Chương 101: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 101 - Repaying Kindness Promptly

There's no medicine for regret in this world. Mei Magogoko was knocked unconscious by Su Nian's roar, with a deafness debuff stacked on top. Beyond that, Su Nian had no real way to keep her incapacitated without killing her outright. His overall strength had been comprehensively upgraded. Just look at his panel. [Name: Su Nian · Votrus...] [Gender: Male] [Race: Black Dragon (Mutant)] [Level: 32 (Tier 4) (31–40)] [Health: (Constitution x 100)] [Strength: 480 | Attack: 9, 600 (Strength x 20)] [Constitution: 960 | Armor: 9, 600 (Constitution x 10)] [Spirit: 320 | Magic Resistance: 3, 200 (Spirit x 10)] [Skills: Mutant Dragon Breath, Primitive Hunting, Dragon's Might, Inherited Draconic, Advanced Devour, Primary Insight, Experience Sharing, Fearsome Intimidation, Decree · Sacrificial Ritual] His level hadn't climbed much, but entering Tier 4 had boosted the base attributes per level dramatically, nearly doubling with each gain.

Still, the numbers were just that. Numbers. A reference point. Because if your head got cut off, it didn't matter how long your health bar was. Su Nian swept his gaze across the Dragon's Nest. Every player inside was dead. More than half the cavern burned with cyan-green corrosive flame, the stench of charred everything mixing into something that made even him wrinkle his nose. This place was completely uninhabitable now.

He scooped up Mei Magogoko, the barely-breathing Brother Chicken, and Ji Taimei in his claws, then lifted Anna in his mouth and deposited her on his back, telling the girl to hold on tight against his increasingly broad shoulders. Then he raised his head. His throat swelled and lit green. A spiraling Linear Dragon Breath shot straight up. The ceiling of the Dragon's Nest exploded. Stone cracked with a sound like thunder.

Su Nian beat his wings and surged upward, sweeping the debris aside, and broke into open air above the nest. He looked down. Corpses everywhere. Cockatrice bodies and Blaze Rabbit bodies blanketed the ground. And scattered among them, a number of players still fighting desperately, the ones who'd never entered the Dragon's Nest to begin with. Word had gotten out that the players inside were wiped. They were trying to run.

"You came all this way and now you want to leave?" Su Nian let out a cold laugh, something dangerous flickering in his dragon eyes. Those dead creatures were his subordinates. No resurrections. Every one of them gone for good. A deep rumble built in his chest. Obscure Draconic Magic rolled outward on the wave of his roar. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Zire Kaal Zoor!" [Boost Morale]"Zun Haal Viik!" [Disarm] He wasn't polished at it yet, but it was enough to blanket the battlefield below. The effect was immediate. The monsters, who'd been losing ground, suddenly swelled. Bodies expanded, strength surged, speed spiked. The tide shifted in an instant. As for the players from Sakura Island's No. 6 Newbie Village, they were baffled. Because every piece of iron on them just... fell off. Weapons. Armor.

Anything metal clattered to the dirt, completely beyond their control.

"Baka! Why did my equipment drop?!"

"The Black Dragon is here — Gougouzi-san failed, we have to retreat!"

"Yoshino-kun, I never realized you were so... petite. You can't make me happy. We're through." The No. 6 Newbie Village players screamed and scrambled, but screaming didn't change the fact that they were now stark naked Sakura pigs with nothing to show for it. Only the mage players had anything left to hide behind. They still had to face monsters that were growing faster, stronger, and considerably angrier by the second. No player had ever imagined they'd one day be squeezed to death between the pectorals of a 1.

8-meter Blaze Rabbit. No one had imagined a Cockatrice with claws thicker than their thighs could gut them in a single swipe. A massacre of considerable philosophical depth commenced. The King♂'s chokehold. The King♂'s suplex. The King♂'s intimate face press. The scene defied verbal description. Some of the smarter players managed to slip toward the forest outskirts. What they found waiting for them there was the monster coalition army marching back from No. 1 Newbie Village....

"Master. We are late." Grey Wolf and Bolikeli dropped to their knees at Su Nian's feet.

"We should be punished." Once, they only had to glance up to take in the full shape of the dragon. Now, raising their heads only showed them his chest.

"This isn't your fault." Su Nian shook his head. He had no intention of blaming his monster commanders for this. No one could have anticipated that Sakura Island's No. 6 Newbie Village would launch a surprise attack with zero warning, no advance movement, no coordination with No. 1 Newbie Village. Nothing. They'd been planning to take everything for themselves. Instead they'd delivered themselves. When it came down to it, the real vulnerability was the dragon's need to sleep through tier advancement.

If that habit wasn't dealt with, incidents like this would keep happening.

"Watch this one." Su Nian tossed Mei Magogoko in front of Grey Wolf like she was garbage.

"Keep her alive until I return." She'd already been sitting at half health. The drop from being thrown took off a little more, and that was him being gentle.

"One more thing." Something came to him.

"Some of the human soldiers at the Dragon's Nest mutinied."

"Find them. Kill them."

"The ones who stayed in line and kept their heads down — leave them alone."

"You can improve the quality of their food."

"Your will be done, great Master!" Bolikeli cut in before Grey Wolf could finish speaking. The kobold leader clearly had no patience for slow delivery.

"But Master — aren't you going back to the Dragon's Nest?"

"Not yet." Su Nian's expression was something between a grin and a snarl. His claws curled tight. He was already looking toward Sakura Island's No. 6 Newbie Village, killing intent radiating off him like heat.

"Today, I'll serve as the incinerator myself." He, Su Nian · Votrus · Stupak, repaid debts promptly. He never let them sit overnight.... Sakura Island, No. 1 Newbie Village. At some point, everything went quiet. Only the occasional soft scraping filtered through the cracks in the rubble. That was the survivors. The No.

1 Newbie Village players had burned through seven or eight respawn timers digging themselves holes, then climbed in and pulled the dirt over themselves, the one reliable method they'd found for avoiding monster spears and poison arrows.

"Did they retreat?" From somewhere deep in a dark pile of ruins, Yamaguchi Mura-chicken pushed half his head above the surface. He looked around carefully, ready to drop back down at the first sign of movement. It had been a long time since he'd heard a monster roar. What he was hearing instead, more and more of it, were the cautious, disbelieving murmurs of other players. He scanned the area. The monsters that had been circling the pit traps were gone. They'd actually pulled back.

Yamaguchi Mura-chicken felt a surge of elation and hauled himself out of the ground.

"Yoshi! It's got to be my Gougouzi-chan."

"Those monsters must have spotted Gougouzi-chan's group and broken off to intercept them!"

"They've got their hands full right now, I guarantee it."

"This is our moment, hit them front and rear at the same time!" ➤ Next: A Method to Reduce Slumber Time