Chapter 54: Black Dragon Kai

Even after leaving the Dungeon, Do Ae Young still felt like she was dreaming.

The strange man who had suddenly appeared from the stone sarcophagus hadn’t slaughtered them all as everyone had expected. After each member of the team contributed a bit of clothing to help cover him, the man simply led them out in silence.

Along the way, they encountered countless monsters.

Some were over three meters tall, with claws sharp enough to tear through metal armor. Some sprayed poisonous fluids capable of corroding even the stone floor. There was even an S-rank undead-type monster that crawled out of the wall, dragging hundreds of pale bone arms behind it.

But none of them could stop that man.

One punch.

Boom!

The monster’s massive body was sent flying, slamming into the rock face and shattering like a piece of porcelain.

One kick.

Crash!

Another monster was kicked straight through the chest, its body scorched black by the strange energy radiating from his foot.

The man used no magic, nor did he need to draw a weapon. Every time he swung his arm or lifted his leg, the monster before him disappeared.

The more Do Ae Young watched, the more terrified she became. This man’s strength was certainly no less than that of an S-rank hunter!

No, perhaps even greater than anything she could imagine!

The most frightening part was that he had absolutely no awareness of his own power. After smashing a monster to pieces, he would just look down at his fist with a bewildered expression, as if he couldn’t understand why his opponent had been so fragile.

"We’re almost out of here." Do Ae Young managed to speak, her voice dry and raspy.

The man turned his head to look at her.

"Out?"

"Yes. Outside the Dungeon is our world."

"Your world..."

He repeated, then lowered his head to look at the patched-together clothes on his body.

No one knew how long he had slept inside that sarcophagus, nor did anyone know what he truly was. All they knew was that if he had wanted to kill them, the whole team would have been dead long ago.

After leaving the Dungeon, Do Ae Young’s small Guild poured nearly all its effort into helping this man adapt to modern life.

A phone made him stare at it for half a day. A television made him think someone was trapped inside. And the elevator made him grip Do Ae Young’s sleeve tightly, asking over and over why the room was flying upward on its own.

"This is Korea." Do Ae Young pointed at the map on the screen. "The name of this country is Korea."

The man tilted his head.

"Korea? Is that what this continent is called?"

Do Ae Young was silent for a long while.

Perhaps she really had picked up an ancient person.

After much effort, the Guild finally managed to register basic information for him. But when it came to filling in his name, things became difficult.

"What’s your name?" Do Ae Young asked.

The man fell into thought.

He closed his eyes, as if trying to dig up a memory buried for far too long. Then, he uttered a string of strange sounds.

No one in the room could understand them.

He paused for a moment, then said:

"If translated into the language of this place, my name is Kai."

And so the name Kai was written on the documents, and Kai was registered as a member of the Guild.

At first, Do Ae Young only thought of it as the most convenient way to manage him. But she quickly realized that decision had completely changed the fate of the small Guild she had founded.

Kai’s first assignment was a B-rank Dungeon.

In less than ten minutes, all the monsters inside had been defeated.

The second assignment was an A-rank Dungeon.

Kai returned before the team even had time to process what had happened, carrying the Boss’s massive energy core in his hand as if it were a bag of vegetables.

After that, their Guild’s ranking shot up like the wind.

From a small Guild no one knew about, they began receiving partnership offers, media attention, and quests they previously could only admire from a distance.

Do Ae Young understood perfectly well that all of this was thanks to Kai.

One day, she witnessed his true form with her own eyes during a fierce battle in an S-rank Dungeon.

Golden light enveloped Kai’s entire body. His tall human form transformed, bones stretching,A layer of black scales covered every inch of skin. In just a few seconds, a massive black dragon over 20 meters tall appeared before Do Ae Young, its wings blotting out the entire sky.

The dragon raised its head and roared. The sound was so shocking that everyone temporarily went deaf.

Do Ae Young looked up at the creature before her, and a thought suddenly crossed her mind.

Black Dragon.

That name both fit Kai’s form and was powerful enough to serve as the symbol of a Guild rising to the top solely through the strength of a creature as mighty as Kai.

"After that, I decided to make Kai the guild master." Do Ae Young said. "The Guild was also renamed Black Dragon, and we became one of Korea’s 5 SS-rank Guilds."

Kei listened in silence.

Kai beside him was still leaning close against him, staring blankly into the void, as if the story had nothing to do with him.

"To this day," Do Ae Young continued slowly, "no one knows that Kai came from a Dungeon, except for the members of the team that day."

The storage room fell into silence.

Kei looked at Kai.

Black hair, golden eyes, that innocent expression, and the way he instinctively clung to him... all of it made Kei’s heart ache.

It couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.

His little dragon had died in his arms. But perhaps, after the dragon core shattered, some miracle had brought it back to this world in human form.

"Kei-ssi?" Do Ae Young spoke up.