In the end, Rei and his party annihilated the flock of Yellow Birds with virtually no injuries.
D-Rank monsters were certainly troublesome for the adventurers in Golts, but for Rei's party, they were hardly formidable foes.
Their ability to fly alone made them difficult to deal with, but Rei's party had Set, who could soar freely through the sky, Rei himself, who could dash around the air with considerable freedom thanks to his Sleipnir boots, and Elena, who also possessed a pair of Sleipnir boots, though not as reinforced as Rei's.
With others like Marina, who used Spirit Magic, Rei's party had no shortage of members capable of striking airborne targets. A flock of several dozen Yellow Birds was not a particularly tough challenge.
Finding the Yellow Birds after they had emerged from the Dungeon had been extremely difficult, but driven by what appeared to be a homing instinct, they returned to the Dungeon—right where Rei's party was waiting. Wiping them out was simple enough after that.
"Well, we've taken down the Yellow Birds for now, but..."
Rei spoke up while watching the Golts adventurers who had been at the location before his party arrived gathering the Yellow Bird carcasses.
The person he addressed was Reliu, who held the alias of Gale.
"Right. The Emergency Request is complete for now... What is it?"
With the hood of his Dragon Robe drawn up, his expression couldn't be clearly seen, but Reliu noticed that Rei was giving him a strange look for some reason.
When Reliu questioned why he was on the receiving end of such a look, Rei realized he hadn't grasped what he was getting at.
"That flying slash you used to attack the Yellow Birds. What was that?"
"Hm? Ah, that. Come to think of it, you were using a similar attack, Rei. Is that why you're curious?"
"Yeah."
Since he was genuinely curious, Rei simply nodded, showing no particular signs of discomfort.
Reliu was slightly surprised by Rei's casual demeanor, but since it wasn't something he particularly needed to hide, he answered honestly.
"That skill is basically my trademark."
"...A skill, huh. I thought it might have been some kind of Magic Sword."
Like Vihera's Magic Impact Palm, it was a technique—a skill—that didn't use magic but employed magical power, unique to its user.
If Reliu used Wind Magic, that would be one thing, but since he didn't, Rei's guess was that it was most likely a skill.
Of course, there were also types of Magic Swords that used magical power to produce similar special effects.
From what Rei could see, though, Reliu's longsword was a fine specimen worthy of being called excellent, but it didn't appear to be a Magic Sword.
Since collecting Magic Items was a hobby of Rei's, his eye for them was reasonably accurate.
...Though that was only when compared to an amateur, and fell far short of a professional Alchemist.
In any case, since it wasn't a Magic Sword, it was immediately apparent that the technique was a type of skill.
"It's just an ordinary weapon. That skill is Wind Slash. It's my specialty."
"Wind Slash, huh. The name is exactly what it sounds like."
"Well, if you're going to say that, what about your Flying Slash? That magic is the same sort of thing, isn't it?"
"...I won't deny that."
For a moment, the flow of conversation nearly led Rei to say that Flying Slash was a skill, but he caught himself, remembering that the Death Scythe's skill had been designated as his own magic, and simply nodded at Reliu's words.
"Seems like even with the difference between magic and skills, we can end up using similar things."
"Yeah. Plus, that kind of skill is pretty handy."
Reliu nodded with sincere feeling at Rei's words.
In truth, for Reliu, who wielded a longsword, the Wind Slash skill was extremely useful.
So much so that it had become his trademark.
"We've finished gathering the Yellow Bird carcasses. What should we do with them?"
One of the adventurers called out to Rei and Reliu as they conversed.
Rei directed his gaze to where the Yellow Birds had been gathered. True to the adventurer's words, all of the slain carcasses had been assembled there.
With all several dozen of them piled up as carcasses, and the Yellow Birds themselves being fairly large, it formed quite a substantial mound.
"For now, you all pitched in to help. You can each take one carcass with you."
"...Huh? Really?"
Perhaps not expecting to receive such a benefit, the adventurer who had come to report to Rei broke into a delighted grin, as did the other adventurers who had overheard Rei's words.
If the Yellow Bird meat had been delicious, Rei wouldn't have been this generous.
But Yellow Bird meat, while edible, tasted nothing special.
It wasn't bad, of course, but unlike Orc meat, it didn't taste better than its rank would suggest.
Given that, keeping a few would be fine, but when the number reached several dozen, the effort of butchering them became more trouble than it was worth.
In the first place, since he was guaranteed to obtain two Magic Stones, everything else was just a bonus as far as Rei was concerned.
"Yeah, you all helped us out with various things. Just think of it as your reward."
"I don't really feel like we helped that much, though. As for throwing stones at them, we only did that at the start, and most of them didn't even hit."
That was what the man said, but for Rei, being able to gather information about the local terrain, what kinds of monsters fell from what appeared to be the Dungeon, and how frequently they fell... was something he greatly appreciated.
Though he had heard about the situation from Worker, it was undeniably best to hear information directly from someone with firsthand experience.
The men, while lacking any real awareness that they had been of use, judged that for an Alias Holder, this level of generosity wasn't unusual, and gratefully accepted the Yellow Birds.
For Rei's party, the Yellow Birds weren't a particularly rewarding catch—meat aside—but for the Golts adventurers, they were likely more than sufficient.
"Well then, we've taken care of all the Yellow Birds for now... By the way, there's no chance there's still another flock of Yellow Birds out there besides this one, is there?"
"Huh? Ah, no. This is all of them."
"I see. Then there's no problem... Now then, what to do from here."
Rei felt relieved at the man's words, and at the tail end of his murmur, turned his gaze toward the Dungeon set into the cliff face.
It wasn't yet the hour of sunset, and considering the time, while a full-scale Dungeon conquest would be impossible, a quick survey of the entrance area wouldn't be out of the question.
Since they had come all this way, it might be fine to take a little look... or so he thought, but—
"Rei, you should hold off for today."
Elena spoke, stopping him.
To be honest, Elena also wanted to see the Dungeon that had formed on the cliff face.
But they had originally come here today to fulfill the request to defeat the Yellow Bird flock, and she judged it better not to do anything unnecessary, so she told him as much.
It would probably be fine, but since it was still an unknown Dungeon, there was no telling whether something might be lurking inside.
"Ah."
As if to cut off Elena's words, one of the Adventurer Men let out a small sound.
At his voice, Rei and everyone else present instinctively looked toward the Dungeon, where several Goblins were just then plummeting toward the ground.
They flailed wildly midair, but unable to fly, it accomplished nothing.
As a result, the Goblins slammed into the ground and lost their lives.
"...I see. So that's how they fall. No surviving that."
Since it was his first time witnessing monsters falling from a Dungeon to their deaths, Rei's words carried a faintly mixed tone.
Whether the Dungeon possessed something akin to a will, Rei couldn't say.
But looking at the dungeon core, he thought it wouldn't be strange for such a thing to exist.
If so, why had it created a Dungeon in such a place?
That question consumed his thoughts.
Rei harbored such doubts, but it was a question he could only have formulated because he had experienced several Dungeons before.
For the residents of Golts, this was the first Dungeon they had ever seen, so this was likely normal.
Indeed, even upon seeing this sight, they didn't appear particularly affected and called out to Rei.
"Um, if it's all right, we'd like to extract the Magic Stones and Subjugation Proof Parts from the Goblin carcasses. Is that okay?"
For Rei... no, for most adventurers in Gilm, a Goblin's Magic Stone was one thing, but a Subjugation Proof Part wasn't something anyone would go out of their way to claim.
Of course, since the Goblins were already dead, there were those who would think it wasteful not to make use of them, and it was a different story for someone who, for whatever reason, had arrived in Gilm while still at a low rank, or someone who had become an adventurer in Gilm.
In any case, Rei had no desire to go out of his way to the spot where the Goblin carcasses lay and strip them of their Magic Stones and Subjugation Proof Parts.
"Ah, go ahead. Just watch out—there might be other monsters falling from the Dungeon. If you die fighting a monster, that's one thing, but getting killed by a falling one would just be ridiculous."
"Yes!"
The man called out cheerfully and headed toward where the Goblins had fallen.
"What's with you, being so considerate? Did you take a liking to him?"
For Rei, who was fundamentally not very good at social interaction, to actually worry and caution someone.
It wasn't strange for Marina to direct a somewhat teasing look his way.
"I didn't mean anything like that. But I'm definitely grateful they taught us various things. If that's the case, giving a little advice is the least I can do."
Even as he said that, the man who had gone to extract the Goblin's Magic Stone and Subjugation Proof Part appeared experienced in scavenging the carcasses of monsters that fell from the Dungeon.
Even without Rei going out of his way to caution him, he would naturally be watching overhead.
(Well, if something more profitable than a Goblin, like an Orc, were to fall to the ground, there's a very real possibility he'd focus his attention on that instead.)
Even understanding that monsters fall from above, there was nothing to be done about the fact that one's attention would inevitably be drawn to a more profitable monster.
"Hmm... If you say so, I guess it's fine. Having the Golts adventurers be cooperative with us is a help... In that sense, accepting the Yellow Bird subjugation request and wiping them all out the same day was an excellent outcome."
At Marina's somewhat meaningful words, Rei quietly averted his gaze.
"You've already finished it!?"
When Rei returned to the Golts Guild and reported the request complete, the Receptionist's voice rang out for all to hear.
As a Guild, given that it was a swarm of flying bird monsters, they had expected it to take not just today but several days... possibly more than ten. They never imagined the request would be resolved that very day.
The reason they were able to settle it so quickly was that the Yellow Birds, driven by a homing instinct or something similar, had returned to the Dungeon—in other words, right to where Rei's party was waiting. They had practically thrown themselves into the fire, so luck played a larger role than ability.
(Though rather than moths flying into a flame, it might be more accurate to say the ducks came carrying their own green onions, hot pot, and every other ingredient on their backs.)
Thinking along those lines, he placed the Subjugation Proof Part beaks and Magic Stones of the Yellow Birds that had been dismantled near the cave—excluding the two that Death Scythe and Set would absorb—onto the counter.
He didn't forget to add a bag of feathers and the hawk-like talons as materials.
"Also, I gave one Yellow Bird carcass each to the adventurers near the cliff. That's not a problem, is it?"
"Huh? Ah, no. Those were monsters that Rei-san's party defeated, so it's no problem at all on our end."
So saying, the Receptionist began processing the request completion and the purchase of the materials and Magic Stones.