Somewhere in the depths of the Great Forest of Darkness


    On the higher slope of the tallest mountain within the vast and dangerous forest, a huge, unnatural cave that seemed to have been made by something can be seen.


    The cave was rounded and spacious, measuring around two hundred meters in diameter. An area so vast and wide that hundreds of people could fit in it.


    The interior was not what one would expect in a cave, being so rough and rocky. Instead, the walls, ceiling, and floor were surprisingly level and had smooth surfaces.


    The stones were polished to the point where they could reflect light. The entrance was the only opening of the cavity and the only way to get inside and out of the cave.


    It was strangely unusual for a cave to have those features, unless the cave was made by humans. But no humans had ever reached the mountains, let alone climbed their summits.


    As one would expect, this cavity in the mountain did not ur naturally. Actually, the cave was made by the one who live in it.


    Inside the cave, an entity was soundly sleeping on its cold floor. Not a human or other humanoid beings, but a very powerful and formidable monster, a legendary dragon.


    ◆


    At the sudden appearance of a certain creature from a surprisingly long distance, the gigantic owner of the cave woke up from its short slumber.


    Its keen snout twitched and was irked by the essence of a powerful creature that entered its domain. It''s been more than a month since the dragon sensed anybody who it considered strong.


    The one this time was not as powerful as the dragon itself, never mind to bepared to the supreme being who visited and beat the dragon to pulpst month.


    Not only did the dragon get its first one-sided defeat, but the visitor forced the dragon to run an errand for the visitor.


    Remembering what happened that day, frustration swirled through its mind. But having a potential throne contender step on its domain made its annoyance perk up even more.


    It raised its massive body, which was covered in extremely tough scales. The dragon spread all its six wings to stretch its newly awake body.


    All its four limbs are now walking on the polished floor, approaching the entrance of its nest. As it walks, the dragon is bugging off the Behemoth bones that it ate days ago using its tail.


    Upon reaching the opening, the dragon peered down to the base of its mountain, arrogantly looking down at the creatures whose lives were ended by the dragon''s miasma.


    The reason why the dragon built its abode on the mountain was because of the dragon itself. A dragon of its kind had excessive pride in itself and unreasonably looked down upon others, considering them lower than itself.


    Due to that reason, powerful and prideful dragons tend to live in high-altitude ces, such as mountains, where they can look down on others.


    From the heights, the dragon has been passively and indiscriminately killing the monsters around by raining down its deadly aura. The influence of its maliciousness could even reach hundreds of kilometers away.


    There were dozens of monster corpses lying around the foot of the mountain that were scheduled to be eaten by the dragonter. But the dragon has to skip those and focus on getting rid of the trespasser first.


    The dragon does not want its problem to sense its aura and escape from fear. Due to that reason, the dragon deactivated its killing miasma in order to approach its target discreetly.


    Once its preparations have been checked, the dragon widely opens its wings before sting off into the sky.


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    The fox queen maintained her posture as she thought about her response to my questions. Meanwhile, I am looking at her with folded arms and ring at her like a cruel loan shark.


    But for someone like her, she must have thought that everything she wants doesn''te into her hands for free. If she has, she must have prepared an offer that is at least equivalent to her request.


    Not that I minded giving the foxes a hand, after all, they had suffered a lot and were waiting for a miracle toe. The issue is that I cannot ept them without a dime on my side.


    Now that I think about it, is there nowhere they can go to?


    "Okay, no need to answer that now." Curious, I tried to ask the foxdy. "Going back to your situation, is there no ce the foxes could go?"


    I changed the topic once again, and the foxdy raised her head. I will temporarily pull off the discussion about her request to listen to their situation more.


    "Verily. To answer your question, we apparently have nowhere to settle on the continent."


    I got baffled by her answer and asked, "Wasn''t the Southern Continent several timesrger than we are currently standing on?"


    "Even though the Southern Continent isrge, the level of conquest that is urring there is at an extreme level. Wars are everywhere, and the naturalnds are gradually getting conquered."


    Well, that continent isn''t unified, so wars of conquest are obviously frequent. But I didn''t expect that their frictions were at that level.


    "Not only the intelligent beings, but the monsters as well, are participating in the conquest. For example, the conflict between the foxes and the wolves in the southern taiga that situated the southeastern part of the continent."


    Hmm. Not all the time, intellectuals want a ce to live. Monsters are basically the definition of the survival of the fittest.


    In the event that some nation attempts to expand their territory by invading a forest, they have to confront the forest''s natural inhabitants before iming thend.


    They would fight for the survival of their kind or themselves. It''s their natural instinct to gather necessities for themselves, so territorial disputes are not umon in the wilderness, such as this forest.