「Haaah~!」

Set swooped down from the sky without any hesitation, Rei wielded the Death Scythe at the same time, pouring magic power into the Death Scythe while aiming at the large Queen Ant.

「Gigigigigigi!」

The Queen Ant opened its mouth, as if to shoot something……

「-!?　It’s dangerous, Set!」
「Gururu~!」

Feeling a sense of crisis, Rei shouted to Set. Set understood and with a great flap of his wings, forcibly moved to the right.

The next moment, liquid was shot from the mouth of the Queen Ant, passing through the place Set was previously in a blink of an eye.

The liquid that was avoided fell to the ground, Rei saw the surrounding soil melting away while giving off smoke. The real nature of the of the liquid was an acid……he judged that it was a kind of formic acid.

「Gigigigigi!」

Dissatisfied that its attack had missed, it raised a loud screech while attacking with its huge forelegs.

As Set escaped the blow, Rei wielded the Death Scythe against a foreleg as they passed through the sky.

Swinging the Death Scythe, it tore through the foreleg without any resistance, the foreleg flew off in a direction to the left with the momentum it had left from swinging down.

「Gyi~!」

Maybe it had developed a sense of pain unlike the Soldier Ants, the Queen Ant gave a short screech. Rei took advantage of this chance to jump from Set’s back.

As soon as Rei landed on the ground, he jumped up at once, raising a sound and leaving a cloud of dust. At the same time, one of the Queen Ant’s forelegs smashed the place Rei had landed.

He jumped continuously and took some distance from the Queen Ant. After doing that, Rei was finally able to observe the Queen Ant.

Its body length was much longer than the Soldier Ants, about 5m in length. It had an enlarged abdomen and a sharp spike grew from it like a stinger.

(……It’s pretty big. I was shocked for a moment.)

From the information Rei heard, the Soldier Ants were about 1m long. Because of that, even if it was larger, he had expected the Queen Ant to be about 3m in length. However, after coming in contact with the actual Queen Ant, its size was greatly larger than Rei’s expectations.

「But, well……」

Directing a sharp gaze at the Queen Ant, he readied the Death Scythe.

「I have no choice but to do it!」

With a shout, Rei started running towards the Queen Ant. From the sky, the figure of Set could be seen continuously shooting water balls, trying to support Rei.

「Gigigi!」

Finding it annoying, the Queen Ant swung one of its hind legs, destroying a water ball. However, Set’s aim wasn’t to damage the Queen Ant with the water balls. It was to give Rei a chance to get close with his physical ability and attack with the Death Scythe.

And that purpose was achieved.

『Flame, you are a snake. Therefore, burn my enemy as I desire.』

While chanting the incantation for spell that killed the Water Bear in the Forest of Magic, just like that time……no, this time with the blade, he swung the Death Scythe.

With only light resistance, the blade of the scythe went into the middle right leg of the Queen Ant……

『Dance Fire Snake!』

The magic was released. The fire snake crawled into the leg of the Queen Ant that the Death Scythe was stuck into.

「Gigigigigigigi!」

The giant ant in front of his eyes screeched in pain as its body was burned from the inside.

However, worthy of being called the Queen Ant, it wasn’t the end. While screeching, it tore off the leg that that the fire snake was moving around and burning.

「What!?」

Excessive, Rei was startled by the action. He immediately jumped backwards to create some distance between the Queen Ant.

At almost the same time he moved……the Queen Ant threw the leg, that the fire snake was burning, at his location.

「Gigigi!」

Angered, the Queen Ant spat formic acid from its mouth at the small man in front of it that had injured it. Brandishing its remaining legs, it looked for a chance to use its sharp mandibles.

Rei evaded most of the attacks or parried them with the Death Scythe.

「It’s tenacious!」

While evading the foreleg swinging down, he struck out with the Death Scythe. Cutting the remaining left foreleg, the only legs left was the middle leg on the left, the left hind leg and the right hind leg, three legs. However, the Queen Ant’s attacks were still fierce. The poisonous spike that grew from its abdomen pierced into a tree and it spat out formic acid, melting rocks.

While remembering the tenacity of a C rank monster with admiration, Rei brandished the Death Scythe to attract the Queen Ant’s attention while confirming the figure of Set in the sky.

『Flame, burn the enemy according to my thoughts.』

While saying the incantation, a ball of fire about 30cm in diameter appeared in front of the blade of the Death Scythe. As Rei swung the Death Scythe……he triggered the magic.

『Fireball!』

The ball of flame, similar to the water ball that Set used, flew off at high speed towards the Queen Ant as the Death Scythe swung down.

However, the Queen Ant evaded by dropping to the ground instead of receiving the attack directly. It knew the power of the magic flame after having its body burned by the magical fire snake.

……But, it didn’t know that that was Rei’s aim.

It was lying on the ground. In other words, it was hard for it to make its next movement immediately. And Set, who was waiting in the sky for an opportunity to intervene, dived straight to ground. The Queen Ant watched out for Set at the beginning because of the threat of the water balls but then recognized Rei, who injured it, as the highest threat. So while fighting against Rei, the existence of Set had disappeared from its mind. Moreover, Set had waited for a chance without interfering as the fight between Rei and the Queen Ant intensified. All this for a chance to hit the Queen Ant with a decisive blow. Set did not overlook the rare opportunity that Rei had made.

「Gurururururu~!」

Raising a courageous cry, with his eagle like talons and matchless strength……and with the speed from his dive, he swung them at the Queen Ants head.

A gusha~ sound echoed into the surroundings. The head of the Queen Ant was shattered and pieces of flesh were scattered into the surroundings.

「Gururururu~!」

Set raised a cry of victory. It wasn’t a strange story. It normally isn’t a mistake to determine that it was a victory after the enemy’s head was crushed. However, Set had forgotten about what happened when they fought the Soldier Ants. With their vitality, they would keep moving for a little while even after their head was destroyed.

And the opponent that Rei and Set were fighting was a Queen Ant, a much more powerful existence than the Soldier Ant. Naturally, its vitality exceeded that of a Soldier Ant.

As if to show that, the Queen Ant that had lost half its legs and head raised one of its legs.

As Rei saw the scene in his eyes, he shouted at Set……

「Set, dodge!」

The moment he shouted, he dashed towards Set while raising the Death Scythe.

「Gururu~!」

When Set heard Rei’s shout, he reflexively kicked against the ground to flee to the sky. What was lucky this time was that the Queen Ant’s attack was not swinging down but from the side. Set flew into the sky to evade the attack. The Queen Ant attacked with a single blow, sweeping from the side. It was only a single moment after Set’s victory cry.

The sweeping attack was too slow and cut the air without even scratching Set.

The figure of Rei appeared in front of it.

「Die quietly!」

Hard and fast, the Death Scythe cut through the right hind leg and stinger of the Queen Ant.

「Haah!」

The left hind leg and other remaining leg were cut off by the returning blade. With the Queen Ant missing its head, 6 legs and stinger, all movements stopped for real.

「……」

Because of what happened before, Rei readied the Death Scythe without lowering his vigilance for a few minutes after the Queen Ant stopped moving. At last, after confirming that it wasn’t moving, the tension was finally released.

「Gururu~」

Set, who was flying in the sky, landed and gave a cry with a lowered head, he seemed to be reflecting letting his guard down and putting Rei into a difficult position.

Stroking his head, Rei shook his neck.

「Don’t worry. Though being careless was bad, it hasn’t been long since you were born. It’s good as long as you don’t make the same mistake.」
「Guru~」
「Because I was a bit further away, I noticed it. What about if the positions were reversed?　At that time I’ll need your help Set.」
「Gururu~!」

Leave it to me, Set gave a cry with confidence compared to earlier.

Rei went next to the Queen Ant holding the Death Scythe with a smile on his face.

「Well……how to dismantle this……」

As usual, he took out the Beginners Guide to Dismantling Monsters from the Misty Ring to examine it. However, although there were dismantling methods listed for the Soldier Ants and Imperial Ants, one for the Queen Ant was not listed.

「What to say, the ants with wings were really called Imperial Ants.」

Wasn’t that too simple?　Was what Rei thought, however he didn’t say it out because the names of the magic he used was also simplistic.

「In that case, I’ll put off dismantling it and put it into the Misty Ring……should I keep the magic stone?」

Muttering, he first stored the stinger and legs that he had cut off with the Death Scythe before taking out an iron dagger from the Misty Ring. he thought about how to take the magic stone out.

After losing the legs, stinger and head, only the body was left. Though it was good, the body ended up falling down with softer belly touching the ground. He needed to cut part of the belly in order to retrieve the magic stone.

「Set, sorry but could you overturn the body so that the bottom is facing up?」
「Guru~」

At Rei’s words, Set gave a short cry and turned over the body of the Queen Ant without much difficulty.

Seeing that, Rei was convinced that Set’s raw physical strength was greater than the Queen Ant’s. However, it would still be difficult for Set to win if he fought the Queen Ant. Why was that?

(It would purely be because of Set’s lack of experience. It hasn’t been a week since Set was born, but the Queen Ant has survived among wild animals in this world of Elgin. Same applies to me.)

Given their physical strength and potential, it was strange that it wasn’t possible for Rei and Set to easily kill a C rank monster like the Queen Ant when you thought about things like magic power. But that was if you only considered the difference in performance. However, having thought about it, Set didn’t have much experience as it had only been a week since he was born, as for Rei he only had combat experience after coming to Elgin, so his experience was at the same level as Set. Most aversion to killing had been removed by the fusion, however, the world wasn’t kind enough to let him survive with just that.

(I have to learn.)

Thinking to himself, he swung the iron dagger at the abdomen of the Queen Ant……

Kin~!

The blade was repelled.

「Its like this even though it’s not completely covered by a exoskeleton?……Well, it can’t be helped.」

Returning the iron dagger into the Misty Ring, he pulled out the mithril knife. Pouring magic power into the blade, he inserted it into the abdomen. As expected of an item made from mithril, it went into the Queen Ant’s belly without any resistance.

And Rei searched the inside of the Queen Ant.

「……Hmm?　Is there a heart?」

Originally, insects don’t have an organ called a heart, instead its substituted by a dorsal vessel. Though Rei thought that he would have a hard time looking for the magic stone, it turned out that there was a small heart in the body of the Queen Ant.

「Well, it doesn’t change the fact that the monster is an insect, I wonder if much is said about it?」

While wondering that, Rei took out a magic stone. The magic stone was the size of Rei’s fist, it was almost the same size as the magic stone that they had got from the Water Bear in the Forest of Magic.

「It shouldn’t be much different than the goblin’s magic stone. The colour is yellow, in that case, is it an earth attribute?……Well」

Rei picked up the Death Scythe that was put on the ground while holding the magic stone in one hand.

「Guru~?」
「Sorry Set. I plan to let the Death Scythe absorb the magic stone of the Queen Ant this time.」
「Guru~」

I don’t mind, Set nodded. Smiling at that appearance, Rei poured magic power into the Death Scythe and threw the magic stone into the air.

There was no resistance as the magic stone was cut, the next second, the magic stone disappeared like smoke. This was a method to absorb the magic stone, similar to Set, the disappearance of the magic stone meant that it was absorbed.

【The Death Scythe has learnt the skill『Corrosion　Lv.1』】

A message was announced in the same way as with Set.

The announcement seemed to occur whether Set or the Death Scythe absorbed the magic stone.

「Still, corrosion? Perhaps its from the influence of the formic acid, it’s subtle though.」

Rei stored the body of the Queen Ant in the Misty Ring with a wry smile as he started walking towards the city of Gilm.

It should be noted that Rei got off Set a short distance from the city entrance and walked back so that Ranga wouldn’t complain.
The rewards of the day for the Soldier Ant’s magic stones and materials was 7 silver coins, exceptional for a G rank adventurer.
************************************************
【Set】
『Water Ball　Lv.1』『Fire Breath　Lv.1』

【Death Scythe】
『Corrosion　Lv.1』new

Corrosion: Corrodes metal objects if they are cut several times. The number of cuts required decreases as level increases.

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