Chapter 71 (2/2)
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Su-hyeun’s heart fluttered, wondering what might come out from this egg seemingly only a moment away from hatching.
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When he reached the 22nd floor’s world, Su-hyeun opened the doorway and returned home immediately. Of course, he didn’t forget to use the “Property of Dimension” order form to bring out the egg with him.
There it was, a plain egg the size of a man’s head. Unlike before, though, a certain warmth could be felt on its surface.
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Su-hyeun had never witnessed the birth of a Divine Beast before, and as a result, a certain worry began settling in his head.
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While thinking about this and that, he waited for the egg to hatch.
If he took it outside and an accident happened, now that would be a huge tragedy. He heard that a Divine Beast recognized the first person it saw after the hatching as its parent, and would follow it right till its dying day.
Which meant that the birth of the Divine Beast had to be done in a place with no one but him. He waited while occasionally touching the surface of the egg, and before he knew it, half a day flew by.
This was rather strange. The egg that showed signs of hatching at any moment still didn’t want to crack.
“…What’s going on here?”
Su-hyeun frowned as thoughts of “it can’t be” invaded his mind.
He pondered this quandary for a little while before placing his hand on the egg and injecting his magical energy a little bit at a time.
When he did…
Crack, craaaack—
Cracks began running on the egg’s surface. Soon afterward, a small arm broke through the shell and emerged outside.
Crack! Craaack—!
What revealed itself was a tiny but long red dragon, lazily yawning away.
“A dragon?”
The creature curled its 50 centimeter-long body and quivered ever so slightly.
One might mistake it for a snake, but the pair of arms and small wings on its back undoubtedly proved that this little guy was a dragon. Plus, a snake wouldn’t pop out from the so-called “Divine Beast’s Egg” anyway.
Rather than a dragon’s face, though, its roundish head somewhat vaguely resembled a turtle, instead. Su-hyeun thought that that could be attributed to it being still a young hatchling.
But…
Snore, snore—
The dragon was fast asleep.
It had been jolted a little by the injection of magical energy and quivered around a bit, but returned to sleeping once more.
The reason why the egg didn’t shatter even though the hatching had commenced a long time ago was…
“…As I thought, you were asleep.”
As he suspected, the creature was in la-la land.
Su-hyeun groaned. He was wondering why there was no response for half a day, but this little guy was sleeping inside the egg.
When he looked back to how he almost died from anticipation in the past several hours, he felt somewhat bitter inside. Not only that, he managed to wake it up but the dragon simply went right back to sleep, too.
Of course, a wonderful thing would remain as wonderful regardless of what happened.
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According to what Su-hyeun knew about the Divine Beasts, dragons were considered to be the top-tier species among them.
This newly-hatched dragon was far closer to the eastern dragon in looks than the western one. He couldn’t tell its exact abilities yet, but there was no doubt he got himself a massive jackpot here.
“I’ll be in your care from now on…”
Su-hyeun pondered what he should call this baby dragon sleeping before his eyes and eventually spoke its name.
“Miru.”
Miru. The pure Korean word for “dragon.”
Su-hyeun always found coming up with names a bit of a pain in the neck.
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Miru only became active after sleeping through the entire day.
Su-hyeun patiently waited until Miru woke up. The baby dragon eventually did, and when its sparkling eyes discovered him, quickly approached its new parent.
Gurung, gurung—
Miru, making happy humming sounds floated towards Su-hyeun, landed on his shoulder, and began rubbing its head on his cheek.
Well, it certainly was acting cute.
“Hey, Miru? What’s your specialty?”
“Gurung?”
Miru tilted its head at Su-hyeun’s question before resuming rubbing itself against his cheek.
He could only sigh.
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He didn’t go through all that toil on the 21st floor just to raise a pet. In addition, it was a dragon, a top-ranked creature, so there simply had to be some uses for this guy.
Gururung—
Gurung—
Miru wrapped around Su-hyeun’s neck. Since it didn’t have any fur or scales, he could feel its slick hide against his skin in its full glory.
It sure was cute, indeed.
So cute, but….
“Miru….”
….To think, trying to communicate with a Divine Beast that didn’t understand you would prove to be this difficult.
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Unfortunately, according to Su-hyeun’s knowledge base, no such skill existed, which meant he’d have to gradually discover what Miru’s abilities were.
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Abusing the creature, busy demanding to know what it was capable of when it just hatched? Now that was not something a father should do.
Su-hyeun looked at Miru wrapped around his neck and about to fall asleep again and began thinking to himself.
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He also thought about something else as well.
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He was one of the handfuls of S-rank awakeners in South Korea.
It wasn’t as if they were acquaintances, and since that man also acted on his own while not being affiliated with any group, Su-hyeun had pretty much given up interacting with him, thinking that running into him would be very difficult.
But now, Su-hyeun changed his mind.
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He used to worry about how to meet that man, but now, there was no need for that.
Su-hyeun, with Miru still wrapped around his neck, settled in front of his computer and logged into Abyss Online.
[A dragon came out from a Divine Beast’s Egg. Mister Song Hyeong-gi, I’ll be waiting for your reply.]
The man who was an S-rank Awakener, who also dealt with Divine Beasts – Song Hyeong-gi.
He was a renowned Divine Beast enthusiast.