LEGEND

Chapter 452

The corpses of two men lay before Rei and Elena.

Another man lay dead some distance away.

Elena held a bitter expression as she looked at them.

Rei stabbed the shaft of the Death Scythe into the sand in frustration and looked up at the sun as its rays glared down.

「Damn it, I didn’t think they would kill themselves to keep their secrets.」

「Yeah. They didn’t even hesitate. I wonder if they hold a high level of loyalty to the organisation they are part of.」

Rei was puzzled at Elena’s words as he looked at the corpses.

「I was pretty sure they were related to the Levisor family, seeing as they were experimenting with creating abnormal species. ……Do you think they would be so loyal to Schaffner that they would kill themselves?」

In a sense, it was a natural question.

The Schaffner that Rei and Elena knew was arrogant to say the least and not very well liked by his subordinates and others.

If one were to ask whether they would be loyal to such a person, to the point that they would kill themselves with poisons, the answer would be no.

However, the men lying in front of them had actually killed themselves without hesitation using poison kept in their back teeth the moment they realised escape was impossible.

That contradiction was what was confusing him.

「Guru……」

Set gave a cry as he alternated rubbing his head against the two of them.

At Set’s attempt to cheer them up, Rei recollected himself and turned his gaze back to the corpses.

First, he looked at the two corpses in front of him, then the corpse further away, and finally, the corpse of the Cactus Mimic.

Looking at them, he gently reached out with a sigh.

「You want to take them back?」

「Yeah. For us, they’re just dead bodies, but for Vosk, it could be a clue to something. Especially if those three are really from the Levisor family, someone might recognise them.」

「The possibility is extremely low……but.」

「But, it’s better than doing nothing.」

All the researchers and staff who had worked at the Levisor family’s lab had been murdered. Then why were these three people safe?

(Thinking about it logically, these three could have killed all the researchers and run away……but they don’t have that level of strength. At best, they’re only D rank. Still, they managed to make it to this floor. That’s strange……well, if they came down with someone strong, that’s possible.)

Thinking that far, he decided that it would be better to just leave it to Vosk, who was more familiar with the Labyrinth City than any of them, than to think about it himself and stored the corpses into the Misty Ring.

「……Hm?」

After storing the corpses of the Cactus Mimic and the two men into the Misty Ring, he noticed that one of their dungeon cards had fallen out.

Rei picked it up, assuming that it must have fallen to the ground after they poisoned themselves, but didn’t recognise the name on the card.

(Because they’re doing something this big, it’s quite possible that they registered under a false name.)

Thinking to himself, he decided that it could still be a clue to information about the men and stored the dungeon card as well.

Storing away the corpse of the man who was some distance away, Rei finished storing away anything that could be a clue.

Finishing those tasks, Rei gave a big stretch.

Elena swung her sword whip in a smooth motion before sheathing it and calling out to Rei.

「Then, what do you want to do? If we’re in a hurry, we can go back to the small room we came from.」

「What is it like distance wise?」

「Hmm, I’m not sure. Given that the area with the Cactus Mimics wasn’t on the map, it was probably an unexplored area. That would only give me a rough idea of where we are now. No, at a quick glance, I’d say we’re halfway to the stairs to the 14th floor.」

Hearing Elena’s words, REi turned to look in the direction they cam from before collecting his thoughts.

「All right, let’s keep going then.」

「Is that okay? Isn’t the problem with the abnormal species something you want to solve as soon as possible?」

「That’s definitely important, but since we’ve come this far, I’d like to clear the 13th floor while we can. If we go back, the next time we try again, we’d have to start from the beginning and walk through the desert again. As we’ve already come this far, I would like to start on the next floor tomorrow.」

Elena had no objection to Rei’s words. She gave a small nod to show her support.

Seeing that, Rei called out to Set……

「Guru……guru……guru……」

Set didn’t seem to notice what Rei had said and was walking around the immediate vicinity of where the Cactus Mimic had died.

The sand in the area was covered by Set’s footprints, which showed how much pacing about Set had done while Rei and Elena had been talking.

「Set? What’s wrong?」

「Gurururu~, gururu~……」

Although Set responded to Rei’s call, he continued to go back and forth across the sand.

Rei looked at him quizzically before remembering that the men who had created the abnormal species had been trying to carry the dead Cactus Mimic to where Set was.

(They couldn’t leave behind the Cactus Mimic that had transformed into an abnormal species. However, they didn’t seem to have a magic pouch or item box with them. Above all, they were also carrying the Cactus Mimic. So, there must have been a reason that would cause them to do that……)

「Rei?」

Did you find the reason for Set’s strange behaviour? At Elena’s implicit question, Rei nodded and took out some firewood he had stored inside the Misty Ring for camping.

He threw a piece over to where Set was walking, but it just fell onto the sand without anything happening.

Next, Rei took out another piece of firewood before throwing it slightly further.

Again, nothing happened, but Rei continued to throw pieces of firewood further and further.

At first, Elena watched on with interest at what Rei was doing. But eventually, she realised what was going on and pulled out her sword, ready to attack at any time.

The moment Rei threw his tenth piece of wood and it fell to the sand, the sand beneath it suddenly exploded.

The sight was similar to when Sandworms appeared. However, the obvious difference was that there was no sign of any monsters after the sand fell back down, let alone any Sandworms.

At least, not above the sand.

Somewhere not above the sand……that is to say, under the sand, there were four sharp horn like protrusions surrounding a mortar like depression in the sand.

The protrusions moved around several times as if searching around before diving back under the desert sand after judging that there wasn’t any prey.

「I see. Did they intend to use this to dispose of the Cactus Mimic?」

Elena muttered with some admiration beside Rei, who was holding another piece of firewood in his hands.

「No doubt.」

While muttering, Rei’s mind was filled with images of a monster known as an Antlion.

Their act of drawing in their prey and feeding on them was very similar to the figure of the monster that had just appeared.

It was likely that it fed on monsters and adventurers who passed by, dragging them into their nest.

「In a way, we were saved thanks to those guys.」

「Indeed. In fact, it is quite possible we might have been dragged in as well, had we not known there was a monster there. Perhaps it was because it was under the sand that Set was unable to pinpoint its exact location.」

「Guru~……」

I’m sorry, Set seemed to say apologetically.

However, his eyes never left the four horned monster protruding from the depression in the sand.

Rei held the Death Scythe in his right hand as he petted Set with his left hand to encourage him.

「It can’t be helped. If the other side is under the sand, you can’t detect them by smell or sight. And, if they sit there waiting to ambush their prey, you can’t sense them by touch or hearing either. That only leaves taste and your sixth sense……」

Muttering, Rei thought to himself in puzzlement while looking at the four horns.

(But……then, why did it suddenly appear? If it had remained hidden, it could have ambushed us. Was it because Set’s pacing about made it sensitive? Or did the impact of the firewood trigger it? ……Wait, it still came up, so that means!?)

「Back off!」

The moment he came to a conclusion, Rei shouted out on reflex as he jumped backwards.

Elena and Set probably understood the danger lurking from Rei’s shout and didn’t hesitate to leap back as well.

At the same, a high pitched sound echoed out……the next moment, something shot out and flew past the space Set had been a moment ago.

An explosion of sand followed.

Tracing a path from the centre of the four horns, something hit the ground and caused sand to fly up into the air, forming a curtain between the monster and Rei’s group.

「Damn, another nasty attack……Flying Slash!」

「GURURURURURU~!」

『Wind Arrow!』

Rei’s Death Scythe shot out a flying slash while Set shot out two water balls. Elena fired out a barely visible wind arrow, penetrating the sand curtain.

However, as if to intercept them all, something was shot out again, cancelling out the two water balls.

The flying slash and wind arrow flew through that gap and struck the Antlion’s nest. Just as Rei saw that, he noticed a presence in the sky above and turned to look up.

There was a monster that looked like a giant stag beetle. Looking at the four horns that protruded from it, it was clear what the monster was.

It had a brown shell, perhaps a protective colour against the sand. From its back, there were two pairs of near transparent dragonfly like wings, which flapped furiously.

(What’s going on with an Antlion looking more like a stag beetle than an antlion insect? The wings do make it look similar but……I guess it is a monster.)

As the monster that looked like a combination of a stag beetle and a mayfly flew above them, Rei was dismayed at the craziness of monsters.

(However, I don’t remember hearing about the existence of such a monster from Pleiades. So, is it genuinely a new species or something? ……Anyhow……)

What needed to be done didn’t change, but his sight was now directed toward the monster flying in the sky as he swung his Death Scythe.

「Flying Slash-!」

With that shout, a flying slash flew straight toward the monster. However, the monster tilted its body to avoid the flying slash while vibrating its wings sharply at the same time.

「KIKIKIKIKIKI!」

It was the sound they had heard previously.

What did a sound produced by a monster vibrate its wings at high speed mean? It became clear the next moment.

「Rei, dodge it!」

Hearing Elena’s shout, Rei leapt back.

At the same time, something slammed into the place Rei had been a moment ago.

An invisible attack. Rei, who half realised it was an attack created from the vibration of its wings, clicked his tongue and swung the Death Scythe again as he watched the monster start to vibrate its wings again.

「Flying Slash-!」

A slash flew out. It collided with the blow of the vibration shock wave fired out from the monster and cancelled each other out.

At that result, Rei felt like the monster was smiling at him.

As if saying that Rei would never be able to kill it.

However, it wasn’t the intelligent smile of a high ranking monster like Set. It was a kind of smile governed by instinct, the kind of smile one would have after finding one’s prey.

「Don’t……joke around with me! Flying Slash!」

He threw out a flying slash again, but after that point, he changed what he did. Jumping up from the sand, he frowned at the softness for a moment. Although the sand absorbed half the force of his jump, it didn’t matter to Rei, who only needed to push himself up into the air for a moment.

Activating the Shoes of Sleipnir, he leapt in the air.

Although it was only for a few steps, the Shoes of Sleipnir gave him the ability to walk on air. Jumping through the air, Rei climbed above the monster in an instant as he held the magic empowered Death Scythe over the monster, which had lost sight of Rei. Activating the Shoes of Sleipnir one more time, Rei pushed himself downwards, increasing his speed as he fell like a meteor towards the monster. By the time the monster realised where Rei was……the Death Scythe was already swinging down.