By the time the surroundings had sunk into darkness, a group of more than ten was making its way through the Treant Forest.
Going outside Gilm at night was nothing short of suicide unless one had absolute confidence in their own skill. Particularly in this Treant Forest, where a B-Rank Monster like a Cerberus had appeared just the night before. Under normal circumstances, no one would ever think of traveling through such a place.
Yet whether the men advancing through the forest knew this or not, they pressed straight ahead without a trace of fear. They carried no torches, relying solely on moonlight to guide their way. The sky was cloudless, but even so, the fact that they could navigate by moonlight alone meant that every one of them possessed at least some degree of Night Vision.
Traveling along the edge of the Treant Forest would have made for easier going. However, it was precisely because of the trees that this group remained difficult to spot.
Those guarding their destination were all highly skilled adventurers. Among them was Rei, Bearer of the Crimson Moniker, and his Tamed Monster, Set. Moving with as much stealth as possible was only natural.
After advancing for a while, the man at the front came to a halt.
"Stop. From here on, we move more cautiously than before. Got it? Let me confirm one thing — what we need is intelligence. We are not here to fight adventurers."
Everyone nodded.
They were operating outside Gilm at night, so naturally they had confidence in their abilities. But having confidence in one's skill and being able to walk away unscathed from an encounter with Rei were two very different things. The answer to that question was no.
And it was not just Rei. Near the Birth Tower, there were numerous skilled adventurers and Lizardmen. That was precisely why the goal this time was not combat, but reconnaissance.
Being seen moving through the area at night would unquestionably arouse suspicion. Even so, attempting to travel during the day would have been worse — the Treant Forest would be full of woodcutters and adventurers, and above all, the daylight would make them easy targets for the sentries stationed at the Birth Tower.
There was no denying that moving at night carried immense danger, but it was undeniably safer than moving during the day. Furthermore, this group had been assembled with individuals who were reasonably skilled in combat. Against Low-Rank Monsters, they would have no trouble holding their own.
"Everyone, scatter. From here on, if anyone is spotted, we withdraw immediately. I'll say it again: our job is strictly to gather information. Understood?"
At the leader's words, everyone nodded and dispersed in different directions. After seeing them off, the man leading the unit began his own advance.
They were positioned at a considerable distance from the lake, but even so, once they had come this far, light was the least of their concerns.
The Slime, huh. So that's it.
Even from their current position, the mass of flames was visible at a glance. According to the intelligence they had obtained beforehand, it had been burning for several days now. That it had continued to burn for that long was nothing short of astonishing.
The light from the burning Slime was both a stroke of luck and a curse for the men. It provided more than enough illumination to scout the lake. But at the same time, that same light made the scattered members far easier to spot.
But that lake... how far does it stretch? Based on what we were told, it was supposed to be enormous. That was no exaggeration, apparently.
Even within the range illuminated by the burning Slime, the lake stretched far into the distance. Strictly speaking, the light alone was not enough to take in the full scope of it.
And that tower. So that's where the Lizardmen live. They can survey the surroundings from the top during the day, so night is definitely the time to scout.
By blending into the trees of the Treant Forest and making the darkness their ally, they would not be found unless something extraordinary happened.
...That is, unless something extraordinary happened.
"Gwah!"
A scream rang out through the darkness. Who had let out such a cry was impossible to tell. What was certain, however, was that one of the men had been discovered.
There was a slim chance that an entirely different group — someone else who had come to observe the lake and the Birth Tower — had been spotted instead, but that was nothing more than wishful thinking.
Now that someone had been found, it was only a matter of time before this position was compromised as well.
Damn! They've already been made?!
Less than ten minutes had passed since the reconnaissance began. He would have preferred to gather intel a while longer, but now that they had been spotted, there was nothing for it.
He hastily tried to withdraw — and in that instant, he threw himself clear of the spot with a desperate, explosive leap that was the complete opposite of the stealth he had maintained until now. A heartbeat after he launched himself aside, a spear impaled the exact patch of ground where he had been standing.
Seeing the weapon driven into the earth, the man couldn't help but cry out.
"The Twilight Spear!?"
It was a very famous weapon — famous as one wielded by Rei. Which meant the identity of his attacker was obvious without a second thought.
"Surprising. You actually dodged that? Well, considering you made it this far, I suppose it's not entirely unthinkable."
The voice came from above. Rei descended from the sky as he spoke. He hadn't attacked from atop Set's back; rather, he had used his Sleipnir boots to walk through the air itself, striking before dropping to the ground.
Set, who always traveled at Rei's side, was currently busy hunting down the other scouts one after another, working alongside the adventurers already stationed at the lake and Birth Tower.
"Why! At this distance, even a gryphon shouldn't have detected us!"
The man — the masked man — shouted, brandishing a dagger. From his perspective, this mission had been dangerous but manageable, the risks kept to a minimum. So how on earth had they been found?
He cried out from a sense of sheer disbelief, but Rei merely fixed him with a look of weary amazement.
"Did you really think you understood just how sharp Set's five senses are?"
Rei spoke with a hint of pride, and in truth, while the lake was visible from here, they were still positioned quite far away. With Set's senses in their base state, there was a real chance he would not have noticed their presence.
But that was strictly a discussion about his base state.
Set had skills. And among those skills was one called Sense of Smell Enhancement.
Judging from Rei's demeanor, Set understood that the area around the lake and the Birth Tower was currently a highly dangerous place. That was precisely why, while standing watch, he periodically activated the Sense of Smell Enhancement skill, using it to sniff out anyone approaching from well beyond his normal detection range.
Set's Sense of Smell Enhancement was at level four. While it had not yet reached level five — the threshold where the skill's effectiveness increased explosively — even at four, it produced considerable results.
Not knowing this had been the men's undoing. It could even be called insufficient research. Granted, few people knew that Set possessed a skill like Sense of Smell Enhancement to begin with. No matter how much information they gathered, obtaining that particular detail would have been extraordinarily difficult.
"Now then. You were quite good at hiding, but you understand that once you've been found, there's no getting away, right?"
"..."
The man remained silent. In truth, now that Rei had found him, escaping would be exceedingly difficult. But even knowing that, fighting Rei here was not an option. If he couldn't flee, then his only remaining choice was to use the trump card he had prepared for precisely this kind of situation.
"!?"
Without a sound, the man surged forward in one explosive motion. The instant he closed within Rei's range, he thrust out his dagger. The strike was fluid, seamless — proof enough that the man's skill was far from ordinary.
Seeing that thrust aimed straight for his throat, Rei revised his assessment of the man slightly upward. Under normal circumstances, it would have been far more natural to target the heart, but the Dragon Robe Rei wore boasted strong resistance to both thrusts and slashes. Made with generous amounts of dragon hide and scales, ordinary blades were, in the most literal sense, useless against it.
The man hadn't known about Set's Sense of Smell Enhancement, but he had known about Rei's Dragon Robe. His choice of target reflected that knowledge — and that was precisely why Rei raised his estimation of him.
Though even so...
The thrust flying toward his throat was sharp, but Rei leapt backward while swinging Death Scythe. That said, since he needed to extract information from the man, he struck with the haft rather than the blade.
Even so, a blow from a weapon weighing a hundred kilograms, swung with Rei's full strength behind it, carried tremendous impact. As proof, the sensation of the man's ribs cracking transmitted itself through the haft to Rei's hand.
"Guh!"
For the man, the misfortune was that this was taking place inside the Treant Forest. Sent flying by Death Scythe, he slammed into the trunk of a nearby tree, and the impact cracked several more bones.
Yet for the man, the fortune was also that this was taking place inside the Treant Forest. With trees growing thick all around, Rei had been unable to swing Death Scythe with the full arc that would bring out its maximum power. If Rei had been able to swing with optimal form, the man would undoubtedly have suffered far more severe injuries. The number of broken bones would have been far greater as well.
Careful not to snap the surrounding trees with Death Scythe, Rei regarded the man who had been blasted into the trunk. The masked man — his facial features couldn't be clearly made out, but from the build of his body, it was easy enough to surmise that he was male. Of course, the possibility that it was actually a slender woman beneath the mask couldn't be entirely ruled out.
"Right, that's one taken care of on my end. I wonder how the others are doing."
Muttering to himself, Rei recalled the Twilight Spear — still impaled in the ground — to his hand using its Special Ability, then stored both it and Death Scythe away in his Misty Ring. He produced rope and cloth next, gagged the man with the cloth to prevent him from biting his tongue, and bound his hands and feet with the rope.
Rei had brought the man down effortlessly, but there was no question that he was skilled in Stealth. Tied poorly, he might dislocate a joint or do whatever else was necessary to slip free. That was why Rei made sure the knots were secure before lifting the unconscious man.
A grown man — one who had trained with an emphasis on agility for covert work, but who was nonetheless undeniably heavier than Rei. Hoisting him one-handed, Rei set off toward the Birth Tower.
"Oh, so the first one back is Rei after all."
In front of the Birth Tower, an adventurer waiting in the plaza called out to him. The space served multiple purposes — a gathering spot, a dining area, a lookout post. The adventurer addressed Rei, who had returned not dragging but carrying an unconscious man.
The words were casual, but the gaze the adventurer directed at the man in Rei's grip was sharp. What this man — what these men — had come here to do was obvious without needing to think about it.
"I figured keeping a lid on the information would be difficult, but... yeah, the biggest cause is that thing after all."
A different adventurer from the one who had spoken with Rei directed his gaze toward the mass of flame by the lakeshore — toward the Slime that was still burning.
The magic Rei had unleashed to defeat that Slime had produced flames so massive they could be seen all the way from Gilm. Naturally, that had made people curious about what had happened, and some had come to investigate.
"Thinking about it that way, you could say they were actually late to come sniffing around."
Yet another adventurer muttered, but Rei had his own thoughts on the matter.
To defeat a Slime that massive — one large enough to be compared to a hill or a small mountain — a moderately powerful attack would have been essentially meaningless. What was required was an attack with the kind of truly lethal force needed to destroy the creature in a single blow. If a weaker method had been used than the one employed that day, the Slime would very likely still be alive and rampaging violently.
"Grrrrl!"
Set's cry suddenly rang out across the area. Rei, who had never for a moment doubted that Set would prevail against such opponents, smiled as he turned his gaze toward the gryphon. Set was carrying three black-clad men on his back. It was clear that Set hadn't taken down all three himself — the adventurer walking back alongside him had clearly handled at least some of them.