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Chapter 469

From the banks of the oasis, a very fragrant smell wafted out.

It wasn’t necessary to look for where the smell was coming from.

It was coming from the Earth Crab in front of Rei’s group, which he had burned to death from inside out.

「……Well, it smells pretty good, doesn’t it?」

「Mmm.」

「Guru~」

Rei spoke those words involuntarily, but both Elena and Set responded in agreement without any objections.

「Gurururu~?」

Can’t we eat it? Rei was lost in thought for a moment when Set asked with tilted head.

From previous experience, Rei knew that it would be fine to eat if it hadn’t be struck by Set’s poison claw. However, the problem was the stimulating scent that was wafting out.

The scent not only spread out near them, but into the surrounding area as well.

In other words, the scent had spread far enough not just to reach Rei’s group, but to other monsters as well.

「Oh, we’re too late.」

「Gururu~!」

Sensing a large number of approaching creatures, Rei decided that there was at least still some time and hurriedly stored away the legs, claws, and cooked body of the Earth Crab.

It felt a little hot to touch the shell, but it wouldn’t have been an issue for an ordinary person, let alone for Rei.

Elena and Set kept guard while Rei stored everything away. As soon as he finished and picked the Death Scythe back up, the monsters attracted by the smell appeared through the trees.

「……Hah?」

However, what came out of Rei’s mouth upon seeing the monsters was a rather stupefied voice.

The monsters that he had fought with so far had been the Earth Crab and Bloodydiles. However, the Bloodydiles had all be on the verge of death, so he couldn’t really say he had fought them.

Anyhow, since such monster had already appeared, Rei had expected the approaching monsters to be enemies with considerable strength.

However, what appeared from the trees instead were bipedal monsters with the heads of dogs.

In their hands were weapons such as swords, spears, hammers, and axes, that looked like they were either stolen from adventurers or created using monster materials. They also wore armour that was made tree and monster materials.

Seeing these monsters on this floor gave Rei a strange feeling.

Yes, these monsters were called……

「What? Kobolds?」

As far as Rei knew, Kobolds were a well known monster, along with Goblins and Orcs.

Ever since coming to Elgin, Rei had fought against Goblins and Orcs, but he had never encountered a Kobold.

In that sense, he could be considered quite lucky, but he still had many doubts about why they were on this floor.

(All things considered, how can Kobolds survive on this floor? Ordinary areas aside, on the desert floors, monsters are mercilessly attacking each other. And yet, E rank Kobolds……no, they’re not ordinary Kobolds?)

「Gururururururu~」

Set’s cry held a similar feeling……however he wasn’t as confused as Rei was.

There were about 30 Kobolds in total.

They faced each other at a distance of about 5m. The Kobold in the lead, whether due to impatience or perhaps unable to bare the tension, eventually swung its spear.

The act seemed to be an attempt to intimidate Rei.

However, that was a mistake. To begin with, there was no one here nerves so delicate that they would be afraid of such a monster that even novice adventurers wouldn’t fear.

「Well then, what do you think? I give them credit for not attacking us immediately.」

「Kobolds work well in groups. I’ve seen nobles get injured because they underestimated Kobolds. Don’t let your guard down.」

Although they had tried to intimidate Rei’s group, the Kobolds were immediately hostile. Seeing that, Elena asked Rei how he intended to deal with them.

Unlike Rei, Elena had already assumed that a fight was inevitable, having fought Kobolds before.

Kobolds not only inherited the physical heads of dogs, but also some of their characteristics. That is to say, they attacked enemies in packs when hunting, similar to wild dogs and wolves.

「Gururu~」

Set didn’t know much about Kobolds, but he sensed the presence of several of them circling and surrounding them from a further distance.

He gave a cry to alert Rei and Elena, who had also noticed that the Kobolds were trying to surround them.

「I see, did they survive on this floor with careful preparation?」

「Well, I guess. But……they’re still to naive to deal with us!」

As soon as she shouted, Elena her sword whip and cut down an arrow that had been flying towards her from behind.

That was probably a signal. The Kobolds, which had been observing the situation, immediately attacked Rei and the others.

The Kobold at the front thrust its spear as it ran forward. Its target was was Set, probably because their Kobold instincts recognised that he was the most powerful enemy present.

Both Rei and Elena boasted of a fighting power as good as Set’s, but there were ignored potentially due to their appearance.

That said, considering the difference in their abilities, the Kobolds were still overwhelmingly weaker. Still, the Kobold’s attack was filled with determination and it was prepared to sacrifice itself to help its fellow Kobolds.

「GURURURURURU~!」

Instead of striking the spear or avoiding it, Set leapt forward as he used Evil Eye Impact.

A moment later, an impact struck the Kobold’s face, ripping open its skin and tearing its flesh, spraying blood everywhere.

「GAU-!」

After being struck, the Kobold screamed as it collapsed to the ground and started rolling about.

The Kobold was quite unlucky as the Evil Eye Impact released by Set was still low level and wasn’t very strong.

If it had been a little more powerful, the Kobold would have died in a single blow. However, because of its low power, it didn’t kill the Kobold, causing it to roll along the ground while screaming in pain.

「GAUuuuUuUU-!」

Set opened his beak and used fire breath to kill the Kobold.

His fire breath spread out over a wide area, not only engulfing the Kobold on the ground but also the other Kobolds around it.

『Wind Arrow!』

A short distance away from Set, countless invisible wind arrows rained down on the Kobolds, shot by Elena.

『Flame, you are a burning hand, your strike is like a sword. Exert your strength along my desired path.』

Along with Rei’s incantation, flames grew out from the bottom of the Death Scythe’s shaft as it took up the shape of a sword.

『Flame Sword Slash!』

Rei activated the magic at the same time he swung the flaming sword.

However, his attack did not burn or slice through any Kobold, it simply struck air.

「Gau?」

Seeing that, one of the Kobolds tilted its head and let out a suspicious cry, unsure of the purpose of Rei’s attack.

However, the next instant, the purpose of Rei’s attack became clear.

A red line was drawn across the ground along the path of Rei’s flaming sword, from which flames shot up from the feet of the Kobolds that had stepped on it. The Kobolds at the front were all engulfed in flames.

The flames that burst from their feet spread to their ankles, knees, thighs, waist, belly, and then chest, causing them to fall the ground screaming in pain with half charred bodies.

Such was the fate of any Kobold that stepped on the red line drawn by the flaming sword.

Seeing their fellow Kobolds burned from under their feet, the rest stopped moving, unable to comprehend what had happened to them.

……Yes, as Rei expected, he managed to create a wall of burned dead Kobolds.

「SET!」

「GURURURURURURURU~!」

At Rei’s words, Set gave a cry and used fire breath again. From behind the Kobolds.

A moment earlier, Set had been using fire breath next to Rei, but as soon as Rei had activated his magic, Set had jumped forward, leaping off a nearby tree and landing directly behind the Kobolds, creating a pincer attack.

Set’s fire breath burned the Kobolds to the ground.

The Kobolds that were near the edge of the fire breath tried to escape it, but were blocked by the absolute line of defence created by magic, that would burn them if they so much as stepped on it.

The only ones that managed to escape were a small group to the right.

Those on the left were unable to escape from Elena.

The sword whip of the General Princess cut through multiple Kobolds with each swing, slicing them in half.

If the Kobolds on the right had no way out, they might have at least tried to attack Rei like a cornered rat.

However, with a path of escape available to them, they would rather run away to save their own lives.

Eventually, they succeeded in killing about 90% of the Kobolds, including those that had tried to surround them.

「……Phew, I guess it’s over.」

Storing away the Death Scythe, Rei looked at the surrounding area, which was filled with dead Kobolds.

There were those who had been burned to death and those who had been slashed.

Looking at all the corpses, Rei decided that it was probably still a good thing that the Kobolds attacked them as he started to store them into the Misty Ring.

(It would have been more of a struggle if it had been a different type of canine monster, like a Werewolf.)

Rei thought to himself.

Kobolds were humanoid monsters with canine characteristics while Werewolves were capable of transforming between human and monster forms.

「I’ve stored away all the dead Kobolds, let’s leave this place before more monsters are attracted by the smell.」

「Guru~」

Set gave a cry in agreement and Elena nodded her head as well.

「I agree. Since this is an oasis, there is no small possibility that monsters will come here to drink. If we get into a fight with more monsters repeatedly, causing more monsters to be drawn here……it will become physically and mentally exhausting.」

「……We were just looking for fruit to eat, I don’t know how everything ended up like this.」

Rei muttered with a wry smile. As he raised his head, Rei suddenly noticed the same kind of fruit he had previously found hanging from a tree ahead.

「Rei? What’s wrong?」

Seeing Rei suddenly stop, Elena called out to him questioningly.

「Elena, Set. ……Over there.」

Looking in the direction Rei pointed them in, Elena and Set also had surprised expressions.

It seemed like neither of them had expected to find the fruit here.

In front of them were two fruits, the reason for all the fierce fighting they had been dragged into so far.

「Ha-hahah~. Hahahahahahah~.」

Rei let out an involuntarily laugh at this situation.

「Fufu~, what’s so funny?」

Elena said that to the laughing Rei, but she had a similar smile on her face.

「Elena, you’re laughing too. Kuku~, even if there’s nothing funny about it……」

「Gururu~」

The situation was nothing particularly special. However, smiles still leaked from their faces.

Their smiles which were about to go away came back again as Set gave a cry to urge them to quickly pick up the fruit.

「Guru~?」

What’s going on? Set seemed to ask with a cry. After five minutes, Rei and Elena’s urge to laugh eventually subsided. Riding on Set, Rei flew up to the tree and plucked the two fruit that were growing.

However, although the fruit were delicious, Rei and Elena didn’t feel like eating them right away. Storing them into the Misty Ring, the two of them had to comfort Set, who had wanted to eat the fruit right away, as they got moving.