Chapter 17 - Stray Wyvern

A few days after my meeting with Sirica and Hephaestus, I decided to add statues of them at Phelena's temple. Of course, I had to rebuild certain parts to make it bigger, which was the part that took the longest.

Once that was done, I sculpted each of their statues in two seconds. Again, they looked exactly the way I saw them in that ethereal plain.

I noticed the effects of my <Master Craftsman> title. After all that work, I felt like I hadn't spent much MP at all. I could have kept going the entire day if I needed to.

As I took a break in the steps of the temple, a townsperson approached me. He seemed like he was in a hurry and told me that some people from Guano Village had come here to look for refuge.

As he left to look for Jackson, who was in the town hall, I went over to the town gates where all these people from another village had gathered.

Guano Village was the closest village to our town from the south-west. I had heard it was mostly a farming village that produced tons of wheat and some other vegetables, but now we had some of their people gathered at our gates.

When I asked about what happened, the guy who seemed to be the one leading all of the villagers ignored my question.

'I understand that telling a random 14-year-old kid about your problems may not seem like a good idea, but come on, man!' I thought.

One of the guards from the town must have noticed the exchange and approached me to tell me what had happened.

Apparently, the 22 people who had arrived at the gates were all farmers from Guano Village who escaped when a wyvern attacked them.

They said it came out of nowhere one day and started killing their cattle, along with burning their fields, so most of the people that had arrived didn't even have time to pick up their stuff when they escaped.

The trip from Guano Village to End Town was about ten days in a wagon, so around the same time it would take to go to the town of Speranza. However, Speranza was closer to them, so it seemed strange why they would come here instead.

When I asked the guard, he said that the villagers of Guano had heard the rumors about End Town having incredible potions at the lowest price possible, and lots of them seemed to have injuries and burns.

I opened my "Void Pocket" right there and took out a case full of "Healing Potion(+)," then passed it onto the villagers who were still waiting outside the town gates.

The man who ignored me before took the case and glanced at the potions. I assumed he was inspecting them, then began crying as he thanked me.

"I am so sorry I ignored you! How would I have known that the alchemist who made these potions was a kid? I'm so ashamed…" said the man, still sobbing.

"I-it's alright, sir, I understand your position…" I truly did.

At first, it was definitely annoying to get ignored, but when I put myself in his shoes, it was easier to see where he was coming from.

This guy just had his entire village destroyed by a wyvern and was taking care of a big group of villagers. If one of the first things that happened when he got to another town was having a kid asking him questions, it was justified to ignore them and focus on the next step.

I would have ignored myself, too, honestly.

A few moments later, while the villagers drank the potions and applied them to their wounds, Jackson arrived, and I filled him in.

I told him that we could easily fit all of the refugees in town, but they would have to give me at least 2 or 3 days to build all their houses. However, I thought about the consequences of taking all these people who were supposed to be a key factor in the wheat distribution of the country.

They weren't the only village dedicated to farming in the country, of course. But having one of the suppliers suddenly cut off could definitely pose a problem to some people.

So I decided to make a deal with them. If we grew all their crops here, they would be able to take care of them, live in town, and get paid. In return, I would build all their houses and make them as nice as the others.

They all happily agreed and were moved to the town's inns while Vespera and I chose a good plot of land to build their homes. My plan was to eventually go to Guano Village and help them rebuild the entire place, but I was quite busy with my own town at the moment.

Just as I was about to start casting earth magic to create the foundations for the houses, Vespera turned to me with a serious expression.

"Ichiro… It's coming."

As soon as she said that, I knew exactly what she meant. Vespera had hundreds of little demon spiders patrolling the areas around the town.

They were mostly there to scout any dangerous monsters that got too close to the perimeter, but they were also able to take down smaller and more annoying monsters.

During our two years here after the Goblin King battle, we only ever had two times where we used them.

The first time, a random troll had come out of the forest and was making his way to town. I went over before he could get even close to the gates and dispatched it.

The second time, it was a group of five orcs.

They were these humanoid creatures with pig heads and big burly bodies. Jackson said they were the equivalent of a hobgoblin, except instead of having an unusual sexual desire for humanoid women, they just ate humans.

'You know what? That's more acceptable… At least they are eating because they need to live… Right?' In reality, I was wrong. Orcs could eat anything. They just preferred humans.

If they ate anything else, then it was because there were no humans around.

I didn't actually fight any of the orcs, but I was there when the group of adventurers sent by the guild took them out. I believe they were ranked C, so they weren't exactly the weakest.

Either way, in comparison to those two events, this one was much more dangerous for the entire town. An S-ranked monster was coming towards us, and we had no way of stopping a monster of that size that could simply fly away from our attacks.

I had never seen a wyvern before, so I asked Vespera what they looked like. If I had an idea of what was coming, I could think of a way to kill it faster.

"A wyvern is a scaly creature that can breathe fire or ice. They can also fly, obviously. From what the farmers said, it looks like this one is a fire-breathing wyvern…" Explained Vespera. But I couldn't help but wonder if her description wasn't the same as a dragon.

"Isn't that what a dragon is like? Scaly, breathes fire, can fly?" I asked.

"No, dummy. First of all, dragons are Legendary Beasts like me, not a mere S-ranked brainless monster…" said Vespera with an offended tone.

"Sorry, we didn't exactly have any of this in my old world. Although, I didn't know dragons here were also Legendary Beasts."

"Beasts come from the God of Beasts, monsters come from Devils. You can't make a familiar contract with a monster, but you can with a beast. Pretty sure I told you this before…" said Vespera as she scolded me.

She was right, though. She did explain all that to me before. In this world, a beast and a monster were not the same thing. Monsters were brainless beings created by dark magic that came from Devils.

Beasts were born naturally in the world, and their nature depended solely on their own personality. They could also evolve into stronger creatures, and if they were recognized by Garon, the God of Beasts, they would be given the Legendary Beast title.

Either way, we had a dragon-like monster coming to town, and I had to think of a way to kill it quickly. The least I wanted was for the wyvern to destroy our fields and delay all of the work by weeks or even months.

"Alright, Vespera, Yoru, I have a plan!" I said as I gathered both of my familiars close to me.

After we sent notice to Jackson and told him to tell everyone to stay inside their homes, I climbed up to the roof of Phelena's temple.

It was the direction that the wyvern was coming from, so I needed a better view for my plan to succeed. I told both Yoru and Vespera to go ahead and wait in the ground for the wyvern to fall, then finish it off.

A few moments later, I could see the wyvern approaching from the sky. It was definitely quite big, but I did imagine a much bigger monster.

"Hopefully, my aim is good…" I muttered.

I raised my palm up in the sky, gathering dark clouds all around the area the wyvern would be flying through.

"Steady…" I waited for the wyvern to be in perfect range. "Steady… Now, Zeus!" I yelled, and a dozen lightning came down from the sky and ran through the wyvern's body. Then another set of a dozen more hit its head, then a dozen more to finish it off mid-air.

I sighed while lowering my arm, and the dark clouds began dissipating as the wyvern fell to the ground.

'Yoru and Vespera are probably done. I'll go check it out…' I thought.

As I turned around, the townspeople were all standing in front of the temple in awe as they watched me take down the wyvern with a barrage of lightning. Then, after a quick silence, they all began cheering loudly.

"Our guardian angel does it again! Woo hoo!"

"Ha ha! I knew it! Stay in our homes? Then we would have missed Ichiro's miracle!"

"Bah ha hah, I know what you mean! I already missed the one two years ago. You ain't trickin' me again!"

Seemed like most of the people gathered were the old villagers that were here when I first arrived. I supposed they knew that I was going to do something and just decided to ignore the warning.

'Heh, guys… while you flatter me… I would have preferred you stay home for your safety… well, whatever…' I thought.

"Hold up, everyone, I'll go make sure it's over!" I said as I made my way down the roof of the temple and ran to the location where the wyvern had crashed. All the while, the townspeople were still cheering while I left.

When I got there, my two familiars had, in fact, finished off the wyvern, who seemed to still be alive after my attack.

To be fair, I didn't use all of my strength because once I saw it take the first barrage, I thought it wouldn't be necessary. Still, I was glad I sent those two to go ahead and finish it off. It saved me a lot of MP.