The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 67

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Strongest in Our Neighborhood (67)
The one with long green hair dressed in green clothing was Noxkasarsis, a Green Dragon, who had polymorphed into human form.
When the Chimera Familiar he had attached to Jang Gain’s party died, he flew directly to the Royal Palace to satisfy his curiosity, and when the king and Jang Gain made an absurd declaration before him, the master of the Crerarion Mountain Range, he dispelled his invisibility magic and revealed himself.
‘Hoh! This is the first time my Absolute Shield has wavered so much. So he truly is a Sword Master.’
Noxkasarsis, who had blocked Jang Gain’s fatal strike, was somewhat taken aback.
In human form, he could not use all the magical power of the Dragon Heart, so the mana dwelling within the Absolute Shield was only around Tier 8 by human mage standards.
Since the highest-level human mages, the Archmages, were only Tier 7, he had believed no human magic could ever break through his Absolute Shield.
A low grunt escaped him.
Confident in the absolute indestructibility of his shield, he had been watching the human attack with ease when suddenly goosebumps erupted across his skin.
‘What? I’m getting goosebumps? Just how powerful is this attack?’
The Absolute Shield had rippled and distorted from the bloom of aura in the previous strike, so he had anticipated the next attack would be even stronger.
But he had not expected the follow-up to raise such dread.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack…
Noxkasarsis gathered the Absolute Shield that had surrounded his entire body toward the direction the opponent’s blade was thrusting and layered it multiple times.
But before the layering was complete, the opponent’s aura pierced through the Absolute Shield and drove forward.
Boom, boom-boom-boom…
Astonishingly, the layered Absolute Shield shattered one after another.
‘What, what is this? This shouldn’t be possible even for a Sword Master!’
He had encountered a Sword Master five hundred years ago and knew roughly how strong one could be. Yet this one seemed to surpass even that.
Whoosh.
Unbelievably, all the layered Absolute Shields were pierced through, and a thin beam of light stabbed toward the space between his eyebrows.
Noxkasarsis reflexively turned his head, but failed to dodge completely, and a long gash opened across his forehead.
‘Tier 9, nothing below Tier 9 destructive power could pierce through… No, no, that’s impossible! How can a human reach Tier 9 with a sword?’
To his knowledge, no human in history—whether mage or swordsman—had ever reached Tier 9.
In that instant, his mind snapped into focus.
If he had not dodged, his brow would have been split open.
‘I cannot fight an opponent of this caliber in human form!’
He shot the pierced Absolute Shield toward his opponent and scrambled backward. Then, urgently, he began dispelling the polymorph magic starting with his arms.
Shriek…
His fingers transformed first into dragon claws, harder steel nails erupting forth. Moments later, his forearms became covered in scales that could deflect even aura attacks, and as tendons bulged taut, a grip strength capable of crushing boulders surged through him.
Boom, boom-boom-boom…
Blocking the aura-infused attacks of the human with his claws while retreating, his shoulders, head, and body gradually transformed back into dragon form in turn.
Roar…
Once in his true dragon form, Noxkasarsis unleashed a Roar infused with Tier 9 magical power at the human.
‘No wonder he uses such outlandish magic! So he’s a dragon!’
Jang Gain watched as the dragon transformed in an instant from human form into an enormous reptile, and he clicked his tongue internally.
‘Definitely not like any dragon I’ve seen before! Sword Aura doesn’t work on him, but fortunately, Strong Thread does.’
The Strong Thread woven into his Changtian Blood Extreme severed two of the dragon’s claws, and the scales on his forearm split and tore, with roughly six falling away.
Jang Gain pursued the dragon, which retreated while flapping its wings, but paused as he saw the dragon’s chest swell and its jaw open wide.
When Eldom and Aleingde Mir spoke about dragons, the most frequently mentioned thing was Breath.
The dragon’s ultimate attack, they had called it—one that could not be blocked by any magic.
‘Wait, could it be Breath?’
A Green Dragon unleashes Poison Breath, and if this was indeed Poison Breath, everyone in the Royal Palace could die.
‘Can I even stop Breath?’
Jang Gain weighed his strength against the dragon’s, then shook his head internally.
Even if he pierced the central axis of the Breath with Strong Thread, he would not be able to block the toxic gas scattering in all directions.
‘If the dragon unleashes Breath, countless people in the palace will die… but that doesn’t mean I have to die as well.’
He decided that waiting for the dragon to weaken after unleashing its Breath and then avenging the dead was the wisest choice he could make.
Roar…
Instead of the expected Breath, the dragon’s swollen chest deflated and an enormous sonic wave crashed down upon him.
‘Gasp! Not Breath but Lion’s Roar! No, a Dragon’s Roar!’
Jang Gain hurriedly covered his ears with both hands and focused his Defensive Energy onto them.
Thump-thump-thump-thump…
As the massive sonic wave passed through his body, rippling waves starting from his head cascaded down to his toes in succession.
For a moment, his eyes felt as though they might burst from their sockets, so he clamped them shut, but blood gushed from his nose and his brain shook as if struck by an earthquake.
‘This, this is insane! It seems ten times stronger than the Religious Leader’s Lion’s Roar!’
Even with Defensive Energy wrapped around him and both hands pressed to block, his eardrums burst, and he felt a warm, sticky wetness seeping from his ears.
‘The world’s spinning!’
The wind he had summoned with the Wind Character Technique scattered and dispersed; it was clear he was falling and could no longer remain airborne, but with his sense of balance completely lost, he could not tell whether he was falling headfirst or feet-first.
In any case, falling headfirst could cause serious injury, so he forced his eyes open and scanned his surroundings.
‘Damn it, I’m falling backwards!’
The dragon before him had its jaw gaping wide, and with only sky around him, he was indeed plummeting.
Jang Gain sensed that the sonic wave from its roar had already passed through his body.
‘If I could pierce that palate, it would reach straight to the brain!’
His insides were in turmoil and his Dantian shook, his body torn and broken, yet by sheer force of will he managed to draw up his inner power and release a single thread of Strong Thread.
Ping.
At that moment, the dragon snapped its mouth shut.
The Strong Thread entered just as the dragon’s jaws closed, but it didn’t reach the palate—it merely pierced through one of its fangs.
The green dragon Noxkasarsis, wielding a Ninth Tier Roar infused with mana, concentrated the sonic wave upon the human, and when that human lost his strength and began to fall, the dragon exulted inwardly.
‘I was tense, thinking this one stronger than a Master I faced long ago, but there was no need for such caution. After all, no human can withstand a Ninth Tier Roar.’
Two of his claws, harder than steel, had been broken, and his forearm was hideously lacerated—a slight wound to his pride—but what mattered was that he lived while the human would die.
Click.
After unleashing the Roar, Noxkasarsis closed his mouth, then suddenly felt one of his fangs break and roll across his tongue, so he swept his tongue across the inside of his mouth again.
The fang was unmistakably there against the sensation of his tongue.
‘Why?’
How could an intact fang have broken?
With his uninjured left claw, he extracted the broken fang from his mouth and examined it, finding that it had been cut cleanly by something sharp.
He reflexively turned his head to look at his severed right claws.
The smooth cross-section of the break was identical.
‘Could it be that in a moment I failed to perceive, something cut through my fang?’
A chill ran through him.
Whatever power had severed his claws and his fang could have pierced his palate and bored a hole through his brain.
And more than anything, the realization that something had occurred beyond his awareness now descended upon him like dread.
‘This human must never be allowed to live!’
Noxkasarsis discarded the broken fang and searched for the human.
It should have fallen to the ground after being struck by his Roar a moment ago…….
‘Hm? It should be lying around there somewhere? Where did it go?’
In the brief moment he’d been distracted by his broken fang, the human had vanished from sight.
‘The human must be trying to fool my eyes with crude concealment magic—a foolish attempt!’
He concentrated mana into his eyes, and the world began to reveal itself in three dimensions.
‘There it is, hiding between the stone walls!’
It wasn’t hidden by concealment magic at all—he could see the human crouching among the rubble of the collapsed Royal Palace, damaged by his own Roar.
If he unleashed Poison Breath toward that spot, it would melt away without a trace.
‘Wait—what is that?!’
As Noxkasarsis began gathering mana in his mouth to unleash his Breath, he spotted a Marking inscribed on the human’s forehead, and his eyes widened in shock.
‘A—a Marking? Only an Ancient Dragon could place such a Marking……Could it be that one of the Ancient Dragon elders has already claimed this human?’
Conflict arose in his mind.
Should he simply pretend ignorance and kill the human? Or should he let it live?
‘Damn it! My Lair lies close to this kingdom—if this human dies, I’ll be the first one suspected!’
When an Ancient Dragon came searching for this human later and found it dead, they would surely track down the killer, and he realized it was only a matter of time before he was exposed.
‘You’re fortunate, human!’
He withdrew the mana he’d gathered for the Breath and sent it back to his heart instead.
‘Damn! I’ve been spotted!’
Hidden among the rubble of the Royal Palace’s collapsed wall, Jang Gain felt the faint wave of mana probing the surrounding area, and he clenched his teeth grimly.
His Dantian was no longer in a state capable of producing Strong Thread.
He could barely manage to draw forth Sword Aura, but he’d already confirmed that Sword Aura was useless against this creature.
Crack-crack-crack.
Then the wave of mana surged forward, and the pile of stones concealing his body was suddenly lifted and hurled left and right.
Jang Gain sighed inwardly, abandoned all thought of hiding, drew his sword, and leveled it at the dragon.
‘If I’m to die, then so be it—but I’ll take one of your eyes with me, whatever it costs!’
He was steeling himself to this resolution when the dragon did not attack but instead spoke.
“Human, who placed that Marking on your forehead?”
“…….”
Jang Gain’s eardrums had ruptured, so he couldn’t hear what the dragon was saying.
“I see now—your ears are deaf. Let me see!”
As Jang Gain braced himself for an attack, mana came flying at him, and he swung his sword, splitting it cleanly down the middle.
The mana scattered instantly, and seeing this, the dragon’s expression became one of bewilderment.
“Well, well—full of hostility, aren’t you? This makes healing difficult……. Troublesome as it is, I’ll have to speak directly to your mind.”
—I’m not trying to kill you right now. I’m trying to fix your ears.
As Jang Gain tilted his head in confusion, the dragon continued.
—Someone placed a Marking on your forehead, and that’s piqued my curiosity. So don’t refuse my healing magic.
—Healing magic? You think I’d believe that?
—Ah! You can convey meaning through magic using Aura just as you would with spells. You handle your Aura with remarkable finesse.
—I have Potions of my own, so I’ll treat my ears myself.
—Well, if you won’t trust my magic, do it your way.
Jang Gain held his sword toward the dragon with one hand while drawing a Potion from his Sub-space with the other, applying it to both ears.
A faint hissing sound filled the air.
Moments later, he felt the ruptured eardrums mending themselves.
“My ears seem to be healing now.”
“Can you hear me properly?”
“I can. But what’s a Marking?”
“Ah! You don’t know about Markings because you’re not a Mage?”
……
“Someone has placed a seal on your forehead. It’s a seal that only an Ancient Dragon could inscribe—that’s why I’m curious about it.”
“Someone placed a seal on my forehead?”
Jang Gain touched his own forehead with his hand, tilting his head in confusion.
“I don’t feel anything.”
“If it were a seal detectable by human touch or sight, why would I presume an Ancient Dragon inscribed it?”
“An Ancient Dragon—that’s a dragon who has lived exceptionally long among dragonkind and reached a semi-divine tier, isn’t it?”
“Precisely. If they’re Ancient, you might as well consider them half-divine.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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