A completely unexpected skill acquisition.
For a moment, Rei wondered if he had misheard. As he thought that, he dodged a slash from a Gaemlion’s ears as he swung the Death Scythe out in a flash.
Sliced in two, the Gamelion plunged past Rei, spilling its internal organs all over the place as its body split apart.
Watching it fly past him, he checked the Death Scythe’s skills in his mind.
True enough, the level of Terrain Manipulation had changed from level 1 to level 2.
In other words, he had indeed gained a skill by slicing apart the dungeon core with the Death Scythe.
(What’s going on? Skills learned using Magic Beast Art are supposed to be restricted to one per monster type. I know that’s how the Magic Beast Art works, and I’ve never been able to acquire a skill from the same monster twice.)
While sorting out his thoughts amidst his confusion, Rei directed a sharp glare towards the Gamelions surrounding him.
Seeing his glare, the Gamelions instinctively flinched.
Despite their ferocious nature, after being hunted down so one sidedly, it wasn’t strange for their fear to overpower their ferocity.
……The fact that they still showed no signs of fleeing from Rei was likely because they understood they couldn’t escape from this hall.
All the Gamelions could do was to refrain from initiating any attacks and waiting for an opening to try and turn the tables in a single strike.
(Are magic stones and dungeon cores different? No, it’s only natural they’re different. To begin with, they’re fundamentally different things. ……Does that mean I can acquire a skill from every dungeon core I destroy? So far, I’ve destroyed two dungeon cores with the Death Scythe: the one during the Magic Fever incident and this one. Considering I got a skill from both, it doesn’t seem like I’m wrong. Besides, unlike last time, the dungeon core hasn’t disappeared either……)
After glaring at the Gamelions, he directed his gaze towards the dungeon core.
In the centre of this room was something like a pedestal, and resting on it was the dungeon core, sliced diagonally in half.
The lower half was still on the pedestal, but the upper half that Rei had sliced off had been blown away by the impact and was nowhere to be seen.
Also, unlike during the Magic Fever incident, the dungeon core still physically existed.
He didn’t know if the difference was because the previous one hadn’t fully formed into a dungeon yet, but he still couldn’t help being surprised that the dungeon core remained without vanishing.
(Tch, I probably need to take it with me as proof that I cleared the dungeon…… but looking for it is going to be a pain. Wait, is this dungeon going to collapse? I’d like to think it’s still safe since it was just formed, but I should probably wrap things up as quickly as possible.)
As Rei thought to himself, he looked around at the Gamelions surrounding him…… In that moment, one of the Gamelions that made eye contact with Rei suddenly lunged forward.
「Gaaaaaaaahhhh!」
The Gamelion bared its fangs as it attacked.
If it were an ordinary adventurer, even a warrior would have had to dodge or block it with a shield. But for Rei, clad in the Emperor’s Crimson Armour, catching it with one hand……no, even a single finger wasn’t that difficult.
The fangs aimed at his throat were easily caught in Rei’s hand.
「A far cry from Noiz’s attacks. Well, I suppose it’s just a difference in rank.」
With those words, Rei swung his arm. The sound of something hard snapping echoed out as the Gamelion was thrown away, crashing into its companions and sending them flying together.
Watching it fly away, Rei found himself gripping the fang of the Gamelion he had just thrown.
The fang, broken midway from the root, had snapped from the impact of Rei throwing it.
「How fragile. ……Probably won’t sell for much, huh.」
The fang he held was broken in the middle.
Even if he took it to the guild to sell, a broken fang would likely be appraised at a very low price.
Still, it was better than nothing, and Rei stored it in his Misty Ring. Seeing that the number of Gamelions surrounding him had decreased significantly, he thrust the shaft of the Death Scythe into the ground.
「Terrain Manipulation.」
As he activated the skill he imagined the ground rising, and the next moment, the entire floor of the hall, except for the area immediately surrounding Rei, rose by about 50 cm.
Experiencing the ground suddenly rising, the previously agitated Gamelions all froze as they looked around.
Watching their reaction, Rei spoke while sounding slightly surprised.
「……Huh. It’s been strengthened quite a bit. The range is much wider, and the height I can manipulate the ground to is 50 cm now. If so……Terrain Manipulation.」
He activated the skill again with the shaft of the Death Scythe still thrust into the ground.
The next moment, the ground sank by about 50 cm compared to its original state before he used the skill.
Raised by 50 cm and lowered by 50 cm. Combining the two, the total height difference was a full meter.
Considering that the range which he could manipulate the ground had also widened significantly, it was a skill that could now serve as a formidable weapon for Rei.
「Gaaaaaaaahhhh!?」
「Gaaaaaaaahhhh!」
「Gaaaaaaaahhhh!!」
They likely had absolutely no idea what was happening to them. The surviving Gamelions all let out confused cries.
「I see. Then……Terrain Manipulation.」
He used the skill again to return the ground to its original state.
What was strange was that despite raising and lowering the terrain so drastically, once it returned to normal, there was absolutely no noticeable difference.
The fact that it completely returned to the state before Terrain Manipulation was used was proof that this skill was clearly different from the other skills the Death Scythe had acquired up until now.
(I thought the dungeon core would be my only harvest, but I actually got some pretty interesting things out of this. In particular, the fact that the Death Scythe could acquire another skill from a dungeon core was a happy accident. Terrain Manipulation isn’t a particularly outstanding skill, but if it keeps growing like this, it seems like it will get incredibly strong.)
The image that crossed Rei’s mind was using Terrain Manipulation to instantly destroy an entire army.
No matter who they were, if the ground they stood on suddenly turned into a pitfall tens of meters deep, even an army wouldn’t be able to do a thing.
Most would probably die the moment they fell into the pit, but of course, in this world, there were those who wouldn’t die from a fall of that height.
Against such opponents, he could just mercilessly unleash fire magic into the hole, annihilating them without having to worry about the flames spreading anywhere.
Rei smiled internally as he imagined what he could do with the Terrain Manipulation skill.
However, the Gamelions’ growls quickly brought Rei back to reality.
「Gaaaaaaaahhhh!」
The surviving Gamelions all leaped at Rei in unison.
It was only natural.
Having experienced the bizarre phenomenon of the ground moving up and down, they instinctively sensed that Rei was the one who caused it.
They had to kill Rei no matter what.
If they didn’t kill him, they would be killed.
Having made that judgment, the Gamelions, nearing a state of full panic, lunged at Rei all at once, disregarding their own safety.
Facing such Gamelions, Rei waited with a smile, Death Scythe in hand.
He readied the Death Scythe to slash at the Gamelion that lunged at him first.
「Well, I guess that’s that.」
Muttering, Rei looked around.
The corpses of countless Gamelions littered the ground.
In the centre of the room sat the pedestal holding the dungeon core, its top half still missing.
Rei was the only one left alive.
While observing the room, he deactivated the Fire Emperor’s Crimson Armour.
The red magic power, concentrated to the point of being visible, faded away, as he let out a small breath.
「I ended up getting pretty tired, despite everything. The Fire Emperor’s Crimson Armour didn’t actually use up that much magic power, though.」
Leaning against the pedestal where the dungeon core rested, he took out some cold fruit juice from the Misty Ring and brought it to his mouth.
It was winter outside, but strangely, the temperature inside the dungeon wasn’t that cool.
The temperature inside a dungeon varied depending on the dungeon, for instance, some floors of the dungeon in Exil were deserts, but the dungeon Rei had just cleared seemed to maintain a constant internal temperature.
It could be considered a rather comfortable dungeon.
Of course, his Dragon Robe also had the ability to keep the wearer cool when it was hot and warm when it was cold.
The reason Rei was drinking the fruit juice he had stocked up on during the summer was mostly because slaughtering over fifty Gamelions was just tiring.
A subtle sweetness and a faint sourness. Rei downed the contents of the cup in one gulp, savouring the sweet and sour taste.
Having taken a breather, his next task wasn’t to strip materials from the Gamelions……but simply storing their corpses in the Misty Ring.
If Rei tried to strip the materials from this many Gamelions by himself, it would take days, maybe even weeks, or perhaps more.
If so, it would be faster to hire people from the guild to dismantle them, like he had done before.
……Though, this was a year where Gamelions were said to be scarce. If he brought in this many Gamelions, there was no doubt a considerable number of people would come forward wanting to buy them.
Also, since he had destroyed the dungeon core, it wouldn’t be strange for the dungeon collapsed at any moment.
He touched the Gamelion corpses and stored them in his Misty Ring one by one.
He continued this process for over ten minutes.
When about half of the Gamelion corpses in the hall were gone, something caught his eye.
Something round, yet sliced cleanly midway through, resembling a stone.
Rei’s turned to the pedestal in the centre of the hall.
The cut surface of the object Rei currently held in his hand perfectly matched the cut surface of the dungeon core resting on that pedestal.
「I finally found the rest of the dungeon core. I found it, but…… Well, I’m happy the level of Terrain Manipulation went up, but Set is probably going to be sad.」
Rei and Set, even when separated, could sense when the other acquired a new skill.
In other words, Set undoubtedly knew that the level of Rei’s Terrain Manipulation had increased.
Thinking about that, Rei remembered the promise he had made with Set before entering the dungeon, and Set’s disappointed expression simultaneously crossed his mind.
While feeling a pang of guilt at the thought of Set’s sad face, he reached for the lower half of the dungeon core fixed to the pedestal.
Perhaps because it had already been destroyed, or perhaps it was designed to come off with a light pull from the start. Rei didn’t know the reason, but the dungeon core easily detached when he grabbed it.
「……There’s no point crying over spilt milk. I just hope he’ll forgive me if I feed him some Gamelion meat.」
He stored the dungeon core in his Misty Ring and resumed picking up and storing the Gamelion corpses one after another.
As a result of swinging the Death Scythe freely in the middle of a pack of Gamelions, a considerable number of the corpses had severed limbs, heads, or tails.
There were also a fair number of corpses with their internal organs spilling out from slashed abdomens, and individuals whose fur had been scorched by the Emperor’s Crimson Armour.
「I should have thought a bit more about how I killed them. Well, with this many of them, I suppose it couldn’t be helped.」
Rei thought he should have considered the aftermath a bit more before attacking, as he continued to store the corpses in his Misty Ring one after another.
A while later, after finally storing all the Gamelion corpses into the Misty Ring, he let out a deep breath.
「Alright, that takes care of all my business. I never expected so many Gamelions to be gathered here, but since I don’t have to go Gamelion hunting anymore, I guess it’s two birds with one stone. Also, the reason Gamelions have been so hard to find is because of this dungeon core. If so, now that this dungeon has been cleared, Gamelions should start showing up again. ……So there’s no need to dump these Gamelions on the market, right?」
Rei tilted his head, but he still felt he needed to release at least some of them.
That was how scarce Gamelion meat currently was in Gilm.
「Well, I’ll figure it out once I get back to Gilm. I also need to report that I cleared the dungeon.」
Muttering to himself, he gave the room one last glance and, confirming there was nothing else of note, tilted his head.
「……At the Altar of Inheritance, I think a Silver Lion was guarding the dungeon core, but in this dungeon, were the Gamelions the guardians……acting as the boss? A matter of quantity over quality.」
Rei voiced his doubts, but a pack of ferocious C rank monsters could be considered an exceptional presence for a newly formed dungeon.
Especially since the other monsters present were Goblins, Kobolds, or Ogres, which were were quite small compared to the ones Rei had seen before.
The reason he was able to clear the dungeon so easily was simply because Rei’s extraordinary skills.
Without realising that, Rei left the room before the dungeon started to collapse.