I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 241: Episode 49_Golden Dragon (1)

1.

Hwangdo swallowed Cassius’s heart.

There was no special reason.

Buja simply felt there wasn’t much merit in consuming it himself.

At best, his mana would go up a little.

Cassius had said as much himself.

—“Feed my heart to Hwangdo. If you eat it, you will gain a permanent increase to your mana, but it will not be easy for a human body to accept it. Your mana could backflow, and there is no guarantee that it will fully become yours.”

He’d eat dog crap if it raised his mana, but he had no desire to gamble with his life. So, he’d obediently handed it over to Hwangdo.

Even without a Dragon Heart, just stealing Cassius’s soul had already been more than enough of a gift.

Afterward, Hwangdo had evolved one stage, storing some of that mana in his body as energy for the future.

And then he had forgotten about it.

About Hwangdo’s Cassius Dragon Heart.

He had assumed that was all there was to it.

He’d figured it would finally pay off someday, once he had Gold to spare and could raise Hwangdo’s level further.

That had been his thinking.

Until now.

“Kyuu—!”

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Kyuu—!”

Ever since he had returned from the Sand Castle, the first thing out of his mouth upon seeing how much Hwangdo had bulked up was a dumbfounded question.

’What the hell?’

If he hadn’t seen Hwangdo for a few months, he might have understood.

Even if he couldn’t fully accept it, he could at least try to rationalize it. ’Okay, time passed. He grew.’

But it hadn’t been that long.

They had gone to the Continent together, and he’d still said goodbye to Hwangdo even after he returned and went through the Point Dungeon.

Told him he was heading out.

Told him to stay put.

It had been a week at most, yet the Hwangdo he returned to after the Sand Castle raid was so large he was barely recognizable.

“Did you eat something weird?”

“I have no idea. I’ve been busy too, so I only dropped by to clean when I had some time. I couldn’t find him, so I went looking and nearly had a heart attack.”

Even Seora, who had simply found Hwangdo a few days earlier than Buja, still couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

There had to be a reason why Hwangdo, who had maintained the same size for over a year, had suddenly gotten huge overnight.

But nothing that could explain it had happened at home, which only made it more baffling.

“Kyuuuuuu—!”

Seeing how confused the two of them were, Hwangdo happily decided to explain.

“You ate something the Gold Mimic gave you?”

“Kyuu!”

“It’s been giving you one or two for a while, but this time you ate one and evolved?”

“Kyuu!”

“What is it? Hand it over.”

With a cry that could no longer be called "cute," Hwangdo reached out with a still-tiny hand, pulled a pill out of thin air, and held it out to Buja.

[Growth Booster]

▶ Grade: Legendary

▷ A drug that accelerates growth. A gift the Gold Mimic made for a friend it cherishes.

He was dumbstruck.

It was the kind of item that made you go, ’What the hell is this?’

At the same time, it was a moment of realizing once again that the Gold Mimic had this kind of ability.

He saw it in a new light.

Until now, he’d thought of it as little more than a coin fountain that spat out random items when you tossed in some Gold.

’Maybe I should level up the Gold Mimic too.’

One way or another, it had made Hwangdo grow.

Sure, the fact that it had been taking 10% of the Gold he earned from hunting to level up had probably laid the foundation for that growth, but the thing that had actually broken through the barrier was this unassuming, Legendary-grade item.

“Kyuu!”

[Gold Dragon]

▶ Grade: Legendary

▶ Name: Hwangdo (You can rename once for free.)

▶ Level: 42 (Second Evolution)

▶ Stats: Strength (340), Agility (320,) Stamina (440,) Mana (555)

▶ Traits

First: Gold Growth Lv5

→ Uses 30% of the Gold obtained from killing monsters for growth. Upon reaching a certain amount of Gold, gains a level, stats, or a skill.

Second: Growth Share Lv3

→ Shares 10% of its stats with its master.

▶ Resistances

Second: Dragonkin’s Mind

→ Immune to all mental-type status effects / Immune to status effects of (★★★★) or lower / Resistant to status effects of (★★★★★★) or lower

The status window he opened for Hwangdo for the first time in a while was inhuman.

’So this is a dragon.’

It was, quite literally, absurd growth.

All it did was level up.

All it did was leech a bit of Buja’s Gold to raise its stats, and yet it trampled all over its master—who was risking his life and sacrificing sleep to get stronger—as if he were nothing.

His own stats, boosted by head-to-toe Legendary gear, had already been matched.

Hwangdo’s mana was nearly double his, and the rest would easily surpass his as soon as Hwangdo gained a few more levels.

Even just comparing raw stats, that was how it looked, and Hwangdo was a dragon.

Buja’s own stats were considered high for his level.

Hwangdo’s level, however, was far lower than his own.

Level 42.

He was only level 42, and he was already this powerful.

If he kept growing like this for just one more year, the day might actually come when a real dragon conquered Earth.

On top of that, if you ranked his traits and resistances by grade, they were more than worthy of being called Legendary.

A gangster-like skill that no longer just skimmed 10% off the top, but now forcibly seized 30% of his Gold, with no option to refuse.

In exchange, a trait that shared 10% of its stats with him, giving him the disease and the cure in one package, seriously blurred the line between master and pet.

On top of that, thanks to the nature of the dungeons that had been appearing lately, he had a passive resistance that rendered all those gear options with sky-high status effect stats completely useless.

He was immune to all mental-type status effects, regardless of grade, and now that he had reached his second evolution, he was also immune to 4-Star and lower status effects.

You could say it hadn’t done much for him in the Sand Castle or the Ice Castle, but considering those were top-tier, final dungeons that only the top 0.01% of rankers could even enter, it was more than reasonable to look forward to what would happen when he evolved again.

“Do your best, Hwangdo. The Mimic will raise you, so keep chomping down those Growth Boosters.”

“Kyuu!”

He had long since forgotten about things like competition or jealousy when it came to Hwangdo.

Who would dare consider a mighty dragon a rival?

A creature that gained three times the stats of a normal player per level, and on top of that, stole its master’s Gold to fuel its growth.

All he could do was hope.

“Grow big and strong and share a lot of those stats with me.”

The one saving grace was that he was the dragon’s master.

He didn’t care if the line between master and parasite grew blurrier by the day.

’I still have to kill the Demon King, so this works out great.’

This was not the time to nitpick.

“Let’s go.”

“Kyuuuu!”

WHOOSH!

Hwangdo spread his wings and took off with Buja on his back.

* * *

What does it feel like to fly?

Most people would answer that question with:

“It’s a rush.”

The era when humans couldn’t fly was long gone.

If you wanted, you could go up in a hot-air balloon, and there were plenty of ways to experience the feeling of flight.

But that was all just the sensation of flight via equipment, not true flight.

Going wherever you wanted, freely changing direction, facing the wind head-on.

Most people’s experience of “being in the sky” was limited to sitting in a plane until they reached their destination.

To those people, Buja could say:

“Flying is more than just a rush.”

It was the feeling of moving in any direction he wanted, riding on the back of a massive dragon that now looked almost fully grown.

All he had to do was think, and his pet read his mind and moved.

The speed was on a completely different level from paragliding or skydiving.

It was absurd, but he felt the only fair comparison was a passenger jet.

That was how fast Hwangdo was.

’At this rate, I won’t need to take planes anymore.’

With virtually infinite mana, Hwangdo could fly at high speed without tiring. Magic enhancements allowed him to carry Buja comfortably to any destination, and by spending gold, he could move even faster.

He had only gone from first evolution to second, yet the change he could feel was far greater than anything the stat window could show.

“This is better than getting 10% of his stats.”

As someone who still had to live in the real world, he was far happier to gain a real-world advantage that no one else possessed than to see his already superhuman stats tick up a few more points.

And he was the kind of person who knew how to share his joy.

—What the hell. What is that?

—Wow, that’s really Hwangdo?

—When did he get that big?

—Holy shit. That’s insane.

As someone who documented his every step on his video channel, how could he not upload footage of himself riding his fully grown dragon?

And it wasn’t just any video.

It was no longer just a clip to squeeze out a few more views and a bit of ad money. Now, his videos were converted directly into Points and gold.

—This is dizzying.

—He’s flying so fast it feels like he’s going to fall, but somehow it still looks comfortable.

—I mean, sure, he’s not going to fall, but how is the first-person view not shaking at all?

—Because it’s a dragon. Not just some big bird you can ride.

—I seriously want to ride that thing just once.

For most people, dragons were legendary creatures, something they dreamed of seeing just once.

And he was riding such a dragon through the skies of Earth.

How could he not brag about that?

—How much would it cost for one ride?

—Whatever it is, I’d pay it to take that thing on a trip to Europe.

—His back is so wide it looks like ten people could ride at once. Is he not gonna monetize that?

—As if.

Requests to ride it flooded in.

’Even if he only used it as personal transport, the investment he put into Hwangdo would be worth it a hundred times over.’

Not just from people who couldn’t afford it, even if he let them, but also from people who actually followed through on what they said.

Wealthy viewers who usually watched in silence were now sending direct donations, asking to ride Hwangdo just once.

Since they couldn’t contact him directly, this was their way of making their interest known.

That was how amazing and surreal the scene was.

It might have looked like nothing special.

But Buja ignored it, as always.

“As much as I’d like to, whether you can ride Hwangdo isn’t up to me; it’s up to his mood, so I don’t think I can turn this into a business. It would be another goldmine of a business idea, though. I’ll try once in a while when he’s in a good mood.”

It was easy enough to come up with excuses.

There was no reason to deal with that kind of hassle for pocket change.

If it stayed a unique, one-of-a-kind asset, its value would only keep going up.

He was at a point where a single ride could get him whatever he needed.

Besides, this wasn’t why he had turned the camera on.

“Instead, today I’ll show you how Hwangdo hunts now that he’s evolved.”

As a bonus, he wanted to see for himself just how destructive Hwangdo’s second evolution truly was.

“The dungeon is the 7-Star Legendary I cleared not long ago. For now, I’m just planning to watch.”

The massive dragon stepped into the dungeon.