The Supreme Dragon

Crafting a new Unique-grade piece of equipment required a blueprint as well.

And yet, word had come that a new Unique-grade item had been forged.

In other words—

This is the sixteenth Unique-grade item ever made by a Player.

Until now, only fifteen Unique-grade items were known to have been crafted by Players.

Phantom alone had made eight of them.

But progress had stalled for well over a year. In all that time, not a single new Unique-grade weapon or tool had been discovered.

There had been pieces that simply imitated the Unique-grade items Wilhelm had left behind after his death—but none of them were truly new.

Which meant this World Announcement was the first in a full year.

Someone… has started to pull ahead.

Gracia ground his teeth.

That announcement should have been his.

The Hydragon's soul.

If he had just gotten his hands on that one thing, his name would have been on the sixteenth.

Delayed over a single damned soul…

It was only a Hydragon's soul. He had slaughtered more than a thousand Hydragons trying to find one. He had scoured every lead, left no place unsearched—he had even come looking in Korea, back on Earth.

And still he had failed.

He had gathered everything else. Everything except that one Hydragon soul, and without it he could not forge a new Unique-grade piece of equipment.

So of course the World Announcement made his blood boil.

…

And the crafting was not even the end of it.

World Announcements kept flooding in—enhancement after enhancement, the item's value climbing higher and higher.

What the hell are you doing?

No one in their right mind enhanced Unique-grade equipment. Taking a piece that was already complete in itself and throwing it into an enhancement process with a failure rate was pure insanity.

Even Wilhelm had never done anything that reckless.

Some madman was doing something mad.

And that madness kept succeeding.

"…"

At last, the prefix Brilliant had attached itself.

This had not been ordinary enhancement. Ordinary enhancement would have produced the prefix Extreme Annihilation.

Whoever this was had attempted a special form of enhancement specifically to apply a prefix.

Such equipment did exist from time to time—pieces that only unleashed their true power once a particular prefix was affixed. Their functions maximized only under that rare condition. Cases like that were vanishingly uncommon, and among Unique-grade items, there had never been a single one.

And yet—the prefix Brilliant…!

Gracia's pupils trembled.

"Just what… did you make?"

Plenty of people had pinned their hopes on MintChocoIsDelicious's challenge. Just as many had been skeptical.

How was MintChocoIsDelicious supposed to succeed where Gracia and the Empire had failed?

A reclusive Player who almost never showed their face. Almost nothing was known about them, and their tangible achievements were few. Compared to the high-rankers who dominated the Hall of Fame, wasn't the gap obvious?

But where there were haters, there were fans.

Opinions on MintChocoIsDelicious's ability were split down the middle.

But unlike the two challengers before them, no retreat message appeared no matter how much time passed.

The monster that had sent both Gracia and the Empire running the moment they laid eyes on it.

And against that monster, someone was still fighting alone for over two hours.

This was different. Clearly different.

If MintChocoIsDelicious really was the one who had crafted that Brilliant Unique-grade equipment…

Then maybe—just maybe—they could actually win.

Everyone waited, half doubt, half hope.

But no matter how long they waited, no message of failure, retreat, or progression to the next phase ever appeared.

And all the while, the corruption rate kept climbing.

Closing in on fourteen percent. At this pace, twenty percent was only six days away.

Posts flooded in without end. Dozens, hundreds of pages scrolled by—and still the raid was not over.

They were dying of curiosity, but there was no way to know what was happening inside—not unless you were one of the challengers facing Sword Saint Ryleigh yourself.

A few more hours crawled by.

The words appeared before every eye: after nearly thirty hours of blood-soaked combat, MintChocoIsDelicious had finally retreated.

Everyone had given up on clearing Sword Saint Ryleigh.

The last remaining option was to tell the Death King how to reach the underground labyrinth—and hope the Death King would clear Ryleigh for them.

Never in their lives had they imagined a day would come when they would pray to a monster.

But if even that failed, there was no answer left.

Most of their Broken Fragments of the Golden Rule had already been spent.

When the Second Invasion began in six days, the number of Players who could even descend would be vanishingly small. No matter how strong the heroes were, there was a hard limit to the area they could protect.

In the end, countless people on Earth would die.

After finishing the Brilliant Unique-grade equipment, I opened the Gate of the Golden Rule and challenged Sword Saint Ryleigh.

And the moment I laid eyes on him, I could only nod to myself.

So that's why everyone ran.

A form that could not possibly be called human. An enormous body clad in scales, and golden reptilian eyes looking down at me.

The myths had it wrong.

…Sword Saint Ryleigh had not slain the Supreme Dragon. He was the Supreme Dragon.

Throne of Brilliant Light

Hidden Piece: the Gate of the Golden Rule.

Feeding a Golden Ticket into the vending machine had changed more than just the list of goods for sale.

Crossing the Gate of the Golden Rule had rewritten the board entirely.

A function that inverted every Sword Saint's Oppression effect and turned them into buffs.

That endlessly irritating authority that piled on action conditions had been blocked by the Golden Rule as well.

A colossal dragon, white and black blended in exquisite balance.

In the old myths, Sword Saint Ryleigh was said to have severed its head—but that legend was false.

Ryleigh was the Supreme Dragon.

I steadied my breath and met the Supreme Dragon's eyes once more.

The level displayed as question marks. What was certain was that it was two digits—at least over ten.

Only the person who inserted the Golden Ticket can enter the Gate of the Golden Rule.

I had wanted to bring Greed along, but the Gate of the Golden Rule would admit only one. So I had been forced to choose: enter through the normal route and challenge as a party, or cross the Gate of the Golden Rule and face it alone.

I chose the latter. And it had been the right call.

Moreover—

Its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠condition is not normal. The previous challengers dealt it significant damage.

Looking closely, wounds remained across the Supreme Dragon's entire body. Three harpoons were lodged in its torso, and there were marks of flesh torn away by force.

Not from a group—from a single person. Damage of that magnitude, inflicted by one fighter.

Almost certainly the traces left by MintChocoIsDelicious, who had challenged the longest.

Perhaps that was why the creature was studying me, probing—just as I was studying it.

That is…

Then something small caught my eye.

A torn picture lay discarded on the floor. A drawing of a man who appeared to be Sword Saint Ryleigh.

It looked recently made, so one of the challengers must have brought it. Gracia, who had fled on sight, was unlikely. And MintChocoIsDelicious, who had progressed through a proper clear attempt, was probably not the owner either.

Then—had the Silver Fox Mask brought this picture?

Hoping that showing it to Ryleigh might restore his mind?