LEGEND

Chapter 115

「GURURURURU~!」

Set gave a loud cry.

His cry echoed through the clear blue sky. On the ground, the roads leading to the city of Gilm could be seen, with forests and grass plains spread out around it.

Receiving his reward from the guild, Rei left the city with Set after playing with the children. Of course, it wasn’t just to strip materials from monster. ……More than anything else, it was to absorb magic stones.

「Set, head for the place where we absorbed the magic stones previously.」

Rei sat on Set’s back said that while stroking his head. Set flapped his wings in a good mood.

「GURURU~!」

Set gave an okay with a brief cry and skillfully changed directions in the air. The previous place where they had absorbed magic stones was a clearing in the middle of the forest, it started to come into view after flying for about 40 minutes.

「……Hm?　That felt faster than usual.」

Although Rei hadn’t measured the time it had taken, he still noticed something felt different. In fact, Set had reduced the time taken for him to fly to the location from 1 hour previously to 40 minutes. As for why, it was proof of Set’s growth in the dungeon.

「Gururu~!」

Set gave a cry and flapped his wings as he landed at the clearing.

「Fuu~, thanks for your hard work. Set is as fast as ever.」

As a reward, he stroked Set’s back for several minutes while enjoying his silky coat.

「……Well then. Although I would like to take things slow and have a break, today’s job is to strip all the materials off the monsters. And above that is the absorption of magic stones. I wonder how many there are.」

While muttering, he displayed the list of monster he had received from the dungeon trip in his mind……

「No, numbers aside, how many different monsters were there anyway.」

He unintentionally gave a sigh.

In the list in his mind, the largest number of monsters were, or course, the Water Monkeys that had attacked them in the forest on the fourth floor. Because they had attacked as a group continuously, he wasn’t able to retrieve all the corpses. However, he had still collected well over 50. With the knowledge of the Magic Beast Art he had received from Zepairu, he knew that Set and the Death Scythe could only learn skills from one magic stone per type of monster. In other words, even if Set absorbed the magic stone of a Water Monkey, if he couldn’t learn a skill from it, he wouldn’t be able to learn any skills from Water Monkey magic stones. In that sense, the more than 50 corpses of Water Monkeys stored in the Misty Ring were numerous but useless.

However, that was only from the view of the Magic Beast Art, you could still sell the magic stones and materials at the guild or other stores.

Above all, regarding the Water Monkeys magic stones, Set had already absorbed one without learning any skills. The fact that he couldn’t expect the Death Scythe to absorb it either brought the tension down.

「Let’s start with the ordinary Lizardmen first.」

Muttering, he selected Lizardman in his mind. The next moment, a corpse of a Lizardmen appeared before Rei and Set.

「The proof of subjugation was the tip of the tail.」

While muttering, he cut off the tips of the tails with his dismantling knife before storing them into the Misty Ring. After that, he skinned them, taking care not to peel off the scales, and stripped any other material that could be sold while reading the book on dismantling as usual.

In the case of Lizardmen, their scaly skin was used as material for armour. Several internal organs could be used as materials in alchemy or for healing potions. The eyeballs could also be sold to create magic items using alchemy. Putting the eyeballs into a special bottle, following the book. Rei then removed the internal organs that he could sell as well as the flesh and stored them into the Misty Ring. As for the remaining internal organs and the heads, he dug a hole and threw them into it.

And……

「Set!」

Throwing a magic stone that he had taken out of a heart, Set swallowed it in one gulp. However, there was no announcement in his mind of a new skill being learnt.

「Guru~……」

Set was also disappointed. Normally, Rei would try to cheer him up, but the number of monsters he had to go through today was huge. Taking out the corpse of another Lizardman, he stripped off as much material as he could before taking out the Death Scythe. Then, in the same way as before, he removed a magic stone from the heart.……

「If it’s the Death Scythe……how will that go!」

He quickly sliced the magic stone that he threw into the air with the Death Scythe.

「……It’s no use?」

An announcement did not sound in his mind and Rei gave a sigh.

After that, he drifted into a state of continuous work, removing the proofs of subjugation from the Lizardmen, stripping material and then removing the magic stone. Flesh went into the Misty Ring while the unusable internal organs went into the hole he dug. Finally, after about an hour since he dismantled the first Lizardman, he finally finished stripping all the materials from them.

「Next is the Lizardman General. Because this is a higher ranking species of Lizardmen, there should definitely be a magic stone……but, this species isn’t in the book. Could the materials be the same as an ordinary Lizardman?」

Tilting his head, he tried to insert the sharp edge of his knife into the skin, past the scale. But……

Kin~!

As expected of the Lizardman General. The the sharp edge of the knife couldn’t go through the scales and slid off instead.

「Although this is a cheap knife, that was unexpected.」

Giving a sigh, Rei unsheathed the Mithril Knife at his waist and poured magic power into it. The blade of the Mithril Knife, with Rei’s magic power, cut into the body with almost no resistance, easily removing the scaled skin of the Lizardman General.

After that, he cut off the tip of the tail, just like the other Lizardmen, before removing the eyeballs and taking out the internal organs. The magic stone he took out from the higher ranking species Lizardman was somewhat larger than the rest.

「So, the question is, who should I give the magic stone to, the Death Scythe or Set……what do you think?」

「Gururu~」

Set shook his head at Rei’s question. At Set’s round eyes, which told Rei to use it on the Death Scythe rather than him, Rei stroked Set’s head with a smile

「Sorry about this, I’ll accept your decision.」

「Gururu~!」

Set gave a loud cry at Rei’s words. Hearing that, Rei threw the Lizardman General’s magic stone into the air.

「Haah!」

Cut in two by the Death Scythe, it vanished like smoke……

【Death Scythe has acquired the skill『Flying Slash　Lv.2』】

The announcement of a skill level up rang in his mind.

「Flying Slash Lv.2 is it. It certainly is a general, in other words, it’s not strange for a general……however, it was slightly different from what I expected. The Lizardman clearly used water related skills if I recall correctly.」

Muttering, he swung the Death Scythe at the trees in the surroundings.

「Flying Slash!」

He shouted that as he swung the Death Scythe. The slash that came out looked the same as when it was Lv.1. However, its power was different.

Previously, at Lv.1, it had enough power to leave a deep cut into a tree trunk. Now, the slash could cut through the entire tree trunk.

「I see. It seems its power has definitely gone up. But……」

「Guru~?」

What’s wrong? Set seemed to say. Rei stroked Set’s tilted head as he thought in his mind.

(Indeed its power is strong. However, there is also a concern if it is that strong. I want to be able to use a weaker Flying Slash when needed……no, the first thing is to strip off materials and remove the magic stones. Regarding its power, I will just have to train later to learn to adjust its power. This too will take practice.)

「No, nothing at all. For now, it was lucky that we were able to level up a skill with the Lizardman General’s magic stone. Well then, onto the next one.」

Muttering, he took out the next monster from the Misty Ring.

The next thing to appear was a huge spider. It was the monster that had attacked with the Lizardman General. But due to Rei’s fire magic, half its body, including its magic stone had been burned away.

「……This is regrettable. Because it was a spider, I think it would have been possible to gain some thread related skills if I had given it to Set.」

Sighing, Rei stripped the materials according to the book. However, because more than half its body had been burnt up, few materials could be stripped.

「First of all is the tips at the end of its legs. Next is the organ that spits out thread……there’s no point. There’s also no hope for its fangs. For all the internal organs to be destroyed. Well, I should consider myself luck that I can just get the tips of its legs.」

「Gururu~」

At Rei’s sigh, Set came over and rubbed his head against Rei.

「Ahh, no problem. I didn’t expect to be able to get any materials or a magic stone from the huge spider. I was lucky to get even a few claws. ……So, Set. Do you feel like you could eat this spider?」

「Guru~?」

「Ahh, me?　As expected, a spider isn’t easy. Even if its a humanoid monster, I don’t feel as much resistance towards Orcs or other monsters.」

「Guru~!」

Eat! Set seemed to say as he gave a loud cry.

「……Well, if you can eat it that’s fine. If I’m not mistaken, I feel like I’ve seen somewhere before in a survival cooking manga that it tastes like chocolate……」

As for Rei himself, his true thoughts were that he wanted to through it away into the hole he had dug for the Lizardmen’s internal organs, but if Set wanted to eat it, he would just store it into the Misty Ring.

「Well then, now to think about the next one. ……Water Monkeys? Well, this is the only one with a lot.」

Since Set had already absorbed a Water Monkey magic stone in the dungeon, he only needed to try one more with the Death Scythe, so he took out the corpse of a Water Monkey from the Misty Ring. As expected of the Misty Ring, when it was taken out of the item box, there was still water covering the fur of the corpse of the Water Monkey.

As with the Water Monkey he had dealt with in the dungeon, he cut off its right ear, which was the proof of subjugation, before skinning it with his normal knife. After that, he cut off its head and threw it into the hole with the rest of the internal organs. After taking out the magic stone from its heart, Rei played around with it in his hand.

「Well then, it’s called a Water Monkey, so if I get a skill from it, it should be a water related skill……」

Throwing it into the air, he sliced it with the Death Scythe. Just like the the magic stone of the Lizardman General, it vanished after being cut in two.

「……It’s no use it seems. Is this because I’m good at fire magic that the compatibility is bad? No, even though Set absorbed a magic stone in the dungeon, he couldn’t gain a skill, so that’s not the reason……I mean, in the first place, Set has learnt Water Ball.」

While sighing, he stored the flesh of the Water Monkey into the Misty Ring for Set to eat in future.

「Next is the rare species of Water Monkey. It’s highly likely that skills can only be learnt from rare species and higher ranking species.」

Muttering, he took the corpse of the rare species out of the Misty Ring.

It was quite large, 1m taller compared with the other Water Monkeys. That’s why Rei was able to guess that it was a rare species.

However, even though it was a rare species, it was basically the same as a Water Monkey and there was no change to the dismantling procedure. After cutting off the proof of subjugation, the right ear, Rei used his knife to skin it……following the exact same procedures for a Water Monkey. And taking out the magic stone from its heart……

「Set!」

He threw a magic stone one size larger than the Water Monkey’s towards Set.

「Gururu~!」

Catching the magic stone in his beak, Set swallowed it. And……

【Set has learnt the skill 『Water Ball　Lv.2』】

A familiar announcement rang in his mind.

「Wow, should I say as expected of a rare species. After all, it seems that rare species give a higher chance of acquiring skills. ……Set, try using Water Ball now.」

「Gururururu~!」

Nodding at Rei’s words, Set activated Water Ball. With a cry, two water balls about 30cm in diameter appeared in front of Set.

「When it was Lv.1, it was around 20cm in diameter, so it’s gotten slightly bigger. The number has also increased to two. ……Set, shoot it at the tree over there.」

「Gururu~!」

At Rei’s instructions, the two water balls flew towards the trunk of a tree growing a bit further away……

Bang~!

The water balls hit the tree trunk while making a loud noise. It was powerful enough to destroy the outer bark of the tree trunk, slightly more powerful than when it was at Lv.1. The number of water balls had increased to two and its range had also been increased.

「Aside from power, did its range increase? Alright, you did well Set.」

「Gururu~」

Rei stroked Set’s head with praise. Set gave a comfortable cry.

************************************************

【Set】

『Water Ball　Lv.2』 new 『Fire Breath　Lv.2』 『Wind Arrow Lv.1』 『King’s Awe　Lv.1』 『Poison Claw　Lv.1』

【Death Scythe】

『Corrosion　Lv.1』 『Flying Slash　Lv.2』 new 『Magic Shield　Lv.1』

Flying Slash Lv.2: Increase in power compared to Lv.1.

Water Ball Lv.2: Slight increase in power compared to Lv.1. Number of Water Balls that can be created at once increased to two.