“Haa, haa, haa, damn it.”
The battle with the Dragon King was a draw, if you wanted to put it nicely. But considering the massive difference in damage, it’s more accurate to say I routed.
From the feel of it, the magic I unleashed at the end, while I was able to restrict its movement with a strong blow, the cost was beyond a joke.
“Tch.”
I clicked my tongue, looking at my throbbing right arm.
I managed to evade by falling into a ravine due to the recoil of that magic, but the price for that magic was steep.
The current situation is dire, meaning both physically painful and dire in general.
I scowled, looking at the disastrous state of its repercussions.
If I weren’t a magic body, recovery would have been hopeless.
My right arm wouldn’t move despite the pain from the magic’s backlash.
My fingers, except for my thumb, were blue and bent at unnatural angles, and I had a strange sensation in my elbow joint.
My shoulder, on the other hand, was alarmingly hot.
This was caused by the magic I used at the end of the last battle.
“What kind of magic did Evia-san teach me!”
It was magic I thought was my only option then, but I learned firsthand the meaning of “use with caution.”
The magic I just used is called pure magic.
Pure magic has no attributes and is also known as attribute-less magic.
It focuses on striking with pure magic, and despite being magic, it’s closer to physical damage.
It’s difficult to use, and magic consumption is intense.
However, it has the potential to inflict guaranteed damage.
The one I used this time was an exceptionally volatile one, even among them.
There are few users, and even Evia-san and the instructors said it’s a trump card they’d only use as a last resort.
Pile Regret.
It’s aptly named “Pile of Regret.”
Its power is guaranteed, as Evia-san and Instructor Fushio would vouch for, having physically blown away the Dragon King and made him cry out in agony.
In exchange for that power, the backlash on the caster is so immediate it’s almost laughable.
My smile has become a sarcastic one, but that’s just a small grace.
It was a necessity, undeniably, but I’m currently regretting using it immensely.
It’s a simple construct: gather magic at the core to form a pile, create a ring of magic around it, and then explode that magic to launch the pile.
And, as I’ve said many times, this magic has its drawbacks.
First, the effective range is short.
Because it pursues firepower at the point of projection, its power decreases the further it travels.
To achieve maximum power, it needs to be used at close range.
Second, magic consumption is intense.
This magic follows the principle of “power equals magic used.”
There’s no upper limit to its power, and in some cases, it can drain all of your magic.
Finally, and this is the biggest problem.
It doesn’t consider the user’s safety at all.
The explosion of the gathered magic directly impacts the arm that launched it.
Furthermore, increasing the number of rings exponentially increases the power.
This, in turn, exponentially increases the backlash.
If it were just one ring, I wouldn’t be so severely injured.
It would have probably just been wrist pain.
But I knew that one ring wouldn’t be enough to damage that dragon.
That’s why I prepared the maximum number of rings I could at that time and unleashed it.
The number was nine.
The result of channeling as much magic as I could in such a short time is the injured right arm, fatigue due to lack of magic, and on top of that…
“So, what do I do in this situation?”
Right now, I’m clinging to the cliff face of the ravine with my left hand.
If I had fallen and hit the ground, I would have undoubtedly died and my body would have been reconstituted in the infirmary by now.
The current situation is so bad that I’m even considering if that would have been better.
It was good that I managed to cling to the rocky cliff face using magic, despite my aching body and the inability to exert proper force, but my left hand also hurts slightly due to the momentum.
As a result, my ability to continue fighting is almost gone.
Fortunately, because I was fighting the Dragon King, the other dragons, not wanting to get caught up in it, fled from the surroundings.
So, for now, except for one, there are no enemies around, and it’s peaceful, but…
“Roooooaaarrrr!!”
“I wonder how long that will last.”
That one remaining enemy is too troublesome.
Blowing it away with magic, and enduring the pain to get up, I had already disappeared.
The dragon, thinking it was unilaterally beaten, its anger will be directed elsewhere, no need to think.
It’s probably searching for me with bloodshot eyes, roaring in anger.
There’s no way I can hide in a place like this forever from that dragon searching for me.
I need to leave this place quickly.
“That being said, I need to find the Ore Tree…”
Not that I need to, but it’s difficult due to personal circumstances.
Thanks to the Dragon King carelessly discarding my partner in the ravine, it’s currently missing.
So, if I can do it personally, I’d like to retrieve it and escape immediately.
However, I understand that reality is cruel and things don’t always go as planned.
“For now, I should go somewhere I can hide and recover.”
This is enemy territory, and I don’t expect it to be easy.
Well, fortunately, it’s not the worst-case scenario yet.
My body can still move.
There are no enemies around.
And the biggest threat has lost sight of me.
I tell my aching body to push a little harder, shake my body to gain momentum, and jump to find a place to hide.
Minimize magic, move quickly.
Using the limited footholds in the ravine, I jump, protecting my right arm.
The surrounding magic has become very dense due to the repeated use of great magic and the Dragon King’s breath.
Slight movements of magic shouldn’t be detected.
It’s a hopeful assumption, but not entirely unfounded.
In fact, I’m getting further and further away from the dragon’s roars.
And…
“This place should hold for a while.”
A few kilometers away from where I was, I found a hole in the ground, too shallow to be called a cave, but sufficient to hide in, and I slipped inside.
Sitting down, I finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Haa, I thought I was going to die.”
Leaning my back against the rock, I try to relieve some of the fatigue from the repeated battles, but the damage is too severe.
At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before I lose consciousness.
That would be bad, so I immediately start treating myself.
“Potions are… almost all gone, huh?”
I reached for my waist holster and opened it, but most of them were damaged in the last battle.
I chuckled wryly, a sense of deja vu from when I did the same thing as a beginner.
Still, I drank the potions that were miraculously intact, and while the pain subsided, I appreciated the healing magic of Minami and Katsu.
The wounds glowed with the potion’s characteristic blue-green light, and the pain in my body gradually subsided, but my right arm wouldn’t heal anytime soon.
It only dulled the pain and recovered slightly, far from being perfect.
Even using all the potions, the recovery was only enough to allow slight movement.
With my mouth and my functional left hand, I wrapped bandages around my right arm and performed further first aid.
By wrapping it tightly and immobilizing it, I managed to make it somewhat movable.
“Seriously, it’s a lifesaver that one Magic Potion survived.”
I stared intently at the last surviving test tube.
Reflecting that I should have learned healing magic, I swallowed the blue potion.
Now, I’ve done all the treatment I could.
Except for my right arm, I can move to some extent.
My right elbow, the crucial part, still doesn’t bend completely, and I have almost no grip strength.
Fortunately, my shoulder moves without problems.
“Well, now that I’ve recovered to some extent, all that’s left is to escape.”
At this rate, I should be able to escape to the exit.
However…
“It’s just…”
The matter of leaving the Ore Tree behind.
It’s my partner, the one that first attracted me, that I bought and have used until now.
I don’t think I have the option to leave it behind and go home.
I’m fully aware of the danger. Logically, the correct course of action would be to return once I’m in perfect condition.
“My intuition is surprisingly accurate in times like these.”
But on the other hand, I feel like if I retreat now, I’ll never find the Ore Tree again.
Being honest with that feeling, I got up from my recovered body and peeked out of the cave to survey my surroundings.
Looking right, left, up, and down, I confirmed that there was no one around, and I started to retrace my steps.
I have a rough idea of where the Dragon King threw the Ore Tree.
The search area will be vast when you include the vertical range.
Still, I started running through the dragon-infested ravine.
My magic is stored in the Ore Tree.
If I can sense that magic, I should be able to find it.
With that sliver of hope, I put strength in my legs and leaped through the ravine.
Side out
It was at the bottom of the ravine, where not even sunlight reached.
Gazing up at the sky, it felt impossibly far, as if reaching heaven.
This place was not the end of the world, but the place of its demise.
Territorial disputes between dragons are usually calm, but individuals who cannot adapt to everyday life are occasionally born.
Such beings, as one might imagine, disrupt order.
They possess power and cause various problems.
However, that is merely an individual.
Not a group, an individual.
Their glory is a fleeting radiance that does not last long.
The afterglow of that fleeting radiance gathers in this land.
Perhaps the ravine is used as a land to clearly distinguish between the victors and the vanquished.
Even though it’s a body made of magic, the afterglow of individuals is born.
Bones, fangs, claws, scales, and when it comes to blood, the afterglow is enormous.
The strong survive, and the weak perish.
In this world of survival of the fittest, more so than any other dungeon, this is where the perished gather, a veritable graveyard of dragons.
If Dungeon Testers were to reach this place, they might rejoice at the mountain of treasures.
To that, something new has been added.
In the silence where no one strains their ears, another sound falls.
And it, by chance, plunged into the skull of a neglected dragon bone.
No one witnessed this sight, which could be mistaken for the sword of a hero who fought the dragon to a draw.
This is a graveyard, a place where the perished sleep peacefully.
Those who have given up and fallen asleep are here.
That sword was supposed to join the ranks of this place.
A faint glow and pulsation of magic, barely reaching the definition of an will, slowly echoed in the dark, silent space.
A faint will, not even strong enough to be called a will, was regretting.
Its blade could not reach.
It merely regretted the fact that it could not reach.
The blade that had sliced through countless enemies with its wielder had failed.
It did not scold the wielder for being immature, but lamented its own immaturity.
That lament spread to its surroundings.
“Are you frustrated?”
The sword responded to the voice’s owner with a throb.
Yes, it was frustrated.
“What a feeble will. However, I never thought I’d see the day you’d answer this clearly.”
The sword doesn’t ask who the voice belongs to.
No, it cannot.
“Defeated on that day, I slept for years, thinking I would just decay. But perhaps, this is fate. Becoming nourishment for such a feeble will might not be so bad…”
The sword has will, but no intelligence.
It can only project its instinctive will.
The voice, murmuring as if to see if this was why it had stubbornly survived, and as if to finally find peace, mustered its last strength.
It was the last magic that inhabited its decaying body.
The remnant of its former life.
A mutated dragon, different from its surroundings, despite being merely a product of the dungeon, an anomaly.
A dragon whose pride of being the strongest was shattered.
A being appeared who would inherit its strength.
It felt it was not bad if this small frustration could inherit its own lingering frustration.
“Take it. My body, though now destined to decay, I’d rather give it to you than have it processed by those giants.”
The last light flickered in the eyes of the skull where the sword was embedded.
The sword responded to that light.
With a throb, it pulsed once.
That will…
“I never thought I’d see the day I’d be thanked by such a being.”
And then, as if surrendering to the encroaching roots, the light closed its eyelids, putting an end to its long-neglected days.
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*The first volume of the novel has been published by Hayakawa Bunko JA.
It was released on October 18, 2018.
The e-book version was released on October 31 of the same year.
Furthermore, the second volume was released on December 19.
The third volume was released on February 20, 2019.
The content has been revised and expanded from the version posted on Shosetsuka ni Narou, with the addition of an unpublished interlude.
Please consider purchasing the new releases as well!!
A manga adaptation is being serialized in Kodansha’s “Young Magazine The Third.”
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