Perhaps it was a reward the Dungeon had prepared for whoever reached its end. Or perhaps the Dungeon itself had existed all along to nurture a certain god.
Whatever the truth was, Shiro discovered an Incomplete Divinity on the lowest floor of the Dungeon.
It took the form of a pitch-black crystal covered in cracks and looked as though it might shatter at any moment. The instant Shiro saw it, his heart began pounding and his blood seemed to boil.
Both his instincts and his body urged him forward. Every part of him was telling him that merging with the crystal would bring enormous benefits.
By the time Shiro came back to his senses, the crystal was already in his hand, and he had instinctively begun the fusion process.
The Dungeon possessed a will of its own. That was something almost every adventurer and god agreed upon.
Apparently, the crystal in Shiro's hand did too.
The moment it realized someone was attempting to merge with it, its first reaction was not acceptance.
It resisted.
At that instant, the entire Dungeon began operating at its limit. Everything within it seemed to answer the crystal's call.
All kinds of monsters began pouring from the walls. Some Shiro recognized, while others he had never seen before. It was as though the Dungeon intended to squeeze itself dry and release everything it had in a single breath.
Within moments, the once spacious floor was packed with monsters as far as the eye could see, while countless more remained hidden in the darkness, waiting for a chance to strike.
"Wait. You said you were at the very bottom of the Dungeon, right? Then that 'thing'..."
"Yeah. I saw it."
Shiro nodded, confirming Loki's guess.
"The last of the Three Great Quests, and the only one still unfinished. The creature the entire world dreams of defeating, the ruler of the skies... the [One-Eyed Black Dragon]."
If the entire Dungeon had been mobilized against him, there was no chance its greatest fighting force would stay away.
In fact, when Shiro began merging with the Divinity, the One-Eyed Black Dragon had been the very first thing to appear.
Its enormous body nearly crushed the entire floor beneath it. Pitch-black scales covered its frame, while razor-sharp claws gleamed with a chilling light. Every breath from its jaws carried enough heat to melt stone.
Its sole remaining crimson eye was filled with a madness that seemed to have crawled straight out of hell.
Its wings alone were nearly half the size of Orario. A casual flap generated hurricanes powerful enough to tear apart anything standing in its path.
That was no longer something human strength could reasonably oppose.
If Shiro had to judge it by adventurer levels, he estimated that the One-Eyed Black Dragon was at least Level 10, a realm no adventurer had ever reached and an ultimate domain accessible only after surpassing the limits of humanity.
Even if a Level 1 adventurer maxed out every stat, they still could not normally rival a Level 2 without some unusual ability.
Yet the One-Eyed Black Dragon Shiro had encountered stood three full levels above Ottar, currently regarded as Orario's strongest adventurer.
In other words, even if every adventurer currently in Orario joined forces, Shiro doubted they could so much as scratch the dragon.
"Seriously?! Then what did you do? Run away, or kill it?"
Loki suddenly clapped her hands, her face lighting up with excitement.
"If you killed it, can we go collect the reward from the Guild?!"
Hearing that Shiro had encountered the One-Eyed Black Dragon did not frighten Loki in the slightest.
After all, Loki was a trickster god.
Aside from the children of her own Familia, why would she particularly care whether the rest of Orario lived or died?
If anything, she would prefer the One-Eyed Black Dragon to be even stronger.
When the day finally came to subjugate it, adventurers from across Orario would unite for countless different reasons. Under the leadership of a hero, they would surely put on a spectacle unlike anything she had ever witnessed.
Just imagining such a scene made Loki's body tremble with excitement.
There was also one thing she had deliberately left out when exchanging information with Dionysus earlier.
The Guild really had been involved in expelling Zeus Familia and Hera Familia.
However, the truth was nothing like Dionysus suspected. Loki and Freya had not taken the lead while the Guild secretly manipulated things from behind the scenes.
In reality, the entire expulsion had been initiated by the Guild, Zeus Familia, and Hera Familia themselves.
Loki, Freya, and a small number of other gods had merely helped push events forward.
Their goal had been simple.
Throw Orario into complete chaos.
After their failed attempt to defeat the Black Dragon wiped out nearly all of their Familia's core fighting strength, Zeus and Hera understood that even if their Familias barely survived, Evilus would continue plotting in the shadows.
Rebuilding their forces and challenging the Black Dragon again was almost impossible.
Rather than cling to their old connections and struggle to survive in Orario, they chose to turn themselves into firewood and set the entire city ablaze.
So, under the Guild's direction, Loki, who loved chaos, and Freya, who longed for the birth of a hero, joined forces to drive out the two Familias that had already decided to serve as bait.
The departure of Orario's two strongest Familias then dropped a bomb into the city's power structure.
Good and evil returned to a fragile balance, eventually giving rise to the incident that shaped modern Orario.
The Great Feud.
Loki had not been the true mastermind behind the plan, but she had knowingly accepted a scheme destined to sacrifice countless lives.
From beginning to end, she remained safely above the chaos. When the Great Feud finally ended, Loki Familia and Freya Familia rose together as Orario's new twin rulers.
From Loki's perspective, whether the One-Eyed Black Dragon was powerful did not really matter.
As long as it could entertain her, that was enough.
Even if Shiro told her he had already killed it, Loki would probably only feel a little disappointed. Compared with the opportunity to visit an entirely new world, losing the Black Dragon as entertainment was hardly worth mentioning.
However, the moment Loki finished speaking, she noticed Shiro staring directly at her.
His expression practically said, 'Are you an idiot?'
"How was I supposed to fight it in that situation?"
Shiro sounded genuinely regretful.
"If the One-Eyed Black Dragon had been alone, I might've challenged it just to see what happened. But there were so many monsters down there that I couldn't even see the end of them."
"The number on that single floor was probably close to exceeding Orario's entire current population. Once I started fighting for real, even escaping would've become difficult."
Shiro really was disappointed.
He had finally encountered the One-Eyed Black Dragon, the final target of the Three Great Quests. Any adventurer would want to see just how powerful such a legendary monster truly was.
Unfortunately, he had not been in a position to indulge that curiosity.
Besides the One-Eyed Black Dragon, countless other monsters had also targeted him, while the Dungeon continued producing new ones without end.
If Shiro had started fighting the dragon under those circumstances, there would have been no end to the battle.
He could hardly compete with the entire Dungeon to see who had more stamina.
Anyone with common sense could guess who would lose that contest.
Even knowing that, Shiro still found it unfortunate.
This time, he had only reached the final floor because the World Crossing Gate happened to dump him there by sheer coincidence.
The next time he entered the Dungeon, he would have to start exploring from the first floor again.
Who knew when he would encounter the One-Eyed Black Dragon a second time?
Thinking about that, Shiro could not help letting out another sigh.
…