D.I.O

Scorpion started to move his hands in the air to control the three unharmed draconic soldiers and the two critically injured draconic soldiers, who were still able to move around. As he did this, the bone tyrannosaurus got onto its feet and quickly lunged towards the demon.

Crack.

At that moment, the demon’s body began to transform. It lowered itself down from its bipedal posture and put all four of its limbs on the ground. Its monkey-like head had elongated to look more like an alligator’s.

“Woah! Is it some kind of transforming robot?”

Bam!

Without regard for whether Merlin screamed or exclaimed; the demon launched itself towards him! The demon had a relatively weak lower body in its previous form, but it had transformed, and now had legs optimal for charging. It soon moved at a frightening pace towards Merlin.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ground, a nearby boulder, the surrounding trees… whatever was in its path, the demon trampled over or bounced off of every object like a rubber ball, making a beeline toward Merlin.

It was hopeless to try to shoot at the approaching monstrosity, Merlin couldn’t even keep up with its movements!

Kyak!!!

However, the low rank demon screamed aloud and jumped back once more. It now had a short spear lodged in its right eye. The short spear was quite a bit larger than an arrow, so it was stuck firmly in his eye socket, making it difficult to pull out. This low rank demon only had two eyes, and had now essentially been rendered blind.

“Oh my! Woe is me! I’ve lost sight in both eyes! I’m now blind!”

Scorpion couldn’t help but be taken aback after hearing Merlin’s mocking. The demon’s eyes weren’t particularly large; only the size of two coins put side by side, but Merlin had accurately shot through both eyes during all the chaos. Even users specialized in close combat wouldn’t have been able to read the demon’s movements clearly and accurately, let alone make out its eyes. Scorpion soon regained his consciousness and screamed out.

“Don’t let your guard down! It may have gone blind, but it's still dangerous! It has other senses that it can fall back on, so its combat power is still…”

“Oh, everything’s fine. The first arrow was actually the killing blow. It seems the demon is trying to resolve the spell in the arrow by circulating its magic power to continue attacking us, but it’ll succumb to its injuries soon enough.”

Merlin finished off the chant to activate the spell held within the short spear, that was still firmly lodged in the demon’s right eye.

“And… explode.”

Boom!

The short spear exploded, causing the demon to groan in pain and stand still. When the explosion reached its brain, the internal energy that was within the metallic arrow started circulating throughout the demon’s body, wreaking havoc upon everything it reached. Soon, the demon turned into a puff of black smoke and dispersed into the air. In its place was a single drop item.

“Ack! A Black Stone… congratulations.”

“Oh, is this good?”

Merlin did not think much of it, but Scorpion’s response was full of fervor and excitement.

“Of course! Of course! Of course, it’s good! Do you know how shitty the drop rate is for that item?”

“…”

Merlin couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat when he noticed Scorpion speaking in a frustrated, maniacal tone.

‘It seems he hasn’t been having much luck with drops lately.’

Thinking a bit further, Merlin realized that he had been given all the experience points and the drop item. Merlin felt a little bad about taking all the spoils when Scorpion’s draconic soldiers and bone tyrannosaurus had done all the close combat against the low-ranked demon, which allowed him to finish it off. Moreover, due to the extensive damage that the bone tyrannosaurus sustained, it would have to go through another long period of recovery.

‘But I feel like it’s a waste to give him the Black Stone.’

Even Merlin, who wasn’t very interested in magic stones, could feel a tremendous amount of magic oozing from the Black Stone. He could easily come up with several ways to deploy the Black Stone immediately. Hence, Merlin asked,

“Uhm, do you have any use for more tyrannosaurus bones?”

“Tyrannosaurus bones? What bone number?”

“All of the bone numbers. The whole bone structure.”

Scorpion thought for a while before answering.

“Hmm. Well, whenever I defeat a tyrannosaurus, it doesn’t always drop the same bones, so it’s been hard to find replacements. So, yeah, I do have use for more tyrannosaurus bones. With more bones, I could create an entirely new bone tyrannosaurus or, if there aren’t enough bones for that, I could reinforce Toto over there with greater strength or magic power.”

“So, you’re saying more tyrannosaurus bones would be useful, right?”

“Eh? Sure.”

Hearing Scorpion’s reply, Merlin nodded his head.

“Okay, one moment.”

Merlin put his hand inside his robe, a way to access one’s inventory. He rummaged around before taking out a card and throwing it in the air. Merlin had done this without much thought, but Ohje, who had just gotten up from his meditation, cried out in surprise.

“Ack! A house card?!”

The card spun around in the air, expanding in size until it became a large door the size of an average adult. Though it wasn’t being supported by any other structure, the door stood rigidly upright. Merlin walked through the door and disappeared behind it. Ohje and Scorpion looked on with interest.

“Wow! I’ve seen a few people purchase house cards, but I’ve never seen such a young person use one. Even the cheapest house card is still about a million Won in real money, right?”

“Well, there are already people who spend that amount of money on items in other games. And DIO is completely different. I’m sure there are going to be users who spend ten million, a hundred million, and even a billion Won on this game. Actually, I haven’t started putting money into the game yet because it is still in beta. But seeing that they have a currency exchange system for real money and in-game currency, I’m sure I don’t have to be concerned with the in-game economic stability and inflation.”

As Scorpion finished his thought, Merlin came back through the door. However, nothing was in his hands. It seemed that he had moved some items from his house into his inventory.

“What did you take out?”

“Tyrannosaurus bones numbered one to twelve. Two sets of them, in fact.”

Merlin opened his red robe and released a pile of bones into the sand. There were so many bones that Merlin had to take ten steps back as more and more fell out and piled up. Soon it seemed as though the entire shoreline was filled with bones.

“Wait… are you planning on giving me all of these?”

“Yeah. You don’t need them?”

“I-I do need them, but I have nothing to offer you in exchange.”

“That’s fine. We hunted together, but I gained all the experience points and the drop item, so I felt a little bad… huh?”

Merlin stopped speaking mid-sentence. Scorpion had an annoyed, offended look on his face.

“Wow…”

If any other users were offered this many useful items for free, they would have thanked their lucky stars and collected the items as quickly as possible. In the real world, ‘free’ was rarely ever actually free. However, Scorpion was currently a level seven user who was considered a genius even among the top echelon of talented users who were invited to the beta test. Moreover, being a high-level user in DIO usually meant that the user themselves was also capable, and most likely a successful and important person in the real world. Hence, there were many DIO users who were very prideful.

“Don’t make me laugh. Do I look like a poor beggar?”

“Uh, no, I was just…”

“Shut it. Wow, look at how this fucker is acting. I can see that you have talent and money, but you’re showing off a bit too much, kid. As a veteran user in these types of online games, let me give you some advice. You can be nice, but not nice in the way you’re acting right now, shithead. When did I ever ask you for those…”

Bam!

In the middle of his tirade, Scorpion suddenly stopped speaking and started teetering. Someone had whacked Scorpion’s head. Of course, it was Ohje.

“Ah, sorry. This guy had a difficult upbringing, so anything to do with affluent people pisses him off. He doesn’t have anything against you personally, so please don’t take his words to heart.”

“Wait, Ohje, what the hell are you talking about? I’m just giving this kid some advice about life…”

“Here, catch this.”

Merlin, who had been standing dumbfounded, reflexively caught the item that Ohje threw over to him. It was a pair of arm guards, which covered one’s arm from the wrist to elbow. Seeing this, Scorpion’s eyes grew wide.

“Wait, Ohje, I gave you those for you to wear, no?”

“I wield two swords, how could I ever wear those? My hands and arms are moving non-stop, so they would just get in the way…”

“Still… argh! Stop choking me! You do know the muscular strength difference between you and me is like heaven and earth, right? If you kill me right now and I permanently lose magic power points, then I promise I will kill you when you’re least expecting it, and use your bones as material to summon a Death Knight!”

The way they bickered with each other, Merlin could tell that the two were close. They looked completely different from each other, so it didn’t seem like the two were brothers, but they definitely seemed like users who knew each other in real life.

“I couldn’t really use the arm guards, but I kept them with me since they’re the best item that either of us possess. They’ll fetch a good price.” Ohje explained. He then turned back to Merlin.

“They might look good on you, too.”

“Eh, but I…”

“I know. You didn’t really want anything in return for the bones. However, we don’t know when we’ll see each other again, so I don’t want to just accept a free gift. That would be improper. We’re older than you anyway. Just think of it as allowing us to save face.”

Seeing Ohje speak with a good-natured smile, Merlin just nodded his head. Normally, something like this would never have happened as he was quite the miser in real life. But having collected a mountain of items after the Dead Man’s Ship battle, he did not feel too protective of his items at the moment.

“Then, I’ll thankfully receive your item.”

“Good. Now, Scorpion, collect the bones.”

“Ugh, so my only choices are to leave these bones because they came from him, or gather them because you’re giving them to me after trading for them… ugh. Just because you’re older doesn’t make you some wise sage, Ohje. Don’t act like you’re so smart and kindhearted, man.”

As Scorpion continued to mutter and complain under his breath, he extended his shadow over the bones that were strewn across the shoreline. In a moment, all the tyrannosaurus bones were scooped up, leaving behind no trace. It was the first time Merlin saw something like that.

‘He’s able to use his inventory very well. Is it because he’s using the dark type of magic power?’

As Merlin thought to himself, Ohje asked,

“Are you going to continue hunting? If you are, I’d like to ask you to join our party.”

“Oh, hahaha, no, but thank you. I didn’t originally come here to hunt.”

“Oh? I guess that’s that then. It’s a shame, you’re much stronger than what I’d expect from your level. Why are you choosing not to level up?”

“Well, there’s no rush, and I don’t really see the need to.”

Hearing Merlin speak those words so calmly, Ohje’s eyes grew wide. However, after mulling over Merlin’s words a little longer, Ohje broke out into a smile, as if he understood something. Ohje then nodded and said,

“Well, good for you. Anyway, we’re going to head over to the teleportation gate to try and recruit others into our party. The low-ranked demon type of monsters don’t show up often, and I can easily take care of one myself, but it’ll still be a pain if we get ambushed while recovering like before. So I think it’s best if Scorpion and I gather some other party members.”

“Oh, right. Well, I’ll be off to go swimming again.”

“Swimming… you sure have a unique way of playing the game.”

“It’s an adventure. Just because it’s an online game doesn’t mean I have to fight all the time.”

With that, Merlin turned away and started walking into the sea. There were monsters in the sea just like on land, but their numbers were far fewer. Even if Merlin bumped into a sea monster, he could easily escape with his superior speed, so he wasn’t concerned.

“Hey!” Scorpion shouted out at Merlin.

“Uh, yeah?” Merlin replied, somewhat startled.

Scorpion scratched the back of his head and looked at Merlin apologetically.

“I’m sorry I got so heated. I’m an adult, but still have a lot of growing up to do, I guess.”

“Ah, no worries. I didn’t think it all through myself, either. May your drops be plentiful.”

“Right.”

After hearing Scorpion’s reply, Merlin dove underwater. Since he had replenished all his physical strength, Merlin felt that he could use his boosters for a full five minutes with just his physical strength reserves.

‘I don’t really need to explore Dead Earth any further if others can just teleport here using the teleportation gates. There’ll be cumbersome users everywhere anyway…’

While he thought, Merlin started accelerating. The southernmost part of the map was his first destination.

‘Let’s go around the island and swim further south!’

As he mumbled under his breath, Merlin sped southwards across the sea.