Natural Causes in the Dragon's Nest?
A natural death, maybe? Ching ching ching! Gold coins poured in. Piles of gold coins stacked like mountains, along with fancy jewelry and gems that only royalty would flaunt—scattered everywhere. It was enough to pass for a kingdom's treasury. No, maybe even more.
The man with a massive axe strapped to his back hurriedly shoveled gold coins into his inventory. Ching ching ching!!! The satisfying sound of his inventory filling up. He couldn't hide his grin as not just the gold, but jewels and accessories claimed slots one by one.
"Hey, Weapon! No weapons? If we snag just one dragon weapon..."
"Hold up, sweep the gold first. Selling this'll change our lives. Insane!!"
"Holy shit holy shit holy shit."
Each gold coin was worth 40-50k in real money. And there were mountains of them...
The game's not the issue.
Selling all this would make them billionaires IRL. No doubt about it. They'd be rich in reality and top-tier strong in-game, slapping high-rankers around.
"Hahaha!! This is nuts! The place is nuts! Trying to hog all this solo? No way, impossible."
"Weapon! I'm hunting weapons!"
"Dude. Loot fast and bail. Waking the dragon'll fuck us."
"Wait. Inventory's got tons of space left."
Ching! The man ignored his buddies' warnings, hands flying. He'd shelled out big bucks for inventory expansion knowing something like this might happen—gotta max it out. Plus, the dragon was still snoozing. No way it'd wake to puny ant-humans scurrying around.
How much longer did he keep at it? His inventory hit 70% when someone urgently tapped his shoulder.
"Hey, hey..."
"What? Like you said, loot quick and bounce. Looks like even more goodies deeper in."
"That's not the important part right now..."
"SwordDancer's hitting the back? He's been weapon-obsessed since we got here, so whatever. Let him have it and..."
"Dude...!"
"What 'dude'? Hurry up and─"
Grrrrrr... Silence. The dragon's deep rumble echoed through the entire nest. The chill that froze his body just from hearing it made him creak his head toward the source.
Come to think of it, the warehouse felt oddly brighter...
"Uh...?"
"Guts spilling out, huh."
The dragon, the nest's owner. Massive red eyes fixed on the secret vault's interior.
The man strained to move his stuck legs. Die. Gotta dodge. But since that growl, his feet were glued to the ground.
Just escape...! If I escape...!
He'd already grabbed a ton of gold. Enough for a luxurious life forever—as long as he didn't get caught. Escape, and the gold was his!
"What the hell's wrong with your heads?"
"......"
"Drop it now, and I might just rough you up. Could be lack of education."
"......"
"Painful, but better than dying..."
"Yajin!"
"Y-yeah?"
"Use that!"
At the man's shout, his buddy Yajin shakily pulled out a scroll and tore it.
Whoosh! As it split, a mystical light freed the thieves' feet.
The dragon's eyes widened. More puzzled than panicked.
The gap gave the man his shot.
"Run!"
Scroll: Advanced Status Effect Removal Spellbook. Bought from the elusive 'Black Merchant' for seven gold coins' worth. High-end raid gear for top guilds. He'd saved it to sell big...
To think it'd get used like this!
The man, Yajin, and SwordDancer bolted past the dragon. Haring the ClimberGal was still out cold on the far side, but no time to care. A bit farther, and they'd escape the nest—rich forever.
...That's what they thought.
"...Natural death, right?"
Flap. Right before the dragon flew at them.
BOOM!!! A massive forepaw flattened them.
We spent weeks grinding circles around to find the ClimberGal's hidden dragon nest. Super tough, finally found it. Got there and ClimberGal's knocked out in the nest. (Knocked-out Haring photo)
Figured she was on a dragon quest or something—kinda shitty she didn't share for almost a month, but whatever, left her. Ransacked the nest, found the treasure vault, looting hard af.
Then boom. (Dragon eyes staring photo) Dragon wakes up, stares us down—total chills. Some dragon fear bullshit paralyzed our feet, used a status scroll to break free?? Thought we escaped the nest, but dragon flies up and dive-bombs, wipes us all.
Respawn, and [Failed to Escape the Flame Dragon.] All looted gold and gear confiscated. Fuck. Don't thieves usually keep 30%? Full seizure is bullshit.
That much wealth? Snag it and you're rank 1, basically a king. But no way through dragon ham, right? Ignores most attacks by size, one smash or breath wipes. Even rankers would fail.
Hmm...
"Urgh."
"Awake?"
"...Flame Dragon?"
After the commotion died down, I poked at the trashed mercs' spot and turned at the footsteps.
Haring, who'd slept through the chaos from exhaustion. She stretched with crack crack sounds and toddled over.
"What's up? Nest's a total mess."
"Thieves broke in."
"Huh? Thieves?"
"Yeah. Raided my treasure vault."
"Crazy bastards? Daring to rob Flame Dragon's nest."
Sane or not. Hmm. Haring muttered, arms crossed.
...She'd tried the same at first, though.
"You didn't try looting too?"
"Nah, just here for teachings. I circled the nest hard earlier."
"Not fully."
"...100 laps is too much."
"Can't? Out."
"Tch. Anyway, what'd the thieves look like?"
"Like you, gear-wise. But one weird thing."
"What?"
Scratch scratch... I squatted, scraped the floor, then stood.
After squashing them with my paw and recovering the loot—no damage to treasures, good. But one mystery...
"No corpses."
No bodies. Like they'd evaporated.