CH 21

Chapter 21: The mansion became a killer ant nest

Translator: yuzu

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“What?! Now? No, no wait, it’s way too soon…”

Luya felt a little exasperated. It was only a random idea, and she hadn’t planned or prepared anything yet. She just wanted to ask the red dragon whether it was feasible, but it unexpectedly agreed and wanted to do it right now??

…Even though it was nice that it spoiled her, at least give her some time to mentally prepare!

Having an idea and actually deciding to do it were two totally different things. She wasn’t ready to go face monsters so soon…

“I want to finish the construction here before I go.”

The red dragon had a puzzled expression, and Luya had no choice but to explain herself guiltily. Before doing anything else, she wanted to finish exploring the mountain before deciding to venture off to further places.

She was still a total noob1 right now, so she needed to plan every step carefully before taking big leaps.

【I see then.】

The red dragon looked at Luya and spoke. 【Then I will wait until you are ready before we go.】

“Thank you Farus! You’re the best!”

Luya cheered happily. She really wanted to run forward to hug the red dragon, but she resisted her urges.

With the red dragon’s promise, Luya was happy to return to supervising the goblins.

Even though they were wild goblins, they seemed to have an innate talent for labor engraved in their genes. It took them less than half a day to assemble the rough framework of a house. Luya finished watering the “Holy Grass” in the field, took a chair out, and then leisurely sat under a fruit tree gnawing on an apple as she watched the goblins work.

Today was the most relaxing day that she had since coming to this world. She even had fruit to eat.

In order to make her life even better, she had to keep working hard.

Underneath the warm sunshine, Luya took a nap.

When the sun was about to go down, the goblins who had slaved away for the entire day finally stopped working.

Even monsters were afraid of the undead that appeared at night. Before the skies got completely dark, the goblins also needed to return to their homes to light their torches.

Luya didn’t know if she was imagining it, but she felt like there seemed to be less goblins after she took her nap in the afternoon.

But they were carrying construction materials back and forth up the mountain, so she wasn’t sure if she was counting them wrong. She simply felt like the total number wasn’t right.

Could it be that a few of them stopped working early?

That wasn’t very good. It was very rude of them to leave without saying goodbye.

Luya finally realized what it felt like to be a boss. No wonder why everyone didn’t like employees who arrived late and left early. Laziness was very bad, and it affected work efficiency. It seemed like she’d have to set some rules for them when they gather tomorrow morning.

Luya laid under the tree thinking. At that time, the two goblins that she had sent to search for wild herbs came back with a basket full of vegetables.

They had foraged a lot of stuff, and the variety of different wild vegetables far exceeded her expectations.

There were radishes, cabbages, pumpkins, and fully ripe mountain grapes… and wheat.

It really was wheat! She had been right!

Although Luya had never grown anything, she remembered that wheat was a fairly difficult crop to grow. There were many requirements for a proper growth environment. Although the goblins did not bring back very much, this wheat must have been carefully cultivated for it to have grown such large and plump kernels.

Luya remembered that she saw wheat near the abandoned mansion… perhaps the former owner planted a farm there?

She had no idea where the owner of the mansion on this mountain had gone.

Considering when the dragon came to this mountain, they probably ran away a long time ago. Or perhaps they were killed by the goblins.

In this post-apocalyptic world, there weren’t any safe places except for the human cities with barriers.

Feeling a little sorrowful, Luya decided to wrap up for the day when she saw that the sky was getting late. Tomorrow, she’d figure out how to deal with all these farm crops.

So she said to the goblins, “Thank you for your hard work. You can go back now. Tomorrow, you can come back at the same time, and don’t be late.”

After getting permission to leave work, the goblins disappeared in a hurry. They ran even faster than Hong Kong reporters2.

Then Luya started to examine those wild vegetables.

Originally, she hated radishes! But right now, even the white radish looked really good. The cabbage could be boiled and eaten directly. Pumpkin and wheat could be boiled or roasted for food. The seeds could be collected and planted, and then she’d never have to worry about having enough to eat.

As for the grapes…

Luya glanced at the wild grapes that seemed to carry a delicious fragrance, and she swallowed her saliva. She resisted the greed in her heart.

If there were grapes here, then there must be a vineyard somewhere on this mountain. The grapes were plump, and Luya felt fortunate to have struck such a treasure cache.

But she shouldn’t be too greedy. These grapes should only be eaten in small quantities to fend off her cravings.

If she had diarrhea, it could be fatal in this kind of place without antibiotics. She didn’t want to waste the remaining half of her potion on food poisoning, and it should be saved for emergencies as a last resort.

Rather than eating grapes directly, making them into raisins or wine seemed like a better choice.

But it was fairly difficult to make wine. It was easy to spoil wine and a person could get sick if it wasn’t prepared properly. Furthermore, there was still quite a lot of wine in the red dragon’s lair, so there was no need for her to mess around.

After some careful consideration, Luya decided to dry these grapes into raisins. This way, when winter came, she’d still be able to eat them.

The current temperature felt like autumn. Before the winter arrived, it was important to stock up on more food.

Luya sighed, thinking that she had basically become Robinson Crusoe3 in another world.

However, she was just an ordinary member of society with poor hands-on skills. How in the world did everything end up in this direction?

That was life for you!4

The next day.

Early in the morning, the goblins reported to duty on time. Even though they were extremely reluctant, they feared the threat of the red dragon and didn’t want to die.

Luya was very satisfied with the situation in front of her, and she prepared to hold a morning meeting to establish some rules.

Yesterday, it had been too chaotic and there wasn’t any discipline. This couldn’t be allowed to continue.

She was going to promote an obedient goblin to be a manager, and allow it to supervise the others.

But when she counted the number of goblins, she was a little puzzled to see two less goblins who reported to work than yesterday.

“Did any of you run away?”

She was a little gloomy, and she assumed that the missing goblins must have escaped. Thinking about it, these low-level monsters had zero loyalty. Their intelligence was poor, so it wasn’t surprising if they ran away because they feared the dragon or didn’t want to work.

But Luya was still very unhappy about it. Her house hadn’t been completed yet, and there were fewer workers, which meant that the construction progress would slow down. Any further, she wouldn’t have her own house before the winter arrived.

“Giiiiguuuu—”

Seeing this, the goblins quickly tried to explain the situation to Luya.

The goblins hadn’t run away. Rather, when they were carrying materials from the abandoned mansion, some of them had been attacked by giant killer ants that nested inside the building.

Normally, killer ants did not pose much of a threat to goblins. Even with their poor fighting power, goblins could kill these low-level monsters. However, that mansion had become a killer ant lair, and the ant queen had dug its nest underground, breeding a large number of ants. After a fight erupted, the goblins were outnumbered, and two of their companions were bitten to death and dragged away by the ants.

All of this had happened yesterday, but Luya had been so preoccupied fantasizing and thinking about her plans for the winter that she hadn’t noticed at all. She didn’t realize until today when she counted the number of goblins.

Fuck!

Luya’s mouth gaped in shock. Was there really such a thing?!

In other words, there were countless ants in that mansion now. It was unreasonable to expect that the goblins could defeat them, and it was already impressive that they managed to collect those construction materials for her…

Luya remembered her fear of being attacked by ants in the Hunter X Hunter5 manga. If she continued to have the goblins steal materials from the mansion infested with ants, they would probably keep losing more goblins.

Right now, there were only nine goblins that she could use.

Each loss of a goblin meant that she had one less worker. Moreover, these wild goblins had never received proper combat training, and they all relied on instinct to fight. The chieftain, who could create fireballs, was probably the only one who could deal with the ants, but she had already slashed off his head.

…Should she ask the red dragon for help?

Luya couldn’t help but glance at the resting red dragon who was perched up high. Wouldn’t it be too annoying if she asked the dragon to exterminate killer ants? Furthermore, as soon as the red dragon blew its dragon flame, the house would burn down. Would she still be able to salvage anything?

The dragon’s fire also couldn’t be extinguished easily. If they caused a mountain fire, it would be an even bigger disaster.

“Forget it. Just stop working for today.”

She clutched her head with a slight headache. It seemed like they couldn’t rush the construction of her house. Until they figured out how to deal with these ants, she couldn’t keep losing workers.

After thinking about it, Luya ran up to the red dragon, explained the situation, and carefully asked for the red dragon’s advice.

“There are killer ants blocking my resources. I want to get some pesticide, so should I go back to Dünbruck? Or should I find a pest control expert to deal with it?”

If the ants reproduced, there would eventually be even more of them, and then they would be even harder to remove. In addition to gnawing on crops, their territory would expand to cover more food, so they’d have to deal with them sooner or later.

The resources on this mountain belonged to her and the red dragon alone!

The red dragon narrowed its eyes, as if it didn’t understand why some killer ants were worth the trouble. After thinking about it for a while, it crawled back into its lair. When it came out, it threw a stone engraved with a strange emblem at Luya.

This was…?

Luya picked up the rock that was about the size of her palm, and looked at the red dragon somewhat doubtfully.

【This is a Thunder Emblem. If you have this, you will be able to use magic with a thunder attribute.】

?!

Wait, did magic seriously work like this?

She had always assumed that it required deep knowledge. In stories, magicians always had to study meticulously in order to cast spells. When she held the goblin’s staff and failed to feel any magical power, she had given up on becoming a magician.

She had assumed that she had no talent for magic. But now the red dragon gave her this Thunder Emblem and said that she could use it to cast magic?

Luya felt doubtful. Was it true? She gripped the emblem in her hand, took the fire staff off from the clothes drying rack, and then pointed it randomly in a direction.

The emblem in her hand suddenly glowed with a brilliant light. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky, and the high-intensity energy struck the place she pointed at with an enormous explosive crack.

The Shiba Inu who was sleeping under a tree jumped up in an instant, and those nervous goblins scattered and ran away in terror. When Luya came to her senses, the boulder that had been struck by lightning was already blown to smithereens.

…

Damn!

So magic was really that simple?!

Fine…

“I’ve decided to fight the killer ants! All of you will wait for me, and I want to see the foundation of my house laid before the sun sets today.”

Luya immediately made her decision — she was going to wipe the floor with those killer ants entirely solo.

It wasn’t that she had gone totally crazy, but rather she came up with a very cheap and dirty plan — using the terrain!

That’s right. As long as she stayed on the dragon’s back, those giant ants obviously wouldn’t be able to hit her from the ground. As long as she was patient, she could kill a few every day, and then the ant nest wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

So she gave the goblins some orders and prepared to set off. But when she was about to climb onto the dragon’s back, she remembered another important thing.

“Right, I need to bring Lu Dahuang along.”

She rushed to the Shiba Inu’s side, picked up the bewildered dog, and then mounted the dragon’s back.

“Those goblins are nasty. If the red dragon wasn’t around to watch them, they might secretly do something6 to my dog.” Luya murmured.

The dog was such a straight man, if he got fucked by those goblins, he might even kill himself.

Luya absolutely did not want this to happen, so she was eliminating all the threats.

It had taken her a lot of effort to raise this dog, and he had picked up a bit of meat by now. She couldn’t allow those goblins to ruin him for nothing.

Luya didn’t know if the Shiba Inu understood her meaning. When she suggested the possibility that something might happen between the “goblins and the dog”, it completely froze. Apparently, the dog really cherished itself a lot.

Luya put it on the dragon’s back without exerting much effort. Then she took the goblin chieftain’s sun-scorching staff and climbed up herself.

She had a fairly good mutual understanding with the red dragon now. The red dragon flapped its wings and took off into the sky, and soon they arrived above the abandoned mansion that had become an ant nest.

Last time, she hadn’t taken a very good look, but sure enough there was a field behind the house.

Due to the killer ants, all of the withered crops in the field had been eaten. Now, it was completely barren. There was a large pond in the backyard, and the surface was covered with duckweed.

Luya couldn’t help but feel regret. Before the apocalypse, this must have been a very nice vacation home.

But right now, she already spotted her objective.

The killer ants appeared very vigilant and almost the whole nest seemed alert, perhaps because the goblins had come here yesterday. More than a dozen were scattered around patrolling the perimeter of the mansion.

The red dragon descended lower, and a nice smile slowly appeared on Luya’s face.

With her left hand gripping the Thunder Emblem, and her right hand gripping the goblin staff, she unleashed an enormous lightening bolt like a thunder lord onto the biggest killer ant on the ground.

Author’s notes:

The human wielding a dragon’s power plot is about to begin!

《After transmigrating, I was spoiled by dragon》

《I am the dragon’s pet human》

《The dragon and me》

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Translator’s notes: