Eguchi Ren: The latest books are already at the store! Thank you very much to everyone who has purchased a book!
Gumihou: I promise to buy a whole set of your manga, Eguchi-san~~
I left the Capital City on Fer’s back…
We sped forward to an area just beyond a line of trees before I hopped off his back.
“Right, your turn now,” said Fer to Grandpa Gon.
“Umu, everyone gets on board,” said Grandpa Gon after he had grown to about 10 storeys tall.
Dora-chan and Sui immediately hopped on, but I remained on the ground. “Hey, where are we going exactly?”
“A good place,” said Fer.
“What and where is this good place?”
“Umu, it’s…”
“”Aruji~ hurry~ hurry~~””
“Yes, Master, it’s best to hurry,”
“But- ack–!”
Fer had grabbed me by the back of my shirt and threw me onto Grandpa Gon’s back.
“Hey!”
What is this déjà vu feeling??!
“Right,” said Fer as he leapt onto Grandpa Gon’s back. “We’re all on board now.”
“Fer! Just where are we- umff!”
This stupid Fer-ball had just stepped on my face!!
“Do be quiet, Master.”
Gunununu, you will pay for this you Fer-ball!!
“”Hey, I think Master has trouble breathing!!”” Dora-chan cried.
“Unf! Unf! Unf!”
“Is that so?” Fer drawled, but at least he took his paw away from my face.
“Puh-hahh! You nearly killed me, Fer!!”
“Nonsense,”
““Aruji~ Is Aruji okay~?”
“*Sob* Sui-tan is the only one who worries about me…”
“Master, please hold on tight,” said Grandpa Gon.
“Wh- hey! You haven’t told me where we’re going!!!”
We flew for about an hour on GG Airways.
When we finally landed, it was on a desolated piece of land covered in nothing but dry soil and rugged rocks.
“… just where the heck is this?”
A breeze blew past us, and I shivered. There was a chill in the air that was absent from the Royal Capital.
“C-cold!”
There was no visible snow or ice, but I still got out the hoodie that I had bought from [Net Super] from my [Item Box] and quickly put it on. I even stuffed some heating pads into my pockets just in case.
“Oi, Grandpa Gon, not to repeat what that guy says, but what’s this place?” said Fer.
“… what the… you don’t know?!” I snapped.
“A little-known hunting spot. There are some interesting prey here,” said Grandpa Gon serenely. “There are some dragon-ish things here, they were rather annoying to hunt, but unexpectedly tasty~~”
“Dragon-ish…?” what an odd description.
“Indeed, I nearly hunted them to the point of extinction, but refrained myself. Hmm, the best way to eat them is to grill them with Dragon Breath…”
“… …” Grandpa Gon is drooling. It was kind of shocking, but not shocking at the same time.
““Woah, must be something really tasty!”” Dora-chan cried. “”Let’s get ‘em!!””
Fer suddenly lifted his head, nose pointed to the air as he sensed… something. “Umu, a Dragon-like creature that is not a Dragon, unexpectedly delicious… Huh! A Dragon Turtle!”
“Dragon Turtle?!!!”
“A Dragon… Turtle? Is it a dragon-like turtle monster or a turtle-like dragon monster?” I mused.
“Umu, it’s a fire-breathing turtle with teeth and jaws as powerful as a dragon’s,” said Grandpa Gon.
“It’s also ridiculously slow,” said Fer. “But its skin is very hard and its shell even harder. So fighting it is pretty troublesome.”
“Indeed, it is fairly strong,” said Grandpa Gon.
‘Fairly strong’? Just what kind of creature would a being that cheerfully faces a Leviathan consider ‘fairly strong’?!
“Even I could not break its shell with one attack. Not only is that thing hard, but it is also magic-resistant. Trying to destroy it with just magical attacks would take a lot of repeated strikes.”
“”Sounds fun!! Let me have a go!!””
“”Sui will melt it away~~!!””
Dora-chan and Sui suddenly became even more motivated to hunt these Dragon Turtle things
“Umu, it would be difficult for Dora-chan, who specializes in magic attacks to fight the Dragon Turtle,” said Grandpa Gon contemplatively.
“”Gah! I’ll just hit it again and again!!””
“”Sui will help too~~!””
“”Ou! Let’s tag team it!””
“”Tag team~! Tag team~!””
“Sui-tan, do you know what ‘tag team’ means?” I asked.
““Uuuh, Sui and Dora-chan fight together~!””
“Close enough,” I said indulgently.
“”Alright, let’s find one!!”” Dora-chan immediately shot into the air. A short while later, he fluttered back down, “”Aww, I can’t see any~~””
“Humph, there’s one there,” Fer jerked his face in some random direction. However, before Dora-chan could shoot away, he continued, “Sui, get on my back. Master too.”
“Let us fly together,” said Grandpa Gon to Dora-chan.
““Ou!””
The two dragons flew off into the air. I reluctantly climbed onto Fer’s back and off we went.
Fer ran bounded forward for a few minutes and stopped in front of a huge black mountain. I looked around, but there was really nothing to see except more desolated craggy stones and dried-up soil.
“So, where’s the Dragon Turtle?”
Fer jerked his nose at the black mountain.
“There.”
“The Dragon Turtle is on the mountain?” I squinted my eyes but could see nothing except oddly regular black craggy stones.
“That IS the Dragon Turtle.”
“… …”
I have to admit, it took me a moment to properly register what Fer had just said. Even longer for my eyes to properly note that the black mountain was oddly wide and low for a mountain, with a fairly consistent pattern. Rather than a turtle, it was more like a tortoise. A humongous tortoise with a monstrously huge shell studded with these gigantic, rugged stone points…
“It’s huge!!” I yelped.
Technically, it was more like a small hill than a mountain at 30 to 40 meters wide and… a few storeys tall. However, nobody would call a monster in that size anything but colossal, huge, gigantic, suuper big!!!
“Hmm, it may have sensed our presence and withdrew itself into its shell,” said Grandpa Gon.
I looked at the monster again. Now that I was looking for it, I could see the openings where the head, legs and tail were supposed to be. Except, they were sort of shuttered closed? I supposed it would be a very inefficient defence if it could not protect its openings.
“… …”
“Umu, it is a decent size specimen,” said Grandpa Gon. “I like to roast it with my Dragon Breath slowly before eating it.”
I guess that’s one way to deal with a monster protected by a super-hard shell.
[Gumihou: Poor Dragon Turtle, you will be food for the Gluttonous Quartet soon]
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