Floor 12 — Pearl in the Sand (1)

I ignored the notification window. This was no time to be staring at it.

Every ounce of my attention belonged to the dragon in front of me. Between the settling clouds of sand, a deep jade-green pair of eyes glinted — reptilian pupils fixed squarely on me.

It was my first time facing a monster, and I'll admit it rattled me. Everything I'd fought until now had been humanoid. And this wasn't just any monster, either…

Of all things — a dragon?

Okay. Calm down.

The dragon's gaze felt more curious than hostile. It didn't look ready to attack. Which meant I had to wring every drop of thinking out of the time it gave me.

Two possibilities. Either there was a treasure — the "pearl" — hidden in the sand, or the black dragon was the pearl.

Watching a black dragon burst up out of the sand did lend some weight to the second theory. I can't say which is right, but… either way, I absolutely cannot kill this dragon. Killing it would clearly mean the end of Floor 12 — and with it, my chance to clear the hidden objective. Under either assumption, I'd have to do what I'd done with Dobby: make a friend.

Hm. How does one befriend a dragon…?

I rifled through my memories. My uncle had talked to me about fantasy novels plenty of times. His voice drifted across my mind.

Right. If my uncle knew what he was talking about, dragons were sapient. Time to try a conversation.

"Uh… hi there?"

The dragon, which had been watching me, abruptly hunched its body. Its long throat rumbled.

What now?

It didn't look like it was about to answer. The dragon's belly swelled slightly.

Don't tell me… it's about to breathe?

A sense of dread brushed the back of my neck, and I bolted left.

"Kyaaaargh—"

Black flame poured from the dragon's maw a heartbeat later, sweeping across the spot where I'd just been standing.

The dragon swung its head to track my movement. The black breath chased me down like a hound on my tail — mercifully, it couldn't quite match my speed. After about five seconds, the torrent cut off.

Dammit, what is this? Weren't dragons supposed to be sapient? Did my uncle get it wrong?

The small chamber was now thick with acrid smoke and heat. The sand everywhere didn't help — it soaked up the heat and radiated it right back, and a dense haze shimmered around where the breath had struck. A mouthful of that acrid smoke left my throat stinging and set off a fit of coughing.

A grim thought flickered past. Black dragon. Green eyes. Acrid smoke.

Don't tell me the breath is poisonous?

I hastily checked the notification window.

Oh. So it was a dumb dragon.

That finally explained both the sudden attack and the curious eyes from before. And as for the breath — I'd coughed, sure, but that was all. Black flame had definitely poured out, so "flawed" apparently meant the venom was barely there. Small mercies.

Hold on.

Reduced intelligence, no sapience, can't tell friend from foe — then how had there been guardians down here at all? None of it added up. The only way this made sense was if the dragon had a protector somewhere…

Would finishing this room open up another one? With the mother dragon waiting inside…

This is genuinely dangerous.

Animals generally have maternal instincts. You hear the stories all the time — someone touches a baby animal because it's cute, then meets the mother and gets mauled for it. And this was a dragon we were talking about. If there really was a mother dragon in the next room…

Killing this dragon is absolutely off the table.

"Kyaaaargh!"

While I was thinking, a second breath came roaring out. I sprinted across the sand and dodged it, and the breath kept coming, one after another. Apparently there was no real cost to firing it.

Hm?

Something caught my eye as I dodged the third or fourth blast. Every time the dragon unleashed its breath, I could sense it suffering — a flicker of pain, just a little each time.

The dragon's notification window. The third line.

"The only ability it can use is a breath of deadly venomous flame, and even this is flawed."

Wait — is it because of that unknown illness? Is the poison getting stuck somewhere it can't come out? So the venom keeps building up inside its body, and that's what's rotted its intelligence away?

Then a single thought flashed through my mind: what if the pearl was a cure — something that would let the dragon release its poison again?

Find the pearl, heal the dragon. The odds that this was a hidden mission had just shot way up. I can't be certain, but… I need to find that pearl first.

And to do that, I'd have to calm the dragon down first. But how?

Then, out of nowhere, I remembered the dagger's option from Floor 11.

Shadow Veil. A skill that drew darkness into the room using shadows.

Animals generally calm down when the light vanishes from before their eyes. No idea if it'll work on a dragon. But it couldn't hurt to try. A normal dragon wouldn't fall for it — but the thing in front of me wasn't a normal dragon. It had no sapience at all.

Wait a second. Think about the venom-resistance cloak from Rocomos, too…

Floors 11 and 12 weren't connected for nothing. They were a set. The dagger and the cloak I'd earned on 11 were the keys to solving 12.

I'd only managed to dodge the breaths because my stats were well above the average climber's. Otherwise, I'd have needed the cloak to block them. The intended solution was probably: block the breath with the cloak, then calm the dragon with the dagger's Shadow Veil. Not that the cloak mattered anymore — it was burned to a crisp — but I could dodge with my body and the dagger was fine, so no harm done.

So this is how it's meant to be used?

Using about half of the mana that had recovered during my break, I cast Shadow Veil.

The mana drained out like water from a torn bag — far costlier than I'd expected. At the same instant, shadow exploded outward from the dagger at tremendous speed.

Just as I thought.

I was the caster, so the darkness was crystal clear to me — not the bright vision I was used to, more like watching a black-and-white film. All around me, in that monochrome landscape, Dobby's bewildered face came into view.

Hm. Guess I should free his sight too.

"Kyaaaaaak!"

Inside the impenetrable darkness swallowing the room, the dragon rampaged violently for a while — BAM! BAM! — slamming its head against the walls and ceiling and spitting breath wildly into empty air.

Thankfully, Shadow Veil worked on dragons too.

Judging by the mana draining out, I've got about five minutes. Push it any longer and mana exhaustion would set in. The room had grown to the size of a soccer field, so the consumption was far steeper than before. Five minutes to find the pearl.

But staring out at that sand dune the size of a soccer field made my chest tighten. A pearl in a sand desert. It was, quite literally, a needle in a haystack.

"Dobby, you picking up on anything? There's supposed to be a pearl or something in the sand."

"Kkiik! Nothing!"

A quietly hopeful question, and the answer got me nowhere. KOOM! KOOM! The moment Dobby finished speaking, the dragon started thrashing again.

Hm. Apparently its hearing was more sensitive than I'd thought. I'd have to be careful. Unfortunately, my own sixth sense offered nothing either.

I don't have the strength to flip the whole desert…

Still, worth a shot. I raced to the center ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the sand dune and started digging, but the soft sand kept sliding back in and swallowing the hole. Dammit. This wasn't going to work.

What do I do if I can't find it in time?

It was obvious the dragon would rampage again the moment the darkness broke. Was I supposed to knock it out with my fists? Even swinging a 75,000-point gauntlet, it was a dragon — one hit wouldn't kill it, probably… Worth a try, honestly. No, no. Not now. Fallback plan, parked. Find the pearl first.

Five minutes passed. Nothing to show for it. Every scoop of sand I pulled out was replaced by sand pouring in from the sides. After five minutes of digging, I had to accept that finding anything in a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dune this size was a flat impossibility.

So this isn't it? The dragon really was the "pearl"?

If so, I had to fix whatever was keeping it from releasing its poison. That illness of unknown cause. Could Dobby's healing magic work on it?

"Dobby, you can cast healing spells, right?"

"Kkiik! Of course! Heal Wounds!"

Golden light wrapped around my perfectly healthy body. Hm. That's not what I meant…

I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even speak. Was Dobby actually an idiot?

"No, not me — the dragon. Not Heal Wounds, more like… you got anything that fixes mental stuff? Cures, like, unknown illnesses?"

Dobby had said the holy spells available to him had multiplied as he leveled up. Presumably he was growing alongside me. I never asked for buffs, and I rarely got seriously hurt, so most of it had simply never come up.

"Kkiik! Unknown illness! Maybe! Probably won't work, though!"

"Still — try it!"

"Kkiik! Recovery!"

"Kyaaaargh!"

A rich glow settled over the dragon's body — and the dragon only squeezed its eyes shut and spat another breath at nothing in particular. Hm. Useless after all, then.

Two minutes left. Time to just search my heart out. If Dobby's healing magic bounced off it, I couldn't think of any obvious way to mend the dragon's body.

Still, though — it spat a breath ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even through that. Apparently even in total darkness, a dragon could see the glow of holy power. I turned my eyes back to the sand.

And in that instant, I sensed something glinting faintly inside the dragon's head.

What is that?

I looked back at the dragon's skull and poured mana into my eyes. The view sharpened further — that world of black and white. The black dragon was pure black, so only its eyes gleamed… but there was something shining inside its head. Incredibly faintly.

If my body hadn't been pushed to the very brink of superhuman, I never would have seen it. I was sure of that.

Could that be the pearl? Do I have to kill the dragon to dig it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out?

No. Watching carefully, it wriggled, ever so slightly. Like a parasite.

Wait. A parasite?

Could that be the illness of unknown cause? A parasite in its brain making sane judgment impossible?

Right. It was never about digging a pearl out of the sand.

The answer had been on Floor 11 all along. It wasn't for nothing that the cloak had been shredded while the dagger stayed pristine. Shadow Veil — that was the answer. Shadow Veil was how I was supposed to have spotted that parasite.

Thankfully, I'd found it without losing too much time.

Hm. But how do I kill it?

The parasite was rooted deep in the dragon's skull — in its brain. Smash the head hard? No, that wouldn't do it. The dragon had been battering its own head against walls and ceiling in a frenzy, and the parasite had survived just fine. I couldn't exactly dissect the dragon's skull, either — and if a reckless attempt drove the parasite deeper into the brain and killed the dragon, the hidden mission would be gone for good.

Lightning?

Right. I had lightning. Kill it with lightning.

It could look dangerous if I botched it, so I just had to be careful. The Essence of Lightning wasn't unique-grade for nothing — it didn't deal serious damage to anyone I'd designated as an ally. Sure, it still stung a little…

But I have to be careful.

This was lightning to the dragon's skull. I needed to touch only the parasite riding on its brain. While I'd been thinking, a full minute had already slipped away. Shadow Veil was close to running out.

Finish this. Now.

I sprinted across the sand and leapt in front of the dragon — and immediately kicked off the air with Kasbatum's sky shoes, springing up a second time. It had to be quick and clean; lingering too long, pumping lightning into a brain for an extended period, could cause real problems.

I poured the Essence of Lightning directly into the spot where the parasite sat.

Target: the parasite. The dragon was an ally.

"Kyaaaa— aaah—"

The dragon shrieked an unearthly cry as lightning struck its skull, then the sound broke off, ragged and hoarse. The dragon trembled violently in place — shudder after shudder rippling through its whole body.