SS Awakening: My Monster Merging System!

Arnold and Cole both had faint frowns on their faces as they stared at Zich standing calmly before them.

The cold air leaking from the room had not disappeared completely, and even now several nearby players continued watching nervously from the corridor corners while pretending not to stare too openly.

"You again." Cole looked visibly unconvinced. "Why does trouble always seem to gather around you?"

"That sounds unfair," Zich said, leaning lightly against the door frame. "I was resting peacefully before half the shelter suddenly appeared outside my room. Did something happen?"

Cole clicked his tongue softly.

His gaze moved past Zich again, searching carefully through the room, but aside from damaged floorboards, scattered frost marks, and the faint smell of poison lingering in the air, nothing openly dangerous remained visible.

Arnold stayed silent longer. Unlike Cole, he was not searching the room randomly. His sharp eyes remained fixed on Zich himself, studying every small reaction, every shift in breathing, and every movement of the young man standing before him.

"We sensed a powerful presence coming from this room," Arnold finally said, stepping forward slightly. "Something large enough to affect the entire building."

Several nearby players swallowed nervously after hearing that directly from him.

Even now they could still feel traces of the oppressive aura lingering around the corridor, though far weaker than before.

Zich glanced briefly behind himself before sighing.

"There is no monster here. I was simply practicing a new technique. I might have underestimated the reaction it would cause."

"A technique?"

"Yes."

Silence fell across the hallway. One of the nearby players almost snorted before quickly lowering his head after feeling Arnold’s gaze shift briefly across the hallway.

Nobody truly believed that explanation, not even slightly.

Arnold’s expression remained composed, but the pressure around him grew heavier.

"A technique powerful enough to imitate the aura of an undead dragon?"

Zich shrugged once. "I have unusual abilities. You already know that much after the event."

Cole folded his arms tightly.

"And where exactly did you learn a technique like that?"

"I purchased it."

"That conveniently?"

"Yes."

Cole’s eyes narrowed further. "You expect us to believe a newly awakened skill caused all this?"

"I was testing limits. The reaction became larger than expected. If I damaged shelter property, I will pay for repairs," he said.

The straightforward response slowed Cole slightly. Usually guilty people panicked, overexplained, or tried avoiding direct answers entirely. Zich instead sounded mildly annoyed that people had interrupted him during testing.

Arnold finally stepped past the doorway.

His eyes swept across the room carefully. The bed remained pushed slightly aside, gold coins had already been reorganized neatly, and although damage marks existed across several sections of the room, no visible monster remained anywhere inside.

The traces lingering there felt real — very real.

Arnold crouched near one cracked section of the floor.

Faint frost still covered parts of the wood, and thin black marks stretched outward around it like something extremely cold had rested there briefly.

"A strange technique," Arnold muttered.

"My apologies, Shelter Lord. I won’t test it out in the shelter again."

Cole clearly still did not buy any of this, neither did many of those outside. Twice he looked like he wanted to continue questioning Zich more aggressively, but Arnold slowly stood back up before that could happen.

The Shelter Lord looked at Zich quietly for several seconds before saying,

"If another incident like this happens, you will report it immediately."

Zich nodded once. "Understood."

Several nearby players quickly moved aside to clear the path.

Arnold remained standing slightly longer. His sharp gaze rested on Zich one final time before he turned around as well, and the moment both men began walking away, the heavy tension filling the hallway weakened noticeably.

Players immediately started whispering again.

"Was there really no monster?"

"How could a technique create pressure like that?"

"I still think something was inside."

One older player looked toward Zich’s closed door nervously.

"I’m changing buildings tomorrow."

Inside the room, Zich waited silently until their footsteps completely disappeared.

Only afterward did he exhale slowly.

"That old man is troublesome," he muttered, locking the door again carefully.

Arnold clearly had not believed him fully. Cole especially looked one question away from forcing himself inside the room directly, and if they had arrived thirty seconds earlier, hiding the bone dragon would have become impossible.

Zich rubbed his temple once before finally closing his eyes.

His consciousness slipped back into the graveyard almost immediately.

The violent energy from earlier had already settled, though traces of destruction still covered parts of the cemetery grounds. Several tombstones leaned sideways from the pressure released during the summoning process, and long cracks stretched through the black earth across nearly twenty meters.

Not far away stood two fresh tombstones — the two lackeys. During the confrontation earlier, the bone dragon’s seething flames had swallowed them completely before Zich even properly reacted, turning them into piles of bones he had quickly swept under the bed.

Zich looked at the new graves quietly with dissatisfaction in his eyes, clearly not wanting them here. However, there was nothing he could do. He could not control the tombs that appeared here.

’Maybe I should be selective with my kills.’

However... this was easier said than done. It was something he could not easily control. Maybe he could individually, but during a battle with multiple enemies, he would not be able to.

While he was lost in his thoughts, his attention slowly shifted afterward.

Farther ahead, standing near the massive tombstone of Tiamant, the new summon stood in all its full glory.

The undead bone dragon towered over the surrounding graves completely.

Even standing this far away, he could feel the authoritative pressure radiating from the creature constantly.

Above the dragon’s skull floated a glowing system panel.

[Supreme Bone Dragon — Lv1]

[Rank: Commander]

[Description: A...]

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