"From here on, it's the main corridor. Stay sharp."
Following Busgas's guidance, we stepped into the main corridor in question.
The moment I entered, I was stunned.
It was enormous.
I'd heard it described, but its vastness was incomparable to the narrow passages we'd been threading through until now. The width had to be a good hundred meters. The ceiling seemed to be just as high.
Just as Busgas had said, it was less a corridor and more like a massive hall.
My bewilderment lasted only a second. I quickly snapped back to my senses and scanned the surroundings with unblinking vigilance.
There was no presence of Monsters nearby.
Relieved by that, we began to move.
The main corridor was wide, but there were enormous boulders scattered about, obstructing our line of sight. Something could be lurking behind any of them.
Sensing for presences while maintaining our pace, we pressed on.
After a while, Busgas stopped in his tracks.
"What's wrong?"
"Something's off. There are no Monsters around."
An unmistakable tension bled through Busgas's words and expression.
Was the situation that bad?
"Are there usually more Monsters here?"
"Yeah. To advance this far without seeing a single one — that's not normal."
"Just like when we ran into the Nightmare."
That murmur tightened my own nerves.
"Is there another route we can take?"
It was better to assume some irregular event was underway. If so, we should play it safe.
"There's a side passage a little farther up. We can switch to a different route from there."
Busgas seemed to agree with my assessment and proposed the plan immediately. Everyone else had caught on to Busgas's demeanor and raised no objections.
But our judgment came a fraction too late.
Something was heading our way.
It was a dragon.
A silhouette like a slimmer Tyrannosaurus — except for its hands, which were abnormally large, each claw gleaming with the luster of a master-crafted blade.
"An Earth Dragon. Tch! If it's in the Upper Layer, that means it just evolved?!"
Busgas clicked his tongue.
Everyone braced for battle.
I steeled myself and activated Appraisal on the target.
『Earth Dragon Ekisa — LV2 HP: 2808/2808 (green) MP: 1312/1312 (blue) SP: 3655/3655 (yellow) : 2032/3645 (red) Average Attack Power: 2498 (details) Average Defense Power: 2455 (details) Average Magic Power: 1298 (details) Average Resistance: 2452 (details) Average Speed: 3600 (details) Skills "Earth Dragon LV1" "Reverse Scale LV4" "Hard Shell LV1" "Steel Body LV1" "HP High-Speed Recovery LV1" "MP Recovery Speed LV1" "MP Consumption Reduction LV1" "Magic Power Perception LV3" "Magic Power Operation LV3" "Magic Power Strike LV1" "SP High-Speed Recovery LV2" "SP Great Consumption Reduction LV2" "Earth Attack LV5" "Earth Enhancement LV5" "Destruction Enhancement LV7" "Slash Great Enhancement LV6" "Penetration Great Enhancement LV6" "Strike Great Enhancement LV6" "Spatial Maneuver LV3" "Accuracy LV10" "Evasion LV10" "Probability Correction LV4" "Danger Perception LV7" "Presence Perception LV7" "Heat Perception LV7" "Motion Perception LV5" "Earth Magic LV1" "Destruction Resistance LV2" "Slash Resistance LV5" "Penetration Resistance LV5" "Strike Resistance LV6" "Impact Resistance LV2" "Earth Immunity" "Lightning Resistance LV7" "Great Status Abnormality Resistance LV2" "Corrosion Resistance LV1" "Pain Immunity" "Pain Reduction LV4" "Dark Vision LV10" "Visual Range Expansion LV5" "Vision Enhancement LV5" "Hearing Enhancement LV4" "Smell Enhancement LV4" "Vitality LV7" "Magic Reserve LV1" "Celestial Motion LV1" "Fortune of Heaven LV1" "Brute Force LV5" "Toughness LV5" "Taoist LV1" "Talisman LV5" "Idaten LV1"
Skill Points: 19500 Titles "Monster Slayer" "Monster Slaughterer" "Dragon" "Champion"』
High stats across the board.
And speed that towered above everything else.
"Everyone, it's fast! Be careful!"
I shouted.
At the same instant, the Earth Dragon kicked off the ground.
Its descending claws were caught by Hylins's shield.
"Guh!?"
Hylins's face twisted in pain.
But thanks to him, the Earth Dragon's movement stalled for a heartbeat.
I didn't let the opening slip by — Busgas and I each severed one of its legs.
On top of that, Kathia's and the Teacher's magic exploded onto the scene.
Kathia's fire magic seared the Earth Dragon's face while the Teacher's wind magic sent its body hurtling backward.
The Earth Dragon tumbled with a shriek of agony.
But the damage was minimal.
The right leg I'd struck was cut about halfway through.
The left leg Busgas had attacked, however, was barely scratched.
We'd failed to breach its formidable defense.
The Earth Dragon rose to its feet.
Despite taking a fire magic spell directly to the face, there wasn't a single burn on it.
"This is bad," Busgas muttered, a cold sweat forming on his brow.
I, too, was gripping my sword with sweaty palms — its defense was tougher than I'd anticipated.
That last exchange had been meant to sever the leg entirely. But it had only cut halfway through.
Worse still, the resistance had nearly been enough to rip the sword from my hands.
Magic wasn't working well either. The Reverse Scale skill was drastically reducing the power of spells.
Kathia and the Teacher were both at the pinnacle of human magic. And yet, even their combined magic left the Earth Dragon unfazed.
That said, it wasn't taking zero damage. It wasn't an unbeatable opponent.
The Earth Dragon launched itself into the air.
Despite having no wings, it soared through the sky as though running on invisible ground.
A spatial movement skill — flight.
Its target was Ana, who had been waiting at the very back of our formation.
Ana fired off a spell.
The lightning magic she unleashed dealt no damage to the Earth Dragon.
It had Lightning Resistance.
On top of already high magic resistance, using a resisted element like lightning put us at a severe disadvantage.
Hylins threw himself between the Earth Dragon and Ana.
His shield blocked the Dragon's claws once again — a near-mirror of the earlier exchange.
But this time, the Earth Dragon didn't halt like before. It immediately pulled back.
Its speed was too great for any follow-up attack to catch up.
"It has Lightning Resistance, so lightning's useless! Earth too! Switch to other elements! Kathia, keep hammering it with magic! Busgas, use dark magic to apply pressure!"
I relayed the Earth Dragon's resistances.
It also had physical resistances, but there was nothing we could do about that.
If Busgas's attack power couldn't deal significant damage, then I was the only one here who could hurt it with physical attacks.
The Earth Dragon charged again, and Hylins caught the blow for the third time.
The instant it struck, the Teacher activated a spell.
A vortex of wind enveloped the Earth Dragon's body.
It wasn't meant to deal damage.
It was a binding spell.
The Storm Magic spell known as Binding Wind.
The Earth Dragon struggled to break free from its wind prison.
With Reverse Scale in effect, it wouldn't hold for long.
Unwilling to let that happen, Kathia's fire magic burst forth.
It mingled with the Teacher's wind, forming a fire tornado that engulfed the Earth Dragon's body.
The Dragon let out a pained cry.
Ana added more wind magic, and Busgas layered on dark magic for good measure.
Hylins used the opening to cast a healing spell on himself.
The Earth Dragon's attacks had been inflicting damage on him even through the shield.
The Earth Dragon's HP was dropping steadily.
But then it blew the fire tornado away.
Inside its maw, the glow of a Breath attack was kindling.
As my companions drew sharp breaths, I stepped forward.
The Earth Dragon's Breath and my magic collided.
What I had cast was a Level 7 Holy Light Magic spell.
A rather plain and unglamorous spell called Holy Light Beam.
But despite its name, its power was immense.
The beam pushed back the Dragon's Breath and, in turn, dealt critical damage.
Its maw blown apart, the Earth Dragon slowly toppled over.
Its HP had hit zero.
《You have reached the required Experience Points. Shurein Zagan Analeit has advanced from LV28 to LV29.》 《All base stats have increased.》 《Skill Proficiency level-up bonus acquired.》 《Skill Points obtained.》 《You have met the requirements. Title "Dragon Slayer" acquired.》 《Through the effects of the Title "Dragon Slayer," Skills "Heavenly Mandate LV1" and "Dragon Power LV1" have been acquired.》 《"Heavenly Mandate LV1" has been consolidated into "Heavenly Mandate LV6."》 《Proficiency has reached the required amount. Skill "Heavenly Mandate LV6" has become "Heavenly Mandate LV7."》 It seemed that defeating a dragon had earned me a new Title.
"Dragon Slayer, is it? That puts us in the company of legends now," Kathia said with a playful smile.
Apparently, the Title wasn't only given to me for the killing blow — everyone who had fought received it.
"Hoo. I wondered how things would turn out, but I never expected us to actually achieve Dragon Slayer."
Busgas approached the Earth Dragon's carcass without letting his guard down.
"I'll take custody of the remains. Any objections?"
"Not at all. Please, go ahead."
Monster materials had a variety of uses depending on the body part.
And when it came to a dragon, their value was immeasurable.
Busgas, who carried a spatial storage device, could transport even a massive carcass like this.
The dragon's enormous body was drawn into the bag in his possession.
"Was this the most dangerous Monster in the main corridor?"
"Don't be stupid. Something this size doesn't normally show up here. The most troublesome things in the main corridor are the lower-ranked Earth Dragons. This one must have evolved from one of those."
"Yeah, its level was pretty low."
"Exactly. And the fact that we couldn't see any other Monsters — that's probably because this thing went on a rampage and devoured everything in sight after it evolved."
Monsters that gained enough experience would occasionally undergo Evolution.
Upon Evolving, their level reset to one, but they became a far more powerful existence.
And a Monster that had just Evolved was extremely aggressive and ravenous.
The Earth Dragon's level was low, and its SP had been partially depleted from the start.
It was proof that the Evolution was still recent.
"Dragon Slayer, huh? The strongest thing I've fought alongside
"We wouldn't have managed without you stopping the Earth Dragon's attacks."
"I was barely holding it together. But I'd say I fulfilled my role as the shield."
"You did. Thanks to you, no one got hurt. Thank you."
"Don't thank me. That's my job. Besides, you were the one who finished it. Good work."
With that, Hylins ruffled my hair rather roughly.
"Come on, cut it out."
I laughed and ducked away from his hand.
A sense of relief was settling over us now that we'd overcome a powerful enemy.
That was when a chill ran down my spine.
I turned around.
Our gazes locked.
Eight inhuman eyes stared down at me from atop a boulder.
It was the Monster known as the remnant of the Nightmare.