The excavation of the settlement began.
To start with, digging up the entire settlement at once would eliminate the area they could use as a campsite—and more importantly, they simply didn't have enough hands for the job.
Though it was situated within a grove, the settlement covered a fairly large area, so this was only natural.
Furthermore, without knowing exactly how deep they needed to dig, it made sense to concentrate their labor on a single spot.
As a result, they divided the settlement into six sections and began excavation work in one of them.
The fixed effective range of Death Scythe's Terrain Manipulation skill likely factored into this decision as well.
...The settlement's original possessions and the tents that were still intact had been temporarily stored in Rei's Misty Ring.
Among them were some fairly valuable-looking gemstones, and Rei had wondered whether it was really alright for him to hold onto them. But when the settlement's survivors insisted they could trust him, there was no way he could refuse.
In truth, leaving such items in one place meant they could also get in the way... and there was always the possibility that someone in the Reconnaissance Unit might secretly pocket the gemstones.
Of course, the settlement's survivors had no way of knowing whether that was actually the case.
They hadn't even known the Reconnaissance Unit for a full day yet.
Asking them to place complete trust in the unit would have been unreasonable.
Why they could trust Rei in such a situation was a fair question. But while they may not have trusted the entire Reconnaissance Unit, Rei had at least purified the corpses with magic, so he must have struck them as someone reliable.
As far as Rei was concerned, if someone asked him whether he was really that trustworthy, he couldn't honestly nod in agreement.
Still, since they insisted—and given that storing luggage in the Misty Ring was the sensible thing to do in their current situation—he decided to comply with their request.
"Alright, then let's start here... Terrain Manipulation."
He drove Death Scythe's ferrule into the ground and activated the skill.
In the next moment, the area Rei had designated sank about 150 centimeters into the ground.
(Wait, if the ground sinks, does that mean the soil on top simply moved downward? And if there's something underground, wouldn't that something also sink even deeper than it was originally? ...Or does the displaced soil get moved somewhere else entirely? Well, thinking too deeply about it won't get me anywhere.)
This was a world where magic and skills existed in the first place, so Rei felt that pondering such details too closely wouldn't be very meaningful.
If that was the case, there was no need to overthink it this time. He told himself to just accept it as how things worked and move on.
By the time Rei finished that line of thought, the effects of Terrain Manipulation had completed.
"This is..."
The settlement's survivors, seeing Terrain Manipulation for the first time, let out gasps of astonishment.
They probably never imagined that something like suddenly sinking such a wide area of ground was even possible.
Those who had seen Rei's Terrain Manipulation before were surprised anew, but the impact wasn't as great as for the first-timers.
Once the ground finished sinking, they immediately got to work excavating.
...However, even though they were conducting excavation work, they had no proper tools for digging earth.
So, using supplies from the settlement, they fashioned simple shovels and pickaxe-like implements and started digging into the ground.
And naturally, when digging into the earth, the excavated soil became an obstacle.
Someone was needed to carry that soil away too.
"Grrrrrl!"
Amidst the excavation work, the one making the biggest impact was Set.
With claws as hard as metal—or perhaps even harder—it dug into the ground and hauled away the loosened soil.
It was a truly tireless, all-around performance.
"Rei, the boxes filled with dirt have piled up here. We need you."
Called over by a Centaur, Rei headed in that direction.
When soil was just piled in a heap, he couldn't store it in his Misty Ring.
But once it was placed in a box or similar container, storing it in the Misty Ring became easy.
That was why Rei kept repeating the task of storing accumulated excavated soil into his Misty Ring whenever it built up.
In excavation work, dug-up soil was a significant nuisance.
Since Rei would whisk that soil away into storage, the job was made far easier for the Centaurs.
(A shovel, huh... Depending on the region, I remember seeing on TV that the names for shovels and scoops were reversed or something like that.)
In eastern Japan—though Rei had lived in northern Japan—the large tools used for construction were called shovels, while the smaller ones used for gardening were called scoops.
In contrast, in western Japan, the large construction tools were called scoops, and the small gardening ones were called shovels.
When Rei was in Japan, that had been one of the things that surprised him when he saw it on TV.
"Heeey, Rei! The dirt's piled up here too. Take care of it!"
Called by a Centaur working in another area, Rei stored the container packed with soil into his Misty Ring.
"How's it going? Does it look like you'll find anything promising?"
"No, nothing yet. From what I can see, there's absolutely nothing... And digging it up is hard work too."
"Figured as much."
If this were a field, digging wouldn't be that difficult.
But this was a settlement.
In other words, people had been living on top of this ground.
And not just humans, but Centaurs—who weighed considerably more.
Naturally, there were many places trampled and compacted by their hooves.
Thanks to Rei's use of Terrain Manipulation, the hardest areas didn't need to be dug up... but even so, since they had lived here for a fairly long time, the ground was quite compacted even deeper down.
Moreover, with nearly a hundred Dragonias—creatures larger and heavier than Centaurs—having rampaged across it, the soil would be difficult for the Centaurs to dig through.
"If you hit a spot that's just too hard, ask Set for help. With Set's strength, ground that's merely a bit hard should be no problem at all."
"Yeah, I'll do that."
With that, the male Centaur headed back to his workstation.
(Not knowing how deep the target is buried... that's the real problem. If I at least knew how far down it is, I could come up with a proper plan.)
Not knowing that was a significant issue this time.
If Rei could use Earth-type Magic, digging through the ground might have been a little easier.
There were a few people who could use Earth-type Magic, including Dolfina, but their magic was mostly the kind that used earth offensively. They told him that magic for digging holes—creating pitfalls, for instance—simply didn't exist.
If it were Rei, he would have just decided to develop a new spell... but Dolfina couldn't develop magic as easily as Rei could.
(They also told me not to use Death Scythe or the Twilight Spear's attacks to blow away the ground.)
That came from several people, including Zai.
Given that, Rei couldn't just force the issue.
So he continued storing the excavated soil into his Misty Ring while racking his brain for a better approach.
By the way, these bags filled with soil were quite heavy. If he were to ride Set and release them from the Misty Ring in midair, that alone would make for a devastating weapon.
Even against Dragonias, dropping this soil from Set's usual cruising altitude of 100 meters would produce vicious destructive power. It would snap a Dragonias's neck in a single hit—or not stop there, shattering every bone in its body and destroying its internal organs.
The only drawback was that since it was simply dropped from the sky, the accuracy wasn't all that high.
Also, considering that wind could shift the trajectory or the Dragonias on the ground could move to a different position, it seemed more practical not to aim at a specific target—though Rei wasn't sure "snipe" was the right word in this case—but rather to drop large quantities at once like a bombing run onto an area where Dragonias were clustered.
With that much soil, there were countless other potential uses as well.
In that sense, Rei's action of storing excavated soil in his Misty Ring could perhaps be called a kind of resupply operation.
(Though I have no idea when it'll actually come in handy.)
With that thought, Rei went about completing his tasks one after another.
Once the work had settled down to a certain extent, he headed over to Vihera, who was stationed outside the settlement.
Considering Vihera's personality, Rei had decided she would be far more useful scouting the surroundings than helping with the excavation.
Since Rei and Set were already assisting with the dig, assigning Vihera to watch duty was the obvious call.
The Dragonias in the settlement had been wiped out, but there was no telling when more might arrive.
At that point, having personnel who could immediately respond to a Dragonias attack was essential.
...Without a lookout, the worst-case scenario would be getting hit by a Dragonias raid right after excavating the target object—and having it stolen. That was a very real possibility.
"Oh, what is it?"
Vihera had been surveying the surroundings with a bored expression, but when she sensed Rei approaching, she turned her gaze toward him and asked.
A faint, happy smile played across her face—probably because she was pleased he had come to see her.
"Just checking in. How's it looking? Any sign of Dragonias approaching?"
"Unfortunately, none at all. If they're coming, I'd wish they'd come as soon as possible."
"From the side that's still working, I'd appreciate it if they held off for a while."
Even if close to a hundred Dragonias came, Vihera wouldn't lose.
Especially in a fight within a grove full of trees, the Dragonias would have trouble maneuvering, giving her an even greater advantage.
But... even in such a battle, if any enemies bypassed Vihera and pushed into the settlement, the Centaurs could take casualties.
To prevent that, they needed lookouts beyond just Vihera... and several members of the Reconnaissance Unit were keeping watch alongside her.
Even at their previous campsite, lookouts had been fundamentally necessary.
Given that, it was only natural to need them around this settlement as well.
"What do you think they're after? More precisely, what do you think is buried under this ground?"
The idea that something was beneath the ground was, after all, merely Rei's conjecture.
But considering everything that had led up to this point, that was still the most likely possibility—no, Rei was nearly certain of it.
Even so, while he could guess that something was there, if asked what it actually was, he couldn't come up with anything.
A place that would warrant dispatching a hundred Dragonias... and a grove that, for some reason, hadn't been devoured and torn apart by them.
The latter—the fact that the Dragonias hadn't consumed the grove—struck Rei as remarkable. But just because it was remarkable didn't necessarily mean the Dragonias desired it. That would be an entirely separate question.
"Even if you ask me, there's no way I'd know, right? But, well... why don't you ask Zai and the other Centaurs if there's some legendary treasure passed down in this grassland? Maybe..."
"Maybe that treasure is buried under this settlement?"
Like something out of a dream.
That was what Rei had been about to say. But he reconsidered. In this world, perhaps such things could actually be perfectly ordinary?
After all, there were many inexplicable aspects to this whole affair.
(Anastasia and the others too... maybe they were drawn in by the legends of this grassland, or something like that... no, probably not?)
Considering Anastasia's personality, whether she would even be interested in a legendary treasure was debatable.
Of course, Rei didn't have that deep of a relationship with Anastasia.
Not that much time had passed since Daskar had introduced them.
...In truth, perhaps because of the whole affair with the other world, it felt like they'd known each other far longer than they actually had. But still.
Thinking about Anastasia and Fana, Rei continued his conversation with Vihera.