The members of the advance unit pushed ahead, leaving the task of buying time to the students who had stayed behind. However, with the group consisting of more than fifty percent elderly and children, they weren't making nearly as much progress as they had hoped.
They were moving at an agonizingly slow pace, but a small sense of relief washed over them when they spotted the figures of the defense unit running up from the rear.
"Thank goodness you're safe. Our progress is slow, but we haven't run into—"
The old woman, seeing Melt return unscathed and carrying a child, started to welcome her with a smile. But her expression froze as she saw the girl's somber face and noticed that Yugo was nowhere to be seen.
Melt handed the child over to the old woman and spoke in a thin, frail voice.
"Yugo... he went into the mist to save that boy... I couldn't do anything...!"
"I see. Now, don't you go blaming yourself. You and that boy both did your absolute best. This little one is alive because of that. Hold your head high."
As the old woman offered words of comfort to Melt—who was agonized by the contradiction of sacrificing one life to save another and the guilt of leaving Yugo behind—Zenon Ash watched the scene with a hidden smirk.
(Yes, yes, yes! I finally got rid of Scum Yugo! Now there’s no one left to get between me and Melt!)
Far from being worried about Yugo being swallowed by the Red Mist, Zenon was rejoicing from the bottom of his heart over his disappearance.
And with good reason—he was the one who had engineered this entire situation.
At the exact moment Melt’s attention had been fixed on the child she’d rescued, Zenon had struck Yugo in the back with magic, blasting him toward the mist.
After driving him into that corner, he had pretended to restrain Melt out of "goodwill" when she tried to save him, buying time until Yugo was completely swallowed by the red haze.
Everything had gone exactly according to Zenon’s plan. That defense battle had simply been a stage to skillfully eliminate Yugo.
(Damn that Scum Yugo...! I was supposed to be the one to experience the Lucky Lecher Event and see Melt naked! He went and snatched it from me...! Well, whatever. Now he's out of this event for good. From here on out, I'm the protagonist who's going to solve this case.)
Venting his personal grudges, Zenon steadied his mind, telling himself that the real show was about to begin.
Until now, things hadn't gone quite as expected due to Yugo’s interference—or rather, his "heroics"—but Yugo was no longer in the party. This was Zenon’s time to do as he pleased.
As a reincarnator, Zenon was the only person present who knew exactly what was happening.
Having formulated a plan based on his knowledge of the game, he couldn't stop his heart from racing now that things were finally proceeding according to his scenario.
(I know exactly what to do from here! Man, reincarnating into another world and being unrivaled thanks to game knowledge is the absolute best!)
This specific request—"Luggage Delivery to the Mountain Hut"—was a famous event even within Luminous History.
While its popularity stemmed from the ability to farm Melt's Affection Levels and enjoy Lucky Lecher Events with her, the primary reason was the nature of the event itself, which felt like a total ambush.
Players who thought they were just making deliveries around Mount Yumyum were suddenly attacked by villagers turned into zombies. Anyone witnessing such a horror-movie-style development would find the event burned into their memory by the sheer shock of it.
What exactly was happening on this mountain? While Yugo and Melt had been trying to piece together the truth from fragmentary information, Zenon had already known the answer from the start.
(There’s no way they’d realize this incident involves a Magic Armor Beast. I mean, even I was freaked out the first time I encountered this event.)
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say his head had been so full of the Lucky Lecher Event with Melt that occurred just before the incident that he hadn't bothered to think about it at all, but that was beside the point.
The culprit behind this mysterious incident—and the source of the Red Mist—was a specific Magic Armor Beast.
Toadstinger... that was the name of the monster at the root of this incident.
A Magic Armor Beast born from the power of a bee monster dwelling within a Matango—a mushroom-type monster—it possessed various abilities depending on the species of both monsters involved.
The simplest form was one where their respective poison attributes were enhanced. Since poisonous mushrooms and venomous bees share that commonality, they had a natural compatibility.
However, the Toadstinger responsible for this incident possessed a combination of abilities that was truly the stuff of nightmares.
The ability held by the base mushroom monster, the Matango, was Sleep Spores. As the name implied, it was an ability that inflicted the sleep status ailment on anyone who inhaled them.
This alone wouldn't be particularly terrifying... but the ability of the bee monster infesting it was the real problem.
Among bees, there are those that use neurotoxins to manipulate the targets they sting at will.
The bee monster that had possessed this Matango was equipped with such an ability, and as a result of these two combining, a heinous Magic Armor Beast had been born.
The moment someone inhaled the spores released by the Matango, they would be overcome by sleep.
While they were incapacitated and unable to resist, they would be stung, creating a puppet that moved exactly as the Magic Armor Beast desired.
With this much explained, every question was answered.
The true identity of what appeared to be mist was actually the Matango's spores, and the reason the people swallowed by it had gone mad was because they had been stung by the Magic Armor Beast and injected with toxin.
Collecting humans to serve as nurseries for their own reproduction, the Toadstingers were using the people they had captured to lure in even more victims.
If an ordinary person who knew nothing were to take on this request, they would likely fall into a state of pure panic. But Zenon, as a reincarnator who had played this game to death, understood everything.
Consequently, he wasn't feeling the least bit rushed; he had approached this request with his countermeasures perfectly prepared.
In the first place, why had he accepted this request? While he certainly wanted to trigger Melt's Lucky Lecher Event and boost her Affection Levels, his true goal lay elsewhere.
To put it simply... he intended to use this opportunity to farm Experience Points.