Chapter 145: In a Pinch

I chase after Selena while freezing the Ropers. At this point, I can’t keep insisting on not using magic. I flew over the trees with the usual combination of “Move” and “Levitation” but, since I can’t really leave the ropers be, I ended up not gaining that much speed.

Selena’s silhouette is already gone from my vision. While I can still manage to pursue her with her life essence, she’s traveling at much faster speeds than I am. I don’t think I can catch up while taking care of the ropers.

「Argh, dammit, geez! “Freeze”」

As I froze the roper before me and kicked the ground to go back midair, something grabbed my leg and I fell to the ground. Looking at my feet to figure out the cause, I see a slimy tentacle sprouting from the ground, entwining itself on my right leg.

「Crap-」

Without any time for regrets, the roper that appeared from the ground pulls me in.

「”Free- Wait! If I use it at this distance, I’ll get frozen too! *Uhhhh-!?」

Calmly thinking about it, I could have just used “Cut” and “Burn” to tear off the tentacle grasping me but, being in a panic, I couldn’t even think of that. As I was flustered thinking about how to deal with it, the roper gradually dragged my body in. Opening its mouth, it produces more tentacles to bind my body.

「Gugh! You-! Hyaa! Stop!1」

A tentacle crawled up from my leg to my thigh and another slithered over my neck, causing me to shriek. Feeling an unpleasant sensation on my nape, I never thought that a slimy tentacle entangling you could feel this disgusting.

「Hii!? Where do you think you’r-! HyaaA!?2」

Yet another tentacle crept over my torso, even entering my clothes. The sensation of the tentacle brushing against my stomach and sides, as well as the tentacle’s tip entering my sensitive navel, is just extremely sickening.

Feeling the spine-tingling unpleasantness, I feel like I’m losing something important the more the tentacles wriggle around me. All I could do was instinctively close my eyes as I feel the tentacle going through the hem of my skirt.

However, no matter how much time passed, there was no sign of the tentacle going any further. On the contrary, the tentacles restraining my body fell off as though they had lost their strength, landing on the ground… withered?

Wondering what happened, I cautiously opened my eyes and saw a large face munching on the roper right before my eyes.

『Gugyu?』 「…… Serra?」 『Gugyaa!』

What saved me from my predicament was the adorable large subdragon that submitted to me, Serra.

「Serra, that’s bad for your stomach, spit it out.」 『Gyugyuu』 「Eh? It tastes good? Well…… If you’re fine with it, I guess……」

According to Serra, the roper had just the right amount of magic power, making it extremely delicious. I guess from our perspective, it’s like having just the right amount of fattiness on fish? It also seems like Serra ate the other ropers on the way here.

Serra seems to have detected that someone entered the forest by scent and hurried to the source. The distance between their cave and the entrance of the forest should be pretty large, but as to be expected of a subdragon, their traveling speed is quite fast. In that case, I’ve thought of a plan.

「Serra, I want to ask a favor.」 『Gurgyu.』 「Nonono, hear it before you decide.」 『Gyururu?』

Serra says that she would listen to anything I ask of her. I don’t want her to do that so that I don’t end up asking too much of her but it seems like that’s just how tamed dragons are. While I’m not going to treat her that way, I’m worried about the other tamed dragons. Though since there are apparently only a few dragons here in Aureitas, it’s somewhat a relief.

Anyhow, I asked Serra to let me ride on her back. Moreover, I asked her to call other tiny dragons with a roar. If there’s a number of ropers around, then we’ll just have to get more to match. As these tiny dragons would never lose in an honest one-on-one fight, they strut around the forest, eating the ropers on their way.

The large dragons chew up 2-3 ropers in a single go and even the smaller ones that are just a bit larger than the baby dragons are munching on these ropers

I left the handling of the gradually decreasing ropers to the tiny dragons and began pursuing that mischievous girl with Serra. I have a rough idea of Selena’s power now.

If my [Dream Fabrication] is the power to retrieve anything from my dream, then Selena’s [One that Produces] is likely the power to produce any living creatures, no, monsters.