The Man Picked up by the Gods Volume 3 Chapter 37

TL Note: Edited (2016/02/18). Also thanks to all those who checked if the ads are showing or not. I was wondering if it was just me who couldn't see it, and after checking the FAQs apparently it'll take some time before actual ads start showing. 

Volume 3 Chapter 37

Third Day

I spent the night last night within the Dimension Home. When morning came, I exited it as soon as I finished my preparations. The place I came out to was the base of a large tree only slightly separated from the animal trail. When I came out, my back was facing the tree.

But as soon as I came out, I suddenly felt the presence of a magical beast, coming from the direction of the animal trail.

Unsheathing my sword, I paid careful attention to my surroundings. What came was a lone bird-type magical beast. It’s exterior looked like that of an ostrich. It ran at a terrifying speed toward me.

“Eh? Is this guy…” [Ryouma]

After walking until noon, I found myself before a large rock where the animal trail ended. From here on I’ll have to move without a path to follow.

“There should be a lake southeast of this rock. Right, let’s go there first.” [Ryouma]

I walked as I read out the directions of the village written in the letter Gayn’s group had sent me. There’s really no path here, so I had no choice but to proceed as I cut down the vines blocking my way. From time to time, I met some treants too, so I cut those down too before moving on.

The cans are only durable enough not to break when dropped, so naturally they would break when crushed between those fangs that could easily tear off armors. And when it does, the sticky liquid will spill into the alligator’s mouth.

The spilled sticky liquid will cling to the upper and lower jaws and all of the fangs of the alligator, spreading even more with each bite the alligator makes. In the end, the galmos alligator will no longer be able to open its mouth.

“I was worried at first at whether the alligators’ saliva would dilute the effect of the sticky liquid, but things actually worked out better than expected.” [Ryouma]

Of course, I did run some tests to ensure that the sticky liquid couldn’t be washed off by water, but still… I didn’t think it would work this well. I was only really hoping that it would buy me some time to make my move, so I’m really surprised.

What’s attacking me right now is a large snake that could  swallow several humans in one gulp.

When I searched back in my mind through the information I prepared for this trip, I could only find one entry corresponding to this magical beast.

“Undead Snake, A Rank.” [Ryouma]

There’s more than one kind of snake in the Great Forest of Shurus, but considering its size, this is most likely the undead snake.

The undead snake is a magical beast that lives in the centermost area of the Great Forest of Shurus. The area we’re in right now, however, is a long distance away from that. About a week’s distance of walking.

“Well… it is a magical beast that lives within the Great Forest of Shurus, so it’s not like there’s no chance of it coming out. I guess I could just blame this to my bad luck.” [Ryouma]

As I muttered that to myself, the undead snake crawled toward me, and attacked. It raised its sickle-shaped neck, and as soon as I entered its range, it reached out for my neck like a bullet, biting for my neck. Its speed was a league faster than any magical beast I’ve fought yet.

As I dodged its attack, I struck up with my katana toward its body. But when my katana touched its flesh, a resistance stronger than any other met my blade. I could only leave a shallow wound on its body.

Shallow as it may be, there’s still plenty of blood coming out of that open wound. But the undead snake only ignored that wound as it tried to wine itself around me. In response, I reinforced my legs with ki, and sprung up, jumping over the undead snake. I struck downward toward the snake as I reached the other side. Then when I landed behind it, I took some distance.

While I am more than able to fight A Rank magical beasts, I can’t let my guard down. As I thought that to myself, I cut a nearby tree with my katana, carving an arrow that pointed toward the direction I came from. I could lose my way in this forest if I keep fighting like this, so I’ve been paying attention not to forget. But with this, I’ll be able to focus on the fight.

At that moment, the undead snake–––

“As expected of something named undead…” [Ryouma]

The wounds on the sudden snake suddenly recovered in the blink of an eye.

The undead snake’s special characteristic is its abnormal vitality and its fast regeneration. The speed of its recovery is so fearsome, it’s almost like an undead. That’s the story behind why a magical beast that’s not undead has undead in its name.

Moreover, because the undead snake isn’t an undead-type magical beast, light magic has no effect on it. Despite that, its recovery speed is far greater than that of ghouls. Knowing that, I could imagine fighting with it to be a pain.

“Fortunately, it’s at least not venomous. Still though… this is the sort of magical beast that requires several people to cast magic on it to stop its movements. At which point, it then needs to be beaten repeatedly until it dies…” [Ryouma]

I more or less have a plan to deal with it, but for now, let’s try fighting it normally. If it gets too dangerous, I’ll go ahead and use my trump card. My trump card isn't really something I should use for various reasons.

“Shaa!!” [Undead Snake]

The healed snake came attacking at me as it sounded out a hoarse sound. Its way of attacking was the same as before: a sort of jumping attack. Dodging that, I clad my blade in cold using magic battle technique and the water-attribute magic power. This time, my cut went in deeper.

“Kishaaaa!!” [Undead Snake]

The wound this time didn’t bleed like before, and instead the wound closed up frozen. The undead snake’s voice was also much more pained this time compared to before, but…

“Shaaa!” [Undead Snake]

The undead snake jumped again. My attack just now had some effect, but it wasn’t enough to kill it.

“If anything it just pissed it off.” [Ryouma]

The undead snake ferociously bit and twirled about. It even climbed up the surrounding trees, and started attacking from all directions as it pleased. It could do that because it lived here. The home court’s advantage so to speak.

I continued to dodge its attacks while I slashed back at it with my chill-clad blade, but no matter how many times I cut, I couldn’t inflict a fatal wound on it. At most, I could only slow down its recovery.

Looks like cutting it just isn’t sufficient…

As I thought that, I dodged the undead snake that had just tried to twirl itself around me, and took an overhead stance with my katana. I held the sword out toward the snake as I reinforced my whole body and my katana with ki.

“Ha!” [Ryouma]

And when the snake attacked me, I dodged it, and slashed down at its neck with all my strength. As my blade sunk 60cm into its neck, I successfully decapitated it. When I use ki, I could cut even with the guard on the sword, so I thought it might work. Without ki, I wouldn’t even be able to cut with the guard of a sword, so cutting the snake in two wouldn’t be possible, right?

“Shaa!? Shaaa!!!” [Ryouma]

“This is the end!” [Ryouma]

I ran toward the snake with the short spear in hand. The undead snake was wary of me, having had its head cut off once, but after raising its sickle-shaped neck several times and swaying, it came to bite at me again.

It’s an attack I’ve seen many times, so I calmly dodged its attack as I clad my short spear with ki. Then I thrusted that spear into the undead snake’s body.

Just that wouldn’t be able to stop the undead snake, but this is exactly what I’ve been aiming for. I let go of the spear with my hand, and dodged the snake that tried to twine itself around me.

The undead snake tried to chase after me, but suddenly, the undead snake fell to the ground. And its body started writhing about just like it did a while ago when I lopped off its head.

When I saw that, I knew that my trump card had worked. After that, I checked up on the snake, and when I confirmed that it was dead, I retrieved my spear.

“Good work, it’s enough now.” [Ryouma]

As I called out to my spear to thank it, the form of the spear crumbled, and it fell onto the ground. It then turned back into its original appearance, an iron slime.

What I used just now was the iron slime spear. But what defeated the undead snake wasn’t just the iron slime alone.

Bodily fluids could be seen seeping out of the wound that the iron slime spear had just left. It’s normal for blood to come out from wounds, but what’s coming out of the snake isn’t blood, but a bloody slime.

Chapter end