Legend

「Mm!」

Rei and his group were walking through the desert on the 11th floor, making their way towards the small room with the magic circle. Byune, who was keeping an eye out on the surroundings, suddenly raised her voice.

She had noticed several figures heading towards the same direction as them.

Hearing Byune’s voice, Rei and the others also turned to look over. They could see a group of four adventurers heading towards the small room with the magic circle as well.

It seemed like the other party had noticed them as well. Although, there was an alert atmosphere for a moment, they seemed to sigh in relief after seeing Set walking beside Rei.

(If they are relieved to see Set, they are probably one of the other parties asked to kill the abnormal species like us.)

The other party must have had the same though, as they started to approach each other.

「Hey, thanks for the hard work. Did you have any success? It was no good for us……we ran into Sandworms and other monsters many times and had to fight it out each time. Well, thanks to that, we’ve collected quite a bit of material and overall, we’re definitely in the black.」

A man with a spear, their leader, spoke with a shrug as he looked over at their porter, who was carrying a large load.

「Don’t say that. We did collect a lot of materials after all. ……Well, it’s true though that the materials are worth considerably less than what we’d find on the 20th floor where we usually work. We’re also here for the abnormal species this time. I heard that they are significantly stronger than their base monster counterparts. Any how, if we ran into one of them on the lower floors, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. If we can work out how these abnormal monsters are appearing, it will be more convenient for us later on.」

Their thief muttered with a tired smile.

Unlike their leader, who seemed to be trying to comfort them, the thief sounded like he was trying to persuade himself.

「You’re right. ……So, any luck on your side?」

The man with the spear nodded at the thief before turning to ask Rei.

As an adventurer in Exil, he knew who Byune was and felt that Rei and Elena would be easier to talk with compared to Vihera, who was well known as the battle crazy Mad Beast.

……That said, with how conspicuous Rei was with Set, and the fact that Elena was a beauty on the same level as Vihera, perhaps the porter would have been the easiest person to talk with. However, the porter knew his position as a temporary hired worker and had kept his position one step behind the others.

Because of that, the leader decided that Rei was probably still the easiest person to talk with.

Fortunately, Rei hadn’t been dragged into too many things after entering Exil, so his ruthlessness was still not that well known.

Instead, his title of Crimson had been exaggerated to everyone.

Regardless, Rei gave a small smile as he replied to the adventurer.

「Yeah, I think you’ll be glad to know we’ve killed the abnormal speices Spear Frog.」

『Seriously!?』

The voices of the four adventurers all rang out at the same time.

It wasn’t that unreasonable for them to be surprised……they had just been told that the monster they hadn’t been able to find, let alone fight, had been killed.

「No, but……what happened to the corpse of the abnormal species? The Silva family had wanted to buy the whole thing, right? It’s not possible to only give them some of the materials. We had been planning to split up and let the Silva family know if we had killed it, but you’re all together?」

As expected, they were a party that had been chosen by the Silva family and entrusted with the request and knew that Rei’s group had also accepted the request.

The main reason was that Rei and Vihera were too conspicuous.

Rei nodded to indicate that wasn’t an issue as he understood who the other party was.

「Even if I look like this, I have an item box. It’s not difficult to store away a monster 3m in length.」

「Come to think of it, there was a rumour that Crimson had an item box, but……it was really true?」

The man nodded in an impressed way as the three parties continued making their way through the desert.

They talked with each other about the monsters they had killed and how many times they had been attacked during the day.

Among the things discussed, Rei was surprised to hear that some parties participating in the request had started their search from the 12th floor.

It made more sense to him after he heard the reasoning. If everyone participating in the request started their search from the room on the 11th floor, there would be a lot of places where their coverage would overlap. ……It seemed that some parties didn’t like that and started their search by going to the 12th floor before immediately taking the stairs back up to the 11th floor.

「Well, that said, the abnormal species that attacked yesterday did so not far from the room on the 11th floor. That’s why most people started exploring from there. I think it was a bet that the others took, although I don’t think it was a bad bet. After all, a night has passed since yesterday’s attack.」

「……Definitely, it wouldn’t be a surprise with its movement speed.」

In his mind, Rei thought of the abnormal species, that had been capable of jumping 10m in a single leap and nodded without thinking.

The man with the spear seemed to be curious about what had happened. He asked Rei what the abnormal species was like and how the fight had gone.

The was no benefit to Rei to hide the information, so he told the man what he had noticed during the fight.

For example, unlike other Spear Frogs, it secreted body fluids from its skin that would nullify attacks below a certain strength. And, as he had heard from Vosk, its tongue had been split in two and could freely move independently of each other.

If the magic stones of abnormal species were something he could absorb, he might have kept the information secret. However, since those magic stones were harmful to him, Rei decided the best choice would be to disseminate information about abnormal species and to reduce their numbers.

Although Set had been able to absorb then, it couldn’t be said that there wouldn’t be any future problems.

「Heh, as expected of an abnormal species, it really is abnormal.」

「That said, this is only information about the abnormal species Spear Frog. Other abnormal species have very different abilities and appearances depending on the base species. Considering that, this information might not be that useful in fighting other abnormal species.」

The man with the spear shook his head slightly as he gave a sigh.

「Regardless, it’s good to have more information. Especially after abnormal species started appearing, it’s worth knowing how different they are compared to the base species. ……But, you mentioned about other abnormal species……」

Rei nodded when the man looked at him.

「Yeah. I’ve fought and abnormal species before. I’ve also seen Vihera fight one.」

He glanced over at Vihera, who looked bored as she walked alongside Byune.

「I wonder if it should be called good luck or bad luck.」

「We’re definitely out of luck. These are abnormal species we’re deal with.」

「Still, won’t you be getting the reward for this request? Considering that, I don’t think you’re necessarily out of luck.」

Rei shrugged his shoulders at the man’s words.

(I had asked if I could take the magic stone so I could use it for the Magic Beast Art, but now I can’t use it for the Magic Beast Art. I’m not very lucky.)

As they continued talking, they eventually reached thte small room with the magic circle and stairs, their destination.

「Ahh, we’ve made it. It’s been a while since we’ve been on the desert floors, but it’s still hard.」

「Especially in your case with that huge thing of yours.」

The thief made fun of the man carrying a pole axe.

「Hey, this is my partner, it can’t be helped that it’s a little heavier. ……And, it doesn’t take up that much space compared to the scythe that Crimson kid, Rei, has.」

Length and size aside, the blade of Rei’s Death Scythe naturally took up a lot of space to carry around.

Usually he would store it inside the Misty Ring, but due to the back flow in magic power and the fact that its influence on his physical state meant that he wasn’t in prime form, he might not be able to responded immediately in emergency situations, so Rei was currently carrying the Death Scythe on him.

That was why the man with a pole axe said that he was still better compared to the Death Scythe Rei was carrying.

「Hey, hey, anyway, now that we’re back, let’s just complete the request, get our reward, and head for the bar.」

「That’s right, let’s go. Hey, come with us. We’re going back together anyway.」

「Is that okay? I heard that you usually don’t make transfers with other parties.」

Rei asked the man with the spear, but the man just replied with a lively laugh.

「Hahahaha. Well, some people care, but I don’t. Come on, let’s quickly go.」

「……Okay.」

The man with the spear was either bold or carefree. Regardless, his attitude wasn’t unpleasant to Rei. The man had been surprised by Set, but not overly scared. He didn’t judge Rei by his appearance either.

(No, is it because they are a party with a certain level of skill? Or conversely, is it because they have this kind of personality that they became a party that reached the level where they could take on subjugation requests for abnormal species?)

While thinking to himself, Rei activated the magic circle as he looked at Elena, Vihera, Byune, and the porter……the next moment, they were back to the plaza in front of the dungeon.

「Thank you for your hard work. I’m from the Silva family. How did it go? Oh, please have this. You must be thirsty after coming back from the desert.」

A man spoke up as he had them wooden cups containing cold fruit juice.

It seemed the other parties had started to return, there were some faces that Rei recognised from the morning.

Under the rain clouds that seemed ready to pour down at any moment, the man from the Silva family spoke again after seeing that they had all moistened their throats.

「So, how did it go with the abnormal species? I mean, seeing as you’ve come back on your own……」

It seemed that it was a failure.

Vihera interrupted the man before he could finish.

「We were successful in killing the abnormal species.」

「Why are you talking so much. We were the ones who succeeded in killing it.」

「Fufu, first come, first served.」

The man looked at Vihera and Elena, who were having a light argument, but of course, there was no corpse of the abnormal species, as far as the man could see. It didn’t seem like the corpse was still being secured in the dungeon either.

Starting to feel the other request participants looking at them, the man looked at Rei to ask what was going on.

In a way, it was only natural that he would look to Rei. As a member of the Silva family, he probably knew some information about Rei, who had been involved with the Silva family in various ways.

However, the Silva family might not have known about his item box, either that, or the information was rare enough that only the upper echelons, including Vosk, knew about it. At the very least, it didn’t seem this man knew anything about it.

(Although in this case, I think it would be better to tell him.)

With that in mind, Rei asked the man from the Silva family.

「So, where do I put the corpse of the abnormal species? Is this the right place? It’s pretty big and takes up a lot of space.」

「Ah, uh, that is……wait a moment. Um……the Silva family. Yes, please go to the building over there that the Silva family is using.」

He must have understood from Rei’s words that he was serious. Or did he think that Rei might have some special method of delivery with a Griffon like Set?

Either way, the man who had half instinctively stumbled onto the truth gave orders to his subordinates somewhat in a panic.

「Hey, tell the other side immediately and tell them to get ready to receive it.」

「Yes-!」

Hearing the order, the man gave a brief response before quickly running off.

Seeing that, the man looked over at another subordinate before bowing towards Rei and speaking up.

「Then, I’m sorry, but please follow this man. He’ll guide you to the building we’re using for this. I have to hand out rewards to the others here, so I can’t go with you……」

「Okay. YOu don’t have to worry about that. Let’s go then.」

When Rei turned to look at the others, only Elena and Set stepped forward. The rest stayed where they were.

「See you later. It looks like it will be annoying so I’m not going to bother.」

「Mm.」

Vihera and Byune’s party left with those words.