Never Die Extra (Edited)

Great Ancient Mage, Confirmed (3)

Looting, another word for plundering. It was an act of acquiring trophies from monsters’ corpses in the game. Obtain only the usual parts from the corpse, then discard the rest. But the leftover corpse, after looting specific parts, disappeared into mana, which was the rule in the Yo-Ma Great War series. Although it was heinous, keeping immortal beings like the phoenix alive while looting was the only method left that ignored such a rule. And that was what was expected in this case, but surprisingly, the dragon corpse didn’t disappear.

“Huh? Is it because it used the last resort of holding its soul?”

“Perhaps concentrating its mana to explode its body, in the end, might have caused this. You’ve managed to contain it, Master.”

“Hmm, that makes some sense.”

Evan sent reinforcements to the dungeons that matched the level and numbers with the allied force. He started looting the dragon with Maybell. He wanted to increase everyone’s status by feeding them with dragon meat, but no one could effectively cook it. Moreover, the beginners were more affected by the weapons than eating meat, so the conclusion came that it was better to craft weapons and armors through dragon’s bone and skin to effectively increase their combat abilities. Therefore, he tried to pluck out the dragon’s spine, which allowed him to loot the most out of the corpse, but…

“Whoa, it really doesn’t disappear. Amazing.”

The dragon’s corpse became somewhat wobbly after its spine went missing, but it didn’t disappear and remained still!

“Doesn’t this mean other monsters can also be looted completely if they are to be stopped by your abilities during the loot?”

“No, they will disappear once the stop is gone. I’m not using my Annihilation on this corpse right now. It seems that the mana it erupted in the end clashed with my Annihilation, which then resulted in this special effect.”

Evan was very excited as he continued. He was always like this when he turned into an adult. Looting was more thrilling than combat. Now that he realized the corpse wouldn’t disappear, he placed a bucket below it to receive its blood, plucked out its two eyes carefully, removed the giant horn from its forehead as a whole, scrapped all its scales, removed its hide, and whole-heartedly cut into its meat based on its parts.

“Look at its meat…I miss the owner.”

“I know how to do basic cooking, so leave it to me. If the ingredient is dragon, even a horrible cook can come up with magical food.”

Evan was worried whether the corpse would disappear during the process, but it didn’t until all the blood was drawn, all bones were plucked, and all meat was cut. And so, Evan completed a historical achievement of slaughtering an entire dragon.

[Hiiick.]

Fayna, who was monitoring and guarding those that entered the dungeon, got scared and took a step back when she approached Evan to give him the intermediate report. She saw the all-high -and -mighty dragon getting chopped apart and displayed.

“Ah, so you are here? This guy should receive my gratitude. Slaughtering it gave us ten dragons worth of components.”

“We should consider intentionally gaining the dragons’ ire from now on.”

“It won’t be that difficult.”

[It…it’s horrifying how you were able to kill the dragon, but how on earth did you skillfully chop up the dragon like this…?]

It looked like he had already done this before! Fayna almost passed out at the sight of Evan carefully pouring the dragon blood in a giant barrel carefully refined through alchemy, then she murmured.

[Single-handedly blocking a dragon that can turn the world upside-down and killing it…you’ve far passed the level of a disciple. As expected, you are…]

“There’s no need to complicate things. Dragons are living creatures, after all.”

[Such statements can be blasphemy towards the gods, so be careful!]

Does she mean that even the gods weren’t immortal? Could they be killed like monsters? Unfortunately for Fayna, Evan became more interested in her words. Come to think about it, even the Devil, who was widely known, couldn’t be killed and ended up getting sealed. That’s why nobody thought of gaining exp from killing him. But if it wasn’t! If it was simply because the effort of the Great Ancient Mage was just a bit lacking, and if gaining exp through killing the Devil was possible…!

‘Well, even the Divine Realm has evil beings that distorted the last phase of Yo-Ma Great War Zero. I might gain tons of exp from eliminating them, too.’

It was still too early for the gods to actually intervene, but it wouldn’t be that long considering the current progress speed. With the dragon’s appearance, it could be considered that now was the middle phase of Yo-Ma Great War Zero. The first phase seemed to be skipped a lot, but considering how the allied strength had increased greatly compared to how they were in the game, everything was going well.

‘The allied force in the game couldn’t even think of completing the dungeon at this point since they were busy trying to survive.’

Evan nodded in satisfaction, and Fayna narrowed her eyes and spoke to him.

[Anyways, the dragons are dangerous beings. They are the only mortals that can challenge the gods. Aren’t they dragons from the other world? We have to hurry and check on the movements among the dragons of Middle Earth. Zero, it’s time to leave this Forest.]

Evan didn’t expect that line to come from her. But since he also understood the necessity of doing so, he nodded.

“Yes. If I’m convinced that they are capable of protecting the Forest by themselves based on their dungeon completion, I will start taking action.”

In fact, in the middle phase of the game, the Great Ancient Mage and Mirole head out from the Forest accompanied by some people gathered around them. With the united front of the forest fairies still not established, heading out was the only way to take actions such as expanding their forces. And the start of the last phase would be after undergoing diverse events. The Great Ancient Mage realized that the enemies were after the World Tree in the end, so he cooperated with the forest fairies to protect the world.

“How’s the completion, Ms. Fayna?”

[Actually…I was amazed. I can’t believe it has only been a month since they started wielding weapons.]

Fayna recalled how the humans and the dwarves killed the monsters and shook her head with fright.

[They now have the power to fight. And they will grow stronger in a much faster way from now on.]

“They should.”

Their existence levels were too low up until now. They had to eliminate the competitors to survive, and their competitors were beyond their reach so far. However, as they carved Evan’s training and meditation into their bodies along with the help from the World Tree hot spring, they were now able to reach higher grounds when compared to their competitors. They were even learning a measure to defend themselves from a crisis if ever it happened, so their speedy growth was guaranteed.

‘Their growth in the early phase will be fast as their existence levels are low, and that will make them strong enough to kill formidable enemies. It’s the royal road to ultimate growth in the Yo-Ma Great War series.’

And if weapons and armors crafted by Evan from the looted dragon corpse were added to them? They would be able to kill the enemies who were at least twice or thrice stronger than them. That would aid in the growth of their existence levels. Evan’s steady effort ever since he protected the humans finally came to light in a swift moment.

“God!”

“We have returned!”

At that moment, a party of eight returned. It was the elite party of three witches, two dwarves, two humans, and Mirole as their party leader. Other parties that entered the dungeon with them were returning, too. Everyone looked pleased.

“The dungeon has been completed without any deaths!”

“There were some wounded, but they were treated with the spirits.”

“Good job, Mirole. Everyone did a fine job.”

Evan knew that their abilities were boosted in just a day after completing the most suitable dungeons. The mana from these three little witches was already on another level. Their growth was fearsome, reminding Evan of the god race’s children that grew in the dungeon.

“I believe the party can manage without Mirole, right?”

“Absolutely!”

Sharay confidently shouted. She was a cute child who always tried her best to receive Evan’s ‘blessings’, but since it was a burden to Evan, he spoke as he evaded her sparkling eyes.

“Good, then be on standby after relieving some stress in the hot spring. From now on, you will clear the dungeons created in the Forest after grouping up like today.”

Everyone who cleared the dungeon and returned replied courageously at Evan’s words, including Sharay, and went straight to the Forest. He was relieved at the thought that his initial plan started to work out after sending them off. Clearing less difficult dungeons with humans and dwarves, then clear the more difficult ones with elves. After confirming those which even the elves couldn’t handle, Evan, Mirole, and Fayna would clear them later. With such divided work, all dungeons in the Ancient Forest, regardless of their numbers, could be cleared in a sweep.

“Oh king, we have found a Demon in the dungeon we headed for.”

“Huh?”

In the middle of welcoming those who came back from clearing the dungeon, an elf came out from the group that cleared the dungeon from Sharay’s group. He reported to Evan while kneeling down.

“It was definitely a Demon. I’ve summoned a spirit to fight against it right after sensing its presence. Still, it seemed to have been observing us without getting noticed.”

“So, what happened? I’ve instructed you to call for help if such things occurred.”

Evan first confirmed the members’ safety in the group of that elf and then asked him that question. The position which that elf was taking seemed to be an exaggerated form of respect, but it couldn’t be helped since everyone saw how the dragon was slaughtered this morning.

“They fell back before we could even call for backup. We couldn’t even chase them.”

“Them? Are you saying there was more than one?”

“Yes. The unknown Demons also had a human with them.”

“Human?”

Evan’s eyes widened. He didn’t even think of an outrageous idea of giving salvation to all humans in this era, so it wasn’t a surprise if there were some he couldn’t find. But it was surprising how Demons didn’t kill the human but brought them along. Such a thing didn’t even exist in the game, so did they plan on making him a hostage?

“Aren’t they perhaps trying to go against the Devil with the cooperation of that human? It might be those Demons who have been clearing the dungeons.”

“Such a possibility…can exist.”

He couldn’t deny it firmly. If so, who was the human that the Demons were bringing along? Evan confirmed how the Demons and the human looked like from the elves. Still, they were both pulling down their hoods, so they were unidentifiable.

“It’s really annoying.”

“Master, you tend to get stressed out from unexpected events. Here, I’ll hug you.”

“Don’t pretend to console me and then satisfy your own desires.”

There was a better thing to do as of now. Evan waited until everyone returned from clearing the dungeons, and he made a statement.

“The Dragon Barbecue Party will now commence.”

Meat was the best way to relieve stress!