Chapter 6

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"Mee mee mee mee!"

"Mee mee mee mee!"

The persistent cries woke up Zangren.

A baby monster had rubbed its face against Zangren's, who had somehow fallen asleep on the ground.

Noticing that Zangren had woken up, the kitten-like creature started to walk out of the room with its wobbly legs.

Zangren, who had been sleeping on the monster's belly, tilted his head in confusion as the baby monster turned around and meowed angrily.

It seemed to be telling him to come along.

Although he was worried about the adult monster not being around, Zangren stood up, placed his hand on the baby monster's belly, and lifted it up, heading towards the cave entrance.

From halfway down the passage, the outside was clearly visible.

The adult monster was sitting with its back to the cave.

In the morning mist, its tail swayed widely.

The large snow leopard seemed to be fading into the thick mist.

To Zangren, it looked like an old back.

The last image of his parents came to mind.

As Zangren approached the boundary between the cave and the outside, the adult monster turned to face him.

It was looking at the baby monster with gentle eyes.

Its tail stretched out proudly behind its massive body.

Then, the adult monster glanced at Zangren.

In the blink of an eye, the adult monster let out a deep roar and turned, gliding towards the opposite mountain.

The entrance of the cave was now blocked by a wall of earth, rising to the height of Zangren's neck, with only a narrow gap to see outside.

While thinking that the adult monster must have gone hunting, Zangren leaned against the immovable earth wall and looked out, chuckling to himself about his new role as a babysitter and emergency food source.

"Mee!"

The baby monster, meowing more strongly, slipped out of Zangren's arms and climbed up the earth wall.

Zangren instinctively reached out, but the baby monster just sat on the wall.

*Gwoon!*

A roar that seemed to penetrate his eardrums and press against his heart.

It was as if the mountain itself was being struck.

Despite bracing himself, Zangren saw through the gap in his arms a pillar of fire, as thick as a thousand-year-old tree, rising with a roar. The rock shelf where the adult monster usually lay was instantly engulfed in flames.

Zangren had learned in his magic textbooks that fire spirits, compared to other spirits, could grow significantly larger depending on the amount of magic power given, even if they were small. He hadn't expected it to be this large.

Zangren couldn't help but be captivated by the first magic he had ever seen in this world, other than his own.

"Mee!"

Startled by the indignant cry of the baby monster, Zangren asked the wind spirit to pick up the sound and used autonomous magic to enhance his vision.

Twelve humans stood in a fan-like formation opposite the still-burning pillar of fire.

They stood on a rocky, uneven slope, each holding spears, bows, and staves.

Both men and women, some with pointed ears, wore simple, white armor that clung tightly to their bodies. The chest plates, which covered the upper chest and abdomen, were marked with a small engraving of a red and white two-headed horse holding a spear.

They were the dedicated hunters of the Elrodranian United Kingdom, but Zangren, of course, didn't know this. He only had a vague memory of seeing something similar in his magic textbook.

"Here it comes!"

The warning from the man at the front, who held a large shield.

At the same time, a body about three meters tall ran up the slope and was thrown back by the shield.

The large man was pushed back to the midpoint but maintained his stance and focus.

In front of him, the out-of-scale monster, which had blown itself away with a single charge, stood on its powerful limbs, glaring at them, its enemies.

Each strand of its fur seemed to be wrapped in snow, and the black spots on its long tail had disappeared. A thin white smoke and snowflakes floated around it, reflecting the white light that was beginning to fill the dawn.

"Ugh, confirmed fusion with an ice spirit, firing!"

Three beams of fire shot out in quick succession.

The adult monster ran through the converging beams, weaving its massive body.

Each time it dodged, the snowflakes around it vanished silently.

As it avoided the third beam, the adult monster twisted its body and came to a sudden stop. Three more beams converged on it.

However, its long tail, moving at an incredible speed, deflected all of them.

The tail, now even longer and wrapped in white smoke, swept the area, and the shields of several people who were about to step into the glowing space rang with a high-pitched metallic sound, their surfaces appearing to be shaved off.

The adult monster's hind legs tensed.

Its target was the mage in the front, whose stance and spell casting were slightly slower.

It leaped in one breath.

The mage in front gasped. Still, he tried to make up for the delay by raising his staff.

Just as the fire beam was halfway activated, a large claw wrapped in white smoke was brought down.

With a sound like thin glass shattering, the mage fell on his buttocks.

The mage, who had been swept away by the fire, managed to maintain his balance despite his physical and magical barriers being broken. If not, he would have been reduced to a pile of flesh, the mage realized instantly.

A dragon can breathe fire twice. Even after surviving the disaster, one must not be complacent.

The mage hadn't forgotten this, but the unexpectedness of the situation left him momentarily stunned.

Another white claw was swung at the mage's feet.

"Ilneik, you're not enough!"

The large man, with a fierce smile, struck the adult monster's side with a one-handed hammer whose tip had turned into a stake.

Shattering the snow-coated armor, the impact, which did not diminish, forced Ilneik, the adult monster, to leap back without breaking its claw.