Author: Kaburagi Haruka
Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations
Chapter 52: Culprit
Back in good condition, we try restarting our search at the bottom of the cliff.
However, after taking a good three hour rest, the sun has gone down considerably, and its light doesn’t reach the bottom of the ravine.
Visibility was already poor, so we’re using light orb magic to see better. But coupled with the thick fog, our footing is becoming uncertain.
“We can’t spend too long here.”
“Went and sent Cohen back earlier and all. We go into the next day out here and they might think we died.”
“Kevin is a celebrity, so there would be a huge ruckus if he died.”
“Shuddup! But maybe that was a mistake.”
With Cohen going back early, if a whole day goes by and we don’t return, he might decide something happened to us and report it to the guild. If that happens, it’s very possible they would decide something unbelievably monstrous is lurking down here.
If that happens, then it wouldn’t stop at rank blue adventurers, but indigo and even violet adventurers, who there are said to only be a few of in the whole world, might get sent here.
“That actually sounds kinda fun?”
“Right~ I wanna see that happen too, boss! Wanna spend the night here?”
“Let’s not! We’ll keep the search within two hours at most. If we take another two hours heading back, we should make it to the village by nine. That should barely be on time to avoid problems.”
“Well, that’s probably the appropriate choice.”
“Yeah. If we don’t find anything, we can always come back to investigate again tomorrow. As long as the source of the problem remains unknown, they’re probably won’t treat us poorly.”
As long as the source is unclear, bone wolves could strike again.
We can destroy eight of them all at once, so having us around should be reassuring for the village.
“But even if we want to search… Eir, Yig, are you noticing anything strange at all?”
“Mm, nothing.”
“Too much rotten smell, my nose isn’t working~”
Aside from the narrow riverbank, most of the bottom of the ravine is the river.
We want to investigate, but most of the land is underwater. Even if there’s anything remaining, it was probably swept away by the river.
Anything smaller than those carriages isn’t likely to still be around.
“Either we assume ‘something got washed away’ related to the source of this and search downstream, or search upstream guessing ‘it’s still there’. Which do we choose?”
“That’s unusually vague for you Rimuru. You don’t have some clearer objective?”
“There’s just not enough information for that. And Eir, don’t you dare go forcing yourself.”
“Mm, I’m still fine.”
After that fit, Master has become a bit of a worrywart. I’m perfectly… okay, maybe not perfectly fine, but I’m in good enough shape that I can do my part. Probably.
His concern makes me happy, but also a bit annoyed; it’s a complicated feeling.
Amid those welling emotions I was about to kick a rock near my foot away… and then I noticed.
“…mm? Master Rimuru, this…”
The traces of moss on the rock were cut off unnaturally.
Or rather, this shape looks like it was split open? I lift it up and knock on it. It’s surprisingly hard.
“This rock with moss on it, did it break?”
“Hard to imagine a rock this hard just breaking.”
“No matter how hard it is, rocks break all the damn time. This here’s a riverbed.”
“Yes, that’s true but… Then where’s the other part of it?”
“Hm? Don’t really see a rock that’d fit it.”
The rock itself isn’t that big. About the size of two fists at most.
But after a quick look around there’s no rocks that match the broken side.
It should be relatively easy to find a broken rock with moss growing on it.
“Let’s say something that could break this rock happened. It definitely wouldn’t then bring it from downstream to upstream.”
“If there’s no matching rock here, that means it was washed here from upstream then?”
“If that’s the case, then the chances that ‘something’ is upstream are high. Let’s go check. Not like we have any other leads.”
“We’re kinda aimless after all.”
“Good work Eir.”
For finding a direction to act, Master roughly rubs my head.
It makes me quite happy, but… I grab his arm and hold it in place.
While acting like he’s rubbing my head, it tried to discreetly scratch my horn.
Lately Master has been strangely interested in messing with my sensitive horn. The feeling from tying a ribbon around it is one thing, but nails scratching at it makes me release strange sounds.
“Muu.”
“Ah, ahhh, this is… uhhh…”
“Mumuuu.”
“… Sorry.”
“Well if you want to touch it just say so, it’s fine. But I’ll make strange sounds, so not in front of everyone.”
“It sounds kind of obscene when you say it like that, so could you stop?”
Well, to Master it was probably something like wanting a good reaction when giving attention to a pet.
As the one getting attention, it’s only natural that I wanted to counterattack a bit.
“If we’re alone I can touch it then?!”
“Not you Amy. Sheesh, you and Elly, why do you want to touch me?”
“Because you feel nice, and your reactions are nice.”
“You’re treating me like a doll.”
“Well I never. Not a doll; more like a favorite pet! In name and reality!”
“Keep your reality to yourself.”
“Messing around is fine, but time’s a wasting you lot. We’re going ahead.”
Kevin sighs and steps foot into the water.
The riverside disappears further ahead, so we have to wade through the waters to go on. The water is plentiful, so we have to choose the shallow areas as we move forward.
Being careful of our footing means proceeding will take more time than usual.
“Ooh, Kevin said something respectable for once.”
“You honestly think I’m an idiot don’t you?”
“Not at all. Only sometimes.”
“That’s plenty rude enough!”
We carefully advance while cracking jokes.
While sometimes evading the deeper areas, we meander upstream–
“Huh?”
“Mm, What’s up?”
After a while, Master suddenly tilted his head.
He turns around and points his finger, checking something.
“Eir… No, Yig. Could you fly up, and check at the riverbank at an area with the same depth as here?”
“Hmm, okaaaay~”
On Master’s order, membrane wings spread open from Yig’s back, and she flies into the air.
Since she maintains a human form with transformation magic, those wings are probably made from magic too.
They may be fake, but they’re very similar to her original form’s. It’s probably easy to imagine them that way.
After a while she came back, wearing an unusually excited expression.
“Boss, you’re right on the money. The deep parts, they’re footprints!”
“Ah, knew it. Kinda seemed like there was a regularity to the change in depth.”
“Ooh, way to go Master Rimuru”
“Huh, hard to notice that kinda thing from a side perspective.”
I just thought it was getting shallower and deeper, but the deep parts were actually footprints.
Amazing that Master noticed it.
“But if it’s leaving footprints, that means our enemy is material. It’s not a phantom type enemy, which is a bit of a relief.”
“Yeah, enemies who don’t take physical attacks are a pain to fight.”
“There’s no feeling of cutting them, don’t like it.”
“I don’t really have a problem with them though?”
“That’s cause you use magic.”
When fighting ghost type enemies, you need to bless your weapons with holy water, and there’s hardly any resistance when cutting through them, which just feels weird.
Neither Kevin nor I are particularly good with them.
“Size-wise, it should be similar to a tyrant rhino or a grand hedgehog. Is there even a place for something that big to hide?”
“If there was, then Cohen would have mentioned it. It’s probably somewhere inside the ravine. What’s in this valley isn’t easily visible.”
“Even then, something that big. You’d think there would be more rumors about it, yeah?”
“Actually, the grand hedgehog was wandering the forest without anyone realizing, and same with the tyrant rhino. There are many cases of not noticing disaster beasts are even there until they jump out. Our opponent this time probably has a similar ability.”
The grand hedgehog was living in the forest right next to the city of Belit, yet nobody had any idea it was there.
The tyrant rhino as well, was lurking in the forest next to Raum, but nobody noticed.
They interfere with recognition. They probably have some type of special ability for it.
“If it has the same abilities as a disaster beast, doesn’t that mean it might also be a disaster beast?”
“You mean be ready for that possibility? That’s Kevin’s job though of course.”
“Come on Amy, you helped out in the tyrant rhino fight.”
“Actually it being a disaster beast would be a relief. We’ve got Yig on our side.”
Of all the disaster beasts, we’ve got the highest class fafnir here.
“Mmm, but I’m at a bit of a disadvantage here y’know~? Can’t fly, can’t use my breath~”
Hearing that, I noticed. There are cliff walls standing on both sides of the river.
If something gigantic stands against us, and those cliffs collapse, we could be buried in an instant.
As a battlefield, it’s a bit disadvantageous.
“Master Rimuru, this place…”
“Yeah, I noticed too. It’s dangerous.”
“Chief, something is there!”
Yig sounded a warning.
The chasm veers heavily to the right.
Beyond the turn, a gigantic shadow stretched out.
It notices us, and stands up, spreading a repulsive odor throughout the area.
“No way… a titan? And it’s zombified too…”
Titans. They exist in legends, as people who are close to gods.
Except just like disaster beasts, they aren’t categorized as people, but are treated as a kind of monster. And in spite of their massive size, they often seem to appear out of nowhere.
According to myths, the sound of them walking reverberates far and wide, yet scenes of them appearing suddenly are often spoken of.
“If it wasn’t found even after being zombified, then does it still have its abilities from when it was alive?”
“Maybe its powers are degenerating, and that’s why it was seen?”
“And if something this powerful was zombified… it’s easy to think it would spread to its surroundings.”
Master’s guess gives a rough idea of the situation.
This titan, for some reason, died here, and turned into a zombie. They waves of that spread in the surroundings and created undead.
The main problem is the zombified titan. In other words… the titan raising its arms and preparing to attack us right now.
“BURURURUUUAAAAAAAAAA!”
The titan raises its arms over its head, and blindly swings them down in our direction.
Gigantic arms brought down without thought, they gouge out the cliff, break rocks, and send them flying toward us.
The arms alone not being enough, a rain of stones comes at us like an avalanche.
With our movements dulled in the water, Yig and I may be fine, but Master and Amy can’t dodge!
“Shit!”
I stretch my right hand forward, and open my dimensional storage.
To blast away the rocks and the arms both, I take all ten blasts of breath attack I had stored up, and release them all at once!
Roar–together with a blinding light, an eardrum-splitting thunderous sound.
To knock away the arms I aimed slightly high with the fafnir’s breath–all ten blasts of it–evaporating the rocks, blasting the arms… and it kept going, evaporating the upper half of the titan zombie.
“Heeh?”
Adding to that, the waves from the breath melt the cliffs on both sides, turning it to lava, and the red-hot melted rock then comes pouring into the river. The river water instantly boils.
After which of course, the hot water flows down stream, toward us.
“GYAAAAAAAA?!”
“Eir you dummyyyyyyy!”
“Uwawawa?! H-heat resistance, heat resistance, heat resistance!”
We scream as we desperately push our way through the water to escape.
While running, Master tosses out heat resistance magic with reckless abandon.
Meanwhile Yig quietly retreats to the sky.
And so our fight(?) with the titan ended.