Chapter 4.2 – The Evil Dragon Instantly Annihilates the Orc Horde

Ryuuji finished gathering the medicinal herbs.

He’d gathered them, but honestly, he had no idea if they were actually medicinal herbs or not.

“Leave that to your mother. Haaaah!”

Karma fired herself up.

“Mom… Beam!”

Piko!

A light shot out from her eyes.

This was not a skill or magic actually named… Mom Beam.

It was the God Slayer skill, 【Appraisal (Supreme)】.

A skill that had the effect of discerning all information (value, price, and various other details) about a given object.

…As an aside, there was absolutely no need to shoot a light from her eyes.

In fact, activating the skill didn’t produce a light beam at all.

“Mom…! I told you to stop doing that!”

“Fufu… It brings back memories. You used to love the Mom Beam, didn’t you, Ryu-kun?”

“You’re talking about when I was a little kid! Come on!”

…That’s right.

When he was three years old, she had used this skill to appraise a rock he had found.

At the time, he had said something like, “Hmm… the Appraisal skill is… kinda plain,” so Karma applied light magic to develop a technique that shot a harmless beam of light from her eyes.

“So coool!”

The young Ryuuji had been delighted, so ever since, his mother always shot a beam whenever she used her Appraisal skill.

“Stop doing that already! And don’t yell the attack name, it’s embarrassing!”

“Fufufu, I understand, Ryu-kun. When you say you hate it, it just means you love it, right?”

“You don’t understand at all!”

A short while later, the appraisal was finished.

His mother sorted the plants into medicinal herbs and everything else.

About seventy percent were medicinal herbs, and the remaining thirty percent were just regular weeds.

“…Thanks, Mom.”

Ryuuji was frustrated that he had ended up relying on his mother’s power after all.

But it was also true that without his mother, he wouldn’t have been able to collect the required amount of herbs and complete the quest.

“FUU~♪ My son said thank you to me! YEEEEAAAAAAH!”

Ignoring his mother, who was dancing wildly in ecstasy, Ryuuji threw away the weeds and gathered more herbs.

His mother appraised those, too (he refused, but Karma appraised them by force), and with that, he had finally cleared the required amount.

“Now we just have to go back to town and report the quest complete. Let’s teleport back.”

It was at that moment, just as Karma activated the skill 【Hyper-Teleportation】, that it happened.

“KYAAAAaaaaaaaah!!”

…A scream echoed from deep within the forest.

“…………… So, shall we be heading back?”

“No, no, no, no!”

Ryuuji grabbed his mother’s clothes, stopping her as she tried to leave without a care.

“What do you mean, ‘heading back’?!”

“I sense trouble. What if something happens to you, Ryu-kun? It’s dangerous. Let’s go home.”

“No way!” Ryuuji yelled at his mother as she tried to teleport them away.

“That was a person screaming! Something must have happened! We have to help!”

“…………”

Haaaah… his mother let out a heavy sigh.

“Please forgive my grave sin of underestimating my own child, Ryu-kun.”

After that preamble, Karma spoke to Ryuuji as if lecturing him.

“Ryu-kun. This isn’t me being mean; it’s genuine advice. Even if you rush into a crisis, what can you, a fledgling adventurer, possibly do?”

Ugh… Ryuuji was at a loss for words.

His mother was absurdly overprotective… but she was a dragon, a magical beast. In other words, an animal.

The world of beasts is survival of the fittest. It’s the law of nature that the weak are eaten by the strong.

And…

“If the weak do not wish to be eaten by the strong, their best move is to flee from danger. That is their only option.”

His mother’s words were correct and (for once) a strikingly accurate opinion.

Could he, someone who had just become an adventurer, really save someone from a crisis dire enough to make them scream like that?

…It’s impossible, a calm part of him whispered.

However…

Ryuuji looked at Karma.

Seeing his mother, who was genuinely worried for his safety… Ryuuji thought.

I can’t run away. Even if it’s reckless, if I run away here, I’m not a man.

I can’t run. I’m an adult now. I’m going to become—I want to become—an independent, full-fledged man!

That’s why Ryuuji didn’t want to run. Because to Ryuuji, running away was a bad, unmanly thing to do.

That’s not good enough. I can’t stay weak, always protected by my mother!

Ryuuji dashed forward!

“Hup.”

“Kyaun.”

Karma instantly moved to intercept the running Ryuuji and struck the back of his neck with a sharp chop.

The God Slayer skill, 【Stun (Supreme)】. A skill that unconditionally knocked out any opponent she touched.

“…I’m sorry, Ryu-kun. I want to keep you away from danger as much as possible.”

Saying that, Karma whispered, “Transform,” and changed from her human body into the form of the Evil Dragon.

She placed her son on her back.

“Now then…”

She muttered.

She activated the non-elemental magic 【Search】.

Using the skill that let her grasp her surroundings, she searched for the source of the scream.

“…One beastman. And orcs, a whole lot of them… is that it?”

An orc was a bipedal, pig-like monster strong enough to give even D-Rank adventurers trouble.

“…It would be easy to leave them. But if I abandon them here, a deep regret will be carved into Ryu-kun’s heart.”

She didn’t want her son to have such sad feelings.

Karma, now the Evil Dragon, spread her massive wings and soared into the sky.

After leaping into the air in an instant,

“There.”

She quickly found her target.

Then, she dove straight down!

KRA-KOOOOM!!!!

She landed with a violent sound.

A deafening roar and a fierce gust of wind tore through the area.

“PWEEEIIIGH!!!!”

The horde of orcs was sent flying like leaves.

The group of nearly thirty orcs was reduced to less than half, to ten, just by the impact of Karma’s landing.

“Wh-what…?”

Karma’s eyes caught sight of a figure cowering near the orcs.

It appeared to be a beastman… a female.

“You, get back.”

“Y-yes, ma’am…”

The trembling beastman girl obediently listened to Karma’s words.

Zip! The beastman girl fled the scene.

After confirming the girl had escaped,

“Now then…”

Karma, in her Evil Dragon form, glared at the orcs.

“I am currently in a very bad mood.”

Vooooom…! A jet-black aura erupted from Karma’s body.

The orcs began to tremble violently!

“Do you know what I’m angry about? …Even if it couldn’t be helped, I am furious that I was forced to raise a hand against my own son.”

Karma’s voice was a low growl.

Like that of an evil god crawling up from the depths of the earth, her terrifying voice made the orcs freeze, lose control of their bladders, and start wetting themselves.

“You bastards who made me do such a thing… I will absolutely never forgive you.”

…Before she even finished her sentence,

Thud-thud-thud-thud!!

…every orc on the spot had died, struck down by the intimidating aura of the infuriated Evil Dragon.

“…………”

Karma retracted her aura.

She then changed from her Evil Dragon form back to a human.

“Oof.”

She caught Ryuuji, who was falling from above, in a princess carry.

“Aah, to be able to princess-carry Ryu-kun is such an honor…! This is an honor! I said it twice because it’s that important!”

Karma was choked up with tears of emotion.

“Well then, shall we go home? …Oh?”