POV Vesuvius sometime later:
A large underground chamber was crowded with people in black. The chamber was vast, with a high ceiling and entirely enshrouded in darkness.
The hooded figures waited in absolute darkness as if waiting for something.
None of them looked happy. Their masks were shaped to look like dragon heads hiding their frowns.
“Are they kidding me? Why must be a new update right now?”
“I want to play more now. I need it!”
“Dammit, I just hope that this faction will still exist after we return.”
“Hahaha, don’t worry, my friends, we are not one of these factions rules by feeble humans! There is no way that our boss will just die.”
The dragon hidden within thick clouds of smoke quietly observed his minions, knowing that this would be a farewell for a long time.
He still felt confused about what had happened to his players in the last few days. Sadly, he could only piece together that something big happened outside that affected the whole earth.
Suddenly at once, all of the marked minions burst into light, interrupting the dragon’s thought with the whole chamber getting so bright that it looked as if sunlight had somehow penetrated the ceiling.
Ding!
//
Updating in progress…
Disconnecting the players…
Disconnecting the game servers…
…
//
The dragon observing it all from the distant end of the vast underground space, finally breathed out in relief as he felt peace for the first time.
There was no shouting or bickering around him. There was only silence.
‘It really is silent here without my minions.’ the dragon grinned with the blue light from his mouth flooding the cave as he couldn’t help but feel excited about finally moving all of his plans without the risk of getting hunted down by an infinite amount of immortal beings.
He immediately tried to call for the status, but there was no distinct ding, nor was there any text appearing before his eyes. There was absolutely no response.
(AN: Please let me know by voting in paragraph comment about how you feel about the system vanishing for a significant amount of chapters. If you don’t like it, let me know with your votes, and I will use my contingency plan to get the system back sooner!)
At first, the dragon panicked as if his companion had left him, but then he finally felt free for the first time. The presence that was always watching from a distance had vanished.
He was truly alone, maybe except for the dragon god.
For the first time, he felt like he could act freely without the system spoiling his plans by giving quests to players to stop him.
However, he still noticed something curious. Small trickles of the weird XP energy were still flowing into his body, vanishing in it as if he was some kind of a bottomless pit.
There was no heat or anything. He wouldn’t even know about it if he couldn’t see it.
‘What really is this? It definitely is not just part of the system. It must be something that already existed even before the system. It is as if the system could open some kind of a gate for someone to start perceiving it.’
Pushing back the more complicated question that he had no way to solve, he focused on more critical problems, ‘Will I level up once the system comes online? Or will I level up normally, just without any UI?’
He wasn’t even feeling depressed about the system being gone as he felt like it was needed, ‘I have so many skills and powers, but I had not time to master them.’ His head spun, just thinking about how far behind he was with the study of his magic.
‘There is plenty of stuff I can do to become stronger even without the system.’ He could expand his magic knowledge, fulfill some legacies of dead dragons or just get stronger with the dragon way simply by going to sleep.
‘Legacies of weaker dragons should be theoretically easier to fulfil as they likely weren’t killed by as strong opponents.’
“Come here, my kobold minions!” the dragon finally put away all his doubts and started acting.
At once, dozens of golden eyes ignited in the darkness on the darkness of one of the tunnels leading to the main chamber, bipedal reptilian-looking monsters swarming all over it, their clawed legs scratching on the cold stone floor.
More than three dozen kobolds fell on their knees, kneeling before the dragon, all burning with zealotry.𝒪𝓥xt.𝑶
Faint orange light radiated from thin lines of magma between their scales, making their silhouette glow slightly in the darkness.
Some of them were taller than others, with horns decorating their heads. They were high kobolds, future leaders of their kind. They were the ones that obtained more of the marrow.
All of them carried sacks filled with food and seeds on their backs.
‘Alesia is working hard. Maybe I should give her some reward for her more than important services.’
The dragon spoke, his voice filled with magic, compelling all of his minions to listen to him, “Go north, cross the mountains and start building a settlement.”
Of course, Vesuvius wasn’t such a fool to base his main operation on everyone’s sight.
Instead, he decided to build his own small country deep inside the mountains filled with monsters, which would remain hidden from prying human eyes for a long time.
‘Without players around that would stick their noses into my plans, I can finally work.’
With how fast goblins bred, he didn’t even feel worried about ever running out of low-end minions and also, with him being a dragon and having control over the curse, the cursed monsters and the wyverns wouldn’t pose any threat to his efforts. Instead, they would bolster his defences.
‘It might take a few decades, but slowly I will build my own small country deep in the mountains.’ his greedy heart pounded at the thought of having his own small kingdom where everyone would work for him, making him richer.
While already fantasizing about his kingdom, he continued his speech, “You will be the first settlers of my kingdom, forever carrying the glory it will bring you! Now go and prepare for the arrival of more groups.”