That shimmering sight, with sunlight dancing off its surface, truly showcased the overwhelming grandeur of nature.
The blue, sparkling sea.
That was the scene currently stretching out before Rei's eyes.
"Whoa... it's not like this is my first time seeing the ocean, but this kind of view really is something else."
As far as the sea went, Rei had visited a port town called Emosion a few years back.
Of course, he had gone there to defeat a bounty-head monster known as Lemures, so taking a leisurely swim in the ocean had been out of the question.
"Hey, Rei-chan! If you can see the ocean, then hurry up! I want to see it too!"
Bistol's voice rang out from inside the Set Basket.
The others, including Elena, said nothing, but it was clear they all agreed with Bistol's sentiment.
"Got it, hold on a second. I'll look for somewhere to land. ...A rocky coast, huh."
Turning his gaze toward the shore, Rei spotted not a white sandy beach, but a shoreline littered with countless rocks that looked unforgivingly hard.
Then again, Rei's goal wasn't to go swimming. It was to catch as much seafood—fish included—as possible.
In that regard, a rocky coast was far better suited than a sandy beach.
Sure, sandy beaches had fish too, but rocky shores were genuinely better for catching all sorts of marine life: fish, shellfish, octopus, squid, and plenty more.
(Besides, there are things you can only do at a rocky shore.)
Back when Rei lived in Japan, he used to go to the sea with his family as a child, and later with his friends as he grew older.
The ocean not far from where he lived had sandy beaches, but rocky stretches as well.
Rei's family had often gone to play at the rocky coasts.
All sorts of shellfish, like turban shells, made their homes among the rocks. They would smash those shells with a stone, tie them to a fishing line, and drop them into the shallows.
Before long, small crabs and fish would swarm around it.
Not crayfishing, but crab fishing.
As a seaside activity, it was plenty of fun.
...And those crabs, precisely because they were small, had shells that weren't overly hard. Rei still remembered how incredibly delicious they were when deep-fried plain with a sprinkle of salt.
(Plus, you can find octopus even in the shallows. ...There probably aren't any fishing rights or regulations around here, so there's a chance we could catch things like abalone, turban shells, oysters, and the like. ...Well, there's no guarantee the abalone in this world are exactly the same species as on Earth, though.)
Mulling this over, Rei asked Set to descend to the ground.
But he wasn't heading straight for the shoreline.
Instead, he directed Set toward a spot a short distance away where steam was rising into the air.
(If we were basing ourselves out of a village or town, we wouldn't have to worry about fresh water after coming out of the sea. But when you're setting up camp in the middle of nowhere like this, securing a water supply is a must. Especially since we're at the ocean this time.)
Swim in the sea, and your body would naturally be soaked in seawater—in salt water.
When that happened, salt would inevitably cling to every inch of your body, hair included.
To prevent that, washing off after getting out of the water was essential.
(In that sense, finding a hot spring was a real stroke of luck.)
Even without a hot spring, Rei had a massive amount of water stored in his Misty Ring, and as a last resort, there was always the Dagger of Flowing Water.
...Of course, using water from the Dagger of Flowing Water—something often likened to Celestial Nectar—to wash one's body would be nothing short of extravagant from an outsider's perspective.
But that was strictly from everyone else's point of view.
To Rei, the Dagger of Flowing Water was simply a tool that produced unlimited water as long as he fed it his magic power. Even if others called its taste worthy of the name Celestial Nectar, to him it was just water he could drink freely whenever he pleased.
That was why, no matter how much of that water he used, he never really felt like he was being wasteful.
There was also the option of having Marina handle it with her Spirit Magic, but... considering the difference in magic power capacity, it was undoubtedly faster for Rei to do it himself.
Thanks to finding a hot spring this time, though, they wouldn't need to use water produced by the Dagger of Flowing Water to wash up.
(The real question is whether that hot spring is actually safe to bathe in. I've heard there are some you can't enter.)
As far as Rei knew, there were hot springs with water hot enough to scald, and others mixed with minerals that made soaking in them impossible.
Hoping it wasn't that kind of spring, he continued his descent toward the ground... and caught sight of several monkeys soaking in the water ahead.
The moment those monkeys spotted Set flying overhead, they bolted.
Seeing that, Rei breathed a sigh of relief. If wild animals could bathe in it, then it should be safe for them as well.
He set the Set Basket down on the grassy clearing beside the hot spring, and both he and Set touched down on the grass.
"Oh, Rei. Isn't the ocean that way?"
Stepping out of the Set Basket, Vihera glanced toward the sea in the distance and asked the question.
Marina, with her Spirit User abilities, understood exactly why Rei had chosen to land here. She smiled at Vihera's puzzled expression and spoke up.
"We're using this spot as our base."
"Why?"
"If you want to know, why don't you go take a look over there? I think you'll understand once you do, Vihera."
That piqued Vihera's curiosity. She beckoned to Byune, and the two of them wandered off to investigate.
"So then, Rei-chan. About setting up base here—what's the plan?"
"We have a Magic Tent, so that's sorted. There's room for Bistol to sleep too, so don't worry."
Even as he said it, Rei couldn't entirely shake the nagging doubt about whether sharing sleeping quarters with Bistol was truly a good idea.
Then again, if he voiced that concern honestly, Bistol would probably get offended, insisting that he had his own preferences.
To Bistol, Rei wasn't a romantic interest... if anything, it would be more accurate to call him someone Bistol wanted to dote on.
Whether being on the receiving end of Bistol's doting was actually a blessing was an entirely different matter.
"Oh my. Really? Then what are we doing for the rest of today? Are we heading out to catch seafood right away? Or should we set up the base first?"
"No, I already told you, the base is—"
"It's not just about the Magic Tent, honey. I'm talking about the area around it."
"Around the Magic Tent? Set's here, so we don't have to worry about monsters attacking for the time being. Bandits might show up, though."
"If bandits showed up, you'd probably be thrilled, Rei."
Marina said it with an amused smile.
And she wasn't wrong. Rei was feared among bandits as the Bandit Eater.
During the bandit subjugation around Sablusta, the one who had ultimately hunted down the most bandits was Rei.
He had taken out that many single-handedly—well, with Set, but still. And when you added the numbers from Marina, Vihera, and Byune—who weren't members of the Crimson Lotus Wings—along with Elena, Ara, and Ielo, Rei sat firmly at the top with an overwhelming lead over everyone else.
Naturally, the amount and quality of treasure he'd seized from the bandits' stockpiles was also the highest.
...Then again, Rei had Set fly him through the sky and searched from above alongside the griffon, so in a way, it was only natural that he'd found the most bandits.
Even when it came to well-camouflaged hideouts he wouldn't have spotted before, five days of continuous searching had taught him to pick up on subtle details that seemed out of place.
In that sense, the bandits who had caught wind of Rei's presence and fled were probably the smart ones.
"I seriously doubt there are any bandits around here, though."
Bandits needed targets to raid. The idea of them operating in an area this desolate—where not a single village, town, or city was visible even from the sky—was something Rei simply couldn't imagine.
"But even if there's no bandit hideout, it's not a bad spot to stash treasure, is it? No people around means no one's going to stumble across anything you've hidden."
Hearing Vihera's reasoning, Rei had to admit she had a point.
(Not being found by people is an advantage, but it's not like there's zero chance of Goblins stumbling onto it, though.)
The thought crossed his mind even as he conceded the point, but he kept it to himself for now.
"In any case, I can't imagine bandits lurking around here. So what exactly are we preparing for?"
"Let's see. For instance, building a cooking stove. If we were just staying one night, there'd be no need for anything elaborate, but we're planning to use this as a base for several days, right? In that case, wouldn't it make sense to set things up so we're at least somewhat comfortable? And not just the stove."
"Like this?"
Saying so, Rei pulled an oven out of his Misty Ring.
Not a cooking stove. An oven.
Specifically, the same oven he always used when baking pizza.
"Umm... Rei-chan. This is..."
"As you can see, an oven. It's not a cooking stove, but with this, you can handle a fair amount of cooking."
"No, I'm sure it is... I'm sure it is... Aaaaaah, why is this... I don't even know what to say!?"
Unable to articulate his feelings, Bistol buried his face in his hands.
The muscles in his bare arms bulged with the motion, but in this situation, they couldn't exactly be called intimidating.
The others watched Bistol struggle for a short while, but eventually, having apparently gathered his thoughts, he looked up at the oven and spoke.
"Listen, Rei-chan. From what I can tell, this oven is a Magic Item, right?"
"That's right. Well, if it weren't, camping would be a hassle in all sorts of ways."
A proper pizza oven required an hour of pre-heating with firewood before it could actually be used—sometimes even longer.
But doing that every single time while camping was obviously impractical.
This Magic Item oven was the solution to that problem.
Because it was a Magic Item rather than an ordinary portable oven, there was no need for pre-heating.
If a professional Cook were to see it, they might well call it heresy—something fundamentally different from a proper oven heated with firewood.
In fact, if someone claimed the food came out tasting worse compared to a normal oven, Rei wouldn't have had any grounds to argue.
Then again, Rei didn't exactly possess a palate refined enough to discern such delicate differences in flavor.
...In truth, the body Zephyle had created for Rei was equipped with extraordinarily sharp five senses.
Which meant his sense of taste was also overwhelmingly sharper than an ordinary person's... but in that particular regard, it came down to Rei's own lack of experience.
To be precise, it was more accurate to say he was still operating on the senses he'd had when he lived in Japan.
It wasn't that he'd never eaten good food back in Japan. Quite the opposite, actually.
He'd eaten fresh vegetables harvested from his parents' garden on the very same day, savored river fish like ayu, and enjoyed the bounty of the mountains—wild plants, Mushrooms, and the like. In terms of ingredients, he had been exceptionally blessed.
And yet his palate wasn't particularly sharp—in fact, it leaned closer to that of a cheapskate. That was likely more a product of Rei's personality than anything else.
"Huh... so they make Magic Items like this too. But I think this would be a bit tricky for an ordinary person to use."
Rei understood what Bistol was getting at.
Size-wise, this oven wasn't all that different from a standard one.
If anything, it was actually slightly larger than normal.
This wasn't because it couldn't be made any smaller as a Magic Item... but rather because, when camping, there was a chance other adventurers might use it alongside Rei and his group.
That consideration had driven the decision to make it a bit bigger.
Given all that, carrying this oven around... would essentially require something like the Misty Ring that Rei possessed.
Alternatively, a large enough group that could afford a dedicated Carriage to transport it might be able to put it to good use.
"You'd need to be able to channel magic power into it, or otherwise have Magic Stones on hand. I'm not going to pretend it isn't a hassle to use under normal circumstances. But on the flip side, you don't need firewood, and you can start cooking right away whenever you want. There are plenty of upsides."
Bistol's expression toward Rei as he murmured that was a mix of exasperation and... envy. Envy at the ability to eat freshly made food anywhere, anytime.
In reality, even for a merchant like Bistol, meals on the road usually consisted of preserved foods and the like, so that reaction was only natural.
And so Bistol, who possessed a Magic Bag—a cut-rate version of an Item Box—found himself wanting one of these very same ovens. Just a little. Truly, just a little.