It Came This Way

“The answers to your questions have been nailed to the notice board!”

The guild worker shrieked with a pointed finger.

There was a notice up about the rain.

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Evacuation Advisory

By the Adventurers Guild

Reason: The possibility of a Fire Dragon running wild.

Details: Rain clouds currently hang over the region of the volcanic mountain that is the habitation of the Fire Dragon. Rainfall during a Fire Dragon’s appearance has not occurred in 50 years. The previous incident resulted in the destruction of 3 towns including Boguinea.

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…3 towns including Boguinea had been destroyed 50 years ago.

There was no easier way to express the threat level of this Fire Dragon.

So, a natural phenomenon was enough to cause the Fire Dragon to go mad. It didn’t need the help of the Blue Moon of Salvation.

“But aren’t Fire Dragon related to Lesser Fire Dragons!? Shouldn’t it die under the rain!?”

Some unknown Adventurer shouted at the guild workers—but that seemed unlikely.

Even the Blue Lesser Fire Dragon had merely been angry when I covered it in water.

It might be different if it was a thunderous typhoon. But ordinary rainfall did not seem like it would be enough to kill a Fire Dragon.

A monster that would die to something like that wouldn’t be able to destroy 3 whole towns.

But…there were 2 rivers between the mountain and this town.

And the larger of them housed the Maneater Ba.s.s that I had hunted.

It was about 10 meters wide.

Obviously, that was a lot of water.

I didn’t know if it had been there 50 years ago, but perhaps it could stop the dragon somehow.

As I wondered about this—a slime contacted me.

‘It’s rain!’

‘Rain is falling!’

Apparently, it had started to rain.

I was hoping that it was just cloudy, but it turned out to not be the case.

‘Have you all gathered together?’

‘We did!’

‘We’re fine!’

Once I was sure they were all together, I used ‘Shared Senses’ to borrow their magic detection ability.

And then—I detected the Fire Dragon inside of the volcanic mountain. Its movements seemed different now.

It was as if the rain was tormenting it.

‘The problem is…which way will it go…’

I thought as I watched it.

Its movements were random and it was hard to predict where it would go.

If we were lucky, it would head in a direction where there was no town.

…In any case, it would be best to have the slimes and Proud Wolf move.

‘Proud Wolf. Retreat until you reach the river.’

‘The river?’

‘Yeah. I want to know if the Fire Dragon will be stopped by it.’

Though, moving the slimes away would mean moving away from the dragon…but it seemed like I wouldn’t lose sight of it, at least.

The Fire Dragon was an R-Rank monster, so it left a huge magical imprint that was easy to detect.

Actually…I could even detect the Fire Dragon from the town of Boguinea.

This was because I could see white smoke rising from the top of the mountain.

And in spite of the rain, the forest around the Fire Dragon was burning.

The Fire Dragon must have been so hot that all of the rain evaporated after falling on it.

“…So, this is the power of an A-Rank monster.”

It was so different compared to the Blue Lesser Fire Dragon.

Perhaps this is what my battle with the Blue Delight Dragon would have looked like from far away.

In any case, there was no point in trying to fight this one.

With the Blue Delight Dragon, I had used h.e.l.lfire of Death combined with the Shortsword of Keshis. But against an opponent enveloped in so much heat as this one, I was sure to be burned to death before I could get close to it.

…Besides, this Fire Dragon wasn’t even targeting a specific thing.

It was just moving now.

How dangerous would it be once it fought seriously?

‘Understood!’

If the Fire Dragon wanted to come to this town, it would have to cross the rivers.

The slimes had been stationed by the river that was furthest from the town.

That river was about half the width of the Maneater Ba.s.s river.

It still had much more water than Water Discharge, but who knew what the effect would be?

…Well, the best thing would be if it didn’t come close to the river at all.