With a heavy thud, the monster collapsed to the ground.
The sound alone told Rei just how much the creature weighed.
"A Water Bear, huh. I never expected to run into one here again. Well, I suppose it's not that strange since this is where I encountered one before. It wouldn't be surprising for the same type of monster to show up again."
"Gruu."
Set purred in agreement. He had used Power Attack to body-slam the Water Bear, destroying its balance and creating the decisive opening Rei needed.
The Water Bear possessed considerable weight.
But struck by Set's Power Attack, holding its ground was impossible.
For Rei, attacking an enemy that had already lost its balance was straightforward.
As a result, the Water Bear—its body slashed by Death Scythe and its throat pierced by the Twilight Spear—died easily.
Stripping the Magic Stone from the Water Bear's corpse, Rei stored the body in his Misty Ring.
"Anyway, it's a C-Rank Monster and reasonably strong... This Magic Stone goes to me."
The Magic Stone from the Water Bear he had encountered when leaving the Forest of Magic had been given to Set.
Since that had allowed Set to acquire Water Ball, using another Water Bear Magic Stone on him wouldn't result in acquiring or strengthening any skill.
Given that, this Water Bear's Magic Stone needed to go to Death Scythe.
Set likely remembered acquiring Water Ball as well, because when Rei said he would use the Magic Stone on Death Scythe instead, Set showed no sign of dissatisfaction.
Of course, having already leveled up Optical Camouflage and acquired the Power Attack skill in the short time since entering the Forest of Magic, it was only natural that Set had no complaints.
...Though in reality, the Optical Camouflage level-up aside, Power Attack had come from the bull monster's Magic Stone defeated outside the Forest of Magic.
"Alright then... what kind of skill will I get this time?"
Muttering to himself, he tossed the Magic Stone into the air and slashed through it with Death Scythe.
[Death Scythe has acquired the skill "Blizzard Slash Lv.2"]
The announcement message that echoed in his mind was something Rei could accept.
"A water-based skill, huh. I suppose that makes sense... Makes sense? Well, I'm glad the skill got stronger, at least."
Feeling both convinced and not quite convinced, he decided to test how exactly it had been strengthened for the time being.
"Blizzard Slash."
Upon activating the skill, Death Scythe's blade was sheathed in ice.
From what Rei could see, the ice covering the blade seemed larger than it had been at Level 1.
Seeing that, he accepted the level-up.
Ideally, he would have been happier if he could judge a more significant difference at a glance, but considering the level had only gone from one to two, he had no choice but to accept that this much was to be expected.
"I'm lucky enough just being able to use water and ice attacks in the first place."
As a mage, Rei possessed extraordinary magical power and had such outstanding talent that he could create new magic through feel alone.
However, as if in exchange, he had become an existence specialized in the fire attribute.
It wasn't that he couldn't use other attributes at all. By consuming an enormous amount of his extraordinary magical power, it was possible to forcibly incorporate magic of other attributes into Flame Magic and use it that way.
But even then, magic of attributes opposite to fire—such as water and ice—was impossible for him to use.
A perfect example was the Dagger of Flowing Water that Rei possessed.
While it wasn't exactly magic, being a Magic Item meant it could be used by consuming magical power. In the hands of a skilled user, it could be wielded as a Water Whip or a blade of water. But when Rei used it, the only thing he could do was let water dribble out.
Of course, that water became incredibly delicious thanks to Rei's magical power, possessing a taste that could be called Celestial Nectar.
In that sense, the Blizzard Slash skill, which allowed him to perform ice-attribute attacks, was something Rei was genuinely grateful for.
"I'd like more monsters that use ice or water to show up. I want to raise it to Level 5 if possible."
"Gruu... Grurururu."
Set let out a cry as if to encourage Rei.
Based on past experience, skills were dramatically strengthened upon reaching Level 5.
Moreover, leveling up further from that strengthened state produced improvement that was clearly greater than the gains leading up to Level 5.
The fact that Set's Optical Camouflage gained an additional one hundred seconds of duration when it reached Level 6 was a good example.
Up to Level 4, the duration increased by ten seconds each time the level rose by one.
In other words, when going from Level 5 to 6, it was strengthened ten times more than before.
"Alright, let's keep moving."
After lightly swinging Death Scythe to dismiss Blizzard Slash, Rei continued through the Forest of Magic alongside Set.
A fair amount of time had passed since entering the Forest of Magic, but they still hadn't reached the Zephyle Clan's hidden base.
For one thing, both Rei and Set were somewhat poor with directions, and rather than flying through the sky, they were walking through the forest.
And given the vastness of the Forest of Magic, it was only natural that it would take time to reach the hidden base.
"There's still plenty of time before noon. If we search carefully, we'll eventually find the hidden base. Staying an extra night and entering the Forest of Magic in the morning was the right call after all."
Originally, with Zakat's guidance, they were supposed to arrive at the Forest of Magic around yesterday evening.
But with the restriction of two nights and three days, Rei had deliberately stayed an extra night to adjust the timing, wanting to spend as much time as possible in the Forest of Magic.
That decision had not been wrong.
Patting himself on the back, Rei pressed on through the Forest of Magic with Set.
As they kept going, Rei noticed Set suddenly stop beside him. Following suit, he stopped as well.
"What kind of monster is next? I'd like at least one A-Rank Monster to show up around now."
"Gyaaaaah!"
It probably wasn't responding to Rei's words, but a monster let out a war cry as it appeared.
...More accurately, not a monster, but monsters.
Until now, they had been lucky enough to face single attackers.
But thinking about it, even when Rei had fled from this Forest of Magic, there had been monsters that acted in groups rather than individually. He should have anticipated this kind of development.
"Lizard Monsters! Set!"
What burst through the underbrush were Lizard Monsters.
Despite being lizards, they were nearly one meter tall and about two and a half meters from mouth to tail—quite massive creatures.
And close to ten of them attacked all at once.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrru!"
Just as the distance between the lizard pack emerging from the bushes and Rei was about to close, Set let out a loud cry.
King's Intimidation.
Among the skills Set possessed, it was an extremely powerful one that affected all enemies who heard the sound.
If its effect manifested fully, the targets would be unable to move from their spot.
In fact, more than half of the lizards were forcibly stopped by King's Intimidation, tumbling from their own running momentum and scraping along the ground.
And even the lizards that somehow resisted King's Intimidation were visibly slowed.
"Set, the ones still moving first!"
"Gruu!"
Set immediately responded to Rei's words and charged toward the lizard coming at him.
The individuals that had successfully resisted King's Intimidation had slowed movements, but that wouldn't last forever.
Though there were individual differences, given enough time, they would shake off the effect.
The immobilized individuals would also eventually have King's Intimidation wear off, but it would take longer than for those who had resisted successfully.
That was why attacking the slowed ones first was the priority right now.
"Blizzard Slash!"
Since he had the chance, Rei decided to test the skill he had just acquired.
The opponents could barely move anymore, so it might not have been necessary to use a skill, but since they were lizards, perhaps they were weak to cold.
That thought had indeed crossed his mind.
And truthfully, he also just wanted to try out the strengthened skill.
"Hah!"
After confirming that Death Scythe's blade was enveloped in ice, Rei swung it.
The strike, unleashed in an upward scooping motion from the ground, effortlessly bisected the slowed lizard's body left and right.
The lizard might have normally been able to evade Death Scythe's attack with swift movements, but under the effect of King's Intimidation, such maneuvers were impossible.
As a result, the ice-coated blade unilaterally sliced through the lizards one after another.
(Still, has the sharpness increased compared to before? Well, the level went up, so I suppose that's only natural.)
With Blizzard Slash reaching Level 2, the ice covering Death Scythe's blade had grown larger than before.
At first, Rei thought that was the only change, but judging from the sensation of cutting through the lizards, the power seemed to have increased as well.
Though considering the level had gone up, that was only natural.
"Grrrruru!"
A short distance away, Set was delivering a front paw strike to a lizard and sending it flying.
The lizards possessed scales that would deflect ordinary weapons, but Set's strike was incredibly powerful.
So powerful, in fact, that one might ask what difference having scales even made compared to bare flesh.
From that single blow, the lizards were sent flying one after another... and then slammed into tree trunks, which dealt additional damage as yet another powerful impact.
After continuing that chain of attacks, before he knew it, all the lizards were dead in less than a few minutes.
From the lizards' perspective, they had been unilaterally slaughtered while unable to move properly due to King's Intimidation. Had they been able to speak, they might have cried out that it wasn't fair.
"Now, the question is whether there are any more of these lizards... Set, what do you think?"
"...Grururu?"
In response to Rei's words, Set purred with a hint of uncertainty, checking whether all the lizards had truly been defeated.
Normally, Set could assess his surroundings immediately, but perhaps due to the aftermath of the battle with the lizards, he seemed unable to get a read on the area.
Or perhaps, as expected of the Forest of Magic, some kind of magical interference was obstructing him.
(If someone says it's because of the Forest of Magic, I'd probably accept it right away.)
Since the attacks had been one at a time until now, the incident with the lizards attacking in a group made Rei think that something might be different from before.
While checking the surroundings, Rei stored the lizard corpses into his Misty Ring.
He stored all of them, leaving two behind.
Then, using a knife, he extracted the Magic Stones from the two remaining corpses.
"I wonder which part of these counts as the Subjugation Proof Part. Well, if I bring the corpses to the Guild, they'll identify it over there."
Rei didn't know which part of the lizard corpses would serve as the Subjugation Proof Part or which parts would count as materials.
Given that, as with other monsters, bringing the corpses as they were was the best course of action.
"That said, there are this many of them, so I guess I can use the meat. I hear lizard meat is pretty tasty."
When he was in Japan, naturally, he had never eaten lizard meat.
But in manga and such, it was a fairly common topic, so even when he had the chance to eat it after coming to Elgin, he was able to do so without any particular aversion.
Based on that experience, he judged it would probably be delicious and decided to use this meat for tonight's dinner.
It was true that a fair amount of the bull monster's meat still remained, and it was meat far tastier than its rank would suggest.
But even so, there was no doubt he was more interested in the lizard meat right now.
"Alright then... first, the Magic Stones. Shall we start with Set?"
"Gruu!"
Set nodded at Rei's words.
When Rei had Set swallow a Magic Stone...
[Set has acquired the skill "Poison Claw Lv.6"]
An announcement message echoed in his mind.
"I see, poison. These lizards probably had poison on their claws. Will it be safe to eat the meat? ...It'll be fine."
Rei, with a body crafted by Zephyle, and the Gryphon Set.
A little poison wouldn't be a problem, and the poison was likely in the claws or fangs... considering the skill acquired, it was probably the claws, Rei reasoned.
Then, Rei tossed another Magic Stone toward Death Scythe as well, slashing through it.
[Death Scythe has acquired the skill "Multi Slash Lv.4"]
Such an announcement message flowed through his mind.
[Set]
"Water Ball Lv.5" "Fire Breath Lv.4" "Wind Arrow Lv.4" "King's Intimidation Lv.3" "Poison Claw Lv.6" new "Size Change Lv.2" "Tornado Lv.3" "Ice Arrow Lv.4" "Optical Camouflage Lv.6" "Magic Eye of Shock Lv.2" "Power Crush Lv.6" "Sense of Smell Enhancement Lv.4" "Bubble Breath Lv.1" "Crystal Breath Lv.1" "Earth Arrow Lv.2" "Power Attack Lv.1"
[Death Scythe]
"Corrosion Lv.5" "Flying Slash Lv.5" "Magic Shield Lv.1" "Power Slash Lv.3" "Wind Hand Lv.4" "Terrain Manipulation Lv.5" "Pain Burst Lv.3" "Penetrate Lv.3" "Multi Slash Lv.4" new "Blizzard Slash Lv.2" new "Flying Needle Lv.1"
Poison Claw: Secretes poison from the claws, inflicting poison on targets wounded by them. Poison strength scales with level.
Multi Slash: Enables multiple attacks in a single strike. At Level 2, two additional slashes are added to the original attack. At Level 3, three additional slashes; at Level 4, four additional slashes.
Blizzard Slash: Death Scythe's blade becomes covered in ice, adding ice-attribute damage to slashes. Additionally, because the blade is covered in ice, the attack's reach extends very slightly.