Chapter 4.1 – The Evil Dragon Instantly Annihilates the Orc Horde

Ryuuji had come to the town of Kamiina to become an adventurer (accompanied by his mother).

After registering at the Guild, Ryuuji decided to depart on a quest right away.

That said, he was a total beginner who had just joined.

The only things he could really do were find lost items or gather simple things.

Or rather, that’s all they would let him do. The Guild would only introduce quests that matched a person’s skill level.

Just like the other beginners, Ryuuji first decided to accept a quest to 【Gather Medicinal Herbs】.

“Honestly, what was with those people back at the Guild! How rude!”

Karma and Ryuuji had come to a forest near Kamiina.

Karma, walking beside him, was fuming.

“Well… it can’t be helped. I mean, it’s completely unheard of.”

“That can’t be true. Worrying about one’s son is a duty for all mothers in this world. There must have been other cases of a mother coming along.”

“No, I don’t think you’d find one anywhere in this country… Someone who comes to the Adventurers Guild accompanied by their mother.”

Ryuuji let out a sigh.

A few hours earlier.

To register with the Guild, Ryuuji had gone to the Adventurers Guild, taking Karma with him.

After getting a simple explanation about being an adventurer from the receptionist, the incident occurred just as he was about to finalize the paperwork.

“Is the woman behind you also here to register with the Guild?”

To the receptionist’s question, Mother Karma had declared proudly:

“No. I am this child’s mother.”

The reaction from everyone then is going to give me trauma.

Back to the present.

Ryuuji had made his way to roughly the center of the forest.

He crouched down, searching for medicinal herbs in the undergrowth.

Karma stood behind Ryuuji, looking bored and still pouting.

“Hmm… Yes, I see now.”

Her anger suddenly gone, Karma nodded as if she’d had an epiphany.

“…I’ll ask, just in case. What do you see now?”

My mother has a tendency to always jump to conclusions. If I don’t get ahead of this, there’s no telling what kind of rampage she’ll go on.

“I will eliminate every adventurer who was in that place and laughed mockingly at Ryu-kun.”

“Eliminate… you mean kill?”

Karma nodded with a serious look on her face.

“Guffawing so vulgarly like that, those bastards. If you hadn’t stopped me, Ryu-kun, that place would have been swallowed by the flames of darkness by now.”

Karma held out her right hand.

A jet-black flame appeared there.

That’s the God Slayer skill, 【Black Flames of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu】.

Unlike the lightning of ultimate all-destruction, a person scorched by these black flames would… never die.

They simply couldn’t die, while the agony of the burn continued for all eternity.

“Shall I give them a taste of living hell, where they writhe in the agony of being roasted by fire, yet are unable to die…?”

“Seriously, just stop it already…”

Grumble, grumble…

Ryuuji muttered, plucking a medicinal herb.

“Why can’t I? Those people made a fool of you, Ryu-kun.”

“Yeah, well… I guess it can’t be helped.”

It really can’t. If someone showed up to become an adventurer with their mom in tow, anyone would make fun of them.

Ahhh… that was so embarrassing…

“Embarrassing? What was?”

“No, it’s just… it’s all… sigh…”

Even if I tried to explain the shame I’m feeling to my mother, she’d probably just stare at me blankly and reply, “Huh? Why? I don’t get it.” Unfortunately, Karma is a woman, and a non-human at that.

Since her gender and even her race are different, there’s no way she could possibly understand the unique emotional turmoil of an adolescent boy.

“Haaaah…”

“Ryu-kun. Are you okay? Are you tired? Should we take a break? Or maybe rehydrate?”

As Ryuuji was gathering herbs, Karma snapped her fingers.

Snap!

A luxurious sofa, a parasol, and a barrel full of water appeared.

Objects created instantly from nothing by his mother’s All-Creation skill.

“I’m fine. If I work at it a little longer, I’ll be done gathering the required amount.”

“Aah… Ryu-kun working so hard is so cool… So precious… I have to get this on video!”

Karma used her skill to manifest a crystal orb.

It was a magic item called the 【Orb of Recording】, which could record video inside a crystal.

…Incidentally, the rarity of this item was S-Class. In other words, a rare item of the highest level.

When she sent her magical energy into the crystal, it began to glow faintly. She brought it up to eye level.

Any image seen through the crystal would be recorded inside the orb.

“…………”

Ryuuji looked back and let out another sigh.

“That’s just cheating…” Ryuuji muttered to himself as he looked at the cheat-spec mom behind him.

…That’s right.

With Mom around, this quest should be a piece of cake.

After all, Karma possesses a skill that can create anything.

So if I just asked Karma to produce the medicinal herbs… there would be no need to leave town and come to the forest.

There’d be no need to crouch down like this, trying to figure out if a plant is a medicinal herb or not.

But… Ryuuji didn’t ask his mother to produce the herbs.

…I can’t rely on Mom for this. I’m going to become a full-fledged, independent man.

He could have his mother make the herbs.

But in the end, that would be no different from when they were living in the cave.

He became an adventurer precisely because he hated the person he was back then, who lived with everything provided for him by his mother.

He didn’t want to rely on her, and he resolved to do his best from now on with his own power…

To the mother who had raised him all this time.

He wanted to show her… that he had become a respectable man who could live on his own.

…And while Ryuuji the man was firming up his resolve,

“KYAAA! Ryu-kun, you’re so cool! You look like a natural gathering herbs! Look over here! Look here and smile for me!”

…his mother was getting hyped up all by herself, recording her son’s image with the crystal.

This is just… ruining everything, Ryuuji thought, letting out a sigh.