13. The Red Dragon's Feast

As I entered the fifth floor, the air changed completely. Perhaps it was because the fourth floor was so cold, but it felt strangely lukewarm. Originally, the inside of the dungeon, which received no sunlight at all, was chilly, so warmer was better than colder.

"Now then, what kind of things appeared on this floor again?"

Entering the first large room, what awaited me was a huge lizard of a dull crimson color.

Its glaring red eyes fixed on me.

"Uah!"

More like a dragon, though it lacked wings, it was definitely one of the dragonkin. A Lesser Dragon, to be exact.

I instinctively recoiled, but it was better to fight in the large room. I switched my weapon to the samurai sword and leaped into the open space.

"Gyaashaa!"

As if waiting for me, the Lesser Dragon let out a sharp cry, opened its fanged maw, and snapped at me.

No idiot would just take a bite attack. I swiftly dodged the raging sharp claw attacks and circled around to its side.

These lower-tier dragons weren't particularly fast in their movements.

Their bodies were covered in hard scales, but if I kept circling and slashing, they weren't that scary of an enemy.

I single-mindedly kept circling around to its flank and slashing.

The Lesser Dragon writhed in pain as its skin was torn, trying to bite me with its sharp fangs, unleash its sharp claws, or attack with its large tail, but I wasn't stupid enough to take those head-on.

In the end, their greatest weaknesses were their dull, monotonous movements and their overly large size. No wonder dinosaurs went extinct.

Due to writhing in pain, its massive body occasionally threatened to crush me, so I jumped away to escape.

The current me wouldn't die even if crushed. If I didn't die, I could recover my health with a potion, so it wasn't a big deal.

I immediately got back up and returned to hit-and-run tactics.

Each time I tore through the Lesser Dragon's skin, red scales scattered, gradually mixed with dark red blood spatter.

Contrary to its ferocious size, it was a weakling that could only attack with its sharp fangs and hard tail. Without being intimidated by its size, if I fought calmly with an aggressive stance, it wasn't an unbeatable enemy.

I was pleased to realize that my footwork had improved dramatically compared to when I faced the Mustard Dragon before.

My speed and power were on a completely different level from back then. I was no longer the same me.

"Come on, just die already!"

"Gyaaaaaa!"

I hadn't aimed for it, but perhaps there was a vital organ where I deeply thrust my sword.

A death cry rose, and like a candle flame extinguishing, fire burst from the dragon's mouth and disappeared.

Its movements immediately slowed, and the Lesser Dragon collapsed with a thud, curling up its massive body.

It was dead.

"There's no way I could handle more than one of these at a time."

If these things came at me from all directions and surrounded me, I wouldn't be able to win.

Even though I had grown stronger than before, my Fighter rank and weapons weren't yet strong enough to defeat a dragon in one blow.

"Well, that just means I can still get stronger."

The current me was happy about that.

Now, time for a meal. I was looking forward to it since I heard that dragon meat was light and delicious.

It was difficult because of its large size, but I roughly drained the blood by stabbing its heart and cutting off its head.

I didn't mind the taste of monster blood, but since it was a precious dragon steak, I wanted to savor the best possible meat.

"Should I try grilling it for once?"

I carefully scraped off the hard scales and cut off a good-looking flank into a suitable size, then skewered it on my sword.

I roasted it over a makeshift stove made of piled-up stones I had gathered.

"This is quite a feast."

What to say about the taste of dragon steak? It had the light flavor of chicken but the chewiness of beef.

As expected of reptiles, it had a taste very similar to the crocodile meat I had eaten at the open-air museum I went to on a school excursion.

The Lesser Dragon, boasting slow movements, high health, and hard scales, was also a perfect opponent for training a warrior's skills.

Moreover, it was a walking pantry of inexhaustible size, so there was no more convenient creature.

I would slowly and steadily defeat them while using this place for solid combat training.

　　　　　※※※

Having eaten my fill of dragon meat and completed sufficient training, I decided to move on. What awaited me was a demon statue.

A gargoyle. This one would start moving and attack when you got close.

I shot a few Fireballs from a distance.

Then, it would hurriedly attack me, so I would slash it down with my samurai sword.

If dealt with calmly, it wasn't that formidable of an enemy.

The gargoyle, its head severed, turned back into stone and crumbled to the floor in pieces.

I could feel myself getting stronger.

This path was a route I had played through many times, dozens of times, in Genoria.

Certainly, if you were cut, it was so painful you wanted to scream and writhe, and if your skin was burned by flames, it was so agonizing you felt like you would go crazy.

Those realistic sensations got in the way, but if you could endure even the torments of hell and train a strong spirit that could move forward and swing your sword, it was no different from the game.

What I had to do was simple.

The more I killed, the more results I got. I could still become much stronger.

Passing through the corridor of gargoyles positioned to guard the boss, the fifth floor boss, the Mustard Dragon, awaited me ahead.

It was the same species as the one I had faced during the 'Invasion' on the first floor, but unlike the normal species that roamed the sixth floor, the Mustard Dragon that was the fifth floor boss had high intelligence.

Not a young, lower-tier dragon, but a mature dragon that had lived for a long time and gained intelligence.

The adult Mustard Dragon.

Dragons were a species that took a long time to mature.

When they gained intelligence after many years, they became correspondingly stronger. In game terms, their AI was different. Simple cheese strategies wouldn't work, and they would adapt to my movements.

"But with my current rank, I can do it!"

Having prepared myself and regulated my breathing, I slowly opened the stone wall that blocked the boss's room.

Genoria was certainly a terrible killing game.

Even so, it was still a game.

Reality sometimes closed the door as if mocking human effort, but games didn't betray human effort.

If you entered correctly, it would correctly return the output. A pure, simple, and beautiful world.

That's why I liked it. If I did what I could do, I would never lose.

"An adventurer who has come this far, how rare."

When I entered the boss's room, I heard a hoarse voice like an old man's.

The same poisonous purple Mustard Dragon I had fought on the first floor.

Its ferocious eyes held a glint of intelligence.

Its scaled skin looked slightly duller, and its body was about twice as large. It was a dragon that had reached its peak maturity over many years.

"That's right, I am one who risks danger. I've come to defeat you!"

"Hmph, you little whelp. Fine then, try as you may."

It didn't seem to be planning any tricks like a sudden ambush.

The massive adult dragon slowly shook its heavy body to rise and raised its head towards me.

I had no intention of talking at length with the opponent I was about to kill.

It seemed the feeling was mutual, and we understood each other with just a glare. A head-on battle. In my mind, the bell of combat rang out.

"Uraaaaaah!"

"Gufaaaaah!"

The adult dragon turned its jaws towards me and spewed out a highly poisonous breath.

I nimbly dodged it with the Diminish Mantle and swung my sword.

The basic move was to circle around, but the samurai sword I slammed towards the enemy's neck was stopped by a *kachin* sound, blocked by its hard scales.

I see, it was quite tough.

When I circled to aim for its relatively soft flank, it used its entire weight to roll over and press down on me.

The massive dragon collapsed towards me.

A moment when everyone would fear, tremble, panic, and try to flee.

However, this very moment was the only chance to seek life in death.

I took one step forward into the abyss of death.

Without avoiding the dragon's massive body, I held my sword straight out and thrust.

It was like a dump truck rolling over sideways. As I was crushed, I screamed from the intense pain that felt like my limbs would be torn apart.

No, this was no longer just pain. I intended to scream, but no sound came out.

However, the samurai sword I had thrust, using its weight and momentum, deeply pierced the Mustard Dragon's body.

I should have been able to pierce the dragon's vital point, which I had thoroughly researched during my combat training with dragons, with a single thrust.

"Guooooooooh!"

The Mustard Dragon spewed out a highly poisonous breath along with its roar. Perhaps this wasn't conscious.

The part I had stabbed was the dragon's breath sac. The accumulated chemical poison was now tearing the sac, rampaging inside the dragon's body.

In exchange for being able to unleash powerful breath attacks like deadly poison and explosive flames, if their breath sac was ruptured, they would suffer from their own poison.

The dragons of this world had become such distorted creatures with that weakness.

The stronger the poison, the more they would suffer from self-poisoning.

I thought, 'Serves you right,' but I didn't have the余裕 to say it. I was still under the dragon's massive body.

"Damn it, thrashing around on top of me!"

The intense pain all over my body was still manageable, but I hadn't felt my left arm for a while now. The bones from my shoulder down had probably been completely shattered. The ligaments might have been completely severed.

I somehow found an opening and crawled out from under the dragon's weight with just my right arm.

I pulled out a health potion from the rucksack that had rolled onto the floor and drank it down.

It was far from a full recovery, but the intense pain that felt like my flesh was tearing and bones were creaking with every movement subsided. Even a mid-level health potion seemed to have the effect of reconnecting bones.

I gave up on the samurai sword that was still pinned under the dragon and stood up, taking the spirit blade out of my rucksack.

"Did that do anything to you, Mustard Dragon!"

"Goh, magnificent... you aimed for the poison in my belly!"

My opponent was an intelligent enemy; I wouldn't let it suffer for long.

I would quickly finish it off. With the spirit blade in hand, I leaped onto the writhing massive body of the dragon and thrust with all my might.

This was probably the dragon's heart, the dragon heart.

"Gefu..."

Spitting out blood, the Mustard Dragon curled up its massive body and stopped moving.

I also couldn't move for a while.

Although I wasn't dead, my body was still trembling with intense pain, and my head was spinning.

Once the desperate moment passed, an intense pain, as if rebounding, would attack.

I gritted my teeth and endured the agony.

Come on, the pain was proof that I was alive.

"It hurts, damn it... Hahahaha!"

Even the intense pain that felt like my body would shatter into pieces was an unbearable pleasure for the current me.

The satisfaction of being able to defeat such a powerful and overwhelming enemy all alone. The feeling of being alive that flickered at the edge of hell's abyss. The irreplaceable joy of being alive.

In the fifth floor boss's treasure chest, as if blessing me, was a large, heavy samurai sword.

A weapon exclusively for the Samurai class with the strongest class of cutting power, the Nodachi 'Solitude'.

The inscription 'Solitude' came from the fact that its blade was made of meteorite iron.

Forged from a plate of meteorite iron that had flown to Earth over two hundred million years, this great sword would never bend and its blade would never chip.

Its cutting power would increase according to the wielder's strength, eventually becoming the strongest weapon capable of cutting through anything.

Therefore, despite being a weapon obtained on the fifth floor, it would become a famous sword that could be used until the very end.

When I progressed through solo play as a Samurai, 'Solitude' would usually appear here.

The only rare weapon in this world that appeared as a reward for defeating an adult dragon alone.

When I slowly drew the sword from its black scabbard with a decorative cord, its blade length was long. Close to a meter.

A nodachi, an odachi, perhaps 'zanbato' would be the easiest way to understand it now.

A thick, strong, and long sword that samurai in the Kamakura period had forged to show off their immense strength.

It was a sword for cutting down warriors along with their horses, but for facing powerful creatures like giant dragons, it was better to have this much length.

Incidentally, because it was too long, you couldn't draw it from its scabbard if you wore it at your waist.

Like a ninja, you had no choice but to carry it on your back and draw it while gripping the koiguchi. Since you couldn't let your guard down in the labyrinth, the sword would probably be kept unsheathed from its long scabbard.

"Either way, I was grateful to have gotten a new weapon."

I tried pulling out the old samurai sword that had been pinned under the Mustard Dragon, but perhaps it had reached its limit in the fierce battles so far, as the blade had snapped cleanly as if exhausted.

If I hadn't gotten a new weapon here, I would have had to go back once.

Rather than being lucky, I felt like I was loved by the god of slaughter.

I felt like a great force was pushing me from behind, telling me to cut more, to kill more.

I placed my comrade, the samurai sword that had fought alongside me until now, on a shelf on the wall.

And carrying my new companion, Solitude, on my back, I moved on.

"I'll do it."

In the treasure chest were gems and gold coins. And I obtained the 'Dragon Key'.

I had finally made it this far. The path to the sixth floor would open.