[System]: You have slain a Goblin. [500/500]
[You've received your rewards]
. 500 Chicken Legs
. 1 Curry Rice
. 5 F-Rank Healing Potions
. 5 F-Rank Mana Potions
. 50 Monster Cards
"Yes!" Carl tightened his right fist, savoring the feeling of victory. He drew in a breath of fresh air and looked up at the system screen.
He grabbed the chicken legs from the storage systems and chewed happily.
"Great! I don't have to worry about finding food anymore."
[Name]: Carl Ryan
[Age]: 18
[Class]: Stoker
[Rank]: F [50/1000] (Requires Monster Card)
[Soul Rank]: ★ Dragon (Progress: 00.00%)
He thought: "I shouldn't have expected monster cards from goblins. They're too weak. If I want to reach E-Rank, I should pick another target. I think most students at Arcadia Academy have already reached at least E-Rank."
"Guess I'll go." Carl devoured the rest of the chicken leg, closed the system screen, glanced around, then took off running.
Still, he felt uneasy as a few insects bit into his skin while he pushed through trees and bushes.
The sticky air only made him more uncomfortable.
"Haizz, if only my honey had given me more rewards… like proper clothes or something to wear. I kinda regret exchanging it just to pass the gate. Maybe I should've just killed that damn gatekeeper instead."
Carl shoved the regret aside and focused straight ahead, searching for a safe place to rest before moving on to the second floor of the dungeon.
Once he got there, he knew he would face much stronger monsters—and earn even greater rewards from the system.
After about two hours, Carl finally found a safe place to rest—an even patch of ground with no monsters around.
"Good! I can take a nap before heading out." Carl nodded while glancing north. "The gate to the second floor isn't too far from here either."
He scanned the area one more time before climbing onto a rock nearby the edge of the forest.
"No insects caught me here." Carl smirked and lay down.
But then, [Sense Dragon] activated. He quickly sat up, alert, trying to trace what had just awakened him.
His eyes locked onto a small black spot in the distance. It was moving toward him—not too fast, almost like it was walking.
As time passed, the shape became clearer.
"A black lizard? …No. That's a black dragon. A young dragon." Carl let out a sigh, lowering his guard.
He sat down, waiting to see what would happen next. It didn't seem hostile toward him. In fact, he was curious about it—dragons were a rare existence in this world. Still, he didn't know much about them. He'd only heard they were sacred beasts of fortune: if one appeared, it was better to leave it alone. If he killed it or tried to force it to follow him, then bad luck would surely come his way.
"Thinking about that gives me the creeps. My luck's been terrible so far… but who knows? Maybe my fate will change. What if some treasure just drops out of the sky for me?"
"But… isn't it weird that it runs with its tongue sticking out like a dog?" He shook his head.
"What am I expecting it to do? It's still young, its wings aren't strong enough to fly."
...
"Wait! Is it carrying something? Ah, it must be a treasure. Guess today's my lucky day. Come on, baby, bring that treasure over here."
Before long, the black dragon was just about a hundred meters from him.
From there, Carl finally saw it clearly—his face froze in shock.
"Th-That's my clothes!"
The black dragon approached the rock and climbed onto the top where Carl was sitting, and then it approached Carl and dropped the torn clothes from its jaws onto the stone surface.
Carl stared at them in doubt. Could those clothes even be worn again? They were shredded into pieces and soaked in blood.
Then, he glanced at the black dragon strangely as it rubbed its head against his palm, like it was asking for a reward after completing a mission.
"OK, buddy. Ah, but… those torn clothes are useless now. Still, thanks a lot. Here, take this bone."
Carl gave it the bare bones from the chicken drumstick he'd just finished gnawing clean. Since the dragon acted like a dog, he figured it would prefer the bone over the chicken leg. But the black dragon just shook its head, refusing the bone.
[System Notice]: Give it your mana.
A sudden system notice popped up in his mind, making him flinch. He didn't question it too much and just followed the instructions.
Carl stroked the dragon's head while transferring his mana into it. Barely half a second later, the dragon dissolved into a cloud of darkness and shot straight into his chest—returning as the black dragon tattoo on his body.
"What the fuck?" Carl's jaw dropped as he quickly checked his chest in disbelief.
"That dragon… is the mark of love."
At that moment, everything started to click in his head. His torn clothes, the blood stains on them, and the way the tattoo vanished when he took them off before.
Piecing it all together, Carl finally came to a conclusion.
The gatekeeper had already died because of his own greed. The black dragon had hidden inside Carl's clothes from the beginning, then finished the gatekeeper off as he lost caution. Eventually brought the clothes back to him.
He guessed so, because those were the most logical things he could explain for everything at this point.
"Although I have no idea what you really are, one of my wife's gifts always turns out… different, so I won't doubt too much.''
And, now. I'll give you a name: the Dragon of Love! Yeah, that sounds perfect!"
Suddenly, Carl felt an itch in his chest as the black dragon tattoo shook its head repeatedly, as if rejecting such a shameless name.
"Huh? You don't like it? Whatever! I've decided—your name is the Dragon of Love."
[System Notice]: Please… Its name is Cobb!
At that moment, the dragon nodded, even pressing its little claws together like praying to the system screen, as though it had just escaped something truly terrible.