𝒪𝚟xt.𝐜𝚘𝑚
POV ???:
Dozens of the players in black stood in the circle, their masks gleaming under the lights of pyres burning around them. They were back in the cave that was once their main base.
“I knew it. It was the best choice to join the dragon!” One of them stood up and raised his gloved hand above his head.
He saw all the players panicking all over the forum, no, not just players. The fear of interdimensional war spread through their entire society, from the poorest to the richest. The feeling of uncertainty perpetrated their everyday lives, like during the cold war.
He and his faction were the only ones who didn’t fear the war, as they had a powerful backer that explicitly guaranteed their safety.
But that brought its own problems. No one knew on what side they stood, even themself.
“If the war really comes… and the dragon orders us to fight against our world…”
The silence fell upon the gathering, no one knowing what to do. On the one hand, conquering and waging war on what used to be their home felt wrong. But on the other hand, just the thought of facing their boss in the war was terrifying, and the vengeful nature of dragons made it even worse.
“Hahaha, I believe your worries are baseless!” But the same man burst into laughter again. He couldn’t even understand their worries.
“Do you really believe that the dragon would want to invade Earth? Didn’t you hear? The four balance races were already there, but they left. That can mean only a single thing. They don’t want Earth! There is likely something lacking! Maybe it is magic in the air or something else? But it is obvious they have no interest in the Earth!”
The heavy atmosphere lifted up, and the eyes of the players lit up in new hope. However, he didn’t stop. Instead, his tone became even more exalted.
“Don’t you see it? Is Earth still our home? We spend most of our time here already! We have our friends and jobs here. Why should we care about Earth?! Arent the dragon’s words an offer of citizenship? We are part of this kingdom that we have helped to build!”
He could see multiple players nod. It was the majority, making him happy that they also understood he was right.
He was nobody in real life before LOMM, but now he had a place in society. He even had his own house, ‘Phh, if the possibility to travel between the worlds comes, I will first move here.’
He felt more belonging to the faction and kingdom he helped to build with his own hand than to some country back on Earth where he was just born.
The only things that connected him to it were his origin and family, but he was connected to the Vesuvian kingdom by the numerous battles and all the hard work, ‘If I take my family here, there will nothing binding me back to Earth.’
Suddenly all the players stopped, staring at an announcement.
Ding!
//
Continent Announcement: An legendary unique stable dungeon, The Well of Xerxses, has opened up!
The coordinates were added to your quest log!
//
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon’s eyes opened up, and his huge body moved, sending down an avalanche of golden coins and gems.
//
Continent Announcement: An legendary unique stable dungeon, The Well of Xerxses, has opened up!
The coordinates were added to your quest log!
//
Vesuvius didn’t even wait as she flapped his wide wings, and the world warped and changed around him. In a split second, he appeared hovering high above the white mountains peaks of his kingdom, the wave of fresh and clean air washing over his body.
‘Legendary dungeon! There must be something worthy inside!’ He was sure all the players would, with joy, drop their tasks and rush there, blinded by greed and desire for power.
Legendary dungeons were incomparable in scale to the regular ones, their size sometimes covering enough to fit entire countries inside them. And the stable ones, which would remain forever, sometimes became countries on their own.
‘The first batch of explorers always profited the most! Legendary dungeons can change even a poor player to one of the top players with a little bit of luck!’
A massive circle of opaque, almost invisible magic letters lit up in the sky above him, sprawling far and wide. An immense surge of mana crackled between his crystalline horns as the circle lit up letter after letter while spinning like a music disc.
‘Ohh, here you are!’ The dragon’s eyes pulsed with bright life as the spinning magic circle linked somewhere far, far away.
POV ???:
A man with glasses sitting in a chair yawned and rubbed his eyes. He looked through the large circular chamber made of polished red granite. His eyes stopped on a large magic circle drawn on the ground with smaller ones on the chamber’s walls.
‘Nothing as always…’ He hated his job. He took it hoping to connect with a powerful space mage, yet no one ever used the local circle.
‘Why would even a powerful mage bother to visit this shithole? Why did I even bother.’
Suddenly the circle lit up, and a powerful current of mana surged through the metal mana circuits in the wall. The space was warping, and the air was shivering.
His eyes lit up as he jumped on his feet, straightening his robe, ‘This amount of mana! I can’t even imagine the rank of the mage teleporting here!’
This was his opportunity to finally get the connection he needed, ‘Brother, just wait! I will now be the best son!’
The mana reached its peak, the glow of it so bright he had to avert his gaze to the ground. Then a wave passed through the space itself, and all the mana subsided as if it never even happened.
‘Where?!’ The man looked around in confusion, seeing no one.
POV Vesuvius:
The next moment the world warped again as the mana wave enveloped the dragon. The next second he appeared above an unknown castle on a high coastal cliff. The sprawling sea was on one side, and tall mountains on the other one.
The salty sea air got sucked into his lungs, ‘Sea, it was such a long time since… It shouldn’t be too far from here.’
This was the greatest reason why Vesuvius wanted to learn space magic, ‘Safety, if something goes wrong, I can still escape.’
Vesuvius flapped his wings and shot like a rocket forward while the shockwave from his sudden acceleration sent a massive tsunami across the sea. His eyes burned with greed as he didn’t even care about breaking country borders in his hunt for the dungeon.
‘What is some angry country in comparison to the possible rewards?!’ His heart throbbed with determination to grab the opportunity and fully use it, not caring about some pesky angry mortals when there was before him a treasure that could potentially raise his power.