Chapter 77: Whaling

Dragons are born at level 22,222, huh.

So many 2s… no, so many 2s.

In that world, people start at level 1.

In this world, people have no levels at all; only stats exist.

In short, the leveling system is ridiculously biased toward racial advantages.

At this level, most beings would normally block information with intelligence or magic, but this baby dragon doesn’t seem to have any intention of doing so.

Actually, it doesn’t seem capable of thinking at all right now.

Still, it’s cute for a baby.

“It looks like a chick. Wanna try ‘peep peep’?”

According to the Nightmare Queen’s testimony, their world has a strange genetic law where post-birth acquired levels are inherited.

And if you follow evolution, birds are descendants of theropod dinosaurs, so minus the beak, it really is a chick.

When I reach out my hand, it climbs up with those bright, round eyes.

“Wang, wang.”

“Shh, no barking.”

It opens its mouth wide, then looks back and forth between its own wings and the dog rice cake in the fridge; now dragon-dog rice cake.

Hungry?

[What kind of dog nonsense is this? Huh?]

It’s the middle of the night, so I’m whispering, yet CatMan pokes his head through the slightly open veranda sliding door.

Being pitch black, only his light-green eyes gleam.

“Shhh.”

[Are you an idiot? Am I the one crying right now?]

“Ah, right.”

I shushed CatMan too.

He speaks telepathically, so only I end up looking like a fool.

[Isn’t this the egg that dragon lady laid? Why does it look like a chicken? And why is it barking?]

“It just keeps getting worse. Hey, if I feed it your cat food, it might start meowing.”

[Hm, that food is mine, though?]

“Oh, so I should just let it keep barking?”

[Open a can for it.]

Better to feed it cat food than dog rice cake.

I opened one can.

I pushed it over, and after sniffing for a moment, it immediately buried its head and started chowing down.

“Oh, it doesn’t need milk?”

Of course.

If it had whined for milk, things would’ve gotten troublesome.

When you think about it, it’s not a mammal; this is normal.

The moment I posted on the veggie market app, “Looking for breast milk, for a chick,” I’d be reported to every agency imaginable.

And the dragon/dog baby that had been eating the cat food now lifts its head and cries:

“Meow.”

It really spoke cat?

It’s a little quieter than barking, at least.

The can does have a picture of a pretty cat that CatMan occasionally licks the surface of, but eating cat food makes it imitate cat language?

“If I feed it, it might meow.”

It probably just has high enough intelligence to understand speech.

[Hmph, a fellow who knows manners.]

CatMan looks extremely pleased.

More than pleased, he sits cross-legged like a person, front paws tucked under his armpits, nodding in an unprecedented human imitation.

He almost looks like a father-in-law receiving a bow from a son-in-law who came to greet him, except he doesn’t know what to do with his tail.

It’s floating around excitedly.

RiceCookerMan had the same problem with his power-cord tail(?), but this guy is worse.

[Heh heh, he accepts it perfectly. Good. From now on, I shall raise this dragon as a tiger, just like me.]

A level-400-something cat has no shortage of things to say to a level-22,222 dragon.

“You? A tiger? Where?”

[Since I follow the Kim family master, I officially change my name to Kim Beom effective today.]

Yes, next CatMan.

His ego has gone insane.

A cat the size of a fist is declaring himself a tiger.

It’s no different from some local warlord proclaiming himself emperor after taking one county.

[Come here, I will grant you the combat power of both dragon and tiger…]

CatMan even tries to pet the meowing baby dragon because he finds it admirable.

“Ang.”

“Meeeoooowww, kyaaaaaoooooooong!?”

The baby dragon bites CatMan’s front paw.

CatMan, who is easily twenty to thirty times larger, gets bitten by the chick-sized baby dragon and makes a fool of himself.

Baby dragons start with all base stats at 1,000.

Bite marks… are definitely going to show.

I’d better not touch CatMan until the dragon lets go.

Not a dragon for nothing.

“Hey, quiet down. It’s the middle of the night, stop yowling and…”

[Ack, a cat is dying here.]

“Isn’t this better than getting waterboarded? You let go too.”

You crazy cat, telling a dragon to live like a cat; of course the dragon rebels!

I wanted to stab him with that, but…

[Hey, hey, do something about this thing!]

That chick has some temper. It bit so hard CatMan’s paw fur was flying, so I intervened first.

Come to think of it, CatMan…

Yeah, that’s right.

I hadn’t realized, but CatMan’s lost fur regenerates with super regeneration too.

Transplanting CatMan’s skin to my head might cure baldness.

“Stop biting, okay?”

“Oh?”

When I told it to stop, the baby dragon instantly mimicked me.

Wow, its intelligence is so high it immediately copies Korean?

Is its mouth structured that way?

That dragon lady used telepathy when in dragon form and only spoke directly after polymorphing.

Do the vocal organs degenerate as they grow?

Anyway.

“Oh, good. Stop biting. Don’t do ‘ang’ anymore.”

“Don’t do?”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t do it.”

Of course, it probably doesn’t understand the meaning.

So I pretended to bite my own wrist and then let go.

A newborn understanding language would naturally be too much.

Even for a race that starts with 1,000 intelligence.

Then it happened.

<Your level is rising.>

My level suddenly jumped to 819.

Almost ten levels at once; this is the kind of number I only got when the Nightmare Queen stripped completely while tiny.

I turned around just in case, but the Nightmare Queen was sleeping soundly in the mini bed inside the princess’s house.

That thing is plastic; isn’t it hard?

Her body is similar to a Barbie doll’s, so maybe I should buy some Barbie clothes for her.

<Trait: Teaching has been awakened.>

“Huh?”

<Trait – Teaching>

By teaching skills, knowledge, traits, etc. to others, you simultaneously raise both their level and your own.

The amount increased grows higher the more the opponent comprehends, and especially when the opponent’s level is high and might not listen to you.

It’s like just being a teacher raises your level?

Now that I’ve obtained this, I realize:

Couldn’t an upwardly mobile society be created just by leveling up this way?

Is it because I’m the one teaching a dragon?

<Trait – Dragon Affinity>

The penalty that reduced magic stat growth for humans is lessened.

While near dragons, magic stat can be raised normally.

And the penalty that previously allowed only 1 magic point for every 2 stat points assigned to it has disappeared.

The eyes that the black dragon had kept closed opened.

“Mmm.”

***

The moment the Black Dragon grasped the situation in the otherworld was the last time sugar and alcohol particles from this side had filled the air.

There had been no further progress from the memories of this world obtained through those sugar and alcohol particles.

The Black Dragon’s main strategy was to control limit-break artifacts from the other side with overwhelming magic power.

A strategy that confuses or eliminates the opponent without giving them level-ups, then exploiting the fact that the giant, despite being a giant, likely possesses human attributes.

It was currently employing water attacks and methods that make victims voluntarily offer their souls.

It was planning to deploy the Black Sea, but since the Nightmare Queen knew of the Black Sea’s horror just as well, caution was required.

This operation would be postponed until after a few more water attacks, until the giant was completely fooled.

The plan was to induce the giant to lower his guard, thinking, “All they know how to do is attack with water.”

A few more deceptions, then one all-out feint; there was no other way.

“There’s no way to know right now whether that woman or the giant is the real leader.”

No matter how high intelligence and magic power are, grasping the situation beyond the gate is difficult.

Who the actual leader of the dungeon where the gate opened is; that is crucial.

Whether to tailor the strategy against the Nightmare Queen or against the giant is ambiguous.

Then the dragon flinched toward the gate.

“Dragon presence?”

While examining the gate, the Black Dragon sensed the aura of a fellow dragon surging from the other side.

It knew that the White Dragon who used to live in a lair near the succubus clan had used the gate.

“If that bastard has obtained a dragon, this is no simple matter.”

The Black Dragon had no choice.

Even if it meant giving the enemy a chance to level up, sending a scout was now correct.

“If you focus only on countermeasures against the Nightmare Queen, I will depart. I can cut off a part of my body to pass on memories, so please send me.”

The one appealing to the maritime clan leader, the Black Dragon, was the Octopus Queen.

Not long ago, she had sent her son in response to the Nightmare Queen’s recruitment, only for him to be killed by the giant, making her invasion desire particularly fierce.

Above all, if the Octopus Queen cut off one leg and left it here, she could telepathically show the Black Dragon everything she had seen in this world.

“Now, no barking, shh.”

“Ang, ang, grrrrrr.”

<King of Dogs>

Resonates with dogs, increasing power.

***

The baby dragon shows no intention of hiding its skills, power, or stats.

As a result, the skills of Cerberus, which had become ingredients for the dog rice cake, were perfectly inherited…

And now the Maltese and Pomeranian upstairs are going berserk.

[Ang, ang, ang, ang.]

[Grrrrrr.]

[504! You bastard! This time it really is your dog! Pick up the damn phone! Why can’t any of the 4th-floor people ever communicate?! Ugh, I should just sell this place!]

Sigh.

“The moment I seize power in this studio apartment, every dog owner is exiled.”

[Excellent idea. I hate dogs.]

First standing ovation I’ve ever received from CatMan.

I’ll clear out the entire second floor, and the first floor too.

There’s no reason for me to attack upward through the air, so I only plan to evict 303 directly above me and let the rest stay under contract.

Then there’s the management office the landlord grandpa used on the top floor, plus a small storage room on the rooftop that looks like it was meant for a penthouse.

I’m thinking of putting a parasol to block the sun up there, a camping tent, grilling meat, sunbathing; basically my own rooftop.

“Ungh, uuuungh. Noisy.”

The Fairy Princess, who had been sleeping face-down, rolls over and grumbles.

The princess now sleeps sideways on my bed with her feet sticking out.

If she keeps growing and becomes an adult, I’ll have to prepare a proper room for her.

“But why does the princess keep growing?”

“Because she receives lots of love!”

Look at her pretty way of speaking.

All that love-paid parenting is worth it.

The only problem is she’s growing too fast and might actually reach human size.

“As a fairy race born from trees, she cannot help but be influenced by the soil. Receiving abundant nutrients from it is probably the reason.”

“Because she received this neighborhood’s soil, water, sunlight, and wind. That must be it.”

“And love too!”

Ah, earth, fire, wind, water, heart.

“Grrrr, grrr, ang, ang, ang!”

Meanwhile, the baby dragon resonates with the dogs upstairs and even starts trembling.

This is actually a skill?

<Dog Freakout>

Performs dog freakout.

Sigh.

“A dragon doing dog freakout? Don’t do it. Shh.”

“Shh?”

Taming the dragon is surprisingly giving me levels too.

Compared to the days of leveling up by enduring (ego destruction) against the Nightmare Queen, this is a huge improvement.

The Nightmare Queen glances over while watching TV, says one line, and turns away.

“Hmmm, I can’t hear a thing. What a truly useless race.”

“You’re basically its aunt, is it okay to say that?”

“I am not!”

She slams the princess house door like a sulky teenager and goes inside.

They say you grow fond through fighting, but the Queen never became friends with the dragon lady, it seems.

On the other hand, CatMan is showing weird persistent interest.

[I told you, it must be raised like a tiger.]

Why are you the one doing <Dog Freakout>?

“Go ahead, you try.”

[Now, no dog freakout. You are a cat. Why follow mere dogs?]

That insane cat is starting an ideological cat/dog debate with a dragon that’s barely a day old.

He’s doing his absolute best to convert it to the pro-cat faction, constantly trying to instill the spirit of a tiger.

And then.

Ang.

“Kyaaaaaoooooooong?! Iyyyyaaaaaaaang.”

This time it bit his tail.

Why is he like this? That idiot.

[Signal coming from the gate. Everyone on alert. MyaaaaaaaAAAAaaaaaaa. MyaaaaaaAAAA.]

Right then, RiceCookerMan starts sounding the air-raid siren.

I was wondering why nothing came for a while.

Phew.

I strapped a pot lid and knife to my waist and waited.

“Alright, fighters get ready, non-fighters evacuate. You all know the drill without me saying it now, right? Princess, can you take the baby dragon and hide?”

“Ah, okay! I’ll help later! When I’m bigger, I’ll help.”

Aww, so cute.

“Hey, and RiceCooker, stop sending the myaaaAAAAaaa.”

The word “myaaaAAAAaaa” is literally engraving itself into my brain. He keeps spamming the message.

At this point it’s not telepathy, it’s spam mail.

The current roster is fully loaded.

I don’t know what that black salamander is planning, but even the baby dragon seems combat-ready with dog freakout.

The more fighters, the better right now; just fight.

What’s coming out this time? Hm?

Splash, splash.

“What the hell is this again?”

That world is way too obsessed with its concept.

This time, a swarm of anchovy-sized fish starts pouring out of the gate.

Each fish seems slightly different, but they’re all fundamentally tiny; everything just looks like anchovies.

They have labels above their heads so identification is possible, but I gave up.

There’s too many.

If I raise my magic and acquire the <Focus> skill, I could distinguish them one by one when this many appear, but I really don’t want to.

Sardines, tilapia, krill, crabs, scallops, etc.

All kinds of seafood are pouring out indiscriminately.

“Krill is insane. Seriously.”

Krill are already tiny, so how microscopically small are krill shrimp in that world?

And they’re fresh.

The moment they come out of the gate and hit my floor, they start flopping around.

“Wait, a black scraper this small?”

I saw a label for black scraper, a normally large fish, but since they’re from the Lilliputian ocean, the biggest ones are only slightly larger anchovy size.

Why is the otherworld running a fry-release program in my room?

For the fishy smell and sea scent, ice is still the answer.

I was about to freeze everything just in case of some attack.

[Eat… Hey, behind, behind!]

CatMan, who had shown unusual interest in the fish, shouts urgently.

As fish pour out of the gate, a magic circle simultaneously forms in the air near the gate.

SPLASH.

A whale drops down.

“Whoa!?”

And true to being a whale, it’s about CatMan-sized.

However, there was no level above the whale’s head, and it was already dead.