Chapter 55 " Plant Dragon"

　I should have done this from the beginning.

　The scenery flows at a tremendous pace.

　What I am doing is flying at high speed using .

　I'm using  to prevent air resistance so my face doesn't look like a mess.

　The flower that sends out those seeds has a slight time lag before the first shot is fired, so there is no problem if I pass by it before it reacts.

　In fact, by the time the flower reacts to me and tries to open its buds, I am out of range.

I don't take on all of them straight up, and those I can ignore, I ignore.

　But still, there are so many flowers. The deeper I go, the more flowers there are, and now they are all over the place.

　...No, this is impossible, isn't it?

I don't think I can beat them head-on.

　But I've been flying for quite a while, when am I going to reach the deepest part?

　Just as I was about to see nothing but flowers, the field of flowers broke off and I found myself in a wide open space.

　In the center of the space is a large fountain?

　It's hard to tell the color because it's a little far away. When I get closer...my cheeks twitch a little.

　What is this?

　I think I'm looking at the wrong thing, so I use magic to brighten it up and check it out... but it seems I'm not mistaken.

　The color is green. It has a terrible bluish smell, is viscous or sloppy, and even feels a little heavy.

　And the worst thing of all? Human arms and legs are sticking out from the surface of the water.

　...It's more like a swamp than a spring.

　This is terrible. This is most likely what happened to those plant zombies.

　Is this the stomach of this labyrinth?

　I look around. Nothing looks particularly nasty.

　In the back...is that it?

　I can see the road is gaping open.

　I put  back on and enter the road.

As usual, there were many flowers in bloom, but I let my speed get the better of them.

On the way, I came across a fork in the road, but it looked like it would be a bad idea to stop, so I chose the left side of the road at random.

　After a little further, the road became wider.

...?

　I saw something.

　I thought about going through, but I decided that it would be dangerous to go through without knowing what it was, so I slowed down.

　...What is it this time?

　It is too big to be a flower. It's almost two meters long, no matter how you look at it.

　A lot of them are hanging down.

　I can see it now.

　...Oh?

The shape is similar to a gourd, with ivy extending from its flat part and connecting to it, and a mouth? Some kind of liquid was dripping from its mouth and it smelled very sweet.

　I landed a little distance away from the gourd and observed it.

　...It's a gourd no matter how you look at it.

　Rounded shape and a neckline in the middle. The shape is that of the gourd I know.

　But the gourds in my previous world were not this big, and I believe they had ivy growing out of their mouths....

　I'm pretty sure I grew it in class when I was in elementary school...probably.

　Well, I'm sure it's not as docile as it looks.

　Let's just feed it magic and see how it reacts.

　First, let's use the usual  to turn it into charcoal.

If it doesn't move until it's obliterated, it's harmless; if it does, it's harmful.

The passage was filled with flames because I shot them so intensely.

　A squeaky, grating squeal? were heard in great numbers from beyond the blast flame.

　Well, that's what happens.

　Through the smoke, a large number of gourds came rushing out.

　Their mouths were wide open. It was big enough to swallow one or two people with ease.

　I was not surprised, since I had already expected it.

　I flew back and fired another shot. It was still coming toward me.

　One more shot.

　The ivy connected to the gourd breaks off, and it passes by me, scraping the ground with the force of its rush, and stops moving.

I prepare to fire another shot immediately, just in case, and I wait for the smoke to subside, wary.

When visibility clears, I see a rumbling of gourds with a thin plume of smoke rising from them.

　I approached the nearest gourd to check it out. It looked completely motionless.

　I stabbed it with my sword to see its reaction, but there was none.

...I guess I've got it.

　I know what this gourd thing is.

　What I also wonder is, are they edible?

　Maybe it's because I've been on the move for more than a full day, but I'm getting hungry.

　Hmmm. I'll have to try it.

　I bite into the nearest grilled gourd. One bite, two bites...nothing out of the ordinary.

　It looks fine. Let's clean up the area and have a meal afterwards.

After spending a couple of minutes getting rid of the flowers, gourds, and other dangerous plants in the area, I ate the gourd.

　The taste, by the way, was quite good.

Satisfied in many ways after devouring the gourds lying nearby, I headed for the depths.

I passed through the flowers by  and the gourds were roasted.

　I proceeded onward, chomping on a piece of gourd the size of my fist.

The deeper I went, the wider the path became.

　At first it was just flowers and gourds, but then a flycatcher appeared and attacked me.

　This one moved fast, but not so fast that I couldn't see it, so I killed it with magic.

　The next attacker was a trumpet-shaped one, which sprayed pollen all at once as it approached.

　Poisonous pollen?

　At the same time, gourds and flycatchers attacked me, but I had no problem striking them back because I was immune to their poisons.

　As I continued on, I saw more and more variations.

　Some of them were radially spreading thin threads of sticky liquid.

Some were buried in the ground, and when I passed over them, their mouths would open and try to drag me into their bodies like a pit.

　There was no end to the number of kinds of things I could count.

　Even I was getting tired of it.

　Can anyone conquer such a joke of a place? If it wasn't me, they would have died by dozen times.

The food energy was one of my concerns, but most of the plants here are edible if cooked, so I was able to eat a lot of them.

As long as I'm not too careless, I should be able to proceed without any problems for now.

　But even so, what in the world is this place?

　For a place touted as a dungeon, there are no dungeon elements.

　There is not even a single treasure chest, and no items drop.

It's just a dangerous place, and nothing more. The only good thing about it is the rewards from the town and guilds.

And the deeper I go, the wider the road gets. It's about to exceed 30 meters in length and width.

　To be honest, I have a bad feeling about this.

　"...... for real."

My hunch soon became reality.

　It's getting bigger and bigger, and I'm sure something big will come out of it.

　But I was naive.

What I saw in front of me was a fusion of all the plants that had appeared up until now.

　It has a huge body with gourds and flycatchers growing from here and there on its surface, and it looks like the most dangerous thing ever.

　And the biggest difference was that they were not connected by ivy, but walked on all four legs? It walks on all four legs, and it smells sweet.

If I look at the silhouette alone, it looks like a dragon. The plants growing from its back look like wings.

If I dare to give it a name, is it a tree dragon? ...No, it doesn't have any wooden elements, so I'd call it a plant dragon... a plant dragon...?

　When the plant dragon notices me, it turns its head toward me.

　Ah, this is definitely a breath.

As soon as the defensive magic was deployed, the plant dragon spit out something vigorously from what appeared to be its mouth.

　It's some kind of dub-like colored smoke. The color is different from the pollen I saw earlier, but... is the effect similar?

　I pick up a pebble near my feet and flick it lightly. The pebble instantly melts and disappears as it moves out of my defense.

　"......"

　This is tough.

　I mean, won't it melt the ivy and other things growing around it?

　I was curious and moved my gaze to see that the ivy was not engulfed by the smoke, but on the contrary, it was absorbing it.

　This is great. No need for a fan.

　Thinking about it, I had been shooting a lot of fire magic, too, but I realized that using fire all the time in a small space might cause lack of oxygen, right? I now realize that this is not the case.

　The reason why I didn't was because this ivy was purifying the air, right?

　Well, it turned out okay.

　I counterattack with  when the breath subsides, and if I get a couple of shots off....

　It's absorbing flames!?

The plant dragon was absorbing my magic on the surface of its body.

　Fire doesn't work? Then it's  on contact.

　As I closed the distance, the plant dragon turned the plants growing on its body against me.

I dodge through the attacks of the flycatcher that rushes in and other rabid plants I've seen before to get into its bosom, and then I put the magic on my fist and slam it into its paw.

　...How's that working?

The magic takes effect and turns the plant dragon's paw back to sand. As expected, this works.

　I tried to give chase, but the ivy came flying out from the missing paw.

I couldn't react, and the ivy tangled around my body, making it impossible for me to move.

... Ugh... isn't this bad...? 

　I think calmly, except for that breath, it's not that much of a threat, so I quickly cut the ivy off....

　I wonder if it read my thoughts, but something like a mouth sticks out from the surface of the planted dragon's body.

　......... Hey, hey, hey.

　The protruding mouths opened in unison and spit out a breath.

　I quickly deployed defensive magic, but I was too close. The breath penetrates the defense and hits me.

　I could smell a bad odor coming from all over my body. Wait...wait, wait.　　

I cut the ivy with a barrage of  while maintaining my shield to peel off the restraints, and then I dive under the Plant Dragon's crotch to reach its back.

　I doubt if this guy has any concept of front and back, but I took his back anyway.

I attach myself to his back and hit him with a full-throttle "Withering Death" attack.

　Part of the back turns to sand, and the protruding plants die one after another.

　How about if the inside is exposed?

　I fed him a  at close range to the wound.

　I was caught up in the blast, but the plant dragon was also unable to absorb it and took a serious hit.

　A grating sound echoed through the air. I fired a series of  in succession.

　Explosion, explosion, explosion.

　Unidentifiable green juice and shredded ivy fly in the air.

The Plant Dragon's legs are broken and its stance is disrupted. Did I did it?

It didn't work.

　A few flycatchers come to bite me.

　They bite me on the shoulder.

　Damn! How stubborn can you be?

　I hear a nasty sound coming from the bitten shoulder.

　I don't think it can get through the armor I put inside, but this is not good.

　I shoot more magic.

I smell a bad odor and smoke comes out of my shoulder. Oh no, it's melting.

　I switch my magic to  and slam it into the dragon's body, burning it from the inside.

The pressure on my shoulder becomes stronger, and I hear something shattering. Oh no, there's a crack in the armor.　

　I kept sending and maintaining magic power to the  I had launched inside.

Fire started to come out from all over the Plant Dragon's body. My bones began to shatter through the armor as well.

At this point, it is a contest of wills.

Plant dragon's body tilts even more. I also hear a nasty buzzing sound coming from my shoulder.

　.......Go to hell quickly!

The  that I poured all my magic power into burned through the interior of the Plant Dragon, and my arm was eaten off at about the same time.

The Plant Dragon collapsed and a light earth tremor was heard.

...I guess it's all over now.

　I let out a sigh and sat down on the spot.