Absolute Dweller-Chapter 250

A towering pillar of water erupted from the explosion, and tidal waves spread out in all directions.

If there had been people living on Jeju Island, by now they would have been busy with evacuation efforts.

It was fortunate that the point where the meteor had struck was quite far from where the civilians were.

Rumbling—

The cold aura emitted by the Ice Dragon, along with the ice that had formed on the sea, had disappeared without a trace.

Moreover, 80% of the Ice Dragon’s body that had been directly hit by the meteor had evaporated.

Had it been a normal iron ball meteor, it wouldn’t have been this effective.

A purely physical attack wouldn’t have worked against a being with divinity.

‘The performance is definitely impressive.’

The black energy had been tightly compressed within the 100-ton iron ball.

Just the cost of this single attack had been a staggering 10 billion.

Thanks to this, I had been able to inflict this much damage on a creature that hadn’t even produced a single biological feature.

However.

‘It endured even after taking that hit.’

The presence radiating from the Ice Dragon was still vivid.

‘Let’s see how much it can withstand.’

If one hit isn’t enough, then hit it twice, three times, and it’ll work.

There’s no tree that doesn’t fall after ten hits.

Iron balls were prepared in abundance.

Just then.

Whoosh—

White steam began to pour out from the remains of the Ice Dragon’s body, which only had its lower body and legs left.

With it, the coldness began to spread.

Ice islands were forming on the sea.

And then.

Boom!

Something emerged from the center of the cold energy.

An ice mass, roughly the size of a compact car.

A miniature Ice Dragon shot out at incredible speed.

Screech—

‘What…!’

It was clear where it was headed.

Right here, where I was.

Where the Household Decree existed.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long.

Boom!

[An unauthorized subject is attempting to enter.]

It had arrived at my Household.

“…”

Through the large window in the living room, the Ice Dragon’s eyes were glaring at me.

Crunch!

It bit down on the transparent barrier surrounding my Household.

[An unauthorized subject is attempting to enter.]

Unlike the barrier around the outer domain, it didn’t break easily.

Crack—

The cold mist formed a white frost over the barrier.

I asked curiously.

I stared directly into its eyes.

[Why are you going this far?]

The Ice Dragon stared at me for a long moment before slowly opening its mouth.

‘How strange. Filled with murky energy, yet a clear energy coexists within it.’

[Please answer my question.]

‘A divinity cobbled together like rags. It’s ugly. And yet, such a high-level domain… I can’t understand it.’

[Explain what you mean by “hastening the destruction.” Are you talking about the power of the World Tree?]

Only then did the Ice Dragon feign listening.

‘Your greed is leading the world to ruin.’

[Then explain what that means—]

‘If you wish to turn back, come outside. Come out and die by my hand. That would be the best outcome.’

It was impossible to reason with it.

Even worse.

‘If you keep hiding in your hole and refuse to come out, all your kin will die.’

Its personality was as twisted as its power.

Whoooosh—

As the divinity of the Ice Dragon wavered, the cold aura exploded outward.

It was obvious that a catastrophe would occur if it released its power here.

The creature was using the lives of people as leverage to threaten me.

I was calculating the time while talking to it.

I was preparing to activate my power.

This would be the first time I would use it.

Snap!

The ability to reverse time I had acquired after reaching full trust with Shin Donghun.

I reversed time to the exact moment the Ice Dragon was struck by the meteor.

And then.

‘Dongdaemun opening.’

I opened the door leading to the Ice Dragon’s location.

Whoooosh—

Through the vision obscured by the heat from the explosion and the seawater scattering everywhere, I could sense the presence of the Ice Dragon.

“Kamiya.”

Beeep!

“Come here.”

[The Samjogo (Three-legged Crow) requests the release of power.]

[Do you permit it?]

[Yes / No]

‘Yes.’

[300,000,000 won will be consumed.]

Whoosh—

The majestic Kamiya flew toward me and merged with me.

Black flames rose in all directions.

This was the state where the Samjogo’s power was maximized.

With this power, I charged straight toward the Ice Dragon.

Whooosh—

I slashed through the body of the still-transforming creature.

Crack!

I tore through it with the claws of the Samjogo.

Whoosh—!

The black flames from the Samjogo spread violently across the entire body of the Ice Dragon.

At the same time.

Crack!

Arghh!

The ice shattered, and from it, a miniaturized Ice Dragon emerged.

Screeching in agony, it was caught by the Samjogo’s claws around its neck.

There was an old legend about the Samjogo.

It was the leader of crows, a divine beast that could devour dragons.

For the Ice Dragon, it was undoubtedly its natural enemy.

[An antagonistic divinity has been detected within the domain of the Absolute Being.]

[Absorbing the divinity of the Ice Dragon.]

As expected, the message didn’t appear that the Ice Dragon’s divinity was low rank.

It meant it was at least of equal rank.

Whoooosh—

The overwhelming energy filling the area proved this.

More energy was flowing into me than from the roots of the World Tree from another dimension.

But.

“Ari, didn’t you say the Ice Dragon had the highest difficulty among the candidates?”

[That’s correct.]

This made it clear.

‘Even if I absorbed all the divinities on Earth, I couldn’t reach my goal.’

It was powerful, but that was all.

It would have been far from enough to face the destruction that would come in 13 years.

With such a weak power, protecting the entire Earth would have been impossible.

I recalled the expression of my future self, smiling knowingly.

The reason it was so confident was because of this.

The goal had been impossible from the start.

‘I had somewhat expected this…’

Just then.

[Conditions have been met.]

[The item 'S-Class Instant Dungeon {Ice Dragon's Lair}' has been added to the construction options.]

‘Instant Dungeon?’

It was intriguing.

Upon checking, I found out that this dungeon could only be created once a month.

But even so, it held significant meaning.

‘Its pride must have been shattered by now.’

Without hesitation, I decided to open the Instant Dungeon.

[3,000,000,000,000 won will be consumed.]

A massive spatial rift appeared above the sea.

The cold aura leaking from the Instant Dungeon was so intense that it created small ice islands over the sea.

It cost a staggering 3 trillion just to open, but I didn’t mind.

Given the structure of Instant Dungeons, there was no chance of a loss.

‘The number of times it can be cleared is 8. A bit low, though.’

The dungeon would disappear after being cleared 8 times, but the important thing was that the dungeon contained an 87-level Ice Dragon.

Zziing—

As I entered the dungeon, I found myself inside a massive ice cave.

‘There it is.’

Instant Dungeons were fully integrated into the system.

Just like my Household, this place was my domain.

‘The Eye of the Absolute Being.’

The layout of the dungeon was crystal clear.

‘It’s huge.’

The entire ice cave was bigger than Busan.

Various monsters acting as guardians and ice golems were patrolling all over the place.

Even the lowest-level monsters were above level 50, with the highest-level gatekeeper, the Ice Golem, being level 60.

These monsters were already at the limit of the average level standard.

‘Even just hunting the mobs will net me over 3 trillion.’

My retainers, hunting the monsters around level 50, usually earned about 50 billion each.

But I ignored all of that.

‘Dongdaemun opening.’

I immediately moved to the boss room where the Ice Dragon awaited.

I planned to have a conversation.

I wouldn’t approach it rudely like before, with it being a divinity now on a leash under the system’s control.

However.

「Ice Dragon (Lv. 87)」

Upon seeing the Ice Dragon standing firm in the boss room, I realized something.

Growl

“……”

It was now just a regular monster with no divinity left.

Even if it was the same level, its caliber was different.

‘Invisible Hand.’

There was no need to imbue it with divinity.

Massive transparent hands, extending from all directions, began to tear the Ice Dragon’s body apart.

ROAARR!

The Ice Dragon tried to attack me with its breath, but an attack without divinity behind it couldn’t possibly touch me.

It didn’t take long for the Ice Dragon to be torn apart by the Invisible Hand.

I paused for a moment.

At this level, I could probably kill it without even needing to do it myself.

But.

‘If that happens, it will definitely level up.’

It was possible it could level up multiple times.

After all, its level was 87.

I thought for a moment and came to a conclusion.

‘Summon Retainer, Lee Joon-hyuk.’

I summoned Lee Joon-hyuk, who had been busy hunting sea monsters, into the dungeon.

Then.

“Joon-hyuk, please finish it off.”

I asked him to do the finishing blow.

“Understood.”

Lee Joon-hyuk briefly observed the Ice Dragon and reached out his hand.

Slowly, he clenched his fist.

Crack!

The Ice Dragon’s body shattered into pieces.

He had used the water formed on the Ice Dragon’s icy surface to finish it off.

[You have hunted Ice Dragon (Lv. 87).]

[You have gained an enormous amount of experience points.]

[1,035,912,324,875,367 won has been deposited into the Household’s wallet.]

I looked at the final amount.

It was in the trillions, with four commas.

To put it into perspective, five commas meant that the amount was…

‘1,035 trillion.’

Over a thousand trillion.

‘This is like a second experience farm.’

And then.

[Skill level has increased.]

[Skill level has increased.]

[Skill level has increased.]

In an instant, I leveled up three times.

This much was expected.

What was important now was.

‘Can I handle it?’

I wasn’t talking about the pain.

[The Clear Mind (明鏡止水) skill has activated.]

With this skill, pain was no longer an issue.

The real question was whether I could endure the explosive level-up using the divinities I had gathered.

The reason I had delayed leveling up for so long.

Thump—

The black energy swirled and my heart pounded.

However.

Grrr—

It quickly calmed down.

‘It worked.’

The collected divinities and World Tree roots had given me the endurance to withstand the pressure of leveling up.

In fact, I felt more than relaxed.

It seemed like I could handle even more levels with ease.

‘The self-consumption process, turning the black energy into my own, paid off.’

Moreover, for some reason, the level-up process felt much less burdensome.

The speed of expansion in my domain had also greatly increased, but it had been completed without a heavy burden.

‘Summon Retainers, Lee Hyun-chan, Cha Jung-hyun, Jang Jin-young.’

I summoned the original members of Lee Joon-hyuk’s party into the dungeon and spoke.

“It’s been a while, but please clean up the dungeon for me.”

Considering the Ice Dragon’s level, Joon-hyuk alone seemed enough.

With the power of the Star’s Fifth Star and the Blooming ability, he could easily take on the divinity-less Ice Dragon. Plus, if he used enhancements, he could overpower it.

‘And during the boss fight, I can just assist with the Invisible Hand.’

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There were seven more times I could clear this dungeon.

I would earn massive experience and hundreds of trillions in settlement rewards seven more times.

“Please take care of it.”

I left the dungeon-clearing to Lee Joon-hyuk’s party and returned home.

At that moment, I noticed an unfamiliar sight outside the window.

‘…Snow?’

Even though it was winter, it was rare to see snow in Busan.

And it was heavy snow.

The fact that snow was accumulating meant it was a once-in-a-decade occurrence in Busan.

I checked through the Eye of the Absolute Being, and it wasn’t just Busan—snow was falling across the entire domain.

It was definitely an anomaly.

It wasn’t hard to figure out the cause.

‘It’s the effect of absorbing the Ice Dragon’s divinity.’

The energy that had yet to be fully digested was spreading across the domain, releasing coldness.

It was a complete winter now.