When Rest arrived at the location where the distress signal had been fired, leaving Danila and the others behind, he found three upperclassmen from the Magic Department — two girls and a boy — being attacked by a horned bear with black fur.
Without waiting for his companions to catch up, Rest immediately jumped into rescue operations. He launched an offensive spell at the horned bear.
"Wind Blade!"
"Gyaoo!"
The wind's edge sliced across the bear's face.
However, the damage was minimal. The creature's tough fur had blocked most of the impact.
But the horned bear that had been attacking the female student turned its attention toward Rest. Its glowing red eyes locked onto him as it glared.
"Come at me."
"Graaaaaaaaah!"
It probably didn't understand human speech… but the horned bear lunged straight at Rest.
This horned bear was a fairly powerful monster — not the kind of creature a student before graduation should have to face.
(Did they just have terrible luck running into such a strong monster, or did especially powerful monsters increase in number this year compared to usual…?)
The faculty would have surveyed the area beforehand, so it was probably the former.
Rest shoved the useless thoughts to the back of his mind and focused on the fight.
"Graah!"
"Super Acceleration!"
He dodged the downward claw swipe with high-speed movement.
He circled behind the horned bear… and drove a counterattack into its back.
(This thing isn't the kind of monster I can take down with basic magic. If I'm going to finish it, I'll need advanced magic, or…)
[Wind Blade] The magic he unleashed was the same [Wind Blade] as before.
However, this was a quartet—three layers of [Amplification], [Compression], and [Acceleration] stacked on top of each other.
The wind blade, reinforced to a level equal to or beyond advanced magic, cut through the horned bear's neck from virtually zero distance— its head sent flying.
"Yeah, not bad. Looks like I can actually take them down."
"GRAAAAAAAAH!"
Rest had defeated the horned bear…
but another one emerged from the nearby trees, lunging to sink its teeth into his back.
"Watch out!"
The girl he was rescuing screamed.
But… Rest didn't panic.
There was no time to panic.
"I knew you were there."
"GYAAH!?"
The horned bear that had been about to attack crumpled to the ground.
One of its legs had fallen into a meter-deep pit that had opened in the earth, throwing it off balance.
That pit trap had been prepared by Rest using a magic called [Earth Manipulation].
With his [Presence Detection] magic always active, surprise attacks were useless against Rest.
[Fireball] He also slammed a magic circle, reinforced through a quartet, onto the head of the second horned bear.
The bear's head and neck burst apart, and its body was blown away.
"Well, I guess that's about it."
The presence of the monsters vanished. Combat was over.
Rest turned to the three Magic Department students who were a short distance away.
"Is everyone alright?"
"Y-Yes... Who are you?"
"I'm Rest from the student council enforcement. I saw the distress signal and came to help."
When Rest introduced himself, the three looked at each other in surprise.
"Um... you're a first-year, right? To defeat that monster all by yourself..."
"I-I knew it... students who join the student council enforcement are amazing even as first-years... We couldn't even beat it with three of us..."
The three looked somewhat dejected.
Rest gave a modest "Not really..." before casting healing magic on them.
All three had suffered several injuries, but they were all minor wounds that Rest could easily handle.
"More importantly... why were you attacked by that monster? It shouldn't be near the entrance to the plains..."
The Sabnock Plains were a demon realm, a habitat for monsters.
The further toward the center of the plains one went, the more powerful the monsters that dwelled there. Conversely, only weaker monsters were found on the outer edges.
The horned bear from earlier was originally a powerful monster that would normally be found near the center.
"We don't know... We didn't intend to fight anything that strong, but it suddenly appeared..."
"I thought I was going to die... Thank you so much..."
"You're welcome. Alright, let's head to this next spot..."
"Rest, you bastard...!"
That was when Danila finally arrived.
A little behind him came their other companion, Thomas.
"H-Hey, you're fast, you know... Don't go leaving us behind..."
"You're the one who started this race in the first place... More importantly, let's hurry up and rendezvous with Senior Yugloot..."
Rest cut himself off mid-sentence.
A distress signal had gone up into the sky.
It wasn't a single line of smoke drawn across the sky. Two, then three appeared in rapid succession.
"Hey, distress signals...!"
"They keep going up! They're coming from deep in the plains!"
Danila and Thomas both cried out in shock.
Rest stared up at the sky, brow furrowed in unease.
"This is clearly not normal. What's going on...?"
The Magic Hunt Festival might be a dangerous, self-responsibility event, but this was an emergency.
"Danila, Thomas. Both of you, escort these three back to the entrance of the plains."
"Hey, what about you..."
"I'm going to rendezvous with Senior Yugloot and get instructions. You lost the race, so don't complain—just do as you're told."
After driving the point home to a visibly displeased Danila, Rest cast a spell to enhance his physical abilities and took off running.