With a heavy thud, the bull monster slain by Rei and Set's attacks toppled to the ground. Its massive frame, larger even than Set, shook the earth as it fell.
"Phew. I never expected Flying Slash to do absolutely nothing. Right?"
"Gruu."
Set purred in agreement at Rei's words.
Set too had apparently found it somewhat unexpected that the Water Balls it fired had dealt almost no damage. Of course, they had been fired from the start with the purpose of throwing off the opponent's balance rather than dealing damage, so they had served their role well enough.
"Now then, for this monster for the time being... Zakat, you got a second? I want to do a rough dissection right here. Would that be a problem?"
Zakat, who had been watching the surroundings to ensure no other monsters intervened in the battle, nearly fell off his horse at Rei's words.
Naturally. He had never expected Rei to say he wanted to dissect a monster right here on the road.
"Are you serious?"
Judging that the battle was over for the time being, Zakat asked as he guided his horse closer to Rei and the others.
Of course, Rei was not joking in the slightest. He was completely serious.
"Yeah, of course I'm serious. Considering we're about to head into the Forest of Magic, we'll end up dissecting the monsters we defeat there too, but I want to reduce that workload even a little. Besides, if we're dissecting in the Forest of Magic, there's a high chance the smell of blood will attract monsters."
Normally, when Rei dissected a monster, Set would keep watch on the surroundings. Set would naturally do the same when they were dissecting in the Forest of Magic.
However, precisely because it was the Forest of Magic, there was no telling what kind of monsters might show up. Given that uncertainty, Rei's honest feeling was that he wanted to dissect as quickly as possible here and reduce the number he'd have to handle inside the forest.
In reality, dissecting monsters after the Promotion Exam was over would probably be the safest option, but while the materials could wait, he wanted the Magic Stones as soon as possible.
After all, these were Magic Stones from monsters living in or near the Forest of Magic. There was almost no doubt they could be used to acquire or strengthen Skills through Beast Magic.
Considering those circumstances, it was only natural to want as many Magic Stones as possible.
That said, since it would be fine as long as he could extract the Magic Stones, when it came to actually dissecting the monsters, he would probably just take the stones and leave the rest for dissection after returning to Gilm.
However, right now, since they had yet to enter the Forest of Magic, Rei wanted to dissect the bull monster here — and while he was at it, the tiger monster's corpse too, whose innards had been gnawed apart by the bull.
"It's fine, right? We still haven't arrived at the Forest of Magic yet."
"Haa, my job is just to guide you to the Forest of Magic, you know. Just make it quick."
Though Zakat hesitated slightly at Rei's words, he muttered as if willing to humor the request a little.
Actually, in his heart, Zakat thought that perhaps Rei felt anxious about going to the Forest of Magic alone — but in that regard, he was magnificently mistaken.
In reality, the biggest reason was simply that Rei was intensely curious about the taste of the bull monster's beef.
"Sorry about this. I'll finish up quick. As for the tiger, its innards have been eaten, but the materials should still be usable, so I'll store this one in the Misty Ring."
While conversing with Zakat, Rei stored the tiger monster in the Misty Ring. Since neither he nor Set had been involved in the fight that killed it, even if the corpse contained a Magic Stone, it couldn't be used for Beast Magic, so he handled it quite roughly.
"Now, the question is how to dissect this thing."
The bull was even larger than Set, who was three meters long. If it were any other monster, it wouldn't be an issue, but the fact that it was a bull was the problem.
If possible, he wanted to neatly dissect the bull's corpse — or so he thought.
However, Rei had never dissected a bull before. He had experienced dissecting chickens, thanks to the chickens his father kept.
(The most prized part of beef is the tenderloin, right? Wait, come to think of it, I feel like there was a cut called Chateaubriand in a manga, but is that different?)
Rei recalled knowledge from cooking manga, but while he vaguely understood that such a cut existed, if asked where exactly that part was, there was no way he could answer.
In reality, Chateaubriand is a type of tenderloin, but in Rei's understanding, tenderloin and Chateaubriand were separate cuts.
Remaining unsure of what to do...
"It's a hassle, and we don't have time, so I'll just do it roughly. I know where the beef tongue is, at least."
Beef tongue is a cow's tongue. For Rei, it was a cut he always looked forward to at yakiniku. Given that, he wanted to eat that part too if possible, but it was also true that cutting out the tongue in this situation seemed difficult.
(Ah, come to think of it, didn't beef tongue have a pretty grotesque appearance if you didn't peel the skin off or something?)
Rei had once seen unsliced beef tongue bought at a butcher shop back when he was in Japan being prepared. The sight he saw at that time was quite grotesque, or so he thought, and decided to just cut off the parts that looked tasty and leave the rest to the professionals.
Its appearance was somewhat — truly only somewhat — different from a normal cow. Its horns were sharper than a normal cow's, and it had fangs sufficient to tear off the flesh of prey. But even so, when viewed broadly, it was still a cow.
Given that, if he brought it to a butcher or somewhere similar, they would probably dissect it nicely for him. Or perhaps it would be fine to recruit personnel for dissection work at the Guild instead.
Thinking such thoughts, he tried to slash open the area around the heart with his dissection knife...
"No good, huh?"
Seeing the knife's blade unable to cut through the bull monster's skin, he muttered in disappointment.
If Rei used his strength to forcibly cut through the skin, it wouldn't be impossible. But doing so would naturally carry the risk of chipping the knife's blade, and even if it didn't chip, it would become unusable without sharpening.
"Which means, it's this one then."
What he took out from the Misty Ring was a knife. But unlike the knife he had been using, it was a Mithril Knife — a Magic Item made of Mithril.
No matter how tough the bull monster's skin was, if Rei channeled his mana through the Mithril Knife, cutting it open would be easy.
After slashing it open, he searched for the heart. Being larger than Set, finding the Magic Stone wouldn't be that simple. Even so, after cutting the skin open further and exposing the innards, the heart was finally illuminated by the sunlight.
Then, extracting the Magic Stone embedded in the heart with the Mithril Knife, he stored it in the Misty Ring for now.
"Now, all that's left is some tasty-looking meat. The problem is, it's hard to tell which cut is which. For now, as an easily recognizable cut, let's slice this part."
Muttering, Rei slashed open the thigh area with the Mithril Knife.
He remembered seeing beef thigh meat at the supermarket, and above all, chicken thigh meat had left a strong impression on him. Given that, he judged that this bull monster's thigh meat would probably be delicious too.
In reality, beef thigh meat is lean red meat, not the kind of high-grade wagyu that Rei was imagining. However, it has the characteristic of having little fat, allowing one to enjoy the natural taste of beef. A skilled cook could probably make a sufficiently delicious dish using the quality of that meat, but unfortunately, with cooking skills like Rei's, which were essentially those of an amateur, drawing out the flavor of the meat would be difficult.
(For now, if I make skewers out of it, I can manage somehow, right?)
Thinking such thoughts, and judging that any further dissection with his skills would only clumsily damage the edible portions, he stored the bull monster's corpse in the Misty Ring. Naturally, the cut thigh meat was also stored in the Misty Ring.
"Zakat, sorry for the wait. I'm done."
"I was watching, but is that really okay? You said you were going to dissect it, but it looked like you barely did any dissection and just left it mostly as is."
"I originally planned to dissect the whole thing. But looking at it, the meat seemed quite tasty, so I figured I'd leave it to a professional who's better at dissection. That way, we won't end up wasting the meat, right?"
Being told that, Zakat apparently had a similar experience himself. He nodded in understanding — but at the same time, he directed an envious gaze at Rei.
"Item Box Users sure are enviable. If only we'd had an Item Box back then too."
Looking at Zakat as he muttered sentimentally, Rei could more or less understand the reason. Probably, before obtaining a mass-produced Item Box, Zakat had ended up in a similar situation to Rei's now.
He didn't know what kind of monster it was, but they had defeated one with delicious meat, yet for some reason couldn't bring the corpse back, and as a result had done a clumsy dissection themselves — though still probably better than Rei — and wasted the meat they couldn't carry, or something along those lines.
Judging that it was better not to touch on that matter, Rei mounted Set's back and called out to Zakat as if to change the subject.
"Well then, let's head to the Forest of Magic. It's not far from here, right?"
"Huh? Ah, right. Considering that monsters like the one just now, which don't appear in normal areas, are here, that's true. However, this is the frontier. It's possible that the monster from just now has nothing to do with the Forest of Magic."
"If possible, I'd like it if a few more of the same monster were living in the Forest of Magic."
For Rei, he had only obtained one Magic Stone from the bull monster so far. Given that, even if he wanted to acquire or strengthen a Skill through Beast Magic, he wanted two — one for himself and one for Set. And above all, since it was a bull monster, the more beef, the better.
"You would say that, Rei."
Whether he understood what Rei was aiming for with those words, Zakat muttered as such.
If this were a lower-ranked adventurer, encountering such a creature would be a death sentence, so they would definitely cry and say they wanted nothing to do with it. However, Zakat was an A-Rank Adventurer with high ability. He could certainly win against a bull monster, just as Rei and Set had defeated one. It was precisely because Zakat was such a person that he could respond to Rei's words as he just did.
"Right? Anyway, that's why we should hurry to the Forest of Magic. We used up a bit of time here. ...Ah, no. Wait. Maybe it'd be better to take it a bit slower instead."
"Huh?"
The words that came out of Rei's mouth must have been quite unexpected for Zakat. He directed a look at Rei that said, What on earth are you talking about?
But even with Zakat looking at him like that, Rei remained calm and spoke.
"In the end, I can only stay in the Forest of Magic for two nights and three days, right? In that case, whether I enter the forest around evening or near nightfall and spend two nights and three days, or enter in the morning and spend two nights and three days — even though it's the same two nights and three days, there's half a day's difference in actual time spent inside."
That was only natural for Rei. But for Zakat, it was a statement that made him want to ask, Are you serious? — no, Are you sane?
Thinking about it normally, he wondered if anyone would actually want to stay in the Forest of Magic even a little longer, as Rei suggested. But at the same time, when he thought about several A-Rank Adventurer acquaintances of his in Gilm, he could believe that it wouldn't be strange for such people to exist.
As an A-Rank Adventurer, Zakat possessed an unusually normal person's sensibility, so for him, this was something he could barely believe. He couldn't believe it, but even so, he had the expectation that a few of them would make the same judgment as Rei.
Thinking of that, it was nothing but understandable that Rei, who was about to take the Promotion Exam to become an A-Rank Adventurer, would voice such a desire.
(Good grief, he really is like an A-Rank Adventurer.)
Unlike me.
So thought Zakat, but the very fact that he had chosen to guide Rei to the Forest of Magic meant that Zakat himself was also quite befitting of an A-Rank Adventurer.