Iron Dragon's Advancement Journey

Page 4

　The dragon claw wing hooks sliced ​​through the travertine layer, scooping up rocks like a climbing axe, then clattering and sliding down into the tunnel, startling the creatures in the darkness.

　Scattered lights appeared in the distance, and then sharp, chaotic language surrounded Casalos.

　"That's it?"

　As the sloping tunnel came to an end, the terrain suddenly opened up, and Casalos saw its main target: a group of short, humanoid creatures that were shorter than its chest, with their enormous dog heads standing out prominently.

　A group of kobolds—not the lizard-like, dog-like kobolds covered in scales like those in D&D, but a group of short "people" with "dog heads" on their heads.

　The dog-headed men wielded pickaxes and hoes, and wore fairly decent leather armor. A burning candle sat atop their dog heads, serving as the source of their light.

　Even though he couldn't understand a word they were saying, Casalos seemed to grasp what they were saying: "You can't take my candle!"

　"I don't need your candles."

　Casaroz's scaly outer eyelids twitched slightly as he unlocked a bunch of "brakes" that held him in place. Driven by inertia, he rolled into the kobolds like a wild boar. The sharp, serrated edges of his head sliced ​​through the chest of the first kobold he collided with, like blades cutting through a tomato, shattering it into pieces.

　With a swipe of its claws, it grabbed the right side of the dog's head. Its three sharp, angular toes, like three steel maces, smashed the two dog heads.

　The descending body, taking advantage of the claw strike to lose balance, tilted to the right, lowered the flat forearm of the left wing, and then slashed out with a 270° fan shape, sending the seven kobolds that were hit flying away in pieces.

　Once Casalozt stopped sideways with its four claws gripping the travertine ground, only a few kobolds outside its attack path remained, screeching and scattering away.

　The candles on their heads fell to the ground, igniting the rotten wooden planks in the mine. As the flames roared, before the dead kobold corpses even hit the ground, a stream of golden light shot out and entered Casalos's body.

　"Strange, where did the water that flowed down go?" Casalos saw by the firelight that this place seemed to be a closed mining hall, much wider than the tunnels, but there were no more passages leading to other places.

　The ground was dry, with simple wooden floors and supports, and some walls still had torches and oil lamps, making it look nothing like the cold and desolate slope that had just been slid down.

　But it didn't investigate further, because its attention was already drawn to the gold coins bouncing in its field of vision.

　"Where to escape to!"

　The 0.2 gold coin bonus from each kobold instantly made it envious.

　With a sudden burst of power from its thick, powerful hind legs, the fledgling dragon leaped off the ground like a tiger released from its cage, pouncing on the kobolds trapped in the enclosed space with no way to escape.

　The battle... no, it wasn't really a battle, just a warm-up, and it was over quickly.

　I glanced at my account and saw that the number of gold coins had increased from 0 to 4.6. Then I looked at another icon that had appeared with a grayish-white glow, and its value had increased to 20. It seemed to be a "currency" other than gold coins.

　Casalos smacked its lips and named it Silver Coin—upon first contact, it immediately understood through abstract sensory information that this thing could not provide it with any substantial enhancement like a "Gold Coin".

　At the end of each trial, the silver coins are reset to zero. However, they seem to have another function, most likely serving as a one-time currency that can be used in certain situations within each trial.

　"The sense of déjà vu is getting stronger and stronger..."

　The fire spread along the wooden planks, igniting the wooden supports and trusses. Oil lamps and torches fell, burning ever brighter and illuminating the entire space.

　The newly hatched dragon surveyed its surroundings. The kobold's shredded remains were scattered everywhere, sizzling and dripping with oil from the flames. Traces of battle, bloodstains, and entrails were everywhere, all from its violent melee storm. Yet, the space that had been burned apart showed no signs of collapsing.

　Even more bizarrely, the passage it slid down through has disappeared, and the entire mine seems to be a completely sealed underground space with no way to other places. However, the ever-growing flames suggest that something is replenishing the oxygen in the sealed space and drawing away the expanding hot air, keeping the environment in a certain undisturbed balance.

　A drop of blood, glowing red, emerged from the corpse of the last kobold and slowly floated into the air.

　Casalos seemed to sense something, and walked forward on all fours, gently touching the blood bead with its wing hook. The blood bead transformed into a stream of light and entered its body, and a new message followed into its mind.

　Several sections of the mine's walls, which were originally intact, collapsed to create four neat openings as the blood droplets disappeared. Each opening remained a deep, all-consuming darkness, and even dark vision could not see inside.

　"It really feels so familiar, but isn't something missing?"

　Casalos tilted his large shovel head, ignoring the sizzling blood and fat clinging to the serrated edge of the kobold, and instead of rushing to choose an entrance, he bent down to shovel through the soil, waving his claws to start digging and burrowing into the ground.

　After walking straight ahead for a while, the view suddenly opened up. The darkness buried by the mud receded, and Casalos found himself back in the burning mine. Comparing his initial digging hole to the present location, he could see that his position was exactly symmetrical to the center of the sphere…

10. Farming

　Back in the pit, Casalos tried digging straight out in several directions, but without exception, each attempt led back in a spherically symmetrical manner. It was now fairly certain that the Dragon Vault dungeon rooms could only be accessed via designated paths—at least that was the case for this particular dungeon.

　The abstract message initially conveyed to it by the Dragon Treasury, including the meaning of random copies, may also imply that each copy it experiences is different.

　It enters the Dragon's Treasury instance in the form of a spirit-like entity; anything is possible.

　Only then did Casalos feel at ease, savoring the new information that the blood bead had just transmitted, and transforming it into intuitive interactive content in the form of images and text descriptions that he was familiar with.

　Two holographic pages, shimmering with a faint white light, popped up in front of the fledgling dragon. A line of dragon-script title floated at the top center of the page: "Elementary Specialization Selection".

　On the page, one says "Flexible Leap Attack" and the other says "Pluck," with the prerequisites and specific effects of the two feats described below.

　Once it chooses one of them, the blood orbs it just acquired will be converted into the corresponding feat ability—of course, if the prerequisites are not met, the acquired feat will not take effect.

　Each time Casalos successfully passes through a room, it will face a choice of reward. It may not be a special skill; it could be a spell, a spell-like ability, a supernatural ability, a magical item, or something else entirely. There may be other unexpected events afterward, and it will not know exactly what they are until it actually encounters them.

　It's obvious that whatever the reward for clearing a room is, it will make it grow stronger quickly. Perhaps in just a few dozen rooms, it will possess power comparable to a god.

　Unfortunately, that power was just an illusion.

　All enhancements and items gained during the trial are so-called in-game enhancements, and they only take effect during the current instance of the trial. Once Casalos finishes its trial, all enhancements and items gained during the trial will disappear, and they will not be carried over to the next trial, forcing it to start all over again as a small fledgling dragon.

　"So it really is a meat pigeon, then..."

　Casalos's eyelids twitched incessantly. It had already foreseen the outcome of its first trial and roughly understood how the pressure it would bear to advance through the Dragon Treasury would manifest itself.

　Shaking my head to clear my mind, I knew I had to face what I had to face, and the trials would continue. Since it was so much like a roguelike game, I decided to treat it as a game and play it out. I just hoped that the game's "developers" would avoid creating mechanics that were designed to annoy "players"... Given that Dragon Vault even required players to design their own interface, this hope seemed unlikely to be realized.

　Decisively choosing a feat based on the terrain, a warm current flowed through its body, and it felt that it had gained the ability to grab small targets in combat and bite them to inflict damage—like Digging, the feat is also an enhancement effect based on dragon magic, not just ordinary grabbing with claws or biting with mouth, it can make the corresponding action deflect towards the power of distortion of reality.

　Magic is one of the essential aspects of dragons.

　Even the melee combat that most dragons prefer is mixed with a lot of magical effects.

　After pausing briefly at the "entrances" of the four rooms to carefully observe their differences, Casaroz found no feedback similar to that of the first room. This meant that none of the four new rooms had a "specialty" room, and he couldn't confirm what the reward would be. Casaroz had no choice but to randomly choose the one that felt "hard" and step inside.

　Another inexplicable slip, and then like a slide, it slid down the flowing water and travertine surface, startling the "monster" in the new room. Suddenly, the whole dragon had entered the new pit.

　As the flowing water tunnel disappeared, a group of humanoid creatures, not much larger than kobolds and made entirely of stone, surrounded them, their multifaceted, gem-like eyes gleaming, and began to collide with them, stirring up the dry mud on the mine floor.

　These small earth elementals are far more powerful than kobolds. A charge of seven or eight of them together forcibly stopped Casalos, which was still sliding due to inertia, leaving it numb all over. Their defense is also much stronger than that of kobolds. Casalos cannot guarantee that a single claw or wing attack can destroy one. Only the entrenching tool-like charge or the giant bite can guarantee that each attack will destroy a small earth elemental.

　However, these little creatures still failed to pose any real threat to Casalos. With a series of storm strikes including biting claws, wing strikes, and occasional grabbing and throwing to smash them, Casalos cleared out the first wave of small earth elementals in just a few dozen seconds.

　The battle in the "house" ended quickly, with the survivors from further away not lingering for long. The survivors gained 4.6 gold coins and 21 silver coins.

　This time, what dropped was a round, transparent bead. Casalos picked it up and confirmed that it offered a choice of magical items.

　The first is a +1 steel longsword, suitable for medium-sized humanoids, which it cannot and will not use; the other is a +1 strength bracer, also suitable for medium-sized humanoids, but it can also be worn as a ring on claws or toes.

　Casalos naturally chose the latter.

　A new path opened up, and the "hard" room in the passageway confirmed it might be a prop room. Casalos modified it into a more intuitive icon and hung it above the opened entrance. Casalos then chose the entrance that felt "cold".

　It was the same pattern again: slipping and being surrounded. The monsters had transformed into a horde of foul-smelling undead ghouls. They were even stronger than small earth elementals, and more importantly, incredibly disgusting. Casalos had to use his dragon breath to burn them all, which in turn set the room ablaze with all the flammable materials... He noticed that although it was still a mine, the terrain of the room was changing, and the space was getting larger and larger.

　Although no specific count was made, the earnings of gold and silver coins indicate that the number of monsters is also increasing.

　After the battle, the "cold" room is positioned as either a spell-like ability room or a spell room. Further exploration and testing are needed to confirm the specifics. Casalos obtained a basic spell-like ability called Scorching Wind from it. The effect is similar to Early Wind, creating a firestorm that can burn the target. The damage is negligible and it is far less useful than Dragon Breath in clearing maps.

　There was no other option but to use the dragon's innate dark vision.

　"What bad luck!"

　Muttering a curse to himself, Casalos chose a passage with a sweet, fishy smell.

　Sliding down the slide into darkness, the space suddenly brightened, but no more monsters appeared. In the empty, dry mine, the light from oil lamps and torches drew back the curtain of darkness, revealing the entire space to Casalos.

　This is a two-level mine. Casalos is on the lower level, with a wooden staircase leading to the second level.

　There, behind a wooden fence, sat a huge, fine gold "treasure chest".

11. A Different Kind of "Room"

　In a gloomy dungeon, a lone treasure chest sits in an empty room. What would be the first reaction of an adventurer in such a situation?

　Like many adventurers, Casalos's first reaction was that this was a trap!

　The mine pit was spacious enough that it cautiously and nervously flapped its wings to fly off the ground, circling back and forth to check many times. It found no mechanism on the ground that could be triggered by stepping on it, no hidden holes on the walls that could shoot out arrows or javelins, and no metal cages in the dome that could be lowered down.

　But this still didn't put Casalos at ease. The absence of mechanical traps didn't mean there weren't magical traps.

　The fledgling dragon's innate magical perception was still very weak, making it difficult to detect carefully hidden magical traps. Casalos had no good ideas for the time being, so he hovered in mid-air, stretched out his hind paws, tilted his head, and scratched the back of his neck. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him.

　It didn't fall back to the ground. Instead, it hovered in mid-air with its head, claws, and tail in a strange pose, humming softly. The magic circle flashed, and a scorching wind fell to the ground, carrying the template towards the treasure chest and setting the dry wooden floor on fire.

　The scorching wind obtained from the previous room is almost ineffective for "fighting monsters," but it has low cost and a wide range of effects, making it perfect for detecting trigger-based traps.

　That little bit of damage would only ignite some dry flammable material; it would have absolutely no effect on the Adamantite Chest.

　Let alone a spell-like ability like Scorching Wind, which is equivalent to a first-level spell, even with Casalos's current power, he couldn't possibly damage any adamantite items with his full-power dragon breath.

　Gaining spell-like abilities also allowed Casalos to discover a new game rule that differed from reality: the spells and spell-like abilities he mastered did not have any daily usage limits. In fact, the concept of "spell slots" was clearly defined in the Three Treasures Book as a "game rule" rather than a background setting. When the official Toilet Paper works and officially licensed derivative works mention casting magic, they are always described as consuming "mana," which is commonly referred to as the blue bar.

　The daily availability of spells is a "rule" specifically designed for board games, and it has been extended to PC games and is still in use today.

　Alternatively, it can be understood that in the reality Casalos exists, the goddess of magic did not impose such a restriction on the magic network.

　The only real limitation equivalent to a spell slot is perhaps the number of spells that can be known—which can also be understood as the spells that can be used when dragged into the skill bar and equipped.

　If we understand the difference between warlocks and mages in this way, warlocks can only change the spells in their skill bar when they level up, and they get higher-level skill bars one casting level slower than mages. However, warlocks cast spells faster, consume less mana, and have more skill bars. If the spells are combined properly, they can be pure turrets.

　The advantage of mages, besides being able to equip higher-level spells earlier than warlocks, is that they can change the spells in their skill bar after "out of combat," allowing them to adjust their spell combinations according to the situation they are about to face.

　Of course, the higher spell cost, longer spell preparation time, and fewer skill bars make it difficult for mages to become magical turrets like warlocks.

　Similarly, this is the difference in spellcasting between the Iron Dragon and the Metal Dragon/Color Dragon.

　However, this difference seemed irrelevant to Casalos, who knew perfectly well that it was overpowered, especially in the Dragon's Vault training dungeon. If it consistently chose to enter the spell rooms, it could transform into a magical turret capable of throwing spells after just a few rooms... right?

　At least, based on its current perception of releasing scorching winds, the mana cost of a first-ring spell is negligible for a fledgling dragon; it can unleash ten or more in one go.

　Several scorching gusts of wind swept across the entire room, and the burning flames rose with the wind, almost engulfing the entire room. However, no magical traps were triggered. Casalos's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, was relieved. He slowly floated to the front of the treasure chest and then breathed a burst of fiery dragon breath at it.

　After a deafening explosion, a shallow crater appeared where the treasure chest had been, and the chest, made of adamantite, still stood there, reflecting the flickering light of the flames.

　No traps!

　But Casalos discovered a new problem.

　This indestructible chest of adamantite is locked; it has no key and cannot be opened.

　How do you play this?

　The baby dragon opened its mouth wide and couldn't close it for a long time.

　The completely enclosed mine had no exit in sight. Based on the attempt in the first room, which failed to open the treasure chest, it was clearly trapped in this room.

　After landing back on the ground, Casalos paced around the treasure chest twice without finding anything, growing increasingly agitated with no progress. It unleashed a three-hit combo of dragon melee attacks on the adamantite chest, the recoil causing its jaws, claws, and wings to ache, and its scales to sag at the points of impact. Finally, it could only sit dejectedly on the charcoal-covered ground, sulking in frustration.

　Without the replenishment of combustibles, the flames gradually died out. Under some unknown mechanism, the temperature inside the mine rapidly dropped to normal. The burned wooden staircase supports miraculously returned to their original state in an instant, without even Casalos sitting on the ash being affected by the change.

　"Why is there a restoration mechanism? I haven't seen this in the previous rooms. What's going on... Wait, why is this room two stories high?"

　It slammed its wing hook into its head shield, making a sharp clang, and seemed to understand something. It turned and glanced at its position, then leaped into the air with all four limbs, gliding back to where it had entered the mine, using that as a starting point to try and take a step forward.

　On the wooden floor where its front paws touched, an abstract pattern enclosed in a square suddenly lit up, resembling some kind of rune or hieroglyphics.

　With this pattern as the apex, sixteen square grids appear on the wooden floor of the first level of the mine, filled with four similar patterns in a chaotic manner, but they are all gray.

　"Oh, it's a puzzle room. What kind of puzzle game is this?"

　Stepping forward one more time, the pattern that was originally under the claw swapped positions with it. At the same time, the adjacent cell with the same abstract pattern was also lit up.

　Casalos roughly understood how the room worked.

　"A flat Rubik's Cube, I'm really bad at this. I don't know if all puzzle rooms are like this, or if each puzzle room has a different solution... I thought it would be over with just killing the opponent, but I didn't expect there to be a brain-teasing element... and a time limit too, this is really difficult."

　The big-headed iron dragon hatchling sat down, tilted its head to observe the distribution of patterns on the ground, and began to turn its head, which it didn't want to use.

　The room is not safe either. After taking the first step correctly, it learns that if it fails to decipher the decipher within the time limit, the room will be destroyed.

　The fledgling dragon inside the room will then experience a catastrophic death, shattered from the very core of its being, with a fully realized sensory experience.

12. Anger

　Casalos was not stumped by a small Rubik's Cube—it was no longer the ordinary human it had been in its previous life. As a high-ranking altosaur, even as a fledgling, it was much smarter than before.

　Using an average adult human score of 10 as a baseline, the Dragon's Treasury's assessment of 14 intelligence points means Casalos's brain hardware level is more than three times the average adult male's. While most of this brain's abilities are used to control a far more complex body than humans and its magical aspects, the portion available for thought is still higher than that of humans. With a certain level of mathematical foundation, solving a 16-square Rubik's Cube isn't actually that difficult.

　As the four rows and four columns of patterns lit up neatly, the adamantite treasure chest opened with golden light accompanied by the sound of gears turning and then disappeared, leaving behind a huge, teardrop-shaped blue gem floating in place. Four dark, deep passages also opened again on the walls of the second floor of the mine.

　Compared to the monster-slaying room that only unlocks after you collect the reward, the puzzle room seems to have an additional option: leave without picking up the loot.

　"Who would leave without picking up anything... How come everything is a 4?" Casaroz muttered, but still quickly flew to the second floor, touched the shining sapphire, and then froze there.