Chapter 348

A scholar once called the phenomenon of new information contradicting prior knowledge “dissonance.” People often laugh in such dissonant moments, when reality veers sharply from logical expectation. In other words, laughter arises from disbelief itself.

As Yong-Yong gestured and declared himself to be

the

Dragon Lord, with even his body language screaming his so-called identity, the class president couldn’t help but burst into laughter. He wiped away the tears welling up in his eyes from laughing so hard. The students’ only reaction was that Yong-Yong was quite adorable.

Yong-Yong, on the other hand, expected thunderous applause and a flood of handshakes. When the students brushed off his declaration as nothing more than a joke, he trembled with embarrassment and shame. That reaction didn’t sit well with him at all. At the very least, they could have pretended to be surprised! If they had, he would have let it slide.

“Hey! You think I’m lying?! Huh?!” Yong-Yong jumped up from his seat. “Karsiel! Don’t hold me back! I’m gonna teach these kids a lesson!”

“I was never holding you back, Lord Izaas.”

“O-oh.”

It was true. Karsiel hadn’t moved from Yoon-Hee’s side since she lay beside her. Feeling embarrassed, Yong-Yong cleared his throat and sat back down.

The students, including the class president, chuckled. Well, all except one: Hye-Jung, who had a rather serious look on her face.

So far, only three dragons had appeared on Earth. Number ten, nine, and finally, one. With the number ten dragon missing, and no one knowing if it was dead or alive, the only ones that had surfaced in the past year were numbers nine and one.

Could he actually be a dragon...?

she wondered.

Come to think of it... something isn’t right. A monster moving around freely and speaking without a Control Bracelet...? I didn’t think much of it before, but...

The Control Bracelet was an indispensable artifact for taming monsters. Even now, she was using a Control Bracelet to tame a B-rank monster, the Ice Tiger. Without it, a monster would go berserk, failing to recognize even its own master and becoming wildly aggressive.

“Here, have a cola and calm down,” someone offered to Yong-Yong.

Yong-Yong snatched the cola and chugged it. “If I—!

Burp

. If I just let out one Breath attack—!

Buuurp

!”

Watching this unfold was too embarrassing for Karsiel. She opted to cover her face with her front paws.

Hye-Jung continued her pondering.

Yong-Yong and Karsiel speak fluent Korean, and they act with full self-awareness... This isn’t just a matter of having or not having a Control Bracelet.

Most people had already accepted it as normal, but when thought about rationally, there were far too many suspicious details.

Hye-Jung turned to the class president.

He said that Hunter Kwak Young-Ho told him that...

Kwak Young-Ho was an S-ranker and the guild master of Phoenix Guild, one of Korea’s Five Great Guilds. Known for his serious nature, he was never the type to joke about such matters. If he claimed that the King of the Core was dragon number one, then it was probably the truth.

Now, the real question is whether Yong-Yong is actually a dragon.

And that raised an even bigger issue. If Yong-Yong was truly a dragon—a Dragon Lord, no less—then who exactly was Do-Jun, the one whom the dragons call “Master”?

Just then, the class president smirked and said, “But hey, if you’re really the boss of the Core, then... I mean, what happens if those Deep Realm monsters invade Earth? You’d handle them all?”

The students’ attention snapped back to Yong-Yong.

“Yep,” Yong-Yong replied drily.

“Oooh,” the students exclaimed in unison.

Yong-Yong added, “If monsters from the Deep Realm make it to Earth, they have two choices.”

“Two choices?”

“Get wrecked by my master or get wrecked by me,” Yong-Yong answered nonchalantly, gulping down more cola. “Which is precisely why you guys can sleep so soundly at night without trembling in fear.”

The students blinked. Several layers of information, all far too absurd to be logically true, had just been handed to them without any warning or filter. All of them wore equally bewildered expressions.

The class president shouted, “P-prove it!”

Yong-Yong smirked as if he had been waiting for this moment. “Alright. Let’s change locations and head to round two. No alcohol, though.”

“Round two somewhere else...? We’re in the middle of a mountain. Where exactly do you want to go...?”

“The Core.”

The students exchanged confused glances, their expressions practically screaming, “What the hell is he talking about?”

But Yong-Yong was completely serious. “I’ll make you guys some soup for your hangovers when we get there.”

***

Was this truly real? The students couldn’t shut their gaping mouths.

Just moments before, they had been in the main hall of the temple. Then, after a bright flash, they had been transported to an entirely unfamiliar place. A massive, breathtaking waterfall cascaded down, scattering rainbows in its mist. The entire landscape looked like a stepped agricultural field, with layers stretching outward.

Hye-Jung checked the stats of the boots artifact that Yong-Yong had given them.

[

Grade: Relic of the Deep Realm

]

It was an artifact grade she had never seen before, and its listed abilities were mind-blowing. However, what caught her attention the most was its Magic Resistance.

According to the Hunter’s Bureau, the deeper one went into the Core, the denser the magical energy became. Without sufficient Magic Resistance, it was a guaranteed death for average Earth Hunters, making it the most critical factor in conquering the Core.

What... What the hell is this? Where are we?

The students were still struggling to grasp the situation, frantically scanning their surroundings.

Then, from a distance, a girl dressed in white approached, leading a group of people. The sudden appearance of strangers in an even stranger place put the students on high alert.

The girl and her followers all knelt in unison. “We are honored by your arrival, O Great Lord.”

The class president and Hye-Jung glanced at each other.

At that moment, Yong-Yong suddenly dashed forward, leaping into the white-robed girl’s embrace.

“Ahhh, my dear High Priestess! Your embrace is so warm and cozy!” he said.

Isabel, High Priestess of the Dragonic Order, smiled warmly.

“Karsiel, you’re here as well,” she said.

“Yes. It’s been a while.”

“And these people...?”

“They are... friends of Lord Izaas.”

“Oh! Please forgive my rudeness. I was not aware.”

The Hunter Academy students were standing in the middle of the thirteenth floor of the Core. They rubbed their eyes as they stared at the massive Yong-Yong statue near the altar of the Dragonic Order. It was unmistakably identical to the dragon number one that had appeared in Bangbae-dong. The students also realized the implications when Isabel, who called herself the High Priestess, reverently followed Yong-Yon and referred to him as Lord.

“Yong-Yong was really a dragon...? And a Lord at that?” one of them said in shock.

“My God...”

“No way, this doesn’t make any sense...”

“Hah...”

Yong-Yong walked over to the students, who looked half-dazed. He cleared his throat loudly, quickly rubbed his nose, and puffed out his chest. His tail wagged vigorously; he was clearly in a good mood.

“So? You see that Yong-Yong statue over there?” he asked the students.

“Y-yeah, I see it...”

“Impressive, huh?” Yong-Yong asked. “Come on, praise me.”

The class president swallowed nervously and said, “Y-yeah, it’s impressive...”

“

Kekeke

.”

There was no doubt that this place was indeed the Core. As Hunters, they could instinctively sense it.

Watching the students stand there in shock, Yong-Yong felt an immense sense of satisfaction, like a decade’s worth of frustration had just been lifted.

“Man, I feel completely sober now,” one of the students said.

“Same...”

“But who’s that guy...?” One of the students pointed toward a man plowing a field and harvesting crops.

He had a long, pointed horn on his forehead and dark violet skin.

“That would be Tessar. He was once a subordinate of Baal,” Isabel replied.

“B-Baal? As in the Demon King that the Hunter’s Bureau talked about...?”

“Yes. But Lord Izaas has enlightened him. He now cultivates crops to support the revival of the altar,” Isabel explained gently.

“So Yong-Yong is really the Dragon Lord...”

“I understand your shock. Even I, the High Priestess, failed to recognize the lord when I first met him. But I heard he came here for a ‘second round’ with his friends. Could you please explain what that means?”

The class president recounted the whole story from how they gathered to subjugate the Fissure at Bogwang Temple as part of their training retreat, to how Yong-Yong, after everything was said and done, suggested moving to a new location for hangover soup, only to end up dragging them into the Core instead.

“I see...” Isabel muttered.

“Yong-Yong said he makes a mean kimchi jjigae,” one student said.

“Man, kimchi jjigae in the Core? That’s legendary.”

“He said it’s so good, you would even trade your life for it.”

“That means it’s completely—huh? What’s with your face?” The students noticed that Isabel had gone completely pale.

Her lips trembled while the followers behind her looked horrified.

“I should make about forty servings, right?

Lululu~♪

” Yong-Yong casually carried in four massive pots from who-knows-where.

Isabel and her followers quickly huddled together, whispering among themselves, as if they were holding a war council before a major battle.

When their strategy meeting concluded, Isabel cleared her throat and said, “Lord Izaas... we have urgent matters to attend to. We must return to the altar.”

“Huh? Why? Stay and have some kimchi jjigae. What’s so urgent?” Yong-Yong asked.

Isabel’s eyes darted around nervously.

“Prayer...?” she answered, though not entirely convincingly.

“Hey! You can skip prayer for a day. I’ll allow it. You guys loved my kimchi jjigae last ti—"

“No!” Isabel quickly clamped a hand over her mouth.

She took a deep breath before speaking again. “What I mean to say is that prayer cannot be neglected, Lord Izaas. Please, we ask for your understanding.”

With that, Isabel and her followers bowed deeply. Then, as if their lives depended on it, they hurriedly fled the scene.

And soon after, the students, who had stayed behind and tasted Yong-Yong’s kimchi jjigae, understood exactly why Isabel and her followers had panicked and run away.

They understood it all.

Very, very deeply.

***

I wonder if they’re awake yet

, the instructor thought.

He had actually known all along that the students had snuck in alcohol. Technically, minors weren’t allowed to drink, but he had decided to turn a blind eye this once, letting them create memories together, just as he had back in high school.

It was now 8 AM. Most of the students should have woken up by now. Those who drank a little too much would probably still be knocked out cold.

The instructor slid open the doors to the main hall of Bogwang Temple. What greeted him was exactly what he expected—empty bottles, snack bags, and leftover food strewn across the floor.

These punks didn’t even bother trying to cover their tracks...

He debated letting it slide, but ultimately decided they needed at least a little scolding.

“Wake up! Wake up!” His commanding voice echoed through the hall.

The students stirred, trying to get up, only to immediately clutch their stomachs and collapse back down, writhing on the floor.

“

Uurrgghh

...!”

“I’m dying...”

Hye-Jung was no exception.

Jin-Soo, who had just woken up, was startled. “H-Hye-Jung! What’s wrong?!”

“Don’t talk to me...

Uuurp

...!”

The instructor let out a deep sigh. “How much did you brats drink to end up like this?!”

Some of the students seemed fine, though, like Yoon-Hee, who had just woken up. She blinked in confusion, completely unaffected.

The class president, groaning in pain as he clutched his stomach, spoke between strained breaths. “I-It’s not the alcohol...

Grrrkk

...!”

“What are you even saying? Speak clearly.”

“K-kimchi jjigae... Kimchi... jjigae... Beware... of Yong-Yong’s...”

Yoon-Hee immediately understood. “Siel, you didn’t eat it, right...?”

“Of course not, Young Master. Why in the world would I ever eat that?” Karsiel replied matter-of-factly.

Meanwhile, the mastermind behind it all, Yong-Yong, lay sprawled out on his back, snoring peacefully. A blissful smile spread across his face.