Because they were indoors, the falling speed itself wasn't all that significant. Nevertheless, there was the Bracelet of Herculean Strength, the skill Power Crush, and above all, Set's inherent strength behind a body exceeding three meters in length.
The strike combining those three shattered Garangiga's head... and the body, having lost its head, crumpled to the ground.
Seeing that, everyone was about to breathe a sigh of relief... but in that instant, despite having lost its head, Garangiga began to move its massive body.
"Tch!?"
Rei was the first to react.
Whether by chance or due to the lingering malice of a headless Garangiga, he saw the massive body bristling its scales and sprouting spikes as it headed straight toward him. He swung Death Scythe.
"Power Slash!"
That strike, prioritizing raw power over cutting force, didn't quite blow Garangiga's body away... but it succeeded in deflecting it.
Having deflected the body, Rei hastily put distance between them.
When he turned his gaze toward the others, he was relieved to see that, having witnessed the movement that had just targeted Rei, they had clearly judged the corpse still dangerous. Those serving as the vanguard hastily distanced themselves from Garangiga's body.
(Then again, seeing it energetically thrashing around like this, calling it a corpse is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?)
They kept their distance from Garangiga's rampaging body, casting wary glances to check whether it would come at them again.
However, Garangiga's body showed no sign of launching an attack toward Rei and the others positioned away from it; it simply thrashed about endlessly in place.
"...It has no will left and is just rampaging. Is it the effect of losing its head?"
Reliu muttered. He had acquired a faint slash wound on his cheek at some point during the series of battles.
Facing a monster considered A-Rank equivalent and only sustaining that degree of injury demonstrated Reliu's skill.
Though, in that sense, the damage Rei and the others had taken was also limited to scratches and light bruises.
Most of their injuries came from the small stones scattered when the ground was destroyed as Garangiga rampaged with its massive body.
However, Garangiga's attacks were fundamentally extremely powerful, and had they failed to evade its venom Water Cutter or similar attacks, they would have sustained what could only be called fatal damage.
With a venom Water Cutter, there was no option of taking moderate damage; it was either evade completely or suffer a fatal wound.
Even if one attempted a paper-thin dodge, given the venom's power to melt rock and ground, taking a direct hit from the splatter was a certainty.
In that sense, having only those with minor scratches was likely an entirely natural outcome.
"I've heard that certain types of animals have such strong vitality that it's not uncommon for their bodies to keep moving even after losing their heads. It's probably something close to that."
As he said this, Rei recalled a TV program he had watched back in Japan.
It was about carp cuisine, where despite the entire body having been prepared for cooking, the carp was still alive... a scene that, thinking about it normally, would be utterly impossible.
But having actually seen it, Rei was convinced by his own words.
Garangiga in particular was a snake that massive, and likely an A-Rank equivalent monster.
It was only natural that strong vitality resided within its body; there was nothing strange about it.
"Yeah, I've heard of that. ...But how long are we supposed to just stand here?"
Reliu looked at Garangiga's thrashing body with a gaze tinged with exasperation.
It had already been several minutes since Set shattered its head.
Despite that, Garangiga's body showed no sign of calming down.
Given that, they naturally couldn't store the body in the Misty Ring, nor could they do anything about the dungeon core at the bottom of the underground lake.
(Well, I could ride Set and approach from above, or take a wide detour to reach the dungeon core, but carelessly stimulating it and causing something weird would be troublesome.)
Since he didn't know what effect the dungeon core had on a Boss Monster, he wanted to avoid carelessly stimulating it here.
That was Rei's honest feeling.
"Gruu!"
Beside Rei, Set let out a happy cry as he approached.
Despite having just shattered Garangiga's head in a single blow and scattering flesh and bone fragments all around, he rubbed his head against Rei as if asking to be praised.
Rei stroked Set firmly to praise him... and as the two engaged in this moment of bonding, Reliu called out to them.
"Hey, uh... during the fight with Garangiga just now, if I wasn't seeing things, it seemed like Set's body got smaller."
"That's right. He did get smaller. But Set being able to use skills is old news by now, isn't it? Not really something worth getting that surprised over."
Rei said so, but in contrast to directly understandable skills like Fire Breath or Wind Arrow, changing one's body size was an extremely rare skill.
Rei could understand why Reliu, having seen it, would be surprised.
Naturally, Reliu also understood what Rei was trying to say... but he still wanted to bring it up, and that was precisely because of one significant reason: Set had shrunk.
That Reliu was one of the Set enthusiasts was something anyone present already knew.
He had tried to hide it at first, but there was no concealing it with Set nearby.
In the end, he had even grown half-defiant about it.
For such a Reliu, the fact that Set could shrink his body held great significance.
Of course, if asked whether the current three-meter-long Set wasn't adorable, he would immediately deny it.
At the same time, however, a smaller Set would naturally be even more adorable, and wanting to see Set like that was only expected of a Set enthusiast.
...Furthermore, Reliu was the first Set enthusiast to learn that Set possessed a skill to shrink his body and actually witness it with his own eyes.
He had found out and seen it faster than Mirene and Yohanna, who were renowned as Set enthusiasts even in Gilm—the so-called two great leaders... if that became known, it wouldn't be strange for a rain of blood to fall.
Granted, Reliu was an Alias Holder and an A-Rank adventurer, possessing strength that couldn't even be compared to Mirene and Yohanna, so it wasn't certain a rain of blood would fall so easily... but when Set was involved, it was impossible to declare it absolutely out of the question. That was the astonishing... and fearsome thing about Mirene and Yohanna.
(Well, how much of that Reliu himself has accepted, I couldn't say, though.)
Thinking such thoughts, having confirmed that Garangiga's thrashing body had moved away from the stepped terrain created by Terrain Manipulation, Rei used Terrain Manipulation once more to restore the ground to its original state.
He could have left it as it was, but the stepped terrain might cause someone in Rei's group to get injured and could also obstruct their movement, so he opted for this precaution.
"Come to think of it, I heard you helped out using earth magic during the Expansion Construction in Gilm. Was that what you just did?"
"Yeah."
"...So you can use earth and wind magic too."
He murmured in deep contemplation; this was likely because when one thought of Rei, Flame Tornado was what made him famous.
Even those somewhat knowledgeable about such matters probably knew that Rei could use Flying Slash, a wind spell, but it was likely almost unknown that he used Earth Magic.
That was exactly why Reliu was surprised by Rei suddenly using earth magic like that and recalled the matter in Gilm.
However, for Reliu, he probably never imagined that the magic used in Gilm's Expansion Construction would be employed like this in combat.
"Well, it's about so-so, really."
"No, using magic like that and calling it so-so is honestly questionable. When facing a large force, even at that degree of height, having walls suddenly appear or pitfalls open up would be incredibly troublesome, you know?"
What Reliu murmured with such conviction was likely about war.
In a war where thousands, tens of thousands... or in some cases even more soldiers were mobilized as fighting strength, what would happen if Rei used the same kind of earth magic he had used against Garangiga?
Because he could imagine that, he felt something threatening in the power Rei possessed.
Though, when it came to threatening power, Reliu, an Alias Holder and A-Rank adventurer, would fall into the same category.
After all, in this Elgin, where quality surpassing quantity was not uncommon, Reliu possessed more than enough threatening power himself.
"Hey, Rei. Could you do something about the underground lake's water with that earth magic from earlier?"
Vihera also knew about Beast Magic, but since Reliu and Byune were present, she likely phrased it that way.
"Even if you say 'do something'... That's an underground lake of that size, you know? It'd be difficult to handle with magic. Rather, wouldn't Marina's Spirit Magic be easier?"
"Really? Like, in a way where you drain the underground lake's water outside..."
"Definitely this landmass... landmass? Well, I think the underground lake is bigger than the land."
As Rei looked around the space and said so, Vihera simply replied, "I see," and said nothing more.
Vihera too had likely said what she did knowing full well it was half-impossible. With a feeling of it being lucky if it could be done.
"Marina, how about it?"
"Even if you ask me... I can't do anything like messing with the underground lake's water, you know?"
"Then what about clearing the water up to where the dungeon core is?"
"I think it's not impossible."
"Then I'll count on you right away. Garangiga's body seems to have finally stopped moving too."
As Rei said, Garangiga's body had indeed finally stopped moving.
Garangiga's body, which had been thrashing about for a considerable time after losing its head, was ultimately unable to keep moving in such a state for an extended period.
Feeling relieved at that, Rei and the others headed toward the underground lake.
Naturally, they did not forget to store Garangiga's body in the Misty Ring along the way.
(I can't tell Set, but that third eye on its forehead... that was probably a quite valuable material.)
Originally, a monster's eyeballs had a certain level of demand as materials.
Because of that, the eyeballs possessed by what was thought to be a Rare Species or High-ranking Species of Garangiga undoubtedly became an extremely rare material.
Moreover, considering it was a material equivalent to an A-Rank Monster...
Thinking such thoughts as they moved, they reached the edge of the underground lake.
With Garangiga—the master of the underground lake and this dungeon's Boss Monster—gone, as time passed, it wouldn't be surprising if a major commotion broke out within the underground lake.
Though, even if that happened, whether it had anything to do with Rei and his group was a questionable matter.
"Marina, please."
At Rei's words, Marina used Water Spirit Magic.
In no time, the water vanished from where the dungeon core was located, creating a single path.
"...Rei, hurry it up, please. Maybe because it's a place protecting the dungeon core, the resistance is quite strong."
Rei nodded at Marina's words and, mounting Set's back, began running toward the dungeon core.
The path created by moving water through Spirit Magic led in a straight line toward the dungeon core.
"Understood. Just hang on a little longer."
Calling back to Marina, who was maintaining the Spirit Magic behind him, Rei checked the surroundings from atop Set's back.
The scenery streamed by at Set's running speed, but even so, Rei's eyes could confirm what lay in the water.
(There were places like aquariums in Japan, weren't there.)
He even had the composure to think such thoughts.
While he was thinking, Set kept running... and eventually, the pedestal where the dungeon core was placed came into view at the edge of his sight.
Whether the dungeon core possessed something like a will, Rei did not know, but since it existed before his eyes now, he concluded there was no problem... and as the dungeon core rapidly drew closer...
[Death Scythe has acquired the skill "Terrain Manipulation Lv.4"]
The dungeon core was cleaved apart by Death Scythe, and that announcement message flowed through his mind.
[Death Scythe]
"Corrosion Lv.4" "Flying Slash Lv.5" "Magic Shield Lv.1" "Power Slash Lv.3" "Wind Hand Lv.4" "Terrain Manipulation Lv.4" new "Pain Burst Lv.3" "Penetrate Lv.3" "Multi Slash Lv.2"
Terrain Manipulation: When the handle of Death Scythe is touching the ground, terrain manipulation within a specific area centered on the user becomes possible. Level 2 allows raising or lowering the ground by approximately 50cm within a 30m radius. Level 3 allows raising or lowering the ground by approximately 1m within a 50m radius. Level 4 allows raising or lowering the ground by approximately 150cm within a 70m radius.