"Mmm... it's night..."
Upon waking, Rei confirmed that the room was pitch dark and muttered as much.
However, when he got out of bed, the lights flicked on as if some sensor had detected his movement.
Under that artificial light, Rei checked his physical condition.
There was not the slightest trace of drowsiness about him.
Normally, Rei was never good at waking up, but perhaps because he had planned to hunt monsters in the Forest of Magic tonight, there was none of his usual grogginess.
Without wasting any time, he quickly got dressed and left the room.
The hallway was naturally dark as well, but the moment Rei stepped out, it lit up just like the bedroom had.
Walking down the corridor, Rei eventually arrived at the room with the Magic Circle—the room where Set was resting.
"Gruu!"
Spotting Rei, Set immediately bounded over to him.
From what Rei could tell, Set had probably woken up a short while ago.
Originally, Set had the ability to stay awake for several days straight without any issues whatsoever.
The fact that he had still been sleeping was simply because Set enjoyed sleeping.
Of course, the purpose of resting this time had been to recover from the mental exhaustion of fighting those eerie tentacles with monster faces growing from them—and nearly a hundred of them at that—during the battle against the tree earlier that day.
For Set, something of that level would hardly cause mental fatigue.
Even so, from Rei's perspective, when he thought about Set's well-being, he had had no choice but to decide it was better to let him rest.
And after seeing Set again for the first time in several hours, he actually did seem more energetic than before his rest.
"It looks like you got a proper rest. Let's have a quick meal and then head outside. ...It's the Forest of Magic at night. We have no idea what kind of monsters might be lurking out there, so let's stay on our toes."
"Gruru"
Hearing Rei's words, Set purred as if psyching himself up.
For Set as well, the Forest of Magic at night was apparently a place that demanded that level of caution.
Of course, the fact that they needed to be that careful also meant that equally powerful monsters were out there, which simultaneously meant there was a chance to obtain Magic Stones from unknown creatures.
In that sense, the forest at night was by no means a bad place.
The reason they could make that judgment was precisely because they possessed the strength to survive even within the Forest of Magic, like Rei and Set did.
With that, Rei and Set had a light meal from the food Rei retrieved from his Misty Ring, then stepped outside the Barrier.
"This is... I knew it would be, but it's quite different from during the day."
"Gruu"
Rei muttered as he surveyed the surroundings of the Hidden Base.
As if agreeing with Rei's words, Set purred.
Set too seemed to be looking forward to operating in the Forest of Magic at night like this.
(Then again, in Set's case, he can always come back to the Forest of Magic whenever he wants.)
Set normally slept at Marina's house at night, but if he felt like it, he could take off from Gilm under cover of darkness and fly to the Forest of Magic.
When traveling overland, it had been a two-night journey—one of those nights spent adjusting their schedule—but for Set flying through the sky, the trip didn't take that long. ...Assuming he didn't get lost and arrived safely, that is.
(Yeah, that's true. If he's sleeping at night, it wouldn't be strange for a Skill acquisition announcement to suddenly pop into his head.)
Thinking about the future, that possibility lingered in Rei's mind.
For now, he probably needed to tell Set not to approach the Forest of Magic unless necessary, but since Set could travel there on his own so easily, it was something that needed to be impressed upon him.
"Alright, first let's move a little away from the Hidden Base and just walk around. We have to leave the Forest of Magic tomorrow, so I'd like to fight as many monsters as possible. ...Ah, but before that. Should we go check where we brought down that tree? Some time has passed since we defeated it, and there might be some changes."
During the day, right after toppling the tree, his mental exhaustion would never have allowed him to think of such a thing.
Or even if the thought had occurred to him, given his fatigue, he would have decided to hold off.
But having gotten enough sleep and eaten a good meal, his mental exhaustion had faded considerably.
Of course, he hadn't completely recovered, but he was well enough now that heading to where the tree had fallen wouldn't be a problem.
"Gruru"
Set apparently had no objections either, purring to indicate he was fine.
Not just Rei, but Set too had likely recovered mentally from the proper rest.
And so Rei and Set pressed on through the forest, but...
"Grururu!"
While running, Set activated a Skill.
About five Ice Arrows were fired.
Ice Arrow at Level 5 could generate up to fifty at maximum, but it wasn't as though he always had to produce the maximum number.
A maximum of fifty meant he could just as easily produce one or twenty without any issue.
Naturally, generating more Ice Arrows—though only slightly—took more time, but for just a handful, he could produce them instantly.
And yet, each Ice Arrow carried the power of Level 5, so there was no doubt that the Skill was extremely practical for Set.
The Ice Arrows that were launched traveled straight through the night forest...
"Gruu?"
Set, who had fired them, purred in confusion after a few seconds.
"What's wrong? Didn't you take down an enemy?"
Curious about Set's behavior, Rei asked, but Set only tilted his head with a troubled expression.
"Did it get away?"
"Gugururu"
At Rei's words, Set shook his head, indicating that wasn't the case.
Seeing Set's reaction, Rei grew puzzled.
When asked if he had defeated the enemy, Set tilted his head.
When asked if it had escaped, Set immediately denied it.
Neither defeated nor escaped.
In that case... Rei spoke again.
"So you didn't defeat it, but you wounded it and pinned it to a tree with Ice Arrows to stop its movement?"
He tried splitting the difference between his two questions, but once again Set only tilted his head.
(What's going on?)
Bothered by Set's behavior, Rei went to search for the Ice Arrows that had just been fired.
He had no idea what had Set so perplexed.
If that was the case, he figured that finding the arrows Set had launched would give him the answer.
However... all five Ice Arrows were either stuck into or piercing through the trunks of several trees, but none of them had any monster blood on them.
That essentially meant there was a high probability the Ice Arrows hadn't hit anything at all.
(A Ghost-type? No, but Ice Arrows are a Skill, so they're imbued with magical power. If that's the case, they should have at least some effect on Undead like Ghosts.)
Above all, if it had been Set, he would have known whether he had defeated a Ghost or not.
But Set showed no sign of having defeated an enemy.
In other words, he hadn't taken down a Ghost-type either.
"I don't get it. I don't get it, but I can at least tell there's nothing around here. No point in dwelling on it then. Let's head to where the tree was."
"Gruru, Grururu"
Set didn't seem fully convinced by Rei's words, but apparently judging that there was no point in searching the area any longer, he nodded reluctantly despite his lingering dissatisfaction.
And so Rei and Set continued through the night forest, left with a somewhat unsatisfying aftertaste from the unresolved mystery.
Ideally, they would have liked to get to the bottom of it, but this was the Forest of Magic.
It wouldn't be strange at all for there to be a thing or two that even Rei and Set couldn't comprehend.
No, rather, considering it was the Forest of Magic, such mysteries were to be expected.
Besides, the hours of night were limited.
Rei was active now, but it wasn't as though he planned to search for monsters in the Forest of Magic until morning.
If he did something like that, he would end up either moving through the forest sleep-deprived the next day, or sleeping until his body was fully satisfied.
The former was out of the question.
Operating in a place like the Forest of Magic while sleep-deprived was unthinkable.
Rei absolutely refused to do anything that would intentionally put his own life in danger.
That left the latter, but spending the time sleeping when he had finally made it to the Forest of Magic felt wasteful from a Beast Magic perspective.
For those reasons, in the end, limiting their exploration of the night forest to just a few hours was the optimal choice for Rei.
That was exactly why he had no time to waste on incomprehensible matters.
As they pushed deeper into the Forest of Magic, they came across a few monsters along the way, but the moment those monsters caught sight of Rei and Set, they bolted.
"That's odd. The monsters we ran into during the day basically never tried to run. Does that change once night falls? ...Well, I can sort of see it."
Night was the time when monsters were most active.
That being the case, High-Rank Monsters naturally roamed the forest more frequently, and to weaker monsters, they were nothing but prey.
So when those weaker monsters determined they stood no chance, they likely fled on the spot.
(But it's not like there weren't High-Rank Monsters during the day either, so that reasoning is a bit of a stretch. Or rather, the fact that we haven't encountered a single High-Rank Monster is strange to begin with.)
Rei puzzled over this as he surveyed his surroundings.
Then again, just like with Set's Ice Arrow incident earlier, feeling puzzled didn't mean he had the luxury to solve it.
If that was the case, it would be better to prioritize finding a High-Rank Monster that wouldn't run away even at the sight of Set.
That was what he had been thinking, but...
"I'm starting to get a very familiar feeling about this situation."
As they pushed through the forest and the surroundings grew quieter the closer they got to where they had fought the tree, Rei muttered in displeasure—truly, from the very bottom of his heart, with genuine displeasure.
And it was only natural. For things to be in this state meant that some powerful monster was lurking in the clearing where the tree had been.
What's more, the forest at night was normally quite noisy, filled with the sounds of insects, beasts, birds, and monsters.
Despite that, the closer they got to the clearing, the quieter it became, so what that signified was all too easy for Rei to imagine.
(In other words, there's something in that clearing at least on par with the tree... or maybe not quite, but at the very least, something capable of keeping insects, animals, and monsters away with its presence alone. It's an unexpected development, but for me, it's not a bad one.)
Originally, he had intended to defeat at least one more A-Rank Monster—if possible, even more—and to take down an S-Rank Monster as well.
In that sense, the presence of a monster in the clearing that was equal to or greater than the tree wasn't a bad prospect at all.
(Well, even if it's on par with that tree, I just hope it's not the same type of monster.)
The eerie nature of killing monsters and turning their heads into Vines, and that overwhelming Regeneration Ability.
The tree's combat ability itself hadn't been all that high, but it had certainly been a troublesome opponent to fight.
After going through all that trouble to defeat it during the day, if they stepped into the clearing only to find that giant tree growing there again, that would be no joke.
At the very least, it was only natural for Rei to hope that even if that tree was there, since it had just been defeated that day, it would at least be a sapling.
"Set, what do you think? Should we just stop heading toward the clearing? There's no need to force a fight with that tree. ...Though I do want to defeat it, thinking about Beast Magic."
As of now, since they had only defeated the one tree during the day, there was naturally only one Magic Stone.
Given that it was an A-Rank Monster, wanting a second stone was only natural.
"Gruru"
Set purred in response to Rei's words.
It was saying they should go to the clearing.
"Got it. Then let's do it. ...Let's go."
And so Rei and Set pressed forward as they were, eventually arriving at the clearing.
However, there was no tree anywhere in the clearing... and instead, a single Figure stood there.