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It had been an hour since the Valkyrja Knights arrived in Adventure City Lunot.
Many people were coming to visit the ‘Black Tiger’ Adventurer’s Guild.
There were people from other adventurer guilds, security staff, along with Recovery Specialists from the Healing Centers who had come to treat the injuries sustained.
In the Reception Room of the Adventurer’s Guild, the three Guild Masters of Adventure City Lunot were gathered.
There was the ‘Black Tigers’ Bal along with ‘Hailstorm’ and ‘Fang Dragon’s guild leaders.
The three of them had solemn expressions.
Even Maria of Hailstorm, who usually had a clear expression, could not hide her frustration as she sipped at her tea.
The first one to open their mouth was Fang Dragon’s Guildmaster, Gigan.
The giant, Gigan, was working both as a guild master and an adventurer at the same time. He shared his opinion on the current topic.
“Zombie Dragon…aren’t we here to talk about how to defeat that rotten dragon?”
“I know. It’s just…” Maria continued.
“I never thought we’d meet like this,” Bal replied in a bad mood.
Gigan looked upset with the other two before continuing, “I know you both hate each other. But, there’s a time and place for that. First, as far as the Hunting Festival goes, this goes without saying, but it will be cancelled.”
“Not much to do about that.”
“Don’t say it so lightly. It’s a big loss for us.”
“There’s nothing we can do about it. The existence of the city is in danger.”
The Hunting Festival drew the attention of all the countries in the world.
The cancellation would be a massive loss for Adventure City. But, there was no way they could conduct it as planned given the appearance of the rotten dragon onto the scene.
Hailstorm’s Maria looked rather displeased as she had often received large sums of compensation from various kingdoms every year as a result of her excellent showings at the Hunting Festival.
Gigan started again, “I think we need to dispatch assassins from each of the guilds and scout the dragon. Any objections?”
“Don’t expect anything from me. Thanks to a certain someone, all my most skilled workers have been taken away,” Bal said before Maria replied.
“Are you being soft? After all, your beloved princess was the one who told us about this incident in the first place. Shouldn’t you be the one who puts in all their effort?”
“Tsk. I only have D-rank assassins.”
Gigan opened his mouth, “That’s more than enough. I’ll dispatch two B-ranks.”
“It looks like I have no choice… I’ll send out five A-rank assassins to help you.”
Gigan scolded Maria, “Don’t act like this is someone else’s problem. If we don’t put our strengths together, Adventure City will be destroyed.”
“What an exaggeration… It’s not like we know the rotten dragon will come after Adventure City.”
“It doesn’t matter if we have definitive proof that it will come or not. If we leave the situation alone, a large number of humans will be sacrificed. You need to be more serious about this!!”
“I guess I can’t help it” Bal and Maria glared at each other for a while before Maria put her tea on the table aggressively.
They began sorting out intel on the rotten dragon.
At the present time, we know that the rotten dragon’s birthplace is a few hours away from Adventure City by horse in a mountain village. According to the Valkyria knights who were caught in hostilities, the rotten dragon emits a highly corrosive smoke and liquid from its body.
Its weakness is sunlight. That’s how we know that it’s almost certain that it’s a Necromancer’s ‘Servant Beast.’ Servant Beasts are undead creatures brought back to life by Necromancers using dark magic.
“Rather than go after the rotten dragon, wouldn’t it be better to go after the person controlling it?”
“We will figure that out while we go after the dragon. If we can’t discover who that is, we’ll need to defeat the dragon by ourselves.
“Bal was skeptical about what Gigan said. “Why is it just us? Shouldn’t we also ask for help from the Royal Army?”
“You’re as dumb as always… The Kingdom isn’t going to act on this incident.”
“HAH! What the hell are you saying… Our opponent is a legendary monster! What are they levying such high taxes for if they’re not going to help in this kind of situation!”
“… It’s not certain that the rotten dragon will come to Adventure City, right?”
“What does… you don’t mean!?”
Maria turned to Bal and irritatedly told him, “It’s impossible to refute that there’s no chance it won’t attack the royal capital. The Royal Army, therefore, has an obligation to protect the capital first and foremost.”
“They’re just going to leave us to die.”
“It’s not certain, but… They are probably going to prioritize the capital over this city.”
“You’re shitting me!! They’re not even planning to help us take down this creature!!”
“Relax. The King hasn’t even been informed that the rotten dragon exists yet. That being said, as far as we know, it’s unlikely that the prudent King is going to send out his precious soldiers,” Maria said and sighed. Gigan silently nodded.
Bal asked the two of them, “In that case, what are you two thinking? Are you just going to wait?”
“Do you have some kind of plan?”
“Of course. I don’t care if it’s a Zombie Dragon or any rotten dragon. He hurt our princess. I’m going to kill him… Or, so I’d like to say. But, I also have no intention of fighting a legendary dragon-like that without a plan.”
“In that case, what are you going to do?”
Bal answered Gigan’s question, “At any rate, we should contact the royal capital. I don’t know what the King will do, but if I were a parent, I wouldn’t just let my child be attacked.”
“That’s generous thinking. How about you do what you want?”
“How are you planning to contact him? Night is the domain of monsters.”
Almost all the monsters in the world were nocturnal. Many monsters that weren’t a threat in the day suddenly become violent at night.
“I’ve got someone who can work at night, no problem. I’ll ask him to take care of it. That bastard can do anything.”
“Oh yeah? I didn’t know you had such famous and capable people in your Guild. Maybe I overlooked him.”
“Don’t cherry-pick my best members!!”
“Calm down. Can we really trust that adventurer?”
“He’s the pride of our Guild. He’s a little weird, but… Even though he’s not a monster controller, he managed to tame a cyclops recently.”
“That Cyclops? It does interest me.”
“He’s a really tough guy. In that case, I’ll leave the contact up to you. We’ve got a plan” they started to debate about a good resistance plan. Gigan laid out a plan about what to do if they were attacked.
“First, the battle strength of the security forces is not worth mentioning. They’re not useless, but they don’t have enough battle experience. This is Adventure City, so it’s going to be up to us Adventurers to fight back.”
“But, the rotten dragon’s Danger Level is five, no doubt about it. Will we be able to hold back such a legendary creature?”
“What a weak thing to say! You used to fight with just about anybody back in the days, no holding back,” said Bal.
“That’s true; that’s because I had a partner I could trust back then.”
“Tsk.”
“Keep the lovers talk for later! If it’s approaching the city, we can request the use of the monsters at the Monster Emporium to lead the fight.”
Maria and Bal were dumbfounded at Gigan’s surprising strategy.
“You’re planning to harness the fighting capabilities of magical monsters?”
“Are you crazy? Do you really think the people from Monster Emporium would be willing to cooperate? They’re so obnoxious about money.”
Maria added on.
“Even if the strategy succeeded, they would bill us for the cost. They raise monsters for a living, after all. What’s more, the Monster Controllers would be exposed to danger as well.
“There’s no chance the Monster Emporium would send out their precious Monster Controllers into battle.”
“I know that. We would only use that as a last resort. If you have any other ideas, let me hear them.”
Gigan requested before the two of them sighed.
“Before we even talk about strategy, I’m not even sure if the adventurers themselves would join the fight against the rotten dragon.”
“That’s true. The rotten dragon hasn’t been designated for subjugation by the King at present. In other words, even if they succeeded in subjugating it, they might not receive compensation… Even if the adventurers were to combine their power, if they didn’t get compensated in return, a riot would be likely to break out.”
“What if you were to pay them back with dragon materials? You could take apart the rotten dragon and sell its parts.”
“Unfortunately, their opponent this time will be rotting. Do you really think they could sell that?”
“Hmph.”
As a general rule, dragon parts could fetch a high price. They are used as the material for legendary holy swords and magical swords. But, just as the name would suggest, the rotten dragon was decaying.
The three of them each drew a breath in exasperation. They realized how tough of an opponent they had in front of them.