#639 Guide to Mt. Eternity

“Behold the mountain, immortal and grand, where service, though meager, is a noble demand. Clearing the path, sweeping away the dew, dedicating oneself to the task, pure and true...”

“The Sage says he’ll personally lead the way, meow!”

Thank goodness we have an interpreter.

It was a big help that the Lifeless King Sage, our biggest concern when climbing Mt. Eternity, readily accepted us.

Normally, he’d have put up barriers to keep intruders outside this sanctuary.

Only with the presence of his old friend, the Professor, and Junior, he lifted the barriers and welcomed us.

I felt a little uncomfortable, but things are going smoothly now, so I’ll consider it a good thing.

“Isn’t this great, Mr. Golden Bat?”

“Indeed. Now I can summit Mt. Eternity as I please and write it down in the One Hundred Otherworldly Famous Mountains!”

It’s all thanks to Junior, you know.

Don’t forget that.

“Alright! Let’s make haste and head for the summit...!”

“Gather around, everyone! The Sage is going to send us all to the top in one go with his Skyrend Technique, meow!”

“Huh?”

As expected of the eccentric Lifeless Kings.

If they say they’re going to guide you, they’ll lead you to your destination without any inconvenience.

“Wait! But I wanted to reach Mt. Eternity’s summit with my own two legs...!”

“Too late. Preparations for the technique have been made. All aboard the trip to Mt. Eternity’s summit, meow!” 

“Uhwaah!” 

Without having the chance to tell our side of the story, we were caught up in a teleportation spell, and in the blink of an eye, we were suddenly moved to a different place.

* * *

And then we arrived.

So this is what’s it like on top of Mt. Eternity~

"Ahhhhhh! The steps! My process of getting to know the mountain with every step I takeeeeee!!!"

Shut up, Golden Bat.

We're in the middle of enjoying the grand scenery from the summit here.

“Uoooooh! What a view! You can see all the way to the horizon!”

“It’s a pictuwesque scenery.”

“Look, Junior! You can see the farm from here, no?”

“This view is pwiceless.”

Junior is also delighted with the view from the summit.

With such a great view, he might even understand why mountain climbers are so fascinated by the activity.

“You too, Golden Bat. Get over the trivial stuff and take a look at this breathtaking scenery. You can’t go home without seeing this...”

“Easy for you to say...! The view is all the more exhilarating when you’ve worked for it with your own strength. If I rely on someone else to see the scenery, the sense of achievement I feel when reaching the summit is halved!”

Man, people like him are the annoying types who can’t stand getting spoiled.

It’s fine, right? We made it regardless of the path we took.

“Uooooooh! It can’t be helped if it has come to this! Oh, WOWWWWWWW!”

Golden Bat’s emotions surged as soon as he lifted his head.

“In that direction, you can see the Demon Kingdom, and in this direction, the Human Kingdom! What an extravagant view! This is the kinda view you can only get from Mt. Eternity, located on the border between both nationsssss!!!”

The moment he accepted the reality, he could no longer contain his excitement. 

Bodies never lie, after all.

“I can even see Mt. Olinpus and the Mountain of the Sacred White Maiden from hereeee!”

“What a rowdy human. A dragon like me flies over such sceneries every day.”

Oh? How come Veil’s in a grumpy mood?

She was having a great time with Junior until a moment ago.

She’s in her human form at the moment, grumbling about something...

“My breath didn’t even work on that pseudo-corpse...!”

Oh, she’s shocked that her attack didn’t work on the Sage.

“But Veil, you couldn’t win against Sensei, too, could you? No use getting upset over not being able to beat the Sage. Come on, cheer up.” 

“Once, twice, thrice, however many times that is, it’s not okay for me to lose! I’m a dragon, the strongest creature on land! And dragons never lose! Ever! If we do, we only lose to our kind! Losing to any other race is unacceptable!”

But she has lost to a Lifeless King.

Not just once, but twice.

“That’s right. Those pseudo-corpses are the only ones that can give invincible dragons a hard time. Even when my father gave me a trial long ago, I couldn’t defeat Sensei... I don’t feel I could win against this other pseudo-corpse just by exchanging blows once.”

Not to mention, Veil is one of the stronger dragons too.

She has beaten up other dragons quite easily and even managed to win against Bloody Mary, the top contender in the last Geyser Dragon succession war. 

Alas, Veil was no match for the Three Wise Lifeless Kings.

“Apparently, not even Mary won against the pseudo-corpses. She was utterly beaten.”

I can almost hear Mary desperately defending herself, saying, “I wasn’t utterly beaten! Fighting was a pain, so I withdrew!” 

I think I heard someone say somewhere that dragons have always claimed themselves to be the “strongest living creatures” because Lifeless Kings technically aren’t alive—they’re undead.

Given the many cases where dragons are defeated by Lifeless Kings, we could estimate which of the World’s Two Greatest Calamities has the upper hand.

“Nghhhhh, this is frustrating...! We’ve been calling ourselves the strongest creatures on the ground all this time, but there’s someone even more dominant than us. Can we still call ourselves the strongest on earth...?!”

Isn’t it a good thing to learn humility when you realize there are people better than you?

“Ultimately, dragons are stronger. Even if we Three Wise Kings come together, we can’t match up to Lord Alexander. In the face of pure massive violence, magic and reason become meaningless, meow.”

“That’s only because Alexander is strong himself!”

We’re getting all worked up over pointless discussions about who’s the strongest, but we’ve come all the way to this fantastic summit, so let’s enjoy our time here more.

Specifically, some sightseeing!

“Clarity shines bright within one’s gaze.”

Professor!!!

We need your interpretation!

“Looks like the Sage wants to show something. He wants you to look inside the mountain, not the outside, meow!”

Inside?

You mean this mountain...also has an interior?!

An interior...in a mountain?!

“The summit is hollow?! There’s a large hole!”

Does this mean we’re at the edge of a crater?!

Mt. Eternity is a volcano?!

“So, this world has volcanoes too?! Well, I suppose there would be, but still!”

“When it comes to volcanoes, the famous one is the five-star dungeon, Vulcan’s Nest. The lava constantly flows inside the dungeon, and its danger level is the world’s greatest. I plan to include that in my compilation, too.” Golden Bat adds, “But! I didn’t know Mt. Eternity was also a volcano! If it erupts, this world is done for!”

“Stop that!”

True. A volcano this big would be cataclysmic if it erupted.

“Don’t worry. Mt. Eternity is an extinct volcano, meow.”

“Really?”

For a volcano with eternity in its name, it’s ironic that it’s extinct.

“For at least the 4,000 years of my existence, Mt. Eternity has never erupted, so it can be considered that its volcanic activity has already ended, meow.”

“It’s understandable that the knowledge of Mt. Eternity being a volcano hasn’t been spread since hardly anyone enters due to the protection of the Sage. How many thousands of years ago did people last see this crater?!”

Junior, too gazes intently at the vast and deep crater of Mt. Eternity.

But be careful. We don’t want you falling into it.

“The goddess of all things, her story told in the pledge of the universe’s creation.”

“Seems like this crater has its story to tell, meow.”

The Professor became an instantaneous interpreter.

“Let’s see...legend has it that an ancient and monstrous creature is sealed within this mountain. If the gods ever become too arrogant and trample the world, casting aside all restraints on living beings, that creature will be resurrected and destroy not only the world but also the gods themselves... Hey, this is the first time I’m hearing this, meow!”

Wow, not even the Professor, who has lived for over 4,000 years, knows about it.

“Huh? Okay...? Seems like this here crater is where that monster will revive. During his ascetic training, the Sage was appointed by the goddess who created the world to be the guardian of this mountain where the monster lies dormant... Seriously, why are you telling me one unheard thing after the other, meow?!”

Thus, the Sage became the guardian of the mountain dungeon, where Lifeless Kings normally don’t dwell. 

For thousands of years, he safeguarded the sacred ground of Mt. Eternity.

True, if such a fearsome monster truly slumbered within, it’d be dangerous for anyone to be around.

So that’s why the Sage laid down barriers to control access to the site and ensured that no one ventured recklessly.

And that monster is...

The world’s first dragon.

Typhon, the primordial Dragon Emperor and Proto-Geyser Dragon.