Hermit Wizard

Chapter 138

Savior or Destroyer (7)

The Dragon’s name was Lucette-Eigar.

When it woke up, it felt uncomfortable. That was because it wasn’t in an environment that it would normally expect. It was unfamiliar with the sun shining directly on its scales. The Dragon noticed that its skin was quite heated and hot. It opened its eyes, and the sun was already up in the sky.

‘Why is it so hot?’

The cause of the phenomenon could be easily observed with both eyes. However, the subject was in an incomprehensible position. It soon corrected the question.

‘Why can I see the sun here?’

It couldn’t have happened if the Dragon had fallen asleep in the nest as usual. After opening its eyes, its mind gradually became clear. Lucette-Eigar sharply reunited with the sensation of its whole body’s numbness during the sleep, and then it screamed.

-Kwaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggh!

The Dragon’s roar vibrated on the plains. Substituting language for the noise it made, which would mean, ‘What is this? It’s a mess!’

When half asleep, the sensation of heat was redefined in the Dragon’s brain, which had become clearer over time. It also felt the sensation of burning all over its body, which was obviously painful.

‘Hurt? Me?’

The Dragon was mistaken since it was a sensation it just felt after a long time. After a moment of confusion, Lucette-Eigar was able to grasp the situation correctly. It knew that its body was in a mess, and, as if being beaten by someone huge, every part of its body was broken and covered with wounds, and a level of pain that couldn’t be ignored was pressing on its whole body.

‘When was the last time I felt this pain?’ It recalled. There was a time when an argument with Grime-Tepamine about the same age ended with an intense beating towards each other’s foreheads. Even then, it suffered a level of injuries that needed treatment, but it wasn’t as painful as it was currently.

-… Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Lucette-Eigar, who barely raised its head, was much more shocked than when it first came to its senses.

First, as it moved its body, the Dragon naturally realized that its Mana was extremely insufficient. In this state, it seemed that rather than combining the right spells, it would only be to maintain the body and barely fly up.

And for the second reason, the Dragon felt the shame that its face was about to fall off. It has a nasty smell surrounding its own body.

‘What the hell is it?!’

The Dragon was astonished by the huge traces made under its tail.

‘… Don’t tell me while I’m sleeping… in a field like this?’

Huge brown traces scattered on the ground. It looked as if a painter couldn’t beat it in minutes and threw only paint of a certain color on the floor and then trampled it with his feet.

When looking at the size, location, and direction of the trail, the trace must have resulted from its creation. The Dragon felt extreme anxiety and shame. Normally, it would have created magic right away and burned this trace cleanly, but now it didn’t have enough Mana to do that.

-Ghrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The Dragon shook with shame, moved its front feet to dig up the ground. Shortly after that, a miracle occurred, in which soil and rocks that were large enough to form several hills were rearranged. It took a little time for the Dragon with insufficient Mana to completely bury its excrement perfectly in the ground.

‘What the hell is going on here?!’

Lucette-Eigar had many questions. It surely fell asleep in a comfortable nest a few hours ago. It then opened its eyes, and it was sleeping outdoors. Moreover, its body was full of wounds, its Mana was desperately lacking, and the ground was covered with its excrement.

‘It looks like the Karadamia I ate yesterday was too much.’

The Dragon’s sharp reason had to come up with such an interpretation. It was quite a realist to examine the irrational possibilities. Also, its pride didn’t allow the reasoning that an unknown entity fooled it. Lucette-Eigar convinced the situation by connecting some stuff from yesterday and the current situation.

‘Now I really have to quit Karadamia. It’s terrible.’

The Dragon slowly raised itself, then flapped its wings and flew into the air. As the altitude went up, it could see the mess that spread below at a glance. The land was crushed and destroyed everywhere. It was also due to the covert work the Dragon tried, but that wasn’t all of the cause. The fragments left openly revealed that a huge object had fallen from the air.

‘Did I fly all the way here while drunk and then fell to the ground and rolled? And during all of that, I even peed on the ground? Crazy. You’re really crazy, Lucette-Eigar!’

The Dragon lamented inside.

‘If I put my mouth back on Karadami again, I am not a dragon!’

Due to the hallucinogenic ingredients produced in the testicle, Lucette-Eigar pledged to stop eating the sea creatures that dragons enjoy as a favorite food.

‘But, why is my Mana at this terrible level?’

The reason was obvious. It was probably drunk last night, so it randomly made magic and spread it everywhere. Lucette-Eigar was worried that it might’ve invaded the nest of other dragons last night, which it couldn’t even remember. Was it even fighting? It shook its head soon. No, and even if it did, it would’ve left a much worse wound than that. Perhaps the only thing that it did alone was to light up. How much magic did it use to make its body feel that bad?

The young Dragon flew in the blue sky, vowing not to be surprised if the mountain near the nest sank and was destroyed, or if the forest created with care for quite a long time was hit directly by the dragon breath, a river of lava flowed instead.

***

‘That’s weird?’

Lucette-Eigar once again felt at odds. As the flight began and it looked down from a higher altitude, it could quickly tell where it was… a plain not far from the nest, and it seemed that yesterday’s drunk flight didn’t go that far.

The Dragon looked down at the terrain it was familiar with, but it felt something different.

‘Was that river supposed to bend at that angle? And… was the forest next to it originally that wide?’

The young Dragon questioned it but soon ignored it. There was no way nature would change suddenly in a day. It was too neat and natural to be a trace of the riot that happened last night. It was probably its illusion. So, it organized its thoughts. Having grasped the location around, it turned a little bit instead of heading to the nest.

How long did it fly? The destination began to be seen far away.

‘… Huh? That’s weird.’

It could see a village made by small creatures. However, it was very different from the image that remained in its memory. That time, it wasn’t enough to dismiss it as an illusion.

‘Were these guys this many? But the last time I stopped by was only four years ago?’

Looking down at the colony of the small creatures from the sky, the Dragon tilted its head. Was that species supposed to breed that fast?

‘Lastly, the habitat’s size looks several times larger than that.’

It guessed that or that, but it couldn’t figure out why. It slowly approached the ground with curiosity. A predator was coming down from the sky, and the small creatures who were discovering its figure screamed and ran on the ground like ants.

-Kwoong!

With a heavy vibration, Lucette-Eigar landed on the ground. It made a look full of dignity, and it radiated a berserk consciousness around him.

=Offer to me!=

Despite trembling in fear, the small creatures moved in perfect order. The movement of the small creature that was seen from the air wasn’t simply a directionless sprint in fear. The small creatures were ‘preparing’ to welcome the Dragon by exchanging signals within the group.

After a while, there was a long line made of small creatures in front of Lucette-Eigar. Most of them were old or injured individuals.

The Dragon glanced at the blue-haired monkeys in front of it, and then, it stretched out its forefoot.

The monkey standing nearest to it trembled. It appeared to be the oldest individual in that group. The monkey quacked, screamed, and stretched itself out when Lucette-Eigar’s claws touched it. It passed out because of fear. The Dragon didn’t care much. It picked up the monkey and put it in its mouth, and chewed it several times.

-Quack! Quack!

It spat out what was in its mouth on the bottom of its front foot. The intestines, flesh, and bones were crushed into pieces. The Dragon applied it to the wound, and the scratches recovered in an instant.

The Dragon’s body was huge, and the wound area was also wide. It picked up the lined monkeys one after another and chewed them, drew blood by blowing their heads with its claws, or cut them in two pieces and applied them to the wound.

Lucette-Eigar thought while continuing the tedious work.

‘These old creatures are always stuck in their nests and don’t know what to do. They develop some recovery magic that they hear from dragons.’

In general, the most convenient way in such a situation was recovery magic. However, Lucette-Eigar couldn’t use the means to heal his wounds, and that wasn’t a matter of Mana.

The dragons could heal their authority from wounds through the recovery magic, but they couldn’t use it on themselves or the same kind, and that was because of the characteristics of the Dragon’s body.

That was why some of the dragons that liked to think used to tell that story. Indeed, where was the origin of the dragon species?

No creature in the world was extremely dependent on Mana, like a dragon. None of the species discovered so far, except dragons, had thrown a recovery spell due to the resistance of organs and muscles controlled by Mana. Some dragons knew how to manufacture elixir, but even the magic potion, which was Mana-related to the manufacturing process and effect, didn’t work for dragons.

For that reason, there were often highly inquisitive dragons that made all kinds of hypotheses, saying that the dragon species itself was ‘not natural.’ They enjoyed making speculations about how the creature was born, associating that hypothesis with the indecipherable language engraved on the ‘root stone.’

However, it wasn’t very interesting for that young Dragon.

‘It’s all useless.’

Lucette-Eigar thought while chewing the monkey.

‘Even when I get old, I will never devote my passion to such things.’

It looked at the rows of small creatures in front of it.

‘Yes, it’s the achievement of our ancestors to improve these guys so that they can ‘work well’ for dragons. It’s a dragon’s work. This kind of breeding was possible because they were small creatures, and the subject was a great race like a dragon. Is it possible that some unknown race had an unnatural effect on the dragon race? Huh! That sounds funny. No matter what dimension of the universe it is, there cannot be a race with such power or knowledge.’

The Dragon once again admired the complete integrity of its thoughts. It was difficult to understand why some dragons turned a blind eye to that natural truth. After some recovery, Lucette-Eigar looked at its body again. As time passed, the Mana had been slightly charged. The enormous magic was still too much, but it wasn’t impossible to construct a spell at all as before.

Also, as its body got better, Lucette-Eigar began to feel hungry. It swept through the remaining monkeys, who were still alive and standing in line. That was nothing but a reflexive act.

No matter how hungry it was, it couldn’t eat those monkeys to fill its stomach. Not only did it taste bad, but it was strictly prohibited at the ethnic level. The blue-haired monkeys should be consumed only to heal dragon wounds and only as needed.

Lucette-Eigar flew back into the sky, and it started thinking about the late breakfast menu. The surviving monkeys hugged each other with a sigh of relief and sat on the ground crying, but the Dragon didn’t give a glance down.

The Dragon soared into the high sky. His gaze was firmly fixed over the horizon.

The flight speed gradually increased. Its mealtime had long passed just by looking at the location of the sun.

***

‘Hey, Grime.’

As it flew in the sky, Lucette-Eigar threw communication magic at its close friend, Grime-Tepamine. It was detected that the other party received the magic without any problems. However, its friend’s reply returned with a subtle time difference, although it was obvious that the delivered communication magic was confirmed in real-time.

‘… What’s going on, Eigar?’

Lucette-Eigar asked itself. ‘Eigar? Why does it call me Eigar? It’s a big deal.’

It was puzzled by its friend’s reaction, which didn’t call it Lucette as usual.

‘Did you eat? If you’re hungry, let’s eat some human!’

Once again, after a strange silence, Grime-Tepamine replied.

‘… It’s been a long time since you called me, and you’re suddenly saying, let’s eat some human?’

Lucette-Eigar grumbled inside. Why was it so edgy today?

Also, it hadn’t been a long time since the most recent visit was only ten days ago.

‘Aren’t you interested?’

Grime-Tepamine answered.

‘I don’t like humans. There isn’t much flesh, only a lot of bones.’

Lucette-Eigar was very confused. What was going on there? It used to be a friend who went crazy about humans.

‘Grime, you like humans, don’t you?’

‘Hey, Eigar. What the hell are you talking about?’

It was indeed edgy. Lucette-Eigar continued the communication, clicking its tongue inside.

‘… It’s the season when humans will taste the best. Are you sure you don’t want to? If you don’t like it, I’ll have to ask Dragon Emperor. That old man always goes crazy about humans.’

‘Now, that nobleman has no time to care about human eating.’

‘Why?’

Grime-Tepamine answered dryly.

‘It seems that that guy has accepted a deal this time, but the other’s conditions are quite annoying.’

‘Who is the partner?’

‘It wasn’t the dimension we knew originally, but a whole new dimension… I think it’s related to that world’s Truth-Seeker.”

‘Truth-Seeker? It’s unusual, and if it’s normal, that guy wouldn’t normally get involved, but I can’t believe it has already accepted the deal.’

The area of ??Grime-Tepamine was closest to the area of the Dragon Emperor, and because of that, they were frequently exchanging each other’s news.

‘Then, I’ll have to eat alone. If you’re interested later, join me. I’m on my way to the kingdom near Lake Akifa. It’s not far from where you are.’

Lake Akifa was near the area of ??Grime-Tepamine. Lucette-Eigar, waiting for his friend’s answer, was confused by an unexpected answer.

‘Eigar. What are you talking about? The human kingdom next to Lake Akifa has been destroyed.’

‘What? Destroyed?’

‘It’s a land where humans can’t live anymore. If you go there, there won’t be a single human being.’

‘Oh, damn it. It looks like there’s something else going on.’

Their communication stopped for a while. That was because Grime-Tepamine didn’t check the message. It was after some silence that it replied again with communication magic. Grime-Tepamine suddenly brought up another story.

‘… Ah, hey. Eigar. Are you flying in this direction right now?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Then, I will have to convey the message as the communication has continued. Now, the Dragon Emperor has notified all the dragons around here. It’s telling us not to come out of the nest without a single exception, and if a dragon is coming here, tell it not to approach and go back. If you’re going to eat humans, don’t come this way and turn around and go somewhere else.’

‘Hmm? What’s happening all of a sudden?’

‘It seems that there are some guys who secretly invaded its territory?’

If it secretly invaded, it wouldn’t be a dragon. It must’ve been small creatures.

Lucette-Eigar laughed because it was absurd.

‘What kind of crazy guys are they? They must be crazy to wish for death.’

‘I know, right?’