The legend of the Crimson Demon clan started from Suqing.

Chapter 172 Small is also very cute

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"

On the empty plain, Aqua was howling loudly. She was waving her arms wildly, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes, and on her fingers was a small black snake.

She was bitten again.

This is already the third time.

Today, a few people came to the snowfield again, wanting to search for fire lizards. It cannot be said that they got nothing, but that there was not a single one.

"A-Aqua...I want to be like that too...I'm so envious!"

Darkness looked at the stupid goddess howling in pain, with an expression of great envy and anticipation on her face. Yunyun thoughtfully helped Aqua pull the snake down.

"Hey! There isn't even one here!"

Sato Kazuma couldn't help but shout.

After two days, they didn't catch anything. Even though it was safer than the snow elves, it was just a waste of time if they didn't make any money.

It would be better to use this time to defeat monsters or explore dungeons.

“Your Excellency…”

"Yeah, I knew it would turn out like this."

Salamanders like hot weather, so they can only be caught in summer. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be sold at such a high price in winter.

There is also a purchasing period for the other world.

But as the saying goes, as long as your thinking does not slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties.

Doraemon is going to be technologically advanced and live a tough life!

“Dangdangdang——!”

He pulled out a bottle of potion like a magic trick.

"What is this...?"

"I guessed that this might happen, so I prepared a potion that can attract monsters. It is made from magic herb (which appeared in Chapter 96) and can emit a smell that ordinary people cannot smell, but monsters like very much."

"Oh oh oh!"

Sato Kazuma's eyes lit up.

It turned out to be the right decision to team up with Zun Zun. In addition to her own strong strength, she can also make high-level magic props. She is an extremely important and virtuous wife. He is so moved that he is dying.

"Here, just apply a little. If you apply too much..."

Before Zun Zun finished speaking.

Darkness snatched the bottle from his hand and poured it all over his head, becoming wet.

“D-Darkness!?”

"I'm a Crusader, and my mission is to protect my companions! So leave things like being bait to me! I will protect you!"

Why are you trying to be cool at a time like this?
Even though what she said was very powerful and could move people deeply in another situation, at this moment, people felt nothing at all and even wanted to laugh.

Youyou was very worried.

“Ms. Darkness, no! This potion will not only attract monsters, but if you apply too much, even creatures other than salamanders will start attacking you!”

"That, that's even more what I want!"

Darkness hugged her shoulders with both hands, her face flushed and she panted, “Being torn apart by small monsters… That, that feeling… must be great!”

See it.

How can anyone be moved by a guy like this with such a despicable nature?

"Hey, is it okay to apply so much?"

"It's okay. It's just going to attract some big monsters."

"What!?"

Sato Kazuma's heart, which had just been relieved, was once again in suspense. He was already thinking about whether he should use the primary magic water creation to cleanse the potion from Darkness' body, but wouldn't it be a bad idea to do so in the freezing cold?

But Zun Zun didn't care at all.

"Darkness, let's see your performance."

"give it to me!"

She lay down on the snow with great interest, moaning as if she was enjoying it. She thought the cold snow would calm her mind, but unexpectedly, it was her overloaded brain that melted the snow.

after awhile……

An extremely conspicuous creature poked its head out from under the tree trunk. It was red all over, with flame-shaped yellow and red hair on its limbs, and the same from its head to its tail.

It looks very similar to Charmander.

The difference is that it is very compact, only the size of two palms at most.

"Look at that!"

“Yes, it’s a Salamander! Kazuma, please!”

"Oh!"

Sato Kazuma snatched the net bag from the reluctant Aqua, and then used his Lurk skill to quietly approach Darkness and Salamander. He was like a real assassin, and he suddenly attacked the moment his target relaxed.

There was a snap.

The net bag fell on Darkness's face.

The disturbed salamander froze in place and was not caught.

“Kazuma, are you doing this on purpose? I didn’t expect you to have such a fetish. I don’t mind you, and I can play with you when we get back, but it’s better to catch a salamander right now.”

"Ah?"

Sato Kazuma looked at his hands.

He was sure that he was aiming at the Salamander, but why did it land on Darkness's face...

"Wait a minute Darkness, you didn't use a taunt skill just now, did you?"

"……No."

"Is that so? I knew it! What on earth are you thinking about?!"

Sato Kazuma yelled.

But thanks to Darkness's taunting skill, the Salamander didn't run away immediately, and he quickly attacked again, successfully catching the Salamander this time.

"Finally caught it!"

Sato Kazuma sighed.

After two days of searching, it was great to finally feel that emptiness was filled!

After that, several people used this method - using Darkness as bait, waiting for the salamanders to appear, and caught five or six in half a day.

"Really? If you have such a potion, you should have taken it out earlier. We wasted so much time."

Sato Kazuma started to blame Zun Zun.

"It's not that I don't want to take it out, but taking it out is likely to cause bad consequences. Well, it's about time."

Zun Zun's words made his heart skip a beat.

"Kazuma, you know why animals hibernate, right? It's because of food shortages that they have to hibernate to survive the winter. So what would happen if they smelled a piece of delicious meat while hibernating?"

As if responding to this sentence.

As Sato Kazuma opened his mouth continuously, a shrill chirping sound came from the snowfield. Countless small animals, with dim eyes emitting dim light, crouched on the snowfield or on dry tree trunks.

“No, no! Darkness…!”

“Don’t worry, Kazuma.”

"How can I not be anxious at a time like this!?"

"Those little animals won't move... No, they won't dare to move rashly."

Zun Zun stopped him who was about to go forward in a hurry.

"The natural world has a strict hierarchy, and generally speaking, the larger ones have the upper hand, so these small animals' instincts will tell them that this is most likely a trap, and they won't rush in blindly."

"What? Is that so?" Sato Kazuma breathed a sigh of relief.

But he soon realized something was wrong.

"Wait, if that's the case, then what about the salamander? Why was it attracted? Zun Zun, you just said that small animals don't dare to rush up, what about larger animals? ... Why did you turn your head? Why didn't you look at me when you spoke? Zun Zun? Hey, Zun Zun!"

The question was quickly answered.

“Ah…! Hey, Tsun-Tsun, Kazuma, please! How can I put it, it hurts! They’re pulling my hair, please drive them away, or use Light of Saber…!”

Those animals, which were similar in size to salamanders, kept tearing at Darkness. Because her armor was too heavy to take off, she struggled and screamed.

But I don't have time to take care of her.

A lot of small animals appeared around the plain. They surrounded the people in the center. The faint green light looked very dangerous.

Aqua shuddered.

“Mr. Kazuma, are they treating us as food?”

Sato Kazuma didn't respond to her.

It is true that there is a strict hierarchy in nature. From an objective point of view, the one with a larger body size can be the king.

But there are exceptions.

That is, there are too many small animals, so many that they are countless.

The typical example is an elephant being killed by ants.

"That's what you said, but your potion has attracted too many monsters! It feels like all the monsters on the plain are gathering here! Can't you lower the quality of the potion a little bit!?"

"I refuse! Anything produced by the Red Demons must be top quality! It is absolutely impossible for me to produce garbage!"

"Only those who can flexibly change the bottom line are truly good magic item masters!"

Sato Kazuma yelled.

Huihui and Youyou also looked around.

"Oh no! We are completely surrounded!"

"Mr. Zun Zun and Mr. Kazuma, now is not the time to argue. Let's get through the crisis first!"

"I, I'll help too!"

As they said this, several people quickly faced the small animals whose encirclement was shrinking, and thunder continued on the empty snowfield.

----

“Ha…ha…finally…is it over?”

Sato Kazuma collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

He didn't know how long the battle lasted, he only knew that he quickly used up all the arrows in his quiver and used his dagger to fight the small animals that kept surrounding him. Even his level had increased by two levels, so you can imagine how fierce the battle was.

"Hmmm... huh... huh... new feeling... this is another new feeling... so good."

Darkness blushed as she blurted out such stupid words. She was so sad just now because of the pain and itchiness, but now she looked very satisfied.

To be honest, she should just get married as soon as possible.

Sato Kazuma sighed slightly.

Although today was full of disasters, at least we caught a few fire lizards. The high bounty can alleviate the urgent need.

“Oh right Kazuma.”

"what happened?"

"Did you put the salamander together?"

"Yeah...what's wrong?"

"Salamanders are small animals that can emit a lot of heat. It's okay to put one or two together, but if there are too many..."

As if telling him the result.

Sato Kazuma suddenly caught fire, literally, burned up.

“Waaaaaa————! W-What’s going on!?”

"It's the ignition point! It's the phenomenon of ignition caused by fully exposing combustible materials to a hot surface!"

"It doesn't matter what happens. Hurry up, put out the fire!"

He screamed in panic.

Huihui immediately said, “If we use advanced magic water creation to put out the fire…”

“No! Using water in the winter will take away the warmth of the salamander. If it dies, all our efforts will be wasted! Use snow to cool it down! Kazuma, roll around in the snow now!”

Zun Zun shouted loudly.

But Sato Kazuma lost his mind due to the fire. He just put out the flames on the spot, but it didn't work at all.

In the end, Zun Zun kicked him down, and together with the other four people, buried him in the snow, successfully putting out the fire.

Of course, he also successfully extinguished Sato Kazuma's life, allowing him to meet the goddess Eris.

“…Poor Kazuma, I wish there were no salamanders in heaven, ah… MD, Aqua!”

“What? Don’t worry, Kazuma won’t die. I’ll cast resurrection magic on him right now, and he’ll be resurrected soon.”

There was clear stupidity in Aqua's eyes.

Even so, we have to say that her status as a goddess is genuine.

The rule of this world is that each person can only be resurrected once, and the reincarnated person does not even have the chance to be resurrected. However, Sato Kazuma has been resurrected twice in just half a month.

Goddess Eris must have had a headache processing his resurrection documents.

Huihui and Youyou went to collect branches.

Because the cage was burned by the salamander, it is necessary to reweave the cage and separate them to store the animals.

Darkness and Zun Zun stayed here to protect Aqua from being attacked by monsters while she was on her way to revive Satou Kazuma.

After a while, Sato Kazuma opened his eyes.

He looked at them with a look of despair.

Zun Zun smiled and said comfortingly: "It's okay, Kazuma, small ones are also very cute."

"…What are you talking about?"

Sato Kazuma didn't understand what was going on, but when he slowly stood up and felt the biting cold wind sweeping towards him, he realized that his clothes had been burned to ashes in the spontaneous combustion just now.

That little...

He lowered his head and his face turned green.

In the end, Zun Zun lent him his cloak and said it was a gift since he had known him for so long and hoped that he would accept it as a souvenir.

It's not that I dislike him, absolutely not!
Return to the guild.

At the cost of Sato Kazuma's death, Zun Zun and his team captured four salamanders.

As for why there were four and not five, it’s because five were not... ahem, it was because a salamander took advantage of the chaos and escaped.

Do you think that after all the hardships they have endured, they can earn a little money as a consolation?
Do not!
Instead, they were questioned by the kingdom's prosecutor Sena for causing a commotion in the snowfield!

"You guys, aren't you willing to not cause trouble? You've been cleared of all charges!"

"That's not the case, we just...!"

Sato Kazuma was in deep pain but couldn't express it in words.

Sena, however, showed her stubbornness and looked at them, saying, "Sure enough, you guys are the ones who messed up the dungeon!"

"……what?"

"It's the Kiel Underground City near the town. I heard that a lot of mysterious monsters appeared there. What on earth did you do there?!"

"No way! I haven't been there at all!... Hey, believe me!"

Sato Kazuma shouted this, but all he got in return was an even more suspicious look from Sena.

(End of this chapter)