Danmachi - Infinite Mana System! - Chapter 175 - The land of dragons 01.

[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Altena.

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...

Lucius and Riveria only stopped flying at dawn, when they were already hundreds of kilometers away from the Empire's territory, almost reaching the dwarven kingdom, north of the elven realm.

They landed silently in a clearing within a small forest. Lucius set Riveria down and began building a campsite using his magic with just a thought.

"Let's rest for a bit. After that, we'll continue the journey," he said.

Riveria nodded but still cast a worried glance at him. "We're going to have a bit of a problem with the Empire because of this..." she murmured.

"That's true. But we had no choice. That goddess would have known I was there the moment I got close. We had no alternative but to engage in conflict, and in the end, we got what we wanted," Lucius replied.

"I hope it was worth it," she said, picking up the book and looking at it.

"We're after information about this organization. This was the only lead we found, besides a few records in the desert. This will help us locate them now," he explained.

It had been a week since they arrived in the Empire. During that time, Lucius and Riveria had acted covertly, avoiding detection and secretly investigating the place. Only after a week did they manage to find the lead to this book, which was guarded by the goddess herself. In the records they found, Lucius had used his house elves to teleport to the location and investigate everything he could, as the goddess was part of the organization and had her influence within the Empire.

Of course, it wasn't that simple—after all, the elves immediately alerted the goddess. Many of these house elves were destroyed, but since they were summons, he was able to recall them and learn what had happened to them by asking what they had seen before dying, though they didn't enjoy having been killed.

The previous night, they had decided to carry out the theft, which resulted in the great commotion and the goddess’s fury, leading to the events of last night and the explosion of part of the castle.

"Are you worried about what she said?" Lucius asked. "We've been involved in this for a long time, ever since we destroyed Evilus in Orario. At least, I have. Do you feel the same?"

"I know... I'm just a little concerned. But it's fine, I think you're right," Riveria admitted in the end.

"Let's get some sleep," she requested.

"Of course, but first, let's eat," he replied, setting up a table in an instant.

A few house elves quickly prepared the food and had everything ready.

"I had planned to take you on a date last night, but as you can see, that didn’t happen," Lucius commented as they sat down to eat.

Riveria smiled slightly.

In the end, they ate quickly and soon went to sleep. Lucius kept some house elves as security for the camp during the night.

By the time afternoon arrived, the two were already emerging from their tent, preparing to depart once more.

"Where are we going now, Lucius?" Riveria asked.

"We have the dwarven kingdom right ahead, but I’d like to visit another place first," he replied.

"What place would that be?" Riveria asked, curious.

"I want to go to the dragon territory. To see where the One-Eyed Black Dragon is..." he said, looking at her with a serious tone.

Immediately, Riveria’s expression darkened upon hearing this. "Yes, it’s there... But, Lucius, isn’t that madness?" she asked, concerned.

"We're not going to fight that beast—it’s sealed, isn't it? Not now. But I want to see the famous One-Eyed Black Dragon," he said.

Riveria hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she agreed.

"Alright... But if we're really in danger, we must leave immediately. Understood?" she insisted.

Lucius nodded. "Understood."

Thus, they decided to head north, advancing toward dragon territory.

The place was composed of a range of snow-covered mountains and active volcanoes. As they moved forward, the temperature began to drop rapidly. While flying through the sky, they had to wear warmer clothing to withstand the intense cold.

Lucius and Riveria continued advancing through the sky, passing over the first mountains while observing a few active volcanoes amidst the desolate landscape.

Lucius chose one of the tallest mountains in the region and landed there. As they touched the ground, Riveria felt the snow give way beneath her feet, and Lucius took a step forward to look out over the mountain’s edge.

"Looks like we won’t be able to keep flying for much longer," he murmured, gazing ahead.

Riveria agreed with him. After all, a massive snowstorm was forming in the middle of that mountain range.

"This place is immense... But there’s no sign of life here," Lucius commented, scanning the area with his magical eyes but failing to detect anything. However, there were ruins here, which meant that some civilization had lived in this place a long time ago.

"Yes. This was once home to an ancient people—the Draconians," Riveria explained.

"Like demi-humans? But with dragon traits?" he asked, curious. After all, in this world, there were wolf-men, fox-women, and many other similar beings... So it wouldn’t be that strange if there were dragon-men and dragon-women among mortals.

"Yes," she confirmed. "Your magical servants picked up some books about it in Athena," she added.

He wasn’t aware of that—after all, he now had a collection of hundreds of thousands of books stored magically—but he would check it out later.

"I see... But, in any case, this race no longer exists, right?" he asked, not wanting to delve too deeply into the topic.

"Yes. They all went extinct thousands of years ago, even before the gods arrived in this world. After all, I doubt the gods would have allowed an entire race to simply vanish from the mortal world," she said.

Lucius nodded. "Well, let’s keep going," he said, noticing that the storm was already approaching them.

Picking Riveria up in his arms again, he spotted a forest in the distance and descended toward it.

It was a barren forest, composed only of leafless trunks. As he flew over the area, Lucius noticed a cave and, detecting no signs of life within it, decided to land there for shelter.

It didn’t take long for the storm to arrive. Quickly, the cave’s entrance was almost completely covered by snow, making it impossible to leave without significant effort. Lucius swiftly prepared a fire to keep them warm.

"Well... Looks like our adventure in dragon territory will have to wait a bit," he commented, sitting on a magically conjured sofa.

Riveria sat beside him and opened a book.

"Is it okay if I read for a while?" she asked, picking up one of the copies Lucius had acquired in Altena.

"Of course," he replied.

At the same time, Lucius took out the book he had stolen from the Empire’s goddess and examined the symbols written on its cover. They were special glyphs, written in the language of the gods. He knew that goddess would never write something like this in the common tongue.

"If only I could translate this..." he murmured to himself.

"Could you?" Riveria suddenly asked, shifting her gaze from the book to him.

There had never been a mortal who could read the language of the gods. If Lucius was capable of that, he would be the first.

"Well... I’ve been the first in many things," he said with a playful smile.

Riveria shrugged at the joke and returned to reading.

As the storm raged outside, Lucius continued analyzing the book. At some point, he grew tired of reading and looked around the cave, noticing that the tunnel ahead stretched much farther than he had expected.

Out of curiosity, he conjured a Light Mage and sent it forward. The light traveled some distance, but it wasn’t enough to reveal the cave’s full extent.

Intrigued, he raised his other hand and conjured a Fire Bolt. The fireball shot forward at high speed, illuminating the rocky walls as it extended over 200 meters before exploding against a wall. However, before dissipating, the light revealed something surprising—a turn at the end of the cave.

"Hey... This isn’t just a normal cave," Lucius murmured, furrowing his brows.

He knew there were no animals in this region, but even so, he had assumed it was just a bear cave or something similar.

"You want to take a look?" Riveria asked, closing her book and looking at him.

"Of course. Besides, we can explore a little while the storm passes," Lucius said, watching the snow accumulate at the cave entrance.

"Alright," Riveria agreed, standing up.

In the end, they both began advancing through the cave, moving forward.

Before they realized it, an hour had passed, and they had yet to find anything besides rocky paths. Lucius, however, occasionally refreshed Riveria with his ice magic to help counteract both his and her increasing body heat.

"It's getting hotter and hotter..." Riveria commented, feeling the rise in temperature.

Despite Lucius constantly cooling the air around them, the environment was indeed heating up. Not long after, a light began to shine ahead of them, growing brighter as they approached.

Upon exiting the tunnel, they found themselves facing a massive lava lake.

"There isn’t just lava... but also precious stones everywhere," Lucius murmured, gazing at the vast cavern, where the glow of the gemstones reflected against the scarlet light of the molten rock.

"This... This is a gemstone vein..." Riveria murmured, impressed by what they had discovered.

"This is really interesting," Lucius commented, observing the crystalline formations on the cave walls.

Without hesitation, he raised his hand and summoned fifteen goblins. In an instant, they were transformed into house elves, ready to obey his commands.

"Great. I have a simple task for you. I want you to collect every gemstone in this cave and find me afterward. We’ll keep exploring," Lucius ordered.

The magical servants promptly obeyed, scattering to complete their task.

"This will certainly help me with some projects..." Lucius remarked, eyeing the sheer wealth at his disposal.

"Maybe we could even build a castle for ourselves," she joked.

Lucius smiled at her as they continued deeper into the cavern.

The path soon split into multiple tunnels, turning into a natural labyrinth. Lucius sighed and cast a Clairvoyance spell.

"Let’s follow the main path," he said, guiding them with his magic. "I want to find this cave’s biggest secret."

They continued exploring for hours until an intense light overwhelmed their vision.

"Looks like we found an exit," Riveria murmured, squinting as she saw the brightness ahead. Lucius silently nodded.

As they stepped out of the tunnel, the first thing they noticed was the clear sky. The snowstorm had vanished, but strangely, this area did not seem to have been affected at all.

The landscape was entirely different from what they had expected: a vast, green plain, surrounded by mountains and covered in dense vegetation. No snow covered the ground.

"This is strange..." Lucius commented, descending a few natural steps between the rocks to step onto the grass.

Beyond the unexpected scenery, something else caught their attention: a massive black tornado in the distance, spinning endlessly. That cyclone was not natural—it was black as night.

"What is that?" Riveria murmured, feeling an involuntary shiver as they walked further into the field.

As they observed the area more closely, they noticed something even more unsettling. The ground was riddled with holes and ancient craters, now covered by vegetation. But amid it all, Riveria spotted something on the ground.

"This..." she murmured, kneeling to touch an object partially buried and entangled in vines, flowers, and other plants.

It was broken and time-worn wood. It didn't take long for her to realize what it was.

"They're graves..." Lucius murmured, making Riveria widen her eyes.

This place... had been a battlefield.

"You mean that here..." Riveria began to say, but her voice faltered.

Before she could finish her sentence, a unique, crimson glow emerged from within the black tornado.

Lucius and Riveria froze in place as they saw an enormous scarlet eye staring at them.