Common Sense
"What... did you just say?"
"Can't be caught? What is that supposed to mean?"
"This is outrageous..."
The hall grew considerably rowdier at my declaration. In particular, one berserker who'd been showing his displeasure for a while now slammed his fist down on the table with a thud!
Lycan, was it?
"I knew you had a temper, but this is going too far. Are you out of your mind?"
"Ah, my apologies—I was too brief. Allow me to clarify."
Whee?
As I stood, the Hatchling, who had been lounging comfortably, looked up at me. I smiled, gave her one more gentle stroke, and turned to face the crowd.
"She cannot be caught right now."
"So we wait again. Is that it?"
The speaker was a noble surrounded by a throng of people. And no ordinary noble either—his clothing, his bearing, his very aura were far from common.
I raised three fingers.
"Thirty days. No—three weeks should be enough. Wait just until then, and we can subdue her without any casualties."
"Three weeks is far too long. With the Empire's beasts practically at our doorstep, delaying at all is a loss."
"Exactly!"
CRACK!
The expensive table crumpled like wet paper.
Is he going to pay for that?
"I am extremely busy as well, you know. I have other World Quests to pursue besides this one. Whether we catch this World Boss quickly or not, I can't afford to sit around rotting here."
"......"
"And the others seem to have their own circumstances as well... Could you all show a little consideration?"
Mind your manners!
At Lycan's rather insolent tone, several nobles and users rose from their seats—but he merely snorted and shrugged his shoulders. Rude as Lycan was, the simple truth remained: time was short.
Tap, tap.
I rose from my seat and walked toward the center of the hall. Hundreds of eyes followed my every move. At the center, a massive hologram woven from mana materialized into being—footage of the moment I first met Sgaredo and held back her raging storm.
At the overwhelming majesty of the World Boss, the already restless hall grew even more turbulent.
"When a World Boss first appears, it unleashes what is called the Initial Damage. Whether it's meant to display the World Boss's majesty, or to prove to the world that it has arrived, I can't say for certain."
Initial Damage.
The moment a World Boss emerged, it would inevitably scatter its power across the world, as if flaunting its strength. When the aftermath erupted, the entire region would typically become land unfit for human habitation.
In the past, one of the World Bosses, Black Eye, blanketed its lair and a kingdom's worth of territory in total darkness. And when the Unicorn of Purity and Nobility appeared, divine punishment rained down upon all who lacked purity and nobility.
"The Frozen Ravage, the White Dragon Sgaredo, is no different. Had we left Sgaredo alone, Talikal and every kingdom near it would have seen temperatures plunge to the depths of a permanent winter. And Lethes County, here in particular..."
I met each pair of eyes one by one—eyes gone wide as saucers. The berserker's expression was still sour.
But could discomfort stop a calamity like this?
"...would have frozen solid, entire and complete."
"Hold on. That would only happen if the 'Despair Frigid Cold' erupted..."
"You're treating the word 'frigid cold' far too lightly."
Sgaredo had gained command over the barest sliver of the authority of deep winter. Right now, she was nothing more than a puppet tossed about by the demon king's fragment, lacking even a self of her own—and in truth, wielding such power was never meant to be possible.
But Sgaredo was currently bound to the World Boss system. If, through the system's power, she grew accustomed to the fragment in sixty days and began casting it directly...
The authority of the demon race, wielded by the hand of an ancient dragon.
Half the continent might well freeze over.
"When the Despair Frigid Cold erupts, half the continent will be encased in ice. The 'minor' cold I mentioned earlier would, by comparison, be practically adorable."
That is simply the nature of the demon race's power.
"......"
At my bombshell, the hall fell silent. Until now, World Bosses had been beings powerful enough to summon the continent's armies, but never beings serious enough to warrant talk of continental extinction. No matter how great the destruction, it ended with a kingdom or two collapsing.
But what I had just described was annihilation. Half a continent, dead...
"How the hell did you seal something like that?"
Lycan, still brimming with disbelief, rose from his seat with his axe in hand. A stocky, powerful frame and hair burning crimson. He scattered his aura freely, heedless of the fact that this was a place crowded with hundreds of people.
"By your own account, that thing is practically top-tier or higher. But no matter how strong you are, you're telling me you stopped it alone?"
"Because she isn't 'top-tier' right now."
Sgaredo, tossed about by the fragment, was merely a very powerful World Boss. Which meant that with a fair amount of effort, sealing her was entirely feasible.
"But in sixty days, that changes. By then, even I couldn't stop her."
"Then catch her NOW! If she breaks free, aren't we all screwed?!"
"Th-that's right! If only to prevent annihilation, we must subdue her immediately!"
"At this rate, we may need to request the Empire's cooperat—"
"Are you insane?! You want to invite the Empire into the kingdom?!"
"The Empire isn't the problem here!"
"The Empire has ALWAYS been the problem!"
"SILENCE!!!"
KUOOOOONG!!!
Lycan's lion's roar engulfed the hall, and only then did it quiet down. Hoooo... He drew in a deep breath and glared at me.
"Hey, famous streamer. By your own logic, we should catch her right now, no? Unless you enjoy watching Deoen get destroyed."
"Of course that's what should happen.
If half the continent went under, nearly every major stage in Deoen would be wiped off the map. Granted, the Empire would remain standing throughout, but everything else would be the problem.
However.
"If we break the seal now, the Initial Damage that I stopped will come bursting out."
To subdue Sgaredo, the seal currently holding her back would have to be lifted. And along with it, the Initial Damage she was originally supposed to unleash.
If that happened, Lethes County would freeze over in an instant, and the surrounding kingdoms—including Talikal—would be plunged into a deep winter era. Rankers, knights, and mages of decent caliber would survive, but the ordinary residents would have no means of resistance. They would all die.
"In three weeks, I can suppress the Initial Damage and fight her at the same time. You only need to wait until then."
"I'm telling you, there's no time."
"Is that more urgent than the people here dying?"
Lycan froze for a moment. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have hesitated to say yes—but right now, quite a few NPCs tied to the kingdoms were present. If he said "yes" here, every kingdom's favorability rating would plummet.
"Yeah."
But Lycan was already on bad terms with the kingdoms anyway.
"The many always outweigh the few. When a World Boss appears, casualties are simply expected. How are you supposed to save everyone?"
"That's right here. The way to save everyone."
"Talk is cheap."
Clank.
Lycan shot to his feet and raised his axe threateningly.
"We strike at that thing right now. If you're going to block us, we'll just smash through by force."
"Force, you say?"
"Yeah. You may be famous these days, but real combat is another story."
Block me and you die.
A brief war of nerves. Lycan, unwilling to retreat an inch, spun his axe in wide arcs, trying to blow straight past me as I stood there quietly watching him.
"I said you die."
KWAAAH!
Crimson aura erupted, and the axe came hurtling down. A devastating single strike aimed straight at my head.
Thwip.
And then—it stopped.
Watching his axe caught so pathetically, Lycan's eyes went wide.
"Below expectations."
"You piece of sh—urk?!"
CRUNCH!
KWAAAAAANG—!!!
I shattered the axe, grabbed Lycan by the collar, and drove him straight into the floor.
"Whoa."
A gasp of awe echoed through the silent hall. Lycan, now one with the floorboards, clenched his teeth and poured out the crimson aura filling his body, desperately trying to break free—but it was useless.
He couldn't get up.
"You little bas—!"
"You already tried attacking her, didn't you?"
"......"
Lycan and his guild had already attacked the sealed Sgaredo. In truth, it wasn't just his guild—other users and factions had also launched attacks from the shadows, out of sight. The result: failure.
Sgaredo's defenses were formidable in their own right, but no force in the world could break a seal composed of over a dozen layered sealing arts and multiple folds of divine blessings.
Unable to break the seal, they naturally couldn't deal her any damage. He had probably assumed that if he took me down, the seal would break along with me...
"Logically speaking, is there any way the one who cast a seal could be weaker than the seal itself?"
It's just common sense.