Hidden Quest [Dragon Hunt]

“…It has been a long time. I shall praise you. It has truly been a long time since I felt this unpleasant.”

“Don’t get mad. What’s wrong? What happened to that amused attitude you had earlier?”

Tooyama shot back lightly.

The air was trembling. It was as if the world itself was cowering before the armored bastard’s presence.

But Tooyama did not back down.

Dungeon drunkenness had already boiled and broken the part of his brain that should have felt that fear.

“You’re similar, aren’t you? Unlike me, you’re the real thing. One of the truly few seriously dangerous ones.”

Tooyama Naruhito had seen the “real thing” only once before.

An explorer whose power had been recognized by the nation and who had been designated as one of the nation’s military assets—

“A ‘Designated Explorer.’ You’re the same kind of monster as them.”

The pinnacle among explorers. Among them, the most brilliant existence, a modern hero who, despite being human, was counted as one of the stars adorning the flag of the United States of America.

The fifty-second star who had brought back a “storm” from the modern dungeon.

The brilliance of the woman he had once seen from afar. The armored bastard emitted the same sensation.

“Designated… Explorer? Hmph, well, fine. It seems you are prepared. …Dragons do not break promises, nor do they go back on their words. Since you remained here, that means you are the one who will die.”

“Hi, hihihihihihi, idiot. You’re still here too, aren’t you?”

“…What did you say?”

“Your brain turns pretty slowly. Did you eat breakfast? …I’m saying I’m not the one who should die here.”

“…Very well. I permit it. Chirp away, slave.”

“You die. You’re the only one dying here, octopus armor.”

“…Ku, kukukukuku, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

The surroundings shook. For a moment, Tooyama thought a light earthquake had occurred, but he was wrong. The world was shaking from the armored bastard’s laughter.

His body tingled and went numb. Even so, Tooyama stayed still and waited for the moment.

“Enough.”

The pressure swelled.

The armored bastard’s great spear, the gaudy three-pronged great spear, was glowing red-hot.

Beside them lay the one-eyed monster, the giant, the Cyclops. However, no blood flowed from the one that had been beheaded.

In other words—

“Fire and heat, huh… A shitty weapon that can’t even be crossed blades with. Troublesome.”

“Hahahahahaha!! How strangely calm you are! Good. As prey, you will not be boring!”

It swelled, swelled, swelled. Killing intent. Several times greater than what large monster species directed at him, a killing intent that dulled the body’s movements.

Tooyama did not move.

The armor stepped onto the ground, with enough physical strength that the heel cracked and sank into the earth.

A dragon forced into the shape of a person was about to kill a slave—

“You’re the prey, idiot.”

It did not matter. No matter how terrifying the opponent’s armament was, no matter how much of a real dangerous one the opponent was.

At this moment, in this contest alone, the outcome had already been decided.

“—?!”

The armored bastard had stepped in. No, either way, it was already far too late.

Because Tooyama Naruhito’s preparations were already complete.

The moment Tooyama stood upwind, all preparations were already complete. This was no longer a battle.

“You die.”

It was the hunt of an advanced explorer.

That was a “reward” for explorers found only within modern dungeons.

An item that could only be excavated from modern dungeons, causing peculiar phenomena.

Sometimes, it was quietly hidden like a majestic treasure in regions people’s feet could not reach.

Sometimes, it was found from the corpse of a great trial, a powerful monster species.

And sometimes, one could encounter it with almost anticlimactic ease.

“—Y-you, that is…”

The armor stopped moving. The momentum like a carnivorous beast pouncing upon prey went silent. But it was already too late. Everything was too late.

That was something that overturned the laws of physics and mocked “science” on Earth, where modern dungeons appeared in the year 2028.

A thing conceived by the dungeon, rewriting the laws of this world.

People named it thus.

“It’s time for work.”

Artifact, relic, or else—

“Relic, disperse.”

A relic.

“Fill the air, ‘Kiriyaiba.’”

Something was dragged out from Tooyama Naruhito’s right chest.

It was a terribly damaged sword. Its curved blade, however, was chipped and broken halfway through.

A blade that emerged as if melting out of its master’s flesh. Yet it did not wound its master’s flesh.

Tooyama pointed the broken blade tip at the armor while grinning foolishly.

“That scent, don’t tell me, ‘grave goods’?! Impossible?! Ah?! Gyaah?!”

Suddenly, the armor screamed. Scratching at its body, it fell to one knee.

“What… did you do, slave? What did you do to this one…?! Answer me!! Human!!”

“Huh? I told you, I’m trying to kill you, idiot.”

Tooyama looked down, and the armor looked up.

Liquid leaking from the gaps in the golden armor. A bright red liquid. Blood.

“Kiriyaiba has already spread within a fifty-meter radius. You helped me by stupidly standing downwind.”

Blood began dripping from the seams, joints, and every part of the armor.

“Kiriyaiba scatters invisible blades through the air. I don’t know how it works. It happens because that’s how it happens. No matter how thick your armor is, it’s not like you can avoid touching the air, right?”

“Ah, it hurts? This one’s scales, body, impossible?! Impossible, impossible, impossible… S-slave!! Stop this—”

“Hihihihihihihihihihi, ahh, monster hunting sure is fun.”

“Ah—”

Splash.

In the blink of an eye, more than a fatal amount of blood flowed from the armor.

“That’s some amazing armor. Kiriyaiba can even carve through the shell of a Grassland Great Ground Spider… Well, looks like the thing inside the armor wasn’t the same.”

The inside of that thick armor had been torn to pieces by Tooyama Naruhito’s explorer tool.

This was a relic, a cheat that rewrote the laws of the world.

Tooyama Naruhito was also its master.

“…Ugh, I feel sick…”

Its weakness was that if he used it too much, he became abnormally hungry and suddenly felt terrible.

“Ugh, ueeeeeeeeh.”

Tooyama began vomiting sparkles on the spot. His head hurt, and the world started spinning around and around. Right beside the armor’s corpse, a slave continued vomiting.

A grotesque scene spread out.

“Uegh… Ahh, I feel awful. It’s always like this when I use it, so I ended up holding back. Well, I applied what I learned and fired it right at the start, so I’d say it was very effective.”

In that final moment, during the great brawl with the one-eyed great apes, he had hesitated to use Kiriyaiba because its attacks affected Tooyama too, and because of this backlash.

That was why he had died. That was why he had lost.

Tooyama no longer thought of his current situation as a dream.

It was too real. The sensation of handling his own familiar weapon, and this nausea that was the price.

The taste of Lazaar’s bread, and those words that he had liked regardless of whether this was a dream or not.

“Hi, hihihihihi, ahh, but it’s fun.”

And this dark exhilaration from succeeding in a hunt as an explorer.

Dream or not, it no longer mattered. The sensation of satisfying his desire clearly informed Tooyama Naruhito that he was alive.

“Do not… look down on me, lower lifeform.”

“Oh?”

The ↓ had still not disappeared.

It pointed at the armor sunk in the sea of blood.

Stabbing the spear into the ground like a cane, the armored bastard tried to stand.

Crack. The armor swelled and burst. Breaking through the plate on the back, what appeared was golden—

“…Wings?!”

They opened gallantly, proof of a higher lifeform that ruled the skies. The shining wing membranes were as if sunlight passed through them. The spreading wing bones were like gold.

Crack.

Breaking through the plate around the back and waist, what crawled out was golden—

“Huh? A tail?!”

The tail of that higher lifeform, which could mow down trees, was a remnant of the progenitor.

“Ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

A dragon. A higher lifeform chosen by the world.

In this Empire, other than the “angels” recognized by the “Church” and their kin, dragons were the only beings that existed as objects of worship—not living gods, but living dragon gods.

“Dra… gon… trans… for…”

That overwhelming power, containing even divine might, healed its wounds and stoked its killing intent. To hunt the tiny slave who had defied it, that power was about to awaken—

“Ah, I don’t need that kind of thing.”

Splash.

“—Ah?”

Greatly, violently.

The wings, the tail, the parts transforming into a dragon split open.

The armor that had nearly stood up sprang backward and fell onto its back. It sank once again into the pool of blood.

The wings and tail ended up mangled and tattered, as if they had burst from the inside—

“I told you, didn’t I? The one who should die is you. The prey is you.”

Regeneration, resurrection. The reason a dragon was a dragon, the strength of its life.

However, its opponent was far too bad a match. Tooyama Naruhito was an explorer. Regenerating enemies, lifeforms far more powerful than himself.

He was used to dealing with them.

He knew very well how to kill them.

“I also said Kiriyaiba had already spread, right? Ahh, it’s fine even if you can’t hear me anymore. For some reason, Kiriyaiba’s effect becomes stronger when I explain it. Umm, I’ll continue, okay? It mixes with the air. Fine blades that can’t be seen.”

“Why do you breathe? Just to scream out that noisy muffled voice? No, right? If you bleed too, and if that blood is red, then the answer is simple. You live through energy conversion using oxygen from breathing, from taking in air.”

Tooyama coldly looked down at the prey sinking into the pool of blood. He twirled the broken blade, his relic, in his palm as if playing with it.

“Then the preparations are already complete. Your blood, your body, Kiriyaiba has entered all of it. Convenient, right? Like I did up above, I can send out pure white ‘mist.’ Like I did to you, I can also set invisible ‘blades’ in transparent form… Well, if there’s a next time, make use of it.”

Twitch.

The armor’s body convulsed.

Without changing his expression in the slightest, Tooyama said,

“Kill it, Kiriyaiba.”

Splurt.

He called that name. The armor’s body jumped for an instant. It was further shredded, the blades planted inside the armor cutting its life apart.

“You’re stubborn. I may not look it, but I’m the cautious type. If I don’t make sure I kill you, I won’t be able to sleep at night. Come on, that’d be unpleasant, right? I want to sleep by eleven at night and sleep soundly until around six. The desire for sleep is my desire too.”

Tooyama picked something up.

The thing Lazaar had thrown away with courage.

An excessively beautiful knife. Its blade was transparent and thick. To check its sharpness gently, he placed the blade against the nail of his thumb.

“Ow! Seriously? That’s amazing. I only touched it with the blade.”

On the thumbnail he had only lightly touched with the blade, a red line appeared smoothly, and blood welled up.

“A gooood knife. This should be enough.”

Tooyama stepped into the pool of blood. The armor continued being cut apart from the inside by Kiriyaiba.

While admiring its vitality, he crouched as if peering near the armor’s face.

“Well then, here, I’ll return it. It’s expensive, right?”

Firmly.

Tooyama readjusted his grip on the knife in a reverse hold and swung it straight downward. The knife swung toward the armor’s face, around the eyes, pierced through the helmet and into the face.

Hard things, soft things, hard and rough things. Those sensations returned through the knife.

“Ugh, gross.”

Twitch, twitch.

The armor, with the knife stabbed into its face, convulsed especially violently, and then stopped moving.

The ↓ pointed at that corpse.

A message flowed.

Wiping the blood spattered on his hands and storing the relic back inside his own body, Tooyama looked down.

The thing that should have died had died.

“Exploration complete.”

And—

“See ya, armored bastard.”

The explorer had survived.