Isekai Lizardman Survival Log

“Uuugh―.”

A wailing sound erupted from the white ball of fur in my hand. I gently placed the furball on my shoulder as it cried out in a groggy voice, seemingly not fully awake.

“We’re about to enter the forest, so let’s wake up, Chik-chik.”

At the mention of entering the forest, the furball rubbed its eyes with its tiny hands.

“Why am I being taken along anyway…?”

Red pupils appeared between half-closed eyelids, still drowsy.

It climbed onto my neck with wriggling movements, its long snout protruding grumpily.

“You’d just be sprawled out sleeping at home anyway. You should get some fresh air.”
“What does that have to do with anything…?”

It rested its chin on top of my head and let out a big yawn.

Continuously rubbing its eyes as if trying to wake up, it shook its head and then clung to my neck like a koala.

“So why are we going to the forest?”
“Didn’t I tell you?”

As I tilted my head, I felt the arms and legs wrapped around my neck tighten.

“You just suddenly grabbed me while I was sleeping at home.”
“Did I?”

I think I might have. I probably intended to tell it when it woke up since it was likely dozing off and wouldn’t remember anyway.

As I nodded, Chik-chik let out a deep sigh and turned its head back.

“Don’t you think the boss is being too much? What do you think, Derek?”
“Huh? Uh… well…?”

Startled by the sudden question, Derek, who had been quietly following behind, stuttered.

He hesitated for a while, rolling his eyes, but when he realized Chik-chik’s red pupils were staring intently at him, he hurriedly continued.

“Well! Um… maybe the boss didn’t do anything wrong…?”

It was quite pitiful to see him sneaking glances at me while speaking.

“Chik-chik, stop bullying the poor youngest.”
“I’m not bullying him.”

Chik-chik replied in a gruff voice and kept tapping my back with its stubby tail.

Ignoring the fidgeting Derek, I raised my hand to pat Chik-chik’s head. Before long, it seemed to cheer up and started wagging its tail.

“You asked why we’re going into the forest, right?”

Chik-chik’s round ears perked up, and I felt Derek’s gaze boring into my back from behind.

Come to think of it, I didn’t tell him either.

“There’s been an increase in goblins in the village. We’re going to investigate if there’s a problem in the forest.”
“Just the three of us?”

As I nodded, Chik-chik voiced its doubt, as if unable to understand.

“I can understand me being here, but why Derek? He won’t be much help, will he?”

I smiled bitterly as I felt Derek stagger after hearing the harsh words right in front of him.

“Come on, take care of the youngest a bit, Chik-chik.”
“Shouldn’t he be able to take care of himself at his age?”

Well, honestly, Derek is a bit old to be treated as the youngest.

He’s called the youngest, but he’s actually much older than me or Chik-chik. If we’re just talking about age, the time for playing nanny and taking care of him has long passed.

“We can’t just leave him alone either. We need to teach him something so we can at least put him to use.”

Chik-chik continued to wag its tail in displeasure, regardless of Derek’s drooping shoulders.

Slap―

“How can you use someone who can’t even catch a deer?”
“That’s exactly why I brought him along, isn’t it?”

Of course, the deer in this world are twice as big as the ones I knew, with fangs like muntjacs, and they charge like cavalry, wielding their antlers like spears.

But the fact that they’re still prey at the lower end of the food chain remains unchanged.

Everyone in the village except Derek can catch a deer alone, so Derek can’t help but be treated as the youngest.

Moreover, since he boasted that close combat was his specialty but ended up being beaten by Chik-chik and bedridden for three days, Derek is treated in the village as someone who can’t even take care of himself.

Of course, Derek could handle ten goblins without a scratch, but it’s not that impressive to be able to step on and kill ants, is it?

He can’t do anything except use brute force, and even that skill is mediocre, so he can’t even be used as a guard and is only good for carrying luggage.

As a result, he’s completely demoralized and spends every day watching people’s reactions, looking exactly like a large goblin.

Honestly, if it were someone else, I would have just left them alone, but unfortunately, Derek is a [human].

In other words, he’s a pitiful creature without scales or tough skin to protect his body like me, and he’s not particularly strong either.

If he were an orc, he would have been able to catch a deer on his own by now, but being human, even that was impossible for him.

“We can’t just have him picking herbs forever.”

In the end, someone had to raise him, and naturally, I, who had the most free time, took on that role.

I also felt some sympathy, having been human in my previous life.

“So you left the spear behind? To train Derek?”
“Yeah.”

The spear would only be a hindrance in the forest anyway. We’re not here to fight, just to investigate, so it wasn’t necessary.

I beckoned to Derek with my finger, and he hurriedly jumped to my side.

Wasn’t he considered tall among humans? I placed my hand on his head, which only came up to my waist.

Flinch!

“I’m just asking to make sure, but you can at least catch a rabbit, right?”
“Yes, yes sir!”

As he nodded desperately and shouted, I met his eyes, and his pupils shook uncontrollably as if there was an earthquake.

Uh… could it be he can’t even catch a rabbit? That changes things a bit.

Chik-chik also looked at Derek with a gaze of disbelief, as if finding it pathetic.

“Boss, how about we leave him in the village even now?”

Suppressing the urge to strongly agree, I looked up at the sky.

The sun, gradually tilting, was visible through the dense leaves. It would be awkward timing to go back to the village now….

“Derek, be honest. Can you catch even one rabbit?”
“…It might be a bit difficult… Haha…”

Haah―

Chik-chik and I sighed in unison and rubbed our foreheads.

At this rate, he really wasn’t any different from a large goblin.

“How have you survived until now?”

It’s not like he can live by eating dirt like a goblin; it’s amazing he hasn’t died yet.

“Well… I guess I was lucky?”

Derek also seemed embarrassed, scratching the back of his head and averting his eyes.

Right, come to think of it, when I first saw this guy, he was dangling from a tree.

I suddenly remembered the sight of him hanging from a tree with a broken ankle, caught in a trap meant for wild boars.

With his ankle swollen, his mouth gagged, waiting for help, he fainted as soon as he saw my face.

It was about half a year ago that I untied him and brought him to the village. He begged for his life as soon as he came to his senses, but he adapted quickly and I had forgotten about it.

“…Just follow along today and pick some herbs.”

I strode into the forest. Change of plans.

Now that Derek’s skills have been revealed to be weaker than a rabbit’s, there’s no point in staying in the forest for long.

“Chik-chik.”
“I understand.”

At my call, Chik-chik raised its body and plucked out a handful of its fur.

Then it blew the fur with its long snout.

The fur, flying like dandelion seeds, floated in the air before gathering in one place and forming a line.

The spell of object finding.

It’s an excellent spell that activates even with vague targets like [The culprit causing problems in the forest].

I turned my feet in the direction of the fur line, marking trees as I went.

“Chik-chik. How many more times can you do this?”
“It’s my shedding season, so I can do it about ten more times.”

As if to prove its words, as soon as the line broke, Chik-chik plucked and blew its fur again.

As I followed the newly connected line, I glanced back at Derek following behind.

Fortunately, Derek was following silently without showing signs of fatigue. His expression seemed fine, indicating he still had some energy left.

I increased my pace and went deeper inside.

After the line broke and was remade several times, a distinctly different air greeted us.

I carefully stepped into the changed environment, which seemed to indicate we had entered the depths of the forest.

As we ventured deeper inside, various scents reached my sensitive nose.

The intensified smell of grass, a faint scent of animal—probably deer—droppings, and a slight smell of blood.

“Chik-chik.”
“Just a moment.”

Chik-chik plucked out a lot of fur and scattered it in the air. Then it moved its nose around, sniffing.

“Um… Boss? I have bad news.”

I knew what was coming without hearing the rest.

The spell just used was a scent analysis spell.

It’s mainly used to identify the source when there’s confusion between the smell of blood and the smell of iron, but judging by Chik-chik’s reaction, the source of the smell was iron, not blood.

Probably weapons used by some other tribe.

Not exactly a good situation.

“Chik-chik. How many more times can you do this?”
“Maybe about three times? I think.”

Three times. An ambiguous number.

It took seven times to get here, and once to find the source of the smell.

Looking up, I saw Chik-chik, now looking skinny as if it had shed all its fur.

If we plucked even that fur, we could probably use the spell five more times.

Sensing an ominous premonition, Chik-chik shuddered.

“Boss? You’re not thinking anything weird, are you?”

Imagining a skinned mouse with all its fur removed, I abandoned the thought.

“Chik-chik. Let’s find it within three tries.”
“It’s not like we can do it just because we want to.”

Chik-chik plucked some fine hair from its now even skinnier body and made another line.

“Derek, keep up and don’t fall behind.”

After notifying Derek, I hastened my steps.

Following the white line deeper inside, the smell of iron began to sting my nose.

As we went further in, the iron smell intensified, and just as my head started to feel dizzy, a sunlit clearing came into view.

Gasp―

Derek, following behind, inhaled sharply while covering his mouth.

The clearing, which seemed peaceful at first glance, had broken weapons stuck in the ground instead of flowers, and the earth was overturned as if an earthquake had struck.

In the center stood a rock with six legs, bristling with weapons like thorns.

The huge rock had a head resembling an alligator, making it look like an alligator with a rock-like shell on its back.

As I looked at it from a distance, its enormous eyes, like detached stars, turned towards us.

“Uh… Boss? I think we’re in big trouble.”

I lifted Chik-chik, who was making dumbfounded noises, and handed it to Derek.

“Run away first.”
“Boss?” “Boss?”

Ignoring the two, I stepped into the clearing. I heard desperate attempts to hold me back from behind, but I ignored them.

From the moment I set foot here, its eyes had been fixed on me.

It seems it has no intention of letting me go, unlike the others.

Our golden gazes clashed. I took in the sight of its massive body, so large that even I, with my considerable size, had to look up at it.

‘I wonder if I can win this.’

If I had known, I should have brought the spear.

Well, what can I do? If worse comes to worst, I’ll have to cut off my tail and run away.