Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Bone Dragon, and the Lich Raid Results Are......?

I opened my eyes.

Before me, an angel who had woken first was gazing at me.

"Good morning, Seon-u."

Ria had been sleeping on my arm.

Is this heaven?

"Good morning, Ria."

Yesterday, Ria and I had slept together on one mat, in one sleeping bag.

I had let her use my arm as a pillow, and we talked about many things in that position.

About the Rift, about Rin, about the S-Rank trio, about the world I lived in, about the world Ria had lived in.

And about plans for the future, among other things.

'It was not just talking, though. There was some light physical affection as well.'

Fenrir, who had been sleeping, cleared her throat pointedly to give us a hint, and we obediently went to sleep after that.

We had breakfast and resumed our journey.

Sometimes riding on Fenrir's back, sometimes walking.

After three days of travel, a massive cave came into view in the distance.

"That is the Dragon's tomb."

We had finally arrived.

Fenrir added a remark.

"Originally, it was not a tomb but a Dragon's lair."

In Ria's world, Transcendent-Grade Monsters were referred to as Divine Beast class.

The beings that stood above even Divine Beast class were adult Dragons.

'If they are stronger than Transcendent-Grade, just how powerful are they?'

According to what Fenrir had told me on the way here, Dragons were indifferent to the affairs of the world.

She said that if a Dragon had any interest in ruling, it could have placed everything beneath its feet, be it the Rift or the Continent of Bellinta.

They were that overwhelmingly powerful, which was precisely why the Lich's attempt to turn a Dragon into an Undead had to be stopped at all costs.

Fenrir's expression darkened.

"The miasma is interfering with my detection range. I cannot sense very far."

It seemed miasma was not easy to detect through.

As we drew a little closer, Fenrir sensed something.

"I can feel powerful miasma from the entrance. Be careful."

"Understood. Seon-u, provide cover from behind me."

"Will do."

With that, Ria and Fenrir took the lead.

I followed behind, spear in hand.

My plan was to provide long-range support with Acresia's Release Skill if things got dicey.

As we approached the entrance—

"GRRRAH!"

"AROOO!"

Two Monsters revealed themselves, blue light flashing in their eyes.

No, calling them Undead would be more accurate.

One resembled an abominable snowman.

The other looked similar to Fenrir, but it was a wolf whose body was encased in ice.

What stood out was that every part of their bodies was tattered and decayed, with bone visible underneath.

They looked like zombies.

"The one that looks like a snowman is a Yeti. The ice wolf is a Hati. Both are Highest-Grade Monsters."

Ria informed me.

Two Highest-Grade right at the entrance. This was brutal from the start.

The Undead charged toward us.

But our side had two fighters at the Transcendent-Grade level, which was above Highest-Grade.

Fenrir and Ria rushed to meet them head-on and engaged in combat.

'There is nothing for me to even cover.'

They were dominating so one-sidedly.

Before long—

SLASH!

Ria was the first to sever the Yeti's neck.

Fenrir clamped her jaws around the neck of the Hati, which was considerably smaller than herself, and twisted.

CRACK!

The sound of bones breaking rang out, yet the Hati continued to resist without stopping its movements.

Fenrir then planted her paw on the thrashing Hati's torso and ripped the neck she was clamping clean off the body.

It was not just the neck that came out. The spine came with it.

The grotesque sight made me instinctively look away.

'As expected, the difference in sheer size is insurmountable.'

The Hati was fairly large on its own, but Fenrir was easily twice its size.

With her massive frame came overwhelming strength, and she was faster on top of that, so the Hati never stood a chance.

After dispatching the Undead Hati, Fenrir spoke.

"There were no Undead guarding this entrance before. The Lich must have set up precautions."

Then she looked at me.

"What are you doing, male human?"

I had been examining the corpses.

"Hm? I was wondering if these things had Magic Stones too."

"They do. Magic Stones corrupted by miasma. But......"

CRUMBLE!

The blackened Magic Stones dissolved into black smoke.

The same happened with the Yeti that Ria had slain.

"Not anymore, it seems."

"So they vanish once the creature is killed."

What a shame.

If I had absorbed them into Acresia before killing them, Acresia might have devoured the stones.

Of course, given how picky that thing was, I would not know for certain without actually trying.

"We will proceed inside slowly."

Ria, with her extensive combat experience, took point.

She began advancing carefully, securing our safety against any potential ambush.

We made it quite deep inside, but no more Undead appeared.

It seemed those guarding the entrance had been all of them.

Soon, we stepped into an enormous hall.

Having once served as the lair of a massive Dragon, the space was staggering in scale.

Before long, Fenrir let out a low, grim murmur.

"Up ahead. One extremely powerful miasma signature. No, two......!"

Earlier, when Fenrir had described something as having powerful miasma, it had turned out to be Highest-Grade Undead Monsters.

This time, she had added "extremely."

If that was the case, then could it be......!

At that moment—

"GRRROAAAAH—!"

A howl so powerful that one would have to cover their ears.

A debuff hit simultaneously.

[You have fallen into a state of Fear due to Bone Dragon Fear. All stats are temporarily reduced by 32%.]

Damn......!

The Bone Dragon really had been awakened after all.

Had we been one step too late?

Ria lowered her hands from her ears and spoke.

"Fortunately, it is weak!"

"Weak?"

"An adult Dragon's Fear is powerful enough to bring even a Hero to their knees in terror. But if this is all the Fear it can muster, that is proof the Bone Dragon is incomplete. The Lich must have raised it in a hurry while it was still unfinished."

I had nearly blown out my eardrums, and even that counted as weak?

Just how powerful was a complete adult Dragon?

"It is coming!"

Ria gripped her sword tightly.

BOOM—! BOOM!

A thunderous rumble, as if an enormous body was barreling toward us, filled the cave.

Then the Bone Dragon revealed itself.

It was truly a colossal skeletal Dragon.

The Bone Dragon charged forward, then came to a halt and opened its jaws toward the ceiling.

Pure white mana began concentrating inside its mouth.

"It is a Breath attack! Dodge!"

Hearing Ria's shout, I hurled myself sideways.

A Breath laden with intense cold blasted the spot where we had been standing just moments before.

KABOOM!

Everything at the center of the Breath's impact froze solid.

If even a fraction of that had grazed me, my body would have frozen too.

'That was dangerous......!'

I was feeling the same threat to my life as when I had faced the Named Doppelganger.

Ria and Fenrir, who had dodged to either side, cloaked their sword and claws in powerful mana and charged the Bone Dragon.

The Bone Dragon began taking hits with no way to defend itself.

It lashed out with its front legs, hind legs, and tail to attack Ria and Fenrir, but it simply could not match their speed.

'Could this actually be easier than expected?'

That was when—

CLATTER! CLATTER!

Skeleton soldiers wielding weapons swarmed in from deeper within the cave.

'Did the Lich raise those?'

I fired steel balls via Acresia's Release Skill to prevent the skeletons from interfering with Ria and Fenrir.

CRACK!

I shattered a spine, but the bones reattached and it kept moving.

In that case, what if I targeted the ash-colored Magic Stone on its forehead?

I immediately fired a steel ball at its forehead.

CRACK!

The Magic Stone-like object on its forehead shattered, and the skeleton soldier's joints separated as it ceased all movement.

'Targeting the Magic Stone was the right answer.'

I carefully aimed each steel ball and systematically neutralized the skeleton soldiers one by one.

Then, from behind the skeleton soldiers, a skull with striking blue light in its eyes emerged, wearing a robe and gripping a staff.

That was most likely the Lich.

I fired a steel ball at it.

However—

CLANG!

It was blocked by some kind of dark crimson shield.

The Lich then extended its staff toward me.

A black flame formed at the tip of the staff and began hurtling in my direction.

The speed of its approach was far too fast.

But there was someone who always protected me.

"Seon-u—!"

Ria, who had been attacking the Bone Dragon, came sprinting over and positioned herself between the black flame and me, slicing through the black flame with her Aura-rippling sword and annihilating it.

"Thank you."

"Seon-u, it is dangerous, so stay back. I will handle the Lich. Just keep eliminating the skeleton soldiers from behind."

"Got it."

The Lich was clearly beyond what I could handle.

And so, Fenrir took on the Bone Dragon, Ria took on the Lich, and I was assigned to skeleton soldier duty.

I kept aiming at the Magic Stones of the skeleton soldiers trying to block Ria and continuously fired steel balls via Release Skill.

As the battle raged on—

CRASH!

Fenrir, who had been fighting the Bone Dragon, was slammed into the wall.

"Fenrir!"

Before the fallen Fenrir could regain her footing, the Bone Dragon seized her with its front leg and lifted her up.

Fenrir thrashed and struggled, but breaking free looked hopeless.

The Bone Dragon then began gathering mana toward its mouth once more.

It intended to fire a Breath at point-blank range on the captured Fenrir.

'If Fenrir goes down, the balance tips against us.'

I urgently launched something from Acresia via Release Skill.

It was the 30-kilogram Gym Hammer, a solid iron block.

I had purchased it back when I was packing the ground during foundation work.

It was the only optimal weapon I could think of at that moment.

The Gym Hammer flew via Release and struck the Bone Dragon squarely on the side of its jaw, just as it was about to unleash its Breath.

WHAM—!

A dull, heavy impact rang out as the Bone Dragon's head jerked to the side, and the cold Breath discharged harmlessly against the stone wall.

"Nice one, Seon-u!"

Ria, who had been hammering away at the Lich's barrier with a relentless barrage, turned her attention to the Bone Dragon. She leaped toward its front leg and delivered a devastating blow.

The impact forced the Bone Dragon to release Fenrir from its grip.

Fenrir landed on her feet and appeared to have sustained no major injuries, fortunately.

Ria spoke to Fenrir.

"If we drag this out, it works against us. We will exhaust ourselves before the Lich runs out of mana. Let us push harder."

"Understood."

Fenrir and Ria resumed their assault with even greater intensity.

The skeleton soldiers and the Lich no longer paid any attention to me.

Blocking Ria alone seemed to be taxing enough for them.

The Bone Dragon, too, focused solely on Fenrir.

'They are ignoring me......?'

In that case.

I shouted toward Fenrir.

"Fenrir, keep the Bone Dragon's attention from the front so it cannot watch its rear!"

"What are you planning, human?!"

"Trust me!"

"......Very well!"

Fenrir stopped attacking the Bone Dragon and instead focused on evasion, drawing its gaze from the front.

I closed in until I was right beside the Bone Dragon and deployed Acresia at maximum size.

At that moment, the Bone Dragon sensed the mana signature behind it and moved to swing its tail.

'Thanks, Bone Dragon!'

That only made my plan easier.

I immediately used the Absorption Skill on the Bone Dragon.

And then—

WHOOSH!

The tail that had been about to strike Acresia upon sensing the mana was instead sucked right into it.

'Once it starts getting pulled in, it is hard to resist.'

But the Bone Dragon was still a Bone Dragon, it seemed.

It planted both feet firmly on the ground and resisted with all its might.

The creature was already massive, so the mana drain was severe. At this rate, I would die from mana overconsumption first.

But I was not alone.

"I will help!"

Fenrir leaped high and rammed her enormous body into the Bone Dragon's chest.

The Bone Dragon staggered backward, and one of the hind legs it had been bracing with was sucked into Acresia.

Then Ria, who had been pressing the Lich and the skeleton soldiers, turned around and unleashed a crescent-shaped Aura wave.

CRACK!

The Aura carved a deep gash across its chest, completely destroying the Bone Dragon's balance.

And just like that, the Bone Dragon was helplessly swallowed into Acresia.

'We did it......!'

My heart was tingling.

But compared to the Named Doppelganger, this was nothing.

Although the Bone Dragon's enormous size had drained mana at twice the speed, I had not needed to sustain the Absorption Skill for nearly as long as I had with the Named Doppelganger, so it was absorbed quickly.

"####!"

The Lich, watching the Bone Dragon get absorbed, let out a howl of rage.

It pointed at me and screamed something in a noise-laced voice.

The language it used was similar to the one Ria spoke.

The Lich was probably from the Continent of Bellinta.

Ria translated for me.

"How dare you interfere with the Master's plan."

"####! ###!"

"So you were the one the Master was searching for! That is something the likes of you have no right to possess!"

"That"......?

Could it be referring to Acresia?

And a master who had been searching for me?

The Lich was spouting words whose meaning I could not begin to fathom.

"####! ###!"

"I will take it to the Master! For the sake of becoming one complete whole!"

I had no idea what it meant, but not a chance.

Ria swung her sword at the Lich as it lunged toward me, shattering its barrier.

Fenrir then rammed into the Lich from the side.

KABOOM!

The Lich was embedded into the wall.

Ria alone would have had the Lich struggling, and with Fenrir joining in, the Lich stood no chance whatsoever.

The skeleton soldiers had already been demolished by Ria as well.

I fired the newly purchased swords and spears via Release Skill at the Lich's shoulders, pinning it to the wall.

"Tell me everything you know about Acresia."

Ria translated my words for the Lich, then relayed the Lich's response back to me.

"Before long, He will descend."

The Lich said that while simultaneously placing a hand over its own chest.

"This thing is trying to detonate its own Life Vessel and self-destruct! If we leave it, it is dangerous!"

"Is that so?"

A Life Vessel seemed to be the Lich's equivalent of a Magic Stone.

There was so much more I wanted to extract, but if I did not act before it was too late, I would have to absorb it now.

I used Acresia's Absorption Skill again, attempting to retrieve the swords and spears embedded in the wall while simultaneously absorbing the Lich.

Naturally, the Lich resisted fiercely.

But not a chance.

Ria grabbed the Lich by its skull and hurled it toward Acresia, and it was sucked right in.

Everything that entered Acresia had time frozen around it, making self-destruction impossible.

I waited for the result.

Would Acresia actually try to devour an Undead?

'Please......!'

And then, a system message appeared.