Using the two magic stones each from the Smog Panthers and lizards was finished, and next, what Rei picked up were the spider and deer magic stones.
Since there was only one of each, deciding whether Death Scythe or Seto would use which stone required careful consideration.
(Actually, it doesn't have to be one stone each for Death Scythe and Seto. There's always the option of one of them using both. And in that case, the one using both would naturally be Seto.)
In Rei's case, he had diverse attack methods beyond fighting with Death Scythe — he could use the Twilight Spear, magic, and more.
Seto, however, relied on skills as his primary attack methods.
There were also physical attacks using his forelegs, beak, and body slams, but when it came to sheer variety, he still fell short of Rei.
With this in mind, Rei turned to Seto and asked, "How about it, Seto? Want to try using these two magic stones yourself?"
"Gruu?"
Seto was caught off guard by Rei's words. He probably never expected him to say something like that.
That said, from Rei's perspective, he simply thought it might be better for Seto to acquire a new skill or have an existing one strengthened rather than having himself — more precisely, Death Scythe — powered up.
"Gurururu, gururu, gururururu."
After thinking it over for a moment, Seto picked up only the deer magic stone in his beak and stepped away from Rei.
Seeing the spider magic stone left in Rei's hand, Seto's intent was obvious without any need for thought.
"Is that okay, Seto? Even if I use the spider magic stone?"
"Gruu!"
Seto set the deer magic stone he'd been holding on the ground and purred, indicating that was fine by him.
For Seto, acquiring a new skill or having an existing one strengthened through using a magic stone himself was certainly welcome.
But with two magic stones available, he probably wanted Rei — or more precisely, Death Scythe — to use one as well.
To Seto, Death Scythe was a being created by Beast Magic, just like himself. Though it was an inorganic object, a Magic Item, in a sense it could be called a brotherly existence.
Since Death Scythe had no will of its own, in that sense it might have just been Seto's arbitrary assumption. But even without understanding the detailed circumstances, Rei could tell from Seto's demeanor that he at least wanted the spider magic stone to go to Death Scythe.
"Right. Then let's try using this spider magic stone on Death Scythe. Though if we find one more spider and one more deer in this forest, we'll end up with the same result anyway."
At Rei's words, Seto looked pleased. He probably felt that finding a new spider and deer would be perfectly fine for him too.
With the matter settled, Rei and Seto promptly set about using the magic stones. There was no telling when Nielson would emerge from inside the tree, so they needed to hurry at least a little.
"Alright then, I'll go first."
Saying that, Rei tossed the spider magic stone into the air and sliced it with Death Scythe.
[Death Scythe acquired the skill "Wind Hand Lv.5"]
An announcement message echoed in his head.
Wind Hand from a spider? Rei wondered, but he guessed that the spider had probably used some kind of wind skill when catching prey with its threads.
Wind Hand leveling up was by no means a bad thing for Rei. After all, Wind Hand was one of the skills used to produce his signature Flame Tornado — Fire Whirlwind. Which meant that Wind Hand being strengthened naturally meant Fire Whirlwind was strengthened as well.
"Well, I won't know until I actually try it. Wind Hand."
Since he had no idea how it had been strengthened, he needed to test it in practice. Making that judgment, Rei activated the skill immediately.
He could see Wind Hand extending from Death Scythe. Wind Hand was a skill that allowed free manipulation of something like an invisible, transparent tentacle woven from wind magic. Only the tip of the tentacle could exert wind effects on whatever it touched.
Wind Hand having reached Level 5 was clearly strengthened to a degree incomparable to when it was at Level 4.
First, the speed at which the tentacle extended and the smoothness of its movement were noticeably improved compared to Level 4. Additionally, at Level 4, Wind Hand could only extend about 250m, but having reached Level 5, it could now stretch all the way to about 500m at once — double that of Level 4.
Thinking of it that way, it might not seem like a dramatic increase, but from Level 5 onward, the magnitude of improvement when leveling up also grew larger. In that sense, Wind Hand being able to reach 500m at Level 5 was something Rei was quite grateful for.
"Next is the deer. Seto, try it out."
"Gururu!"
At Rei's words, Seto purred as if to say he'd handle it, scooped up the deer magic stone in his beak... and swallowed it.
[Seto acquired the skill "Wing Blade Lv.3"]
An announcement message echoed in his head.
"I see, Wing Blade. Considering what kind of monster that deer was, it's not all that strange."
The deer had been an aggressive creature with blades extending from all over its body. Because of that appearance alone, it was actually one of the more troublesome ones to dissect — even more so than the spider or lizards.
Given that, it made sense that Wing Blade, the skill that turned the outer edges of Seto's wings into blades, had leveled up.
(If anything, it was a good thing it didn't end up like that deer, with blades sprouting from all over Seto's body.)
If that had happened, it would have been fine as long as the blades could be retracted. But if, like the deer, they couldn't be retracted... that would be nothing for Seto to celebrate.
Seto loved fighting enemies, but he also enjoyed playing with various people in town. However, if he ended up in a state where blades jutted from all over his body, he wouldn't be able to do what he always did. With adults, they could be careful of the blades when petting him, but getting children to take such precautions would be difficult. And if blades also sprouted from his back, carrying Rei on it would become impossible too.
Thinking about it that way, acquiring the skill Wing Blade rather than having blades sprout from his body was probably a stroke of fortune for Seto.
"Gruu!"
Seto purred happily at having his skill strengthened.
While stroking Seto's body, Rei spoke up. "So, that Wing Blade... how much has it been strengthened at Level 3? Could you test it out a bit?"
"Gururu!"
At Rei's words, Seto purred as if to say he was on it.
With that settled, the question was what to use as a target. Rei obviously couldn't serve as the target himself, so the appropriate choice was one of the trees growing nearby. Naturally, not the tree where Nielson was resting — a different one.
"Right, how about that tree? It's got a decent thickness, so it should be suitable for showing off Wing Blade's effect."
Rei pointed at a tree of reasonable girth.
Seto, since Rei had pointed it out, had no particular objections and charged toward the tree.
"Gururururu!"
He activated the skill Wing Blade, struck the outer edge of his wing against the tree... and with a clean slicing sound, the tree was cut through effortlessly and crashed to the ground.
Naturally, the power was clearly greater compared to Level 2.
"Heh, impressive. If this skill has gotten this powerful, it should be quite a lot more useful, don't you think?"
"Gruu? Gruu!"
Seto purred with a proud air at Rei's words. For Seto, having his own skill strengthened was certainly pleasing, but being praised by Rei was equally — or perhaps even more — delightful.
"Anyway—"
"Wait, wait, wait! What on earth was that just now!"
Just as Rei was about to continue speaking, that voice suddenly rang out across the surroundings.
Whose voice it was — Rei didn't even need to think about it. It was immediately obvious.
"Nielson, are you done resting? I figured you'd be sleeping a bit longer."
"Come on! Seriously? In this situation, how do you expect anyone to sleep peacefully!"
The shouting Nielson pointed at the fallen tree. Seeing that, Rei nodded in understanding.
"So even inside the tree, you can tell what's going on outside. Thinking about it, maybe that's natural."
If you couldn't sense the outside situation at all while inside a tree, what would happen? For instance, when fairies were sleeping in the Fairy Dwelling and someone overslept, no one would be able to wake them. And the ones oversleeping were fairies — creatures with strong curiosity who acted on their own whims. If they couldn't be woken from outside, it wouldn't be strange no matter how long they kept sleeping.
Given those circumstances, it wouldn't be strange at all if they could hear sounds from outside the tree. In a sense, Rei vaguely wondered whether fairies had evolved themselves to be able to do exactly that.
"Of course it's natural. So, what on earth did you suddenly cut down a tree for! You weren't doing this to wake me up, were you!"
"Of course that wasn't my intention. I was just confirming the effect of one of Seto's skills."
"Hmm..."
Whether she was convinced by Rei's explanation or not was unclear. Setting that aside, Nielson simply responded with that noncommittal sound.
"So, is the dissection finished?"
"More or less. I stripped out the magic stones, but dissecting the meat and such is difficult. Especially the spider."
For lizards and deer, Rei could to some extent predict how to go about the dissection. But when it came to how to dissect a giant spider, he honestly had no idea. Should he do it by cutting off the legs one by one like a crab, then splitting open the body and removing the internal organs?
(No, this seems like it'd need specialized knowledge. Better to leave it to a professional dissection shop.)
For a moment, Rei thought of the village that had requested him to deal with the two-headed rhinos, but he immediately dismissed the idea. The villagers were afraid of him, and more importantly, they only operated in the shallow areas of the forest. Even if he wanted to have the corpses of monsters defeated deep in the forest dissected, they wouldn't be able to manage it.
"Rei, what's wrong?"
"Hm? Ah, it's nothing. I was just thinking that dissecting the monsters seems like it'll be difficult. Since you're up, Nielson, you must have rested enough. Shouldn't we get back to hunting Smog Panthers?"
"Hunting..."
What had come out of Rei's mouth wasn't about fighting and defeating Smog Panthers, but about doing the job of defeating them. Nielson cast a slightly exasperated look at that phrasing, but for Rei, in reality, it was nothing more than a job. If he used Seto's King's Intimidation, that alone would freeze the Smog Panthers in place, rendering them unable to turn into fog.
"If possible, I'd want a High-ranking Species or Rare Species of Smog Panther to show up, though."
"Is that because you want a proper fight?"
"I can't deny that's part of it."
It was true that he wanted to try out the skills he'd acquired since coming to this forest. Multi Slash in particular had grown dramatically stronger upon reaching Level 6 — strong enough that he found himself wondering if it hadn't gotten a bit too powerful. For Rei, Multi Slash becoming stronger was purely an advantage, so he had no complaints about that, but at the same time, he figured there probably weren't many opponents out there who could stand up to a Multi Slash that had become that devastating.
"Also, if I had a Rare Species or High-ranking Species Smog Panther magic stone, the Fog Sound I'm having made might exceed expectations in terms of effectiveness."
"Really? Well, if that actually turns out to be the case, then fine. Anyway, let's get going. The direction we're heading is over there!"
Thanks to having rested to some extent inside the tree, Nielson was quite energetic. Though to be fair, she had been quite energetic even before resting. In that sense, she hadn't changed at all from before her break.
Rei headed in the direction Nielson pointed, and together with Seto, set off.
[Seto]
『Water Ball Lv.5』『Fire Breath Lv.5』『Wind Arrow Lv.4』『King's Intimidation Lv.4』『Poison Claw Lv.7』『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』『Magic Reflection Lv.1』『Acid Breath Lv.2』『Wing Blade Lv.3』new『Underground Dive Lv.1』『Thunder Breath Lv.1』『Fog Lv.2』
[Death Scythe]
『Corrosion Lv.6』『Flying Slash Lv.5』『Magic Shield Lv.2』『Power Slash Lv.5』『Wind Hand Lv.5』new『Terrain Manipulation Lv.6』『Pain Burst Lv.4』『Penetrate Lv.5』『Multi Slash Lv.6』『Blizzard Slash Lv.5』『Flying Needle Lv.1』『Underground Transfer Slash Lv.1』『Dragon Slayer Lv.1』
Wind Hand: An invisible, transparent tentacle-like appendage woven from wind magic extends from Death Scythe. It can interact with objects using wind only at the tip of the tentacle where it makes contact. At Lv.4, the tentacle can extend 250m; at Level 5, it can extend 500m.
Wing Blade: The outer edges of the wings become blades. At Level 1, they can slice through skin and flesh. At Level 2, they can slice through flesh and sever bone. At Level 3, they can even cut through reasonably thick trees.