#1279 Junior’s Adventure – Unruly Land

The next morning after the welcome party... 
My very first job as an adventurer is about to begin. 

“Ugh, my head hurts from the hangover…!” 
“My head hurts…!” 

Looks like both Shaldot and Hibina are still suffering from last night’s heavy drinking. 

If they knew this would happen, why on earth did they keep drinking? 

“Shut uuup! Sometimes a person’s gotta drink just to survive, y’know!” 

Is that so? 
I’ve never had alcohol, so I really don’t get it.  
Though I do remember Mom saying something similar once. 

Anyway, can we please get to the point? 
Why exactly have I been dragged out here to this empty field at the crack of dawn? 

“Ehehe, Junyaaa, you’re about to take on your very first adventurer job!” 

And it happens to be out here? 
I glance back, and the royal capital is way off in the distance. This feels familiar somehow. 
It’s almost the same setup as yesterday’s aptitude test. Is this another trial of courage? 

“Tch-tch-tch-tchtchtch-tch-tch, Junyaa, you’re too naïve.” 

That tongue-clicking is unique. 
What’s with the "Junyaa" anyway? Is that supposed to be some form of dialect? 

“Your opponent today isn’t some one-star monster. This is something different. It’s a tradition the Guild started recently. Boring grunt work, honestly, but if we don’t deal with it, things can get really bad... so we can’t exactly skip it.” 

Hibina grimaces like it’s both a hassle and a necessity. 

What does she mean? 
I thought adventurers mainly explored dungeons, so this whole open-field setup feels unusual. 
And it’s not just the three of us. Dozens of others are milling around too.  
It feels like a pre-convention crowd at Comiket. 
Not that I’ve ever been to Comiket. 

Are all of these people adventurers? 
What’s going on that needs this many? 

“This didn’t happen in the Farm Kingdom? It’s a new phenomenon lately. Experts can’t fully explain it yet. It’s still a complete mystery…” 

And right then, the ground trembles. 

An earthquake? 
No, there’s also a deep, heavy sound echoing with each rumble. 

“...It’s here. Right on schedule.” 

I look at Shaldot, who’s already back to professional mode.  
Is his hangover gone? 

“All right, start scouting! Find its position! Direction matters most! If it’s headed toward the capital, then danger level’s ◎!” 

He’s barking sharp orders at the surrounding adventurers.  
As expected of an A-rank. He’s got leadership written all over him. 

That’s fine, but... 

“Could someone please explain what’s happening?!” 

There's a rookie here totally left in the dark! 
Tossing me into a situation without briefing...what is this, a black company? 

“Hehe, thought it’d be fun to surprise you.” 

Who does surprises in the field?! 
Not everything needs to be a surprise! 

This is not healthy. Surprise addiction is a disease!!! 

“Besides, seeing it for yourself is faster than any explanation.” 
“Experience matters more than words to an adventurer.” 

Even Shaldot sides with her. 
At least they’re including me in the conversation now. 

“Look, you can already see it.” 

He points toward the distant mountains. 

At first, I think: just mountains.  
But then I realize...no. 

The mountain is moving. 
Not a mountain. 
Something as big as a mountain. 

That’s what’s been shaking the ground.  
Just a single step from that thing could cause a quake. 

It closes the distance shockingly fast, and soon I can see it clearly.  
Not that I can really describe it well... 

A colossal beast.  
That’s the only way to put it.  
Its size is the first, last, and only impression that dominates everything else. 

70 meters long, maybe.  
It has what look like limbs and a head, so technically it’s shaped like an animal. But it’s way too massive to feel like a real living creature. 

Its limbs are short, giving it a stocky, squat build.  
Moreover, its whole body is covered in thick, shaggy fur...and each strand of that fur is the size of a withered tree trunk... Covered in that, it looks less like an animal and more like a small mountain trudging across the land. 

The simplest word for it is… kaiju. 
 

And I actually recognize this kaiju. 

“So that thing... exists in the Human Kingdom too.” 
“Oh? You know it? It really is a worldwide disaster then.” 

Hibina sighs. 

“That giant beast as big as a mountain only started appearing a few years ago. Its true nature is still unknown.” 
“Right...” 
“Some say it’s a new disaster monster born from environmental change, others claim it’s punishment from the gods. No one knows for sure. The only thing we know is that if it hits a town or village, it’s catastrophic.” 

For sure. 
If something like that stumbles into a settlement, imagining the destruction doesn’t take much effort. 

“It doesn’t move with any purpose, it just wanders. Which means whether or not it smashes into a village is basically up to chance. That’s why today’s quest is to monitor its movements.” 

But... 
If it’s just surveillance, why so many adventurers? 
...Then it hits me. 

The real reason this many are needed. 

“Right. Because if it does head toward a town or village, we have to throw ourselves in its path and stop it. That’s the job.” 

That giant beast isn’t exactly a monster. 
It doesn’t attack people on purpose. It doesn’t see a settlement and charge at it. 

It just wanders, like a typhoon. Whether it makes landfall depends on luck. 

But then, what is it? 
If it’s not a monster, then what? 
I know. I know exactly how it came to be. 

 
It all started in the Farm Kingdom, with the development of a new fertilizer... 

Back then, Veil was struggling with dragon extract disposal.  
She’s been dumping it into ramen broth and selling it as gonkotsu ramen, but that market hit a ceiling, and the leftover stockpile was a serious problem. 

Then, there’s my mom. 
She was trying to develop a fertilizer to surpass her Hyper Fish Fertilizer. 

Her eyes landed on dragon extract. 
Even monster fish, when exposed to it, could make crops sprout in days. 
With dragon essence, the potency would multiply. 

Veil wanted to get rid of the extract. 
Mom wanted a new miracle fertilizer. 

Supply met demand. 

The result was dragon fertilizer. Just as expected, it boosted yields dramatically, doubling and redoubling the Farm Kingdom’s agricultural output. 
You could argue the Farm Kingdom's prosperity rests on that fertilizer. 

But as the saying goes, “good fortune never comes alone.” 
Every miracle hides its curse. 

Naturally, dragon extract contained too much energy. 
It didn’t just enrich the soil. The land couldn’t hold it all. The excess overflowed from the earth and condensed into physical form. 
Like mana pooling in a dungeon until it spawns monsters. 

And that’s how that giant beast came to be. 
Its true nature is a pseudo-lifeform, born from an overflow of condensed dragon power. 

Because of how it was brought into existence, we call it a “Terra Beast” in the Farm Kingdom. 
Born from excessive nutrient-feeding of farmland, it’s nothing less than an obvious case of pollution. 

When this Dragon-Terra Beast was first discovered, even Dad blew his top, and both Mom and Veil got chewed out something fierce. 
I remember thinking, wow, Dad really does know when to put his foot down. 

But getting angry didn’t fix anything at the root. The Terra Beast was eventually recognized as a permanent...or natural? disaster that the world just has to live with. 

Even now, in peaceful times, the seeds of trouble never seem to run out.