“I thought I wouldn’t be able to find someone with more mana than me.”
But I was wrong. The dragon in front of carried more than my 1.5 million mana. The dragon spoke unenthusiastically.
[Be careful not to fall and die.]
Just when I was wondering what he meant, the ground began to shake and fall. I couldn’t even feel his mana move, so I was surprised to say the least. Of course, as I could now fly with my power alone, I wasn’t affected by the ground disappearing. But I caught a glimpse into his shocking magic.
Floating in the air, I reached out towards the countless debris of the ground falling to a seemingly endless underworld.
“Dortu!”
[I am Dortu. Following Master’s command.]
Some of the debris stopped in the air and began to turn silver. The dragon looked on with an extremely amused expression.
[A material transformation, interesting!]
“It’s my elemental’s power, but… Mm?”
While continuing to transform the debris, I felt something was out of sorts. At the same time, I caught sight of something in the middle of the crumbling land.
“Overflowing river of blood.”
The blood did not belong to the dragon.
The moment I realized that, I turned around towards the entrance to the 95th floor, but the entrance was gone. I should have realized it when the entire floor was the Floor Master room!
[You already noticed?]
The dragon spoke and reached out with his foreleg as if to imitate what I did. With just that single action, most of the falling debris turned direction and shot towards me. Dortu transformed his metallicized debris into maces and spun them around me.
Thundering clashes began to ring out. Dortu’s metal maces and the dragon’s debris were colliding fiercely.
[Right, I am not tied to the dungeon.]
“…”
Because I was so used to the dungeon’s power leaving me recently, I didn’t notice that the dungeon’s power disappeared. I was dumbfounded.
“How did you come in here?”
[It’s not too difficult. Her power is too strong even for me, but tricking her is extremely simple.]
“Tricking her, eh.”
[She should be watching a human fighting a giant right about now.]
“Ha.”
This was what the dragon was saying. That he killed the 95th Floor Master and was tricking Sherafina with an illusion magic.
As someone who felt Sherafina’s power before, I could say this for certain. This was different than simply ignoring the dungeon’s power.
The dungeon’s power was Sherafina’s power which is refined in order to be passed to explorers. An ability to nullify the dungeon’s power, which Lespina had, wasn’t necessary. To isolate an explorer from the dungeon’s power, it was enough to simply cut off this link between Sherafina and the explorer.
However, that didn’t mean anyone could ignore Sherafina herself. The difference between the two was as great as the difference between heaven and earth. Tricking Sherafina required an extraordinary amount of effort and mana. Simply put, this dragon wasn’t at his full strength.
Dumbfounded, I asked.
“Why are you in the dungeon?”
[Prove to me your League.]
With Dortu’s army of metal maces fighting the countless debris of land, it was hard to see what was directly in front of me. However, I could clearly feel a terrifying amount of energy amassing near the dragon I could faintly see.
Immediately I realized that it was the symbol of dragons, dragon breath!
I used Frozen Roar in a hurry, but Frozen Roar could only weaken the breath by a fraction. Meanwhile, his breath became increasingly bigger.
Against a dragon, I wanted to fight with Peika so she could support my lightning, but because of his breath, it was smarter to summon Ruyue for defense. I clicked my tongue.
“No choice, Ruyue!”
[Got it! Leave it to me!]
This wasn’t the time to save my strength. Ruyue appeared in her materialized form and immediately created barriers of ice with dozens of layers. Starting from where I was, a flower of ice bloomed towards the direction of the dragon’s breath.
[Kuaaaaaaaa!]
The dragon finally breathed out. I recalled Lin saying that an EX rank flame was something the Demon Lord could create by giving up one of his arm, but thinking about it now, that must have been because the Demon Lord normally didn’t wield flames! There was no way that this flame breath didn’t reach EX rank!
Ruyue must have felt the flame’s power, as she turned towards me and confessed.
[Shin, I don’t think I can block that.]
“Don’t say that now, Ruyue!”
Even now, there were debris flying about and colliding everywhere. I couldn’t move now as I was more or less trapped by all the debris, but there was also no way to block the dragon’s breath by staying here.
In that case, I’d have to use one of my once per day skill, Shadow Blink…!
[I am Dortu. Master, this isn’t the dungeon.]
“Yeah, I know that! … Ah.”
I’m stupid!
[I am Dortu. Yes, Master is stupid.]
“Shut it! Sharana!”
[Yes, Master!]
Although this place was technically the dungeon, it was a completely different world isolated from Sherafina’s power. Since the dungeon’s power couldn’t be used, there was no way the dungeon’s rules would apply here!
I immediately summoned Sharana, who immediately materialized and bolstered Ruyue’s ice barriers.
In an instant, the thousands of petals Ruyue created became more brilliant. The dragon’s breath then struck the barriers.
Unable to withstand its force, hundreds of barriers instantly shattered and each of the remaining layers could only hold out for a few milliseconds before shattering. Although the breath was still far away from us, I could still feel its powerful heat.
“Take more of my mana!”
[I won’t lose!]
[We’ll stop him, Master!]
[I am Dortu. Dortu will help too.]
“Dortu!?”
My mana began to plummet. Ruyue exerted more strength into her ice petals and Sharana strengthened them.
At the same time, Dortu exerted his power on the debris continually hurling towards me. Though Dortu’s metal maces were simply smacking them away until now, they now began to transform into a red metal.
[I am Dortu. Firing.]
Then, they tore through the ocean of debris and shot upwards. Clearly, they were targeting the dragon’s breath crashing down towards us.
[I am Dortu. This metal absorbs heat and converts it to freezing energy.]
“So you can create any metal you want.”
[I am Dortu. Not any metal, only metals that Dortu knows.]
The first few debris melted immediately, but as more debris struck the breath, the incredibly powerful breath began to weaken gradually.
With Ruyue’s ice barriers blocking the breath’s way, it became noticeably weak by the time it was just a kilometer from me. The dragon seemed to have noticed it too as he drew up mana from a much deeper place.
[Kuaaaaaaaaaa!]
[Protect Shin!]
[He is someone who cares for all elementals. I will not let him become food for some lizard!]
[I am Dortu!]
The elementals’ power shot up to the limit. To handle their mana consumption, I drew Peruta Circuit’s, Absolute Soul’s, Steel’s and Crimson Hell’s powers to the limit, absorbing all the mana I possibly could.
Although I’d experienced using a large amount of mana instantly, I had never experience such a large sustained usage of mana nor absorbing such a large amount of mana.
[We did it, we won!]
Hearing Ruyue’s cheerful shout, I gathered my senses. Now, there wasn’t anything around us. The dragon’s breath and the countless layers of Ruyue’s barriers had both disappeared.
There was one layer of Ruyue’s barrier left, which was especially thick and hovered about two meters from us. In other words, I was only a single layer of ice barrier away from that terrifying red light flame.
Of course, with how close the breath had gotten, the surrounding debris had all melted. Dortu then got rid of his metal maces, and the dragon finally opened his mouth.
[You really blocked it. How long has it been since I saw a human stopping my breath? I’m truly pleased.]
“Well I’m happy you’re pleased, shitty lizard.”
That bastard, to please him a couple more times, a world would have to be destroyed! Even though I cursed him, the dragon continued while maintaining a pleased tone.
[Then as promised, I’ll tell you why I am in this place called the dungeon.]
The dragon created a countless number of fireballs in the air.
[I am not very pleased with the dungeon’s and her goal. It is preposterous and arrogant.]
“What’s that?”
[But my world and my race were facing their doom, and I realized what she was aiming for could become my goal. I’m thus waiting for that result in the dungeon’s highest floor.]
“This goal you’re talking about, is that me?”
[Yes, precisely.]
Ruyue also created a countless number of iceballs, which struck the dragon’s fireballs and let out a blinding steam.
[I cannot allow you to walk into her mouth. I must take you for myself, or else…]
The steam created by the colliding ice and flames suddenly began to rush towards me. Not only that, the abundant mana in the world disappeared. Dragon, a creature that controlled mana. He truly fit that description.
While I was shocked by the sudden disappearance of mana, I felt inexplicably calm. There was something I could feel only after the mana disappeared.
[Come, Savior.]
“Huu…”
With my eyes closed, I took a deep breath. Then, I opened my eyes back up.
The ring of light spinning around my horn let out a bright light and a thick black mana began to cover my body. This mana was none other than Enigma.
“Good, I finally get it.”
I grinned. Then, I charged towards the dragon without a moment of hesitation.
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