Book 1: Chapter 25 (1/2)

When I leaned over the roof and screamed, everyone looked up with shock.

「Reiji!!! Expected arrival time!!!」

「Less than a few minutes!!!」

「!」

…Fast. Too fast. That speed would be well over 100 kilometers per hour. I don’t want to keep observing it from up here. But observing it is my job.

「Adventurers!! Evacuate the citizens!」

The adventurers returned to their senses due to Joseph-san’s voice, and started to move.

「Soldiers! Evacuate the staff in the building!」

「B-But… Isn’t it safer to stay in the building?」

「Reiji! How big is the dragon?!」

「Much bigger than this building!」

「Dammit!!! You heard that, right?!! You’ll get trampled in there!」

「Wha!?」

「The only thing those who can’t fight can do is to escape! Hurry!」

「B-But the city is wide…」

「This is the most dangerous place!! Just hurry up already!!」

「Kuh… I understand!」

Joseph-san finally got through to the soldier.

The soldier moved quickly. He rushed into the building, and began to call out to the staff.

「Err… What should I do?」

My gaze met the soldier’s on the walkway on the 3rd floor.

「Well… why don’t you join up with the people inside the building?」

「A-Ah, I’ll do that. You should come down from there, too.」

I returned to the top of the roof.

…Damn, it’s getting closer and closer.

The dragon was right about to reach the outer wall of the city.

However, when I leaned over and took a look, the soldiers who were stationed on the outer wall were in turmoil.

Looking at that, the worst-case scenario popped into my mind.

…What would happen if the dragon fired the long-range attack I saw that night from the outer walls of the city? Rather, isn’t that the most probable scenario? After all, if the dragon has intelligence, it’ll survey the situation from a distance and shoot a long-range attack.

「I- I have to get its attention! Um, err…」

The premise that the dragon can detect skill orbs.

What kind of skill orb would a dragon be interested in?

「Ah…」

…What if the dragon can sense a skill orb strongly the higher the number of stars it has?

While I was thinking about that, the air around the dragon seemed to distort.

…Is it going to start using magic or something?

「Eh, there’s no time to lose!」

I put my hand on my chest and formed a strong image of the skill orb of 【World Ruler】. It felt as if power was slipping away from the center of my body – no, it isn’t just the feeling, my body is actually losing power!

A black skill orb came out from my chest. I lost the power of 【World Ruler】, and at the same time, all the skills I had learned so far disappeared.

…Damnit. How am I going to survive without this skill?

I went down to a knee on the roof, and in my hand, there was a black skill orb – in its center, a rainbow-colored light swirled around like a whirlpool.

《OOOOOOOOOOOO……》

I heard the dragon’s roar.

…It seems that my guess was dead on. The dragon is facing me. No… it’s staring right at the skill orb of 【World Ruler】.

With one flap of its wings, the dragon started flying straight towards me. It flew over the outer wall without hesitation, and each time the wings flapped, it accelerated.

「Oops! Gotta run!」

I absorbed 【World Ruler】 back into my body. At the same time, the malaise that had wrapped around my body disappeared, like a fog clearing away, and the feeling of omnipotence filled my body.