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Megalodria opened its eyes slowly at the outburst. The eerie, slit-pupil eyes locked onto Yoon-Seok with a fearsome intensity.

[What did you just bark, you insignificant creature?]

"Ah…haha, nothing! Nothing at all! Yep, I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing,” Yoon-Seok stammered nervously.

Seo-Yoon, who had been silently scrubbing the scales with a towel, already looked exhausted.

Though she was an advanced Awakened individual, her abilities were closer to those of a mage or support rather than a physical-type Awakened.

[Move faster, insignificant creatures. You haven\'t even finished one of my arms yet.]

"Huff... huff... Damn it..."

The enormous black dragon was covered in feathers and scales, its appearance beyond what anyone could have imagined.

Honestly, if such a monster existed in Korea, it wouldn\'t be surprising if it threw the entire country into chaos.

Yoon-Seok had heard about it once—the dragon that Davey O’Rowane, the Saint of Tionis, commanded.

"Still not done? Once you finish this one, there\'s an even bigger one waiting for you,” Davey said.

Compared to Megalodria the Sky Dragon, the Groundburst Dragon Shandra Minea was even more intimidating.

"Why the hell are we doing this?!" Yoon-Seok finally snapped, unable to hold back his frustration any longer.

To be fair, it wasn’t even possible for the two of them to completely wash and scrub such a gigantic dragon in the first place.

[Hmph! You’re a creature of no perseverance.]

"Yoon-Seok," Seo-Yoon called.

"Aren\'t you angry at all?! Even if we did something wrong, is it right for us to be used for personal things like this when we’re state officials and Awakened?!" Yoon-Seok argued. ℝ

Seo-Yoon let out a short sigh.

He wasn\'t wrong, but they weren\'t in a position to express their complaints so openly either. Davey was already lenient for offering to let the incident pass in exchange for what they were doing.

"Ugh... I\'m so dizzy from overusing my mana..."

Seeing Yoon-Seok groan, Seo-Yoon looked over at Davey, who was lying down on a distant rock with his eyes closed.

[You fools! No wonder you\'re exhausted, using your mana in such an idiotic way!]

At that moment, Megalodria\'s overwhelming power burst forth, making Yoon-Seok, who had been manipulating water, to flinch.

"B-But..."

[Don\'t make excuses, you worthless creature! Don’t try to control mana by force. You shouldn’t use conscious thought when controlling mana at all!]

Yoon-Seok looked at the dragon with a weary expression. Seo-Yoon, watching the two, slowly drew out her mana. Then the stacked towels began to move as if by telekinesis.

[Hmph! You can\'t even match that girl who\'s younger than you. Contractor!! I\'m losing my patience!]

"Hey, don\'t demotivate someone who\'s working hard."

[It\'s been hours already! Summon your spirit like you usually would!]

"Spirits aren’t your slaves, Megalodria."

[Grrr...]

Megalodria groaned and fell silent once more. Davey quietly watched Seo-Yoon and Yoon-Seok.

"You\'re advanced Awakened, right?"

"Yes."

"How many are above you in rank?"

"Does rank matter when it comes to saving lives?"

"That\'s true, but if you want to avoid a pointless death without understanding your enemy\'s threat level, ranks matter," Davey replied, and Seo-Yoon closed her eyes quietly.

"There are many combat-oriented Awakened, but there are fewer than forty officially affiliated with the NSDIA. Most are first class Awakened."

Effectively, Seo-Yoon and Yoon-Seok were considered advanced because they were second class Awakened. They were Awakened from Alf Online, after all.

"Hmm... I see, some changes might be needed," Davey said calmly, getting up. "What are you waiting for? Keep scrubbing."

"Why are you making us do this?"

"I told you, I have nothing to gain from you. Consider yourselves lucky. You wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for Perserque telling me not to kill you."

"That\'s a lie. I can tell you’re lying," Seo-Yoon\'s eyes sparkled.

"If you don\'t want to believe it, don\'t. And just so you know, if you don\'t finish washing up that dragon within four hours, I\'ll consider our deal void and make that incident public."

"What?!"

"And I\'ll make sure the NSDIA is dismantled."

Davey knew just making it public would be enough to shake the organization to its core.

"No matter how powerful you are, you can\'t possibly..."

"Do you think I’m part of some charity?"

"W-What did you say?"

"The Korean National Assembly keeps the NSDIA in check. Director Park Seo-Ho is clearly a hardhead. So, naturally, he has a lot of enemies. The moment they get a chance, they\'ll try to completely overhaul the NSDIA. And then? There will only be two possible results."

Either the NSDIA vanishes entirely, or leadership gets replaced entirely.

Either way, it would only benefit the vested interests who wanted to keep the ones obstructing them in check. For the public, it’d be a major problem.

Seo-Yoon gritted at his chilling tone.

"So do whatever it takes. Feel and judge for yourselves just how big of a mistake you\'ve made."

[Hmph, foolish creatures. They don\'t even know how to wield their own power.]

As Megalodria jeered, Seo-Yoon gritted her teeth and picked up the towel again.

The unusual manual labor that had begun early that morning continued well into the afternoon.

* * *

"Davey."

Perserque and Aeria approached him.

"Where\'s Illyna?"

"She\'s riding around the city on that bike Al Hajat gave her."

"I hope she doesn\'t get a ticket."

"She seems to be enjoying the speed."

"Davey, try this," Aeria said, shoving a brownie she had made into his mouth. He accepted her kindness and munched on it as they continued the conversation.

"This is quite an interesting method," Perserque murmured, looking at Megalodria standing still and looking quite satisfied.

"Is this some kind of training?”

"No, it\'s my first time doing this too," he replied. She smiled mischievously in response.

"But why are you training them?" Aerie asked.

"Does it look like I\'m training them?"

"Davey, you wouldn\'t do something without a reason."

It was a surprisingly sharp question.

"I\'m from Tionis, and they\'re from Earth."

"Does that matter?"

"Probably."

"Are you taking care of them because you lived here in your past life?"

"I’d be crazy to do so. I\'m from Tionis. Earth is under my jurisdiction, so I\'ll care for it, but whether Korea rises or falls, I don\'t really care right now."

If he had any lingering attachments, it’d be to his past life\'s family, including Hyun-Ah.

Davey smiled softly, taking another bite of the brownie.

"It\'s good."

At his mumble, Perserque didn\'t ask any more questions.

"We\'re done!!"

About thirty minutes later, Seo-Yoon and Yoon-Seok returned, utterly exhausted. The two of them had completed what at first seemed impossible.

"Didn\'t think you\'d manage it."

As if Seo-Yoon was too gassed out to even speak, she just looked at him with a weary face. She then got herself together and said,

"It was too hard, too impossible,” she said.

"Hmm?"

"So we changed our approach. That damn dragon kept mocking us, which admittedly made me so mad I wanted to prove it wrong. I kept thinking about what it said, and I came up with a new way.”

"Alright. Well done,” Davey said while nodding.

"So then..."

"Shall we move on to the next part?" he said as he smoothly pulled out another card.

[I call upon you. Answer my call.]

Whummm!!!

[Your flames scorch the earth, your presence makes the ground tremble. By the name of the Groundburst Dragon, answer my call.]

Gleam!!

Light poured out of the card, forming a magic circle in the air. A massive Groundburst Dragon slowly emerged from the blaze.

[Contractor.]

Unlike Behemoth, who had yet to recover, Shandra Minea had escaped from the encroachment and now stood before him, exuding a fearsome aura.

"It\'s been a while, Shandra Minea. No issues in your territory lately?"

[No issues. The ones that call themselves Evil Beast Kings are laughably weak.]

Davey thought it was rather odd to call beings capable of easily devouring six or so swordmaster-class fighters ‘weak.’ Shandra Minea had settled in the mountains of fire, a remote region guarded by the Last Wisp Knight Order. From there, it kept the other Evil Beast Kings in check, ensuring they didn’t move.

"Alright. This is the next one. Just so you know, this one\'s different from Megalodria. It’s going to be a lot tougher."

At his words, Yoon-Seok and Seo-Yoon turned pale.

"I\'ll give you two days. Make ‘em shine."

The two silently stared at Shandra Minea.

[Contractor. What are you planning to do?]

"You just relax and eat your snacks. See Megalodria over there? See how shiny those scales are? You just rest up and you’ll turn out looking just as shiny as them.”

Shandra Minea wasn’t as big as Megalodria, but it was still quite considerable in size. What was most intimidating were the flames flickering across its scales.

The two of them sank to the ground, their legs seemingly giving out.

They had already managed to wash Megalodria. They now discovered that the second Mythical Beast King, Shandra Minea, an even more difficult hurdle, had been awaiting them. Everyone knew that with their current pace, it was impossible to complete the task in the time given.

But those two didn’t yet know.

What humans were capable of when pushed to their limits.

* * *

"Damn it!"

Yoon-Seok, exhausted beyond belief, fell to the ground while spitting out curse words.

"That psychotic bastard!!"

"Haa... haa..."

Seo-Yoon couldn’t even speak having used too much mana, while Yoon-Seok, who still had some energy left, felt like he was reaching the ultimate limits of a human being.

"What is that guy even trying to do? What does he want from us?"

Davey had ensured they couldn\'t leave the mountain. And so, the two of them were now preparing to camp out in the wilderness.

[I\'ll give you some basic supplies, so make it through the night.]

For people unaccustomed to camping in the wilderness, it was no simple task, but they had no other choice.

"Seo-Yoon, are you okay?"

She didn’t answer.

"Damn it, how far is he going to push us?"

Yoon-Seok wasn\'t comfortable seeing Seo-Yoon like this—he had always had feelings for her, after all.

"Yoon-Seok."

"Huh...? Yeah?”

"Why do you think he\'s making us do this?"

"Huh? Do you think he has a real reason? He’s just messing with us, that bastard!"

"You really think so?”

"Then what other reason could there be?! Dragging us into the mountains to make us wash those giant, overweight lizard things is all there is to it."

Seo-Yoon quietly curled up into a ball at his words.

He wasn\'t wrong. But there were too many odd things that made her think over and over again.

"That\'s probably... right?"

"You\'re just overthinking because you\'re tired. Get some rest, then you\'ll feel better."

"Okay."

Watching her quietly fall asleep, Yoon-Seok tried to suppress his aching body and drifted off as well.

There were some people quietly watching over the two of them.

"Do you think they\'ll manage in such a short time?"

"Even if they can’t, I can\'t just kill innocent people,” Davey said.

The Oxygen siblings had once been rankers, but due to some bad incidents, they no longer wanted to be on the frontlines. Especially Oxygen—that is, Yun Ji-Ah—who had significant trauma regarding combat after getting her abilities taken away.

And that’s why they were using these people.

"This..."

"It’s the aftermath of the vitality that came from the creation of the moon Thanatos.”

"This rift?"

"The Malicious Spirits are all dead, but monsters keep appearing."

"What does that have to do with making them stronger?”

Davey pushed his hand into the rift.

Crack!!

The rift rejected his hand, repelling it.

"It’s rejecting you? There’s a power that can reject you?”

"I could force my way in if I wanted, but doing so would defeat the original purpose. The rift would collapse."

If the rift itself collapsed under the influence of overwhelming power, it’d be pointless. And since they had no idea what lay inside, they couldn\'t just recklessly throw someone in.

Therefore, they needed substitutes.

"This is..."

"Yes. It\'s the information that Frelia and Kain gave me."

Given the gravity of the situation, they wouldn\'t have just let it pass unnoticed.

Of course, what he was making them do seemed almost petty at a glance, as it was almost doing pointless tasks.

However, it wasn’t without meaning.

Change began to occur at a rapid pace.