Day 531-540/Day 533

Day 533 / 63rd day
　Now that I had a better understanding of my physical body and my newly acquired abilities, I decided to leave the Balance Tower. We were planning to stop by the Madralen Mission City first, and then return to the Free Trade City of Sektoriad.
　Since I had decided on my purpose, I completed my daily training before the sun rose and ate breakfast. Then I did a final check of my luggage and stepped over to the ash-gold wolf who was urging me to get down and get in.
　There was no saddle, but when I hooked my legs around the base of the silver wolf's light wings, the fur naturally wriggled and tangled around my legs to hold me in place. It seemed that the gray wolf had taken care of this for me. As I was thinking that this was a good idea, a silver cord now extended from a collar that looked very much like the dragonscale collar on the gray wolf's neck, and I grabbed it with my mechanical arm. It seemed to serve as a bridle, and I was able to communicate with it just by holding it.
　We were ready to go, so we jumped out from the top floor of the balance tower.
　The wards along the outer edge of the tower were easy to get through if you wanted to, but as soon as we stepped outside, we were hit by a strong cold wind.
　At the moment, I was wearing only a loincloth-type biological armor and no jacket. The wind that blew against me was indeed cold, but even so, I didn't feel that cold when it hit my naked body. Perhaps the Black Goblin King's body was more resistant to the cold. 　While making new discoveries, even though I didn't feel much cold, I might have lost body heat if I continued to be exposed to the cold wind, so I activated abilities such as 【Coldproof】 and 【Windproof】 in duplicate. 　This made the cold air almost a gentle breeze.
Now that there were no more problems, I enjoyed the flight for a while.
The view of the ground from above is quite spectacular.
The majestic nature and the repeated competition for survival.
A huge bear monster is attacked by a horde of small dinosaur-like monsters, and while his body is being cut down, he wields his strong arms to slaughter his enemies.
The battle between the human group and the mantis-like monsters goes back and forth, with the human group having the upper hand.
Moving plants take root in the monsters they kill and grow rapidly, sucking up their nutrients.
Other interesting scenes unfold here and there, but it seems that air travel is not safe.
Pterodactyls and large monstrous bird-shaped monsters were seen several times from a distance on the roof of the Balance Tower.
I'm not sure if it saw the flying silver wolf and me astride it as prey, but it was aware of me as it soared above.
The black dagger at my waist is too short for me, so I take out my vermillion spear from my storage magic item and hold it in my right hand.
After a few moments of trying not to be noticed, it seemed that they were not going to let me go.
There was a pterodactyl descending rapidly from the sky above.
It was as fast as lightning, but it was easy to see its aim.
Just before the collision, I moved my gray wolf to the side to get out of the direct line of fire, and the moment we passed each other without aiming, the tip of my red spear pierced the pterosaur's head deeply.
And with the momentum, the pterosaur's head was cut in half.
The pterosaur is said to be a strong monster, but with the sharpness of the spear and the momentum of its descent, it seems to be unable to resist.
It was a rain of blood, but of course we recovered the corpse.
It was a simple matter of tossing the falling corpse into a storage magic item in midair, as the ash-silver wolf caught up with it with time to spare.
And when it was this easy to hunt, I got greedy.
Pterosaurs are said to be one of the top ecosystems, so I want a few more of them.
A single scale alone would be a good souvenir, but the opportunity to get a whole being was not to be passed up.
I'll eat the entrails later with the gray wolf and fly through the air, hoping that the next one will attack soon.
As a result of our efforts, we succeeded in killing more than a dozen pterodactyls and dozens of giant birds, but by the time we arrived at the Madralen Mission City, it was dusk.
We took a slower pace than we had planned, but that is often the case when hunting.
Today we'll stay at a high-class inn and order a dish made of pterosaur meat.
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PLACE TRANSLATIONS ABOVE THE BAR. THESE ARE THE RAWS, LEAVE THEM HERE. CLICK EXPAND TO VIEW THEM.
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“六十三日目　／　五■三■三■目”
　肉体面と、新しく得た能力についても理解を深められたので、天秤塔を離れる事にした。
　一先ず≪マドラレン宣教都≫に立ち寄り、そこから≪自由商都セクトリアード≫に帰る予定だ。
　目的も決まったので、太陽が昇るよりも早く日課のトレーニングをこなし、朝食を喰う。
　それから荷物の最終確認をして、乗れと言わんばかりに伏せて催促する灰銀狼に跨がった。
　鞍の類は無いが、灰銀狼の光翼の根元に足を引っかけると、自然と毛皮が蠢いて足に絡まって固定してくれる。
　どうやら灰銀狼が気を利かせてくれたようだ。
　これはいいと思っていると、今度は灰銀狼の首にある竜鱗の腕輪によく似た首輪から銀の紐が伸びてきたので、機械腕で掴む。
　どうやら手綱代わりになるらしく、握るだけで意思疎通ができた。
　そうして準備が整ったので、俺達は天秤塔の最上階から飛び出した。
　外縁部に沿って張り巡らされた結界は通り抜けたいと思っていれば簡単に通り抜けられるのだが、外に出た途端、強烈な冷風が襲い掛かって来る。
　今は腰布型生体防具くらいで、上着の類は着ていない。
　ヒヤリと吹き付ける風は確かに冷たいが、それでも裸体に受けてもそこまで寒さは感じなかった。
　黒小鬼王の肉体は寒さに強いのかもしれない。
　新しい発見をしつつ、寒さは余り感じないとはいっても冷風に晒され続ければ体温は奪われていたかもしれないので、【防寒】や【防風】などのアビリティを重複発動。
　それによって冷風は殆どそよ風程度にしか影響しなくなった。
問題もなくなったので、暫く空の旅を満喫する。
上空から見える地上の景色は中々に壮観だ。
雄大な自然を始め、そこで繰り返される生存競争。
巨大な熊のモンスターが小型の恐竜のようなモンスターの大群に襲われ、肉体を削られつつも剛腕を振り回して敵を屠る。
ヒトの集団と蟷螂のようなモンスターとの戦闘は一進一退で、一応ヒトの集団が優勢で状況は進んで行く。
動く植物が仕留めたモンスターに根を生やし、栄養を吸い上げながら急速に成長していく。
その他にも面白い光景はあちらこちらで繰り広げられるが、空の旅も安全ではないらしい。
天秤塔の屋上では遠目に何度か見かけた翼竜や大怪鳥型のモンスター。
それが空飛ぶ灰銀狼とそれに跨る俺を獲物と見なしたのか、上空を舞いながらコチラを意識していた。
腰に差した黒短角剣では間合いが短いので、とりあえず朱槍を収納系マジックアイテムから取り出し、右手に構える。
暫く悟られないように様子を伺っていると、やはり逃がしてはくれなかったらしい。
上空から急速下降してくる一体の翼竜が居た。
鋭い口先をまるで槍のように突き出し、俺達を貫かんと迫る翼竜はまるで雷のように速かったが、それだけに狙いは分かりやすかった。
衝突する直前に灰銀狼を横に動かして直撃コースから外れ、狙いを外してすれ違う瞬間に俺が突き出した朱槍の穂先は翼竜の頭部に深々と突き刺さる。
そして勢いのまま、翼竜は頭部から真っ二つになった。
翼竜は強い部類に入るモンスターらしいが、朱槍の鋭さに、降下する勢いが加わった状態では抵抗もできないようだ。
血の雨を降らせる事になったが、もちろん死体は回収した。
落下する死体に灰銀狼が余裕で追いついたので、空中で収納系マジックアイテムに放り込むだけの簡単な作業だった。
そしてこうも簡単に狩れるとなると、欲が出てきた。
翼竜は生態系の中でも上位に位置するらしいので、後数体は欲しい。
鱗一枚だけでもいい土産になるだろう存在が丸ごと手に入る機会は見過ごせない。
内臓は後で灰銀狼と一緒に喰うとして、早く次が襲ってこないかなと期待しながら空を飛んだ。
そうしてせっかくだからと頑張った結果、十数体の翼竜と数十体の大怪鳥を仕留める事に成功したが、≪マドラレン宣教都≫に到着した時には夕暮れになっていた。
予定よりもゆっくりしてしまったが、狩りの時には良くある事だ。
今日は高級宿に泊まり、翼竜の肉を使った料理を注文しよう。
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Category:Novel
Category:Re:Monster ~ The Dark Continent ~ Vol. 3