Chapter 29: The Earth Dragon

Chapter 29:
The Earth Dragon

 

TREASURE MOUNTAIN was part of a mountain range. While the tall trees blocked the worst of the sun, it was getting close to summer, so it was still pretty hot. I hadn’t accounted for the sweltering heat.

Valuable fruits and medicinal plants grew all around us, but they were considered property of the royal family, so we couldn’t pick any. I wondered whether I could get away with sneaking some into my Pocket Dimension, but the guards had hinted they had ways to prevent people from doing just such a thing, so thieving was more or less off the table. We didn’t really have time to waste on that sort of thing anyway. Killing that dragon was going to take all the time and energy we had.

“Let’s make sure we know where it is first,” I said, then asked the Great Sage where the nearest dragon was.

<Approximately 665 yards north of where you stand.>

Yikes! It was a lot closer than I expected. Admittedly, that same dragon could just as easily be moving around, so there was no guarantee we’d come on it right away.

“Let’s stop here for a bit. I want to check where it is in five minutes.” I wanted to figure out if it was moving, and if so, how fast. So, after five minutes, I asked the Great Sage again.

<Approximately 665 yards north of where you stand.>

That was probably good news. If the dragon wasn’t moving, it was likely eating, resting, or even sleeping. We set out again, secure in that knowledge.

“The three of us will stand out more easily if we go together. I’ll go on alone to scout things out.”

“Just be careful.”

I moved quickly and quietly until I spotted the dragon. Its great body sprawled at the entrance of a large cave, fast asleep. It was still unspeakably intimidating, even with its eyes closed.

It was about fifteen to twenty feet long, which I understood was small for a dragon. Its whole body was covered in rugged brown scales, and small spines ran from its head down its back—not the most mountable beast. And, just like the reports said, its wings were small. It didn’t really look capable of flight.

That was enough for the outside. Next, I needed to examine the inside. I carefully inched close enough to use my Discerning Eye.

 

Name: Earth Dragon

Level: 28

Skills: Menace; Roar; Charge; Rock Breath; Lightning Weakness (Grade B)

 

Level 28 was a lot lower than I anticipated. It was a lucky turn for us, but I wasn’t about to drop my guard. I mean, there was a big difference between a Level 1 monster and a Level 1 person. And if a Level 20 dragon went up against a Level 100 goblin, the dragon would instantaneously obliterate the latter.

What’s more, this earth dragon had some potentially troublesome skills, Charge and Rock Breath. I investigated whether I could break the Rock Breath skill, but even my simplest idea would have cost 2,500 LP, so that was out.

I switched tactics and looked into making it even weaker against lightning. I’d need 1,200 LP to upgrade its Lightning Weakness from B-Grade to A-Grade. Bumping it all the way to S-Grade required about 7,000, so I settled for A-Grade. My Lightning Strike would be especially effective against it now, and any items we electrified would work wonders too.

I returned to my friends to tell them what I’d learned and then got started digging a big hole.

“You really are fast at digging holes, Noir.”

“He could be a professional…”

The two of them seemed weirdly put off by my hole-digging skills. For my part, I was just glad my Excavate skill was getting some use. The hole was completed in about thirty minutes. After that, we stuck several swords in the bottom of the pit, pointy-side up to create our own personal sword hell. Honestly, they probably wouldn’t cause that much damage, but it was a start.

Next, we covered the whole with a bunch of sheets we’d sewn together. We fixed the sheet-quilt in place with stones and pulled it tight before sprinkling it with dirt and rocks for camouflage.

“All right, that’s everything. Now I’ll go lure it out, so you two take care of it when it falls into the hole,” I said.

“Got it! You can count on us!” said Emma.

“If the going gets too tough, run. Your life is more important than any dragon fang,” said Luna.

“I’ll be careful. Here goes.”

Finally, I headed back to the dragon. I felt like I’d spent a lot of my day running back and forth, but as the decoy, I didn’t have much choice.

The dragon was still asleep when I reached it, but even so, the breath whooshing out of its nose blew my hair back. I got within a few yards of its tail. There, I placed the meat I’d bought at the market yesterday on the ground as bait, and I wet it with sea water using Water Drop. Then, I hid out of sight and started chucking stones at the dragon’s sleeping form, though I was careful not to use too much force.

Plonk plonk plonk plonk! Stone after stone bounced into its behind, but that dragon really didn’t want to wake up. At last, just when I was getting tired of throwing, one of them did the trick.

“Grr?”

The dragon let out a little growl. Its attention was drawn toward its tail, and I darted out of sight when it turned in my direction. That was close!

I could hear its legs moving, then stop. I peered out from my hiding spot. The dragon loomed in front of the meat. It didn’t even sniff, it just leaned right down to gobble, so I quickly Bestowed Electrify on the meat. It normally would have cost 1,000 LP, but because I’d wet the meat with salt water, it was only half as much.

“Garh?!”

The dragon’s massive body flipped over when it bit in. That electricity seemed almost too effective. After a few seconds, the dragon bellowed, rage filling its face. The sound was mind-blowing. Even with Hearing Protection, it made my ears ache to the point that I stumbled into view, accidentally revealing myself.

The dragon’s eyes met mine. It roared again. I froze. Augh, hadn’t I learned Courage?! I was standing still in my tracks as it charged at immense speed. If that thing hit me, I’d be pulverized!

“Move! Move, you idiot!”

I finally broke through my fright and desperately dove out of the way. The dragon missed me by inches and barreled into several trees, knocking them down. I don’t want to do this anymore. That thing is terrifying…!

The dragon’s powerful body turned around and came for me again. I prepared to sprint, but there was one problem: there was a dragon between me and the pitfall.

“Grrrr!”

It seemed to have gotten its anger in check. This time, it closed the distance between us slowly. It absolutely intended to kill me, that was coming through loud and clear.

“Sorry, but I have no intention of taking you on one-on-one.”

When I was in trouble, Blinding Flash was my ace in the hole. I set off a flash of distracting light and slipped past the dragon. The light kept it busy long enough for me to put some much needed distance between us.

But wait! I looked over my shoulder, and a chill went down my spine. The earth dragon was watching me from a distance, its mouth open wide.

“Is it going to use its breath?”

My answer came in the form of a horizontal cascade of rocks hurtling in my direction, ferried by the gale of the dragon’s breath. The smallest was the size of my head, and the larger ones? Didn’t matter. My bones were going to be fine dust if any part of that attack hit me. I narrowly avoided that fate with a desperate snake maneuver.

“Come after me! I’m getting away!” I shouted as I zig-zagged away.

The dragon took the bait and started to give chase, and I did a little fist pump to celebrate. That said, I was still in deep trouble. The dragon was a lot faster than me, for one. But just as I could feel its breath against my back, my salvation—the sheet-covered pit—came into view. I didn’t see Luna or Emma anywhere, but I didn’t have time to look for them.

“Hup!”

I leapt through the air. The dragon stretched out its neck to try and catch me, but it didn’t quite reach.

“Gaaaaaaaarh?!”

In one fatal step, the dragon toppled into the trap and fell into our sword hell. My landing wasn’t the smoothest, but I tumbled forward on the ground, rolling to absorb my momentum.

A shadow passed overhead. Someone shouted bravely as they flew above me. Luna’s spear pierced the dragon’s upper jaw as it struggled.

“Don’t forget about me!”

Emma dashed out of her hiding spot and stabbed the dragon’s lower jaw with her spear. The dragon’s face twisted, pinned from above and below. That Dragon Killer skill was really pulling its weight.

“Haa haa…”

I didn’t have time to think. I grabbed my spear and followed my party into the fray. The dragon was weakened, so this was my chance. I lunged with all my might, sinking the tip of my spear into the dragon’s throat. It knocked me away with its tail, but I got up with only a few cuts and scrapes. The dragon, on the other hand, seemed to be mortally wounded. It stopped moving.

As it did, my level shot up past 100 and I felt my chest fill with joy. Luna spun her gun to heal my minor wounds with a Healing Shot while Emma rushed over to stroke my back.

“Can you believe it wasn’t even Level 30?” I panted. “Dragons are terrifying.”

“But we won! We did it!” Emma cried.

“Heh, the bonds of friendship reign victorious… O-or something like that…” Luna got embarrassed about halfway through, but, well, I thought she was pretty cute.

“We should have a party to celebrate,” I said. I held out my hand and Emma and Luna placed theirs on top. I worried I was getting a little carried away, but it seemed like the right thing to do to celebrate a victory.

After that, we moved on to disassembling the carcass. The first thing we focused on were the fangs, since we needed those for the exam.

“It’s so hard!” Emma was surprised by the fact that her dagger wouldn’t cut the dragon’s flesh. I guess regular weapons just wouldn’t do. It turned out to be much easier to use the spears with the Dragon Killer skill.

Finally, at long last, we got our hands on the fangs we had come for. I had a feeling the other leftover parts would be useful too, and Luna seemed to agree.

“Hrm, it feels like such a waste to just leave the rest,” she said. “Dragon parts fetch a high price. They’re useful for making all manner of items.”

“I hear the meat is delicious too,” said Emma.

“Your Pocket Dimension was C-Grade, wasn’t it, Sir Noir? It’d probably be hard to fit the whole thing in there…”

Well…it might work. The dragon wasn’t so big. I gave it a shot, and to my surprise, the dragon carcass vanished.

“Whoa! Amazing!”

“Ha, let’s go brag to those guards.”

We jaunted back down the mountain, full of cheer. When we reached the bottom, the guards were all amused. They asked us about how our hunt went, and we told them we’d bagged ourselves the dragon.

“Ah ha ha, you really shouldn’t lie about things like that. But I’m glad you made it back safe. I hate it when young people die, especially when they’re as pretty as these two lovely ladies.”

So I take it you wouldn’t be very sad if I died, huh?

“We should get going, we need to let the guild know we completed the request,” I said.

“How’s that ‘fake it ’til you make it’ thing going for you?”

“Good question. How’s this for an answer?” I whipped the earth dragon’s corpse out of my Pocket Dimension and the guards’ expressions did a complete one-eighty.

“Wha?! Y-y-y-you really did it?!”

“You best believe your eyes.”

After they had a poke at the dragon carcass to confirm that it was really real, really a dragon, and really dead, the guards stood to attention. “We salute you, great adventurers. And we look forward to hearing of your future endeavors.”

“And we hope that you guys will learn not to judge a book by its cover,” I said.

“Ngh, well, I can’t really argue with that…”

At long last, we got into our carriage and headed back to town. As we ran into a couple monsters on the way, we didn’t get back until after sundown. Nevertheless, Odin’s guild hall was still open, so we made sure to make our report. Lola was waiting for us, even though her shift was over.

“First of all, I’m just glad you’re all safe. What did you do with the dragon?”

“One sec, clear out, lemme borrow this space for a second.”

I once more presented the dragon carcass, this time in front of the reception counter. Silence fell over the guild hall. Then all the other adventurers started to cheer and Lola’s eyes glistened.

“Oh my goodness, I knew you could do it, Mr. Noir!”

“Wow! Is that thing real? Where’d you hunt it?”

“You guys have really been on a roll!”

It was already well into the evening, but the guild was full of noise. Everyone was having fun, even without alcohol. Most importantly, the three of us got to enjoy our victory in good company. The whole guild listened intently to our tale of clever heroism, and ultimately, we ended up celebrating until late into the night.