Slaying the Pterosaur

"Why are you acting like that?"

I was uneasy.

"Curious, are you?"

I was afraid Prurprur might just vanish on me.

"Yeah."

Please, let my bad feeling be wrong this time.

"If you're curious, five hundred won."

"Oh, for fu—…"

Aigoo. How did a curse slip out.

A snicker escaped me.

Yeah. That was pure Prurprur.

"It's nothing serious, right?"

"Of course not."

"Still, I'm a little worried. You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"Keh-keh. If you want to know, work for it and find out yourself."

"Fine, whatever. Let's get started."

I set aside the uneasy sense that something was about to happen. Asking wouldn't change anything anyway.

He wouldn't tell me even if I begged.

So we focused on the goal.

"Now then. Open the grimoire."

Fwoosh-rattle.

I checked what had changed from the previous quests.

Fully read.

If the only requirement was to read it, that meant the advanced grimoire was going to be that much harder. Even so, I was confident. How hard could it possibly be? I'd already nearly died more times than I could count.

But has he finally gotten sick of Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen?

The thought had barely formed when Prurprur spoke.

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"Now then. What does the first page say?"

An explanation of the magic Prurprur himself had devised filled the page.

"All poison can be converted into mana."

"Correct. Poison is a gift to mages. Keh-keh. Starting to make sense?"

"A little, I guess?"

"Disciple. That dull head of yours may not grasp it immediately. But if you keep at it over time, you will achieve what you desire. Kwahahaha!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Trying to get a rise out of me again. I let Prurprur's brand of humor slide and focused on the grimoire.

The intermediate spells were already carved into my mind; learning the advanced ones that built on them felt like only a matter of time.

Oh! I could use this one pretty soon. Hmm. This one's completely beyond me.

I sank into the grimoire almost at once. Unlike the poison training with Prurprur, this didn't hurt—and compared to before my Awakening, the density of my concentration felt completely different.

I read without any sense of time passing until a new message appeared.

Ding!

A notification that the quest was complete. The grimoire's contents lived up to the "advanced" label—hard to grasp all at once. While I had been lost in reading, darkness had settled over the beach.

"What? The sun's already down? I need to make Master something to eat…"

Maybe he'd finally gotten sick of eating so much Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen.

Right. Today I'll make him chicken baeksuk.

Korea's ultimate health food. Baeksuk on a hot island like this would hit different.

I don't know what a Hawaiian shirt is supposed to be, but if it's a reward, I might as well claim it while I'm at it.

Thinking of a quiet evening with my master, I stepped into the house.

Creak.

"Master! Today I— Master?"

There was no presence inside that should have been there.

"Oh, come on! Stop joking around! Where are you?!"

Prurprur did not answer.

Thump.

My heartbeat, quiet for a long while, came back. And this thumping didn't feel like it was only from Intuition.

"M-Master!!! Shit! Where did you go, seriously?!"

Thump, thump, thump.

The sound of my heart climbed my throat and started ringing in my skull.

"No, damn it. You acted like it was no big deal, and then you just leave like this?!"

Damn it. That old man. He had a real talent for pissing people off right to the end.

"Ugh… Okay. Fine. I'll stop looking."

If he was going to leave, he could have at least said so. I felt hurt. We hadn't been master and disciple for long, but I'd thought we'd gotten pretty close.

The thought kept pushing at me.

"Then I'll just eat alone. I'm never giving you any again."

Slurp. Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen slid down my throat with the sound.

"Tastes like crap."

I filled my stomach lightly and looked around for no real reason.

He really left.

Without the filthy sound of Master vacuuming up Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen, the place felt empty.

"Haha. He left that behind, though."

A Hawaiian shirt was tossed carelessly over the sofa. I picked up the shirt Prurprur had always worn.

Unbelievable.

"This was a robe?"

It looked nothing like the elegant robes the mages in games wore. I put the robe—no, the shirt—on as it was.

I had no idea how much twenty mana really was, but the sensory field that expanded in an instant was nothing like when I wore the necklace.

Incredible.

The mana wouldn't stay still. The surge wanted to explode out of my body; I could barely hold it. But so what? Handling mana was already easier than lying down and eating rice cakes.

"Shield."

Sssaaa.

The moment I used Shield, a violet barrier formed—the same one I'd seen when the pterosaur came. A semicircular shield wrapped around me, a rippling translucent membrane.

So this was it.

A shield I hadn't found in Prurprur's grimoire. I tried spreading it the way Master had, to cover the entire island.

Wheeeeng.

A small vibration as the shield expanded.

"…Harder than it looks."

Five meters was the limit. Nothing like the shield Master had used.

"Shield stays like this for now. Fly."

Bwoooom.

A light floating sensation lifted me into the air.

"Ohoho! What is this?!"

So this was what flying felt like. Riding the lift, I headed outside.

Whoooosh.

Wind brushed my cheeks and tickled my ears. When I rose high enough to look down on the red roof, my senses returned.

"That's enough."

If a pterosaur showed up, it would get ugly. I landed on the sand.

"Gotta be careful. No telling when one might pop out again."

The moonlit beach was beautiful, but dark. If a pterosaur dove at me, I wouldn't even leave bones behind.

The last remaining skill was Summon. I examined the final gift Prurprur had left me.

Is some incredible familiar going to come out? A spirit? Or a Blue Dragon? A Vermilion ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Bird?

Heart racing, I shouted,

"Summon!"

Sssaaa.

What appeared with the swirl of light was—

"Whoa!"

Two of them! Yes. Not two creatures. Two objects.

"A sunbed! And sunglasses!"

I seemed to have received excellent gifts. The Summon attached to this absurdly powerful robe produced the very things Master had liked to use while torturing me.

"…Well. Thanks, Master."

A little ridiculous, but good. Gifts from the old man who had disappeared without a word of where he was going.

"It did look comfortable."

I lay down on the sunbed.

Oh! An effect like that. The sunbed's recovery boost showed results immediately.

"So drowsy…"

My body went slack as the fatigue in every sore muscle melted away. And it was comfortable. Truly comfortable…

"Whoa—almost fell asleep."

I pulled myself together, sat up, and put on the sunglasses.

Weakness Detection, huh… A shame I didn't have anyone to try it on right now.

"Thank you!"

Lying on the sunbed with the sunglasses on, I stared blankly at the sky.

"Still. It's going to be lonely for a while."

Prurprur had always been there… For the first time, I had been left alone on this remote island.

"Hss—haaah! Smells great. I'm sleeping out here tonight, Master!"

Breathing in the quiet night air, I soon drifted off to sleep.

"Kyaaaaaaak!"

A monstrous screech jerked me awake.

"What the—?!"

I was wearing the sunglasses, so I hadn't even realized the sun was up. Prurprur's sunglasses blocked UV just fine. And from the sky, a seagull was plummeting with a grotesque cry—

No. Not a seagull.

"How'd you know I was alone?"

Making it back to the house was already out of the question. I snapped fully awake and shouted,

"Shield!!!"

Sssaaaaaa!

Maybe it was my fierce will— the violet shield looked even deeper in color. As the pterosaur closed in and its shadow fell over me—

KRA-BOOOOM!

"Guh!"

The vibration was enormous. When Master had protected me, I'd only heard the sonic boom. Now that bulk was slamming into me head-on, and the mana inside my body heaved.

Bang! KRA-BOOM! KRA-BOOOOM!

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"You piece of—! Last time you just left! Stop ramming me! It hurts like hell!"

Whether the thing knew Master was gone or not, its aggression was nothing like before. How did it switch attitudes so fast?

Ding!

While I held it off with my hands, a new quest appeared in my vision.

Simple enough.

Except it wasn't simple at all. Catching that bastard was never going to be simple.

Shit. What do I do?

Stuck on the sand, unable to move either way. The mana drain was no joke.

"Master! The upkeep on this thing is insane! Ghk!"

Bang! KRA-BOOM!

Kiiiiiiik!

The thing slammed into the shield without mercy, clawed it, bit it—total chaos. Now I understood. Until now, Prurprur had been the reason it couldn't get close. It had realized he was gone and come running.

Hmm… Time to try something.

I was going to have to fight this thing someday anyway. I gathered the energy I'd stockpiled through Mana Decay into my navel.

"Poison Mist."

Pssshhhhhh.

Fine violet grains began to pour from my body. The creature couldn't get inside, but the Poison Mist could get out.

"Got it."

I'd been half-sure it wouldn't work. The rapidly spreading mist enveloped the thing.

Around the center of its body—somewhere that looked like organs—a red outline formed.

What's that? Liver? Heart?

It was definitely one of the organs, but I hadn't majored in biology. I couldn't know that much.

"Still. Looks like it works."

A weakness I hadn't been able to see before the mist swallowed it was now visible.

"Kek! Kek! Kyaaaaaaak!"

Once exposed to the Poison Mist, it seemed to struggle; it climbed into the air and put distance between us.

"Kyek! Kyaaaaak!"

"What's that supposed to mean? Come on! Come on in, you bastard!"

It couldn't even get near me. Its poison resistance must have been considerable, though—a few coughs, and that was it. I hadn't done serious damage.

Even so.

"You can't get in either, can you?"

I flipped it a clean middle finger. No way it knew the universal gesture, but it peered down intently for a moment, then vanished.

"Thought I was gonna die…"

I'd faced it half-asleep, but somehow I'd driven it off.

"'Slay the Pterosaur,' my ass."

How was I supposed to kill that thing? My thoughts piled up. I hadn't even had time to process parting with Prurprur before a new wall slammed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into me.

The points I'd scraped together would buy me a few more days, but—

"Still just a matter of time."

I searched for a way to kill it. Hand-to-hand? Impossible. Magic? I wasn't there yet. Even after breathing in the Poison Mist, its murderous presence hadn't faded.

"It's like a full-on underground waterway boss."

What to do…

In the middle of my fretting, a single spell flashed through my mind.

"Ah! Toxic Explosion!"

All or nothing. The moment the idea hit me, I opened the auction window.

"Something a pterosaur would like…"

Found it!

Hopefully that thing would like it.