LEGEND

Chapter 198

The main gate of the city of Baar. At present, various people had gathered there. They included Seis, who had been unconscious in bed due to the side effects of the Necklaces of Resonance until a few days ago, and Diarog, the representative lord of Baar. Others included Southernus, captain of the guards, and Ara, carrying her Power Axe.

All those people were there to send of Rei, dressed in his Dragon Robe, and Set, the Griffon, who had both spent the past week leisurely.

「You’ve been a great help this time. I will contact Marina in Gilm later, but please take this.」

After saying that, Seis handed over some documents that proved the request had been completed.

「If you hadn’t come, we might have had ten to hundred times more deaths. I thank you as the guild master of Baar.」

「No. I wanted to help everyone if it were possible.」

Although he had traveled from Gilm to Baar in two days, it was natural that he wasn’t able to save all patients from Magic Fever. Those who had low magic power and couldn’t resist the effects of Magic Fever before the medicine could be made numbered in the tens.

Diarog, who was next to Seis when Rei gave a sigh, shook his head.

「It certainly feels bad that you couldn’t help everyone, but it isn’t your fault. It is arrogant to believe that you could save everyone. You did the best you could. As the representative lord, I am also grateful.」

「No, the reconstruction will be hard so please do your best.」

「Yes, of course. The residents of the city are resilient. We’re rebuilding the eastern storage facility now. ……When the reconstruction is over, do come visit here again. At that time, we’ll treat you to plenty of liquor, this city’s specialty.」

「……Don’t be too hard on me.」

Rei, who wasn’t particularly good with alcohol, could only answer as such.

The next person to step forward was the captain of the guards, Southernus. In his hand, he held a small barrel, about 30cm in size.

「Here, a souvenir. After what Diarog-san said, I was a bit hesitant, but this is one of our finest liquors.」

「……Oi, Southernus.」

Since he said that, he hadn’t pilfered it from a storage facility had he? Rei looked at him suspiciously, but Southernus shook his head with a wry smile.

「Don’t worry. This is from all the guards. They all chipped in a bit of money.」

「I see. In that case, thank you. I’m not that good of a drinker, but I know someone in Gilm who really loves to drink.」

In Rei’s mind, he thought of the liquor loving Dwarf that had been involved in that disturbance a while back.

That Dwarf, who asserted that he had alcohol flowing through his veins and not blood, would probably drink this with pleasure.

While thinking about that, Rei stored it into the Misty Ring.

「Rei-dono.」

The last person to come forward was Ara, with her battle axe on her back.

During the past week, she had sparred with Rei while she wasn’t taking care of Soleil and she had several cuts and bruises. Nevertheless, she still had a bright smile on her face.

Actually, the stress from having to watch over Soleil had been mitigated by her sparring with Rei, so it was natural in a sense.

「Please say hello to Elena for me.」

「Yes. Um, if you can, please write a letter to Elena-sama ocassionally. I think she would be happy if you did that.」

「A letter, a letter is it……」

In Elgin, there were no post offices like in Rei’s original world. Because of that, if you wanted to send a letter, you could have to ask an adventurer or merchant to deliver it. In other words, depending on the distance and luck of the delivery man, it could take up to several months for a letter to arrive. Depending on the distance, it might even take years.

While thinking of that difficulty, he still nodded at Ara’s words that he should send a letter occasionally.

「That’s right, I probably won’t be doing much in winter, it might be good to write a letter. ……However, it will take longer for letters to be delivered in winter.」

「Hm-, that is true. ……Ah, I forgot. If that’s the case, I could have had you write a letter in Baar for me to bring back……」

Ara was distraught that she hadn’t been able to think of such a simple method.

However, Ara had spent the past week being run around by Soleil. It couldn’t be helped that she had no time to worry about other things.

Moreover, there was no way that Rei would have known about writing a letter either before she mentioned it.

Rei patted Ara’s shoulder to encourage her, as she was still in a bit of shock.

「Well then, it can’t be helped, I can’t talk here forever. Set!」

「Gururu~」

Set, who had eaten all the dried meat that Diarog had handed him with gratitude, came over at Rei’s call.

「So, here we are. I’ll stop by here again if I ever have the chance.」

「Mm. I’ve said this many times already, but you really saved us. I must really thank Marina for sending you here.」

「Ah. As I said earlier, next time you come, I’ll let you drink some of my treasured liquor, so do stop by again.」

While listening to Seis and Diarog, Rei got onto Set’s back.

「Set!」

「Gurururururu~!」

Giving a cry at Rei’s voice, Set ran a few steps before flapping his wings.

Like that, the two of them ascended into the sky as if running on air. The people below watched on until they could no longer see them.

Set flew from Baar towards Gilm. As Rei was riding on Set’s back, he felt that something cold had fallen onto his hood and looked to see what it was.

「……Snow, is it.」

「Guru~」

It was faint, but he could still he white snow drifting down.

Looking up into the sky, the weather looked to be cloudy and the sun, blocked by the clouds, felt dim.

Even though it still hadn’t reached noon, the ambient temperature had hardly risen. The good news was that the wind wasn’t too strong. As for the cold, Rei and Set weren’t too bothered by it, but as they were flying, the effect of winds could be quite strong.

「But, snow. ……Looks like winter is really here.」

「Guru~」

They had no problems financially. But considering Set’s diet, they may need to go out several times in winter in order to secure some monster meat. He remembered something as he thought about that.

「Ahh, speaking of that, the magic stones and meat of from the Gamelions are still in the Misty Ring.」

After all, he had been considering what to do with the Gamelion magic stones when he had been requested to deliver relief supplies to Baar. After that, it had sunk to the bottom of his mind. He also briefly thought of the magic stones he had gotten from the Sword Bees and made up his mind immediately.

「That’s right. I would like to try using the terrain manipulation skill I got by absorbing the dungeon core. As for tonight, we’re not stopping at a city, so I guess we’ll be camping. Would you like to eat some of the Gamelion meat Set?」

「Gurururururu~!」

Hearing that there would be Gamelion meat, Set gave a joyful cry. It could be said that this decision was only possible because Rei and Set weren’t bothered by the cold. If they were regular adventurers, they would have avoided camping for the night in this season as much as possible. Considering it was snowing, if things went bad, they could even end up dying after going to sleep.

Flying through the sky, they passed by the nearest village from Baar,the fork in the road they had camped at previously and the city of Sabrusta. They continued flying without rest before the mental fatigue started to get to Rei rather that the physical fatigue. There was no snow, as had fallen in the morning, and there was a clean winter air as Rei enjoyed the sunset before his eyes.

「Set, we’ll have to set up camp before it gets dark. Since we just ate a few things for lunch while flying, dinner can be a bit more luxurious.」

「Gurururu~」

They had eaten breakfast in Baar, but the city was still sealed since it had barely been a week since the last person sick with Magic Fever had recovered. Although the blockade was likely to be lifted within the next few days, food was still being rationed. As a result, there wasn’t quite enough to satisfy Rei and Set. As for the taste though, the original owner of the inn had finally recovered from Magic Fever, so they had been able to eat some delicious food.

Thinking about that, Rei saw some trees growing on the ground. They weren’t large enough to be called a forest, but there were enough trees to provide cover if it rained or snowed.

「Set, do you want to stay there overnight?」

「Guru~」

Set gave a cry at Rei’s proposal and descend from the air to the ground. Fortunately there were no monsters around the tree they were heading for and they could start setting up camp for the night under the tree without any problems.

「Even though I said that, it’s still a bit early for dinner. I guess I’ll start checking my skills first.」

「Gurururu~」

I started to get hungry when you said that Rei! Set seemed to say as he rubbed his face against Rei.

In response, thinking about how things had gone in Baar, he took a chunk of Orc meat out of the Misty Ring.

Although it was just a chunk of meat, it still weighed about 2kg. As usual, he cut the meat up for skewers or to use as an ingredient.……

「Gururururururu~」

Set, who had been enduring his hunger, didn’t care that the meat was raw and bit directly into the chunk of Orc meat.

Giving a small sigh as he saw that, Rei first took out the Death Scythe and stabbed the handle into the ground to test.

「Terrain Manipulation.」

He activated the skill as he visualised the ground around him sinking 1m……

「……No, I guess that’s too hard for level 1.」

Looking at his surroundings, he could confirm visually that the ground around him had sunk 10cm compared to a few seconds ago.

The ground around Rei had sunk down in a perfect circle.

「Guru~?」

While eating the Orc meat, Set tilted his head to one side as he looked around. Even though he was absorbed in eating the Orc meat, he had still noticed the ground sink.

「It’s effect has a radius of about 10m?」

Rei turned to look at the tree that they were using as a substitute for a roof. The tree had also sunk down by about 10cm.

「Then, how about this?」

The next thing he visualised in his mind was raising the ground. The next moment, the ground which had sunken down swelled back up as his line of sight rose slightly.

When he 10m from the place he had been standing, he confirmed that the ground had risen 20cm. considering that the original piece of ground had sunk down 10cm, he had raised it 10cm above its original level.

「I see. Whether I sink or raise the ground, the limit is 10cm. If it were at least 1m or so, there would be many ways to use it in combat……no, if I consider that this is the result of absorbing a dungeon core and not a magic stone, I should consider it lucky that I learnt a skill at all.」

Rei headed back towards Set while muttering.

Originally, the Magic Beast Art was a magic that absorbed magic stones to grow. He was a bit puzzled as he didn’t expect that it could also absorb dungeon cores but still understood that he was lucky to have gained a skill.

「Well then, next. First, it’s the Sword Bee magic stones.」

Rei looked towards Set again, but it seemed that he was completely focused on eating his chunk of Orc meat and hadn’t heard his words. Considering their food situation for the past week, Rei gave a sigh and threw the Sword Bee’s magic stone into the air.

「Ha-!」

He swept the Death Scythe across horizontally. The next moment, the magic stone split in two and disappeared……

「No skills, it seems.」

However, the familiar message in his mind did not appear. Rei gave a sigh.

Like that, seeing that the chunk of Orc meat had been significantly reduced, he finally turned to look at Set.

「Set, dessert.」

With those words, Rei tossed a magic stone at Set……

「Guru~」

However, like the time with the Death Scythe, no announcements sounded.

「So even Set can’t learn any skills. Well, there’s no helping if I think about it. Sword Bees are low ranking monsters. Hey, don’t worry about it.」

Set seemed to be disappointed, so Rei stroked his head before taking out two Gamelion magic stones from the Misty Ring with his other hand.

One was from an ordinary Gamelion while the other was from a rare species, which was one size larger than an ordinary Gamelion.

「Now then, how to distribute the magic stones.」

Like when he was in his inn back in Gilm, Rei started feeling troubled again.