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TL: ALT
Chapter 56 – Day 1 of Exploration
When I woke up, it was the usual cave ceiling.
“I’m back, huh? The city is tiring, after all.”
When I left the cave, Chel was baking bread, and Sylvia was doing her morning workout.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.”
“Go-go-go-good morning!”
Jennifer and Hel, who were on duty at the campfire, still seemed to be asleep.
“Sylvia, I hear you come from a vampire clan?”
“Eh? N-n-no… I guess, but…”
“That’s so cool!”
Chel looked at Sylvia with envy when she heard that she was a vampire.
“If it’s easier to move around at night than during the day, just let me know.”
“Th-th-that’s not it. It-it-it’s just that I can copy abilities by drinking blood.”
“What’s that? That’s so cool!”
Chel looked at Sylvia like she was a hero.
“Is that so? If you want my blood or Chel’s, just say so.”
“I-i-is that okay?”
“It’s okay, right?”
“It’s okay. Sylvia, do you hate garlic?”
Chel seemed to want to become a vampire, saying things like, “Can I bite you a little?” Apparently, you can’t become a vampire, no matter how much you want to.
“It’s a family curse.”
“Curse. Can’t be helped.”
The three of us ate breakfast together and then spent the morning building a kiln. I thought it would be finished in ten days, but then I realized we didn’t have enough sun-dried bricks.
“Let’s get on with it. We’ve got to do it anyway.”
No matter what kind of life you lead, it is better to have a vessel.
We made cement by mixing the highly adhesive sap of the demonic land palm with lime and mud, then piled the bricks according to Hel’s design.
“Makyo, the Maeshitsukawazu is in the cave!”
Turning around at Chel’s voice, I saw a dinosaur-like Maeshitsukawazu peering into the cave.
“Chel, keep it paralyzed. We’ll dismantle it later and eat it for lunch.”
“Understood.”
Chel used her staff to paralyze the Maeshitsukawazu and put it down.
“You’re getting used to it, aren’t you?”
“It’s nothing.”
Chel put down her staff, her chest puffing out.
“Did Sylvia get used to it?”
“I-I-I stay away from dangerous monsters. It’s a way to survive.”
It seems that Sylvia has also come to think in terms of the demonic land.
We quickly finished building the kiln and began to dismantle Maaeshitsukawazu.
“Do you need blood?”
“J-j-just a little.”
I collected a leather bag of blood for Sylvia. I heard that bones and skin can also be used as materials for weapons.
“Hunting will be more efficient.”
I kept the intestines and any usable parts. I threw the rest into the swamp or the grass. That’s fine because I won’t have any trouble disposing of them in the demonic land.
“Is this a dragon too?”
I muttered as I cut off the head.
“I see. They say it’s a Maeshitsukawazu, but it could also be a relative of the dragon. Fuwaahh~, good morning.”
Hel stood up and looked at the severed head.
“Oh, that’s right. It seems that the royal family of Estinia has dragon blood. And the king wants us to find the ruins of Midgard.”
“The Estinian royal family was also after it?”
“It seems so. They called it the City of Dragons.”
“They interpret history to suit their own purposes. Well, it’s said that the first king of the magical kingdom of Yggdrasil had a dragon as his retainer, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. By the way, those greedy elves were probably looking for the dragon’s bones.”
“I hope we can start trading soon.”
“That’s one way to do it.”
Hel said, and then she started munching on the sandwich Chel had made.
“Ara, good morning everyone!”
Jennifer woke up with a strange movement. I wondered what she was going to do, but then she sat down next to me, put her hands on my lap, and leaned over.
“Hey Makyo-san, what are your plans for today?”
Has she been smoking some kind of dangerous weed?
I grabbed Jennifer’s cheeks with both hands.
“Snap out of it! If you don’t live properly, you’ll die!”
“Ouch!”
“She seems to feel pain. Somebody, throw some water on her! Don’t smoke some weird weed!”
Chel had created a water ball with magic and splashed it on Jennifer’s face.
“Buhah!”
“Are you awake?”
“I am awake!”
“Go wash your face. We need to talk about plans for the future.”
Jennifer hurried down the slope to the swamp.
“What’s wrong with her?”
I asked the three of them, but for some reason, they laughed.
When Jennifer returned, her cheeks flushed, I told all of them that I had become the Lord.
“I have been appointed Margrave. The king told me various things, but basically he wants me to find the ruins of a city called Midgard.”
“Midgard is the city Hel spoke of, right?”
Jennifer asked, having returned to normal.
“Yes, it’s a city in the magical kingdom of Yggdrasil. The king used to call it the Dragon Capital.”
“If we find it, we’ll know the truth.”
Hel nodded as she said this.
“So I recruited pioneers in the royal capital, but the reputation of the demonic land is extremely bad. It’s so incredibly unpopular that no one comes. What a shame.”
“Shame!”
Chel made a silly face and looked depressed. If the pioneers do come, I’ll have to explain about Chel.
“The task in the future in the demonic land is to find the ruins and excavate valuable things and secure a safe way from the training facility.”
“Wh-wh-what about the rent?”
Sylvia asked.
“You still have to work for your rent, but instead of healing potions or weapons, you can also be compensated for your work in finding ruins.”
“These terms are more than I could ask for, but what about the other girls?”
Hel came to the demonic land to find Midgard, so the goals were the same.
“I can’t go anywhere else, so it’s okay.”
Chel had no choice.
“I-I-I don’t have anywhere else to go either. Well, outside the demonic land, I’d be treated like a slave.”
It seems that Sylvia also only has the demonic land as a place to go.
“I…”
Is Jennifer hesitating? Drugs are forbidden in the demonic land, though.
“Jennifer’s defense is super strong.”
“Since you were rejected by Makyo, isn’t that enough? You don’t need to hide.”
“Ni-ni-nice fight!”
The three of them were talking to Jennifer.
Wait, when did I reject Jennifer?
“The person in charge of managing the demonic land items! Jennifer Volkov. From now on, I will fulfill my role as a tanker without being overcome by greed!”
“Oh, yes. I’m counting on you.”
What is it? Is she getting sexually excited or something?
“Well, I don’t really know, but try not to smoke too many weird plants. Let’s start with a detailed map, shall we?”
I asked Hel.
“Yes. Let’s focus on exploration.”
I got used to the demonic land, and my life of full-fledged exploration had begun.
“Just listen while you eat.”
We continued to talk about our plans over lunch.
“Apparently there’s a country of birdmen across the desert to the south.”
“The desert is quite far away.”
As Chel said, it would take a long time to get to the desert. Besides, there are many dangerous monsters there, such as Arachnes and Poison Scorpions.
“That’s true, but since we’re bordering them in the demonic land, I thought we should at least go and say hello.”
“E-e-even just to say hello, won’t that take a couple of days?”
“Probably. But we’re still going to explore the desert, right?”
“Of course.”
Hel nodded vigorously.
“It’s about two and a half months until the giant magic beast appears. Since we know it’s coming this time, I think we should build a shelter in the desert.”
“Ah, I see!”
Chel clapped her hands in agreement.
“Let’s start exploring towards the south.”
In the afternoon, we all took a short walk south. There were many places near the cave that we didn’t need to go, so we moved carefully, filling in the places we hadn’t been.
Looking down at my feet, I could see the baby Haze Turtles scurrying around at ankle level.
“It’s amazing how these little Haze Turtles grow to be the size of houses.”
“T-t-the little ones move fast, but the big ones are usually slow. Ho-ho-however, the big ones in the demon land are fast.”
Sylvia said as she observed them.
“Oh, that’s right.”
“Sure. The bigger they are, the more energy they need, so the inside must be hot. Maybe big monsters are always tormented by heat.”
As Hel said, it would certainly take a lot of energy to move a huge body. I often see big monsters basking in the sun during the day, but do they store up heat to move at night?
“The giant magical beast?”
“That giant magical beast, it’s moving like that, so maybe its internal organs are burned.”
That giant magical beast, as big as a mountain, might be dying.
“If we cool it down, will it stop moving?”
When Chel put the baby Haze Turtle into the cold water, it immediately slowed down.
“Heat is a very important factor for monsters. From now on, when we encounter big monsters, we’ll try to cool them down with magic while hunting them.”
“Understood.”
There was a Lamia right in front of us, targeting the Haze Turtle’s egg.
“There’s a Lamia ahead.”
Jennifer, who was walking in front of us, said to everyone in a low voice. The Lamia was about ten feet tall.
“Okay, let’s give it a try.”
When I gave the signal, Jennifer protected everyone with a wooden shield, and Chel and I used water magic to create a mist around the Lamia.
I used ice magic to turn the mist into ice and cool it.
The Lamia turned around and tried to release petrifying magic from its eyes, but Chel used light magic to blind it. In addition, Sylvia threw mud balls mixed with palm sap at it, which blinded it. It seems that the weapon shop in the demonic land makes its own tools.
Lamia’s body gradually cooled down, curled up, and froze.
“You guys are surprisingly good. You’re amazing.”
When I praised them, Chel replied, “They are just getting used to the demonic land.” Jennifer, who was holding a shield, smashed Lamia’s skull with a mace and dismembered it on the spot.
The snake-like part of the lower body had completely cooled down, but the human-like part of the upper body was still slightly warm. In particular, the area around the heart and the magic stone was as hot as a human’s body temperature.
“It’s been thought that monsters’ magic stones are organs that store magic power, but maybe they’re there to dissipate the body heat that suddenly rises.”
Hel began to speak like a monsterologist.
“So when monsters use magic for no reason, they release their body heat?”
“Well, doesn’t that make sense, considering that monsters can grow bigger than animals?”
When you put it that way, it does make sense.
“So dragons used a lot of magic because they were big, right?”
Chel asked Hel.
“So Midgard is a city of magic and a city of dragons?”
The life of exploration had just begun.
Only our imaginations are expanding.
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