Chapter 160: Search Report
After leaving R and L with Ariela, I headed straight west.
Once Ariela’s Barrier was out of sight, I Jumped five times to the northwest, then ten times to the southwest.
With each Jump, I used Search to scan the surroundings, Jumping to my maximum visual range and then Searching again.
Then, I Jumped northwest again, continuing to Search while moving in a zigzag pattern.
The Beasts I encountered were larger-than-usual Golden Bears, Fang Bears that were a size bigger than those, Main Tigers, and occasionally Beasts I’d seen during the Dragon Subjugation.
As I subjugated one of each to take back and tossed them into my Magic Bag, my mood gradually grew heavier.
The Armor Buffalo, for instance, was about two sizes larger than the one I’d subjugated before, making me worry if an average Magician could even handle it.
Without a sturdy defense from Earth Magic or Barrier Magic, they probably wouldn’t be able to stop its charge.
Red Bears, Brown Bears, Golden Tigers, and Black Bears – all of them were larger individuals than the ones I’d subjugated before, which was getting tiresome.
I wrote about hit rates in the Magic Primer, but if people don’t understand that, the damage could be significant.
On the second day of zigzagging, just as the sun was beginning to set, I finally discovered a Dragon.
It was a bipedal Terrano Dragon, with distinctive sharp horns running from its head to its tail.
For now, I Jumped right next to the Dragon, aimed a Stone Lance at its heart from the side, shot it down, and stored it in my Spatial Storage.
Next, I found… it was definitely a caterpillar, but even when I tried to 《Tame…》 its name didn’t appear.
Among the caterpillars I know, there are some with tail-like protrusions on their rears, but this one had sparse thorns and seemed to be a variant.
It was easy to defeat, but even though I thought of taking it back as a sample, I didn’t feel like it, so I blasted it apart with a Fireball and left it.
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《Shinya! Why is a Dragon in a place like this! They’re supposed to be much deeper in!》
《Hey, Tina.》
《Don’t “hey” me! Did you forget what Amadeus-sama ordered you to do?》
《Ordered? I’m not Amadeus’s subordinate. We made a deal, but he didn’t tell me the crucial details, so sealing the passage is impossible!》
《Tell that to Amadeus-sama yourself.》
In an instant, the scenery before my eyes vanished, and I was in that familiar space with him standing before me.
《Why didn’t you seal the passage!》
《Are you an idiot? Where is this “passage”?! I’d like you to tell me how I’m supposed to get there.》
《Hmm… Did I not tell you?》
《You said “barrier,” right? You probably mean those snow-capped mountains, but I can’t cross mountains like that, and it’s too vast! It’s wide, high, and there are no landmarks. Are you telling me to search for it all by myself? It’d be impossible even in 1,000 years!》
《Mmph, is it that vast?》
This is hopeless. What an unreasonable, good-for-nothing bastard!
Unlike you, I can’t just pop off wherever I please!
《I’m dealing with it by increasing the number of skilled Magicians so they can subjugate the overflowing Beasts. We’re starting to see results, so don’t interfere.》
《You can dispose of the overflowing Beasts? In that case, I’ll leave it to you.》
《Ah, wai—…》
He vanished, that damn good-for-nothing god!
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After searching for two full days, I found four types of Dragons other than the Turtle Dragon, a reddish-brown snake, the Crimson Snake, and a giant scorpion-like creature, a Scorpion.
I thought it had an awful lot of legs, and it turned out to have six on each side, twelve in total.
Its arched tail was about 2.5 meters high, and even extended, it was only about 6 meters long, so a single Bullet blew off one of its claws and about four legs.
On the way back, I walked east, checking the distance to the village.
It was almost four days to reach the defensive line, so I was relieved that the Dragons wouldn’t be approaching the village anytime soon.
“Welcome back~♪ How was it? Were they there?”
“Yeah, four types besides the Turtle Dragon, a Crimson Snake, a Scorpion, and a giant version of a caterpillar.”
“Caterpillars! Pass! I’m not subjugating any caterpillars!”
“Hmm, Ariela, for an Adventurer, you’re really not good with caterpillars, are you?”
“I’m not scared of caterpillars! If you’re the one saying it, it must have been a huge one, right?”
“Hmm~, it was about shoulder height on me, and its length was…”
“Stop! I don’t want to hear it!”
“It’s fine. It was weak enough to be blown to bits by a single Fireball.”
“Why would something that weak be out there?”
“Doesn’t it get eaten by other Beasts?”
“Probably tastes bad, I guess.”
“So, whereabout were they?”
“Almost due west from here. About a four-day walk.”
“If they’re that far, it doesn’t seem like Dragons will attack anytime soon.”
“Probably. They’re not coming here specifically to attack settlements, so I don’t think they’ll charge straight in.”
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“Sub-Master, there are Dragons.”
“So they are here after all…”
“Hmm? Were they in other places too?”
“No. The scale was large last time, but this time it far exceeds that. Dragons appeared in Muslan. If they’re on the other side of the mountains we detoured around, Tanza must be close too.”
So that’s how it is.
On the simple map, the route to the neighboring country involves going around the mountains; it doesn’t mean the entire other side is mountainous.
“So, you naturally subjugated a Dragon, right?”
As expected of the Sub-Master, his intuition for this kind of thing is sharp.
I learned last time that a report alone isn’t credible enough.
Just in the area I scouted, there were four types of Dragons and one snake. There’s no doubt many more are out there.
Just because Dragons were there doesn’t mean I can subjugate all of them.
It’s better to tell them definitively that Dragons are present and have the Magicians steel their resolve. That should settle their nerves.
“Shall we go to the plaza?”
The guys who overheard my conversation with the Sub-Master followed us, extremely curious about what I’d hunted.
When I first brought out the Scorpion, voices rose saying things like
One Armor Buffalo.
One Red Bear.
One Brown Bear.
One Golden Tiger.
One Black Bear.
Adventurers crowded around the lined-up Beasts, getting in the way.
“You’re in the way. Move aside.”
“What’s that? Acting all high and mighty just ’cause you hunted a few big ones.”
“We can hunt stuff like this too!”
“I said you’re in the way! You lot, get away from Shinya!”
At the Sub-Master’s angry shout, the guys who were about to confront me hastily backed away.
One Terrano Dragon.
<…No way.>
One Armored Dragon.
One Long Dragon.
Four Whip Dragons.
One Crimson Snake.
I finished lining them all up, but no one said anything.
Maybe the shock was a bit too strong.
“Sub-Master, these are about the Dragons and Beasts I encountered.”
“Oh, uh… You, where did you pull these out from?”
As expected of the Sub-Master, he’s quick to notice.
“Do you have Spatial Storage? Or rather, this one was with a Bullet, this one with a Stone Lance or Ice Lance, but how did you get this big one?”
“For the Long Dragon, I tossed a Fireball into its mouth.”
“Let me see your Guild Card for a second!”
“No rank-ups. Otherwise, I’ll return my Guild Card here and retire.”
“Hah~, why not? If you can subjugate Dragons so easily, you’re guaranteed Platinum rank.”
“Even Gold rank is a pain. What do you think will happen if word gets out about me subjugating Dragons?”
“But you showed them, didn’t you?”
“They wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t show them, and what do you think would happen if the others suddenly encountered a Dragon? Besides, this is just from going straight west. The actual number must be much higher.”
“That’s right, we need to issue a warning to each department and the lord’s army. Show this to everyone.”
“No good. The Magicians have probably seen them in the Royal Capital, and if the others see this and get scared, they’ll run away.”
“Then what should we do?!”
“It’s not like a Dragon will attack us right away. Even Dragons, if they have food, won’t go out of their way to come to the village just to attack us. For now, reporting this and subjugating the Beasts in front of us comes first.”
Saying only that, I returned the lined-up Dragon and Snakes to Spatial Storage.
“What are you going to do with that?”
“If there’s someone with Spatial Storage who can store a Dragon, I’ll hand it over.”
“No, I’ve never heard of anyone who can store something that big. Even if there were, they’d probably be employed somewhere.”
“In that case, this guy will be auctioned in the Royal Capital. Don’t worry, I’ll put it up under Tanza’s name.”
The Sub-Master’s face showed relief, and he gradually started to grin.
《Sub-Master, besides skimming off the commission, how much is going into your pocket?》
《With that grin, a bag of Gold Coins seems like a sure thing.》
《Skimming 1/3 of the spoils for casualties, and then the auction commission…》
“Idiot! We’re not as unscrupulous as them…”
《He’s got a loose tongue.》
《Unfit to be a Sub-Master.》
“By ‘we,’ I mean decent Guilds!”
“But you admit that ‘unscrupulous’ part, huh.”
“Shinya, give me a break. If strange rumors start, this time no one will respond to a compulsory summons.”
“Well then, you should be careful not to blurt out unnecessary things. I’m going to switch with the guy next to Tanza’s Shield, so call me if you need anything.”
A Dragon alert was issued to the parties taking up positions in rotation and the parties that had withdrawn, with a directive to abandon their posts and report if they spotted it.