Two minutes.

The time it took for me to finish those poor monsters.

[[ Nooooooo... ]]

We finished them quickly as they were just some low-grade weak monsters and as the normal, after-hunt procedure went, we started checking the bodies of the small goblins one by one.

I didn't have a skill like Rein and using my rare dismantle Solnova spell wasn't needed for normal creatures like these.

[[ Whyyyy! whaaaaaaa! ]]

They were strong monsters, famous among normal folks for being one of the most notorious beings that kidnapped humans, mainly females, for 'X' things.

These monsters were considered to be the demon descendants among the normal public, but I would say their instinctive actions were worse than demons from a normal human pov.

[[ *Master...* ]]

They were definitely stronger than normal adult human males, even though they were the same height as me.

But for my strong arrows aimed at their weak spots, they were just easy prays.

"I'm fine, you cute little butterfly. Now come here.

There, there. It wasn't your fault that we didn't get anything."

[[ Noooo! ]]

So, well, apparently, we didn't get anything from these fifty-plus dead bodies.

Celes thought it was her fault for no reason, so it was getting difficult to calm her down.

This little butterfly partner of mine was cute, but we have to move forward. We had already finished collecting and storing the bodies of the dead creatures.

I stroked her little white head and crystal blue feathers, which she, as usual, found good~.

She at least stopped crying after that one, made three clones, and went inside the mark.

[[ I-I will check this place for a while so please rest master. O-Or just starts going forward... slowly. There might be t-traps. ]]

And after that... the red, blue, and green butterflies flew ahead, dancing in the low breeze flowing throughout this cave.N0vel--Biin hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Celes also knew how to survey any area and create a mental map of the place.

She was good with many things, and she was definitely a smart one.

She was also trained by my master in many 'special' things, so I couldn't even fathom just how awesome my dear partner was.

Anyway, she was cute... and amazing.

I moved forward and looked around the cave.

I didn't find any traps and there shouldn't be any monster groups near this place. They mostly made territories, after all.

So, there weren't any traps in this area, so things were easy for me over here.

But my dear friend, Rein... she was definitely suffering right now..

[[ "Damn bastard..." ]]

She was just cussing like this for a while and I knew it was because of the unexpected things in her path.

My path was mostly clear. There were only monsters... on the other hand, Rein was practically facing armies of undead and monsters on her own...

Not that I was worried about her in this scenario. I had no need to, actually.

They were definitely strong monsters... and so was she. She was even stronger than the last time she was here. And she also had a clear goal in her mind, as well as a great motivation named my promise coin.

If anything... I was worried that she will reach there before me.

She was a beautiful swan of slaughter when she was excited and there was definitely no way those weak beings would be strong enough to stop her for much longer.

So!

"Let's pick up the pace, Celes!"

And then, I just started running... only to stop some distance away from the second beast that I would be going against.

Surprisingly...

"They are actually the strong ones..."

I was up against a real threat this time. A ferocious but cute-looking threat...

***

"Fucking bastard..."

Standing some distance away from her very first opponents, the young girl we all know, our dear, lovely, kind, and smart Reinelle, looked at the numbers of her enemies.

'Eyes of truth.'

============

[Zombies]

~~~> Weak undead monsters. Weak against light attribute magic. Nothing too grand about them so the master can easily defeat them~!

~~~> Oh, they are mostly (Orange) rank or below, can use skills, [Steel undead strength], [Run], And [Corrosion].

~~~> There are exactly one hundred and eighty-three there, so be careful master~!

============

There was a frown on her face as she looked at the weakly moving undead creatures, humanoids with rotting bodies and a strange yellow smoke of corrosion coming out of them.

"Tsk. There was nothing here last time..."

She now understood just how much this place had changed from the last time she was there.

The strength and number of these creatures were just that great. Any normal person would feel despair before them, but she found this one annoying.

"That bastard will actually reach there first."

The undead weren't important to her right now. All her mind was on her dear friend that must have known this kind of thing would happen.

She was afraid she would have to give out her second coin and... she definitely wasn't going to let that happen.

With an undesirable face of disgust on her face, she looked at the undead and took out her weapon.

"Let's try that thing."

Her weapon was a (level-12) Ego weapon, something one would rarely see but also something that was definitely inferior to her dear friend's weapons.

She wasn't worried about that, though. This wasn't her partner's weapon. She didn't actually have one, so she wasn't worried about things like weapons.

A good-looking scythe with a sharp half-moon blade and a long handle. The whole purple body perfectly matching with the silver blade.

But she knew this blade alone won't be enough for the creatures that wouldn't receive death even after being sliced in half.

By the nature of the undead, only a strong explosive or power of light and dark could actually kill them. And even in that, the power of the dark took too much time.

She didn't have time to waste against small fires like these.

So, she took out a glass plate with something painted on it.

A normal-looking glass plate with a yellow pattern painting, and she just put the glass on the surface of her blade.

"Channel Mana like any normal enchantment... and, oh!"

Her eyes widened as soon as she channeled some Mana through the glass plate.

The glass plate with a weird drawing just... melted as soon as she applied enough Mana and the small drawing got imprinted on the surface of its blade.

The beautiful imprint started glowing in a brilliant yellow light and the energy covered the surface of the blade.

A smile appeared on her face as she saw this, and the sudden bright light attracted the attention of the brainless zombies.

"Khaaaaaaaa! Khaaa!"

"Kat kat kat kat!"

"Thuuuuuuuuu!"

Hundreds of zombies started running toward the source of light!

Unlike the normal, slow, foolish zombies, these were quick. Their steps that hit the ground made a solid sound as if someone in steel boots or armor was walking, and they were all aiming for this new light on instincts.

Now, there was a delighted expression on her face and she wielded her glowing scythe with her pretty, delicate, experienced, and powerful hands.

The new imprint on the crescent blade of the scythe was something that gave the weapon a light attribute, something that would sound practically absurd to any normal person.

A weapon receiving the attribute by just a single enchantment. It was absurd, but it had just happened here and this amazing creation was the work of her dear friend.

The weapon had the most deadly attribute to this undead now, and they were running toward her, making her work even easier.

She smiled... and then just vanished from her place.

-Skech!!

At the same time, tens of zombies received a deep cuts on the weaker parts of their bodies.

Some heads were almost cut in chunks, and many bodies were actually sliced in half, while some of them had their hands and legs separated from their bodies.

"KHHHH!!!"

Painful screams of these monsters were heard in the area and she just continued her slaughter without caring about the corrosive blood spraying from their bodies.

Her [Quick reflexes] and sharp judgments naturally avoided this dangerous blood and there was also a thin layer of dark Mana covering her entire body.

This was a strengthened version of a normal (tier-3) darkness attribute magic (Dark protection). Her special skill [Old magic], a special ability that could strengthen magic, increase her understanding of magic, increase her learning ability, and even strengthen her mental fortitude, helped her even more.

She moved like an elegant swan, dancing through the countless zombies with the scythe of death in her hand.

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

-Skhhhhhh!

Wherever she passed through, bodies fell. Corrosive blood that was potent enough to even melt the solid ground splashed like fountains.

The zombies with steel-like sturdy bodies would have still been standing if this was some normal attack. They were undead, after all. But these attacks were definitely anything but normal for these 'weak' creatures.

Even normal [Rank-3] knights would have been in a difficult situation if they were against this kind of monster. And the numbers of these beings would even make a normal [Rank-4] knight sweat with genuine concern.

But her weapon, which now had the power of the light attribute, the eternal nemesis of the undead creatures, was now thoroughly obliterating these unthinkable numbers of opponents.

There were more than a hundred monsters and she was slicing them left and right, her pretty face devoid of any expression at this moment.

From her perspective, these weak zombies were just weak and boring opponents.

She could have had some fun if she was alone and if she hadn't had the power of the light attribute that actually just gave instant death to this undead, she could have taken her sweet time playing with these toys... but, there was someone competing with her at this moment.

"Fucking bastard..."

She repeated these words as she cut through the corrosive flesh of the monsters.

She was swinging her big scythe with great ease. The bodies of the undead were constantly falling, and as the yellow light on the blade of her scythe got dimmer, she increased her pace of killing.

The way her crescent blade moved, the way it cut, pierced, and gave eternal rest to these undead, was a spectacular sight.

But it didn't last long. There was a natural time limit to this light attribute enchantment after all.

There were hundreds of undead and the duration of this enchantment only had a short five minutes.

But she was determined to finish the fight in the remaining small time.

In less than one minute remaining to this light enchantment, she was determined to finish these last thirty remaining enemies.

So... she took a step back and looked at the thirty bastards standing separately in the pool of corrosive blood and the dead bodies of their fellow mates.

A map and strategy of movements she will have to perform to finish them off quickly flowed through her mind after a careful observation with her 'eyes'.

She used [Old magic] to further strengthen the strategy.

And after that... it was show time!

"Speed enhancement!"

-Swish!

She vanished from her place once again!

A fierce wind passed through the pool of corrosive green blood.

A strange disturbance appeared on the blood exactly below the bodies, as if someone was throwing a rock in a calm lake, and the zombies around these upheavals fell to the ground.

The speechless fellow zombies had red question marks above their heads, but that only either grew more or their bodies also became one of the fallen ones.

She moved, unseen by the naked eyes, inducing a thrill in the hearts of the spectators with every move, every cut that appeared on the bodies of the undead before their fall, and with every other fountain of bubbling corrosive green blood, was gorgeous.

The first zombie that fell among those thirty was the one at the very back, after that, the ones that became the last ones, and following this order, like cascading dominos, the thirty zombies, strong enough to rip apart normal human, joined their brethren to the staircase of the eternal rest.

All this happened in the span of mere seconds, and... after the fall of the last one, the girl, the divine swan of slaughter that had killed these hundreds of monsters, appeared on the ground still unaffected by the corrosive blood at some distance away, breathing heavily.

Sparkling drops of clear sweat sliding down her forehead fell to the clear ground. It looked same as a drop of pure water falling from a high stalactite on the earthly stalemate.

A dive smile covered her alluring face, the dim light on the tall weapon in her hand and the imprint emitting this light, disappeared completely, and... the area that was dominated by the stomach-shaking sounds of the filthy undead regained its past silence.

"Clover."

She called out and... with a brilliant green light, an adorable kitten appeared in front of her.

"Mewww~!"

As if returning to a good place after a long time, the little kitten cheered up with a beautiful voice.

Her glamorous eyes glowed brightest in this dark place, her spirit body illuminated the surrounding with fresh green light, and just her mere presence was enough to heal the spectators.

"Mewww! Mewww~!"

The little kitten cheerfully danced around her master, already knowing she was perfectly fine.

She was only tired because of using a good amount of stamina in that fight.

She was only tired, and that was precisely the reason the adorable creature was called here.

The cute small cat gently licked the pretty cheek of the tired girl with an overjoyed smile and as soon as she felt the ethereal touch on her cheeks, a rejuvenating wave covered her mind and body, reincarnating the perfectly fine allure of our dear Reinelle~!

She smiled at the little kitten, gently caressed her little hand, and kissed her tiny forehead, making her smile even more brightly.

"Mewoooooo~!"

This was a warm scene that should have lasted for long, maybe forever if possible, but our now fully recovered girl didn't want to waste much time here.

This was just the first fight and there were definitely going to be much worse opponents from the looks of things.

So... she wanted to quickly finish these creatures and reach the final destination before her dear friend.

"Damn bastard..."

Well, her cussing had just continued all throughout this fight but, not only she was angry at her darling, but she was also worried about our Axion.

She did know that he was fine and that he had already finished his first fight, but it was uncertain just how dangerous the place he was in could be.

There might actually be stronger monsters in his path, so she had to at least reach the end of her path and reach the center first so that she could go to the place he was at right now if needed.

She had no doubt that he could take care of himself, but she was still worried about her foolish darling.

So, she had to quickly clear out this place.

She got up from the ground and checked if everything was fine with her weapon. She had endured the corrosive blood of these zombies.

Fortunately, it was a strong one and her darling had put some great enchantments on it, so she didn't have anything to worry about.

The main thing she had to worry about right now...

"Mewww~! Mew! Mew!"

The little kitten warned the brightly smiling girl, who had a face full of expectations.

[[ Master... well, I know you also know just how blessed your luck is, but sometimes not expecting also leads to unforeseen happiness. ]]

"Let's go~! Hehe~."

She was excited to check the harvest after a tough fight, so... she stood before the pool of bubbling green blood that released an acidic yellowish gas.

The steel bodies of her prey were floating in this pool of blood and, unlike her darling, she didn't need to cut open the bodies of the beasts.

She had a skill that, though rare, many people dependent on to dismantle the bodies obtained from their hunt.

So!

She lifted her hand toward the pool of blood and used her very reliable (Blue) ranked skill...

"Dismantle corpses~!"