Rei had been blown away suddenly, but fortunately, by twisting his body midair, he managed to avoid slamming into a tree trunk.
He kicked off a trunk at the edge of the clearing, landed on the ground, and readied the Death Scythe and Twilight Spear he was gripping.
Then, checking his body's condition, he confirmed that he had only sustained minor bruises—no fractures or slash wounds—before turning his attention to his attacker.
...No, there was no need to confirm it. The presence was right there.
A massive... yes, a massive snake.
Whether the single word "massive" was sufficient to describe it, he wasn't sure.
It was that enormous.
Its body was roughly three meters in diameter—about the same length as Set's entire body from head to tail.
Naturally, with a body that thick, its overall length was equally staggering.
Since they were in a clearing, no tree canopy blocked the sunlight. The snake's black scales shimmered in the light, gleaming wetly to the point that "lustrous" seemed the only fitting description.
(Where did it come from? There's no way I'd miss something that huge... Optical Camouflage? No, even with Optical Camouflage, it'd be impossible to completely fail to detect a presence radiating this much intimidation.)
Optical Camouflage only made one transparent and invisible. If you could sense a creature's presence, then you could still tell that a vanished opponent was right there.
And Rei and Set had long since reached that level of ability. The presence the giant black snake was emitting should have been absolutely impossible to miss, even if it had activated Optical Camouflage.
(Though speaking of which, it attacked me just fine—so why no follow-up?)
The giant black snake in Rei's line of sight was clearly a high-rank monster. It possessed such overwhelming presence that anyone could tell at a glance it was an A-Rank monster—the very rank Rei was supposed to defeat during this promotion exam. Or perhaps A-Rank or higher... given the sheer intensity of its aura, it wouldn't be strange for it to be an S-Rank monster.
Yet for some reason, the giant snake simply lay coiled, watching Rei without showing any sign of attacking.
"Gruu."
Set padded up beside Rei, who still hadn't been able to tear his eyes away from the snake. He had probably chased after Rei the moment he was sent flying. There was worry in his gaze, but once he saw Rei was unharmed, those eyes shifted to the giant black snake that had hurt his beloved Rei.
In terms of size, Set was overwhelmingly smaller. Normally, his three-meter bulk made it difficult just to enter buildings in the city—but next to the black snake, he looked tiny.
"Phew... well, I figured something like this might happen in the Forest of Magic, but I still didn't expect to run into such a high-rank monster right off the bat."
Since entering the Forest of Magic, they had been assaulted by one monster after another in rapid succession. But up until now—Dragonfly aside—every enemy had been one Rei could dispatch with ease. This black snake was clearly in a different league entirely.
"...Why isn't it attacking?"
They glared at each other for several minutes. Even after all that time, the black snake showed no intention of uncoiling or attacking, and Rei finally muttered the question aloud.
Beside him, Set's sharp gaze from earlier had also faded, replaced by a look of equal bewilderment directed at the black snake.
"Shaaaaaaaaa."
The black snake suddenly let out a cry. Rei had assumed it was a signal to attack, but from what he could see, there was no sign of any assault. If anything, it was staring at him with its distinctly serpentine eyes, as though trying to convey something.
(Intelligence?)
Rei could see it plain as day—undoubtedly, those eyes held intelligence. And not just any intelligence, but extremely high intelligence.
The moment that realization struck, another question surfaced in his mind. Rei had been blown away hard enough to suffer bruises. But thinking back, a high-rank monster like the one before him had launched a sneak attack by some unknown means. Given that, it would have been perfectly reasonable for him to walk away with far worse than minor bruises—serious injuries wouldn't have been surprising at all.
The more he thought about it, the less it made sense.
(It tried to land a fatal blow in one strike, but couldn't because of the Dragon Robe's effect? No, even so—if it had followed up while I was sent flying, it definitely could have dealt serious damage. Which means... this black snake has no intention of making an enemy of me?)
A lower-ranked monster would have attacked the moment it spotted Rei. But the black snake before him clearly possessed high intelligence. For a monster that intelligent to refrain from attacking when faced with Rei and Set—opponents it could swallow whole—was blatantly abnormal.
(It doesn't see us as enemies? No, that's impossible. Setting me aside, Set is equal to or possibly even higher in rank than this black snake. Well, I doubt this snake has any concept of monster rankings, though.)
Even so, it should have been able to tell that Rei and Set were strong. And if that were the case, Rei could roughly guess why it wasn't attacking.
(In other words, if it carelessly started fighting me or Set, it would take heavy damage itself. It wants to avoid that, so it's leaving us alone? ...Or maybe this highly intelligent snake is actually a pacifist? ...Nah, no way.)
Discarding the absurd thought as soon as it formed, Rei weighed his next move.
There was no doubt this black snake was A-Rank—possibly even S-Rank. Either way, since he needed to defeat at least two A-Rank monsters in the Forest of Magic, running into one on the first day of his two-night, three-day exam was arguably lucky.
Then again, encountering a monster of this caliber was arguably the opposite of lucky.
Regardless, the immediate problem was figuring out how to handle the creature in front of him.
(Fight? Well, I don't think I'd lose. I don't think that, but the issue is that walking away unscathed would be tough.)
From Rei's perspective, the black snake was nothing short of a formidable foe. But at the same time, his actual targets were A-Rank monsters—at least two of them. Given that, there was a real argument for just walking away from this encounter without a fight.
The reason he couldn't immediately commit to fighting was, ultimately, that high intelligence in the snake's eyes. He could tell the creature had no desire to fight him.
If the black snake had attacked without provocation, Rei would have fought back without hesitation. But the other side wanted no part of a battle. Rei had been sent flying, sure—but if the snake had been serious, the damage would have been far worse. Which meant it had never intended to strike with full force in the first place.
(What do I do? Fight or not... no, better not to.)
The biggest factor in Rei's decision was that the black snake hadn't attacked on its own. What the creature was thinking, Rei couldn't say. But provoking a fight against an opponent that could give him and Set a run for their money—one that was actively choosing not to attack—felt wrong somehow.
"We're leaving. We go our separate ways, no attacks from either side. Sound good?"
Rei didn't bother worrying about whether the snake could understand him. The light of intelligence in those eyes convinced him it would grasp his intent.
And sure enough, as if it had understood every word, the black snake gave a faint but unmistakable nod.
(Set too, but high-rank monsters really are smart. Of course, being high-rank doesn't guarantee every single one is a genius.)
He wouldn't be surprised if some monsters achieved high rank through pure combat power alone, intelligence be damned. In fact, it would be more natural to assume that intelligent monsters were the minority.
Rei just happened to know Set and this particular black snake—it was pure coincidence. After all, an ordinary gryphon—not Set—was already considered a high-rank monster with notable intelligence, but even then, whether it could truly understand human speech like Set did was debatable.
(Well, A-Rank monsters aside... when you get to S-Rank, it wouldn't be strange for high intelligence to be a given.)
That was Rei's line of thought—though it was ultimately just speculation. Still, he didn't think he was far off the mark.
"Gruruu?"
Set, standing by at Rei's side, purred as if asking, "Are you sure about this?"
From Set's perspective, this was the creature that had attacked Rei. And knowing that Rei needed to fell at least two A-Rank monsters, he probably figured it made sense to fight the snake right here and now. That was the question behind his purr.
As if sensing something from Set's demeanor, the black snake shifted its head slightly within its coiled posture.
(It doesn't want to fight us if it can help it. But if we force the issue, it won't run away—that about right?)
He couldn't read everything from the snake's posture, but he could at least get a general sense of its intentions.
"Let's go, Set. First we need to reach the hideout we'll use as a ba—huh?"
Rei's words died in his throat because the black snake—still coiled and watching them until a moment ago—had suddenly begun to move.
His first instinct was to brace for an attack, but one look at the snake's movements told him there was no hostility behind them.
(What? Why the sudden reaction? Did I say something?)
He retraced what he had just said, and one word stood out.
"Hideout."
The instant he spoke it, the black snake twitched again.
No more doubt about it. The snake was definitely reacting to the word "hideout."
(Why would it react to "hideout"?)
The word itself... no, the fact that it understood his speech wasn't the surprising part. Given the intelligence in those eyes, it was entirely natural that it could comprehend human language.
"Hideout."
He said it once more, just to be sure. The snake reacted again.
Three times was no coincidence. Which could only mean one thing: this black snake knew about the Zephyle Clan's hideout Rei had just mentioned.
The snake, for its part, was staring intently at Rei, the one who had spoken the word. In that gaze, Rei sensed not only the high intelligence from before but something that looked almost like expectation.
Putting it all together, a possibility surfaced in his mind.
"You... do you know the Zephyle Clan's hideout?"
"Shaa."
The response was short but unmistakable. It was clearly affirming what Rei had said.
Emboldened by a hunch, he pressed further.
"Not just the hideout—you know the Zephyle Clan itself?"
"Shaa."
The black snake responded again.
And that was genuinely surprising. The Zephyle Clan had lived in the distant past—so long ago that calling it "ancient" wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Zephyle had prepared the body Rei now inhabited within that hideout, and then—though how much time had passed was unknown—had become the Light Sphere Rei encountered, waiting in the Gap Between Worlds, that boundary between life and death, to find a successor for Beast Magic.
If this black snake knew the Zephyle Clan, it meant the creature had been alive for all that unfathomable span of time.
(So it's not A-Rank at all. It's an S-Rank monster, no question about it.)
Looking at the black snake before him, Rei felt that truth settle in with quiet certainty.