The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

161 A chance meeting with a goddess

Privel, who had made camp on a floor about ten floors above where she had fought the Cyclopes, woke up from the strange dream.

Being given a crystal and fangs by an enormous Van-kun, I can't say much about Isla.

Normally, wouldn't it be an adult Van-kun appearing in her dreams? A mountain-sized, child-form Van-kun had suddenly come to play. That was the kind of dream it had been.

Well, it's not that weird to have one strange dream, right? she thought, and then she got up. She stretched and opened her eyes.

"Maybe it's that strange dream's fault... My head is spin – m-monsters?!"

Privel was startled to see that there were small Dragons lying on the ground around her.

The Dragons, whose eyelids had been closed, woke up and began crying in surprise.

"Shaaah?!"

"Gyaauh?!"

At that moment, Privel's vision distorted and she went into a panic.

"I-I'm surrounded?! Where is everyone?! I-I have to get away!"

Privel had begun training in not only magic but combat abilities as well, but she wasn't capable enough to be able to deal with being surrounded by enemies in all directions.

She began reciting an incantation and tried to gain some distance from the Dragons.

At that moment, Isla appeared from behind Privel and gave her a chop on the head.

"Calm down," she said.

"Haguh?!"

Isla had only held back slightly; Privel staggered upon receiving the blow. And then Pauvina, who had apparently been hiding somewhere, ran to her and pinned her arms behind her back.

"W-what are you doing?!" Privel demanded, thrashing about to try and escape Pauvina's arms. "Th-there are Dragons right there!"

"That's what we're trying to tell you, look closely. Look where the Dragons are coming from," Pauvina said.

For the first time, Privel noticed that something was strange.

The Dragons were crying, but they weren't trying to attack her or Pauvina, who was holding onto her.

"Look closely," said Isla. "Here."

She took hold of the head of one of the Dragons and held it up for the bewildered Privel to look at closely.

"Where they're coming from, you say..." Privel murmured.

The Dragons were smaller than Wyverns, small enough for her to hold in her arms. The head, which had sharp teeth and horns, continued on into a neck. And when Privel looked past that, she saw that it was connected not to a scaled body, but a tentacle that she was very familiar with.

"D-Dragons are growing from me?!"

"No, the tips of your tentacles have become Dragon heads," said Pauvina.

The tips of the tentacles of Privel's lower body had transformed into the heads of Dragons.

"Y-you're right... wow, it feels weird," said Privel, patting the Dragon head on the end of the tentacle that Isla was holding.

It wasn't just that the tentacle tip resembled a Dragon head. Its surface was covered in scales that were both hard and smooth, and the horns and teeth were clearly bone, not masses of flesh.