I decided to tame an undead to prove my hypothesis. There were already a number of undead nearby because of the grave slimes, so I just contracted one of those, and–––
Buchi!!
“What was that just now?” [Remiri]
“What happened?” [Shiva]
“I just thought I’d try contracting zombie, but for some reason, it felt different than normal… It felt like the magic power line wouldn’t connect. Like it was being rejected…” [Ryouma]
It probably just failed, but it felt like a phone that was cut violently.
“Well, you could’ve just failed because it’s your first time. You might also just have poor affinity for zombies, so why don’t you try with other undead?” [Rheinbach]
Just as Rheinbach suggested, I tried contracting with skeletons and wraiths, but it was all the same. Apparently, my affinity for undead-type magical beasts is really bad.
The grave slimes being able to go in and out holy space is because they’re not undead, but I wonder what would happen if I had an undead-type slime.
While I was thinking that, I decided to retire for the day. We didn’t need to thin out the undead today, so I went inside my ‘Dimension Home’, and slept by myself.
The next day.
I readied myself, and then I went out of my ‘Dimension Home’.
And first thing in the morning, I received Remiri-san’s lecture on dark magic.
First was how to afflict curses, and after that was how to defend against curses.
The curse and defense against it that I learned were ‘Curse Transfer’ and ‘Return Curse’.
‘Cast Transfer’ isn’t a spell for releasing curses. Instead, it’s a spell that transfers a curse to remove the effect on the target. ‘Return Curse’ is a spell that protects the body, and returns the curse to the person that casted it. They’re both ways of dealing with curses, but they’re very different from each other.
When morning training ended, we were to go home, but…
Right now, we’re riding on the back of a reddish-brown, western dragon with a length of 50m from its head to its tail.
This dragon is Rheinbach-sama’s slave demon. It’s of the Ignis Dragon variety. It can breathe out fire, and generally lives in volcanoes. But it can live anywhere else too as long as it’s not cold.
It’s been decided that we’ll be going home on the back of this dragon. As for me, I’ll be dropped by somewhere close to Gimuru.
Apparently, they were originally planning to use the dragon to get to the labyrinth, but then they met me, and so they didn’t use it in order to buy time for my lessons. It also worked out well, as the walk going there was good experience for me.
They actually went out of their way to walk through that ravine just to teach me, I’m really grateful.
“Are you ready? Hold tight!” [Rheinbach]
“Yes!” [Ryouma]
We sat on what appeared to be a saddle on the back of the dragon, and hung onto the handles that were affixed to its body with metals. The dragon spread its giant wings, and it ran as it flapped them. Then it took off with great vigor.
“Wow…” [Ryouma]
It’s my first time flying since coming to this world. I’ve traveled many times on air before in my previous life, but this is a completely different experience. The rumbling strong wind blew past me, forcing my eyes to a slit as I did my best to resist its pressure. And gradually, the labyrinth down below became smaller and smaller as the great ravine filled my vision.
This dragon was quite terrifying when it was first summoned. I actually sweated a bit, wondering what was going to happen. But now that I’m riding on it, I have to say, it’s not bad. It flies safely, and the ride is comfortable too.
Rheinbach-sama did tell me beforehand that it’s safe, but the dragon’s menacing posture when it was summoned was a considerable pressure. My body froze in fear, and I couldn’t move an inch. I’d hate to actually make an enemy with one of these. Its claws are sharp, and its tail is thick like a log. Every single one of its attacks probably contains a force strong enough to kill in one hit. I’ll make a note to remind me to run if I ever meet one of these out in the wild.
After all, just because a magical beast has the same rank as another, doesn’t mean that they’re the same on the danger scale. The Ignis Dragons are A Ranked requests when put up, but they can also be S Rank depending on the situation. You could say that the Ignis Dragons are at the summit of A Rank magical beasts. I’d really rather not fight with one, unless I have to.
The labyrinth grew farther and farther as I quietly thought those things to myself. With this, my first labyrinth search and the training I needed for the Great Forest of Shurus has both come to an end.