"All right, that should do it."
"Gruu!"
Set let out a cry as if in agreement with Rei's words.
Judging by that scene alone, it would have seemed quite idyllic. But right beside the pair, a Snow Cyclops corpse with its head severed hung upside-down from a tree, and a grotesque sight spread out before them—blood dripping in considerable quantities from the severed neck, running down the trunk and pooling on the ground.
This was a grove located some distance from Gilm—some distance by Set's flight, that is.
Within that grove, they had hung the Snow Cyclops corpse from a particularly large tree to drain its blood.
Originally, Rei had tried to suspend the corpse from a branch, but unfortunately, a single branch could never support the massive frame of a five-meter Cyclops—slightly smaller now that its head was gone.
As a result, Rei opted not to support the corpse on a single branch, but instead threaded rope through multiple branches, suspending the body against the trunk to drain the blood.
Suspended in that manner, the Snow Cyclops's blood drainage was progressing smoothly, just as Rei had intended.
"Still, I never expected this kind of High-Rank Monster to show up. Well, Gilm is out in the frontier, so it wouldn't be strange for one to appear, but until now it's mostly been Cobolts."
"Gruu? ...Gruu!"
Set had been surveying the surroundings, but responded to Rei's words.
Though what intention lay behind Set's response... even Rei couldn't tell.
If anything, it sounded like a half-hearted reply.
That said, with the smell of the Snow Cyclops's blood lingering in the air, the possibility that it might attract monsters here couldn't be denied.
For Set, focusing his awareness on that possibility was only natural.
Rei, knowing the reason for Set's behavior, said nothing more and gazed at the Snow Cyclops as it continued to bleed.
Come to think of it, since I don't know which parts of this monster are usable as materials, I should leave the dissection to the Guild after all. That Guild Staff Member said as much too. But before that, I need to extract the Magic Stone.
Given that the Snow Cyclops was a monster Rei was seeing for the first time, its Magic Stone would naturally serve as nourishment for Beast Magic—more accurately, for Death Scythe and Set.
There had been a lot going on lately, and he hadn't absorbed any Magic Stones, so this would be the first absorption in a while.
...Or so he thought, when Rei recalled what had happened yesterday.
"Ah, come to think of it, Set absorbed a Cobolt's Magic Stone yesterday. In the end, it didn't learn any skill from it though."
"Gruu?"
Did you call me? Set purred at Rei, but Rei shook his head, indicating it was nothing.
Turning his gaze back to the Snow Cyclops corpse, he saw that blood was still flowing from the neck and let out a small sigh.
Even for a five-meter giant, he couldn't help but think the amount of blood was a little excessive.
"Well, it is a monster... so I suppose it's not strange for something like that to happen?"
Rei naturally had no idea exactly how much blood monsters had.
No, thinking about how many people would know such details in the first place, he suspected probably no one did.
Goblins... no, there's no point in raising Goblins. Then again, if there was someone farming Orcs, which have delicious meat and vigorous reproductive capabilities, that would be a different story.
While thinking such things, after some ten-odd minutes, the blood flowing from the Snow Cyclops's neck finally stopped.
"That really was a monster with a lot of blood. Well, whatever. Now then, Set. Let's at least extract the Magic Stone. You're the one who'll be absorbing it, after all."
"Gruu?"
At Rei's words, Set tilted its head as if asking, Is that okay?
Rei nodded, saying it was obvious, while stroking Set's head.
"This one's called a Snow Cyclops. And it used a blizzard... Ice Breath too. In that case, Set, who already knows Ice Arrow, is a better fit than Death Scythe, which hasn't learned any ice-type skills. Well, it might not be Ice Arrow but a different ice-type skill, or it might not be able to acquire a skill at all."
The possibility was low, but if there was a chance that Set's Ice Arrow could be strengthened, choosing that was only natural.
Set's Ice Arrow is currently Level 4. If so, if things go well... if things truly go well, there's a possibility it could reach Level 5. And at Level 5, the skill would be strengthened even more than when it had leveled up before.
That's right—Beast Magic skills became dramatically more powerful at Level 5.
If there was a chance for that, there was no reason not to take it.
"All right, Set. I'm going to extract the Magic Stone, so wait a bit."
Looking at the Snow Cyclops laid on the ground after cutting the ropes, Rei muttered.
Due to its sheer size, laying it on its side had been somewhat of a struggle, but for the sake of obtaining the Magic Stone, he had persevered and managed to lower the massive body down.
After bending the knees and adjusting the arms so they wouldn't hit the surrounding trees, Rei looked at the Snow Cyclops now successfully resting on the ground and took a knife out of his Misty Ring.
Not just any knife like the ones he usually used for dissecting monsters, but a fairly sharp, first-rate specimen.
That the Snow Cyclops's skin possessed considerable toughness was evident from cutting it with Death Scythe and from touching it like this.
The fact that it remained tough even after death was troublesome, but when he convinced himself that it was a High-Rank Monster after all, the thought that Set might acquire a new skill through absorbing the Magic Stone grew stronger.
It was only a tendency and not an absolute rule, but the higher the rank of the monster, the easier it was to acquire a skill when absorbing its Magic Stone.
Considering that, this Snow Cyclops was a monster well worth anticipating.
"Hmm. It's putting up quite a bit of resistance."
The knife Rei held was an item that had cost a considerable sum among dissection knives.
As such, it was extremely sharp—careless handling could easily cost a finger or two.
Even with a knife bearing such a blade, there was considerable resistance when cutting into the Snow Cyclops's chest.
Rei felt that it might have been quicker to just use Death Scythe, but doing so at this point would be a hassle, so he carefully cut only the area around the heart.
Normally, it wouldn't have been strange for blood to flow, but probably because it had been thoroughly drained, only a little—truly just a little—blood seeped out, and that was the extent of it.
Reaching his hand through the opening into the Snow Cyclops's body, Rei searched for the heart. Eventually his hand touched something with a familiar hardness, and he pulled it out.
Probably because he couldn't cleanly extract only the Magic Stone, the sensation of tearing flesh transmitted to Rei's hand, but without paying it any particular mind, he succeeded in extracting the Magic Stone from the body.
"Phew, that was quite a hassle. Still, the absorption can't be seen by someone who knows nothing about it."
He could have had the people dissecting the Gigant Turtle handle the dissection and extract the Magic Stone, but then the question was where to absorb it.
Of course, he didn't have to watch the Gigant Turtle dissection the entire time, so there was the option of receiving the Magic Stone and then moving somewhere with Set to absorb it.
But going out of his way to do that, it was faster to just extract the Magic Stone himself like this.
He washed the extracted Magic Stone with water produced by the Dagger of Flowing Water and tossed it to Set.
Set caught it in its beak and swallowed it whole...
[Set has acquired the skill 'Power Crush Lv.6']
Such an announcement flowed through his mind.
"...Huh?"
Acquiring a skill was fine. That much was as Rei had expected.
But if the acquired skill had been Ice Arrow, or at the very least an ice-type skill like Ice Breath, Rei could have accepted it. Power Crush, however, was clearly unexpected for him as well.
"Gruu?"
Set, too, showed slight confusion. It had been told by Rei that there was a high possibility of acquiring an ice-type skill, only for it to turn out to be Power Crush.
Looking at Set's reaction and the Snow Cyclops corpse that had had its Magic Stone extracted, Rei somehow understood.
Thinking about it, it was only natural. The Snow Cyclops had been using its brute strength to kill and eat Cobolts before Rei and his group arrived.
If so, it wouldn't be strange for Power Crush's level to rise rather than an ice-type skill.
"Ah... yeah. Well, it was a little different from what I expected, but I guess it's better that Power Crush's level went up than not acquiring any skill at all."
At Rei's words, Set thought for a moment, and eventually purred in agreement.
It was true that he would have preferred Ice Arrow's level to go up, but as Rei had said, it was far better than nothing happening at all.
"For now, we've absorbed the Magic Stone, so let's head back to the Gigant Turtle dissection site. We can have them handle the dissection of everything besides the Magic Stone over there."
With that, Rei stored the Snow Cyclops corpse in his Misty Ring and took off riding Set.
"Ah, Lord Rei. You're back. It seems to have taken quite some time for just draining blood..."
The Guild Staff Member approached Rei, who had descended to the ground on Set, and spoke.
Behind the Guild Staff Member, numerous adventurers, civilians with dissection skills, and Slum District residents led by Suchee were progressing with the Gigant Turtle dissection.
On top of that, a short distance away, the escorts were fighting Cobolts.
"The Snow Cyclops had more blood than I expected. It took time to finish draining. That aside, there are far fewer Cobolts than I thought."
He addressed the Guild Staff Member.
Originally, given that the Earth Wall had been built to prevent them from entering Gilm, the number of Cobolts coming here should have increased significantly compared to yesterday.
But from what Rei could see, the number of Cobolt corpses lying on the ground was not that large.
And the number of adventurer escorts currently fighting Cobolts wasn't that many either.
In other words, there were overwhelmingly fewer Cobolts than Rei had expected.
"Huh? Ah, right. Most likely, the Snow Cyclops killed most of the Cobolts before we arrived this morning. There weren't many Cobolt corpses, but that was probably because..."
Even without him finishing, Rei understood the rest.
After all, Rei had personally witnessed the Snow Cyclops biting Cobolts apart.
"But if that's the case, it means that one Snow Cyclops ate almost all of the massive number of Cobolts that showed up. Is that even possible?"
"Who knows. However, the Snow Cyclops that was here when we left Gilm was only one, but that doesn't mean only one Snow Cyclops was here during the night. There's a possibility that other Snow Cyclopses returned at dawn, and only that one remained here for some reason."
Put that way, Rei had no choice but to agree.
Of course, he would have preferred more Snow Cyclopses to appear—at the very least, one more so he could have Death Scythe absorb its Magic Stone—so his agreement was genuine in that regard as well.
"Whether more Snow Cyclopses will appear tomorrow, I don't know. I wonder."
"Well, that's something we won't know until tomorrow. More importantly, about building the Earth Wall..."
"Ah, come to think of it. Well, with this few Cobolts, we might not need it."
Indeed, perhaps because the fact that Cobolts could no longer enter Gilm had allowed them to sufficiently increase the number of escorts, they were currently dispatching Cobolts without issue.
He didn't necessarily think they couldn't manage without an Earth Wall at these numbers, but considering whether things would continue at this pace indefinitely, the conclusion was still that building the Earth Wall was the right call.
[Set]
'Water Ball Lv.5' 'Fire Breath Lv.3' 'Wind Arrow Lv.4' 'King's Intimidation Lv.3' 'Poison Claw Lv.5' 'Size Change Lv.2' 'Tornado Lv.3' 'Ice Arrow Lv.4' 'Optical Camouflage Lv.5' 'Magic Eye of Shock Lv.2' 'Power Crush Lv.6' NEW 'Sense of Smell Enhancement Lv.4' 'Bubble Breath Lv.1' 'Crystal Breath Lv.1' 'Earth Arrow Lv.2'
Power Crush: Increases the power of a single strike. Normally, like Power Slash, it causes recoil to the user, but in Set's case, thanks to its innate physical abilities, there is virtually no recoil.