POV Our Friendly Pyromaniac:
Multiple large wyverns with smooth gray scales flew high above the fields overgrown with wheat in a triangular formation.
An even larger dracodactyl with its whole body covered in hard volcanic armor flew at the head of the whole formation.
The players in black sat on the backs of all the beasts, their thick mantles fluttering in the strong wind current gushing against them.
“Once we cross the border, we will have to continue on the ground to avoid any attention. Also, we will have to change our outfits.” The only player in red shouted. Flames burned under his mask, and smoke drifted from him as if he was going to burst into fire at any second.
All the players nodded, their superhuman hearing effortlessly catching the words even with the wind’s constant roaring.
Pyro looked at his quest again, searching for any additional clues.
//
Main Story Subquest: The Connection with Unholy
Objective: Travel far west until you reach the city of Salum. Then contact the Vesuvian kingdom and wait for the new instructions.
Quest items: Sealed Box
Reward: ???; Main Story Quest: The Four Stepping Stones will advance
(SN: Don’t worry, there will be fire… Lots of fire.)
//
He wanted to know what was in the box. His body couldn’t help but smoke even more out of the excitement at the systems promising him a fire.
‘I hope you are not lying, or I will find and burn you!’
He already heard from the groups fulfilling the other three parts: ‘ The Connection with Unholy, The Connection with Divine, The Connection with Dead, and finally, The Connection with Living.’
However, none of them spoke about the contents of their quest with each other, out of the fear of a leak, ‘This quest can’t fail. I want to see the dragon fire burn down whole armies and kingdoms!’
His body blazed in flames and fire as his excitement burst through the roof when he imagined the columns of fire descending from the black clouds of smoke, turning armies of thousands into a beautiful sea of fire. He wanted to see that sea of fire devour everything in its path.
He awoke from his dream, noticing the flames dancing and spiraling around his red-robed body. The wyverns and their riders behind him were slowing down, increasing the gap between them and him while staring at him.
‘Nah, they don’t know what is a beauty.’ They were all greedy, serving the dragon to get stronger. He, on the other hand, wanted to see the dragon’s fire grow hotter and brighter. He wanted to see how far it could go. He wanted to see fire so hot that it would turn invisible.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon dived from the sky, his armored body of crystals, volcanic stone, diamonds, and various metals descending, leaving behind a trail of lightning, black smoke, and fire like an asteroid.
Below him was a black void sucking in all the light, looking like a bottomless, calm pond of oil. The dragon was quickly speeding up as he dived straight into it with a new motivation.
‘All my plans are moving, but in the end, my personal power will be the key to everything. Without it, it will all collapse.’ He wanted and needed even more levels and evolution, with a little bit of luck, maybe even his second metamorphosis. And now that he let the wyrm guard the city, he finally had time to do that.
He needed the power to fight against the angels of the third sphere, like cherubs and seraphs on equal footing, and be strong enough to crush lesser angels of the first and second spheres without any effort.
‘I can’t underestimate the angels.’ He still remembered the elder dragon killed by the angels, refusing to end up the same way.
His head finally pierced through the black void of the dungeon, and the world around him faded away, replaced by endless blackness.
The next moment, he stood on an island made of nothing but black, sharp obsidian. The air was filled with ash and smoke, and a red light shone above him.
As far as he could see, there was an endless sea of bubbling and glowing lava. The lava was wild, and vortexes and waves were forming all over it like a sea during a hurricane.
Narrow paths and bridges of black stone connected countless black islands of stone.
Ding!
//
You have entered the dungeon: The Small Hell
Recommended level: 90-110
Type: One-time
//
‘This is the highest leveled fire attributed dungeon that I found in my mountains. This must be worth it. Just the XP that I will get out of this will help me, a lot.’
The more he leveled up, the harder it became to find large sources of XP, ‘That is why the high-level players mostly spend their time doing quests to farm instant level-ups. Is this balancing factor intended to prevent mass genocides by the players?’
Ding!
//
Dungeon objective discovered.
Objective: Find the demons performing the forbidden ritual to wake up and corrupt ???, and stop them before they can finish.
//
The dragon looked around and inhaled, the smell of sulfur, ash, and lava filling his lungs. It was the smell of home with a mixture of something… weird that he couldn’t identify.
‘What if I just take a nap until they finish? How powerful can that question mark thing be? Can I beat it for more XP and rewards?’
Ding!
//
Alternative dungeon objective discovered.
Objective: Wait for the demons performing the forbidden ritual to wake up and corrupt ???, to finish it. Then defeat the ???.
Warning: Extremely difficult
//𝑶𝑣𝗅xt.𝒸𝔬𝐦
‘I guess, thank you?’
The dragon felt like laughing when he imagined the rich reward that he would gain.
However, a slight worry entered his mind, ‘What if is it something truly dangerous? This is an unstable, one-time dungeon, so there is no escape route for me. This dungeon was originally level 110, and this alternate objective wasn’t even offered, so does that mean that the system thinks that a level 110 player would have no chance to win?’
“Hahaha, even if it is true, I am a dragon lord in his natural habitat, something like that will be nothing more than a snack to me.”
The dragon’s mana flared up, and his domain formed a massive bubble around the islands around near him. The magma stirred, waves spreading away from the dragon, like when a pebble falls into a pond.
An immense wave of mana rushed into his body, every particle of the magma, the black clouds and stones, and the air itself charging him with energy. The magma in his armor, the mana crystals, and his horns all brightened up with the mana flowing through them.
Vesuvius felt energized, as if he had just drunk a whole lake of energy drinks. This was the first time that he activated his domain in the lands that felt like heaven to him. It surpassed his artificial and even the natural volcano by a large margin.
‘Even though I control other elements, I am still most connected to the fire and lava. Maybe the primary affinity doesn’t mean that they are all equally strong. What if there is something beyond that?’
His affinities were already upgraded to his lord affinities, increasing his power to control each of his elements, but they were still separated as previously into primary, secondary, and tertiary, which led him to believe that there was more to that.
Something that wasn’t showing up in his status.
Even now, only the primary and special ones gave him immunity, even though his control over his secondary and tertiary increased.
The dragon slowly walked straight towards the sea of lava, the island cracking and shaking with each of his steps.
His whole body and mind were screaming with the desire to dip into it. Jolts of comfort ran down his armor and scales as he dipped his front legs into it.
His eyes pulsed in light as he bent his hind legs and jumped, his whole body submerging into the burning liquid. He felt even more heat and energy enter his body, circulating through his veins.
It was hot and liquid, yet something felt off: ‘ It doesn’t feel like any lava I have seen before. It… I don’t know. Maybe it is how lava is in the world from where this dungeon came?’
The dragon’s mana exploded out, his horns brightly glowing as the black clouds above the lava stirred and rotated. The lightning crackled within the clouds, and one triple-layer magic circuit after another started to form above his head.
The lightning spun and crackled around the outer circles, the letters within them coming to life. He didn’t even have to care, his sub-brain and horns working by themselves.
He hated how the whole dungeon reeked of something weird, and with the demons having their part in it, he refused to believe that there was no trickery and be careless, ‘Just in case. Better to be prepared for a trap that doesn’t exist than be unprepared for a trap that exists.’