Not a single cloud hung in the sky — an endlessly high, brilliant blue expanse that could only be described as quintessentially summer. And from the sun above poured down rays of sunlight just as intense, befitting the season.
The sunlight cascading onto the ground sapped people's stamina with its fierce heat, even though they hadn't yet fully entered summer.
Those walking along the highway couldn't help but furrow their brows at the heat haze distorting the scenery in the distance.
Many travelers and adventurers glared up resentfully at the sun lording over the heavens as if it owned the place.
Having one's stamina drained by the heat was genuinely grueling.
Amidst all this... an adventurer who had accepted a request to gather flowers that only bloom under the summer sun turned his gaze skyward with the same irritation as his party members... and discovered something peculiar.
(A monster?)
He muttered to himself, but the reason he didn't immediately shift into a combat stance was that the monster showed no sign of directing its attention toward them whatsoever, simply flapping its wings.
Flying monsters weren't exceedingly common, but they weren't entirely unheard of either.
Had it been heading toward them, they would have had to respond by fleeing or fighting — but the monster currently drifting along the man's line of sight had absolutely no interest in them, merely gliding gracefully through the sky.
He had no way of knowing what it felt like to fly through such intense sunlight, but figuring it must be cooler than the sun-baked ground below, he found himself wishing he could fly too.
The man, who had been staring up at the sky as though mesmerized, was called by his companions... and upon snapping back to his senses at their voices, he hurriedly chased after them.
"If there were a few more clouds, I don't think I'd ever get tired of this view."
"Guruu."
Completely unaware of the exchange taking place on the ground, Rei was flying through the summer sky alongside Set.
The sunlight pouring down from the summer sun could be called just as intense as it was on the ground, but fortunately, Rei had the Dragon Robe, which functioned as a simplified air conditioner.
As for Set, being an A-Rank monster, being exposed to this level of sunlight wasn't particularly bothersome.
The reason Rei was flying through this area, now quite far from Gilm, alongside Set was because he was heading toward Gauche, the desert city Marina had suggested.
Rei had been relentlessly hounded by merchants over the Twilight Spear affair, and Gauche was the refuge Marina had chosen for him until things settled down.
The neighboring country of the Kingdom of Mireana... a small nation that was, in essence, little more than a vassal state, called Solrein — much of its land consisted of desert.
And not the rocky desert Rei had experienced in a dungeon before, but rather deserts of pure sand for the most part.
Gauche, the city Rei and Set were heading toward, was among the top five most developed cities in Solrein.
A city that had grown around an oasis, it was hot year-round... a place one would never want to visit in summer, that much was certain.
And yet, Rei was heading toward just such a place alongside Set.
It was a trip Marina had proposed, and under normal circumstances he probably would have declined.
The reason he accepted was partly because he had no pressing business to attend to.
The research on Goblin meat was something he had been conducting with Mayo, but after hearing Rei's suggestion of aging, Mayo was currently testing the idea and had told Rei there was nothing he needed to do for now.
Rei understood that Mayo was being considerate, knowing he was being hounded by merchants over the Twilight Spear.
With nothing in particular he needed to do at present, and figuring that a desert — different from the dungeon at the Labyrinth City Exil — might harbor unknown monsters, Rei decided on the trip to Gauche.
There was also the thought that Vihera had accompanied Byune on her return trip home and was absent, so she might be angry when she returned — but Marina had promised to smooth things over on that front, allowing him to depart with peace of mind.
Going to a desert in summer seemed like sheer madness to anyone suffering through the heat in Gilm.
For someone heavy-set like Mayo, that sentiment would likely be all the stronger.
But... fortunately, Rei had the Dragon Robe, and more importantly, his body had been created using the Zephyle Clan's accumulated techniques.
Naturally, he had a certain degree of resistance to heat and cold, and on top of that, using a Magic Tent would allow him to stay comfortable.
Furthermore, being a neighboring country, his name likely wasn't as widely known there as it was in the Kingdom of Mireana.
Of course, given his exploits in the war against the Bestia Empire and the Fighting Tournament, it wasn't as though his name would be completely unknown.
At the same time, if it were an Adventurer's Guild, there was a very real possibility that information about Rei had already circulated... but even so, he figured it would be better than being persistently hounded by merchants.
"A desert, huh. I wonder what kind of magic stones we can get our hands on."
"Gururu!"
At Rei's words, Set rumbled happily.
Having acquired several skills during the World Tree incident, it probably wanted to try using them.
Skills like King's Intimidation were especially powerful, which meant opportunities to use them casually didn't come easily.
It had already been several days since departing Gilm. Unusually — truly unusually — Rei and Set were continuing their carefree journey through the skies without being caught up in any particular trouble.
They hadn't been attacked by bandits or the like while making camp, hadn't spotted any carriages being assaulted by bandits or monsters while flying, and hadn't gotten lost either — steadily making their way toward Gauche.
Due to her position, Marina hadn't been able to lend a detailed map, but she had given Rei a rough map to Gauche and explained the general route.
...Even with such careful precautions, getting caught up in trouble was par for the course for Rei, but strangely enough, the journey so far had been entirely without incident.
(Maybe the trouble didn't want to move in this heat? ...No way.)
Gradually, the surrounding scenery shifted from ordinary landscape to something closer to a rocky desert.
Gauche was located in a sandy desert, and once they passed through this stretch of rocky desert, the scenery would transition to that sandy desert.
"Gurururu?"
Suddenly, Set rumbled.
Wondering what had happened, Rei looked toward Set and found that its gaze was directed at the ground.
Following that line of sight, he spotted a caravan.
Unlike the caravans Rei typically saw being attacked by bandits or monsters, this one was proceeding through the rocky desert at a leisurely pace.
Curious about what had caught Set's attention, Rei carefully observed the caravan below.
Before long, he understood immediately what set it apart from the caravans he had seen before.
It was the carriages. Normally, they would be pulled by horses as the name implied, but the carriages in this caravan were being pulled by animals with humps on their backs... camels.
(Is it still called a carriage even when camels are pulling it?)
Rei briefly entertained that question, but having seen carriages pulled by tamed monsters on several occasions, he decided that a carriage was a carriage regardless.
While thinking about such things and watching the caravan on the ground, several members of the caravan must have noticed Set flying in the sky. They hurriedly began shifting into a defensive formation.
"Whoa, noticing us from this distance means they've got some pretty skilled guards. ...Set, let's go."
"Guruu!"
Crying out at Rei's voice, Set flapped its wings and left the area.
After flying on for a few minutes, Rei noticed that Set had once again directed its attention toward the ground.
Thinking there might be another caravan with camels, Rei also turned his gaze downward, but what spread out below was a landscape where rocky desert and sandy desert were intermixed.
If asked what was different from the places before, that was about the only difference he could discern.
(Set seemed to want to try eating camel meat... but I guess that concern was unfounded.)
Going by Rei's common sense, camels didn't look particularly edible at all.
But given that Set relished the meat of monsters, Rei figured there was nothing especially strange about it wanting to eat an animal like a camel.
Besides, eating camel was outside Rei's common sense, but he had seen dishes using camel meat on TV back in Japan, and he also knew that dairy products made from camel milk — cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream — could be extremely expensive in some regions.
(I think I saw somewhere that a camel's hump is considered a premium ingredient in Chinese cuisine too. ...Though apparently it's actually just a lump of fat.)
For some reason pondering camel cuisine, Rei noticed that Set was still staring at the ground. Troubled, he turned his gaze downward once more.
Figuring that Set wouldn't be staring at the ground this intently without some reason, Rei carefully observed the terrain below... and suddenly, something caught his eye. The ground was bulging and moving.
It was as though something was wriggling about beneath the surface... and indeed, Rei's suspicion was not mistaken.
Something long and slender was moving underground. From the sky, he could only make out a rough shape, but it was something elongated, like a worm or a snake.
"A worm? No, surely not."
If worms this massive existed, it would have to be a land beyond the realm of humanity.
It was a thought that seemed to make Rei forget that the place he usually resided was the only frontier region in the Kingdom of Mireana, but he quickly recalled the contents of the monster encyclopedia he had read at the library before departing Gilm.
It was the Sandworm, a monster he had encountered before in the dungeon at the Labyrinth City Exil.
However, the Sandworm he had previously encountered had legs, whereas the one currently moving across the ground — or more precisely, through the underground — didn't appear to have any.
Of course, since it was traveling underground, there was the possibility that its legs simply weren't visible from above...
"Small."
Rei's muttered words, spoken as he watched the monster — probably a Sandworm — racing through the earth, carried a tone of disappointment.
Compared to the Sandworm he had encountered before, this one was clearly smaller.
Normally, a five-meter-long monster would unquestionably be recognized as massive, but in Rei's case, barely a month had passed since he had fought a twenty-meter-long Giant Cicada that could also fly freely through the sky.
Additionally, the World Tree itself was staggeringly larger than an ordinary tree, so he had developed a tolerance for giant monsters.
"Still, it'd be a shame to let this one go. ...Set."
"Gururururu!"
Understanding what Rei wanted from his words alone, Set executed a sharp turn and gave chase to the creature presumed to be a Sandworm that had passed beneath them.
Given Set's speed, catching up to a monster traveling underground wasn't particularly difficult, but... upon understanding what lay in the monster's path, Rei furrowed his brow slightly.
It was because he understood what the monster was after.
In its line of travel was the caravan pulling carriages with camels... yes, the very same group that Set had overtaken moments ago.
"Ugh, another troublesome situation..."
Rei muttered, but the caravan must have also noticed the approaching monster. They hurriedly began forming a defensive formation.
There were about twenty adventurers. For a caravan of five camel-drawn carriages, the number was slightly small, but this had to do with the fact that they were traveling through a desert.
When journeying through a desert, one naturally had to carry large quantities of water, and the more people there were, the greater the water consumption.
For that reason, it was standard practice to hire a small number of skilled individuals above a certain level of competence.
Of course, this was merely the typical approach, and there were a fair number of people who made other choices.
Regardless, the caravan on the ground had chosen to fight rather than flee, and the guards were forming up.
Then, as if it had been waiting for them to complete their defensive formation, the monster emerged from the sand.
At the sight of it, Rei's expression shifted to one of mild surprise.
That was because the monster that appeared was not a Sandworm.
Having been completely convinced it was a Sandworm, he was caught off guard.
In appearance, it was close to a Sandworm, much as Rei had mistaken it for one. But unlike a Sandworm, its body was covered in scales.
Not something worm-like, but a snake.
"A Sand Serpent, was it?"
He recalled what had been written in the monster encyclopedia.
A C-Rank monster — and the kind of C-Rank meant to be taken down by a party.
The five-meter-long Sand Serpent's head peered down from its lofty position toward its prey below, flicking its tongue to intimidate the guards.
The guards hadn't been assembled with skilled fighters for nothing, and each readied themselves to mount a counterattack... but Rei smiled, thinking the timing was perfect.
"Twilight Spear... let me give it a test."
With those words, a deep crimson spear appeared in Rei's hand.
He poured magic power into the spear retrieved from the Misty Ring... and threw it.
Flying straight, yet cutting through the desert air, the Twilight Spear... in the next instant, effortlessly crushed the Sand Serpent's head, snuffing out its life.
"...Huh? Did I overdo it a little?"