Chapter 7
7
[7] Oppa, How on Earth Did You Do That?
After a quick lunch, we arrived at the D-rank Gate we would be clearing today.
The recommended party size was two.
It was an ordinary D-rank Gate known to contain lizardmen.
“Sia, do you have any equipment?”
“Yep! I have plenty in my subspace. Why? Did you forget yours?”
“I brought mine. I just wondered whether you had any.”
Not much had changed for me over the past year, so my equipment was still sitting in my subspace. But things were different for Sia.
Her old subspace—and all the equipment inside it—had probably vanished when she reincarnated.
That was why I’d thought she might not have any equipment, but she was already prepared, as though it went without saying.
However…
“…?”
The first piece of equipment Sia took out was a sword.
Even its appearance was extraordinary.
I didn’t have to hold it to tell.
This thing was absurdly powerful.
But I looked at her in mild confusion.
A dragon like Sia taking out a weapon for a mere D-rank Gate was ridiculous enough.
More to the point, though, shouldn’t a mage like her be using a wand instead of a sword?
Especially if she intended to keep pretending to be a D-rank mage.
Just as I was wondering about that, Sia held the sword out to me.
“Here, Oppa. Use this.”
“…Huh?”
“It’s a gift. I thought it would suit you.”
Her unexpected gesture left me momentarily flustered.
“Do you not like it? Should I give you something else?”
“No, no, of course I like it. I’d be happy with a toothpick if it came from you. I’m just a little overwhelmed. Thank you. I’ll put it to good use.”
“There’s more, Oppa.”
“Huh? There’s… more?”
“Yep. Just a second.”
As though the sword had only been the beginning, Sia started taking all sorts of equipment out of her subspace—armor, a helmet, a cloak, accessories, and more.
Judging by the quality of the sword she had just given me, none of the other equipment was likely to be ordinary either.
And I was right.
As I put it on, I could feel an extraordinary energy coming from every single piece.
“Thank you, Sia. I’ll put all of this to good use.”
“Hang on, Oppa. There’s still plenty more.”
Even after that, Sia kept pulling artifacts out of her subspace.
She had told me that dragons tended to fill their lairs with treasure, but this was beyond anything I’d imagined.
The first piece of equipment Sia took out was a sword.
Even its appearance was extraordinary.
I didn’t have to hold it to tell.
This thing was absurdly powerful.
But I looked at her in mild confusion.
A dragon like Sia taking out a weapon for a mere D-rank Gate was ridiculous enough.
More to the point, though, shouldn’t a mage like her be using a wand instead of a sword?
Especially if she intended to keep pretending to be a D-rank mage.
Just as I was wondering about that, Sia held the sword out to me.
“Here, Oppa. Use this.”
“…Huh?”
“It’s a gift. I thought it would suit you.”
Her unexpected gesture left me momentarily flustered.
“Do you not like it? Should I give you something else?”
“No, no, of course I like it. I’d be happy with a toothpick if it came from you. I’m just a little overwhelmed. Thank you. I’ll put it to good use.”
“There’s more, Oppa.”
“Huh? There’s… more?”
“Yep. Just a second.”
As though the sword had only been the beginning, Sia started taking all sorts of equipment out of her subspace—armor, a helmet, a cloak, accessories, and more.
Judging by the quality of the sword she had just given me, none of the other equipment was likely to be ordinary either.
And I was right.
As I put it on, I could feel an extraordinary energy coming from every single piece.
“Thank you, Sia. I’ll put all of this to good use.”
“Hang on, Oppa. There’s still plenty more.”
Even after that, Sia kept pulling artifacts out of her subspace.
She had told me that dragons tended to fill their lairs with treasure, but this was beyond anything I’d imagined.
“Sia, does this sword… have a name?”
Amid all that, I asked her about the sword.
The other equipment was incredible too, but when I held this blade, it almost felt as though some invisible thread connected us.
How should I put it? Even though this was my first time holding it, it felt familiar, as though I had wielded it for years.
Sia looked a little surprised.
“That’s… a Dragon Bone Sword.”
A Dragon Bone Sword.
It wasn’t merely a good weapon. Something about it felt right on a deeper level.
And yet, with all this absurd equipment, we were only going to be hunting lizardmen…
That felt rather incongruous in its own way.
Anyway.
With all our preparations complete, I stood beside Sia at the Gate’s entrance, my heart pounding.
I was nervous about my first Gate raid in so long, but remembering how we used to do this together also filled me with emotion.
Then—
‘Is Sia… all right?’
I suddenly checked on her.
I’d forgotten for a moment, but a Gate was the terrible place where she had died once before.
Even if 2,500 years had passed for her, weren’t dragons said to be incapable of forgetting?
Just as I had suffered from trauma over the past year, perhaps she had some lingering trauma associated with Gates too, even if she hadn’t mentioned it.
“Are you okay?”
But the instant I asked her, Sia asked me the very same question.
Having spoken in perfect unison, we smiled warmly at each other.
“You were worried I might be traumatized too, weren’t you, Oppa?”
I nodded.
Perhaps touched by that simple question, Sia surprised me with a kiss on the cheek.
“I really am fine, so you don’t need to worry at all. More importantly… are you okay? What happened back then…”
“Yeah. I’m fine too. I was worried, but I didn’t expect to feel this okay.”
Honestly, I had been a little nervous before entering the Gate.
But the moment we stepped inside, I felt strangely calm.
To my surprise, far from being haunted by my trauma, I was actually looking forward to this.
“What a relief. Let’s finish up quickly and go have mala tteokbokki for dinner!”
Hearing her say that, you’d think we were out for a stroll around the neighborhood rather than inside a Gate.
Well, Sia was right beside me.
And with all the artifacts she’d given me, I felt no tension whatsoever. This was practically a date.
We strolled through the Gate, waiting for monsters to attack us.
Then, a little later…
Several lizardmen appeared at our ten o’clock.
Making their distinctive cries, they watched us warily.
“Oppa, over there.”
“I see them!”
“I’ll watch from here. You can handle that many on your own, right?”
“Of course. I’ll be right back.”
Sia wished me luck, saying she would step in if things looked dangerous—though she doubted that would happen.
Honestly, I probably wouldn’t need her help.
The difference in power was just too absurd.
Unlike us, the lizardmen seemed to sense danger. They shifted from wary vigilance into battle stances.
“Kieeeek!”
Once they were close enough…
Feeling a pleasant resonance from the sword, I swung at them without hesitation.
Slash!
Before it could even react, one lizardman’s head came clean off.
I’d expected my combat instincts to have dulled considerably during my long hiatus, but perhaps thanks to this morning’s reassessment, I had no trouble wielding the sword.
Actually, whether it was the equipment or something else, I felt even more capable than before.
It wasn’t just the way I swung my sword. I could also see the lizardmen’s movements far more clearly.
Their strides, the trajectories of their crude weapons—everything.
Like a fish back in water, I kept swinging.
My former self couldn’t have killed them with a single strike, but now I held the ridiculously overpowered weapon Sia had given me.
The lizardmen fell to a single blow each, without even a chance to resist.
“Whew.”
I’d expected things to be easier with such excellent equipment, but not this easy.
I turned toward Sia.
Killing a few lizardmen with such an incredible weapon was hardly an achievement.
Yet she was staring at me in astonishment.
“Oppa, that was… incredible.”
“Come on, it wasn’t anything special.”
What could possibly impress a dragon like Sia about killing a handful of D-rank monsters?
I thought she was just trying to encourage me.
But—
“I’m not just saying that, Oppa. I mean it.”
From her tone, she really was genuinely impressed by what I’d just done.
‘What? Is she serious?’
The sword Sia had given Minjun was no ordinary blade. It was a Dragon Bone Sword, forged from a dragon’s bones.
The weapon itself was so exceptional that she had naturally expected him to perform well.
But something else had surprised her.
‘He drew out the sword’s power.’
He probably hadn’t intended to, but Minjun had unmistakably awakened and used the power dwelling within the blade.
He had only drawn out a tiny amount, but the fact that he had awakened it at all was enormously significant.
After all, none of those who had unlocked a Dragon Bone Sword’s potential had been ordinary people.
‘Dragon Bone Swords… can discern their wielders’ potential.’
Before Sia had come to this modern world, swordsmen in her world had known Dragon Bone Swords as “swords that seek their masters.”
One wielder had risen from an ordinary soldier to a Swordmaster with a single blade.
Another had been the king of a weak nation, only to unite the continent with sword in hand.
There were many others whose names alone would have been familiar to anyone.
‘Could my Oppa become someone like that too?’
Sia smiled softly as she imagined Minjun leaving his mark on Hunter history.
But there was one thing she didn’t know.
In her world, the person who had once made the greatest use of a Dragon Bone Sword’s latent power… was someone whose very name had become taboo among dragons long ago.
“At this rate, won’t you become a Ranker in less than a year, Oppa?”
Sia spoke playfully.
Despite her tone, however, she considered it a serious possibility.
Even before this, Minjun becoming a Ranker had been entirely possible as long as she supported him with everything she had.
In fact, she had already planned to do just that.
But if he possessed this much potential of his own?
He might be able to achieve that feat even without her help.
Of course, it would be far from easy.
“If you believe in me that much… then I’ll have to give it a try.”
“How is my Oppa so dependable?”
He looked dependable, but she found that so cute and endearing that she ruffled his hair.
“Sia, you’re messing up my hair.”
As they collected the loot, Sia told Minjun the sword’s secret.
She explained that he had drawn out a small part of its latent power.
And she told him about the achievements of those who had awakened that power in the past.
It was an astonishing revelation for Minjun.
“So this isn’t just a sword—it’s something much more special… and I drew out the power hidden inside it?”
“That’s right, Oppa.”
Even after hearing her explanation, Minjun still looked dazed.
“I had that kind of talent…?”
A natural question lay beneath his muttered words.
‘If I had that kind of talent, why have I never gotten further than this?’
It had never shown up during his rank assessments. And why had he been born with such a peculiar talent in a world that didn’t even have dragons?
Having talent was certainly a good thing, but Minjun still felt a little bewildered.
“This is a whole new kind of charm.”
Looking embarrassed, Minjun covered his face with one hand and moved her hand away with the other.
Sia only enjoyed his reaction, smiling fondly at him.
“Then let’s get going!”
It was time to start moving and hunt more lizardmen.
Feeling as though they were on a date, Sia and Minjun slowly made their way through the Gate.
Some time later…
They spotted a group of lizardmen heading somewhere.
Watching them, Minjun prepared an ambush.
‘If the sword has that kind of power… I should get used to it as quickly as I can while fighting these things.’
He hadn’t known about it when he first swung the sword.
But now that he knew he could tap into its potential, he couldn’t simply keep swinging without thinking.
‘Forget everything else. Focus on drawing out that potential.’
Of course, merely deciding to do so wouldn’t immediately let him draw out more of the power within the sword.
He still didn’t know what it felt like to draw on it, or even what that power actually was.
But—
‘Visualization is important for this sort of thing.’
Now that he’d discovered this possibility, he had to find a way to develop it.
Minjun adjusted his grip on the sword’s hilt, then leaped toward the group the moment the timing was right.
“Kieek?!”
While they reeled from the sudden ambush, he swiftly swung at the lizardman in front.
His body felt light, and he could see the lizardman’s movements perfectly.
Yet he couldn’t feel the power Sia had mentioned.
‘I don’t get it.’
Again.
This time, his sword pierced a lizardman squarely in the chest.
‘What exactly was Sia talking about?’
He still had no idea what energy he had drawn from the sword, or how he had done it.
Even as he tried wielding it in different ways.
Even as lizardmen fell helplessly before his blade.
However…
From Sia’s perspective, Minjun was unmistakably drawing out the sword’s latent potential.
In a slightly different way from other Dragon Bone Sword wielders.