If you don't want to just drift through life, you have to go through time.

Early the next morning.

As the morning sun rose, Truman slowly opened his eyes. He had slept too soundly last night.

Something is wrong!

Something's 90% off!

You have to understand that he's a kid who grew up in modern society. He can't sleep well in places like stables... stables... stables and the like, let alone camping in a forest where the environment is even harsher.

Could it be...

Truman felt a heaviness in his shoulders. He turned around and saw Frillie sleeping soundly beside him. She looked completely unguarded, and the early morning sun made her fair skin appear somewhat holy.

Yes, the case is solved.

It's because of the beauty by his side.

Truman then carefully placed Frillie on the tree trunk from his shoulder and got up to stretch his limbs.

He planned to make breakfast as a way of repaying the favor.

Although it wasn't ideal to leave Frillie alone in the wild, thankfully their chosen campsite was quite secluded, so they shouldn't encounter any danger in the short term, and he would be back soon.

So Truman went into the forest to find ingredients.

Mushrooms, some kind of mushroom, and more mushrooms... This forest is full of mushrooms, there are hardly any wild vegetables, and you can't even see a trace of small animals.

That's right.

Yesterday a dragon went berserk, so all the small animals must have fled from here... Oh well, even if we only have mushrooms, we can still make delicious food.

After cleaning the mushrooms, he brought them back to the camp and found Frilian still asleep. He then took the opportunity to start making breakfast.

Not long after.

A rich aroma wafted from the boiling pot.

"Hmm, almost there." Truman came to the tree trunk and pushed Frilian, who was wrapped in a blanket. "Ultraman, open your eyes. I'm Shafulin... Oops, Frilian? Feed Frilian, it's morning already, wake up!"

"Let me...sleep some more...5...5..."

"Six minutes?"

"5 hours."

"How could that be, you idiot!"

"It hurts so much."

Truman forcefully woke Frillie with a chop to the neck. She was still sleepy and dizzy, and if Truman hadn't caught her, she would have fallen back into a deep sleep.

She's so lazy.

It's not entirely incomprehensible; after all, they are long-lived elves, and even if their active period is short, it's still longer than that of humans with shorter lifespans. But this is the wild, and yesterday a dragon ravaged the area. Is it really okay to be so careless?

Truman was somewhat puzzled.

"—Because Truman is there."

After being finally awakened, Frillie expressed absolute trust in Truman after hearing his questioning.

"Are you serious? It's good to be trusted, but I'm really weak, you know. If danger comes, I'll just have to carry you and run away."

That's good.

Frillie didn't seem to care, as if she was used to it. She saw the mushroom soup in the pot and very naturally added a spoonful for herself.

"Delicious! This is what food should be like..."

She looked nostalgic.

"It's nothing. It's just a very ordinary cream of mushroom soup made with the ingredients you had left over from yesterday." Although Truman's words showed disdain, the slight upturn of his lips indicated that he was in a very good mood.

"So easy to coax."

"...I heard you."

"sorry."

Frillie apologized readily.

After breakfast, the two cleaned up the campsite. Besides their desire to protect the forest and its vegetation, they also wanted to avoid being discovered.

Wild animals are very clever; they will track and monitor from a distance, and will ambush their prey when they are caught off guard.

"alright."

Truman stretched and loosened his limbs, then asked, "Shall we go slay the dragon next?"

"...Is it alright?" Frillie hadn't expected him to say that. "Truman, you don't need to come along. It's such a dangerous thing—"

"Why bring this up now? We're comrades, right?"

"That's something for the future for you."

"But for you, that's a thing of the past. And Frilian, you're a mage, you need a front line, don't you? My golem may not be very useful, but it can still serve as bait, albeit barely."

"...I understand. Since you're asking, Truman."

She nodded.

After discussing it for a while, the two followed the trail left by the dragon.

Thanks to the Black Horned Dragon's rampage yesterday, which frightened and caused the forest animals to flee, Truman and Frillie didn't encounter any monsters. Moreover, the dragon left clues everywhere, making it very convenient to search.

"By the way, Frilian, what you need are materials from dragons, right?"

"That's right, why do you ask that?"

"It's nothing. It's just that if it's treasures or spellbooks from a dragon's lair, I can use my stealth skill to sneak in, but if it's materials from the dragon itself, there's no way to get them, right?"

"really."

Truman tested it yesterday.

Their stealth skills obviously prevented them from being detected by the dragon. Although sneaking into the dragon's lair is dangerous, this experience of stealing is something adventurers have to go through.

The thief who taught him the skill even said that it was quite fun that no one could spot him... especially when he was naked and walking down the street.

Yes, he's definitely a pervert.

Following the clues, the two walked through the forest for a long time. Because of its size advantage, the dragon could take a step of more than ten meters and fly hundreds of meters with each flap of its wings, making the search quite troublesome.

After taking many detours and wasting a lot of time, they finally found the dragon.

"That's strange. It didn't go back to its nest."

"...It's probably out foraging after ending its hibernation, eating and drinking its fill, and then taking a rest. That makes sense, since it chased us and then quickly let us go before. It was in a hurry to get its feast, and chasing us, who were fast, wouldn't have been worth it."

After observing for a while, Frilian noticed a large number of gnawed monster remains around the dragon and, after thinking it over, came up with this answer.

"This actually gives us an opportunity to take advantage of the situation."

"Indeed, then as agreed before..."

"Okay, thank you."

"Leave it to me!"

Truman gave Frillie a confident thumbs-up, then ran off to the other side.

At this moment, the dragon was lying in the open space of the valley. It was surrounded by high mountain walls, and the land in the middle was very flat. Judging from the size of the dragon, this place looked a bit like its dining hall.

Yesterday, due to his hasty escape, he hadn't gotten a clear look at the dragon, but now he could finally see it in its entirety. Including its tail, it was at least 20 meters long. Even when lying down, it was 5 meters tall. Its wings were spread out, and it lay sprawled on the ground, as if sunbathing.

It's quite pleasant.

Truman waved to Frillie from a distance to indicate that he was ready, and then used the magic Golem Creation. The little golem slowly crawled out of the magic circle.

"Alright, let's begin..."

Truman licked his lips.

With his current strength, he is clearly not qualified to act as a tank protecting the front line, even with the assistance of the little golem.

However, tanks have their methods, and Truman has his. His method is—

"I choose you, little golem!"

"————!"

As Truman gave the order, the little goblin crouched down, hugged its knees, and rolled down the cliff like a boulder.

Starting slowly, it gradually accelerated under the influence of gravity, eventually bouncing high off the rocks below and crashing onto the dragon's head with a loud thud.

"roar------"

The Black Horned Dragon let out a painful roar.

The battle has begun.