Cold air pervaded, ice crystals condensed, and along with the woman's chanting, a giant made of pure ice rose from the ground.
Bones, meridians, flesh and blood... then armor and weapons, the upper body of the giant, more than five meters tall, gradually took shape. It drew a longbow also condensed from pure ice, and an arrow manifested in its hand.
The sharp arrow pointed straight at the sky, the bowstring pulled taut like a crescent moon. After a moment of focused concentration, cold air shot upward, rushing straight into the clouds.
Within the pure ice giant, the elven woman narrowed her eyes, gazing toward the sky.
"Hit," As she softly murmured, a huge black shadow fell from the sky.
Soon, the falling black shadow revealed its true form. A gray-brown winged wyvern.
The wyvern had wide wings, the edges of the wings marked with dark stripes, a massive body, strong limbs, and its whole body covered in coarse scales. Its head bore two sharp horns, and its eyes were covered by a pale yellow nictitating membrane, making its eyeballs appear somewhat cloudy.
The wing membrane on its left side was torn open as if by a giant ballista bolt, the arrowhead deeply piercing into its side, the bone-chilling cold spreading within the wyvern's body, nearly freezing half of it solid.
The wyvern howled in misery as it fell, and just before hitting the ground, it beat its wings desperately, barely stirring up a gust of wind as a cushion, avoiding smashing itself apart on the ground.
However, the moment it landed, several catgirl girls charged forward with shouts.
Spear thrusts, arrow slashes, poisoned dagger assassinations... the wyvern struggled desperately with its massive body and tough flesh, but even fighting for its life, it could not withstand the fierce onslaught of several catgirls.
Its dragon wings were broken, its eyes were pierced, its sturdy dragon scales were slashed open again and again until its flesh was bloody and torn.
Not until a deep crimson long spear stabbed down from above, piercing its heart along with a section of spine, did the wyvern finally cease struggling.
"Whew~ took it down, nya~", Anya let out a long breath and wiped her sweat.
"The reverse scale is undamaged, the dragon teeth are intact, the wing membrane is somewhat torn, but it shouldn't affect alchemy," Aki wiped her longsword and sighed, "Monsters on the surface, the profit from hunting just one is really something."
"Yeah, nya," Chloe nodded, "Unlike dungeon monsters, whose bodies turn to ash upon death, leaving only magic stones and some drops, these surface monsters, their whole bodies can be harvested for materials, nya."
Although the original source of all monsters was the Great Hollow, these that had lived on the surface too long, or were the offspring of monsters and surface beasts, had structure and life forms already quite different from dungeon monsters.
"No wonder quite a few familias carry out adventuring activities directly on the surface," Aki said.
As the catgirl girls talked, companions had already arrived.
"Only for some powerful or rare monsters is this a good thing," Riveria said, "Ordinary surface monsters, such as goblins or kobolds, their meat can't even be made into feed, it can only be burned."
Monster flesh and blood mostly contain toxins or contamination, requiring extremely complex processing before being edible. Without an iron stomach like [Gluttony], it's impossible to eat directly.
And in most cases, even if properly processed, the taste and texture are hard to describe, so the usual method is to burn it into ash-fertilizer.
"This should be the wyvern reported by the Academy, right?", Riveria asked.
Aki: "It should be. According to Lady Friana, there's only one wyvern that escaped the seal."
"So, how should we handle this dragon, nya?", Chloe asked.
"Keep the dragon teeth, later ask Shirou if he needs them for forging materials, as for the rest, haul it to nearby cities to sell," Riveria arranged.
A wyvern's whole body could be dismantled into parts for sale, even its stinking dragon blood had people eager to buy and drink.
By contrast, dungeon wyverns that quickly turn to ash after being slain, leaving only a magic stone, some scales, wing membranes, claws, and fangs, really are stingy beyond words.
Riveria used ice magic to freeze the wyvern's corpse, and several catgirls carried the ice block back to camp.
Ryuu was guarding the carriage, and Alicia had also returned. When Riveria and the others came back, the two were whispering about something.
Riveria faintly heard words like "magical girl," "cat ears," "maid," and seeing Ryuu's embarrassed expression and Alicia's eager look, the elf princess's eyelid twitched.
'That idiot Alicia is definitely trying to drag me into this again...'
Riveria judged so because this sort of thing had already happened more than once in the past month.
After the [Great Strife] incident, Emiya, Ryuu, Riveria, and Haruhime quietly left Orario for [Falling Moon Lake], where "Lochness" was located.
The city administrators could only swallow their anger. After the battle against the remnants of the Evilus, the Adventurer's Guild's prestige had dropped, while the fame of the Loki Familia, Hephaestus Familia, and Freya Familia, who organized the coalition, had reached its peak, with some of the former majesty of the Zeus and Hera Familias.
For Emiya and the others' request to leave the city, the Guild could only tacitly approve. Whether they agreed or not didn't actually affect their ability to come and go.
The adventurers entered [Falling Moon Lake], and after several fierce battles, the potential Lv.7 "Lochness" was slain by Emiya.
On the return trip to the city, just like when they hunted the scorpion before, they "happened" to stop by several cities Riveria was interested in.
For various reasons, they stayed in each city for some time, especially in the "accidentally encountered" hot spring cities, where they might spend a week before setting off again.
In the end, the round trip took nearly half a year. Loki was about ready to think Riveria was hiding outside to have a child.
After returning to Orario, Emiya, who had in fact already reached Lv.6, publicly announced his level-up. Ryuu reached Lv.7, Haruhime reached Lv.3, and although Riveria did not level up, her abilities had risen to upper Lv.7.
After that, they should have stayed in Orario for a stable period, conducting a dungeon expedition. But then, an accident happened.
The ancient beast "Gugalanna" of the [Storm Wasteland] suddenly rampaged, the seal placed by the Thunder Fairy in "Riftwind Canyon" violently shaking.
Gugalanna's destructive power was not comparable to Lochness's. If it broke the seal, several nations around the Storm Wasteland would face annihilation.
In such a case, they could only entrust adventurers with the task, and the most suitable candidate was naturally Emiya, who had slain the most ancient monsters.
In the end, Emiya (Lv.6), along with Ryuu (Lv.7), Riveria (Lv.7), Alicia (Lv.6), Aki (Lv.5), Anya (Lv.5), Chloe (Lv.5), and Haruhime (Lv.3), formed the subjugation party heading to the [Storm Wasteland].
The Loki Familia needed enough fighting strength to guard Orario headquarters, so only Riveria and Alicia, who had the best coordination with Emiya, and Aki, who had command and management ability, were sent to assist in the Gugalanna expedition.
Besides them, Emiya invited the tavern girls. Lunoire, who was now tasked with guarding the goddess Demeter, could not leave the city, but the others agreed immediately.
Now, they had just completed the task and were on their way back to Orario. The Storm Wasteland was on the other side of the continent, extremely far from Orario.
As for the wyvern Alicia shot down, it was just a small episode: they met Friana on the road, the elven professor leading several students in chasing a wyvern that had escaped from the [Valley of Dragons].
That wyvern's potential was not high, only Lv.5, but its flight speed was fast. If Alicia hadn't happened to be an "ice-attribute" archer, Emiya might have had to step in.
In game terms, ice attribute is super effective against dragons and flying enemies.
"Senior Friana, long time no see," Riveria said.
"Long time no see, Princess Riveria. Though actually, for us elves, it hasn't been that long," The female elf, who outwardly looked like a child yet was far older, naturally blended in with Riveria's group, while her students appeared nervous in front of high-level adventurers.
"By the way, is Shirou-kun not here?", Friana asked.
Riveria: "The [Faceless] seems to be nearby, Shirou went to investigate."
The [Faceless], Vito, one of the Evilus remnants, during the Great Strife, he was defeated by [Yamato Rindou] Kaguya, but luckily escaped with his life.
After the Dark Era, Vito left Orario, wandering around the world.
Ryuu: "Ah, Shirou, you're back."
Riveria and Friana looked up, Emiya had returned to camp. He looked the same as when he left, with no blood on him, the only difference being a suitcase in his left hand.
They could more or less guess what was inside.
There was nothing much to say about it. As a Evilus remnant appearing within Emiya's hunting range, his fate had already been sealed.
Emiya and the others simply burned "Vito's" body in the suitcase, to comfort old acquaintances. Just a Lv.4, not worth keeping any identification to claim a bounty from the Guild.
"What is it, Senior Friana?", Emiya asked, noticing the elf woman had been watching him with a subtly meaningful smile.
"Before coming here, we passed through the Labyrinth City. Shirou-kun, you know, your new title has already been decided," Friana said.
Emiya was stunned, then thought carefully. Since they had left the city, it should have been time for another divine assembly.
The title [Saber] had been his from Lv.3 to Lv.5. Though, in truth, it hadn't been that long.
"May I ask, what is my new title?", Emiya inquired.
For the titles the gods decided for him, he still cared somewhat.
Friana: "It's [Female Slayer]."
Emiya: "..."
"Just kidding~ Shirou-kun's new title is [Grand Saber]."
"Well, actually, 'Female Slayer' isn't entirely wrong," Friana thought, glancing briefly at the adventurers' party.
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