#633 Only the Bat Came

After the dragons’ proposal fiasco ended, the farm regained its peace. 

However, Norito (our second child) has just been born, so we’re still on the battlefield called childcare.

Also, Sensei the Lifeless King is busy preparing for the farm’s students’ graduation exams.

He’s discussing something serious with the rest of the otherworldly deities he got acquainted with after summoning them a while back.

Since the standard season for graduation is spring, the graduation exams preceding it are scheduled around winter, when it’s a leisure season for farm work.

Until then, Sensei is preparing the best large-scale exam, an ideal culmination of his students’ training, with exquisite difficulty.

Sensei himself is lively about this, so it’s best to let him do as he pleases.

For a Lifeless King, he’s really lively, so, you know!

I thought I could relax for the first time in a long while, but things seldom go as one wishes.

My farm, which has garnered quite the fame, has reached that point wherein it would welcome new guests whenever something happens.

* * *

Anyway...

Today’s visitor is...

The S-class adventurer, Golden Bat.

“...But why?”

He’s clearly an unwelcome guest.

I don’t recall ever inviting him, either.

But the fact that he’s here is odd.

My farm is pretty much at the edge of the world.

It’s far from any human habitation, its location is unknown, and the people who come here are limited to the following means of transportation:

1. Through teleportation.

2. If they’re a dragon or carried by a dragon. 

3. If they’re a mermaid, they can cross the sea.

...It’s only through these three means that you can get here.

I know Golden Bat, the S-class adventurer who just appeared before me, has been here once. But that time, he was carried here by Alexander, a dragon living in the Human Kingdom.

If he’s here again, that means either Alexander or some other dragon brought him here. That or perhaps he had someone who knows the farm’s coordinates to cast teleportation magic on him.

Either way, he would’ve had to rely on someone to come here.

Yet, Golden Bat is alone, with no sign of a companion who might have brought him here.

So, did he get to the farm all by himself?

But how?

“I flew here.”

Oh, right!

He can fly!

A race of people with a unique mixture of animal characteristics...therianthropes.

Born as a bat therianthrope with a strange fate, Golden Bat can grow wings and fly through the sky with Bestial Release, a secret art that makes the beast factor more prominent.

The ability to fly is surprisingly rare in this world.

If he can fly, can he reach our farm, akin to an isolated island?

“No, but that doesn’t mean you know the location, right?”

Even if he’s had the experience of being carried by Alexander to get here, I don’t think he had ample time to look at the scenery and remember everything.

“I already analyzed and inferred this farm’s location when I first came here.”

“How?!”

“First, the angle of the sun. By comparing the time of day with the direction and length of the shadow, I can get a rough idea of where I am. Next, I observe the inhabiting insects and birds. You start to notice what kind of creatures live in which region if you do enough fieldwork. It would’ve been perfect if I could also take into account the surrounding vegetation, but since there’s nothing but unusual plants you tend to, I excluded them.” 

“And you cross-referenced them to determine the location?”

“Yep.”

This guy...!

Is this an example of the skill of an S-class adventurer who stands atop all adventurers?!

Moreover, Golden Bat is so highly skilled that he’s even considered the Number One among the S-class adventurers!

For people like him, perhaps it’s not impossible to reach our farm in the middle of nowhere, even with little information, after all?

“Well, it still took a lot of strength to fly all the way here. Bestial Release takes up plenty of endurance, physically and mentally. I’m knackered, so could you provide me a place to rest? Oh, and food too.”

I can’t believe this guy!

Of all the eccentric S-class adventurers, he’s way off the charts! 

He’s the most annoying one who only cares about his desires!

He pursues his adventurous desires and never thinks about contributing to the guild, so you can imagine how much trouble Silver Wolf, another S-class adventurer, is going through!

I’m reporting you to the Adventurer’s Guild and tell Silver Wolf to drag you back with him!

Oh, but then, that’ll increase his burden!

“I came here today for one thing. I have something I really want to ask you to do for me.”

“Don’t just continue with your story like it’s the most natural thing!”

“I can only ask you to do this. The meaning of adventure lies in achieving it by one’s strength, but to challenge the impossible with no plan is not adventure but a suicidal act. That’s why I’m here today to ask for your help. Please consider my feelings.”

“I don’t care!”

You just barged in on us!

If this were Silver Wolf with a favor to ask, he’d have come with a souvenir and grovel to pay his respects!

But thinking about it the other way around...maybe you have to be a certain kind of brazen to reach the top?

“There’s a certain activity I’ve been doing all my life—a life’s work, if you will.”

“Sure.”

Since he’s going on and on, I took the liberty of letting his words go in one ear and out in the other.

“I love the mountains.”

“Huh?”

But his last statement was so out of context that it caught my full attention.

“Mountains are magnificent. When I gaze at them from afar, they cleanse my mind with their subliminal panoramic view and the blending of colors across seasons.”

Not a human’s heart, but your heart...huh?

“And then I climb them. Once you dive into the heart of the mountain, it rejects all intruders and bares its fangs to obliterate you from existence. But that is exactly why the sense of accomplishment you feel when you scale the mountain and reach the top is unparalleled!”

Ah. This bat starts blabbering non-stop when it’s about mountains.

It’s precisely how people who try to drag you into their hobbies talk. I mustn’t let my guard down.

“Point is, I love mountains. You got that bit, right?”

“Yea.”

“My love for mountains and the desire to climb all the mountains in the world led me to become an adventurer. Miraculously enough, there are two types of dungeons for adventurers: cave and mountain dungeons. When I entered a mountain dungeon, I felt determined.”

“I see.”

“Cave dungeons are great in their own way, but when it comes to personal preference, I definitely prefer mountain dungeons. I want to climb new mountains, ones that no one has climbed before. As I explored untrodden mountains with such hopes, people started to call me an expert in exploring unexplored dungeons.”

An adventurer's main tasks are entering dungeons, exterminating monsters, and bringing back treasures.

However, the other task that holds even greater importance than dungeon exploration, albeit minor, is the discovery of unregistered dungeons.

The difficulty and danger involved in finding a dungeon, which has yet to be discovered and may or may not even exist, is greater than conquering a dungeon that has already been found.

Of course, so is the magnitude of the credit you receive once you accomplish it.

Even up until the founding of the Adventurers’ Guild, Golden Bat was the only person to have discovered more than ten new dungeons—an accomplishment enough for a single adventurer to achieve in their lifetime.

He’s a bit of a handful, but he’s also a hotshot the Adventurer’s Guild can never ignore...!

...or so were Silver Wolf’s words.

“...Hmph, nothing but embellished talk. All I want is to climb to the peak of a mountain no one has ever reached and experience a scenery no one has ever seen.”

“Ah, sure.”

“I’ve climbed as many mountains as I wanted. I’d say I’ve conquered hundreds of them. Then I realized something.”

Realized what?

“I realized if I’d be content with how things are. I keep climbing mountains because I want to. My love for them will forever be mine and mine alone. I thought it was time to give back to the mountains that gave me such a rich life!”

“I think there are other things you should be repaying first.”

Like the Adventurers’ Guild, Silver Wolf, and so on.

“I was just a selfish bastard, but the mountain made me feel this way. As I thought, mountains are wonderful.”

You mean you’re aware of how much of a selfish bastard you are?

“Then, a light bulb flashed above my head as to how I’ll repay the mountains. Of the hundreds and thousands of mountains I’ve climbed, I thought, ‘This is it!’ I will write essays about the characteristics and features of these mountains and compile them!”

Wait.

Is that perhaps...?!

“These writings will be passed down even after I leave for the afterlife and will bequeath future generations about the wonders of the mountains! This passion will one day create fellow mountain lovers just like me and repeat the conversation with mountains! That’s how I’ll repay them!”

And this is how a compilation of writings introducing selected famous mountains was created...

“Is that perhaps...something like the Hyaku-meizan?!”

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hyaku-meizan-100 Famous Japanese Mountains (日本百名山, Nihon Hyaku-meizan) is a book written in 1964 by mountaineer and author Kyuuya Fukada (Wikipedia).