“Ugh…”
My head hurts…
The whistling sound of the wind roared in her ears, and Su Yao opened her misty eyes.
Her blurred vision gradually became clear, but she was so shocked by the sight before her that she was speechless.
At the furthest edge of her vision were rolling mountains and dense forests.
A bit closer, she could see a palm-sized lake; the shimmering surface was like a sapphire embedded in a pale green plate.
Although it was a sight that would make one’s eyes light up, she was in no mood to appreciate it.
The Dragon Scales beneath her, as hard as iron, could be clearly felt even through her clothing.
To maintain her balance, she slid her fingers into the gaps between two black scales. The Dragon Scales, which should have been smooth and cold, were now slightly warm. It seemed she had maintained this posture for a long time.
“Yo, Alice, are you feeling better?”
Alice? Who was that? Wait, who was the person who just spoke?
“Yes, thank you, I’m much better. Even though the Barrier is up, your ascent was too fast. Sudden changes in air pressure can be very hard on the ears. Please take off at a constant speed next time.”
“Hahaha, sorry about that. This is the first time I’ve let a Human ride on my back, so I didn’t know how to control it. You’re just too fragile, though.”
The one speaking was this Dragon!
The person talking to it was herself, lying on the Dragon’s back—”Alice”? Was that name meant for her?
Moreover, she clearly intended to ask that voice about the current situation, but the words that reached her lips were replaced by something else… What was going on?
Try again!
“That’s right, Humans are very fragile. So if you want Food and treasure, you must not hurt them. ‘Kindness’ will be ‘rewarded,’ while ‘evil acts’ will bring ‘hatred’.”
The spoken words were replaced again. If it happened once, it was a coincidence, but twice meant there was definitely a problem…
Her thoughts were indeed her own, and her five senses were unaffected. Could she move her body? …Apparently not.
I see. she was an “onlooker” experiencing an event, just like watching a first-person cutscene in a game—and a VR game with incredibly realistic senses at that!
It was frustrating. She had no idea why things had turned out this way, but for now, she couldn’t “skip the plot” and could only continue the experience…
“Alice! Something’s wrong. There’s an ambush.”
“Eh?”
A hurried warning sounded in her ears. Su Yao didn’t even dare to imagine what kind of ambush could panic a giant Dragon…
The girl—or rather, herself—stood up to look around. At the ten o’clock and two o’clock positions on the ground, she saw massive pillars of fire and light streaming toward the Black Dragon and her.
Is this a dream? If it is, it’s far too real.
“Hold on tight!”
Her vision spun three hundred and sixty degrees. It felt as if a thick liquid was constantly being poured into her ears, making her eardrums ache with pressure.
A violent sense of vertigo hit her. She didn’t know whether it was her or the girl named “Alice” who couldn’t hold on, but everything before her eyes turned to darkness once more.
***
“Wake up! Get up! Now is not the time for sleeping!”
The voice coming from nearby was strange, as if she were in the water hearing a voice from the shore—distant and blurred.
“Heal! Damn it, I don’t know how to heal a Monster! Vortex Jet!”
“Ugh…”
My head hurts…
Not just her head; her chest felt heavy too.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
The moment she opened her eyes, she saw a delicate wandering hand pressed against her body.
Following that arm upward, she saw the anxious face of the Imp Girl.
How should she put it… sometimes having sharp senses wasn’t a good thing.
Like right now. Although this girl probably wanted to check her heartbeat, the itchy sensation at her chest still made her bark at the girl named Leya.
“It’s… it’s nothing! I saw you collapsed here… now isn’t the time for this! Quickly, think of a way to deal with these Treants!”
Treants?
She remembered now. She had seen a large Lake deep in the North Forest of Moravia on the Map, which happened to be the border junction of three countries.
She wanted to use the Lake water to build a “reservoir” for her agricultural area.
Before that, she needed to conduct a simple survey of the Lake and its surrounding Forest, so she had hurried all the way here.
But for some reason, a milky-white, thick Mist suddenly rose from the surface of the Lake, enveloping the shore and the area where she was.
She couldn’t remember what happened after that.
It seemed that strange dream from earlier happened during that time.
But… was all of that really just a dream?
“Stop spacing out! Treants! Treants!”
This brat is so loud. What’s there to be afraid of with Treants?
“All of you, get back… stop right there, don’t come any closer!”
Look, that solved it.
“You… what did you do?”
Eh? Had her brain gone haywire because she just woke up… Why did she expose her ability in front of this brat!
“I don’t know either. Just a feeling? …You’ll keep my secret, right?”
“I…”
“You will, right?”
“I understand…”
At least this brat knows what’s good for her.
However, after going back, she should definitely undergo a Binding with a Succubus and have her teach some Mental Magic.
It felt like the number of people whose Memory needed erasing was increasing…
Speaking of which, Su Yao remembered clearly that she had come here alone. Why did Leya appear beside her?
Could it be that this girl was stalking her? And she just put her hand on…
A pervert!!!
“Why are you here? No, why were you following me?”
Please, although she knew she was very charming, please don’t say you’ve fallen in love with her.
“I didn’t follow you all the way here! I just came here to see the scenery!”
Very well. The perverted, breast-groping, stalking Imp Girl was as stubborn as ever. Although she didn’t know what kind of whim the girl was on now, she wouldn’t hold it against her for the moment.
“Let’s just say it’s as you said. By the way, you saw that strange Mist just now, right? Do you know anything?”
Compared to herself, the girl was at least a “local.” Maybe she could provide some clues.
“It’s also my first time coming near here. When I saw you faint, I cast High-tier Anti-Poison Anti-Curse Magic on myself. The lake ahead is called ‘Boneyard.’ It’s said that people often go missing in the Forest near that Lake.”
I see. As a dungeon near the “starting village,” the difficulty here was a bit on the high side.
Treants were fine; they weren’t very intelligent, and their Levels were mostly between twenty-five and thirty. If you couldn’t beat them, you could outrun them.
But with that “miasma” that looked like thick Mist added to the mix, it was a different story.
No wonder there were so few living creatures in this vast Forest; there was miasma and Treants near the Water Source.
It seemed this Lake could not be developed recklessly…
“Anyway, thanks this time. Also, next time you want to wake someone up, don’t put your hand on their chest. You’ll be treated as a pervert.”
“Ha? Who would be interested in a chest as hard as a stone slab!”
What? Even if she helped, these words could not be ignored!
“You’re the flat one! If I squeeze, I can reach a B-cup!”
“I’m still in my Development Phase! I’ll definitely be better than a Monster like you who’s lived for who-knows-how-long!”
“I’m also in my Development Phase!”
…
Regardless of the outcome, the moment someone argued with a brat over this issue, they had already lost…