My Glasses

Chapter 186 – Glasses boy and the hunting festival – part eight

First, I took out my three harpoons and passed the rope through the loop at the end of each one, making sure I left enough length available for my needs.

Then, I tied one to my right arm.

Next, I tied the other two to a large, strong-looking tree nearby, then stuck them on the ground.

The preparations were now complete, so…

Well, when I first heard the tale of the Dragon Fish from that old man who regretted the 20 years of his life that he spent hunting it, I was told about some very uncertain sightings of the Dragon Fish, so I had a hard time understanding why he believed it.

There were only two sightings of it, and I although they didn’t match in where they happened, they still had something in common.

Specifically, the Dragon Fish was only sighted during heavy rain.

Staying in the forest during heavy rain was basically a death sentence, so that may be why there are so few sightings of it.

If you’re used to hunting, you’ll almost never be inside a forest during this kind of weather.

In any case, visibility is quite poor during heavy rain, and all that a certain person had seen was, ‘something long and white’ that quickly disappeared from view.

That was the start of the rumors about the Dragon Fish.

It was this kind of thing that the old man who regretted 20 years of his life had believed in.

After the first sighting, no matter how hard they searched, nobody could find the Dragon Fish, so they thought that the person who saw it was simply mistaken.

However, with the second sighting, several people, including this old, believed it to be real.

Something like that being seen twice definitely points towards it being real… That’s what this old man believed… Though it happened more than 20 years ago.

But essentially, the only thing in common between both sightings was the heavy rain, so the old man took the risk of venturing into the forest whenever it was raining.

However, I wondered about that… Was it really the rain? Or was it something else that caused the Dragon Fish to appear?

I mean, if all it took for it to appear was heavy rain, then I think it would be likely to have more than two sightings in decades.

Of course, maybe some people saw it at some point, but decided to stay silent about it… However, as there was an old man who was obsessed with the Dragon Fish, people would surely sell this information to him, wouldn’t they?

But apparently, this did not happen.

Or rather, it did happen, but they were apparently all scams.

The old man found out that they were all lies. I don’t know how he came to this conclusion though.

Still, when taking this into account, the only two credible sightings were the first one, and the second one that happened several decades later.

And if one couldn’t find the Dragon Fish after 20 years of searching for it, then the two most likely possibilities are… Either that there was no Dragon Fish in the first place, or that the premise of it appearing during heavy rain was wrong.

******

I held the harpoon with my right hand, then touched the surface of the lake with my left hand.

I think this might be it.

Though well, if I’m wrong, I’ll just try another method, as I thought of several ways to lure out this Demon Beast.

There’s no doubt that this Demon Beast is at the bottom of this lake, so I just have to keep trying until I succeed.

Therefore, I set the Flower Bolt gift that I got from Roda.

I’ve tried various things with his lightning-based Gift before, but I had yet to find a practical use for it… However, I might finally be able to put it in action here.

Something that happens during heavy rain… The first thing that came to mind, other than the rain itself, was lightning.

Perhaps there was a lightning storm happening during the two heavy rain sightings of the Dragon Fish. That was my theory.

So, I started using it. Yellow sparks shot out from my right hand and ran across the lake.

It would be nice if I could catch this Demon Beast with Roda’s Gift, but… Well, it’s still just an idea, and I have no way of being sure if things will work out that easily.

Still, for now, I just have to keep trying.

So that’s what I did. Over and over and over and over again, I kept on using Flower Bolt on the lake.

I wondered if this was working… I mean, there are fishes and some other things floating to the surface of the lake, but is throwing lightning at the lake really enough? Or should I try something else-?

“It’s here.” I said to myself.

The Demon Beast at the bottom of the lake slowly started moving.

… Yeah, it was clearly moving. Was the lightning really the answer? Or did it simply wake up because I kept on bothering it while it slept.

I guess I don’t have any way of knowing that for sure.

******

The Demon Beast first curled itself up at the bottom of lake, but then it suddenly rose to the lake’s surface at a tremendous speed. As if it had been repelled from the lake itself.

“… I guess it really is a Dragon Fish, after all.” I said as I looked at it.

What appeared with a large splash of water was a strangely colored snake.

Its basic color was white, but its surface had a strange luster, as if it was covered with some kind of translucent layer.

According to the old man’s story, when a Dragon Fish dies, the translucent part turns white in its entirety.

In other words, if this thing turns white, then that will be an indication that my hunt was successful.

Anyways, the Dragon Fish was similar to a snake.

It had a huge body that could easily swallow a person whole, and the little of it that was above the water level, its head, was already bigger than me.

I couldn’t quite see the entirety of its body inside the lake, but it must be incredibly long when considering the length I saw while looking at it from above. Maybe the Dragon Fish’s tail is still touching the bottom of the lake even now.

It also had deep blue eyes that reminded me of the lake it resided in, and it had vertical, long yellow pupils.

The Dragon Fish’s head resembled that of a snake for the most part, though it had two whiskers hanging down from it.

If I had to find a comparison, I’d say that the Dragon Fish was something in-between a snake and a catfish.

But in any case, after observing the color and shape of its scales, I was convinced that this was truly a Dragon Fish.

But it’s bigger than I expected… Do I even have enough harpoons for this-?

Ah, that’s bad!

The Dragon Fish looked around for a bit, met my eyes, then instantly pulled its head back a little.

That was when I thought it was bad, so I jumped to the side.

One moment later, a water blade came out of the Dragon Fish’s mouth.

And it flew in my direction at a tremendous speed.

A sharp sound echoed as the water blade gouged out the ground, and split a large tree behind me in two.

Also, as the blade collided with the ground, I felt a few splashes of water hit my cheek.

… This really was water, wasn’t it? Is it seriously possible to slash the ground and a tree with water?

The Dragon Fish had started its movement at the same time as it released some killing intent.

I evaded the water blade reflexively, for the Dragon Fish did attack me, just as I had expected.

It really was way too dangerous… That water blade was faster than a longbow’s arrow. Even if I could see the Dragon Fish spitting the water, there’s just no way I would be able to dodge it if I didn’t start moving before it was shot.

And if it had hit me head-on, I’m pretty sure I would have been killed.

Even a glancing hit might have been bad, as I would be in a very dangerous position if one of my arms or legs had been cut off.

… I guess this Demon Beast fights with projectiles, then.

Well, it is a dragon, so it might be stronger than I had expected… I suppose I’ll have to put my all into this.