Under a clear sky, Rei rode Set through the air as usual.
Vihera hung from Set's legs as always, and below them, a green carpet of land stretched out across the ground.
As they flew, Rei guided Set according to the Magic Item in his hand.
"Set, a little more to the right."
"Gurur."
At Rei's words, Set flapped his wings and adjusted his course.
"Hey, Rei. How many more Unbris do you think are out there?"
Vihera asked while hanging from Set's front legs. Rei shrugged lightly before answering.
"Hard to say. The first Unbris we took down, plus the one Mirene's group found. They say when you find one, assume there are thirty more... Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
Recalling the black bugs he'd seen in kitchens back in Japan, Rei gave Vihera that reply.
(Come to think of it, you can handle rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles just fine. Why do cockroaches alone creep me out so much?)
While pondering something utterly pointless, he gazed up at the endless blue sky and stifled a yawn.
With the Unbris detector completed, Rei and Vihera had been roused early that morning—at an hour that could honestly still be called the middle of the night. But since going back to sleep would've been awkward, they'd eaten breakfast and spent the time on some light combat training instead.
Vihera got so absorbed in her fight with Rei that it nearly escalated into a real battle... but fortunately, she caught herself right at the brink.
Vihera was a good partner for Twin Spear Style training. She clearly wasn't happy about having to hold back, but the session had been fulfilling nonetheless.
They'd gotten so caught up in their training that the inn's other guests started waking up. Several of them caught sight of the "training"—really, a fight—taking place in the backyard, and the sheer shock of it woke them right up.
After finishing their morning workout and eating breakfast in the dining hall, they were now up in the sky, using the detector alongside Set to search for Unbris.
Naturally, they'd already spotted several Goblin Leader packs that day and incinerated them all at once with Flame Magic from above.
Even at Set's speed, they still couldn't spot any Unbris—a consequence of the creatures taking the form of black mist.
If the Unbris were flying through the sky, they'd be easy enough to find, but the ones moving underground were impossible to detect.
Even when they weren't underground, any that crawled low to the ground could hide in the grass, making them just as difficult to spot.
They'd already arrived at locations where the detector had picked up Unbris responses several times during the flight, but they could never find anything beyond that.
They were scanning the ground and sky for Unbris right now... but ended up spotting something else entirely.
"Ah, Rei. Those are Orcs down there, aren't they?"
"Hm?"
At Vihera's words, Rei quickly scanned the area.
Even when she said "down there," Vihera was clinging to Set's front legs, so Rei had no way of knowing which direction she was looking.
Still, after a moment of searching, he managed to spot the pack of Orcs she was talking about.
A pack of about twenty Orcs, apparently led by an Orc Leader.
He couldn't say whether that number was large or small for a pack led by an Orc Leader.
But to Rei, Orcs were valued more as delicious meat than for their rank.
Whatever the typical pack size, he might complain if there were too few, but he'd never complain about too many.
(Well, if I had to voice a complaint, I'd say I wish a High-ranking Species of Orc had shown up.)
Orc meat was tasty compared to monsters of the same rank, but it wasn't quite "exquisite."
If anything, it was more like premium-grade everyday meat.
Of course, to ordinary adventurers, it was still somewhat rare—mostly due to preservation issues.
But Rei had the Misty Ring, so that wasn't a concern.
At any rate, the pack of Orcs moving along the ground was headed straight for Gilm.
Goblins would charge toward Gilm without a second thought, but Orcs understood the danger of making enemies of humans.
The fact that these Orcs were heading toward Gilm anyway probably came down to the Orc Leader's temperament or something similar.
"Well, if they're headed for Gilm, we can't just let them go."
"...That doesn't sound like someone who's reluctantly attacking, you know?"
Vihera muttered, catching the unmistakable note of excitement in Rei's voice. He didn't bother denying it.
The truth was, he was genuinely glad to run into a pack of Orcs.
For Rei and Set, Orc meat was a dietary staple.
They ate other monsters' meat too, and when they were in Gilm, they often ate at restaurants and dining halls.
But outdoors, Orc meat was still a frequent choice... and the supply they'd obtained from the Orc settlement was running low.
In that sense, finding Orcs here was a stroke of luck.
"Vihera, sorry, but I'm going ahead. You and Set make sure none of them escape."
"Easier said than done. Just the two of us... well, more accurately, since you're the one charging in first, there's no way me and Set alone can stop every single one from getting away."
"Don't worry. Set, if it comes down to it, use King's Intimidation. That'll either stop them cold... or at least slow them down enough that they can't run."
"...Then wouldn't it be faster to just use King's Intimidation from the start?"
Rei nodded at the obvious question—then realized Vihera couldn't see the gesture from where she was hanging.
"Right. If we just wanted to kill them, King's Intimidation would do the job. But it freezes the opponent in place, which is basically the same as making them tense up. And when that happens, the quality of the meat drops."
Back in Japan, Rei had watched a TV program about that very topic.
It was about how animals were slaughtered.
The meat of an animal killed in a relaxed state—or one that died without realizing it was being killed—versus the meat of an animal that knew it was about to die and struggled before being slaughtered.
The act of killing was the same, but the meat from the same animal could taste entirely different depending on its state at the moment of death.
Naturally, meat from animals killed in a relaxed state was far tastier, while meat from animals killed while struggling or under stress tasted worse.
That was a general rule, of course. There were some species where meat from animals killed while struggling actually tasted better.
But Orcs definitely fell into the former category.
Perhaps because it was monster meat, killing them in a tense state didn't make the meat that much worse—but it still dropped in quality. That was a fact.
That was why Rei wanted to avoid using King's Intimidation right out of the gate.
"Alright then... I'm counting on you."
Once they were directly above the Orcs, Rei called that out and leaped off Set's back.
As he dropped past Vihera, she shot him a look of pure exasperation... but to Rei, Vihera—someone who craved battles against strong opponents—was plenty strange herself.
Compared to her, putting his appetite first didn't seem all that odd.
In midair, he pulled Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from the Misty Ring and used his Sleipnir boots to kick off the air, bleeding off his speed.
Then, using the recoil from one final midair kick, he plummeted straight toward the Orc Leader—the High-ranking Species whose meat tasted better than any of the others.
He swung Death Scythe, and the Orc Leader's body split clean down the middle, spilling innards and blood across the ground.
The Orc Leader's life ended before it ever knew what killed it.
Rei landed on the ground beside the bisected corpse.
The sight was so unexpected that the rest of the pack froze for an instant.
"Flying Slash!"
He loosed a Flying Slash at the stunned Orcs, and several heads went flying—simultaneously, the Twilight Spear crushed another Orc's skull.
A few more Orcs fell to his attacks before the pack finally registered that they were under assault.
"Buhihihihi!"
An Orc near Rei let out a squealing cry and swung its club down.
If it had connected, it would have smashed Rei's skull—but there was no way he'd take a hit like that so easily.
"Too slow!"
He swung his magic-infused Death Scythe to meet the descending club.
Rather than deflecting it with the scythe's sheer weight, the blade sheared clean through the club at an angle.
"Buhi!?"
If the club's blow had been blocked or dodged, the Orc wouldn't have been so confused.
But having its club severed—one that wasn't some random tree branch like Goblins used, but a proper, purpose-made weapon—was completely beyond anything the Orc expected.
The Orc let out a cry of shock, but in the next instant, the Twilight Spear slammed into its head, smashing most of it apart and sending the creature crumpling to the dirt.
Watching it collapse, Rei was already swinging Death Scythe toward the next Orc.
"Multi Slash!"
The attack struck an Orc wielding a longsword—one that, under normal circumstances, should have been able to parry Death Scythe's blow.
But the longsword's blade was effortlessly severed by the magic-charged Death Scythe, and at the same time, parts of the Orc's body that the blade hadn't even touched were slashed open.
It was an attack using the Multi Slash skill, which enabled multiple strikes in a single swing. To an Orc who had never heard of such a skill, it would have been incomprehensible.
"Next!"
At Rei's shout, the Orcs descended into outright chaos.
If they'd been facing an opponent they stood a chance against, they might have rallied and tried to take him down.
But watching their leader—the Orc Leader—be cut down in an instant, and seeing their companions fall one after another, the Orcs had no courage left to challenge Rei.
In this situation, there was only one thing to do: put as much distance between themselves and Rei as possible and flee.
The Orcs bolted all at once—but Rei had already prepared for exactly that.
"Gururururururururururu!"
Set's roar echoed across the area.
That roar, unleashed with King's Intimidation active, unmistakably froze the Orcs in their tracks.
A handful still managed to move, but their movements were sluggish and slow.
Set dispatched them one after another, striking with his front legs.
...The fact that he targeted only their heads, leaving the rest of their bodies completely unharmed, was no doubt because shattering the torsos would have reduced the amount of edible meat.
Vihera's primary fighting style was hand-to-hand, but even she couldn't replicate what Set did—obliterating whatever point of impact his strikes connected with.
What she did have, however, were gauntlets that generated magical claws and greaves that produced magical blades.
And more importantly, she had the skill called Magic Impact Palm, which delivered damage straight to the target's interior, completely bypassing any defense that muscle and fat could provide.
With all of that at her disposal, mere Orcs had no chance of stopping Vihera.
The Orcs dropped one after another.
Rei, naturally, wasn't just standing by watching. He wielded Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear against any Orc that still tried to run.
In the end, the entire pack was wiped out in under five minutes. The only ones left standing were Rei, Vihera, and Set—two people and one creature.
"...No challenge at all."
Vihera muttered in dissatisfaction, though her expression didn't look nearly as disappointed as her words suggested—probably because she'd already known the Orcs would be weak.
"Well, I get that you want a stronger opponent, Vihera, but let's save that for later."
As he stored the Orc corpses, he smiled—especially at having secured the Orc Leader's body and Magic Stone—and delivered that line to Vihera.
"I know. Honestly, would it kill a Cyclops Leader Species to show up? Or maybe an Ogre?"
Her words probably weren't what triggered it, but in the next instant, Rei spotted a group of adventurers sprinting toward them.
A warrior, a thief, and a mage.
The three of them were people Rei recognized.
"Arrogan, Culotte, and Schola?"
"Rei! Perfect timing! Over there—there's an Unbris! And a giant one, completely different from what the Guild described!"
Arrogan shouted the moment he spotted Rei.