His left forearm was covered by a sleeve, but the skin underneath it was hard.

At first, Kim Seon-Hyeok thought he was mistaken. He patted and touched his skin multiple times. However, when the textured skin didn’t disappear, he began to seriously wonder whether he wore armor underneath his clothes.

Of course, that was a ridiculous thought.

He hadn’t been fighting and there was no way he would normally wear something as cumbersome as armor while he was in a castle as large as the Mangsk Castle.

After hesitating for a while, Kim Seon-Hyeok carefully rolled up his sleeves.

“Shit!”

Horrified, he quickly rolled down his sleeves again.

“I’m sure I saw it wrong. Yeah, I am definitely seeing things.”

Like a lunatic, he talked to himself as he denied what he saw. But the bumpiness remained under his sleeves.

He plucked up his courage and rolled up his sleeve again.

“What the hell happened…”

Underneath his sleeve, where white flesh should be, was something completely different.

Golden scales.

Scales plastered his forearm; they were simultaneously similar and yet subtly different to Goldrake’s scales.

“Ha…”

After staring at the scales, Kim Seon-Hyeok patted himself all over. Fortunately, the scales were only on his left forearm.

“Can’t believe I have to consider this as fortunate…”

He touched it and even tried removing it, but as if they were a part of his body from the beginning, the scales didn’t come off. When he tried to forcefully remove it, it was as painful as trying to cut off his flesh.

What the hell happened to me...

He agonized over the scales for a long time, before he finally remembered there was a way to answer his questions.

“My status!”

He had never checked his status window after reaching level 39 and stagnating, but now, it was displayed in front of him.

[Kim Seon-Hyeok]

Level. 40Dragonian Knight

The most noticeable on his status window was his new class and title.

“Dragonian Knight?”

The suffix had changed[1] but the feeling his new title gave compared to the old was like the difference between heaven and earth. If the previous class and Dragon Knight title seemed to be merely related to dragons, then Dragonian Knight felt closer to actually being the dragon.

And in reality, he really had gotten closer. The scales on his left forearm looked exactly like the dragons.

“Wonder if I have dragon’s blood coursing through me…”

Kim Seon-Hyeok couldn’t figure out what a Dragonian Knight was just based on his class and title, so he continued to read his stats.

Muscle strength 121(158) / Endurance 104 (172+?) / Agility 134(141) / Leadership 109(112) / Magic resistance 115(185)

On average, his status had risen unbelievably. Additionally, he could now see the numbers in the parentheses that he couldn’t see before in his 4th advancement.

Without needing much thought, it was clear that those figures would be his stats after dragonization.

“It makes sense that I didn’t die even after being that beaten up by Marek….”

When he had heard Marek’s status, he didn’t think Marek was a human, but he wasn’t one either. No, since his status after being dragonized was more than capable of overwhelming Marek, it wouldn’t be right to call Marek a monstrous man.

Not to mention, the true power of a Dragon’s companion wasn’t just limited to his strength.

The drakes.

The powerful subspecies of the dragon were one of his most powerful weapons.

After suddenly disappearing without a trace, the conditions of his drakes, which had previously been marked only with question marks, changed after the 5th advancement.

Drake (Goldrake) (Earth) (Returning)Sea Serpent (Bluegon) (Water) (Molting)Wyvern (Redvern) (Poison) (Molting)Redwyrm (Blackwyrm) (Dark Fire) (Molting)Fairy Dragon (Geheimnis) (Mystique) (Molting)

Before getting Redvern, his most powerful ally and his right hand, the loyal Earth Dragon who had gone through countless battles with him was returning.

Kim Seon-Hyeok checked his status several times, but he couldn’t tell exactly what the Dragonian Knight’s class was.

As he expected, it seemed like he would only know after trying it out himself.

But right now wasn’t the time for him to test it out. He remembered why he was wandering around Mangsk Castle in the middle of the night.

Julian.

He had to meet Julian who had shed her fate as his greatest enemy and inherited her new fate as an Adjuster. And it was also time for him to meet with Marek, who was now the former Adjuster, and hear the truth from him.

There’s no time.

The inhabitants of Mangsk Castle, who had been asleep, were now completely awake due to the disturbance that occurred a short while ago. He could hear the guards and knights of Mangsk, who had left the castle under their liege’s orders, noisily heading towards his location.

Kim Seon-Hyeok was determined to quickly finish his business before he became the topic of gossip. He headed towards the spire.

***

Thud.

Having finally reached the top of the spire, Kim Seon-Hyeok opened the door energetically.

“Jul….”

Marek put a finger to his lips.

“She just fell asleep, so if possible, don’t wake her up.”

Plop.

With that lowly spoken request, Marek passed over the slumped Julian.

Without realizing it, Julian was in his arms. Seon-Hyeok scrutinized her young face as he carefully held her.

“Ah…”

Fortunately, nothing seemed wrong. Seeing how she was breathing normally, it looked like she was merely sleeping.

Instead of her, it was Marek who looked like something was wrong.

His wrinkled but rosy skin now looked dry, and his bright eyes that didn’t match his age now looked dull and faded. Marek had aged so much in one day that he was unrecognizable.

“There’s no need to stare at me like that. I’m just going through what I should have gone through.”

It seemed like he had been unintentionally staring at Marek. Marek spoke to him with a slightly uncomfortable face.

“I’m two hundred and forty-three years old. If you consider that, I’m very spry.”

He wasn’t wrong. No matter how much he had aged, it would be a while before it caught up with his actual age.

“I’d like to rest, but I guess I can’t since I should keep my promise first.”

The old knight plopped onto the floor with a sigh.

“Take a seat. Didn’t you have a lot of things to say?”

At those words, Kim Seon-Hyeok slowly sat down with Julian still in his arms.

“First, congratulations for truly becoming the Dragon’s companion.”

“You knew?”

Marek seemed like he thought that was a ridiculous thing to ask.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know when you made such a ruckus? Although the spire’s window is narrow, it’s big enough to see the brilliant light and the massive form.”

Well, it would be strange if he didn’t see it considering how the light had been bright enough to light up the entire Mangsk territory.

“Through you, I knew the Dragon would be a higher being but if I’m being honest, I was still quite surprised. It wasn’t her real body, and yet, she still had that kind of presence. I cannot imagine what it would be like if I were to actually see her.”

“I was also surprised. I didn’t know the Dragon would be that incredible.”

Kim Seon-Hyeok had always pictured her, but this had also been the first time he had actually seen her. He had been equally surprised when he saw her.

“Yes, she’s amazing. She’s truly amazing.”

If Kim Seon-Hyeok’s shock was leaning more towards admiration, then Marek’s shock was more cautionary.

“She’s too incredible to fit in this world.”

Marek suddenly had a serious look on his face as he brought up their main topic.

“My role was to prevent those who did not fit into this world from interfering with the fate of the continent.”

Kim Seon-Hyeok had roughly guessed that. But he hadn’t thought that would include the Dragon.

“Truthfully, that’s also why I tried to make you the Adjuster.”

It wasn’t a pleasant story. Ultimately, Marek was saying that he wanted to turn Seon-Hyeok into an Adjuster and make it impossible for him to do anything.

For now, Kim Seon-Hyeok didn’t show any emotions and waited for Marek to continue.

“Didn’t you think it was weird? Did you never think that you were too strong?”

Absurdly, Marek asked him a question.

“Hm…”

Kim Seon-Hyeok didn’t answer. But that wasn’t a denial. Marek’s question was similar to the doubts he’d had.

He had also realized that the range of his growth was unusually large when compared to the other advanced classes as well as the other special classes.

The same was true with Marek as well.

While Seon-Hyeok had borrowed the strength of the Spirits as well as used a ‘cheat’ that was the legacy of the Spirit King, it still didn’t change the fact that he overcame a gap of nearly 30 levels and won against Marek.

He was too strong for his level. If he was told to find someone comparable, then it would have to be the Demon King Park Sang-Jin who held Chaos in his hands.

Truthfully, there had been a time when he had been completely defeated by the Demon King.

But Kim Seon-Hyeok had thought he had been defeated because of a significant level gap. He never believed that the Dragon Knight was weaker than the Demon King.

That meant he was confident that he could win against the Demon King if their levels were the same.

Of course, he wouldn’t know if his confidence had any weight until he actually fought against the Demon King, but he was confident that at the very least, he wouldn’t lose now.

“The superhumans who had harshly trained themselves for several decades are not weak. However, there were foreigners, including you, who overtook them in just a few years, overshadowing the years they spent training. Do you think this is normal?”

Kim Seon-Hyeok didn’t answer this time either. Ignoring him, Marek continued to talk.

“In my opinion, you are a strong man capable of destroying a country on your own. But would that only apply to you?”

Marek began to talk a bit faster.

“The owners of this world are not the foreigners. The real owners of this world are those born and raised here. We are simply guests. Guests who are dangerous enough to burn the host’s house all at once.”

“But we are also a part of this world. Is it necessary to differentiate us from the rest of it?”

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

For Kim Seon-Hyeok who had once agonized over his identity in the past, this was an uncomfortable topic. His tone naturally became colder.

“No, I’m not saying we should discriminate. I was talking about the fundamental differences.”

“What is it that you’re trying to say?”

Marek wasn’t an eloquent speaker. If Seon-Hyeok left him to ramble on his own, they would never finish. Although he wanted to know the truth, he refused to continue listening to unexpected and unrelated topics.

“Do you really believe this world brought us over because it needed foreigners like you and me?”

What on earth was he talking about now?

Was Marek really saying that despite being an unwilling entity, this world had brought over foreigners, who had been living perfectly well in the other world, through the Great Summoning, a phenomenon that he had never even heard of?

“Are you confused? Then let’s change the questions. Do you think it’s this world that brought us all the way here?”

Marek’s voice seemed to be getting colder until it seemed to be freezing.

“It wasn’t this world who brought us over. It’s a completely different entity.”

“Who was it?”

“They’re beings who are strong enough to control the fate of this world but have been pushed outside the world’s boundaries. They’re beings who are waiting for the day when they could return to this world. They’re the ones who brought us into this world.

“You can’t mean…”

Marek nodded as he looked at Kim Seon-Hyeok who had frozen.

“You know one of them as well.”

If he couldn’t understand this, then he would be the stupidest person in the world. Kim Seon-Hyeok wasn’t a fool or an idiot.

“Your companion, the Dragon, is one of those who called us here.”

Marek spoke coldly as he confirmed Kim Seon-Hyeok’s hypothesis.

“We, the foreigners, are the proxies of those who have been pushed outside the world and are waiting to push back with fresh force. And it seems to me that your companion has almost met her goal.”

1. The Korean for Dragon Knight is ??? while ???? is Dragonian Knight. The author actually said ‘only one more letter had been added’ since ? had been added, but I adjusted so that it would fit the English translation.