Chapter 20

 

Suho smiled as he read the system notification.

‘I can’t believe I’ve managed to get my hands on one of the treasures of the Shadow Lord.’

The Shadow Lord wouldn’t make his mark on the world until a few years later from now.

In fact, he was currently just an ordinary person, a non-awakened being who had yet to discover his powers.

However, the point at which this late-blooming player started to grow significantly stronger was right after he obtained the Returning Shadow Spear.

‘Just as Jang Pyeong-ho had his Subspace House, the Shadow Lord had the Returning Shadow Spear.’

But in this world, the Shadow Lord would not appear.

The Returning Shadow Spear, the very item that made him, was now in Suho’s hands.

‘It’s much better for me to have it than for it to fall into a criminal’s hands.’

Quite literally.

The Shadow Lord would later become as notorious worldwide as Jang Pyeong-ho, a major criminal.

Rather than let that happen, Suho decided to take all the Shadow Lord’s treasures for himself.

Suho checked the information on the Returning Shadow Spear.

 

 

The reason why the Shadow Lord’s nickname became the Shadow Lord had a lot to do with the item description boldly containing the name “Shadow Lord”.

This suggests that somewhere in the system provided, perhaps in the gates referred to as fragments of another world, there might be a real Shadow Lord.

Despite being such a remarkable item, the Returning Shadow Spear was only A-rank because it was a set item.

‘That’s why it has a plus sign.’

The plus sign was a mark that only appeared on growth-type or set items.

In this sense, the more treasures of the Shadow Lord Suho gathered, the greater the synergy there would be. Ultimately, the set might reach an S+ rank.

Suho vowed to collect all the treasures of the Shadow Lord.

Doing so would allow him to fight in ways incomparable to before.

To test the Returning Shadow ability of the spear, Suho threw the spear far away and reached out his hand toward his shadow.

Then, the spear that had flown far away emerged from Suho’s shadow and gripped itself in his hand.

‘Nice.’

Now he had a spear for throwing that he didn’t need to retrieve.

With his preparations complete, Suho opened the exit of the Subspace House.

Through the exit portal, he saw the place he had entered, and at the perfect angle, he could see the Tower Dragon.

The Tower Dragon, which had been rampaging wildly for a while, soon realized that its enemy had disappeared and attached itself to the stone tower to sleep.

For dragons, sleep was the ultimate means of recovery.

Maybe that’s why?

Seeing the Tower Dragon in his sights, Suho felt a bit of regret.

‘It would be best if I could attack it from here.’

Unfortunately, it was impossible to attack from inside the Subspace House.

This meant that to fight the Tower Dragon, he had to leave the Subspace House.

Putting his regret behind him, Suho gripped the Returning Shadow Spear again.

After taking a deep breath, he swiftly exited and began climbing the stone tower.

 

 

He had to attack its inverse scale before it woke up.

Suho leapt high into the air, stepping on the stone tower.

Then, upon spotting the inverse scale, he threw the Returning Shadow Spear.

And then.

 

 

Suho had now learned the Throwing Spear skill in addition to his throwing skill.

Thanks to this, his speed, penetration power, and accuracy increased, and the spear hit the dragon’s inverse scale perfectly.

Crash!

He finally managed to break part of the dragon’s inverse scale.

Suho shouted,

“Enter!”

 

 

“Roooooaaaar!!”

 

 

Suho’s entrance into the Subspace House and the Dragon Fear activation happened almost simultaneously.

Fortunately, Suho was slightly quicker, so he only felt a slight tingling sensation without any status effects.

Perhaps because of this, Suho lifted one corner of his mouth in a smirk.

‘Got it.’

Hit-and-run.

A tedious and inefficient tactic, but currently, there was no more effective method for Suho.

He opened the house exit to observe the creature.

Fortunately, the creature’s rampage didn’t last long, and the destroyed scale hadn’t fully recovered.

‘But if too much time passes, the inverse scale will definitely regenerate. So, hit and run as quickly as possible!’

As soon as the Tower Dragon calmed down, Suho left the Subspace House again.

 

***

 

How much time had passed like this?

 

 

A considerable amount of time had passed.

During this time, Suho managed to completely remove the inverse scale, reducing the creature’s power to below 10%.

But there was a problem.

The moment the inverse scale was completely removed, the Tower Dragon stopped sleeping.

‘It must be in a state of alert.’

The creature was not stupid.

It wasn’t a programmed existence like monsters in online games.

Although monsters were controlled by the system, research showed significant differences from game monsters.

That’s why it was so vigilant.

Suho exhaled a deep breath and thought.

‘Now there’s no choice but to face it head-on.’

The best strategy, hit-and-run, could no longer be used.

So the only thing left was a frontal assault.

There was no other way.

If there had been a way to defeat it without getting hurt, he would have used it long ago.

Therefore, after taking enough rest, Suho quickly rushed out again as soon as the opportunity presented itself and threw the Returning Shadow Spear once more.

 

 

He had become so adept at throwing that he could hit his target with his eyes closed.

As proof.

 

 

In that short time, Suho’s throwing spear skill was upgraded to A-rank.

Crash!

A chilling sound of rupture.

The thrown spear hit the creature’s inverse scale once again.

 

 

“Roooooaaaar!!”

The pattern hadn’t changed.

The Tower Dragon used Dragon Fear again after its inverse scale was attacked.

 

 

Damn it.

There really is no resistance to it?

As Dragon Fear triggered, various debuff effects hit Suho.

Just before he fell to the ground below the stone tower, Suho managed to pull out and drink a Purification Potion.

 

 

With the debuffs lifted after drinking the Purification Potion, Suho summoned the Returning Shadow Spear and threw it to a suitable height.

Then, using Jump, he leaped to that spot and used the lodged spear as a foothold to jump once more.

At that moment.

 

 

Jump had also been upgraded.

Thanks to this, Suho felt much lighter and could now meet the creature at eye level.

“Roooooaaaar!!”

As Suho ascended to eye level with the dragon, it unleashed a roar directly at him.

Fortunately, it wasn’t Dragon Fear, so it only hurt his eardrums but was bearable.

Closing the distance, Suho summoned the Returning Shadow Spear once more and threw it towards the creature’s eye.

 

 

Crash!

Was it due to its arrogance?

Surprisingly, the creature faced the spear head-on without even attempting to dodge.

That was its mistake.

Thinking it could easily deflect a mere spear, the Returning Shadow Spear embedded itself firmly in its eye.

“Graaaaah!!”

 

 

Another Dragon Fear followed.

Suho bit his lower lip hard and drank a Purification Potion.

Then he used the stone tower as a foothold to leap onto the dragon’s body.

The Tower Dragon thrashed about.

With its attention focused on the attacked eye, now was his chance.

Suho pulled a new iron sword from his inventory and began running towards the exposed flesh where the scale had fallen off.

That vulnerable spot was all Suho could see.

Finally reaching the inverse scale, Suho gripped the sword in a reverse hold and stabbed it into the soft flesh like driving in a stake.

“Graaaaah!!”

As the blade pierced the inverse scale, the dragon’s body convulsed and began thrashing mercilessly in pain.

Suho twisted the embedded sword half a turn.

The blade lodged firmly into the flesh, and Suho clung desperately to the handle.

“Rooaaar!!”

Another roar.

At that moment, a popping sound echoed in Suho’s ears, followed by a ringing.

His eardrums had finally burst.

‘Damn it!’

All he could hear was the ringing.

But there was no choice.

Suho clung tenaciously to the sword, thinking of it as his lifeline, refusing to let go.

Fortunately, the roar this time was not Dragon Fear but a regular roar.

The Tower Dragon, in a mad frenzy, tried to shake Suho off, slamming into walls and rolling on the ground.

Suho used Healing Light with his free hand to hang on as best as he could.

It was sheer determination.

At that moment,

 

 

Impressed by Suho’s perseverance, the system awarded him the Clinging skill.

Thanks to this, Suho could hold onto the sword more easily.

After a long struggle, the Tower Dragon’s movements finally ceased.

“Grraaah…!”

A fading roar.

At last, the dying Tower Dragon began to fall.