Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Vol. 5

The Mystery of the Dragon (Japanese original title: DRAGON QUEST—Dai no Daibōken—, also translated as Dai's Great Adventure and The Mystery of the Dragon) is a spin-off manga of Japan's national RPG Dragon Quest: supervised by Yuji Horii, scripted by Riku Sanjo, and drawn and storyboarded by Koji Inada. It ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1989 to 1996, and the collected volumes total 37. The story begins on the solitary island of Lingding: the masked Taoist priest Brass adopts the orphan Dai, who has drifted ashore, and Dai longs to become a hero. Yet amid a series of upheavals—a false hero causing trouble, the resurrection of Demon King Hadlar, and the failure of the hero Avan's self-detonation spell—he reveals for the first time the power known as the Dragon Crest. He then sets out with companions including the mage Popp and Princess Leona, fighting the Demon King's army along the way and pressing on toward the Great Demon King Vearn, who lurks behind it all. This volume is the fifth in the series and remains in the advancing stage of the Demon King Hadlar arc: Avan's disciples gradually gather, battles against opponents connected to the Demon King's six legions escalate, and Dai and his party learn and hone Avan-style sword techniques and spells in combat. The specific chapter-by-chapter plot of this volume is subject to the edition at hand; the volume divisions of Chinese editions are not uniform, and this page offers only a brief introduction based on the series background.