Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 117 - 116 - The gatekeeper ends, and the boon.

The air froze.

Clara, Rufus, Jessy, Alex, and Jake—all paused mid-motion, the tempo of battle crashing to a halt.

Even the squirrels, halfway through another daring acorn assault, blinked and instinctively stopped moving.

Because the words had been shouted.

"That creature won’t attack until it’s attacked first!"

Suddenly, it all made sense.

The way it hadn’t moved when Selena and the others fought around it.

The way it had stood there during the early fight with Raven, responding only after a strike landed.

Raven stumbled back, blood smeared across his jaw, and looked toward Selena.

"...Are you serious?" He asked, panting.

Clara shouted, "Don’t hit it! Don’t provoke it!"

Raven blinked—processing.

Then his eyes widened.

’That’s why it protected Travis. I couldn’t even get close without triggering it.’

Jake, panting, glanced at the creature, whose head tilted slightly as if waiting for an excuse.

Alex, bloodied but grinning, spat on the ground. "So basically, we stop swinging, and it becomes a glorified statue?"

Jessy folded her arms. "A terrifying, bone-masked, eldritch nightmare statue, but yeah."

"Great," Alex said. "Raven punched a skyscraper for nothing."

BOOM.

The creature’s claw twitched—but didn’t move forward.

It was watching Raven.

Waiting.

’So long as we don’t attack...’

Just like that, Raven stopped his charge.

He lowered his sword, blood still dripping down his scales.

The creature didn’t move.

It simply tilted its head again.

Its vertical eye blinked slowly, rhythmically.

Then nothing.

Stillness returned.

Raven turned to Travis, his expression blank—but his aura deadly.

"You summoned something you can’t even control," Raven said quietly. "If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to kill yourself."

Travis chuckled, even as blood dribbled down his lip.

"But I do control it," he rasped. "It just has... conditions."

He coughed again. His face was paler now. The aging was progressing rapidly. His limbs trembled slightly.

’He’s nearly burned through all his life force.’

Raven took a step forward—but not toward the summon.

Toward Travis.

But the moment his foot moved—

"SKRRRRAAAAHHH—!!"

The creature shrieked and lunged forward, claws raised.

Raven barely managed to roll back, cursing.

’Yep. Attacking Travis also counts. That thing’s guarding the summoner, not just standing around.’

Mistress’s voice echoed in Selena’s mind again, a hint of amusement and annoyance blending.

’Tsk. Summoning laws are such a pain. Until the contract ends or the summoner dies, the summoned creature would protect their master—even if the idiot stabs himself.’

Even Alex would know that... probably.

Because summoners are like that—they are weak—but their summoned creatures are strong, and they protect them.

So, after staring at the gatekeeper for a while, Raven stepped forward, stopping just out of the radius that would make it look like he was attacking Travis.

"You don’t get it, do you?" Raven said, his voice dangerously quiet. "You lost."

Travis’s eyes twitched.

"You burned your lifespan to bring a being too strong for this world, yet you failed—"

"I didn’t fail!" Travis’s voice rose, a grin stretching across his bloody lips as he pointed at Lia and Siris. "Look at her! I killed her!"

Those words echoed through the silent clearing, clearly a provocation to Raven, but the protagonist didn’t even flinch; he stayed still, staring into Travis’s eyes.

"Are you done?" He asked, making Travis grit his teeth.

’Fuck!’ The villain cursed inwardly, glaring at the gatekeeper, who twitched but did not move.

Travis coughed violently. Blood splattered on his hand. "I still... have cards..."

"No. You don’t."

Raven’s tone sharpened. "You’re a dying parasite clinging to scraps. I don’t need to attack you. I just need to wait."

His smile curved, vicious, and patient.

"Your lifespan will run out before you do anything useful again."

Alex blinked. "Wait, is he doing a villain monologue?"

Clara: "Shhh. Let him enjoy this."

Travis’s hand trembled.

He glanced at the Gatekeeper.

At Raven.

At the dozen dead demonic humans that the squirrels were dragging away.

Then he turned to the entire group that stared at him like they were deciding whether to throw a funeral or throw hands.

For the first time, panic entered his eyes.

’I can’t win.’

His hand slid into his robe.

Raven noticed.

"Don’t you dare!"

But it was already too late.

FWIP.

The scroll shimmered with golden-blue light—the same ancient symbols as before.

"No, no, no—!"

FLASH.

The space around Travis was distorted.

A teleportation scroll.

Again.

"TRAVIS!!"

Raven lunged, claws scraping against the Gatekeeper’s perimeter—

—only for the creature to roar and swing a claw, forcing him back with a shockwave.

BOOOOOOM.

The ground cracked beneath Raven as he slid backward, eyes wide.

"NOOOOOOO—!!"

Too late.

FWOOOOOOSH!

In a burst of light and smoke—

Travis was gone.

Vanished.

Silence fell.

And then...

CRACK.

The Gatekeeper gave a single hiss—then slumped over.

Its limbs were folded.

Its body was petrified.

Then, it shattered into ash.

Gone with the summoner.

A long pause.

Everyone stared at the empty space.

Then—

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHH!!"

Raven screamed loud enough to shake nearby birds out of the trees.

"AGAIN!? AGAIN!?!?!?"

He threw his sword into a rock.

The rock exploded.

The squirrels ducked instinctively.

"SECOND TIME! SECOND FREAKING TIME!!"

He paced like a furious dragon with rabies, dragging clawed hands down his face.

Jessy whispered, "We should probably stop him before he punches the planet."

Selena sighed. "No. Let him work it out."

"WHO EVEN HAS THAT MANY TELEPORTATION SCROLLS?!"

"DOES HE HAVE A SUBSCRIPTION?!"

"IS THERE A ’GET OUT OF DEATH FREE’ MONTHLY PLAN?!"

Alex muttered, "Honestly, that might exist. The magic economy is weird."

Raven slammed his hand into a tree.

The tree shattered.

Jake observed everything silently, wondering if he should go stop Raven.

It was then that Nibbles walked up, gently patting Raven’s foot in sympathy.

Raven crouched, eyes bloodshot.

"I had him. He was right there. We just had to watch."

The squirrels saluted in mourning.

Clara walked forward, crouching beside him and touching his shoulder. "He can’t keep running forever."

Raven muttered, "I’m going to turn him into fertilizer next time. I’m going to plant a tree on his corpse and feed it demon blood. I’ll name the tree ’Disappointment.’"

Clara smiled. "That’s kind of sweet."

It was then that the air suddenly shifted.

It wasn’t like the wind shifted, nor the mana. It was something else entirely.

A shimmer—like sunlight refracting off the water—rolled through the clearing.

Colors danced on the edges of vision. Warmth bloomed across everyone’s skin.

Clara stood first, blinking. "What... is this?"

Rufus flexed his fingers, stunned. "My internal flow—it’s stabilizing?"

Jessy stared at her palm, eyes wide. "I feel like I’m close to breaking through the next level already..."

Jake clenched his fist, silent but visibly shaken.

Selena knelt, staring as the small wounds along her arms began to close, glowing faintly with pale light.

Even the squirrels stopped mid-salute. They glanced around, then down at their paws.

Nibbles squeaked.

Once.

Then again.

And then he screamed.

"SKREEEEEEEEE!!"

His tail sparked with mana.

Tiny bursts of aura exploded from dozens of squirrel bodies as the entire Clawtail Recon Squad and Nutfang Rapid Strike Unit glowed with awakening energy.

Squeaky gasped and fell over, twitching. "Squeak, squeak, SQUEAK?!"

Jessy blinked. "Wait. The squirrels are awakening mana pathways?"

One of the squirrels spontaneously created a tiny wind blade and accidentally shaved off part of Alex’s boot.

"Holy shit," Alex jumped in fright, his eyes wide. "They are awakening!"

Another squirrel formed a baby-sized fireball and immediately panicked as its tail caught fire.

Jake raised an eyebrow as the flaming squirrel ran in circles screaming, then jumped into a puddle.

Alex stared at Nibbles, who was still screaming.

"Guys! Nibbles is making an announcement! He says, ’We have become acorn gods. All tremble before our nut-fueled wrath.’"

Raven, still crouched in disbelief from Travis’s escape, slowly turned around.

"...What?"

But as he stared at the things going on around him, he realized something.

’Ah, the boon of surviving the disaster.’

Yes. It was the world giving them gifts for surviving the disaster called Gatekeeper.

This was similar to what had happened in the novel Raven had read.

In the last arc he read, the protagonist defeated the creature that made the world play a tune similar to the one they heard, and in return, he was rewarded.

Now, Raven could see those rewards being granted in real time.

Jessy, walking closer to him, added, "Nibbles just snapped a twig in half with his brainpower, by the way."

Another squirrel was floating three feet off the ground, spinning with a confused expression.

"Someone stop him before he ascends," Rufus muttered.

The healing continued. Everyone could feel it—like their cores were being cleansed, their power gently pushed upward.

Something... wanted them to grow.

Alex whispered, "This... doesn’t feel like normal magic."

And then—

A crackling sound.

All heads turned.

Lia.

Or rather—Lio.

Except...

She was floating.

Her eyes went blank as she rose slowly into the air, surrounded by radiant green light.

Her breathing was steady, eyes still shut, but her aura flared like a beacon.

And then... her form began to shift.

Her short hair grew slightly longer.

Her frame was subtly reshaped.

Her bindings, the slight enchantments concealing her figure... all faded.

The disguise collapsed.

Her real form was revealed before everyone.

Silence.

"Lio turned into a girl?!" Alex held his head. "He was gender-bent!"

Clara’s jaw dropped. "Wait—wait wait wait—Lio is a girl?!"

Jessy blinked. "Oh."

Jake, with his eyes calm as ever, nodded. "I knew it."

He was always skeptical, but now, he knew the truth.

His words, however, shocked everyone.

Everyone: "WHAT?! You knew?!"

Nibbles squeaked with an expression of utter betrayal.

"HE SAYS ’I TRUSTED HER WITH MY NUTS!’" Alex translated.

Everyone was shocked.

After all, they had never thought that Lio would turn out to be Lia.

Yes, he looked somewhat girly, and he had been acting strangely close to Raven for some time, but still.

They felt betrayed.

It wasn’t a heartbreaking betrayal, but they felt like they couldn’t realize the truth despite having clues.

It was then that Raven looked up at that, sighing.

"...I... was going to tell you guys. Eventually."

Jessy turned to him. "You knew!?"

"Found out during bath time."

"BATH TIME!?"

"I didn’t plan to find out! The bath betrayed me!"

"WHAT KIND OF FANFICTION SETUP—?!"

But Clara held up a hand.

"Look."

The group turned back to Lia.

She was glowing brighter now.

Vines of green energy curled around her limbs, her aura harmonizing with the forest itself.

The trees leaned closer, and the grass shimmered with soft pulses.

Something sacred was happening.

Selena murmured, "It’s like... the forest is recognizing her."

Jessy stepped forward. "No. It’s more than that."

Nibbles squeaked reverently.

"...He says, ’A new acorn has sprouted in the grove of fate.’"

Everyone fell silent.

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m