Book 2-6.5 Shopping
Pareia’s patrol warrior Ninano was proud of his duty.
This was a heavy yet important duty where thanks to him, Pareia would be able to prepare to meet their enemy.
Just like any other day, Ninano was feeling the heat of the sun as he slowly looked around his area of responsibility.
“Ninano, what is that cloud of dust?”
Ninano’s fellow patrol warrior, Nilniria, pointed to one direction and started to speak. Ninano started to frown as he headed out toward the cloud of dust.
“That doesn’t seem like a person, does it?”
“It looks like a worm?”
“What kind of worm would drag that much dust? Especially since it is by itself.”
“It does seem quite big, doesn’t it?”
“At that size, wouldn’t it be larger than seven paoes?”
The two patrol warriors were chatting with each other before looking at each other.”
“......!”
“Run!”
The two patrol warriors, urgently turned their pirma around and started to rush toward the tribe. They really rushed almost to the point their hair pulled out and each took out their Imapulpina (sheep-like animal with a large horn on its forehead) [1] flutes and blew into it.
Booooooong. Boooooong.
The sound of the two patrol warriors’ flutes were delivered to the nearby patrol warriors, and the warriors who received the message also blew their flutes.
“Monster attack! Monster attack! Alert!”
Based on the sound of the flute, they were able to tell whether it was an invasion from another tribe, a monster attack, or even a visit from a VIP. But the current noise meant that it was a monster attack.
Since the wild animals and monsters around the tribe were hunted by the warriors, it was really rare for monsters to attack the tribe. Plus, the typical monsters were handled by the patrol warriors, so the fact that they had to send an alert with the flute meant that a large group of monsters were attacking, so the warriors within the tribe quickly grabbed their weapons and mounted their pirmas as they headed out.
Yulian also grabbed his equipment after hearing the flute and stood in front of the gathered warriors. It was then that Ninano and Nilniria, the two warriors who first discovered the monster attack, rushed toward them and started to speak.
“A single Sand Dragon is headed directly toward the tribe.”
“Sand Dragon?”
Sand Dragons were monsters of the highest level, and one that required tens of veteran warriors to handle. Because of this, the warriors started to whisper to each other. However, their Glow was the hero who took down such a monster on his own.
The warriors’ eyes all turned toward Yulian.
“If that monster makes it into the tribe, there will be a lot of damage. We will head toward it to take care of it. Since many warriors seem to want to see the strength of I, Yulian Provoke, I will show it to you.”
“Oowaaaaaaaaa!”
At the Glow’s proclamation, the warriors started to shout. It was honestly impossible for them to believe. How could a human take down such a large monster on their own?
Yulian led the way with thousands of warriors following behind him, and the women and children who heard the news followed after them. It was something everybody wanted to watch. Seeing it change from a monster attack to more of a festival type of feel, Yulian started to smile.
‘It will be good to unite the tribe at a time like this. It’ll also make them respect me more.’
Yulian thought like that and debated which fancy sword art to use to take the monster down. It was because he was certain that the tribe members would be more enthusiastic based on how fancy the sword art was.
As the people came outside the tribe and waited for a bit, the single Sand Dragon caused a gust of sand as it ran toward them like a gale.
Yulian ran out before it got too close, and just in case, Pere and Trebol followed after him.
It was when the Sand Dragon and Yulian were about 20 meters away from each other. The moment Yulian took out his two greatswords, the Sand Dragon started to speak.
“Is there a war somewhere? Why are you all gathered like this?”
“Ang?”
Yulian, who had never heard that Sand Dragons could speak the human language, was slightly surprised as he looked up.
“Master?”
“Yes, it is me. Why is everybody gathered like this?”
“Well, what exactly are you doing, master?”
“Stop. Lower.”
At Chun Myung Hoon’s command, the Sand Dragon lowered its head. Seeing the ugly Sand Dragon’s face coming toward him, Yulian almost subconsciously swung his greatsword.
“You weren’t surprised? What is going on, master?”
“What do you mean what is going on? I caught him to give him to Grace as a present.”
“What?”
“Aren’t you the worried too? What if someone with bad intentions tries to attack her while you are away at the battlefield? If Grace takes good care of this punk as a pet, nobody will be able to touch her. But where is Grace?”
Yulian had a look of disbelief as he answered.
“Master, are you trying to kill someone? How many people in the desert can handle this thing on their own?”
“Do not worry. I trained it and I have a plan.”
“What kind of plan?”
“I will teach that to Grace.”
Chun Myung Hoon left behind the flabbergasted Yulian behind as he confidently rode the Sand Dragon toward where the people were gathered.
Seeing people who recognize his true nature, the Sand Dragon was trying to look cool and raised his head to look large and slowly moved his body in a Z shape……
“Crawl!”
...No, he crawled all the way there.
Since his master was on top of it, Yulian took the just as surprised Pere and Trebol and rushed to the rest of the tribe members first to tell them not to be scared.
“Grace.”
As Chun Myung Hoon called out to her from the top of the Sand Dragon’s head, Grace flinched as she stepped forward.
“Yes, senior.”
“Come on up.”
“What?”
“Do not have any worries and just come up. I caught him to give him to you. It is a one of a kind present.
Grace was disgusted by the Sand Dragon’s appearance and was a bit afraid, but trusted Chun Myung Hoon as she held Chun Myung Hoon’s hand and stepped on the Sand Dragon’s head.
Grrr.
The San Dragon made a noise as if he was annoyed that another human stepped on his head, but the consequences of such arrogant action happened immediately.
“Who do you think you are acting up against! Die! Die!”
Even though Chun Myung Hoon did not put much strength into the kick, the Sand Dragon felt like his head was about to crack open and tried to flail.
“Oh? Now you want to flail as well? Try moving even a little bit. I will pull each of your bones out of your body.”
Whiiiiiiiine.
The Sand Dragon could only use all of his strength to handle the pain without moving.
“How is it?”
“It is amazing, but … senior, what did you plan on doing with this monster when you caught it?”
“Ride this punk instead of a pirma. The speed is similar and it eats a lot, but if you ride him around, nothing dangerous will happen. Plus, the desert looks very different from higher up in the air. Do you like it?”
Seeing Chun Myung Hoon ask with a look of anticipation, Grace seemed to be unable to say no, as she kept sending signals to Yulian. She was asking him to stop his master.
Chun Myung Hoon, who recognized Grace’s intentions, started to speak again.
“Are you perhaps afraid that he might cause trouble?”
“I am indeed a bit afraid, senior.”
“Do you think I would have brought him here without thinking about that? There is always a way to deal with things. Yulian.”
Chun Myung Hoon called out to Yulian who was down below before he continued.
“Hand me your greatswords.”
Yulian was curious what else his master was going to do, but he threw his two greatswords to his master as ordered.
Chun Myung Hoon caught the two greatswords and handed it to Grace before putting his hand on her yeongdaehyul (acupuncture point on the back) and speaking.
“I will push some ki into you, so use the face of the blade to strike him as hard as you can.”
“Strike him as hard as I can?”
As Grace asked after feeling an unknown strength flowing through her the moment Chun Myung Hoon put his hand on her back, Chun Myung Hoon nodded his head.
Any ordinary woman would have been scared, but Grace was different. Her husband was directly below them, and in front of her was her husband’s master, who was even scarier than her husband.
She put the greatswords that she would normally not be able to lift in her hands as she lifted both of her arms high into the air.
Did the Sand Dragon feel the murderous aura as well? Because he started to curl his body, Grace’s greatswords smashed across the Sand Dragon’s nose.
Kwaaaaaa. Kwaaaaaaang.
The Sand Dragon let out a cry as Chun Myung Hoon stepped on his head to make it not move.
“You punk, remember this well. This is your owner from now on. As you just felt, she is as strong as I am. You probably won’t know this, but that person down there is your owner’s husband, and he beat up your king on his own. Serve them well.”
Roar.
As the Sand Dragon made as noise as if to say he understood, Chun Myung Hoon was satisfied and started to teach Grace the different commands he taught the Sand Dragon. He then took a hard, gold-like gem that was glowing red and gave it to Grace.
“I received it from my friend. He said that he put what he called his Soul’s Breath into it, and that it should protect you from monsters. Put it on a necklace and wear it on you at all times.”
When Grace touched it, she felt a warm aura radiating from it, and since it was glowing like a jewel glowing in the sun, even if it did not protect against monsters, she knew it was precious.
“Thank you senior.”
Seeing Grace’s face brighten, Chun Myung Hoon regretted the fact that he did not bring the armor covered in jewels as a gift for her.
‘Next time I go to his house, I will make sure to bring it with me and hand it to Grace.’
Chun Myung Hoon thought about that red lizard that had jewels piled up as high as a mountain and made up his mind.
“Next time, I will bring you some better things. Alright, now you try giving him a command.”
“Where am I supposed to hold on to?”
“I’m not sure. First, make him move slowly, and later, you make a saddle and reins to put around him. Then you should be able to start raising the speed.”
“I should do that. Is it … go?”
“If you put slowly with it, he will move slowly.”
Grace nodded her head and shouted while her heart was beating quickly from anticipation.
“Go slowly.”
Roar.
The Sand Dragon thought it was the end for him. The fact that he must obey without any questions overwhelmed his mind. Also, a feeling that he did not feel from the male human was coming from the female human. When he lifted his eyes and saw the red light in her hand, he almost peed himself.
As the Sand Dragon listened to Grace’s command and slowly started to move, the people cheered at this unbelievable sight.
Their respect toward Chun Myung Hoon who had tamed that monster automatically went off the chart.
That was how the Provoke family started to raise Pareia’s first pet animal.
Other than the fact that he looked really ugly, he was quite a useful pet.
He was safer than a pirma, and at first, they thought it would cost a lot to feed him since they had to feed him ten pinas at once, but after he was trained, he crawled out on his own to eat wild animals or monsters for his meal before coming back. It was killing two birds with one stone.
He must be decently smart since he could understand what people were saying, so this Sand Dragon quickly started to be loved by the Provoke family.
Since it was hard to keep calling him Sand Dragon, they even gave him the name Shopping, the Sand Monster.
He still sometimes growled at the tribe members, but since he was trained to never hurt humans, there will not be any issues.
Since Chun Myung Hoon was the one to train him, they had no worries.
As time goes by, Shopping’s violent nature will completely disappear, but he already started to take his place as Pareia’s Guardian Animal.
Thanks to that, Chun Myung Hoon ended up in the situation where Grace asked him to capture a couple more of them.
“We need a total of five including one for you, senior. Other than Shopping, we need just four more. How cool will we look if our family and senior all moved around riding Sand Dragons?”
“Huhuhuhu.”
Chun Myung Hoon bursted out laughing.
End of Chapter
Next Up:
The ship on top of the flowing sand
The ship that moved on top of the sand.
The fact that it used the wind and the flow of the quicksand to move its giant body was really an amazing spectacle. It was something they needed to make theirs.
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[1] I kept it phonetic from Korean, but the name Imapulpina literally means forehead-horn pina.