At first, when Rei and the others heard the commotion, they figured a brawl had broken out among the adventurers.
With this many adventurers gathered together, it was only natural for some personalities to clash.
Moreover, everyone participating in this request possessed a certain level of skill—which meant there were just as many with strong egos.
After all, skill and personality didn't always align.
No, there were those for whom they did, but such individuals were few and far between.
It wasn't unreasonable to think that skilled individuals would develop strong egos, find each other's presence disagreeable, and come to blows over it.
However... the first to realize this wasn't the kind of brawl Rei was imagining was Set.
He couldn't exactly take out his Magic Tent in a place with this many people... or rather, the stronger concern was that if something happened while he was inside the tent, he'd be a step too late to react. At any rate, he sat directly on the ground like the other adventurers.
...And yet, there was naturally a difference between him and the rest.
The Magic Item kiln currently sitting near Rei's party was the prime example of that.
A kiln created by Rei and his acquaintance, the alchemist Asimov.
Naturally, since an alchemist had made it, it was no ordinary kiln; it was a Magic Item powered by magical energy.
Inside, Rei had taken several types of meat from his Misty Ring, seasoned them on the fly, and tossed them in.
Cooked differently from direct roasting over an open flame, the aroma of sizzling meat drifted through the surrounding air.
Waiting happily beside the kiln for the meat to cook were Byune and... Set.
It was Set who suddenly shifted his gaze away from the kiln and toward the forest.
"Guruuu"
"Set?"
The first to notice Set's change in demeanor was Vihera, who had been watching Byune with an exasperated look.
She called out to him, but Set didn't so much as acknowledge her question. He simply stared fixedly in one direction—toward the Treant Forest.
No, glaring might have been a more accurate description.
Naturally, with Set behaving like that, there was no way Rei wouldn't notice. He put his conversation with Marina about the Treant Forest on hold and followed Set's gaze.
"Doesn't look like just a simple brawl."
"You're right. A disturbance at this hour... I don't think we need to wonder what it is."
At Rei's words, Marina picked up the bow and quiver she had set nearby.
Vihera had kept her Hand Gauntlets and Foot Guards on, so she didn't need to prepare anything. The same went for Rei and Set.
Byune, perhaps shifting into a combat mindset, confirmed the sheath holding her weapon, Hakumo, was in place.
"Wait a moment."
Right before setting off, Rei pulled the meat out of the kiln and stored it back in his Misty Ring.
"Once this mess is over, we'll eat properly."
At Rei's words, Marina and Vihera gave him looks that were somehow exasperated yet laced with fondness.
Only Byune repeatedly nodded toward Rei, her face as expressionless as ever.
By then, the other adventurers near Rei's party had also picked up on the sounds of the disturbance.
They still initially assumed it was just a brawl, but as time passed, they gradually realized it was nothing of the sort. Once they learned it was an actual battle against monsters emerging from the Treant Forest, they immediately rushed to reinforce them.
"Anyway, considering the size of the Treant Forest, there's no telling how many monsters are pouring out. Our combat power is finite, so don't go blowing all your strength at once!"
Marina, Vihera, and Byune all nodded at Rei's words.
For Rei and Set, with their virtually inexhaustible stamina, running wild all night against monsters like the Treants they'd fought the previous evening wouldn't be a problem at all.
But being able to do that was strictly because Rei and Set were outliers.
(Well, if it were a fight against a strong enemy, Vihera would probably get so absorbed she'd lose track of time entirely.)
Vihera had looked bored during the earlier fight with the Treants, but now a smile crept across her face.
The reason was undoubtedly the sight of a sunflower—even larger than the trees growing in the Treant Forest—visible from where Rei and the others were standing.
At any rate, there was a very real possibility Vihera would focus so intensely on the battle that she'd drive herself to the brink of exhaustion.
Marina, who was primarily a rear-guard fighter, was in the same boat, and the lack of stamina for the small-bodied Byune went without saying.
Though Byune had built up considerably more stamina through her training over the winter.
Even so, she was still no match for Rei.
Everyone nodded at Rei's warning not to overexert themselves, and they broke into a run toward where the battle was apparently taking place.
The investigation team had set up camp in a fairly wide area, but even so, Rei and his party reached the scene in under half a minute.
As the state of the battle came into view, Rei charged straight in, figuring he should first help those under direct attack.
As always, he already held Death Scythe in his right hand and the Twilight Spear, drawn from his Misty Ring, in his left.
He passed right by an adventurer who was shouting at another to step back if he was a coward—the very same adventurer who had been ignoring the cautious veteran's advice about conserving stamina—and slashed through the Treant behind him with a single stroke of Death Scythe.
The Treant, cut diagonally, crumbled to the ground as its upper half collapsed.
Glancing at the adventurer who had been shouting about cowards, Rei spoke up.
"Considering how unnatural this forest is, conserving your strength over a quick skirmish isn't the wrong call."
"Wha—!? ...Rei?"
Naturally, since the man was an adventurer from Gilm, he knew who Rei was.
Even so, seeing his strength up close like this still caught him off guard.
He had a bold personality, and since he'd qualified for this request, his skill backed it up.
But even from such a man's perspective, Rei's strength was simply unbelievable.
The speed at which Rei had slipped right past him, and the sharp, devastating attack that severed a Treant's trunk in a single blow—even against a creature like that.
If that had been a strike fueled by everything Rei had, the man might have been able to accept it.
But even to his eye, Rei still seemed to have considerable leeway.
(So this is... a High-Rank Adventurer, and an Alias Holder...)
Leaving the dumbfounded man behind, Rei raised his voice to everyone locked in combat.
"These monsters don't have Magic Stones! That means they might not even technically qualify as monsters! And as for materials, there's no telling whether the Guild will even buy them! So don't worry about personal accolades—just focus on fighting together!"
In fact, Rei had been told that the Treant corpses he'd handed over not only lacked Magic Stones—the most critical part of any monster's materials—but were also subpar when evaluated as materials, including the Treant Branches.
They could be fully used as Construction Material, but... that was about it.
Whether they'd heard Rei's words or not, several adventurers began coordinating to fight the Treants together.
Perhaps they judged that if the materials wouldn't even fetch money, wasting stamina was pointless. Or perhaps they anticipated a prolonged battle.
At any rate, the arrival of Rei and the rest of Crimson Lotus Wings helped settle the confusion, and the adventurers began to fight cooperatively.
"Everyone who can use a bow, gather over here!"
At Marina's call, those who relied on bows as their weapon converged on her position.
Among them were some who used slingshots, but Marina accepted them without hesitation.
She needed to gather everyone with a means of ranged attack and deploy them efficiently.
She concentrated her support on adventurers who were at a disadvantage or about to be ambushed.
...However, as long as the opponents were Treants, bows weren't the most effective weapon.
Of course, they weren't entirely useless, but they served merely as suppression at best.
Perhaps understanding this, Marina set aside her bow and attacked with Spirit Magic instead.
Her primary targets were the vines.
The vines, slithering like snakes to close in, crawled along the ground, making them inherently difficult to spot.
The Wind Maidens, summoned through Wind Spirit Magic, launched attacks one after another.
Some adventurers were inadvertently captivated by the beautiful Wind Maidens. For those seeing the Wind Maidens' appearance or Spirit Magic for the first time, it was perhaps unavoidable.
Meanwhile, Byune, not expecting to fell Treants with her own attacks, focused on suppression.
Hakumo, a weapon forged from Silver Lion fangs, could easily slice through even a Treant.
...Even so, given the blade's short length, it couldn't inflict a fatal wound in a single strike.
Not as a substitute, but she could effortlessly sever something like a Treant Branch.
The vine monsters were even easier to cut through than Treants.
However, the seeds occasionally raining down from above were a serious nuisance for Byune.
Some of the seeds were about the size of her fist, and among them were even seeds as large as her head.
With those seeds falling erratically from overhead, she had to dedicate herself entirely to evasion.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Suddenly, a scream rang out nearby.
When the surrounding adventurers turned toward the source, they saw one of their own who had failed to dodge the seed attack take a direct hit on his arm.
...If that had been all, it wouldn't have been a problem. But the seed had embedded itself into his body and was taking root inside—which was an entirely different story.
The roots spread rapidly, visible even through the skin.
When the pulsating roots had spread across half of his body... he suddenly fell silent, as if he had lost consciousness.
"H-Hey...?"
The sight was so gruesome that an adventurer nearby, having just blown away a Treant with a hammer, called out to him cautiously.
But the man showed no sign of responding to his comrade's voice. The next moment, branches erupted suddenly from his eyes, nose, mouth, ears—even piercing through his skin.
...Yes, branches.
Branches not much different from those growing on a Treant sprouted one after another from all over his body. No—they were growing.
In less than ten seconds, the man who had been struck by the seed was reduced to a mute tree.
The only remnants suggesting the tree had once been a man were the torn clothes and shattered armor fragments scattered on the ground where the branches had burst forth.
"W-What the hell is this! Hey, the seeds falling from above are dangerous! Don't touch those seeds!"
Seeing his comrade transformed into a tree, the man screamed.
These were adventurers skilled enough to accept this request. If they knew the seeds were dangerous, avoiding them wasn't difficult.
And if dodging was truly impossible, they just needed to use a weapon or shield to knock them aside.
However, even if it came easily to adventurers, for the Researchers who never normally pushed their bodies, it was a far greater challenge.
A Researcher who did fieldwork and stayed at least somewhat active might still manage, but...
As a result, the adventurers escorting the Researchers now had to bat away the seeds raining down on them as well.
"Guh! ...Damn it, there's no end to these!"
An Adventurer Man, having forcefully deflected a seed the size of a child's head with his shield, shouted in frustration at no one in particular, his arm numb from the impact.
Since this was a rank-restricted request, he'd known there would be danger.
He'd also been told beforehand that once night fell, monsters including Treants would attack.
Even so, for things to devolve into this was completely unexpected. And moreover...
"Could it be... the Treant Forest is expanding because of these seeds?"
"No, but people almost never come this far into the Treant Forest. There's no way the forest would spread this much..."
"No, look. Trees are growing from where the seeds fell. The seeds don't need a person to germinate."
While the adventurers fought desperately, the Researchers observed the Treant Forest closely, exchanging theories among themselves.
Of course, the Researchers had come to the Treant Forest for exactly that purpose, so they were simply doing their jobs.
Even so... for the adventurers fighting for their lives and knocking away the raining seeds, it was far from an amusing sight.