Spending My Retirement In A Game

The black dragon's growl reverberated through the cave, as Eisen stared deeply at the cut on its face. It was the one that was cursed, but it made that ability its own. That explained why the black dragon wasn't fighting on its own all that much. Rather, it seemed offended and upset when Eisen got through the first part of the trial, meaning that the dragon had to fight him. It really did seem like this dragon was as much of a battle maniac as most black dragons were, so why was this one so apprehensive to actually following through with it? Simple; because it was weak.

It had been cursed. It was worried that someone was actually going to beat it, so it decided to just blast any challenger with cursed energy beforehand. Even if they were able to get through to the end, they would usually be severely weakened. This dragon was a coward, nothing else. And maybe... Eisen could take advantage of that.

"Child? Did you just call me child?! How dare you, I am an ancient black dragon!"

Eisen sighed, shaking his head, "So? What does that make you? One, maybe two thousand years old? That sounds like a child to me. A toddler, really," the old man scoffed, disappointed. The dragon, filled with complete rage, built up its body and practically screamed out at the man in front of it.

"Shut your mouth, you mag-"

"No! You shut your mouth!" Eisen interrupted the dragon, immediately growing to the maximum. He didn't even fit into this cave properly anymore, towering over the black dragon. His true demonic transformation was tuned toward intimidation, and flames sparked up behind his teeth as he spoke. That was the first time Eisen saw a dragon flinch, at least in his current memory, "What? Cat got your tongue? Your rotten, infested tongue?"

"Who- Who are you?! How dare you walk into this place, pretending to take my trial and-" Continue your adventure at empire

"Pretending? Oh, but I'm not pretending," Eisen said, stretching out his hand toward the dragon. With the sheer weight of his body, he pressed it down onto the ground. Truly, this kid was barely as strong as a dragon that barely became an adult. An adolescent. That curse really did it in, "Let's count that as two, by the way. And before you speak, remember that I am the one in control right now. Because if you say anything that pisses me off, the third will be your last."

The black dragon tried to free itself, but its muscles were too weak. It was understandable. The entrance to this cave was too small for its body, and it didn't seem like this dragon was capable of using much regular magic. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been this easy to pin down. It was likely that through the curse, the dragon was either forced to stay here in the first place, or simply became unable to use magic, such as polymorph. Frankly, it was simply too large to leave the cave. It lived off the carcasses of the people that came to kill it, or people that its little cult fed it. This dragon's muscles completely atrophied, on top of the effect of the curse itself, plus it was severely malnutritioned. This wasn't an opponent. It was just a dying old dragon.

"What do you want from me? If you want to kill me, then just do it already! I've been dead for a long, long time anyway!"

Eisen rolled his eyes and squatted down, using his sword to pin it down, "I am here to take your trial, that's all. Make me your champion, give me the ability that comes with it, and I'm gone. Out of here."

"... That's all?"

"Yeah, of course. If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already," Eisen sighed, "Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed by how weak you are, but a curse-related ability still seems pretty useful."

The black dragon seemed upset, but it wasn't able to do anything against Eisen right now. Instead, it was just slightly struggling against his grip, pushing its body deeper into the old man's sword, "And what if I don't?"

A grin formed on Eisen's face as he squatted down, "I'll seal off the cave and let you starve to death, slowly and painfully"

The dragon growled, "Fine... Then remove your sword, and I will make you my champion."

Eisen nodded, pulling his sword away as the dragon started to speak.

"I hereby grant you the power to manipulate curses. Do whatever you want with it," the black dragon's speech became a bit slurred, as if granting this power actually took quite a lot of out it strength-wise. But well, Eisen didn't really care. He could feel an energy enter his body, as a broken system message popped up in front of his eyes for just a moment, telling him that he acquired a skill called 'Cursed Item Creation'. That should be good enough. It really did seem like this power adapted properly to whoever it was given to, since Eisen doubted that a black dragon would give out a crafting skill as a baseline ability.

As Eisen was thinking about how to test out this new skill, though, the black dragon lunged at him. It dug its fangs into the old man's shoulder, trying to tear at least a chunk of flesh out of him. However, instead of succeeding in that, the black dragon's teeth shattered almost the moment it tried to close its jaw.

"Pathetic," Eisen sighed, kicking the black dragon away. He wiped the saliva and bits of rotten teeth away from his shoulder, staring at the dragon, "You know I'm going to kill you now, right?"

The black dragon grinned, with black, worm-infested blood pouring from its mouth, "Ha- Haha, y-you can't kill me, because that would mean you would lose the skill I just gave you!" it tried to laugh off the situation, and Eisen rolled his eyes.

"Do you really think that's how that works?" Eisen asked. Maybe that was the case for regular players, but Eisen was different. He innately understood how to not have to lose something like these abilities, especially now that he got a closer understanding of them after the sytem was being suppressed. The old man tightened the grip on his sword, cutting into the dragon's body. It quickly lost its arm and a good chunk of its torso. But surprisingly, a few moments after the wound was covered in that thick black blood, it practically healed over. The dragon's arm wasn't regrown, but the wound healed. It wouldn't die from this.

"Aargh! How dare you- You are my champion! Lay down your sword and heed my words!" the black dragon screamed out, but Eisen really just ignored him while looking at the wound that had just healed so quickly.

"Huh. So that's it. The curse was meant to weaken you so that you can't fight back, but it also keeps you alive. No wonder you managed to survive here for so long," Eisen laughed loudly, "That makes things a bit easier, I guess. I was hoping that you would stay alive so that I can properly question you," he pointed out. Though, even if it had died, Eisen could have used a spell scroll prepared by Jyuuk to ask the dead dragon a few questions before it truly passed on.

Before the dragon could respond, he stabbed his sword into its body. At least it wouldn't die, so he could do whatever for now. Its heart was cleanly stabbed through, "Alright, tell me what you know about transcendent monsters in the area."

The black dragon seemed confused, "Transcendent? Wh-Why would there be a transcendent monster here?" it asked, and Eisen just groaned.

"I know there should be one somewhere around here, so just tell me where it is. It should be in a dungeon, so at least tell me where that is," Eisen said in a commanding tone, twisting his sword around. The black dragon barely reacted to the pain, though it still seemed a bit worried about what would happen to it.

"There is a dungeon h-hidden under the center of the forest... there's an enormous dead tree that acts as an entrance... at least, that's what it was the last time I was outside of this place.... If you want, I could guide you there, that would be a much easier way to-" the black dragon started, but Eisen didn't care. He verified that it said the truth, so Eisen didn't need it anymore. He pulled his sword through the dragon's body, cutting its head in half, before quickly incinerating it. He used an item to infuse his flames with the purging holy energy to fend off the curse at the same time, making it pretty easy to kill the dragon.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The moment it died, Eisen could feel something pulling on his soul, but he immediately blocked that sensation off, containing the ability he was gifted within himself. That being the case, all the other players that got an ability from this dragon should have lost it just now, so that should make defending the nearby town a lot easier.