The Dragon Progenitor, Dragon Emperor, and Dragon Endbringer were all ancient dragon gods. To fight against the Eight Greed Kings' iron-fisted conquest of the world, they led the dragon clans' armies into battle, but in the end, they fell one after another.
Among them, the Dragon Progenitor and Dragon Emperor were slain, while the Dragon Endbringer had its soul ripped out and was transformed into a guardian for the Eight Greed Kings' city.
The eight kings wielded supreme Super-Tier magic to extract the Dragon Endbringer's memories. From those memories, they learned the truth: this world had a World's Will!
The Dragon Progenitor, Dragon Emperor, and Dragon Endbringer were all dragon gods created by the World's Will!
The World's Will was the self-aware consciousness born from this world itself. It was the World's Will that, to keep the world from being destroyed, constantly threw obstacles in the path of the Eight Greed Kings' conquests.
Because the Eight Greed Kings were all travelers from another world and didn't belong here, the World's Will hated them, branding them as "otherworldly abominable bugs"!
"The world is just a container—a container doesn't need a will!"
The man in golden-red armor roared, his voice deafening, echoing long through the great hall. EeDechi had stood up at some point without realizing it, standing there on the floor, her heart filled with endless shock.
"To surpass level 100 and break free from this self-imprisoning world, our emperors chose to launch a grand expedition against the World's Will!"
"Surpass level 100?" EeDechi asked in surprise. "How can it be surpassed? Why is it even possible?"
A level 100 guardian sat upon the throne and tossed a thick book onto the floor. "We live within the world, and the world is a container."
Another level 100 guardian did the same, throwing a book that stacked perfectly atop the first. "Level 100 is the container's ceiling."
More level 100 guardians hurled books, piling them up one after another on the ground.
Gradually, the stack grew higher and higher, totaling 100 books. The towering pillar of books stretched from floor to ceiling, fitting snugly against the hall's roof without a single gap!
"Level 100 is the world's ceiling! To break through that ceiling, we have no choice but to shatter the container!"
The great hall's ceiling suddenly exploded, blasting open a vast hole as stone fragments and dust rained down.
The man in golden-red armor hurled the 101st book high into the air, adding it to the teetering pillar.
"This is how we can break through level 100!"
"But destroying the world—this container—would damage the world itself. The World's Will... was afraid."
"The World's Will rallied all the gods of this world to attack the eight emperors! It even summoned meteors from the sky to obliterate the empire's capital!"
"It was then that we learned the truth: all the gods, whether the goddess worshipped by the elves, the Gaia revered by humans, or the barbaric god followed by the orcs, were creations of the World's Will, made to properly govern this world!"
"The gods are all the World's Will's lapdogs!"
"The great war erupted once more, but this time, it was a war of god-slaying!"
Even the gods themselves could not stand against the power of the Eight Greed Kings. The divine realm shattered, and the gods fell. The Eight Greed Kings nailed the slain gods to stone pillars, then turned their gaze to the vast sky, where the World's Will resided.
Sharpening their blades and mustering their troops, the Eight Greed Kings gathered all their forces and set out on the grand expedition to conquer the World's Will!
The Eight Greed Kings used magitech—a force combining magic and science—to forge countless sky battleships, charging toward the World's Will. But the World's Will was not about to surrender without a fight; it summoned endless meteor showers to strike at the Eight Greed Kings.
"The eight emperors' fleet departed one ship after another, like daytime meteors ascending into the sky. We don't know the story after that."
"The emperors left us thirty behind, along with the oasis's remnants, to guard this world and quietly await their return."
The ancient and distant tale came to an end. EeDechi was still immersed in the experiences of the Eight Greed Kings, unable to pull herself away for a long time.
"What a magnificent and grand epic," EeDechi sighed softly.
EeDechi looked up and asked, "So, did they defeat the World's Will?"
"We don't know," the thirty guardians shook their heads gently, speaking in unison.
"But from our observations, over these hundreds of years, the World's Will has indeed weakened a great deal," the man said, sitting upright and solemn.
"I want to surpass level 100! Please tell me, how to find the World's Will? How to defeat the World's Will?!" EeDechi asked with her head held high, her words ringing out with conviction.
"Do you wish to tread the path that the former emperors once walked?"
The 30 guardians were utterly surprised and delighted, all casting admiring and respectful glances toward EeDechi.
"Exactly so—I must break through the world's shackles! Surpass level 100!" EeDechi's gaze was incredibly firm, her voice brimming with unstoppable fighting spirit.
The 30 level 100 guardians finally stopped rolling dice; they whispered among themselves, discussing with each other.
In the end, they reached a consensus.
The man in golden-red armor wore a grave expression and spoke slowly:
"When the eight emperors left, they took all the empire's forces with them; they seemed to have no lingering attachment to this world. Therefore, there are no intact sky battleships left. However, we still have one damaged experimental skyship that we can give to you."
As his words ended, on the left side of the great hall, a bronze door thundered open. Raging wind elements stirred up surging currents of air, lifting an oval-shaped small airship and setting it down in the hall.
"This is the 'Apocalyptic Mourning Bell' small skyship. It was struck by a meteor and is damaged, but once repaired, I guarantee on my personal honor that it can absolutely be used.
"Its navigation device was installed during the grand expedition era, complete with a star navigation chart, which can directly guide you to fly to the World's Will's location."
This small skyship was oval-shaped overall, like a duck egg sitting on the ground. It wasn't very big—about the size of an attic.
Intricate magical runes were etched across its surface, but they'd gone dull and lifeless. At the top, there was a shattered gaping hole, no doubt where a meteor had smashed through it once.
EeDechi summoned her super-large capacity spatial item—the Aetherial Secret Coffer—and then stowed the Apocalyptic Mourning Bell small skyship inside.
At this point, the Aetherial Secret Coffer held two things: the Dragon Progenitor's body and the Apocalyptic Mourning Bell skyship.
"How should I repair this skyship?" EeDechi scratched her head. "Can you help fix it?"
"We can't—we're totally in the dark about magitech," the man said with a touch of apology, but he shifted gears, "But you can head to the City Alliance and find folks who can repair skyships.
"The City Alliance was a frontier city back in our empire's heyday. The former emperors aimed to build a one-of-a-kind world-class metropolis and sank a ton of effort into it. There's bound to be a legacy of that tech still in the City Alliance!"
EeDechi nodded quietly, slotting the City Alliance into her future travel plans.
"Any other questions?" the 30 guardians asked.
EeDechi paused for a moment, then said, "Do you... have any advanced resurrection items? You know, those small copper cans that can bring back a low-level character from memory. I don't need a bunch; just one would be enough."
The biggest reason EeDechi had come to the Eight Greed Kings' desert was to hunt for resurrection items.
The man in golden-red armor asked, baffled, "After all, you've got level 100 power; do you really need something like that so badly?"
"I do," EeDechi nodded.
"Then take a whole crate—it's not like they're worth anything."