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Chapter 449: Recommendation

It’s the second day of the search for the dragons.

Snowmelt water flows on the edge of the eastern side of the mountain range, although it’s more of a slow trickle. There’s a bunch of grass that looks like they’re blanched white.

I also spotted some dragons that looked like velociraptors but covered in big scales, and they’re about the size of a horse.

They seem to live in herds of around five or six on average, with as many fifteen sometimes. I frequently see them hunting together, but nope, they don’t fly.

【Appraisal】says they’re dragons, but I say they’re more like dinosaurs! Dinos are cool too, but it’s not the same. Oh, and there are also spirits with velociraptor (temporary label) forms too. Cool, but again, it’s not the same, it’s not what I’m looking for.

It’s getting chilly, so I asked the spirits to make a layer of air pocket around me to keep me warm, but they can’t quite follow complex requests, so…..I ended up being covered in this weird transparent, bouncy thing instead.

It does achieve the goal of keeping me warm, so it’s nice, but I bounce before I hit the ground whenever I take a step. Plus, it’s easier to be tossed around by the wind, so I had to ask the spirits to make it heavier. It’s also a bummer that I can’t use X-Stick while wearing this bouncy bouncy armor.

I climb the steep mountain that runs north to south. It’s all rocky, with snow and ice covering the top, the rocky surface is bluish gray, while the lower half of the mountain is covered in dull green. Maybe because it’s cold and windy that the trees grow really low to the ground, looking like grass from a distance.

The trees have thin, needle-like leaves similar to pine trees, and they don’t grow upward. Instead, they spread out sideways, covering the mountain like a carpet. They don’t even reach up to my shin, which is kinda strange. I couldn’t help but lift one of the branches ーI locked eyes with a white bird.

Oops, sorry.

I gently put the branch back. A second later, I heard a loud rustling noise as the bird scrambled away from underneath the branch. Sorry, I really didn’t mean to disturb you.

There are other animals as well, like weasels and rabbit-looking things with short ears. A giant bird also occasionally circled overhead. Just when I thought I heard a rumbling sound on the ground, snow that looked like a chunk of ice fell from the mountain and came crashing down.

Oh, so that isn’t even a mountain. As I watch in awe, impressed by the sheer power of ‘nature’ I lock eyes with a dragon. No, wait, I shouldn’t have done that!

It’s easy for me to take it down… probably, but I’m the one trespassing here! Ah, sure, I’ve gone into the Magical Forest taking down all sorts of monsters despite being the one trespassing before, but still!

I hastily ran away. It’s the winged dragon that I was looking for, but I didn’t expect to meet it this close. It’d be no fun to know everything right away by checking 【Search】, but it’s my mistake, I should’ve used it.

I dash, kicking snow everywhere in my wake. Luckily I’m faster, so I managed to slip into a crack between the rocks and got away safely. I can sense it peering at me, but I cheat and 【Teleport】to another spot a little further from the dragon, where I can see the whole area.

Thanks to the bouncy bouncy thingy covering me, I practically don’t have any presence and scent. I should be fine as long as I don’t make a sound and avoid being seen. I hid in the pointed shadow of a jagged rock, watching the dragon sticking to the crack.

It was a picture- perfect dragon; with Orange-ish, tough looking scales that look out of place in the snowy mountains, long neck and tail, sharp claws and huge wings.

I’ve always wondered how something that massive can fly with those wings. Now I know; it’s possessed by a wind spirit, and it seems the surrounding spirits are helping out too.

Hmm, is there some sort of contract between the dragon and the wind spirits aside from the one that says the former can’t attack the latter and humans? Or maybe it’s a symbiotic relationship — the mutualistic type — between the two creatures?

But wait, if a creature is already possessed by a spirit, wouldn’t the other spirits avoid it? And maybe it’s very rare for the surrounding spirits to take on the form of a dragon…? No, wait a sec, my notebook also takes on Butler’s form, so maybe it’s possible if they try hard enough?

While I’m mulling over these thoughts, the dragon I’m staring at stopped moving, then it turned its head. It let out a low growl, then it suddenly flew off toward the mountain’s base, gliding at an incredible speed without flapping its wings.

I look at the direction it flew and there is the wingless dragon I saw earlier — oh, it’s a monster. A fierce battle between two G*dzillas started. So dragons can also turn into monsters? Oh well, if we calmly think of it, even bears and humans do, so I guess it makes sense.

So, do dragons take down their own kind that had monsterfied? Or maybe they’re just hunting for food, regardless of whether they’re monsters or not…..?

The dragon’s mode of life is a mystery. I should’ve done some research at the library before coming here, huh. Ah, but then again, I’m originally looking for spirits in dragon form, so I guess it’s fine.

The dragon fight ended in a shocking draw. They both bit each other’s throats and collapsed, their huge bodies lying still. Black『 Particles 』 dispersed from the dragon monster, while the wind spirit drifted away from the orange-ish winged dragon.

And here I am, quickly cramming them both into【Storage 】. Well,【 Appraisal】- san recommends dragon steak, practically begging me to try it out!

I was wondering what items can be made from the dragon materials, so I checked 【 Appraisal】 — totally didn’t expect such a flowerful rhetoric from it. So dragon steak isn’t just a fantasy item, huh? Oh wait, a world with spirits is already pretty much a fantasy world, huh. Yeah, that’s it.

Let’s find a safe spot to dismantle the dragons later and do some taste testing.