How to Raise Your Skeletons

Chapter 120: Aranballon, the Dragon of Greed (1)

“Everyone… I’m sorry for not participating in the battle until now. I was monitoring the situation outside—where Olivia and James went.”

Capu swung his arms, his hands intertwining and gesturing as if conducting an orchestra. In response, the hologram in the air moved fluidly. It was an effect that looked like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. However…

“We don’t have time to look at that, dammit!” the middle-aged hunter shouted.

“Hey, man! Step back! It’s dangerous!”

“Mr. Vladimir! Can’t you use your skills faster? They’re closing in on us!”

“Don’t rush me. Cooldowns are a thing, you know.”

Not just the middle-aged hunter but everyone locked in combat with the soldiers was at their wit’s end. Even a moment’s distraction and they could find themselves on the train to the afterlife. Who would care about news of Olivia or James at a time like this?

But even so…

“Hoon, you need to watch this,” Capu remained steadfast. “It’s that shocking.”

“Alright, fine! Show me the clip!”

I didn’t scold Capu. In fact, I gave him credit. After all, Capu’s unique ability specialized in guiding. He wasn’t particularly helpful in direct combat. In dungeons, seemingly trivial bits of information often turned out to be worth their weight in gold.

So Capu was casting his tracking skill when James ran away earlier? So that’s what he was murmuring about.

I couldn’t help but acknowledge Capu’s keen instincts. Honestly, the situation before was so absurd that even I was momentarily stunned.

—Boom! Boom!

The bolts kept raining down. The pain was enough to rattle my bones. Still, I couldn’t take my eyes off the hologram being displayed because I had a strange feeling that the video might contain information about the “dragon” Eldrin had hypothesized about.

—Bzzt!

The tracking device activated, and soon images and sound began to play. It was footage from James’s perspective.

* * *

—Thud thud thud!

“Huff, huff!”

Clutching the treasure tightly, James kept running. His breath came out in rough gasps.

It’s fine.

Guilt and remorse tugged at his chest, but he paid it no mind. After all, Olivia, who was running ahead of him, was just another selfish individual.

This was the game from the start, wasn’t it?

Just like killing was part of the rules in Theme 1, abandoning the team leader was just another new rule in Theme 2.

[Team members may select a ‘treasure’ and escape the Giant Fortress at any time.]

[Escaping team members will pass Theme 2.]

I will pass the trial!

There was nothing he wouldn’t do if he could clear this theme and become a ranker. James didn’t view this trial as a moral test. To him, it was a game where survival and passing were all that mattered. After all, that was how the world worked. If he could become a ranker here, he would be rewarded accordingly, no matter how he achieved it. The world would treat him like a VIP, and all hunters would gaze at him with admiration.

—Grit!

James gritted his teeth.

It will all work out.

He ran relentlessly because he was afraid that he might see the Spear of Judgment glaring at him with fierce eyes, hurling his spear.

After he ran for a while…

—Flash!

James flung himself toward a white portal to escape the giant fortress. It was the door that promised a “pass” as a reward for betrayal. But…

“Huh?”

What appeared before his eyes after passing through the door was something he couldn’t comprehend. It was an even darker area than before, a cavernous hall. And…

“Wh-What is this?”

Something massive loomed before him; something unimaginably huge was staring him down. He had thought he’d seen countless monsters during his life as a high-ranked hunter. He had prepared for the worst but not the least for this.

“Gah!”

The towering figure did nothing—it simply looked at him. But even that made James cough up blood from such overwhelming pressure.

“This is insane…!”

Before him stood a giant dragon that filled the entire space. Its eyes were cold and terrifying, its claws dozens of times larger than James’s body. Before such a being, anyone would undoubtedly feel like nothing more than an insect.

“Ahhh! Kyaaahhh!”

What was even more horrifying was that the immense creature was mercilessly crushing Olivia, who had entered before him.

“H-Help me! Please help!”

Pinned under its claws, she struggled in tears, with crimson blood pooling around her. As James stood frozen, an unfamiliar voice echoed in his ears.

“Foolish, greedy beings. Did you truly believe you could escape with my treasure?” the dragon growled low. Its gaze shifted from Olivia to James.

“Wh-What the fuck?! This wasn’t the deal!” James’s eyes widened and shouted in fury, “You said we’d pass if we took the treasure! Judges! Where are the judges? Get me out of here! Let me out now!”

“Tsk, tsk. Foolish creature.” The colossal being clicked its tongue, and amusement tinged its voice. “You still haven’t learned the basic truth that greed invites disaster. You are unworthy of passing my, Aranballon’s, trial.”

—Whoosh!

The dragon’s claw moved toward James.

—Slam!

At a speed too fast to dodge, the claw crushed James’s lower body.

“Aghhhhhh!” James screamed in agony.

The treasures of Aranballon he’d been holding scattered on the ground.

Where… Where did it go wrong?

If this wasn’t the right answer, was he supposed to endure alongside the team leader, fending off the damned soldiers?

“You bastards! What kind of sick joke is this?! If you set conditions, follow them! Who plays with people’s lives like this?!”

“The one blinded was you, foolish one,” the dragon muttered kindly. “The condition was always to find the National Treasure. Not betrayal.”

“The National Treasure? What the hell is that?!”

“And that is exactly why you are now under my foot. Because you don’t know.” The dragon’s lips curled upward. “Soon, you will be in no state to care about the truth anyway.”

—Crack! Crack!

At the same time, Olivia and James’s heads exploded.

—Buzz!

An unprecedented aura radiated from the dragon’s body. And simultaneously…

—Psshhh!

The corpses melted, and the treasures were reclaimed.

“Hahaha,” the dragon chuckled as if entertained. “The greediest being in this world must be none other than me.”

—Zap!

The hologram shut off. As James’s body dissolved, the tracking device was destroyed along with it.

“What the hell?!” one of the team members exclaimed.

Despite the chaos, everyone saw the footage.

“A dragon?”

“So it was a trap all along? But such a monstrous dragon?”

“Hah? So we really can’t leave until we find this ‘national treasure’?”

—Whoosh!

A sword swung down from an Aranballon soldier. The Spear of Judgment twisted his body to avoid it and drove his spear into the soldier’s eye.

“See? That’s the fate of traitors.”

—Clang!

The spear was deflected.

“Then what do we do?” Olena asked while hurling a ball of water at a soldier. “I mean, seriously! There’s no exit! And they’re not giving us time to find this national treasure! What more can we do here?”

“…”

“And honestly, no one even knows what the national treasure is! It’d take over a year just to search this entire place!”

She wasn’t wrong. Not a single word was incorrect.

“Shouldn’t we stop fighting these soldiers and scatter to search?” Olena continued. “There’s no rule saying we have to stick together. If we split up and search, someone might find it!”

She was right again. But…

“No,” I said. “The trial can’t be structured like this.”

“What?”

“If that were the case, nobody would have survived Delilah’s trial to become rankers. They’d all be dead.” I gripped my shield tighter. “You know? Objectively speaking, this trial is tough even for rankers. And they expect participants to endure this together? And then find the ‘National Treasure’ on top of that? It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Then what is it?”

“Well, this is just my guess.”

“So tell us.”

“What if… we’ve already found the National Treasure?”

The idea struck me from the dragon’s words.

“The condition was always to find the National Treasure. Not betrayal… The greediest being in this world must be none other than me.”

The Dragon of Greed, Aranballon. It wouldn’t let greedy beings live. It crushed Olivia and James underfoot. Because it was greedy itself, it hated others being greedy.

“You’re saying we’ve found the national treasure? What is it?!” Vladimir shouted.

“Well…” I scratched the back of my head.

“The dragon hates greed, right? Or rather, it hates anyone taking the treasure it hoards in its lair.”

“Hm?”

“So maybe the National Treasure isn’t physical at all. What if it’s more of a conceptual idea?”

“What? Explain it so I can understand!” Vladimir beat his chest in frustration.

“Remember the mission we got at the start of Theme 2?”

“The mission? I left it displayed somewhere.”

“Check it again.”

Vladimir furrowed his brows and glanced up.

The other members, as if hypnotized, also searched for the mission.

[The mission has arrived.]

[Stage: Treasure Hunt!]

[The selected 10 team members must cooperate to find the ‘National Treasure’ hidden in the central fortress.]

“What’s this? We already know all this!”

“Don’t you see the keywords?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Cooperate and National Treasure.

“The system told us from the beginning that the national treasure is cooperation itself. The dragon also said so—our task isn’t betrayal; it’s finding the National Treasure. And what if that ‘treasure’ is the act we’re doing right now—fighting together?”

“Then… the national treasure is the courage to not run away? Sticking together? Is that what you’re saying?”

“If my guess is correct.”

If every ranker who passed this trial went through the same one, the Five Stars of Seoul likely became a tight-knit group here as well. Because they didn’t abandon or betray one another in a moment of crisis, their bond persisted even outside the dungeon.

—Clench!

I clenched my fist tightly. My guess could be wrong, but I trusted my instincts. The instincts that had led me to a 100% success rate so far.

Halt.

Just then… The bolts stopped flying as if responding to my thoughts.

“What the… Why aren’t they moving?”

“They’ve frozen?”

The soldiers, mid-swing, turned back into statues. And at the same time…

[Congratulations!]

[The team leader has deciphered the meaning of the ‘National Treasure’!]

[The Dragon of Greed, Aranballon, smiles in satisfaction.]

The message sent chills down my spine—I was correct.

“Whoa!”

“It was true?”

“Team leader? Is this real?”

“We survived! We survived!”

The team exploded into cheers.

But—

“Eldrin.”

If I stopped here, I wouldn’t be myself.

“Yes, Master.”

“Come here for a moment.”

At my command, Eldrin approached with creaking steps. For about five minutes, I whispered something to her.

Vladimir approached me. “Hey, team leader! Are you a genius or something? How the hell did you figure that out? It’s incredible. Wait, why do you look so serious? Is something wrong?”

I nodded. “Yes. Everyone, wait here for a moment.”

“Huh? Why? Isn’t the theme over?”

“It is. But suddenly, I feel an overwhelming urge to challenge something.”

“Challenge?”

“I saw the dragon over there. Can I really let this chance go?”