The space that had been filled with laughter fell into complete silence.
My mind went blank from the unexpected situation, but my body—having survived countless life-or-death crises—began moving on its own.
(I can only see its back, but that glossy black scales, and this pressure... no doubt about it. The 92nd floor boss, the black dragon. Why is it appearing here!? And so suddenly. —No, this isn't the time to think about that!)
My thoughts finally caught up with my actions.
The black dragon's line of sight was fixed on the members of "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky".
It was already preparing to attack them.
Proof lay in the flames leaking from its mouth.
I circled around to reach everyone—but I realized the black dragon's attack would come first.
I changed tactics and constructed a spell formula in an instant.
"Leaders! Protect the rookies with your lives!!!"
Shouting, I cast [Vitality Up] and [Resistance Up] on Anthem-san and Barnard-san, and [Durable Up] and [Weight Up] on their armor and shields.
All the leaders reacted to my voice.
Anthem-san and Barnard-san stepped forward, lowered their centers of gravity, and raised their shields.
Selma-san and Cathy-san deployed mana barriers in front of the defenders.
They were surely still in the midst of confusion.
Yet their bodies moved on instinct.
That's what you get from senior explorers chosen for instructional dives.
The black dragon opened its maw wide and unleashed a massive fireball.
Right before the fireball struck the deployed mana barrier, I activated [Instant Capability Super Rise: Impact] on the barrier, pushing its hardness to the absolute limit.
The fireball exploded on impact, enveloping the "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky" members in smoke.
◇
After a while, the smoke cleared.
Fortunately, no one had died. Somehow, we'd protected the rookies.
But the two defenders were battered beyond recognition.
Cathy-san should have started treating them immediately, yet her body trembled and refused to move.
Not just the rookies— even Selma-san's face had gone deathly pale.
That's when I finally noticed.
The boss area had somehow become more than twice as large as before.
(Is it scaled to match the black dragon? This is supposed to be an irregularity, so why does the system have a feature like this?)
I was still in confusion myself, my mind racing with unnecessary thoughts.
Right now, not a single member of "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky" was of any use.
I had two choices.
The first: abandon them here and head straight to the 51st floor.
The path was already open since we'd defeated the crab.
The black dragon had probably noticed me, but magical beasts tend to go toward larger groups of people.
If I went alone, I could likely make it to the 51st floor.
The second: fight the black dragon.
But in their current state, those guys were useless.
Many couldn't even stand, their legs having given out.
If I fought, any half-hearted plan like buying time for everyone to escape to the 51st floor was out of the question.
To save them all, I had to win.
(Damn it! Why am I remembering that moment in a situation like this?)
◆◆◆
I was born and raised in a remote, nameless village too small to appear on any map.
Oliver and I were the village's favorites.
From birth, both of us had exceptional memory and physical ability. We learned swordsmanship from our grandfather and, by age eight, had reached a level comparable to B-rank explorers.
To push each other further and succeed as explorers in the future, daily training deep in the mountains near the village became our routine.
Then one day, disaster struck.
The village was raided by bandits.
By the time we returned, it was too late.
Houses burned, and the people who had been lively just that morning lay dead everywhere.
When we understood what happened, we screamed until our voices gave out.
By the time we stopped crying, the sun had already risen.
"Oliver, we can't just leave everyone like this. We have to give them a proper burial."
"Yeah."
Fortunately—or unfortunately—we were sharp enough to quickly figure out what we needed to do and got to work.
Without speaking, we silently dug a hole and carefully placed the bodies inside.
Once all were laid to rest, we set the grave ablaze.
"Orun, I'm going to get stronger! Strong enough that nothing gets taken from me ever again! Strong enough that just hearing my name makes scum like this lose the will to even try!!"
"I'll get stronger too! So no matter how unreasonable things get, I won't lose anything! Strong enough to protect what's important no matter the situation!!"
With tears we thought had run dry flowing again, we burned the image of our burning comrades into our eyes and made our vow.
After the burial, we left the place where the village once stood and became explorers in Tsutorail, home to the great southern labyrinth.
◆◆◆
Unreasonable things overflow in this world.
The current situation was just one more example.
I became an explorer to gain the power and knowledge needed so that, when unreasonableness struck, I wouldn't have to just cry myself to sleep.
The answer was obvious from the start.
My role right now was to lead every single rookie explorer who had just started to the 51st floor.
To do that, I needed to—repel the unreasonableness right in front of me.
"It's not complicated. Just defeat the enemy in front of me...!"
If I mobilized everything I'd built up since becoming an explorer until today, this wasn't an unbeatable foe.
There was a chance of victory.
Alright—subjugation begins!
◇
I took a spare sword from my storage magic tool and cast [Strength Up] and [Technical Up] on it.
The black dragon was covered head to toe in hard scales, but as a living creature, there were still places where a blade could reach.
I hurled the spare sword at full power straight toward the black dragon's eye.
But the black dragon reacted faster than the sword tip could reach its eye.
My thrown sword was blocked by the dragon's tough eyelid.
Only then did the black dragon turn its face toward where I had been.
—Unfortunately for it, I was no longer there.
I had already moved above its head.
Spinning in midair, I swung the sword down with all my strength.
The surprise attack, combined with the effect of [Instant Capability Super Rise: Impact] on the sword, sent the black dragon crashing face-first into the ground with a thunderous roar.