LEGEND

Chapter 6

The monster that boasted a huge size of 2m crumpled to the ground with a dull thud that echoed into the surroundings. The the water that originally covered the fur had been completely evaporated by the heat of the flame snake and the fur could no longer be distinguished from the fur of a normal bear.

「Somehow, it worked out……okay.」

「Guru~」

Rei muttered involuntarily as he sat on the ground. Set, who heard it, pressed his face against Rei as usual. The body of the Water Bear lying on the ground had lost all signs of life.

「You did well too Set. If you weren’t there, I may not have been able to easily beat that guy. If I did a bad job, the entire forest may have burned down……it seemed like that would have happened.」

「Gurururu.」

He scratched Set’s head as he praised him. Set was in good spirits as his head was scratched and let out a cat like sound from his throat.

This continued for a few minutes. Rei, who then recovered his breath, stood up.

「Even if I can do something with the corpse of this monster somehow, let’s first move away from here. No doubt another monster will come soon.」

In the surroundings, trees had been broken and the ground dug up due to the impact of the fight between Set and the Water Bear. In addition, the smell of burnt meat and blood from the Water Bear was drifting around.

「So, the problem is how do we move this Water Bear……do we put it on Set’s back?　No, that would be placing hundreds of kilos on Set……no, wait?　Maybe……」

Rei’s troubled eye caught the Misty Ring that was on his right arm. According to Zepairu’s knowledge, living creatures couldn’t be put inside, however it seems that there was no problem with the Water Bear because it was already dead.

「Store.」

He said that as he touched the corpse of the Water Bear. The next moment, the corpse of the Water Bear disappeared without a trace. The storage had succeeded as he could find the corpse of the Water Bear on the list in his mind.

「I see, while it can’t store living creatures, it can store corpses……then, this?」

The tree that Set broke when he did the triangle jump, was reflected in Rei’s eyes. It was quite a large tree with a 1m diameter trunk……even with that said, it was still the size of most trees in the forest.

「Store.」

He said while touching the broken tree. Same as before, in a moment, it disappeared without a trace.

「Guru~」

Let’s go quickly, Set’s face seemed to say as Rei stroked his back, the reward of the Clara Fruits were stored in the Misty Ring.

「Right, it should be okay if we came here.」

They finally stopped after they walked 20 minutes away from the place where they fought the Water Bear. Normally they wouldn’t be able to go that far in 20 minutes, but given the performance of the Shoes of Sleipnir that Rei wore, they moved several times faster than when they normally walked.

The sun had already risen high and bit by bit, the heat had started to spread around.

However, Rei was wearing the Dragon Robe which had a function that automatically maintained the temperature, and the current heat wasn’t something that Set minded much. They sat down on the ground to rest, they hadn’t stopped moving since the battle with the Water Bear.

「Guru~」

Set gave a cry as his head was petted. In that state, four Clara Fruits that were stored earlier were taken out from the Misty Ring.

「Set.」

「Gururu~」

Set let out a happy sound as Rei stopped petting and held out a Clara Fruit in his hand. Set picked up the Clara Fruit in his beak and ate the whole thing at once.

While watching the situation, Rei also bit into the skin of a Clara Fruit.

A sweet and sour taste spread through his mouth the moment he bit in. When the flesh of the fruit was savored, fresh juice filled his mouth.

It was the first time Rei tasted something like this. ……Well, because he lived in a country town in Tohoku, he never ate any rare fruits.

At any rate, they ate two of the unexpectedly delicious Clara Fruits each. Next was the dismantling of the Water Bear.

「Set, keep watch for other monsters that may come because of the smell of blood when the Water Bear is dismantled.」

「Guru~」

Giving a small nod at Rei’s words, Set moved a bit further away to keep watch of the surroundings.

While looking at Set’s reliable appearance, the body of the Water Bear was taken out of the Misty Ring.

「Now then……even if I said that, what to do. I haven’t dismantled a bear before.」

The most that Rei had done was the dismantling of chickens. His father did cockfights as a hobby and he was made to help strangle the ones that lost.

「Even if you say its just like a chicken, there’s no hot water.」

When you strangle a chicken, the neck and ankles are cut and it is hung on string to drain the blood, after that, hot water is sprayed over it and the feathers plucked. At that time, it becomes easier to pull the feathers off the chicken, and because the feathers are wet, they don’t fly around.

He shook his neck while thinking about it.

「In the first place, a chicken can’t be used as reference to dismantle a bear because it has no wings or feathers. There’s nothing in Zepairu’s knowledge about dismantling either. ……There’s no other way, I guess I’ll have to learn myself. At a minimum I must not damage the magic stone so that Set can eat it afterwards. The fur……well, it will be good if I can skin it neatly.」

With a goal tentatively decided, the dismantlement began!　The moment he thought that, he noticed that he only had the Death Scythe. Of course, dismantling with a scythe would have a very high degree of difficulty. Rei let out a sigh once more, because there was no helping it, he looked for a knife inside the Misty Ring.

『Mithril Knife』

Mithril Ore has a high magic affinity. This knife was made from the highest quality ore. The sharpness changes depending on the amount of magic power supplied.

(No way, dismantling with a mithril knife……I wonder what other adventurers would think about that.)

For sure, he would definitely be yelled at. There may also be some people who would burst into tears.

As he was about to insert the knife into the Water Bear, he suddenly withdrew the knife. He recalled that he had not looked up information about the Water Bear from Zepairu’s knowledge. Notes about dismantling it and which parts sell at a higher price, the result would come out differently if he knew. But……

「There’s nothing in Zepairu’s knowledge?」

Rei muttered quizzically. Although he tried to do something he was familiar with and pull out knowledge of the Water Bear from Zepairu’s knowledge, there was no information about the Water Bear at all.

(Then, could this be a new monster that appeared in the few hundred years since Zepairu used magic to send himself to the spirit world?)

Though he wondered in his mind, he had no choice but to judge for himself as there was no knowledge.

Making up his mind, he poured magic power into the mithril knife and inserted it into the side of the Water Bear. Then, as expected of the mithril blade, or maybe because of Rei’s surprising magic power, it went through the fur like a blade through water.

「Somehow I’m managing.」

Rei skinned the fur off along the muscle. Of course, as this was his fist experience, he made some mistakes such as cutting the fur. However, he succeeded in stripping the fur in a relatively clean state due to the sharpness of the knife.

For the time being, he stored the removed fur into the Misty Ring, then he stabbed the heart of the Water Bear with the knife. As he cut the meat, the blade of the knife bumped into into something and he carefully gouged it out.

What came out was a blue crystal the size of Rei’s fist. At first glance, it looked like a jewel.

「This is a magic stone. It’s blue, the attribute should be water……well, that’s natural.」

Magic stones had different colours based on the attribute of the monster it belonged to. However, there were differences between individuals, it was possible to for the same kind of monster to have both wind magic stones or fire magic stones. With that said, the Water Bear is a simple example.

「It’s not necessary to take too much care after removing the magic stone. Let’s just cut it into pieces for Set and I to eat……」

By pouring magic power into the mithril knife, it can easily cut through bone.

The dismantlement of the bear was completed in a few minutes. Now, before Rei’s eyes, there were 6 parts, the right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, body and head.

「Guru~」

Set, smelling the scent of blood, came closer while making noises from his throat. His gaze was directed at the offal that had been removed from the body of the Water Bear.

「……Are you hungry?」

「Guru~」

Seeing the situation, he started to scratch Set’s head out of habit.

(Well then, what to do now. Because there’s no information about the Water Bear from Zepairu’s knowledge, I don’t know if the offal is safe to eat.……Well, at worst there’s probably an antidote in the Misty Ring, there shouldn’t be any problems……probably?）

Glancing at the offal of the Water Bear, which was located in a large leaf, he came to that conclusion after thinking for a few seconds.

「Set, you can eat. However, don’t eat the stomach, intestines, liver and testicles.」

「Guru~!」

Set let out a joyful sound and immediately thrust his beak into the offal in front of his eyes.

Rei told him not to eat the testicles and liver because he faintly recalled seeing something on TV that said they contained a poison similar to blowfish. The stomach and intestines were a matter of course.

Though Set had eaten most of the food for breakfast, it was still hungry to the extent that when Rei told him he could eat the offal, he started right away.

「Gururu~」

When he finally finished, Set gave a cry. By the looks of it, he was very satisfied,

「You seemed to have settled down, hey, come here for a moment.」

「Guru~」

Using a leaf from a nearby tree, Rei wiped the offal that was stuck to Set’s beak.

「Guru~」

It was comfortable, Set seemed to be in a good mood as he gave a cry and closed his eyes.

After cleaning Set’s beak, Rei finished by taking out the blue magic stone that was removed from the Water Bear.

「Guru~?」

「Now then, can you……eat the magic stone?」

「Guru~」

Of course, Set nodded. In a sense, it might be a desert for Set, Rei thought as he presented the fist sized, blue magic stone.

「Guru~」

Set held the magic stone in his beak……and swallowed it in one gulp.

「……How is it?」

Rei asked set somewhat cautiously. Abruptly a voice echoed in his heaed.

【Set has acquired 『Water Ball Lv.1』】

It was like the announcement message when a new skill was acquired in an RPG, Rei had an idea to who would devote their time to making something with such a game specific taste.

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【Set】

『Water Ball　Lv.1』

【Death Scythe】