Deep blue sky.
Sharp mountain peaks.
The ridge, which sharply divides sky and earth as if carved by a knife, is covered with eternal snow.
Kuuuu-
A wyvern’s cry echoed thunderously through the sky.
Two women were walking through that treacherous magic realm.
Their apparent ages seemed similar.
However, they didn’t look like companions at all.
One was a fairy, and one was human.
The fairy had silver hair and wore traditional white clothing.
The human had long flame-like red hair and wore black leather pants and jacket.
They didn’t match at all, and indeed, they rarely spoke during their time together.
But they did have something in common.
Despite the difficult terrain, their movements were light.
Whether climbing terrible slopes.
Or descending dizzying descents.
They never stopped once.
They bounced lightly like mountain goats.
“…There are fewer monsters than I expected.”
It was Heilit Langrey who spoke.
“It’s incomparably barren compared to the Great Forest.”
Iris answered thus.
The Great Forest had the highest vegetation density of all magic realms, no, the entire continent.
Plants and trees grew thickly everywhere.
Any tree you grabbed had insects crawling on it, snakes lived there, and leopards would jump out of bushes to catch mice.
“I wouldn’t call it barren.”
Heilit laughed, “Ha!”
“Is that so?”
“If the mountains are barren, how would you describe deserts or snowfields?”
Indeed, quite many creatures live in the mountains.
Even excluding monsters.
“But it’s quiet as death.”
“That’s what’s strange. Somehow…”
Heilit pondered.
The surroundings were oddly quiet.
Until yesterday, they had encountered quite a few monsters like termites and such, but today there were none.
It was strange considering Heilit and Iris were heading toward the magic realm’s center at an amazing speed.
“Around here…”
That’s when.
The reason Iris suddenly stopped.
Heilit didn’t do anything foolish like asking “What is it?”
Because Iris’s pointed ears twitched like a cat’s.
Something was nearby.
Having realized this, Heilit should show something too.
She reached into her trademark large backpack.
The inside of the backpack with spatial magic was almost like having an entire warehouse.
What emerged from the backpack was a net.
The weights attached to the net’s edges had runic engravings.
Heilit threw the net as soon as she pulled it out.
The net spread due to centrifugal force as she threw it with a spin.
The net weights glowed blue, and the net pounced on something as if alive.
It was an ordinary rock.
But when the net wrapped around that rock, it crumpled.
“Ah, aah!”
It wasn’t a rock, but someone wearing a cloak.
The grayish cloak with strange texture had acted as camouflage.
It wasn’t magic, just a trick using dirty cloth and sand.
“Help, please spare me!”
The net moved on its own, wrapping around the prey’s body.
Though not particularly powerful, it was quite shocking for the one caught.
“What, it’s just a human?”
Heilit sighed as if disappointed.
“Please, release the net. I’m really not suspicious.”
The rock-disguised person calling himself ‘not suspicious’.
Nothing could look more suspicious than that.
But Heilit retrieved the net.
“I thought it was some interesting monster disguised as a rock. How disappointing.”
“Sorry for not being one… My name is Pandan…”
Pandan, or Pandan.
That adventurer was who had been hiding.
“Why were you hiding like that?”
“I thought you two weren’t human either.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Ah…”
Seeing them run down the treacherous mountains without rest, he thought they might be the legendary mountain goblins said to hide in the mountains.
He didn’t have the courage to say that.
“Fa… thought you were goblins.”
“One is human and one is fairy. Not me, just that grandmother.”
Iris, referred to as grandmother, didn’t even furrow her brow.
Pandan only then noticed Iris’s pointed ears.
Meeting a rare fairy, and so far from the Great Forest in these mountains.
“Why are you hiding here?”
Pandan, who had been making a foolish expression, startled.
Just as he was about to make excuses.
Pandan’s eyes met Heilit’s.
“I’m an adventurer. I came here for a mission…”
Eyes strangely impossible to read.
“…My companions all died. Ah, and I’m an Imperial citizen.”
Not sure why he added that last part.
Only then did Heilit grin.
“I could tell from your accent.”
“Yes.”
He had just used an accent that showed no trace of being Imperial.
Pandan had such doubts, but didn’t press the issue.
“If your mission failed and everyone died, why are you lingering alone in a place like this instead of leaving?”
“Ah…”
Need to choose words carefully here.
This woman has unpleasantly penetrating eyes, so without showing it.
“There are two Wyvern Queens gathered nearby…”
That’s when.
Kwaang!
An explosion sound was heard from the northwest.
Looking back, a pillar of fire rose in the sky.
And two massive black and white wyverns.
Flew around that pillar of fire, not knowing what to do.
“That, that’s it.”
Iris and Langrey looked at each other.
Pelerian’s dungeon they were looking for.
Could it be there?
“Let’s go!”
As Langrey and Iris were about to run.
Just as Pandan tried to slip away.
“You come too!”
“What?”
For some reason, Pandan didn’t dare try to escape.
“Ah, understood.”
The three ran together.
Toward the stone tower spewing fire.
==
「You have killed Test Flesh No.9 Failed Creation lv120」
「Absorbing magic power」
「Magic power is already saturated」
It was an enormous amount of magic power.
Chimera No. 9 had completely turned to charcoal.
The A-rank quest, ‘Eliminate Pelerian’s Chimeras’ was splendidly completed.
The ugly past Pelerian left in the world.
Those chimeras, evidence of that past, were all eliminated and became my experience points.
Since the incineration procedure started and the entire dungeon interior was engulfed in flames, even the evidence must have cleanly burned away.
But somehow, I had a bad taste in my mouth.
‘Ptui ptui!’
Ah, must be because part of the charred chimera was in my mouth.
After spitting out what was in my mouth, it wasn’t bitter anymore.
Crumble.
The body of Chimera No. 9 crumbled like completely burned coal briquettes.
It didn’t even contain a magic stone.
No, maybe the magic stone burned up in the hot flames.
When using Gigantification skill, strength and weight increase but there are side effects.
The body’s durability weakens proportionally, and speed also decreases.
I reduced my body size again.
My magic power was running low anyway.
