“Hi.”

He was a boy who looked to be about twelve years old. He wore a long robe that hung off his small frame and had a longsword sheathed at a patterned belt. Curly black hair. Pale skin. Red eyes. Sitting atop a large rock, the boy resembled my younger brother.

The moment I saw him, I clenched my teeth on reflex.

“…Again with my brother’s appearance.”

“Because.”

“I know.”

I’d heard from the jellyfish. Something about familiar appearances making it easier to enter this world, or whatever. That sword—it was a trap, huh. It basically advertised itself saying “Pick me!” But I hadn’t expected it would directly cause a system or item shop error. Not after the changeling blocked it just in time.

“How long’s it been since the jellyfish died, and there’s already a new recruit?”

“Oh, you’re calling me a recruit? Thanks.”

The boy laughed aloud. Cute. Damn it. Don’t be fooled. It’s just the exterior—he’s not actually cute.

“Just say what you came for already. My brother is—”

The boy’s figure vanished. Before I could even register it, my body tilted. Just a light tap to the leg, and all strength drained from me like I was a block of wood. At the same time, he grabbed my arm and shoulder, gently laying me on the ground.

To describe it as simply knocking me down and laying me flat would be completely inaccurate. I didn’t feel even a sliver of impact. When he tapped my leg, it barely felt like a pat. And even though the floor was clearly hard, my back met it more softly than a mattress.

It felt so unreal that my mind blanked out.

“…A skill?”

“It’s a technique. Slightly different meaning, though.”

The boy leaned over slightly, looking down at me as he spoke. If the meaning was different, then it wasn’t a magic-based skill, but pure personal ability—something like that? …A chill ran down my spine.

“Why are you so scrawny? Like you haven’t eaten a proper meal in ages.”

He rolled up his wide sleeve and gently pressed a hand against my chest. It felt like he was doing some kind of medical check. Then he grimaced sharply.

“Who etched your mana engraving? They had no finesse, just shoved it in any way they could.”

…The person who did it was the most experienced and skilled Guard around. Still, something about this atmosphere felt odd. I thought he might be a new Filial Duty Addict, but there wasn’t a trace of hostility. If anything, he seemed concerned about me. Like an older kid clucking their tongue at a clueless toddler playing too close to the water’s edge.

“Turn over.”

“…Huh?”

“On your stomach.”

I hesitated, then rolled over. My shirt was pulled up in one swift motion.

“Um, I think my brother might get worried.”

“Don’t worry. He won’t know. You’ve got to take time when opening mana veins. If you just burst them open all at once like this, it’s too much to handle. Even for a primal mana source, this was reckless.”

“…Primal mana source?”

“Also called a born S-Rank. It’s a good thing it was sealed—any more and your body would’ve been ruined. Left as it was, your senses would’ve slowly dulled, your mana sensitivity would’ve overamplified, and you would’ve ended up going insane.”

That was terrifying. I had no idea there were such dangerous side effects.

“I’ll adjust things so they open gradually. 100,000 points.”

“…Excuse me?”

“I don’t work for free.”

If what the boy said was true, it was worth the cost. He wasn’t trying to scam me, right? As I nodded, a prompt appeared asking if I wanted to spend 100,000 points. As soon as I accepted, a warm sensation touched my back.

“This doesn’t fix the root issue, though. If you want to live long, you’ll need to keep your head down and stay quiet. But if you were that kind of kid, we wouldn’t be meeting like this, huh.”

“I do need to live longer than my brother, though.”

“If you’re a primal mana source, unless you’re in an extremely mana-deprived environment or deliberately burn through your life force, you’ll live at least two hundred years.”

Well, it’s nice that my brother has a long lifespan, but I’m not feeling too confident myself. Two hundred years is a bit much.

“What should I do to live another two hundred years?”

“If you take care of your body, you could stretch it another twenty.”

“That’s so stingy. I’ll give you another million points.”

“If you want to extend your lifespan in your current state, you’d need to bind yourself to someone significantly more powerful. But there aren’t many who’d be willing to take you.”

“I’m fairly popular, though.”

The jellyfish had been very interested in me.

“That’s not the issue. If you’re still alive in ten years, I’ll help you.”

The hand brushing my back was so pleasant it felt like a warm massage. My eyes started to close on their own.

“All done.”

“…Already?”

I sat up, slightly disappointed. The boy held out one hand. Above his palm, a jet-black sword materialized. The Sword of the Corrupting Sovereign.

“Here. It’s my sword.”

If it belonged to this boy—

“…Young Chaos?”

“It’s a bit embarrassing to be called young at this age.”

I accepted the sword he offered. The sheath was made of smooth leather and felt slightly warm to the touch. I instinctively moved to draw it, but Young Chaos stopped me.

“It’s a nasty one. Dangerous for you.”

“It’s alive?”

“It’s currently asleep, but it mutters in its sleep.”

“That’s fascinating. Is it because of the heart embedded in it?”

“It’s got the whole thing inside.”

“Huh? But the description said it was made from the horn.”

“I used the horn to make the base, then extracted the heart. Cut off the wings, peeled off the scales, stripped the hide, and used the bones to make a furnace. I piled up the fatty meat and lit the fire.”

Whoosh—a flame like black smoke circled around him.

“Wrapped the blade in molten scales, hammered, then wrapped again. Until five cartloads of black scales had completely soaked into the four-foot blade. The hide became the scabbard, the largest fang became the tang, and the wings and claws became the hilt. Finally, I crushed the heart and engraved it into the blade to complete it. A sword that is the black dragon itself.”

…It sounded like an even more incredible sword than I had thought. So that’s why reviving the black dragon’s heart would allow it to grow to L-rank? If that’s the case…

“That black dragon, was it L-rank?”

“Probably. Took a lot of effort to kill. It nested in a mountain range made of bronze and black steel, melting metal with its own flames to form rivers and devouring them to regenerate. We had to blow up the whole mountain first.”

As he reminisced, Young Chaos sat back down on the rock and looked at me.

“Ask me anything related to the sword. I’m here as the manual.”

“What about other things?”

“Nope. I’ve said enough already. Outside the item manual’s scope.”

So only sword-related topics were allowed. I hesitated a moment before speaking up.

“I’d like to know more about the creator of the sword, its original owner.”

“Nice try, but no.”

“How did the sword end up in the item shop? I don’t think it was originally there.”

“That one’s tricky… call it an investment, of sorts.”

I tried asking various things, stretching to find sword-related connections, but most of them were refused. In the end, I asked the one question I was most curious about.

“How can I revive the black dragon’s heart?”

“Took you long enough. There should be a fragment of the black dragon’s heart in the item shop. Grow it.”

“Grow it?”

“Like that magic stone.”

The boy pointed a finger at my chest.

“There’s no room left in the front, so split your back with my sword and insert the heart fragment.”

“It’s not dangerous, right? Like I said, I need to live longer than my brother.”

“It’s similar to growing a combined magic stone.”

In that case, of course I had to do it. I quickly purchased the black dragon’s heart fragment from the item shop. It only cost ten thousand points.

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

I politely held the sword out to him, but Young Chaos didn’t take it.

“Give it to the new owner.”

Come on… maybe Yuhyun could do it? Just thinking about how I’d have to persuade him already gave me a headache.

“Can’t you just do it?”

“Nope.”

“Then someone else? We’ve got a few S-Ranks. Even some born S-Ranks.”

“Nope. That’s part of the condition.”

Nothing I could do. But it was still far better than not knowing how to make it grow. I’d just have to sweet-talk him into it.

“Anyway, thank you. I’ll make good use of it.”

I gave him a deep bow. Judging from what I could tell, it was probably a weapon that was originally L-rank, just downgraded to SS-rank to send to me. I was really grateful. If only the Unfilial Children were this nice too. It was a bit unsettling that I didn’t know the exact reason behind it, but he fixed my mana engraving, and for now, I was very thankful.

The red eyes quietly watched me bow. Then he let out an exaggerated sigh.

“If only you’d started in a mana-rich world. It would’ve been so much better. Not just for you, but your brother too.”

“My brother too—how big is the difference?”

“Huge, obviously. If there’s plenty of mana around, a primal mana source will naturally reach S-rank stats by age ten and grow to SS-rank by around twenty. But your world is mana-poor, so you were probably just slightly better than ordinary humans. You basically wasted your growth window.”

That… that’s such a huge loss. So Yuhyun could’ve already been SS-rank? That was seriously frustrating.

“But in that kind of environment, it would’ve been difficult to act as a nurturer too.”

Young Chaos stepped closer to me. At some point, I had bowed my back. I felt a gentle hand pat my head.

“See you next time.”

And the surroundings brightened in an instant. I blinked. Yuhyun was standing in front of me, peering at my face with a worried look.

“Hyung, are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh.”

“You just suddenly stood there all spaced out without saying anything. You’re still tired, right?”

“No, ah!”

The Sovereign’s Sword! I quickly looked down at my hands, but they were empty. Startled, I opened my inventory—thank goodness. The sword was there. I pulled out the jet-black blade and proudly held it out in front of my brother.

“Look at this, Yuhyun.”

“Huh? Where’d you get a sword?”

“I told you the point shop showed up, right? I just bought it. It’s an SS-rank sword.”

Yuhyun’s eyes widened. Feeling proud, I offered it for him to check. Yuhyun took the sword. He gripped the handle and silently drew it out. The blade was black—so black it didn’t even reflect light. And yet, the deep darkness seemed to emit a glow of its own.

Even without checking the item description, you could tell it wasn’t an ordinary weapon just by looking. As I watched Yuhyun examine the sword carefully, the corners of my mouth lifted on their own. I held back the urge to ask him what he thought.

After a long moment, Yuhyun let out a soft, breath-like sound of awe.

“Creepy.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve held SS-rank weapons before, but this feels different. Heavier.”

The black sword was extended forward. From Yuhyun’s fingertips, flames rose. Deep blue fire swept up along the blade, and beneath it, faint blue patterns briefly emerged before vanishing. The blade sliced through the air with a sharp hiss, spinning halfway before its tip gently came [N O V E L I G H T] to rest atop a pale hand. Holding the sword with both hands, Yuhyun’s gaze returned to his new weapon, studying it closely.

“But really… I really like it.”

His voice was hazy, almost dreamlike, as if slightly intoxicated. Then he suddenly beamed. I relaxed too, my tense expression melting into a smile.

“It was originally an L-rank weapon.”

“L-rank?”

“Yeah. It got downgraded over time. It won’t melt in anything below L-rank fire, and it can grow. Right now, it has three skills—but if it grows, it gets two more. And since it was originally L-rank, the current skills might level up too.”

That was entirely possible. S-rank and A-rank skills wouldn’t typically be tied to an L-rank weapon. Yuhyun looked at me and the sword with awe in his eyes, switching his gaze back and forth.

“Hyung… thank you. Really, thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for? I told you I’d take care of your weapon, didn’t I?”

“But it’s not like you got it for free either… You’re sure you only spent points?”

“Of course! That thing cost 455 million points. Other SS-rank swords were around two to three hundred million. It was the most expensive one. Do you like it?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t even compare to any weapon I’ve used before. You’re seriously the best, Hyung!”

I’d save the part about needing to grow the heart for when we got home. Yuhyun smiled brightly, saying he was excited about the sword’s skills.

“If the max length is five meters, it might be hard to get used to at first, but I really want to try it.”

“Hold it in. You can’t use it here.”

“I’ll need to practice inside a dungeon. Should I grab a low-rank one and jump in right away?”

“I need to go too, so let’s go together.”

I had to meet the rookie, tell them about the regression, and squeeze out rewards for the SS-rank monsters we took down.

While Yuhyun kept examining the sword over and over, and I smiled proudly watching him, the plane entered Korean airspace. An announcement played saying we would be landing soon. Only a few days had passed in the real world, but it felt like forever to me. I thought to myself that once I got home, I’d spend a day doing nothing but resting.

“Mister, look over there!”

Yerim shouted. Wondering what was going on, I turned to look out the window where she was pointing.

“…What the hell is that.”

A partially destroyed airplane came into view. The surrounding area was also in disarray. I wondered if a monster had shown up, but I’d heard Korea had already been cleared up quickly. Still, the scene looked very recent.

Part of the aircraft was scorched black, and the ground around it was charred. No way…

“That looks like Seong Hyunjae, doesn’t it?”

Moon Hyunah had come up beside me. Judging by the traces left behind, she said it was almost certainly him. My mouth went dry.

…What the hell did he do?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep