The battle between Rei and Set against the Orthrus pack that had attacked them in a group continued.
Several of their pack members had been killed, and above all, Rei and Set showed no signs of damage despite this. Perhaps concerned by that fact, the Orthrus pack — which had initially been fiercely attacking Rei and Set — was now acting cautiously.
"Orthrus, huh... In my mind, they weren't supposed to be the type to move in packs like this. Well, it's better than them attacking one at a time, though."
From Rei's perspective, he needed at least two magic stones to strengthen both Set and Death Scythe through Beast Magic.
In that sense, having a large number attack was nothing to complain about.
But since that was contingent on obtaining at least two magic stones, anything beyond the third wasn't a particularly necessary target.
Of course, in terms of materials and meat aside from magic stones, the more the better was an undeniable fact.
"It'd be easier for us if they just gave up and went home... Looks like they have no intention of doing that, though."
"Grrrru."
Set purred as if agreeing with Rei's words.
The Orthrus were clearly weaker than Set.
Their bodies were about two meters in size, but even so, from Set's perspective, they were not an opponent it would lose to in a head-on fight.
"Waaaaaooon!"
One of the Orthrus that had been circling around Rei and Set, perhaps unable to hold back any longer, let out such a cry and charged at Rei.
Set had hesitated to attack because it was larger than itself, but Rei was smaller than them and thus a sufficient target — that was likely the reasoning.
"You should have watched your comrades get killed!"
Shouting this, Rei unleashed a strike with Death Scythe at the attacking Orthrus.
Since it had charged in like this, Rei didn't entirely dismiss the possibility that it had some kind of strategy, but in reality, it was simply trying to bite Rei to death with the fangs of its two mouths.
For an ordinary adventurer, dealing with a two-headed Orthrus's attack might be difficult.
After all, even if you dealt with one head, the other head would be trying to sink its fangs into you the next moment.
But... that was only the case for an ordinary adventurer.
"A monotonous attack like that won't work!"
Rei's swing of Death Scythe severed both of the Orthrus's heads in a single flash.
An anticlimactic death.
But that was simply the difference in strength between Rei and the Orthrus.
From Rei's perspective, he had thought the Orthrus was a more powerful monster, so in that sense, he was caught off guard.
"Grrrrrrru!"
Then, toward the Orthrus pack — startled that one of their own had been killed by Rei's strike — Set fired Ice Arrows.
Fifty ice arrows were launched simultaneously, converging on the Orthrus.
However, since the Orthrus had been surrounding Rei and Set, the ice arrows Set fired were only able to pierce through a few of them.
Even so, from the Orthrus pack's perspective, losing comrades was painful.
Caught off guard by the unexpected development, the Orthrus wavered... and naturally, there was no way Rei and Set wouldn't exploit that opening.
"Haaah!"
With a sharp exhale, the Twilight Spear left Rei's hand.
The released Twilight Spear pierced through the bushes, skewered the body of an Orthrus on the other side, and even then its power did not stop — it finally came to a halt after piercing through several tree trunks.
"That was a bit of a mistake."
Retrieving the Twilight Spear, Rei saw the trees whose trunks had been pierced about to topple over and called out to Set, who was swinging an Orthrus around by the snake portion of its tail gripped in his beak.
"Set, the trees are coming down! Don't get caught under them!"
Set must have heard Rei's voice. While swinging the snake portion held in its beak, Set tore it off with a vigorous motion and hurled the Orthrus's body away.
"Gyain!"
For the Orthrus, having its tail torn off must have been pain beyond imagination.
Both heads screamed simultaneously... and its body slammed into a comrade Orthrus that had been standing some distance away, finally coming to a stop.
For the Orthrus that had been slammed into, its comrade's action was nothing but a hindrance... and by the time it noticed, Rei had Death Scythe raised overhead, and the next moment, both that individual and the one thrown by Set had their bodies severed simultaneously.
"Next!"
Rei shouted, and true to his words, looked around for his next prey... but...
"Gruu."
It was Set who purred with disappointment at Rei's words.
As for why Set sounded disappointed, Rei could understand by looking at their surroundings.
The Orthrus that had still been numerous just moments ago were gone.
"They ran away, huh... Running when they see there's no chance of winning. They must be smart."
Even a single Orthrus possessed a certain level of strength... This time, since Rei and Set were their opponents, they never had the opportunity to demonstrate that strength.
Such Orthrus attacked in a pack, and even so, not only could they not kill Rei and Set, they couldn't even manage to injure them, and their comrades were dying one after another.
The Orthrus must have judged that continuing to fight Rei and Set would lead to their annihilation.
That was why they had judged there was no chance of winning and fled.
In that sense, they were wiser than the Orc Nagas.
Or perhaps, in this Forest of Magic, such things happened all the time.
"Well, we killed more than two, so there's no need to chase them down."
From Rei's perspective, as long as he could secure magic stones for both Set and Death Scythe, there was no problem.
Rather, he was relieved that he didn't need to kill more monsters than necessary and disrupt the Forest of Magic's ecosystem.
(Though I'm not entirely sure whether a typical ecosystem even exists in the Forest of Magic.)
As expected of a place called the Forest of Magic, many of the monsters that inhabited it were individuals not seen elsewhere.
Because of that, it wouldn't be strange for a unique ecosystem to exist, but with so many endemic species, Rei couldn't even tell whether something like an ecosystem could be established at all.
"No point in me thinking about that. One Orthrus pack being wiped out isn't going to change the ecosystem... If anything, the Giant Wolf or the Queen Bee probably have more impact on the ecosystem."
Shaking his head, Rei stopped thinking about it further.
He judged that thinking about the ecosystem was meaningless.
In the first place, Rei was an adventurer who killed monsters often.
Worrying about the ecosystem every time he did so would be pointless.
"First, the magic stones... The skin around here isn't that tough, at least."
Using a dissection knife, he sliced open the area near the heart of one of the two Orthrus whose bodies he had severed together at the end.
Since he had severed the body, he could have reached in from there... but honestly, he would rather not do something like that.
After extracting the magic stones, he stored all the remaining corpses.
Since the Orthrus was two-headed, storing them when their heads had been severed was quite troublesome.
After storing all the Orthrus corpses in his Misty Ring, Rei washed the magic stones with the Dagger of Flowing Water.
"Should we move away from here a bit...? No, there's no need to go that far."
Yesterday, he had been worried that monsters might be drawn by the scent of blood, but by the second day, such concerns had become too bothersome.
In fact, although a lot had happened yesterday, there were almost no cases of monsters attacking drawn by the scent of blood.
...One of those rare exceptions was the Giant Wolf.
In that sense, as a means of waiting out the remaining A-Rank monster, it wasn't a bad choice.
"Now then, the magic stones. Orthrus are fairly high-rank monsters, so I doubt nothing will come of it... Set."
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set took the magic stone in its beak and swallowed it.
[Set has acquired the skill "Sense of Smell Enhancement Lv.5"]
An announcement message flowed through his mind.
That announcement message was entirely convincing to Rei as well.
After all, it was the magic stone of an Orthrus... a two-headed dog, so it wouldn't be strange for the Sense of Smell Enhancement skill to be strengthened.
It wouldn't be strange, but even so, Rei felt slightly disappointed.
As Rei had said before giving the magic stone, the Orthrus was a fairly high-rank monster.
So he had assumed that either a different skill would be strengthened or he would acquire a new powerful skill.
(Well, it's not like Sense of Smell Enhancement is meaningless.)
All things considered, Sense of Smell Enhancement had been useful in various situations.
In that sense, the skill's level increasing was by no means a failure.
"Come to think of it, it reached Level 5, but... did something change?"
Skills that reached Level 5 were dramatically strengthened compared to Level 4 and below.
In that sense, with Sense of Smell Enhancement reaching Level 5, perhaps that had been strengthened as well.
Wondering this, Rei asked, and Set tilted its head... and since it didn't understand, it judged it best to try using it first, and activated the Sense of Smell Enhancement skill.
"Grrrrrrrrru!"
And so it activated the Sense of Smell Enhancement skill...
"Gruu!?"
The instant it sniffed the surrounding scents, Set frantically shook its head violently from side to side.
The gesture was as if it were trying to distance itself from the scents even slightly.
"...Set? Are you okay?"
Surprised by the somewhat unexpected development, Rei hurriedly rushed over to Set.
Set, with a body length exceeding three meters, was shaking its head violently from side to side.
Normally, it would be far too dangerous to even approach, but this was Rei, who had a long relationship with Set... a relationship from the very moment it was born — though that was still only a few years.
Rei stroked the back of the thrashing Set, calming it down as if it were throwing a tantrum.
Perhaps due to the feel of Rei's hand, after about thirty seconds Set finally calmed down.
"Gruu..."
Sorry, Set purred to Rei as if saying so.
Set fully understood that its own body was large.
This time, it was fine because Rei had been nearby, but if it hadn't been Rei but someone else nearby... a child, for instance, what would have happened?
At worst, the motion of shaking its head might have sent a child flying.
Thinking of that, Set was truly relieved from the bottom of its heart that Rei had been the one nearby.
"Don't worry about it. More importantly, what happened with Sense of Smell Enhancement reaching Level 5?"
"Grrrru."
At Rei's words, Set let out a cry.
Unfortunately, Rei couldn't understand the precise meaning of what the cry was saying.
He could grasp the general meaning, though.
Even in such a situation, what he could understand was...
"In other words, the effect of Sense of Smell Enhancement increased too much, and you were confused by the scent information that flooded in all at once?"
"Gruu."
At Rei's words, Set purred to confirm that was correct.
He had thought it would turn out the same as always, but with the level reaching five, its ability had increased dramatically.
Specifically, it could now sniff out scents over a wider range, and the scents it could detect had become more detailed.
That was why Set, thinking it could sniff out scents the same way as always, was caught off guard and became agitated.
The result of that was likely the violent head-shaking.
Trying to get away from the scents even slightly.
...In reality, such an action was mostly meaningless, though.
Once Rei understood the circumstances through his exchange with Set, he spoke while showing a hint of concern.
"Set, from what I just saw, Sense of Smell Enhancement seems harder to use since its performance suddenly jumped... Will you be able to use it going forward?"
Set's Sense of Smell Enhancement skill was subtle but quite useful.
As an adventurer continuing to operate going forward, being unable to use the Sense of Smell Enhancement skill would be very painful.
That was why Rei asked with concern, but...
"Grrrrrrru!"
At Rei's words, Set purred with confidence — "I'm fine!"
When it had used the Sense of Smell Enhancement skill earlier, it was sudden, so it had been startled.
Once it recognized that, Set was able to confirm that it could use Sense of Smell Enhancement without issue.
At Set's demeanor, Rei sighed in relief and stroked its head.
[Set]
Water Ball Lv.5, Fire Breath Lv.4, Wind Arrow Lv.4, King's Intimidation Lv.4, Poison Claw Lv.6, Size Change Lv.2, Tornado Lv.4, Ice Arrow Lv.5, Optical Camouflage Lv.6, Magic Eye of Shock Lv.2, Power Crush Lv.6, Sense of Smell Enhancement Lv.5 (new), Bubble Breath Lv.1, Crystal Breath Lv.1, Earth Arrow Lv.2, Power Attack Lv.1, Magic Reflection Lv.1, Acid Breath Lv.1
Sense of Smell Enhancement: The user's sense of smell becomes sharper.