At the end of the passageway, clouds of dust rose into the air.
The surrounding stone walls had mostly collapsed, and a huge shadow appeared through the haze.
"Foolish human, you've destroyed my place of rest!"
"I'll make you pay!"
With an furious roar, the shadow unleashed its divine might. A fierce gust swept through the area, scattering the dust.
Only then did Shane get a clear look at the shadow.
It was a dragon.
It had no physical body. Thick black mist roiled all over it, making it look like a condensed soul.
Looking down, Shane saw the rubble beneath the dragon: a shattered stone stele, covered in strange, obscure characters. He couldn't read them, but guessed they were something like an epitaph.
Shane understood. This had to be where the Dragon's Grave was.
Frieren hovered in front of the dragon's soul. At her feet lay a blond boy, unconscious on the ground.
??
Shane turned his gaze back and took another look.
Well, it was someone he knew after all.
That arrogant mage who thought he was amazing, the blond young master who was desperate to become famous—Brugge.
How had this young master ended up here out of nowhere?
Shane was puzzled.
But there was no time to ask now.
The dragon continued to unleash its divine might, raising ever stronger gusts that tossed Shane around. Even the stone pillars supporting the tomb chamber looked like they were struggling to hold up.
"Frieren, the tomb chamber's going to collapse if this keeps up!" Shane shouted.
Frieren had been maintaining a Defense Magic spell to protect herself and Brugge, who lay unconscious behind her.
At Shane's words, she glanced down, then turned her staff and, without hesitation, used a burst of magic to fling Brugge behind a boulder.
Thud.
Shane pursed his lips, hoping Brugge hadn't hurt his head.
Then the two of them worked together in perfect sync. One cast Binding Magic to tie up the dragon's soul, while the other gathered strength, preparing to use Thunder's Might.
The move had worked well when they dealt with the ghostly skull earlier.
They were both in a soul state.
Shane and Frieren figured it should work against the out-of-control dragon soul, too.
Roar!
The dragon, struck by lightning, let out a furious roar. Golden bolts raced through the roiling black mist, making it even angrier.
It struggled constantly, trying to break free of the chains wrapped around it.
But Binding Magic didn't budge.
Unlike the ghostly skull, the dragon soul couldn't split apart and reassemble.
That made it easier for Shane to attack. He kept unleashing lightning strikes, landing blow after blow with his longsword.
[Electric Shock]
[Electric Shock]
Roar!
The enraged dragon soul suddenly stopped struggling. Braving the lightning crackling all over its body, it charged straight at Shane.
Frieren tightened her grip on Binding Magic, trying to control the dragon, but she was too weak. The dragon simply dragged her along as it charged forward.
The tables had turned, and Shane was alarmed.
He was just about to turn and run when a solid blue magic shield sprang up beside him.
Rumble—
The dragon soul slammed into the magic shield and vanished in an instant.
Shane turned to look behind him. The blond young master had one hand pressed to his head and the other raised, holding his staff.
"Good thing I woke up in time... Hey, rookie warrior, get back! When it comes to fighting monsters, that's a job for an amazing mage like me."
Shane had been about to thank him, but after hearing that smug remark, he silently shut his mouth.
The kid was strong, but his mouth was a real problem.
"This isn't a monster. It's an enraged dragon soul. What did you do just now?"
At Frieren's question, the blond young master rubbed his head, looking thoroughly aggrieved.
"I didn't do anything! I was just out for a walk when I ran into some stupid Demon Wolf. I chased it here, and after I killed it, I ran into this... what was it... dragon soul."
"You broke the dragon's tombstone."
"Then I... I mean, when I was fighting... how was I supposed to pay attention to everything..."
Frieren didn't say anything more.
Shane could tell the blond young master hadn't done it on purpose.
But a dragon that had been asleep for who knew how long had suddenly had its covers thrown off and been woken up. It was only natural for it to get angry.
"Anyway, let's repair the tombstone first," Shane suggested.
At least then they wouldn't give the dragon a second chance to escape.
Frieren nodded.
The two of them began gathering the pieces of the stele scattered across the ground, fitting them together one by one according to the patterns on the stone.
Brugge stood behind them, watching as they repaired the stele. He felt awkward.
After hesitating for a while, he started helping move the rubble and clean the tomb.
But the young master had clearly never done manual labor before. The places he'd cleaned looked no different from the untouched ones.
Two hours later, the tomb was mostly back to how it had been, except for the parts that had completely collapsed.
The blond young master sat to one side, panting.
Frieren, meanwhile, happily took out the painted ceramic jar she'd bought at the market.
She placed it in front of the dragon's tombstone, then knelt behind it with great reverence and began to pray.
"What are you doing?"
"Don't interrupt. I'm following the teachings of the Aze Church and praying to the Dragon God for wealth."
"..."
"Aze said that a devout prayer will delight the dragon soul. Then the dragon will fill the jar with gold coins. The prettier the jar, the more coins it'll hold."
Watching Frieren pray so reverently, Shane found it hard to keep a straight face.
Setting aside whether a dragon's blessing was real, in a shabby tomb that had collapsed all around them, if the dragon soul had any gold coins, it would've already gotten itself a luxurious suite.
In all the movies and TV shows he'd watched, every dragon's lair had been piled high with gold and treasure. None of them had been this shabby.
At the same time, he sighed to himself. He'd hoped he could pick up some [Traits] on this trip. Oh well.
"How can there be nothing?"
After finishing her prayer, Frieren peered into the jar two or three times, looking utterly disbelieving.
She tried again, unwilling to give up, but nothing appeared.
"Maybe it's because we just beat up the dragon soul. It got angry, so it won't bless us?"
Shane teased her offhandedly.
To his surprise, Frieren seemed to agree. She shook her head regretfully.
She took out the map and made a few changes to the markings. Then the two of them left the tomb, retraced their steps, and continued patrolling in another direction.
"Hey, wait for me!"
Brugge hurried after them, chattering away beside Frieren.
He kept inviting Frieren to the Inverted Land, loudly describing his plan to become "famous."
Shane really wanted to cast Silence Magic on him.
"Kid, it's dangerous for two mages to explore a dungeon alone. If you run into a situation where magic is sealed or can't solve the problem, things will go badly. You'd better find a party with a Monk and a frontliner."
"I'm not afraid of danger."
Brugge didn't take Shane's advice seriously at all.
"I'm the greatest mage in all of the Lamir region. With my abilities, there's no danger I can't handle."
"Uh-huh. What about just now?"
"That was an accident!"
"Right, an accident~"
"It really was an accident! That dragon soul suddenly appeared! I wasn't prepared!"
"Sure, you're right about everything."
"You!"
The young master flew into a rage again.
The group walked farther and farther away. None of them noticed that, behind them, in the quiet dragon's tomb—
The painted jar suddenly shook. Then gold coins began to appear inside it, rising like a tide until, in the blink of an eye, it was filled to the brim.
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