Chapter 138: Who Cares About Quests Anyway
―――――――――――
Geo’s Home Garden
Level: 61 28/305
Garden Area: 10,501,150/∞
Skills: Wall Creation Barrier Creation Fortress Wall Creation Ward Creation Guardian Summoning Mega Guardian Summoning Giga Guardian Summoning Garden Concealment Garden-to-Garden Teleportation Garden Relocation Remote Cultivation Automatic Cultivation Harvest Preservation Three-Dimensional Movement Hut Creation House Creation Underground Movement
―――――――――――
〈Level Up!〉
〈New Skill Acquired: Underground Movement〉
〈New crops are now cultivable〉
The sheer size of the magic stone had been astonishing—more than a thousand times the worth of an ordinary one, apparently.
“A new skill… huh? Underground Movement?”
I frowned, staring at the skill name. What on earth could it do? Taken literally, it sounded like I could burrow straight into the ground…
Even with my Three-Dimensional Movement skill, I had been restricted by the solid earth beneath me; going further downward had simply been impossible. But with this skill… those restrictions would no longer apply—
“No, no, I don’t think I really need that,” I muttered to myself.
Still, I decided to give it a test run.
Using it on the second home garden, though, felt too risky. Imagining this enormous garden suddenly sinking underground was… terrifying.
And the first home garden was out of the question—Merlin-san was currently there.
“Maybe I should use the one I left in the royal capital,” I decided.
I teleported to the garden I usually used for adventuring.
〈Use Underground Movement?〉
I nodded, and the garden slowly began to sink into the earth, gradually submerging deeper and deeper.
It soon reached the depth of my own body, yet thanks to the protective barrier, no soil seeped in. From there, I could even move forward, backward, and sideways.
“The movement isn’t particularly fast, huh,” I observed.
After experimenting for a while, I realized that for now, the skill didn’t have many practical applications.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Hey… hey, look at this!”
“What’s… this strange hole?”
Not far from the royal capital, an adventuring party had stumbled upon a mysterious pit.
“It’s pretty big, isn’t it?”
“There was never a hole here before, was there?”
The pit measured nearly two meters in diameter and roughly three meters deep.
For trained adventurers, it might be manageable—but for an ordinary person, an accidental fall could easily be fatal.
“Shall we investigate?”
“Be careful. It might be a hole dug by monsters.”
“Relax, I don’t sense any monster presence nearby. Here goes!”
One of them leapt into the hole and landed inside.
“What’s it like down there?”
“There’s a horizontal tunnel! And it goes pretty far!”
It seemed the pit didn’t end there but continued laterally. The others followed, descending into the hole.
“No way… is this a dungeon?”
“Here? Right near the royal capital? How did no one notice it until now?”
“Maybe it just appeared. Dungeons can emerge suddenly. Or perhaps an existing dungeon expanded, creating a new entrance.”
“Hmm… maybe it even connects to a dungeon inside the capital.”
“If that’s true, this is a major discovery!”
“Anyway, let’s explore it! There might be untouched treasures!”
“But… shouldn’t we reach the village today? The quest—”
“Idiot! There’s no way I’m letting this chance slip! The quest can wait!”
Caught up in excitement, they abandoned their original plan and delved into the mysterious hole.
…A few hours later, they would find out it led nowhere. Utterly empty, their efforts had been in vain.
Of course, they had no idea who—or what—had dug the hole.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Meow!”
“Pippi, pippi, pippi!”
“Huh? The eggs are about to hatch already?”
Back at the second home garden, Milk and Pippi urgently informed me that the eggs were on the verge of hatching, and panic surged through me. I rushed to the two of them.
In the center of the living room sat a massive egg. Inside, the baby writhed, shaking the shell violently, with tiny cracks forming vertically.
“It’s true! It’s about to hatch!”
“Meow!”
“Pippi, pippi, pippi, pippi!”
Milk and Pippi ran in circles around the egg, excited.
Crack… crackle… crackle…
The fissure widened, and soon the baby’s front legs burst through the shell.
“Almost there! Hang in there!”
“Meow, meow, meow!”
“Pippi, pippi, pippi, pippi, pippi!”
The two little ones cheered energetically.
Finally, the hatch widened enough for the baby to crawl out.
It was already the size of a grown human. A sleek, lizard-like form, covered in soft, pale pink scales.
“A lizard monster…? No… c-could it be a dragon!?”
I stumbled back in shock. Already this big at birth… if it really was a dragon, there was no way I could defend myself.
Grrr…
Ignoring my fear, the baby sniffed and looked around, making small throaty sounds. Its eyes were still closed, perhaps searching for its parent.
Watching it, I felt guilty for being scared.
“Uh… you’re a good kid, okay? Don’t bite me, alright?”
I cautiously approached. The baby noticed me, looking up with a small grr sound.
“There, there…”
Grrr~
I stroked its head, and it purred softly, clearly comforted. …Looks like it might actually grow attached to me.
But… could I really raise a dragon?
◇ ◇ ◇
‘…’
Towering across the sky, the world’s largest mountain range—the Leionaras Mountains.
Even the most elite adventuring parties hesitated to step foot in this perilous, monster-infested wilderness.
At its highest peak, a dragon slowly lifted its head. Covered in shimmering golden scales that seemed to drink in the sunlight itself, its colossal body could almost be mistaken for part of the mountain.
This was no ordinary dragon.
An ancient dragon, a mythic being, whose long years had elevated it to godlike status.
‘This sensation… could it be…?’
The ancient dragon’s eyes narrowed, fixating sharply on the void. Its face twisted in unease—a reaction rare for a creature unfazed by any worldly disturbance.
‘He’s… come back…?’
Its ancient instincts spoke. The strongest of its kind, the ruinous dragon once vanquished in a brutal, final battle, had returned to the world.
‘Is it really you…? The dragon of ruin that sought to destroy the world… the Dark Dragon, Bahamut…?’