"Gruu..."
Facing the giant Water Wolf before him, Set let out a bewildered cry.
When Rei had announced he would approach the Water Wolf without attacking, Set had objected out of concern for his safety—but he never expected the plan to actually work.
After all, when Rei approached—weapons stowed in his Misty Ring, no less—the Water Wolf could easily have attacked on sight. Set had been fully prepared to flee the instant that happened, which made the creature's calm reaction completely unexpected.
Leaving the bewildered Set behind, Rei spoke to the Water Wolf.
"I have no intention of being your enemy. It's possible that Gaga and I fighting by the lake earlier provoked you, but... that was never my intention."
"..."
Whether it understood his words or was simply listening, Rei couldn't tell. But within the Water Wolf's eyes as it watched him, there was unmistakably a high level of intelligence.
Judging from its demeanor, Rei concluded that persuasion was possible without fighting.
If it came to blows, he would probably win eventually. But what winning would require—in the worst case—was the annihilation of the lake itself. A lake teleported from another world was an existence exceedingly rare even in this one, and Rei wanted to avoid destroying it if at all possible.
That was why he wanted to negotiate.
The giant Water Wolf before him clearly possessed high intelligence. In terms of sheer presence, it might lose to the giant Slime still burning by the lake, but a creature living purely on instinct and the Water Wolf before him were fundamentally different.
Rei glanced briefly at the burning Slime, and the Water Wolf suddenly followed his gaze, looking toward the still-burning mass.
What the Water Wolf thought upon seeing it, Rei couldn't know. But the creature could certainly understand that the man standing before it was the one who had put the Slime in that state.
For the Water Wolf, whose body was formed from the lake's water, Rei—a fire user—would normally be an easy opponent to defeat. But that was only under ordinary circumstances. In reality, one of the Water Wolf's forelegs had been obliterated up to the shoulder in a single instant.
That fact alone made the Water Wolf fully understand that Rei was not an opponent it could beat easily, even in a straight fight.
Given those circumstances, if the other side had no desire for hostilities, the Water Wolf had no reason to go out of its way to seek conflict.
"...Wau."
The Water Wolf let out a short bark.
In that instant, every small Water Wolf fighting the Adventurers, Lizardmen, and Knight along the shore lost its wolf shape and dissolved into water, creating numerous puddles on the ground.
For those who had been battling the Water Wolves, their opponents had suddenly turned to water and vanished. They were caught completely off guard—some, mid-swing when their targets dissolved, lost their balance from the momentum and tumbled forward.
At the same time, they couldn't simply let their guard down. Water had become Water Wolves—or more precisely, the giant Water Wolf had spawned them from its own body—and sent them to attack. Even now that the water had scattered across the ground, there was no guarantee it wouldn't re-form into Water Wolves again.
"Did Rei do that?"
"Probably, but... look over there."
When one of the Adventurers turned his gaze toward the lake, the giant Water Wolf was still standing there. It wasn't that the creature had been defeated, as the man who spoke had hoped.
That left everyone wondering why the Water Wolves had stopped attacking, and more than a few were asking the question...
"Hey, don't tell me Rei... tamed that giant Water Wolf? That can't be right, can it?"
Normally, those words would be met with a dismissive laugh. But Rei had already tamed Gryphon Seto, and as an Alias Holder, it wasn't entirely impossible to believe he could pull off something like that. Moreover, given the undeniable fact that the attacking Water Wolves had ceased their assault and reverted to water, everyone watched Rei and the creature in the distance with the thought that maybe, just maybe...
Among them, the one wearing a slightly complicated expression was Zozo.
Though not entirely accurate, Zozo was officially regarded as a Lizardman tamed by Rei. However, Daskar had established a policy recognizing the humanity of the Lizardmen who had been teleported here, treating them as people. They were still classified as monsters for now, but in the future, they would be treated as demi-humans, like Elves, Dwarves, and Beastmen. In that sense, Zozo was eventually supposed to shed his status as Rei's tamed monster.
"Anyway, if we don't have to fight the Water Wolves anymore, I'd say we're in the clear."
One of the Adventurers muttered with evident relief.
The Water Wolves themselves were weak. Their speed and attack power were decent, but since their bodies dissolved into water the moment they were crushed or severed, they were extremely fragile. In terms of overall combat capability, they were only slightly stronger than Goblins. Against the skilled Adventurers gathered here, defeating them wasn't difficult.
The problem was their numbers. Even if you could kill one in a single hit, two, three, four more would spawn in the time it took to strike one down. Rei and Set's intervention had drawn a portion of the spawned wolves toward them, but that was only a fraction. For all their paper-thin defense, the Water Wolves' attack power was respectable enough that evading or blocking their strikes was necessary.
"Still... there's no doubt about it. We were saved thanks to Rei."
One of the Adventurers murmured, and everyone nodded in agreement.
"So, have you understood that we're not your enemies?"
Seeing the small Water Wolves spawned by the giant one each return to water, Rei asked as if to confirm.
The Water Wolf didn't particularly respond and simply stared at him.
"Uh... um, well... you do get that we're not enemies, right?"
"Wan."
As if answering, the Water Wolf let out a short bark.
For a moment, Rei wondered where a creature made of water kept its vocal cords—but then again, Set's massive body shouldn't have been able to fly with just the wings he currently had, either. The fact that such impossible things happened as a matter of course was probably why this was a fantasy world of swords and magic.
"Yeah, I thought so. You stopped attacking us, too. ...So, are you a monster that lives in this lake?"
Rei pressed on, but the Water Wolf didn't answer that question. Whether it had no intention of answering or simply couldn't understand the question was unclear.
(No, if it couldn't understand words, it wouldn't have been able to answer when I asked whether it was hostile. It responded just fine then. So... is there some other reason?)
Facing the Water Wolf, Rei puzzled over the question. He had at least managed to stop its aggression, but what would happen from here on out? That uncertainty lingered in his mind.
(The best outcome would be persuading this Water Wolf to become an ally. Taming it or something along those lines would work, too. The reasonable option is to basically stay out of each other's way. And the worst case... is renewed hostility.)
Despite being a monster from another world, the Water Wolf was highly intelligent. For anyone interested in monsters, or scholars who simply wanted to understand the detailed circumstances, the Water Wolf was undoubtedly a fascinating subject. And at the base camp of sorts surrounding the Birth Tower, there was Anastasia, an Elven scholar.
For someone like Anastasia, if she learned how intelligent the Water Wolf was, she would absolutely take an interest. Rei recalled the woman who, despite her beauty, had done something as unthinkable as licking the Wisp to check its taste.
(Yeah, there's no doubt Anastasia would take an interest if she learned how smart the Water Wolf is. She might even think the lake itself has some significance, given that the Wisp teleported it here.)
He absolutely had to keep Anastasia and the Water Wolf apart.
With that in mind, Rei pulled a block of Orc meat from his Misty Ring. Given that its body was composed of water, he wasn't sure whether it would eat Orc meat—but the Water Wolf was shaped like a wolf, as its name suggested. Though since Rei was the one who had named it Water Wolf, he wasn't sure whether that reasoning even applied.
Regardless, hoping to establish even a slight rapport, he held out the block of Orc meat. The Water Wolf, which had barely reacted to most of Rei's words until then, showed immediate interest in the offering as if the earlier indifference had been an act.
"Wau?"
Sniff, sniff. The Water Wolf sniffed the block of Orc meat in Rei's hand.
A creature whose body was made of water could smell? Rei couldn't help but wonder—but from what he could see, it was definitely picking up the scent.
"Can you eat it?"
"Gruu..."
It wasn't the Water Wolf but Set who let out a slightly dissatisfied growl in response. This block of meat was supposed to be Set's. Of course, the Misty Ring contained far more than just this—more meat of various kinds than they could ever finish. Even so, Set simply didn't want the Water Wolf eating his food.
Under normal circumstances, Set wouldn't have cared that much. It wasn't particularly rare for Rei to hand out meat from his Misty Ring to a crowd while camping. The reason Set didn't want to share with the Water Wolf was partly because it had attacked Rei, but mostly it was jealousy—envy that Rei was paying attention to the creature instead of him.
Whether Set recognized it as such was another matter entirely.
"Wan."
At Rei's words, the Water Wolf let out a short bark, took the Orc meat into its mouth, and swallowed it whole.
Though it was nighttime, the moonlight and Rei's Night Vision allowed him to watch the swallowed meat travel through the Water Wolf's body. When it reached the stomach, the meat gradually dissolved.
(Stomach acid? Or is the inside of its body highly acidic or something...? No, that can't be right, can it?)
Rei felt a flicker of doubt watching the meat dissolve, but the Water Wolf, seemingly savoring the taste, narrowed its eyes happily.
It was safe to say the gift had been a success.
"Hey, I've been calling you a wolf made of water—Water Wolf. Is that all right with you?"
"Wau? ...Wan."
The Water Wolf seemed to think for a moment before giving a bark of approval.
(It came from another world, but it completely understands our language. Even among the Lizardmen, there are still some who can't grasp words yet.)
Since it was a beast-type monster like Set, Rei hadn't given it much thought until now. But reflecting on it, the fact that the Water Wolf understood his words was genuinely astonishing.
"Since your body is made of water... were you listening in on our conversations from the lake?"
Given that it was water, it could remain hidden in the lake without being easily discovered. If that was the case, the possibility that it had overheard conversations and learned from them couldn't be ruled out.
But the Water Wolf offered no particular response to Rei's musings—or rather, it didn't utter any words, still savoring the taste of the meat.
Normally, enjoying the taste of food was something done with the tongue. There was something to be said for enjoying the sensation of food going down one's throat, and in a cooking manga Rei had read in Japan, there was a dish designed to be enjoyed in the throat, esophagus, and stomach—but that was fundamentally an exception.
As for the Water Wolf, whether it even had a stomach was unclear, but regardless, it seemed to enjoy its meals by swallowing prey whole and slowly dissolving it inside its body.
Watching the creature, Rei spoke again.
"Anyway, it's already late. Could you come out again tomorrow morning? If you're willing to get along with us, there are probably things we should discuss."
At Rei's words, the Water Wolf considered for a moment before letting out a bark of assent.