Chapter 525 Eh? A Spear?
Gumihou: Adjusted some details for dramatic purpose
So, Grandpa Gon won the Ancient Dragon vs Leviathan fight.
It took me a little too long to realise something out of the usual.
“H-hey, i-it’s not disappearing…”
“”Hmm, you’re right.””
“”Strange~ It’s strange~””
After the Leviathan was killed, the sky cleared, and the sea calmed down. It was as though the terrible windstorm just now was nothing but a passing nightmare.
Meanwhile, Grandpa Gon had taken a third bite out of the Leviathan.
That’s right, even after all this time, the huge body of the Leviathan, which could probably loop around the island at least one and a half times, was still there. It… didn’t disappear…
“Oi, is that… are you seeing that?!”
Fer sounded super excited.
“… …” I was still too traumatised by the battle just now to answer. I pointed a shaking finger at the huge body that was slumping back into the water.
“What! Wh-wh-wh-what—!!” was all I could get out.
“Master,” Grandpa Gon swam? walk? over to us, “this happened to me once before when I was a youngling. I was bored and challenged a dungeon until I reached the final boss. It was a Kujata…”
“A- a Kujata!!?”
I think… Fer actually shrieked.
“Yes, a Kujata,” said Grandpa Gon patiently.
“That giant cow monster, Kujata!!?”
“Yes, it is indeed a giant cow. After defeating it, its body did not disappear. Fumu, I must say, it was very tasty…”
“Where is this dungeon?!” Fer urgently asked.
“That… hmm, I can’t quite remember…”
“Wh-what is that stupid answer you stupid old geezer?!!!”
“What—who are you calling stupid!!?”
“How could you forget such an important place, you stupid geezer!!”
“Why you—”
“Hey! Hey! Stop it! Stop it!” I screamed. “I have enough of epic fights between legendary creatures!! I-i-if you fight here, my heart will just explode from the stress!!”
“Master, this Fenrir started it first!”
“Master, this Ancient Dragon is provoking me! Refusing to tell us where he found the Kujata!”
As the two started their quarrel anew, I sighed and stared at the sinking Leviathan. It looked huge. Could it even fit into my [Item Box]? Maybe I could just take a portion? But, wouldn’t that be a waste?
“Hey, stop quarrelling. What are we going to do about… that?”
“Take it with us, of course.”
“Indeed, with Master’s [Item Box] the meat will stay fresh and we may enjoy Leviathan meat for a long time.”
“Umu, that’s right. Such a huge creature, even if we manage to take it down, we could only eat it for three days before it starts to go bad. Even sooner if the weather is too warm.”
“Not to mention, this one is quite large even for a Leviathan.”
“”I never had Leviathan meat before, I want to try it!””
“”Sui too~ Sui too~””
I looked at the creature again.
Massive doesn’t even begin to describe its size. Will it even fit into my [Item Box]? I know it is said to have ‘infinite space’ but how ‘infinite’ is ‘infinite’?
I sighed, “Fine, let’s have a try. Bring it here Grandpa Gon.”
“Yes, Master~”
Grandpa Gon’s wings flapped and he brought the ginormous monster over, it looked particularly sad with its flopping head and strangely empty bits where the nape should be.
Gross…
At least it had stopped gushing blood. I made Grandpa Gon rinse off the corpse before inserting it into my [Item Box]. The head went in without a problem, followed by the rest of its body.
It took a few minutes for the entire body to make it inside, during which everyone… I mean, all of my familiars, were excitedly cheering about how ‘we get to eat Leviathan meat, yay!’.
When the tip of the Leviathan’s tail disappeared into the [Item Box], I was… I have no words…
Just how freakin’ big is this [Item Box], huh!!?
That creature is at least a few warehouses big!!!
“Right, onwards to the island, Sui!” Fer cried.
“”Ou! I wonder what’s there?””
“I shall go ahead,” said Grandpa Gon before he took off and flew ahead.
“… …” at least, if there were any nasty surprises on the island, it probably could not withstand the might of Grandpa Gon the Ancient Dragon.
Speaking of which, I had been too distracted by the huge, ginormous, very big and enormous Leviathan coiled around it but, the island consisted of rugged vertical rocks that seems to shoot straight up from the middle of the sea. There was no beach to speak off.
“How the heck are we going to land?” I muttered
“By climbing, of course,” said Fer.
“‘Of course’ you say, is this really a matter of course for normal humans?!!”
I waited, but when I heard nothing from the [Ark] I turned and found them still whited out. They have missed the entire show, including the part where it took me several minutes to put the Leviathan away.
Lucky them.
Well, I’m not hauling their bodies up this steep cliff.
“Excuse me, please wake up!”
I begin to shake the shoulders of the fainted ones. I was on the verge of getting Sui to spray them with seawater when they finally stirred.
“What- where am I…?”
“I-I had a terrible dream… I thought I saw…something terrible.”
“It can’t be more terrible than my vision,” muttered Siegwald.
“Terrible… terrible…”
All four members looked at each other.
“Don’t tell me…”
“…you saw it too…”
“…that thing…”
“…Leviathan!!”
“Ahem,” I interrupted. “Please don’t faint again, it’s quite difficult to wake you guys up. Anyway, the boss battle is over. It’s time to leave the dungeon.”
[2]
“T-time to leave?”
“A-are you saying the fight’s over?”
I beamed my best this-is-all-fine smile at them, “Indeed, it’s all over now. Well, the battle’s over anyway, we still have to go up that cliff.”
Instead of looking up, the [Ark] continued to huddle among themselves and muttered darkly at each other. Now and then, I catch the word ‘Leviathan’ and ‘is it real?’.
This won’t do. I want to leave this place soon. What should I do…
Ah, that’s right!
“Ahem, oh look! Grandpa Gon, the Legendary Ancient Dragon is just ahead of us. Oh my, it looks like the Legendary Ancient Dragon found nothing suspicious on the island. Isn’t it great to have a Legendary Ancient Dragon as a party member?”
“…that’s right, whatever creature appears, it can’t stand against an Ancient Dragon.”
“That’s right, that’s right…”
“Oi, what are you talking about over there!” Fer grumbled from his perch on the cliff.
I have no idea how he even manages to find a foothold there.
The last time I had to go up a steep cliff like this, Fer was the one who ran up the hill with me clutching at his back and screaming my lungs out.
Let’s not do that again.
“Grandpa Gon, could you take us up?”
“Of course, Master.”
“Hey! What about me?”
“You can only carry one person,” I retorted.
“Then, you should go on my back-”
“Rejected.”
“What! Why?!”
“It’s too uncomfortable. I’ll go on Grandpa Gon.”
“Gunununu…”
In the end, all of us, including Fer, got on Grandpa Gon’s back.
“Sui, you too!”
“”Okay~~”” Sui reverted back to her little form and leapt into my arms.
Ahh~~
[2]
“Take us up, please.”
“Umu,”
With a flap of his powerful wings, we all shot upwards. What would have been an arduous, few-hour climb was over in seconds. We hovered over the island, looking down at the rugged rocky surface, populated only by a few trees. At the centre of the island, an even taller cliff loomed. What caught our attention was the gaping mouth of a cave at the base of the cliff.
“Let’s go there,” I said.
Grandpa Gon landed in front of the cave.
After we all got off, Grandpa Gon returned to his much smaller size and entered the cave with us.
[3]
There was really nothing much to the cave. We stepped in and walked through a short, rocky corridor that opened up to a small dome-shaped room. Inside the room was a single long treasure chest. Well, it could also be a coffin I guess?
The thought of opening the chest and seeing a dead body made me hesitate.
“Oi, aren’t you going to open it?”
“What… what if there are traps?” for some reason, I was reluctant to say that I was afraid of finding a dead body in there…
“Tch, how troublesome. I’ll open it for you.”
Before I could stop him, Fer stepped forward, flicked the metal fittings with his forepaw and tipped the lid open.
Psshhh—!!
Black smoke enveloped Fer.
“Fer!?”
“It’s fine, it’s just some poisonous smoke.”
“J-j-just some poisonous smoke!!!??”
“Poisonous smoke won’t harm the Fenrir, Master,” said Grandpa Gon.
Ah, that’s right, the Blessings. Also, Fer has wind power, which he was now using to flick the black smoke away.
Right…
Phew.
“”Aruji~ aruji~ shiny~ lots of shiny things~~””
“Well, shall we have a look?” I asked the [Ark], pretending that my panicked episode never happened.
Despite their contorted faces, they all nodded. Adventurers were curious by nature and all moved forward to take a look.
“I supposed it’s decent enough reward for a Leviathan,” said Grandpa Gon.
“Tch, too meagre,” muttered Fer.
“”It’s just more gold,”” said Dora-chan.
I’m really glad the [Ark] can’t hear what Dora-chan was saying.
As Dora-chan said, it was a treasure chest filled with gold. Aside from gold coins, there were gold bracelets, gold rings, gold crowns and gold goblets all jumbled together as though someone had thrown them all in here in a hurry.
“Gulp…”
“Incredible…”
“This is the first time I see so much gold…”
“It’s shiny…”
“Err, so, how should we split this?”
“Wh-what are you saying, Mukouda-san!? This is the reward for defeating the- the- that thing! We have no right to it.” Gaudino-san was waving his hands and shaking his head frantically.
In fact, all four members of the [Ark] were shaking their heads frantically.
But… I have too much gold.
Can’t you just take a sack or two?
However, they were adamant against taking anything. Then, something else in the chest caught my eye. Smacked in the middle of the golden mess was a pole. When I picked it up, the piles of gold fell off it like glittery water to reveal something that looked like a two-pronged spear.
I automatically [Appraised] it.
[Magic Spear Bident [4]]
When infused with magic, one hit kill. Made with Hihi’irokane.
“Pffttt!! Cough!!”
What? What? WHAT!!
A-a-a-
“A magic spear, hm? Haven’t seen one of these in a long time.”
“A spear? Well, at least our master should be able to make use of it.”
Thanks to the unnecessary remarks from these two, the [Ark] were all dumbfounded with shock.
I looked at the spearman of the [Ark], Gideon-san, and said, “Um, so, would you like to have it?”
Without missing a beat, Gideon-san said, “Nope, please don’t say such things even as a joke. Ha ha ha.”
It was not a joke, but good job deflecting the question.
I looked at the magic spear and decided not to think about it. Casting for something else in the treasure chest, I spotted a worn-looking bag.
When I picked it up to [Appraised], it said:
[Magic Bag (XL)]
Able to hold 100 large sacks of items. Time stop function.
So, this worn-looking thing is a magic bag? Well, it’s not like I need it. I have an [Item Box] that could swallow a Leviathan and still have room for more. It’s like having loads of magic bags on my person.
“”Hey, do you guys mind if I give this magic bag to our friends?””
“Umu,”
“Master is free to do as you like.”
“”Meh, I don’t care?””
Sui was too busy bouncing through the gold to answer.
“So, this is a magic bag,” I said to the [Ark]. “Would you like to have it-”
“No, no, no,”
“It’s fine, really.”
“Such a priceless thing…”
“…bad to take…”
Well, since I can’t convince them to take it… it can’t be helped. I guess I could try and persuade them later.
For now, let’s get out of this place first.
Beyond the dome-shaped room that housed the treasure chest was another dome-shaped room with a magic circle in the middle of the floor.
We all stepped into the magic circle.
“Right,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“This is a very interesting dungeon, we should come back here now and then.”
“Haah? What are you talking about? I’m never coming back here-”
Magic flashed, taking my words with it.
Gumihou: Woah, that was trippy
Eguchi Rem: F-finally out of the dungeon…
[1] Kujata – a mythical bull in Islamic cosmography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kujata
[2] Reworked some things here to plausibly play off the ‘traumatised [Ark]’ without excessive repeats. Have Mukouda f*ck with their minds a bit too. Our guy isn’t above a little minor gaslighting.
[3] Describe the cave and the treasure chest
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