“Shadow, paw” the 10 meter tall bone dragon sat on its hind legs, its tail swaying side to side knocking over trees in the process.
“Who’s a good boy!” Alice says when the dragon puts one of its bony paws on her head in a loving way.
That's when it clicked in my head, didn’t Alice mention I needed to meet ‘Shadow’ to understand what happened to the dragons. I let out an audible gulp at the thought of what could turn a mighty dragon into a puppy-like existence. The knight captain standing beside me gives me a pained expression as if he is thinking the same thing.
“Uh Alice, why is Shadow out here?” I decided to ask to break the tense atmosphere.
“To catch pesky people snooping around from the Empire or Eshnar.”
“He has remembered all your faces now so he will treat you as friends now ain't that right Shadow?”
The huge dragon simply nodded and started walking back towards Eden. Will it remember us? It doesn't even have a brain or eyes…
“Anyways after seeing an undead dragon acting like a dog I'm sure nothing else can surprise me in this life,” I say out loud and I can see the knight captain nodding in agreement next to me.
I decided to make the final 10 minute journey on foot. I need a little fresh air to recover after such a sight. Alice was walking beside me doing her usual cheerful walk, swinging her arms like a kid. I would think it was cute if not for the murder display earlier… I overheard some of the knights giving her the nickname of ‘Pink Demon’ I personally agree with such a name.
While walking the adventures and knights I brought along were initially hesitant but after a while, some walked up to us to ask if the dragon would really remember them. It seemed some of them were already planning to return here to show off that a dragon knew them. I would do the same if my father wasn’t so old now and would properly die of a heart attack, maybe I'll bring my little brother here when he grows up a bit.
When Alice responded that everyone present here are people now welcomed to Eden and that the dragon would be friendly to them, they were all overjoyed.
Soon enough Eden came into view. I was told it was near the old cursed forest dungeon but all I see is a wooden wall surrounding the dungeon entrance.
“Uh, Alice where is Eden? It's not just this little place is it?” I think I'm asking a dumb question but I really don't see where this country could be? Maybe it's on top of the mountain?
Alice has the dumbest grin on right now “Now now Luna don’t get too excited but it's inside the dungeon”
“That's impossible, any permanent settlement inside a dungeon gets destroyed by the dungeon's mana. Outside materials don’t last more than a few months in the dungeon. Even if you were crazy enough to build something out of the materials from inside a dungeon the floor could reset at any time completely removing everything!”
“Sure but what if I could guarantee the floor never resets?” Alice replied with a giggle.
“How is that possible, if a dungeon boss gathers enough mana they will definitely make sure to do a floor wipe”
“What if I was best friends with the dungeon boss?”
“Eh? Dungeon bosses are always aggressive creatures that will do anything to remove intruders”
Alice just simply ignores me, I poke her cheek to try and get a reaction but she just keeps doing her dumb walk, leading us into the dungeon.
Everyone doesn't really mind following Alice into the dungeon, in this world people can leave a dungeon at any time and the first floor is usually pretty safe. With over 50 adventurers and 20 royal knights, not even taking into account that an S rank is with them they all feel safe.
[Large group has entered Eden Dungeon]
“Huh” Everyone exclaims at the same time. First of all, since when did it change from Cursed Forest dungeon to Eden dungeon?
But the main surprise is the scene in front of us. Or to be more exact all around us. I am currently standing on a stone teleportation platform, nothing out of the ordinary about that.
Instead of being greeted with a huge forest that I expected, I am instead standing in the middle of a massive market square. Easily 2 square miles in area, the teleportation platform is in the middle of a stone market square.
Surrounding the market square are many beautiful marble buildings. There are shops on the ground floor and what looks to be apartments above the shops.
Everyone just standing around with their jaws open, this is by far the largest market square I have ever seen and the buildings are so beautiful!
The market square is also empty excluding the dumb group on the teleport platform currently looking like a load of tourists.
Alice seemed to be talking to someone telepathically and giggling, she doesn't seem amazed by the sight but I guess that makes sense since she had been here before.
“Boo”
A huge metal claw materializes on my shoulder and the scary voice echoes in my ear.
“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii” I scream like a little girl and my legs give out as I fall to the floor.
All the royal knights including the captain run to my side and surround me in a circle formation.
“HAHAHAHHA” Alice is practically rolling around on the floor and tears from laughter can be seen in her eyes.
I look back and see a massive shadow standing before me and it starts waving at me with its sinister claws while scratching the back of its neck like a kid that's been caught for pulling a prank.
The knights seem confused that the being isn’t attacking them and Alice’s weird reaction.
Then it all clicks in my head. Everything makes sense. Furiously I get up from the floor and walk through the knights towards Alice.
“Divine punishment” I karate chop her square on the forehead.
“Owwww,” she says half-jokingly. I know I could never actually harm her with my pathetic stats compared to an S rank but it still felt right so I put all my strength into the chop.
From behind me, I can hear laughing again “Kekeke Alice you deserved that” The sinister being is laughing, it just sounds evil coming from him.
“Shut it” a chair goes flying through the air and smacking the shadow square on the head. The shadow simply watches as the chair passes through him and waits for it to fall on the ground and then says a delayed “ow”.
“Either say ‘ow’ as it hits you or don’t say anything at all!” Alice says while shaking her fist as menacingly as she can. Furiously she walks over to the shadow and puts the chair back into her storage ring. Much to the surprise of all the soldiers and adventures who had been wondering where the chair had come from.
“Sorry for my friend's little prank princess, my name is Xia I am the owner of this place” the shadow introduces himself and does a little bow towards me.
“Uu-uh-hh likewise, my name is Luna Cloudhell,” I say while doing a classic noble lady bow while holding onto my dress. I am still a little intimidated but after hearing such great things about Xia from Alice I can only give him the benefit of the doubt.
Xia then turns to the knights and adventures who all turn away to avoid the gaze of his many eyes. “While you are all here I can give you a little tour and answer any questions anyone has, if you find asking me too scary feel free to talk to Alice”
“Actually I have a question Xia if you don’t mind,” I say while looking directly. If you ignored my shaking legs then anyone would think I'm unaffected by his presence.
“Sure what can I help you with” he responds while trying to put on a smile but it does the opposite effect as it looks seriously creepy.
“What do you need mana stones for,” I ask the question on many people's minds as I can see them nodding in agreement.
In this world, mana stones are just rocks that have absorbed some mana from the planet. They are very common and can be found anywhere. The only reason they have any value is that they need to be mined and then transported. The actual material itself is practically worthless.
“Well I don't see a need to keep it a secret, I am the boss monster of this dungeon. Now usually the boss monster can’t escape the boss room but as you can see I'm standing before you. By using my skill [Spirit Movement] I was able to leave through the boss room door.”
Taking a moment to let the fact that the 100th floor boss is standing before them Xia continues his explanation. One of the younger adventurers seemed to faint upon hearing that in quite a comical way. He's still standing upright but one can see he is not conscious.
“Even though I was able to leave the boss room, I have encountered a slight issue. My mana and health can’t regenerate naturally when I'm outside the boss room. It seems to be a restriction put in place to stop boss monsters from being able to leave their rooms and fight intruders on other floors.”
“I regularly need to clear out the monsters in this dungeon to deal with a medical condition of mine, therefore constantly having to return to the boss room just to restore my mana greatly slows down my clear speed. Also, it means I can’t manage the dungeon and city properly unless I'm in the boss room.”
“The solution to the problem is mana stones. I can store a large number of mana stones inside my shadow using magic. I will then use the mana stones as a portable mana source so I can permanently stay outside the boss room”
“Although I could just use my undead to mine mana stones from the cursed forest Alice suggested that I could trade food with your nation for the stones instead. For me using my undead to mine for stones or to raise crops doesn’t make a difference but if I can help out starving people while also solving my issue then it's a win in my book.”
Once Xia finished the little speech he returned to see everyone kneeling before him with tears in their eyes. Xia found it strange but Luna spoke up on their behalf to explain.
“Everyone here has been starved to near death over the last month but even before that, we were slowly being abandoned by the rest of humanity. The Empire and Eshnar realized they could charge whatever price for food and we would be forced to pay it. We could only grow food for a third of the year and even that food would only feed 30% of the population.
We felt cheated and abandoned by humanity, we were treated like shit. So for someone, a leader like yourself to finally reach out to give us a helping hand moves all our hearts. You are basically saying you are willing to trade worthless rocks for something as valuable as food.”
“Thank you, Xia,” I say from the bottom of my heart.
“No problem princess, everyone rise you are not citizens of my little country, at least not yet. Now let's continue the tour shall we, I have much to show you!”
Patreon
Apple
there we go thank you author
@XepixZ Apple
suffer
@a_apple