Chapter 789: December 15th: Seeing the Slash Scars

Author's Preface

I pulled Beatrix I pulled Beatrix I pulled Beatrix I pulled Beatrix (Practice swing)

Before we knew it, the day had crossed over to the 15th...... Current time, 3:27 AM!

Who's the one who said the ShanFro world is shorter than actual distances? We still haven't reached that plateau or whatever yet, you know?

"Nah, the distance isn't the cause here though...... Hah!"

I drove a roundhouse kick into the face of a lunging sheep monster while simultaneously slamming bullets into it. Glancing over, PT Overwerke was fighting back with a weapon distinct from that Ritus? magic sword or whatever it was called. Well, obviously we can't use full firepower here......

"Damn it, that's not what scapegoat is supposed to mean......!!"

"Nngh!"

Ur Idim-shi's sturdy arms sent three sheep monsters flying. Whenever this Dynamite Violence Ourc-san gets active, the reward resources coming our way get aggressively scraped away, but right now, absolutely no one is complaining about Ur Idim-shi's performance.

The path itself to the plateau where the Blade Dragon is supposed to be isn't a maze or some terrible road. However...... the monster encounter rate is absurdly high. Since the effect of the Scar isn't affected by the number of party members, it should be active; in other words, the 'trash mob avoidance' effect—where monsters lower than my level avoid fighting me, while monsters stronger than my level are drawn to me—should be applying......

"Even so, this encounter rate! What is this bullcrap inflated encounter rate!!"

"Oi oi oi, Yashirobird! Don't go burnin' the wool! I'll send ya flyin'!!"

"You've already gathered so much of that wool you wanted that you're sick of it, haven't you!? It's too much of a pain now, so burnin' 'em all is faster!!"

"You idiot! We might still need it for Tias-tan's new outfit!! Use clippers, clippers!!"

Dead or Bald. The sheep—the massive herd of Mustampede Sheep, forced to stand at the crossroads of losing either their lives or their identities—charged toward us as if declaring, "If we're gonna die or go bald, we're gonna kill you first." Executing charges with physiques reminiscent of fighting bulls, they were danger-monsters that completely obliterated any cuteness points their fluffy wool might have afforded them. I mean, the numbers—the sheer numbers are insane. The fact that they immediately resume charging even after crashing into each other is bad news.

Well, we're only cornered like this because Survival cried and begged, "At least let us keep the wool!", but if we just set them on fire, they'd crash into each other and the fire would spread on its own.

"DeepSlo."

"Yeeeees."

"FIREKill 'em."

"Sorrrry, Survival-kun. 【Gehenna Blaze】."

"Gwaaah! Lutia-tan's fluffy wool knits—!!"

"Confirmed: Incineration complete."

We couldn't get any wool, but we did get Jingisukan. There's no way they conveniently came pre-seasoned with salt and pepper, so I restored my hunger meter by gnawing and tearing into the roasted Mustampede Sheep meat, which tasted like tissue paper with the texture of fresh meat.

"Is that all of them......"

"Measurement: Total combat count, 68 entities. I referenced the information collected by the Conquista Doll, but movements deviating from the ecology of the Mustampede Sheep were confirmed."

"Like, they don't normally flock together that much?"

"Denial: The innate behavior of the Mustampede Sheep tends to heavily utilize group charges commanded by a leader unit."

.........Wait, wouldn't their normal behavior be more dangerous? The randomness of every single individual charging as they pleased this time was a threat, but it felt more like a stampede far removed from coordinated leadership. After all, they crashed into each other and essentially self-destructed on their own...... I just thought they were stupid, but it turns out that was a rare behavior...... Hm?

"Did anyone spot a mob that looked like a leader?"

"From what I saw, they were all the exact same type of individual, weren't theyyy......"

A herd with no leader? If it were fish or insects, maybe, but for beast-types, you'd usually expect there to be a boss...... Actually,

"There's been nothing but weird individuals like that for a while now, hasn't there?"

"You're right, Overwerke-san. A pride of lions that was entirely female, or a rhino that was covered in wounds right from the start......"

"............I mean, without even having to guess,"

"Alllll of them had their natural forms broken by something and were running away......?"

Sheep with no herd leader. An exhausted pride of strictly female lions, and a rhino covered in slash wounds......... Yeah, I think it's pretty safe to say it's practically confirmed.

"Oi, you guys—! Check this out!"

If it's something boring, you're getting a Cigarette Burn. Holding onto that pitch-black resolve, I looked at the spot Survival was pointing to, and it seems he managed to avoid the Cigarette Burn.

How should I put it, to put it bluntly, it was a "fissure." Even though our pace was slowed down by the monster rush, we were definitely getting closer to the plateau, as the ratio of green had increased enough that the ground could barely be called a grassland—and carved into that ground was a fissure about 2 meters long.

But in the first place, do such pinpoint fissurescrevasses normally form in a plain? And more than anything, this fissure was terrifyingly too clean.

"Did anyone slash the ground during the sheep fight just now?"

No response, no one came to mind, including Ur Idim-shi...... and those sheep didn't possess any slashing capabilities like this.

"......Amazing, the cross-section is completely smooth. It doesn't look like it was just cut."

"It feels like the slash itself packed a considerable amount of pressure. Like it compressed the earth as it tore through it......"

"If you took a hit from this, even a heavily armored tank would get filleted into three pieces."

I tried sticking my arm in as a test, but it was deep enough that "Sunraku's" arm went all the way in up to the shoulder. Furthermore, it drew a semi-circle from the edges, getting progressively deeper...... The middle of the straight line was the deepest point.

"Sunraku-kun's arm is inside a crack!? That's practically fist-fu—"

"DeepSlo, spin thirty times and bark."

Ignoring the smirking face that began performing a triple axel × 10, I formed a certain hypothesis based on the shape of the fissure.

"This fissure...... It was definitely cut by something sharp, but it wasn't slammed down from high above; it was more like......"

I gripped Areadbhair in a reverse grip and swung my arm from back to front as if clawing at the ground.

"......Didn't it swing through like this?"

"It's hard to imagine a dragon holdin' a sword. If that's the case, does it have protrusions stickin' out from its arms toward its elbows?"

"No, could it possibly be bipedal? That movement is too unnatural for a quadruped."

"No, conversely, what about the possibility that the leg itself is shaped like a blade and it kicked the ground? Though under this hypothesis, it would mean only one leg is a blade."

While we were having a serious discussion about the anti-dragon tactics, DeepSlo, who must have finally lost her mind after spinning thirty times on the spot, stumbled toward me and uttered a single word.

"Woof!!"

"Down."

"Woof!!!!"

Don't point your ass at me, your ass. You lack discipline, you worthless mutt.

Author's Afterword

When the True Dragon appears, peace is disturbed, and beasts rage in terror.

〜A passage from the dragon-hunting legend passed down through generations in a certain Dragonewt settlement〜

Announcement

On the coming March 17th, Volume 3 of the comic adaptation of Shangri-La Frontier 〜Crappy Game Hunter Challenges God-Tier Game〜 will be released.

Since it's already been made public, I, Katarina, shall open my tightly sealed Lonsdaleite mouth as well: there will be a collaboration with that work.

Yes, that work, the one that reigns at the summit of the cumulative rankings, which any user of Shousetsuka ni Narou has seen at least once.

I mean, even at the Web Novel stage, the difference in combat power is like a tank versus a handgun...... It's over, it's all over......

That Tiger tank—or rather, Volume 17 of the "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" comic—releases on March 31st! It's not too late! Buy every volume!

And if they're a tank, then I'm a cannon—or rather, we have the Great Magician Fuji-sensei on our side, so please support Volume 3 of ShanFro as well!