CH 488

The day after stripping all the materials from the monsters they had killed, Rei’s group went back into the dungeon as usual.

The 16th floor was an undead floor. As soon as they were sent over by the magic circle, the strong putrid smell hit them again.

「Guh, no matter how many times I smell it, I can’t get used to it.」

「Yeah, but it’s also a smell I don’t want to get used to.」

「Guru~……」

「Kyu, Kyu, Kyuuu!」

Rei furrowed his brows in disgust while he muttered as Elena nodded in agreement.

As a Griffon, Set had sharper senses than most others and he couldn’t help pressing his front claw against his nose. However, it basically didn’t help at all and he gave a sad cry as he looked over at Rei.

Yellow was flying around in the air while writhing around at the strong putrid smell.

「Hey, Set, Yellow, calm down.」

「Guru~」

Set looked up at Rei with round eyes as he gave a cry, but as there was no way for them to turn back now, they started down the passage.

Set and Yellow took the front while Rei and Elena followed behind them.

In addition, Yellow was on Set’s back as usual.

「……The day before, a Living Armour showed up right away, but there doesn’t look like there’s one this time.」

Elena nodded and replied to Rei as they walked past the place where they had previously fought a Living Armour.

「The Living Armour was a fairly tough enemy, you also need another magic stone from one.」

「Yeah. That said, considering that the skill Set acquired was Power Crush, in my case it would be a probably be a level up for Power Slash……」

「Guru~!」

Set cut off Rei’s words with a sharp warning cry.

Stopping his random thoughts and listening closely, Rei heard a click, clack, click, sound.

Hearing that, Rei gave a sigh.

「Skeletons, huh? Set, Fire Breath……」

As he spoke up to that point, Rei suddenly thought of something as he continued speaking.

「Come to think of it, even in the dungeon where the Altar of Inheritance was, I didn’t absorb any Skeleton magic stones.」

「Guru~?」

The impact to Set’s nose seemed like it had yet to recover……or rather, his sense of smell was still paralyzed. Set turned to Rei as the smell of decay continued to disgust him.

Really? Set seemed to have that expression on his face.

However, Rei nodded ruthlessly.

「It’s true that Skeletons are low ranked monsters, but if you consider the Goblin rare species, there’s a possibility. So……let’s go!」

Along with his words, Rei took the Death Scythe out from the Misty Ring and held out the giant blade as three Skeletons appeared from the depths of the passage.

The blade of the Death Scythe sliced through one of the Skeletons without any resistance, cutting through its magic stone as well.

The Skeleton fell to the stone paved ground as its bones shattered.

At the same time, the magic stone that had been inside its chest was absorbed by the Magic Beast Art and disappeared. Unfortunately, there was no announcement any skills being learned or upgraded.

「Tch, I knew……it!」

The middle Skeleton swung down a rusted sword in its hand as Rei struck out with the shaft of the Death Scythe from the momentum of his previous attack.

With the combination of the Death Scythe and Rei’s physical strength, there was no way the Skeleton could do anything with a rusted sword and the blade was broken right in half.

「RAaaAH-!」

Using the momentum from his swing, Rei spun around on the spot. The next moment, the Death Scythe’s blade slashed through the Skeleton’s waist, causing its upper body to fall to the ground as he knocked over the Skeleton’s remaining legs as the Death Scythe came back from its swing.

Next, Rei walked over to the upper body of the the Skeleton that was attempting to prop itself up with its arms and crushed its ribs with the Shoes of Sleipnir before pulling its magic stone out.

「……Now then.」

Muttering to himself, Rei stored the magic stone into the Misty Ring before turning his attention to the last Skeleton. However, it had already been obliterated by an attack from Set’s claws, scattering bone fragments into the surrounding stone paved ground.

While its bones had been crushed with considerable force, Set had still toned down his strength enough that the magic stone wasn’t damaged.

「Look’s I didn’t need to worry about it.」

「Guru~?」

What’s wrong? Sett seemed to say with a cry as he picked up the magic stone that had fallen to the ground with his beak and turned to look at Rei.

Seeing Set like that, Rei just shook his head to indicate it was nothing as he prompted Set to absorb the magic stone.

Seeing Rei’s prompt, Set immediately swallowed the magic stone, but……in the end, the was no announcement indicating the acquisition of a new skill.

「I hadn’t expected anything, so it can’t be helped.」

Rei quickly got over the fact that they didn’t learn any new skills from absorbing the Skeleton magic stones as he turned to look at the corpses of the Skeletons scattered around……or rather, what was left of the Skeletons.

Most of the weapons they had held were rusty and there was only one magic stone left that wasn’t absorbed.

In terms of the harvest from the Skeletons, there was barely anything at all.

「Let’s move on. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a fork in the passage ahead and there are several small rooms on the left, right? Let’s finish absorbing the rest of the magic stones there.」

Remembering what Elena had told him the day before yesterday and confirming it with her again, they went down the left passage after reaching the fork.

There were several doors in the wall along the stone paved passage, which probably led to the small room depicted on the map.

「So, which room do you want to enter?」

「The closest one is fine. All we need is a place where others can’t see us absorbing magic stones and experimenting with skills.」

Rei answered Elena’s question as he opened the closest door.

It was a room about 16 square meters in size, it was exactly a room size that people of this world would call small.

That said, with Exil’s population density, adventurers with little money would be lucky if they could get a 5 square meter room.

If they couldn’t even afford that, they might end up having to stay in an even smaller place.

「……It would probably be best to avoid testing skills that sound dangerous in a place this size.」

「I agree. I would like to avoid getting stuck inside if it gets turned into a sea of fire or something similar.」

「Guru~」

It will be okay, Set seemed to say with a cry.

With a small smile on their faces, they entered the small room before closing the door firmly.

Looking around the room, there was basically nothing else inside.

The only things of note were several metal fragments that seemed to be from armour or weapons.

「This is just the right place, in various ways. ……Now then, let’s try the ones we have two of first. Set.」

Saying that, Rei took out a Kobold magic stone.

He tossed one to Set, who caught it in his beak before swallowing it.

【Set has acquired the skill『Sense Enhancement – Smell Lv.1』】

An announcement echoed in his mind.

Hearing that, Rei turned to look at Set involuntarily.

Rei really hadn’t though that Set would be able to learn any skills from a Kobold’s magic stone.

「……I have to say, this is really unexpected.」

「Did you get a skill?」

「Yeah. ……However, it’s a really unfortunate skill to test here.」

From its name, it was clear that the skill would sharpen Set’s sense of smell. That was the conclusion Rei reached as he shook his head slightly.

Set’s sense of smell was already paralyzed, so Rei felt it wouldn’t be good to enhance his sense even further and cause Set to sense the putrid smell again.

Hearing Rei’s explanation, Elena nodded as she had similar thoughts.

「It’s a skill that would have many uses normally, but in this situation, it really is unfortunate.」

「That’s right. That said, the next floor is a forest floor, so it will be useful once we get down there. ……Well then, if Set learned a skill, can I expect a skill as well?」

Throwing another Kobold magic stone into the air, he struck it with the Death Scythe.

The magic stone vanished like mist, but there was no announcement in his mind.

「Tch, no good. I guess it should be considered good that Set was able to acquire a skill at all.」

Just like the Skeletons from earlier, Rei had already expected that he wouldn’t be able to acquire any skills, so he continued and took out a Bloodydile magic stone without being too discouraged.

「Now then, there are another two magic stones, so we don’t need to worry about who absorbs it. Set!」

「Guru~!」

The Bloodydile’s magic stone was thrown into the air at Rei’s words. Just like with the Kobold magic stone from earlier, Set caught it with his beak and quickly swallowed it.

「……No good.」

「Guru~」

An announcement message didn’t echo in Rei’s mind and Set let out a disappointed cry.

Set’s head drooped and he looked very disappointed, making it hard to believe that he was a Rank A monster.

Anyone seeing Set now would probably struggle to believe that Set was a high ranked monster.

Perhaps he looked too disappointed, Elena, who had been watching along with Yellow, gently stretched out her had and stroked Set’s head to comfort him.

「Look, cheer up. In the first place, you were able to learn a skill from the Kobold magic stone, so you don’t need to be depressed, right? This is a bigger problem for the Death Scythe. In addition to not being able to learn a skill from the Kobold magic stone, if it can’t learn a skill from the Bloodydile’s magic stone……I don’t think it can live up to being your counterpart anymore, don’t you think?」

「……No, Elena. You’re just putting pressure on me by pretending to comfort Set, aren’t you?」

Rei couldn’t help but ask at Elena’s words.

However, Elena shook her head with a small smile in response.

「Of course not. However, I am looking forward to what kind of skills you can learn.」

Although Elena told him that she didn’t mean anything with those words, Rei only felt that it put more pressure on him.

Giving a small sigh, Rei threw the Bloodydile magic stone into the air before striking it.

【The Death Scythe has acquired the skill『Pain Burst Lv.1』】

An announcement echoed in his mind.

However, Rei was puzzled after hearing it.

It was because he had no idea what effect the skill would have from its name, Pain Burst.

Up until now, he had been able to guess the effect of a skill just from its name. For example, the skill Flying Slash had the effect of throwing out a slash.

Skills such as Corrosion and Wind Hand were a bit harder to guess, but their effect could still be roughly predicted.

However, the skill, Pain Burst, was really hard for Rei to predict.

(Pain as in sense of pain? But, then how does Burst……tch, when a skill is learned, it should also broadly explain what the skill does. Takumu Suzunose was from Japan, so it would have been nice if he had included that into the Magic Beast Art as well.)

While complaining about his fellow countryman, who had existed back in Zepairu’s time, Rei spoke to Elena, who had been wondering what kind of skill he had acquired.

「I learned a skill, but I don’t quite understand what it does. Considering its name, Pain Burst, I think it’s related to the sense of pain.」

「Pain……Burst, does it reduce the pain received?」

「Alternatively, it could potentially increase the pain an enemy takes……but, there’s no way I can test it here.」

Letting out a sigh, Rei tried activating the skill as he held the Death Scythe, wondering if it would reduce the pain he felt.

「Pain Burst.」

Next, with his left hand, he pinched his right hand.

(It’s true that I feel pain, but it’s still normal levels of pain. It’s not like the pain has increased or decreased. Then……

After confirming his sense of pain, he called out to Elena.

「Elena, I’m sorry, but could you pinch my arm for a moment?」

「……Are you sure about it?」

Rei nodded at Elena’s somewhat worried question.

「Yeah. I’ve tried pinching myself and there no change in my sense of pain. That’s why I want to check if it only work on pain inflicted by others.」

「You will tell me if it hurts immediately, okay?」

Seeing Rei nod at her question, just in case, Elena gently reached out and pinched his right arm, but……

「There’s no real change to my sense of pain, huh.」

In the end, Rei couldn’t sense any real change to his sense of pain and decided to test it again the next time a living monster appeared.

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

【Set】

『Water Ball Lv.3』 『Fire Breath Lv.3』 『Wind Arrow Lv.2』 『King’s Awe Lv.1』 『Poison Claw Lv.4』 『Size Transformation Lv.1』 『Tornado Lv.1』 『Ice Arrow Lv.1』 『Optical Camouflage Lv.2』 『Evil Eye Impact Lv.1』 『Power Crush Lv.1』『Sense Enhancement – Smell　Lv.1』new

【Death Scythe】

『Corrosion　Lv.3』 『Flying Slash Lv.3』 『Magic Shield Lv.1』 『Power Slash Lv.2』 『Wind Hand Lv.3』 『Terrain Manipulation Lv.1』『Pain Burst　Lv.1』new

Sense Enhancement – Smell: Enhances the user’s sense of smell.

Pain Burst: When skill is activated, injuries caused the Death Scythe result in increased pain. Sense of pain is doubled at level 1.