About 20 minutes after getting out of the forest, they arrived at a wide gra.s.sland. Getting off at a particularly big rock, Rei let out a big breath.
「I feel relieved for now, something like that.」
「Guru~」
He sat down on the gra.s.s while leaning against the rock. Set came and rubbed his head while giving a deep cry.
A smile floated on to his face as Rei scratched his head.
「Set, I was somehow able to get out of the forest thanks to you.」
「Gururu~」
Don't mind it, the cry seemed to say.
「We will stay here tonight for now. We'll look for people, a village or a town tomorrow. ...However, according to Zepairu's knowledge, there doesn't seem to be any towns or villages in this area ...well, what to do.」
Doubt spread in his heart. There was no information in Zepairu's knowledge on either the Water Bear or the Flying Blade Squirrel.
Certainly, if there was a gap of several hundred years, the information might be imperfect. However, he wondered why there was no information on the two monsters they successively met in the area. There was information on the wolves as they were a common beast, so the knowledge wasn't completely untrustworthy. Also, the size of the forest was different. According to Zepairu's knowledge, the forest should have been smaller. It took him riding on Set a bit less than 10 hours to get out...it wasn't the same scale
「Guru~?」
「Oh well. There's no use worrying. For the time being, let's just eat something and prepare for tomorrow. Set, bring me the tree over there.」
Glancing at a medium sized tree which had fallen over, he asked Set to bring it over, he then took the arm parts of the Water Bear out of the Misty Ring.
He took out the bear paws because from his own knowledge he had a faint memory that the meat there was delicious.
The right arm of the Water Bear that was taken out was chopped into pieces by the mithril knife, he then pierced the meat with branches from nearby dead trees.
「Gururururu~」
When about 10 meat skewers were made, Set came back, rolling a fallen tree with his forefeet.
Looking at the situation, he was impressed by Set's strength. He took out the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring while.
「This is the first time I've cut firewood with a scythe...I wonder what Zepairu would say if he knew.」
While smiling wryly, he poured magic power into the blade. One strike, two strikes, three strikes, the fallen tree was cut into small firewood pieces .
After a sufficient amount had been gathered, he casted a spell to prepare a fire.
『Fire, gather on my fingertips. Small Flame』
A flame appeared and spread to the firewood. The bear meat skewers that where made before were stabbed into the ground a moderate distance from the fire. With that the camp preparations were complete.
Because there were no camping gear such as sleeping bags or tents in the Misty Ring, the fire became their friend for the night.
「Gururu~」
The flames immediately began to cook the meat. As Set smelled the appetizing fragrance, he drifted closer to Rei.
I can't wait, Set seemed to say. With a wry smile, Rei gave him some of the raw meat that hadn't been skewered.
「Eat this for now until the meat is cooked.」
「Guru~」
Taking the raw meat with his beak, he swallowed it after chewing a few times. He then pleaded at Rei with his blue eyes for another piece of meat.
(If you eat like a human, you better chew well. I wonder about griffons.)
He fed Set like this for about 5 minutes. At last, the meat was cooked by the fire, he pulled the skewer out of the ground and bit into juicy meat.
It was the first time Rei had tasted an overwhelmingly mellow meat. Before, Rei had eaten some bear meat from a bear which had been killed by a hunter who lived close by. His impression at the time was『Well, it's not unpalatable...I think?』 or something like that. The bear meat that Rei knew and the meat of the Water Bear was so different in taste that he could have mistaken it for something else. When he dismantled the body and took out the magic stone, the blood had been drained. The faint smell of blood that remained, added with the peculiar taste of wild meat, gave a rich flavour.
His only regret was that it was purely a meat taste as there was absolutely no seasoning. The flavour was likely to change even with a little bit of salt.
In fact, Rei didn't know, but the meat of higher level monsters tended to be more delicious because of their magic power. But in the end, a tendency is still a tendency, there were monsters with unpalatable meat even if their magic power was high, there also existed delicious meat from low level monsters. In a sense, he was also lucky to that the first meat he ate was the meat of a Water Bear.
「Gururu~」
Giving one to himself, he held out a skewer to Set, who pushed his face closer and took the meat off dexterously with his beak. Rei considered situation for a moment as he looked at the meat in Set's mouth. Satisfied with his meal, he then took out a Clara Fruit, as a replacement for dessert, and bit into it.
Quickly eating the sweet and sour fruit flesh and juice, Rei stood up and held the Death Scythe horizontally as Set had his eyes glued to the raw meat that was left.
「Guru~?」
Set noticed Rei's gaze, but went back to focusing on the meat after determining there was no danger in the surroudings.
Smiling wryly at Set's actions, he moved a bit further away. Leaning the Death Scythe against a rock nearby, he began to stretch to ascertain the condition of his body.
Although the body of Reiji in his memory had a decent flexibility, Rei's body was even more flexible than expected.
Firstly, he could touch the ground with his palms without bending his knees, in addition, he still had room to spare.
Then, for a few minutes, he did some suitable stretches that he had learnt in junior high school and high school.
「Now, with this I'm warmed up.」
Saying so, he took the Death Scythe which had been leaning against a rock and took a stance using both hands.
「Hah!」
One yell, one strike. The blade of the Death Scythe split the sky. However, he felt something was off and set the Death Scythe up again while tilting his neck.
「Hah!」
Again, one yell, one strike. This time, the twist of the body was different from before. When he swung the Death Scythe down, he consciously turned his waist, this was done to accurately transmit the motion to the Death Scythe.
「Well, something like this.」
Understanding how to handle the Death Scythe, he then did two different swings. Side sweeping from left to right and sweeping inversely from right to left. He then endlessly tried any swings he could come up with, such as scooping from below, tirelessly.
He persisted in this state for about 30 minutes. At first, he handled the Death Scythe awkwardly with brute force. But as time went on, the handling became increasingly smooth. It can be imagined that if soldiers and swordsmen could see the speed, they would be jealous.
The Death Scythe was swung down and stopped just before hitting the ground, he then flipped the blade back up and to the right.
If that series of attacks was used against a human, they would first be cut diagonally by the scythe, their right arm would then be cut off by the next strike and their neck separated from their body with one sweep.
The scythe was then moved continuously, sometimes he would do tricky movements and use the handle as a spear like against the Water Bear. After a while, he became used to the handling of the Death Scythe.
At first, Rei stopped after one swing before swinging again, now there was no awkward movement, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it was now like a sword dance. A single sweep of the blade was sharp and cut through the air, the handle had enough power to penetrate through low quality armour with a single blow.
Rei focused and continued the movements which were like a sword dance of death. As his movements sharpened...
「Haaaaatsu~!」
With one yell and one strike, the Death Scythe stopped and was placed beside him.
「Phew, I've roughly accustomed myself to it.」
It was already a few hours since he started training with the Death Scythe. Even though he used the ability of the Death Scythe and could hardly feel its weight, Rei had continued to swing around the large scythe without once taking a break.
「As expected of the body that the world's best magicians crafted. You can continue to keep moving without losing your breath.」
Although there was a bit of sweat on his forehead, it was something you could barely see.
Returning to the camp fire with the Death Scythe, Set was about to toss a piece of firewood in with his beak. All the meat had already been eaten off the Water Bear's right arm, the only remains were the bones which rolled on the ground.
「Gururu~」
Welcome back, Set gave a short cry as he saw Rei.
Unlike normal griffons, Set had an intellect similar to or higher than humans because of Rei's extraordinary magic power. This might be evidence that he could understand Rei's words. While Rei was confirming his physical specifications, Set, who wanted to be spoiled, endured patiently as he knew his master was training to use the unwieldy weapon that was the Scythe.
So.
「Set, can you make some water?」
「Gururu~!」
When asked by his much loved Rei, he used Water Ball happily.
The water ball that Set created floated buoyantly and stopped in front of Rei. Rei put his hand in and scooped water out to wash his face.
「...Ah, d.a.m.n it. There isn't a towel.」
He immediately noticed his mistake and decided to leave the water on his hands to dry naturally.
「Guru~」
Set gave a spoiled cry as Rei sat down on the ground and leaned his body against him.
While rubbing Set's head, he began to think of tomorrow's schedule.
(For now, we will still look for a town or village as originally intended...but which way to go? Fortunately or not, we haven't discovered anything that could be called a highway after leaving some distance from the forest. In the end, we may have to treat the forest like some sort of new frontier.)
Even if you said that he inherited the knowledge of Zepariu, things like a map of j.a.pan or a world map were not included. He could roughly state where the next country was, it was over the mountain range...however, it was only information.
And even such information was several hundred years old and could not be used as a reference in the current situation.
(If my bad feeling is correct, most of Zepairu's knowledge is likely to be useless.)
There was no information on the monsters we met or on the difference in the size of the forest. When thinking about it, it is likely that hundreds more years have pa.s.sed than what Zepairu said.
「Well, this can be ascertained if we go to a town or village.」
「Guru~?」
What's wrong, Set seemed to say. Rei shook his head and said it wasn't much while scratching his head.
「Anyway, that's tomorrow. Let's look for a place with people when tomorrow morning comes.」
「Guru~」
「Can I count on you for the lookout?」
「Guru~!」
Leave it to me, Set gave a cry. After hearing that, Rei was wrapped in silky feathers and fell asleep in the comfortable warmth