Having defeated the Smog Panther with unexpected ease, Rei felt caught slightly off guard.
"I can't believe we struggled so much to find it, only to take it down this easily."
"Grrru!"
Hearing Rei's words, Seto purred proudly.
Indeed, Seto had done more than enough to justify such a proud display.
Under normal circumstances, the Smog Panther possessed the ability to turn its body into fog, meaning physical attacks could easily be rendered ineffective against it.
However, the King's Intimidation that Seto used had the effect of halting the opponent's movements, which made it impossible for the Smog Panther to maintain its fog state.
It was tantamount to having the Smog Panther's greatest advantage crushed in an instant.
...As for Rei, only slightly—truly only slightly—he belatedly considered the possibility that the Smog Panther might have been unable to move while remaining in fog form, dying without ever returning to its physical body and scattering away.
Fortunately, no such thing had occurred, and the Smog Panther returned to its physical form.
And ultimately, while it was immobilized by King's Intimidation, Rei attacked and killed it.
"Well, that's fine, isn't it? You defeated it easily, right?"
"There's no doubt this is the guaranteed victory pattern. As for where the Smog Panther is, it's immediately obvious whenever fog appears unnaturally."
Being able to forcibly return it from its fog state to its physical form made fighting it extremely easy for Rei.
That was not only enough to reassure Rei, but also sufficient to ease their guide Nielson's mind.
Encountering a Smog Panther like this meant there was no danger of falling into a crisis, and they could defeat it with ease.
That was why, considering their current situation, it would have been unreasonable for Nielson not to feel happy.
"Anyway, that's one down. ...How many more do we need to defeat?"
"I'm getting two magic stones, so including the one for the Fog Sound, that's one more. But the Chief said she wanted as many Smog Panther magic stones as possible, so thinking about it that way, we need to hunt as many as we can."
"As many as we can, huh. ...With Seto's power, I can understand why you'd say that so casually."
Originally, Nielson had thought that hunting a Smog Panther would involve a bit more of a struggle.
However, having actually fought one, they demonstrated the power to overwhelm it rather than struggle.
Considering how things had played out, she deeply felt that it was a good thing Rei and Seto were here for this.
"They said Smog Panthers live apart from each other, so we'll have to search somewhere else. If we can win this easily, I would've preferred them to be more clustered together to save us the trouble."
Hearing Rei's words, Nielson, who had been listening, nodded in agreement.
For Nielson, she probably had quite a few thoughts about the current situation.
Killing a Smog Panther was easy, but finding one was quite a struggle.
If anything, defeating it was far easier than locating it.
Watching Nielson, Rei wondered if there was any way to find Smog Panthers more easily.
(Could Seto search for enemies from the sky... no, that's impossible.)
As long as they were in a forest, it was naturally covered by the trees' canopy.
Or perhaps in winter, when the leaves fell, they could have tried looking down at the ground from above, but right now it was still early autumn and the leaves hadn't even begun to change color.
The foliage was still entirely green.
Under such conditions, searching for the Smog Panther from the sky would naturally not be an easy task.
"That won't work."
"Huh? What won't?"
Hearing Rei's mutter, Nielson asked what was wrong, as if wondering what had come over him.
For Nielson, she probably had quite a few thoughts about the current situation as well.
She was supposed to be here to find the Smog Panther, but so far she hadn't managed to do anything of the sort.
Even regarding the fog from earlier, Rei had noticed it before Nielson had.
That was why, in order to avoid being scolded by the Chief after this was over, she wanted to be as useful as possible in finding and defeating Smog Panthers.
Nielson was capable of using magic to hold things in place with plants, as she had done with the deer monster, but thinking about the effect of Seto's King's Intimidation, there was no need for that.
In other words, for Nielson to be useful to Rei right now, it would have to be through exploration, not combat.
(Absolutely no live bait.)
The method of using her as live bait was something the Chief had suggested half-seriously and Rei had said entirely in jest, but Nielson had taken it seriously.
That was precisely why Nielson needed to put effort into scouting.
"Is there any fairy magic that could be used for detection, or something like that?"
"Hmm, nothing like that. No, it might exist for all I know, but unfortunately I don't know of any."
Hearing Nielson's words, Rei showed a disappointed expression.
Granted, if it came down to it, Rei was also a Magic Warrior who could use magic.
But just like Nielson, Rei couldn't use magic to search for a specific object or person either.
(It would be nice if the Magic Item the Chief makes for us had something like that... no, that's impossible, isn't it?)
No matter how effective fairy-made Magic Items were, they still had limits.
A Magic Item that simply pointed to the location of a desired being without any specific conditions... if something like that truly existed, it wouldn't be strange for an entire nation to want it.
"If finding it with magic is impossible, it can't be helped. For now, we have no choice but to diligently search for where the Smog Panther is. ...Fortunately, we defeated the Smog Panther that was here. That means there are no other Smog Panthers in the immediate vicinity."
Smog Panthers didn't live in groups, but they were said to inhabit a given region while maintaining a certain distance from one another.
If that was the case, even if there weren't any right next to the individual Rei had killed, there should be some a short distance away.
Exactly how far away, unfortunately, Rei didn't know either.
"Is there any chance that Smog Panthers look out for their comrades, and if one is in danger, other nearby individuals come rushing to help, or something like that?"
"I wonder. I've never heard of that, but... either way, the Smog Panther Rei killed didn't even get to let out a cry or a scream, right? Thinking about it that way, even if that were the case, wouldn't it be meaningless?"
"That's..."
Nielson's words were true.
Even if the Smog Panther had such a nature, it hadn't even let out a scream or a cry for help, so expecting reinforcements to come was an unreasonable expectation.
"In the end, we have no choice but to find another Smog Panther on our own. ...This time, make sure you cooperate properly too, Nielson."
"I know that. If I'm not useful here, who knows what the Chief will put me through. That's exactly why I'm going to find a Smog Panther somehow, no matter what!"
Not saying it out loud—I refuse to be live bait!—she showed her determination with her entire body.
"Grrrrru."
Perhaps seeing Nielson's figure and thinking something of it, Seto purred as if to encourage her.
Before Nielson's motivation could fade, Rei stored the Smog Panther's corpse in the Misty Ring and immediately set off through the forest.
Since Nielson the fairy was this motivated, perhaps through some stroke of luck they might find a Smog Panther—that was his reasoning.
For Rei, he didn't think they would definitely find one, but he acted on the thought that maybe they would.
In reality, since there wasn't any particular clue to go on, it was merely the extent of thinking that it was better than proceeding without any thought at all.
"Somehow... really just somehow, I have a feeling it's this way!"
Saying that, they headed in the direction Nielson indicated.
And as they proceeded...
"You've got to be kidding."
"You've got to be kidding."
After advancing for about an hour, those words slipped from Rei's mouth.
The reason was that fog was drifting through the surroundings.
What that fog specifically meant was something they knew from having fought the Smog Panther earlier.
Namely, that there was a Smog Panther nearby.
"...Wait, why are you surprised too?"
Rei couldn't help but retort to Nielson, who had let out words of surprise as if following his own.
The current situation was the result of heading in the direction Nielson had indicated.
Given that, it was strange for Nielson to act surprised.
...Of course, if she had a proper reason for being surprised, Rei would have accepted it, but upon hearing Rei's words, Nielson reflexively covered her mouth.
Seeing that reflexive movement, it was easy to guess that Nielson was surprised because the direction she had indicated was random, and she had never expected to actually find a Smog Panther here.
Nielson had voiced her surprise at the unexpected development, but at Rei's words, she came back to herself and let out a laugh.
"Ahahahaha. T-that... we encountered a Smog Panther faster than I expected. I thought it would take a bit longer."
Rei could understand that it was a lie she had blurted out on the spot.
He understood, but that didn't mean he was going to call Nielson out on it.
Rather than calling Nielson out here, defeating the Smog Panther took priority.
(That said, the problem is when to use King's Intimidation. Does the presence of this fog mean the Smog Panther has already turned into fog and is nearby? Or does fog simply occur near the Smog Panther?)
As long as the Smog Panther itself was an unknown monster, Rei couldn't know what abilities it possessed.
He didn't know, but he reached the conclusion that if there was anything suspicious, he should just try using a skill.
After all, there was nothing to lose by using a skill.
Well, depending on the situation, there might be something to lose, but in this situation, there was no downside to using King's Intimidation.
"Seto, please."
"Grrrrrru!"
When Rei asked, Seto seemed to fully understand what was being requested of him.
He immediately used King's Intimidation...
Thud.
A sound of something falling to the ground echoed through the trees.
Rei naturally understood the identity of that something.
In this current situation, the one who would do such a thing was obvious without even needing to think about it.
"Just as I thought."
As Rei had predicted, what had collapsed there was a Smog Panther.
Due to the effect of Seto's King's Intimidation, it was unable to move.
For Rei, it was truly the best possible outcome.
"Whoa... this is the second time, but seeing it like this, Seto really is amazing."
"Gru!"
While she probably couldn't understand that it was a skill called King's Intimidation that had been used, Nielson nevertheless seemed to grasp that Seto had done something to render the Smog Panther unable to move.
"That's right. There's no doubt Seto is amazing. I'm proud of him too."
Saying that, Rei severed the Smog Panther's neck with Death Scythe and killed it in a single strike.
He placed the corpse into the Misty Ring and looked back at Nielson.
"Huh? What?"
Nielson looked back at Rei with an expression suggesting she didn't understand why she was being looked at.
"We went in the direction Nielson pointed and there was a Smog Panther. Given that, it's only natural to test whether we can do the same thing again, isn't it?"
"Ueh!? ...Ahem. Yes. I understand what you're trying to say, Rei. But even using Fairy's Intuition, it's not guaranteed to succeed the same way every time."
At the phrase Fairy's Intuition, Rei thought it was a clever way of covering up, but nodded anyway.
"I understand that. Still, it's better than proceeding without any guidepost at all. We found the enemy through a similar flow earlier, so thinking about it that way, it's not bad to hope for that again here, is it?"
Perhaps finding some merit in Rei's words, reluctantly—truly reluctantly, though—Nielson pointed in a random direction, rather than relying on any intuition of hers.