Chapter 14: Days 16 - Is There a Dragon?
Lately, I've noticed that my stamina has improved. When I used Advanced Appraisal on myself, I found that my stamina had surpassed 1000 points. I'm not entirely sure about the maximum value in this world, but it seems like quite a significant number.
When I first arrived in this world, my stamina was at 20. Within a short period, it has grown over 50 times larger. Could this be because of defeating powerful monsters?
I can now walk at a brisk pace and cover 1 km to the nearby river in under 2 minutes. Just the other day, I accidentally dropped my sword, and I managed to defeat a Big Boar with my bare hands.
As for flying and land dragons, I've used my sword to defeat them, of course. It's nice to have become stronger and gained more stamina. It feels like I'm wearing an invisible armor-like shield around my body. Although, calling it armor might be misleading since it doesn't hinder my movement at all.
The town I'm heading to now is Mināosa, the capital of Hario Continent's Freya Kingdom. It's the capital of the territory ruled by the Mināosa Frontier Count.
The distance to the highway is 340 km, and then it's another 30 km on the highway to reach there. According to information from geostationary satellites, within the first 340 km, there seems to be only animal trails. The path to the river has been created by the "Civil Engineering Robot."
For my journey, I'll use the mana-powered car to travel to the river and then switch to a small high-speed airship to cover approximately 320 km. From there, I'll walk to the highway, and again, use the mana-powered car.
At 9 AM, I departed from a square near the river using the small high-speed airship. Even though my Advanced Map Creation skill is already quite accurate due to information from geostationary satellites, using the airship allows me to create even more detailed maps. Traveling at a speed of 150 km/h, I was informed through presence detection that there was a conflict in the grasslands about 20 km away, just before my destination.
New information from the geostationary satellites revealed that around 30 individuals were being attacked by a Red Dragon. Now, what should I do?
I'm not eager to get involved, but I don't want to abandon them either. Plus, I'm quite interested in the Red Dragon. With plasma bullets, I could probably take it down easily, but I felt a certain desire to defeat it using my sword.
Well, what should I do? The area is also protected by barriers. How about defeating it with my sword?
I decided to approach the scene using flight magic. Flight magic is faster than the small high-speed airship. I put away the airship in the Infinite Storage and flew close to the ground, planning to land about 1 km away from the location.
When I landed and reached the grasslands in a minute, I found five people standing there.
"I'll assist you."
I drew my sword and approached the dragon.
"It's already futile. You should run."
A knight-like man shouted.
"May I defeat the dragon?"
"Yes, but it's impossible. That's a Red Dragon. It's an opponent that would take a hundred knights from our country to challenge."
"I can do it."
I approached and used flight magic to jump and strike at the dragon's neck.
Its head was severed. Even though the neck was thick, it was easily cut off. I had noticed this when I defeated the ground dragon as well; this is indeed a sharp sword.
A well-made magical tool indeed.
Everyone was left speechless.
Hey, there's no time to stand there in shock. We need to assist the injured.
It's troublesome to treat each individual separately, so...
"Area High Heal."
I cast a mass healing spell. While High Heal couldn't restore missing body parts, it should be enough to get them back on their feet and restore their energy.
The 27 people who were injured and lying down started moving again. Thankfully, it seems like there are no casualties.
"Thank you."
A female knight approached me.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, thanks to you, we were saved. I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. I am Alisa von Mināosa, the daughter of the Mināosa Frontier Count."
"Ah, I'm Suzuki Takashi. Well, it's Takashi Suzuki."
"You have a family name. It's a bit unusual for someone to introduce themselves with their family name first, especially in a foreign land. Are you from another country, Takashi-sama?"
"Well, yes, you could say that."
At that moment, my presence detection system raised an alarm. Another Red Dragon was approaching, about 15 km away.
"Sorry, it seems another Red Dragon is coming."
"What? We need to hurry."
"Let's defeat it."
I took out my gun, which had been transformed into a rifle shape. The distance closed to about 8 km.
I loaded plasma bullets. The other knights were looking at the dragon with despair.
As the distance closed to around 5 km, I shot the gun. Three shots in rapid succession. The bullets hit the dragon's head and it slowly fell to the ground.
According to the Appraisal skill, it's deceased.
Well, time to go pick up the loot. But what happens to the dragon's remains?
"Um, what will happen to the dragon's body?"
"Oh, it will naturally belong to you, Takashi-sama. But transporting it might be quite costly."
"Oh, that's fine."
I stored the Red Dragon's body in the Infinite Storage.
"Um, storage magic? A storage magical tool?"
"Yes, it's a magical tool."
"Wait, you have a national treasure-level magical tool? Are you a member of some royal family?"
"No, I'm just an ordinary person. I'm planning to go and collect the other dragon as well."
"Oh, well, you must be in a hurry."
"Yes."
After the countess and her group left, I set up a transfer point at the edge of the grassland and advanced towards the highway, defeating monsters and beasts along the way. I kept a distance of over 2 km to ensure I wouldn't catch up to the countess' group, but I reached the forest exit by evening.
It seems the countess' group headed towards the town on a carriage. They're likely going to set up camp about 5 km ahead.
I set up a transfer point near the forest entrance and returned to my base using teleportation magic.