A full ten minutes had passed.
To be precise, ten minutes and twenty-six seconds.
Inside an extravagantly luxurious reception room in the Sorcerer Kingdom, the Clear Light Dragon Lord sat with his head slightly lowered, silent as he counted every passing second in his mind.
The True Dragon Lord who had arrived in such high spirits was now sitting rigidly upright, occasionally stealing glances at the person across from him.
How should one describe the sight?
He looked like a mischievous child who had done something wrong and was now sitting nervously on a little stool, waiting for his parents to lecture him.
The Clear Light Dragon Lord was seated on a sofa meticulously crafted from dragon hide, doing everything he could to appear calm, composed, and perfectly at ease.
Unfortunately, all his efforts were in vain.
The familiar scent of leather constantly entering his nostrils felt like invisible currents of electricity assaulting his sensitive nerves.
That familiar and unmistakable smell clearly came from his own kind.
It was the scent unique to True Dragon Lords!
And judging from how strong it was, the sofa had been made from the hides of at least three different True Dragon Lords.
The Clear Light Dragon Lord nearly gave in to the urge to turn around and flee.
In the end, however, his innate dignity and the pride of a True Dragon Lord forcibly suppressed the impulse.
After all, three long years had passed. He was no longer the coward who had broken out in a cold sweat during that grand celebration!
The Clear Light Dragon Lord reassured himself in silence.
Across from him, Naohara was reclining against Keno's cool legs, holding an enormous slice of watermelon and eating away at it.
Fluder was respectfully kneeling on one knee before him, reporting the situation.
At the same time, he held out two Legendary-class weapons glowing with mysterious light, presenting them to Naohara as though they were priceless treasures.
"Two Legendary-class items. Not a bad haul."
Naohara glanced at the equipment Fluder had presented without the slightest change in expression.
It was as though the two Legendary-class items coveted by countless people were nothing more than ordinary objects.
Equipment of that tier had certainly been rare in the game.
For most ordinary players, managing to assemble a complete set of Legendary-class equipment as their endgame gear was already quite respectable.
Players with even fewer resources could only settle for the next best thing and outfit themselves with the lower-tier Relic-class Items.
But to the members of Nazarick, such supposedly precious equipment was hardly worth mentioning.
Back then, nearly every member of Nazarick had possessed an almost complete set of Divine-class Items. Even most of the NPCs had been equipped with at least one or two Divine-class Items.
And now that Nazarick had its very own True Dragon Lord perpetual-motion machine, they were practically drowning in spare materials.
After three years of steadily improving his forging skills, Cocytus had long since achieved literal freedom when it came to producing Divine-class Items.
To put it plainly, Nazarick now had more Divine-class Items in storage than all the other tiers of weapons combined.
Legendary-class equipment really was nothing special anymore.
"Take these two pieces of equipment back. When you have time, go to Nazarick and have them upgraded. Tell them it's my order."
Looking at Fluder's shabby equipment, with a single Legacy-class robe as the highest-quality piece he owned, Naohara somehow felt a little embarrassed.
The man was his Apostle, after all. Seeing him dressed like this was honestly painful.
Even Renner had managed to earn herself a full set of Relic-class Items through hard work.
After briefly checking the effects of the two items and finding them useless to himself, Naohara waved a hand and returned them to Fluder.
"Thank you, my lord!"
Fluder bowed deeply and respectfully reached out with both hands to accept the equipment.
The moment that familiar, powerful aura returned to his palms, the weight hanging over his heart finally disappeared.
Before coming here, he had already prepared himself to surrender both items.
According to his original expectations, even under the best possible circumstances, he would have to hand over one and perhaps be rewarded with permission to keep the other.
Although Fluder had participated in drafting many of the Empire's policies, his lifelong focus on magical research meant he was not especially skilled at navigating social conventions.
Still, a subordinate meeting his superior ought to bring a gift.
That had been the very reason he had boldly demanded additional payment in the first place.
Yet what was happening now had completely exceeded his expectations.
Not only had both Legendary-class weapons been returned to him, he had even received an additional reward!
Fluder was practically beside himself with joy.
Praise the Supreme Being!
His horizons had truly been far too narrow. To think he had entertained such petty thoughts before.
If the circumstances had allowed it, this elderly man who had spent his entire life pursuing the depths of magic, and who was usually so stern and unsmiling, might already have been jumping around and waving his arms like an excited child.
"Mm. You may leave."
At Naohara's casual words, Fluder slowly withdrew from the room.
Only after Fluder had departed did Naohara turn his attention to the Clear Light Dragon Lord, who had remained silent ever since entering.
"Ptoo—"
Naohara spat out a watermelon seed.
The tiny black seed traced an arc through the air before landing neatly on the floor.
He then swallowed the rest of the watermelon in his hand before lazily turning his head.
"It hasn't been long since we parted in the Roble Holy Kingdom, yet here we are meeting again already. Heh, looks like the two of us are pretty fated to keep running into each other."
The corners of Naohara's lips curled into an ambiguous smile.
Keno, sitting just above his head, handed him another slice of watermelon.
Naohara casually accepted it and resumed eating while continuing to speak.
"Go on. What message did those NPCs of the Eight Greed Kings send you to deliver?"
As he spoke, Naohara's mouth opened and closed.
Seed Machine Gun~
Black watermelon seeds shot from his mouth like bullets, flying into the air before raining back down with a rapid patter.
Keno, who had been delicately nibbling on her own watermelon, rolled her eyes.
[So childish... but it does look kind of fun. Maybe I should try it too. Then again, that would be a little embarrassing...]
Keno stared at the watermelon in her hands, visibly tempted.
"Ah... haha... Yeah, I guess we are pretty fated..."
"As for the message... I don't actually know the details. I'm just the errand boy. You... perhaps you should see for yourself."
The Clear Light Dragon Lord gave an awkward laugh, his voice stiff.
This was bad.
The man before him felt terrifyingly powerful just from looking at him.
Whenever their eyes met, the Clear Light Dragon Lord felt less like a male dragon and more like some pitiful little female dragon whose clothes had been mercilessly stripped away, leaving her completely exposed.
At such close range, those pale-gold vertical pupils gave him the terrifying illusion that he was about to be swallowed alive.
So this was a Player from the Sorcerer Kingdom?
Powerful.
Truly powerful!
He was practically the Dragon Lord among Dragon Lords, the male among males. Standing before him, the Clear Light Dragon Lord felt like nothing more than an immature hatchling.
Obediently, he handed over the item the NPCs had entrusted to him while remaining intensely vigilant inside.
He had already made up his mind.
At the slightest hint of trouble, or the moment he sensed even the faintest sign of danger, he would run.
His mastery of spatial techniques had reached an extraordinary level. It was the one thing he had absolute confidence in, and the main reason he had dared to come here at all.
"Relax. I'm not planning to do anything to you for the time being."
His body was trembling slightly, his eyes shifting around as he avoided looking directly at Naohara.
This guy... he seems genuinely terrified of me.
Naohara accepted the item from him and pondered the matter.
For a True Dragon Lord, the Clear Light Dragon Lord's mental fortitude was remarkably poor.
Then again, it was not entirely incomprehensible.
His class composition was simply too bizarre.
An Ancient Dragon with only LV1 in Racial Levels?
Aside from that single level, every other level he possessed was a Job Level.
It was genuinely baffling.
Excluding [Wild Magic Caster] and [World Connector], which were practically mandatory for a True Dragon Lord, all his remaining classes appeared to be related to space in one way or another.
It was almost as though he had discarded his Racial Levels entirely and kept nothing but Job Levels.
For a member of the Dragon Race, that was practically abandoning the foundation in pursuit of the branches.
After all, the most fundamental and important strength of the Dragon Race came precisely from their inherent Racial Levels.
Without that crucial foundation, the Dragon Race's innate resistances, magical immunities, and the various bonuses granted by their extraordinary physical bodies would all be dramatically weakened.
Most of the natural advantages possessed by dragons would disappear along with them.
As for why the Clear Light Dragon Lord behaved this way...
Setting aside whatever influence the NPCs of the Eight Greed Kings might have had on him, perhaps his lack of Racial Levels had also left his mental resistance severely lacking?
According to the memories contained within the Thought Body, this guy was something of a glass cannon as well.
A textbook case of developing his magic while neglecting his body.
In a pure one-on-one melee fight, the Level 95 Clear Light Dragon Lord might even be crushed by the Level 86 White Dragon Lord.
After all, half of the White Dragon Lord's total levels consisted of Racial Levels.
His raw attributes might not match the Clear Light Dragon Lord's, but he possessed the numerous innate resistances and other bonuses that came naturally with his race.
Naohara could not help wondering what exactly the NPCs of the Eight Greed Kings had been thinking when they cultivated such an absurdly specialized True Dragon Lord.
With those doubts in mind, Naohara gently pressed the item against his forehead and began carefully examining the information contained within.
Only a few seconds later, his brow furrowed.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Because the information contained a forbidden name.