Chương 18: No Wings, Full Commit

Something clicked ahead in the drainage channel. Meno stopped crawling. The tunnel pressed against his shoulders, hot stone under his palms and red crystal light breathing against the walls. He had the Ashen Crown Tail Spike angled flat beneath him, which meant he could barely move, barely turn, and could definitely not swing like Swing Master meant anything down here. The click came again. Closer. He eased back one knee-length, then felt heat pulse behind him. A Cinder Hound was at the channel mouth.

[Hostile: Cinder Hound | Type: Elemental Beast | Threat:??? | Trait: Scent-Flare] Meno tried to push forward, but the clicking ahead sharpened into glass feet on stone. A Morgra shape unfolded around the bend ahead, too tall for the channel and bending anyway, black-glass limbs articulating in ways a human body refused to understand. It reached into the crawlspace with one molten arm. [Hostile: Morgra Glasswalker | Type: Elemental Humanoid | Threat:??? | Trait: Molten Reach]"Okay," Meno said.

"This tunnel is rented." The hound's Scent-Flare hit from behind at the same moment the Glasswalker touched his shoulder, and his HP crashed. [Death | Morgra Glasswalker — Molten Reach] [Respawn: Ashen Crown Shrine] [Dropped: Failed String x1] Meno woke on the shrine and stayed flat for a second. The dragon watched from the cavern floor, eye half-open, ember light flickering under its scales. Less monster, more landlord with infinite eviction methods. Chat was already busy. tunnel rented no fighting these all???

all day beg guild for rescue Meno sat up.

"No," he said. The word came out too sharp, so he repeated it quieter.

"No." Side tunnels were a trap. At his level, Scent-Flare turned stealth into a joke, and Glasswalkers had enough reach to one-shot him in tunnels he could barely crawl through. Fighting fair wasn't hard. It was just feeding the resurrection shrine. He needed damage that didn't care if he lived through it. Something with enough distance that stopping him only mattered after the hit landed. His eyes moved to the stairs behind the vanished lavafall, then down into the enormous hollow beneath the mountain.

Far below, Morgras moved across the cavern floor. Meno looked at the Ashen Crown Tail Spike in his hand. It cut elemental bodies. It was not a recognized weapon, which made his class useless. It was still a dragon spike. It was still Epic III. It still existed in his grip after death, kept by the system as a usable tool. A normal player would call that insufficient. Meno started walking. He descended the revealed stairs again, slower this time, stopping at the first ledge that overlooked the Morgras city.

He did not enter a side passage. He did not chase ore seams. He crouched behind a black pillar and watched the cavern floor. The alert had not ended. Glasswalkers moved between basalt structures and treasure piles. Cinder Hounds prowled around the lower approaches, coal ribs flaring whenever patrol lines crossed.

Near the black pyramid, the hoard caught red crystal light in obscene little flashes: gold, old weapons, urns, gems, scale-like plates, everything the dragon had sent him to reclaim and nothing he could touch without being erased. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. A hound stopped near a lower road beneath the ledge and sniffed the air. Too far to smell him. Maybe. Meno counted positions. Hound under the second bridge for six seconds. Glasswalker pair near the altar stairs.

Another hound by the fire channel. Patrol loop around the broken walkway debris. Nothing held still long enough to make him comfortable. Comfort had stopped being an available resource. He backed away from the ledge. Then backed farther. He went to the far side of the cavern entrance, where the lava waterfall had been and the space was enough for a run-up before narrowing at the drop. The dragon watched him, eye half-open, like it was trying to figure out if he'd finally lost it.

Meno adjusted his grip on the Tail Spike with both hands, point down. The thicker end braced against his shoulder. He looked at the ledge. Meno ran. His boots slapped black stone, the ledge rushing toward him. Every sane part of his body screamed to stop, because ledges were for stopping. He didn't. He leapt. For one glorious second, his body stretched out over open red air, arms locked forward, Tail Spike pointed down, cape-less and stupid.

The cavern opened beneath him: bridges, glass towers, treasure piles, fire channels, enemies turning upward too late. The hound moved left. Meno missed. He had time to think, of course, and then the cavern floor hit him. [Death | Fall Impact] [Respawn: Ashen Crown Shrine] [Dropped: Chipped Clay Saint x1] He respawned with the dragon's eye already judging him. Chat became a festival.

HE JUMPED actually missed SUPERMAN BUT LOCAL ground parried fall damage undefeated do it again PLEASE do it again Meno pushed himself up.

"First attempt was range data." data means fail scientist of pavement dragon judge cam Meno went to check locations again. His impact had not killed anything, but it had disturbed the lower patrols. The hounds had spread. Glasswalkers clustered near the splatter point, clicking and pulsing heat into the air. The hound he wanted no longer stood at the same place. Another moved along a fire channel, faster than before, nose high.

The targets weren't training dummies, and the city had already seen one explosion and one falling idiot. Meno crouched behind the ledge pillar and watched a little longer. Viewers: 42, 116. The number sat at the corner of his vision like a dare. He chose a different target: a Cinder Hound that kept pausing near a treasure ramp, sniffing toward the collapsed road above. Its patrol had a hesitation after every turn. Half a second. Maybe less. He walked back to the run-up again.

His hands were sweating around the Tail Spike. Real hands, avatar grip, haptic confusion. He ran anyway. His boots left the ledge, and the cavern opened under him. This time he angled slightly right, not straight down, trusting the forward momentum to carry him over the ramp. The hound looked up. Its ribs flared. Scent-Fire bloomed around it like a warning. Meno shoved the spike down with both hands. He missed the Morgra behind it by a full body length.

The Tail Spike punched into the Cinder Hound's coal-bright back. The impact drove the dragon material through ember ribs, through charcoal muscle, and into the stone beneath. Heat burst up his arms. The hound cracked open under him. Then the floor collected the rest of his body. [Kill Confirmed: Cinder Hound] [XP Awarded: Threat??? Solo Kill] [Level Up | Level 18] [Level Up | Level 19] [Death | Fall Impact] [Respawn: Ashen Crown Shrine] [Dropped: Dead Button x1] gravity exploit lmao bro fell with intent SKY STAB Threat??? deleted patch notes tomorrow The shrine returned, the Tail Spike still in his grip, and Meno stared at the notices hanging in the corner of his vision, breathing too fast. Two levels. Full kill credit. The hit had counted. A new notice unfolded beneath the level-ups. [Achievement Acquired: Titan II] You defeated a Threat???

enemy solo before Level 20. Reward Status: Deferred AI Review Pending: Unusual kill conditions detected. The wording was colder than the cavern. Meno stared at AI Review Pending. The system was checking him again. Of course it was. A red-name Level 17 Swing Master with no recognized weapon had used an Epic III dragon spike and fall velocity to kill an unreadable elemental dog inside a mountain city after refusing a profession and previously getting suspended for portable training object invalid interaction.

Even Meno could see how that looked in a log file. Chat did not care. TITAN II LEVEL 19 REWARD DEFERRED LMAO DOG GOT SPEARED FROM ORBIT he found fall build don't suspend him don't suspend him Viewers: 49, 883. Meno swallowed. The dragon looked at him. It did not look impressed. It looked like something had failed in the human category and become its problem.

"Stupid human," the dragon said.

"No wing. Why jump?" The question echoed through the cavern, hot and ancient and genuinely confused. Meno stood with the Tail Spike in his hand, almost shaking, already talking.

"I'm trying to figure out how to become a dragon." For one second, the Ashen Crown Dragon went still. Then it laughed, a terrible sound that shook dust from the cavern ceiling, bent the shrine light, and rippled through the lava channels beyond its body. There was nothing warm in it, nothing kind, only volcanic amusement dragged out of the earth by force. Chat went silent for half a heartbeat. Then exploded. it likes him???

become dragon arc no way this is intended to work jump again getting banned do NOT jump again no wings full commit Meno looked toward the stairs. Somewhere below, a Cinder Hound was dead, its loot inaccessible. Somewhere deeper, the hoard waited. Somewhere above, the AI had put his achievement reward under review like a suspicious bank transfer. The dragon's laughter faded into a low rumble.

"Okay," he said.

"That works." The dragon's eye narrowed again.