Volume 11, Chapter 28: Up the Mountain
Translator: Zhaernon
Ever since we heard that we were here to trouble the dragons, Cornelia has been acting extremely aggressive and volunteered to act as the front of the team responsible for opening the way.
Well, it's actually just two melees in front and back and we're just following the theory of the game we played before, but we're actually relying on the markers on my mini-map.
Until...
After we entered this fog-filled low forest, it took me a while to realize that there were no other markers on the mini-map except for the green dots of a few people from our class.
I think Mary noticed this as well and stopped after a short walk.
"By the way… is this how we're going to find it?" Cornelia asked.
"We might not be able to find it even if we walk around inside a forest like this for a year."
"As long as we carpet search a little bit we should be fine, right?" Hurd said.
"The forest isn't really that big, it just seems very large because it borders the forests of the neighboring countries and the lower valley of the Triangle Mountains."
"However, if that's the case, I do have a question." Sa Meixi, who was carrying a knight's spear, spoke rarely.
"If the dragon is really inside this forest, I think the other side should be very obvious, right? He's a dragon, so he'll make a lot of noise even when he's sleeping, won't he? But don't you all think the forest is just awfully quiet?"
By the way, Sa Meixi looks happy to be out this time, but that's understandable, after all, she was the head of the mercenary group before she enrolled in the school, but because of some problems at home, I suggested that she and Durst come to the academy.
Hey, I'm thinking of other tasks again, I'd better focus on the one in front of me.
Everyone's eyes looked at Mary and me and I stall my hand.
"You shouldn't have asked me that, I'm just sort of overseeing this event, we can only give advice but not tell you what to do. Unless, of course, it's an emergency."
The term emergency is actually quite imprecise, I should actually help out whenever I decide that there is a situation that is beyond the students' ability to cope with, but I actually don't do it most of the time because I'm lazy.
Hearing me say that, Teacher Mary also nodded in agreement.
"Then first we need to know the other party's habits, then we can find it, right?" Sa Meixi said.
"When we mercenaries used to go on crusades against large beasts, we used to go to the Association to get information about it, and then do the more dexterous professions to observe the opponent's habits and then make plans of attack."
Why does this description remind me of a certain hunter game, but it seems like I was all about watching Raiders creeping each other out with nasty streams in the first place.
Too bad there's no Raiders in this world.
Besides, wasn't it said before that the last time a dragon appeared was a long time ago? The data left should be quite small and all of it was outdated.
"Dragons are divided into flying dragons and ground dragons based on their appearance, this is our western continent's classification method, over in the eastern continent there is also a type of dragon that is very similar to a snake, these dragons are the types of dragons that exist above our entire continent. According to the previous intelligence, the one that appeared inside this forest should be our Western Continent's flying dragon species. There is eyewitness information that it uses water magic and has a dark blue skin color, so it was judged to probably be a water flying dragon." Princess Annie, who had been silent in the back, suddenly said such a large paragraph in one breath.
"What I saw on my brother's office desk yesterday, it's considered good information."
"Well, water-based flying dragons," Sa Meixi thought about it.
"Our guild has crusaded against a low-level earth-based ground dragon before, and I don't know if we can use it as a reference."
"Shouldn't we think of how to find it before we think of how to defeat it? We started out discussing where the dragon is now, I think?" Alexia said.
"If that dragon hadn't been wandering around here, it would have been sleeping, right?"
"Yes?"
"Indeed, well, medical school doesn't have any books devoted to dragons, but there are a few books that mention them. These creatures seem to be particularly interested in gems with powerful energies and like to sleep for long periods of time, often collecting a cave's gems and then lying down next to them to sleep."
What you're saying isn't supposed to be a guide on how to steal treasures from dragons, is it?
Why didn't you tell me if you have such a book, I'll study and learn and make a reference when I visit the dragon's lair in the future ah.
"That means that the dragon will be inside the cave?" Cornelia asked.
"Shouldn't we just head for the hills, then?" Saying that, she pointed in a direction.
"You should be able to go up the mountain if you go this way."
Fuck, what kind of sense of direction is that, you're just pointing, I have no idea where we're headed without the compass on top of the little map!
It's scary how you can just point the finger and know where to go!
Of course, even if that's what I think in my head at a time like this, I can't say it out loud, or I'll lose face.
It's obvious that I'm a teacher, but I can't give directions or anything like that.
I can't help it, I've used a lot of aids and it's a pain to be without them all at once.
I silently walked to the side of Teacher Mary and asked in a low voice.
"Can you tell the difference?"
"Not at all..."
Teacher Mary pointed to the sky.
"Even if you look at the sun, you can't see it, the tree is so high, you can't even tell it's that way."
"Well, it's mostly laziness."
I looked at my watch.
"There's actually a way to determine the direction and knowledge since someone knows we're not messing around."
"That's right~"
Our two irresponsible teachers nodded at the same time and followed their line.
As it turns out, this guy's sense of direction isn't normal, and after we turned around a few times, we actually felt the ground really start to slope, and the trees were starting to get sparse at this point, so it looks like we're indeed at the base of the mountain.
Well, I can only say that it is worthy of a long time in the field to sneak around the people, the wild survival ability is really good.
Looks like I'll have to get a compass from now on...
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Why didn't I think of getting a compass before?
That thing wouldn't suddenly fail, unless the floor is full of magnets or something, yet what place would be filled with magnets under the floor?
Never mind, luckily for now we just have to follow them and pretend to be silent.
And as we started to slowly head up the hill along a safer route, we saw from a distance that several airships were slowly landing at the starting point.
I had to wipe my sweat, that's a pretty big position to be in, if it wasn't a pit stop, it wasn't going to come at all.
However, that's not a good idea either, after all, some of them might all be hiding their cheating.
After all, even around our team, I can see green dots appearing from time to time, so it seems that the princess has quite a few protective units.
Well, at least, it's safer, isn't it?