I’m Not an Earthworm, I’m an Earth Dragon

I had a dream. It was a familiar dream I hadn’t experienced in a long time. And in it, there was a younger version of me.

I saw myself waking up in the morning, eating the stew my mother had prepared, and then innocently devouring sweet bread and utensils as dessert.

And I saw my mother. Even after all this time, I could never forget her face. She was looking at me with that same benevolent smile.

She would say I deserved a reward for eating well, then lift me up and spin me around. But she would soon put me down, as if it were too much for her… Now I understand why.

Because I really am quite heavy. Not that I ever resented her for it. I simply enjoyed watching that scene unfold.

I was living a life where today was the same as yesterday, and I looked forward to a tomorrow that was the same as today. If only I could have stayed like that forever.

I don’t know why I’m dreaming of my childhood now. But I already knew what would happen next, so I laid down in the meadow and waited.

I was waiting for the stranger who would soon appear, and my mother suddenly burst out of the house, gave me a necklace, and told me to run away.

The young me looked at her in confusion, not understanding. Only when my mother pushed me did I finally move. My face was still filled with confusion and a faint fear.

I would hide in the nearby bushes.

It’s time. I got up and pulled the greatsword from the ground. I knew it was just a dream, but I couldn’t bear to ignore it.

I took a deep breath and circulated mana throughout my body. My body twisted, my skin cracked, and I transformed into a hideous form…

To deal with a monster, you have to become a monster. I ran in the direction that bastard would come from. It was a dream, so even in this state, I was still rational.

After running for a while, I saw that bastard beyond the white space. And with all my might, I swung my greatsword at him—

“What, it was you. Sit here. Hmm? Aha. Have you lost even that much intelligence? You must have been through something terrible. I have a guess… Did you really do it? I told you not to use that method.”

I woke up feeling unpleasant. The campfire had been burning for quite some time and was almost out. The mage was leaning against the wall, talking to someone.

But there was no one there. Yet I could feel that something was there. What is this strange and repulsive sensation? When I focused, I could discern its identity.

Something translucent was struggling, blocked by some unknown barrier around me.

It seemed desperate to get in, trying all sorts of methods, but to no avail.

Is that a ghost? I soon realized that my necklace was shining brightly. It always glowed faintly, but never this brightly.

…Could it be that this necklace is preventing those ghosts from sticking to me?

I looked at Myungho, and he had a similar barrier around him. Akash was trying to communicate with them. Only Yuna had a few ghosts clinging to her as she slept.

Her expression wasn’t bright, as if she were having a nightmare. She was muttering “Mom” or “Dad” under her breath. Does she also have bad memories related to her parents?

I rubbed my eyes, threw some firewood from the corner into the campfire, and approached Yuna.

The ghosts then receded and detached from Yuna. As soon as they were gone, her expression relaxed, and she fell back asleep.

“Huh, can you see them too? Ah, you don’t know this word yet. Will you understand this?”

Akash pointed at his own eye, then at the ghosts in the air, and then pointed at me.

So… he’s asking if I can see them? I could see them, so I nodded.

“You can see them. No, was that an obvious question? That necklace… It’s not my place to interfere. Fine, do as you please.”

Akash seemed to have only wanted to confirm that. He mumbled something and ignored me. What a bland guy.

I briefly took off the necklace that was acting as a barrier and tried to hit the ghosts to chase them away, but my fist just passed through them.

Some even tried to cling to me, so I quickly retreated back into the necklace’s barrier. They made angry noises.

…How can I chase them away? I can’t yell like I used to when chasing away wild animals because others are sleeping.

I tried growling deeply, and they briefly fled but soon returned.

Ah, this is unpleasant. I’m even more frustrated because I can’t do anything about them. It’s like they’re mocking me, saying I’m nothing.

“Hah, you’re as slow as an earthworm. Your thoughts are like an earthworm’s too. Want to chase them away? Then you need to remove the medium that binds their souls. That’s it.”

Akash looked at me as if my struggles were amusing, then pointed at the skulls and then at the door leading outside. Setting aside the fact that he called me an earthworm again.

He wants me to throw the skulls outside?

I was skeptical, but the ghosts couldn’t harm me, so I put the necklace back on and picked up a skull. Even if they suddenly went berserk, the necklace would protect me.

Indeed, a ghost went mad and rushed at me. It couldn’t reach me because of the barrier, but it seemed desperate to stop me.

To see if there really was a connection between the skull and the ghost, I opened the door and threw the skull down the slope.

The ghost followed the skull’s trajectory as if it were connected to it. Oh, so they really are connected.

Now that I knew how to chase away the ghosts, I gathered a bunch of bones and stepped outside the room.

Many ghosts clung to my back and pounded on the barrier, but I ignored them and threw the bones down the mountainside. I watched the ghosts being dragged away with the rolling bones and returned to my sleeping spot.

All the ghosts were gone, leaving only the living in the room. Much better.

Even though I wanted to go back to sleep, I had already slept enough, so I couldn’t fall asleep even with my eyes closed.

Well then. The rain has stopped outside, so I might as well stand guard. I was supposed to make it, but someone had brought in a bowl while I was asleep. I took it inside and kept watch outside until sunrise.

The ecology and scenery are different from where I lived, but the sky is the same.

I connected stars to create my own constellations and chased away approaching animals by growling or throwing stones until the sun rose.

I looked at the now-familiar sun rising in the west and went inside to wake everyone up. The mage who had taken a nap, the archer who had been plagued by nightmares, and Myungho who had slept peacefully.

I shook them or nudged them with my tail, and they quickly came to their senses. Yuna seemed a bit dazed from her nightmare, but she soon recovered.

“…Yawn. Were you up already? Oh, weren’t there skulls here…?”

Myungho questioned the disappearance of the skulls, so I told him I threw them away. When I explained why, he seemed to understand.

“The ghosts were attached to the bones. So that’s why I had nightmares… Um… Thank you, Altera.”

Yuna heard the story from Myungho and thanked me in words I could understand.

Well, Akash was the one who told me. But I was the one who threw them away… So I guess I deserve the thanks. Yes.

“…Ugh, the water’s been collected… Let’s have a simple breakfast then.”

He said that and put a tile-like thing into a bowl filled with water. The tile quickly expanded and turned into a porridge-like substance.

He wants me to eat this? It looked cold and strangely watery, not very appetizing.

I’d rather eat bugs. There are many surprisingly tasty bugs. Aside from their appearance, bugs are quite edible.

“…I know, it doesn’t look very tasty. But it’s better than fighting for hours just to eat some meat, right…? Normally, I would have foraged for food, but I didn’t know they would come running at the smell of blood.”

Myungho offered me a bowl of the pseudo-food with an apologetic tone. It looked and smelled so bad that I honestly wanted to fight for hours just to eat some real meat.

As soon as I took a sip, my face contorted. The texture was awful, and the taste was strange yet bland. It was a total mess.

Taste, smell, temperature, texture—none of it made me want to eat it.

“…It would be better to fight for hours and eat meat. This is like drinking water mixed with sand and dust.”

Yuna, Akash, and Myungho also grimaced and looked at the porridge with displeasure. Even adding spices didn’t seem to improve it, so I didn’t waste precious spices on this garbage.

“Hey, let’s just fight for a few hours and eat meat. We’re not weak, are we?”

“No. We don’t know what might jump out of the mountain… If we waste our strength like that, we might fail when we really need it.”

“I’d rather eat the sole of a shoe…”

“…Myungho. I don’t agree with Akash, but I know some edible plants and insects. Let’s eat those instead. This… it seems to get worse with every bite…”

The others were also full of complaints. Everyone managed to finish one bowl with great difficulty, then gulped down water to rinse their mouths.

There’s one more reason to get over this mountain quickly.