Rei's party advanced through the forest.
Until just a short while ago, heading in whatever direction Nielson indicated had let them find Smog Panthers with ease. This time, however, even after pushing forward for nearly an hour, they hadn't spotted a single Smog Panther—or more precisely, the fog that served as proof of one's presence.
Why had they suddenly become unable to find any?
The one growing anxious about this was, naturally, Nielson.
"Umm... huh? That's strange. I was sure they'd be this way."
She looked genuinely bewildered by the complete lack of encounters.
That said, Rei had no intention of blaming her given the current situation.
(We've already secured the number of Smog Panthers we need. We've got the extra magic stones to hand over to the Fairy Dwelling, too, so there's no need to force ourselves to keep searching here. Well, more would always be better, though.)
It was true that up until now, Smog Panthers had appeared in whatever direction Nielson pointed. But she herself had never claimed that searching a specific spot would guarantee a find. The accurate description was that when they headed in a randomly pointed direction, a Smog Panther just happened to be there for some reason.
Since even Nielson didn't understand how she was finding them, it was only natural for her to wonder why she couldn't locate any now.
(Come to think of it, it's not impossible that the Smog Panthers are no longer in this forest... or more precisely, that we've already killed all the ones that were here.)
Unfortunately, Rei couldn't say exactly how likely that possibility actually was.
The biggest problem above all else was that Smog Panthers didn't fundamentally live in packs. They were solitary creatures, but these solitary individuals tended to cluster together to a certain extent—and that was what made things troublesome.
If they were completely solitary, he could simply conclude that killing one Smog Panther would be the end of it. If they traveled in packs, he could wipe them all out in one sweep. The fact that they were neither was what complicated matters this time.
"Gururu..."
As they walked through the forest, Seto suddenly let out a short cry.
For a moment, Rei wondered if Seto had found a Smog Panther or some other unknown monster. But the cry lacked energy—it didn't carry the excitement of having spotted prey, but rather the weariness of having spotted something troublesome.
"Eh? Wait, Rei, what's wrong with Seto? Did he find another monster?"
Noticing that Seto's cry was different from usual, Nielson asked Rei with a puzzled look. She probably thought he'd found a Smog Panther.
But that wasn't the case. Judging from Seto's demeanor, Rei couldn't possibly believe he'd found anything worth getting excited over.
...Well, to be precise, he probably had found a monster. It just wasn't a Smog Panther, a spider they hadn't yet located, or some completely unknown creature.
"Ah. Figured it out."
Rei's senses weren't as sharp as Seto's, but they were still incomparably sharper than an ordinary person's. What he detected was a pack of monsters approaching their position.
They were monsters, yes—but they were Goblins. A creature Rei had already defeated countless times and was thoroughly sick of seeing.
And that pack was cutting straight through the forest toward them.
Rei could fully understand why Seto had let out such an unhappy-sounding cry.
Goblins were extremely weak—monsters truly befitting the term "small fry." If that were all, there'd be no need to care. But they were also exceedingly foolish. They didn't flee from Seto the way other monsters did; instead, they would simply charge in and attack. This wasn't a case of a high-rank monster assessing its chances and deciding to strike—it was pure instinct, attacking simply because they'd spotted an enemy. And yet they possessed absolutely zero instinct for sensing an opponent's strength.
Truly an opponent that could only be described as troublesome.
"So troublesome... no, wait."
Couldn't he just brush past them?
The thought crossed Rei's mind for a moment, but Goblins were deeply tenacious. Even if he avoided an encounter, the moment they spotted his group, they would definitely give chase. If that was the case, it would be better to just kill them here.
The number of Goblins heading their way was quite large, but precisely because of that, wiping out this pack would buy them safety for a while. Though considering the Goblins' reproductive rate, even slaughtering this pack probably meant they'd replenish their numbers before long.
Still, the stronger reason Rei decided to annihilate them was simple: since the opportunity had presented itself, he wanted to try out the Skill he'd acquired.
"Seto, Nielson, I'll take care of the Goblins coming this way. The perfect test subjects just delivered themselves to me. If anything, I should be grateful."
"Eh? Wait, Goblins are coming?"
Nielson had noticed their presence later than Seto and Rei, and she still hadn't spotted them. This wasn't because she was slow—it simply meant that Rei and Seto's senses were even sharper than hers.
Naturally, Nielson was reasonably knowledgeable about Goblins. They were monsters that appeared just about anywhere, and they certainly existed in the place she and the others had lived before coming to the Treant Forest. For a fairy, defeating or evading Goblins wasn't particularly difficult, but given their numbers, she would undoubtedly find it a hassle.
"Yeah. A decent-sized pack. But for me, they're the perfect opponents. Nielson, stay by Seto's side. Seto, get some distance from me. There's no guarantee you won't get caught in the attack."
"Guru."
Understanding what Rei intended, Seto immediately backed away. Nielson, reading his reaction, judged it best to keep her distance too and moved to his side. She was curious by nature, but Rei's warning had clearly convinced her that approaching carelessly would be dangerous.
And she was right.
Rei drew Death Scythe from the Misty Ring. Normally, he would also draw the Twilight Spear and fight in the Twin Spear Style, but this time it was strictly Death Scythe alone. After all, the purpose here was simply to test a Skill.
"Alright... let's go, then."
He muttered, watching the Goblins pushing through bushes and weaving between the trees toward them. The Goblins, naturally, spotted Rei appearing in their path and charged forward with hideous grins, weapons raised.
"Gyagya!"
"Gyogagaya!"
Against the enemies closing in with their grating, unpleasant voices, Rei gripped Death Scythe and activated a Skill.
"Multi Slash."
The Skill activated on those words. A single razor-sharp strike bisected several Goblins, bodies and all. Then the Skill's full effect manifested—twenty slashes equivalent to the one Rei had just delivered rained down upon the pack.
Just once.
In that single activation, every one of the dozens of Goblins present was torn apart—bodies, limbs, heads severed—and even the surrounding trees and bushes were shredded alongside them.
What remained in the area was blood, flesh, organs, skin, and... well, an assortment of things that could only be described as Goblin remnants. Even most of the magic stones had been cut in two.
"Whoa..."
He'd done it himself, but the word still slipped out.
He'd known the Skill was powerful. He'd expected a considerably strong attack. But producing a scene this gruesome right before his eyes was, honestly, beyond what he'd anticipated.
"Uwaah... how should I put it? 'Whoa' is the only word that comes to mind."
The voice came from Nielson, who had been watching from a distance. Even for someone as curious as her, the sight before her apparently elicited nothing beyond that one syllable.
"Gurururu."
Seto too rumbled in his throat, apparently caught off guard by the spectacle. That said, since he already had a firm grasp of Rei's abilities, he didn't look nearly as shocked as Nielson.
"This is... not something I can use carelessly. It's the kind of thing you save for a strong enemy or a situation that really calls for it."
Rei surveyed the carnage once more and murmured to himself. He gave Death Scythe a swing, shaking off the Goblin blood and flesh clinging to the blade.
(Multi Slash isn't the kind of attack that targets individual enemies anymore. It's turned into what you'd call a full area attack.)
A single strike from Death Scythe could easily kill about five Goblins. And twenty of those were unleashed at once. By simple arithmetic, that meant he could slaughter roughly a hundred Goblins in a single use.
...Though that was, of course, just a back-of-the-napkin calculation. Even if he could kill a hundred at once, it wasn't as though a hundred would conveniently swarm him all at the exact same time. Even so, there was no denying it had become a formidably powerful attack.
"Hey, Rei. So... I get that your attack is strong and all, but the Goblin corpses... or rather, the meat chunks? What are you going to do about those?"
Having recovered from her shock, Nielson spoke up while surveying the surroundings.
Looking at the scene anew, Rei couldn't help but think this was yet another reason not to use Multi Slash carelessly.
Normally, leaving monster corpses behind was something you absolutely shouldn't do. This world had Undead, after all. Leave a body alone long enough, and it might reanimate. That was why, ideally, monster corpses needed to be burned or otherwise properly disposed of, but...
"Can't we just leave this as is? In this state, they definitely won't become Undead—well, Zombies or Skeletons, at the very least."
Becoming those types of Undead required an intact corpse as a base. But among the bodies shredded by Multi Slash, there wasn't a single one that could be called intact.
"Zombies and Skeletons aside, they might become Ghosts, you know?"
"Ghosts, that's a possibility. But... considering the monsters that live in this forest, I really can't imagine losing to a Goblin Ghost. The villagers apparently only operate in the shallow parts of the forest, too."
According to what the village chief had told him, there were stories of people wandering deep into the forest or venturing in as a test of courage. But honestly, spiders, deer, lizards, Smog Panthers, and whatever other monsters Rei didn't yet know about were all far more vicious than any Goblin Ghost.
If that was the case, there was no need to bother cleaning up the Goblin corpses. A few magic stones had survived intact, but a Goblin's magic stone wasn't something Rei needed to go out of his way to collect.
"Besides, now that I think about it, in this forest... no, not just this forest, but in most places, it's not uncommon for monsters to kill other monsters to survive. Those corpses are left as is, too, so they must turn into Undead from time to time."
"If you're fine with it, then I don't mind. In that case, let's get out of here. It reeks."
Goblin blood, flesh, and organs were scattered everywhere. Naturally, a foul stench hung thick over the area. For Nielson, if there was no need to clean up the remains, she wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible.
(I could manage it with magic, but... no. Using magic for Goblins is a waste.)
Rei had magic that could burn corpses to prevent them from reanimating as Undead. But he had no desire to go out of his way for Goblins.
"Right. Let's go. The view's gotten a lot more open around here, so other Goblins might come investigate the abnormality. If it's spiders or Smog Panthers that show up, though, I'd welcome that."
Muttering to himself, Rei scanned the surroundings.
A portion of the forest had been stripped of a fair number of trees by the Multi Slash. Seen from above, there was no doubt that this area alone had been carved into an open clearing.