Teaser
Cale looked around while acting like a random passerby.
“What is going on?”
One of the other robed individuals got up to ask the robed individual that jumped up and made the chair fall down.
“Let, let me go!”
The original robed individual raised his voice. His voice echoed through the restaurant, and Cale thought he could see the anxiety on the individual’s face through the robe.
Cale looked up at the ceiling.
It sounded like Raon was going around the ceiling in circles. Cale lowered his gaze and looked around the restaurant. The dainty white hands of the individual Cale assumed to be an Elf were shaking.
“…My goodness!”
The individual who had probably met a Dragon in the past slowly started to walk. The face that was hidden underneath the robe’s hood was looking around left and right.
Pow. Pow.
The middle-aged Elf ran into other people as he walked.
“What the?”
“What the hell?”
The Elf ignored everything. No, it was more like he could not say anything because he was in shock. The other robed individual apologized to everyone as he chased after the first Elf.
Cale was nervous.
‘Don’t come over here.’
Cale used his peripheral vision to observe the Elf. At the same time, Cale tapped Hans on the shoulder. He didn’t know what Hans was talking to the innkeeper about, but the tap was his way of telling Hans to hurry it up.
Raon sounded excited. He seemed to be enjoying flying in circles. Cale ignored the now 5-year-old’s excitement.
‘The Dark Elves are related to the crown prince and we are the only ones who know about their existence, so it was difficult to feign ignorance toward them.’
But he needed to deny it as much as possible in this situation.
The novel, ‘The Birth of a Hero,’ described in a single line about how much the Elves revered the Dragons.
< Elves would cheer after seeing a Dragon flutter their wings once. >
Nothing else needed to be said. Dark Elves were probably three times better than regular Elves when it came to dealing with Dragons. A single flutter of Raon’s wings could make the Elves fall over with joy.
‘What a terrible thought.’
But Cale’s expression slowly became stiffer.
‘Why is he coming this way?’
‘Raon isn’t even here.’
Cale’s heart started to beat quickly.
At that moment, a welcomed voice reached Cale’s ear.
“Young master-nim!”
Hans could see a bright smile on Cale’s face as he called out to him.
“Yes! Hans!”
Hans had never seen Cale looking so happy to see him. He had a bitter taste in his mouth about it, but still proceeded with what he needed to say.
“The good rooms are only on the third floor and higher, is that oka-.”
“Very good.”
Cale’s tone made it very clear that he wanted to quickly head to that room. Hans quickly turned back to talk to the innkeeper after receiving the message from Cale to make it happen quickly.
“Then would you like all of the special rooms on the third floor?”
Cale could now run away and disappear to the third floor as soon as Hans answered the innkeeper’s question.
“Young master-nim, where are you going?”
“The third floor.”
Cale was already walking toward the stairs to the third floor. Choi Han followed behind him with an odd expression on his face. He thought Cale must be really tired, as he had a stiff expression.
‘No, don’t come. Please don’t come.’
Cale cautiously shook his head before taking a step up the staircase. It was at that moment.
He heard something from right behind him.
“Ah, hey mister, are you drunk? Why do you keep bumping into people?”
“I’m truly sorry. He is usually not like this.”
Yes, it was from right behind him.
Cale heard something bumping behind him at the same time as the discussion. Cale clenched onto the rail of the staircase.
‘Why is he coming to me when he has an Elemental?’
Cale found this to be odd. The Elemental should have recognized the spinning Raon, so why was the Elf headed toward him? Did Raon’s scent get on him because Raon always stuck to him?
Cale quickly took another step.
“Excuse me-.”
Cale could feel goosebumps on his back as the voice started to speak right behind him. Should he turn around? The thought going through his mind was one of their being surrounded by the Elves praising Raon while he could do nothing but crouch there in disbelief. Something happened while he continued to worry about it.
“Who are you?”
“What do you want?”
Choi Han and Ron got in between the robed individual and Cale. Cale started to smile.
‘Right. I had these guys.’
Cale slowly turned around.
He could see the Elf being blocked by Choi Han and Ron underneath the staircase.
He couldn’t see the unique ears of the Elves, but he could see the Elf’s eyes underneath the slightly lifted hood. Cale looked down into those eyes and started to speak.
“What do you want?”
The Elf flinched as the other Elf chasing behind him grabbed his arm.
“Ahjussi! Why are you acting like this?” [1]
Cale caught a glimpse of the face of the Elf in the back.
‘What the.’
It wasn’t because the Elf was extremely handsome to the point everybody else would look like pumpkins. It was because he had a Z shaped scar by his eyes.
‘Why is he here?’
It was the Healer, Pendrick.
He was known to be the most handsome of all Elves.
Cale already wanted to go home. His mind was a complicated mess.
‘Which Elf would Pendrick call an ahjussi but still travel with?’
It was hard to use facial features because the novel said that all Elves were handsome. He would know the Chief and Pendrick because they were both described in detail, but the rest of the Elves could not be distinguished this way.
The Elf who stopped Cale did not budge at Pendrick’s actuals and became chaotic as he looked toward Cale.
“T, tha-.”
The Elf started to speak in a shaking voice.
“Do, do you believe in mana?”
Cale thought the Elf was asking if he was religious. Cale started to laugh out of nervousness. The middle-aged Elf flinched after seeing Cale’s smirk. This relaxed demeanor and those cruel eyes that looked down on anything other than himself.
It was the same as the great gaze of a Dragon.
‘The feeling of a Dragon that is floating around in the air.’
There was no way a Dragon would be spinning around in circles like this. The Elf was certain that Cale was using his aura and spinning it in a circle to play around with the lifeforms in the restaurant. It was something a Dragon would do.
If that was the case, then there was only one person that the Dragon could be.
‘That person has the strongest scent of nature on him.’
There were many strong individuals in this restaurant. However, the scent of nature was different than strength. The middle-aged Elf’s hand started to shake. Elves were the closest to nature after Dragons. That was why they were much more sensitive to mana than the Dark Elves.
‘There is a scent of wind, wood, and water. A human cannot possess all of these scents at once.’
The middle-aged Elf started to think. There was no way a human could find multiple ancient powers of different attributes. Humans would be lucky if they managed to find one in their entire life.
There was only one existence that gave off such a strong scent of nature.
He had to be a Dragon.
But he did not dare to say that out loud.
‘Only if my Elemental was with me right now!’
If he had his Elemental that he had left back in the village, he would be able to know for sure.
The middle-aged Elf lamented this fact, but he could not call his Elemental over. It was currently hard at work at the village in his place.
However, the Elf didn’t know that there was a human here who did have multiple ancient powers of different attributes but did not need any luck to find them.
The owner of these ancient powers, Cale, sternly responded back.
“I do not believe in something like mana.”
A Dragon would have responded that he believed in mana. However, Cale answered that he did not believe in mana.
Cale looked directly into the Elf’s eyes and made his stance clear.
The Elf slowly started to look down.
“… I will proceed as you wish.”
‘Hmm? Isn’t his answer weird?’
Cale found it odd that the Elf was respectfully bowing his head.
‘Proceed?’
Cale started to feel iffy about this conversation.
But it was not like he could just say, ‘I am not a Dragon. I am human.’ Cale wondered why an Elf who should have an Elemental was doing this.
“Ahjussi, what is going on?”
“It’s nothing. We just need to do what we were already doing.”
“Huh? Isn’t that obvious?”
“Yes.”
Cale looked at the middle-aged Elf chatting with Pendrick and started to smile. The middle-aged Elf was indeed handsome. The Elf looked back toward Cale as he continued to speak.
“We just need to quietly go about our business.”
‘Why are you saying that while looking at me?’
Cale was nervous and started to frown. That made the Elf flinch before he bowed 90 degrees.
“I apologize for disturbing you. I will pretend not to know you in the future, sir. I pray that you are not upset.”
‘…This is too weird. It definitely feels like he is treating me like a Dragon. An Elemental that has met a Dragon would definitely tell this Elf that I am a human. What is going on?’
Cale had a bitter taste in his mouth, but pretended not to know for now.
“Let us go our separate ways since you seem to be finished.”
Cale turned back around. He still looked very cold. Choi Han and Ron stared at the unknown robed individuals before turning around to follow Cale.
Raon was now flying in a figure eight like a bee. His speed was slowly increasing. The middle-aged Elf started to feel increasingly fearful as he felt the Dragon’s aura start to roam around the restaurant at faster and faster speeds.
“Ahjussi, what was that about?”
“Nothing. Let’s quickly leave.”
Pendrick held back his frustration and sighed. He leaned toward the middle-aged Elf and quietly whispered.
“Guardian Knight-nim. Are you okay?”
The middle-aged Elf nodded his head with a serious expression. It was disappointing, but he couldn’t do anything about it.
“Yes. I am fine. Let’s go. We need to go support the village.”
“Yes sir.”
Pendrick looked toward the table with the rest of their group with a stiff expression. The others all got up. They came to the human world, but had nothing to show for it. They needed to hurry back to the village and protect it.
“Sorry I delayed us. Let’s hurry.”
The Elves quickly got out of the restaurant and headed toward the Ten Finger Mountains. Their village, which was located within these ten peaks of different heights, was in danger.
Early morning a few days later, Cale was climbing the third peak of the Ten Finger Mountains with only Raon by his side.
“Human! Taking a stroll is fun!”
‘A stroll my ass.’
Cale wiped the sweat off of his face as he used the Sound of the Wind to quickly climb the mountain.
These peaks were called the Ten Finger Mountains because they resembled fingers. This meant that the third and eighth peaks were the tallest. These two peaks were so tall that the peak was covered by the clouds and snow did not melt until the middle of summer.
‘But that peak is melting.’
The final ancient power was the, ‘Fire of Destruction.’
Other people would not know about it yet. This ancient power would melt about half of this third peak in two weeks.
“Human! It is hot! What is this?”
“Aigoo.”
Cale groaned as he reached the top.
“Isn’t this lava? I read about it in a book! It is hotter than the fire in the Jungle! It is an interesting power!”
Lava appeared in front of Cale and Raon. It was not huge, but still a decently large lava pit. Of course, this peak was not a volcano. However, this lava was melting the mountain. They could feel intense heat radiating from the fire.
But Cale was feeling less of it thanks to the necklace with the Fire Suppressing Water, as well as the Vitality of the Heart. He looked at the center of the lava pit.
“Ha!”
He couldn’t believe it. A golden pig sculpture was spinning in circles in the middle of the lava pit.
“Raon.”
Cale called out to Raon, who was staring at the interesting sight in front of him. Raon could see Cale holding his magic bag open in front of him.
“What is it, human?”
“Hand over the money.”
Raon blinked a few times before putting the silver coins in Cale’s bag.
Cale slowly started to smile. It had been a while since he did something this refreshing without harming anyone.
Showing off your wealth was best for stress relief.
“Ha, hahaha!”
Cale started to laugh out loud.
“…Human, why are you laughing?”
Raon moved backward. It was not because Cale was laughing. It was odd to see Cale laughing like this, but it was nice to see. However, what Cale started to do was odd.
Clang, clang.
Cale grasped a fistful of silver coins and threw it into the lava.
“Human! Do you know how many chicken skewers! How much candy?! Human, why are you doing this?! Tell me if you have any issues with me! Human!”
“Hahahaha!”
Cale was not listening to Raon. At that moment, something weird started to happen.
Ooooooooong.
They could hear a noise as the silver coins did not melt and started to rise up from the lava to create a path.
The former owner of this ancient power was a greedy and wealthy warrior.
This last ancient power required money to get.
It really felt nice to spend money like it was water.
“Hahahaha!”
Cale laughed out loud like a hero as he continued to throw silver coins in front of him and into the lava. A silver path made of money was slowly starting to form.