The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 57

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Strongest in Our Neighborhood (57)
Smith posed a question to Tomie, the earth spirit.
“Tomie, can you transform like that too? Ah, you can’t? Is it because my spirit power is too weak? So if my spirit power grows, my transformation abilities expand too? What! You’re saying you still can’t transform like that? Why? Ah, only superior-rank spirits can pull off transformations like that! Huh? Then… the wind spirit that contracted with Gain is a superior-rank spirit? Ah, I see. No wonder—because it’s superior-rank, it can transform into a dragon like that! The pressure it gives off is absolutely insane.”
Besides Smith, there were two other people in Gain’s circle who had contracted with spirits: one was Eldom, and the other was Violet, the granddaughter of Count Johansen.
Violet had known that her mother’s hometown was Louta Village, so when Eldom mentioned he was from Louta Village, she was startled.
While she was in that state of shock, asking questions about this and that, Gain contracted with the wind spirit, and moments later, when the wind spirit manifested and transformed into the shape of a colossal dragon, she cried out in alarm.
Since both of them had contracted with lower-rank wind spirits, they knew much about wind spirits—and precisely because they knew so much, they couldn’t help but be astonished.
“A-a superior-rank spirit!”
“It’s not merely a superior-rank spirit.”
“Pardon? Not merely a superior-rank spirit? What do you mean?”
“Gain’s spirit power has been refined once, so while the spirit circles around out of curiosity, perfect resonance with the spirit power hasn’t occurred, which is why he couldn’t hear the spirit’s voice.”
“Just now, I caught a glimpse of it—it seemed the child controlling the earth spirit provided some assistance.”
“If assistance could have made it possible, I would have given help long ago so that Gain could contract with the wind spirit.”
“Then how did he manage the contract?”
“That wind spirit is special enough to handle Gain’s refined spirit power, which is why the contract was made.”
“Ah! So that’s why you said it’s not merely a superior-rank spirit.”
“Yes.”
Wheeeeeoooooo……
At that moment, the surrounding winds rushed into the dragon-shaped spirit’s mouth, compressed into a sphere, and began spinning at high velocity.
“Eh? Eldom, what… what is that?”
“I… I’m not entirely sure either? What is it? Could it be a dragon’s breath…… No, wait, that doesn’t make sense! It’s not a real dragon—just a wind spirit that took on a convincing dragon shape—how could it use breath?”
“B-but the spirit power coming from the dragon’s mouth is absolutely immense?”
“Could it be… creating breath using spirit power? But even if it’s a superior-rank spirit, is something like that possible?”
Not only the two of them, but Laila, his master Aleingde Mir, and most others like Leodosn and Dimitrion who wielded mana and aura all sensed the tremendous wave of power emanating from the dragon’s mouth and recoiled in shock.
Craaaaaaaack……
Moments later, the wind dragon unleashed its breath in the direction Gain indicated, and the dozens of trees in that direction were caught in a whirling tempest, uprooted entirely, and shattered; soil and rocks rose from the ground and scattered about.
“Insane! That… it actually breathed!”
“Nngh!”
As Gain’s accumulated spirit power—released and stored within him during all this time—vanished in one fell swoop, he couldniously furrowed his brow without realizing it.
―This is the greatest destructive power I can produce with your spirit power right now.
The wind spirit that had released the breath was rapidly shrinking in size.
―Really? Then actual dragon breath has this much destructive power?
―What nonsense are you spouting? I only mimicked it, so it would be at least a hundred times more powerful than this.
Gain’s eyes widened in an instant.
He would need to deploy his ultimate technique, the Changtian Blood Extreme, three times over to create a scene like that, and yet it said a hundred times stronger.
―A-a hundred times? Is dragon breath really that powerful?
―At minimum a hundred times. At minimum! A few blasts of breath could erase even a moderate-sized city without a trace.
―D-destroying a city! That’s absurd!
―I don’t know what you’re thinking, but a dragon is a monster beyond your common sense. Anyway, my spirit power is depleted—I can’t maintain this form any longer.
―Huh? Ah! Right.
―Call me again once your spirit power recovers.
―Understood.
Wheeeoooo.
The wind spirit, now shrunken to sparrow size, faded away and became a single gust of wind.
Gain gazed at the forest now reduced to ruins, his expression vacant.
“A hundred times stronger than that…… I can’t even fathom how powerful it must be.”
He’d heard that the strength of a duke-rank demon and a dragon were comparable, so he’d thought that as someone who’d defeated a count-rank demon, he might hold his own—but it seemed that wouldn’t be the case after all.
“G-Gain!”
The moment the spirit vanished, the mage Aleingde Mir rushed over first.
“Yes, Aleingde.”
“That wind spirit in dragon form just now—is it a superior-rank spirit, by any chance?”
“Hmm? I didn’t ask about its rank, but judging by what it showed, it’s probably superior-rank.”
“It’s likely superior-rank. Since it is, that’s why it transformed into a dragon and released breath.”
“The breath looked convincing, but supposedly it was only an imitation. The destructive power of actual dragon breath is a hundred times stronger than that, or so I’m told.”
“Really! T-that powerful? Surely not.”
As Aleingde Mir expressed his astonishment, Gain tilted his head slightly.
“I thought someone of your standing would know quite a bit about dragons, but it seems I was mistaken.”
“I know much from various texts, but a hundred times that destructive power…… I can’t even imagine it.”
* * *
Haaaaaaa……
After ten years of slumber, the green dragon Noxcasarsis stretched his jaws in an enormous yawn, then roused two hundred familiars from his lair and sent them flying out into the world.
“I wonder what’s happened in the mountains while I’ve been asleep?”
Eeeeeeeee……
The familiars bore the shapes of insects, but they were chimeras that Noxcasarsis had crafted for reconnaissance—strong enough to best even eagles in combat.
“Hmm, hmm, hmm…… There’s a faint, acrid stench coming from somewhere. Did a demonic being crawl into this mountain range while I slept?”
The familiars flew out from the lair and swept across various points of the Crerarion Mountain Range.
Noxcasarsis closed his eyes and shared their vision with them.
More than two hundred sights flooded into his mind at once, but he adjusted the flight paths of his familiars to distinguish the overlapping and non-overlapping regions, orchestrating a comprehensive overview of the terrain.
“The forest colors are so varied—it must be autumn by now.”
Some familiars he sent toward the forests thick with monsters, others toward the regions where humans dwelt, while the rest he lifted high into the sky to survey the landscape as a whole.
“That disgusting reek seemed to come from over there, but I don’t see any variant monsters. Did a demonic being slip through and then return to the human world? And in these ten years, the number of humans who’ve fled into the forests has grown considerably. Hm? What’s that? One of my kind?”
When a dragon’s form appeared near the Dverberg Tribe settlement, he hastily dispatched a familiar in that direction.
“What? It’s not one of my kind at all—it’s a wind spirit transformed to look like my kin. What was I thinking? Yet that shape… there’s something oddly familiar about it……”
Dragons dwelling in the sea had different forms from those in the forests, just as desert dragons looked nothing like their volcanic cousins.
The wind spirit had taken the shape of a forest green dragon, and sensing the uncanny resemblance to himself, he found himself watching with greater intensity.
“Wait! That’s Sillon, isn’t it? Has that human formed a contract with the spirit?”
Noxcasarsis felt a subtly alien spirit power radiating from the wind spirit and his eyes gleamed.
“Last time too, it formed a contract with a knight skilled in spirit magic, and now again. But why does it insist on taking my form and breathing fire like that? Does it want to show off to those humans down there?”
Shortly after Sillon expended its spirit power and returned to the Spirit Realm, Noxcasarsis did not dispatch his familiar elsewhere but left it trailing the human who had contracted with Sillon.
“A human bearing Master-rank aura has formed a contract with a superior-rank spirit.”
As his interest deepened, he paid only cursory attention to what the other familiars saw, instead concentrating more intently on the vision of the one he had sent near Houan Village.
* * *
Since neither the Dverberg Tribe nor the Druid Tribe allowed human approach, Ingram communicated with his father, the chieftain, through a communication channel.
“Bayona, now that the people of Houan Village have come to help carry the baggage, you and the others from the Johansen Household may leave the goods here and return.”
“Of course. We were already troubled by how the wagons couldn’t go further up this path…… This is a relief.”
Bayona acknowledged this readily—he was perceptive enough to understand the situation.
“You’ve all worked hard. This is my personal thanks to you and everyone who labored to help move these supplies.”
Jang Gain handed over a small pouch filled with coin, and Bayona bowed his head deeply.
“Thank you.”
After Bayona and the workers finished their farewells and departed, Jang Gain glanced at Violet, who remained behind, and tilted his head in curiosity.
“Miss Violet, why aren’t you going back with them?”
“Ah, I’m planning to stop by Louta Village—my mother’s hometown—before returning.”
For a moment, Jang Gain’s eyes widened.
“Your mother’s hometown is Louta Village? Ah, now that you mention it, you did say your mother is from the Druid Tribe.”
“Yes.”
“Since there are only three Druid villages in this mountain range, I never imagined your mother would be from Louta. Why didn’t you mention your mother’s hometown earlier?”
Had she said so, his manner toward her until now might have been considerably warmer.
“I had no intention of seeking out my mother’s hometown originally, so I didn’t mention it.”
“So where did that intention suddenly come from…… Ah! It was because of Eldom, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. The village elder of Louta is keeping my maternal grandparents’ effects safe. Since I’ve come this far, I thought I’d retrieve them and bring them to my mother.”
“I see. Understood.”
After all the servants from the Johansen Household, including Bayona, had vanished and some thirty minutes had passed, the people of Houan Village appeared.
“Jang Gain. How much baggage could there be to require…… Good heavens! How can there be this much cargo?”
Eggman, the chieftain who had come down the mountain path ahead, widened his eyes at the mountainous heap of goods.
“Winter will be here soon, so I purchased as much grain as possible.”
* * *
The people of Houan Village also heartily agreed to support Jang Gain’s bid to become the representative of the minority peoples of the Crerarion Mountain Range and obtain autonomy from the kingdom.
“Chieftain Eggman, would you examine my weapons for me?”
After the meeting concluded, Jang Gain approached Eggman and withdrew the weapons he had stored in his pocket dimension.
“Ah, Ingram mentioned as much. He said you crossed through a gate into a Demon Gate and slaughtered hundreds of demonic beasts and magical creatures before returning. But for having done such a thing, your weapons are in remarkably good condition?”
As Eggman examined the swords and spears Jang Gain had drawn out, he was puzzled to see so little damage.
“The blades are dulled. Is that acceptable?”
“I can have Ingram spend half a day sharpening them—that’s all it will take.”
“Ah, then all is well.”
“I heard you slew hundreds of demonic beasts and creatures, so how can your weapons still be in such fine condition?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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