LEGEND

Chapter 334

「This is……」

The group that just arrived looked at the sight spread out before them.

The first thing they saw was the incredibly huge monster, which was a matter of course.

That they understood, but the monster was already being dismantled by a group of more than 50 adventurers.

With so many people working together to dismantle it, the huge monster was gradually shrinking, as if they were ants taking apart insects larger than themselves.

「You guys, this monster……」

They had been sent by the higher ups from the guild and city administration because of the huge monster that had appeared outside Emoshion and because none of the adventurers who had gone ahead of them had come back. In the worst case scenario……they would almost certainly die. They had come with the resolution of death when they saw the scene of the huge monster being dismantled. It was only natural for the group, and for the man leading them, to be greatly confused. In order to learn about the situation, the leader of the group called out to a man, who seemed to be an adventurer, as he passed by with a chunk of meat in his arms.

「Hm? This? This monster is the Lemrace.」

「Hah-!?」

The man involuntarily paused at the unexpected reply.

Speaking of the Lemrace, it was a monster that been sitting off the coast of Emoshion for a while, sinking numerous ships. It could even be considered to be a natural disaster of sorts. Why was on the other side of the city? Why was it already dead? The man couldn’t understand it and was at a loss for words. Misunderstanding that that was all the man wanted to know, the adventurer started to leave with the meat he was holding.

「Wait, wait a moment! Give me more details!」

「Ah? I’m sorry, but as you can see, I’m working right now. If you want the details……no, that’s right. Some of you come with me, I’ll introduce you to my boss. You can here the details from him.」

As the adventurer spoke, what appeared to be another party of adventurers passed by carrying a hefty chunk of meat.

Seeing that, the adventurer spoke in a hurry.

「Anyhow, now is the time to earn money. I’m sorry, but if you want any more information, ask the boss.」

「……I understand. Thanks for leading the way. You guys, spread out and see what you can find out. Ah, ask the ones guarding the surroundings, not the ones dismantling the monster.」

『Yes!』

Nodding at the man’s words, the people following him scattered around. Nodding in satisfaction, the man followed after the adventurer, who walked alongside the body of the monster as he carried his chunk of meat.

「……I knew it was huge when I saw it from the city, but it really is massive now that I’m looking at it from up close. Was Rei the one who killed it it? He’s been attracting the Lemrace’s attention for some time to allow ships to leave the port.」

「Yes. It was amazing. We only saw it from a distance, but his coordination with his Griffon was like watching what the knights and cavalrymen call ‘man and horse as one’, or in this case, a Griffon I guess. Anyway, that was how it was. He ended up blowing apart the entire head of this huge monster. Look, there.」

As they continued walking, the head of the monster soon appeared. As the adventurer had told the man, the head was completely gone. Nearby, a pair of big and small adventurers were dismantling the monster with a weapon while another male adventurer with a timid expression conversed with several other adventurers before writing something onto a piece of paper. Beside him, a female adventurer with a whip gave orders on how to split up the chunks of meat on the grass.

Needless to say, the four of them were Rei, Egret, Hendeka and Miroir. Set and Shen, who were both monsters, were nowhere to be seen. However, if the man had looked up, he would have seen them keeping an eye on on the surroundings. In addition, they were also watching out for any adventurers who might try to pocket materials or meat when no one was looking.

「Hey, Rei! This person is looking for you.」

「Hm? Ahh, wait a moment. ……Egret, over there. Take out the magic stone embedded in its heart. Don’t damage it by mistake.」

「Hey, hey, even if you keep telling me that……」

「……Who was it that broke the Lemrace’s vocal chords……」

「Ahhh……I get it. I’ll be cautious and careful. Yes, just leave it to me. It will be all right this time.」

Rei spoke with his eyes fixed on Egret, who replied as he averted his eyes.

「I say, if you scratch this magic stone……you know what’s going to happen right?」

「L-L-L-Leave it to me!」

Muttering in a slightly higher pitched voice, Egret thrust his spear into the Lemrace’s heart and slowly removed the magic stone.

(If the heart hadn’t been so high up, I would have taken out the magic stone myself.)

Rei thought to himself as he looked at the heart that was bigger than his body, about 2m in height. For someone 165cm tall, it was a difficult task to remove a magic stone from a 2m tall heart, which was why he had asked Egret to do it.

For Rei, who had come to Emoshion almost entirely for this magic stone, he wanted to avoid dropping and damaging the magic stone at all costs.

「Alright, let’s do this. One, two, three.」

Along with those words, Egret succeeded in prying out the magic stone from the heart with the tip of his spear. Without dropping it on the ground, he passed it over to Rei.

With a diameter of about 30cm, it was the largest magic stone Rei had seen so far. Looking at the magic stone that Egret handed to him, the only larger magic stone he had seen was the one belonging to an Ancient Dragon when he had gone into the dungeon with Elena.

(It definitely doesn’t look like C rank magic stone.)

Thinking to himself, Rei wiped away the blood and pieces of flesh away from the magic stone and stored it into the Misty Ring before finally speaking to the man who had been standing behind him, who was looking at Rei in shock……or to be exact, Rei’s right hand, which had been holding the Lemrace’s magic stone a moment ago.

「I’m sorry. As you can see, I’m a bit busy. ……So, what did you want me for?」

「……Ah, yes. My name is Obrus, I work for Emoshion’s city administration. A huge monster suddenly appeared on the other side of the city, so I came to find out what had happened……though it looks like I was a bit late, or maybe just in time.」

Obrus gave a bitter smile, feeling a bit unfortunate that he hadn’t made it at the crucial moment.

Hearing that, Rei also introduced himself.

「I’m Rei. A C rank adventurer from Gilm.」

「Yes, I know. Rei-san has become a famous person in various ways. As someone from the city administration, I am very thankful for your assistance in helping so many ships leave the port.」

「I was just taking on requests. And, as for this guy……」

Rei glanced towards the body of the giant monster behind him.

「You may have heard from the others, but this is the Lemrace.」

「The Lemrace……but why would the Lemrace end on land?」

「I managed to get my hands on a small magic item. I used it to forcibly transfer the Lemrace here.」

「……Forced transition? Can you show me the magic item?」

Although Obrus asked in some disbelief, Rei simply shrugged his shoulders lightly in reply.

「Unfortunately, it was a single use item. It disintegrated after I moved the Lemrace here.」

「But, in that case……no, thank you. There isn’t anything I can complain about. But at the same time, there are a lot of problems……」

At Obrus’ words, Rei nodded in understanding.

「No one has seen the Lemrace. So this monster might not be accepted as the Lemrace. ……Is that right?」

「You are correct. But since you know that, what do you plan to do?」

「It’s not that complicated. I am best at fire magic. I can use other magic, but only to the level of just playing around compared to my fire magic. So, it was a very bad match up with this guy who just hid at the bottom of the sea.」

「……I know that much. But how does that prove this is the Lemrace?」

「Can’t Set and I just fly off the coast of Emoshion?」

Rei asked Obrus just in case, but Obrus just shook his head.

「I know that the Lemrace has always targeted you. But that has just been a general observation.」

「I guess so. In that case how about I stay in Emoshion for a while. If no ships are attacked during this time, can this monster be recognised as the Lemrace?」

「Even in that situation, there may be some people who might think it just escaped somewhere else……okay, I’ll try to persuade the others with this argument. So, this……」

Saying that, Obrus turned to look towards the body of the Lemrace.

「What do you plan to do with the Lemrace’s material? If you don’t mind, it would be a great help if bring them to Emoshion.」

「Even if you tell me that, it’s probably a rare or high ranking species of Sea Serpent that no one has ever seen one before. Right now, I’m just skinning it and keeping it’s meat for food.」

「Well, if the Lemrace is a Sea Serpent, the materials you can sell would be its fangs, bones, skin, liver, blood and even its internal organs.」

「……」

Rei followed after Obrus, who looked towards the ground.

The large grassland was completely covered in the Lemrace’s blood.

「……I think you should give up on the blood.」

「Looks like that will be the case. Aside from that, I plans to use the skin from the Lemrace, so I can’t really bring it to the city. In the first place, the Lemrace’s skin is dangerous due to the corrosive liquid on it.」

「How do you plan to use the skin if it’s that dangerous?」

「Well, I don’t know if I can tell you……I guess it’s better than to be suspected of strange things. What do you think the smoke would be like if I burned this skin with the corrosive liquid on it?」

「……Isn’t that a bit dangerous?」

「I’m not going to use it on people. Probably on something like a massive group of Goblins.」

Rei shrugged his shoulders in reply to Obrus as he walked over to Miroir.

「Rei, we’ve collected quite a lot. If this goes any further, we’ll start to run out of space. Can you start storing it away?」

「I understand. Do you have the guild cards of the people doing the dismantling and the ones guarding the surroundings?」

「No problems there. Hendeka is taking notes. Hey, Hendeka?」

「Ah, yes. Fortunately, I can read and write.」

Nodding at Hendeka, who was smiling somewhat in embarassment, Rei immediately headed over to the place where the meat and skin had been gathered.

Obrus, who was looking on from nearby, had a look of surprise as Rei stored everything away the same way as with the magic stone.

A few people came over to Obrus. They were the people he had ordered to ask around earlier to find out what had happened.

「Obrus-san, I’ve found out the major points of information……I mean, to be honest, by the time all of them got here, the monster had already been killed.」

According to the man’s report, there wasn’t much of a difference between what Obrus had learned himself. Still, he had some additional information that he had found out from Rei directly.

「In that case, sorry, but could you go back to the city and report to the higher ups? The monster that showed up near the city has already been subjugated. In addition, there’s a high chance that the monster is the Lemrace, that was forcibly transferred here using a magic item.」

「……Yes sir, I can do that, but am I going back alone? Even if monsters don’t show up on the way back, it is a bit dangerous.」

「What are you talking about? We came all the way here on horses, of course you’re going back on horse as well. If you do that, you won’t have to worrry about running into Goblins.」

「If any other monsters appear though……no, it’s nothing. I’ll head back to report right away.」

Perhaps noticing Obrus’ eyes grow colder as he kept talking, the man immediately retracted his previous words as he left.

As Obrus watched him leave, he though that even he couldn’t help but feel a bit scared after such a huge monster showed up so close to the city.

「Alright, all the meat and skin has been stored. Give me a shout If it builds up again.」

「I understand. Rei, Egret, do your best. ……Well, this might take a while.」

Miroir spoke to Rei and Egret as she looked back at the huge body of the Lemrace.

With a wry smile, Rei and Egret got back to work dismantling the Lemrace.

Still, even with more than 50 adventurers working together, it was almost evening by the Lemrace was completely dismantled.