It had been a few days since he had taught Arctos how to make okonomiyaki. Although Rei had flown out to sea several times after that, he had failed to find any monsters. Since then, he had just eaten, slept, walked around the city buying seafood and training with Set outside the city to make sure his skills didn’t dull. In the end, he decided that the guild should have had enough time to examine the magic stone he had left with them.

「Yes, here is your overnight dried squid. It’s hot, so be careful.」

Of course, he ate seafood with Set on their way to the guild.

「Here, Set. Half for us each.」

「Gururu~」

Set gave a happy cry at Rei’s words. Tearing the squid, wrapped in paper, in half, he gave half to Set, who received it in his beak.

「Hm? This smell……」

As Rei smiled at this, he caught the smell of burning sauce and glanced towards a nearby stall.

It wasn’t Arctos who was there……instead, it was a stall that used to sell hotdogs and sandwiches not long ago. However, there was no longer any bread sold at that stall as it had become a food stall for okonomiyaki.

「The number of okonomiyaki stalls has increased by quite a bit.」

Rei muttered to himself as looked at the surrounding stalls.

The okonomiyaki that Rei had taught Arctos was steadily gaining momentum around Emoshion. One of the reasons for this was that it was easy to eat and unusual. It was also filling, so was great as a snack. However, the biggest reason that okonomiyaki had spread so quickly in such a short time was because of it’s name 『okonomiyaki』, which literally meant cooked however you like. People put in whatever their preference as they cooked it, ranging from seafood such as shrimp, squid, octopus, shellfish and fish to pork, chick, beef and even monster meat. There was a large variety of okonomiyaki.

(That said, the okonomiyaki with bread I had yesterday was a bit much.)

Rei recalled the taste of the okonomiyaki he had eaten from a street stall yesterday as he gave a sigh internally.

The food stall that sold okonomiyaki had previously sold sandwiches, like the stall Rei had glanced at before. However, they had made a terrible mistake and decided to cut up the leftover sandwiches from the previous day and mix them into the okonomiyaki as an ingredient.

(Well, I had seen okonomiyaki sandwiches in bakeries back on Earth, there were also places where okonomiyaki was served as a side dish, so I guess it’s not that strange……)

Shaking his head, Rei bit into his overnight dried squid to overwrite the taste of the okonomiyaki he had the day before.

As they continued walking, they eventually arrived at the guild, where Rei split with Set before entering as usual.

「……There’s a lot less people.」

The was a considerable drop in the number of people in the guild compared to the last time Rei had come. The reason, needless to say, was because the Lemrace had been killed. Even then, Rei hadn’t expected the number of people to drop so drastically.

However, for the guild staff and adventurers of Emoshion, the current situation was the normal one and situation when the Lemrace had been around was the unusual one. Even though the number of people had decreased, that was still only compared to the peak period when the Lemrace had been around, there were still quite a number of adventurers around. Since this port was known as the gateway to the Mireana Kingdom, there were of course many requests that came through, necessitating a greater number of adventurers.

「Ah, Rei-san. I’ve been waiting for you. I’ll call Roseus-san right away, please wait a moment.」

Rei gave a small nod towards the receptionist, who immediately left to the back of the counter after seeing Rei.

「Hey, wasn’t Rei the name of the adventurer who killed the Lemrace? That brat over there?」

「Come to think of it, you only got back by ship yesterday.」

「Yeah. Because of the information on the Lemrace, I’ve been stuck at that other port all this time. Well, I don’t have any complaints with the cost of living there as I was employed that whole time.」

「You had a good employer. Oh, I’ll say this first, you shouldn’t try to mess with him. There were some who insulted him and tried to drag him into something, but most of them are now so injured that it’s no joke.」

「…..That brat?」

「There’s a big difference between how he looks and fights. In fact, from what I’ve heard, he’s a C rank adventurer, but in terms of combat strength, he’s probably better than the B rank adventurers that fought with him to kill the Lemrace.」

「……You got to be lying to me.」

「Well, what do you think? I wasn’t far when he blew apart the head of the Lemrace and I was hired to help dismantle it afterwards and received a good amount of meat from it as a reward, so I’m not going to repay good with evil. In the first place, I think only suicidal people would be stupid enough to mess with someone with a title.」

As Rei waited, listening in to the gossip, Roseus appeared from the office behind the guild counter. It was clear what was inside the cloth bag he held in his hands with great care.

「I’ve been waiting for you. There’s a lot of things I would like to talk with you about but there’s too many people here, so let’s go upstairs.」

「I think that would be best.」

Nodding back in reply, Rei and Roseus both headed up to a meeting room on the second floor.

Even as they climbed the stairs, they received the gazes of many adventurers inside the guild. Rei was already used to people looking at him and Roseus, as someone from higher up the guild administration, was not afraid of this level of attention.

 

 

「Well, first of all, I’ll return the magic stone. Please check if there are any issues.」

As they sat down opposite each other in a meeting room, Roseus immediately handed over a cloth bag as he spoke.

Receiving it, Rei opened it and took out what was inside. Inside was naturally a 30cm diameter magic stone. As far as Rei could tell, he couldn’t see any scratches, so he gave a small nod towards Roseus.

Seeing Rei nod, Roseus gave a sigh of relief. If anything had gone wrong, the entire city of Emoshion might have disappeared, let alone the guild. Although Roseus had been careful about it, there had still been some people who had guessed that he might have had the Lemrace’s magic stone. There were some who had taken the risk to try to steal it, but fortunately, the guild was able to dispose of them. However……

「I asked each guild branch for information on past magic stones they might have seen before, but unfortunately, we couldn’t get much information.」

Yes, there was very little information that could be obtained from the all important magic stone.

They had borrowed the magic stone from Rei and prepared themselves to deal with all the danger because they had hoped to be able to find out any information about the monster they believed to be the Lemrace.

「However, considering the purity of the magic stone and the magic power contained in it, the result from our investigations is that it was at least a B rank monster, as I said when I first received it. The magic distribution of the magic stone is also very similar to that of Sea Serpents, so it was probably a higher ranking Sea Serpent as you predicted. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible for us to find out its likely habitats and how many of them there might be from just the magic stone and its materials.」

「No, I hadn’t expected to find out much anyway. I understood there wouldn’t be much information……but I still wanted to get whatever I could, which is why I agreed to your proposal. Don’t worry about it.」

「Still, even after you lent us this magic stone……」

Roseus’ expression seemed to hold some regret that they were hardly able to get any information from their investigation.

「Well then……if you ever get any information of Lemraces appearing somewhere else, please let me know. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do much, but if I can afford it, I would like to get the magic stone. By the way, other rare species aside from the Lemrace are also welcome.」

「Is that okay? As someone from the guild, it would be a great help if someone like Rei-san’s strength could help us fight against a rare species when we need help……but it’s still a rare species. I’m sure it would be even stronger than the Lemrace you fought.」

「That’s why. It’s usually hard to get rare magic stones. If I could know if one shows up, that would be more than enough for me.」

「……I understand. Fortunately, the city of Emoshion attracts ships from many different places. Because of that, information also comes through in large quantities, so it’s easier to collect information on rare species compared with other guilds.」

Roseus nodded strongly, as if to make up for the lack of information he had been able to provide. It might have all stemmed from his own inability to accept that they were unable to get the results they expected after being entrusted with such a precious magic stone.

「Then, is that all you had to discuss?」

Roseus gave a small nod towards Rei, who stored the magic stone into the Misty Ring as he asked.

「Yes, I’m sorry we didn’t manage to get that much information.」

「Don’t worry about it. From the beginning, if you had found any information at all, that would have been a bonus to me.」

Standing up from his chair, Rei clapped his hand on Roseus’ shoulder to encourage him.

「Well, in that case, the next time I come to the guild will probably to confirm that the Lemrace hasn’t shown up since 10 days ago.」

「Yes, as a resident of this city, I also hope that it will prove that the Lemrace has been subjugated.」

After hearing Roseus apologise and thank him, Rei left the meeting room and returned to the first floor. As all eyes turned to look at him, he immediately left the guild and flew out of the city with Set to absorb the magic stone.

 

It took them 30 minutes of flying away from the city. It was only 30 minutes of flying because of Set, but for ordinary adventurers, it was about a day’s walk.

Although he was requested not to go too far away from the city until it had been confirmed that the Lemrace was gone, he wanted to avoid absorbing the magic stone near the city. Because of that, he found a clearing near a small 1m wide stream where he could return to the city in about 30 minutes.

「Now then, no one should find out about absorbing the magic stones here. ……Let’s be quick, Set.」

「Guru~?」

Seeing the magic stone get taken out from the Misty Ring, Set gave a cry as he tilted his head.

Can I really absorb it? Set seemed to ask.

It was almost certain that a skill could be acquired from it because it was from the Lemrace, a monster that was B rank at worst and maybe A rank at best. Rei had the option of letting the Death Scythe absorb it. Seeing that, Rei patted Set’s head with a small smile on his face as he looked at Set staring back with round eyes.

「I can use fire magic, the Death Scythe and throw spears. If I think about it, it would be better to give you more ways to attack. Don’t worry about it and absorb it Set.」

「Guru~……Gururururu~!」

Set gave a cry of gratitude. With a smile, Rei tossed the magic stone in his hand to Set.

Set caught the magic stone in his beak and swallowed it.

【Set has acquired the skill 『Optical Camouflage Lv.1』】

A familiar voice echoed through his mind.

「Getting a skill was a success, but……optical camouflage?」

Rei tilted his head in confusion at the skill’s name. Set also seemed to be surprised at the skill he had learned as he tilted his head towards Rei.

(It’s true that the Lemrace had the ability to blend into its surroundings. I guess it’s not too much of a surprise if I think about it……?)

Rei thought to himself at the appearance of skill that seemed to be different from what the Lemrace had mostly used before out to Set as it would be easier to just test it than to think about it.

「Set, try out Optical Camouflage now.」

「Guru~」

Hearing Rei’s words, Set moved a short distance away just incase. And……

「Gururururururu~!」

The moment Set gave a loud cry, he disappeared. Set had become invisible in the literal sense.

「This is……」

Muttering to himself, Rei walked over to where Set had been and gently reached out. He felt the smooth texture of Set’s fur in his hands.

「Set, are you there?」

「Gurururu~」

Set answered Rei’s call. Set was definitely there, but he just couldn’t be seen.

As Rei stretched out his hand to Set again, Set suddenly reappeared.

「Hm? What’s wrong?」

「Guru~」

Set shook his head slightly. Seeing that, Rei suddenly thought of something.

「Maybe, there’s a time limit on how long it can be used for?」

「Gururu~」

Set gave a cry as if to say that was the correct answer.

Rei looked surprised for a moment, but soon remembered that Optical Camouflage was still just a Lv.1 skill. He decided that it wasn’t too unreasonable.

「The effect of Optical Camouflage allows you to hide yourself for about 10 seconds. ……It’s a bit short, but it’s different from all the flashy skills we’ve gotten so far. And, if I think about Set’s strength……」

Set, who boasted unrivaled strength as a Griffon in the first place, also had a powerful magic bracelet that enhanced his strength. Even the 30m Lemrace had been smacked to the ground after being hit on the head by him. Considering that, Optical Camouflage, which allowed Set to become invisible, couldn’t be better for Set.

「Next……Set, use Optical Camouflage again.」

「Guru~! ……Gurururu~?」

At Rei’s request, Set gave a cheerful cry, but didn’t disappear. The next moment, Set looked around in confusion.

「Set?」

「Gurururu~」

Set shook his head at Rei’s call. Rei was also confused when he saw that, but suddenly thought of something as he called out to Set.

「If you use it once, you can’t use it again for a while?」

「Guru~」

At Set’s gloomy nod in response, Rei stood up to comfort him with a difficult expression.

「Don’t worry about it. It’s a powerful skill, so if the level goes up, that might solve the problem. Now then, let’s start figuring out the effects of the skill.」

「Gurururu~」

Set nodded at Rei’s words.

In the end, after a series of test, they found that after being used, it would go on cooldown for 30 minutes. Set could also make other things turn invisible with him, but if he used it together with Rei, its duration would be limited to 5 seconds.

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

【Set】

『Water Ball　Lv.2』 『Fire Breath　Lv.3』 『Wind Arrow　Lv.1』 『King’s Awe　Lv.1』 『Poison Claw　Lv.2』 『Size Transformation　Lv.1』 『Tornado　Lv.1』 『Ice Arrow　Lv.1』 『Optical Camouflage　Lv.1』 new

【Death Scythe】

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

Optical Camouflage: Allows the user to become invisible. However, at Lv.1, it is only effective for 10 seconds. Once used, about 30 minutes are needed before it can be used again. In addition, any objects the user also touches will become invisible, but if another person is also made invisible, the duration it lasts for will be cut to about 5 seconds.

[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]