The creature that burst out of the water spat out a jet of water. Like a dolphin playing around, it sprayed water like a squirt gun here and there, then slipped smoothly back under. Its semi-transparent fin cut through the surface and disappeared.

“That’s…”

“A water dragon.”

The soldier spoke as he set me down.

“Class 2 water dragon species, Asserna. It’s the final-floor boss of an S-Rank dungeon. Even for an S-Rank Hunter, it’s impossible to subdue without matching its element and being thoroughly prepared.”

His tone was fairly proud. It rubbed me the wrong way a little, but given it was a Class 2 dragon species, it made sense. Dragon species were usually stronger than other monsters of the same class. Comet and the Thornwing Rock Dragon, who could grow into A to S-Rank, were both Class 3 wyvern types, so a Class 2 water dragon likely had guaranteed S-Rank potential. Do monsters with guaranteed S-Rank status count as innate S-Ranks? Then again, Babar had S to SS-Rank awakening potential, so maybe monsters were a special case.

With another splash, the water dragon popped its head out again. Its head was covered in pale blue scales, with a pair of ears and two still-developing horns. Maybe because it was in its juvenile form, it looked quite round and rather cute.

“Is there no reference for the adult form? Even an illustration?”

I hadn’t seen the water dragon called Asserna even before regression. The dungeon had apparently broken due to poor management and was never properly dealt with afterward. If more than two-thirds of the monsters that pour out during a dungeon break aren’t killed, the dungeon remains in a broken state. Normally, it would be resolved quickly for safety’s sake, but when aquatic monsters head deep into the sea, it’s hopeless—like the Kraken in Hong Kong.

When I said it would help with rearing, one of the soldiers brought over a tablet and showed me data on the water dragon.

“It won’t be very mobile on land, I take it.”

The horns had multiplied from one pair to two. One set was long and sharp, while the other was only about a third the size. A long dorsal fin extended from between the ears, and instead of front legs, it had a pair of large fins. The rear fins, replacing the hind legs, were smaller in comparison, and the two pairs of tail fins had elaborate patterns.

It had an elegant and classically traditional water dragon appearance.

‘It’d be great if it could fly.’

Couldn’t I make that happen? I suddenly recalled Changeling saying she was born the way I wanted. If the Nurturer skills could influence even developmental form… maybe I could induce some minor changes in a baby monster.

Giving it a flight skill, or transforming the dorsal fin into wings. If I could manage that, it’d be perfect as Yerim’s monster mount.

‘Even if it can’t fly, Yerim still needs a monster mount like this.’

Yerim was good in water, but she still couldn’t move as swiftly as an aquatic-specialized monster. Chaining teleportation over and over would be taxing. And underwater combat came with the problem of being hard to support teammates. Hunters who could freely fight underwater like Yerim were rare, and Haeyeon didn’t have one yet.

So having a monster mount would be a huge advantage.

“Does that thing make phone calls too?”

I pointed at a communication device on the wall.

“It does.”

“Then I’ll just make one quick call~.”

As I hobbled toward it on crutches, a soldier grabbed my arm.

“What nonsense are you spouting?!”

“Nonsense? You’ve got tracking blocked anyway, right? What’s the big deal about one phone call? If it gets risky, just cut the line. Or maybe you’ll catch some useful info.”

“Still, talking to the outside like that without permission… there’s no way that’s allowed!”

“Then get clearance from higher up. Acting so petty over a single call. I have something to confirm about monster rearing.”

When I insisted it was something important, the soldier contacted someone through the communicator. A moment later, permission to use the phone was granted. A phone with a wired receiver—been a while since I saw one of these.

[Hello?]

A familiar voice came through right away.

“Yerim!”

[Huh? Mister? How did—]

“They’re monitoring the call, so keep it brief.”

No reason to leak Korean-side info.

[Monitoring? You mean they’re listening in? Are you okay, Mister?]

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

I glanced down at my injured leg as I spoke. Since Yerim didn’t seem panicked, it looked like Yuhyun’s hand was safe. Thankfully, a broken leg apparently didn’t count as a critical injury. I had assumed as much since it wasn’t life-threatening, but I’d been worried.

…Is there really no way to get treated before meeting the kids?

“It’s nothing big—could you come up with a name for me?”

[A name?]

“Yeah. There’s a monster here that’s perfect as your mount, so I’m gonna smu—”

With a loud clack, the soldier next to me snatched the receiver away. I glared straight at him.

“What?”

“You were going to smuggle it?”

“Yeah. I’m taking it with me. So what?”

At my brazen reply, the Chinese soldiers looked stunned.

“How dare you—”

“What do you mean ‘how dare’? You guys kidnapped me too. You think you’re the only ones who can do that? I can, too. What goes around comes around. You kidnap, you get kidnapped back. That’s how the world works.”

Everything goes in circles. The Earth spins too.

“That water dragon is the military’s valuable asset!”

“Because it’s rare, I’m stealing it. Why would I bother stealing something common? I’m rich. I’m not so desperate that I need to snatch up whatever I find. I don’t deal with anything below S-Rank.”

“But it’s not allo–”

“Yeah, yeah. Like I don’t know what’s not allowed. Kidnapping is illegal, too. But that’s not something you guys should be saying to me, right? Unless you plan to nicely send me home right now, just leave me alone no matter what I say. Kidnappers sure do talk a lot. If it were me, I wouldn’t have the nerve to say a word, even with ten mouths.”

Isn’t this a world where human rights are supposed to rank above monster rights? At least on the surface. It’s like yelling at someone covered in shit for daring to get a little dirt on you. No shame at all.

I waved my hand at the soldier.

“Hand it over. If you don’t like that I’m planning to smuggle the water dragon, then all the more reason to let me make this call and listen carefully. Who knows, I might just slip up and reveal the plan mid-conversation.”

The soldier hesitated, wondering whether to listen or not, then reluctantly handed the receiver back. He muttered that the intelligence or communications team was probably monitoring everything anyway and would make the call.

“Hey, Yerim–”

[Hyung!]

Yuhyun called out to me desperately. So they were together.

[Hey, Han Yuhyun! Move!]

[Hyung, are you okay? Are you really alright?]

[My phone! Peace, bite!]

“I’m okay, I’m okay. Have you been eating well? Sleeping okay?”

[Yeah, hyung. What about you–]

[He’s lying! Han Yuhyun hasn’t slept at all, hey! Put the phone down and leave!]

Why hasn’t that brat been sleeping again? Still, it was a relief that neither of them seemed too panicked. They must be thinking of it like what happened in Hong Kong. I soothed my brother and told Yerim to start thinking of a name.

“Alright, I’ll call again. They’re probably tracing the call, so next time I’ll call Haeyeon Guild and ask them to connect us. Tell Team Leader Seok in advance.”

[Okay, Mister. Stay safe!]

[It’s getting cold, so be careful not to catch a cold, hyung. You should take your medicine…]

The call ended with the sound of my brother’s voice, full of longing. I really needed to get home soon. I sighed and looked toward the baby water dragon that was peeking at me curiously.

“Give me the Owner’s Token.”

At my words, a soldier retrieved it from a storage box attached to the wall. It was a small, round tag inlaid with a green gem, attached to a locking ring and a long thin tether. The end of the tether was anchored to the wall. It seemed to be a safety device to prevent someone from storing it in their inventory and running.

“If you try to open the ring without the key, or apply more than a set amount of force to the safety tether, an alarm goes off. Not that a F-Rank—hell, even a C-Rank—could break it by force.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

I accepted the Owner’s Token and gave him a warning.

“If someone else uses the token while I’m in the middle of taming the baby monster, it’s a big problem. I’m the only one who can use it. If someone else interferes, the baby will get confused, and not only will taming take longer, but the Beast Tamer skills might not work at all.”

Not that that was actually true. But the soldiers took my lie seriously.

“Hey there, water dragon.”

I wrapped the tether a few times around my wrist as I walked toward the pool. The baby water dragon perked its ears and looked up at me with pale green eyes. It really was cute.

“Good boy.”

– Grrrrng

The dragon rumbled in its throat and came right up to me. I slowly reached out and stroked its approaching head. Smooth and damp. Its scales were still slightly soft, probably because it was a baby.

“I’ll introduce you to someone who’s a perfect match for you. A big sister—or rather, noona.”

– Gwoorp

“But if training’s underwater, then the training… hey, wait a second!”

Its long blue tail suddenly lashed out and wrapped around my leg. Fortunately, it was the uninjured one. Then it tugged, like it wanted me to come into the water.

“I’m not a good swimmer, you know. Though the water’s not that cold.”

As if reluctantly giving in to its insistence, I stepped into the pool. As soon as I entered, the baby water dragon sprayed water into the air with a fwssh. Maybe that was something it did when it was happy. The front part of the pool was just deep enough to reach a little past my waist. Thanks to the buoyancy, I could move around easily even without crutches.

“Yeah, yeah. Good boy.”

I patted the water dragon as it swam in circles around me, subtly turning my back to the soldiers. Then I opened the Points Shop. I’d used this once before—Glutod’s Replica Mud. But that one had short duration and wasn’t necessary here since I didn’t need to replicate function. There had to be something with a longer duration that just copied appearance. Let’s see…

Oh, there it is.

[Mini Mold of the Model Garden – D-RankA mold that duplicates an item smaller than 10 centimeters in both width and height.Does not replicate the item’s effects.Single-use.]

Cheap too. I’d already made sure no one else could use the token, so there was no risk of getting caught. Even if I were, there was no hard evidence I’d smuggled it.

Using a universal key with a few uses left, I unlatched the Owner’s Token from the ring and replicated it with the Mini Mold of the Model Garden. Then I attached the replica to the ring and stashed the real one in my inventory.

That should pay back about 0.1% of the grudge from this whole kidnapping mess.

“Is this pool connected to a lake?”

There was no response. I tasted a bit of the water. It was freshwater, and it didn’t seem to be chemically treated. It was lukewarm—so it had likely been heated midway—but it was probably drawn directly from a lake. The drainage was probably connected straight to the lake as well. It would make maintenance easier that way. We had come down quite a few steps—maybe if you broke through the wall, you’d find the lake right there.

‘If only I could find a way around Hayul’s skill, escaping would be easy.’

Since the water dragon was still small, I could just grab it and use Stealth the moment we got out. And most likely, Mister Noah was nearby.

Unlike other S-Rank Hunters, Noah wasn’t part of a guild. It wouldn’t be an issue even if he suddenly disappeared, and he didn’t need to use transportation—he could activate Stealth and fly straight over the sea. So the chances were high that he’d been sent out for reconnaissance.

‘Come to think of it, Mister Noah is really suited for ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) this kind of work.’

Korea was relatively peaceful, but in places where guild conflicts were more intense, his skills would be incredibly useful. Still, I didn’t think Noah was the type to enjoy spy work. Most of all, it’d be lonely.

“What does it eat? Fish?”

At my question, the soldiers brought over a large water container. Inside, it was full of fish coated in powdered magic stones.

‘Dungeon-sourced, and fresh.’

Some of the fish were still twitching slightly, their gills faintly fluttering. That meant there was likely a dungeon nearby that included a lake, river, or sea. We’d need to get a fishing-focused dungeon for Haeyeon too.

“Alright, let’s eat. What a good eater. So pretty, how are you this cute and lovable. Good, let’s have one more.”

– Kkuu!

Salt-free freshwater fish. Dungeon environments reflect the location they appear in, so maybe it really was a dungeon near this lake. If the rookie could just link it to the dungeon… I could make up an excuse to go in with that bastard…

“…That’s Korean.”

…Huh?

“Yeah, it’s Mister Kim.”

Tiny, whispering voices reached my ears. I resisted the urge to look around and instead slowly rolled my eyes. Mister Kim… that was a familiar way of referring to someone.

– Ggyurur!

The baby water dragon dove underwater, then tapped something with its front fin. Two hazy white shapes were floating around beneath the water. What the—?

“I told you I can’t swim.”

The baby water dragon seemed to say this as it dove again, urging me. The pale shapes appeared to wave at me. So…

‘Goblins?’

I mouthed the word slowly underwater. When I repeated it once more, showing the lip movement, the white figures swayed, moving as if in a dance. Didn’t look like Yun Yun, so… maybe these were the goblin species she had said she wanted to create? If Yun Yun were here, getting out of this place would be easy as pie.

As I tried to figure out how to keep the conversation going, the pale figures suddenly vanished. I was running out of breath too, so I lifted my head out of the water for now.

“So this is the guy raising that monster. Tiny thing.”

Squatting by the edge of the pool was a stranger I hadn’t noticed before. Did he scare the goblins off? I didn’t know who he was, but if so, he was the bigger problem.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep