Though snow had accumulated in the forest, it had been trampled firm to a certain extent thanks to adventurers who had gone ahead of Rei and his companions.
Rei's group advanced straight through it.
But partway, Rei suddenly spoke up.
"Hey, if we keep going like this, won't we run into other adventurers?"
Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't be much of a problem.
But today, Rei and his group had come to this forest to see if they could coordinate as a party—or rather, to find their weak points.
If possible, they didn't want anyone else seeing that.
There was a chance their coordination flaws could be identified, and this party drew attention for all sorts of reasons.
It would probably be fine, but someone might lose their senses and attack them.
This party had more than enough attractive elements to make that a real concern.
Granted, whether anyone would actually try something like that after seeing Set was something many would question.
But still—less danger was always better, so Rei's words carried weight.
Besides, the snow would normally make walking difficult, so it wouldn't be unusual to stick to a packed path. But this time they had Marina—an exceptional Spirit Magic user.
With conditions this favorable, there was no need to deliberately follow in someone else's footsteps.
"You're right. I think Rei's opinion is correct, and he's the party leader, after all. Besides, if we're going to fight anyway, I'd rather take on fresh, energetic monsters than ones already worn down or injured from battling other adventurers."
"...We haven't officially formed a party yet, though."
Even as he agreed with the very Vihera-like remark, Rei offered the caveat.
"Oh? We haven't officially formed a party yet, but it's already decided that these members will form one, right? Then I don't see any problem."
Marina followed up after Vihera. When Rei turned his gaze to the last member, he found Byune nodding as well.
"Guruu."
Only Set let out a low cry, as if to comfort Rei.
Giving Set a light pat in appreciation, Rei turned back to Marina and nodded.
Without needing words, she seemed to understand what he wanted. Marina softly chanted a spell, and the snow that had accumulated along a branch off their path began to clear away.
"So convenient," Vihera murmured with genuine feeling. Rei and Byune clearly agreed, both nodding.
In truth, Marina's Spirit Magic was extraordinarily versatile.
As she had done during the party at her mansion, she could warm the surroundings to a springlike temperature without melting the snow, or—as now—clear away undisturbed fresh powder to carve out a path.
Considering she also used Spirit Magic to clean her entire mansion, it was easy to appreciate just how capable she was.
At the very least, compared to Rei's Flame Magic—which was used almost exclusively for offense—there was no comparison when it came to sheer utility.
Of course, Rei had all his daily necessities organized inside his Misty Ring, so he could manage perfectly fine without Spirit Magic.
But that was only possible because Rei possessed the Misty Ring, an abundance of Magic Items, and more money than he could spend. Under normal circumstances, no one could pull off such a thing.
Spirit Magic, used primarily by Dark Elves and Elves, clearly surpassed human magic in its flexibility.
If we had more Spirit Magic users, things would be a lot more convenient... but there are so few humans who can use it. Even regular mages are scarce.
Rei mulled this over while scanning their surroundings.
Many adventurers had gathered in Gilm, so there were a fair number of mages among them.
But if asked how many Spirit Mages were in that number, Rei couldn't give a clear answer.
Part of that was simply because he wasn't well-informed about other adventurers' abilities.
"Guruuh!"
As they walked through the forest, Set, who had been at Rei's side, suddenly let out a sharp cry.
Set's gaze was locked on something ahead of their path.
No one present failed to grasp what that cry meant.
Each readied their weapons and fell into formation.
Marina, who had been leading with Spirit Magic, dropped back to the rear. Vihera and Rei, who had been behind her, stepped to the front. Byune took the rear guard as Marina's escort.
This was the party's basic formation.
Rei and Vihera, with their superior combat power, held the front line. Marina provided support, while Byune protected Marina and exploited openings to launch Long Needles.
Set, able to fly, served as a free-roving skirmisher.
Since a Gryphon was an extraordinary combat asset in its own right, the judgment was that letting it act freely worked better than locking it into a fixed role.
Though the fact that Set was intelligent enough to understand commands was also what made a skirmisher role viable.
"Didn't expect a monster to come at us on its own," Rei muttered.
Given the surrounding trees, he held only a single Twilight Spear.
He normally fought in Twin Spear Style, but Death Scythe's wide, sweeping arc was extremely difficult to use in this kind of environment.
And since he was fighting alongside Vihera, a weapon with as wide an attack range as Death Scythe wasn't the right fit for this situation.
Normally, monsters that sensed Set's presence wouldn't reveal themselves so readily.
That was why Rei had assumed they would have to track monsters down themselves. But this time, one was showing up on its own.
Could it be Goblins...? No, judging by Set's demeanor, that's not it.
When it came to opponents brazen enough to attack even with Set around, Goblins had the strongest image in Rei's mind.
That wasn't a baseless assumption, either—he had witnessed Goblins charge at Set time and time again with his own eyes.
And every time, the moment they witnessed Set's power, they would flee in an instant. That same scene, over and over.
But from what Rei could see, Set's behavior was different now.
If the opponent were Goblins, Set wouldn't be showing even a hint of caution.
"Shaaaaaaaaaaah!"
What emerged with that threatening cry was something that at first glance looked like nothing more than a lizard.
Since it was lizard-like, Rei momentarily wondered if it might be a dragon, but it had no wings or anything of the sort. Just an ordinary lizard.
That is, if you could call something standing a meter tall and stretching nearly two meters from nose to tail tip a lizard.
And its color wasn't the green you'd expect of a lizard, but a pure white like fresh snow.
Its shape was unmistakably that of a lizard, but everything else about it was clearly something else entirely.
Rei tried to recall the monster's name, searching his memory of the Monster Encyclopedia—but someone spoke up before he could.
"Snow Salamander!? Why here of all places!?"
It was Marina who cried out in astonishment.
As if responding to her voice, the Snow Salamander opened its mouth.
"Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Along with its screech, a blizzard erupted from a mouth lined with rows of short fangs.
"Be careful—it's Blizzard Breath!"
The moment Marina's warning reached them, Rei and Vihera split left and right.
They could have jumped backward, but they had no way of knowing the breath's range.
The Snow Salamander, however, kept spewing Blizzard Breath while swinging its head as if chasing after Rei.
"Tch!"
Thanks to the Dragon Robe, he felt almost none of the cold.
But the Dragon Robe could only protect against the cold itself.
It couldn't do anything about the raw force of the impact, and Rei was sent flying through the air.
For a split second, he considered using his Sleipnir boots, but immediately remembered that his current boots weren't Sleipnir boots—just the ordinary kind adventurers typically wore.
Even so, while hurtling through the air, he somehow managed to steady himself and landed on the snow.
"Sha!?"
Almost the instant Rei touched down, a scream—rather than another Blizzard Breath—erupted from the Snow Salamander's mouth.
Regaining his stance, Rei turned to see Vihera rapidly closing the distance on the creature, which was shrieking with several arrows buried in its body.
"Haaaaah!"
Her fist connected squarely with the Snow Salamander's body.
It sank into the white flesh... and the force sent the monster flying sideways several meters.
"Shaaaaaaaaah!"
A different scream from the ones before.
What it meant, Rei understood perfectly.
Vihera's single strike had clearly dealt far more damage than the arrows.
Vihera herself was slightly startled by how much power her blow had produced.
She had thrown a punch, but she hadn't used her signature Magic Impact Palm, nor had she extended mana claws from her Hand Gauntlets.
It had been a purely bare-fisted strike.
And yet, it was undeniably more powerful than anything she had ever landed before.
She knew exactly where that power came from.
The ritual performed with the Silver Lion's heart.
She hadn't gone all out during combat training with Byune, but considering the force behind that one punch, that had clearly been the right call.
"Sha... Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Even so, the Snow Salamander didn't go down. Instead, it unleashed Blizzard Breath once more—this time at Rei, who was closest.
"Not a chance!"
The instant he saw the Blizzard Breath bearing down on him, Rei channeled mana and spun the Twilight Spear in front of him.
The mana-infused spear completely deflected the Blizzard Breath.
"Sha!?"
That was clearly the last thing the Snow Salamander expected. It stopped its breath involuntarily and let out a cry of surprise.
"Nn."
In that opening, Byune closed the distance in one burst and swung Hakumo—the short dagger forged from Silver Lion materials.
True to its name, the pure white blade effortlessly slit the Snow Salamander's throat, painting streaks of red across the untouched fresh snow below.
By all rights, the Snow Salamander was a B-Rank monster.
Its strength was on par with an Orc King or a Goblin King, and a C-Rank party would have to be prepared for total annihilation to face one.
In other words, it was not an opponent Byune could handle on her own.
If she had encountered it alone, she would have had virtually no chance of winning.
Byune understood this perfectly. She would have undoubtedly retreated.
But the current Byune had Hakumo—forged from S-Rank monster materials.
Her own combat power was by no means high, but the weapon itself was first-class.
Powerful enough to wound even an A-Rank monster... and, depending on the circumstances, even an S-Rank monster's body.
Of course, being able to wound something and being able to land a hit on it were two very different things.
The reason Byune had managed to slit the Snow Salamander's throat was that Marina's arrows and Vihera's strike had slowed its movements, and it had been caught off guard when its Blizzard Breath was blocked.
On top of that, Marina's Spirit Magic had boosted Byune's movement speed beyond her normal limits, and with everything she had, she closed the gap and flashed Hakumo in a single strike.
That it took all of this just to land one hit showed that a B-Rank monster was no joke.
"Nn!"
Having slit the Snow Salamander's throat, Byune didn't let her guard down for an instant and leapt clear.
With Marina's Spirit Magic support, her movement was remarkably smooth.
But even so—it was by a hair's breadth.
The fangs of the Snow Salamander, its throat slashed open, passed through the exact spot where Byune's face had been a moment before.
If she had been even slightly slower to retreat... or if she hadn't had the Spirit Magic assistance, her face would have been torn off by the Snow Salamander's jaws.
Despite suffering the fatal wound of a slit throat, its ferocity hadn't dimmed in the slightest.
And just as it opened its mouth to strike at Byune once more... the mana-infused Twilight Spear pierced straight through its open jaws.