Volume 9 - CH 9

Chapter 9 – The Ranger, the Earth Dragon, and the Dark Elf Village

After the earth dragon had escaped, we finished our bath and dinner and returned to our room.

“I’m going to choose a ship to buy for a while, so Ines and Felicia can relax with Rimu.”

“Master, I looked at the earth dragon today, and it looked good even with my barrier. Are you still going to buy a ship?”

“Yes, when the dark elves migrate, the ship I’m buying will be able to carry them all at once. It will be safer to move. And even if the earth dragon can be defeated, it would take time to summon the Hideaway every time.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“You’re welcome. And hopefully, the Dark Elf Island will be a lively place. Then take care of Rimu for me.”

“Yes.”

Felicia’s steps are light as she carries Rimu in her arms on her way to Reversi. The village grows larger and larger. Felicia must be in a good mood. Well, let’s choose an amphibious bus.

The road was at least three meters wide, so it would be fine to use a large bus as planned. If we can’t get through with the big bus, we can take the Add or walk.

The price is one platinum coin, huh? The price is so expensive that you can buy a supercar. But if it’s big and amphibious, there won’t be many of them, so there’s nothing to be done.

Yeah, let’s go with this one. I heard it’s called the Challenger. The color looks strange in another world, but I guess it’s okay if it’s disguised as a ship.

This amphibious bus is called the Ranger. It doesn’t feel right to name a bus, but it’s being treated like a ship. I have to give it a name.

I had narrowed down my choices, so it didn’t take long. I joined the Reversi.

I enjoy the Reversi, watch Rimu training, and then crawl into bed. Tomorrow we start our amphibious bus trip. I’m looking forward to it.

………………

We ate breakfast and left the Hideaway. I was prepared for the presence of the earth dragon, but it was quiet.

“Wataru-san, did you buy that ship you were talking about yesterday?”

Alessia-san asked me with an excited look on her face.

“Yes, I bought it. I named it the Ranger. I will summon it now.”

After repatriating the Hideaway, I summon the Ranger. …Yes, a colorful amphibious bus in the middle of the forest. This doesn’t look good at all.

“It has a pretty picture on it. And it’s big, but it’s a totally magic vehicle. It looks a lot like what I’ve heard it looks like.”

Alessia-san pointed to the pictures. It can’t be helped because it’s used for tourism. And it appears to be a completely magic vehicle.

“In case you’re wondering, it can run on water, so it’s a ship.”

“That means it’s more awesome than any magic vehicle that has been discovered, right?”

Ilma-san interrupted calmly. I don’t have any words to answer.

“Well, I have a Ship Disguise, and I live on the ship most of the time, so I won’t be discovered.”

I made up some painful excuses and entered the Ranger. It’s spacious. When I’m done carrying the dark elf, I’d like to modify it, like removing the chair, but it’s indestructible. Is it possible to remove it instead of breaking it?

…Seems like a no-no unless you can drill holes or something, you’d have to put together a wooden frame to hold it in place or something, so it would take a craftsman to do that. There’s also the Hideaway, so I wouldn’t have to go that far.

I let the ladies, who are watching the interior with interest, sit in their seats and teach them how to use the seat belts. This will reduce the damage if the ship rolls over.

For safety’s sake, Rimu is carried in Ines’ arms. I’m afraid he might fly away if I brake suddenly. As I start the Ranger, I hear the women’s cheerful, charming voices.

The road is not good, and it is bumpy, but it is definitely faster than walking. I guess the speed limit is about 40 kilometers per hour. I can’t go any faster than that because if I hit a pothole or climb over a tree root, I’m likely to cause an accident. Even 40 km/h is ten times faster than walking, so let’s not be too greedy and be careful not to cause an accident.

We made our way through the forest, the sound of the engine echoing through the air. The occasional bumps and jolts seemed to amuse the ladies, and they screamed with delight. It was like riding a roller coaster.

“Wataru-san, an earth dragon is following us from behind. The distance is closing. It will catch up with us.”

I looked in the side mirror, and sure enough, Alessia-san was right: the dragon was catching up. It’s catching up to us at 40 kilometers per hour. …It’s amazing that it can run that fast with that huge body. …I’ve heard that rhinos can run at 60 kilometers per hour, so maybe it’s only natural that a dragon can run that fast.

“If it catches up with us, we will have to fight it. Open the window and attack it when it gets close to us. If you damage it, see if we can escape. It may suddenly change direction, so be careful not to fall out of the window.”

At my words, the ladies moved to the right side of the seat and opened the window. I could not see well in the side mirror, but it looked like the ladies were attacking.

“Wataru-san, it looks like our attacks only hit its legs, so it can’t follow us. The distance is getting farther and farther away from us. Are we just going to keep pulling away?”

I can’t see them, but if Alessia-san’s words are correct, it looks like we can escape. If a group of earth dragons comes, there will be no problem from behind. It also seems to be alone this time, so it might be a good idea to kill it.

“There’s no problem if it escapes, but let’s try to defeat the dragon for once. I’d like to think about how to retrieve it.”

“Right, let’s take it down.”

After stopping the Ranger and looking behind us, the earth dragon charged at us. Even though the attack slowed down the speed of the earth dragon, it’s still coming right at us.

The dragon didn’t even stop and ran right into the Ranger. Yes, it was déjà vu. The dragon was pushed away by the force of its own charge.

This time there was no need to watch, so we all attacked the fallen dragon. My arrow hit it as well, so I guess I’ll get some experience. After we all attacked at once, we watched until the dust cloud cleared.

When the dust cleared, I saw a dying dragon on the ground. The battle is over. At this rate, no matter how many times the dragon surrounds us, we seem to have no problem.

The problem is how to repatriate this huge body. Even if we cut it into pieces, how many rubber boats would we need? It would be a shame to throw away the hot springs, but it would also be a waste to throw away the earth dragon.

“Alessia-san, what materials are needed from the earth dragon?”

“Hmm, I have heard that there is no wasted material for dragons. If we venture into this forest, it will be full of materials for earth dragons.”

Well… if I abandon the hot springs, I have a lot of room for rubber boats, so I’ll just take what I can get, and if I run out of rubber boats, I’ll think about it then. We’re going to the Dark Elves’ island anyway, so we can refill the hot springs then.

“Then please cut them into pieces that will fit into the rubber boat. It would be a waste, so let’s return them from one end to the other, and if there are any leftovers, we’ll think of something.”

It took about 11 rubber boats to repatriate all the earth dragon materials that the ladies had cut up for me. We would also have trouble cashing in on the earth dragon, so what should we do?

I could buy more rubber boats, but I have more than 500 rubber boats, and adding more rubber boats would be too complicated, and the number of rubber boats would increase indefinitely. Should I just buy another Hideaway? Then I could take everything on board without having to cut it into pieces.

“Wataru-san, shouldn’t we get going? The smell of blood will attract the monsters.”

That’s right; I can’t worry about that until the rubber boat is full; let’s go.

We board the Ranger and set off again. From now on, we’ll ignore everything except the monsters we can’t escape and keep going.

………………

Except for the dragons charging from the front, we avoided fighting them by attacking their legs and pulling away from them. Sometimes we were trapped. Sometimes, a group of dragons came at us from the front, and we had fights with several dragons, but we had no problem defeating them.

But the limit of the rubber boats is getting closer. …There are also sea serpents, and I have to think about selling the monsters somewhere. If I make them into prizes for casinos, they might become popular.

The problem is that there is no road to the dark elves’ village. Because dragons are living creatures, they do not always go straight ahead but often end up at a dead end or suddenly change direction, and the road goes in a completely different direction.

They don’t seem to knock down trees unless they find prey, and there are surprisingly few paths for the number of dragons. Well, it is easier to take an open path, and if the dragons move in a normal way, they can probably do some of their activities without knocking down trees.

For some reason, the longer the path, the more likely it is that the earth dragon is out of control. I’m a little curious as to why. Sometimes they come at us as a group, and we end up on a road the size of a four-lane highway. It must have been a big mess.

If we couldn’t find a road, we’d take the Add or walk, and when we got to a road, we’d switch to the Ranger and keep going.

“Hey Felicia, the trees seem to be getting bigger the closer we get to the Dark Elf village. Is it just my imagination?”

“No, it’s not your imagination. The trees themselves have changed so much that it feels like we are in a different forest.”

Is that true? Are the trees different? I didn’t notice because I’m not interested in trees and things like that, but even without looking closely, the leaves look different. I guess I don’t pay enough attention.

“Hey, is there a World Tree in this world?”

“The World Tree? I am sorry, but I have never heard of it. Did Master’s world have a tree called the World Tree?”

If there are elves and dark elves in fantasy, then there should be a World Tree. Felicia doesn’t know about it? It seems like there might be some kind of earth dragon guarding the World Tree.

“No, there isn’t. It is a tree that appears in the stories of my world. I just thought it might be in this world. It’s natural that you don’t know about it. So you don’t have to apologize.”

The World Tree, huh? I wanted to take a look at it, but I felt it would be a wild thing to ask the gods about it.

………………

After four days on the Ranger, the Add, and on foot, we should be able to see the Dark Elves’ village soon. It’s so much faster with a vehicle, isn’t it? It would be even faster if we could just go out to sea on the way back. If we decide to take the Dark Elves with us, we will not be able to use the Add, which will slow us down.

The area near the Dark Elves’ village is a forest with large trees, each of which is quite tall. There are hardly any paths for the earth dragons, so it’s likely that the trees have something to do with the Dark Elves’ survival. As we carefully navigated our way through the trees on the Add, Ines, who was behind me, shouted.

“Master, stop!”

I quickly brought the Add to a halt.

“Ines, what’s wrong?”

The ladies are also on the lookout with their weapons drawn. I think this is it; maybe we’re surrounded by Dark Elves or something. I have no idea what’s going on, but the ladies surround me in a circle, keeping a watchful eye. Well, I’m on the Add, so there’s no problem.

“We are surrounded. There is a slight atmosphere of murder, so be careful too, Master.”

It’s called a murderous intention or presence, right? I’m also at an advanced level, but I have no idea what it means. No matter how high my level is, I still have to improve, right?

“I understand.”

After a while of being on guard, I hear a voice from somewhere. I know it’s coming from up there, but I’m not sure which tree it’s coming from.

“You are not allowed to enter from here. Enter, and we will attack.”

They are very vigilant. It’s always such a challenge to even talk to them.

“Ah, you are the Dark Elf, aren’t you? Can you come out and talk to us?”

“Why, how did you know?”

Their vigilance has gone up a notch. It would be easy to say that the Goddess of the Forest-sama told me, but it doesn’t work that way. I will have to lie, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

“I was taught by a Dark Elf. We are building a Dark Elf village right now, so could you please talk to us?”

“With a Dark Elf slave?”

This is the second time I’ve been asked this question. I’m tired of being told this from now on. From there, it’s the same as last time. Felicia explains the situation on her own. Although we can’t get them to lower their guard, they are willing to listen to us, at least for the moment.

After several discussions, we were finally allowed to enter the village. It took us three days to get into the village.

This village is the most like a Dark Elf village I have ever seen. Most of the houses are built on trees. It’s a treehouse village. It’s a bit exciting.

I heard that even the earth dragons have a hard time knocking down the big trees around here. Moreover, since the trees are made to move from tree to tree, even if the earth dragons try their best to knock down one tree, they will move to another tree, so it will be in vain.

They repeated this, showing the earth dragon that it was useless to go near those trees. If they are caught, they will be eaten, but if they climb a tree, they can escape, and since the earth dragons don’t come too close, they seem to be quite safe. I don’t think they will choose to migrate. Like the earth dragons, it looks like it will be useless.

I hope the Goddess of the Forest-sama doesn’t mark villages that she doesn’t think will migrate. When I was quite demoralized, I found a good reason to make them move to another place. Sorry for complaining, Goddess of the Forest-sama

Funds on hand: 34 gold coins, 73 silver coins, 88 copper coins

Guild account: 0 platinum, 70 gold

Savings ship: 189 platinum coins

Pepper ship: 45 ships 

Charity expenses: 95 platinum coins, 70 gold coins