It was a few days later that Matthias was forced to take action. He was minding his own business when he felt two massive presences approaching his territory.

  The land in question was far from any inhabited area, but allowing this to continue would set a bad precedent. These presences made that first dragon feel small by comparison. Matthias did not want to act, but he had to. If he did nothing, the other dungeons would keep pushing their luck. That ocean dungeon had not sent another attack through his lands since he crushed that first dragon, so he needed to remain consistent.

  He positioned his forces near the point where the two presences would collide and then waited. He did not want to act too soon; he needed the dragons to actually engage. At the same time, he could not risk letting them fight long enough for the collateral damage to grow excessive.

  From the north came a feathered dragon. It was not what he had been expecting. It was as fluffy as it was majestic, its feathers pure white with gold highlights. From the south came a black dragon with red accents tracing its scales. Both dragons were massive—larger than Mirehold had been before it began to expand.

  Matthias waited patiently. They flew far more slowly than he had anticipated, and he assumed that was the difference between travel speed and combat speed. He ignored everything else within his territory as the two titans drew closer.

  They were only seconds from colliding when Matthias began the operation.

  Four prides of manticore surged up from the forest below. At first, the dragons did not seem to notice. It was only when the wall of sound—born of countless overlapping roars—hit them that they reacted. Matthias saw the exact moment their expressions shifted from focus to panic.

  It had taken extensive experimentation, but Matthias had found a way around dragon fear that did not rely on level disparity. He had simply rewired the manticore to interpret fear as a challenge.

  What truly surprised him was how easily dragon scale failed beneath manticore claws. The dragons attempted to swat the smaller predators from the air, but their attention had shifted entirely to the swarm instead of each other. The two dragons collided midair with enough force to generate a shockwave. Tangled together in flailing limbs and snapping jaws, they began to fall.

  They had only just started to correct and level out when the manticore struck their wings. It took less than a second for the creatures to literally tear the wings from the two titans.

  "That seemed too easy," Matthias remarked. He was projecting the battle visually, while his iron-sand map displayed the conflict in more physical detail.

  "That is the difference between levels and cultivation," Lucy replied. "Cultivation reinforces and enhances the individual. You gain fewer skills, but much higher base stats."

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  "And it is more pronounced in beasts than in people," Chloe added. "Natural weapons like claws and teeth become many times sharper and more durable."

  "So once again, the problem is that dragons are a mass of magic," Matthias said slowly, "but they do not internalize it."

  "For most people, that still would not matter," Lucy said. "Very few can threaten a dragon like that. Most cannot fly or match their speed."

  "But they are so slow," Matthias argued.

  "That much mass moving at speed tends to turn whatever it hits into paste," Chloe countered. "What tier of cultivation are your manticore?"

  "The weakest in this fight is around tier eighteen," Matthias admitted.

  "That is absurd," Chloe scoffed.

  They turned their attention back to the battle just in time to see the dragons hit the ground. Both apex predators were stunned and grievously wounded, but they began to stir. That was when the spiders fell upon them.

  The spiders focused on the heads. Layer upon layer of webbing wrapped around snouts, eyes, and forelimbs, binding and blinding them.

  Then the Primordial Hydra let out a roar, finally making its presence known. It charged as quickly as its massive body allowed. Even so, it would take time to close the distance, as it had remained hidden to avoid detection.

  At the sound of the hydra, the dragons grew frenzied. That was when the manticore descended again, tearing into anything vulnerable. Tendons, necks, joints, eyes—nothing was spared as the predators went to work.

  The feathered dragon was half butchered before it could mount any meaningful defense. It turned its magic inward in a desperate attempt to heal, but the combined assault of spiders and manticore inflicted far too much damage, far too quickly.

  The black dragon fared slightly better. It managed to rip the bindings from its snout, and black fire began to gather in its jaws. That was when the hydra struck.

  Nearly thirty tons of hydra, encased in hardened bone, slammed into the softer dragon. Bone snapped as the creature bore down, using no fewer than half its heads to force the dragon’s maw into the ground.

  Matthias watched grimly as his monsters tore into the pinned beasts without restraint. The black dragon died first, its heart ripped free while it still beat. The feathered dragon lingered for several more minutes, only truly dying when a manticore clawed through its hardened skull and into the brain cavity.

  "I expected more," Chloe admitted.

  "I am not sure what I expected anymore," Lucy confessed.

  "I think I know what is happening," Matthias said quietly.

  "What?" the fairies asked in unison.

  "Dragons have levels, right?" Matthias asked.

  Both fairies nodded.

  "I think the system itself is artificial," Matthias said. "You told me leveling was meant to keep pace with cultivation. That leveling offers predictable power, while cultivation offers versatility."

  "Yeah," Chloe agreed cautiously.

  "What if the system was created to hide real power from the world?" Matthias continued. "Over time, it obscures the truth. Only high-level individuals would even notice. A level one hundred now would be weaker than a level one hundred from a thousand years ago. But no one who relies on leveling lives long enough to see the decay."

  Lucy glanced between Matthias and the battle display. "That means these dragons might be new," she said nervously. "And the fact that they died so quickly will make people ask questions."

  "Questions only a few could answer—and none will want to," Matthias replied. "If I am right, then the system is decaying."

  "If that is true," Chloe said slowly, "then everyone who relies on levels is crippled."

  She swallowed.

  "Because leveling and cultivation are mutually exclusive."

  "That includes me," Matthias noted. "The rarity system. I am not beyond what a dungeon core should be. I am simply what they used to be."