"Hah… hah…"
Kurose Akira sat inside the guild hall, deliberately regulating his breathing. His heart was pounding violently within his chest, driving his blood to surge through his body in a strange, almost unnatural rhythm.
In the end, that rushing blood seemed to converge at a single point, synchronizing with the ability [Sunny and Cheerful], and somehow… it transformed into something like a blazing red signal light?
What a bizarre mechanic…
"Kurose Akira~ we're here~""Good morning, Guildmaster!"
At that moment, Ivsha and the elf sisters teleported into the guild.
"Mhm."Kurose Akira answered absentmindedly, his attention still focused on the strange flow of blood within his body.
Sniff, sniff~
Ivsha suddenly seemed to catch a peculiar scent. In the next instant, she rushed straight toward Kurose Akira, yanked open his clothes, pressed close to his chest, and began sniffing him lightly.
"?"
Kurose Akira stared at Ivsha in utter confusion. If he hadn't been gripping his pants tightly, she might've dragged those down too.
"What a wonderful scent~ Kurose Akira~ Why are you starting to smell better and better~?"Ivsha asked curiously.
"Really?"Her question immediately sparked the curiosity of Beiafli and Beiaflo. The two elf sisters leaned in as well, trying to sniff out something unusual.
But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't smell any difference. Guildmaster still seemed like the same familiar Guildmaster as always.
"Ivsha, don't corrupt the elves!"Kurose Akira hurriedly pushed the three of them away, silently complaining in his heart—
What are you, puppies? Sniffing all over me like that?
"So strange~"Ivsha still looked intoxicated by his scent. The effect of +200% damage against succubi made her even more eager for the taste of holy light.
Kurose Akira didn't bother explaining. He planned to give Ivsha a proper surprise later—right when she prayed to the holy light.
"Lucia still hasn't arrived?"He glanced at the time. In-game time had already reached nine in the morning, yet Lucia was nowhere to be seen. It seemed she'd been delayed by something.
"Let's head out and do a quest first."
Kurose Akira knew he couldn't stay in the guild forever waiting for Lucia. After some thought, he decided to complete a D-rank commission first.
"Understood~ Guildmaster~"
...
In the blink of an eye, Kurose Akira and his party arrived at the mission location via teleportation array.
Since this was his first D-rank commission, he'd deliberately chosen a relatively simple one.
The task was to slay a level-35 giant eagle that nested along the edge of a cliff.
For most guilds, this quest posed a real challenge. The terrain was unfavorable for combat, and without flight or anti-air capabilities, killing the giant eagle was extremely difficult.
But for Kurose Akira's guild, it was hardly a problem at all.
Loserine unfurled her soul-forged wings of light and instantly caught up to the giant eagle as it soared through the sky. Her sword techniques descended like falling moonlight—and in the next instant, the eagle's wings were pierced through by razor-sharp blades, riddled with dozens of gaping holes.
"SKREE—!"
The giant eagle let out a piercing screech that tore through the sky.
It twisted its massive body midair, its sharp gaze locking onto its enemy as it tried to launch a ferocious counterattack with its talons. But just as it prepared to strike—
It realized in horror that it had already been engulfed by a mass of roiling black flames.
The fire was like a demon born of night, descending silently and swallowing the giant eagle in absolute darkness.
BOOM!
After a deafening explosion, the massive body of the giant eagle plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily into the ground.
"That was easy enough."
Kurose Akira walked over to the corpse. After falling from several hundred meters up, the giant eagle was unmistakably dead.
But something about it struck him as odd.
There was a deep, unmistakable wound on its back.
The giant eagle was over ten meters long, with a wingspan approaching twenty meters. Ordinary weak monsters couldn't possibly injure it.
Yet the claw marks on its back were brutally clear, sending a chill down his spine.
Obviously, whatever had attacked it was far larger than the giant eagle—and capable of flight.
In front of such a creature, even a powerful giant eagle would look pitifully small.
In Kurose Akira's mind, only one creature fit all these traits.
A dragon.
"…This place seems pretty close to the Dragon's Fall site."
He surveyed the surroundings. The location where the eagle had fallen was only a few kilometers from the Dragon's Fall area.
"That is…?!"
Suddenly, his attention was drawn to a peculiar mountain range in the distance.
It stretched long and winding, its shape eerily reminiscent of a dragon's spine—as if a colossal dragon were lying dormant across the land, radiating an overwhelming and mysterious presence.
Wait.
A terrifying thought flashed through Kurose Akira's mind.
Could it be… that this mountain range was formed from a dragon's corpse?
He stared at it for a long time. If the mountains were truly formed from a dragon's remains, then the size of that dragon was simply absurd.
At the very least… several thousand meters long.
"…Better come back after we're stronger."
Kurose Akira muttered softly. With the party's current levels, and with Dragon's Fall clearly being a high-risk zone, he decided exploration could wait until later.
"Let's head back."
"Okay~"
The group activated the teleportation array and left the mission site.
And just after they departed—
A bone dragon, its body covered in rotting flesh, spread its wings and descended upon the area, slowly landing atop the towering cliff…
...
When Kurose Akira returned to the guild, he saw a familiar slender figure seated inside, quietly flipping through a book.
Lucia's here?
Wait—
Just as he was about to approach her, he noticed something was off.
She showed no reaction at all to their arrival—not even a glance from the corner of her eye. She simply continued reading, expression cold and distant.
Kurose Akira frowned slightly and checked her status.
[Current Personality: Aloof · Indulgent]
"Once per day?"He murmured under his breath.
The instant the words left his mouth, Lucia's icy gaze snapped toward him.
Her golden-red eyes were like glaciers from the polar extremes, their chilling intensity spreading outward and making Kurose Akira's soul tremble slightly.
What a freezing stare.
Lucia gently closed the book in her hands and asked coldly,"Did you read the holy scripture I gave you yesterday?"
"Yes. I did."
Kurose Akira nodded and walked over to her.
Lucia's frosty, proud aura was like a rare flower blooming atop an iceberg—beautiful, yet unapproachable.
"Was there anything you didn't understand?"
She slowly stood up. Her snow-white, faintly flushed jade feet touched the floor lightly. From beneath her white gauze veil, those golden-red eyes locked tightly onto Kurose Akira.
"You may ask me," she said softly. "I can explain it to you."
As she spoke, she took out a pair of thin, gold-rimmed glasses and gently put them on—
Adding a distinctly intellectual charm to her already intimidating presence.