「Wind Hand, eh. I got another strange skill.」


  Rei murmured as the announcement sounded in his mind. He then tried to activate the skill, proof of his expectations could only be found by testing it.

  He immediately felt something like a tentacle stretching out from the Death Scythe as soon as he activated it.

  Yes, he could feel it. It wasn’t actually visible. Originally, Rei didn’t have the ability to sense the magic power of others either, but maybe because the tentacle was made with his own magic power or because it was activated through the Death Scythe, he could sense the tentacle made from wind magic.

  Either way, he would feel the presence of the clear tentacle made from wind.

  「Rather than Wind Hand, I feel that Wind Tentacle is a more suitable name.」


  Extending the tentacle from Death Scythe as he tilted his head, the tip of the tentacle touched a fallen tree branch about 30cm in length.

  The next moment, the branch was lifted up by the wind tentacle, following Rei’s will.

  「……I see. It may be strange to call the skill Wind Hand, but it’s not that strange if you consider its effect.」


  At that point, finally understood the way Wind Hand was used. That is to say, it extended an invisible tentacle made of wind to touch an object. After that, the object could be manipulated using the wind tentacle. It was like an invisible hand made of wind.

  「But……」


  He quickly threw a stone that was on the ground nearby and tried to catch it with the wind hand. When the stone came in contact with the tentacle portion of the Wind Hand, it passed right through and flew to the other side.

  「That was it after all. Only the tip of the tentacle can function as a hand, that part of the skill does not affect the ‘arm’ section. And……」


  He tried to extend the wind hand as far as possible. After about 100m, it seemed to reach its limit and couldn’t extend any further.

  「Does the distance increase if the skill level goes up?　No, no matter how far it can extend, if it goes out of my vision, it would become unreasonable to use.」


  Withdrawing the extended wind hand, he then used it to grab a fallen stone.

  「There is only a fixed portion at the tip of the wind hand that can be used to manipulate things. At Lv.1, it’s not strong enough to move large things. Well, there’s enough power to lift a stone the size of my fist, so it’s quite powerful……power?　No, in this case power isn’t that important, if I combine it with Set’s skills……」


  While nodding and muttering to himself, he quickly stored the materials and meat of the Emerald Wolf in front of him into the Misty Ring. At the same time, he threw a fire ball into the hole that he had dumped all the internal organs he didn’t want, burning them up. He then filled up the hole with dirt.

  「Gururu~?」


  What about the other Emerald Wolves? Set seemed to ask as he tilted his head.

  「Ah. There’s something I want to try first. Because time is frozen inside the Misty Ring, I will deal with the Emerald Wolves when I have time to spare. Rather than that Set, I want to try something so we have to move to a place with a bit more open space.」


  Rei felt a bit different and got on Set looking like he was in a rush.

  「Set, look for an large open space. That’s right, look for something like a plain or scrubland」


  「Gururu~? Gururu~!」


  Set tilted his head slightly, before understanding what Rei was looking for. After giving a short cry, he ran a few steps as he flapped his wings. And as if leaping into the sky. he flew up, rising tens of meters into the air in just a few seconds.

  Reaching that height, he looked around from in the sky. On one side, a green carpet was spread before him. The sunlight poured down on this autumn day, making the plains seem shine as they reflected the sunlight. At the same time, he could see several wild animals and monsters moving around along the ground. He could also see adventurers who might have taken a request. They were currently about a day’s walk from Gilm, Rei guessed that they were probably skilled adventurers.

  Well, for Set, it was only less than an hour’s travel from Gilm.

  「Thinking about that, I’m quite blessed to have such mobility.」


  「Guru~?」


  Even as he flew, Set turned his head to look at Rei.

  Rei stroked Set’s neck with a smile when he saw that.

  「No, it’s nothing at all. I just want to say I’m really grateful of you Set.」


  「Gururu~!」


  Giving a happy cry, they enjoyed there walk through the sky for about 10 minutes. Fortunately, there was no situation like being attack by flying monsters and they safely arrived at a scrubland that Rei had been hoping for.

  「……Well then, here is good. It’s the perfect place to experiment.」


  Rei got onto the ground and looked around before nodding in satisfaction.

  The surrounding area was pretty much a wilderness, most of the spreading grasslands they had seen earlier had disappeared. Only after traveling for several hours on foot would one seen grasslands again.

  「First of all……that’s right, Set. I will use magic now, trying using Tornado so it overlaps with my magic. Once your skill activates, it will get dangerous, so back away immediately.」


  「Guru~!」


  Hearing Set’s reply, he took out the Death Scythe, his magic casting tool, from the Misty Ring.

  『Flames, manifest your burning heat as a vortex.』


  As he cast the spell, compressed flames started to appear along the handle of the Death Scythe. Because he was still experimenting, he didn’t put much of his magic power into the spell. However, this was only from Rei’s perspective. The amount of magic power he actually used would be considered full power for other ordinary mages.

  And when the spell was completed and the flames fully compressed, he swung the handle of the Death Scythe towards the ground!

  『Twisting Flames!』


  The compressed flames landed about 10m away, revealing a tornado like flame. However, the flames did not extend past the shape of the tornado, maintaining a radius of about several meters.

  (I wonder if this will work. But……)

  Muttering in his mind, Rei turned towards Set.

  「Set.」


  「Gururu~!」


  At Rei’s cue, Set activated Tornado on top of the flame tornado as he had been told. And with that, Rei and Set retreated a full speed, taking some distance before looking to see the result of their work.

  A tornado of fire and a tornado of wind. The two of the merged……but the next moment, the flames absorbed the wind tornado, as if burning it up.

  「……It’s no use?」


  「Guru~」


  I’m sorry, Set seemed to say as he lowered his head. But Rei scratched Set’s head without being too concerned.

  「Don’t worry about it. That was good for now. If Set’s Tornado reaches a higher level, the result may be closer to what I expect. It can’t be helped given its current level.」


  (As far as I could see, the fire and wind didn’t mix well, it seemed that the wind was just absorbed by the flames. That means, if I can merge them without one side getting completely absorbed……）

  Rei muttered in his mind. Rei was trying to replicate phenomenon known as 『Fire Whirl』. Flames would burn up the Oxygen in a certain area around it, causing a local air current caused by air around the flames getting pulled in. As the flames rise up with the updraft, a tornado of fire, known as a fire whirl would form. The temperature of the winds and flames caused by the the fire whirl could reach up to 1000℃. Inside the fire whirl, wind speeds could reach up to hundreds of meters per second, destroying everything inside. He had tried to reproduce the phenomenon with his magic and Set’s skill but the result was the flames absorbing the wind, as he had seen.

  (In order to reproduce the fire whirl, I can’t just use my fire magic. That’s why I thought it would be possible if I had Set use Tornado at the same time……well, that’s fine. There are still other things to try.

  「Set, one more time. But this time, I will also try using the Wind Hand skill that the Death Scythe just learnt. I think that the probability of success will increase, so we will back away again after using our skills.」


  「Gurururu~」


  Set nodded at Rei’s words. Seeing that, Rei started to cast a spell again.

  『Flames, manifest your burning heat as a vortex.』


  And swinging the Death Scythe, the mass of flames that had gathered on the handle flew forward.

  『Twisting Flames!』


  A tornado of flame appeared again. Seeing that, he grasped the Death Scythe firmly as he gave the signal to Set.

  「Set!」


  「GURURURURURU~!」


  At the same time as his cry, a tornado of wind appeared, overlapping the fire tornado. After seeing that, Rei and Set retreated as before. Then, clenching the Death Scythe, Rei activated Wind Hand.

  A tentacle made from wind magic extended out from the Death Scythe. It reached out towards where the the fire and wind tornadoes overlapped. It seemed that the fire tornado created with Rei’s magic was more powerful, and gradually absorbed the wind tornado as a result. The moment he felt that the same situation as before would occur……the tip of the tentacle created by Wind Hand made contact with the two tornadoes of fire and wind.

  「!?」


  At the moment of contact, Rei poured magic power through the Death Scythe, into the wind tentacle and into the wind tornado, just as the flames were about to fully absorb it. Then, gradually, the wind tornado withstood the erosion by the flames and grew in size……After a few seconds, both tornadoes reached the same size, overlapping each other.

  The two tornadoes existed separately for a few seconds before the tornadoes of fire and wind fused with each other. In other words, the fire whirl that Rei was trying to reproduce appeared. At the same time.

  「Guh!」


  「Gururu~!」


  Immediately after the two tornadoes fused and turned into a fire whirl, an intense wave of hot air blew against Rei and Set, who were 100m away. Rei and Set moved further back. Only when they were 500m away did the temperature drop to somewhat warm.

  「……I underestimated it a bit. However, although this can be used for wide area destruction, it takes a lot of time and effort to set up.」


  Rei’s fire magic, Set’s Tornado and the Death Scythe’s Wind Hand. Requiring three steps, and further requiring some time for the fire and wind tornadoes to merge, it was better to think that I wouldn’t be usable in ordinary subjugation requests. And while they wouldn’t die if they didn’t take enough distance before the tornadoes fused, they could still suffer injuries.

  「On the other hand, would it be possible to effectively damage slow monsters or large numbers of monsters?」


  He muttered quietly as he watched the blazing fire whirl with Set.

  「For example, the Bestir Empire’s army, maybe.」


  Yes, a bulky enemy with slow movements. In other words, armies, if you considered them from the point of a single entity. He had heard from Elena that after this winter, a war with the Bestir Empire was likely to occur next spring. Rei felt that this fire whirl could be used as one of his trump cards then. Damage from just the heat extended for 100m. At the same time, the high temperature around it could cause indirect damage. Under 100m, Rei could use 『Dancing Flames』 to attack. It could create a translucent red dome to annihilate enemies inside it, but nothing outside the dome would be damaged. In comparison 『Dancing Wild Flame』 had a wider effective range and was more suitable for dealing with large numbers of enemies. Above all, the combined effect of multiple spells and skills lasted a long time. Even now, the fire whirl was still burning, destroying everything around it.

  「Even so, there are still various things we have to look out for……training will be required for that. Set, We’ve succeeded in creating an attack with has quite a bit of power. Thanks.」


  「Gurururu~」


  Stroked while being praised, Set gave a happy cry.

  They continued watching the fire whirl and it naturally died out after about an hour. After seeing that, Rei and Set returned to the city of Gilm.