"Umm... huh? Wait... why?"
When he casually cut what appeared to be the Queen's core—or something similar—that resembled a magic stone but was clearly different, for some reason it triggered the acquisition of a skill via Beast Magic.
He had killed countless Dragonias in this world up until now, but had never been able to acquire skills from them.
...No, they hadn't even possessed magic stones to begin with.
In that sense, the Queen, which had left behind something resembling a magic stone, was indeed special. But even so, was this really okay? Such doubt lingered in Rei's mind.
Beast Magic was, fundamentally, a system for acquiring new skills using the magic stones found in Elgin.
But having acquired a new skill through Beast Magic in a different world outside of Elgin gave him a premonition that this might cause problems later on.
"Nothing I can do about it now that I've already acquired it."
As Rei murmured, it was true—Beast Magic could let him learn skills, but it couldn't do anything so bold as to delete them.
Or perhaps, if he had deeper knowledge of Beast Magic... or if he became more proficient in it over time, he might eventually learn of such a method. But at the very least, the current Rei had no way to do anything about a skill acquired through an out-of-spec magic stone—rather, a substance similar to one.
And besides... it wasn't so much that he couldn't do anything about it, but rather that he didn't want to. That was also a fact.
Because the skill he had acquired from the Queen was Terrain Manipulation.
Until now, the Terrain Manipulation skill had fundamentally been obtained by cutting a dungeon's core.
...But having thought that far, a question suddenly occurred to Rei, even if belatedly. In the sense that it wasn't a magic stone, wasn't a dungeon's core the same?
Of course, there was no mistaking that he had cut numerous dungeon cores with Death Scythe and acquired skills from them up to this point. Even so, he had previously just accepted that as simply how things worked. But now, having come to a different world outside of Elgin and acquired a skill from something that wasn't a magic stone there as well, he found himself once again questioning the mysterious nature of Beast Magic.
"Anyway, I'm genuinely glad I was able to acquire the skill itself."
Rei's words were unmistakably true. After all, the skill he had acquired was Terrain Manipulation—extremely versatile, and with an inherently low probability of being obtainable.
And it wasn't just that the level of Terrain Manipulation had gone up.
From past experience, when a skill acquired through Beast Magic reached level five, it broke through a shell. Or perhaps "crossed a wall" was a better way to put it—regardless, at level five, a skill's power became incomparably stronger than before.
If that was the case, then Terrain Manipulation should undoubtedly have become far more powerful than it had been.
"Anyway... should I test it out?"
Rei understood that he was currently in the underground space the Queen had created. Using Terrain Manipulation—the skill that let him freely control the ground—in such a place carried a certain risk.
But considering the time it had taken him to walk from where he had entered the underground space to where the Queen had been, getting out of this underground space would take a considerable amount of time.
Set was not by Rei's side, the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor that enhanced his physical abilities had already worn off, and above all, he had pushed his mana to the absolute limit—and when that wasn't enough, he had even converted his life force into mana and consumed that.
Only now was he somehow managing to stay on his feet. But if he lay down even once, he had no confidence he'd be able to get back up.
(Then again, I'm the one who did it, so questioning it after the fact is a bit rich... but what exactly is life force, anyway? If you think about it normally, it's stamina—the kind of thing games would call HP... but precisely because it's "life force," it wouldn't be something like my lifespan... right?)
Feeling that dwelling too deeply on that thought would make it impossible to pull himself back, Rei forcibly redirected his thoughts to Terrain Manipulation.
It wasn't that he had no anxiety about testing Terrain Manipulation in this underground space. But precisely because the skill had been acquired through an out-of-spec method, there was a possibility that when he tried using it on the surface, it might catch Vihera and Set in its effects. That was why he decided this was the time to try it, when he was the only one around.
...Though he also couldn't deny his curiosity about just how much power Terrain Manipulation at level five would unleash. And given the nature of the skill, there was also the thought that it might make traveling to the ramp leading to the surface much easier.
"Haa..."
Normally, even when using a new skill, he wouldn't need to concentrate this deeply. The reason Rei was concentrating so hard this time was likely because he had raised Terrain Manipulation's level through an out-of-spec method of Beast Magic, and above all, because his own stamina and mana were near their absolute limits.
If Rei were an ordinary human, standing would be impossible. Then again, if he were an ordinary human, he wouldn't have been able to activate the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor in the first place due to the mana requirement.
Perhaps because of his concentration, he had been maintaining his awareness through sheer excitement until now. But the moment he relaxed even slightly, his consciousness threatened to fade. Holding that fading awareness together, he took Death Scythe in hand, opened his mouth, and activated the skill.
"Terrain Manipulation."
With those words, Rei drove the ferrule of Death Scythe into the ground.
He wanted to know just how much the skill had been strengthened at level five, so he activated it to exert the maximum possible range and the maximum possible height for raising the ground. The skill showed Rei an astonishing sight.
At level four, the ability had been to raise or lower the ground within a seventy-meter radius centered on himself by one hundred fifty centimeters.
But the scene now spreading before Rei's eyes was one of earthen walls being created at a distance that dwarfed a mere seventy-meter radius, with a height that was overwhelmingly greater than one hundred fifty centimeters.
He hadn't measured precisely, so even Rei couldn't say for certain, but centered on himself, earthen walls roughly five meters high had been formed at a distance of about one kilometer.
"This is... seriously..."
The sight struck Rei with intense astonishment, and that surprise blew away the threat of his consciousness fading. That was how astonishing the scene spreading before his eyes truly was.
"Haa... I knew skills became dramatically more powerful at level five, but this is a bit too dramatic."
The effective range of the terrain manipulation had increased more than tenfold at once, and the effect of raising and lowering the ground had more than tripled. That was clearly an effect far beyond even Rei's expectations.
"Did it get strengthened all at once because it's Terrain Manipulation, or did it turn out like this because it was strengthened through an out-of-spec method, or is there some other reason entirely?"
Even if he destroyed a new dungeon's core in Elgin and Terrain Manipulation reached level five, would it have the same performance as it did now? That question somewhat bothered Rei, but regardless of the reason, it was an undeniable fact that Terrain Manipulation had become far more powerful than expected.
With that being the case, he judged that he didn't need to think about anything unnecessary for now... and began walking.
"If only Set would come pick me up... No, there's a high chance battles against large numbers of Dragonias are happening on the surface right now too, so I can't overtax Set."
Rei muttered those words, but the Queen having summoned surrounding Dragonias was, after all, merely his conjecture. Or rather—now that the Queen had been killed, what would happen to the Dragonias? That question also lingered in his mind.
He didn't think that just because the Queen had been killed, all of her children would die as well. But still, with the Queen that had been issuing commands now gone, they should lose their ability to move in an organized fashion.
Of course, if it were a group governed by Dragonias with high intelligence, such as copper-scaled Dragonias or golden-scaled Dragonias, they would still be able to move with some degree of organization. However, in the case of the silver-scaled Dragonias, which were specialized for combat, it was hard to imagine them being able to effectively rally the others.
This wasn't mere conjecture, but came from experience. Among the many Dragonias settlements Rei had crushed, those ruled by silver-scaled Dragonias hadn't been particularly formidable.
(Though, even if they're silver-scaled Dragonias, it might be difficult for the Centaurs to defeat them.)
Thanks to the training by Rei and Vihera—though in practice most of it was Vihera's doing—the combat ability of the Centaurs participating in the reconnaissance unit had improved dramatically. So much so that many of them could take on an average, ordinary Dragonias one-on-one.
But even those Centaurs, when facing silver-scaled Dragonias, would have to be prepared for significant casualties. That was the level of power silver-scaled Dragonias possessed. ...Of course, Rei, Vihera, and Set had overwhelmed silver-scaled Dragonias so thoroughly that the word "trample" was more appropriate.
"Anyway, whatever I do from here, I need to get out of this underground space as quickly as possible. The problem is, I really have no idea how much time it will take."
If not quite at the level of the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor, but if Rei's stamina and mana weren't this depleted, he could have continued running at considerable speed—not as fast as Set, but enough to escape an underground space of this size reasonably quickly. At the very least, he could have moved at a speed incomparable to how he was now, walking while wringing out every last drop of stamina.
(Isn't there some skill or something that would make travel easier?)
He thought about it, but the majority of skills usable with Death Scythe were attack-oriented, and as for anything else... the only one was Terrain Manipulation.
Terrain Manipulation had reached level five, gaining strength incomparable to before, but in the end, what it could do was still just raise and lower the ground. In his current situation, the most he could manage with that was to raise the ground where he stood and turn his path into a downhill slope.
But when a person walks, a downhill slope may look easy but is actually quite taxing. It was easier than an uphill slope, but for long-distance walking, a flat road was still best. If it were a relatively short distance, a downhill slope might have been fine.
"If only I could move the ground itself with Terrain Manipulation..."
Rei understood full well that Terrain Manipulation in its current state... no, even at level four, was an incredibly useful skill. But with a skill named Terrain Manipulation—one that manipulated terrain—shouldn't it be able to do more than just raise and lower the ground?
Without stopping his feet as he headed toward the surface, Rei continued forward while entertaining such thoughts. It was probably because he had depleted his mana to the absolute limit and his stamina was also running low. As he kept moving across the ground, various thoughts that he would normally dismiss as pointless kept surfacing in his mind and then fading away.
Then, after he had walked for who knows how long... he suddenly sensed something approaching him.
"Wait, seriously?!"
There were still Dragonias survivors?
Along with that thought, a cry of surprise escaped Rei's mouth—a shout that seemed utterly at odds with someone as exhausted as he was.
Even so, in his current condition, he could still handle one or two Dragonias. As long as it wasn't something like a seven-colored Dragonias, an existence in a class of its own even among Dragonias. That was what he had thought, but...
"Gurururururururu!"
From the direction the presence was approaching—dead ahead—that cry rang out, and Rei's expression softened with relief. The voice coming from ahead was one extremely familiar to him.
"...Set?"
For a moment, Rei wondered if the voice he'd heard was some kind of mistake... more specifically, whether it was an auditory hallucination brought on by his utterly exhausted state. But when Set appeared and approached him, then gently rubbed his face against him, it was obvious this was no hallucination or illusion.
Why was Set here?
That question naturally arose in his mind, but for now he climbed onto Set's back... and when he asked to be taken out of the underground space, he lost consciousness from fatigue.