The vast and lush forests of the green went as far as one could see, the lonely mountains and towns occasionally staining the green with their grey colors. All the trees and grass were bending and waving as a large shadow of a dragon passed by.
Each flap of his wings created wind like a hurricane, the temperature and weather changing in his tracks.
Only the pair of golden eyes and the silhouette were visible through the clouds of ash and smoke.
His eyes scanned the surroundings with strong winds howling around him and lightning crackling and dancing through the air.
Suddenly he braced his wings, decelerating as his eyes fell upon a massive lake of darkness. The darkness wiggled and sucked in all the light while slowly growing wider and wider, devouring the surrounding soil like a black hole.
‘This should be it. Even the coordinates are right.’
The small humanoid figures stood by its edge, staring straight at the sprawling blackness.
‘It looks like I am not first, but sadly for them, I am the strongest here!’
The dragon’s aura exploded out, sending waves through the forest, pushing back even the spreading blackness. The entire land and woods turned silent, even birds and bugs quieting down.𝒪𝚟xt.𝐜𝚘𝑚
The players collapsed to the ground, their bodies pressed down by the immense power of the dragon.
“I, the great dragon Vesuvius officially capture this area!”
The lightning crackled within the clouds, and a bright bolt of electricity descended, illuminating everything as it fell upon the poor players. They couldn’t even move before the light and electricity enveloped them, their bodies vanishing in the white glow.
Instantly the light subsided, revealing their blackened, smoldering corpses and a circle of burned ground.
He glanced at the unrestful surface of the black dungeon entrance that was moving like a sea during a storm, ‘It is still not fully stable. I have probably more than an hour before it turns safe to enter.’
He flapped his wings, and his horns brightly shined, mana and divine energy pouring through his three sets of veins, his two hearts rapidly beating to pump it. The huge time-space gem in his forehead lit up in the golden radiance shining as if he had a sun embedded in there.
His domain moved, and the dirt and soil shifted in the forest, drawing lines in the ground. The lines were prolonged and interlinked, forming complex runes and shapes arranged into a giant magic circle.
The mana and divine energy poured from the dragon’s horns, flowing towards the circle and filling it up like a river filling a lake. The circle brightly shone before it reached the breaking point and exploded with a powerful shockwave that swept through the grow, all the trees creaking and waving.
The space ripped and ruptured all the mana gathering towards the single focal point. A golden fissure in the fabric of the universe opened up, the light leaking out.
‘This should be enough for my forward base. My minions will take care of the rest.’
Vesuvius knew that the dungeon of such importance would be vast and filled with secrets. He needed manpower to help him with the exploration and to keep annoying pests from trying to sneak around and steal what was his.
‘Throwing a few bones to my minions will make them stronger, and by proximity me.’ The low-tier rewards were so insignificant to the dragon that they would make almost no difference to his strength. What he wanted were the highest-tier rewards that could make him stronger.
‘My minions are my!’ He didn’t see equipping his minions as giving away his stuff to others. Instead, he saw it as feeding his dogs. He would feed them, and they would reward him with their absolute and unquestionable loyalty.
His mind moved, and more than a dozen of magic circuits spun within it. A dozen connections formed, and the dragon sent his messages.
‘My minions, send me soldiers and support personnel through the portals in my mind space! Allow the immortals to pass through. I am organizing an expedition.’
The connection severed, leaving only the dragon in the sky. He spread his wings and glided downwards, looking like a gliding asteroid before explosively landing in the forest.
The trees snapped and broke like twigs as his body landed upon them, and his claws dug deep into the foundation of stone and soil, creating a small earthquake. The dust, snow, and ash clouds spread through the entire woods, covering everything in an impeccable screen.
His domain spread out and covered the entirety of the land to the horizon. The ground shook again, and massive walls of stone grew from the ground, and ravines leading down into the abyss opened up and drew lines and borders around his entire domain, splitting and reforming the tall peaks and hills.
‘Truly a ruler of nature. To shift an entire ecosystem and mountains to my image with just a single thought. That is something a human mage wouldn’t be able to do even with all the mana in the world.
The golden portal flickered, and hordes of cursed wolves, with their neon-red, reverse-slitted eyes, burst out like a tsunami of bodies armored in black stone and metal.
“Go and do not let any outsider approach!” Under his command, the monsters dashed into the forest, running and vanishing under the thick green canopies, their growls, and hovels constantly echoing out.
Vesuvius could already see the chaos and commotion his actions would cause. Still, he didn’t care, his heart only caring about the potentially immense rewards from the dungeon, ‘Haha, I just occupied land in some kingdom… but why should I care? Some artificial borders of humans are nothing to the wrath of nature.’
He checked one last time his faction mission and posted it.
//
New faction event: Expedition Into Unknown!
Information: The dragon Vesuvius decided to take the newly formed legendary dungeon for himself. He opened a portal to bring his armies in. Join the expedition to earn rewards!
Earn points by:
1. Killing intruders
2. Killing the dungeon monsters
3. Mapping the dungeon
4. Collecting intel
5. Patrolling the dungeon
…
Quest items: Silver Expedition Badge
Reward: Calculated upon the end (Extra bonuses for top-ranked participants)
//