Chapter 198

Chapter 198

The main gate of the city of Baar . At present, various people had gathered there . They included Seis, who had been unconscious in bed due to the side effects of the Necklaces of Resonance until a few days ago, and Diarog, the representative lord of Baar . Others included Southernus, captain of the guards, and Ara, carrying her Power Axe .

All those people were there to send of Rei, dressed in his Dragon Robe, and Set, the Griffon, who had both spent the past week leisurely .

「You’ve been a great help this time . I will contact Marina in Gilm later, but please take this . 」

After saying that, Seis handed over some documents that proved the request had been completed .

「If you hadn’t come, we might have had ten to hundred times more deaths . I thank you as the guild master of Baar . 」

「No . I wanted to help everyone if it were possible . 」

Although he had traveled from Gilm to Baar in two days, it was natural that he wasn’t able to save all patients from Magic Fever . Those who had low magic power and couldn’t resist the effects of Magic Fever before the medicine could be made numbered in the tens .

Diarog, who was next to Seis when Rei gave a sigh, shook his head .

「It certainly feels bad that you couldn’t help everyone, but it isn’t your fault . It is arrogant to believe that you could save everyone . You did the best you could . As the representative lord, I am also grateful . 」

「No, the reconstruction will be hard so please do your best . 」

「Yes, of course . The residents of the city are resilient . We’re rebuilding the eastern storage facility now . ……When the reconstruction is over, do come visit here again . At that time, we’ll treat you to plenty of liquor, this city’s specialty . 」

「……Don’t be too hard on me . 」

Rei, who wasn’t particularly good with alcohol, could only answer as such .

The next person to step forward was the captain of the guards, Southernus . In his hand, he held a small barrel, about 30cm in size .

「Here, a souvenir . After what Diarog-san said, I was a bit hesitant, but this is one of our finest liquors . 」

「……Oi, Southernus . 」

Since he said that, he hadn’t pilfered it from a storage facility had he? Rei looked at him suspiciously, but Southernus shook his head with a wry smile .

「Don’t worry . This is from all the guards . They all chipped in a bit of money . 」

「I see . In that case, thank you . I’m not that good of a drinker, but I know someone in Gilm who really loves to drink . 」

In Rei’s mind, he thought of the liquor loving Dwarf that had been involved in that disturbance a while back .

That Dwarf, who asserted that he had alcohol flowing through his veins and not blood, would probably drink this with pleasure .

While thinking about that, Rei stored it into the Misty Ring .

「Rei-dono . 」

The last person to come forward was Ara, with her battle axe on her back .

During the past week, she had sparred with Rei while she wasn’t taking care of Soleil and she had several cuts and bruises . Nevertheless, she still had a bright smile on her face .

Actually, the stress from having to watch over Soleil had been mitigated by her sparring with Rei, so it was natural in a sense .

「Please say hello to Elena for me . 」

「Yes . Um, if you can, please write a letter to Elena-sama ocassionally . I think she would be happy if you did that . 」

「A letter, a letter is it……」

In Elgin, there were no post offices like in Rei’s original world . Because of that, if you wanted to send a letter, you could have to ask an adventurer or merchant to deliver it . In other words, depending on the distance and luck of the delivery man, it could take up to several months for a letter to arrive . Depending on the distance, it might even take years .

While thinking of that difficulty, he still nodded at Ara’s words that he should send a letter occasionally .

「That’s right, I probably won’t be doing much in winter, it might be good to write a letter . ……However, it will take longer for letters to be delivered in winter . 」

「Hm-, that is true . ……Ah, I forgot . If that’s the case, I could have had you write a letter in Baar for me to bring back……」

Ara was distraught that she hadn’t been able to think of such a simple method .

However, Ara had spent the past week being run around by Soleil . It couldn’t be helped that she had no time to worry about other things .

Moreover, there was no way that Rei would have known about writing a letter either before she mentioned it .

Rei patted Ara’s shoulder to encourage her, as she was still in a bit of shock .

「Well then, it can’t be helped, I can’t talk here forever . Set!」

「Gururu~」

Set, who had eaten all the dried meat that Diarog had handed him with gratitude, came over at Rei’s call .

「So, here we are . I’ll stop by here again if I ever have the chance . 」

「Mm . I’ve said this many times already, but you really saved us . I must really thank Marina for sending you here . 」

「Ah . As I said earlier, next time you come, I’ll let you drink some of my treasured liquor, so do stop by again . 」

While listening to Seis and Diarog, Rei got onto Set’s back .

「Set!」

「Gurururururu~!」

Giving a cry at Rei’s voice, Set ran a few steps before flapping his wings .

Like that, the two of them ascended into the sky as if running on air . The people below watched on until they could no longer see them .

Set flew from Baar towards Gilm . As Rei was riding on Set’s back, he felt that something cold had fallen onto his hood and looked to see what it was .

「……Snow, is it . 」

「Guru~」

It was faint, but he could still he white snow drifting down .

Looking up into the sky, the weather looked to be cloudy and the sun, blocked by the clouds, felt dim .

Even though it still hadn’t reached noon, the ambient temperature had hardly risen . The good news was that the wind wasn’t too strong . As for the cold, Rei and Set weren’t too bothered by it, but as they were flying, the effect of winds could be quite strong .

「But, snow . ……Looks like winter is really here . 」

「Guru~」

They had no problems financially . But considering Set’s diet, they may need to go out several times in winter in order to secure some monster meat . He remembered something as he thought about that .

「Ahh, speaking of that, the magic stones and meat of from the Gamelions are still in the Misty Ring . 」

After all, he had been considering what to do with the Gamelion magic stones when he had been requested to deliver relief supplies to Baar . After that, it had sunk to the bottom of his mind . He also briefly thought of the magic stones he had gotten from the Sword Bees and made up his mind immediately .

「That’s right . I would like to try using the terrain manipulation skill I got by absorbing the dungeon core . As for tonight, we’re not stopping at a city, so I guess we’ll be camping . Would you like to eat some of the Gamelion meat Set?」

「Gurururururu~!」

Hearing that there would be Gamelion meat, Set gave a joyful cry . It could be said that this decision was only possible because Rei and Set weren’t bothered by the cold . If they were regular adventurers, they would have avoided camping for the night in this season as much as possible . Considering it was snowing, if things went bad, they could even end up dying after going to sleep .

Flying through the sky, they passed by the nearest village from Baar,the fork in the road they had camped at previously and the city of Sabrusta . They continued flying without rest before the mental fatigue started to get to Rei rather that the physical fatigue . There was no snow, as had fallen in the morning, and there was a clean winter air as Rei enjoyed the sunset before his eyes .

「Set, we’ll have to set up camp before it gets dark . Since we just ate a few things for lunch while flying, dinner can be a bit more luxurious . 」

「Gurururu~」

They had eaten breakfast in Baar, but the city was still sealed since it had barely been a week since the last person sick with Magic Fever had recovered . Although the blockade was likely to be lifted within the next few days, food was still being rationed . As a result, there wasn’t quite enough to satisfy Rei and Set . As for the taste though, the original owner of the inn had finally recovered from Magic Fever, so they had been able to eat some delicious food .

Thinking about that, Rei saw some trees growing on the ground . They weren’t large enough to be called a forest, but there were enough trees to provide cover if it rained or snowed .

「Set, do you want to stay there overnight?」

「Guru~」

Set gave a cry at Rei’s proposal and descend from the air to the ground . Fortunately there were no monsters around the tree they were heading for and they could start setting up camp for the night under the tree without any problems .

「Even though I said that, it’s still a bit early for dinner . I guess I’ll start checking my skills first . 」

「Gurururu~」

I started to get hungry when you said that Rei! Set seemed to say as he rubbed his face against Rei .

In response, thinking about how things had gone in Baar, he took a chunk of Orc meat out of the Misty Ring .

Although it was just a chunk of meat, it still weighed about 2kg . As usual, he cut the meat up for skewers or to use as an ingredient . ……

「Gururururururu~」

Set, who had been enduring his hunger, didn’t care that the meat was raw and bit directly into the chunk of Orc meat .

Giving a small sigh as he saw that, Rei first took out the Death Scythe and stabbed the handle into the ground to test .

「Terrain Manipulation . 」

He activated the skill as he visualised the ground around him sinking 1m……

「……No, I guess that’s too hard for level 1 . 」

Looking at his surroundings, he could confirm visually that the ground around him had sunk 10cm compared to a few seconds ago .

The ground around Rei had sunk down in a perfect circle .

「Guru~?」

While eating the Orc meat, Set tilted his head to one side as he looked around . Even though he was absorbed in eating the Orc meat, he had still noticed the ground sink .

「It’s effect has a radius of about 10m?」

Rei turned to look at the tree that they were using as a substitute for a roof . The tree had also sunk down by about 10cm .

「Then, how about this?」

The next thing he visualised in his mind was raising the ground . The next moment, the ground which had sunken down swelled back up as his line of sight rose slightly .

When he 10m from the place he had been standing, he confirmed that the ground had risen 20cm . considering that the original piece of ground had sunk down 10cm, he had raised it 10cm above its original level .

「I see . Whether I sink or raise the ground, the limit is 10cm . If it were at least 1m or so, there would be many ways to use it in combat……no, if I consider that this is the result of absorbing a dungeon core and not a magic stone, I should consider it lucky that I learnt a skill at all . 」

Rei headed back towards Set while muttering .

Originally, the Magic Beast Art was a magic that absorbed magic stones to grow . He was a bit puzzled as he didn’t expect that it could also absorb dungeon cores but still understood that he was lucky to have gained a skill .

「Well then, next . First, it’s the Sword Bee magic stones . 」

Rei looked towards Set again, but it seemed that he was completely focused on eating his chunk of Orc meat and hadn’t heard his words . Considering their food situation for the past week, Rei gave a sigh and threw the Sword Bee’s magic stone into the air .

「Ha-!」

He swept the Death Scythe across horizontally . The next moment, the magic stone split in two and disappeared……

「No skills, it seems . 」

However, the familiar message in his mind did not appear . Rei gave a sigh .

Like that, seeing that the chunk of Orc meat had been significantly reduced, he finally turned to look at Set .

「Set, dessert . 」

With those words, Rei tossed a magic stone at Set……

「Guru~」

However, like the time with the Death Scythe, no announcements sounded .

「So even Set can’t learn any skills . Well, there’s no helping if I think about it . Sword Bees are low ranking monsters . Hey, don’t worry about it . 」

Set seemed to be disappointed, so Rei stroked his head before taking out two Gamelion magic stones from the Misty Ring with his other hand .

One was from an ordinary Gamelion while the other was from a rare species, which was one size larger than an ordinary Gamelion .

「Now then, how to distribute the magic stones . 」

Like when he was in his inn back in Gilm, Rei started feeling troubled again .