“Dodge.”

Kim Songcheol moved to the left and reached out to Setsu. Setsu was already performing an evasion maneuver.

This was because the neck of one of the heads had greatly swollen.

Kwaaaah!

The moment something bulging moved towards its maw, hot flames shot out.

It wasn’t light flames like fire, but sticky flames like lava.

The stream of fire swept through the spot where Kim Songcheol and Setsu had just been, then pursued Kim Songcheol according to the maw’s direction of movement.

‘This puts me at a disadvantage.’

Kim Songcheol deployed his Fly Magic at full speed.

On the other hand, the Lava Dragon’s head could target hundreds of meters by simply turning its head slightly.

The way its head turned in response to Kim Songcheol’s movements was incredibly annoying.

“Are all Grade 5 quests this difficult!?

“Probably!?

Setsu grumbled as he moved quickly. Another stream of fire was already slicing through the air, targeting Setsu.

The Lava Dragon had nine heads.

If it wanted to, it could shoot out nine streams of fire.

“Agh!”

Setsu, who had been flying around to avoid the flames, reached out his hand towards the Lava Dragon.

Half-green donuts flew into the Lava Dragon’s maw and got stuck, and the next moment, the donuts stretched out and became complete donuts.

He had muzzled its maw.

When he repeated that nine times quickly, the Lava Dragons began to go wild.

Because their maws were filled, they couldn’t breathe fire and were extremely frustrated.

In the meantime, Setsu joined Kim Songcheol. For now, they had bought some time. The next part was the problem.

“What should we do?”

“Indeed.”

Kim Songcheol scratched his crotch, a habit of his.

Lava Dragons live in the Lava Lake, but only their scales and hide protect their bodies; their insides were no different from ordinary monsters.

It meant that if lava touched their heart, it would burn.

They needed a way to extract the heart without lava touching it from the body submerged in lava.

Rupture spear!

Just then, one muzzle burst. It couldn’t withstand the Lava Dragon’s bite force. Once one was free from the muzzle, all nine quickly removed their muzzles.

This was because the heads bit and tore at each other’s muzzles, adding to the effort.

“Here they come again.”

Kim Songcheol and Setsu widened the distance as if someone had pulled them from both sides. Flames swept through the spot where the two had been standing just moments before.

The Lava Dragon heads continuously shot out flames.

They even swung their tails, lashing the lava, and the lava would surge like a rupture wave.

It would be one thing if they were playing in a swimming pool, but with lava flying at them, Kim Songcheol and Setsu had no choice but to dodge diligently.

‘If I just kill it, its body will sink…’

If his body were submerged in that boiling lava, Kim Songcheol wouldn’t have an easy way to penetrate it.

It was then.

“Ah, it’s going in…?”

‘Right, I just need to go in, don’t I?’

An idea flashed in Kim Songcheol’s mind.

“Setsu!”

Kim Songcheol explained his idea to Setsu.

“Yes…!?”

Setsu immediately reacted with rejection, shaking his head.

“No, I can do it if you just help me.”

But when Kim Songcheol spoke with confidence, Setsu was quickly persuaded.

This was because he trusted Kim Songcheol so much.

Moreover, it was rare for him to speak with such confidence.

The two ascended into the sky, avoiding the flames. Following Kim Songcheol’s suggestion, Setsu created three or four layers of spheres to surround them.

It looked as if the two of them had boarded a small submarine.

Kim Songcheol blocked the window-like part with transparent defensive magic and then wrapped defensive magic around the sphere again.

“Depart!”

The sphere charged towards the Lava Dragon’s fifth head. A stream of fire was shot at the sphere, but a mere stream of fire could not stop Setsu’s propulsion.

“It’s incredibly hot.”

Kim Songcheol continued casting defensive magic that kept breaking. When two or three streams of fire gathered, the defensive magic quickly dissipated. If it weren’t for Setsu’s Insulating Sphere, the defensive magic alone wouldn’t have been able to withstand the heat.

“I’m going in!”

Setsu drove the sphere into the Lava Dragon’s maw.

As a large foreign object entered, the Lava Dragon’s throat constricted, but Setsu created a pillar to secure space.

The sphere passed through the throat and went directly into the intestines.

“It really went in…?”

Setsu looked around, as if disbelieving. Since Kim Songcheol had already cast light magic, the inside of the stomach was clearly visible.

There was no more scorching flame. Below, there was only the strong gastric acid of the acid fortress.

“You know, right? We need to quickly package the heart and go up.”

“Ah, yes!”

Kim Songcheol explained the plan to Setsu one more time and gauged the location of the heart.

A throbbing sound was spreading from above his head, slightly to the right.

‘If I just pierce the stomach, it’ll be a mess, right…?’

To make the smallest possible incision, Kim Songcheol cast 2nd-tier Electric Shock Magic.

“Get closer over there.”

As Setsu moved the sphere closer to the heart, Kim Songcheol pulled out a very thin, dense thread of Electric Shock and incised the stomach.

Rumble…!

Perhaps due to the pain, its body shook once, but it wasn’t a large movement. The incision was small compared to the size of the stomach and cut so sharply that it didn’t seem to hurt much.

Kim Songcheol checked the heart through the opening. A heart not so large for its size was pulsating among unknown organs.

“That’s it.”

“Where?”

“There.”

“Ah, I see it.”

“We have to do it right away. You know, right?”

“Yes! I can do it.”

“Good.”

Kim Songcheol shot seven threads of Electric Shock at once, severing the blood vessels around the heart simultaneously, and at the same time, Setsu’s sphere quickly wrapped around and packaged the heart.

“Quickly, quickly! Let’s go!”

The Lava Dragon’s entire body twisted violently once.

While fending off the incoming gastric acid with defensive magic, Setsu moved the sphere towards the throat.

As they hurriedly tried to exit through the throat to the maw, the neck gradually tilted. Having lost its heart, it must have died instantly. The neck, which had been standing upright, seemed to be slowly falling into the lava.

“We’ll have to make an emergency escape.”

Kim Songcheol said in a not-so-urgent tone, firing a large Electric Shock Rupture towards the throat wall. A hole immediately opened, revealing the sky.

Setsu drove the sphere out through that hole, followed by the sphere containing the packaged heart.

Below, the Lava Dragon, having lost its heart and consequently its life, was sinking beneath the Lava Lake.

Seven of its nine heads were already out of sight, and two were slowly disappearing beneath the lava.

“See, it’s done, right?”

“It really is done, haha.”

Setsu finally laughed then. It was a very fresh experience. While there was almost nothing fresh for someone Setsu’s age, exploring inside a Monster’s body was incomparable to a simple science exhibition.

Whatever the process, the request was completed by extracting the heart.

After sending a message that the request was completed, Kim Songcheol went to the meeting place and found Disnothingness and Tori waiting.

“Here is the heart.”

Kim Songcheol handed the nearly 4-meter-long heart mass to Disnothingness.

“It’s perfect.”

Disnothingness nodded with satisfaction and casually put the heart into his Subspace.

Then, he motioned to his disciple, Tori, who took out a Medal and completed the request.

Soon, a ‘ding!’ sound was heard from Kim Songcheol’s Medal.

Since the request was completed, he would be able to share the Magic.

“Um, by the way, how should I contact you if I want to meet you again in a higher Dungeon?”

Kim Songcheol asked Disnothingness. Disnothingness was an expert in the field of Magic development. There might be other matters to discuss with him.

“It won’t be difficult, as my disciple is also up there. He’s also a member of the Magic Alliance. Just tell the fellow named ‘Naitin’.”

“Oh, I see. Thank you.”

“Thanks for what? But seriously, aren’t you going to learn Magic development?”

“As I told you…”

“Tsk.”

He knew Kim Songcheol’s situation of needing to collect Points. It wasn’t something to push while ignoring that.

“Then there’s nothing more to say. Take care of yourself and stay healthy.”

“See you again next time! Thank you! Hehe!”

The stubborn master and the talkative disciple disappeared into the Stone Slab.

After seeing them off, Kim Songcheol chose his request rewards. There were two rewards in total.

The reward for Tori’s Emergency Rescue Request and the reward for the Lava Dragon’s request.

The rewards to receive were already decided.

They were the Earth Castle 2nd-tier Magic Rock Crush and the Wind Castle 2nd-tier Magic Tempa Rupture.

With this, all five major Castle Magics were collected.

All that remained were the Points to acquire the 2nd-tier Light Castle Magic, Lucentem.

***

Kim Songcheol was granted quite a lot of time.

Time to learn the newly acquired 2nd-tier Magic, and time to collect enough Points to buy Lucentem.

Lucentem cannot be shared simply by completing a Grade 5 request. It’s expensive.

So, Kim Songcheol diligently collected Points while learning Magic.

He had been accumulating Points little by little for Lucentem from the start.

After transferring the necessary Points to the Republic of Korea and steadily saving the rest, he had accumulated enough Points to buy it.

‘I have to buy this.’

The price of Lucentem was 6.45 million Points.

These were the points he’d painstakingly gathered over several months, exploring altars and hunting monsters with Setsu.

His hands trembled at the enormous sum.

But his belief that he should buy it when he could afford it remained unchanged.

You never know what might happen in a dungeon.

You had to acquire strength when you had the chance.

‘I’m doing it.’

As Kim Songcheol purchased Lucentem, a thick magic book appeared in mid-air and dropped into his hands.

It was a book twice as thick as other second-tier magic books.

It seemed there was a reason it was so expensive.

Kim Songcheol took the magic book and immediately returned home.

Sitting at his desk, he opened the magic book, and the world of Lucentem unfolded before Kim Songcheol.

Its beginning was kind.

It whispered why five attributes were necessary, and Kim Songcheol fully understood that whisper.

It was as if he could visualize the five attributes, each a different color, intertwining and twisting together before transforming into a pure white light.

But that wasn’t all.

After creating light, Lucentem isn’t completed simply by displaying it everywhere.

One must be able to control that light with precision.

Light that reflects, refracts, yet travels straight for an instant.

And concepts are mixed into it.

Beginning, purification, destruction, creation, judgment, divinity, order…

That’s why second-tier magic manifests slightly differently for each mage. Because everyone’s concepts are slightly different.

Kim Songcheol mixed his concepts into the light born from the five attributes, creating his own unique light.

It happened so naturally.

“Lucentem.”

A spherical magic formation was completed in Kim Songcheol’s hand.

As he waved his hand, the ceiling vanished with his gesture, revealing the night sky.

Sweeping his hand across the sky once more, the clouds parted, revealing the galaxy.

It was nothing special.

Because he didn’t actually make the ceiling disappear or clear the clouds.

He merely adjusted the light pouring from the universe, making it penetrate the atmosphere and ceiling to directly enter his eyes.

Kim Songcheol gazed at the beautiful night sky.

His expression was satisfied.

But perhaps it was because the night sky twinkled so brightly.

In his deepest depths.

He failed to notice a tiny light flicker just once in that darkest place.