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"Elder Dragons?!" asked Athos, surging from within Amiphossia's party, she was slaying some monsters by herself as we marched towards our destination, but she only spoke when I named 'Elder Dragons'.
"Yeah, Elder Dragons. They are the ones that had been taking care of these Lizardmen tribes. They are not exactly Living Deities yet, but they are said to be at the peak of a mortal in terms of strength, similarly to your main body, Athos" I said.
"I see… I wouldn't really want them to see me as I am now… at least, not for them to be able to tell…" muttered Athos, who was still embarrassed about her form as a cute Dragonoid Princess Girl.
"What are you talking about, Athos? You are a super cute baby girl! Everyone will love you!" said Amiphossia with a bright smile, caressing Athos' silky crimson hair with her fingers.
"That is exactly why, Amiphossia-sama! I do not want to be a super cute baby girl… Well, it is not like there is any hope for me anyway…" muttered Athos.
"You could always transform into your dragon form, right?" asked Geraldine, who was jumping around with her great agility while releasing fists charged with electricity and fire against the Lightning Velociraptors that Amiphossia's party was casually fighting against.
"Right… but that consumes a lot of Mana!" said Athos, while jumping with the same agility as Geraldine over the heads of the Lightning Velociraptors while slicing off their heads with the Legendary Sword she acquired through a Reward Loot Box. The sword engulfed itself on Athos flames to deal large amounts of damage with each slash. Athos itself was a sword, but it often never transformed into one unless Amiphossia wanted to wield him.
"By the way, could you give us a bit more details about these Elder Dragons that you seem to know a lot of?" asked Zehe, interested in the story of dragons in the Realm of Vida.
"Yeah, tell us some more about all of that!" said Amiphossia.
"Well, if Zehe-sama and Amiphossia-sama are asking me… I suppose I should. Elder Dragons are dragons that had increased their strength to the point of being at the 'peak of mortality'. We are rather rare amongst dragons, as it takes hundreds or thousands of years for a dragon to finally ascend into such a state. Any Dragon can become an Elder Dragon, and even some Wyverns can become Elder Wyverns… that Wyvern Overlord was someone remarkably close to achieving that, just so you know. It seems that the Dragons and Wyverns born in this Dungeon that had managed to survive for so many years acquired sentience and intelligence after leveling and evolving enough, and had decided to raise the Lizardmen here for… some reason. Though it would be more believable if they were gods, they don't get anything in exchange for helping and nourishing Lizardmen… Their prayers and faith would not strengthen them… or so I think," said Athos with the adorable voice of a young princess.
"So that's how it is," I said, understanding more in-depth about how Dragons can become Elder Dragons, which may seem to be their last stage before finally raising into godhood and becoming Living Deity Dragons.
"Hey, perhaps they are raising those Lizardmen because of that!" said Geraldine.
"What do you mean?" asked Athos to Geraldine.
"The Elder Dragons are nourishing and raising Lizardmen so the Lizardmen will worship them through many generations… so whenever they raise into godhood, they will already have a large number of believers constantly feeding them with… uhhh, how was it called?" asked Geraldine.
"Divine Energy! This thing" said Amiphossia, showing the Divine Energy that she was able to create in the palm of her hand, which resembled a lump of phantasmal energy covered in poison and white light.
"Yeah, that, nya!" said Geraldine.
"That's… a very good idea, to be honest… I guess they are planning ahead of time whenever that time finally comes for them… but I wonder if Nyzzet has anything to say about the situation over that?" asked Athos.
"No, he doesn't. I think he barely cares about these Elder Dragons and their tribes. He pays no mind, even less now that I will take this dungeon for myself… Anyways, I suppose I will try to recruit the Elder Dragons while we are at it, it shouldn't be so hard… or else I will just eat them" I said.
"Oh! We are having Elder Dragon for lunch! I want!" said Vudia while flying around as she controlled flying Gold Golems, in the form of hands and arms that slapped and crushed to death any monster that came near her like mere flies.
"But it would be better if they become friends and not food, Vudia!" said Ailine, who was controlling her colorful aura into many shades of the colors of the rainbow.
Controlling the Red color to unleash hellish flames that roasted alive a large Thunder Tyrannosaur, controlling the Green color to release slicing green winds towards a group of three Giant Dragonflies and cutting them into pieces, and then controlling the Blue color to release cannons of pressurized water towards a Giant Thunder Wyvern, leaving a gaping hole on its chest and killing it instantly. She was just casually attacking and was not going serious on it at all.
"I wouldn't mind eating one or two, Athos meat is very delicious, but perhaps a Thunder Attribute version of him would be even tastier!" said Valentia with a happy smile, as she shapeshifted herself into a Giant Humanoid Dracoshark, her entire body was covered in dark scales as if she were wearing armor, alongside this, long wings sprouted from her back. She flew around the air while fighting Giant Thunder Wyverns and Lesser Flying Thunder Dragons, which she beat quite easily, eating them while she flew.
"I can't wait to eat another Elder Dragon, hehe!" she said.
"It is quite disturbing to hear that you like my meat…" muttered Athos.
"But it is true, even you have eaten it at some point!" said Geraldine.
"I greatly regret that, Geraldine!" said Athos.
"You liked it, liar!" laughed Amiphossia with an innocent smile, carrying Athos atop her head.
"I only liked it until you told me that it was my real body's meat!" said Athos.
"Athos is a very charismatic girl, isn't she?" laughed Shirohibe as she used her phantasmagoric powers to extend her snake tail almost infinitely, entangling a group of Lesser Lightning Velociraptors and then eating them just like a snake would do, by opening her jaws to almost twenty times her original size and gulping them all.
"Indeed! She is our little dragon princess after all" laughed Lilith while jumping into her Draconic form through the Draconification Skill, annihilating a Giant Thunder Wyvern with her claws and breath. Slashing it into pieces with her claws and then roasting it with her blazing breath, eating the roasted chunks without many troubles.
As we chatted and walked, we came across over an exorbitant amount of monsters, this was due to the Dungeon's natural spawning rate… but I was also exuding an alluring fragrance made by my Mirage Attribute Magic and Venom Attribute Source, which let me manipulate chemicals. I created a fragrance so alluring to the monsters that they came in armies one after another. It was a good way for everyone to stretch out and have some fun while snacking on whatever we caught.
But as we neared a tribe of Lizardmen, I decided to cut it out in time.
"So what tribe are we going in specific, Masta?" asked Rimuru with a cute smile, as she had just recently finished digesting her prey.
"If we keep marching straight, we will reach the North Tribe of the Thunder Lizardmen… led by an Elder Thunder Dragon. Nyzzet did not know its name, so I could not get much info out of him. He has been quite aloof about these tribes and the Elder Dragons that lead them, so we can't get many details," I said.
"I see, guu! Hopefully, the Elder Dragon is an understanding person, or we'll have to make him dinner!" said Rimuru chuckling innocently.
"Yeah, I certainly don't want to get to that point, so I will try to convince them, even if I have to put some brainwashing into motion," I said.
As we marched towards the tribe, I glanced at it from above through the Automatic Mind Mapping inside of my mind. There were a few hundreds of Lizardmen living there, they seemed to live surrounded by a large lake that was connected with many rivers, which they used to fish for food. There was a fairly strong presence in the middle of the tribe, it was the Elder Dragon most likely…
However, there was something else moving there… it was a group of around fifty monsters.
A monster rampage, perhaps?
The Elder Dragon seemed worried so he went out to take a peek at the wave of giant monsters, but I cannot see anything in much detail… however, I felt that those monsters moving to the tribe had… some kind of aura tainted with divinity.
Oh? Could it be…?
Goghesdum, the Elder Dragon of the Thunder Lizardmen Tribe was perhaps one of the eldest of all of the Elder Dragons that were taking care of the tribes.
Being born through a spontaneous creation by the Dungeon, he appeared out of thin air through a magic circle, and his life started from that point onwards.
Perhaps because his original soul was that of an intelligent and rather cunning magician that died in the dungeon and whose soul was assimilated into the reincarnation cycle of the dungeon, Goghesdum inherited his previous life cautiousness and slight intelligence.
Using such a gift, he was already someone completely different than any monster born in a dungeon. He was born as a little Lesser Thunder Lizard, a small ground dweller without much of a strength to talk about.
However, through his cautiousness and slight intelligence, Goghesdum slowly learned how to hunt efficiently, creating traps, and then zapping to death its prey to devour.
After killing a few of them, he quickly learned about Experience Points and then, the System.
The young lizard quickly made use of such knowledge and potential, using his skills with efficiency while hunting, gathering food and Experience Points, and leveling up.
He chose the best options while evolving, evading those evolutions that lacked future potential and also learned how to acquire new skills through repeating certain actions many times, or strengthening his own body, such as Superhuman Strength, Stealth, Unarmed Fighting Technique and even refined use of his Thunder Attribute Magic and even No-Attribute Magic to go along with it.
When he finally learned Mana Control and unlocked a new evolution, he became a Lesser Thunder Dragon Mage, and his path towards greatness was slowly paved as he fought against greater enemies and monsters, while gathering the dropped items to his own benefit and learning how to properly use his Item Box.
Materials, Jewels, Metals, Equipment, Potions, Scrolls, and many other things. Goghesdum learned how to use such items as he developed into a more intelligent monster. Using the bounty that brought living in a dungeon, he raised in strength exponentially and as he evolved, the memories of his previous life came back but fragmented.
However, this was enough for him to learn how to craft, how to do alchemy, and many other things, even to the point of creating his own equipment through this knowledge.
Perhaps when he was a human magician, he was weak and pathetic, but now that he had been reborn in a dungeon into a dragon, his potential was limitless.
Through many years of hardships and evolutions, his skills developed to new heights, awakening many times, and bringing him new strength that made him an apex predator in the Dungeon's lower floors, exploring them all and fighting against most bosses by himself.
The Dungeon was vast, and so was the outside world, even after considering it many times, he decided to stay inside the safety of the dungeon, while slowly building a small civilization by teaching the Lizardmen everything he knew.
After figuring out many of the system's functions for many years, he finally was revealed the truth about his next stage, godhood.
Preparing himself for such an occasion, he built an even greater tribe of Lizardmen for his future worship when he became a Living Deity.
And by using his knowledge and cunningness, he raised many other dragons into Elder Dragons such as himself and taught them how to raise Lizardmen for their worship and faith, in exchange for being included in such faith.
Now, after hundreds of years of being reborn, Goghesdum was soon to reach the max level on his current form and become a Living Deity… he only needed a few more months for it to finally happen… but just as he was slumbering while fantasizing about his ascendance, a group of monsters, infested by the split parasites of a certain awakened Sealed Demon Demigod came to ruin all of his life plans.
"What are these monsters? Their presence… could it be? The Legendary Divine Energy! But how?! How could anyone in this dungeon become a god before me?!" roared Goghesdum, preparing for battle and to protect the tribe that he had raised for so many generations, he not only needed them when he became a god, but he was also emotionally attached to these people after so many years of melting his cold heart.
However, just by sheer strength… he doubted that he could come out with a victory.
"What… should I do?! Calling the other Elder Dragons will take too much time! The whole village will be destroyed by then…" he wondered, as he contemplated some kind of strategy.
"Leave it to me, little dragon," said the voice of a bewitching woman that came from above Goghesdum.
"…Eh? A fairy?!"
