Abandoned in the mountains, I was adopted by a lizard ~I mastered magic and surpassed my parents, but I didn't know they were legendary ancient dragons~ - Chapter 24

Chapter 24   Dungeon Training – 3

Dragon language… brings back memories.

Though it has only been a few dozen days since I last used it.

Immersed in a sense of nostalgia, I began to channel my magic into my voice. Then, in a deep, commanding tone, I spoke.

‘Hey, you lizard, can you hear me?’

“Screeeee!”

Upon hearing my voice, the Abyss Lizard visibly recoiled in fear. Its intelligence seemed to be enough to understand, but not respond verbally. Seeing the creature cower and tremble, I continued.

‘Here’s a command for you. Do not harm any human that enters this floor. If you see a human, you must immediately flee.’

There might be other parties coming to the 10th floor besides us. Simply ordering it to leave us alone could still pose a danger to them. So, I instructed the lizard to avoid all humans it encountered.

With this, even if our classmates encountered it, the lizard would flee on its own.

“Screeeeee!!”

Naturally, the Abyss Lizard also fled from us, letting out a piercing cry. Good, that settles it.

“What… what did you do?”

Watching the fleeing lizard, Cecilia asked curiously.

“…I muttered something to myself and it ran away. Can we just count that encounter as null and void?”

“No way, the lizard clearly changed its behavior after your ‘muttering.’ You must have done something…”

“No, really, it was just muttering.”

Earlier, I had jokingly thought, “The teacher didn’t say not to negotiate with monsters,” but honestly, I knew it was just sophistry. Clearly, what I did was more of a threat than a negotiation. Whether the teacher considers it as “participating in combat” is a delicate matter.

It would be better to pass off “Dragon Intimidation” as mere muttering. Dragon language is almost unknown in the Kingdom of Zelgius, so it should be easy to bluff my way through. This is the way to protect their grades. With that in mind, I dodged Cecilia’s question.

“Let’s not nitpick. Hadar probably figured out a way to protect our grades. Are we really going to waste his effort?” Ian said.

“You’re right. If it’s Hadar, he could probably intimidate a monster with just muttering… yes, that must be it,” Cecilia agreed.

Though they were quite skeptical, they seemed to accept it. Mission accomplished.

“For now… let’s wrap up the exploration of the 10th floor,” I suggested.

“Agreed,” Ian nodded.

“I’ll set the green markers on the map to the average value. It’ll make outliers easier to identify,” I added.

We discussed this as we made our way to the stairs leading back to the 9th floor, choosing a route with only blue markers. Above the 9th floor, even setting the green markers to the average value still resulted in about half red and half blue.

◇

After that, we continued exploring without any incidents until near the end of the class. We returned to the surface and reported our achievements to the teacher.

Of course, we kept the Abyss Lizard incident to ourselves. The teacher seemed a bit suspicious, saying, “Hadar wasn’t involved in the combat, yet this many kills…?” But it was only because our achievements were overwhelmingly better than the other parties. Ian prompted me to show the holographic map to the teacher, who then understood, “This is too convenient… no wonder you achieved so much.”

Other class parties also returned and reported to the teacher. After everyone was back, the teacher concluded with, “Well done, everyone. As expected of Class A, excellent work,” and the class ended.

Finally, it was lunchtime. Time to eat. I headed towards the cafeteria.

But then…

“Hadar, stay for a moment.”

For some reason, the teacher called out to me alone. Why?

◇

“Did you do something?” the teacher asked directly as soon as I approached.

“What do you mean?” I replied.

“There was another party that reached the 10th floor besides yours. They reported something strange: ‘The Abyss Lizard ran away the moment it saw us.’ The Abyss Lizard is incredibly powerful, a monster that even seasoned adventurers struggle with. For it to flee from seeing first-year academy students is highly unusual,” the teacher explained.

Ah, I see. I hadn’t considered reports from other parties. That was a complete oversight on my part.

So, how do I get out of this? Even though the teacher suspects that I did something, it’s still just a hypothesis. If I can present a more convincing theory, I might be able to manage.

As I was pondering this, the teacher continued.

“If you’re keeping the truth because you’re worried about Ian and Cecilia’s grades, don’t be. The appearance of an Abyss Lizard itself is an unexpected emergency. It’s rare for students to encounter it without casualties. It’s so stealthy that it’s almost impossible for students to detect it. Even if you did intervene, I can’t deduct points for that.”

It seems my worries were unfounded. If I had known this from the start, I would have just reported it—or even better, defeated the creature directly without resorting to convoluted threats.

“I used a spell called ‘Dragon’s Intimidation’ to scare it off,” I admitted.

“…What?” the teacher responded, bewildered.

“Lizards are considered lower-tier dragons, so if you channel magic and speak in dragon language, they obey. I commanded it to ‘never attack humans on this floor, and flee upon seeing any human.'”

“What on earth…?” the teacher said, still in disbelief.

The idea of a human speaking dragon language seemed absurd, but the teacher was struggling to reconcile that with what they knew about me.

“It’s just like a dialect, depending on where you’re from,” I thought, but kept it to myself. Then, suddenly, the teacher changed the topic.

“By the way, Hadar, do you have a class in the third period?”

Third period? I wonder why he’s asking that.

“No, I have a free period next,” I replied.

Though I’m not sure why he’s asking, I only have classes in the second and fourth periods today. I wish the timetable creator had considered this, but the third period is free because only upper-year classes are available then.

The teacher seemed very pleased to hear I had a free period.

“Great. Then I have a request: could you go and defeat the Abyss Lizard?” he asked.

“Defeat it…?” I responded.

“Yes. The B-class has practical training tomorrow. Although we can ensure safety by limiting their access to the 9th floor, it’s better to be cautious. Can you help with this?”

It seemed the teacher wanted to eliminate any threats in preparation for tomorrow’s class. Even though I had neutralized the threat by commanding the lizard, he preferred to be safe.

“Isn’t there a way to let it go?” I asked.

To me, the lizard was now a harmless creature, and I felt bad about killing something that had already submitted.

“No, we can’t do that. Once an Abyss Lizard appears, it must be exterminated immediately. Even if it’s currently harmless, leaving it alone isn’t an option,” the teacher replied firmly.

He continued, “If you don’t handle it, the faculty will have to work together to defeat it. But none of us can take it down quickly, so the Abyss Lizard will suffer more. If you can dispatch it swiftly, it would be a kinder fate for it. What do you think?”

I suppose leaving the Abyss Lizard unchecked is like leaving an invasive species to roam free. In that light, I can’t really argue against it.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll handle it,” I agreed.

Saying that, I alchemized a drug called an opioid, known for its powerful pain-relieving properties, and used a teleportation spell to transfer it directly into the Abyss Lizard’s body. The amount I transferred far exceeded the LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of subjects). The Abyss Lizard, overwhelmed by the drug overdose, experienced euphoria before its respiratory center shut down, causing it to die peacefully.

“Here it is,” I said, casting a teleportation spell on the Abyss Lizard’s body to bring it to where we were.

“Wha…!? When did you…?”

“Just now,” I replied.

“No way… you killed it without leaving a single mark…?”

The teacher stared at the Abyss Lizard’s corpse, mouth agape, frozen in disbelief.

After a few minutes, he regained his composure and said, “Anyway, thank you. I’ll report this to the appropriate authorities. You can expect something good to come your way, Hadar.”

I wondered what that might be. Not that I did anything particularly extraordinary, so it doesn’t matter much. Without thinking too deeply about the “good thing,” I finally headed to the cafeteria for lunch.