The two-headed rhinos, drained of blood by the river water, were stored back in the Misty Ring for the time being.
The leader-type individual had a considerably large body, but even after draining its blood, Nielson showed no signs of waking.
At first, he briefly suspected she might be faking it, but when he checked on her sleeping in the shade of a tree, she was still out cold.
He thought she had gone to bed around the same time as him yesterday, but... perhaps she had stayed awake after he fell asleep and ended up sleep-deprived?
The thought crossed his mind fleetingly, but considering the current situation, it didn't seem far off the mark.
Moreover, Rei had slept in the village chief's house yesterday, and since he never knew when the subjugation target monster might appear, if Nielson had been unable to sleep and was flying around the room—or worse, leaving the room, let alone the house, to play pranks—Rei certainly would have noticed.
The fact that nothing like that had happened meant Nielson hadn't done anything of the sort; she had stayed put even if she couldn't sleep.
Of course, that was only based on circumstantial evidence from the present situation.
It was also possible that Nielson had simply slept normally last night and was still sleeping now merely because she hadn't gotten enough rest yet... that possibility couldn't be ruled out either.
"Well, it's not a bad thing for me if she keeps sleeping."
With that, he set to work dissecting the first two-headed rhino.
He wanted to hang it from a tree branch and dissect it as usual, but even a normal-sized individual was about as large as Seto.
Hanging something with that much weight would naturally require a branch thick enough to support it.
Such branches were hard to come by... but after spending a few minutes searching along the river, he found a tree with a reasonably thick branch.
(That said, I won't know if it can actually hold up until I try it, and even if the normal individual is fine, the leader-type will be a stretch. Well, hanging it up does make the dissection easier, but I can dissect it without hanging it.)
In that case, the dissection would be more difficult, and there was the risk of innards' filth getting on the meat, which was troublesome.
Even so, better that than having a branch snap mid-dissection, he reasoned, and hoisted the two-headed rhino onto the tree branch.
"Now then... from how it felt in combat, it wasn't all that strong despite its fierce appearance, so I don't think the blade won't go through."
Its head was shaped like a rhinoceros's, but its body was closer to that of an ordinary boar, covered in fur.
Rei didn't know exactly how hard that fur was, but since it wasn't a particularly high-ranked monster, he judged it would be fine and pressed the tip of his dissection knife against it...
"Alright."
Just as Rei had expected, the blade sliced through the skin without any real resistance.
Relieved, he first cut open the abdomen and removed the internal organs.
"The internal organs... I wonder."
Many monsters had internal organs with parts that could be used as materials.
In that sense, he thought the two-headed rhino's internal organs might be somewhat usable, but since he didn't know which parts could be used, he decided to discard them.
He took out Death Scythe and used Terrain Manipulation to create a hole about a meter deep.
He tossed the internal organs—except for the heart—into it... and finally extracted the magic stone from the heart.
"This one is... let's see. I'll give Seto his later, but first let me test it with Death Scythe."
He had already taken out Death Scythe to use Terrain Manipulation, and more importantly, Nielson was still asleep.
Given the situation, it was better to use the magic stone here and now rather than later.
Making that call, he tossed the magic stone... and severed it with Death Scythe.
[Death Scythe has acquired the skill 'Multi Slash Lv.6'.]
An announcement message echoed in his mind.
"Gururururu!"
The cry of Seto, who had been keeping watch around the area to prevent any unnecessary interruptions while Rei dissected, reached his ears.
Seto, created through Beast Magic, had naturally heard the announcement message as well.
"I'm glad Multi Slash went up in level. Glad, but... why Multi Slash?"
Multi Slash was an extremely powerful skill—when he unleashed a slash with Death Scythe, numerous additional slashes would be released alongside the original strike.
That its level had gone up was undeniably something Rei was genuinely happy about, but... he couldn't figure out why Multi Slash had leveled up.
"The only possibility I can think of is... because it has two heads and attacks simultaneously... or something like that?"
Even Rei himself felt the reasoning was weak as he murmured it, but still, he guessed that was probably correct.
Fundamentally, skills acquired through Beast Magic reflected the characteristics of the monster that had possessed the magic stone.
Given that, he half-forced himself to accept that it had acquired Multi Slash because it had two heads and attacked at the same time.
Even if the reasoning was somewhat of a stretch, the fact that the level of Multi Slash—a powerful skill—had gone up was undeniable, so he had questions but no complaints.
After that, Rei went on to dissect the two-headed rhino with a reasonably practiced hand.
Fortunately, the two-headed rhino's body itself wasn't much different from an ordinary boar's—though the size alone was quite a difference—so the dissection went smoothly.
The only real difficulty was the two heads, just as the name "two-headed rhino" implied.
However, while dissecting around the base of the two necks was somewhat laborious, it was nothing he couldn't handle as long as he simply treated it as having two heads.
"Alright, that's mostly done. ...Looking at it like this, I've gotten pretty used to dissecting monsters, haven't I."
When Rei first came to Elgin, he could barely dissect monsters at all.
His only experience had been helping dissect chickens they had raised for cockfighting back at home when it was time to slaughter them.
There had been times when he received boar meat from someone who hunted and had a barbecue, but naturally, the boar meat on those occasions was already dissected and cut into blocks.
That was why Rei had been poor at dissection initially, but... by learning from those who had been adventurers for years, and more than anything, by accumulating sheer numbers of dissections, his technique had naturally improved.
Of course, Rei's current dissection skills weren't top-tier; his dissection proficiency was average... or, being generous, slightly above average at best.
Rei thought he had done a reasonably good job dissecting the two-headed rhino, but that was only from his own perspective.
To someone with higher dissection skills, they would probably judge that Rei's technique was still soft.
"Well, this meat looks reasonably tasty at least... and the horns and such seem like they could sell as materials. I wish the Monster Encyclopedia had more information on them, though. ...No point wishing for that now. Anyway, on to the next."
He discarded the unwanted parts into the hole created by Terrain Manipulation and took out the second two-headed rhino.
This individual had its head destroyed by one of Seto's strikes, which in that sense meant there was no need to dissect the head, making it easier to process than the first one.
He swiftly carried out the dissection...
"Seto!"
"Gururu."
At Rei's call, Seto approached.
Confirming that Nielson was still asleep, he gave the magic stone to Seto.
[Seto has acquired the skill 'Power Attack Lv.2'.]
The announcement message flowed through Rei's mind.
This time, Rei could understand the skill acquisition.
Power Attack was, simply put, a body slam.
Considering it was the magic stone of a two-headed rhino about the same size as Seto, it made sense in a way.
(Personally, I would have preferred Power Crush to go up in level, though.)
Seto's Power Crush was currently at Level 6 and had been considerably strengthened.
Given that, if Power Crush had gone up to Level 7 and the power of that single strike could be increased even further, it would undoubtedly have become an even more reliable skill.
That said, skills acquired through Beast Magic had tendencies, but ultimately they were random.
It was probably better to have acquired a skill at all than to have gained nothing.
"Gururururu."
Seto purred happily beside Rei.
Petting Seto, Rei moved on to dissecting the leader-type two-headed rhino.
However, with a body length of nearly five meters, there was no tree branch nearby that could support its weight.
Even though it had been blood-drained at the river and was somewhat lighter, the branch he had been using would definitely snap if he tried to hang this one from it.
If so, rather than forcing the issue with a tree branch, it was better to dissect it lying on the ground.
...That said, it would be that much harder to dissect.
Even so, Rei somehow managed, enlisting the help of Seto—who had been keeping watch while he dissected the two normal individuals—and succeeded in at least extracting the magic stone from the heart.
Even that task had been quite a struggle because of how heavy the subject was.
"Damn, I messed up."
"Guru?"
At Rei's muttered words of regret, Seto purred as if asking what was wrong.
Rei fed Seto some of the two-headed rhino meat he had sliced up, then continued.
"No, the golem I asked Roger to make was a defensive golem, but I was just thinking I should have had him make a dissection golem instead."
Rei was an existence specialized in personal combat power, so in that sense, he was by no means good at escort duty.
That was exactly why he had asked Roger for a defensive golem, but thinking about it now, he felt it would have been better to have Roger make a dissection golem rather than a defensive one.
That said, a defensive golem only needed the ability to create a barrier or a shield, but a dissection golem would require considerably high judgment capability.
After all, the types, shapes, and sizes of monsters were all completely different from one another.
Even among the same type of monster, the internal structure could vary subtly.
The heart might be slightly different in size, or the shape of the stomach might be a bit different... and so on.
Considering all of that, a dissection golem was undoubtedly quite difficult to make.
(If so, maybe not a golem to entrust with all the dissection, but one to assist with it? Of course, a golem that could actually handle the entire dissection would be ideal, but that seems difficult.)
While thinking about golems, Rei handed the leader-type two-headed rhino's magic stone to Seto.
Seto hadn't fought this particular monster, but it was an opponent Rei had defeated.
Seto, magically connected through Beast Magic, should be able to use this magic stone.
"Guru?"
Is it okay? Seto purred.
It was certain that Seto could use this magic stone, but still, it was Rei who had defeated it.
If so, wouldn't it be better for Rei... or more precisely, Death Scythe, to use it? That was probably what he was trying to say.
"I understand how you feel, Seto, but this leader-type individual used fire and ice breath. In that sense, if you use it, I can raise the level of a breath skill... or rather, a fire or ice-type skill, so that's the better option."
"Gururu."
At Rei's words, Seto nodded in understanding and swallowed the magic stone.
[Seto has acquired the skill 'Fire Breath Lv.5'.]
The announcement message echoed in his mind for the third time.
Rei smiled at the fact that Fire Breath had leveled up exactly as intended.
After confirming that, Rei first stored the leader-type two-headed rhino.
Because it was a Rare Species or High-ranking Species, he thought its internal organs might be usable for something.
"Now then, I managed to use the magic stones before Nielson wakes up. The rest is... actually testing the skills. First up should be me, right."
Muttering, he tightened his grip on Death Scythe and activated the skill.
"Multi Slash."
The skill activated with those words, and a single strike of Death Scythe was swung.
Since it was a test, the power behind it wasn't all that strong.
This was solely to confirm how many slashes would be produced.
And the number of slashes that came out... was twenty.
At Level 5, ten slashes had been released, but at Level 6, double that—twenty slashes—were unleashed.
[Seto]
'Water Ball Lv.5' 'Fire Breath Lv.5' new '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.3' 'Power Crush Lv.6' 'Sense of Smell Enhancement Lv.5' 'Bubble Breath Lv.3' 'Crystal Breath Lv.2' 'Earth Arrow Lv.2' 'Power Attack Lv.2' new 'Magic Reflection Lv.1' 'Acid Breath Lv.2' 'Wing Blade Lv.2' 'Underground Dive Lv.1' 'Thunder Breath Lv.1' 'Fog Lv.1'
[Death Scythe]
'Corrosion Lv.6' 'Flying Slash Lv.5' 'Magic Shield Lv.2' 'Power Slash Lv.5' 'Wind Hand Lv.4' 'Terrain Manipulation Lv.6' 'Pain Burst Lv.4' 'Penetrate Lv.5' 'Multi Slash Lv.6' new 'Blizzard Slash Lv.4' 'Flying Needle Lv.1' 'Underground Transfer Slash Lv.1'
Multi Slash: Enables multiple attacks in a single strike. At Level 2, two additional slashes are added to the original attack. At Level 3, three additional slashes; at Level 4, four additional slashes; at Level 5, ten additional slashes; and at Level 6, twenty slashes are released.