The desert journey had begun.
Being ambushed by a succubus had sharpened my senses.
Spending the past few years cooped up in a school-like environment, I'd probably let my instincts go a little dull.
Not that they were ever particularly sharp to begin with.
Something like this was really just a matter of mindset.
This was the Begaritto Continent.
It was nothing like the safe Central Continent.
If I didn't adapt, I could die.
"For now, let's dress warmly. Stay hydrated regularly, and if you run low on water in your canteen, let me know."
"Very well."
We pulled up our hoods and donned our coats.
No skin left exposed.
If
That said, it was a desert — we could conjure water and ice with magic.
Still, you never knew what might happen.
Neither
We had to make sure we didn't end up so heat-stricken that we couldn't cast magic.
"Shall we head due north?"
"Yes, please."
According to the map, the nearest town lay to the north.
Elinalise took off without so much as a compass, heading straight north.
Elves never lost their sense of direction, even in dense forests with no sight of the sun.
Elinalise could walk in a perfectly straight line, relying solely on years of experience.
That said, it wasn't just elves — quite a few people in this world could find their way to a town without getting lost, so long as they had a map.
Experience, I supposed.
"It really is awfully hot."
"Should we just conjure some rain over this whole area?"
"That would attract monsters, so I'd advise against it."
In any desert, living creatures sought water.
Even during the rainy season in the Great Forest, lizard-like monsters appeared in droves.
That said, I'd heard that monsters on the Begaritto Continent were weak against cold.
If it came down to it, I could freeze this entire area solid.
I'd just have to be careful not to catch Elinalise in the process.
As I mused over such things, I followed behind Elinalise.
I made sure to note the location of the stone monument as well.
---
Walking through a desert was a first for me.
With each step, my feet sank into the soft sand.
Good thing I was accustomed to walking through snow in the northern lands.
The strain on my legs and feet was roughly the same.
At this rate, I figured I could walk all day without a problem.
Or so I thought — after only a few hours, I was completely wiped out.
The intensity of the sunlight was the culprit.
The scorching rays, the hot wind, and my rising body temperature left me dizzy.
I was staying hydrated and regulating my temperature, but the wave of exhaustion was impossible to shake.
Maybe I really should have conjured at least a single cloud overhead.
Compared to me, Elinalise was in high spirits.
"My,
"I'm used to walking on snow, so sand isn't the issue. It's the heat that's getting to me."
"But I'm sure Cliff and
As expected, the warriors of this world had monstrous stamina.
Probably thanks to whatever they called battle aura.
I was a little jealous.
But man, this heat was something else.
The sweat on my body evaporated the instant it appeared.
Back when I was in the northern lands, it had been the cold that nearly killed me.
At the time, I'd used magic to generate heat in the space around my body.
An application of the fire spell "Burning Place."
Tweaking that a little should help even now.
I tried it immediately.
"Oh, how refreshing — did you do something?"
"Just lowered the ambient temperature a bit."
In terms of what I felt, maybe about five degrees cooler.
Still hot, though.
Thanks to that relentless, blindingly bright sun overhead.
Even with my hood on, the top of my head felt like it was on fire.
Maybe I should have prepared a parasol.
For now, I kept lowering the temperature around me, froze one of my canteens into an ice pack, and tucked it inside my clothing as I walked.
Whenever it started to melt, I'd freeze it again with magic.
That made things far more manageable.
The heat was no longer a problem.
---
During the day, we encountered monsters multiple times.
The first thing we saw was a huge scorpion.
About two meters long, maybe.
Its tail was split into two branches, each attacking independently.
According to Elinalise, it was called a Twin-Tail Death Scorpion.
The venom in its tail was lethal — you couldn't heal from it without a mid-tier antidote.
Good thing I remembered that. Mid-tier cure poison.
The Twin-Tail Death Scorpion's outer shell was somewhat hard, but it was slow.
Elinalise held it in place, and I put it down with a single Stone Cannonball.
An enemy we could defeat in two seconds.
Apparently rank B, but well-suited to our party composition. Nothing but cannon fodder.
Still, if it were just Elinalise alone, her offensive power would be a bit lacking, and the fight could get rough.
"Phew, that was quite enormous."
"About what you'd expect, isn't it?"
"It's about the same size as the ones on the Demon Continent."
"Hmm, now that you mention it…"
I'd heard that monsters on the Begaritto Continent were weaker than those on the Demon Continent.
So I'd been expecting something about half this size.
"Perhaps that one was unusually large."
"The first monster you encounter being the strongest — it's a common story."
"That's not common at all."
"Or maybe the enemies around here are just genuinely tough."
"That's more likely."
While exchanging such banter, we pressed on.
Next came a Treant.
These things really did turn up everywhere.
This one was disguised as a cactus.
Its name, apparently, was "Cactus Treant."
Rank C.
It launched needles at us and used earth-based magic, but it was hardly a challenge.
"Seeing a Treant actually puts me at ease."
"They're everywhere — it's like they're the Slimes of the surface."
"Hmm? Slimes only live in caves, you know."
"No, I meant it in a broader sense. Though, this cactus wouldn't make for good firewood."
"It's far too full of water. It'd be a godsend if we didn't have magic, though."
By now, Elinalise could use water magic as well.
I'd thought she was skipping classes, but it turned out she had learned what she needed to after all.
That was when it appeared without warning.
"Ambush!"
Elinalise shouted abruptly as she backstepped.
The next instant, something enormous burst from the ground a few paces ahead of her.
A worm.
A giant worm — one meter in diameter and roughly five meters long — shot out of the sand.
It made a gut-wrenching "BWKMM!" sound in midair, then immediately burrowed back underground.
"Phew, that startled me."
"What was that?"
"A Sand Worm. A bit on the large side, though."
Sand Worms were ambush predators that waited underground, then lunged up to devour prey that passed overhead.
I'd never seen one myself, but apparently similar creatures existed in the Great Forest.
Though the size was different.
In the Great Forest, they were only about twenty to thirty centimeters in diameter.
Not a threat to humans.
"I hear they have really big ones on the Demon Continent too. Haven't you ever seen one?"
"All I ever saw on the Demon Continent were snakes and wolves. Oh, and some weird armor."
"Armor… You mean a Soul Breaker?"
"No, I think it was called an Executioner. A big one wielding a huge sword."
"Ah, that's a dangerous one. Not someone you'd want to encounter alone."
Still, the Sand Worms on the Begaritto Continent were massive.
Just the part above ground was five meters.
Including what was underground, the total length could approach ten meters.
Large enough to swallow a human whole.
Something like that lurking underground and lurching up when you passed overhead?
It was basically a one-hit-kill trap.
Though if you could dodge the initial strike, there was nothing to worry about.
Cast an earth spell to mix a Sand Worm up while it was underground, and it would die instantly without even a death scream.
The exposed portion of its body had turned into a puddle of its own bodily fluids.
A little disgusting.
"What kind of magnificent butterfly would hatch from a caterpillar like that?"
"Maybe it'll turn into a succubus? They say succubi are 'night butterflies,' you know."
"Haha, then that would make you a butterfly born from a caterpillar, Elinalise."
"Hehe, I did have a rather… caterpillar-like phase myself."
She didn't deny the succubus part at all.
Now I was curious — what would a caterpillar-like Elinalise look like?
Maybe she wore glasses and spent all her time in a library?
Or perhaps she'd worn overalls and done farm work?
If I showed Cliff some footage from those days, he'd probably lose his mind.
The power of the gap was truly something else.
The last things we encountered were ants.
We spotted them after cresting a sand dune, and the instant I did, Elinalise shoved me to the ground.
I tumbled all the way back to the middle of the dune I'd just climbed.
"What the — why'd you push me?!"
"It's a Phalanx Ant swarm!"
Phalanx Ant.
Even hearing the name, I had no idea what that meant.
Following Elinalise's lead, I crawled on my belly and crept back up the dune.
Before me was Elinalise's rear end, wrapped in leather pants.
As always, Elinalise had a fantastic rear end.
Would
Her current small frame was plenty charming too, of course.
"Stay low — don't draw their attention."
We reached the top of the dune.
Hiding behind the slope, we observed what she called the Phalanx Ant swarm.
Bright red ants marched in formation.
Their sizes ranged from thirty centimeters to about a meter.
There were both large and small ones.
Their shapes varied considerably too — some had wings, others had upper bodies like a human's.
They swarmed and jostled against one another, all converging toward a single point.
In short, army ants.
A river of red army ants.
Their column stretched from one end of the horizon to the other.
An astonishingly long procession.
"At that size, with those numbers, they're unmistakably S-rank."
"Oh? S-rank, you say? Give me a rundown, if you would."
"The Phalanx Ant is one of the strongest monsters in existence — it consumes everything in its path.
They're found in the Great Forest too, but ones this size are likely native to Begaritto."
Phalanx Ants, apparently, were mutated army ants.
Though still ants, they didn't build nests. They simply traveled ceaselessly, devouring everything along their path.
They had several natural enemies, but on land, they would attack anything — even a stray dragon.
And when a certain time came, they would build a nest and hand off to the next generation.
Up to that point, they sounded like regular army ants.
But being monsters, they possessed greater intelligence and aggression than normal army ants.
For instance, if we revealed ourselves from the dune — even if we showed no hostility whatsoever — they would supposedly change course and attack us.
"Individually, they're not that strong. From what I can see, the small ones are rank E, and the large ones are rank D or C."
"Still rank C, though?"
By my count, there had to be at least one or two thousand of them.
In this world, monster rankings factored in swarm size.
Even rank D or C ants could reach S-rank if there were ten thousand of them.
In a certain game from my previous life, I remembered encountering massive swarms of ants roughly three times the size of a human.
But they didn't need to be that large.
The monsters in this world were unnaturally athletic.
"Oh — that must be the queen."
Elinalise pointed to a particular spot in the swarm.
There was one particularly enormous individual.
Over two meters tall, with a woman's upper body growing out of its thorax.
It gave off major Tam…Queen vibes.
Stun was its weakness, probably.
In the army ant species of my previous world, even the queen ant was barely fifty millimeters.
If you used that as a reference, this Phalanx Ant was roughly fifty times larger.
A genuine threat.
This world had far too many monsters that traveled in swarms.
And for some reason, they were terrifyingly effective at group combat.
Which was exactly why I didn't want to fight those ants.
The moment we provoked them, they'd probably form some Roman-style battle formation and charge us.
There might even be ones that fired magic or launched ranged attacks.
Would a massive, sweeping spell eliminate them? Maybe.
But casting something that powerful would likely endanger us too.
"Hey, Rudeus. Why are you making that 'I'm up for a fight' face?"
"I'm not. There's no way I'm up for a fight."
"You were definitely making that 'what if I did' face."
There was no way I had a battle-crazy look on my face.
I wasn't some born warrior.
I wasn't excited in the slightest.
"No, I was thinking about how to escape if they spot us."
"Then that's fine… We'll wait until the swarm passes."
"Roger."
I nodded at Elinalise's words.
There was no experience points to be gained from mowing them down anyway.
Hauling their materials would net us some money, but I had zero interest in carrying around those red, heat-radiating shells in this godforsaken heat.
Let's avoid the risk.
The goal right now was to reach Lapin.
Not to earn glory.
I couldn't end up like some squad leader on a reconnaissance mission.
About an hour later, the ants vanished.
---
Desert sunsets were red.
The sand turned a deep crimson, and the contrast of patterns on the ground stood out in sharp relief.
Stripes of red and black spread across the landscape, creating a fantastical scene.
It was like another world.
Back in my original world, there were probably places with views like this too.
"The temperature's dropping. If this keeps up, we should be able to cover more ground at night."
"Indeed. Let's press on."
"You got i— hmm?"
While saying this, I suddenly noticed something flying around overhead.
Looking up, I saw bats — each about fifty centimeters across.
Huge.
They flapped around noisily, circling the area.
They probably didn't come out during the day. Were they preying on insects and lizards?
"Those are Giant Bats."
"Oh? Are they monsters?"
"Whether they technically qualify as monsters is debatable, but there are a lot of them. Let's be cautious."
Apparently, these bats were called Giant Bats.
Rank F.
With these numbers, maybe rank E.
They had no real offensive capability and were nothing to worry about.
They didn't attack humans either.
Basically just an annoyance because of their wing noise.
"Ah — wait, what are those?!"
For some reason, the bats had swarmed toward Elinalise.
They weren't attacking her, exactly — they just kept circling and pestering her.
Were they male?
"Hey… Rudeus! Stop gawking and do something about them!"
"On it."
Even someone as capable as Elinalise couldn't move properly with this many clinging to her.
Maybe I should conjure a tornado to scatter them.
I was considering this in a perfectly relaxed manner when—
"Hm?"
Deep within the swarm of bats.
One silhouette stood out, far larger than the rest.
It had the wings of a giant bat and approached with a seductive, skipping gait.
At the same time, a sweet scent tickled my nose.
Succubus.
"Uwaaaah! Stone Cannonball!"
My thick, hard projectile slammed into the succubus like a body blow.
The succubus clutched her stomach with a pained expression and backstepped, then fled while still doubled over.
Hmm.
I'd unconsciously held back.
It was hard when the opponent had a human face.
I just didn't have the resolve to kill one.
I was weak against succubi.
I'd admit that much.
I couldn't kill them, and the instant I caught a whiff of their scent — or rather, their pheromones — I lost all rational thought.
If it came to close combat, I'd be completely at their mercy in no time.
That said, as long as I kept my distance, a single Stone Cannonball would do the trick.
I wouldn't be caught off guard.
A succubus's combat ability was only about rank E, but they were classified as rank C overall.
They were powerful monsters.
If I'd still been a virgin.
No — if I hadn't experienced those sweet nights with Sylphie.
I wouldn't have had any chance of winning.
I'd always loved the concept of succubi, even in my previous life.
The succubi here looked a little rough once you wiped off their makeup, but if they didn't show their bare faces to men, it wasn't a big deal.
Once you understood that, it was easy to accept.
Which was why I couldn't help it.
After dispatching the Giant Bats, if I got worked up and hugged Elinalise from behind…
It couldn't be helped.
It was a status effect.
"H-hey, Rudeus! Rudeus, snap out of it! Use the antidote! Hey — quit pressing yourself against me!"
"Just for a second, just for a second! Just the tip — no, the back is fine! If it's from behind, it won't count as cheating!"
"Don't say ridiculous things!"
"Guh!"
While I was hugging her and groping away, Elinalise bashed me with her sturdy shield and sent me flying in a blue blur.
If this were an eroge, Elinalise would unquestionably be classified as the violent-type heroine.
It wasn't unjustified, though.
In any case, the pain snapped me back to my senses a little, and I used the antidote.
"Hah… hah… Sorry for the trouble."
"It can't be helped… that's the kind of monster they are."
Ugh, the spot she hit was throbbing.
Shields were blunt weapons, all right.
"Phew… I really wish succubi would just cut it out… Ugh, now I'm all tingly too…"
Elinalise slapped her flushed cheeks and shook her head.
My advances were getting to her more than I expected.
It was all due to the succubus's pheromones, of course — inside, it was nothing but base lust.
But that was beside the point.
She was enduring it by hitting me.
There was nothing to be done about it.
It couldn't be helped.
"It seems those bats were under the succubus's command."
"So it would appear."
On the Central Continent too, there were monsters that kept lesser monsters as subordinates.
Come to think of it, the very first monster I'd seen in this world had been like that.
What was it called again?
I'd only seen it once, so I'd forgotten.
Some kind of bipedal boar-looking thing.
The succubus kept those Giant Bats as her minions.
When she spotted a man and woman traveling together, she'd send the bats after the woman.
While they were occupied, she'd charm the man and spirited him away.
The abducted man would be "eaten" in the succubus's lair — sexually, and then, ultimately, literally.
Since I could defeat her from long range, I could manage.
But for any swordsman or warrior-type, it would be brutal.
They'd have to fight while smelling that scent up close.
The longer the battle dragged on, the more disadvantaged they'd become.
Even the most noble knight would eventually buckle under.
Only a homosexual could beat a succubus.
"…What is it this time?"
After the fight with the succubus.
A bipedal lizard, like a Velociraptor, poked its head out from behind the next dune.
More followed, heading our way.
Not particularly large, but a dozen or so.
Several of them began devouring the bats that had fallen to the ground.
"I don't recognize these."
Elinalise raised her sword and shield without letting her guard down.
I gripped my staff and watched.
"You don't know these either, Elinalise?"
"I'm hardly a monster encyclopedia, you know."
Neither of us knew what these lizards were.
Probably native to Begaritto.
The raptors spotted us and, after posturing aggressively, charged.
Had they decided we were stealing their prey?
Well, we had killed the bats — so technically, they were the ones scavenging our kills.
They weren't especially strong, but they had sharp fangs and were fast.
Nothing we couldn't handle.
In no time, I dispatched about seven of them.
Ten or so remained.
They backed off, maintaining a wary distance.
Maybe I should just clear the rest out with a high-tier spell.
The moment the thought crossed my mind—
"Rudeus, watch out! Something big is coming!"
While we were fighting the raptors, something even larger showed up.
In a word: a giant chicken.
Five meters tall.
It was basically a dinosaur now.
Its blazing red comb was painful to look at.
This thing was apparently a natural enemy of the Velociraptors.
They moved in groups of five or six, ambushing the raptors and scattering them in an instant.
Raptors fleeing in panic. The chicken tearing into its prey.
"Some species of Garuda…"
A lone Garuda was rank C.
In a group, they'd be equivalent to rank B.
At this size, they could even be rank A.
Because we'd gotten a bit of distance during the raptor fight, the chickens were only issuing threats toward us for now.
The raptors were pitifully fleeing in every direction, but they wouldn't last forever.
Once they'd finished their meal, the chickens would turn on us.
I could probably take them, but—
"Rudeus, we're leaving. Something else is coming."
But Elinalise's keen senses had picked up on something beyond the Garuda.
The aura of some enormous carnivorous beast.
"Roger."
During the retreat, Elinalise skillfully snagged a raptor carcass.
It probably tasted better than the bats.
We left the site of the raptor battle and set up a shelter in a safe spot.
We'd spend the night here.
The raptor remains would serve as tonight's dinner.
It wasn't that our food supplies were running low, but
foraging along the way was basic adventurer practice.
That said, the desert at night was nothing like the desert by day.
Monster after monster kept appearing.
If we'd continued fighting those chickens, yet more would have shown up, no doubt.
According to Elinalise, the succubus's lingering pheromones were attracting the monsters.
For a man, it was a pleasant scent.
For a woman, it was an unpleasant one.
She didn't know what it meant for monsters, but
if a scent like that was followed by the presence of prey, they'd come running.
And the succubus hunted human men.
The result was that wherever humans walked, monsters congregated.
The reason no bats or other monsters appeared after we'd defeated the first succubus was probably because that location had been protected by a barrier.
The succubus had simply slipped in alone.
…Could it be that the succubus had known
N-no, no way.
If that were the case, she wouldn't have jumped straight to that kind of seduction.
She would have asked if I was connected to Orsted.
Wait.
Maybe for succubi, that was just how they said hello — a mere cultural difference.
Japan had the concept of "bonding through nudity," after all.
A custom that foreigners simply couldn't wrap their heads around.
Maybe the succubus was just trying to make me feel good, with no ulterior motive.
If that was the case, I was in trouble.
I might have unknowingly drawn Orsted's ire.
Should I go back and build a grave or something?
Even without knowing exactly what had happened, a respectful burial might ease his resentment…
No.
If someone had been living in those ruins, there would have been some mention of it from
Right — Orsted was supposedly cursed with universal hatred.
Maybe it wasn't just humans who hated him. Monsters too.
Yeah, so that succubus had nothing to do with him.
"Mmff… The Begaritto Continent is nothing like I expected."
Oblivious to my inner turmoil, Elinalise yawned inside the shelter and made that remark.
What a carefree attitude.
That was what you got from someone who didn't know Orsted.
Though surely my fears were overblown.
What if every monster here turned out to be an acquaintance of someone I knew?
If I started thinking like that, I'd have to ask every monster for permission before taking a step forward.
It had attacked us. We'd fought back.
That was all there was to it.
"You're right, there are more monsters than I expected."
I shook off my thoughts and answered Elinalise.
Honestly, the monster density was worse than on the Demon Continent.
There was no way I'd accidentally teleported to the Heaven Continent, was there?
"Well, things have been manageable so far, so we should be fine."
"Complacency is dangerous, though."
"That goes without saying. But as long as we keep doing what we've been doing, we should be able to fend off most of them."
"And when I'm about to fall to a succubus again, please continue responding in the same way."
"You be more careful next time."
And so, the first day drew to a close.
It had been an absurdly long day.
Wait — that was only day one?
There was a long road ahead.