The dragon stood in the middle of the mountain valley, the cold mountain air blowing past his gigantic body. He just stood there, still mystified by the immense power of the divine energy.
‘I wonder what is in these boxes. There is even the platinum one.’ The dragon’s greedy heart almost immediately moved towards his rewards, his eyes shining in greed.
Ding!
//𝔬𝓋𝔩𝒩xt.𝑐𝑶𝑀
Opening: 9 X Bronze Mysteri Box
Rewards: 500 gold coins; 10 X vial of the living sand; Magical spear: [Giga Penetrator]; 4 X Basic potion pack (Mana, Vitality, Stamina)
//
In a flash of light, bottles, vials, and a super thick spike-like spear materialized on the stone ground before him.
The dragon almost sighted, seeing that all he got was garbage except for the beautiful, shiny golden coins filling his storage ring.
‘Useless, absolutely useless. Not even worth throwing to my minions… Even that spear is inferior to these crafted by my minions. Well, expecting anything better from a bronze mystery box would be weird.’
Ding!
//
Opening: 6 X Silver Mystery Box
Rewards: 2500 gold coins; 1 X [Ability scroll (Sand Magic (LV 1))]; 1 X [Ability scroll (Sand Manipulation (LV 1))]; Magic weapon: [Aimbot Bow]; 5 X Summoning Scroll (Lesser Sand Elemental)
//
‘Not as much garbage as before, but still nothing useful for me. At least these things can be given to my minions.’
Vesuvius glanced at the ability scrolls only to shake his giant armoured head, feeling like they were too useless and even redundant for him.
‘I can already do the same just better with my earth affinity, draconic magic and domain. But at least I can throw it into the reward pool for my minions.’
The dragon moved on, encouraged by the increasing rarity of the box’s content and the amount of gold in his ring.
Ding!
//
Opening: 3 X Golden Mystery Box
Rewards: 3500 gold coins; 1 X Bottle of sandification poison; 1 X Rare Magic Weapon: [Dagger of Sands]; 1 X Sand Attribute Ability Upgrade token (Adds the sand attribute to an ability)
//
The golden light radiated in front of the dragon as multiple items appeared out of nowhere.
‘Sand attribute… really? That would likely only mess up my ability. I guess it was my mistake of going into a dungeon themed around a desert. I should pick something more fiery or stormy. What else should I expect out of the desert dungeon?’
The items before him were all rare, potentially useful, and powerful, which made the dragon even more frustrated as they were all unsuitable or detrimental to him.
‘The next time, I need to pick a dungeon not just by its level but also by its smell. Maybe I can try to find something more tropical or unusual like that one with the robots.’
The dragon moved straight towards the last remaining mystery box, all of his hopes hanging on it. He bathed his breath and crossed his clawed fingers as he hoped for something good, something that would make that dungeon highly profitable.
Ding!
//
Opening: 1 X Platinum Mystery Box
Rewards: Magic Item: Sandstorm Bottle (Refillable); 1500 Gold
//
The bright platinum light flashed one last time, a single small glass bottle materializing out of thin air.
It looked ordinary, like a bottle used to hold potions. The only differences were the glowing runes on its lid and its content that looked like swirling and spinning clouds of sand.
‘Huh? This looks like something usable.’ The dragon’s interest peaked for the first time as he glanced at the small bottle filled with spinning clouds of sand lying under his feet.
Ding!
//Analyze result:
Name: Sandstorm Bottle
Category: Magic Item
Grade: A
Item level: 60
Effects: Upon opening, it unleashes a massive sandstorm that will wreak havoc through the surroundings. The power and scale of the unleashed sandstorm scales with the casters MAG sta and the amount of sand and mana contained within the bottle. Upon opening, the sand and mana will be consumed. It can be refilled with sand and mana from an external source.
//
‘This is really not a bad item. I would even say that it is a really good item. I can just prefill it before a battle and unleash it for free extra support during a battle. With my stats, the sandstorm should be huge. If it mixes with my domain, it will create an inhospitable, hellish environment. Simply perfect. The only problem is getting large quantities of sand around here, but I can solve that later.’
The dragon grinned as all of the items from the ground vanished into his ring.
He spread his huge wings, his body leaping into the air as he looked straight toward the horizon, ‘I wonder if they have already arrived.’
POV ???:
The small group of humans stood in the massive temple built out of polished volcanic stone. The massive statue of a dragon in its center stared straight at them. The whole statue was massive, its surface polished so much that it reflected light almost like a mirror, even though it was made of the same dark volcanic stone.
It had two massive diamonds embedded within its eyesockets, awakening greed in everyone near it. However, nobody dared to move towards it as there was something about its diamond eyes that had an indescribable and dangerous presence.
They all felt small in the massive chamber. They were all nervously looking around. The tall and wide pillar and the tall and vast dome-like ceiling made them look like dwarfs.
There were no windows, making the only light source the flickering orange lights of flames burning within fire pits evenly spread around the chamber’s circular walls.
All the humans looked distracted, still thinking about what nonsense they had just witnessed, ‘How could such a large place exist so close to our kingdom? How many decades has it taken to build? How could we not notice it for such a long time?’
The young merchant just felt his worldview collapse. All the time, he was led to believe that only humans and a few other humanoid races were capable of building a civilization.
‘I thought that kobolds were supposed to live in caves, hunting for food, while being unable of any craft except for simplest stone tools.’
But now he saw the massive city, fully run by beings considered to be barbaric monsters. He saw how orderly it was. There was no dirt or commotion in the street. On top of that, everyone acted in perfect unison.
The streets were wide and all paved, the fields outside the city stretching as far as he could see, the irrigation channels and the fertile volcanic soil increasing their productivity through the roof.
The image of the tall and smooth walls was still vivid in his mind. They were tall, looking more like towers placed next to each other without any gaps than walls. Their smooth surface looked like it could resist bombardment for months while making it impossible to scale.
‘They are nothing like some cheap palisades or hastily made walls like these of orc cities. They are massive, well-engineered, and even enchanted. They can easily compare even with large human cities.’
He looked around at his fellow humans, seeing them nervously standing frozen in shock.
Suddenly a gentle, girly voice came from behind them, “Welcome, you are the first batch of mortals to gain the grace of his majesty. To gain a privilege of eternal youth and eternal service to his majesty.”
A young elven-looking girl just stood at the entrance in an embroidered green dress, her smooth pale skin and terrifying giving her an ethereal presence. She smiled at them, her large heterochromatic eyes shining.
Her head was crowned by silky blonde hair and long, very long glowing horns that looked hot enough to burn through full plate armour.
The young man looked at her in doubt, more humans following him.
‘Eternal youth? That feels too good to be true. There must be some catch in it.’
POV Brown:
The young man, wearing a brown robe with a brown coat over it, was lying in a simple, plain bed.
He had a weird combination of the brown hood and hat on his head, making him look like an absolute goof.
He looked bored as he stared at the ceiling of volcanic stone above his head.
‘I wonder who is head of the church here… And why are they absent?’
He was frustrated. He wanted to go out and explore the new location. He wanted to crawl through its sewers and darkest corners and find all of the secrets and pieces of lore about it.
‘From what I heard it was built between the updates. So who knows what is hidden deep under the streets? Yet I am forced to wait here, waiting for some NPC that no one knows when they will show up.’
Suddenly the door into his small room smoothly opened, a voice of a robed figure echoing between the four plain, stone walls, “His Holiness is ready for the ritual. You and all of the other soon-to-be clerics are expected.”
‘His Holiness? That sounds like someone important!’ Brown excitedly jumped out of his bed, rushing out of the room, his fingers itching at the recording button.
The black-robed man in the door jumped to the side at the last moment, avoiding getting toppled down.