Chapter 53. Rank 6 — Part Seven

Three hours passed, and we were ready for the second attack on the giant monster.

Sherial drew the arrow onto the bowstring, preparing to activate her skill. The arrow once again began to glow slowly.

We decided it would be best to prepare here, in a safe place. Once she was fully ready, I would teleport her directly onto the battlefield to take the shot.

Otherwise, if we spent those twenty seconds preparing out there, the giant monster — even while injured — would be able to close the distance and reach us far too quickly.

I hoped the plan would work and that nothing would go wrong… like a sudden skill cancellation or something similar.

But the signal Sherial chose was, to put it mildly, not the most suitable for this situation — at least, that was how it looked to me. Still, it was her choice.

She simply closed one eye.

Yes, it looked more like a wink.

Sherial closed her right eye once — and I immediately teleported her onto the battlefield.

We remembered exactly where the giant monster was located. Right after the teleport, she fired, and we instantly returned to the Training Room.

But even in that brief moment, I managed to notice something.

I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed to me that this time the monster hadn’t suffered as severe a wound as during the first attack, when a third of its head was blown away.

This time, it was missing only one tentacle, and the remains of it were still burning.

It looked like the monster had sacrificed just a single tentacle to protect itself.

Considering how quickly it could regenerate… damn. This creature wasn’t just strong — it was also fairly intelligent. And it adapted frighteningly fast.

Still, it didn’t matter.

Even so, it wouldn’t be able to recover faster than we could keep attacking.

This was already Sherial’s ninth attack.

The giant monster collapsed after the seventh.

Two more shots followed — finishing blows, just to be absolutely sure.

It seemed… it was truly dead.

Now we could calmly deal with the smaller ones.

This time, we no longer teleported back into the Training Room.

There was no longer any need.

We could now fight the devouring caterpillars freely.

Finally.

I could hardly wait to test my strength in real combat.

And then a thought struck me.

My sword.

My favorite sword — the one that required no maintenance, no sharpening, and never rusted.

Yes… it was my favorite sword.

I lost it at the moment when the tentacle struck me and I was a single step away from death.

So… it had to be somewhere nearby.

I definitely didn’t fall into the forest.

Which meant the search area wasn’t that large.

Just an empty field with a diameter of about three kilometers.

Well, if you didn’t count… the devouring caterpillars and the enormous… black… something in the center.

What should I do?

Rem and Sherial had already begun exterminating the devouring caterpillars.

Though… did they even need my help?

The golems were handling them quite effectively.

I looked around, trying to find my sword, but I didn’t remember exactly where I had fallen back then. I’d been thrown too far, and at that moment, memorizing the surroundings had been the last thing on my mind.

Fine.

Let the others handle the devouring caterpillars.

I needed to find my beloved sword.

I started walking across the field, searching for it.

They didn’t eat it, right?

Sure, they were gluttons, but… I hoped not.

Even if they tried, I doubted they could digest it.

But damn… if they did eat it, I’d have to dig through every corpse to find it.

I really didn’t want to do that.

I hoped my sword was still lying somewhere here, on the ground.

And then I noticed something strange.

Something was moving on the corpse of the giant monster.

I focused my gaze — it was a devouring caterpillar.

Right after that, I noticed dozens of other devouring caterpillars approaching the corpse of the giant monster.

So they even devoured the bodies of their own kind?

Though, considering how gluttonous they were, they probably ate any corpse — whether it was another monster or one of their own.

Yeah, it was stupid to apply human morality to monsters.

CRAAAACK!

What was that sound?

It was almost lost among the other noises of the battlefield, but it was the one sound that made me tense up.

No — not just tense.

My entire body reacted.

I began searching for the source.

It sounded like the cracking of breaking wood, but somehow different. Wrong.

And it wasn’t coming from the forest.

The source was in the center of the empty field.

I focused my vision.

One of the parts of the massive, root-like black structure was moving.

A very bad feeling washed over me.

CRAAACK! CRAAAACK!

That part tore itself free from the rest of the mass and began moving independently.

A few seconds later, I understood.

It looked very similar to the giant monster we had just killed.

So that was how it appeared.

Another giant monster.

No…

I think this one was even bigger.

It was hard to estimate precisely — it was too far away.

But judging by the feeling alone, it surpassed the one we had already fought.

CRAAACK! CRAAAACK! CRAAAACK! CRAAAACK!…

The other parts of the black, root-like structure also began to move, accompanied by the same dull, tearing sounds.

I immediately ran toward Rem and Sherial.

Fortunately, they were not far from each other.

When I reached them, Rem immediately said:

"We’ll use the same strategy as against the first one. Retreat immediately."

I didn’t hesitate.

I stepped closer, grabbed their hands, and cast one last glance toward the center of the field.

More than a dozen giant monsters were already rising there.

The next second, we teleported into the Training Room.

"Maybe we should just leave this place," I said.

"No. That’s not an option," Rem replied instantly.

"Why? Let someone else deal with it. We’re not obligated to do this," I argued.

"This is a system quest," Sherial said calmly. "We won’t be able to simply retreat. And the consequences could be very bad."

"What kind of consequences?" I asked.

"I don’t know," she replied.

"What?" I looked at her in confusion. "You’re the one talking about punishment."

"I didn’t receive the system quest," Sherial explained. "You and Rem did. You should have more information than I do."

I fell silent.

So only Rem and I had received the quest.

"Then what do we do?" I asked.

"As I already said," Rem replied, "we stick to the original strategy."

I think Rem was right.

Logically speaking, we really did have a chance to deal with them — even if their numbers were terrifying.

But would we be able to destroy all of them before they reached us?

Melee combat was completely out of the question.

I didn’t even have my sword right now.

Even if I borrowed Rem’s sword, what could I possibly do against these giant monsters?

Scratch them?

The only truly effective way to deal with these giants was Sherial’s attacks.

If something happened to Sherial, we wouldn’t be able to do anything against these monsters.

There were no other options.

Just as Rem said — we would stick to the same strategy as before and try to destroy them as quickly as possible.

Though “quickly” was a generous way to put it.

It took us more than a full day — over twenty-four hours — to kill a single giant monster.

And now, a new battle awaited us.

It would be more intense, but essentially just as monotonous.

Some time earlier.

Aurelion had become an adult only recently — merely about seventy years ago.

Even as a child, he had been far stronger than his peers. As a teenager, he could defeat even some adult dragons.

Now, having reached maturity, he decided to leave the territory of his kin in search of a new place for himself.

However, the journey disappointed him.

He found nothing truly worthy.

Not a single territory he could call suitable.

And most importantly — food.

After leaving the lands of dragons, he hadn’t found a single piece of prey that was truly delicious.

For some reason, beyond dragon territory, all food was small and tasteless.

He was forced to search the forests for large numbers of tiny creatures.

They were too weak and too small, and to satisfy his hunger even slightly, he had to spend far too much time hunting them.

And on top of that, they tasted awful.

Sometimes he encountered small creatures that lived in huge colonies and built nests of wood and stone.

He could easily descend and devour them all.

Especially since they built their nests in open areas of the forest, as if deliberately inviting him.

But he didn’t touch them.

Those small creatures didn’t interest him at all.

Early in his journey, he had already encountered such beings and even tried one.

He had never tasted anything more disgusting in his entire life.

After that, he swore never to put such creatures in his mouth again.

Now he understood why they lived in large colonies and built their nests in open spaces without hiding.

No one hunted them.

Who would want to eat something with such a revolting taste?

Recently, however, he had finally gotten lucky.

He came across a small group of other minor monsters in the forest.

There were enough of them to slightly satisfy his hunger.

After that, he decided to rest before finally returning to dragon territory and ending his journey.

Although returning so quickly was a bit disappointing — only about twenty years had passed since he left home — he could no longer tolerate this bland and disgusting food.

Before returning, he decided to take a short nap.

Just a couple of months.

But only three weeks passed before something irritating woke him.

[Threat Detected]
[Threat Class: Existential]
[Required Action: Elimination]
[Current Threat Rank: 2]

He wanted to destroy the source of the irritation, but quickly realized it was a system window.

There was nothing he could do about it.

All that remained was to wait for it to disappear and continue sleeping.

However, for some reason, the irritating system window did not vanish.

It was as if it demanded that Aurelion eliminate someone.

But judging by the information displayed, the target was only rank two.

Such a creature wasn’t even worth the slightest attention from Aurelion.

What truly irritated him was that even when he closed his eyes, the system window remained before his vision.

He tried to ignore it and sink back into sleep.

He was already beginning to doze off when the system message suddenly became brighter.

Now it was impossible to ignore.

Annoyed, he finally focused on the system window.

[Threat Detected]
[Threat Class: Existential]
[Required Action: Elimination]
[Current Threat Rank: 6]

Oh.

Now it was showing something entirely different.

A rank six threat.

That was a completely different matter.

Finally.

He had found something strong enough.

And most importantly — something delicious enough.

The dragon was pleased.

He hoped the creature would be large enough to satisfy his hunger.

The thought of worthy prey filled him with pleasant excitement.

He was ready to carry out this task.

The irritating system window disappeared.

He felt something guiding him.

Leading him — straight toward the food he had lacked for so long.

Finally, he had found something that could sate his hunger.

Finally — worthy prey.

He spread his wings sharply and soared into the sky, obeying that guiding sensation that led him straight toward his target.