Dream. One of the phenomenons of the mind that occurs when consciousness is faint. A virtual world that could possibly show you what was real, or a glimpse of the unknown world I yearned for. Dreams were the tool that perfectly illustrated the ‘desires’ of humans, And right now I was dreaming.

“Haak!”

Breathing raggedly, sweating all over, I experienced an explosive release. My spasming body quivered entirely as I felt violent ecstasy, but that small ball of fire soon revived more vigorous than before.

It was a snake-like woman. Once she sunk her fangs in, she would never let go.

For the past several days, we had intercoursed without rest. When the woman’s tongue touched my body without fail I rose back up like a spring, and the woman’s seductive cries would grow in volume. It was only when all energy was sucked out of me when I could lay my tired body to rest.

A dream. This was a dream. Coming together in a fiery exchange with a beautiful woman I’d never before seen in my life was possible precisely because it was a dream. That was most definitely it…it had to be.

‘Did I have a wet dream or what?’

Right before I was about to open my eyes from that strange dream, I felt a strange sensation.

My lower parts felt damp.

This was a body full of young vigor after all. No matter how good I was at controlling lust, the body was honest.

I quickly rolled up the blankets.

‘It’s blood.’

The bed was splattered all over with blood.

It appeared it wasn’t a wet dream, but just whose blood was this? There was no one around, and no one lay on the bed but me.

After hastily doing the laundry and finishing a shower, I thought over it carefully.

First of all, I couldn’t quite remember…

‘How did I come back home?’

My memories were blurry from the time I entered and exited ‘Odin’s Treasury’, and even moreso for the time I came back home. What’s more, my body felt light and heavy. Although all my small injuries were healed, and my mind felt brighter, but I felt drained of every bit of my energy as if my two balls down there were hollowed…

I checked my cellphone, and saw piles upon piles of messages and missing calls, but what drew my eye was the numbers at the top of it: 30th of March.

‘I did nothing but sleep for about 10 days.’

I had a pretty accurate sense of time if I may say so myself. It was roughly 20 days ago that I entered Odin’s Treasury and spent 3 days there, so I had slept for almost 10 days. This was definitely not normal. And as I recalled the events up to that point, a certain name popped up.

‘Jörmungandr!’

I clapped my hands in remembrance.

That’s right. I was told my contract with Jörmungandr was completed, right after which I was bitten by the snake coiled around my right hand and lost consciousness. I supposed that the strange dream I had was related to that contract.

‘The snake is still here though.’

The snake on my right hand hadn’t moved from where it was before, not an inch. It felt more like an ornament than a living creature, but as I looked closely at it, its related information popped up.

요르문간드 – Jörmungandr
🌑 Int +5
🌑 Mag +5
🌑 Form change influenced by ego
🌑 King of all snakes
🌑 Infinitely growing snake(Lv1, Growth – 24)
🌑 The Contractor is free from all ‘Curses of the night’.
『A mythological gigantic snake of Jörmungandr. It was once an existence large enough to coil itself around the world but due to an unknown it was weakened and locked away in ‘Odin’s Treasury’.』

An unimaginably rare and overpowered equipment that raised Magic Power and Intelligence by a whopping 5 each. Even in the past I had not once equipped an item of this level; the Cape of Extermination I had worn then did no more than raise Strength and Agility by 4 each. Not to mention that along with the total stat increase of 10, it raised the most important among stats: Magic Power.

‘Unbelievable.’

It wasn’t something that belonged in a level 3 treasury, that was for sure. The boost it gave was truly unbelievable.

A shiver ran down my spine.

The information on Jörmungandr was the same as before I lost my consciousness. No, it was the same, yet different.

‘Its growth went up.’

The snake’s growth had become 24. It should have been 0.

What? Had I fed it something?

Abruptly the dream came to mind, but I shook my head hard.

No way…

‘Status window.’

Name: Hansung Oh
Occupation: Universal Man(天地人)
Titles:
🌑 Merciless Gnoll Slaughterer(Lv3, Con+4)
Stats:
Str 29 Agi 24 Con 26(22+4)
Int 25(20+5) Mag 44(39+5)
Potential(134+14/456)
Special Note: Potential has greatly increased due to the influence of an unknown power. Has completed a contract with Jörmungandr.
Skills: Mind’s Eye(Lv9), Dominator(Lv9), Transfer(???)

[Before and After Comparison]
Str 29 Agi 25 Con 28 Int 15 Mag 16 Potential(109+4/456)
Str 29 Agi 24 Con 26 Int 25 Mag 44 Potential(134+14/456)

Ironically, my highest stat was Magic Power thanks to the 20 increase I received from clearing the Ancient One’s trial. Considering that the most important and most difficult stat to raise was Magic Power, I couldn’t have had a better start in this lifetime.

Also, it was clearly shown that I was contracted.

‘So it wasn’t that I’d dreamed the contract with Jörmungandr as well.’

Jörmungandr was, however, a mythical existence. I had never heard of contracting with an existence as such. There was a precedent of Saintess Syria contracting a pegasus, but that was nothing like a fearsome existence like Jörmungandr.

‘It was told that Thor, God of Thunder, smashed Jörmungandr’s head and killed it, but the poison it sprayed out upon death was so potent that even Thor lasted no more than seven steps before dying.’

Had I perhaps contracted the original from the myth?

But if I’ve contracted it, why does it merely stay coiled around my wrist?

More than anything, the Jörmungandr of myth was supposed to be dead; head smashed in by Thor who was the God of Thunder as well as the God of War. Although Thor also died…

‘Well it’s not like there aren’t any equipment named after beings of myth…’

It would have been strange for it to be in a level 3 treasury if it was the real Jörmungandr. A wicked existence like Jörmungandr had to be in at least a level 9 treasury, or above. The piece of equipment I had most likely only had the same name, but was something else. It wasn’t as if there weren’t such equipment, and each and every one of these items did possess amazing abilities.

I sat on the chair in front of my computer and pressed its power button.

‘Mt Bukhan. I should try digging up things from there.’

In order to rekindle my vague memories, I searched ‘Mt Bukhan’ on the net for recent news within a month, and got hundreds of results.

There was so many…and a sensational title hanged from each and every article.

「The truth behind the appearance of the monstrous creature on Mt Bukhan!?」
「Photoshop Controversy! Monster Appears on Mt Bukhan.」
「Take Care When Climbing Mt Bukhan!」
「Mountain Climber Attacked by Dog-headed Monster.」
「Monster of Mt Bukhan, Turns Out to be a Bulldog Mutation.」

“Shit.”

A curse was the first thing to pop out of my mouth after looking through a couple of vague photos.

It was gnolls. The photos were of the gnolls I had Dominated, roving about Mt Bukhan.

Smack!

I palmed my forehead.

The gnolls must have also crossed over the ‘Gate’ with me while I returned to my house in a stupor. It was a mistake I’d never have made normally, thanks to which people were crowding at Mt Bukhan, meaning I couldn’t recklessly go back until things calmed down. I supposed the one thing to be relieved about was that they didn’t come into the city.

‘It’s been just two days since this incident was publicized.’

In any case, I had to take care of this. It wasn’t too late, so I could still do something about it now.

Ding- Dong!

The moment I came to a decision and was about to stand, the bell at the front door rang. I went up to the intercom to see who it was, and the middle of my forehead creased into a frown.

‘Of all times to come.’

It was Minshik. What’s more, he wasn’t alone.

I turned off the computer, went to open the door, and was greeted by four people.

“Hansung…”

Minshik opened his mouth first

I was on my guard. Seeing as he had come down from Mt Halla, he must have heard of the news regarding Mt Bukhan. It made sense that I would be the first person he would suspect.

“Why is your hair like that?”

“…It’s a recently trending fashion.”

“H-, how unique.”

My half-burned hair looked as if I’d done a perm; the damage I sustained from entering the Ancient One’s altar. The other wounds on my body were healed, but the hair remained the same.

“I heard you weren’t even going to school. You are doing well, aren’t you?”

“I’m trying to do well. But who are the people next to you?”

Two women, and one man. It was a balanced group.

The two women were extremely pretty, while the man was a macho-man so muscular that the outerwear he wore failed to hide his muscles.

‘All of them are Awakened.’

It was my first time meeting them except for one

The woman with a voice that even celebrities envied. She had milky white skin, and short golden hair that matched especially well with her elegant features.

‘Saintess Syria.’

She was definitely Saintess Syria. She wasn’t a Saintess right now, but Minshik must have chosen her as the very first party member.

I did expect this to a certain degree. Saintess Syria was a woman of extremely high potential, and she was a peerless when it came to ‘Healing’ related skills. However, she was a foreigner who came from Russia.

I wondered why she would be in Korea.

Of course, a Saintess and Magic Swordsman was a good combo. He must have put a fair amount of consideration before recruiting her, but a small doubt remained in my mind. Besides her, it was my first meeting with the other two.

‘I would win by a hair if we fought.’

That was how I judged it with my countless battle experiences as the base. These people were indeed Awakened, but in my eyes they were all nothing more than novices. It must been at most 3 months since they awakened. Their stats should be similar or a bit lower than mine. While Minshik was indeed a cause for concern, I knew more about the Magic Swordsman class than anyone. The skills he would use and the methods to countering them still remained in my head.

Minshik spoke.

“This is Syria. And these two Linlin and Shaoting are siblings.”

In any case, they sure were a global lot.

It was my first time hearing the latter names. Seeing as how he emphasized on Syria’s side, was he measuring my reaction?

I responded flatly,

“They’re all foreigners?”

“That’s right. Syria is from Russia, and it’s been a few days since Linlin and Shaoting arrived from China.”

I gave a small nod to them.

Their attitudes were chilly though. I mean, their expression didn’t even twitch in the slightest. Was I to take it that I didn’t even enter their eyes?

“Well, come in first. I haven’t much to show but since you’ve come, I might as well serve some tea.”

I couldn’t just leave them standing there so I invited them in, but the moment they entered, the woman called Linlin pinched her nose and said,

“Smells of blood.”

So she can even speak Korean. I had opened all the windows in an attempt to ventilate the place but it seemed the smell still lingered.

I made some green tea, and after placing the teacups before my guests I spoke,

“Wow, nose like a dog’s1. Actually I made a girlfriend not too long ago…”

“Really? Good for you! Is it someone I know?”

“It’s someone you don’t know.”

‘And someone I don’t know as well.’

In fact, I didn’t even know if it was a person at all.

Minshik responded with glee to my words, like it was his own business. It didn’t feel too bad seeing him so glad. A shadow of suspicion did remain in my heart, but anyhow, I believed that he definitely intended to become a ‘hero’.

“You have to introduce me later.”

“Alright.”

I wasn’t too keen on this subject.

Syria and Linlin’s gazes directed at me were as if they were looking at a beast.

Clicking my tongue inside my mind, I changed the topic immediately.

“Anyhow, what’s the matter? Crowding at my place all of a sudden. I never knew you were such an international guy.”

“It hasn’t been long since I’ve made friends with them. I contacted them so I could see them in Korea.”

I blinked my eyes in apparent confusion.

“You haven’t been friends for long but they scheduled flights and came to Korea?”

“There are some reasons for that. In any case, I have some things I want to tell you about regarding that as well.

I took a mouthful of green tea before placing down the teacup. It looked like we were about to enter the main subject.

I was silently concentrating on the words to come, when Minshik grabbed onto both my hands.

“Hansung. Together with us, let’s do it.”

“Do what?”

I asked questioned him in a doubtful tone, and then his eyes practically gleamed as he replied,

“Together, the world. Let’s save the world.”

…What the hell?

1: Nose like a dog as in, great sense of smell.