The Dragon Egg
“It’s a lot narrower than I expected…….”
I left the chamber bathed in crimson light and started down the dim staircase. The passage was so tight that barely one person could squeeze through; even someone without claustrophobia might have started feeling it. Because the Light of Dawn had carved this place out artificially, the usual dungeon trick of being able to see in the dark was completely absent. Instead, small light crystals had been set at regular intervals, casting a hazy glow through the interior.
I picked my way carefully downward so I wouldn’t trip. After a long descent, Beatrix spoke up, irritation plain in her voice.
“I can sense some foul, disgusting mana down below.”
A little farther and I felt it too—dark, murky mana exactly as she had described. Following that presence, I continued down until a small clearing opened before us. In the center stood a massive altar, and piled all around it were what looked like human corpses.
If hell existed, this was what it would look like.
“Damn it. Seeing it with my own eyes makes it even worse.”
“That damned thing is the problem!”
The black altar kept spewing its wicked aura without the slightest shame. The fanatic I had just killed must have cursed the adventurers into crystals and then performed the ritual right here. The mummified corpses—mana forcibly drained until nothing remained—were proof enough.
I thought I’d gotten pretty used to death by now…….
Anger stirred in my chest. If I hadn’t come here and the story had simply run its course, these bastards would have kept doing this for at least another year. In my mind, the Light of Dawn jumped from “annoying pests” straight up to “bastards who make my blood boil.”
“Wipe that thing from the face of the earth. Just sharing the same space with something like that makes my entire body crawl!”
“Yeah, of course. That’s exactly why I came.”
I pulled a bottle of Miracle Holy Water from my inventory.
“Hm? Come to think of it, didn’t you drink something similar just a moment ago?”
“This? It’s holy water. That altar might look like stone or ore, but it’s nothing more than a lump of curses.”
Purifying a curse required a holy-attribute skill, and I didn’t have one.
So I’ll just cover it with an item. Not like I have a choice.
“That’s holy water?”
“Yeah. You saw it bounce a curse earlier, didn’t you?”
“So that was how you shrugged off that disgusting curse…….”
Beatrix recalled the red crystal’s curse and finally seemed to understand how I was still alive.
“You somehow managed to get your hands on something like that.”
I brought it from my previous life.
“……Well, I am a Winchester.”
Holy water itself was tightly controlled by the Holy Kingdom; even catching a glimpse of the real thing was rare. And this wasn’t ordinary holy water—it was the genuine article, the purest essence personally bestowed by the Pope. Losing a Legendary-grade consumable one by one hurt, but this altar was the key that would create the Chapter 4 boss. Stopping a chapter boss with a single item was an absolute bargain.
An investment for a better future, that’s what this is.
“Ugh. Whatever it is, just get that filthy thing out of my sight already!”
“You’re right. Something like that needs to be wiped out completely.”
I flicked my wrist. The glass bottle traced a clean arc and landed dead center on the altar.
Clang!
The impact shattered the bottle, spilling its contents across the stone.
Hissssss──!!
-Kyaaaaaaah!!!
-Guhhhhhh!!!
-Haaaaaargh!!!
The moment the holy water touched the altar, a melting hiss rose with acrid smoke, and countless screams layered over one another. The souls trapped by the curse found a crack thanks to the holy water and began to break free. The endless procession of liberation finally tapered off only after some time had passed—proof of how many people had been sacrificed here.
Once every last soul was freed, the altar slowly turned ash-gray, then crumbled like burnt remains and scattered into the air until nothing was left.
“It’s over.”
“Yeah. It’s over.”
With the altar gone, a small space hidden beneath it was revealed. As I approached the secret chamber, Beatrix reacted first.
“……This feeling—could it be?!”
What we found was a massive egg, large enough for a person to fit inside.
“It’s exactly what you’re thinking. This is a real dragon’s egg.”
Using the cursed crystals to corrupt mana, then offering that twisted mana as sacrifice to taint a dragon’s egg—that was how the Chapter 4 boss, the Dragon of Ruin, was born. Even as a hatchling-class juvenile, its dark power had half-destroyed the academy; the event still hit hard enough that I could picture it clearly.
If I cut the bud off now, I win and the world wins.
It was one of the few chapters where a player’s choice could skip the boss entirely—exactly the kind of exploit I could use.
“What do you intend to do with it?”
Normally the correct move would be to take the egg and present it to the Emperor or the Pope. Doing so would grant access to the imperial treasury or a holy relic from the Holy Kingdom as a reward.
The rewards are better than expected, so it’s definitely profitable.
That held true for most talents—except mine.
“Beatrix, what do you think a knight is?”
“……This body knows little of the titles humans invent.”
“Haha, I didn’t mean the noble rank. I meant the talent.”
The spear-using knight position was awkward as hell. It wasn’t a spear master who polished the spear to the absolute limit, nor a spear warrior who used the spear as a core while switching between multiple weapons. So what exactly was a knight who used a spear?
Knight.
Taken literally, it meant a warrior on horseback. An ordinary knight fought from horseback. The higher talent, Holy Knight, would ride holy water, I supposed. Then a Dragon Knight naturally had to—
“……ride a dragon.”
“You mean to sit upon a dragon’s back?”
She sounded a little reluctant at the idea of a human riding a dragon, but I was already a half-baked dragon myself. Beatrix seemed to catch that and didn’t press further.
“Besides, neither the Emperor nor the Holy King will ever be able to hatch this egg.”
“Of course not. They are mere humans.”
A dragon’s egg would not hatch without dragon mana. They would accept it, call it the Empire’s Guardian Dragon or the Holy Kingdom’s Sacred Dragon, but in the game the egg simply sat in the treasury forever. How the Light of Dawn had managed to wake it into the Dragon of Ruin was still a mystery, but I possessed the one thing they lacked—dragon mana.
All right. Let’s go.
I pulled another bottle of holy water from my inventory and sprinkled it over the egg, just in case any corrupted mana from the altar still clung to it.
“”
Dragon Blood
Crimson mana surged through my entire body. Under the skill’s influence my right hand transformed into something like a red gauntlet; I slowly pressed it against the egg’s surface. A strangely warm touch told me life was growing inside that hard shell.
“Hey, sleepyhead. Time to wake up.”
I fed a trickle of mana into the egg. It drank greedily, as if this was exactly the mana it had been waiting for.
“It’s eating well.”
A peculiar sense of pride filled me as I kept supplying mana—until cold sweat began beading on my forehead.
“Uh.”
[...]
“Uhh?”
[...]
“Uhhhh?!”
This thing is eating way more than I thought!
Even for a dragon, I never expected an unhatched egg to drain this much mana.
“Tsk. Your stupidity never ceases to amaze me.”
Beatrix’s exasperated sigh reached me at the same moment a massive surge of crimson mana erupted from my heart.
“Ahaha, I’m really sorry. I had no idea it would need this much…….”
“That’s exactly why I call you an idiot! Your knowledge is bizarrely skewed in one direction.”
Even with ten mouths I had nothing to say.
“Thanks for the help…….”
“There will be no next time.”
I was pretty sure I’d heard that before…….
“Silence!”
After a long while of gulping down the mana Beatrix was pouring out, the egg finally showed a proper reaction.
Thump─! Thump─!
The growing heartbeat inside the shell told us we had succeeded. At that exact moment a familiar chime rang in my ears and a hologram appeared before my eyes.
You have successfully activated the Dragon Egg.
◈ A dragon’s egg. During activation it absorbed corrupted mana, Miracle Holy Water, the mana of Dragon Knight Taylor Winchester, and the mana of Red Dragon King Beatrix.
◈ Time remaining until hatch: D – 30
So it doesn’t hatch right away?
Still, thirty days should be enough for it to hatch before Chapter 1 ended. An adult-sized egg was too big to carry around, so I carefully stored it in my inventory.
“Is it truly finished now?”
“Yeah.”
In the game I would have looted every mana-drained corpse for items, but I wasn’t short on money and I had no desire to do that in real life. Gaining a personal mount that money couldn’t buy was more than enough. I climbed back up the narrow stairs.
At the top, the red light of the corrupted crystal greeted us once more.
“I have seen far too many disgusting things in this dungeon. And the egg drained a great deal of mana. I wish to return and rest at once.”
“Sorry, but wait just a little longer.”
“What else do you intend to do?”
I turned toward the narrow staircase leading to the altar and poured the last of my mana into it.
“<My roar shakes the heavens.>”
Dragon Roar
-Kroooaaaar!!!
KRAKOOOOM!!
The storm of mana tore down the narrow passage, shredding everything it touched. The dungeon floor shook violently; even the tangled mana lingering in the chamber snapped. Finally I pried the Dark Seal from its groove and crushed it underfoot. The secret space the Light of Dawn had created was left in ruins, unusable forever.
“A pointless act.”
I couldn’t help a quiet snort of laughter at her words. It might not have been a proper burial, but I felt they at least deserved to be laid to rest. Wasn’t that the duty of the one who had witnessed their end?
“I know full well this is hypocrisy.”
“That side of you is very human.”
“Well, I’m still only half-baked.”
My business in Kir Dungeon was finished.
“……Shall we head back?”
“Yes.”
It was time to return to the academy.