I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 196: Episode 2-3_Holy War (7)

Episode 196

Chapter 2-3. Holy War (7)

10.

[You have collected a soul.]

[You have plundered the form of the collected soul.]

He hadn’t been expecting much.

To be precise, he had been expecting it, yet not expecting it.

It was a contradictory way to put it, but it couldn’t be helped.

His sword strike had been aimed at “collecting a soul,” but in reality, the odds of that effect triggering were far lower than the odds of it failing.

Even if the collection chance had gone up by ten percent, he had no way of knowing what the base rate was. The minimum was ten percent, and at best, it would still be under fifty.

All he could do was pray.

’Please let it be collected.’

Fortunately, luck—or Cassius’s final gift—arrived safely.

Not only had he collected the soul, but he had also managed to plunder its most important part.

Up to this point, it was an unqualified, smashing success.

There was no reason to complain and nothing to be dissatisfied about.

From the very beginning, what Kim Buja had wanted was nothing other than the dragon’s form itself.

If the target had been some other monster, his reaction might have been different.

A troll, an ogre.

Collecting forms he could transform into might be useful someday, but it was hard to imagine they would be crucial at a truly important moment.

A dragon, however, was different.

Even with Hwangdo as a pet, the difference between having a dragon pet and being able to transform into a dragon himself was so vast it couldn’t even be put into words.

On top of that, he had no idea how long it would take for Hwangdo to grow into a form comparable to Cassius’s.

That was why he had hoped, and why that hope had been fulfilled.

Grrrrrrr...!

It was a perfect transformation.

[Due to a soul that falls short of the body’s rank, your transformation time is limited.]

He couldn’t become a dragon perfectly, but he had already anticipated that problem.

It was a relief that there were no special penalties, like a broken wing or some crippling flaw that would prevent him from flying.

The only limitation was that, with his current level and stats, he could maintain the form for about two hours.

It was such a minor drawback that it barely qualified as a penalty.

He accepted it with a grin.

Two hours was more than enough time to do just about anything he could want in a dragon’s body and still make it back.

And that wasn’t all.

[You have stolen the Unique Skill of the collected soul.]

[You can use the Unique Skill Breath while in transformed form.]

Whether it was Cassius’s will shining through, divine intervention, or simply Kim Buja’s good luck, he had managed to plunder two things at once, giving him the chance to experience what it felt like to become a true dragon.

Of course, there was no way Breath would be free to use when his transformation was already limited to two hours as a penalty.

[Due to a soul that falls short of the body’s rank, a penalty is applied to the use of the Unique Skill Breath.]

[The destructive power of the Unique Skill Breath is reduced by 90%.]

[Using the Unique Skill Breath consumes 500,000 gold.]

Five hundred thousand gold per use.

When he first saw that, Kim Buja had just snorted dismissively.

“Who the hell would use this?”

There might come a day when he needed it.

But that would probably be when he was completely wasted and not in his right mind, or when he was literally on the verge of death—one of the two.

Aside from that, he swore he would never use it.

Even if he had blown a ton of gold on pure performance value in the past, this was different.

Even as he was planning to use Cassius’s form to change the tide of the Holy War, he had no intention of including Breath in that plan.

At least, that was what he thought at the time.

Then came the final soul-collection hologram that shook that resolve.

[You have stolen part of the collected soul’s Skills.]

[You can use some of these Skills while in transformed form.]

[Due to a soul that falls short of the body’s rank, a penalty is applied to the use of these Skills.]

“I’ll put them to really good use.”

Looking at the spot where Cassius had vanished into nature without leaving even a handful of ash behind, with only the dragon heart remaining, Kim Buja spoke with genuine sincerity.

He did feel like he had just been given yet another avenue through which his gold could be drained, but still, having the right to choose that path was something.

There were plenty of people in this world who had the money but not the opportunity, who couldn’t even attempt such things.

It wasn’t as if he was forced to use it.

It was a trump card he could pull out whenever he wanted, whenever he truly needed it.

That was an enormous advantage.

So he headed out immediately.

The allied army that had entered the Forbidden Mountain Range.

Finding them wasn’t difficult.

“The monsters are all moving in one direction.”

That was how the Holy War in the Forbidden Mountain Range had come to such an anticlimactic end with the dragon’s appearance.

* * *

He let out a sigh as the post-battle clarity washed over him.

Kyuu?

Hwangdo’s affectionate nuzzling grew even more intense now that Kim Buja was both its master and a fellow dragon, but his empty wallet made him sigh again.

The war was over.

He had ended the war.

The gap between those two statements was enormous, and the latter was far more satisfying, but it was a victory that left nothing but scars—and a gaping hole in his wallet.

“Why is it that my gold never knows how to sit still?”

He swore he would never again blow money on consumables without a plan.

Yet here he was, having spent two million gold in one lump sum.

On impulse, no less.

He couldn’t claim he had been completely swept away by instinct.

That was why all he could do now was sigh.

He had made a plan.

He had thought about what kind of magic he should use to crush their spirits during the two-hour timer on his dragon transformation.

At least that much planning he had done.

In truth, it barely even counted as a plan.

Even to his own transformed eyes, the dragon’s presence was overwhelming. Just looking down from that height made it easy to understand why dragons looked down on every other being besides themselves.

So he hadn’t expected it to be that difficult.

He had assumed that if a legendary dragon from thousands of years ago appeared and gave them a light warning, the humans would scatter in panic.

But that wasn’t what happened.

When he arrived on the scene, what Kim Buja saw was a swarm of hundreds of thousands of ants.

Their morale was so high it practically stabbed into the sky, so intense that it made even his transformed dragon skin prickle.

And it wasn’t just empty bravado.

They proved that with the attacks they were pouring onto the hundreds of thousands of monsters facing them.

They weren’t being pushed back.

It wasn’t even a real fight.

From Kim Buja’s perspective, there were hundreds, thousands of monsters there that he doubted he could beat one-on-one, yet they couldn’t exert their strength against the humans when they were grouped together.

’This won’t do.’

If the monsters collapsed like this, and then a dragon showed up with a light threat?

As a fellow human and someone who had experienced countless battles, he was certain that wouldn’t work.

In fact, it might even become an opportunity for them.

’Should I just go for it?’

The moment he entertained that thought, Kim Buja’s fiscal discipline lost the battle.

His exterior was Cassius, but inside, he was still Kim Buja.

In the real world, he lived with the confidence that he wouldn’t bow his head anywhere, that he could probably handle anyone up to around level 60. But here, that wasn’t the case.

This was a place where even Kallis clicked his tongue in admiration at the gathered experts.

If they somehow managed to leap into the sky and swing their swords, the scales that should have been impenetrable might come off like dandruff.

So he made his decision.

He had no choice but to make a call he hadn’t planned on.

Grrrrrrrr...!

Dragon Fear.

Another innate ability of dragons.

[You have spent 500,000 gold.]

A new kind of anger welled up in him.

At the same time, seeing the hundreds of thousands within range drop to their knees made his blood boil.

It wasn’t that he lost track of who he was. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

He knew he was human, but when he was a dragon, he thought and acted like a dragon.

’How dare such weak humans...!’

’These are the same bastards who’d kneel for 30,000 gold!’

That was why.

’Meteor!’

[You have spent 1,000,000 gold.]

It was one of the most powerful spells he knew dragons could use.

He chose meteor, a spell classified as 9th-circle—or even 10th-circle in fantasy novels that rated it highly.

Of course, he was the one who chose it, but he didn’t have time to check the price of each spell one by one.

The atmosphere wasn’t relaxed enough for him to be counting zeros.

The moment he cast meteor, his vision darkened, and a white circle spread across the sky.

It wasn’t just a summoning spell; he had to choose where to summon it.

He had to decide on the summoning point, not the impact point, and that threw him for a moment.

Then he quickly eyeballed a location, and the meteor fell.

It took less than a minute.

For a million gold to vanish.

The placement wasn’t perfect either, and to his immense frustration, the damn Pope walked away unscathed.

ROOOOOOOOOAR!

That was why Kim Buja had roared.

He had spent the gold on the war anyway, but he had failed to achieve what he wanted.

And in the middle of that, some guy stepped forward and called out to him.

He knew exactly why.

He was human too, and no one understood better than he did how this situation would look to the humans.

That was why it was so easy to read.

What his intentions were.

How was he planning to get out of this?

Things weren’t going according to plan, but this was still part of the quest.

The thought that he might be able to finish it here and now flashed through his mind, pushing him to act with bold decisiveness.

Breath!

[You have spent 500,000 gold.]

The human who was swept away by that final burst of rage was, once again, nothing more than a prop for intimidation.

With only ten percent of its original power, the Breath’s area of effect was smaller than he had expected.

That was how it ended.

The Holy War.

Of course, both Kim Buja and the princess, who had watched everything from the sidelines, knew this was not the end but the beginning.

“Let’s step into the light now,” he said.

“Yes. I’ll announce the official founding ceremony of the Black Magic Cult,” the princess replied.

Gold spent was gold spent, but there was still work to be done.

Business and personal feelings.

He hadn’t lost the world.

[Your level has increased by 5.]

[You have acquired 300,000 gold.]

[You have acquired 20 stat points.]

[You have acquired 20,000M.]

[You have acquired 50 VIP Tokens.]

An empty cask is meant to be filled with new wine.

[Gold Mission Chapter 3 has been activated.]

To fill it with as much clear, fine wine as possible, he didn’t cling to what had already spilled and instead moved quickly.

* * *

“Kyuu?”

Hwangdo received Cassius’s dragon heart from Kim Buja.

’Eat it somewhere safe when you have time.’

At his master’s words, Hwangdo nodded with an innocent smile and held it close. Then, while everyone else was heading out of the mountain range, it returned to Cassius’s lair and settled in.

“Kyuu.”

A heart from its own kind.

Though it might have seemed strange, the dragon carefully set the heart on the floor and began lapping at it with its tongue.

It was unlikely to have any particular flavor.

While it looked like a heart, it was, in reality, a highly condensed mass of pure mana.

“Kyuu!”

Or perhaps, to a dragon, it tasted better than anything else.

The flavor was sweet, completely different from any meat it had ever eaten, and sent a surge of energy through its body.

Hwangdo gulped the dragon heart down in one go.

POP—!

Instantly, the condensed mana dissolved into its body, erupting in a brilliant golden light.

“Kyuuu!”

Cassius’s final gift shone brightly within her lair.

* * *