“That’s really the destination?”
Just as that thought passed through his mind, the feather set Su-ho down atop Ieodo.
Upon arriving, the wings shrank back and returned to their original, small feather form.
When he checked the item info, nothing had changed. It was the sa as before being used.
“I thought it was a consumable, but maybe it’s not.”
Well, it didn’t really matter either way.
Even if the feather had been consumable, what truly mattered wasn’t its transportation ability—it was the location stored within.
Su-ho returned the feather to his inventory and looked around.
Shwaaa—
Waves crashed around him.
Ieodo wasn’t an island.
Technically, it was an underwater reef.
It was easiest to think of it as a rock formation below the surface.
The reason it was called an “island” was more out of convention than fact—legally, it wasn’t considered an island under international law.
Yet people thought of Ieodo as a real island.
Especially in the past, it was often treated with a mythical air—because when the sea was calm, it was subrged, and only when waves rose high did it briefly appear.
Su-ho gazed around for a while, eventually spotting the unique steel structures installed on Ieodo.
These weren’t just any steel structures—they were part of a marine science base.
The reason a marine science station was here was obvious: Ieodo belonged to South Korea.
Of course, China had long claid the rock as theirs.
But Ieodo lay within Korea’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), so ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) Korea had built this base to exercise sovereign rights.
Looking at international law, Ieodo clearly belonged to Korea.
Even so, China, much like Japan claiming sovereignty over Dokdo, had continued to claim Ieodo for a long ti—even after the Great Cataclysm.
“That was a pain in the ass.”
But eventually, sothing made China stop talking about Ieodo altogether.
It was the appearance of a massive Gate near Ieodo in the mid-late stages of the Cataclysm.
Su-ho looked toward the place once dubbed the “Ieodo Gate,” lost in old mories.
“Thinking back on that...”
Gates didn’t only form on land.
They ford in the sea, underground, even in the sky.
Which made the land-based Gates seem like the easy ones—at least you could walk to them.
In that sense, the Ieodo Gate had been the worst.
The only place to stand nearby was the marine science base—and with the Gate right there, the only ways to reach it were by sea or air.
And that wasn’t all.
It was a massive Gate, constantly spewing out monsters without pause.
Due to its enormous size, the magical energy it emitted stirred up never-ending waves around it.
Waves so large that any boat would flip instantly.
Still, it had been cleared in the end.
After all, the system never handed Players an impossible Gate.
“After it was cleared, the marine base was completely destroyed.”
Of course, it wasn’t exactly intact even now.
Even before the Gate appeared, the base had gone through various incidents. Now, aside from the steel fra and helipad, most of it was torn apart.
As Su-ho wandered through the base, indulging in nostalgia, sothing new caught his eye—a strange stone pillar he hadn’t seen before.
“A stone pillar?”
What was this?
It stood about waist-high, protruding alone from between the steel beams like a dandelion growing through asphalt.
He didn’t rember seeing it before.
Of course, he could be mistaken.
No matter how perfect his mory was, he could only recall what he had seen.
His ntal library was vast, but it didn’t contain what had never entered.
Su-ho examined the pillar closely.
Its surface was rough and jet-black.
It resembled basalt.
After visually inspecting it, he activated his skills.
[Mana Perception activated.]
[Eye of the Blacksmith activated.]
There was nothing better for scanning and investigating than those two.
Only then did the details of the jet-black pillar begin to erge.
But the usual weak points revealed by the Blacksmith’s Eye didn’t show up.
Instead, one key feature stood out.
A hole?
Yes, it was a hole.
He nearly missed it due to the dark coloring, but mana was densely concentrated in that one spot, making it barely detectable.
Su-ho examined it closely.
What was the hole for?
Then sothing clicked—it matched exactly with an item he’d gotten from the Volcano Island Gate. The mystery item covered in question marks.
He hurriedly pulled it out and checked the info.
[???’s ???]
Rank: ???
???’s ???
To see its true form, powerful fire energy is required.
Nothing had changed.
It was a smooth, dark orb about the size of a fist—completely matte black.
Su-ho decided to nickna it the Black Sphere.
And the hole in the pillar matched its size perfectly.
Seeing is believing.
Su-ho inserted the Black Sphere into the hole.
Click—
It fit perfectly, just as expected.
And then...
“......”
Nothing happened.
Did I misjudge this?
But the fit was way too precise for coincidence.
He scanned again with Mana Perception and the Blacksmith’s Eye.
Nothing else was visible.
On this barren steel structure, the only place giving off mana was that stone pillar.
So whatever was going to happen—it would happen there.
“Then there’s only one choice left.”
He’d gotten three items from the Volcano Island Gate:
The Feather, the Black Sphere, and the Spirit of Fire.
The feather had brought him here.
The Black Sphere clearly connected to the pillar.
Which ant only one thing remained—
Use the Spirit of Fire to reveal the sphere’s identity.
Su-ho reached to remove the Black Sphere and combine it with the Spirit of Fire.
But the sphere wouldn’t budge.
He chuckled.
“So it really was ant to be inserted here.”
If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be stuck.
Sure, maybe it was pure coincidence that the fit was so tight.
But would that kind of coincidence happen at the exact spot the feather had brought him to?
Absolutely not.
So instead, Su-ho simply brought the Spirit of Fire to the embedded sphere.
The mont the two touched—
Fwoosh!
The Spirit of Fire ignited the sphere with a fiery burst.
At the sa ti, the Spirit of Fire vanished.
Watching the precious item disintegrate, Su-ho involuntarily squinted.
It was a waste.
After all, the Spirit of Fire was considered the pinnacle of the fire-attribute Nature Blessings.
Still, he consoled himself.
He already knew another thod to acquire one.
“That was my original plan anyway.”
Now ablaze, the sphere began burning from its surface, slowly shedding its outer shell and revealing what had been hidden inside.
A system alert followed.
[Spirit of Fire has been used.]
[Information on ???’s ??? has been updated.]
Brief notifications.
And from inside the Black Sphere erged a round, ivory-colored object.
Su-ho checked its info.
[Very Ancient Dragon Fossil]
Rank: S
A fossil of a very ancient dragon.
A portion of an unnad ancient dragon has been sealed into fossil form by soone and lies dormant.
Though fossilized, it retains the dragon’s mories and power. If the conditions are t, the mory and part of the dragon will awaken.
The Black Sphere’s true identity was... a dragon fossil.
Su-ho’s eyes widened as he read the info.
“A dragon, suddenly? From here?”
At that mont—
RUMBLEEEEE!!
Ieodo began to shake violently.
Simultaneously, system notifications popped up in front of Su-ho.
[Release conditions t.]
[The seal is lifting.]
And then—
KWAANG!!
A thunderous boom.
It ca from the surrounding ocean.
What had been a calm sea monts before now raged uncontrollably.
The sky darkened to a stormy gray, threatening to pour rain at any second.
The marine science base trembled.
Savage waves smashed into the steel frawork with deafening crashes.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
It sounded like bombs exploding as the ocean roared.
From the stone pillar holding the fossil, a beam of rainbow-colored light shot upward.
It pierced the dark sky and tore through the clouds.
And then—
FWOOOOOSH!!
A powerful wind burst outward.
Su-ho shielded his face with his arms, struggling to maintain visibility through the roaring gusts.
The beam vanished.
And from the dark clouds above—
An unbelievable being descended.
“A dragon?”
Yes.
A dragon.
Not a fake bone dragon made from drake bones.
Not a mythological Eastern dragon like the lava wyrm from before.
But a true Western-style dragon—with wings, tail, horns, arms, and legs. A Tower Dragon like the one he’d seen in the Tower of Trials.
But there was a difference.
This one... was flying.
The first flying dragon Su-ho had seen since his regression.
“Whoa...”
He was stunned.
In his past life, he’d only ever seen dragons twice.
But after regressing? How many had it been already?
“Wait... hold on.”
Sothing struck him.
A trait quest.
Su-ho quickly checked the Dragon Blood info from the trait quest.
[Dragon Blood]
Rank: S
The bloodline of a great dragon.
Those who carry Dragon Blood, even if not born as dragons, can gain their power through effort.
Lv.1 – Dragon Blood: Overwhelm (S), Dragon Mind (S)
Lv.2 – Dragon Armor: Dragon Form (S), Dragon Skin (S)
Lv.3 – Dragon Grow: Dragon Bone (S), Dragon Body (S), Dragon Sense
Lv.4 – [???]: Locked
└ Unlock Conditions:
① Reach Level 200
② Defeat a flying dragon
Lv.5 – ...
Defeating a flying dragon.
That was the hidden requirent to unlock Dragon Blood’s fourth level.
It literally ant a dragon that could fly.
“I was planning to fake that later like with the bone dragon...”
And yet—here it was, a flying dragon, right in front of him.
This one was even larger than the Sky Wyvern Queen he’d seen before.
And far more majestic than those lesser wyverns.
As it soared through the sky, flapping its wings, system alerts filled his view.
[A quest has been generated.]
[Return of the Wraith]
Rank: S
You have successfully awakened the sealed dragon fossil and resurrected part of an unnad dragon.
The incomplete resurrected dragon seeks to use you as a sacrifice to fully descend upon this land.
Defeat the Incomplete Resurrected Dragon.
Failure will result in a Dragon Gate spawning at a random location, and the Incomplete Resurrected Dragon will return in a complete form.
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