Chapter 39: Takatsuki Makoto meets a dragon
"Dragon..." (Lucy)
The mutter of Lucy passed by my ears.
Rugged stone-like scales.
Its whole body a dark brown with a tint of green like emerald.
This must be an Earth Dragon.
That mouth that has giant fangs feel like they could swallow everything.
It had plenty enough pressure to be called the king of monsters.
The moment I saw that, what I felt was elation.
"Wow..." (Makoto)
A dragon is here.
That dragon.
A shock that surpasses my coming to this parallel world ran through my whole body.
Aah, Isekais really are incredible...
I was probably watching in admiration for only around 2-3 seconds.
"Makoto!" (Lucy)
(Get a hold of yourself, Makoto!) (Noah)
The scream of Lucy and the rebuke of the Goddess overlapped.
I regain my senses.
The adventurers who also regained their senses raised screams and began to run away.
Face the Dragon
Escape from the Dragon ←
I let out a smile at the options RPG Player gave me.
(Don't ask for the impossible, man.) (Makoto)
Without hesitation, I hugged Lucy tightly and jumped off the waterfall .
"EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHH?!" (Lucy)
We were swallowed inside the waterfall while listening to the screams of Lucy.
While we were swallowed by the violent water stream, I controlled the water in order to absorb the impact.
[Water Magic: Water Current].
The moment we crashed into the basin of the waterfall, I mitigated the impact into a soft hit.
The inside of the lake is deep, and we didn't get slammed into the ground.
We advance through the water just like that.
It is dark inside the lake so I couldn't see anything, but with [Night Vision] and [Detection], I search for monsters.
(There's a lot of monsters.) (Makoto)
As expected of the Mid Floor.
Just a quick look with Detection, I could tell that there's quite a lot of monsters.
(Let's get out from the lake first.) (Makoto)
Lucy who I have in my arms is going *glub glub*, but I ignore her for now and return to the shore.
◇◇
We got out to the shore, and hid ourselves in the shadow of a big rock.
Thanks to Stealth, monsters haven't noticed us.
"Hey! I heard nothing about suddenly jumping down!" (Lucy)
"If I did tell you, those guys would know about it too. Or more like, are those guys okay?" (Makoto)
"Why are you worrying about them when you were about to be killed by them... In the first place, why did a dragon show up at a place like that?" (Lucy)
"Lucas-san told me that dragons are in the Lower Floor, so we should not go at any cost..." (Makoto)
"A dragon at the Upper Floor is unfair." (Lucy)
"Right." (Makoto)
We sighed.
"What should we do from now on?" (Makoto)
"We return to the Upper Floor, right?" (Lucy)
"Yeah, but we don't know the path to return there." (Makoto)
"Eh? Isn't it okay to just return through the waterfall? With your magic." (Lucy)
"I can't go as far as climbing a waterfall..." (Makoto)
It took me my all just to mitigate the fall from the waterfall so that we won't get injured.
"Could it be that we are in a disastrous situation?" (Lucy)
"It might be a bit of a bad situation, yeah. But first, let's dry our clothes." (Makoto)
I cast the evaporation magic on Lucy and I.
If our bodies get cold, our movements dull, and our stamina gets sapped out.
The food we have on hand will only last for around 2 days, huh.
I wasn't planning on doing an expedition, so I didn't bring much.
"Let's search for a path that can lead us up." (Makoto)
"Even if you say that, the waterfall is going as far as my eye can see, you know." (Lucy)
"There's parts here and there where the waterfall is divided, so let's investigate while avoiding monsters." (Makoto)
But no matter how far we go, we could only see cliffs and waterfalls.
Half a day has already passed.
The reason why it doesn't feel so despairing is...
"Aah, it is quite the breathtaking sight." (Makoto)
Most likely thanks to this superb view.
"You know..." (Lucy)
Lucy says with a voice of amazement.
"This is something I thought at that time with the dragon as well but, you are a bit weird, Makoto." (Lucy)
"Really?" (Makoto)
"Yeah. Do you like dangerous things?" (Lucy)
Hmm, that's...I am beginning to feel like I can't deny that.
"You seem to be looking around restlessly and having fun even in a dungeon. You had your eyes glittering when facing that dragon from before." (Lucy)
"...I am sorry for that time." (Makoto)
"Also, in your world, there were a lot of rides that can fly in the sky, right? I heard about that from Fujiyan-san, you know. And yet, why were you so giddy with the Flying Ship?" (Lucy)
"That can't be helped." (Makoto)
You wouldn't get it. **
The airplanes from my previous world, and the Flying Ships of this world are completely different.
In a fantasy world, flying rides are important.
"I don't get it." (Lucy)
She emphasized, but couldn't manage to empathize, huh.
Well, I am an otherworldler.
While we were having harmless talk like that, we continued exploring.
But we couldn't find a path to go to the Upper Floor at all.
◇ ◇
We got a bit tired, so we were taking a rest. At the time we were doing that, we met her.
"U-Uhm...are you adventurers?"
We were suddenly spoken to.
We are in a space at the back of a waterfall in this underground area, and Lucy and I were sleeping in shifts.
It was at the time when we were thinking about resuming our exploration.
"Hm?" (Lucy)
"..."
I also turn around.
The one who spoke to us was a girl.
But she had quite the beautiful face.
Her clothes were in tatters, holes here and there, and her shoulders were exposed.
It looks like she had a bad time.
"Please help me... I will do anything you want to repay you..."
That girl asks for our help with a feeble voice.
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