D.I.O DIO 디오 - Chapter 108

Chapter 108

There was no issue with memory; she already had more than enough. It didn’t matter if there were ten gigabytes or 100, as her most powerful attack was the tank’s cannon fire. In reality, she had a surplus of memory, so she barely got any help from her Master weapon, the Prism Ring. Instead, with the excess memory, Cruze constructed everyday items like a microwave and a motorcycle to make her life more comfortable. Yet, these things did not make her any stronger. If she had her Master skill, she could’ve used her memory for better purposes, but after failing the test multiple times, she’d given up.

“I get the gist of what you’re saying.”

Sungmuk spoke in a cold voice as he raised his Divine Red Sparrow Sword. In his eyes, Cruze no longer had any potential. She could possibly develop after today’s shock, but as of right now, he could clearly see her limits.

“There’s no use keeping you alive.”

The Divine Red Sparrow Sword started emanating a tremendous white-hot heat. And then, a single, merciless strike fell toward Cruze’s head!

Clank!

In an instant, a wall appeared in front of the blade. No, to be specific, it wasn’t a wall. It was a radiant, shining black wing, like a bat’s wing but much thicker. The being that had suddenly appeared and defended Cruze was…

“Grr…”

“Uh… huh? What? Huh?”

“What is this… a dragon?”

Immediately after he spoke, Adol knew it wasn’t a dragon. With its wings spread, the creature in front of Sungmuk was large, but it was incomparably small compared to the red dragon Igniz. Even if its wings were fully extended, it would only have a wingspan of 30 meters. The creature was sizable enough that it was the same size as a modern house, but it was lacking when compared to a dragon.

“Well, Toothless is fabulous and powerful, but he’s nowhere near a dragon.”

“Wow! My only friend is dissing me! Don’t you know that all those darn dragons are only like that because of their age? If I were 1,000 years old, I’d be like them, too!”

“Right, right, anyway, thanks for blocking the sword strike. Whenever you ‘jump,’ I get dizzy, and it makes it difficult to wield my sword.”

“Hmph. You’d probably get used to it after a few tries.”

As the black dragon muttered something along the lines of, ‘for a monster like you,’ under its breath, observers could see an unexpected name above its head.

[Arthur Pendragon’s Pet]

[Flying Dragon, Toothless]

“What? A pet?!”

“I might understand if it was a summoned being… but a pet!”

“He has a dragon as a pet?”

Adol, Cruze, and even Wukong couldn’t help but gasp. It was astounding. The different dragons were more diverse than the various human races, but only a select few naturally evolved into transcendent levels as they aged. However, even if a dragon wasn’t part of these specific types, it was undoubtedly powerful due to its inherent strength as a dragon. Moreover, dragons were widely known to be prideful and virtually impossible to tame. Additionally, due to their low numbers, it was rare to even see a dragon, let alone tame one.

“You’re…” Sungmuk trailed off.

“It’s been a long time. You’ve become stronger, no?” Arthur replied.

“…”

“Anyway, can you wait a moment while I talk with this girl?”

“Alright.”

Poof!

Once Arthur concluded his brief conversation with Sungmuk, Toothless’ huge body turned into black smoke and scattered in the air. It didn’t die or disappear, though, and a flying dragon could be seen hundreds of meters in the air.

“T-teleportation?”

“It’s Toothless’ main skill. Oh, Adol, nice to see you as well. We haven’t spoken in a while.”

“Oh, right… yeah.”

“Cruze, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you as well.”

“Huh? Uh, right.”

Though Sungmuk was emanating intense killing intent while holding his sword, Arthur was taking things at his own pace as he calmly walked over to Cruze and helped her get up. After being overwhelmed by Sungmuk earlier, Cruze was weakened, so she stumbled slightly as she stood. Yet, Arthur imbued her with qi through his hand, so her body became sturdier. Despite his good intentions, Cruze couldn’t help but flush red in embarrassment as Arthur’s internal energy easily bypassed her inner defenses.

“Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine! I’m a Master, too!”

With a harsh voice, Cruze threw off Arthur’s helping hand, but this didn’t seem to affect Arthur, and he soon stated, “But you haven’t gained your Master skill yet.”

“T-that…”

“If it’s you, I’m sure you’ll be able to get it in around three days, one week at the latest. Nothing remains easy as you continue down a path.”

No matter how much of a genius someone was, there were always bound to be some roadblocks and difficult areas after achieving something. For instance, even if someone had exceptional comprehensive abilities, they wouldn’t be able to solve partial differential equations after learning how to multiply. Of course, in time, that person might eventually solve partial differential equations, but regardless of the time spent, one critical component was required.

Studying.

Even a genius who could understand something at a glance would reach a limit. Comprehending information that went beyond one’s known world and breadth of knowledge necessitated studying. This studying required self-imposed research and training. It was often said that only five one-in-a-quintillion irregulars would exist in the universe at the same time. Unless knowledge were somehow automatically and constantly imbued into these irregulars, even people like them would have to study and train to widen their understanding.

“You… really think it can be done in a week?”

“It only took two days for me.”

“What?! Then it should only take me a day!”

Arthur smiled after seeing Cruze’s fit of rage, but he couldn’t continue fooling around as he felt the tremendous killing intent emanating from Sungmuk.

“Such killing intent… It’s hard for me to breathe….”

“Brace yourselves! If you can’t handle the killing intent, leave. You’ll only be in the way!”

“What the hell is that dragon-looking thing in the air? Is it a Wyvern? It’s too small to be a dragon.”

Many users had gathered in the surrounding area. When Cruze launched long-range strikes, Sungmuk chased after her, breaking through the users’ initial encirclement; however, since everyone here was skilled, some players had specialized detection-related skills. As such, if Sungmuk didn’t run away, the users could quickly find him. Even so, they did not dare to attack. They had seen the massacre that occurred in the east plaza and could feel Sungmuk’s immense killing and fighting intent.

“You… I don’t think you’ll disappoint me.”

“Probably. I’m not a lazy bum like Cruze.”

“W-who are you calling a lazy bum!”

Cruze shouted loudly, now standing a considerable distance away from the two. Arthur didn’t pay her words any mind as he continued to stare at Sungmuk. The atmosphere was already filled with explosive and sharp intent, so strong that it pricked their skin.

“I apologize for keeping you waiting.”

“It doesn’t matter, but I’m glad you came. Have you already acquired the so-called Master weapon and skill?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, I have.”

“Use them. This sword of mine is called the Divine Red Sparrow Sword. No normal sword can contend against it.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. The Master weapon and skill are too powerful to use for a person of your stature.”

“…”

As Sungmuk was about to launch himself toward Arthur, he flinched. In addition, the users that were gathered and watching with bated breath looked dumbfounded.

“W-w-what? They’re too powerful to use for that guy?”

“Is it because he hasn’t seen that orc’s fighting power yet? That orc is incredibly powerful.”

“Is a Master weapon seen as too powerful to be used against a monster that’s attacking Starting alone?”

As he noticed the murmuring users and their reactions, Arthur was taken aback and quickly offered an explanation to Sungmuk.

“Ah! Please do not misunderstand. The only reason I said my Master weapon and skill are too powerful is that both have already finished their evolution processes and have reached God-level. I didn’t mean to infer that you’re weak….”

Bam!

They clashed. The Divine Red Sparrow Sword was soon met by a sword-shaped summoned being. In truth, this sword-shaped being was part of the dragon species renowned for having the strongest body of all dragons. It was the Sword Dragon, Dustin.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Wielding Dustin in his left hand, Arthur’s strike collided against Sungmuk’s and sent an immense shockwave in all directions. If there were any relatively unskilled users in the vicinity, their eardrums would have exploded.

“As I expected… you’ve improved!”

For whatever reason, Sungmuk’s angered facial expression had mostly dissipated. Soon, he smiled and started excitedly drawing plum blossoms in the air. After attacking, Arthur had sent a massive number of sword qi strikes toward Sungmuk like a monsoon, but they were all blocked by the various plum blossoms.

Boom!

With an explosive noise, Sungmuk and Arthur were flung away from each other, having previously almost been nose-to-nose. Though there was a momentary break in the battle, the gathered users couldn’t relax. Notably, amongst the players, there were some who had been taking screenshots or recording.

“Hmm… I don’t understand. I’m much faster, but why am I losing to you?”

Gold-colored smoke drifted from Arthur’s neck. Fortunately, the injury wasn’t serious, but in this situation, the wound was important. Arthur’s instantaneous response limited the injury to something minor; otherwise, he would have lost his head.

“Ugh… Arthur’s losing. I knew that orc guy was strong.”

“Won’t he lose if things progress like this? Shouldn’t we work together and launch a joint attack?”

“Idiot, did you forget that Arthur specializes in dual wielding? He only has one sword right now.”

“Oh, now that you mention it….”

This was true. While the fighting was fierce, Arthur had only been wielding a sword in his left hand with nothing in the other.

“Do you still think I’m not powerful enough to take out another-”

“About two-and-a-half meters.”

“What?”

“Ah, I guess you don’t use the metric system. In this world’s terms, about eight cheok (a Korean ‘foot,’ around 30.3 centimeters).

Sungmuk’s eyes widened slightly but only for a moment. It didn’t take long for a smile to begin spreading across his face.

“…Hmm. You’re incredible. You realized that in our brief interaction?”

“I can’t help but think that I was faster, and my follow-up moves were also quicker. Nevertheless, you perfectly parried my strikes. You even managed to block all the moves I launched from your blind spots. My Dispersing Light Sword Technique attacks should have been unreadable, but you didn’t even seem phased, so I knew something was off.”

Arthur’s Dispersing Light Sword Technique, which was already in a perfected state, could be deployed without any preparatory movement. With this technique, the sword strikes moved as fast as beams of light and were controlled by Arthur’s wrist, so even if his arm movements could be read, the direction of Arthur’s attacks couldn’t. This skill produced a ‘no-motion’ sword attack. Yet, surprisingly, Sungmuk was able to parry whatever was sent his way. Nothing could penetrate a two-meter radius around him.