TPVMP 09

Chapter  9

“Good, good,” I said as I gently rubbed the dragon’s belly.

I was already thinking — maybe it’s time to leave this kid-friendly dungeon theme park and head up to the surface.

The dragon, desperate to please me, was snuggling up and trying to get on my good side.

“Well then, dragon. I’m going up to the surface. You stay safe, all right?”

By the way, when I’m in my Black Knight form, I use “watashi” instead of “ore” as my pronoun.
Why? Because it sounds cooler, obviously.

“Kyuo, kyuo,”
the dragon chirped back, crouching down as if to say, Get on my back.

“You’ll give me a lift?”

“Kyuo!” The dragon nodded.

“So you’re an intelligent one, huh? You understand human speech? Sit!”

With a quick whoosh, the dragon sat obediently.

“Good boy! Goooood boy! You’re so cool and cute.
I’ve gotta ask my dad if I can keep you as a pet…”

I was totally smitten.
And the dragon, on the other hand, was thinking —
If I stay with such a powerful master, I could act high and mighty even before gods themselves!

Like a fox borrowing the tiger’s might, the dragon was already dreaming big.
After all, it was technically a divine dragon — one that could stand on the fringes of godhood itself.
Never before had it been beaten so one-sidedly.

“All right! I’m on! Dragon, let’s go to the surface — let’s do this!”

“Kyuo-oooh!” the dragon roared mightily.

Normally, you’d use a teleport stone to return to the surface —
but since I’d never actually been there before, I couldn’t use it yet.
The dragon, hearing “surface,” figured “up” was good enough,
and with that logic, began drilling straight upward,
ripping through the dungeon ceiling like tofu as we ascended at Mach speed.

(Teleport stones can only be used to revisit places you’ve already been — just saying.)

On the surface — near Tokyo Dungeon

“Huh? An earthquake?” muttered a bystander.
“They’ve been happening a lot lately…”

Then the ground began to shake violently.
Gogogogogogo!
It must’ve been around magnitude 5.

People crouched down, trying not to panic, or rushed into nearby buildings for safety.

Then — BOOM!

A massive explosion erupted.
Windows shattered, trees and bicycles were flung aside,
and the area near what seemed like the epicenter was completely blasted open —
as a colossal figure burst forth from below.

Suddenly, the light dimmed.

“W-What the…?”

Everyone looked up at the sky.

A giant shadow was descending,
its enormous wings flapping with thunderous gusts.
Basa, basa, basa, basa—

A jet-black dragon.

Its body, scorched red in streaks from the friction of punching through the dungeon ceiling at Mach speed,
gleamed under the sunlight —
a divine, red-black brilliance.

“A… a DRAGON?!”

The crowd screamed.

All around, phones blared emergency earthquake alerts,
their alarms echoing through the chaos.