I’m Not an Earthworm, I’m an Earth Dragon

“You’re the one who said to go first, what do you mean by sleeping, you moron.”

“…While I don’t necessarily agree with Akash’s words, Myungho, how can you sleep so deeply when you’re the one who told us to be on alert? I was sleeping soundly, trusting you. If Akash hadn’t woken me up, I might have slept until the next morning.”

As we belatedly climbed the darkened mountain, I felt my mental strength waning under the light scolding of my companions. So what if I slept a bit, why are they being so harsh?

…I did break my promise, which I know was wrong. Still, couldn’t they cut me some slack considering our time together?

“Alright, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I guess I was a bit tired from climbing the mountain every day… No, more importantly, Akash. Why did you wake me up so late?”

“I did wake you. You just didn’t hear me. And besides, how could a lowly slave dare to wake up their heavenly master while they’re sleeping? Huh?”

That’s right. Thanks to that, we only managed to get out of the guild an hour after they started their climb. Even though I had become accustomed to the mountain over the past week, the already dark mountain after sunset evoked a primal fear.

Akash’s grimoire floated like a light bulb, but it was far from enough to illuminate the vast forest.

“So, where are we going to look this time? It’s not like she’s going to show herself first like before. We need to go find her.”

“Akash is right. Myungho, do you have a place in mind?”

Even if they say that… I don’t even know where we are. I only know that we went up the path she made, but I have no idea where this is.

“…I don’t know. Maybe we’ll find a clue if we wander around…”

I was about to say that, but I had to stop because a smell that was hard to get used to lingered at the tip of my nose. Akash, who had been nagging me about why I stopped talking, also became quiet, so it seemed they had smelled it too.

“…Guys, did you just smell that?”

“Yes. It seems like a slaughterhouse was built not far from here. There’s a smell. A lot of it… This much… perhaps…”

“Why are you hesitating? They’re all dead. Hunting a dragon with just dragonbane and Anti-Magic Steel? Jeez, if it were that easy, the neighborhood kids’ crime watch would be dragon slayers too.”

Akash had the same opinion as Yuna. I didn’t differ. It must be a complete annihilation. Using the smell of blood as a signpost, we headed towards where she might be.

And as expected, a gruesome scene unfolded before our eyes. Torches were scattered haphazardly on the ground, and nearby lay corpses on the verge of being split in half and dismembered body parts.

They must have been cut by that greatsword. I closed the eyes of a corpse that were still open, extinguished the torch, and continued to follow the trail of torches.

However, at some point, the condition of the corpses began to worsen. The first corpses we saw showed signs of an effort to kill them in one clean strike.

Some were cleanly decapitated, while others were deeply cut almost in half. However, as we went further, there were more wounds that looked as if they had been torn apart or brutally crushed by something.

Corpses with their insides scattered everywhere like a broken videotape, or half-corpses leaving a trail of blood as if they had been ground into the ground.

Our safety, not Altera’s, began to worry us.

“Hey, Hero. As a mage, let me give you some serious advice. It’s not a good idea to go any further. Archer, don’t you think so too?”

“Yes. Myungho, let’s go back. Otherwise, we might end up like this…”

The scene was so gruesome that even Yuna, who had been a mercenary for a long time and rarely suggested retreating, was pale and urged us to go back.

“…Still, let’s go. I’m worried about her, and if she can’t talk, I’ll have to use this to talk to her. Akash, I’ll allow you to use magic to subdue her. Yuna, you… get ready too.”

“Hah, subdue? Even if you pour out lethal spells, she’ll endure, subdue?”

When she said she had killed them all, it didn’t feel real, but now I could feel her notoriety.

Still, we weren’t going to die. My holy sword might be useless for fighting, but there’s nothing better for temporarily incapacitating a target.

The holy sword’s ability is to make the target act according to the meaning of the words written on their body. It sounds good in words, but it was a holy sword with many flaws.

First of all, unlike other holy swords, it was utterly useless as a weapon, and the letters had to be written on the target. This meant that unlike other swords that could inflict fatal wounds with just a swing or two, this one required at least a dozen strokes.

In other words, if the enemy was slow and weak enough to write words on, it was much faster to just stab them with a regular sword.

Naturally, there was no chance to write on a stronger opponent. Maybe if they were strong but slow, but in this world, strong things were usually fast.

As I showed my determination, clutching the brush tightly, the others reluctantly prepared their weapons. Yuna strung her bow, making a chilling metallic scraping sound, and Akash was flipping through his grimoire, seemingly looking for a spell to use immediately.

After preparing, we followed the few remaining torches, and now there were no sword wounds, only gruesome remains as if they had been attacked by wild animals.

As we reached the last torch, we saw a single moving torch in the distance. And… something like a beast’s roar.

“…Young master, run! This monster is not something you can handle!”

A nobleman was desperately fighting back-to-back with an old man against Altera. Both seemed to be in a bad state.

The old man was missing his right arm below the elbow, and one of the nobleman’s legs was severely injured, with the thigh bone visible.

“Sir… We can’t run anymore… I was foolish… The receptionist was right… Just… this much…”

Then, where is Altera? As soon as I thought that, I felt a chilling sensation from behind.

“By the authority of the Archmage, I command you, stop!”

Just before she could tear me apart, Akash hit her with a spell in perfect timing. Spatial Confinement. It was a high-level spell that didn’t simply bind the target with magic, but froze the space itself around the target.

Any ordinary being would be completely immobilized in that state, but Altera was violently moving in the air, resisting the spell.

Her condition was also a mess. The bandages were already undone, and there were many minor wounds here and there.

But even more significant than that, she was almost completely covered in scales. Her arms and chest, of course, and even her legs were in the form of a dragon’s reverse joints.

The whites of her eyes were black, and her yellow eyes emitted a faint light. No matter how I looked at it, she wasn’t in a normal state. All the sounds she made were just roars that couldn’t be interpreted as language.

“…I’ll restrain her! Myungho, quickly, the holy sword!”

Only after Yuna pinned her down with force did she calm down enough for me to write, but even in that state, she was fiercely resisting.

There was no time to hesitate as she elbowed Yuna’s head and slashed her thigh with her tail.

“Just a moment… Done!”

Calm down.

As soon as I wrote those words, she suddenly went limp like a puppet with its strings cut.

Yuna had numerous bruises from that short time, and Akash was lying on the ground as if his head had been overloaded.

Although the grimoire was his actual body, it had to be output through Akash’s body, so he would often collapse like that when using high-level spells or using too many spells. Still, it was rare for him to collapse after using it just once.

Did he use a level 9 spell?

“…What strength. Is she stronger than an Ogre…”

Altera’s appearance was so distorted that I could barely recognize her by her white hair and symbolic necklace and cloak.

Her horns, which had been curled like a ram’s, were now straight, and the blades on her tail had grown saw-like, making her look much more menacing.

“…Are you… the Hero? You’re a little late… but you’ve come. Then, my heart must have reached you. Please… the feat of dragonslaying…”

The unnamed nobleman was urging me to kill her quickly, but that wasn’t why I came. When I looked at Yuna and then at them, she seemed to understand what I wanted to do.

“…First, we need to treat their injuries. Um, old man. Stay still. Let me see if I can help you.”

Saying that, I approached them with the brush.

And I wrote on the old man.

You failed, and you barely escaped with your lives. Forget everything that happened today.

The nobleman looked at the scene with confusion, and then, realizing something was wrong, he backpedaled away from me on his injured leg.

“…Yuna, please.”

Yuna looked reluctant, but she couldn’t kill him. She held him down much more casually than before, but he couldn’t move at all.

“Let go…! Let me go! You guys, were you in cahoots with that half-dragon all along! I won’t forgive you, my long-cherished desire… my family’s long-cherished desire…!”

Forget.

Like the old man, he collapsed. It felt a bit unsettling, but it was the best I could do.

There was no other way to recruit Altera as a companion.

“…Myungho. Sometimes I think, you really don’t care about the means, do you?”

I didn’t answer her remark, which might have been a reproach, and poured potions on their wounds. I confirmed that the bleeding had stopped, so they wouldn’t die.

It seemed a bit cheap for trampling on their dreams, but let’s consider that the price of their lives. This is also a high-quality product. I was saving it for a real emergency.

Akash was also snoring, so he seemed like he would wake up soon. Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief thinking the situation was resolved, Altera twitched.

“…Yuna. Get your bow ready.”

I didn’t think it would be much help, but it was better than nothing, so I had her prepare. Soon, Altera seemed to regain her senses and staggered to her feet.

“…I, definitely. Those bastards…”

“Altera. Are you conscious? If you can understand me, answer.”

I spoke to her more cautiously than ever, clutching the brush tightly. She was incredibly tough, so at the very least, I should be able to withstand her attacks.

“What do you take me for? Ugh… My head. What… happened…”

She touched her head with her hand, and soon, as if realizing the changes in her body, she looked at her hands.

“…No, no… no…!”

Then she suddenly scratched her face with her claws. I was startled by the sudden outburst, but there wasn’t a single scratch on her face.

Only the traces of the scales being pulled out were healing.

I confirmed that she had calmed down… Now I need to talk to her, but I had no idea what to say in this situation.

She kept scratching her body, peeling off the scales. Sometimes she bled and tore off her skin, but she kept scratching without regard.

As if she couldn’t even feel the pain. Or… maybe becoming that form was even worse than self-harm.

Either way, it wasn’t a pleasant sight, so I turned my head away.

It didn’t seem like she would talk to us before she peeled off all those scales, so I just stayed quiet.

Until I heard a strange creaking sound. I tried to ignore it, but it was impossible, so I instinctively looked, and her legs were returning to their original state.

Yes, it was the sound of her very skeleton changing. It was agonizing to watch Altera scream in pain as her flesh twisted grotesquely, so I closed my eyes.

It was only for a moment, but I saw bone piercing through her skin.

I’ve seen a lot of terrible things since I came to this world, but as it always is, there’s always a lower level.

I don’t know how long I kept my eyes tightly shut.

I just stayed like that until Altera spoke to me again.

When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t find any wounds on her body. She looked exactly the same as she did during the day.

Except there were no bandages on her chest. This time, in a different sense, I didn’t know where to look, so my gaze wandered. Her hair was covering it for now, but I still felt guilty.

I had never seen a woman”s naked body, not even in real life, in either my past or present life, so I wondered if it was okay to look.

“…I’ll be, your companion.”

“Alright, alright! Uh…? What did you just say…?”

I tried my best to keep my gaze from her chest and looked at her face, which was utterly exhausted.

Her eyes were sunken, and she looked completely devoid of energy. Her imposing demeanor from earlier was gone, replaced by a weary expression.

“I said I’ll be your companion. Tomorrow morning, there.”

She said what she had to say and just left.

…Hooray?