Volume 12 Chapter 4 - Desert Ecology
Part 1
Our trip in the desert began.
My body was tense thanks to the surprise attack from the Succubus.
Perhaps due to spending the last few years in school, my intuition might have dulled.
Although, my intuition was never that sharp anyway.
These sorts of things are dependent on the feeling.
This is the Begaritto Continent.
It is different from the safe Central Continent.
I may die if I'm not careful.
"Let's wear thick clothes for now. Making sure to keep well hydrated, please tell me if the water in your flask runs out."
"Understood."
We are wearing a hood and a coat.
We aren't letting our skin get exposed.
If Cliff was here, he would probably complain about having to wear thick clothes even though it is so hot.
Even though we're in a desert, I can make water and ice with magic.
However, we don't know what might happen.
Neither me nor Elinalise know the proper ways of traveling through the desert.
I have to make sure I don't suddenly get heat stroke and become unable to use magic.
"The direction we should advance, well, is North fine?"
"Yeah, I'm in your care."
Looking at the map, the closest town is due north.
Elinalise began walking precisely North without relying on a compass.
The elves do not lose their sense of direction even within a dense forest where you can't see the sun.
With her decades of experience, Elinalise can move straight in the correct direction.
Although, even without being an elf there are many people in this world who can safely arrive in the village as long as they have a map.
It probably comes from experience.
"Anyway, it's hot isn't it."
"Should I make rain fall on this whole region?"
"You'd better not, monsters will come."
In any desert, living things seek water.
In the Great Forest as well, during the rainy season lizard-like beasts came out in large quantities.
However, I heard that the beasts of the Begaritto Continent are weak to cold.
If the time comes, I will freeze the whole area.
Obviously making sure I don't drag Elinalise into it.
While thinking such, I followed Elinalise.
Just in case, I confirmed the position of the stone monument as well.
Part 2
It's the first time I have ever walked in a desert.
It feels like my foot is buried in soft sand every step I take.
It's good that I got used to walking in the snow in the northern lands.
Although, I can't say it's the same thing, the burden on my legs is about the same.
Like this I won't have any problem even walking through the whole day.
Or that's what I thought, but I was exhausted after walking for just a few hours.
The strong sunlight must be affecting me.
The strong rays and hot winds raise my body temperature and make me dizzy.
Although, I am regulating my body temperature by replenishing fluids, the lethargy that occurs is beyond control.
Perhaps I should have made at least one cloud in the atmosphere.
Compared to me, Elinalise was full of energy.
"Rudeus, unexpectedly you have no stamina, do you?"
"Well, I think the sand is fine since I am used to walking in snow. But I can do nothing about the heat."
"But I'm sure if it was Cliff or Zanoba here they would have collapsed long ago. I think it was the right call not to take them along."
As I thought the warriors of this world have monstrous stamina.
Perhaps this is thanks to Fighting Spirit?
I'm jealous.
Still, the heat is dangerous.
It feels like my sweat evaporates the instant it comes out.
When I was in the northern lands, the cold was dangerous.
Back then I just used magic to raise the temperature in the space around me.
It was an application of the fire magic [Burning Blaze].
If I tamper with that it might be useful here.
I'll try activating it right now.
"Oh, that feels nice, did you do something?"
"I tried lowering the air temperature around us."
It feels like the temperature dropped something around 5°C.
It's still too hot.
This flashiness must be because of the never ending sun.
Even though I am wearing a hood, the top of my head is burning.
It might have been good to prepare a parasol.
For now, I walked forward while lowering the temperature around me and froze a water flask to put under my clothes.
If it melts I will freeze it again with magic.
This made me feel a lot better.
Like this, I can handle the heat.
Part 3
During the day, we encountered several beasts.
What we first saw looked like a big scorpion.
About 2 meters I'd say.
The tail was separated into two and each attacked by moving separately.
According to Elinalise it was a [Twin Death Scorpion].
Because the tails emit deadly poison, you can't treat it without Intermediate detoxification.
It's good that I learned it.
The [Twin Death Scorpion] had a somewhat hard shell, but its movement was slow.
After Elinalise stopped it's movement, I shot a single [Rock Bullet].
It was an opponent we could defeat in two seconds.
It seems to be B class, but the affinity with the party was good. It's a small fry.
However, if it was Elinalise alone it would be a close fight due to her lacking a bit in attack strength, it seems.
"Phew, it's pretty big isn't it?"
"Isn't it pretty normal?"
"About the same size as the beasts on the Demon Continent."
Well, now that you mention it…
The beasts on Begaritto Continent are weaker than the ones on Demon Continent.
That's what I heard, so this size was a bit of a surprise.
I expected the size to be about half of this.
"This one might be especially big compared to the others, right?"
"The one you meet first being the best is something you hear often."
"No, it's not."
"Well, maybe the opponents in this area are just stronger."
"That might be the case."
While conversing like that, we hurried forward.
The next thing we saw was a treant.
This monster is really everywhere isn't it.
This time it was formed into a cactus.
By the way, it's called a [Cactus Treant].
It's a C rank monster.
It came in shooting needles and used something similar to earth magic as well, but still it was nothing special.
"I feel sort of relieved whenever I find a treant."
"It's something you find everywhere after all. It's like a slime."
"Hmm? You only find slimes in caves though?"
"Uhh don't mind me just talking to myself. Anyway, you can't really make this cactus into firewood can you?"
"It has absorbed too much moisture after all. If you have no magic though it's a thankful existence."
Elinalise can currently use water magic as well.
Although I thought she was skipping classes, it seems she was properly learning whatever she could.
Then that thing suddenly appeared.
"Enemy attack!"
While suddenly shouting that, Elinalise took a back step.
In the next instant, something big came out of the ground where Elinalise had been.
It's an earthworm.
With a thickness of one meter and a length of about five meters, a giant worm burst out of the ground.
After making a weird "bakun!!" sound in midair it immediately dove underground again.
"Phew, that surprised me."
"What was that?"
"It was a Sandworm. A bit big though."
Sandworms are a monster that waits motionlessly in the earth waiting for prey to pass above, at which point they burst out of the ground to eat it.
Although I didn't see any, it seems there are similar monsters in the Great Forest.
Just the size is different.
The one in the Great Forest is apparently around 20 to 30 centimeters in diameter.
It's not really a threat to humans.
"There are big ones in the Demon Continent as well, right? Have you seen any?"
"I only saw snakes and wolves in the Demon Continent. And some weird armor."
"When you say armor do you mean Soul Breaker?"
"No, it was called Executioner or something like that. It had a big sword."
"Oh, the stronger one. It's not something you want to meet alone, is it."
Anyway, Begaritto Continent's sandworms are big.
Just the part that came above ground was already 5 meters long.
If you include the part underground, in total it might come close to 10 meters.
It was at a size where it could swallow a human whole.
Something like that was lying in wait underground waiting to "bakun" if something passed by.
It's a kind of instant death trap.
Although, if you dodge the first attack putting an end to it is not hard.
If you put the sandworm underground in a "mixer" with earth magic, they will instantly die without even a death shriek.
The bodily fluids collect into a puddle above ground.
It's a bit gross.
"I wonder how magnificent of a butterfly would be born from a caterpillar this big."
"It might unexpectedly turn into a succubus you know? The butterfly of the night, or something."
"Oh oh then Elinalise-san must have been born from a caterpillar."
"Fufu, I did have a caterpillar-like period once."
She won't deny being part succubus either.
Anyway, I wonder what a caterpillar-like Elinalise was like.
Maybe a girl with glasses sitting in the library.
Or maybe wearing overalls doing farmwork in the fields.
If you showed Cliff a video of those days he would probably get aroused.
The gap is a splendid thing after all.
The last thing we encountered was an ant.
We discovered it after climbing over a sand dune, and the instant Elinalise discovered it she immediately pushed me down.
After finally climbing to the top, we rolled halfway down.
"What is this suddenly?"
"It's a swarm of Phalanx Ants!"
Phalanx Ant.
Even if you say that, I have no idea what it is.
For now, imitating Elinalise, I slowly crawl up the hill.
In front of me was Elinalise's ass packed in hide trousers.
As usual Elinalise has a nice ass.
Sylphy might have something like this as well when she's about 20.
Right now it's a small ass, but it's still plenty attractive.
"Move quietly so we don't provoke them."
We arrived at the peak of the dune.
Hiding behind the slope, we tried observing the swarm of Phalanx Ants.
There, a swarm of bright red ants moved in files of troops.
If I were to estimate the size, they're about 30 centimeters to 1 meter big.
There are both big ones and small ones.
Their forms vary as well, there are some with wings and some with an upper body like a human.
While making noise those ants were marching along heading towards a single point.
Simply said, it's an army of ants.
The army of ants looked like a red river.
The length was from the horizon to the other side.
It was a line of terrifying length.
"With that size and amount, they can easily be classified as S class."
"Wow, S class is it. For reference please give me an explanation."
"The Phalanx Ant is one type of the strongest monsters which consume everything on their path.
There are some in the Great Forest as well, but this size must be a characteristic native to the Begaritto continent."
Phalanx Ants are a variant of army ants.
Even though they're ants, without making a nest they earnestly travel while consuming everything on their path.
Although there are several natural enemies, if it's an opponent walking on the earth, even if it's a stray dragon, it will be consumed.
And then, when a certain season comes around, they make a nest and switch with the next generation.
Up to this point they're like normal army ants.
However, perhaps due to being a monster, their intelligence and aggressiveness are apparently higher than normal army ants.
For example, if we made a grand appearance from behind the dune, even if we took no hostile action, they would change direction to come attack us, it seems.
"They're not that strong one on one. From what I can tell, the small ones are E class and the large ones are from D to C class."
"But still they are C class at most?"
From what I can tell, there are a lot more than one or two thousand of them.
The number of monsters in the swarm is taken into account in the monster ranking system in this world.
Even if they're D or C class, if 10000 small fries come together it's easily S class.
In a certain game in my previous life, ants three times as large as humans came out in large quantities.
But it's not necessary to be that big.
The monsters in this world are awfully good at moving around.
"Oh, that one is the queen."
Elinalise pointed at a certain point in the swarm.
There was an especially large individual.
The ant was more than 2 meters long, with a woman's body growing from it's upper body.
It gave off the feeling of the Hive Queen.
I'd say Stun must be it's weak point.
In my previous world, the queens of army ants were at most 50 millimeters big. Taking that into account, that Phalanx Ant is 50 times the size of it.
It's a threat.
This world has awfully many monsters that group together.
For some reason they are also good at group tactics.
That's why I don't want to fight those ants.
I'm sure the instant I try to meddle with them they will rush at me in a beautiful roman circle formation.
There might even be ants that use magic or launch long range attacks at me.
There might be a chance of victory if I used a large scale magic attack that could wipe them out.
No, if I used something like that we would take damage as well.
"Hey Rudeus! Why are you making a face like you're ready to fight?"
"Fight? I wouldn't do something like that."
"You were making a face like you were planning on how to attack the ants if we fought."
I wouldn't make a belligerent face like that.
Which combat race would I belong to.
I'm not getting excited.
"Nah, I was just thinking about how to escape if they noticed us."
"Then it's fine. We are going to wait until the swarm has passed through."
"Understood."
I agreed with Elinalise's plan.
It's not like my experience points would go up even if I dispersed them.
Even if I grabbed materials to sell them for gold I wouldn't be able to carry those red and hot-looking shells in this damn heat.
Let's avoid danger.
Our objective right now is to arrive in Lapan after all.
Not to raise my achievements.
It wouldn't be good if something like reconnaissance became the duty of our mission.
After about an hour, the ants disappeared.
Part 4
The evening in the desert is red.
The ground is dyed deep red and the contrast in the patterns on the ground is seen clearly.
As red and black produce stripe patterns on the surface, an illusion like scene stretches out.
It's another world.
There must have been such a scene in the previous world as well.
"The temperature is falling. It seems like at this rate we can gain a lot more distance during the night."
"That's right, let's keep going."
"Understo…huh?"
As we were talking, I noticed something was flying around in the air.
Looking closer, it was a large bat around 50cm.
Big.
They started circling around us while making noise flapping their wings.
It doesn't come out during the day, maybe it preys on normal insects and lizards.
"It's a big bat isn't it."
"Oh, is it a monster?"
"Whether it's a monster or not is hard to tell, but we should be careful since there are so many of them."
It seems this bat is called a Giant Bat.
Its rank is F.
Because there are many of them, it might be around E class.
It lacks attack power and is not much of an opponent.
It doesn't attack humans either.
It only makes annoying flapping sounds, it seems.
"W-what? What are they doing?"
For some reason they were swarming around Elinalise.
They weren't particularly attacking, just flying around her.
Are they male?
"Hey, Rudeus! Don't just look and do something!"
"Okay."
Not even Elinalise can handle being swarmed around this much.
Should I make a tornado to scatter them?
I was thinking such carefree thoughts.
"Hmm?"
Within the swarm of bats.
A conspicuous large silhouette was mixed in.
With the wings of a large bat, it was bewitchingly skipping closer.
At the same time, a sweet scent was tickling my nose.
It's a Succubus.
"Uoooh! [Rock Bullet Stone Cannon]!"
From my hand a thick and hard bullet shoots out driving itself into the succubus like a body blow.
While making an anguished face, the succubus takes a back step.
Without stopping it runs away while holding it's stomach.
Whoops.
I unconsciously lowered the strength.
Somehow it seems if the opponent has a human face it's no good.
I don't have such a thing as the resolve to kill.
I am weak to the monster called succubus.
I'll admit it.
Since I won't kill it, the moment I sniff the scent, pheromones I'll lose my reason.
On the day I approach one to fight it, I will probably be captured before I know it.
Although, as long as there's distance between us, I can defeat it with a single rock bullet.
I won't be defeated.
The combat strength of a succubus is around E class, but it is classified as C class.
It's a powerful monster.
If I was still a virgin, no, if I hadn't experienced the sweet nights with Sylphy, I probably couldn't have won.
The being called succubus itself was something I loved during my previous life after all.
The succubus of this world is a bit ugly without makeup, but as long as you show your naked body in front of a man there's nothing to be done about it.
Once you understand it's something like that, it's easy to accept it.
That's why it can't be helped.
After the Giant Bats had been taken care of, coming from behind Elinalise and embracing her.
This is something that can't be helped.
It's an abnormal status.
"Hey, Rudeus! Pull yourself together! Use detoxification quickly! Stop pushing on me!"
"Just a bit, it will only be for a bit! Just the tip! It will be fine if I do it from behind, from behind it doesn't count as an affair!"
"Stop messing around!"
"Guho!"
As I was embracing her, Elinalise struck me with a sturdy buckler.
If this was an eroge, Elinalise would be called a violent type heroine.
It's not unreasonable.
In any case, after coming to my senses a bit from the pain, I used detoxification.
"Haa… haa… You trouble me."
"It can't be helped… It's that kind of monster after all."
Uu, the place where I was hit is throbbing with pain.
A shield is a blunt weapon after all.
"Fuu… Seriously, I want succubuses to leave us alone already! Ahh, really, I'm starting to feel the itch coming on."
Elinalise was slapping her reddened cheeks while shaking her head.
In my courting behavior it seems she felt something from the irregular movements.
It was completely the Succubus' pheromones fault, it's not like I actually wanted to succumb to lust or anything.
Well, it's fine.
By hitting me she is withstanding it as well.
It couldn't be helped.
This is something that just couldn't be helped.
"Those bats must have been the underlings of the succubus, right?"
"It seems so."
In the central continent as well, there are monsters that make weaker monsters obey them.
If I remember correctly, the first monster I saw in this world was like that as well.
I wonder what its name was.
I seem to have forgotten because I only saw it once.
It was some kind of wild boar walking on two legs.
The succubus was using Giant Bats as its subordinates.
If they happen to see a traveling couple, it sends the bats after the woman, then attracts the man and kidnaps him.
The succubus then takes the man to it's nest to eat him in a sexual way, after which it literally eats him.
We can handle them since I can defeat them in a single long range attack.
But I'm sure it must be difficult for swordsmen and warrior types.
At any rate, you can't fight with close range attacks without sniffing that scent.
The longer the fight lasts, the more disadvantageous it becomes.
Any noble knight as well will just collapse without a fight.
You must be at least gay to win against a succubus.
"What is it this time?"
After the battle with the succubus.
A velociraptor-like bipedal lizard appeared from behind a sand dune.
One after another they are coming at us.
Although they're not big, there are many of them.
Some of them started eating the fallen bats on the ground.
"Haven't seen these before."
Elinalise readies her battle stance without letting her guard down.
I monitor the situation as well while holding my staff.
"There are monsters that even Elinalise-san doesn't know about?"
"It's not like I'm some monster professor you know."
Elinalise didn't know the names of these lizards either.
Must be a species native to Begaritto.
After looking at us for a moment, the raptors came in menacingly to attack us.
Maybe they thought we would steal their prey.
No, since we were the ones who defeated the bats it is they who are stealing our prey.
Although they're not that strong, they do have sharp teeth and fast feet.
Well, they're nothing special.
We defeated 7 of them.
There are about 10 left.
They became alert and took some distance from us.
Hmm, should I just take all of them out with some advanced magic?
As I was thinking that, the next moment:
"Rudeus! Be careful! A big one is coming!"
As we were fighting the raptors, an especially large one came out.
Said simply, it's a giant chicken.
A giant, 5 meter chicken.
It's already a dinosaur.
The bright red crest hurts my eyes.
It seems to be the natural enemy of velociraptors.
They group up as five or six to assault and trash them in no time at all.
The fleeing raptors are being eaten by chickens.
"It's one type of Garuda isn't it."
Garuda are C class monsters.
In the current flock they are about B class apparently.
Well, at this size they might even be A class.
Because of gaining a bit of distance from us due to the combat with the raptors, the chickens were only intimidating us without moving closer.
The raptors were miserably running around trying to escape, but I wonder how long they can last.
Once they've all been eaten we will probably be attacked next.
Not that they're anything we can't defeat…
"Rudeus, we're running away. Why are you just standing around?"
However, thanks to Elinalises sharp senses, they could feel the presence of a large carnivore at the back of the chickens.
"Understood."
While we were retreating, Elinalise shrewdly snatched one of the raptor corpses.
They look tastier than the bats.
In a place away from the battle with the raptors, we made a shelter.
We're going to spend the night here.
The raptor corpse was our dinner for that day.
It's not like the food supplies we brought were dwindling, but being self sufficient along the way is a basic thing for adventurers.
Anyway, the night in the desert is a lot different from the day.
Monsters come out one after another.
If we had continued fighting the chickens, another monster would probably have come out.
According to Elinalise, the pheromones from the succubus from before attract monsters as well.
To males it's a sweet scent.
To females it's an unpleasant stench.
Although other monsters don't care about the smell, the place where the smell is coming from is likely to have prey, so they drop a visit.
And so the succubus makes a human male its prey.
The places humans walk through are likely to gather stray monsters.
When we defeated the first succubus there weren't any bats or other monsters, maybe because the place was protected by a barrier.
We had bad luck with a succubus that had slipped into the barrier.
…Don't tell me that succubus was Orsted's acquaintance or something.
N…No-no.
If it was, it wouldn't have suddenly started alluring me.
They should have thought we are related to Orsted as well.
Wait a second.
If there's a difference of cultures, that might have been just a greeting from a succubus.
They have a thing called "naked communion" in Japan as well.
A cultural thing that foreigners can't understand.
With that intent in mind the succubus might have only intended to make me feel good.
If it's like that I'm in trouble.
I may have drawn my bow at Orsted without knowing anything.
Should I go back and make a grave or something?
Although I don't know what exactly happened, if I did a proper burial I might be able to get rid of my sour stomach.
No.
If there was someone like that in those ruins, I should have heard at least something about it from Nanahoshi.
That's right, isn't Orsted hated by humans because of the curse?
It might be that it not only works on humans, but monsters as well.
Yes, that's why that succubus must be unrelated.
"Phew… Begaritto Continent is a lot different from what I heard."
Whether she noticed my uneasiness or not, Elinalise said that while yawning in the shelter.
That's pretty carefree.
People who don't know Orsted are like this after all.
Anyway, these thoughts of mine are probably just needless anxiety.
[Oh, this monster might be someone's acquaintance.]
If I think like that, I'll have to start questioning all the monsters on the way to our destination.
The other side comes wanting to prey on me.
I will repel them.
That's all it is.
"That's right. There are a lot more monsters than I thought."
I responded to Elinalise while shaking off my own thoughts.
Honestly, the density of monsters is worse than on the Demon Continent.
It better not be something like, actually we've teleported to Heaven Continent.
"Well, for the time being we can somehow make do with them so it seems to be fine for now."
"But, letting your guard down is forbidden."
"You don't need to say it. But if we use the same tactics as we've used until now we should be able to repel most of the monsters."
"In case I get done in by a succubus again as well, I'm counting on you to strike me."
"Please be a bit more careful on that end."
While we were talking as such, the first day had passed.
It was an especially long day.
Rather, it's only been a day.
The future is long.
Visit freewe𝑏nove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺 for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience