Chapter 49 Beware of Counterfeits
The spiders and Tang So-yeong took parts of the Gecko Lizard and the Green Basilisk.
It seemed like a highly unethical situation, but if I pointed it out, I felt I would suddenly become a komodo myself.
Even if it wasn’t the skin, wasn’t the tail already spoiled?
Eating such things would lead to trouble.
[The faith of the believers increases.]
Huh?
Why?
Could it be that, to them, that skin was some kind of holy relic?
I felt a bit burdened.
To them, it was nothing more than dead skin.
It was just keratin, keratin.
Don’t cherish such things!
“Gek Gek!”
Oh, man.
It felt like a waste of time, but it’s the duty of a divine beast to listen to the demands of its believers.
Nephila, is this really the end?
I mean, like the Core you fed me.
I glanced at Nephila Jurassica.
The spiders seemed to be discussing how to share the tail.
They seemed to have no intention of listening to me.
…That was skin, and I was the real komodo.
I felt a bit disappointed.
“Kieek!”
“Well, this is….”
Why were you chatting so naturally with the spiders?
I gently wrapped Tang So-yeong’s thigh with my tail.
“Kyaa!”
Tang So-yeong slowly walked over to where I was.
Stop acting like the spiders and try to find some hidden treasures here.
“Gek Gek.”
I slapped Tang So-yeong’s hand.
If you ask why I hit her, it was because she was gently stroking my tail with slightly crazed eyes.
“Eek! I did it without realizing….”
If you were curious about the structure of a komodo’s teeth, keep going.
Was it the influence of the spiders? Tang So-yeong was becoming weirder by the day.
At first, I thought she was a timid member of the Tang family, but she was not timid at all.
It seemed she had awakened to something strange.
Why weren’t there any normal people around me?
I decided to give the spiders some free time and explore the cave surroundings with Tang So-yeong.
There might be treasures that Nephila Jurassica had forgotten about.
“Master Go, there’s a luminous pearl here? It’s so perfectly round that it doesn’t seem to have formed naturally….”
It seemed Tang So-yeong had found something.
Where she pointed was a round stone emitting a green light.
So that’s a luminous pearl.
No wonder she moved around so well in dark places, there was a light source inside.
Wait, a luminous pearl?
That shape was something I saw in the Silver Dragon Cave.
Was this place also artificially created?
Silver Dragon Cave 2, maybe?
“Master Go! Look here! There’s an enormous mural….”
Of course.
There should be something like this.
I quickly walked over to where Tang So-yeong had shouted.
“Wow. There’s all sorts of things here!”
The large rock I saw in the Silver Dragon Cave.
It was a rock with drawings along with scratch marks everywhere.
After glancing over it, I realized it was different from the one I saw before.
“I’m not very familiar with martial arts, but I can recognize the value of this mural.”
This mural? It’s pretty good.
The mural allowed me to use Dragon Claws when I knew nothing.
It would probably hold the value of a Low-level Core.
“It looks like a secret manual of various martial arts sects turned into a mural. Although the explanations are lacking and only the basic movements are recorded, this is still an incredibly valuable artifact. …If this stone’s information spreads in the martial world, it could cause a real bloodbath.”
That much?
Was it really that valuable?
I thought it was like an educational booklet stuck to the refrigerator, but it was at the level of a legendary secret manual?
I slightly moved my claws.
The martial art drawn on the mural, Dragon Claws.
Baek Yeonyeong taught me this martial art.
She said she didn’t use it often, but she mastered it completely.
Since it was a martial art mastered by someone as strong as Baek Yeonyeong, I knew Dragon Claws was not an ordinary martial art.
She also said it originally belonged to the Shaolin.
So, are all the murals here at least at the level of Dragon Claws?
“…It even includes the Plum Blossom Sword Technique of the Huashan Sect and the Sword Technique of the Namgung Clan. I can’t understand it just by looking, but experts would go wild over this mural.”
The Huashan Sect and the Namgung Clan.
Even someone like me, who doesn’t read much martial arts fiction, knew those names.
The previous mural probably also had many such martial arts.
Unfortunately, sword techniques were not my specialty.
I used a sword when fighting Dilophosaurus, but it couldn’t become my main skill.
If I aimed for unpredictability, I could use it, but my Dragon Claws were superior in every way to any sword.
“Some of the characters are erased… This is the Goryong Kick? Wow. I can’t believe there’s a martial art that’s said to have been lost!”
Goryong Kick?
I’d never heard of it, but it piqued my interest.
At least it was a kicking technique.
My current fighting style relied entirely on my hands.
Although I often used poison, if I encountered an opponent like Dilophosaurus who was immune to poison, I would have to rely solely on my footwork and Dragon Claws to fight.
If I could add a kicking technique to my fighting style, it would allow for a lot of variations.
Moreover, it had “dragon” in its name.
Soaring Dragon’s Ascension Step, Dragon Claws, Dragon Scale.
And now, Goryong Kick.
Let’s go.
Of course, I didn’t think I could learn martial arts just by looking at the drawings.
At the very least, I would have to live here and practice the movements daily to barely learn it.
But now wasn’t the time for that.
Soon, I had to take Nephila Jurassica to Sichuan.
Initially, I thought about staying there, but my mind changed.
If there were two such murals, there must be more.
No, there definitely were more.
I would take Nephila Jurassica to Sichuan.
After waiting for her treatment to end, I would return to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains with the spiders.
Of course, if Tang So-yeong wanted to stay in Sichuan, I would leave her there, but these spiders wouldn’t want to leave my side.
Like it or not, we had to go together.
“Gek Gek!”
Of course, I knew the distance between Sichuan and the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains was quite far, but at most, it would take a week.
…Maybe not?
Still, I felt a desire to stay in these Hundred Thousand Great Mountains longer.
Once Nephila was treated, I would immediately return to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
First, I had to perfectly learn the martial arts engraved on this mural, then search for another mural.
If I continued to gain strength that way, I could undergo another evolution.
Like Nephila Jurassica.
Even if not, there was no reason to refuse if I could become stronger.
First, I had to memorize the movements of this Goryong Kick.
I would practice them whenever I had the chance while taking Nephila to Sichuan.
There were a lot of movements.
But none seemed impossible to follow.
If I mixed in my tail, it could have an even better effect.
Tang So-yeong was pressing her temples while examining other martial arts.
She seemed to be trying to memorize it like I was, but judging by how her eyes kept darting back and forth, she was likely to fail.
Don’t be too greedy; focus on just one.
“Ugh… If I memorize this and return, my position will be solidified…”
Indeed, it’s akin to stealing martial arts from another sect or family.
The Tang family would welcome her with open arms.
Of course, that’s assuming Tang So-yeong could perfectly memorize it.
“If we stay here for a month. No, just another week… No, what am I saying. With Lady Spider here…”
She knew well.
The sooner we returned, the safer Nephila would be.
Let’s just look at this and leave immediately.
“…Huh, what’s that?”
Tang So-yeong raised her head and looked up.
Yes.
There it was.
It was a trace I’d seen on the previous mural.
Should I call it a sword scar?
It looked like the marks of a beast’s claws.
“That beast we saw earlier couldn’t have left this, it’s too high up.”
The marks were engraved at a height of about 5-6 meters.
Since it was more than twice the height of the Utahraptor, it was unlikely that it had left them.
“It’s carved very high up… But the size is small. It’s strange. If a beast could reach that height, it would be enormous, but can its claws be that small?”
Was she saying it wasn’t a beast’s mark?
Looking closely, it seemed like it could be depicting a martial arts technique.
Straight and curved lines were randomly connected.
This was difficult.
Would I find out the nature of those marks if I examined more murals in other places?
I had even more reason to return here.
I couldn’t stand being curious.
Just as I finished almost exploring the mural and was about to forcibly drag Tang So-yeong, who wanted to look a little more, and the still-debating spiders, it happened.
Thump.
Thump.
I heard something rapidly approaching inside the cave.
I recognized this sound.
It was the Utahraptor I saw earlier.
The sound of my elixir thief returning.
Perfect timing.
Thump!
【Utahraptor lv27】
【Status】
「Frightened」「Exhausted」
The Utahraptor ran toward me at high speed.
Alright.
This time, I’ll accept you.
…But its condition seemed odd?
No way.
Thump!
Thump!
The Utahraptor once again ran past me and fled deep into the cave.
What the hell was that?
“Sorry. It must’ve run away in fear of my Ten Thousand Flower Mist.”
I ignored Tang So-yeong’s nonsense and thought hard.
That Utahraptor was extremely cowardly.
It was clearly scared of me and had fled outside.
Yet it came back to this place.
Even though I was still here.
Even after seeing my face, it ran inside blindly.
Why?
The answer was simple.
It had encountered something it feared more than me.
Thump!
And that something had chased the Utahraptor here.
Boom!
“Th-that is!”
Tang So-yeong screamed.
“It’s an enchanted beast!”
The creature revealed itself.
A gigantic armored beast reminiscent of a tank.
It had massive protrusions on its tail.
Smash!
It crushed everything in sight with its tail as it walked on all fours.
“A-an Ankylosaurus!”
Yes. The name of that fearsome creature could only be Ankylosaurus.
9
【Anodontosaurus lv32】
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【Anodontosaurus】
Its body length is about 4-5 meters, and it can weigh up to 2 tons, making it a medium-sized ankylosaurid. It is the closest species to the Ankylosaurus and is characterized by its dorsal osteoderms and the massive, hammer-like bone on its tail. Although it is a herbivorous dinosaur, it is not very docile, so even predators are reluctant to confront it.
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