Chapter 586: Crystal Forest, Gone~

Grilling what could be considered the last piece of meat left inside his dedicated food spatial storage bag, Verdell couldn’t help feeling a bit helpless looking towards the drooling dragon that had already slid over next to him looking towards the piece of meat filled with greed. Knowing that if he couldn’t find a new source of food soon, he would be getting in trouble with this little greedy fellow only thinking about food whenever she looked towards him since leaving the Swirling sands Dungeon.

Sizzle~

At the very least, as he gazed towards the meat slowly being grilled, a solution to this food problem soon enough became clear. He had to hunt monsters with Scaly to fill up the spatial storage bag with food again.

Simple as this might be, the dragon before him had a terrifying memory when it came to food and building up a storage by skimping away some of the monsters they killed was simply impossible. So, to ensure he would be able to build up a robust food storage for them to endure the rest of the journey through the northern region without running out, he had to come up with some kind of excuse for not using the meat immediately.

That’s it! I can just put it aside saying I’m aging it- or maybe allowing it to sit for a few days to soak in the spices would be a better explanation? After all, that one has no idea what aging meat means and might think I’m trying to make it rot if I just say I’m trying to age the meat...

Thinking this to himself as he broke off a piece of meat and threw it in the direction of Scaly who happily caught it midair, he felt like he had come up with a perfect explanation for storing the meat without taking it out immediately.

Still, to convince her about this, he would still have to give her a proper demonstration of how much more delicious the meat could become after sitting in the mobile refrigerator or freezer that was his food spatial storage bag.

A simple dry rub should do the trick...

And as he came up with a quick solution, he soon enough felt himself calming down significantly as he divided the now done meat between himself and Scaly, with scaly taking the biggest cut. Not the slightest bit worried about finding any edible monsters along the way, as the two of them were currently inside a crystal tree forest, a place that was one of the rare places throughout the northern region that had no lack of monsters to hunt down. If anything, it was one of the rare few gathering spots for monsters across the frozen wastelands that was the northern region.

"This...!"

But as the two of them finished their breakfast composed entirely of that last remaining slab of meat and made their way outside their underground shelter, Verdell found himself freezing on the spot as he stared at what should have been a vast crystal tree forest that had essentially been leveled while they had been sleeping.

Not to mention finding any monsters to hunt down and grow the food storage that had just run empty, it was hard to find even one standing crystal tree amidst what had once been a vast crystal tree forest. The crystal trees that made up the forest had either been torn out of the ground and thrown all over the place or broken down by the terrifying monster that had passed through earlier.

As for the monsters that had once inhabited this vast crystal tree forest? It was obvious that they had vanished alongside the forest, swept away by the terrifying blizzard he and Scaly had hidden away from underground.

Of course, even if they had been swept away by the blizzard, part of Verdell still hoped to find some frozen monster nearby. However, fate was far from kind, as all he found were small thumb sized frozen remains that looked far from appetizing and wouldn’t be something edible even if he went through the process of picking up those unidentifiable chunks of frozen monster meat scattered through the now flat ground that had once been the crystal tree forest.

As for Scaly...

Roar~!

She just let out a small content roar as she gazed around at the devastation without the slightest care in the world. The lack of monsters and the fact that the crystal tree forest had disappeared not surprising her in the slightest as she had already predicted something like this to happen after she saw the status of the terrifying behemoth that had passed through earlier.

The mere fact that she and Verdell had managed to escape unscratched from an encounter with such a powerful monster could be considered a miracle on its own.

Still, though this terrifying monster had already left the crystal tree forest the two of them had hidden away inside, it hadn’t entirely disappeared from view, as the blizzard that had passed over them hours earlier when they had both gone to sleep was still visible in the distance.

And along with this, a clear trail of destruction had been carved through the frozen wasteland where this terrifying monster had passed through.

While the path wasn’t that obvious on the open ground with nothing around, the path was relatively clear whenever it encountered a crystal tree forest or small landmarks along its path. Crushing everything that blocked its path, with only mountains causing it to turn and move around instead of crashing straight through it.

Surprisingly, this path of destruction wasn’t wide nor small and covered an area a few kilometers wide. Not wide because the sheer size of the blizzard itself covered that area hundreds of times over, while not small for obvious reasons, as anything covering an area over a kilometer couldn’t exactly be called small.

In fact, if it wasn’t for the presence of the blizzard that seemingly swallowed everything as far as she could see, the path of destruction carved by that mountain sized behemoth would have been massive, but... In comparison to the blizzard itself, the path of destruction seemed pitiful.

Still, standing in the path of destruction herself, Scaly couldn’t get herself to call this seemingly pitiful path of destruction in comparison to the blizzard, small.

"We should get going, but remember, no flying again!" Gazing off towards the blizzard in the distance as well, Verdell silently shook his head before getting up on her back. Making sure to remind her not to try and fly again, something that caused Scaly to roll her eyes a bit in annoyance.

Still, she reluctantly followed what he said and didn’t dare take off. Not wanting to get thrown around by the icy wind like she had been yesterday when she attempted to fly through the frozen wasteland of the northern region.

The positive about this mode of travel was that they were far too slow to catch up to the blizzard in the distance moving normally, but at the same time. Following the path of destruction that had been left behind by that terrifying monster also meant there would be nothing for them to fight along the way.

For Verdell, this meant no meat to fill his spatial storage bag, while for Scaly, this meant no monsters to help her increase her level.

Whoosh~

And thus, having come to an unspoken agreement, Scaly moved away from the trial of destruction that was the optimal path leading towards the main city of the north.

Speaking of this, Verdell was feeling a bit worried knowing that the terrifying monster was moving directly towards the city he was similarly heading towards.

But... Knowing just how powerful the adventurers settling down in the north were along with the simple fact that the one in charge of such a place would undoubtedly be powerful even amongst adventurer that had surpassed the SS Rank, he didn’t worry too much about the survival of the city.

After all, if the city had survived in a place where monsters that powerful wandered around, it undoubtedly had a way to fend it off.

Even if he had not known about the presence of such monsters in the north in the past due to his low strength at the time and lack of access to such information, the Adventurer Guild would have known and should have taken it into account when it decided to expand into the north.

Not just the main city, but the other cities in the north should also have ways to deal with this powerful monster roaming the place- and that safety measure would in his eyes undoubtedly be a powerful adventurer who had the ability to move around and respond to the monster in time whenever it was spotted approaching a city under the guild.

After all, though this monster was powerful, it was easy to spot from afar and didn’t move that fast compared to the speed of an adventurer that had surpassed the SS Rank...