「It’s quite a bit easier walking here compared to the 11th floor.」
Rei muttered as he stepped on the ground several times to check how it felt.
Unlike the desert on the 11th floor, it was solid ground.
The sand didn’t catch his feet nor did his feet sink into the sand.
「That’s true. This is overwhelmingly easier to walk on.」
「Gururu~」
Elena also felt out the ground as she wore her cloak. Set gave a cry in agreement.
After finishing an early lunch, they spent 10 minutes exploring the 12th floor.
At first, Elena had wondered if it was only easier to walk because the ground around the small room had been compacted. But after walking through the rocky desert for a bit longer, she was surprised at the difference compared to the 11th floor’s sandy desert.
「The fact that it’s easier to walk on also means it’s easier for monsters to move about though.」
「True, I guess we’ll need to watch out for that. Set, please search carefully.」
「Guru~!」
At Rei’s words, Set gave a sharp cry as he kept guard while pacing about.
With Set scouting ahead, Rei and Elena followed after him.
This continued for about an hour……
「Isn’t it strange……that there’s been nothing so far?」
「Yeah. Is this normal for this floor? Or is there something wrong? …….Well, I wonder which it is.」
Looking around, not even the shadow of a monster could be seen.
「GURURURURU~!」
Set gave a loud vigilant cry.
Rei took the Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring and Elena unsheathed her sword whip, but there were no enemies in sight anywhere.
However, Set didn’t let his guard down and eventually, Rei and Elena noticed something approaching.
「Above-!」
Rei sensed ferocious killing intent directed towards him as he swung the Death Scythe straight up.
The attack seemed to cut through the air itself, but it seemed like the enemy had sensed the danger of his weapon. The monster, which had descended on Rei like a lightning bolt, somersaulted in mid air with a threatening cry before soaring into the sky again.
「SHAAAAAAAA-!」
It was only then that Rei’s group were able to finally see the monster attacking them.
It was a snake over 2m in length. However, it had three pairs of wings growing from its back.
They weren’t the wings of a bird, but closer to wings that a bat would have.
Information that Rei had heard from Pleaides entered his mind.
「That has to be……a Skyfang!」
As if in response to his words, the monster did a flip in the air and bared its 30cm long fangs as it gave a menacing cry.
According to what they had heard from Pleaides, it was one of the strongest, if not most ferocious, monster that appeared on the 12th floor.
They were always hungry no matter how much they ate and, because of their ferociousness, they would devour everything they saw. Among the monsters that appeared on the desert floors down to the 15th floor, it was one of the highest ranking in terms of danger.
「With something like this here, it’s no wonder there aren’t any other monsters around.」
The Skyfang was so ferocious that it would even bite monsters bigger than itself. It was easy to guess that all other monsters would have fled the area after seeing it.
However, the fatal mistake of the Skyfang, a flying snake, was to be unable to endure its hunger and attack Rei’s group……or more precisely, Set, a Griffon, the reaper of the skies.
「GURURURURURU~!」
With a cry, Set soared into the sky after flapping his wings and running several steps.
The Skyfang bared its huge fangs as it went to attack Set.
Although it understood that Set was a higher ranking monster than itself, it was already unable to stop itself due to its hunger. No, rather, judging that Set would be more satisfying to eat as a larger monster than itself, it flapped its six wings as it weaved through the air to attack Set. ……Or at least it tried to attack Set.
「Flying Slash-!」
「HAAAAH-!」
Until a flying slash flew up from the ground and a magic empowered sword whip attacked it.
Whether it was Rei or ELena, while they were both vanguard fighters, they also had plenty of ways to attack from range, whether through magic, a sword whip, or other weapons.
The enemies that the Skyfang had attacked and eaten so far had only used a bow and arrow or throwing daggers as range weapons at best. Those were easy for it to defend against with the scales it boasted.
Of course, there were parties on this floor that also had skilled mages, warriors, and archers, but this Skyfang had never run into them.
That said, if it had fought one of those parties, it wouldn’t have survived to this point.
「SHA-SHAAAAAA-!」
As if to stop its attack, the flying slash passed right in front of its nose and the Skyfang used its wings to move back on reflex. However, as if to stop him, Elena’s sword whip slashed through the space behind the Skyfang, robbing its escape path.
Unable to escape forward or backward……it was suddenly struck by something and was slammed into the ground with great force
The Skyfang gave a cry in shock and pain, not understanding what had just happened. The next moment, it was struck again by something invisible and died as its head was crushed.
The Skyfang was said to be one of the most vicious monsters in the desert, but it was helpless to save itself.
What had happened soon became clear. A few second later, Set appeared with its right claw on the Skyfang’s head.
It had been a surprise attack using Set’s skill Optical Camouflage.
Surprised by Rei’s flying slash, the Skyfang had momentarily taken its eyes off Set as it retreated on reflex. In that moment, Set had used Optical Camouflage to move to a higher position. As the sword whip closed off the Skyfang’s means of escape, Set had swung his claw down at the momentarily disoriented Skyfang, knocking it to the ground. ……Adding on speed from his dive, Set struck the Skyfang again as it hit the ground.
「It’s amazing how he can turn invisible.」
「By the way, is this the first time you’ve seen it? Optical Camouflage is a skill. However, it has the drawback of only being active for a few seconds.」
「But……it’s still powerful as it is. It’s definitely a trump card you can use when in a tight spot.」
When they had been attacked by bandits on the way to Exil, Set had also used Optical Camouflage to kill many of the bandits. But, because Set had been some distance away from Rei and Elena, this was the first time Elena had actually seen him use it.
「Well, the only reason it’s such a big threat is mainly because it’s Set that’s disappearing.」
「True.」
Rei nodded at Elena’s words.
Set’s threat from turning invisible mostly cae from the fact that he could inflict fatal damage on an enemy in a single strike. If a Goblin could turn invisible, it would still be a threat, but to a much lesser extent.
「Guru~!」
Set must have realised that Elena was complimenting him. Aren’t I amazing? Set seemed to say as he puffed out his chest and gave a proud cry.
However, with blood, flesh, and bits of the Skyfang’s brain on his right claw, it was hard for a normal person to look at Set right now and call him cute.
「Yeah, Set is amazing. I hope Yellow grows up to be like Set.」
Having been through many battlefields, Elena didn’t seem that concerned about the blood on Set as she gently stroked his head.
Rei smiled as he saw that. Before other monster started to gather from the smell of blood, he touched the corpse of the Skyfang and stored it into the Misty Ring.
Looking around, he found its distinctive fangs on the ground, but they were broken in half, likely due to the direct hit from Set’s claw, and were in no condition to be sold.
(It’s a good thing its wings and skin were barely damaged from the impact of it hitting the ground.)
The wings of a Skyfang were used in alchemy and medicine while its skin could be used to make leather armour, cloaks and ornaments.
Its internal organs contained poison sacks that could be used to inject poison into its enemies through its fangs, and while its flesh wasn’t very tasty, it had reasonable demand as a material for medicine.
Now that the shortage of magic stones was getting serious, its magic stone could naturally be sold for a high price. However……Rei was eager to use it himself for the Magic Beast Art.
The tip of its tail, the proof of subjugation, didn’t seem particularly damaged, so it would be possible to hand it in.
Overall, Skyfangs were monsters that yielded a lot of materials and had a magic stone that could be sold for a slightly higher price compared to other monsters due to its ferociousness. This made it a very desirable monster in terms of money, assuming that one could kill it.
The only drawback was that its ferocity would cause lower ranking monsters to flee the area a Skyfang was in.
「So, this is the right way, right?」
Because it was a rocky desert, there were many locations that could be used as landmarks drawn onto the map.
Looking at it from the perspective of just the map, it was a lot easier to read compared to the 11th floor.
「Mm, there’s a rocky hill shaped like a trident over there, so we can’t go wrong if we head straight for it. If we do that, we’ll reach a rock called the Dragon Rock. Turning right there and going straight ahead, we’ll find the stairs to the 13th floor.」
Rei nodded at Elena, who had taken the map out from her magic pouch, and started walking again before any more monsters showed up.
The solid ground might have made it easier to walk on, but even so, the intense sunlight heating the ground to such an extent that it was hard to believe it wasn’t the real sun.
The Dragon Robes and desert cloak allowed Rei and Elena to continue walking normally, but anyone else who didn’t make enough preparations for this level would have been dehydrated, sunburned, and be unable to move properly by now.
(Well, since it’s not possible to be transferred with a more skilled adventurer and skip floors……any adventurers who come to this floor would have already cleared the 11th floor, so who would come down here without having made any preparations? If there are any adventurers like that……that would mean they would have cleared the 11th floor without any preparations either.)
Thinking about that, Rei thought it might be possible for some races with sturdier bodies and high physical strength, such as Dwarves or Beastkin.
「Is the rock……still out of sight?」
At Elena’s words, Rei brought himself back to reality.
They had walked for about 30 minutes from the place they had been attacked by the Skyfang.
They had still yet to see the rock called Dragon Rock, which was noted as a landmark on the map. Looking up, they could only see Set, who was keeping a watchful eye from above in order to deal with any Skyfangs.
Other than that, they just kept walking through the rocky desert.
「Looking at it, it seems the Skyfang’s territory was quite large.」
Elena nodded at Rei’s words.
「Set killed it without any issues, but the Skyfang is still a reasonably powerful D rank monster. Above all, its ferociousness can be said to be exceptional compared to other monsters. It’s quite nice to not be attacked by other monsters within its territory. But since you’re looking for magic stones……it’s not a very welcome situation.」
「GURURURURU~!」
As if Elena’s words had been a signal, a warning cry was heard from Set flying above.
「Speak of the devil, is it?」
Rei shook his head as Elena wondered if her words had brought an enemy to them.
「Don’t worry about it, we’ve probably just left the Skyfang’s territory.」
Rei said that as he took his Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring……but, there was no sign of any attacking enemies.
「Rei! Over there!」
Elena was the first to spot it. At the end of her line of sight, there were several adventurers fighting a giant spider over 4m in size.
Besides them, there were some adventurers lying on the ground, clearly struggling.
They had clearly taken a lot of injuries, and if left on their own, they would undoubtedly be annhilated.
Seeing that, they made their decision in an instant.
One reason was to help the adventurers, but another was that it would be a shame to let the magic stone of an unknown monster escape.
「Shall we go?」
「Yeah.」
Elena nodded at Rei’s question and the two of them ran towards the scene of the fight.
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