LEGEND

Chapter 55

The hall of the cave. The corpses of the bandits were stack in a pile there.

Arogan, Supervia, Firuma and Rei had collected them together with a bit of difficulty.

Frowning subtly at the pile of corpses, Rei gave instructions to the other 3.

「Scola and Culotte should have headed towards the warehouse. We’ll join them there.」

At Rei’s words, Firuma asked curiously.

「That’s fine but what about the corpses?　Didn’t you say we had to burn them?」

「That’s true but we’ll do that before we leave the cave. If I burnt them now, it would fill the cave with smoke and that would be bad.」

「Ahh, I see. That would be inconvenient for humans.」

Understanding, Firuma nodded as Supervia spoke up.

「Is it different for elves?」

「Mm, that’s right. We would still collapse though if we stayed in an area filled with smoke for too long though. However, it won’t happen too fast.」

「Hou~, that’s convenient for elves.」

「On the other hand, we’re weaker than humans in physical strength. In comparison, aren’t the number of elven warriors fewer than rangers and mages like me? 」

「No, in the first place, Firuma is the first elf I’ve ever seen.……」

「Ah, I understand. To begin with, only a small number of elves actually come out of the forests.」

Seeing the two people talking like that, Arogan became annoyed and called out.

「Hey, we can talk about the story later. We have to go to the storage area first. It’s too unpleasant to stay here. Damn, my nose has become clogged with the smell of blood.」

「……Well, what Arogan said is reasonable. It would also be bad if we left Culotte, Scola and the captives for too long. Let go quickly……」

Speaking up to there, Rei’s movements stopped.

Though the three others turned around, puzzled at why Rei had stopped, Rei only had a faint smile on his face.

The reason was because a voice had abruptly resounded in his head. Moreover, it was a familiar voice.

In other words.

【Set has acquired the skill『Poison Claw Lv.1』】

It was an announcement message.

(I see, even if Set and I are separated……if Set eats a magic stone, it’s still possible to acquire a skill. Just finding this out is worth separating from Set for a while.)

「Rei?」

To Supervia’s question, Rei shook his head while hiding his thoughts.

「No, it’s nothing. Although I felt that there were some bandits remaining, it was probably my imagination. Let’s go to the storage area.」

Saying so, they advanced back down the path to the fork in the passage before taking the left path.

「Ah, Firuma. Rei as well.」

Culotte and Scola greeted Rei in front of the storage area. There were also two unfamiliar people.

While expecting that they were probably the captured merchants, Rei asked Culotte.

「So, what’s in there?」

「Mm, well. Well, I wonder. Firstly, there are are a moderate amount of gold, silver and copper coins, there are some jewels as well. In addition, there are also some cheap magic items. However, strangely, there’s a large amount of weapons.」

Look here. They looked inside the storage area at Culotte’s prompt. Inside, a large quantity of things such as swords, spears, axes, bows and arrows were stored.

「……What could this mean?　All the bandits we defeated were holding weapons. Yet why is there still a room filled with weapons?」

Rei looked puzzled, similarly, Supervia had a puzzled look after looking inside and made a guess.

「Maybe, they were taken from the merchants they had attacked up until now?　Because they would be able to use those as spare weapons and sell them off when they no longer needed them.」

「Well, that may be true normally.……」

While Rei felt that there was something suspicious, Culotte called out to him.

「Hey, I’ve returned the belongings that were taken from the two people, that’s fine right?」

Saying that and looking at the two merchants, they certainly were carrying something like a huge bag on their backs.

Normally, items that were stolen from bandits would have to be bought back at a suitable price, however……

「That’s fine isn’t it?」

Rei had no attachment to money than what was necessary and easily nodded.

However, naturally, there was someone who couldn’t let this pass quietly.

「Hey, normally, wouldn’t they have to pay use to return their belongings?　Yet, letting it go so ea……si……ly……」

In the middle of Arogan’s words, he probably noticed that Rei had turned to look at him. He gradually lost the will to continue speaking.

Still, being unable to accept their reward being reduced, Arogan turned to Supervia and Firuma.

But it was no use. The reward of the bandit subjugation and rank up test was previously declared as one silver coin. In other words, if you wanted any more rewards, it would have to be from the bandits treasure. But.

「It’s not really a problem is it?　It was originally their belongings.」

「I have no objections in particular either.」

As both Supervia and Firuma didn’t have any particular objections to Rei’s opinion, Arogan was left by himself.

However, if you were to say which adventurer was actually right, Arogan was more correct. Because adventurers did a lot of dangerous work, they may cause trouble to other adventurers if they made promises to rashly.

Fortunately, the two merchants who had been captured were able to properly understand the situation.

「Well now, about that. As you saved our lives, as expected, we would feel guilty if we didn’t compensate you. So, how about passing you a reward in commodities once we return to the city of Gilm?　Because we even deal with magic items, I think there will be some goods that you will surely like……」

When the younger merchant had heard everything, he proposed this to Rei. Hearing magic item, Arogan’s face changed to a joyful look.

It was no wonder as magic items were usually very expensive.

After talking about it, it was decided that when they returned to Gilm, the two merchants would give goods from their store as a reward for saving their lives.

「So, though I heard what you were talking about……what will we do?」

「What will we do?　You mean what will we do with the goods?」

「No, though that’s true……will we take all this back with us?　It will be troublesome to take all this to the carriage, it might even be impossible to load everything into the carriage.」

「Ah, I see.」

To Supervia’s words, Scola nodded.

Even Culotte, Firuma and Arogan knew that it would be dangerous just to leave the weapons here. A new group of bandits might take up residence here and use those weapons, or maybe Goblins in the forest might arm themselves with them.

Meanwhile, Rei spoke up while spitting out a sigh.

「It can’t be helped. I’ll store everything into my item box and take it back to the city. Is everyone okay if we distribute everything after we get back to the city?」

At those words, Arogan nodded with a complex expression while all the others had joyful looks.

Particularly for Supervia, he was looking to replace his long sword with one of the good swords in the storage area as his previous one had been chipped in the fight against the bandits.

After that, Rei walked around the storage area, continuously storing things into his item box.

It should be noted that the two merchants, who didn’t know Rei had an item box, were looking him with stunned faces.

Going back to when Rei started moving into the bandit cave.

Scorching Wind and Set, who they were entrusted with, were spending the night in the forest.

Though the request Scorching Wind had received was to subjugate 5 Treants, Treants weren’t easily found.

Treants themselves were D rank monsters, they weren’t a match for the C rank party, Scorching Wind. Besides, as they had Set, an A rank monster, there were no issues with their combat power.

However, that was in a frontal confrontation. To put it simply, Treants were trees with a face on the trunk. Though they could walk around using their roots, they would be found at once if they did so. However, if they kept quiet without moving, it was very difficult to find them among the ordinary trees growing in the forest. In fact, even Set, who had much sharper senses than humans, was unable to find where the Treants were hiding.

「Ahhhh. I didn’t think we wouldn’t even find a single Treant in 3 days.」

Milein muttered as she picked up some dead wood and threw it into the fire.

「It can’t be helped. In the first place, we knew that Treants would be hard to find.」

Sulunin said that to pacify Milein and held out a cup of tea, that had been made from the boiling water over the fire, to her.

「Thanks. But I didn’t think we wouldn’t find any up to now. Hey, we found them quite easily when we took a similar request previously.」

「Ah……that. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought that we were going to die that time.」

At Milein’s words, the third member of the party, Ecryll, had a bitter smile as she recalled the event.

It was from when Scorching Wind was still a D rank party. At that time, they had taken a similar Treant subjugation quest, entered the forest, and subjugated them……after defeating them, they had gone to a nearby lake to take a rest. However, a horse made of water had appeared from the lake. They had encountered a C rank monster, Kelpie.

A Kelpie was a rank C monster. If all three members of Scorching Wind had exerted all their strength, they might have been able to defeat the single Kelpie. However, not much time had passed since they defeated the Treants, therefore, they judged that they couldn’t win and ran away.

「Though we managed to escaped from that horse monster, the Kelpie, I can’t even remember how we got away.」

「Hahaha. I truly thought we were going to die then.」

「Guru~?」

At Milein and Ecryll’s dry laughter, Set, who had been lying down by the campfire, looked up with a puzzled face.

Milein’s previous countenance, disappeared as she lovingly stroked Set’s back.

「Ah, again. Set-chan is so cute!」

「Gururu~」

Happy to have his back stroked, Set gave a joyful cry.

However, he still felt lonely that Rei wasn’t around. Milein felt that his cry was in lower spirits than usual.

「Seriously, why is Milein so crazy about Set.」

Sulunin smiled wryly as he looked at Milein playing with Set.

To Sulunin’s words, Milein’s eyes protested……

「Gurururururururu~!」

Abruptly, Set gave a vigilant growl.

Though Milein didn’t understand why he had made that sound for a moment, the next second, she quickly raised up her long sword.

「Both of you, get ready for combat. Apparently we have a welcoming party.」

「Well, well. If possible, I wished the welcoming party would have come during the day.」

「This one is a surprise party, I’m sure.」

While saying so with a light tone, Suluning and Ecryll directed their eyes towards the dark forest, cane and bow ready.

And……

「Gururu~!」

Set, who felt something come flying out of the darkness, gave a short cry as he spat out his fire breath from his mouth.

The moment the fire breath came from Set’s mouth, the object that had been cutting through the darkness was turned to charcoal.

「……What, is it just me or has the power of the Fire Breath gone up since I last saw it at the Orc settlement?」

He had used Fire Breath against the Orc Archer in the battle against the Orcs led by the Orc King. However, Set’s Fire Breath now was clearly more powerful and had a longer range than what Sulunin had seen at that time.

「Suluin, now’s not the time to be fascinated by Set. ……Here they come!」

Instead of a nice smile, Set directed a ferocious smile at the enemy, like a carnivore before it’s prey. Milein directed her gaze to the monsters coming out from the darkness as she smiled.

What came out were Treants, which were the target of Scorching Wind’s subjugation request. ……However.

「There are 6 Treants!　However, one of the Treants I’ve never seen before. It’s probably a rare species!」

5 ordinary Treants could be seen. That was fine, but at the back, there was a Treant with strange appearance that seemed to be directing the other Treants. The surface of that Treant was a dark colour, unlike ordinary Treants. Not only Milein, but the other 2 people in Scorching Wind as well, intuitively understood that it possessed poison.

「Seriously, I didn’t think it was possible for a rare species to appear.」

「You’re right. These days, there have been rumors of an increasing number of rare species……apparently it seems to be true.」

「But poison, give me a break……」

A rare species would normally be a tricky existence of a C rank party to deal with. ……Yes. Normally that is.

「Gurururururururu~!」

Set stood at the front of Scorching Wind, at the same time, he raised a cry that resounded through the forest, he used King’s Awe.

At this point, the Treants’ movements visibly dulled. With the Treants’ dulled movements, they weren’t able to hit Scorching Wind or to evade their attacks.

And……

「Gururururu~!」

With a sharp cry, Set restrained several Treants with Wind Arrow. The Treants who had their movements dulled by King’s Awe were unable to evade the attack and had their surfaces cut by the wind arrows.

「Gururururu~!」

Next, Set swiped with his eagle like forefoot. With that alone, a Treant was broken and blown away.

Though a Treant shot a vine out, like it did in from the darkness before, it was instantly turned to charcoal as Set used Fire Breath again.

His way of fighting the Treants, rather than protecting Scorching Wind, it was more to vent his anger at being separated from Rei. His cries sounded like he close to going wild from displeasure.

Finally, he broke a third Treant in half while Scorching Wind took out two Treants. As for the poison carrying Treant rare species, Set pierced the center of it’s body with his sharp beak, gouged out it’s magic stone and swallowed it, killing it at the same time.

【Set has acquired the skill『Poison Claw Lv.1』】

「Gururu~!」

The announcement message was only audible by Rei and Set. Seeing him give a happy cry, the rest of Scorching Wind could only give a wry smile.

Moreover, Milein nodded happily at Set’s brave figure.

「Ah……first of all, let’s gather the proofs of subjugation before it’s too late.」

Milein called out to Ecryll, who was looking at Set with amazed eyes.

As for Ecryll, there was no helping it. They cut off the single bud that would only appear once on each Treant as proof of subjugation.

In addition, it should be noted that aside from being the proof of subjugation, they were also an expensive material for potions and could be sold for a large amount of money, the branches of the Treant could also be used for canes and bows. For Scorching Wind, which had a tendency to run out of money, the Treants were a splendid monster.

「……If possible, I wanted the magic stone of the rare species.」

「It can’t be helped. In the first place, we weren’t the ones that defeated the rare species.」

Milein retorted back to Sulunin’s words as they collected the materials, magic stones and proofs of subjugation for the request.

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

【Set】

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

【Death Scythe】

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

Poison Claw: Claws can secrete poison. Enemies struck by the claw will be poisoned. The strength of the poison depends on the level.