The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 81

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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 (81)
“Man, I saw you take a direct hit from Virus’s Claw and his breath attack, but you look better than expected.”
Once Jang Gain finished drinking the Potion, Noxcasarsis approached him.
“Better than expected, my foot. My insides feel completely turned inside out. I drank the Potion, but everything’s still a mess.”
“It takes time for the Potion’s effects to kick in. Let me cast Heal Magic on you so the medicine works better.”
Light poured from Noxcasarsis’s hand and brushed across the wounds, and Jang Gain’s grimacing face finally eased.
“Ah, now I feel like I might actually live. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. But you—when we fought, it seemed like you couldn’t cut through his Claw with your blade, yet this time you split it right in two. You even bisected his breath attack. Why didn’t you do that when we were fighting?”
“Back then, my Strong Thread was weak. I knew that even if I cut through his Claw, it would just be swept away by his power. Recently, after closing the Gate and absorbing the Demonic Qi dwelling in a Duke-rank Demon’s Finger, my Strong Thread grew stronger. That’s how I was able to bisect the core axis of both his Claw and breath attack.”
“So if you keep absorbing Demonic Qi, you’ll keep getting stronger?”
“No, everything has its limits. Beyond that threshold lies the realm of enlightenment. Of course, I still have plenty of capacity to absorb more Demonic Qi, so I’ll grow stronger than I am now.”
A moment later, Noxcasarsis watched Jang Gain gather Virus’s severed horn, teeth, claws, and scales, stuffing them into his Sub-space, and gave him a dumbfounded look.
“I healed your body, but the fight still isn’t over. What are you doing wandering around like you’ve got all the time in the world?”
“The fight isn’t over? That dragon Virus ran away down into the Sea. Isn’t the fight done?”
“Virus is a creature of the deep waters originally, so it looks like he’s shifted the battleground to the Sea, which favors him.”
Hearing Noxcasarsis’s words, Jang Gain tilted his head quizzically.
“If he’s moved to a place that favors him, then there’s no reason for me to chase after him into unfavorable ground and keep fighting. He’s not an enemy I’d kill even at the cost of my own life, and I fought him just to settle who was stronger because he got angry about me speaking informally. That’s all.”
“Ah, right. That makes sense. Virus got upset because you spoke informally, and from the look of how the fight went, you’ve more than proven you have the right to speak that way.”
“Anyway, if you plant a dragon’s tooth in the ground, it grows into a Dragon Bone Knight, right?”
“That’s right. If you infuse Demonic Power into it, it grows into a Dragon Bone Knight.”
“I wonder if his horn would grow into something similar if I planted it too?”
“His horn! Well, I’ve never planted one before. But since a horn, teeth, and scales are all equally rich in dragon’s Demonic Power, if you planted it in the ground, something would probably grow from it.”
“Right? I’m curious. Should I plant it and see? With a horn this size, I’d expect something as strong as a pretty powerful Dragon Bone Knight.”
“What are you planning to do with my horn?”
Just then, Virus’s face suddenly surfaced through the sea mist below.
Seeing him, Noxcasarsis tilted his head in confusion.
“Didn’t you run away into the Sea?”
“Run away? Why would I run? I’ve simply moved the battleground to the Sea.”
“Jang Gain thinks you’ve already fled.”
“Listen, human!”
“What?”
“The fight isn’t over yet. Come at me.”
“If you want to fight, don’t just stick your head up. Come on up here.”
“You come down here.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I, I don’t want to fight anywhere else either.”
“Fine then. We can just end the fight here.”
Virus, who had been fuming, paused and tilted his head at Jang Gain’s composed words.
“What! That, that’s true. But if the fight ends like this, it feels like only I’m left feeling cheated.”
“If you feel cheated, come on up. I’ll keep fighting you.”
Jang Gain told him to come up, but Virus hesitated instead, not rising.
Noxcasarsis, watching this, broke into a bitter smile and spoke.
“From where I’m standing, this fight looks like your defeat. Are you just refusing to admit you’ve lost?”
“Defeat? If that human comes down here, I won’t lose.”
“But that Sea is a place favorable for you to fight. Even I couldn’t beat you there. So why are you asking the human to come down?”
…….
“You do seem to know it’s shameful—your face is already turning red. If you’ve lost, just admit it instead of looking pathetic by refusing. Come on up.”
“D-damn it! Your name is Jang Gain, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve lost. I acknowledge it. You’re the strongest human I’ve ever encountered.”
Virus broke through the sea mist and climbed onto the Peak, then transformed into human form.
“The strongest? You’ve never met anyone stronger?”
“I’ve enjoyed myself in human form for over a thousand years, but I’ve never met a human as strong as you. But what are you planning to do with my horn?”
“Oh, I saw that if you plant a dragon’s tooth in the ground and infuse Demonic Power into it, a Dragon Bone Knight is created. So I was wondering if planting this horn and infusing it with Demonic Power might create something similar.”
“It’s my horn. Why are you trying to do something like that with it on your own?”
“This is spoils I obtained from winning our fight.”
“What! Spoils? I’m alive right here, and it’s my horn. How can you call it spoils?”
“If I had died fighting you, you would’ve taken my weapons and whatever was in my Sub-space, wouldn’t you?”
“I wouldn’t need such shabby things.”
“You might not need them, but for me, all of this is money. And this horn is something that piques my curiosity.”
“Noxcasarsis, why aren’t you stopping this man from going so recklessly? You’re actually egging him on instead.”
“I’ve already been through it myself. So you should experience it the way I did. Then you’ll understand how devastating it feels.”
“You’ve already been through it? But when I saw you earlier, your horns looked perfectly intact.”
“I lost a tooth.”
“Ah! Right, right. That strange attack must have left you helpless too.”
“No. Unlike you, I didn’t lose. I won.”
“You won? Against this man? Ah! Was that when you fought in the forest?”
“We fought at the Smed Royal Palace.”
“The royal palace would favor the human, and I struggled this much against him, yet you claim you defeated him? I find that hard to believe.”
“Believe it or don’t. Either way, the fact that I beat Jang Gain doesn’t change.”
“Jang Gain, did you really lose to this one?”
“Yeah, I lost.”
“This one isn’t that different from me…….”
“A fight’s outcome can turn on a single moment. Just because I beat you today doesn’t mean I’ll beat you next time.”
“Ha, well, that’s true. I was just unlucky today.”
As Virus nodded, Noxcasarsis shrugged and continued.
“He wasn’t as strong then as he is now. He grew rapidly after we closed the Demon Gate connected to Sapphire and fought alongside a Duke-rank Demon.”
“What! A Duke-rank Demon? You actually defeated a Duke-rank Demon?”
“Defeat? Both he and I nearly died. We only survived because the Duke-rank Demon’s manifestation time ran out and he was forcibly unsummoned.”
“R-right. Only an Ancient Dragon could match a Duke-rank Demon. I was startled you managed to confront one.”
“Remarkably, Jang Gain severed one of the Duke-rank Demon’s fingers. So your horn being cut off is nothing in comparison.”
“He cut off a Duke-rank Demon’s finger? That thin light he hid between layers of aura was incredibly sharp, but…… it could actually sever a Duke-rank Demon’s body! It’s surprising, but frankly hard to believe.”
“I have proof. Jang Gain, show him one of the Duke-rank Demon’s fingers. Then he’ll believe it.”
“Sure, got it.”
When Jang Gain drew the massive finger of the Duke-rank Demon from his Sub-space, Virus’s eyes went wide.
“D-did you fight when the Duke-rank Demon was in his true form?”
“He returned to his true form very briefly. I lost consciousness when my ship was hit, but in that moment when the Demon’s fist struck me, Jang Gain still swung his blade and severed the finger. And because the Demon had returned to his true form, the manifestation time shortened drastically and he was forcibly unsummoned.”
“Whew! Until just now, I was wounded by pride at losing to a human, but seeing this finger, I can see I had every reason to lose.”
“Now that you’ve seen it, I’ll put it back in my Sub-space.”
“Wait a moment! But if this is a Duke-rank Demon’s finger, why is the Demonic Energy so weak?”
“Oh, that’s because I’ve been continuously absorbing the Demonic Energy.”
“You absorbed Demonic Energy? Are you perhaps a Demon yourself?”
“No. My martial art can use Demonic Energy…….”
As Jang Gain explained the Demon Art and Poongun Divine Art he’d mastered, Virus nodded in understanding, his surprise evident.
“Then since you’ve absorbed almost all the Demonic Energy, there’s no need to keep it anymore.”
“Right, so I’m planning to sell it to a Mage later.”
“If you’re selling it, I’ll buy it.”
“What? What do you want with it?”
It was Noxcasarsis who asked back to Virus’s words.
“I’ve eaten Demons up to Count-rank, but I haven’t eaten a Duke-rank one yet. This finger happens to have almost no Demonic Energy left, so it seems perfect for me to eat.”
“I’ve eaten Demons a few times myself, but they weren’t particularly tasty. What flavor are you getting out of them?”
“I eat them because they’re supposedly good for your body. Truthfully, I don’t find Demons that delicious either.”
“Good for your body? Who told you that?”
“When I was young, I was a picky eater. One day my mother told me that to become a strong man, you have to eat many strong beings. Back then my body was weak, and I wanted to grow stronger too. After hearing that, strangely my picky eating went away and my stamina improved.”
“You don’t seem all that strong.”
“What! Once my body’s recovered, want to have a bout? I think I could beat someone like you without needing the Sea.”
“As long as it’s not the Sea, I don’t think I’d lose to you. Where does all this confidence come from?”
Thump-thump-thump-thump…….
As they conversed peacefully, a storm-like aura suddenly surged between the two Dragons.
“I suppose you and I need to determine our ranking.”
“Yeah, even as friends, we should know who’s stronger.”
“Let the wounds from Jang Gain heal quickly.”
“I’ll recover soon. Just give me a little time.”
Whoosh.
Jang Gain walked lightly between the two Dragons facing off and dispersed their aura using the Yin-Yang Grafting Technique.
The moment the storm-like aura struck his body, it transformed into wind and scattered in all directions, causing both Dragons’ auras to falter almost simultaneously.
Jang Gain looked at them both with an exasperated expression.
“Over three thousand years of life and you’re acting childish like this?”
“Childish? Determining the hierarchy of power is fundamental to relationships.”
“From what I can see, there’s no real difference between you and Virus. Fighting will only leave you both badly wounded.”
“It’s similar, but I’m a little stronger.”
“No, I’m stronger.”
“Ugh! Fine, fine. Once your body’s healed, you two can fight it out. For now, that’s enough.”
“All right.”
“Got it. So, Jang Gain, you’ll sell me this finger, won’t you?”
“Yeah, I will.”
“How much?”
“Just ten thousand gold.”
“What? For just one finger? Ten thousand gold is way too expensive.”
“If it’s too expensive, don’t buy it.”
“You, you took my teeth, my scales, my claws. So lower the price a bit.”
“Those are my war spoils. Besides, considering I have those, I’ve already cut you a deal.”
“Cut me a deal? Well… I suppose there’s nothing for it, then.”
Virus retrieved several Rainbow-Iridescent Gems and a handful of Pearls from his Subspace.
“This should come to more than ten thousand gold.”
“Fine.”
As Jang Gain accepted the gems and pearls and stored them in his Subspace, Virus shifted into dragon form and began crunching the Duke-rank Demon’s Finger between his teeth, grinding it down with audible snaps.
“Argh! With a few teeth missing, it doesn’t chew nearly as well.”

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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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