Chapter 58: Talking with Dinosaurs?

-One Week Later-

Eren was trying to talk to a dinosaur.

Even he would accept that this wasn’t one of his proudest moments in a magical universe.

He stood in the middle of Thadric’s ranch with his hand on the scaly neck of one of the komodo-horse mounts and spoke in Beastin like an idiot. This female one was more friendly than the other so they had some hope.

“…”

But nothing. The mount blinked its big stupid eyes and tried to lick his hand with her surprisingly good smelling but spiky tongue.

“Come on. One word. Just say anything.” He said in Beastin but more licking came.

The mount chewed his sleeve and upped hand wet but it didn’t hurt. His physical stats were way above this kind of threats.

He’d been testing his Beastin language on every creature in the ranch for the last twenty minutes. And the results were depressing. Small lizards, birds in cages, small milkable fluffy things named Lamball, the feathered chicken-things called Hen Birds, the two dinosaur mounts from the kobold fight and even hundreds of fat rabbity creatures that Thadric herded as a meat source.

None of them responded to his talk.

The only animal that talked back was a grumpy old bird that looked like a parrot but with four wings and no ability to fly. And that thing already spoke Elvish with its actual mouth. It didn’t need Beastin at all as a speech copying bird. It looked smart but not enough as a matter of this topic.

“You’re ugly, gugu” the bird said in broken Elvish and flapped its useless wings at Eren.

“Thanks. You too.”

“I hate you..gugu”

It was definitely smart to some degree, Eren was sure after this conversation.

Thadric was watching from the fence with his arms crossed. He had a grin on his face that he wasn’t even trying to hide.

“I have a theory.” Thadric said with his loud voice. “Maybe Beastin only works after a creature reaches a certain intelligence level as a race.

Like after they become a real beast with awareness. The wolves could already communicate between themselves before you ever met them. Their language existed first and your skill just connected to it.”

Eren thought about that. It made some sense but he wasn’t fully convinced. “I think it’s more about intelligence level and inheritance of blood on top of that.

Wolves had a developed communication system even when I couldn’t understand them, yes. But the real requirement is probably having a brain complex enough to hold a language in the first place. Not necessarily a language needed in my opinion.

Also I’m just guessing in this part but magical or not doesn’t matter for the skill. That’s probably why they’re called beasts instead of monsters. Even wolves didn’t have a magical skill or mana when I first met them. They were cubs with a skill they got from their parents.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Roots maybe. I am not sure. But beasts evolve from from basic animals. Even without magic there are many beast types like you listed earlier. And a cultural customs or bloodline inheritance with transferable knowledge between herd members makes the necessary base for their communication. But language isn’t that important.

You said some beasts just communicate without opening their mouths and use growls or even by hitting the ground. Are they language? No. But I bet I could use this skill with them.”

Thadric looked at his dinosaur mounts. The bigger one was currently trying to headbutt the small private fence. “So these two are just from a stupid rave and also without a meaningful root too?”

“Incredibly stupid. And no development as a creature. Both at the same time, yeah. Sorry buddy. I know you had some expectations..” Eren knew how much Thadric wanted to do things different here.

They made him absent from his daily training for today just for this. Other three trainees were still working outside.

They talked a bit while sitting outside of veranda.

Eren gave up on the Beastin experiment and was about to leave when something landed on his forearm. It was a tiny colorful insect with iridescent wings that shifted between blue and green.

It bit him… or tried to. Eren wasn’t sure if it actually tried to bite but it looked like the motion mosquito do on Earth.

He guessed its little mouth couldn’t break through his skin. The bug sat there for a second like it was confused about why dinner wasn’t cooperating and then flew away.

Eren stared at his arm. That was the first time he’d seen a flying insect in the village. Numerous types and danger levels of bugs exist in the forest but Emily had told him weeks ago that there were no bugs around the elven settlement. Something about the Village Totem’s energy keeping them away.

“Hey Thadric. Did you see that?”

Thadric nodded slowly. “I saw something weirder yesterday. A fly went into one of the mount’s ears and came out the other side. Like it was passing through. These dinosaur things might have some kind of simbiyoz-simbiyovv- what was the word you used yesterday.”

“Symbiotic?”

“Yeah they have a symbio relationship with certain insects. And I bet all of my pelts that, insects live inside their brains or some part of their bodies. Stupid things…” He struggled to curse the creatures due to lack of official names.

That was a big word for Thadric. Eren didn’t use the actual term “symbiotic” because explaining biology to someone from a world without textbooks would take three hours. But he was thinking it.

Something was off about these mounts. No one in the village, even supposedly all-memorizing elders didn’t know what they were or their actual names.

They walked out of the ranch area and Eren checked on the wooden barricades that lined the northen edge of the village.

The construction was rough. Fast and amateur but way stronger than what they had before, which was nothing. Dark pinewood logs stacked and tied with rope after planted to the ground and reinforced at the base with packed dirt. Some parts looked like a child playground for now but most of it was built with solid work.

Only the North side was finished for the reasons of Ranch, Fruit Tree farm, actual planted fields and damn dragon was this side. The last one was the real reason almost everyone from the village worked that hard to finish it first in record times.

Eren had been hauling timber to Oldir and Toris every few days for the past week. Some of it got set aside for winter firewood and the rest went straight to barricade material. No stone quarry nearby meant real walls would have to wait. But this was something.

He looked at the finished section and felt a small satisfaction.

“Yeah that has to hold.”

After that, he walked toward to his home with a smile.

When did I become someone who gets excited about defensive wooden barricades..?

..

Emily’s voice hit him the moment he walked through their front door.

“EREN! GET IN HERE!”

She was in the bathroom. Based on the sound of running water she was in the middle of washing up and based on the tone of her voice she wanted company.

He grinned but didn’t go in. Not yet.

The last four days he’d been opening the portal every evening when things were calm. Door Master had jumped three levels from the constant use and sat at Level 5 now. The open duration increased by one and a half times. Still not enough for anything useful but better than before. His full mana still got drained every time and that important part hadn’t changed the usual dilemma.

“Eren? I’m waiting!” She didn’t scream but tried to use a seductive voice.

“One second!”

He pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. He had written it this morning before hunting work.

It was a short message to his parents. Nothing complicated. Just –I’m alive, I’m safe, please leave something on the bedroom floor if you get this- usual things.

He’d been throwing these notes through the portal for days now. Different messages each time. Some with specific instructions like “move the cup on the mom’s make-up table” or “leave a note on floor” and lastly his favorite “leave a water bottle.” Small things that would prove someone had read them.

But every time he opened the portal and looked through at his dark apartment bedroom, nothing had changed. No signs that anyone had been there.

The messages were disappearing though. Every note he threw through was gone the next time he looked. Something was taking them.

Eren focused his mana and the air in front of him changed. A big door shaped portal opened with having a visual display of his Earthly house. It was still too bright and probably a few hours earlier than Evon.

The room was empty and looked exactly the same.

He threw the note and a small glowing stone through the gap. The stone was a semi-living thing that elves used for bathroom lighting. It fed on moisture in the air and produced a faint glow. Common stuff here, found at the bottom of rivers. He was using it to make his written messages more believable because who would believe a paper note from another dimension?

But if a glowing rock came with it… He had too many expectations about this door master skill but it was a failure until now.

The portal closed with all his mana gone in one shot under four seconds.

One of these days, even without a mana recharge ability or tool, he was gonna run other side, take something useful and come back. Not now, but it was part of his “dangerous-but-doable-things” list.

He knew something weird was happening with those notes but the door-shaped passage sealed before he could think about it more. Emily’s voice pulled him back to reality.

“EREN! I SWEAR IF YOU DON’T COME IN HERE RIGHT NOW-”

“Coming!!”

He was already pulling his shorts off while running to the bathroom.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep