On our trip back, we sat in a carriage heading through a forest on a road to a nearby village. From there, the plan was to go down the larger and smoother road leading from the village to the city we’re based at. However, as the others were casually discussing the mystery behind what happened, and being told the blatant truth by an annoyed Jacqueline... I lurk silently at the edge of the carriage, focusing on the trees and hills rolling by outside the window.

To end this, however, was a sudden noise which dominated the area.

It was a loud, deep roar which bellowed from the forest to our left. We all spied through the window, to see a red dot flying around a watchtower which poked above the treeline. Although it was between two-hundred and five-hundred metres away, with my archery skills I could see the red, scaly beast in decent detail. Behind the roar, we could pick up some screams.

“We have to help them, right?” with valour, Charles announced.

The bored Jacqueline, agreeing, dictated the carriage to head back to the off-shooting road which leads to the tower. This path was more rickety than the main path due to rougher terrain, so the carriage shook rather violently as it proceeded at posthaste.

I must have visibly cringed since S, who’s sitting between me and Jacq, asked, ‘What is it Sam?’

Whispering it into her… uh… skull? Anyway, I whispered the answer close to her, “That thing will be a pain in the neck.”

‘Huh? W-what do you mean, I’m sure we can deal with it!’ she stated, standing up to emphasize her liveliness even during the bumpy ride.

Whispering once more, I stated, “Spoiler, that was a migrating red dragon. Shockingly enough they can fly.”

Tilting her skull, she pressed me for further detail which I explained, this time forgetting to whisper, “No one here can fly, Jacq’s magic destroys resources and its a dragon. So either this will take multiple hours, or guess who’s going to need to do everything...”

Everyone, even Jacqueline- who seemed in her own world a second ago- faced me with quizzical expressions.

“We are heading to a wild red dragon. Do say if I am wrong though,” I spitefully explained, realizing my mistake.

Almost in sync all four of them asked the obvious question, as Mask put best, “And you can kill a dragon quickly? Don’t make me laugh...”

Their giggles at the absurd concept were stopped short by my own laughter. My quiet and unusual cackles are heard over the bemused silence in the carriage with ease, further increasing the levels of confusion each had.

Managing to stop myself for long enough, I made a seemingly baffling offer, “Let us all make a bet: one arrow and the dragon dies. If I win, I will not share the loot from the kill. If I do not, I will not get a share of it. Anyone want to take it?”

Mask and Charles, in order, react immediately with no thought behind the unmistakably more likely outcome, “You’re on, you cocky brat.” “It’s a dragon, of course I call your bet...”

S then, after a moment of thought, replies next, ‘I don’t trust that smile… Not taking the bet.’

Jacqueline takes a while longer to bite, thinking it over until the last moment until we reached the watchtower, “Regretfully, I will bet against you.”

With me still smiling- holding in even more laughter at my absurd bet being taken by the majority- we reached the end of the path. There the forest opened out for around two-hundred by two-hundred metres surrounding the watchtower, which was now in fiery tatters and on the brink of falling.

The dragon hovered barely over the treeline, chasing down the screaming figures still running from the tower to the forest surrounding it with brutal efficiency. Either burning those who ran alive in a sea fire from its gaping maw, or swooping down to tear the prey to pieces with its claws and jaw.

I, who had summoned my bow and a single arrow on the carriage, took up my position then aimed downwards to my foot.

Double checking the position of the dragon and making sure my mental tracker on it was accurate, I turned to my foot and stretch the string of the bow- arrow in place.

As the dragon rose once more, my grip was released and the arrow flew towards my foot as fast as it could. Most of my focus was now on enchanting the arrow.

An icy mist engulfed the arrow almost instantly, and there was no pain even as the mist faded.

Curious, I checked everyone, all of whom had their jaws agape. All stared motionlessly at where there should’ve been an arrow embedded, to find out it wasn’t there.

Seconds later, a far off thud redirected the looks of the peanut gallery. The ground around us then shook for a couple seconds.

The dragon, which had been preparing for yet another swipe at the crowd numbering less than ten at this point, was now resting motionless amidst a crater in the dirt. A couple trees nearby had also collapsed, but thankfully, the survivors weren’t hiding near those specific trees.

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Seeing the other four frozen, I opened up a portal and took a couple steps. After blinking my eyes, I found myself next to the dragon corpse which was fully intact. No wounds were seen in its skin, but, unlike a living being, when I touched it the corpse completely vanished into my storage.

My laughter returned for a moment, looking face-to-face with the few survivors, who were still scared to the point they were frozen like statues due to what happened. I can only shrug their way after my random moment of emotion...

Staring at them in mutual silence, the sounds of destruction from the tower fills the mutual silence with noise.

It takes a couple minutes for the other four to come back to reality and come towards us.

Not missing a beat, as he came towards me with a face mixing anger with confusion, Charles turns to the survivors with a completely different expression, asking, “Ah… Haha… S-sorry for anything he’s done. We’re just a clan wandering by, does anyone here need any healing?”

Still frozen, the group of survivors eventually fall to floor simultaneously, all passing out knowing the threat is over.

‘What the heck was that sam?’ S, who caught up to Charles with Mask and Jacq, asked me directly. Not needing to breath, she’s the only one aside from me not panting.

Charles at this point was looking at the crowd of collapsed people, checking for pulses. The other three, including myself, go to help him when a scream within the tower alerts us all. Being a twisted, burning husk of its former glory, every second more chunks from the building collapse. Thinking anyone could be alive in there was somewhere between surreal and ludicrous.

As I looked back to our group, Mask’s presence wasn’t there anymore. Changing my gaze back to the tower, a figure was already at the base of the tower as if waiting for help.

“I’ll go, you two do this,” Jacq announced, in a rather confusing way.

So S helped Charles carry the remaining people to our. As for me... since I still had too much spare mana, I opened up a portal to the carriage to make transportation easier.

By the time those two came back, they realized what I had done and Charles at least wasn’t amused.

“Can you not just teleport them to the city?”

I shake my head towards him, although S seemed to have realized why so just continued…

“Just what are you…” he mumbles seeing my response, begrudgingly getting on with his work.

Minutes later, we had put everyone- as delicately as possible- into the carriage. And by this point, Mask and Jacq were also at the carriage holding one barely living person. At the side of the carriage were between ten and fifty dead bodies unceremoniously piled up.

Seeing how no one else can fit into the carriage apart from one person driving it, S told Jacqueline, ‘Miss Jacqueline, please take them to the guild then return to pick us up.’

She nodded, then, after making sure the unconscious people were secure, she left.

Since we had to wait anyway, we all started digging makeshift graves. One for all the dead.

Charles then blessed the corpses with a speech for the group as we buried them.

During this speech, I tried to sleep using a tree as a pillow; the cold weather and S pestering me being the reasons this failed. And Mask was nowhere to be seen after we finished digging, but just before Charles finished, I saw him return from the building holding as much as he could carry. Thankfully, he got even more scorn than me, so even S forgot to continue yelling at me.

After this we set up a fire, as it was getting dark. Then, on request from S and Charles, I took out some playing cards and we used the money Mask stole as counters. However, since my laughter had ended a while ago, opening up my storage makes me woozy from mana loss. I’m barely able to get the cards out before I pass out right there and then.

-

When I awoke, I felt my head resting something firm- but not necessarily uncomfortable.

Looking up, I see S’s skull greet me. This makes my cheeks blush as I try to get up as fast as possible. Although getting disoriented due to this, I do succeed and wake up due to it.

Taking a second to look around, I realize we’re back in my room.

‘Just accept it…’ she whispers, from her word choice it seemed she was disappointed it ended this soon.

I refuse her though, freeing myself non-violently from her then continue down stairs where the other seven are waiting.

“There’s no room here, let’s go downstairs,” Charles states.

There, first I handed the royal slime to Jessica who then headed out. Then gave Serv the normal slime and cores. At first, all four of them were confused how there were so many intact cores. But when Charles explained, they just accepted it, and it wasn’t like Helen was mad for not having to put more cores together before using them. Finally, Jacque told everyone par me, her and Grey to leave the storage room.

Even then, with the entire storage room free, it was barely big enough to dump the whole dragon in.

Inspecting it for quite a while, Grey’s mouth was forced open as he exclaimed, “How the hell did this die!?”

Jacque explained that is was me, but this just caused Grey to get even more confused. So further explanation was needed…

In the end, he eventually accepted the story, and went into his workshop. Then re-entered the storage room with a massive black broadsword and a smaller green knife. With him, Serv entered the room with some more jars made by Helen.

Once removed, he passed me the various pieces he dissected one-by-one. Starting with the head, then tail, wings and limbs. Meanwhile Serv, with Jacq’s help, put the spilling dragon blood into jars, then handed me them as well.

This freed up enough space in the room to where he started skinning the torso; delicately using the knife to sever veins and organs from the scaly skin before he separated each scale. As this part of its body alone was big enough for all four of the people in the room to stand inside it, with plenty of room to spare, it took over an hour for this delicate yet tedious dissection by Grey. Going as fast as possible, Serv, Jacq and to a lesser extent I, helped cleared away the flood of blood which bled every time he made an incision.

It was already a long day, I was on the edge of falling asleep due to how much my dimensional storage was being used, and the sheer volume of stuff being placed in and out of it. Considering that this is an S-rank skill and how I’ve rested fully twice already, speaks volumes to how much during the hours I’ve used it.

Finally finding out how genuinely tired I am, Grey- having gotten all of the main organs out- cleans his blades with a small towel and passes me the remaining husk of the body. Grey then announced, “That’ll do for today, there’s no need to rush.”

Relieved, I left without delay and stumbled my way to my room. Not taking any time to do anything but lock the door, I pass out on the floor right there.