you bastards have any professional courtesy?!”

I swept my gaze over them, then signaled to my group: ignore them, let’s go.

There was nothing they could do to us.

But just as we were passing through—

“You little punk… when someone’s talking to you—”

WHAM!

One of them grabbed my shoulder from behind.

Reflexively, I drove my elbow into his face.

“…Ah.”

Of course, I’d done it while still cloaked in aura, just like inside the dungeon.

Looks like this won’t end quietly.