Became an Evil Dragon

38 – 38. Swamp

Soggy mud and adequate moisture. And beasts of prey, hiding in muddy water, aiming for prey. Insects with dangerous germs, poisonous plants that cannot be deciphered, and countless unknown creatures that have not yet been discovered by humans.

A huge swamp where all of that exists together.

On dark nights, a cold, damp fog forms and obscures the view, and mysterious gigantic monsters wriggle under the deep waters of the swamp.

The swamp was a mysterious place that had both the primal fear of death and the mystery of life, and at the same time was the source of incomprehensible magic.

And it was also the home of some people.

If you have sensitive skin and want to avoid the scorching sun in broad daylight, apply soft mud to your body and take a deep dip in the muddy swamp water.

Of course, you have to deal with the monsters that silently approach you, aiming for prey in this blind water.

If you are hungry, you can catch and eat all kinds of fish overflowing in the swamp, and ignore bugs that carry diseases and poisonous plants that you eat by mistake because of their inherent resistance to diseases and poisons.

Swamps are a good place.

And the huge swampland next to these recently relocated mountains is even better.

Toadman, ‘Thick Skin’, sincerely thought so.

With reddish-brown, thick, and lumpy skin, it looks like frogmen at first glance. But a much bigger body than them.

Toad beastman tribe. Todd Man.

A swamp creature that is much more sluggish and slower than the smaller Frogmen, but has much greater strength and a larger body.

Thick Skin was a member of the Toadman tribe who had recently migrated to the great swamps next to the mountains.

Within the clan, when a battle takes place, he plays the role of a young warrior who is at the forefront, and at the same time, he is also the person who will become the next warrior commander.

His thick skin was not particularly strong compared to other todmen of his age, but it had an advantage that other young todmen usually did not have.

Patience uncharacteristic of the impatient Todman, and cunning tricks. The self-control of knowing how to wait for an opportunity to come one day. And the thick, tough reddish-brown skin that does not go through the knife.

Such advantages of his thick skin made other Toadmen look up to him.

However, this characteristic of toad skin was not created by him alone.

It was a strength that he was able to create only after accepting the advice of the village leader, the biggest adult of Todman Village.

It was clear he could never have made it alone.

Before he was taught by the elder, he had a similar personality to the other young Toadmen, and would have jumped right in excitement when a situation came in front of his prey.

The leader of the village who gave advice to the thick-skinned was a shaman who had led the Toadman village from the previous generation to the previous generation.

A powerful wizard who has lived since ancient times, a giant swamp snail.

Ruler, Arkandar.

The old swamp snail mage, who had been particularly fond of his thick skin since childhood, taught him words that his thick skin could understand and cast various powerful ancient spells to complete the reddish-brown thick skin from which his name was derived.

“Boogle, boogle.”

(Arkandar, follows)

Knowing gratitude, the thick skin devoted absolute loyalty to Arkandar. If it was for him, he could jump into any hot fire pit with a spear in his hand.

muddy muddy.

Todman’s large body moves across the swamp.

The body of the toad, which appears to be 1.5 times the height of an adult male of the human race and is much larger on the side, has a weight that can be seen at a glance, so it seems that if you step on the mud in the swamp, you will go deep enough to not be able to move easily. The reality was otherwise.

As if wearing snowshoes on a snowy field, the large webs on Toadman’s large feet help to distribute the weight and allow the toad’s body to move smoothly even in the muddy swamp.

Spotting a shadow splashing silently in the water, the thick skin froze in place, its cunning eyes shining. Then, without even making a sound of breathing, he quietly takes a pose.

“Huh, Bgul!”

(Huh, Bgul!)

He gripped the two-meter-long wooden spear held by his thick skin and threw it vigorously.

Pan-!

The gigantic spear that flew away accepting Toadman’s mighty power as it was passed through the water’s surface with a loud sound as if something was about to explode and disappeared into the water.

The thick skin strides again to retrieve the spear. The object through which the spear penetrated must have been quite heavy, and the weight of the wooden spear had become much heavier.

with a splash-

The tip of the spear that finally came out of the water. And the thick skin that found something hanging on the tip of the spear laughed quietly.

“Bgul-! Bgul-!”

A dark green, child-sized creature. If you look at the color apart, the body structure is similar enough to be believed to be Todman’s childhood.

Unlike Todman, his smooth, dark green skin, his long tongue protruding from his mouth and hanging limply, his eyes that had already turned gray, and the obsidian dagger still clutched in the corpse’s hand as if he hadn’t let go before he died.

Frogman.

The identity of the one pierced by a spear was a patrol member of the Frogman tribe who patrolled the far outskirts of the tribe alone.

“Bgolb gulb gul.”

(This place is too precious for you who are weak)

As if in a soliloquy, the thick, silent skin pulled and tore the limbs of the Frogman hanging from the blade.

Frogman’s small limbs were ripped apart as he couldn’t overcome Toadman’s grip with a crackling sound.

The thick skin opened its huge mouth and tossed its frogman limbs into its mouth. Small but sharp teeth line the corners of Toadman’s mouth to chew meat.

well-

If it is an undeserved treasure, possessing it is a sin.

The thick skin thought so.

He was full of ambition and did not aim for the position of ruler of the village because he felt grace from Arkandar, but to be honest, there were other reasons.

Because thick skin scared the old swamp snail mage who had lived for decades.

The wizard’s position was a treasure overflowing for thick-skinned people.

***

“Yong-ah, dragon-ah, hehehehe.”

As usual, Nineve is scratching the ground with her feet in front of me, smiling shyly with her arms behind her back.

It seems that he has something he wants to say to me.

It’s the same sight as usual because she always had a lot to say to me. The only thing that was slightly different from before was that several fairies were flying behind her.

“what’s the matter?”

“Itzy- let’s all play hide-and-seek! Even the fairies will do it! are you going to use it? Hi-Hi.”

I haven’t decided what to say to Nynaeve yet.

This is because I was not confident that I was right.

Since we couldn’t be sure of anything, we concluded that we should just hold on to the current situation for now.

And the cry somewhere in my heart that I couldn’t forgive the actions of the fairies who were being swayed by Nineve also played a part in that decision.

The only ones that Nynaeve is still wielding are fairies, so that’s about it.

Fairy is not my part-time job.

“Then the dragon is the tagger! Wow! “Everyone hide!”

Before I could answer, Nineveh raised both hands and shouted excitedly, telling the fairies behind her to hide as well.

The fairies who heard her words scattered in all directions and flew away.

“Ooh, uh, uh, uh, uhhhhh-!”

Nineveh’s face was mercilessly smashed into the stone floor. The little fairy with a red nose whimpered a few times as if trying to hold back her tears, and then burst into tears loudly.

The fairies that had been scattered in all directions immediately gathered around Nineve and mechanically offered words of comfort while flying above her.

“Ninaeve, are you okay? oh my god.”

“Oh my, it hurts… Oh my God.”

“Nineveh don’t cry, huh? It’s not good to cry.”

As the fairies gathered to comfort Nineveh, the little fairy who had been sobbing while lying on her face began to slowly stop crying.

When Nineveh had almost stopped crying, the little fairy who was crying slightly turned her head and looked back.

to see me

“Yo, dragon! Why doesn’t the dragon soothe Nineve! hehehehe, I don’t need any fairies! Whether it’s Maiden, Ruri, or Harsha, I like dragons better than kids! Heeeng!”

… Then he started crying again, saying I didn’t comfort him.

Nineve thought she would become independent after having her fairy friends, but instead, her obsession with me grew stronger.