episode_0048

The cave room that Sharie led us to was slightly larger than the others.

There, a terrifying creature called a Worm Dragon was waiting for us.

“Yaaah-!”

As soon as we spotted it, Venos raised his spear and charged straight at the creature.

Thinking that I needed to secure Kiki first, I left the Worm Dragon to Venos and ran towards the back of the cave room.

Kiki, hearing Venos’s voice, peeked out from behind a stalagmite.

“Kiki! This way!”

I grabbed Kiki’s hand and led her towards the exit, bypassing the outer edges.

After asking Sharie to stay with Kiki, I decided to face the Worm Dragon with Venos.

As I raised my sword and headed towards Venos—

Boom-!

“Ugh!”

The Worm Dragon swiftly swung its long neck, hitting Venos and sending him flying backwards.

“Brother-!”

Seeing this, Kiki gasped in shock, placing her hands on her cheeks.

I rushed forward with my sword, blocking Venos who had been knocked back and was now standing up with his spear ready.

The Worm Dragon let out a grotesque cry.

It seemed to attack by whipping its long neck like a weapon.

Its appearance and movements were repulsive.

Swish-!

I gathered magic into my sword, igniting it like I did when facing the Arachne Queen variant before.

Using fire against beasts usually didn’t cause much harm.

Venos, who had been knocked back by the Worm Dragon’s attack, stood up, dusted himself off, and prepared to attack with his spear.

This time, the Worm Dragon attacked first.

It leaped towards us, swinging its neck like a whip in all directions.

Sharp teeth lined its large circular mouth, dripping saliva as it swung its neck back and forth.

Left or right?

Predicting the direction of the flexible neck movement was not easy.

If I were hit by that swinging neck, I would probably be sent flying like Venos.

If luck wasn’t on my side, I might even suffer a fatal injury from being bitten by those gruesome jaws.

Then, Venos stepped forward, lowering his stance and thrusting his spear forcefully at the Worm Dragon’s neck before I could.

But the Worm Dragon’s momentum didn’t stop, and instead, Venos’s spear broke with a snap.

“What… what the…”

Venos, shocked by his broken weapon, tried to step back but the Worm Dragon changed its direction, flying straight at Venos to bite him.

That was when I swung my flaming sword.

As the Worm Dragon charged towards me, predicting its neck movement was difficult, but when it changed direction to bite Venos, I had the perfect timing to strike its neck accurately.

I poured all my strength into the flaming sword, slashing down at the Worm Dragon’s neck.

With a cheerful sound, the creature’s neck, which had tough skin that could break Venos’s spear in one blow, was cleanly cut.

Shiiiiing-! Shiiiiing-!

The severed neck of the Worm Dragon sprayed blood and glowed as it shook its half-cut neck.

It tried to howl, but only a whistling sound came out due to its severed vocal cords.

I stomped on the severed neck, leaped forward, and plunged my sword into the creature’s back.

Fwoosh-!

Flames erupted from where the sword pierced.

The smell of burning flesh filled the cave room.

The movement of the creature, which had been glowing with its head cut off and a sword stuck in its spine, suddenly stopped.

“Ha… Ha……”

I defeated the Wyrm Dragon and took a deep breath, looking at Benos and Kiki in turn.

Benos was staring at me with wide eyes, clearly surprised.

Now, it’s time to return to the village.

I guess this should cover the cost of a meal.

* * *

“Thank you so much! If it weren’t for you, we would have been in big trouble!”

After returning to the village, Benos bowed his head and thanked me.

In reality, it was Shari who found Kiki, and Benos acted as bait, making it easier for us to defeat the Wyrm Dragon.

Benos had already thanked me more than ten times.

Anyway, Kiki was able to return to the village unharmed.

When asked why she had entered the Abyssal Passage so easily, she said she had followed a pretty cave butterfly.

Upon hearing this, Benos scolded Kiki severely for crying so much.

The Wyrm Dragon we defeated was dismantled by the villagers and brought back as meat.

There was enough for the whole village to eat.

That night, a small festival was held in the Karja village.

And I was served dishes made from the Wyrm Dragon’s meat.

“Ugh…”

Honestly, I was hesitant to eat it, thinking of its terrifying appearance when it was alive, but I cautiously took a bite with some mushrooms.

“…!”

The meat was of excellent quality, juicy, flavorful, and without any fishy smell.

Well, there are things like anglerfish and eels, so you can’t judge the taste by appearance alone.

After eating and drinking to my heart’s content, Benos spoke to me the next day.

“You said you wanted to go back to where you used to live.”

“That’s right.”

“You helped find Kiki, and I think Elder Eldeborn will be able to give you some advice.”

“Eldeborn?”

“He’s the village chief of our village. He’s been around for a long time. He seems to want to meet you after hearing about what you did in our village. If it’s Elder Eldeborn, he might be able to tell you how to go back.”

“Elder Eldeborn is the living history of the Karja tribe and a great sage.

He was the first Karja and the longest-lived Karja.”

How can the first Karja still be alive? How long has he lived?

I remember the narrator saying something like that before.

The Karja tribe existed before the concepts of demons and heroes in this world.

So I went to meet Elder Eldeborn, the village chief of the Karja tribe, with Benos.

“Elder Eldeborn is inside here.”

Benos pointed to a cave wall full of mushrooms at the back of the village.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a wall.

It was an entrance with a path leading inside, covered with small, elongated mushrooms.

“Do I just push through these mushrooms and go in?”

“It doesn’t matter. They’ll grow back in a day anyway. I’ll wait here, go meet Elder Eldeborn and come back.”

Following Benos’ instructions, I stepped through the crowded mushrooms and entered.

The strange texture of the mushrooms felt odd, but surprisingly, I could easily enter.

And as soon as I entered, I gasped at the sight before me.

In a large cave room, there was an unbelievably huge mushroom.

It was larger than any mushroom I had ever seen, beyond imagination.

The mushroom seemed to have merged with this place, with parts of the mushroom stem extending and attaching to the cave ceiling and walls.

It felt like combining a mushroom with a thousand-year-old tree.

And around that giant mushroom, small mushrooms similar to the ones attached to Kiki’s head were blooming like flowers.

“Hmm, are you… Yunoa?”

Somewhere, a solemn voice was heard, and when I turned my gaze, I saw a person’s face almost buried in the ground near the roots of the giant mushroom.

There were small mushrooms growing on his face as well, and despite being an old man, his bluish skin color indicated that he was a Karia.

The identity of the giant mushroom that almost filled the room was none other than the mushroom that grew from the old man’s head.

“Ah… Yes, nice to meet you.”

Overwhelmed by his atmosphere, which was like a living history of a tribe, I naturally showed respect.

There was no need to ask who he was, as he was clearly the village chief of the Karia, Eldeborn.

“Oh, a human I haven’t seen in a long time. It seems like you haven’t been influenced by the flow of history at all.”

Eldeborn stared at me with deeply wrinkled eyes like tree knots and continued speaking.

“Thank you for saving the precious child of our village. Would you come closer?”

I walked a bit closer as he requested.

Something fluffy and small and white was floating in the air, like dandelion seeds.

Perhaps it was mushroom spores.

“I heard that you can show me the way out from here.”

I asked cautiously.

“Don’t you already know? You can go to the surface by passing through the Abyssal Passage.”

“But I don’t know the way.”

“I can show you. There’s a special method. But this old man has a favor to ask.”

“A favor?”

I asked.

Then Eldeborn slowly opened his mouth in a low voice.

“I don’t know what position you hold as a human, or what kind of life you have lived.

From now on, I will tell you a story.

I hope you will listen to this story and answer my questions.”