Godfrey walked out of the dome, leaving Arthur inside with the elders. They were obviously shocked by his potential, and he had little idea as to what they were speaking about, but as he strolled around the vicinity, the earth suddenly shook.

Godfrey turned to the direction it came from. He kept looking in that direction as the sound drew near and it wasn't just from one place.

Deep growls rang in his ears as large, glowing eyes appeared in the darkness behind the trees. As it brought its head out, Godfrey saw a bronze-scaled dragon with crimson eyes.

Other dragons came out, massive beasts whose heads were three times Godfrey's size. These were the summons of some Pendragons. They weren't sent to kill him, but this was their forest. When he walked through it with Arthur, they stayed hidden, but now it was only him, they revealed themselves.

One of them, a red-scaled one with almond eyes, roared at him. The earth shook as it took two steps forward.

Godfrey remained rooted to the ground, his hands still in his pockets, as the gale from the beast's roar made his hair and suit jacket flutter.

"Hello," Godfrey said with a smile as his eyes turned black and gold. The aura of a 17.5 Saint Tier swept out, forcing the dragons to roar defiantly, yet they all slowly retreated back into the forest.

Godfrey turned to the dome and saw Arthur standing outside. Their eyes met.

"The elders have accepted you," Arthur said calmly.

"Because of my potential?"

"Sounds superficial, but the answer is yes. Strength isn't truly superficial in our world. If you were not supposed to be important, Isolde wouldn't see you in her visions. You two would have also never met. And I would not allow it. She will eventually hold an important position that oversees not just this dungeon but several other blue gates. Her authority is destined to be greater than a president's."

Arthur turned away from Godfrey toward the path back to the mansion.

"I have no arguments," Godfrey responded as he joined Arthur on the path.

"I also believe once they inform any of their descendants, many will want to use me as a puppet."

Arthur glanced at him from the corner of his left eye. "You're smart. You were accepted because wouldn't it be better if someone with such potential is on our side rather than the side of another, especially the authorities? Having you would give the authorities a stronger grip on the world. Great families and guilds weaken their control, or we would have long descended into a dictator-type world, controlled solely by the Seven Heads."

Godfrey sighed. "I thought getting stronger would make me relevant. I really didn't think much about what being relevant meant."

Hearing that, Arthur chuckled. "It means you'll be wanted. Some Pendragons will pull strings at you, taking advantage of your relationship with Isolde. Guilds will want you. Those you reject might harbour grudges. At the top, it's more competitive, and death's blade is just a hair's breadth from chopping off your neck."

Arthur smiled. "By the way, do you know about the first Pendragon?"

Godfrey let out an embarrassed laugh. He must have scored negative points in Arthur's mind since it was obvious he didn't have a clue who the first Pendragon was.

"Many Pendragons don't even know the true story. The one who birthed the Pendragon family was a woman, but her surname wasn't Pendragon, it belonged to the man who had a dragon. Her summon was a Red Colossus Golem, one of the summons in the first decade after the apocalypse. She had the ability to make armour that strengthened people and enhanced their size, increasing their strength and giving normal human beings the ability to fight low-tier monsters."

Arthur walked ahead. They would soon leave the forest; the edge drew nearer with each step.

"One day, a red gate opened and people were slaughtered. Her summon and its ability couldn't match the scale of her enemy, and that's when the dragon summoner came. Flames fell from the sky, she wrote, and he dropped like a god. That's when their story began. Unfortunately, he was poisoned by a dungeon boss, two years later. No one they could access back then could heal him, and so he transferred his summon to her. It was the only way for a part of him to live, and that woman took up the name of Pendragon, forever wearing a helmet and armour that made many mistake her for a man."

Arthur turned to Godfrey. "She gathered other dragon summoners, forming a family. The Pendragon family, whose sole duty was to protect humanity from dungeons. We fight with claws, flames, fangs until they all fall, or we fall."

"So they don't know it was this woman who birthed this family?" Godfrey asked.

"Most people think they were an ancient family that all had dragon summons or summoners of dragon subspecies. It's not odd for a family to have the same kind of summon. The Ouroboros family is an example," Arthur replied calmly.

He stopped at the edge of the forest. Before them was the lawn, leading up to the mansion, which glowed brightly under the dark night sky.

"The last requirement is clearing the Elf Continent dungeon. A blue gate dungeon. The next leader of the house and his partner have to enter. It's usually a journey that draws both individuals closer, as they would have to depend on themselves for a period of a month."

Arthur's statement made Godfrey raise an eyebrow. "We clear the dungeon and I and Isolde can—!"

"Can what?!" Arthur snapped, prompting Godfrey to lean his head back.

"Tsk! Youth these days." Arthur scowled. "This blue gate dungeon is as big as ancient Africa before some parts of it were eaten off by the land devourer."

Godfrey didn't even want to ask about this land devourer, as he could already sense it was a depressing story. Something that could eat a portion of a continent had to be devastating.

"There is no human settlement in this dungeon. It's just a sprawling forest with snow and mountains filled with beasts and Snow Elves that will hunt you down. Make sure you leave tracks so you can get back to the portal. Time also moves differently there."

"That's rare."

"It is rare indeed. But there's a reason, and that is this dungeon doesn't abide by the laws of our world, it abides by that of the elves. One hour here is a day there. One year there are fifteen days here."

"So one month will be…" Godfrey's eyes widened. "Two years!"

"Yes. That's how time flows in the elven world. A twenty-four-year-old elf is a one-year-old human; a thousand-year-old elf is a forty-one-year-old human. Your stay there shouldn't exceed the time I've given, or there will be a shift and you will age several times faster, dying in months."

"You went there with your wife?" Godfrey asked.

Arthur nodded. "We stayed less than a year, though. We couldn't survive any longer, but we weren't as strong as both of you. I believe you two can also reach the depth and find the dungeon boss."

Entering such a dungeon sounded entertaining. It would be a great opportunity for his knights, as he was adamant about lifting their tiers. Constant battles were one way of increasing tiers; even though it wasn't as fast as dungeon cores, it produced excellent results as the experience also trained the mind.

His knights had their fair share of battles, but more wouldn't hurt, especially now that they were immortal. And what made Godfrey even more excited was that this mission was going to be him and Isolde solely.

"Frey." Godfrey heard Arthur say. It sounded like a nickname that he always wanted but never got.

He looked at Arthur's solemn face. "Isolde had an elder brother. We adopted him and hoped he would lead the house, as I preferred Isolde stayed out of politics. He ventured a little too deep as he wanted to clear it. We found his corpse and that of the young woman who was his partner."

Arthur's eyes gleamed. "No duo has cleared that dungeon. Most haven't even gone deep, including me and my wife. We were young back then, seventeen years old."

"If you want us to clear the dungeon, we will," Godfrey said.

Arthur lifted an eyebrow and began to walk without another word. He was sending them off to experience a bit of how the world was before this fragile order came.

Then, it was all about survival. Monsters hunted humans so much that many loathed being alive and yet never had the guts to kill themselves.

The moment Isolde stepped into that dungeon, it was an official announcement that she was now out of his control. Both her and that young man would be officially considered a pair, adults left to do whatever they wanted as per their law.

It was annoying thinking about it, but he and his wife were even younger. He just hoped Godfrey would meet his expectations and slay the dungeon boss who had taken the life of several Pendragon heirs.

Some people entered the dungeon and came out closer; some came out with hatred toward each other; some came out alone without their partner.

What would be Godfrey's fate? Would the situation force him and his daughter to split up or become even closer?

...

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