Darwin had already found the first step toward his "great life goal."
Finding a dragon!
"Searching for dragons?"
"That is indeed a fine goal for one's life!"
Precht nodded silently, expressing his approval of Darwin's pursuit.
Come to think of it, he remembered Mavis's dream used to be "finding fairies," didn't he?
In a way, this could be considered passing the torch to the next generation...
Though compared to "finding fairies," "finding dragons" might actually be much easier??
With his years of increasing experience, Precht already knew that the species of dragons had not gone extinct in history.
On the northern continent of Guiltina, quite a few still remained. Furthermore, within their own guild, there were currently two dragons: Licht and Irene.
Regarding the true identities of Licht and Irene, only the original six members of Fairy Tail knew; no one else was aware—not even Erza, Irene's own daughter.
However, despite knowing they were dragons, Licht had lived in seclusion for many years and had never brought any trouble to Magnolia or Fairy Tail, and Irene had consistently maintained her image as a "gentle mother." Thus, in Precht's heart, he had long since regarded them as family.
If he didn't tell Darwin the truth now, and waited until the boy had gone through countless hardships and trials to find a dragon and grow strong, only to come home and discover that two of his elders were dragons... that scene...
It would probably be very interesting.
"Uncle Precht, what are you smiling about?"
"...Nothing. You saw wrong."
"Ha?? I wouldn't see that wrong!!"
"You definitely saw wrong!"
Precht did his best to put on a serious face: "I see that you simply can't settle down to study and are looking for excuses to be lazy!"
Darwin could only close his mouth aggrievedly.
The carriage traveled for a long time. It wasn't until noon the next day that the two arrived at the village that had posted the request.
The village was not small; at a glance, there were about three hundred households.
The "damaged farmland" mentioned in the request was on the west side of the village, closely connected to the settlement.
The area of the farmland was much larger than the village—at least ten times larger by visual estimation. A portion of it had been trampled beyond recognition, while another part had been enclosed by villagers using wooden stakes to make a hedge.
The carriage slowly entered the village. According to the information provided in the request, Darwin found the client for this job: the village head.
After verifying their identities, the village head led Darwin and Precht toward the damaged farmland while officially beginning their briefing.
"It first started about a month ago. One morning when they woke up, the villagers found large areas of the farmland showing signs of trampling, and the crops and food had been eaten clean."
Darwin listened to the village head's narration while silently noting the details: "Do you know what destroyed it? Wild animals? Or magical beasts?"
The village head nodded and continued: "We quickly found the footprints left by the destroyers. We found many diverse footprints and guessed it was a pack of wild boars that had migrated here from elsewhere. So, we quickly organized men to dig traps near the farmland."
Darwin followed up by asking: "Were they effective?"
As soon as he finished asking, he realized he had said something foolish.
If the traps had worked, why would the village head have posted a request for wizards to handle the matter??
"Uh... sorry, please continue."
The village head didn't take offense at Darwin's sudden and impolite interruption; instead, he smiled gently: "Young man, is this perhaps your first time doing a mission?"
"Yes!"
"I see... then we shall count on you for our farmland this time!"
"Leave it to me!!"
Seeing that Darwin was the one responding from start to finish while Precht just followed along without speaking, the village head immediately understood that this was a "senior leading a rookie" situation.
However, as long as the village's problem could be solved, he didn't care who took action.
"The traps... should be said to have had some effect!"
"A few days after the traps were set, the farmland was invaded again. We went to check the traps immediately and found that they had indeed been triggered, but they were completely empty, and the traps themselves had been destroyed along with them."
Darwin couldn't help but ask: "What kind of traps did you set, and how were they destroyed?"
The village head replied: "There were mainly three types of traps."
"The first was a simple pit, covered with weeds for camouflage, with food placed on top of the weeds."
"The second was similar—food was placed on the ground, and as soon as the target moved the food, a prepared rope would tighten and hoist them up."
"Many of these two types were set, but the result was the same in every case: the food was eaten, the mechanism was triggered, but there was nothing in the trap."
"The third trap is quite impressive; you can see it for yourself!"
As they spoke, the three had arrived at the location of the third trap.
This was an enclosure built from many thick wooden stakes, about two meters high. It was designed with only one entrance/exit, which featured a heavy wooden board designed as a 'one-way door' that could only be pushed inward.
Normally, an animal could push open the door by butting it to enter the enclosure and eat the food. However, since they lacked hands, they could not lift the wooden door from the inside, nor could they force it open by butting it outward, thus becoming trapped.
This was a very common and effective hunting method.
However...
"The wooden stakes on this side, including the one-way door, have been destroyed?!"
"It seems this beast's destructive power is quite startling!"
Darwin stood before the trap that the villagers had painstakingly crafted, now ruined beyond recognition, and clicked his tongue in amazement.
The other three sides of the wooden circle were perfectly intact; only the side with the one-way door had been smashed open with immense brute force.
With this hole, even if a beast ran inside due to greed, it could finish all the food and then saunter out through the gap, leaving as it pleased.
After a few seconds of being stunned, Darwin quickly composed himself.
Since it could cause such massive destruction, it meant the opponent wasn't an ordinary wild animal, but a "monster" that had gained power—the kind that ordinary human strength simply couldn't defeat.
No wonder they needed to seek help from wizards...
"As you can see, even this kind of trap was useless."
The village head patted the wooden enclosure destroyed by the beast and sighed: "It was only then that we realized the culprit frequently destroying our crops and farmland likely wasn't an ordinary mountain pig, but a much more powerful monster!"
"So we sent people to keep watch at night, and this time we finally saw the culprits."
"It was indeed a pack of wild boars, and quite a few of them—at least twenty!"
"What's even more surprising is that among them, there was actually a 'Wild Boar King'!"