An hour had gone by just from listening to the elderly man’s explanation of their predicament. Henry was drooling and hanging between sleep and wake while he patiently waited for the explanation to finish. To summarise what the elderly man had said; the Kivus is a tribe of Spirit Foxes. They were essentially demi-human foxes but they were magical in essence. The heiress of their tribe, the young princess, was kidnapped while she was playing in the forest by herself. Somehow, the kidnapper evaded all of the Kivus’ sentries and securities and successfully snatched the princess away. After that, the kidnapper ran all the way to the Augrus’ territory. As there was a treaty in place, the Kivus were not allowed to tread into their lands under any circumstances. Henry wanted to ask why that was the case but of course, he didn’t have the means to ask such a complicated question. As a compromise, the Kivus demanded that the Augrus deliver their princess to them by the day after tomorrow or else they would forgo the treaty and tread into their territory.

And here was where the situation turned dire. The kidnapper had retreated to a very treacherous part of their territory, the swamp and not just the outer region but in the inner region where two colossal monsters resided. The Augrus did not have any warriors strong enough to brave those dangers. Henry thought that Eria would definitely be able to but seeing as she was the warchief and the elderly man’s daughter, it was unlikely they would send her. He also learned that the elderly man was the tribe chieftain, which was kinda obvious enough considering the circumstances. 

Henry had the inkling that the haggard man was the kidnapper and if the cliche was obeyed, it would definitely be him. Which meant, time was really of the essence.

“Please, you have to save the princess,” the chieftain repeated his “humble” request with his head touching the ground. He was really desperate.

No wonder they let me finish the meal first before they said anything.

Henry knew it even before he started eating but he couldn’t care less. The feast was their gratitude for him saving Lilim as far as he was concerned. It was not a down payment or some sort of deposit. If they were willing to be roundabout for even a dire issue, he didn’t want to think how many circles they would draw for the minor issues. All in all, the Augrus left a bad impression on Henry. 

“Please, save the princess,” Lilim joined her father in prostrating. 

Soon, the whole group followed, even Eria.

As boorish as it would be to refuse now, there was no reason for Henry to accept their request. He could barely hold his own against the Bristly Serpent, a monster in the outer region, let alone going up against the monsters in the inner and middle regions, if there was a middle region. Moreover, he owed them nothing. He wasn’t obligated to help them. Even though he couldn’t remember anything about his past life, he knew he was no saint. However, if the kidnapper was indeed the haggard man, then he did have a good reason to help, providing that the haggard man was indeed the same person as the kidnapper.

Henry shook his head, invoking a gasp louder than before from the group.

“B-but why?” the chieftain asked.

Henry sighed and gave him an exasperated gaze.

“Fucking unbelievable,” the man named Oren shouted as he got up from his knees. “After eating all of our food, it had the galls to refuse our request? Does it take us for fools?”

“Oren, enough! We are in the presence of a Dragon. If we—”

“Dragon? So what if it’s a Dragon? It took all of our food and gave us nothing in return! Being a Dragon doesn’t excuse that.”

Eria shot Oren a glare. “The food is our gratitude for saving my sister, not an advance reward for accepting our request.”

“A whole day's worth of food for the whole tribe is just gratitude for saving Lilim? With all due respect, Elder Solus, this is unfair to the whole tribe. If it was enough anyone else other than Eria or Lilim, would you have offered the Dragon the same manner of gratitude?”

“Oren, that’s enough.” The chieftain’s voice turned cold and low. 

Oren choked on his own voice when he felt the mood shifting. His shoulders started to tremble against the gaze of the chieftain.

“We will discuss this when we return to the village. Not another word of complaint from you, Oren.” The chieftain turned to Henry. “Forgive us for our impudence. It was rude of us to intrude upon your nest and make such a heavy request.”

At the chieftain’s apology, the Augrus began to take their leave. Oren was glaring at Henry the whole time they were packing up their stuff. Eria was sighing at Oren’s impertinence but she said nothing. The Augrus didn’t forget to gather up the totems and the platters before they left. Lilim stayed behind for a while, giving Henry a disappointed look, before running to catch up to the group.

The usual silence returned to his abode after the Augrus left. Henry slumped to the ground and heaved out all of this weariness. He could understand their plight and predicament but could they under his? They were practically asking him to risk his life to save a princess of another land to resolve a problem between two factions that he wasn’t a part of. It was just absurd no matter how he thought about it. What’s more, who was to say that he could even succeed in this endeavour?

Goddamnit! It’s just one problem after another. Leave me in peace, damn it!

The past few days were hectic and it was all thanks to the haggard man. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. The haggard man even sent a pseudo assassin to him. If he was a battle junkie like in most of the stories he had read, he would feel honoured, but he was no such person. He felt only vexation. He didn’t want to live a dull and quiet life but neither did he wish to live a hectic life filled with twists and turns at every corner. The haggard man was the root of all his current problems. If only he could find the root and pull it out of the soil. But at present, he had no clue of the haggard man’s whereabouts. The closest thing that he could consider a clue was the kidnapped princess’ location. The chieftain had already told him everything he needed to know should he accept their request as if the chieftain knew he would accept their request.

Night fell and Henry found himself tossing and turning without feeling the pull of sleep. Contrary to feeling sleepy, he was wide awake and itching to move his body around. He knew what was bugging him, the identity of the kidnapper. A part of him was saying the haggard man and the kidnapper were the same person but another part of him was denying that possibility. The dilemma had cost him his sleep. Fed up with this irritating feeling, he bounced out of his proverbial bed and set off to find the princess. Of course, the princess was not his priority. The kidnapper’s identity was.

The moon was hanging proudly at the zenith of the black sky. The moon’s boldness did nothing to illuminate the dark forest but Henry didn’t need any light. He could see in the dark perfectly. He retraced his steps back to the swamp. Due to his encounter with the Bristly Serpent, the memories of the path to the swamp were still fresh in his mind. As there was no drastic change in weather, the paths remained unchanged and recognizable. 

However, fate loves its share of irony and twists. It began pouring the moment Henry reached the swamp. He comforted himself with the fact that at least it started raining after he arrived, not during. But the consequences were the same. Finding his way back would be difficult in the rain. He doubted it would be any different even after the rains stopped since the road would most likely change a great deal after the rain.

No turning back now…

Henry kept that feeling in his heart and proceeded with resolution weighing heavily on his limbs. The soil was mushier than he remembered, probably because of the rain. Now that he thought about it, it was the first time it had rained since his time as a Dragon. The rain was gentle at first but undoubtedly, it was getting heavier. Henry cursed his luck and quickened his pace. A relatively large snake pounced on him out of nowhere. The rain had drastically reduced Henry’s perception and it wasn’t until a second later that he took notice of the snake. It was only as big as the pythons in his old world but this snake was venomous going by its pair of fangs. However, the poor snake broke its fangs when it tried to bite Henry’s neck. He pried the snake off of him and turned the snake’s head into a splatter with a stomp. He spied a lizard darting towards him through a shallow body of water among some tall grasses. It was a size smaller than him but its teeth were as deadly as a lot of other larger monsters. Still, Henry let the lizard lunge into his grasp and crushed it to death in his grip. He had only just entered the swamp and he was already attacked by two different monsters without a minute interval. It was a treatment vastly different from the last time he was here.

Henry tried to remember what the chieftain had told him as trod deeper into the swamp. He was to find a small stream with blue mushrooms growing by its bank. Followed it upstream to a river that flowed north. Near that river, there would be a grove of trees with roots that grew out of its soil. Make one’s way through the grove and a lake would be waiting on the other side of the grove.

Henry followed the instructions clearly and took great care to not deviate even if there were other paths that looked to be safer. However, he went around the river even though it was shallow. He couldn’t risk water getting down the wrong pipe again and he would be devoid of a great means of defence. He eventually found a fallen tree that doubled as a bridge across the river. The tree was chopped down. He surmised it was the work of the Augrus. They had definitely been here before or else they wouldn’t have known the way. The river was in a rush, spurred by the rain. If he fell into the river, the gushing stream would kill him before the monsters in the water could. While he was crossing the river on the fallen tree, something jumped out of the water and landed in front of him. Once again, due to the rain, he noticed it only when it came out of the water. It was a fish with razor-sharp teeth and two hind legs near the section of its tail. Its eyes were huge, as huge as its mouth. Its feet were the palmate type like a duck’s.

Henry felt his skin crawl at the sight of the two-legged piranha. Despite all of the monsters he had seen, he still couldn’t get used to their bizarre appearances on his first encounter. There were some that even looked so surreal to him to not doubt if he was just dreaming. The two-legged piranha lunged with its mouth open wide. Henry clicked his tongue and plunged his claws through its mouth. It managed to shut its jaws before death claimed its soul but its teeth, like many others, could not pierce through Henry’s hide. Henry wondered just how many times he would have died if it wasn’t for his high defence. He also wondered just how much more he could depend on his naturally high defence. He knew he was only scratching the surface of the world and stronger foes awaited him outside of his territory.

A few more of those two-legged piranhas appeared as Henry crossed the lake. The terrain of the log made it incredibly simple for Henry to deal with the monsters. Ten of those piranhas appeared at once but a single breath of fire charred all the walking fish into cinders. Since the log was drenched from the incessant rain, his fiery breath did not set the log on fire. Curiously enough, the rain did not dampen his fire breath’s ability. His foes still burned nicely in the face of his flames. Once he was finished crossing the river, he noticed ripples amidst the rain droplets trailing away from him in the river. He knew this pattern all too well. Once the monsters knew about his fire breath, a good amount of them would scurry away from him. At the same time, it would also provoke the stronger monsters into challenging him for their position in the food chain.

Just like that, Henry effortlessly traversed along the riverbank despite the downpour and all was well until he reached the lake. The chieftain had neglected to mention the size of the lake. It spanned further than his eyes could see. Barks and logs were gently floating about despite the rain. The lake was calm, disturbed only by the downpour. The only way to cross the lake was by boat or by swimming. He saw a raft hidden in the bushes but it looked too frail to carry his weight. Henry did not know how to build a raft or a boat. He couldn’t swim either. He stayed far away from the shore and looked around the lake to see if there was an alternative way of crossing it. He did find another way to cross the lake but further pondering led him to think otherwise. It was a log that was carried ashore by the waves. The log was large enough to hold his weight and size but there was the issue of the monsters lurking in the lake. They could easily capsize the log and that would be the end of him.

The lake’s shore spanned beyond the limits of Henry’s range of sight even after walking for nearly an hour along the shore. There was no end to it. It would take hours or days just to find a way around the lake at this rate. Too much time would be wasted then. He tossed a stone into the lake. The water swallowed the stone with a heavy gulp. The lake was extremely deep even in the shallow parts. Even without taking the monsters in the lake into account, the lake was simply too deep for him to traverse across without using a boat or a bridge. 

As Henry wrecked his brain for ideas, tentacles shot out from the lake, the sound masked by the rain. Fortunately, Henry was constantly keeping a close eye on the lake due to his encounter with the crocodile. It could be said that the crocodile had instilled a fear of unknown waters into his mind.

Barnacles littered the whole length of the tentacle. Henry shivered at those creepy things. He was already standing more than ten metres away from the lake and yet, he was still attacked by a monster from the depth. He ducked under the tentacles’ attacks and cut one down with his claws. The cut tentacle shuddered and retreated back into the water. The severed part of the tentacle bounced erratically like a fish on dry land. The remaining tentacles swooped in while Henry was staring at the severed floundering tentacle. He sidestepped the tentacles and grabbed one that nearly wrapped itself around his neck. He tore the tentacle in his grip off and charred the remaining with his blazing roar.

Henry didn’t stand around and waited for more after he dealt with the tentacles. Just as he started distancing himself further away from the lake, more tentacles emerged from the lake and darted towards him. He fended the tentacles off with his fire breath but as if the tentacles had a mind of their own, they avoided the fire and went around the stream to get to Henry.

He hopped away from the tentacles but they followed him. He had retreated around fifty metres away from the lake but the tentacles were still coming after him. He threw aura blades at the tentacles but none of the tentacles was hit. They were too fast for his attacks. He swiped at them with his claws but they evaded his claws too. They were learning and adapting to his way of fighting.

This is bullshit! Never should have fucking come here!

Henry was regretting his choice. He was cursing his past self for making a decision with a ruffled mind, not that his mind was that much clearer at present.

A tentacle caught his left forelimb but he yanked it free with his sheer strength. Another tentacle wrapped itself around his waist but he cut it off of him with the spikes and barb-tip of his tail. Thankfully, the tentacles weren’t individually stronger than him in terms of physical strength but if more than a single tentacle caught him at the same time, it would not bode well for him. After he retreated around a hundred metres away from the lake, the tentacles stopped their assault and wriggled rapidly back into the lake.

Before Henry could catch his breath, the rustling of the bushes around him sent him on high alert. He could smell the bloodlust permeating the air. The rain did nothing to wash away the bloodlust. A dog-like monster leapt out of the bushes behind him. He slammed his tail against it and sent it skidding across the ground.

A Ruguth?

That was Henry’s initial assessment but unlike the one he encountered before, this one was half his size and it had blue scales like those of an aquatic creature. It had only one tail instead of three but its tail was forked like a fish’s. Perhaps it was a Ruguth but the aquatic variant, Henry surmised. He decided to just name them Blue Ruguths in his head since they were blue.

The Blue Ruguth was bleeding badly with just a single strike from Henry’s tail. It threw its head up and drew in a deep breath. Henry knew what the Ruguth was intending to do and quickly cut it down. The Ruguth managed a single squeak before it was decapitated. A dozen more Blue Ruguths appeared from the bushes. Seeing their number, Henry gathered that he might have stumbled onto a hunting group or he had entered their territory. Whichever was it, he was in a predicament.

He regretted running in his direction but he burned away the budding pointless regret in his mind and focused on the amassing Blue Ruguths that had accumulated to an amount of more than two dozen.