# Chapter 10: Another World
The black object held in the black dragon's mouth was rectangular in shape. It appeared crude at first glance, but was actually an extremely precise steel creation. On its hard outer shell were numerous complex magical circuit patterns, with clear traces of mana flow visible—it seemed to be a valuable magical item.
The black dragon carrying it had already noticed that this object was exceptionally hard, at least harder than the volcanic rock formed from cooled magma around it. The massive dragon eyes blinked, and the black dragon tried to gently bite down with its teeth. The sharp dragon fangs tore at it, producing a sharp, piercing grinding sound like "crack," but failed to destroy it.
"Roar..."
After playing with it for a while without any results, the black dragon lost interest in this black iron lump. However, it still vaguely remembered the task its master had left for it.
"Don't let anything enter or exit, you stupid dragon. And keep your voice down!"
Ignoring the latter part of that command, the black dragon stared at the black iron box before it.
Don't let anything come out of it? But this thing has already come out—what should I do?
Although its bloodline evolution had granted this massive half-dragon intelligence comparable to humans, its simple thinking circuits, once belonging to a wild beast, were insufficient for making quick, correct judgments. Hesitating, the black dragon suddenly thought of a good method.
Since the fact that it had already come out couldn't be changed, then just make it so that it no longer existed.
With this thought, the black dragon simply opened its massive maw, wide enough to bite a mammoth to death in one go, and then—
It swallowed the thing.
The black steel creation, mixed with lava, was gulped down into the black dragon's stomach. Before that, it had even chewed vigorously, trying to completely crush this rectangular steel box, but with no obvious effect.
But that didn't matter, because even steel would be worn away by a dragon's stomach. In fact, many dragon species survived by swallowing and chewing iron, let alone the black dragon, which had inherited the bloodline of the Black Erosion Dragon. The half-dragon's stomach was nearly bottomless; the only limit to its eating was the size of its mouth. As long as it could fit in its mouth, it would eat anything!
With a gulp, the black steel creation, roughly the size of half an ordinary person's body, was swallowed into the black dragon's belly. Visible blue-green lightning sparks flickered across its surface, as if trying to stimulate the massive creature into spitting it out. But unfortunately, this had no effect at all—it wasn't even enough to tickle.
Feeling its stomach secreting highly concentrated acid, rapidly corroding the black steel creation, the black dragon nodded in satisfaction. Then it turned around, climbed onto the black rock passageway Joshua had created, closed its eyes, and began resting after its meal.
Meanwhile, at the other end of time and space.
The massive, towering Sigma Volcano...
And the others couldn't help but start discussing animatedly.
"What was that monster just now?! That mouth could easily swallow an adult whole!"
"More than that—at least several. A waist-high detector was like candy to it! And its teeth could clash head-on with Danium alloy without breaking. Such hardness doesn't exist in any current materials!"
"Heavens... judging by the mouth size, this creature is at least eight meters tall, and its body wouldn't be less than fifteen meters. This is a true behemoth, no less than those [monsters] that came from the sky, and even larger!"
A few sharp-eyed people noticed something even more incredible: "Wait, think carefully—the images from the detector just now proved that the surroundings were all lava, right?!"
"R-right! So this monster appeared from the lava? How is that possible? How could any creature live in lava?!"
This discovery shocked everyone, even causing a brief silence throughout the hall. But then, even more chaotic discussions filled the entire camp.
Everyone was analyzing the monster from before, completely forgetting that they were currently situated on the mountainside of an active volcano, and also forgetting their own duties.
And the team leader now had no mind to scold his members. At this moment, an unbelievable thought emerged in his heart. This tall man ignored the surrounding discussions and muttered to himself in surprise: "Could it be... it is the reason for Sigma Volcano's reactivation?"
As soon as the words were spoken, the entire venue fell into dead silence.
(To be continued.)