One hour pa.s.sed .

I used concealment magic and discreetly left the city through the gate .

The shortsword couldn’t be used through Magic Transfer .

I even tried testing it, but Magic Transfer wouldn’t activate while I was holding it .

In fact, it wasn’t just Magic Transfer . Regardless of my own will, just holding the shortsword would cause all of my magic to be concentrated at the tip .

And so I currently had it sheathed and hanging on my belt .

Because of these reasons, I determined that I would have to fight the dragon directly if I wanted to use the sword .

Of course, the guild would try to stop me if I told them of this .

They wanted to go only after they had a.s.sembled a good hunting party .

“…But there really isn’t time . ”

The sky over the Delight Forest was already much darker than it was last time .

And from what I could see of the dragon through the slimes, it was also bigger than before .

If this continued, it would be too strong to deal with within two days .

I was sure that the guild would a.s.semble their best possible team of hunters, but what good would that be once the mythological dragon was fully grown?

I had to kill it before that happened .

‘Are there any other monsters near the dragon?’

‘They all ran away!’

‘It’s just us that remain!’

The last time when I came here for the quest, there had been lots of monsters around the dragon .

But now, the only monsters who tried to get close to it were the monsters that I had tamed .

…Perhaps this meant that the time for the dragon to start running wild was close at hand .

I wondered about this as I rushed through the forest at full speed .

Killing so many monsters must have made me stronger because running long distances felt a lot easier now .

While I could only see my HP and MP on my status, perhaps there were other stats that were going up as well .

Though I had no way of seeing them right now .

–And like that, I ran through the forest…

It was when I was just about to reach the area that the dragon was, that the slimes started screaming .

I had never heard their voices like that before . It was full of fear .

‘GAAAHHH!!’

‘Run away!!’

‘Thi-this is bad! Good slimes, please get onto my back!’

The Proud Wolf said as they abandoned their posts and left the dragon in a panic .

I didn’t know what was happening, but it sounded bad . And so I cast some magic on the slimes and Proud Wolf that would help them in their escape .

—And then about a dozen seconds pa.s.sed .

Suddenly, a burst of immense magic erupted from the area that the Blue Dragon of Delight was in .

As the slimes were no longer close to it, I could not see the dragon…but I knew that it was the source of this power .

The slimes probably had a natural instinct for these things, and so they ran away .

–But that wasn’t the only change that occurred .

Along with the explosive sound, the surrounding trees were torn from their roots .

‘Ahhhh!’

‘Oh, no! Proud Wolf! Hurry!’

‘I’m going as fast as I can!’

The slimes were coming towards me as if to escape the blast .

In spite of the tension in their voices, it seemed like none of them had been harmed .

Fifteen seconds later, the sound of the explosion reached my own ears .

Considering the time lag, it was was probably the same sound I had heard from the slimes .

…How big of an explosion was it…

I would have probably died if I was close to it .

A crater had been created by the blast . And a single dragon hovered over it .

—It was the Blue Dragon of Delight .

However, it was at least twice as big compared to when I first saw it .

“Am I too late…?”

The priest had said that we only had 3 days .

And that was 2 hours ago .

I should still have a chance .

I wanted to believe…but that hope started to fade ever since I saw the explosion .

However, it was too late to run away .

If this was the dragon from the myth, it could destroy a continent in 3 days .

If I wanted to outrun it, I would have had to start running on the day I arrived in this world .

Of course, it was impossible .

In the myth, an ‘Emissary’ had defeated the dragon . But there was no such person in this world .

Even if we somehow escaped to another continent, that continent would be the next to be destroyed .

‘Yuji . What are you going to do?’

‘Fight . There is nothing else to do . ’

It looked like a futile battle, but there was one hope .

This shortsword that the priest had given me .

Combining this shortsword with h.e.l.lfire of Death might just be enough to kill the dragon in one shot .

…That is, if I could somehow pierce this 30 cm blade into the giant dragon that was currently floating up in the air .