Ch. 9: The Mountains of Ericke

Far to the north, in a place so remote that only a few of the strongest people alive dared to venture there, there was a large mountain range.

The only way for anybody who rated below a B in the ratings set by the International Hunters' Guild to survive the trek through the mountains was through a well-known path called the Dragon's Pass (For obvious reasons).

Traversing the Dragon's Pass was a small merchant's caravan. What was unusual about the caravan in question was the fact that two of the six people traveling with it were not carrying visible weapons.

One of them was a young, blonde man who, despite clearly coming from a noble's house, was wearing simple clothes and chatting amicably with everyone, regardless of their station. Meanwhile, the other one walked alongside the cart, rather than entering it.

This man was wearing a long, black cloak and had his hands shoved in his pockets. Despite the fact that this was the most dangerous area in the world, this particular man seemed more wary of the people that he had come with than the large wyverns that occasionally passed overhead.

"Arc. Lizardmen ahead." The coach driver called to the man. The coach driver had strength equal to an A rank, but his tone with this Arc character was clearly deferential.

"I know. We've got a small problem brewing up ahead. I'm going to have to go take care of it. I'll drop a barrier on the cart for now, so take a moment to feed the horses or something." The coach driver obediently stopped the horses where they were, nodding to Arc.

"Arc, what's going on?" The blonde nobleman in the cart called out.

"Don't worry about it. We'll just be stopped for a little while." Arc casually waved, and suddenly there was a barrier covering a twenty foot radius around the carriage. The next moment, he was gone.

"Hmm…" Arc appeared in front of the lizardmen blocking the road.

"You know, I let them talk me into coming with them because of the reports of an ancient dragon kidnapping people along the road. You are not a dragon." He waited for the lizardmen to make their move.

As a general rule, Arc didn't like killing things for no reason, and while these lizardmen were by definition monsters, there were monsters that had no hostility towards humans. It wasn't likely, but in Arc's mind, these things were not worth calling 'dangerous.' If they had been strong enough for that, he wouldn't have shown himself.

As expected, though, it didn't really matter. The end result was the same.

"For the head, huh? You're a Captain Lizardman, aren't you?" Arc Examined the lizardman who had attempted to stab him with its spear, casually commenting.

Examining another one, he realized that they were all Captains, except for a single General in the back. A Captain Lizardman was rated a B threat, while a General was an A. Most blacksmith-made weapons wouldn't even cut through the hide of a General Lizardman.

That didn't really matter to Arc, though.

'You all die now.' I thought. In the next moment, each and every lizardman had been cut into lumps of shredded meat without the slightest bit of resistance.

"Now, let's cut out the source." The source in question that I was speaking of was located in a half-hidden cave not far from the path.

It was a brand new dungeon, created from magic sourced from the strongest creatures in the world, A and S ranked dragons and wyverns.

"I could… but…" This dungeon was stupidly dangerous. Most dungeons relied on large mazes to confuse people and drain their stamina and supplies. That took extra mana, which weakened the monsters in the dungeon. This dungeon forewent all of that. It consisted of only five rooms, each large enough to house an entire village of monsters.

The first room, the weakest monsters in the dungeon, C-ranked goblin specialists, a dozen or so B-ranked goblin generals, and A-ranked goblin monarchs.

'Not worth it.' I decided to ignore the weak monsters, who would just scatter around the mountain range and be picked off by the wyverns outside once the dungeon's master was gone.

The next room was full of huge orcs. They were bigger, stronger, and smarter than the goblins, but still a big fat nope.

Next room was lizardmen, like the ones outside. Pass. Walked right through them.

Second to last room was wyverns. They averaged rank A, and were several notches stronger than the lizardmen. Whatever adventurers strong enough to get through the lizardmen would never be able to beat these wyverns. Ignored. They were all pretty young, but they should have been able to detect me. I was very disappointed in those big lizards.

I was still cloaked when I walked into the boss chamber.

"Impressive stealth, small one. What skill are you using?"

"[Skill Combination]. It's pretty cool." I answered the huge lizard. [Minor Skill Combination], to be precise. [Skill Combination] exponentially increased the effects of whatever skills were currently overlapping. Using [Stealth], [Conceal], [Hide], and [Cloak] all together, for instance, was stupid effective.

"I didn't expect that a mere human would ever be skilled enough in stealth to sneak past all of my brood, and not even I have ever come across [Skill Combination] before. I commend you, small one."

"I heard a story of a Hero that learned it during his travels a few centuries ago. So… You're the one attacking caravans along the road? I thought you'd be a dragon." I asked. From my point of view, it was a totally valid question. This thing was fairly old, but it was definitely still just a wyvern. In fact, its official designation was Ancient Wyvern.

"All in due time. As it stands, I am the strongest wyvern in the Mountains of Ericke. Soon, I will evolve into a full fledged Ancient Dragon, and be the strongest dragon in the mountains." He wasn't kidding.

The main difference between dragons and wyverns was in their breath attack. Wyverns could do it, but it wasn't a skill, and it wasn't as powerful. Dragons had Breath Arts as a full skill, a powerful, levelless skill that allowed them far greater power and control over their breath.

This wyvern was so close to its evolution that it already had Breath Arts. One more unwitting traveler, and he likely would have become a fairly powerful dragon. Not the strongest, but far stronger than he was at the moment.

"Yeah, okay… So you're attacking the people along the road? You were aware that this road's a pretty important passage for most people, right? You're getting in the way of a lot of people by blocking it off with your stupid lizardmen." I told him. If he apologized and promised to stop, I'd likely let him live, but I didn't expect that at all.

"The weak die. It is their choice to pass through my domain, so if they must pay for it by dying, then so be it."

"I thought they were paying by adding their equipment to that stupid pile of yours." I observed.

"Perhaps… But I have no reason to explain myself to you. I will kill you now, but as a token of respect for your abilities in getting here, I will allow you to die in the embrace of my Breath." A dragon considered their Breath to be their ultimate art. They were proud of it, so using it in combat was truly their highest form of respect.

I let him rear back and deliver his attack. When the fire cleared, there was nothing in the spot where I had been. Not even a pile of ashes. But before he was able to relax…

"Yeah, nope." The wyvern suddenly found himself tied up like a thanksgiving turkey by hundreds of razor thin threads. He struggled to break free, but it was no use.

"Where did you go?" He looked around desperately. No stealth skill could possibly escape his detection. That was what he believed, and it had been proven in how easily he had seen through the incredible stealth that Arc had used to so easily walk past his brood.

The wyvern couldn't understand how it was possible to have the tables turned on him so quickly and easily, by a foe that he couldn't even keep track of.