As the pale moonlight poured down, Set ran through the forest at full speed. As a Griffon, he possessed the characteristics of an eagle, the king of the skies, and a lion, the king of beasts. Despite the dim light, Set relied on his sharp blue eyes to safely cut through the forest at a blistering pace.

Rei admired the view as he rode on Set’s back. He held out one of the few remaining Clara fruits to Set while stroking his neck.

「Guru~」

Set gave a joyful cry as he ran, crunching happily on the Clara fruit in his beak.

「According to Zephyr’s knowledge, we should have made it out of the forest a long time ago……」

Rei muttered as he checked their surroundings, as the thick woods seemed to continue endlessly.

(Did the forest really spread this far over a few hundred years? Well, with magic in this world, I suppose it’s possible.)

While reasoning it out in his head, he couldn’t quite shake the uneasy feeling in his chest.

As if trying to ignore the bad feeling, he spoke to Set while stroking his neck.

「Still, you’re amazing, Set. You don’t seem tired at all, even though you’ve been running since morning.」
「Guru~」

Happy that Rei was praising him, Set pushed his speed even further.

A wry smile floated onto Rei’s face, and he couldn’t help but admire the Griffon’s immense physical abilities and his simple-minded innocence.

Since Set had started running, they hadn’t been attacked a single time by beasts or monsters. Early on, they had spotted a three-eyed monkey, a wild boar with 50cm fangs, and rabbits with 1m long blade-like ears. However, they easily shook them all off, as none of them could keep up with Set’s incredible speed through the forest.

For Rei, the main purpose of fighting the Water Bear and the wolves earlier was to gain combat experience. He hadn’t fully grasped the physical limits of his new body yet, and he wanted to secure magic stones to help Set and the Death Scythe grow.

But even though he was tempted to test their strength against other monsters, their highest priority right now was for Set to keep running and get them out of the forest.

「Gurururu~!」

Suddenly, Set gave a sharp cry. Rei could immediately hear the caution in his voice.

「Set, an enemy?」
「Guru~」

Set gave a short cry in response.

However, with his human eyes, Rei couldn’t spot any enemies hidden in the moonlit forest.

Still, preparing to counterattack at a moment’s notice, he drew the Mithril Knife from the sheath at his waist.

「Gurururu~!」

Without slowing his pace, Set sharply turned his head to the left. At the same exact moment, something shot out from the darkness.

「Tch!」

Rei clicked his tongue as he reflexively raised the Dragon Robe to shield himself and catch the incoming object.

It was unfortunate for Rei that the attack came from the left. If it had come from the right, being right-handed, he could have easily intercepted it with the Mithril Knife. On the other hand, he was lucky that the object that hit him was unexpectedly small. Thanks to Set’s stability, Rei didn’t roll off his back.

「Gyi~!」

The creature tangled up in the Dragon Robe let out a shrill cry. Moving the Mithril Knife into his mouth to free his right hand, Rei untangled the creature from the left side of his robe and held it up to his eyes.

「Is this……a flying squirrel?」

At first glance, it had the size and appearance of a normal squirrel, but a thin membrane stretched between its hands and feet. Up to that point, it looked just like the flying squirrels Rei knew from Earth. The difference was its tail. Instead of being large and bushy, this tail was shaped like a sharp blade.

Fortunately, the blade-like tail couldn’t reach Rei while he was holding the creature’s body from the front.

「Gyiii~!」

It menacingly bared its fangs as Rei gripped it. By Rei’s estimation, the fangs growing from its mouth were about 3cm long, which was incredibly large considering the Flying Blade Squirrel (provisional name) was only about 15cm long overall.

Since he didn’t have the time to leisurely search Zephyr’s knowledge in this situation, Rei held the body firmly in his left hand and used his right hand to snap its neck. After confirming it was dead, he stored it inside the Misty Ring.

「Guru~!」

Set gave another sharp cry. Rei grabbed the Mithril Knife from his mouth and thrust it straight at another Flying Blade Squirrel diving at them from above.

With a dull squelch, the Mithril Knife pierced the Flying Blade Squirrel’s forehead. Rei frowned, pulled the knife out, and stored the fresh corpse in the Misty Ring.

A few minutes later, Flying Blade Squirrels were swarming them from everywhere, launching themselves from the treetops and bushes like throwing knives. Catching them with his left foreleg, Set crushed them, tore them apart with his sharp beak, and ate them. However, the Flying Blade Squirrels relentlessly continued their assault, completely uncaring that their companions were dying in droves.

「Damn, there’s no end to them!」

Already growing accustomed to wielding it, Rei flashed the Mithril Knife through the air. A Flying Blade Squirrel was cleanly bisected into top and bottom halves, falling to the ground in an instant.

In this situation, should he prepare a large-scale fire spell and just burn the whole area down? Rei briefly considered it.

「Gururururururu~!」

Hearing Set’s voice trying to draw his attention, Rei shifted his gaze forward. Up ahead, the thick canopy of trees that had seemed endless finally broke.

「The exit. Finally.」

Exhaling in relief, he quickly thrust the Mithril Knife into the body of another Flying Blade Squirrel attacking from a nearby tree. Once it stopped breathing, he tossed it into the Misty Ring.

「Set, if we’ve made it here, it’s safe to fly. Let’s leave these Flying Blade Squirrels behind in one go. Fly!」
「Gururururu~!」

Okay! Set’s high-pitched cry seemed to answer as he expanded the wings he had kept tightly folded until now. Even a single wing was nearly 2m long.

Thanks to their sprint, they already had more than enough speed for a run-up. Maintaining his momentum, Set flapped his massive wings……and a few seconds later, he kicked off the ground. A sudden floating sensation washed over Rei as Set soared high above the trees of the dense forest.

With not a single cloud in the sky, the pale moonlight illuminated the ground below. Set steadily flapped his wings, flying through the open night sky. Perhaps because it was nighttime, there was absolutely nothing else in the air but Rei and Set. Taking in the view, which felt akin to looking out from a private plane, Rei strongly recognised that he truly was in a different world.

However, the peaceful atmosphere didn’t last long.

「Gururururu~!」

Set gave a sharp cry, clearly guarding against something. Hearing the warning, Rei immediately snapped back to reality and keenly observed their surroundings.

「……What?」

As Rei looked back, something unbelievable entered his vision. Innumerable shadows were launching themselves out of the forest, following the exact same trajectory Set had taken. Although he couldn’t count the exact number in the dim moonlight, there had to be around a hundred of them.

Looking at the size of the shadows, he instantly realised what was following them. It was undoubtedly the flock of Flying Blade Squirrels that had been relentlessly chasing them on the ground.

(According to common sense, flying squirrels should only be able to glide from high places. To actually fly under their own power……this really is a fantasy world. Still, we’ve already cleared the forest. In other words, we don’t need to worry about starting a massive forest fire anymore. They’ve been chasing us relentlessly up until now, so it’s time to deal with them.)

He pulled the Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring, angling it carefully so it wouldn’t hit Set’s wings.

It was only the second day since Rei had been reborn into this body. Not only was he sitting on Set’s back while flying, but it was also his first time wielding the massive Death Scythe mid-air. If he swung it unskilfully, he could easily injure Set’s wings. Surviving a fall from this height was highly unlikely.

But things were different now that they weren’t restricted by the forest. Gripping the handle and pointing the 1m blade at the flock of pursuing Flying Blade Squirrels, he began an incantation.

Even though they were out of the woods, they were still in the sky directly above the treeline. If he used a wide-area spell here, he had to strictly limit its range to the sky to avoid collateral damage.

『Dancing flames, dance. Light up the surroundings with your magnificent dance, burn as you dance and captivate the people.』

He specifically designated the spell’s range as he chanted. Finally, he invoked the spell’s name.

『Dancing Fire Snakes!』

The world was rewritten by Rei’s massive magic power, and the spell manifested.

Hundreds of flames, each ten times the size of a human, appeared and began to move freely through the sky. The sheer volume of fire lit up the night brilliantly, creating a scene that truly looked like the flames were dancing. Though the Flying Blade Squirrels caught within the spell resisted desperately, their blade-like tails and sharp fangs were utterly useless against the inferno. Their bodies, completely burnt to cinders, plummeted to the earth. Although some of the creatures smartly abandoned the pursuit and fled back into the forest, the vast majority were caught by the dancing flames and incinerated in an instant. Only a handful successfully escaped Rei’s designated spell range, fleeing back to the safety of the trees without looking back.

A few minutes passed. Once there were no more Flying Blade Squirrels illuminated by the moonlight, Rei snapped his fingers, and the roaring flames vanished as if they had never existed. The only sound left was the rhythmic fluttering of Set’s wings.

「Guru~」

Rei, who had been mesmerised by the spell as if watching fireworks, was brought back to reality by Set’s voice.

「My bad, I was just thinking about something……yeah. For the time being, let’s just get further away from the forest. Then we can take a rest.」
「Gururururu~!」

Set’s cry echoed high in the night sky, right where the Flying Blade Squirrels and flames had clashed just moments ago, and with a powerful flap of his wings, they left the forest behind.

As they flew, Rei anxiously searched Zephyr’s knowledge for any information on the Flying Blade Squirrels. Just like with the Water Bear, the information didn’t exist.

(Why is it turning out like this? First the Water Bear, and now there’s no information on these things either. Even if several hundred years have passed, this feels too incongruous. Could it be……)

A bad feeling bloomed in Rei’s chest. Deciding there was only one way to confirm his suspicions, he carefully shifted the Death Scythe and pulled one of the intact Flying Blade Squirrel corpses from the Misty Ring.

He cut the body open with his Mithril Knife. Sure enough, there was a magic stone several centimetres wide resting in its heart.

「It’s a monster, then. But……」

Rei thought back to the battle in the forest. During the ambush, Set had crushed, bitten, and consumed a considerable number of the creatures. Naturally, Set should have absorbed their magic stones in the process. However, Rei didn’t recall hearing any system announcement regarding a new skill. Just to be sure, he checked Set’s status, but nothing had changed, with only Water Ball Lv.1 listed.

Puzzled, Rei searched Zephyr’s knowledge again.

According to the ancient magician’s memories, it seemed that consuming a magic stone didn’t guarantee a new skill would be learned. In other words, Set acquiring Water Ball after eating just one Water Bear magic stone had been a rare exception.

Furthermore, he discovered a new fact, which was that it was almost impossible to absorb an ability from a magic stone if the monster it belonged to was simply too weak.

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