Hermit Wizard

1. 1. 1. 1. Savior or Destroyer (16)

=This crazy wizard! Why the hell are you fighting a dragon?! How come you two became enemies? Those species wouldn’t even care about things like humans anyway.=

However, it appeared to be very interested in me.

“Things happened.”

=Are you telling me to eat that Dragon’s memory?=

“That’s right.”

After answering back, I suddenly thought of that. I couldn’t kill the Dragon Emperor, but there had to be a way to disable it, just like what I did to Hessler. I thought it was a pain in the ass, but maybe it could be solved neatly.

My eyes flashed for a moment.

“Can’t you make it forget all its memories and turn it completely into a wuss?”

Yodmo glanced at the Dragon and replied.

=If you do, you can provoke the entire dragon race in this world. You know their rules, right? If a dragon is killed by another kind, they will surely take revenge at the species level. It’s one of the wonders of the Dragon. The rules of their species are completely different from their innate instincts. It’s a strange social style that appears the same regardless of what kind of world they live in and feels like someone intentionally planted it.=

If they rushed to get revenge, there was a way to erase my traces completely, but… I didn’t think there was a need to go that far. There might be other dragons with magical skills as good as the Dragon Emperor.

In the absence of perfect preparation, war was cumbersome and dangerous.

I was thinking and asked again.

“It’s not killing. Is it just making it a wuss? Should they take revenge anyway?”

=There’s a high probability that it will be interpreted as the same concept as a death in that it can’t maintain the ego. You have to stop at the point where you cut out its memories. That’s quite a tricky task…=

As if it needed an additional price, I blurted out the intention.

“You, aren’t you still full?”

=Kugh!=

It seemed to had only stopped gaining more weight. Still, desperate hunger and desire weren’t seen in its eyes. I knew at a glance.

So, we reached an agreement, and Yodmo approached the fainted Dragon.

“Get it started.”

I asked it to erase all the memories from the point since I came to that world. It was necessary because I didn’t know since when the Dragon Emperor had been observing me. It would notice that it felt weird after waking up, but it was better than letting it recognized and tracked my existence.

It would be impossible with Yodmo’s ears to erase that much memory. When dealing with dragons, it seemed that it would only erase their memory for about one to two hours. That was why I called Yodmo itself.

“And…”

I rolled my head for a moment.

Searching for dragons one by one was also at the limit. Also, due to the magic of Rupeidos, most of the dragons in that world would’ve noticed. They might’ve raised their guard.

Given all of that, it was necessary to change the method.

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“Because it’s a Dragon Emperor, there must be a lot of information about their people. Can you extract all the information about all dragons and each individual in this world?”

=Classification and memory extraction are easy, but it takes time to eat, digest, and turn them into information. If I extract that much, it will be a tremendous amount of time for digestion.=

I couldn’t wait for a thousand years or ten thousand years in that world. I thought Yodmo was right, so I changed the requirement.

“Then, information on whether there are dragons who have experienced something unusual in the last 1-2 years, and… please pull out information that might be the weakness of this world’s dragons.”

=… What a shame. Normally, I would’ve felt great pleasure in eating the memory of a dragon, because it’s predation…=

The summoner lamented. It then stepped on the Dragon’s head and climbed up. It looked like it was climbing on a small hill.

=I have no choice but to eat while I’m still full.=

With such grumbling, Yodmo stuck out its tongue. After a while, the extraction of memories was over.

When it took my memories, the Dragon Emperor lost only some of its memories and kept its ego.

=Here you go.=

Yodmo handed over the unnecessary parts of the memory crystal to me and swallowed those that belonged to the category I had requested.

=It digests memories with a lot of redundancy first. It’s probably the most important part. I’ll tell you that first. Wait a minute…=

It told me some information about whether digestion had already started, and there was a word that made my ears open when I was listening to it.

“… Root Stone?”

I looked at Parvache, but it answered that the information wasn’t found even in Akashic records.

According to Yodmo’s grasping through the Dragon Emperor’s memory, Root Stone was the name of a relic that was often found with rare probability in the world where dragons lived. That world was such a rare case where the dragons living there were aware of the existence and location of the Root Stone.

=The protection of Root Stone is one of the few rules that even dogmatic dragons must obey, like revenge of their people…=

I was lost in thoughts. Dragon rules were ultimately limited to what could control the fate of the entire species. Root Stone was probably a relic of such weight.

Unfortunately, Yodmo hadn’t yet figured out what specific power or meaning it had, only the fact that it was very important and the memory of its location was digested.

“It’s worth noticing.”

The fact that Yodmo duplicated the most memories classified by those keywords might mean that the information was of utmost importance.

=Now, then…=

Yodmo was reluctant to stay in that dimension, and I tried to send it back for the moment. I was going to call it back tomorrow to hear additional digested information. In particular, no information had been received about dragons showing strange symptoms yet.

Parvache called me urgently after seeing Yodmo getting ready to go back.

=Min-joon, wait!=

Our eyes met.

=Remember what I told you?=

I knew why Parvache called me, so I asked Yodmo.

“Ah, there. I have another question to ask.”

=Wait, even if you have any questions… I have to digest it properly to get more information out of the crystal.=

“No, not about that.”

I asked with confidence that it was probably impossible. It wasn’t difficult to ask once since Parvache, who was about to move on to its next ego, wanted it very much.

“Yodmo, you remember the memories of my childhood that you took, right? The price for signing the contract.”

=Yes. Those memories that I had already digested a long time ago?=

“You’ve digested it, so you know what it’s all about, right?”

=That’s right.=

“Can you plant that memory back in my mind again?”

Yodmo looked at me with a strange look.

=Do you want to terminate the contract?=

“No, not like that.”

Yodmo was so useful. Why should I break the contract?

“I’m not trying to get the price of the contract back. I was wondering if you could at least make an imitation of what I gave you and plant it.”

Yodmo pondered for a moment, then said.

=It’s a memory manipulation… It’s not easy for me either, especially targeting a wizard with a strangely high spirit barrier and soul like you. Hmm.=

It seemed more lost in thought, and then it spat out its will.

=Let me figure out how. Originally, no matter how fake it is, it’s a request that I will never comply with, but what I got incidentally as a result of this contract is great. Nevertheless, an additional price will certainly be needed, considering the unidentified memory left in my stomach. Even if it succeeds, it will be as difficult as that.=

With those words, Yodmo left and returned to its original dimension.

After closing the Channel on my chest, I said, “Well, let’s move on.”

Memory and consciousness, even the body parts, left the Dragon Emperor that had lost many things as I magically wrapped my party and soared into the sky. It was time to go back to where Hwang Soo-rim was and clean up that side.

***

“D-Dragon Emperor!”

Looking down from the sky, Lucette-Eigar panicked.

The young Dragon didn’t lose its ego in the dark. However, it wasn’t able to avoid the magical effects that caused its senses to deteriorate.

Lucette-Eigar thought it was looking for the right way with its Mana, but it was actually flying for a long time in a completely different direction from the Dragon Emperor’s nest.

Suddenly, after Rupeidos’ spell disappeared, Lucette realized its position and was confused.

“Oh, damn it!”

It was a location far from the original destination.

Since it flew without recovering its Mana 100%, it took a long time to fly to the Dragon Emperor’s nest. However, the young Dragon was greatly puzzled by the scenery that caught its eyes from the nest entrance.

“No! Why the hell?!”

When it saw the appearance, the first thought that came to Lucette-Eigar’s mind was the question of whether the old Dragon had a perverted sexual desire to feel joy by cutting off its limbs and wings. As much as that, the concept that a dragon rolled over the ground in such a state was unfamiliar to it.

Such a thing seemed impossible to do even for Demons, especially a powerful dragon, like the Dragon Emperor. Who in the world could’ve made it like that?

“I’ve never heard that an old dragon who’s lived for so long would go crazy like that… Maybe it’s the aftereffect of a failed crossing of the wall? Was it secretly preparing to cross the wall?”

“… Kuuugh!”

Whether it was reacting to the magic of its fellow people, the Dragon Emperor groaned and opened its eyes. Its consciousness returned much faster than when Lucette lost its mind with a similar technique.

It lifted its head hard and shouted with a face full of astonishment and pain when it found its body.

“My… my body… What the hell?!”

The Dragon Emperor made a similar scream about tens of minutes ago, but the memory was erased from its head.

“Kuuuugh!”

It would’ve been impossible to escape death if it had been another creature, but the Dragon’s strong body was holding its breath. Looking down, Lucette shouted.

“Hey! Dragon Emperor! Answer me. Are you crazy? Don’t be crazy. You have to help me! No, wait, even if you’re not crazy, how can you help me with that shape? I’m really going crazy now!”

The Dragon Emperor looked up hard in pain at such a young dragon. The dragon’s reaction prioritized its own business even though its people were wandering in a miserable state.

“Why… do you… think… I’m crazy?”

“Would there be anyone else out there who could turn an old dragon like this? Or don’t tell me, was it the demons?”

According to the last information it heard, it seemed that small creatures had invaded its territory. Was it actually not the small creatures but transformed demons?

Lucette, who still didn’t know that the Dragon Emperor had lost its memory, looked down and said.

“Phew, that’s a relief, Dragon Emperor. I’m glad you didn’t die.”

Its following words still contained self-centered thinking. Instead of finding and deducing the commonalities of the two events it experienced, a dragon’s straight-line mindset resulted in it being immersed in only the events it suffered.

“If you died, the whole kind would’ve had to wage war against the demons. I can’t afford it now. I’m glad you are alive. At least there will be no war. You know, I’m in a lot of trouble right now. Listen, Dragon Emperor!”

The Dragon Emperor gritted its teeth wriggling in a puddle of mud created by its blood.

“… You, rotten… bastard!”

The Dragon Emperor cut off the young Dragon’s words and barely uttered, “Eigar! Help… me!”

He wasn’t in a situation to continue that conversation. The Dragon Emperor shouted urgently.

“Lucette-Eigar… Come on… bring me to Ramuming’s stable! Recovery!”

Lucette looked down at the Dragon Emperor and was conflicted.

It was in desperate need of the Dragon Emperor’s help, who was probably the only dragon in the world that could help after all. However, the Dragon Emperor was in a desperate situation. It was unlikely that it would die even if it was left as it was, so strictly speaking, Lucette had no obligation to help it since it wasn’t a guardian of the dragon species but just a normal dragon.

Still, Lucette-Eigar realized that it needed to help the Dragon Emperor to solve its problem quickly.

“… Oh, I can’t help it. Dragon Emperor, we’ll have to regenerate your legs and wings right now!”

Lucette-Eigar, who still lacked Mana, grabbed the Dragon Emperor with its two hind legs and flew up. When its toenails broke the scales and dug into the body, Dragon Emperor screamed.

“Ugh! Eigar! Why does it have to be this way? Just by magic…”

Lucette-Eigar gave a blunt answer.

“I don’t have enough Mana because I have a situation now. It’s my problem that I wanted to tell you right away!”

Only then did Lucette thought that perhaps both the Dragon Emperor and himself were beaten by the same demon?

Lucette asked itself so and flapped its wings. The young Dragon, who grabbed an old dragon that turned into a log, soared into the sky. The destination was a habitat for monkeys that showed excellent efficacy in healing external injury.

As it flapped its wings, Lucette was worried. How many monkeys would have to be caught and applied to regenerate that much body tissue?

“Maybe we have to go through some of the places and eradicate them.”

Lucette clicked its tongue out of annoyance.

***

When we returned near the container, we were greeted by Hwang Soo-rim, an alien, and a huge-sized animal covered in dirt without knowing what happened.

When she regained her consciousness, her body was dirty, the Red Hiel was finely ground, and all of the original party had disappeared except for Ramuming and Tobogai. She spoke in a sharp tone.

“In the end, we need to quit the method we did so far and get rid of it, right?”

I nodded.

“Garam’s condition was also bad.”

Saying so, I looked at the Maek’s complexion that had been magically brought there. He fainted again while we were moving.

After we arrived, I poured out recovery magic and elixir to wake Garam up, but his mind went in and out, and he couldn’t regain his strength.

I could guess the reason at that moment. I saw where Garam collapsed after being attacked by a monster.

“I think it’s kind of close to malnutrition.”

Garam said directly with his mouth that eating once or twice a year didn’t interfere with life maintenance. That meant that energy was extracted from ingested metals, stored in the stomach, and then kept and used to maintain life.

Wherever my gaze was currently, there were traces of liquid metal from Garam’s burst stomach. In the meantime, everything vaporized into the air.

After all, there was little nourishment left in Garam’s body that kept him alive.

“Hey, wake up!”

I forced him to wake him up one more time. Some magic metals were prepared for emergency use in my backpack, so I fed them to him. Garam said weakly, munching them in his mouth.

“… Something like this tastes good, but it doesn’t have nutrition. I need iron or copper!”

While contemplating whether to disassemble the container and feed it to Garam, Parvache tried to talk to Ramuming with its will.

“… @#[email protected]#^@!”

As soon as we returned, Ramuming realized that our party saved his Tobogai, or ‘Flower Bud,’ and then he bowed down on the ground and expressed his gratitude. Even after that, he was looking at us with eyes full of awe.

Parvache, who was talking to the alien, stated.

=Hey, it looks like a metal similar to iron or copper is mined on this planet. It’s a metal that’s also used a lot in Ramuming’s civilization. How about going to this guy’s village and getting some?=