Perfect
Tried to pick up a quest one time and got hit by a breath attack and died;;
Is "just tank the breath" even a real strategy? Even top-ranker tanks melt in 0.1 seconds
The Ogre Lord wasn't even this bad;;
Save me.
Whooosh…
"Hup."
I closed my mouth and looked down at the earth burning hot and bright below.
That should about clean things up.
The trick to unleashing a breath attack without starting a wildfire was simple: put up a barrier. Among the various kinds of barriers, there was one that could construct a sort of "domain" overlaid onto reality — and any changes that occurred inside it had no effect on the outside world.
In other words, I could fire off ten breaths and not a single spark would fly beyond the barrier.
Living things were the exception, of course. Die inside the barrier, and you were just as dead outside it.
"That feels so much better."
Just a moment ago the place had been swarming like an anthill, but now every last one of them had either died or gone into hiding — not a single face in sight.
I grinned and used Polymorph to shift back into my girl form, then touched down lightly on the ground. I was wearing nothing more than a loose white dress, mostly because laziness was starting to creep up on me again.
I'm tired.
Was it because I hadn't used my head for anything lately? I never expected that casting a barrier of mere second-tier magic would leave me this exhausted.
People — no, dragons — really did need their sleep.
Soft footsteps.
Walking across the burning earth brought old memories bubbling up one after another.
Lady Lea.
Hmm?
From now on, please give us advance warning before you use your breath.
Why? No humans died.
Fortunately, everyone is unharmed, but…
What do you take me for? I can handle that much.
All the food stores burned. Including the thirty boxes of strawberry cake you requested, Lady Lea.
Ah.
Memories like that one, full of regret…
Kahahaha! There is no Bahamart on this land! Excellent! If I raze this kingdom before he arrives…
Hey.
…?
You here for the fried chicken too? It's really good.
??? Why is a lizard here…
This is my regular spot.
…Today is not the day, it seems. Then I shall take my le—
Just sit down.
I'd once shared a table with a lesser legion commander who'd come to raid the kingdom. He was some kind of golem-looking creature, and he hadn't gotten that title for nothing — the guy could eat. After we finished and were about to go our separate ways, he tried to smash up my regular spot the moment I left, so I had to rough him up a little.
"You ate the chicken and still pulled that."
Who files a complaint like that? Honestly. Demons made no sense to me.
If they'd just stayed quietly up north, the old hag wouldn't have summoned any heroes and would have left them alone. The Demon King wouldn't have gotten his head chopped off and stuffed into a coffin, either.
"Hmm…"
Whooosh…
Wandering the land with those old memories for company, I eventually found my first survivor. A hero who'd lived through no fewer than three breath attacks.
"Shit! Run!"
"Domhwangcha!"
Looking closer, there were two of them. The pair split in opposite directions and bolted for their lives — one of them so frantically that he tripped and rolled straight into the flames.
"Aaaagh!!"
He went up in fire and dissolved into blue smoke. I tilted my head at the sight.
"…Why are you running?"
They'd survived, so I'd been planning to give them their reward as promised. It was puzzling, but I left the one who'd died of natural causes(?) and moved over to the other — a scruffy-haired fellow.
"Eek!!"
"I'm giving you a reward."
"Huh? I'm not gonna die?"
"You survived, didn't you?"
Three breaths had wiped out ninety-nine percent of the heroes. The life signatures I could sense numbered fewer than five at most, so this was good enough. Honestly, part of me wanted to fire off a few more and finish the job completely, but the laziness was rolling in, so I decided to call it here.
The scruffy-haired hero scratched his head with an awkward look.
"Ah, so I ran for nothing."
"Pretty much."
"Oh! So what's the reward?"
"The quest you all wanted."
Instead of the easy quest pile my disciples had received, I handed the scruffy hero an extremely difficult one: Find the Century Herb.
It was a precious medicinal plant that grew only once every hundred years, deep in the mountains — so rare that in the old days, it had commanded whatever price the seller named. I'd never assigned it to any of my disciples, but if I had to pick the hardest quest of all, finding a Century Herb was hands-down the best choice.
This should keep them from ever coming back.
Even I had to admit it was a brilliant idea. If they'd flocked here for easy quests, all I had to do was hand out an extremely hard one instead.
Perfect.
I crossed my arms and hummed in satisfaction. The guy checked the quest details, flinched, and stared at me.
"Y-you're really going to give me a reward this big if I bring it back?"
"Yep. Though it's insanely hard to find."
"…? R-right! I'll definitely bring one back."
He saluted and left. I found the next survivor and issued the same quest. Every one of them reacted with the same strange look before departing the barrier.
And then the fourth and final survivor.
"Did I pass?"
"Yep."
He was a male hero with a bit of a straight-laced look about him. His name was Evan. He clenched a fist and stared up at the empty sky.
"Then you'll get a quest too… hmm?"
"Is something wrong?"
"You're a little different."
"Pardon? Ahaha. I've just traveled around a lot, that's all."
I tilted my head, studying him. Compared to the other heroes I'd met so far, his energy was a bit stronger. Not quite on the level of my disciples before they'd taken down the ogre, but close enough that effort could bridge the gap. He even had a single star of mana, though it was unstable.
At this level, there was a good chance he'd clear even the extremely difficult quest I was handing out without much trouble.
"Hmm…"
"I'd be grateful for whatever's convenient for you. Or if you'd take me on as a disciple, that would be even bett—"
"Don't want that."
I was trying to get rid of disciples, not take on more. Disciple? What disciple?
I fretted over what to give him as a reward, then just tossed him a few gold coins from inside my clothes. Handing over treasure for surviving once felt excessive, and taking him as a disciple was even less appealing.
"Ooooh…! Gold coins… but these seem different somehow? These aren't Legion Kingdom gold…"
"Gold works anywhere. Those are Magic Kingdom gold coins."
"Magic Kingdom?"
"Yep. Real gold coins of ninety-nine percent purity, forged from mana alloy."
They were coins produced through a kind of alchemy, and minting had been discontinued over issues of currency value and gold scarcity. You probably couldn't find them anywhere now even if you tried.
In terms of rarity alone, they're worth more than regular gold coins.
Evan's eyes lit up at my explanation.
"…Are you sure it's all right to give me these?"
"Why?"
"Well, what if I just mass-duplic— I mean, just start minting copies of them?"
"You can't."
Reproducing or modifying the magic on those coins required at least seven stars engraved, or the magical knowledge of a Magic Tower Master. You could make fakes that looked similar, but never the real thing.
Evan nodded, looking faintly disappointed.
"Is that the end of the quest?"
"Yep. No more."
"…If you happen to change your mind about taking me as a disciple."
"I won't."
"Ah. Yes, ma'am."
"Haa…"
After Evan left, I dropped the barrier. Looking out over the warm natural landscape again, I felt a sense of peace settle over me.
The swarming heroes had all vanished, and word must have gotten around — the nest was wonderfully quiet.
"Hehehe… now I can finally sleep."
After all that, only a complete lunatic would come looking again. The heroes' illusions had been thoroughly shattered, too.
Thought it was easy, but it was actually an insanely hard quest?
If I were a hero, I'd feel tricked and never come back.
Dreaming of a happy future, I settled into my nest and closed my eyes.
And the next day.
"Lady Lea!"
"I brought the herb!"
"Here's a Century Herb!"
"Century Herbs for sale~ One gold~"
"Someone I know leveled up almost fifteen times from this."
"Lea! Is she a god?"
"…???"
Hundreds of heroes had come looking once again — each one clutching that rare Century Herb in hand.