Chapter 124

Giant Crustaceans

In a vast forested area with countless trees.

Within this forested area, for some reason, a "road" existed.

From one end of the forest to the center of the forest, a "road" with no trees stretches on and on.

The distance was so great that it would take several days to traverse it on human legs. The road is so wide that large horse-drawn wagons and boar carts could easily pass each other.

However, this "road" was not made with the intent to be traveled on.

They merely ate the trees and animals in the forest area to satisfy their appetites, and the result was the "road.

Even now, five of them are snapping off trees close at hand and chewing on trees that have fallen to the ground.

Armored dragons. The giant monsters, which the humans called "armor dragons," were devouring everything in their vicinity.

Tatsumi raised his eyebrows slightly at the sight spreading out before his feet.

As he had heard from the innkeeper in the town where he had stayed a few days before, and as the elf Sheila had informed him, there were five armored dragons in the forest.

Tatsumi, stopped in mid-air, and looked at the small villages scattered in the distance. In front of those villages is a large lake. That lake is the lake where the village of elves, Sheila's hometown, exists.

At this rate, the armored dragons will reach the lake in a few more days. And like the trees in the forest, they will surely overrun the lake.

"At any rate, it seems that these magical beasts are amphibious..."

Tatsumi, his gaze shifting to his feet again, mutters to no one in particular.

According to the information I heard from Calcedonia and Elle before our departure, the armored dragons can operate freely both on land and in the water.

If this is the case, it is obvious that Tatsumi and his team will be at a disadvantage if they do not defeat the dragon while it is still on land.

Once again, Tatsumi looked at the magical beast writhing at his feet.

The size of the beast is approximately six to seven meters in length and four to five meters in height. As for its weight, it is difficult to imagine.

Of the five armored dragons, only one is larger than the others, but it is probably the leader of the pack.

...This is the armored dragon.

The body is divided into many sections. Each segmented part is covered by a sturdy-looking shell.

Underneath the huge body are countless wriggling legs. The legs are covered with a shell similar to that of the body, which is probably sufficient to protect them.

In contrast to its huge body, its head is small. The small head had eyes and antennae that seemed to be compound eyes, and the antennae were constantly swaying from side to side, as if they were probing their surroundings.

Tatsumi turns his eyes to the huge compound eyes on its head.

The body of the armored dragon is generally grayish brown. However, only the eyes were jet black.

It seems that this time it is not possessed by a demon.

The eyes of all five armored dragons are black. There is no red light, which is a sign of possession by a demon.

Tatsumi is a little relieved inwardly at this fact.

The armored dragon is a powerful enemy. If a demon possessed this powerful enemy, its strength would only have risen.

Thinking of this, Tatsumi turns his gaze again to the lake in the distance.

There, his friends must be preparing to fight the armored dragon.

"I can't just go out there and fight them all by myself," he said.

Certainly, the current Tatsumi would be enough to win against the armored dragon.

However, this time there are multiple enemies, and they also have a nasty poison. It goes without saying that it is better to cooperate with friends than to take risks here.

The reason he was here alone was reconnaissance. He came here to confirm once again the existence and number of armored dragons, as rumors and prior information had indicated.

Tatsumi, who can use "instantaneous transfer," "flight," and "acceleration," is the only "high-mobility scout" in this world.

All right, I'd better get back and report to Calse and the others.

Tatsumi twists his body in the air and heads toward the point where his friends are waiting.

As he ran across the azure sky at high speed, Tatsumi once again recalled the image of the armored dragon he had just seen.

He thought about the appearance of the dragon armor, "It looks like a dung beetle, but it can adapt to water, so it is more like a giant slug than a dung beetle..."

Giant Slug.

It is a species of marine crustacean belonging to the isopod order Snakhorididae.

On Earth, it is said to inhabit the Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic Ocean, living in the sandy mud of the seafloor at depths ranging from 200 to 100 meters.

They are huge crustaceans, reaching a maximum length of nearly 50 cm and weighing more than one kilogram.

In fact, the beetle and the giant crustacean belong to the same order, Isopoda.

They are also known to eat very little for their large size, and in fact, there are records of them living for many months in captivity on a fasted diet.

The armored dragon, the target of this hunt, looks a lot like the giant aquatic bug.

As Tatsumi felt, at first glance, the armored dragon may look like a damselfly, but if its underwater activities are taken into account, it is more likely to be a damselfly than a damselfly.

However, while Earth's giant beetles eat very little, this armored dragon seems to be a very gluttonous eater.

Of course, they are similar in appearance, and there are many details that are different. Furthermore, there are also many ecological differences between the armored dragon and the giant flying squirrel, such as the presence or absence of poison and the fact that they are amphibious, so it seems that they are only similar in appearance.

Several naked white bodies were drifting in the clear water.

Using their arms and legs dexterously, the figures move freely in and out of the water.

They swayed and fluttered about in the meadows of water grass growing on the bottom of the water.

Occasionally, they seem to find something in the waterweeds, and they put their thin, white hands into the water weeds and pull out a few strands of waterweed.

Among the figures with sky-blue hair and protruding ears, there were three figures with slightly different features.

One was a woman with long platinum hair and crimson eyes. The second was a woman with shoulder-length light brown hair and eyes of the same color. The last one is a woman with slightly darker brown hair and eyes.

Like the other sky-blue-haired figures, all three were nude and moving deftly through the water.

Without pausing to catch their breath on the surface of the water, the women drift among the water plants, occasionally pulling them out of the water.

They must have collected more than a certain amount of water plants. A woman with light brown hair poked a nearby woman with platinum hair on the shoulder with her fingertip and pointed her finger toward the surface of the water.

The platinum-haired woman nodded in agreement with this gesture. Then, she gives a signal to the woman with dark brown hair who was also nearby.

The three of them slowly rise to the surface. Then they break the surface of the water and stick their faces out of the water.

'Wind...'

The light brown-haired woman - Miruil - exhaled the air in her lungs in one gulp.

"It's not easy to find medicinal herbs underwater," she said. "But this time, it was much easier because of the magic Calce used to help us."

Besides, my sister Sheila and the elves in the village helped us out.

The three swim slowly toward shore, holding the medicinal herbs they collected in the water.

They were followed by several elven women who had also emerged from the water.

I myself am of no use in the battle against the armored dragons, so I must at least help in any way I can.

The elven women are led by Sheila, the daughter of the chief.

They were currently gathering medicinal herbs to counter the poison spewed by the armored dragons.

The herbs that are effective against the dragon's venom are water plants that grow naturally in the water. These several kinds of water weeds are ground and mixed together, then water is added and the mixture is kneaded.

By chewing it in the mouth like gum, it is possible to neutralize most of the armor dragon's poison.

Normally, collecting underwater medicinal herbs is a difficult task. This time, however, Calcedonia's "Underwater Breathing" and "Underwater Action" magic made it easy to collect medicinal herbs underwater.

Moreover, with the help of the elves, we were able to collect the required amount of medicinal herbs in a shorter time than we had expected.

Calcedonia and the others, after being lifted out of the water, generously exposed their dazzling naked bodies to the sunlight.

However, all of them, including the elves, were women. Incidentally, the reason why the elves who cooperated with us were all women was because of Tatsumi's insistence.

Even if the elves were his partners, he did not want to expose his beloved wife's naked body to the eyes of men other than himself. Tatsumi would not compromise on that.

Even if there were male elves here, they would not show any interest in the naked bodies of Calcedonia and Miruil.

Elves are a race that lives underwater and do not have the custom of wearing clothes. Therefore, they do not feel anything special when they see the naked bodies of the opposite sex.

However, there are still some things that cannot be divided. Tatsumi stubbornly refuses to give in to the conditions he has set forth, and Sheila responds with a smile.

Calcedonia and the elf women put the water plants they had collected into baskets on the shore after lifting them out of the water.

The herbs were placed in several baskets, separated by type. This would be enough to fight the armored dragon.

"This is all we can do to help. Good luck, everyone. Mira, you must not push yourself too hard, okay?"

"I know what I'm doing, Sheila. I'm not going to stand in anyone's way."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Lady Sheila."

After exchanging a few words with each other, Sheila and the other elves disappeared into the water.

Calcedonia and the others watched them wipe their bodies with the clothes they had prepared and quickly put on their clothes. Then, each carrying a basket, they set out on foot.

Jadock and Morgernike would be preparing to mix the medicinal herbs.

Besides, Tatsumi, who had been out scouting, would be back by now.

The parlors and boar carts they used to get here have been left at Mira's home village nearby. There is no need to worry about the cavalrymen getting caught up in the battle with the armored dragons.

Soon all the preparations for fighting the armored dragon will be in place. Once that happens, all that remains is to fight the demonic beasts with all our might.

Even though they did not say it out loud, the three of them each had a spirited look on their faces.

Tatsumi swoops down from the sky above.

But as soon as he put his feet on the ground, he scowled his face as hard as he could.

"Ugh... that's a hell of a stench..."

Covering his mouth with his hand, Tatsumi stares at what they had collected.

He sees that Morgernike and Jadok are in the middle of grinding the medicinal herbs that Calcedonia and the others have gathered.

Apparently, the source of the stench is the medicinal herb.

The unique combination of foul smell and bitterness would make anyone, not just Tatsumi, turn his head away.

In fact, the two men who are mixing the herb are working while covering their mouths with a thick cloth.

And with drops of water dripping from their hair, the women watched the scene from a distance. There is not a shadow of the look of determination that was on their faces just a moment ago.

The smell of the herbs was that bad.

"Welcome back, Master."

Calcedonia's face, noticing Tatsumi's return, popped like a flower blooming, unlike before.

"...Are you sure this is safe to put in your mouth?"

"It's true that it smells terrible, and it tastes... like that, but I'm sure it neutralizes the poison of the armored dragons and..."

Calcedonia's gaze swims. Apparently, the taste as well as the smell is quite terrible.

But as she said, it must be better than being poisoned by armor dragon's poison.

Tatsumi muttered to himself as he watched them work silently with frowns on their faces.

"I think... this herb might be a much tougher opponent than the armored dragons..."