She avoided the the scissor like attack rapidly approaching her. However, as if waiting for that moment, sharp poisonous needles rained down on her from above.

Certainly, it was an attack that would be impossible to avoid normally. However, she was an exception.

Activating the Shoes of Sleipnir, magic shoes, she leapt to the side in mid air. At the same time, she made a second jump in mid air, forcibly closing the gap to the monster attacking him using a triangle jump as she poured magic power into the weapon in her hands.

Due to the magic power poured into it, her sword whip changed from its usual long sword form into its whip form, stretching past the huge 6m long scorpion monster and slicing all four legs from its right side, including its large pincer.

Of course, missing all its right legs and pincer, the scorpion monster could no longer stand and lost its balance as half its body collapsed into the desert.

「Rei!」

Rather than retreating after landing on the sand, Elena used the Shoes of Sleipnir to jump back in the air as she shouted at Rei.

Hearing her shout, Rei activated the magic he had already prepared, shooting the same fire arrows he had used to kill the Sandworm at the scorpion.

As Pleaides had warned them, when the scorpion first appeared, that the pincers, tail, and head were useful materials, Rei targeted the scorpion’s body, piercing and carbonising its worthless shell.

Set, who had been close to Rei to guard him, gave a cry at the scorpion, which had turned into a burnt scorpion in the matter of a few seconds.

The fragrant scent coming from it seemed to have stimulated Set’s appetite.

Seeing Set like that, Rei stroked his head with a smile.

「It’s been less than an hour since we’ve had lunch. Be patient.」

「Guru~……」

At Rei’s words, Set gave a disappointed cry.

Seeing the two of them like that, the three members of Pleaides’ party grew noisy again.

「No way, to kill a Grand Scorpion so easily. Even if it looks like that, it’s still a D rank monster. And, on the 11th floor, it’s a monster that reigns at the top of the food chain.」

「If it’s only D rank, it’s not that much of a problem. Even if I look like this, I’m still a B rank adventurer. Even Elena wouldn’t have a hard time against D or C rank monsters.」

「That might be true, but you still have to keep your guard up.」

At Rei’s words, Elena flicked her sword whip to get the blood of the Grand Scorpion off it as she spoke.

After taking a break and eating lunch inside the magic tent, a Grand Scorpion had suddenly attacked Rei’s group as they had been making their way to the 12th floor. However, it couldn’t deceive Set as he watched from the skies. The Grand Scorpion had been planning to ambush them, but ended up being the one ambushed instead.

Elena was in the vanguard and Rei was in the rearguard. As was before lunch, Rei kept Yellow inside his Dragon Robe and waited at his position to avoid rapid movements. As a result, they were able to kill the Grand Scorpion easily.

In their current state, Pleaides and Otis had their own weapons and Sharl had recovered some magic power since the fight with the Sandworms a long while back. However, the battle ended so quickly that there was no need for them to do anything.

(It took them less than a minute from the start of the fight to finish it. No wonder he managed to earn himself a title. No, if I think about it, Elena is also the same. To be able to work together with Rei, she’s not inferior in any way.)

Pleaides, who didn’t know Elena’s identity, thought to himself. His two other party members were probably thinking the same thing.

Each of them looked at each other and silently nodded, trying to capture the strength of those much stronger than themselves in their eyes.

Although he noticed the three of them looking like that, Rei decided it wasn’t much of an issue to him as he looked at the legs and pincer that had been sliced off as well as the body of the Grand Scorpion with a hole through it, made by the fire arrows. He called out to Pleaides.

「What do we do to dismantle this monster?」

「Well, the right eye of the Grand Scorpion is its own material as well as being the proof of subjugation. The pincer can be used to make weapons and armour, and the poison needles have many uses. The poison needles have uses particularly as an alchemy material. It can also be used to make poisons for weapons or as a powerful antidote material. The organs that produce the poison can also be sold at a high price. The scorpion’s poison is very strong, so you have to be careful when handling it.」

With Pleaides’ advice, Rei and Elena worked together to strip materials from the Grand Scorpion.

Rei could have stored the entire corpse into the Misty Ring and slowly stripped off materials at a later point, but since there were experienced people with him now, he decided to strip the materials on the spot.

Rei used his material stripping knife to take out the right eye, the proof of subjugation.

Wouldn’t it be possible to claim subjugation of two monsters if you used the left and right eyes? Rei thought that, but after removing the left eye, he soon understood.

It was because the right eye had many little yellow fluorescent spots while the left eye had no such spots.

「Ah, you understand now? The spots that only appear in the Grand Scorpion’s right eye are crystallised magic power. It’s not known why, but they can only be found in the right eyes of Grand Scorpions. In alchemy……it seems to be particularly useful in increasing the sharpness of blades.」

Sharl spoke to Rei as he compared the two eyes.

「Is it a rare material?」

It could be a high quality rare material because it could only be obtained from Grand Scorpions on the 11th floor. Rei asked as he thought that way, but Sharl shook her head lightly.

「There are quite a few materials from other monsters with similar effects, so it’s not that expensive. That said, there’s still enough demand to be able to sell it.」

「……So that’s how it is.」

Seeing that it wasn’t something expensive, Rei just stored it into a glass bottle container, used to hold internal organs, that he took out from the Misty Ring

「Hey, that container itself is a pretty good quality magic item. You’ve got some good stuff.」

Maybe because Rei had shown a number of rare magic items such as the Misty Ring and a magic tent, Sharl was quite interested in Rei. This was in contrast to Pleaides, who was giving instructions on how to strip off materials, and Otis, who was advising Elena on how to do it.

「Gurururu~」

Set gave a cry and turned a greedy gaze to the Grand Scorpion lying in the desert, emitting a fragrant smell after being burnt by Rei’s fire arrows.

「This part of the pincer looks sturdy, but……you see, if you put a blade in along the joint like this, you can cut it quite easily.」

「Yes, I see. In other words……like this?」

As Otis had told her, Elena inserted the dagger blade along the pincer joint, easily cutting through it.

Although she had been shown how to do it, Elena’s sense for it was good enough that you wouldn’t think her unused to stripping materials.

After that, Rei and Elena took out the magic stone from the heart, cut away the poison needles from the tail, and stored away the internal organs that were used to make poison.

Finally, the remains of the Grand Scorpion’s flesh were eaten by Set, leaving only a shell behind as they resumed their journey.

「You know, the item box Rei has is amazing. Where did you get such a rare item?」

「I got it from my master that taught me magic.」

「……What a generous master. I’d like to be their apprentice as well.」

「Hey, Sharl. There’s no way Rei-san’s master would accept an apprentice with such a greedy reason. Don’t tell me you’re talking nonsense just because of the hot weather.」

Although they were magic items, there was a limit to how much the cloaks they were wearing could drop the temperature. The cloak worn by Pleaides was a little better than the one Elena was wearing, so it could reduce the temperature by almost 10C. But, considering the desert temperature was well above 40C, it was only a temporary relief.

However, if you wanted to buy a cloak with higher performance, there was naturally a matching price as it wasn’t an everyday magic item. Because it was a labyrinth city, you could buy one at a cheaper price than other cities, but there was still a limit.

The heat, which would be better called burning rather than hot, was tough even for Otis and Sharl, who were accustomed to working on the desert floors. Otis couldn’t help but retort at Sharl’s words, despite the heat.

However, Sharl just sighed in response.

「Well, I’m definitely interested in the magic items Rei’s master has, but I’m more interested in his ability to teach. Didn’t you see it Otis? You saw the power of Rei’s ridiculous magic. If I could use that kind of magic, it would really boost the party’s strength.」

「……So, how long would it take you to finish your training? On that note, how long did Rei have to train for?」

Otis picked up a water bottle from her waist and asked while placing a straw in her mouth.

She carried her bow in her hand and a quiver on her back. It wasn’t possible for her to let go of her bow as it was her primary weapon, but she held it to the side as she sipped some water from her bottle.

On a side note, the water inside the bottles of Pleaides’ group had all be replaced with water from Rei’s Dagger of Flowing Water while they had been in the magic tent.

Rei shrugged his shoulder as he replied to Otis, who tasted the heavenly dew that moistened her throat while being careful not to drink too much.

「I was brought up by my master for as long as I can remember, so at least 10 years.」

「……That’s pointless isn’t it? Or will Sharl leave our party for 10 years? In that case, that’s officially rejected. That would just be troublesome.」

「Well, I wouldn’t be training until I have the same power as Rei. I mean, leaving Exil……」

Elena looked over at Rei as she saw the two of them arguing like that.

She knew the truth that Rei’s ‘master’ didn’t exist, so it would be hard for her to say anything.

Rei gave a sigh and spoke up as he walked along the sand.

「In the first place, I was forced away from the place I was living at using transfer magic. Moreover, I had been living in a place inside the mountains where there were no people. Even if you ask me to introduce you to my master, it’s impossible for me.」

「……Whaaat, then I guess it can’t be helped.」

Sharl gave an involuntary sigh at Rei’s words.

「Well, it’s impossible to get stronger so easily. I’ve been training every day to master the spear……oh, I can see it.」

Pleaides spoke as he thrust his spear into the desert sand like a staff when a familiar sight appeared.

However, when Rei and Elena looked over at the same direction as Pleaides, they could only see desert, rocks, and cacti, the same as before.

「What can you see?」

Because of that, Rei couldn’t help asking Pleaides what he had seen. Pleaides seemed confused……but he soon nodded after realising something.

「Not just the 11th floor, but all the desert floors, the stairs are exposed, unlike on the 10th floor. ……I wonder why they aren’t buried by the sand. Well, I guess it’s because it’s a dungeon. Look closely at the rocks over there.」

At his words, both Rei and Elena stared closely. They immediately realised what Pleaides was saying. Next to a rock at the end of their line of sight, there were stairs leading to the next floor.

「……Well, that was unexpected.」

Even though he had already been told about it, Rei couldn’t help but say that when he saw the exposed stairs.

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