Chapter 13
All calamities begin with curiosity. Wasn’t Pandora’s Box, which unleashed all manner of disasters, opened out of curiosity?
Zion was no different. Fortunately, there was no great flood to sweep humanity away, but……
Instead, something just as troublesome had happened. Zion stared blankly at the being before her.
[Kyu.]
“……Kyu?”
A soft, puppy-sized baby dragon with gleaming red scales had appeared before her.
It looked around with the sharp red eyes unique to dragons, then immediately leaped into Zion’s arms.
How had things ended up like this? To find out, let’s go back about an hour.
“When was the last time I had some peace?”
In the early hours of the morning, just an hour earlier, Zion let out a long yawn and savored the peace she hadn’t enjoyed in a while.
Fortunately, Elena and Leon had handed over their gifts and gone straight back. They’d seemed like they wanted to stay the night, but……
Apparently, the administrator couldn’t be away from their post for long or something. Even Ifrit and Rin had left the Starting Floor together.
[I’ll go find a gift too. Take care of the Starting Floor until then.]
[Don’t follow strangers who offer you candy. Got it?]
“What’s the big deal about gifts, anyway? But if they’re going out of their way to bring me one, I can’t exactly refuse.”
They were apparently inspired by Elena and Leon’s gifts. But Zion didn’t bother trying to stop them.
Who would turn down a gift being offered for free? Especially when they were prominent High Rankers.
They were sure to bring back something worthy of their reputations. Yes, like the Dragon Heart right in front of her.
“But seriously, what am I supposed to do with this?”
Zion looked at the Dragon Heart sitting quietly in its glass bottle. It wasn’t that she had some grand reason for doing so.
It had simply caught her eye by chance. Besides, it was both precious and a pain to deal with……
As she sat pondering for a while, the Dragon Heart suddenly thumped, making Zion jump in surprise.
“……Could this thing still be alive?”
She’d heard that a Dragon Heart was the essence of a tenacious life, but she hadn’t expected it to still be beating.
If she’d simply marveled at it and moved on, there would have been no problem. But then, at that very moment, curiosity struck.
What would happen if she used Revival on the Dragon Heart? Her curiosity promptly turned into action……
‘I had to try it at least once anyway.’
Curiosity was the biggest reason, but she also had the fairly reasonable excuse of wanting to see how well Revival worked.
Zion moved to a secluded spot, just in case the dragon really did come back to life and go on a rampage.
After walking for about an hour, Zion set the glass bottle down in a suitable spot and reached out with a serious expression.
‘It was a trash skill in the game, but I wonder how well it works here……?’
In fact, Revival wasn’t a very good skill in Dungeon and Soul. If even one person died, most parties would reset.
Even if they didn’t reset, Revival’s real problem was that you couldn’t use the skill during combat.
In other words, you had to stop fighting before using it…… At that point, it was much faster to just reset.
“Revival.”
At that moment, the world fell silent.
The primordial law dividing life and death—a supreme, absolute command that could not be defied—was proclaimed here.
The light of a sacred spiral, repeating as if without end, tightly enveloped the Dragon Heart that had been faintly throbbing inside the glass bottle.
KWA-BOOM!!
Unable to withstand the overwhelming vitality imbued with divinity, the glass bottle shattered. At the same time, a red explosion erupted.
And then, the majesty of the resurrected dragon overwhelmed everything around it. That was when she realized something had gone wrong.
‘R-Revival isn’t supposed to be this powerful?!’
That’s right. Unlike her other skills, which had at least some use, it was a trash skill little more than decoration.
So this time, too, she’d used it casually without expecting much. But the effect was far beyond her imagination.
To exaggerate only slightly, it was as if the creation of heaven and earth had unfolded before her eyes. And what happened next was……
[Kyu.]
“……Kyu?”
As you can see, the only result was a hatchling nestled in Zion’s arms, rolling around and playing.
She’d thought failure was the likely outcome, and even if by some tiny chance it succeeded, she could just beat the dragon down……
She’d never imagined she’d suddenly end up with another dependent. Zion sighed and looked at the hatchling.
“What am I supposed to do with you?”
[Kyu?]
“……You are cute, though.”
The hatchling tilted its head and waved its forepaws, asking its mother to pick it up. Zion smiled faintly.
Well, strictly speaking, she was partly at fault for taking life so lightly and trying to resurrect it.
Just like that, the dragon became part of Zion’s family.
◇
Oh no!
Fooled by its cute appearance, Zion returned to the chapel only to belatedly confront a cruel truth.
Namely…… dragons ate a lot. Even a newborn hatchling.
“You ate half a month’s worth of my food in one go……!!!”
[Kyu! Kyukyukyu!]
“You want more?!”
Stopping by the village to buy ingredients on the way back had seemed like a good plan. The problem came right after that.
The food she’d painstakingly bought in the village had all been devoured in a single meal. And even that didn’t seem to be enough.
Horrified by an appetite far beyond her imagination, Zion held an emergency meeting. Of course, she was the only one in attendance……
‘If this keeps up, I’ll definitely end up broke. I need to do something……!!’
The offerings she got from simply clicking Heal wouldn’t come close. But she couldn’t exactly start charging now.
Zion let out a deep sigh. No matter how she looked at it, there was only one answer: go into a dungeon.
She had no choice but to enter a dungeon and hunt monsters for money, or gather food the little thing could eat herself.
“I thought I could finally take it easy, but I guess I have to work again after all.”
As Zion kept sighing, the hatchling, its belly stuffed full, leaped from the table onto her lap.
Tap! Roll, roll.
She caught it just before it nearly rolled off like a ball, and the hatchling began rubbing its soft cheek against her thigh.
[Kyu…… Grrr.]
“Yeah, what did you do wrong?”
Zion smiled faintly and gently scratched under its chin. The hatchling purred happily and softly closed its eyes.
Come to think of it, she’d completely forgotten to give it a name. Just as she was wondering what to call it……
KWA-BOOM!! The door burst open with enough force to break it, startling the hatchling awake.
“Zion! I’m back!!”
“Big Sis Zion!! I’m back too!!”
“……You got back sooner than I expected?”
That’s right. Ifrit and Rin, who’d left the previous night, had returned. Zion hadn’t expected them back so soon.
Ifrit and Rin had returned with their gifts held high, but their triumphant expressions froze on the spot.
It was because they spotted a creature letting out an adorable roar on Zion’s pale thigh, exposed through the slit in her jet-black nun’s habit.
“Um, Zion. Is that……?”
“A-a dragon?! Big Sis Zion! Where did you get that?!”
Dragon.
One of the most powerful monsters in the Tower. Some people were so enamored with their power that they even worshiped dragons as gods.
But their immense power was matched by their arrogance and ferocity, and no one had ever managed to tame one.
And now, at long last, at the end of the Tower’s long history, someone had appeared who had tamed the exalted dragonkin for the first time.
‘A hatchling suddenly appeared for Big Sis Zion. Could it be……’
‘……Did that beast satisfy the first condition by giving her a Dragon Heart?’
The Tower was vast, and its population large. Though extremely rare, quests with very special circumstances were bound to exist.
Those were hidden quests. Anyone who cleared one could receive an enormous reward.
The problem was that unlike ordinary quests, not only clearing one but even accepting one was as difficult as reaching for the stars.
‘Even Zion couldn’t resurrect a dragon that was already dead. That means……’
‘She fulfilled the condition. And since we were with Big Sis yesterday, we qualify too.’
Of course, there was a tale—not quite a legend—that a Dragon Heart was so full of vitality it would throb for at least several decades……
But reviving a dragon that had died long ago with just a Dragon Heart was practically something only a god could do.
What kind of hidden quest could have let her tame that arrogant dragon? Their assumptions began to snowball.
“I’m glad you’re back. Actually, I had a favor to ask you all.”
“What is it?”
“If it’s something you need, Big Sis, I’ll do anything!”
“I want to find food for this little one. Would you come with me to a dungeon, if you don’t mind?”
At least, no one here could refuse that request.