Chapter 227 227 Cute dragon
[El's POV: ]
[ "I thought you died, stupid master! I thought you died!" ]
"And why would my stupid Cary think something so absurd? I am not dying before you, you piece of shit bastard."
He was hugging me, his eyes almost teary for the first time. And these weren't some fake tears.
He was genuinely emotional right now and there were the original (Dragon tears) on the ends of his eyes, something so rare on the Worldline market that each and every one of these tears is sold at the same price as some of the rarest things available in the Worldline.
'He's a tsundere for sure. Acting all high and mighty sometimes, then being embarrassed from time to time, and then acting all angry just after receiving some slap from a mere mortal like me… but, well, at the end of the day, this cute tsundere of mine cares about me.'
He was emotional just because I was unconscious for a while… three weeks wasn't even that long of a time. Or, well, perhaps, actually it was a long time.
"I am sorry to have worried you…"
I caressed the little head of this cute familiar of mine and carefully gathered the tears that were sliding down his eyes in special containers.
[ "Stupid master. Making me cry and then stealing my tears… stupid master. Dumb master." ]
"Hehe, but why are you crying in the first place? You love me that much? Really? You want mama's kissy little one~?"
[ "What… no! Why would I-" ]
I kissed him anyway.
"Thanks for protecting me… both of us. Thanks, both of you."
Anna must have used her creation skill and made the makeshift protection artifact cloth that was wrapped around us.
It was a special artifact and a one-time item that had the same functions as the main protection and sustenance devices in her lab back home.
'It must have cost her Plausibility to create these things in a place like this, but she still did it, and thanks to her, we were able to sustain ourselves with the high energy use and no food intake for whole twenty-one days.'
And then there was this bastard of mine. Crying in my arms like a little baby.
"You left the boss alone, right?"
[ "Sniff! Sniff! Of course stupid master… we are not dumb like you. Sniff!" ]
I gave him another kiss on his head before looking at Lucy and ignoring his words.
He can call me stupid for now, he had earned that much.
"Lucy, let's grab a bite and Anna, please report everything that happened in our absence dear."
[ "Yes~!" ]
We needed food first. Good food that can put this growling stomach of mine at ease. And Lucy could take care of all that so, I just gave him the things he needed.
[ "To summarise everything in simpler terms, one along with Cary has eradicated almost all the major threats in this colony, including all the commanders, elites, and the soldier Devilants.
All that is left in this place are the young ones that we left intentionally, some that we thought could be of use later, and the boss monster.
One figured since the boss monster was strong enough to interfere with the challengers so much and that they had near complete control over this place, it must be something Master and El wanted to have for themselves.
It retaliated a lot though. Sent out quite a lot of the solders and elites however, it seems it cannot produce a large amount of high-grade ones in a short period.
Though we did not enter the boss room itself, one was able to gather quite a lot of data about it in the meantime by studying the data structure of this dungeon." ]
Anna explained it all in short and sweet words so we knew there wasn't much left to do in this dungeon anymore.
The main quests were almost over, so we could start the hidden side quests after we took care of the boss monster.
'We have to find the Dimension fragment, get to the place where 'they' were being imprisoned, and take them with us. On top of this, we also have to fulfill the unique requirements to get the next Authority by doing something crazy.'
Most of the ants here were dead already, and though the ones that killed them were our familiars, it did not count as our kills. So, we just lost the chance to get our second couple title.
'Sad.'
We could have gotten some other titles as well if we were the ones to eradicate the ants in this place, but, well, it looks like that won't be happening now.
"Though… it doesn't really matter anymore."
I can tell I was much stronger than I was the last time I was conscious. My Mana felt purer and easier to control for some reason as well.
The strength in my body itself was greater now. And, to top it all off, it seemed like my skills had been strengthened even further because of the effects of the [Blue Crown].
'This is beyond crazy.'
This skill, those things I saw, those people, those voices… it was not as simple as seeing our birth parents. This was a crazier experience than that.
'I have always avoided the things and questions related to them since it doesn't matter who or what they were, what we are, why we have these powers, and what all of this could mean…
I have considered a few possibilities and the ones that stand out as the most plausible ones are crazy as fuck.
So I don't wanna think about that stuff right now.
"Here you go."
He finished his cooking in the blink of an eye and yet, the quality of the things he made were still unprecedented as always. It was all just too good~.
Or, was it better than usual?
"Looks like your Aura got better as well, hun?"
"Looks like it."
He had a sad smile on his face, and his eyes screamed with questions that he could not ignore anymore. I could tell what was going on in his mind with our strengthened connection as well, and, truthfully, this was concerning for me as well.
"What did you think we saw, El?"
"You already know what I think dummy. The question isn't who they were or who we are anymore.
You know it as well now, right?
We have… we had parents, and they were special beings. The crown skills are perhaps something like their last gifts to us and as the skill awakens more, we will find out more about them, more about ourselves, and perhaps, we will know the answers to the questions we have right now.
Thinking too deeply about this is of no use so, let's just eat."
With a warm smile on my face, I shoved a piece of meat in his mouth.
And then in the mouth of my still sad little cute weak-ass dragon.
"Let's just eat, go down, take care of the bitch and finish the business here. I wanna go home already. I wonder how long would have passed outside of this place if it's already been three weeks."
The flow of time in this place and our world changed every time randomly because of the astral structure of this damned dungeon. There was no way to find out how long it had passed outside before actually getting the hell out of this place.
And, since this was a 'permanent' dungeon and not just a one-time dungeon like Eisheth's, after we get the rights of this dungeon and set it up as an operation center, there is going to be quite some trouble managing the 'time' of the inside and the out.
'I have a few plans for it though. And since we have Anna and this crybaby bastard of mine, we might just be able to secure this place as a connection point with that other world.'
That place is pretty good. We will have fun there during our break time after the midterms~.
[ "Master… I forgot to tell you, but we found a place that seems weird. Like, it looks like it isn't part of this dungeon, yet." ]
"Hmmm? Have you found the core chamber already? Did you mark it?"
[ "Hehehe, one did! One marked it! See Cary~! One told Cary marking that place would be a good idea! One knew it had a 'spatial distortion factor' to it! One was right~." ]
Of course, she was right. What would I expect from this dumb bastard of mine?
He must have thought that place was just some dungeon error that would be nothing special. But, the place they were talking about was the main reason we were here. Not the dungeon itself or the rewards of this dungeon.
"Good work you two. That place is important."
I patted Anna's little head and caressed Cary's tale while telling him how better she was than him.
She didn't like it every time I did that, but he learned from her every time something like this happened since his great pride was getting hurt in the end.
He didn't like that, and however great he might be, he wanted recognition for his greatness. Something that he was not getting with us.
'He was a mighty great dragonlord, but people here treat him like some cute little doggy. I wouldn't like that either but he can't do anything but improve if he wants to be treated appropriately.'
He knows what he had to do for that, and, calling me things aside from stupid or dumb comes first in that list of things. But then again, he wouldn't do that either since the real dumb, stupid, In fact, he was the useless one.
"The food was good, and, it seems like it's about to be morning soon, right?"
"Looks like it."
He washed the things and stored the stuff back before getting up and helping me get up from the ground. Cary was heavy to have on my lap, but the bastard was emotional so he wasn't leaving me yet.
I will have to kick him away when I get the chance though. He's too heavy and too old to be clingy like that.
"Let's finish the boss raid then. I wanna see just how much stronger the skills have gotten."
And of course, I also wanted to try out the new function of our Zero skills.
"The description said it would double the stats but, that might decrease the quality of our stats to balance the overall performance of the skill."
"I thought so too, right? There's no way Worldline would allow a skill that doubles our stats in their original quality to exist."
"Hahaha, right~?"
Both of us were thinking that it was the logical conclusion we had reached after my calculation and his experience with the skills of all kinds in this Worldline, after all.
Even Anna and Cary agreed that would be the case according to their experience, but…
-Boooooooooooom!
[Ding!]
[You have defeated the Dungeon master: Arachnie!]
[Calculating data…]
All four of us were wrong this time.
[ "One could not believe this…" ]
[ "Oy stupid master… this is absurd…" ]
"I will be in that corner meditating. Please don't disturb me for a while…"
"Oy Lucy, where are you running away?!"
The dungeon master was a <S> rank creature of (Level-330), which is clearly more than two hundred levels more than us.
It had terrifying stats and it was already a buffed being since it was inside its territory right now.
And it was also a demonic being, almost a noble of knight rank, so, this fight should have been quite tough for us even with the new powers we had gained.
'However, the entire boss fight that might have lasted for several hours or perhaps even days… concluded in a single sword slash from him.'
Which was absurd, yes. But we did it while broadcasting it with the highest quality with Raz present with us, which meant many… many people in the Worldline saw what he had just done.
Which, ultimately, was not going to be a simple thing to deal with…
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