Legend

Seeing the body of the Wyvern fall close to them, the adventurers hiding in the forest went over.

「Hey. It really is the body of a Wyvern.」

「Y-Yeah. You can tell just by looking at it. Don’t get too close. Even though it’s the lowest ranking species of Dragon, it’s still a Dragon. Even with its head gone it might still move.」

「There’s no way that’s possible. ……Uwaaah!」

The moment one of the the adventurers touched the headless Wyvern, the Wyvern’s left leg twitched.

The adventurer retreated as soon as he saw that, causing the other adventurers to laugh.

「There’s no need to laugh! Any normal person would react the same!」

「Yes, yes, there’s no point just leaving it here, right? Let’s carry it back to where we were before.」

At Tivia’s words, the adventurers didn’t look too happy.

After all, even though the Wyvern was missing its head, it was still 4m long, including the tail.

It wasn’t hard to imagine how much it would weigh.

「The body is fine, but what about the head?」

One of the adventurers asked Tivia as they looked at the Wyvern’s head, which was sitting on a tree branch quite high up.

In response, Tivia turned to look at Nakuto.

Nakuto, as a thief, was naturally agile and it wouldn’t be too hard for him to climb the tree.

As Nakuto gave a sigh and was about to speak up, he suddenly heard the sound of flapping wings.

At the same time, he saw Set attempt to grab the Wyvern’s head with his claws.

After getting a hold of the head, Set descended to the ground before Rei called out to everyone.

「Sorry, it was a bit more trouble than expected. The Wyverns that belonged to the Dragon Knights I fought had only spat out fireballs, I didn’t expect it to use fire breath.」

「Oh, yes. I guess that’s so.」

Tivia responded to Rei perfunctorily. Even though he had basically killed a Wyvern 1v1, Rei didn’t look proud about it, rather he had a somewhat embarrassed expression on his face.

From her and her party’s point of view, Rei had basically killed an abnormal species Skeleton on his own, which was roughly B rank in strength. Considering that, they came to the conclusion that it wasn’t that strange for Rei to be able to kill a Wyvern.

「Anyway, you can head back to where you were before to continue dismantling the monsters.」

「Is that okay?」

「Yeah. If I use the item box, it won’t be as hard.」

「……Oh, you’re right.」

At Rei’s words, everyone present, including Tivia, nodded in understanding.

Surprised once again by the amazing utility of Rei’s item box, they went back to stripping materials in order to complete the request.

「Gururu~?」

Set rubbed his head against Rei with a cry, as if asking for praise.

It seemed like he wanted to say that he had killed the Wyvern without exploding its head, like when he had fought the Kobolds in the dungeon.

「Yeah, well done. It’s a pity that the neck is all gone, but for a Wyvern, the only real material in its neck would be……well, it’s bones? Bones can be taken from the rest of its body. Considering that, you get a passing score.」

Saying that, Rei gently stroked Set’s head.

Set, who was delighted by the sensation, enjoyed it for several minutes before Rei’s gaze turned to the body of the Wyvern lying on the ground.

「Today’s lunch will be meat from this Wyvern. If it’s this big, you should be able to eat your fill Set.」

「Guru~!」

Set let out a cry of joy at Rei’s words before Rei reached out and stored the Wyvern’s head and body into the Misty Ring.

「Well then, let’s get back to stripping materials. I’ll leave the guard to you. Then……」

Rei paused as he looked up into the sky. Judging from the position of the sun that it was probably around 10am, he turned back to Set again before continuing.

「We’ll have lunch in about 2 hours, so don’t keep asking.」

「Gurururu~!」

Whether it was due to his request or simply because he was looking forward to the Wyvern meat, Set gave a cry before walking off into the forest again.

Seeing him head off, Rei also went back to the location where the monsters were being dismantled.

What Rei saw when he returned was quite unexpected in some ways.

「Hey, hold down the tail over there. It will slip when you skin it.」

「Oh? Oh, sorry, sorry. Give me a moment. The blood is making this slippery……」

「Wash your hands before doing it then.」

「I’m going to take off the Earth Crab’s shell! Give me a hand! Are you ready? Match my timing!」

The way everyone was working to strip materials made it feels like a Wyvern had never attacked.

「Oh, you’re back. Here, this. I’ve finished dismantling the Spiral Rabbit. The right ear here is proof of subjugation, these are the horn, meat and fur.」

Spotting Rei, and adventurer showed him the results of his work on the ground.

As expected, the Spiral Rabbit wasn’t that big compared to other monsters, so he was able to dismantle it quickly.

「Oh, okay.」

At the adventurer’s prompt, the materials, magic stone, and proof of subjugation were all stored into the Misty Ring.

「What about the internal organs? If we leave them as they are, wild animals and other monsters will gather and it might get dangerous.」

「Hmm, we’ll dig a hole somewhere and dump it all there. Later, I’ll burn everything with fire magic.」

At this point, Rei paused before shouting so that everyone stripping materials could hear him.

「Pardon me, but when you’re all done with your work, please give me a hand. It’s the Wyvern I killed earlier. I’d like to have its meat for lunch today.」

『UOOOOOOOH!』

At Rei’s words, many of the adventurers shouted in joy.

Although there were some exceptions, the higher the rank of a monster, the more delicious its meat would typically be due to the magic power it contained. And, the Wyvern that Rei killed was undoubtedly a strong B rank monster. Their response was only natural.

「……Are you sure? They really are excited about it.」

In the midst of all this, Tivia, who had been entrusted with the role of giving out instructions, perhaps because she was missing an arm, turned to Rei and asked.

「Yeah. It’s a monster that wasn’t originally part of the request……oh, of course, you guys will have your share as well, so don’t worry about it.」

「Eh? Um……thank you.」

Leaving Tivia stuttering, as she seemed to have been caught by surprise, Rei took out the Wyvern that had been stored inside the Misty Ring.

「Wow, it’s really impressive to see such a huge body appearing from nowhere.」

「Seriously. An item box. I had seen it yesterday, but it’s still surprising to see it used like this.」

While Esetus and Nakuto commented as they dismantled Kobolds, Tivia came back to her senses before shouting.

「Hey, this Wyvern is our lunch for today, so let’s quickly finish up our work! You’ve almost finished dismantling the Earth Crab over there, so you should be fine on your own. We don’t need that many people working on the Desert Lizardmen either, so let’s get started working on the Wyvern. ……Is there anyone here who hasn’t dismantled a Wyvern before……no, is there anyone here who has?」

Although she rapidly gave out instructions, no one but Esetus, Nakuto, and Goto raised their hands in response to her question.

Rather, the fact that Tivia’s party did have experience dismantling a Wyvern was more surprising to the other adventurers.

However, it would be more accurate to say that they had experience dismantling Wyverns that had been ridden by Dragon Knights from the Bestir Empire, which had been killed by the Mireana Kingdom several years back.

In any case, Tivia and her party instructed everyone who was available on how to strip materials from a Wyvern.

This time, Rei didn’t just watch but actively participated in the dismantling in order to learn the process.

Bones, meant, magic stone, fangs, scales, claws, wings. In addition to those, the tongue and several internal organs, including the organ for spitting flames, was also removed. As expected of a species of Dragon, even if it was the lowest ranking species, almost nothing was discarded.

In any case, the scales were removed, it was skinned, and then chunks of meat cut away as everyone began to help.

This continued for about an hour. As expected, with over 10 people working together, the Wyvern was completely dismantled and its materials stripped within that amount of time.

The sunlight pouring down made them sweat, but the river that ran nearby was clean and the heat soon subsided as they washed their hands and face.

Rei washed his hands and face as soon as could before leaving the river and immediately starting to cook the Wyvern meat for lunch.

First, he took out a kitchen knife and a cutting board from the Misty Ring before cutting up the Wyvern meat.

Since he had the time, he used branches from nearby trees as skewers as he pierced various pieces of meat and sprinkled them with salt and pepper.

As he did that, several adventurers with cooking experience offered to help out.

Despite having only one arm, Tivia was still able to skillfully skewer meat with one hand.

「Heh, you’re quite skilled at this.」

「Well, this much is natural.」

「Rei, is this how you want the meat?」

「Cut the sinew, the sinew. Otherwise it will get stuck in your teeth.」

「Even if I look like this, I’m still a Wolfkin. I can eat this meat.」

Hearing Rei’s words, a Wolfkin adventurer said so with a smile. However, the next moment, another adventurer dropped their fist on the back of his head.

「That hurts-!」

「Even if you’re fine with it, most of us are still humans. Think about that.」

As they exchanged words like that, preparations were completed. Rei used his magic to start a fire and the skewers were lined up around it.

Rei had originally planed to make other dishes aside from skewers, but as expected, he couldn’t cook up that big of variety for this many people.

He had thought of making a stetw, but if he asked who would want to drink a hot stew in this weather, Rei judged that most of them would probably say no. So in the end, he decided to just stick with grilled skewers.

「Gururu~」

Set seemed to have smelled the cooking meat. Before Rei realised it, Set was giving cries as he approached Rei……or more accurately, the fire near Rei.

「Guru~?」

Can we eat yet? Set seemed to ask with a cry. Unfortunately, only those who were close to Set would understand what he meant and there wasn’t anyone else that close to him here aside from Rei.

Because of that, Set’s cry seemed threatening and the adventurers who had been waiting for the grilled skewers on the fire involuntarily took several steps back.

「Don’t worry, Set isn’t someone who would attack anyone without reason.」

Telling that to the adventurers around him, Rei stroked Set’s head and made him lie on the ground to show that he was safe.

「See, he’s quite calm. Rather than that, season the skewers with this.」

As he stroked Set, Rei handed over a jar containing sauce from the Misty Ring to a nearby adventurer.

「Y-Yes sir!」

Did they believe Rei’s words, or could they just not hold back any longer after smelling the scent of charring meat floating around? Either way, after receiving the jar of sauce from Rei, the adventurer immediately spread it across some meat.

There were also those who just wanted to eat skewers seasoned with salt and pepper, so only half the adventurers used the sauce.

In addition to the scent of charred meat, the smell of sauce gradually started to waft into the surroundings as well, strongly stimulating everyone’s appetite.

「Guru~, Gururururururu~……」

Set’s cry rang out as if saying he wanted to eat it quickly. In that moment, the other adventurers didn’t show any signs of being afraid of Set, but instead looked at the meat as if agreeing with him…… Before long, Tivia, who had taken charge of cooking, spoke up.

「Well, it looks good now. It’s time for lunch. Let’s eat our fill and do our best in the afternoon.」

『UOOOOOOOOH!』

The adventurers all reached for the skewers with a shout.

Among them was Rei, who quickly grabbed 10 skewers for himself and Set before leaving.

「Guru~, Guru~, Guru~」

Set gave a happy cry as Rei placed half of the skewers on a large leaf that had been taken from a nearby tree.

「Gurururu~!」

Seeing Set, who had been waiting all this time, reach for the skewers with his beak, Rei also started to eat his own skewers.

First up was the salt and pepper skewers.

Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, the flavour made you want to bite into it again and again.

Next, when he ate the grilled skewers with sauce, the rich aroma of the sauce spread through his mouth and the savoury aroma of the slightly burnt sauce and the taste of Wyvern meat intertwined intricately.

「……It’s delicious……」

Rei whispered as he bit into the skewers again.

Everyone also continued to eat the Wyvern meat skewers in silence.

Due to the influence of lunch, everyone became very united and the dismantling of monsters in the afternoon proceeded smoothly. By the end, everything had been successfully dismantled before the end of the day. The adventurers who had accepted the request received their rewards and bonuses. Rei sold off all the materials he didn’t need, aside from the magic stone, and earned a profit of several platinum coins.