The announcement message echoed in Rei's mind: Multi Slash had leveled up.
His first reaction was doubt.
Fundamentally, Beast Magic involved acquiring skills related to the monster that had possessed the Magic Stone. For example, the Poison Claw that Set had leveled up using the lizard's Magic Stone likely meant that the lizard's fangs or claws had been poisonous.
(If it were the fangs, then instead of Poison Claw leveling up, it would have been Poison Fang... no, Poison Beak in this case? I should have acquired a skill like that instead.)
That was how skills worked—they were tied to the monster in question.
And yet, Death Scythe had acquired Multi Slash from the lizard's Magic Stone.
Multi Slash was one of the simpler skills among those Death Scythe had acquired... yet it also possessed a special quality.
The explanation may have sounded contradictory, but there was no better way to describe it.
Simply put, Multi Slash meant that whenever Rei attacked normally with Death Scythe, additional slashes equal to the skill's level were unleashed simultaneously alongside the original strike.
At level one, one extra slash accompanied the swung blade. At level two, two extra slashes followed—and so on.
The effect itself was just an increase in the number of slashes, but when each of those slashes carried the same destructive power as Rei's own strike, that changed everything.
Rei's body—forged by the Zephyle Clan's technology—and the weight of Death Scythe, roughly a hundred kilograms with its sharpness enhanced by Rei's magic power, were all unleashed at once, as many times as Multi Slash's level allowed.
The effect was simple, but its power was undeniably formidable.
"Well, the fact that it acquired Multi Slash means... this lizard could probably pull off similar attacks. Same goes for Poison Claw, but they never got the chance to use either."
It was all well and good that the group had burst from the bushes, but Set had hit them with King's Intimidation at that exact moment. The majority had frozen in place and tumbled to the ground. Those few lizards that managed to resist were visibly sluggish, and Rei and Set had prioritized putting those ones down.
Suffice it to say, the lizards were wiped out without ever launching a single proper attack.
In that sense, they had never gotten the chance to show what they were truly capable of. And that was exactly why, even if they'd had attacks similar to Multi Slash, they'd died before they could use them.
"Multi Slash is a powerful skill, so I consider myself lucky. ...Anyway, let's test it out."
Muttering to himself, Rei swung Death Scythe toward a nearby tree.
"Multi Slash."
He struck lightly, intending only to scratch the trunk without cutting through it. The blow landed exactly as aimed, and in the next instant, five marks were scored into the bark.
One from Rei's original swing, plus four more carved by Multi Slash at level four.
"Yeah, just as expected. ...Alright, I've checked my skill. What about you, Set?"
Thanks to the lizard's Magic Stone, Set had also leveled up Poison Claw. At level six, it undoubtedly packed a vicious attack power. But precisely because it was poison, it was also inconvenient to use. Rei understood that the toxicity grew stronger with each level—but when it came down to whether he actually wanted to see it in action, the answer was a firm no.
"Gruu."
Set seemed to reach the same conclusion from Rei's demeanor, letting out a cry of agreement.
"Alright, then let's keep moving forward. This is the Forest of Magic—anything can happen here. I want to reach the Zephyle Clan's hideout as fast as possible."
Set purred in agreement. After confirming that every lizard corpse had been stored in the Misty Ring, the pair pressed on through the Forest of Magic once more.
"Now then, what kind of monster will come at us next? It'll probably just ambush us out of nowhere again... and speak of the devil."
Spotting Set on alert mid-sentence, Rei readied Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, prepared to respond to anything instantly.
A few seconds later, a buzzing sound reached his ears—something vibrating.
"This sound... what is it? I've got a bad feeling about... whoa!"
The moment the sound registered, something shot out of the depths of the forest straight toward him.
The Monkey's Flying Needle had also come without warning, but this was far faster—overwhelmingly so. Even Rei had barely managed to throw himself out of the way in time.
Normally, in a situation like that, Rei's counterattack would have already been driving into the enemy. But this time, there hadn't been a single opening for anything of the sort.
It was that fast—and yet, Rei's extraordinary vision was still able to identify what had attacked him.
What he saw was a Dragonfly.
Naturally, it wasn't the kind of Dragonfly Rei would have recognized. This one was incomparably larger than an ordinary one. Its head alone was roughly the same size as Rei's—equivalent to a human's—which gave some idea of just how enormous the creature was.
And of course, a Dragonfly that massive couldn't possibly be an ordinary insect. As if to prove the point, it had four pairs of wings—eight in total—on its back, and the outer edges of those wings were visibly sharp, more like blades than anything else.
"It's fast! Set, this one's trouble!"
He could manage to dodge by sight, but counterattacking was out of the question. But what struck Rei as even more infuriating was that, despite flying at such blistering speed, the Dragonfly never once collided with any of the trees in the forest.
Maybe it was slicing through branches and trunks with its wing-blades, but at the very least, there was no hoping it would crash into a tree and die—or even take damage.
(Impressive reflexes for an enemy. Animal instinct? No, it's a Dragonfly—maybe that's just how they are. But even with those instincts, at that speed, circling around for another pass has to take some time... unless it has some kind of special ability.)
Next time, he wouldn't just dodge. He'd counterattack.
Brimming with that resolve, Rei focused his mind and waited for the Dragonfly to strike again.
But... ten seconds passed. Twenty. Thirty. Several minutes went by, and the Dragonfly never reappeared.
"Huh? Did it actually run away?"
"Gruu?"
Set, who had been ready to counterattack if it came at him, purred as if asking, Is that so?
Every monster they'd fought in the Forest of Magic so far had been relentless—once the fighting started, they never stopped until they were killed. But Rei judged that the Dragonfly was cut from different cloth.
"Probably a monster specialized in hit-and-run tactics. It closes in at incredible speed and takes the target down with its wings, fangs, or some other attack. Even if it can't kill them, as long as it deals significant damage, that's good enough. And if it can't manage that, it just bolts from the battlefield."
Normally, pulling off something like that wasn't so easy. But considering that even Rei had barely reacted in time, such tactics were clearly within its capabilities.
"Should I think of it as having escaped, or as it letting us go...? Personally, I'd prefer to think it escaped."
Rei wanted to believe that next time, he'd be able to handle it. Given that, he told himself the Dragonfly had simply gotten away.
"Gruu...? Grururuu!"
As if to encourage him, Set purred.
Rei stroked Set while tightening his watch on the surroundings more than ever before.
"Even though this is the Forest of Magic, we'd been managing well enough up to now, so maybe I let myself underestimate it a little. With a tough customer like that Dragonfly around, it really drives home that the Forest of Magic is a different beast entirely. We should probably be more careful going forward."
"Gruu!"
Set purred in response, as if to say, Got it!
For Set as well, that Dragonfly's attack must have been quite unexpected. They'd already been ambushed by multiple monsters in the short time since entering the Forest of Magic. He hadn't intended to let his guard down—but even so, it was an undeniable fact that, without even realizing it, they had grown slightly complacent.
"Or maybe, for the monsters in the Forest of Magic, that was the plan all along. ...Am I overthinking it?"
The thought had crossed his mind—that the monsters, having judged Rei and his group as formidable foes, had attacked them while accepting their own casualties as a given. But Rei found it hard to believe the monsters of the Forest of Magic were that well-coordinated. With that, he reconsidered and chalked it up to coincidence.
(This really is the Forest of Magic. I knew that going in, but I didn't expect to get hit with this many attacks in quick succession.)
Since he had once escaped from the Forest of Magic before, it was entirely possible he'd been underestimating it just a little. If things kept up like this, he and Set could end up facing a new monster every few steps.
(Well, even so, we've only been fighting one type at a time, so it's been manageable enough.)
So far, at least, they hadn't been attacked by a second monster while already fighting one. Given that the Forest of Magic was home to a vast—practically uncountable—number of monsters, that was a stroke of fortune. Of course, that might simply have been because they were still near the outer fringes of the forest.
"That said, having plenty of monsters around isn't a bad thing for me either. Right, Set?"
"Gruu!"
Set let out a cry as if to say, Of course!
Both Rei and Set possessed Beast Magic. For the two of them, an abundance of monsters was something to welcome.
That said, that was strictly on the condition that they could actually defeat the monsters in question.
"In that case, the question is what shows up next. ...Ideally, that Dragonfly would come back for another round."
Since it was undoubtedly a powerful monster, Rei wanted its Magic Stone if he could get it. Set likely felt the same. At Rei's words, the gryphon purred with fierce determination.
Pressing deeper into the Forest of Magic, the two of them eventually came upon an open clearing.
"This is..."
A plaza that had clearly been made intentionally. The fact that something had carved out this space told Rei that whatever had done it possessed a high degree of intelligence.
(Though what exactly "high intelligence" means in concrete terms, I couldn't say.)
As Set himself demonstrated, some monsters possessed remarkably high intelligence. Of course, since Set had been created by Rei's Beast Magic, comparing him to ordinary monsters might not have been fair.
Setting that thought aside, Rei scanned his surroundings. He'd expected to find... not a house exactly, but at least some kind of nest. Yet looking around, there was nothing of the sort.
If that was the case, then what exactly was this place?
"Don't tell me this happened naturally... that can't be it, right?"
"Gruu."
Set nodded in agreement. That this area alone had no trees growing in it was apparently just as hard for Set to believe.
Looking more carefully at the ground, Rei noticed that the grass had been crushed flat in places. And on closer inspection, there were multiple such traces scattered about.
"Could this be... some giant creature has made its lair here?"
The clearing was fairly large—large enough to fit an average mansion from Gilm's Noble District, excluding Marina's estate—and similar crushed patches were visible all across the grounds.
"What in the world is... gwah!"
What was it—those were the words Rei was about to say when, without warning, something sent him flying.