The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 5 - Chapter 275

Chapter 275:

A Typical Winter?

By the time Snakey had finally settled down…well, let’s just say I had to wipe my face three times with a wet towel to get it clean. The drool in my hair was hard to wipe off, too. Big serpents have big tongues, you see.

“Snakey, do you know what this summoning circle is?”

Snakey stared at the ground. Then it looked at me, lifted its body up a little, and shook its head no.

“Krrr!”

Um…does that mean it’s not sure? “You don’t know?”

Snakey nodded. Guess I was right. But my goodness, how big it was. All it did was lift its head a little, and its face was far above the top of my own head.

“I know you had Ciel and the others to practice on, but I’m still impressed, Ivy. You can already have a conversation without any awkwardness.”

I heard Druid murmur something, so I looked in his direction, but he just shook his head at me. I guess it wasn’t important.

“Are you okay now, Snakey? By the way, what happened to that magic stone Flame made?”

Oops. That was pushy. I jumped right to a question.

“Krr-rr,” Snakey trilled, extending its head down to my eye level and sticking out its tongue. I thought it was going to lick me again, but it was different this time. It had two gray stones on top of its tongue. I picked them up and stared at them. They looked a lot like the other gray stones I’d been seeing a lot of lately.

“Did these used to be a magic stone?”

“Krr-rr,” Snakey answered, nodding its head yes. So that crystal-blue stone had used up its magic. What a shame. What’s more, it had split into two spent stones.

“What’s wrong?” Druid asked, standing next to me and ­staring at my hand.

“The magic stone broke in two.”

“Oh. Well, I can’t say this for sure since I don’t know what kind of magic stone it started out as, but it must have been quite a strain to get the magic out of it.”

“A strain?”

“Yeah, sometimes magic stones break in half from the pressure if you force their magic out too suddenly or too intensely.”

“Wow, I didn’t know that could happen.”

“Krrr!”

Mrrrow.

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

“Teryu? Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”

As Druid and I stared at the two halves of the spent magic stone, the creatures sang merrily around us. I looked over to find Snakey playing with both the black orbs and my creatures.

“They’re having quite a party,” Druid remarked.

“Yeah.” Wait…I don’t hear the rain anymore. “Mr. Druid, I think it’s stopped raining.”

“Hm? Yeah, now that you mention it, maybe it has. This might be our chance to get back to the village.”

We told the creatures we had to go and walked toward the cave entrance.

“You’re still wobbling a little,” Druid said, resting a supportive hand on my back. He was right: Even though I could technically walk, I was a bit unsteady. I was probably still under the effects of the magic from earlier.

“I’ll just have to power through it. But I think my strength will come back little by little.”

“You think? Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Well, this has never happened to me before.” I’d never had that much magic energy wash over me. Even in the forest, when I’d encountered monsters of the highest level that I’d read about in books, I’d never felt magic energy that strong. “Since this is my first time, I don’t know how long it’ll take for me to get back to normal.”

Now that I was walking, I could feel a…numbness?…in my legs. I didn’t think walking was going to make the feeling any worse, though. Hmm…powerful magic sure has some powerful effects.

“Are you okay, Mr. Druid?”

“Hm? Yeah…I also had a bad reaction to the magic, but I’m fine now.”

“Huh.” Maybe it’s because he’s way more experienced than me? Or maybe it’s because my magic is so low? I do seem to remember Druid mentioning he had high magic levels.

“Oh, look! It’s snowing,” Druid said.

I suddenly looked up from my vigilant ground-staring. The area outside the cave was filled with pure-white snow. “Oh, you’re right! It sure is snowing. Oh, do you think that means it’s gotten colder, too?”

What a relief. We still didn’t know what had kept it at bay all this time, but it was snowing at last. Maybe we would have a typical winter after all? Or was this only temporary? I still had reasons to worry, but I might as well enjoy the fact that it was snowing now.

“Do you think that summoning circle had something to do with it?” Druid asked.

I felt something cold tingle down my spine… It was possible. Which meant I might have found myself smack-dab in the middle of some trouble again—and it was too late to avoid it now.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing… I was just thinking that I seem to have a knack for finding trouble.”

“What?! Well…yeah, you do have a point.” He was reluctant to admit I was right, but he firmly agreed with what I’d said.

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

Huh? Is that Sora’s voice? I looked behind me…and a giant figure shot up in front of my face.

“Agh!”

Crash!

“Snakey…could you please stop sneakily slithering behind me?” I was so startled I actually screamed back there. How embarrassing.

“Krr-rr-rr?”

The giant figure was Snakey, giving all my creatures a ride on its back. It was following behind us without projecting an aura or making a sound, so even Druid was quite startled by its presence. So startled that he had his hand on his sword. Thank goodness he hadn’t drawn it.

“Phew…okay, Ivy, let’s go back to the village and report this. The cold weather finally seems to have settled down for a bit, but there’s no telling when that icy-cold rain will come back.”

“Okay. Snakey, be careful, all right? Some adventurers might come by here soon.”

“Krrr?!” It tilted its head. Maybe that meant it didn’t understand me.

“Some adventurers are going to come here to look at that summoning circle, so you should hide if you don’t want them to see you.”

“Krr-rr.” That meant “I understand.” I was surprised by how smart Snakey was.

“Are you going to wait here for the adventurers?”

“Krrr!” That sounded different from the noise it made earlier…so maybe it meant “no”? In that case, it wouldn’t be here the next time we came back. Would we ever see it again?

“Can we come visit you again?”

“Krr-rr!”

Oh, good. “Ciel, can you change into a slime for me?” Ciel, who could shapeshift very quickly now, promptly complied. I put everyone in their bag and shut the lid tightly to keep them from getting wet in the snow. “Take care, Snakey.”

“Krr-rr!”

“Snakey, please watch out. Make no mistake—somebody is after you.”

“Krr-rr!”

We waved goodbye and left the cave. Even though the weather had settled, it was still quite cold. We quickened our pace back to Hatow.

“Ivy, can you walk okay now?”

“Huh?! Oh…I’m fine now!” The tingling had subsided and I hadn’t even noticed. Thank goodness. I was worried it wouldn’t go away. Oh, what a relief.