The chamber, which only moments ago had echoed with laughter, fell into a heavy silence.
My mind went blank at the unexpected turn of events, but my body—honed by surviving countless brushes with death—began to move on its own.
I can only see its back, but those glossy black scales and this crushing pressure... there’s no mistake. It’s the 92nd-floor boss, the Black Dragon. Why is it appearing here? And so suddenly? No, this isn't the time for questions!
My mind finally caught up with my movements.
The Black Dragon had fixed its gaze directly on the members of the Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky. It was already preparing an attack; flames were already beginning to lick at the corners of its maw.
I sprinted toward the group, trying to circle around the beast, but I realized in an instant that the dragon would strike first. I pivoted my plan and constructed a spell formula in the blink of an eye.
"Instructors! Guard the rookies with your lives!!" I screamed.
As I shouted, I cast 【Vitality Up】 and 【Resistance Up】 on Anthem-san and Barnard-san, while simultaneously reinforcing their armor and shields with 【Durability Up】 and 【Weight Up】.
Every instructor reacted to my voice. Anthem-san and Barnard-san lunged forward, lowering their centers of gravity as they braced behind their shields. Selma-san and Cathy-san immediately deployed Magic Barriers in front of the defenders.
They were clearly still in shock, but their instincts had taken over. They wouldn't have been chosen as senior explorers for a guided exploration if they couldn't move in a crisis.
The Black Dragon unhinged its massive jaws and spat a gargantuan mass of fire—a 【Fireball】.
A split second before the projectile slammed into the Magic Barriers, I cast 【Impact】 on the shimmering walls of mana, hardening them to their absolute physical limit. The Fireball detonated against the barriers, engulfing the Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky in a thick, roiling cloud of smoke.
After a few agonizing moments, the smoke began to clear.
Fortunately, there were no casualties. We had somehow managed to protect the rookies. However, the two defenders had taken a brutal toll; they were battered and covered in wounds. This was a moment where Cathy-san needed to start healing them immediately, but she stood paralyzed, her body trembling uncontrollably.
It wasn't just the rookies. Even Selma-san had gone deathly pale.
It was then that I finally noticed the change in our surroundings. The boss area had expanded to more than twice its original size.
Is the room adapting to the Black Dragon? Its presence here is an irregularity, so why does the Labyrinth have a mechanism to accommodate it?
I realized I was overthinking. Perhaps I was still more shaken than I cared to admit, focusing on unnecessary details. As it stood, not a single member of the Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky was in any condition to help.
I had two choices.
The first was to abandon them and make a break for the 51st floor. Since we had already slain the Giant Crab, the path forward was open. The Black Dragon had surely noticed me, but Magic Beasts were creatures of habit—they tended to gravitate toward larger groups. If I ran alone, I could likely reach the transition point to the 51st floor safely.
The second choice was to stay and fight.
But the others were useless right now. Many were slumped on the ground, their legs having given out from pure terror. If I chose to fight, I had to discard any naive notions of simply "buying time" for them to escape. To save everyone here, there was only one path.
I had to win.
Dammit! Why am I remembering that day now of all times?
I was born and raised in a remote hamlet that didn't even appear on most maps.
Oliver and I were the pride of that village. We had both been blessed with unnatural memories and physical prowess from birth. We studied the blade under my grandfather, and by the age of eight, we possessed strength that rivaled B-Rank explorers.
Our daily routine consisted of training deep in the mountains near the village, pushing one another to new heights so that we might one day find success as explorers.
Then, the tragedy occurred.
Bandits raided the village while we were away. By the time we returned, it was over. The houses were reduced to ash, and the people who had been smiling at us that morning were now nothing more than corpses scattered in the dirt.
Once the reality sank in, we screamed and wailed until our throats were raw and our voices failed us. By the time our tears stopped, the sun had already begun to rise.
"Oliver... we can't leave everyone like this. Let's give them a proper burial."
"Yeah."
Perhaps it was a curse of our own intelligence, but we immediately focused on the task at hand. We dug graves in silence, carefully laying the bodies of our neighbors and kin into the earth. Once the last person was laid to rest, we set fire to the pits.
"Orun, I’m going to get stronger! I’ll get so strong that nothing will ever be stolen from me again! I’ll become so powerful that the mere mention of my name will stop people from even dreaming of something this cruel!"
"I’ll get stronger too! I’ll get strong enough that no matter how unfair the world is, I won't lose anything! I’ll be strong enough to protect what's precious to me, no matter the odds!!"
As the embers of our village burned, we shed the last of our tears and carved that oath into our souls. Once the burial was complete, we left the ruins of our home behind and headed for Tsutrail, the city of the Great Labyrinth of the South, to become explorers.
The world is overflowing with absurdity. This situation was just another example of the world’s cruelty.
But I had become an explorer in search of power and knowledge precisely so I wouldn't have to just weep and accept it when things went wrong. The answer had been decided long ago.
My job right now was to get every single one of these greenhorn rookies to the 51st floor alive. And to do that, I had to shatter the absurdity standing in my way.
"It isn't complicated. I just have to kill the thing in front of me...!"
If I mobilized every scrap of experience and skill I had cultivated since that day, this wasn't an impossible fight. I had a path to victory.
The hunt was on.
I pulled a spare sword from my storage magic tool and cast 【Strength Up】 and 【Technical Up】.
The Black Dragon was encased in obsidian scales, but as long as it breathed, it had weaknesses. I wound up and hurled the spare sword at the dragon’s eye with everything I had.
The dragon was fast. Its reflexes kicked in before the blade could find its mark, and the sword bounced harmlessly off its reinforced eyelid. However, the distraction worked; the beast turned its massive head toward the spot where I had been standing.
But I was already gone.
I had already vaulted into the air, looming over the Black Dragon’s head. Adding a violent rotation to my descent, I brought my primary sword down with a devastating arc.
Between the element of surprise and the overwhelming force of the 【Impact】 I had infused into the blade, the strike connected with a bone-shattering boom. The Black Dragon’s face was driven straight into the stone floor, the impact echoing through the massive chamber.