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Chapter: 272

And so, Queo was finally able to enter the seawater. The first thing he did after breaking the greatest chains of the Lizardman was…

“The fish of the sea… I must catch as many as possible!”

Driven more by his instincts as a fisherman than the desire to escape, Queo was truly focused.

Well, I can’t say I don’t understand it. After all, the small stream running through the island only had tiny fish.

Just how many and how big must the fish in that gigantic ocean be? Sometimes, you’d catch sight of a huge fish leaping out of the water from afar. What must it feel like not to be able to jump in after them?

A Lizardman fisherman adept at catching fish would find it hard to resist.

He hesitated due to the risk to his life if he entered. But that issue had been resolved now.

So, Queo dove into the ocean without a second thought and began catching fish.

To the plump fish living peacefully in the surrounding waters, he appeared as an unexpected predator.

After a few days of fishing and filling his belly, Queo had sufficiently nourished his once-skinny tail.

With a tail of that thickness… he could survive for a fortnight.

“Alright. Now that I’m full…”

Oh, is it time to set off now?

“Shall I try making a boat!”

Ah, so that’s where we’re starting.

Come to think of it, it’d usually be impossible to swim back without a boat.

Who knows how many days it would take to get to the river where Queo had left? It’s not like he could swim non-stop for that long.

And so Queo gathered some grass, dried it, and twisted it into primitive ropes. He smashed stones against rocks to create a makeshift axe using suitable branches.

It felt like some square sandbox game!

Using his awkwardly-made stone axe, he cut down suitable thick trees, trimmed them, and gathered thin wood that couldn’t even be called logs, before tying them together with the dried grass ropes.

“Alright. This should do.”

He had constructed a rough raft by bundling the wood together.

Sure, it looked a bit shabby since there weren’t any adequately thick trees on the island… but it should be able to carry his weight.

“Let’s see… I think I have enough food.”

After erecting a wooden pole on the raft and securely tying up the dried fish with ropes, Queo pushed the raft toward the sea.

He had sufficiently replenished his nutrients, but just in case, he had prepared some emergency dried fish.

“I’m not sure how many days it’s been since I arrived on this island… but I guess it’s about time to leave.”

It had been exactly 205 days since he had been stranded on this island. Of course, Queo didn’t know that.

And I had no intention of letting him know!

“Alright. Let’s go. If the Creator Dragon God watches over me, it should be fine…”

Hmm. It’s good that Queo is pious, but his tone makes it sound like he’s aware I’m watching.

Though in reality, I am!

“O Creator Dragon God, please help me…”

After saying that, Queo scratched his smoothly scaled chin with his nails, plucking a scale from his neck and placing it in his palm.

Then, transparent water began to rise from the scale, forming an armor of water around Queo.

“Alright. Let’s set off…”

With all his preparations complete, Queo pushed the raft towards the sea.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Thanks to Queo obtaining the method to overcome the limits of the Lizardman race, a huge change was about to happen to the Lizardman… or maybe not.

While overcoming problems like not being able to live without moisture or swim in the sea was undoubtedly significant for the Lizardmen, there were several issues with this solution.

First of all, only individuals who could at least have minimal conversations with water spirits could propose a trade.

Unless someone had a natural compatibility good enough to communicate directly with water spirits or had lived closely with water to improve their compatibility, they couldn’t even establish a deal with water spirits.

Even if they wanted to strike a mutually beneficial deal, they had to be able to communicate for the trade to happen.

Secondly, unlike traditional magics, the method reliant on this alien concept of trading was something many mages had a strong aversion to.

The relationship with spirits is one where you share bonds and borrow powers. The idea of trading, which shattered that concept, was something they couldn’t easily accept.

Thus, while mages were reluctant about trading with spirits, they attempted to gain similar effects through communion with them.

However, spirits were not so easily willing to lend power.

While they would easily lend their power by inhabiting the body or infusing into obsidian weapons, creating water from scratch was a different story altogether.

To explain this, one must first understand the power spirits use.

Spirits are beings without physical bodies. They are souls reborn as natural entities.

They maintain their existence by harnessing magical power through the surrounding environment or natural elements.

For such spirits to create water from absolutely nothing is impossible without magical power, and for spirits who couldn’t recover their power by either sealing a contract or using mana stones, they’d have to expend their own magical power to create water.

While borrowing power as in inhabiting a physical body or obsidian posed no issues, creating something from nothing was an entirely different matter.

Thus, the costly expenditure of magical power and the spirits’ craving for a body led to lending power by giving up scales… that was the essence of trading with spirits.

If it were elven mages who formed contracts with spirits, they would have solved this issue much more easily… but, unfortunately, Lizardmen were unable to form such contracts.

Spirits. Perhaps because Lizardmen and dragons are beings that branched from the same root and have walked different paths, or perhaps because some such memories are etched in their instincts.

It was impossible for Lizardmen to casually treat spirits, making it impossible to command them like subordinates or servants.

Honestly, at this point, you could just consider them entirely different beings. Lizardmen sure are troublesome.

Anyway, this trading with spirits had been discarded by most mages. However, after a bit of time and recognition of its necessity, a few young mages refined it and completed a single prayer.

The prayer known as the Prayer of Clear Water, aimed at facilitating communication with water spirits.

A prayer that assists Lizardmen with poor compatibility with water spirits in attracting their interest to strike a deal.

Of course, having to offer a scale from the chin remained unchanged. However, through this prayer, they were able to borrow the powers of spirits and overcome the environmental limitations they had struggled with.

Older mages still disapproved of such trading, but they couldn’t deny its usefulness.

Ah, and after going through many ups and downs, Queo-Tlan, who returned to his homeland…

“Look at this shining figure… surely, the Creator Dragon God must also have scales that shine like this…”

After enduring all the hardships, nearly getting killed, drifting on a tiny island, Queo-Tlan finally sought out the Lizardman he had bet against to obtain the statue of the Creator Dragon God… or rather, my statue.

Hmm. Well, if he’s satisfied, I suppose that’s okay.

By the way, the Lizardman who lost that bet ignored Queo-Tlan’s warnings about the dangers of the ocean and went out to sea… only to barely survive after nearly dying.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

“O Water Spirit, I offer you my scales once more today.”

The burly Lizardman knelt in a corner of the room and began his prayer, closing his eyes.

“In exchange, please grant me clean and clear water. Shield me with water as transparent as you.”

He removed a single remaining scale from his neck and placed it in his palm, slightly bowing his head.

“If you protect my journey, I can go as far as I need.”

Then the scale slowly vanished, and clear, transparent water began to envelop the Lizardman’s skin.

Having finished the prayer to the water spirit, the Lizardman picked up the leather armor that was set aside.

The leather armor sturdily protected his chin, neck, and upper chest.

Lizardmen who had given up their scales for the prayer would wear this armor when traveling long distances or working at sea.

“Isn’t it tough to pray like that every day? Especially when you have to remove scales…”

Seeing the Lizardman like that, the elven girl spoke with a worried expression.

“For a traveling Lizardman, it’s a mere daily routine. Scales will grow back over time.”

“How about using the water spirit you’ve contracted instead? Then you wouldn’t have to give up your scales.”

The Lizardman shook his head in response to the elf’s suggestion.

“If I borrow the power of the spirit you contracted with, I’d be fine without removing my scales. But that would mean cutting ties with the water spirit that lends me its power. In which case, I might incur its wrath.”

“Um… I really don’t understand how Lizardman spirit contracts work. It’s a bit frustrating, you know.”

Seeing the complaining elf, the Lizardman chuckled softly.

“The differences between races are not easily overcome.”

With that, the Lizardman stood and adjusted his leather armor in hand.

Even though it was weaker than his scales… it was an important armor protecting his weak spots.

While it’s a bit frustrating, there’s no helping it to protect the gaps created by the scales he gave up.

At that moment.

“Are you ready yet?”

The silver-haired girl, the Dragon Priestess, peeked through the door, her horns poking through as well.

Perhaps she had been waiting a while, and her face seemed a bit pouty.

“Oh, Dragon Priestess. The prayer is already over. I’ll be ready in a moment.”

The Lizardman hastily threw on his leather armor and was about to exit the room.

Or rather, he tried to leave.

“Wait a moment.”

The Dragon Priestess extended her hand towards the Lizardman, staring at his neck and chin, where the scales were absent.

At that moment, a faint light radiated from the tips of her fingers, and as if taking a breath, the light fully dissipated.

And in that spot, the Lizardman’s scales filled in perfectly.

“What is this…?”

“Come on, let’s go.”

The Dragon Priestess nonchalantly regenerated the scales in the blink of an eye and casually moved on as if nothing had happened, causing both the Lizardman and the elf to smile faintly.

– An adventure record of a certain hero party.

 

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