The two men shut the door behind them carefully, and once the lock clicked back into place, whatever hesitation remained on their faces disappeared.

At the side of the bed, Zich slept peacefully, seemingly unaware that his room had been infiltrated.

"This bastard made this much already?" one whispered as he quickly stuffed several handfuls of gold coins into his coat pockets.

The other stepped forward and grinned. "Forget the coins. Take the soul stones first. We split everything afterward."

At first, they moved cautiously, still listening for footsteps outside the room, but greed worked quickly on people who already lacked discipline. Each passing second made them bolder, and before long both men had stopped whispering entirely.

One even began opening drawers openly.

Meanwhile, near the corner of the room, Slimy rested quietly beside the wall.

The small slime bounced once slowly while watching them.

One lackey noticed it almost immediately and snorted.

"A slime?"

He crouched and poked it once with the tip of his boot.

"Look at this weak little thing. He really uses trash monsters."

Slimy bounced backward after the contact but did not attack immediately and simply watched.

The slime’s body remained still afterward, and for some reason that calmness unsettled the second lackey far more than aggression would have. Monsters usually reacted instinctively when threatened, especially weak ones like slimes.

"Leave it alone," he muttered while continuing to search through the bags. "Something about it feels strange."

The first lackey laughed softly.

"You are scared of a slime now?"

"No I’m not. Let’s just leave it alone."

---

Inside the graveyard, the violent energy continued spreading outward.

BOOOOM!!!! BOOOOM!!!!

Dark mist exploded across the cemetery grounds in thick waves, and several nearby tombstones cracked from the pressure alone while the cold rain above transformed into a violent downpour.

Zich stood several meters away with narrowed eyes.

The summoning process had already exceeded anything Blood Leech had created previously, and the deeper the energy expanded, the more unstable the entire graveyard became around him. Even the air itself felt heavier now.

At the center of the cracked earth, something slowly began rising. Even though he could not see clearly, he could feel it.

The incomplete figure alone released pressure strong enough to bend several nearby tombstones sideways by nearly forty degrees.

Seeing this, Zich’s heartbeat quickened. Unlike the Silverback or Blood Leech, this presence felt ancient, violent, and impossibly proud.

’This thing...’

Even unfinished, it already felt dangerous.

---

Back inside the shelter room, the greedier lackey finally noticed the backpack resting beside the bed.

The moment he opened it and saw the remaining soul stones stored inside separate compartments, his pupils widened in shock.

"There are more here."

The second lackey turned immediately, and both men stared at the bag for a moment before moving toward it almost together. Several dozen soul stones rested inside neatly arranged rows, and the amount alone was enough to change their lives completely if sold properly.

"We take the bag and leave now," the first man said quickly.

Because they were too occupied with the treasures neither of them noticed Slimy moving.

The slime quietly expanded across the floor beneath the bed while its small eyes remained fixed on the lackey reaching for the backpack.

Right as his fingers touched the straps—

PSHHHHH!!!!

A thick stream of green poison shot forward without warning.

The liquid struck the man’s forearm directly. Within less than a second, the skin began melting as smoke burst violently from the wound.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!"

The lackey stumbled backward screaming while clutching his arm desperately.

Before the second man could react properly, Slimy moved again.

Silk Barrier!

BOOM!!!

A translucent wall expanded across the room, separating both men from the door while trapping them inside. The sudden impact cracked the nearby wall deeply enough to leave a crater nearly the width of a human torso.

"What the hell is this thing?!" the second man shouted while pulling out his weapon.

Slimy bounced forward aggressively now.

Poison hissed against the floor wherever droplets landed, melting several holes clean through the wooden boards within moments. The first lackey swung his blade downward repeatedly, but the slime’s body simply shifted around the strikes while more poison gathered along its surface.

"It is just a slime!" he roared angrily. "Kill it already!"

But Slimy was far too slippery to be easily killed like that.

Slimes were supposed to be among the weakest monsters inside the mountain, barely dangerous unless gathered in swarms, yet this tiny creature had already trapped them inside the room while nearly dissolving one man’s arm completely.

Another poison shot exploded forward.

PSHHHH!!!!

The second lackey barely blocked in time using his sword, but the metal blackened immediately afterward while chunks of the blade began dissolving visibly near the center.

"Dammit, this little bastard will attract attention!"

...

Just then, a frown appeared on Zich’s face.

He felt the disturbance through Slimy and although he was not there physically, he could feel that his summon was currently locked in a fight.

Without even waiting to see his summon form fully, his consciousness slipped out of the graveyard and his eyes snapped open.

Back inside the shelter room, the two lackeys were still struggling against Slimy’s poison and barriers when suddenly they felt an oppressive killing intent weighing down on them from behind.

Stiffly, with pale faces, the two turned toward the source.

Right there, with an annoyed look on his face, stood the white-haired youth who had been asleep moments ago.

But even before Zich could make a move, a spectral figure suddenly appeared behind him, shocking not only the lackeys but even Zich himself, who had not expected his summon to manifest here instead of the graveyard.

The temperature inside the room dropped almost instantly.

A freezing pressure spread outward as dark mist slowly crawled across the wooden floorboards, and faint cracking sounds echoed beneath the room moments later.

KRRRRRK...

The floor beneath Zich’s feet began splitting apart. The two men stumbled backward instinctively as something enormous started rising from underneath the room itself.

At first, only fragments of white bone became visible through the spreading darkness, but within seconds an enormous skeletal head slowly emerged upward from the cracked floor.

A pale golden glow flickered deep within the dragon’s hollow eye sockets, shining coldly through the darkness of its skull.

Its skeletal body appeared terrifyingly flawless, with every bone connected perfectly along the massive frame. The long spine stretched downward in smooth alignment while the enormous ribcage expanded outward evenly, making the entire creature feel unnaturally precise for something that should have been dead long ago.

Slowly, the dragon spread its massive bone wings outward. The sharp skeletal edges blocked the light almost instantly, and a heavy shadow swallowed the entire room.

The oppressive aura emitted from the dragon was not confined to the room alone. It exploded outward immediately afterward, spreading far beyond the shelter itself.

Out in the corridor, players froze mid-step after sensing the overwhelming presence.

Inside the room itself, the lackeys stopped moving completely after feeling the horrifying pressure descend over the area, and when they slowly turned toward Zich standing beside the bone dragon with cold eyes, genuine fear finally entered their expressions.