Chapter 42: Earth Dragon

‘…Am I seeing things right now?’

The sight before me made me dizzy, so I rubbed my eyes and opened them again.

[ A-Rank Demon Beast, Earth Dragon Cancelo ]

Since the Artifact’s description hadn’t changed, it wasn’t an optical illusion.

Earth Dragon.

The bastard was blocking our path, its six eyes clearly fixed on us.

Its massive size, long tail, and the wings attached to its forelegs proved it was a dragon.

But had its wings atrophied from living so long in a cave?

Whether it couldn’t fly or not, the way it crawled along on its belly made it look more like a lizard than a dragon.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

Still, even crawling like that, its damn massive size and speed were enough to feel oppressive.

Ah, of course, I mean for Marcel and Deneb, not me.

“Mr. Marcel!”

I shouted toward Marcel, faking an urgent voice. It meant to take care of Deneb.

“Wooooaaaah!”

Deneb screamed, maybe scared at the sight of the earth dragon, and that was the signal for Marcel to quickly hoist Deneb onto her back.

I quickly got behind Marcel, and we started running from the earth dragon.

Dragons are the strongest race among Demon Beasts.

They’re so strong that they should be reclassified as A+ instead of just A-Rank — they’re on a completely different level compared to other Demon Beasts of the same rank.

Each individual is as strong as a Boss-Rank, so even an A-Rank one would cause trouble subjugating it unless at least one S-Rank Hunter was dispatched.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I think I’d lose, but this place isn’t suitable for a fight.

If I used a high-output spell and the cave collapsed, everyone could get caught in it.

Marcel might be able to protect himself, but Deneb doesn’t have that kind of power.

So for now, we head for a wider area.

* * *

While running through the cave, I tried to guess why that dragon was here.

‘Why is there a dragon in a B-Rank Gate in the first place?’

Usually, the trash mob Demon Beasts wandering around a B-Rank Gate would be around B-Rank, and I’ve never seen a dragon-type below A-Rank.

That makes me wonder if that earth dragon is the boss, but bosses don’t come out of the boss room.

They don’t wander around the dungeon so freely like that. There hasn’t been a single case of that until now.

And the information I checked with the Artifact didn’t have the title ‘boss’ written on it.

In other words, in this dungeon, that bastard is just trash mob number one.

The problem is that trash mob is damn strong.

If this really is a B-Rank Gate…

Why is an earth dragon, which I’d guess is stronger than the boss, even here?

‘Did I mistake which Gate we were clearing?’

No, that can’t be. Even I thought that was ridiculous.

Those two A-Rank Hunters couldn’t possibly make such a critical mistake.

If a Hunter died because they misjudged a Gate’s rank, the guild would naturally have to take responsibility.

Crescent is one of the Five Great Guilds — would they really make a fatal mistake that could ruin the guild?

‘They probably didn’t do it on purpose.’

Marcel said he had no connection with Crescent, and Lilian didn’t seem to have any particular ties with them either.

That leaves only one guess.

That this Gate’s rank wasn’t actually B-Rank…

No matter which zone a Gate opens in, the Association is in charge of measuring its rank.

But if the Association misjudged the rank…

If this Gate is actually A-Rank or higher instead of B-Rank…

Then it makes sense that the earth dragon is here.

‘This… I’m starting to see how the future’s going to play out…’

Even if we somehow succeed in clearing it, both Crescent and the Association will probably weasel out of responsibility, saying it wasn’t their fault.

THUD!

…For now, I’ll worry about later things later.

What I need to focus on right now is—

“Kuaaaaah!”

That giant lizard bastard that keeps chasing us.

The earth dragon, moving on four legs, was agile — maybe it was familiar with this terrain.

I was keeping pace with Marcel’s high-speed movement, but no matter how much we ran, the distance wasn’t widening.

No, it was actually getting closer little by little. Given its massive size, it was only a matter of time before it caught up.

In the end, we’d have to fight it. But it’s not time yet.

“Keep running until we find the widest possible area!”

The cave was spacious, but given the size of that earth dragon, we needed to get to an even wider area.

The earth dragon kept chasing us, smashing through stalactites and other terrain features that touched its body.

Watching it, I realized why this cave was so wide.

That lizard bastard must have wrecked the inside of the cave by stomping around in here.

‘Not much longer.’

From what I remembered, we’d reach that wide open area we passed earlier soon.

When that happened, this damn chase would be over.

“Ms. Verdi!”

Marcel, who was ahead of me, called my name as if he’d spotted something.

I turned my head and saw the wide-open landscape right in front of us.

[ Ice Element — Frost Nova Lv.7 ]

[ Ice Element — Frost Nova Lv.7 ]

[ Ice Element — Frost Nova Lv.7 ]

[ Ice Element — Frost Nova Lv.7 ]

I’d already set the spells. A whole bunch of them, too.

There was no incantation needed to cast them all at once.

When I was ready, I just had to reach out and pick the spot to cast them.

We reached the wide open area first.

*KWAANG!*

And then, the earth dragon stepped into the open space, collapsing the terrain as it came.

“…!”

Maybe it was because I was facing a strong enemy for the first time in a while, but I felt a bit impatient. Without even bothering to fake reciting an incantation, I thrust out my hand.

I realized my mistake a moment later, but it was already too late. A magic circle formed at my fingertips.

Then, a blue magic circle appeared on the ground where the earth dragon was standing.

What rose up, glowing with light, was a chilling cold.

*CRRRACK—!*

Ice bloomed over the magic circle, freezing the earth dragon’s body solid.

“KUUUOOOH!!”

The earth dragon struggled violently, shaking its massive body as it froze, but it couldn’t break the ice that bound it.

Well, of course not. A level 7 spell was among the highest I could use. No matter how much of a dragon it was, breaking that easily was impossible!

“KUUUOOOOOH!”

The earth dragon let out a roar at us. It seemed to be expressing its rage at the intruders who dared to defy it.

That was when it happened.

I started to feel a wave of heat coming from its mouth.

I immediately realized what that sign meant.

The dragons’ specialty.

“Breath! Take cover! Get to the corner!”

Dragon Breath!

WHOOSH—!

A fierce blast of flame erupted from the earth dragon’s snout.

[ Ice Element — Frost Wall Lv.7 ]

[ Ice Element — Frost Wall Lv.7 ]

I hurriedly called up the spells to counter that flame.

‘One layer might not be enough.’

I could protect myself with my Mana Shield, but protecting the other two, who didn’t have one, was harder.

So I used two.

I reached out my hand and pointed to where I wanted the walls to form.

Magic circles drew themselves at those spots, and two layers of ice walls rose up.

*CRRRACK—!*

The ice walls became barriers so tall they touched the ceiling in an instant, splitting the open area into two sections: where the earth dragon was, and where we were.

*KWAANG!*

Beyond the ice barrier, the earth dragon’s breath exploded.

A loud blast echoed, but our area was perfectly fine.

The ice wall had completely blocked the breath. I made two layers on purpose, but I guess I didn’t even need to.

We were catching our breath for a moment.

“Ms. Verdi!”

I heard Deneb’s voice from behind me, and when I turned around, I saw the two members of the party slowly creeping closer to me.

“As expected, Ms. Verdi’s magic is amazing! To block that!”

Deneb was genuinely impressed. Marcel, on the other hand, looked like he had something he was curious about.

“I, I know the situation is what it is… but, Ms. Verdi.”

Eventually, Marcel came up beside me, hesitated, then spoke.

“How did you cast magic without an incantation…? I’ve never heard of such a thing…”

“…”

Before Marcel could finish his sentence, I shot him a sharp glare.

I’d cast magic without an incantation in my haste. He must have seen it.

I’d thought I might get caught someday. But right now, I wanted to gloss over the incantationless casting.

“Isn’t that not what we should be worrying about right now?”

I couldn’t exactly get angry, so I pointed at the earth dragon and said.

“You’re right. Sorry.”

Marcel’s meek apology somehow stirred a pang of guilt in me, which didn’t feel great, but at least I could breathe easy for now.

The truth was, Marcel wasn’t the real issue.

He’d never seen me use magic before my body changed.

I shot a covert glance toward Deneb.

Deneb had seen my magic before the body swap.

So far, only one case of a mage using incantationless casting had ever been recorded.

Yoschuko Verdiol. That was me, before the body change.

Of course — incantationless casting wasn’t a power gained from becoming an Awakened One. It was a Special Ability I’d received when I came to this world.

Since I’d only ever entered Gates with that one guy who was my usual partner, very few people had ever seen my fighting style.

So if Deneb had witnessed me using incantationless casting, there was a good chance she’d find it strange.

I kept staring at Deneb with an uneasy heart, when—

Our eyes met.

“Is something the matter?”

*…Huh?*

I’d been on edge, but Deneb’s expression was more like, *Did something happen?*

“…It’s nothing.”

I brushed it off with a vague answer.

Was he pretending not to notice?

Or did he genuinely not know?

Honestly, I wasn’t sure, but I was inwardly relieved he wasn’t pressing the issue right now.

“Mr. Marcel.”

“Yes.”

I called out to Marcel. When he came closer, I noticed his hand, gripping his sword, was trembling slightly.

Of course he was scared. He’d probably thought a B-Rank Gate was a decent choice for a safe return, but what came out was a dragon — more threatening than even the boss of a B-Rank Gate.

I’d have to give him credit for not showing his fear outwardly.

To be honest, I was a little shaken too.

But this tremor wasn’t from the same fear Marcel felt.

Ever since my body changed, every Demon Beast I’d faced had been total pushovers.

And I’d thought this Gate would be the same — just another pushover.

No matter how High-Rank Gate it was, it was still B-Rank.

I’d closed S-Rank Gates before, back in my old life.

So even with a different body, even after taking a break from hunting, I figured I could easily handle a B-Rank Gate’s boss.

But now an enemy had appeared that might be far stronger than a B-Rank Gate’s boss.

And that enemy wasn’t even the boss.

For all I knew, there might be an even stronger individual waiting in the boss room.

That’s why—

*I’m getting excited.*

The thought of fighting a proper Demon Beast for the first time in a while made me start trembling with excitement.

But first, I needed to do some groundwork.

“First, check if you can contact the other team.”

If there was more than one dragon, the other team might have run into one too.

If so, they should have sent word immediately — but since there’d been no contact yet, something might have happened.

If nothing was wrong, that’d be a relief. If they hadn’t encountered it, we needed to report the presence of an earth dragon in the dungeon quickly.

Then Hames would get in touch with Crescent, and they’d send reinforcements.

Well, honestly, I didn’t like the guy, but he was still a person. I hoped he was alive.

“Understood.”

While Marcel fiddled with the Artifact, I kept my eyes fixed on the front.

*THUD! THUD!*

Beyond the transparent ice barrier, I could see the earth dragon ramming its snout against the wall.

Foolish thing. That wall had blocked even its breath — did it think headbutting would break it?

It’d be better off giving up early and looking for other prey—

*Ah, right. I froze its feet, so it can’t move.*

The image of the dragon, completely frozen in place by Frost Nova and unable to budge, was vivid in my mind.

Don’t worry. You’ll be freed soon enough.

But the price will be your death.