‘Can you store this?’

I said to the slime while looking at the giant dragon corpse.

It was so big that it would surely be difficult to carry, but at the same time, I thought the materials from such a strong dragon could be useful.

At worst, I would just take what I could carry and leave the rest…

‘No problem!’

The slime said. And with that, the dragon’s entire body was swallowed up by the slime.

In spite of having something hundreds of times larger than it inside, the slime looked exactly the same size as before.

‘You guys are amazing…’

How did this slime storage even work?

Was it hyper-s.p.a.ce?

…Well, as long as it’s useful.

‘Alright, let’s go back.’

‘Yes!’

◇

One hour later.

We escaped the forest on the Proud Wolf’s back and arrived back at the city gates safely.

“Yuji, eh? What were you doing outside of the city?”

Unusually, a guild worker was standing in front of the gate.

There was a sign up that read ‘traffic restriction.’

It seemed like they were restricting who could go in and out.

“I wanted to get some exercise.”

…I wasn’t lying.

Thanks to killing the dragon, my status had gone up quite a lot.

———————————————————————————

Job: Tamer, Sage

Skills: Taming, Light Magic, Shadow Magic, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Thunder Magic, Wind Magic, Time-s.p.a.ce Magic, Special Magic, Great Magic, Familiar Magic, Support Magic, Altering Magic, Ultra Combat Arts.

Attributes: None

HP: 225/2636

MP: -325152/6236

———————————————————————————

My maximum HP had gone up from 1900 to 2636 and my MP has raised by about 1700 as well.

…Though, my actual numbers were low and I was very close to death.

“Surely you don’t have to go out at a time like this? You know what’s going on, don’t you?”

“You mean this dragon business?”

“Aye. It’s because of it that the gates are now restricted and entry into the forest is now forbidden. It will be a great tragedy if someone provoked the dragon and it started attacking.”

…I didn’t know about that.

In any case, it seemed that it might be a good idea to keep quiet about sneaking out and killing the ‘Blue Dragon of Delight.’

But it would also be sad to allow the guild to waste time forming a hunting party, so perhaps I could just make it look like the dragon had disappeared.

As I had collected the body, no one would find out even if the matter was investigated later.

“No one told me about any restrictions. I went out about two hours ago. Was it done during that time?”

“We closed the gates an hour ago. …Well, at least you are safe. Now, come back inside.”

“Yeah.”

I said as I went through the crack in the gate that had opened.

I was headed for… the guild, first.

As they did not know of the disappearance of the dragon, I would have to inform them.

They would waste so much time and effort otherwise.

It was with such thoughts that I entered the guild, but…

The manager was already there, waiting for me.

He opened his mouth as soon as I entered.

“Yuji. Did you just come back from the Delight Forest?”

“No, I was just training in a forest close to the city. When I came back, the gates were closed and I had no idea what was happening.”

“I see… But did you notice anything strange while you were training? We’re currently thinking about sending a scouting party to the Delight Forest.”

The manager was practically interrogating me.

…I pretended to be ignorant.

If I told them that I had snuck out and killed the dragon, it would result in more trouble than it was worth.

“Scouting party? Did something happen?”

“According to Father Shtyle, the dragon is already dead. And we have already confirmed that the sky has brightened again.”

So they already knew about the dragon.

Father Shtyle really was mysterious…

Was this also the power of ‘Revelation’?

…Now that I think about, Revelation and Heaven Strike seem kind of similar.

Are both skills related to G.o.d perhaps?

“He says that G.o.d told him. …Also, he said that he will leave this city.”

“Leave?”

Father Shtyle had lived here for over 10 years.

His sudden departure was a big deal. It wasn’t the same as when some Adventurer like me left.

If there was a reason…

“Another revelation?”

“Exactly. I asked him where he was going, but he would not tell me.”

…This timing. And without telling anyone his destination.

It seemed very odd, but maybe it was true that Father Shtyle had only been here in order to give me the short sword.

If that was true, I was curious as to where he would go next…

But if he didn’t tell them where he was going, he probably wouldn’t tell me either.

In any case, my main priority now was to deal with this dragon business.

“That sure is a useful skill. …So, about the dragon being dead. Do you know who did it?”

“We don’t. I don’t know anyone who would be capable of killing such a thing. …Though, I do know of one person who has a power that I don’t fully grasp.”

He said before giving me a hard stare.

…He suspected me.

“I’m just a Scout. My Tamer skills are just a small bonus. I can’t kill a dragon. …But I could join your scouting party if you want?”

“…No, that’s fine. We already finished a.s.sembling the party and they are preparing to leave.”

“I see.”

If the guild was going to move this quickly, there was no need for me to tell them anything about the dragon.

After all, they would still send the scouts to go and confirm it.

With that decided, I tried to move away from the manager…but he opened his mouth.

“It’s the guild’s job to deal with danger. You should rely on the guild if you ever need anything. …For instance, ‘I want to kill a dragon alone, but with your support.’ Etcetera.”

“And why would I say something like that?”

“Who knows.”

He said. Then he disappeared to the back of the guild.

I didn’t know how much he knew. Should I really consider myself undiscovered?

…In any case, I felt that it would be best to leave this city soon.

The guild surely had their eyes on me now, and things could get troublesome.

Considering what happened with the Earth Dragon, I would have likely been given a reward and a rank promotion had I come out as the killer of the dragon.

But in exchange, the guild would recognize that I was the guy who could kill powerful dragons.

I wanted to avoid that.

Besides, it was all a bit of a coincidence. The dragon had not seen us as enemies and then I just happened to gain a mysterious skill called Heaven Strike. That was how I was able to kill it.

If a similar dragon appeared in the future, I was not confident I would be able to meet their expectations.

◇

As I was finished, I left the guild. It was then that I saw Tina and Lisa walking.

They saw me too and approached me.

“Yuji. Did you come to join the dragon hunting party too?”

Apparently, they had come to partic.i.p.ate in the dragon-slaying.

…Which was pointless now.

“No. I think that is going to be canceled. There is no dragon, after all.”

“No dragon?”

“Not even a trace. The guild is going to send out a scouting party, but I’m sure the hunt will be canceled once they return.”

Tina looked relieved when she heard this.

Yes, no one actually looked forward to fighting a dragon.

“Then Yuji, why did you come to the guild?”