The Former Child Prodigy Confronts A Geo Dragon

A month had passed since my first job—

During that time, I went out to the great forest again and again to gather medicinal herbs.

“Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? H-high-quality medicinal herbs again!? Aaaaahhh, are you the owner of the hands of a god!?”

Every time I went to sell herbs, the guild buyer looked at me in astonishment.

The hands of a god?

…Well, I suppose it was no surprise, since I kept bringing in nothing but high-quality medicinal herbs that were supposedly rare now. …No, even so, the hands of a god?

Apparently, because I kept gathering nothing but high-quality medicinal herbs, people had started spreading rumors about me.

Thanks to that, whenever I went into the great forest, I often noticed adventurers tailing me. They probably thought I knew of some secret patch where the herbs grew in abundance.

I could understand how they felt, but… it was not as though I knew of any such mysterious patch. I really was just pulling up ordinary herbs around me and collecting them.

So in the end, even those mysterious presences gave up, pulled up the herbs growing nearby, and left.

One of the guild buyers quietly told me about it.

“It seems there are people following you around, Ilvis-san.”

“Yeah, I noticed, but—how does the guild know that?”

“Because they tell us themselves.”

The buyer answered with a bright smile.

“When we appraise what they bring in and say, ‘These are just normal medicinal herbs,’ they tell us that cannot be true because they gathered them in the same place as Ilvis-san.”

“…I see.”

“But it is strange, isn’t it, that the quality differs even though they gathered them in the same place?”

“That seems strange to me too.”

“Are you really not the owner of the hands of a god?”

“I think they are just ordinary hands…”

I stared intently at my hands. No matter how much I worked, my life refused to become one of lazy lounging around again…

Why did only my herbs turn into high-quality ones? Anyone working in society would probably be doing the same things I had come up with in my student days—topping the herbs up with nutrients before harvesting them and coating the surface…

I really had no idea.

Well, best not to worry about it.

“Oh, right, Ilvis-san, please be careful.”

“Of what?”

“It is on that poster over there too, but apparently Giant Lizards have been increasing in the great forest. Even adventurers gathering herbs have been suffering attacks.”

Ah, that thing posted on the wall… So it was still going on.

“I’ll be careful.”

While going on like that and continuing to gather herbs—

I gradually went deeper and deeper into the great forest with each passing day. Naturally, herbs did not grow back in a single day. On top of that, there were even people following me and gathering from the same places I used. In that case, it was only natural to go deeper into the forest in search of new herbs.

The farther in you went, the higher the appearance rate of monsters became, but—

In my case, there was no particular problem.

Because I used a monster-repelling spell. If I kept that deployed, low-level monsters would not come near me.

I did not know how strong they really were, but judging from the name, something called a Giant Lizard had to be weak. No matter how much their numbers increased, they would not be able to come near me.

Fuhahahahahaha! This gathering was going smoothly!

As I was collecting herbs like that—

Crack, snap, creak, craaack!

I heard the sound of trees being broken. Huh, what could that be? I turned my eyes toward the sound, and some gigantic thing appeared, knocking trees aside as it came.

…Huh?

To put it in one phrase, it was a gigantic lizard.

The words of the guild buyer came back to my mind.

—Apparently Giant Lizards have been increasing in the great forest.

I see. So this was a Giant Lizard. That was what I thought, but something about it bothered me too.

Its head was too big. So were the arms supporting its body. This was not something as mild as an elephant—

This thing looked like it was at least twenty meters long just from its head to the base of its tail… Even for a Giant Lizard, was that not a little too giant?

If you asked me, a giant lizard should be, at most, around two meters long.

…Well, considering the flow of the situation, it probably was a Giant Lizard, though.

I had assumed it was weak because it was called a Giant Lizard, but it had broken through my monster repellent. It was probably fairly strong.

I would have to stay sharp here…

The giant lizard’s eyes were plainly filled with hostility.

There was no reason for it to bear me any grudge, but… well, monsters were like that. They were beings born from dense miasma and were a species separate from the ordinary ecosystem of humans and animals.

They hated and regarded us as enemies unconditionally.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The Giant Lizard let out a roar.

A tremor ran through my skin. No, it was not just my skin—my heart itself was gripped by a cold sensation. Fear spread through my entire body—

Tch, Bind Voice!

“Hah!”

I shouted loudly and knocked the lizard’s roar back. So it was a roar that instilled fear in the heart and prevented movement—recent lizards could even do something like this now…?

The Giant Lizard came charging toward me. Its enormous body looked slow and heavy, but on the other hand, each step it took was absurdly large, so it closed the distance at an unexpected speed.

Carrying that momentum, it swung one enormous foreleg down at me.

Boom!

There was an impact like the ground itself had shaken, and unable to withstand that immense mass, the earth sank in.

But I was already no longer there.

I moved clear of the lizard’s leg—and then picked up a thick tree branch lying at my feet. It was about the length of a one-handed sword, which made it easy enough to handle.

The Giant Lizard tried once again to stomp me with its foreleg.

I stopped moving. A gigantic shadow large enough to swallow me whole—and then the huge foreleg came bearing down on me.

I poured magic power into the branch I was holding.

“Enchant—Hardening.”

A magical gleam settled over the surface of the branch.

The lizard’s enormous foot was already almost upon me.

I swung the branch straight at the underside of the lizard’s foot.

My strike mercilessly swept away the lizard’s huge foot. After taking my blow, the giant lizard’s leg seemed to shift phase, almost as if it had glided sideways.

Thud!

Its missed foot slammed down onto the ground.

I see. Apparently even a mere Student Sword Saint and Student Sage could knock away at least the leg of a Giant Lizard by combining swordsmanship and magic.

My equipment was only cloth clothes and a tree branch, but maybe I could manage somehow.