Haku could challenge the Gate of Trial, as a special dragon with a Divine Artifact.
It was a difficult challenge, but they could always return to the Dragon God's Village if they were still alive.
This place was called the Gate of Claw. There were also the Gates of Fang and Eyes.
Allen called Haku and Kurena who had gotten bored, and they headed to the exit of that space.
"What's this? There's nothing here."
Cecile was in shock. The exit led to a 10 meter long corridor, which led to another area devoid of anything.
"This is so cool. There's nothing below too, is this place floating or something?"
Luck looked down from the end of the corridor, unable to see the ground.
"Hawks, go check how it looks out there."
'Squeak!'
'Squeak!'
'Squeak!'
(I feel something is off, but I need to check just in case.)
Allen sent out 3 Bird E summons to check how it looked outside.
The challenge resembled a dungeon, but something felt different.
The summons showed that Allen's group was in a box-shaped structure floating in the middle of nothingness, and no matter how far they flew they could not see anything.
The Bird E summon's Awakened Skill [Clairvoyance] allowed Allen to see an area of 100 kilometers around the summon, but not even that allowed him to spot other terrain or structures.
"Did you see anything?"
Kurena was riding on Haku, ready to depart.
"It's completely empty out there. Wait no, there's hundreds of dragons flying here, get ready to fight."
In response to Allen's summons, a swarm of dragons larger than 10 meters flew towards them.
'I see, you have a strange power, Allen.'
Most figures from the Divine Realm knew of Allen, but Megadeth did not seem to be up to date.
'Graaaaaawrrrr!!'
'Graaaaaawrrrr!!'
'Graaaaaawrrrr!!'
The dragons had gotten close enough to be visible by everyone.
"Kurena, tell Haku to spit fire at them. We'll deal with the rest."
"Alright. Breathe fire Haku!!"
"Gahhhhh!!"
Haku was larger than the incoming dragons, but his breath was not enough to take them down. He did not have enough power at Level 1 yet.
One of the dragons flew straight at Haku.
"Yahhh!!"
But the dragon could not reach Haku, Kurena's sword killing it instantly once it got in range.
Kurena had reached Level 92 after entering Extra Mode, gaining a lot of stats.
"Alright, we'll take out the rest. Cecile, do it."
Allen wanted to get through as fast as possible, and Cecile's magic was the best option for that.
"This is nothing for me. Flame Lance!"
Cecile's magic turned the dragons to ashes, all of them vanishing soon enough.
'You've defeated 1 Flying Dragon. 6400 Experience gained'
'You've defeated 1 Flying Dragon. 6400 Experience gained'
'You've defeated 1 Flying Dragon. 6400 Experience gained'
New entries were logged into the Grimoire.
"Did we get them?"
"Yes, thank you Cecile."
15 dragons came in regular intervals, but they were no match for Cecile's magic.
(His Level is going up nicely. But 6400 Experience per dragon feels a bit low.)
[Species]: White Dragon
[Form]: Infantile
[Rank]: C
[Level]: 38
[Strength]: 2420 + 1000
[Mana]: 1580
[Attack]: 3260
[Endurance]: 2420 + 1000
[Agility]: 3260
[Intelligence]: 1120
[Luck]: 1210
[Special Skills] Flame Breath, Tearing, Dragon Scale (1), Fire Resistance (1)
[Experience]: 1200'000 / 2000'000
After defeating a few hundred dragons, Allen and Kurena looked at the Grimoire.
"Ohh, Haku has gotten stronger!!"
'Gya gya! I'm stronger.'
Haku noticed how happy Kurena sounded, so he began spewing fire happily.
(I see, so he gains more Skills with Levels. Some seem like buffs too.)
As Haku used his Skills, he had gained new ones, and [Fire Breath] had turned to [Flame Breath]. [Dragon Scale] and [Fire Resistance] had Levels, so they would get stronger that way.
But there was something else bothering Allen, they were gaining too little experience.
Allen had gained 27'000'000 Experience from the White Dragon he defeated.
The Heavy Dragon he fought in the Academy's A Rank Dungeon had given him 2000'000.
They were different types of dragons, one giving ten times more experience.
But the Flying Dragons they just defeated had given a measly 8000, too little for dragons.
[Experience distribution depending on party size]:
-1 member: 100%
-2 to 8 members: 80%
-9 to 16 members: 60%
-17 to 48 members: 40%
-49 to 252 members: 20%
-253 or more: 10%
"Hmm, they're giving too little experience for Flying Dragons."
(There really is no explanation for this.)
'Ahh, you probably think that because you came from outside the village. This is a holy land out of the Demon King's power, compared to monsters they're just Rank C.'
"I see."
It was said that the Great Calamity brought by the Demon King had raised the ranks of monsters. But that had not affected the Dragon God's Village.
The Flying Dragons in the world outside were B Rank now, but here they were still C Rank.
That was why they only gave so little experience, almost like low level wyverns.
'I see you can tell how strong your friends are. White Dragons are usually B Rank, but as this one is still infantile, it's only C Rank.'
Megadeth had noticed the Grimoire's existence. Once Haku got older he would become B Rank.
Allen decided to write down what he had just learned.
[Ranks of Haku and monsters]
-The monsters inside the gates are 1 Rank below those outside
-That means they give less Experience
-Haku is still infantile, so his Rank is 1 lower than usual
-Haku will reach a higher rank when he grows up
"Could you tell us where the end is at least?"
'That I can't tell you.'
He would not tell them that.
"Allen, what should we do then?"
"There's a lot of Flying Dragons out there, kill all of them Cecile. I'll keep searching in the meantime. Sophie, try to stop the enemy from reaching us here too."
"Understood, Master Allen."
Sophie seemed glad to receive orders from Allen.
They were still in the tight corridor, and Allen did not want to fight the enemy there.
The Bird E summons continued flying, but could not find anything in the emptiness outside.
'...'
Megadeth continued watching them, while Allen thought of ways to complete the challenge.
(There's no map here, and it's a really big place. It might even be bigger than a continent.)
Allen refused to leave until he knew where to go from there.
He paired his Bird E summons with Bird A summons, so he could use the Special Skill [Nest Transfer] once he found something.
The summons could do all the hard work without making the rest of the party search needlessly.
Haku's Level also kept going up, so this was a good opportunity to make him stronger.
Ten hours passed like that.
They had talked to the Dragon King that morning, picked up Haku, and then were stuck in there.
Allen checked the summons he had outside the gate, and saw it was already late at night.
"I think we should head back soon. I'm getting tired."
"Me too. Maybe we should call it a night, Master Allen?"
Cecile and Sophie agreed on stopping for today.
Allen had been killing Flying Dragons the entire time, having taken down tens of thousands of them by now. Doing that for 10 hours straight was exhausting, even if they were C Rank enemies. Everyone wanted to rest.
"You're right. Wait, hm? There's something."
Allen was about to agree with them when one of his summons found something like a box floating in the emptiness. It had an entrance, so the Bird A summon left a [Nest] there.
(I almost forgot, I should leave one here too in case we need to return.)
He wanted to do things fast out of care for his friends who were tired and hungry.
"Alright, we're all going there."
Allen used the Bird A summon's Awakened Skill [Homing Instinct] to take everyone there.
'Oh, you took me as well?'
"Yes, we might still need some of your advice."
Everyone was 1000 kilometers away inside that floating box. Allen could have asked Megadeth to come along first, but it was easier to ask after taking him.
"There's something here!!"
'Something here!!'
"Heheheh, this is Mama's power."
Kurena spotted a symbol carved on the floor, and used that to show off to Haku.
The symbol stood out so anyone could have seen it, but Kurena still wanted to impress Haku.
Everyone else ignored the two and approached that symbol.
'That will take you to the next level. Just step on it.'
Following Megadeth's instructions, they stepped on that spot. The symbol began glowing and transported them.
(Huh? Why is it so hot here?!)
"Hey, it's too hot here! My skin will dry out!!"
The first thing they noticed was the heat, which made Rosalina scream.
Everything looked similar to the first level, but it was hot like a sauna.
"There's an exit over there."
Sophie pointed to an exit, which led to a corridor similar to the one in the first level.
"The world is in flames…"
It was like hell out there, which made Cecile voice her impression of it.
There was lava all over the ground.
BOOOOOOM
A distant volcano erupted, sending a shockwave out and lava began to rain.
Allen and the rest quickly returned inside the box structure.
"Hmm, so we need to get through that."
Allen instantly began to think how to get through that, which made Cecile despair.
'Oh, you aren't giving up? Many dragonkin turn away when they see that.'
"This isn't a dungeon with a route planned in mind, is it?"
Allen asked what he had been suspecting from the start. This place felt different from the dungeons with a route to clear them.
'Of course not. It's not like we're inviting you to go to the Divine Realm, you've decided to go there all on your own.'
"So you don't care about all the dragonkin that have died already?"
'We never told them to do it.'
Megadeth spoke without a single care, which made everyone sigh in annoyance.
There was a way to enter the Divine Realm, but whether one wanted to go there depended all on themselves. But that had likely claimed many lives in the past already.
"I see, got it then. But well, there hasn't been a dungeon I could not get through before."
Allen looked at the hellscape in front, thinking of a way to get through.
