The "dragon" of the Misty Path

After calming the distraught Perly, the two began cleaning up the battlefield.

"Don't touch these beastfolk's blood! Unless you want to turn into a pighead yourself!"

Stopping Perly's reckless looting, Renato sighed. He had never imagined he would have to teach a girl how to "loot corpses."

"Listen carefully, Perly. The first step in looting is making sure they're really 'sleeping soundly.'"

As he spoke, he slit the throat of a Pigman who was still twitching. Perly stood behind him, fidgeting awkwardly with the hem of her clothes.

"Start with the obvious stuff-belt pouches, shoulder bags." Renato frowned as he tossed aside several dried meat strips of unknown origin.

"Of course, these Pigmen don't have much worth looting. I'm just showing you the process."

Renato moved on to another teaching subject: an adventurer whose head had been smashed to pulp.

At the sight of the red-and-white matter spilling from the skull, Perly backed away two steps and began to dry-heave.

"Come closer. Don't let that little bit of mercy in your stomach get in the way of business. In Brekka Town and the Phantom Forest, you'll have to get used to this sooner or later."

Perly nodded, covering her mouth to fight down her nausea as she watched Renato expertly search the corpse.

His fingers swept quickly over the torso, pulling several dozen copper coins from the shoulder bag and pockets and dropping them into his Bag of Holding.

"Next, check the weapons." He hefted the spear. "The shaft's cracked. Heavy and worthless."

"But this dagger's still usable." Renato tossed it to Perly. "Keep it to defend yourself."

Perly scrambled to catch the dagger. Renato used his sword to lift the damaged leather armor, then felt through the clothing beneath it.

"The real valuables are often hidden here." He fished a Silver Crown out of an inner pocket in the linen shirt.

A lucky find. He whistled, stood up, and used the toe of his boot to roll the corpse onto its back.

"Finally, check anywhere they might wear jewelry. Fingers, neck, ears, nose... well, he doesn't have any."

Renato turned toward Perly and pointed at another corpse.

"Now go try your hand on that poor bastard over there. I'll watch."

After a quick round of looting, the two set off along the Misty Path again at Renato's urging.

In stark contrast to their journey there, Perly walked with a spring in her step, unable to hide her excitement, while Renato grew increasingly wary, silently tightening his grip on the Silent Lady.

"Renato, how much could this dagger sell for? I bet it's worth at least one Silver Crown! And we have so many calming flowers, too. This leather armor's a little loose on me, though..."

"Perly, keep it down."

"Hehe." She lowered her voice slightly, but her excitement did not diminish at all. "This much money could feed me for months. No, wait, I have to subtract lodging... if only I could have a house of my own."

Renato did not answer. Instead, he stopped in place. His breathing grew rapid as a powerful sense of unease welled up inside him.

Perly accidentally bumped into his back, dropping her bundle of calming flowers to the ground. Before she could complain, the sight before her froze her in place as well.

An enormous golden eye with a vertical pupil loomed in the middle of the road. Renato felt a surge of disbelief-he could even make out a hint of mockery in that eye.

Huge wings beat, and a shadow descended from above. Renato immediately shoved the motionless Perly aside and rolled toward the woods on his right.

Sharp claws kicked up a cloud of dust. Rather than pursue him, the creature tilted its head and stared at Renato, seemingly waiting for his next move.

The dragon of the Misty Path! Looking at the monster, as tall at the shoulder as a warhorse and over five meters long, Renato suddenly recalled a rumor he had once heard and dismissed as a joke.

Suppressing his panicked, scattered thoughts, he sprinted deeper into the woods, hoping the trees would hinder the dragon's advance.

His mind raced at the same time, desperately recalling everything he had learned about dragonkind. He could not die in the jaws of this oversized reptile!

Its scales were dark green, its neck thick, its snout long and narrow...

It didn't match a Green Dragon! It lacked the Green Dragon's distinctive curved lower jaw and the spiny crest extending down its back.

The color of its scales was wrong, too. A Green Dragon's scales grew lighter with age; only a Green Dragon wyrmling could have dark-green scales.

It wasn't a true dragon. He remembered a joke about dragonkind recorded in the Voice of the Dragon. The author had described these dim-witted "cousins" that looked similar but could not speak.

This was a Quadruped Drake, called a Dragon Antelope in ancient texts. The mounts of Dragon Knights in poetry were often these creatures.

A deafening dragon roar behind him interrupted Renato's thoughts. The sparse trees could not stop its charge. Several saplings snapped under the sweep of its wings as it came straight at him.

A dragon claw tore through the large tree beside him, and realization dawned on Renato.

Is it toying with its prey, enjoying watching me run?

Renato took a deep breath. Rather than retreat, he advanced, swinging the Silent Lady with all his strength at the dragon's right claw!

The two-handed sword sliced through its dark-green scales, laying open deep-red flesh.

The dragon roared in pain and lashed its thick tail, only for a nearby tree to block it.

Watching the trunk shudder, Renato felt profoundly grateful that he had just rolled clear of that blow.

Its beaklike head snapped at him from the side, nearly catching his arm. Renato could only keep scrambling and rolling, praying he could evade the next attacks.

Suddenly, a cone of flame erupted near the dragon's tail and swiftly spread over its body.

It was Perly's Burning Hands!

The dragon roared in agony, but against its enormous body, the flames were far from lethal. With a sweep of its massive tail, it sent the girl, still chanting her spell, flying.

With little fuel to sustain them, the flames soon died out. But Renato used the opening to gain some distance.

He stood before the dragon, meeting its eyes, and shouted in his still-halting Draconic.

"You! Pseudodragon! Quadruped Drake!"

The dragon was instantly enraged that such a puny creature dared mouth off before it. Knocking trees aside and beating its enormous wings furiously, it charged at Renato with a roar!

It came at him like an oncoming truck. Renato fought the instinct to freeze and hurled himself sideways with all his strength.

Despite preparing in advance, he had still underestimated the enraged dragon's speed. Though he avoided a direct hit, the edge of its wing caught him and slammed him hard into a tree trunk.

"Fuck, that was close..."

Renato sprang away from the tree and landed back on the ground, looking toward where the dragon had just been.

The dragon had vanished. There was nothing nearby, as though the battle had been an illusion, but the crisscrossing claw marks on the ground proved it had all been real.

Branches had shredded Renato's coat, and his teeth had cut the corner of his mouth. He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and muttered to himself.

"Even a true dragon couldn't break through the Niter Kingdom's maze formation, could it? Let alone a Pseudodragon that can't even talk."

Renato ran back to Perly. She was slumped against a large tree, a broad pool of blood spreading beneath her.

Her face was as pale as paper, her voice weak.

"Was that... a dragon?"

"I drove it off." Now was not the time to explain the maze formation. Renato reassured her in the simplest words he could, lifting her linen robe to examine her wound.

The leather armor had offered almost no protection. The sharp tip of the tail had torn through the cowhide and opened a long gash across her abdomen. Renato could see pale organs beneath the parted flesh.

He pushed the exposed intestines back inside and pressed hard against the wound, but the blood kept flowing.

For an injury like this, Hemostatic Powder and bandages would do nothing.

The young Mage Apprentice reached out and clutched the tattered front of Renato's coat, her knuckles turning white.

"The quest... we'd already finished it... all those calmflowers... I was even thinking... about how to spend the reward..."

"I... I haven't become a Mage yet... I haven't proved myself to the people who looked down on me... I haven't... haven't..."

The girl's voice grew fainter as she sobbed softly.

"It hurts, Renato... it hurts so much..."

"Renato... I don't want to die. Please... save me... I really... want to live..."

Looking into those despairing black eyes, Renato spoke gently.

"Don't worry, Perly. You won't die. My quest... isn't finished yet."

Without hesitation, he took Eldath's Divine Water from his Bag of Holding and slowly poured the clear, luminous liquid into the girl's mouth.

Renato, who had once doubted the Divine Water's potency, now desperately hoped it would prove as miraculous as the Cleric had claimed.

Indeed, Eldath's Priest had spoken the truth. A miracle truly occurred.

Beneath his palm, Renato could clearly feel the wound in Perly's abdomen rapidly stop bleeding and close. Color gradually returned to the girl's deathly pale cheeks.

Tears still clung to Perly's lashes, but her chest rose and fell steadily. Exhausted, she fell into a deep sleep in Renato's arms.

Witnessing this, even Renato, an Earthling, began to understand why the Eryl believed so firmly in deities.