NOVEL NEXT Chapter 138
After finishing my conversation with Prince Lethers and Ras, I returned to my lodging and told everyone about it.
“Did you say we received a game development request!?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
My words left half of them in despair and the other half in disbelief, while the Master was asleep.
Especially Jiren, who had been happily enjoying himself, looked the most furious.
“No way! Come on! As much as I love game development, is it acceptable to receive a game development request in the middle of our journey!?”
“But they’re offering the Dragon Heart Stone!”
“Oh, if they’re offering the Dragon Heart Stone, then I guess there’s no choice.”
Everyone’s expressions dramatically changed at the mention of the Dragon Heart Stone as a reward for developing the game.
And rightfully so.
For a wizard, the Dragon Heart Stone was truly one of the dream treasures, said to unlock new realms of mana manipulation just by touching it.
Among the empire, there were officially only two of those treasures, and no wizard could stay calm at such news.
“Yuren! D-Did they really say they’d give us the Dragon Heart Stone!?”
“Yeah, it was as big as this ‘Dragon Heart Stone’!”
“Oh my… I want to join the game development too.”
Especially Julia, who specialized in ore magic, reacted even more intensely, knowing the greatness of the Dragon Heart Stone.
It had been a while since I last saw Julia’s eyes turn into that excited whirl.
…Actually, I saw it last night too.
But let’s move on, as it was a different meaning entirely.
“However, there are conditions.”
“Conditions?”
This game development request was unusually filled with several conditions.
“The first is that it must be made in the Kingdom of Ra.”
The first condition was that it had to be made in the Kingdom of Ra.
This made sense.
If it were developed in the Irene School within the empire, it would be hard to call it a game of the Kingdom of Ra.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely without problems.
“In the Kingdom of Ra? What about the magical tools for game development?”
To develop game magic, you needed the help of many magical tools along with capable wizards.
While our Irene School had the latest tools, there was none here.
I shared this concern with the prince.
And then…
“They will support us in the Kingdom of Ra.”
Luckily, that issue was resolved very easily.
It seemed the Kingdom of Ra was taking this quite seriously, offering to support all of our living needs just like before, in addition to those magical tools.
“And the second condition is…”
The problem lay in the second condition.
This second condition could be considered a headache for some, or it could be a source of fun for others.
It was none other than…
“Hello! I am Asti Kallens, a wizard from the Kingdom of Ra. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The second condition was to carry out game development with the wizards from the Kingdom of Ra.
The wizard who introduced himself as ‘Asti Kallens’ was a man from the Kingdom of Ra with black hair, bronze skin, and a well-built physique. He looked like he could easily take his shirt off and play beach volleyball, but in a calm, red wizard robe, it created an imbalance.
“It’s an honor to have the opportunity to work on the game magic development for the esteemed Yuren.”
From what I gathered, he was a promising candidate officially recognized by the Magic Tower of the Kingdom of Ra, and behind him were fellow wizards from the Magic Tower of the Kingdom, around 20 people.
Having to engage in game development with Asti and these wizards was one of the conditions of this game development request.
“Indeed, I’ve heard from the prince. Everyone seems very interested in game development.”
“[ Yes! That’s right!! ]”
“Game magic development is not an easy task. It will be quite challenging; are you sure you’re okay with it?”
I looked into their eyes.
They were bright, pure, and hopeful, just like Prince Lethers’.
Yes, they were fresh newbies.
“Of course!”
“Just tell us what to do!!”
Anything we ask of them…
They were the ones saying that, right?
I could roughly guess the Kingdom’s intentions.
They probably wanted to steal my game development know-how.
If that’s what they desired, it would be courteous to teach them.
I decided to share all my know-how with these fresh newbies.
“Then let’s start with the most important thing for this game development.”
“Ooh! As expected, Yuren, we’re starting already.”
“What should we do first? Creating mana circuits? Setting magical tools? Just give us orders!”
At that, all the wizards from the Kingdom of Ra focused on me.
“What we need to do first is…”
Everyone was eagerly waiting for Yuren’s words.
What kind of task would the world’s top game magician give us?
The words that came out of Yuren’s mouth were…
“Dragon hunting experience.”
“Dragon hunting?”
The wizards were left baffled.
*
I wasn’t exactly sure, but I had heard that there were people in the Kingdom of Ra who hunted dragons.
In order to develop the “Dragon Hunter” game, I wanted to investigate that hunting first and sought the help of Prince Lethers to find the kingdom’s best dragon hunter.
“Are you the dragon slayer Tonya from the Dragon Slaying Team?”
“That’s correct…”
“Oh, you must be the life-risking customers who want to experience dragon hunting.”
Looking at my companions from the Irene School and the wizards, Tonya, the dragon hunter, said so.
The man with blonde skin, reminiscent of a tanned male model, sighed and handed us a form.
“Here, please sign this.”
“Wh-What’s this?”
“It’s just in case unexpected incidents occur. It’s a death waiver.”
“Yikes!!”
Astie gasped at the sight of the waiver.
From what I learned, dragon hunting in the Kingdom of Ra was very rare and difficult, and even the people of the Kingdom didn’t know much about it.
Having come for game development, only to end up hunting dragons left the newbies all looking bewildered.
“Everyone’s putting on their safety gear, right?”
We donned safety gear, similar to life vests at an amusement park, and boarded a small airship from the Dragon Slaying Team.
Then, along with Tonya and the other members of the Dragon Slaying Team, we were ready to go.
“Alright, let’s head out.”
The airship of the Dragon Slaying Team took off, and our dragon hunting experience began.
We headed toward a lush forest that seemed like it jumped out of the “Dragon Hunter” game, and Tonya began to explain to us.
“The dragons we’ll be hunting are called ‘Black Types,’ which are dragons that have gone bad.”
“Gone bad?”
“Yes, among the old or sick dragons, sometimes they turn black in color and become ferocious. Our job is to hunt them before they attack their fellow dragons or humans.”
Hearing this, I understood that the dragons they hunt are similar to humans suffering from dementia.
Surely, in a nation that worships dragons, hunting them without reason would cost you your head.
As I was listening to the explanation, we arrived at a forest.
“That’s today’s target. It recently developed the Black Type condition.”
There, a dragon similar to Leus from “Dragon Hunter” appeared.
It was clearly exuding black mana from its body, and its eyes were tainted black, indicating it was a dangerous dragon.
“Humph! I’ll catch that dragon in one shot with my magic!!”
“Wait! Customers!!”
At that moment, Asti boldly cast levitation magic and flew out of the airship.
Then, gathering immense mana, he unleashed a powerful spell.
“‘Paora’ (Flame Spear Magic)”
The representative fire magic of the Kingdom of Ra, “Paora,” would definitely have an effect on the dragon, assuming it was a normal dragon.
But that was the problem.
“My flame spear!?”
Asti’s flame spear collided with the dragon and was immediately absorbed, turning into mana.
At that, the dragon hunter Tonya explained.
“Dragons with the Black Type condition develop an ability to absorb mana. That means we have to use physical attacks or tools!”
I had heard this during my research, but I still didn’t know how to proceed.
As the hunting squad started preparing, I asked.
“Tonya, what tools do you use for hunting dragons?”
“In the past, we used a spearing spear specialized for dragon skin called ‘Light Spear.’ Nowadays…”
Then Tonya pulled out a weapon from the airship’s armory.
It was something familiar to me.
“Is that!?”
“Yes, it’s called a ‘Shotgun,’ a magical tool that came from the Zers Empire. It might be familiar to the guests from the Zers Empire.”
It was a shotgun made in our empire.
Looking at the model, it resembled the Dune series shotgun.
I was disappointed that I encountered something unexpected.
“Tonya, don’t you use any romantic weapons like bows or great swords or hammers?”
I mean, if we’re hunting dragons, we should at least use a bow or something, right? Not a shotgun!
Hearing my words, Tonya looked at me incredulously.
“Who hunts these days with those? You’d get killed if you did.”
Tonya showed us a large shotgun shell.
It was about 1.5 times larger than the bullets I had made.
“Nowadays, we hunt using this shotgun with ‘stake bullets.’ If you hit it right between the eyes, you can take it down in one shot. Now, let’s show you how we usually hunt.”
With that, the dragon slayers jumped from the airship, and the hunt began.
The members of the Dragon Slaying Team flew around using flying magical tools and wire magical tools, beautifully surrounding the dragon while maintaining a safe distance and starting to shoot their shotguns.
What I saw was more suited for a route shooter or hyper FPS game than a “Dragon Hunter” game.
“Um… Master? Is there really a game based on what we’re developing?”
“Yeah. The explanation from Master seems quite different from what we’re witnessing.”
Jiren and Noirin remarked while watching the dragon slayers use cutting-edge technology to hunt dragons.
I also watched in disbelief.
What the heck!
This efficient hunting method has zero romance!?
That’s not the kind of hunting I wanted!
And so, the dragon hunting experience in the Kingdom of Ra ended in disappointment.