"It's here."
The building Roger led Rei and the others to was a single structure. Not a house, but more of a small research facility.
"This is?"
"A building I own. No one else will come in, so you can rest easy. ...Seto won't be able to enter, though."
"Figured."
Given that it was a small building rather than a sprawling one, there was no way Seto could fit inside. As far as Rei was concerned, Seto wouldn't be able to enter unless the building was exceptionally large. Even if Seto forced his way in, at over three meters in length, the moment he carelessly shifted his body, he would wreck the surroundings.
Using Size Change, he could shrink down to about seventy centimeters, but the skill wouldn't remain effective indefinitely.
Considering all of that, it was better for Seto to just wait obediently. That would be more comfortable for him too, letting him stretch out freely. There was no doubt about it.
"Alright then, Seto. Wait here a bit."
"Guru."
At Rei's words, Seto purred in acknowledgment and lay down in a spot where he wouldn't be in the way. After confirming that, Rei, Roger, and the adventurer guards entered the building.
Incidentally, the adventurers who had been casting admiring glances at Rei had been eager to hear all sorts of things from him on the way over. As a result, Rei had spent more of the walk chatting with them than with Roger.
(Even if they say ability is everything for adventurers, having guys older than me look at me with that much respect and admiration... honestly, I have mixed feelings about it.)
The adventurers were all relatively young, in their twenties. That was probably why they could so honestly direct such admiring glances toward Rei, who was younger than them. Then again, being in their twenties meant many of them had been active as adventurers for a fair amount of time. Normally, it would be difficult to direct such admiring and respectful glances at someone younger... yet the fact that they still did so suggested they had honest personalities.
"Come in. This way."
Guided by Roger, they stepped inside. True to Roger's word that it was a private building, there was no sign of anyone else inside. It was purely Roger's own building.
(A house? Or maybe a second home of sorts. Either way, there's no doubt it's a hideaway for Roger.)
The building was located slightly off the main street. It wasn't as dangerous as a back alley, but if asked whether one could walk around as safely as on the main street, most people would tilt their heads in doubt.
Roger might be skilled as an Alchemist, but if asked whether he could fight in actual combat, Rei would immediately shake his head. Whether this was his regular residence or a second home, the fact that he owned a building in such a location was enough to convince Rei that guards were necessary.
"For now, have a drink. It was hot outside."
Saying that, Roger set cups in front of Rei and the adventurers. Rei was slightly surprised when he touched his cup... and the adventurers were far more overtly startled.
"It's cold!"
One of them exclaimed.
It was Fruit Water chilled by a Magic Item with refrigeration-like capabilities—something Rei had seen several times before. Precisely because he knew this, he wasn't particularly surprised. If anything, he found it more puzzling that the guard adventurers were that taken aback.
Gilm, with its abundance of rare materials, had many Alchemists and sold all manner of Magic Items. That would be understandable in an ordinary town, but Egginis was a city thriving on the Golem industry. Naturally, the number of Alchemists was large, and Magic Items were far more plentiful than in other places. Considering that, it was unexpected for them to be so surprised by something as simple as cold Fruit Water.
"By any chance, are you all adventurers who just arrived in Egginis?"
"Huh? Ah, yes. How did you know? We came a few days ago as guards for a merchant, but we were told we could do as we pleased until the business talks wrapped up and we headed out of Egginis."
So they had been bored and accepted Roger's request, or so they continued. The fact that it was only for a short period until their regular escort duties resumed had probably factored into their decision as well.
"I see. Then it's no surprise you aren't used to Magic Items like this."
"If anything, I'm more curious about why you're so unfazed, Rei. Does Gilm have Magic Items like this too?"
"Yeah. It might not be exactly the same, but when summer rolls around, there are stalls that sell cold Fruit Water, chilled fruit, and things like that. Inns use them to some extent as well, of course."
"Gilm... it certainly sounds like an interesting place. Be that as it may, could you show me the materials soon?"
Prompted by Roger, Rei hesitated over which materials to bring out... then retrieved the corpse of an Orc Naga, the monster he had encountered most frequently in the Forest of Magic. There were many corpses he'd had dissected at the Laurie Dissection Shop, but there were also plenty he hadn't yet dissected.
To first give a sense of what the monster itself looked like, he placed the Orc Naga corpse on the floor.
"This is the Orc Naga. A monster from the Forest of Magic. It wasn't listed in the Monster Encyclopedia I use, so it's probably a new species. I'm not too knowledgeable about that sort of thing, so there's a chance it's been discovered somewhere else already."
"Hoh... Orc Naga, huh. A fitting name for its appearance. So, is this monster strong?"
"It's fundamentally a group-based monster. But every single one of them can use magic."
Monsters that could use magic weren't particularly rare. Even among Goblins, renowned as some of the weakest monsters, higher-ranking species and Rare Species could cast magic without issue. But this wasn't a Goblin—it was a monster from the Forest of Magic. It naturally possessed commensurate strength, and for an ordinary adventurer, dealing with magic fired by an entire group would be difficult.
When Rei explained this, Roger studied the Orc Naga corpse with evident interest.
Rei then stored the corpse back into his Misty Ring... and Roger opened his mouth with visible displeasure.
"You could have let me look a bit longer."
"Sorry. It's this season, and that's a raw corpse. I don't want to leave it out too long."
Since it was Roger's private building, the interior was air-conditioned. Considering that, it might have been fine to leave the corpse out for a while, but if he wanted to prevent even the slightest decay, it was still better to get it back into the Misty Ring as quickly as possible.
"Instead, here. These are the parts that were dissected in a way that makes them usable as materials."
Instead of the corpse, Rei brought out a collection of parts that appeared to be Orc Naga materials, dissected at the Laurie Dissection Shop.
"So these are the Orc Naga materials."
Being materials that included the Orc Naga's internal organs, the appearance was quite grotesque. However, the people here were an Alchemist and adventurers. Alchemists worked with monster materials on a daily basis, and adventurers performed monster dissections. That was why none of them seemed particularly bothered when the Orc Naga materials were suddenly placed before them.
"Yeah. That said, these are just materials. How to actually use them for Golems is something you'll need to figure out, Roger. ...Actually, now that I think about it—can things like a monster's internal organs even be used for Golems?"
The Golems Rei knew of were made of stone, sand, mud, wood, metal... and while many other types existed as well, they were fundamentally inorganic. ...In the games, anime, and manga he had enjoyed as hobbies back in Japan, there were cases where corpses were used as Golem materials, but he had never seen such Golems in this world.
Moreover, Egginis was a city with a thriving Golem industry—in other words, a place where many people profited from selling Golems. In a place like that, doing something like using corpses to create Golems would be nothing short of suicidal. Even in this world, which had a lower sense of ethics compared to Japan, normally no one would want a Golem made from corpses, and above all, no one would even want to see such a thing.
"They can be used without issue. They can be used, but... without knowing what effects these materials have, there's nothing I can do with them."
Roger directed a glance at Rei that asked, "What about that?" For Roger, the assumption had been that he would already know what properties these materials held and what kind of Golem components they could serve as...
"I don't know."
"Huh?"
The words that came out of Rei's mouth must have been completely unexpected. Roger let out a sound that could only be described as dumbfounded, and the guard adventurers weren't far behind.
"Like I said, this Orc Naga is a new species. At the very least, it's the first of its kind confirmed in Gilm. How am I supposed to know how to use the materials from a monster like that?"
"True enough."
The guard adventurers nodded in agreement with Rei's argument. Since it was a new species defeated for the first time, figuring out how to use its materials was something the people actually working with them would need to research. Specifically, Roger, who was standing right here.
"...You're telling me to research that myself?"
"Pretty much. I've got other monster corpses and materials from around the Forest of Magic too, but since most of them come with no information either, it won't change anything no matter which ones I hand over."
"Gnuu."
Roger groaned in frustration. He had assumed he would already know what properties the materials possessed and what kind of Golem components they could be used for. That was why Rei's answer had been completely unexpected... and at the same time, once it was spelled out, it was something he could only accept.
"Just as a side note, the materials I'm planning to use for the trade with the Dolan Workshop are also completely unknown in terms of how they should be used. If they end up making a deal with me, they'll probably have to start with research on how to use them too."
In that case, the one with the advantage would probably be Roger—or so Rei predicted.
The materials to be traded with the Dolan Workshop would undoubtedly be A-Rank Monster materials from the Forest of Magic. But being precious A-Rank Monster materials, naturally only a single monster's worth existed. Compared to that, Orc Nagas traveled in groups, and Rei had wiped out entire groups. In other words, even if some materials were wasted during experimentation, there were always replacements on hand.
"So what'll it be? Given that you have to research their properties from scratch, you'll need to do the groundwork first. That will naturally take time. ...But since you'd be the first person to research these materials, you might—just might—become the only person in the world who knows how useful Orc Naga materials can be."
It was a half-prodding statement, but there was no doubt it was genuinely what Rei thought. If Roger researched the Orc Naga materials and his Golems became high-performance as a result, that would unquestionably be his achievement. It was certain that Roger—or rather, the workshop he belonged to—would monopolize that technology.
The reason so many people currently wanted Dolan Workshop Golems was none other than the fact that the Dolan Workshop had developed some kind of proprietary technique, dramatically boosting their Golems' performance.
...That said, naturally, finding something that could outmaneuver other workshops was no easy task. If it could be done so easily, Golem technology would be far more advanced than it was now. In other words, whether researching an unknown monster's materials would unlock the key to some new technology depended not only on the researcher's analytical skill and technique but also, as an even larger factor, on luck.
In that sense, whether Roger's luck was good or bad was a toss-up. He had spotted Seto and tried to steal his materials, only to be counterattacked—but thanks to that, he had crossed paths with Rei. On top of that, it had given him the opportunity to obtain unknown monster materials... so on the whole, he was probably lucky. Or so Rei figured as he waited for Roger's answer.