Riding on Set's back, Rei advanced through the fresh morning air.
...In reality, it was around ten, so while it was morning, the atmosphere wasn't quite that of early dawn.
He had originally intended to wake up a bit earlier, but his conversation with Elena via the Paired Orbs last night had kept him up a little later than usual.
As a result, he'd gotten a later start as well, and was now making his way through the Forest of Magic at this hour.
(I thought this yesterday too, but even within the Forest of Magic, mornings are refreshing after all. ...Then again, it's called the Forest of Magic precisely because of the vast number of unknown monsters that inhabit it, so I suppose that's only natural.)
As the thought crossed his mind, something suddenly came crashing down from above, tearing through the canopy.
"Set!"
Rei called out while swinging the Death Scythe in his right hand.
The attacker was effortlessly severed by the single strike.
Set came to a halt, and Rei immediately leapt from his back to survey the surroundings.
He had defeated the attacker, but there was always the possibility it wasn't alone.
Particularly given how easily it had been killed, the enemy's abilities were clearly low. And the lower a monster's abilities, the more likely it was to travel in groups.
...Of course, that was merely a tendency. Even among weak monsters, there were individuals that acted solo rather than in packs.
"Now then, what kind of monster was it that attacked us?"
He scanned the area for the creature he'd cut down. On the ground lay a monster that resembled a crow with two heads.
Its body was split clean down the middle, innards half-spilled onto the ground—but since both separated halves each had a head attached, it was unmistakably a two-headed bird.
"That said, it's not that large of an enemy... Did this one really intend to attack me and Set all on its own?"
After confirming the two-headed bird's corpse, he once again surveyed the surroundings.
But naturally, there was nothing else around, nor any sign of reinforcements incoming.
(Did its companion see it killed instantly and flee, judging there was no chance of winning? That kind of thing could certainly happen.)
It wouldn't have been strange for the monster to attack, only to realize the overwhelming gap in strength once the fight began.
From Rei's perspective, he would have preferred at least two Magic Stones—one for himself and one for Set's Death Scythe—so he'd hoped another one would attack.
(No, this enemy is clearly a Low-Rank Monster just by looking at it. In that case, acquiring a skill might be difficult.)
With that in mind, he extracted the Magic Stone from the cross-section, washed it with the Dagger of Flowing Water, and handed it to Set.
Set picked it up in his beak and swallowed it, but...
"Nothing, huh."
Rei muttered in disappointment as no announcement message echoed in his mind.
"Gruu."
Set purred as if in agreement.
Well, actually, it was Set—the one who had failed to acquire a skill—who had more reason to feel disappointed.
That said, failing to acquire a skill from a monster's Magic Stone wasn't all that rare. Compatibility issues, too wide a gap in ability—there were various reasons.
Still, failing to gain a skill from an unknown monster's Magic Stone was deeply disappointing for both Rei and Set.
"Well, there's no point just standing here. The Forest of Magic still has massive numbers of unknown monsters that neither of us has ever seen. Thinking about that, it's better to keep hunting new ones and collecting their Magic Stones than to mope around. You think so too, right, Set?"
"Gruruu!"
Hearing Rei's words, Set purred as if pulling himself together.
It was still morning, so there was plenty of time left on this final day.
Given that, he must have decided he didn't want to waste time feeling down.
After storing the two-headed bird's corpse in his Misty Ring, Rei climbed back onto Set's back.
Since no skill had been acquired from the Magic Stone, there was probably... and this was truly just a guess, not much value to this monster's corpse.
However, its tail feathers had been reasonably attractive, so he figured they might be useful as materials or ornaments.
That said, for Rei it was more of a vague inclination than a deliberate decision... but even so, a look of relief crossed his face.
(At any rate, the fact that monsters are showing up at all is a relief.)
Last night, after defeating the Vampire and returning to the Hidden Base, Rei and his party hadn't been attacked by monsters even once.
That in itself was by no means a bad thing. They'd taken a fair amount of exhaustion from the battle with the Vampire, so if they'd been attacked by powerful monsters in the dark, it would have been trouble.
Even so, going without a single monster encounter in the Forest of Magic at night was an unbelievable experience for Rei. He didn't know if it was some aftereffect of defeating the Vampire, but he was genuinely relieved it hadn't carried over to the next day.
In reality, it was the Black Snake—which had been watching the battle between Rei's party and the Vampire—that had ensured Rei wasn't attacked by monsters on his way back to the Hidden Base. But the Black Snake was so skilled at concealment that its presence went completely unnoticed by Rei, Set, and even the Vampire they'd been fighting.
"Now then, what kind of monster will... whoa!"
Rei had been looking forward to seeing what would attack next, but he was caught off guard when Set suddenly swerved sideways mid-stride through the forest.
The sound that reached his ears explained why.
From the ground where Set should have been running, something long and thin had burst out.
"A worm type, huh. Not sure what kind, but let's take it down."
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set cried out and charged straight toward the worm emerging from the ground.
The worm, which looked as though it were sprouting from the earth, was about fifty centimeters thick and roughly three meters long.
However, that was only the visible portion—there was no telling how much more remained underground.
Of the three meters visible, about one meter was a mouth lined with numerous small, sharp fangs.
Its skin was coated in a viscous, sticky mucus—an appearance that made Rei want to take it down with ranged attacks rather than touching it directly.
Despite this, Set had closed the distance without hesitation.
"Ah, Set—"
Rei started to call out reflexively, but Set had already moved right up next to the worm.
The worm had no eyes, but whether it detected Set through sound, air currents, or some kind of mana-sensing ability, it bent its body in half, turning its fanged mouth toward Set and preparing to fight.
Rei had assumed the worm would recognize it was outmatched with Set approaching and flee.
The fact that it stood its ground surprised him... though, he supposed, this was the Forest of Magic after all.
"Grururururuu!"
As Rei watched, Set activated Wing Blade.
The outer edges of his wings turned into razor-sharp blades. Dodging the worm's lunging bite, he sliced clean through its body with his wing as he passed by.
The worm's head dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
But the creature apparently possessed tremendous vitality—even without its head, the body continued to thrash vigorously.
Still, having lost its head and thus its only means of attack, all it could do was writhe and flail about.
If an amateur had been the one fighting it, it wouldn't have been impossible for the thrashing body to slam into them, send them flying, and kill them on impact.
But the one who had attacked the worm was Set.
"Grurururuu!"
Having severed the worm's body with Wing Blade, Set immediately executed a sharp turn and activated Water Ball.
Four water balls approximately one meter in diameter materialized around Set and were launched in rapid succession.
To the watching Rei, it almost looked as if Set were telling the worm to wash off its filthy mucus with those water balls... but those spheres, powered up upon reaching Level 5, possessed enough force to shatter solid rock on impact.
Four of them struck the worm in succession.
If the worm's head had been intact, it might have—whether through intelligence or instinct—retreated underground to evade. But with its head already destroyed, it couldn't manage even that... and the four water balls pulverized every bit of the worm's body that had emerged from the earth.
"Well, that's..."
Looking at the worm's flesh scattered all around, Rei spoke with a troubled expression.
That was because from the fragments of flesh, bodily fluids, and mucus, three distinct types of foul stench were rising.
Any one of them alone would have been a smell Rei would rather avoid. All three together was something else entirely.
On top of that, the odors mixed and blended—two at a time, or sometimes all three at once—so that just when he thought he'd grown accustomed to one, a completely different stench would hit him. For Rei, it was no laughing matter.
...No, if anything, Set—with his sharper sense of smell—was showing even greater disgust at the foul odor.
"For now, let's just take the head. I really don't want to touch the body. ...Actually, I'd rather not touch the head either if I can help it."
Still, he could reasonably assume the Magic Stone was in the head... or more precisely, in the section Set had severed with Wing Blade. So he steeled himself, touched the head, and stored it in his Misty Ring.
Inside the Misty Ring, the worm's head wouldn't come into contact with anything else stored there.
In other words, there was no risk of the smell transferring—but it was still far from a pleasant experience for Rei.
"Alright, that's stored. Set, let's get some distance from here and extract the Magic Stone once we reach a spot without the stink. ...That said..."
Rei trailed off, predicting that Set would probably refuse to use the worm's Magic Stone.
After all, it was that worm's Magic Stone.
Naturally, for Set to use a Magic Stone through Beast Magic meant swallowing it.
Even if Rei were in Set's position, he wouldn't want to swallow a foul-smelling worm's Magic Stone either.
Still, if Set were the only one who could use Beast Magic, he might have gritted his teeth and swallowed it. But among the beings Rei had created through Beast Magic, there was also Death Scythe.
In that case, it was perfectly fine for Death Scythe to absorb it instead.
It was only natural for Set to reach that conclusion, and Rei couldn't fault him for it.
About ten minutes after Rei and Set started moving, they had covered considerable ground.
Given Set's running speed, the worm's stench had long since faded—but the fact that Set still hadn't stopped showed just how much that foul odor had bothered him.
Once they'd put enough distance behind them, Rei dismounted.
Naturally, Set knew what Rei was about to do and wanted to keep his distance.
At the same time, though, he didn't want to leave Rei's side... and in the end, he settled on watching from a reasonable distance where he could still see him.
"No, if you're going to go that far, you could just move away... well, whatever."
Despite his words, Rei was glad that Set was so devoted to him.
With that, Rei took out the worm's head, produced a disassembly knife, and began to split it open.
Right below the mouth was a heart, and embedded within it—just as predicted—was a Magic Stone.
Reluctant to touch it with his bare hands, he extracted the stone using the knife, then washed it with the Dagger of Flowing Water.
Perhaps because of the rinse, the Magic Stone didn't smell quite as bad. He picked it up, gave it a toss... and sliced it with the Death Scythe.
[Death Scythe has acquired the skill 'Corrosion Lv.6']
That announcement message flowed through the minds of both Rei and Set.
[Death Scythe]
'Corrosion Lv.6' new 'Flying Slash Lv.5' 'Magic Shield Lv.1' 'Power Slash Lv.4' 'Wind Hand Lv.4' 'Terrain Manipulation Lv.5' 'Pain Burst Lv.4' 'Penetrate Lv.3' 'Multi Slash Lv.4' 'Blizzard Slash Lv.3' 'Flying Needle Lv.1'
Corrosion: Corrodes a target's metal equipment by slashing it multiple times. Higher levels allow corrosion with fewer hits. At Level 5 and above, it can also corrode substances such as rock and wood, exhibiting properties close to dissolution.