Chapter 1360 How You Respond When the West Wind Moves Part 1

Now that we have all managed to safely cross the river, all we had left to do was to simply continue our trek towards the distant volcano! But I mean, I might have just said that, but in actuality it is something that is easier being said than being done. As you should have expected from that sort of thing.

Besides, we have one more fact that should technically be of concern to us all: this place right here is already in the very southwestern part of the New Continent, near the “West” part of it, according to Ladder-san, I don’t know why she would even put an emphasis on that part. But we were soon to find out that in these parts of the land the “scales” start to appear on monsters a whole lot more frequently than in any other parts of the continent.

At first we were unable to understand quite well that that “scale” part was supposed to mean…… But soon enough it was going to become so apparent to us that it would be impossible not to realize that fact.

「What the hell is this thing supposed to be…… I-Is this a lizard!? Or perhaps something else entirely!?」

「No, it’s not a lizard! That’s a chameleon! …… But even for it being a chameleon, it’s a little bit too big for being just that!」

「Huh!? That part!? Is that seriously the part with which you have the greatest problem!?」

「Guys, focus! Here it comes!」

THWACK!! With a loud and rough sound a long spear-like or harpoon-like tongue shoots out of the chameleon’s mouth and pierces the surrounding rocks with ease, turning them into gravel and making them rain down onto the muddy ground. Now, as for what would happen to any of us should that “tongue” was to touch us in the same way…… I am fairly sure that none of us from my party wants to imagine such a horribly graphic image…… That being said, Rei-san managed to black that attack and successfully endure it. However, it’s all because of her armor and sturdy body and constitution. So it can be easily deduced that should any other member here were to tank this attack on their own, they wouldn’t be nearly as lucky as Rei-san was. Even Rei-san herself can say that she got extremely lucky here, for if it was not for her armor she would have been a goner. It’s really great that her armor managed to adapt to her new body and gender and did not become a useless piece of scrap.

But yeah, none of that can change the fact that the source of the problem is right in front of us and that its basically blocking our path forward. As was already mentioned, the main theme for this particular enemy must be a chameleon. It has every characteristic of that particular animal, its physique, weirdly swaying eyes that makes you feel sick when you look at them, and way more vigorous than necessary tongue sticking out of its mouth in order to catch and eat its prey whole in one fell swoop. The only difference here being that instead of flies, this thing actually eats humans with ease.

But even if it was able to grab a human being whole with that razor sharp and sturdy tongue of its, no one would be alive by the time they would actually be delivered inside of its mouth. Why is that? It’s because that tongue of that chameleon was also entirely on fire! So any flesh being would be burned to charcoal before they would be devoured by this monster! No, seriously, even for a mere predator, that way of attacking is so simple, but yet so effective! It’s almost too scary if you think about it!

「According to my database, its Race name is: Combustic Chameleon. It is a Reptile-Type monster that possesses the ability to raise its own internal temperature and uses its tongue set ablaze by that internal temperature to prey on smaller and larger organisms alike, as well as to combat any kind of threat that might be encroaching onto its territory.」

「So does that mean that its body has adapted itself to withstand even the most extreme upper temperatures that the area around the volcano and the volcano itself might exhibit!? That asshole! That is precisely why I hate hot-blooded monsters! They will always be the absolute top tier and possess the kinds of attacks that can be only describe as utter bullshit!」

Not to mention that when you have the monster which has the word “Combust” or anything that takes root in the word “combust” then that means that this tongue of its is not the only real problem and the source of danger that you can expect this thing to have! And besides, why is it that creatures like that are always gigantic, or at the very least large in size!? Thinking about it now, the size ration of this monster right here and our party can easily be compared to the way in which the real chameleon and the flies that it preys on differs in size! …… But that fact should hardly even come as a surprise in here to us. I mean, truth to be told, in the eyes of this Combustic Chameleon we human might as well be nothing more but a bunch of flies.

In other words, what I mean by that is this: if a fly of about one centimeter long in comparison to an average human male, then a real world chameleon would be about one hundred and eighty times larger than that. it is about 180 times larger than a real chameleon … I don’t know the exact size, to be honest, but even if it is about thirty centimeters or so, then this thing would be about five thousand four hundred centimeters long…… so that would make for a fifty meters long chameleon, huh? No, not quite like that. I mean, this thing surely is not fifty meters long. It’s way above ten meters, but fifty? That might actually be a bit of a stretch here.

「Let me just tell you this, for someone who is specializing mainly in the production job, this situation is really difficult! It’s for sure way less than ideal!」

「But then, you don’t need to worry about a thing! As long as you are not going to die instantly, I can always bring you back to life! So no worries!」

「Gee, thanks a lot! That’s certainly reassuring! Especially for someone who did not invest all that many points into Vitality! Or any points at all, in my case!」

I could clearly hear that right about now Imron’s tone of voice was a mixture of many conflicting emotions. And truth to be told, I can’t really blame her for that. I mean…… this flaming tongue of this chameleon is certainly dangerous of a weapon. Not to mention that it possesses the ability to Quick Draw it as if it was the most natural thing in the entire world. But all that being said, this creature surely is not invincible. Sure, its body must be hard and sturdy thanks to all those scales it has, but every protection has its limits. Not to mention, the harder the armor or scales, the softer insides they usually protect. So it can be assumed that underneath those scales like tofu-soft skin and flesh.