Legend

Chapter 81

Inside the opening of the tree, wearing his robe or mantle, Rei slept with a blanket over him, which he had taken out from the Misty Ring. Although there were sleeping bags, even if you said that Set was a Griffon and was keeping watch, he never knew when there might be a fight in the dungeon. This important note was pointed out by Elena who said that in an emergency, you wouldn’t be able to immediately move if you were in a sleeping bag.

In addition, Kuust was originally against Elena sleeping with the rest of them, but was again given a speech and reluctantly agreed.

And while everyone was sleeping, Vel, who had been taking the watch, came over to Rei.

「Rei, are you awake? 」

Taking care to not disturb the others who were sleeping, Vel called out in a low voice.

「Hm?　……Ahh, is it time to change the watch?」

「That’s right. As dawn is already nearing, I don’t think there will be that many enemy attacks. On the other hand, it’s also the easiest period to become careless. I’m counting on you.」

Nodding at Vel while yawning drowsily, Rei went out to take his place.

Rei saw about 10 dead Goblins piled up like a mountain outside. Next to them were the corpses of several Water Monkeys, like the ones that had attacked them during the day.

They seemed to be the monsters that had been killed when they had attacked during the previous watches.

「Gurururu~」

Staring intently at the corpses, Set, who had been lying near the opening of the tree, got up and slowly went to Rei.

「Are you hungry?」

「Guru~」

To answer Rei’s question, Set gave a hungry cry. Although Rei gave a wry smile, he took out the Mithril Knife out from his waist and dismantled a Water Monkey that was next to the pile of dead Goblins. After cutting off the right ear, the proof of subjugation, Rei skinned the fur, which was now waterless as it was dead. As expected, after getting used to stripping off materials, his work advanced smoothly without confusion. The skinned fur was stored into the Misty Ring after the limbs, head, tail and internal organs were removed. After that, a hole was dug a small distance away to bury the internal organs and head.

「Well, before that……Set.」

Calling Set, Rei held out the magic stone that he had taken out from the heart of the Water Monkey.

「Guru~!」

Holding the magic stone in his beak, Set swallowed it in one gulp, but……

「It’s no use?」

「Guru~……」

Unfortunately, as no skills were acquired, both man and animal were somewhat depressed.

After that, the meat of the Water Monkey was cut into bite sized pieces and stabbed onto a tree branch so that they could be easily cooked on the campfire beside them.

As the smell from the meat cooking on the open fire gradually drifted out and stirred his appetite, Set gave a cry as he waited impatiently for the skewers to be cooked.

Time inside the forest at night passed quickly for Rei.

「Hey, it’s hot.」

Sprinkling a small amount of salt, taken from the Misty Ring, onto the cooked Water Monkey meat skewers, Rei placed them onto an oversized leaf, used in place of a plate. After passing it to Set, Set held the skewers with his forefoot, tore the meat off with his beak and swallowed it down while giving a cry.

While watching that, Rei also sprinkled some salt and pepper onto and skewer that was on the campfire and brought it to his mouth.

Although it was classified as a monkey, it didn’t have much smell as a monster and Set ate until there was none left. After that, Rei just waited with Set for the night to pass without saying anything.

While listening to the pachi~, pachi~, sound of the campfire, he occasionally tossed in some firewood to keep it burning.

Taking a pot, some water and tea leaves from the Misty Ring, Rei brewed some tea to drink with Set.

In that way, the night passed slowly, as a bit of light shone from east……Rei suddenly noticed some vibrations in the air.

「……What?　Just now, there was something like a vibration……」

As Rei muttered, he felt his body shake slightly again. Listening, he could faintly hear a thudding noise. As the sound gradually grew louder, the vibrations grew proportionally larger.

(Considering the regular sounds, is it the footsteps of some sort of monster?)

While thinking to himself that he didn’t want it to come towards them, the footsteps kept coming closer without going away.

「Given the timing of the footsteps, there should only be one of them. I can imagine it’s size.」

Rei glanced towards the opening of the tree for a moment.

「It’s dangerous to be caught here. In that case, would it be better to attack? Set, we’ll head out.」

「Gururu~!」

Calling to Set, Rei went into the opening of the tree and woke up Ara, who was the closest.

「Haa? What’s going on?」

「Wake up Ara. An enemy.」

「Enemy?　An enemy……enemy!?」

Should he say, as expected of a Knight, Ara immediately reacted to the word enemy. While rubbing her eyes, she reached her hand out to her sword and sheath which had been placed nearby.

Maybe the noise made the people sleeping nearby notice something, Elena began to move restlessly.

「Because it seems to be a fairly large monster, if we fight it after it gets here, the area will be damaged. I will attack with Set, be cautious of the surroundings. I’m leaving it to you.」

「Ah, wai, Rei-dono!?」

Though Ara’s voice called out from behind, he turned his eyes towards the direction the footsteps were coming from. Thud, thud, the sounds gradually came nearer. It wasn’t difficult to guess where the footsteps were coming from.

Picking up the Death Scythe, which he had taken out as he was on night watch, he started to run towards the direction the sounds were coming from. Set silently followed beside him.

For a moment, Rei had thought about riding on Set to find the enemy from the sky, but in the end, they were in a forest. The trees grew thick and as the sun was still mostly hidden, he judged that it would be impossible to find the enemy from the sky.

It was few minutes after he started running. In just a few minutes, Rei met the existence heading towards them.

「GAAAaaaa!」

The moment it saw Rei and Set, the existence opened its large mouth and raised its voice to intimidate them.

It was at least 5m tall and was probably of the Goblin family as its entire skin was green. However, its body was filled with an overwhelming amount of dense muscles. The club it held it its hand was simply an uprooted tree. As for its face, fangs grew from its mouth and its ugly features emphasized its brutality. Rei knew what the existence in front of him was from reading books. In other words.

「Ogre, is it.」

Although it was part of the Goblin family, it was brutal and brash. Its strength was also incomparable to the F rank Goblins. That’s why it was considered a higher ranking monster at rank C.

Facing it was Rei, who was considered short for a man at 165cm. The Ogre was nearly three times Rei’s height and Rei’s head only reached its knees. Looking at Rei as if it wanted to eat him after crushing him, it raised its club.

However, the Ogre didn’t know. The existence that was Rei. If it had known Rei’s ability, rather than not taking any serious countermeasures, it would have swung its club with all its strength from the very beginning.

However, opposite to its physical ability, its intelligence was low. It had decided that Rei was and insignificant being based on his appearance alone.

Roar!

The club swung down with the momentum as if to destroy everything it touched. It was a single attack with no thought put into technique. However, the attack that was made with only physical strength hid a violently destructive force. ……Yes, that was if it hit.

「Such an attack is obvious!」

Jumping back, Rei provoked the Ogre with his eyes and words as the club made a small crater in the ground.

The Ogre couldn’t understand human words. However, it was still able to fully understand the malicious intent against it. Yes, the diminutive creature that was only up to its knees was disrespecting it.

「GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

As a simple Ogre, it went berserk at Rei’s chep provocation, raising its club again and smashing into the ground with increasing anger.

Then……

「Set!」

Rei gave a sharp should into the surroundings. As soon as his voice sounded, 5 Wind Arrows pierced into the Ogre’s back, one after the other. The power of each Wind Arrow wasn’t high, but they were enough to divert the Ogre’s attention from Rei. And when the Ogre tried to turn around and face the back.

「GURURURURURU~!」

Set’s claws tore deeply into the Ogre’s back.

「GAAAAAAAAAA!」

It was probably aware of the injuries it had suffered. It swung its club around in frustration while turning to his back and roaring.

However, the figure of Set had already gone, only several feathers were left due to him flapping his wings and flying into the sky.

As the Ogre looked around to see the enemy that attacked its back, without a sound, Rei dashed forward and thrust the Death Scythe forward.

Without noticing the presence of Rei nearing it, the Ogre kept looking for the enemy that had hurt it while brandishing its club.

「Shoes of Sleipnir, start!」

Muttering in a low voice so as to not alert the Ogre, Rei ran across the the ground and leaped into the air with two steps. At a height over 5m, the figure of Rei could be seen above the head of the Ogre.

「Gaa~!?」

「Haaa!」

As expected, maybe noticing the enemy at the same height as its line of sight, as Rei swung the magic empowered Death Scythe at its head, the Ogre almost simultaneously raised its club. ……But.

「GA!?」

The Death Scythe that was swung by Rei weighed over 100kg. Adding to that was Rei’s inhuman strength. Moreover, for the magic empowered blade, cutting through the club, which was basically a tree, was met with no resistance. The blade approached the head of the Ogre……but because of its survival instincts, though it moved back, causing a massive wound to be torn into its chest, the attack didn’t kill it.

「GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

In front of itself was a small, insect like prey. It touched the wound that had been given by its prey, which was supposed to be its breakfast. Sticky red blood covered its hand. Smelling the metallic smell, the Ogre’s anger reached its peak.

「GAAAA!」

Like its first attack……no, as it swung the club with all its strength, though the club was much shorter after being cut by the Death Scythe, Rei evaded the attack.

Though the attacks of the Ogre were slow, they carried a considerable power and threw up dirt and stones every time the club impacted the ground. Therefore, for Rei who normally evaded enemy attacks by a slim margin and counterattacked when they were off guard, he couldn’t do what he was best at.

(Well, that’s as much as I can do. My work has already been completed. We only have to wait for it to collapse.)

Moving to the side to avoid the attack swinging down, Rei then jumped as the next attack came sweeping along the ground. As the Ogre had no technique, it could only attack using one of two methods, swinging down and sweeping from the side. If it could even use its head a little, it could have smashed the other party with a single blow if it could do a feint. However, that was impossible to imagine as it was an Ogre. On the contrary, if a monster with the brutality and physical ability of an Ogre had intelligence as well, it would be far from rank C.

「Hey, what’s wrong?　Is your big body just for show?」

Without attacking, Rei concentrated on dodging its attacks while focusing on provoking it.

「GAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

Even if it didn’t know the words, it knew that it was being insulted. The Ogre kept swinging its club in anger as if it didn’t know fatigue.

Rei provoked it and only cut its skin and not its flesh with the Death Scythe to make fun of it. Alternatively, Rei would throw a palm sized ball of fire at it to burn it. Sometimes he would avoid the Ogre’s attacks by running through its feet, and on occasion, he would smash the toes on the Ogre’s feet with handle of the Death Scythe.

If the Ogre got angry and started to focus on Rei, Set would shoot Water Balls and Wind Arrows at it, slowly piling up the injuries.

How much time passed with this happening? It was probably more than 10 minutes. And finally, the moment came.

「G……Gaa?」

The Ogre had a confused voice. It was because although it had tried to take a step forward, it barely moved. At the same time, its arms that it wanted to raise didn’t move up……it fell to the ground while spitting bubbles of blood from its mouth.

「Gururu~」

Set gave a cry and flapped his wings as he landed next to Rei. While stroking his back, Rei carefully checked if the Ogre was still breathing.

「Hah!」

The Death Scythe cut through the right shoulder of the Ogre, which had fallen onto the ground, cutting off the right arm with barely any resistance. Using its momentum the Death Scythe changed its trajectory in the air and swung back down at the muscle covered neck of the Ogre……similar to its right shoulder, its head was cut off with barely any resistance.

「Puu~, even if it was still alive, it can’t do anything if its head was cut off. Set, you did well. Was it Poison Claw? Although it’s usable, it seems that the poison isn’t very powerful as it’s only Lvl 1. Or did the poison take time to take effect because of the Ogre’s large body?」

「Gurururu~?」

Set tilted his neck indicating that he didn’t know either.

Set made a fierce attack on the Ogre right after the fight had started. The skill used in Set’s claw attack right after the Wind Arrows was a skill that he had obtained after absorbing the magic stone of a rare species during the Treant with Milein while Rei was on his rank up test. Because Rei had received the nominated request immediately after the rank up test, he had been asked not to go out of the city. When they left the city for the dungeon, they were always with Elena. Because of that, they were finally able to test the skill only now.

「Well, anyhow, we were able to test the skill and we didn’t take any damage. Congratulations are in order.」

「Guru~!」