"Amazing. I'm the one who asked, but I never expected there'd actually be a Smog Panther in the direction Nielson pointed."
Looking at the Smog Panther's corpse lying before him, Rei muttered those words.
They say what happens twice happens three times, but in this case, perhaps it should be described as what happens once happens twice.
The first Smog Panther had been in the direction Nielson pointed.
After defeating it, they headed in the direction Nielson indicated next, and... there too, as a matter of course, fog spread out and a Smog Panther was waiting.
Once they found the fog—or more precisely, once they found the fog where a Smog Panther was likely to be—there was nothing particularly difficult about it for Rei and his party.
Originally, the Smog Panther, which could turn even its magic stone into fog, was difficult to defeat while keeping the magic stone intact.
...No, even before that, the Smog Panther was an extremely troublesome opponent to defeat in the first place. It approached as fog, only materializing its claws and fangs to attack before immediately returning to fog form.
However, with Seto's King's Intimidation, they could defeat it this easily.
When King's Intimidation was used, the Smog Panther immediately reverted from fog to its normal state, revealing its form and collapsing to the ground.
Or if it resisted King's Intimidation, its movements would only slow down somewhat—but so far, every Smog Panther subjected to King's Intimidation had been left completely unable to move.
It was truly a perfect record. For Rei and his party, the Smog Panther was no formidable opponent at all.
Since the Smog Panther was actually quite a troublesome opponent in battle, anyone with that experience would likely be unable to accept Rei's words if they heard them.
(Maybe because it's in fog form, King's Intimidation is particularly effective against the Smog Panther, or something like that?)
Precisely because it was in a fog state rather than flesh and blood, perhaps the roar from King's Intimidation was transmitted to its body more efficiently.
Thinking along those lines, the idea seemed surprisingly plausible.
(If so, then vibration... sound—meaning Elemental Magic and such—might become an effective card to play against the Smog Panther. Though I can't really say without actually trying it.)
For Rei, that was nothing more than a possibility.
He wouldn't know without actually testing it, and even if he were to test it, Rei couldn't use Elemental Magic himself.
If anything, it would be Death Scythe's skills—Wind Hand, Blizzard Slash, or perhaps Flying Slash.
"Since Seto is here, I'm not too worried about that."
As long as King's Intimidation was available, the Smog Panther was not an opponent Seto particularly needed to be wary of.
"Hmm... it's strange coming from me, the one who found this Smog Panther, but why do we keep finding them so conveniently?"
Nielson showed genuine bewilderment, but Rei felt the same way.
Since they had no other means, they left the method of finding Smog Panthers to Nielson—but the fact that she had successfully discovered where an enemy was located twice in a row was clearly strange.
...Strange as it seemed, considering their current situation, there was no doubt it was proving useful.
"As for a possible explanation... did the Chief do something?"
"The Chief...?"
For Nielson, the idea that the Chief had done something, just as Rei suggested, was apparently quite unexpected.
However, when it came to those who could pull off such a thing without her noticing, the list was naturally limited.
And there was no doubt that the Chief was the most likely candidate.
"Chief... thank you. So saying you'd use me as live bait was just a Performance Maximize, huh."
Nielson murmured with a deeply moved expression, but Rei couldn't tell how much truth there was to those words.
It was certain that the Chief held Nielson in high regard.
The fact that Nielson was chosen as the one to negotiate with Daskar was probably the biggest reason for that.
But at the same time, when it came to the talk about using Nielson as live bait for the Smog Panther, if asked whether that had been entirely a Performance Maximize... Rei couldn't honestly bring himself to nod in agreement.
"I don't know the reason, but being able to find Smog Panthers through Nielson is a big help. So, which way should we go next?"
"Umm, let's see. That way, maybe?"
In response to Rei's words, Nielson pointed in a random direction.
She pointed that way for no particular reason.
It was truly just a vague feeling—not even something grand enough to call intuition—just that kind of impulse when choosing a direction.
Even while watching Nielson behave like that, it was also a fact that Rei couldn't afford not to believe her words at this point.
What he needed to do right now was defeat as many Smog Panthers as possible, plain and simple.
Each Smog Panther defeated was that much gain for himself.
(The most valuable magic stones among the monster materials go to the Chief, so in that sense it might not be a gain...)
Rei thought that, but in reality, while the magic stones were to be handed over to the Chief, all other materials were promised to him.
Looking at it comprehensively, including having a Magic Item made for him, there was no doubt it was a net positive for Rei.
"Alright then, let's head in the direction Nielson pointed. If we go that way, there's probably another Smog Panther. ...Still, this really turned into a battle with no tension."
"Gurururu?"
Hearing Rei's words, Seto looked toward him with a slightly anxious gaze, as if asking, Is it my fault?
However, Rei naturally had no intention of blaming Seto for the current situation.
Thanks to Seto, the battles against their enemies had become remarkably easier—that was certain.
In that sense, it was true that the tension had decreased, but whether he was dissatisfied with that... the answer was no.
"Rest easy. I'm not saying anything bad about Seto. It's just that Seto happened to find an extremely effective way to fight against the Smog Panther, so we're fighting easily like this... but if we didn't have Seto's King's Intimidation, we'd probably be struggling to defeat them."
The struggle in this case was not actually about the act of defeating the Smog Panther itself.
If it was just a matter of defeating the Smog Panther, using magic would have made it easy. ...Though there was also the risk of the forest catching fire from Flame Magic.
Given those circumstances, defeating the Smog Panther wasn't difficult, but if he were to burn it while it was in fog form, there was a possibility the magic stone would be destroyed as well.
With Seto's King's Intimidation, there was no need to worry about that at all, so there was no way Rei would blame Seto in such a situation.
"Hey, Rei. And Seto too! Don't just stand around talking in a place like this forever, let's get going already! We need to defeat as many Smog Panthers as possible! Honestly, you'd be hopeless without me."
For Nielson, having Rei and Seto defeat the Smog Panthers she found was probably satisfying.
It seemed as though she felt like some kind of commander.
...In truth, it was a fact that finding Smog Panthers would be difficult without Nielson.
Even if they searched from the sky, the thickly growing leaves of the trees would get in the way.
Even if they searched while moving on the ground, the growing trees would be in the way.
In the end, the only thing they could rely on was Nielson's Sixth Sense... or perhaps some kind of sense granted by the Chief.
"Yeah, yeah, got it. So? We should head that way, right?"
Heading in the direction Nielson pointed, Rei advanced together with Seto.
As he moved, he wondered whether they might encounter a monster along the way—preferably a spider or deer, or perhaps an unknown monster they hadn't encountered yet—but unfortunately, no monsters appeared.
They did spot a few ordinary, non-monster deer, but those deer fled the instant they saw Rei.
Accurately speaking, it was probably Seto, not Rei.
Even though Seto was suppressing his presence, if they directly saw Seto's form, they must have sensed his strength through some wild instinct.
Rei had no intention of forcing himself to kill deer here, so he didn't bother chasing them.
"Ah, look. There's a river over there. A different one from the river you used when you were dissecting earlier. Want to rest there for a bit?"
In the direction Nielson indicated, there was indeed a river.
When asked whether they should rest at that river, Rei thought for a moment before agreeing.
"Right. We've been active pretty much non-stop since entering the forest, so a short break might be good. I want to dissect the spider, deer, lizards, and Smog Panthers too."
"Listen, Rei. If you're going to dissect, that's not really resting, is it?"
Nielson spoke with an exasperated expression upon hearing Rei's words, but as far as Rei was concerned, he wanted to finish the dissection as quickly as possible.
The corpses were stored in the Misty Ring, so there was no risk of them spoiling.
Even so, Rei wanted to dissect them as early as possible... more accurately, he wanted to extract the magic stones.
However, he couldn't use the magic stones openly with Nielson present, so he needed to manage it while keeping it hidden from her eyes.
"Nielson, if there's delicious meat, you'd want to eat it too, right?"
Fairies had a strong image of eating sweets, fruits, and nuts, but Rei knew that Nielson ate meat normally too.
He had actually seen her eating Skewers, so that was certain.
"Huh? Really? Yeah, I suppose so. Alright then, let's do that."
The moment she heard the words "delicious meat," Nielson immediately changed her attitude.
And so, Rei and his party headed toward the river, but...
"You've got to be kidding..."
The moment they approached the river, fog appeared, and Rei muttered involuntarily.
As far as Rei was concerned, he hadn't expected fog to appear in this situation at all.
Since there was a river—the water source—nearby, perhaps this fog was a natural phenomenon.
He thought that for a moment, but there was no way such fog would appear during the day.
"Seto."
"Gurururururururururu!"
As if he knew exactly what to do.
The instant Rei spoke, Seto used King's Intimidation... and a heavy thud echoed through the surroundings as something fell to the ground.
There was no need to even think about what it was.
And indeed, what Rei found when he turned his gaze in that direction was, just as he had predicted, a Smog Panther.
It was the same flow of actions they had taken several times before... but the one difference this time was that the Smog Panther that had fallen to the ground was still moving.
It seemed unable to move its body as it wanted, but it was clearly trying to somehow stand up.
"Huh, so this one succeeded in resisting King's Intimidation. ...Well, succeeding in resistance doesn't mean it can do anything about this situation, though."
Muttering, Rei swung the Death Scythe he had retrieved from the Misty Ring and severed the Smog Panther's head.
"Sha..."
From the severed neck, that cry—or perhaps a death rattle—leaked out.
Until now, they had killed the Smog Panthers without hearing a single sound from them, so this was actually the first time hearing a Smog Panther's cry.
That said, what needed to be done didn't change.
"Well then, that's another Smog Panther acquired. And... the river, huh. From the looks of it, it's fairly shallow and the current isn't that fast, so it seems like we can take it easy."
"Right. Well then, shall we start dissecting the monsters? Though I can't help."
"Considering Nielson's size, that's only natural."
Being a fairy, even if Nielson were to help with dissecting monsters, it would be more of a hindrance than anything.
Rei fully understood that, so he didn't particularly blame Nielson for saying she couldn't help.
"Unlike me and Seto, Nielson, you have a small body, so take it easy and rest for now. We want to find more Smog Panthers, and it'd be trouble if Nielson wasn't up to the task then."
"Huh? Really? Yeah. I suppose you're right. Well then, excuse me while I rest."
Saying that, Nielson entered into a tree growing near the river.
On Rei's face as he watched Nielson go, an expression of having gotten exactly what he wanted had surfaced.
Thinking happily that this would let him use the magic stones, he began the dissection.