Chapter 4: The First Day of Adventure
"Why not just kill it?"
They had left the Great Elven Forest behind them, but with night falling, Rhodes and Serie decided to make camp where they were.
It was the first day of their partnership.
In Rhodes's hands was a long-eared rabbit with gray fur and a single, slender horn sprouting from its forehead. With Serie's help, Rhodes had successfully caught his first prey since arriving in this world. Looking back, he supposed he had been rather fortunate; every magical beast he had encountered until now was the type he couldn't defeat, but could at least escape from.
The rabbit in his hands, according to Serie, was called a Gray-Horned Rabbit. It was exceptionally weak. Despite the horn on its head, it had no combat ability whatsoever. Its only advantage was its remarkable speed. It was, for all intents and purposes, at the very bottom of this world's food chain.
"An elf encouraging me to kill something... that feels a bit strange."
Rhodes took out a small knife he had sharpened from a stone and, with a few practiced movements, sent the Gray-Horned Rabbit to meet the Goddess.
"Do I strike you as an ordinary elf?" Serie replied, a slight smirk on her lips. Compared to other elves, she was quite the heretic.
"True. The only war-loving elves I've ever heard of are Dark Elves."
"What is that?" The word was unfamiliar to Serie, and her expression filled with confusion.
"They don't exist yet?" Rhodes muttered to himself. It seemed the elven race hadn't branched out into different subraces in the Age of Myth. Then again, in the stories of Frieren, there only seemed to be one type of elf: the nearly-immortal, ancient kind.
"It's nothing. You can think of them as elves who have been corrupted by demonic power."
"I cannot comprehend that at all."
From Serie's perspective, 'elf' and 'demonic' were two mutually exclusive concepts. Once something was corrupted, it became a magical beast. It could no longer be called an elf.
"Never mind. It's not like we'll run into any. How about some roasted meat instead? Speaking of which, can you eat meat?"
Rhodes skillfully cut the rabbit meat into small pieces, skewered them, and began roasting them over the fire. From time to time, he would pull out a series of small jars and pouches, sprinkling their contents onto the cooking meat.
A rich aroma began to fill the air.
"What is that?" Instead of answering his question, Serie's curiosity was drawn to his collection of jars.
"Ah, these are my seasonings. My most prized treasures."
Rhodes proudly showed Serie his collection. They were his greatest discoveries from his long days of wandering. He was lucky that some plants in this world were remarkably similar to those from his own. Through a fearless, trial-and-error spirit worthy of a saga, Rhodes had managed to procure a variety of spices.
Serie took one of the jars and, opening it, gave it a sniff. The pungent aroma made her let out a tiny sneeze.
"Pointless," she said, tossing the jar back to Rhodes. She couldn't understand it. How could something with such a sharp, almost poisonous scent make food taste more delicious? Could this also be a form of his magic? she wondered.
Before long, the meat was cooked. Rhodes held a skewer out to her.
"Care for a piece?"
The elemental signature was chaotic, but Serie found she didn't mind it. She took the skewer. With the first bite, a flavor she had never before experienced washed over her, and even her perpetually tense expression softened considerably.
"So, do you elves eat meat or not?"
Rhodes remembered that the elves in Frieren did eat meat—or at least Frieren herself did. He had no idea if the elves of the Mythical Age shared the same palate.
"We do not." Serie shook her head. "The elves of the Great Forest dislike food with overly complex elemental energy." She added, "However, it is said that in other parts of the world, some elves do choose to eat meat. After all, our kin in the Great Forest are not the only kind of elves in this world. We are simply the ones who live closest to the original state of our race."
"Sounds just like the elves from the legends."
One Gray-Horned Rabbit didn't provide much meat, and the two of them finished it quickly. Rhodes was about to go searching for some edible mushrooms when Serie stopped him.
"It's best not to wander off. We are outside the bounds of the Great Elven Forest now."
The unspoken meaning was clear: they could be attacked by a magical beast at any moment. This was, after all, an incredibly chaotic world, teeming with magical beasts. From these beasts, a more intelligent race had been born, one capable of wielding powerful magic: the Demon race, the primary adversary of the elves in this era.
A thought crossed her mind. How did this human in front of me manage to survive in this world until now?
He had no sense of crisis, and his fighting ability was barely superior to a Gray-Horned Rabbit. He likely couldn't defeat even a single common magical beast. And yet, this was the man who possessed the talent of Creation magic, the man who had appeared right before her.
Serie did not believe in gods. Even if the Goddess herself were to appear before her one day, her first thought would be to calculate how she might kill her. But now, looking at all that had happened, she couldn't help but feel that this was all part of some divine plan.
"Alright, then. Do you want to rest? Or should we take turns keeping watch?"
Rhodes picked up a few pieces of wood to serve as torches, snapped his fingers to ignite them, and then placed them evenly around their campsite. The light from a single torch was faint, but together they cast a clear glow in the darkness, and the heat they gave off kept the insects at bay.
"What are you doing?" Serie asked, her tone one of disbelief.
"Using fire to ward off wild beasts, of course! And don't worry, I've reinforced these torches with my mana. They should burn through the entire night without a problem."
Serie was silent for a moment before speaking slowly. "I would advise you to extinguish those torches. Most magical beasts in this world are not afraid of fire. If anything, you're just broadcasting our location to them."
This man must be under the protection of the Goddess, mustn't he? The fact that someone with such a dangerously carefree attitude hadn't already been eaten by a magical beast defied all logic.
Hearing Serie's advice, Rhodes thought for a moment, decided it made perfect sense, and promptly extinguished all the torches. He then watched as Serie cast a spell of her own. A green magic circle materialized before her, and a ripple of energy expanded outwards from it in all directions.
"What kind of magic is that?"
"It's an alarm spell, unique to the elves. It will alert us if any living creature approaches the perimeter."
An amazing tool!
Rhodes's eyes lit up. It was an essential spell for traveling in the wilderness! He had assumed the young Master before him only knew spells designed to kill things; he never imagined she would know such useful utility magic.
"Teach me! Please, Miss Serie!" Rhodes clasped his hands together, his voice filled with sincere earnestness.
Serie smiled. "I can. But first, you have to tell me: where is our destination?"
"I don't have one." It was the truth. Rhodes had no idea where he should go. He had been in this world for over a year and hadn't seen a single person of his own kind. If Serie hadn't told him that humans existed, he would have assumed they hadn't even appeared in this era yet.
"Well," he said with a cheerful, slightly goofy smile, "I suppose we'll just take it one step at a time. Isn't a journey supposed to be an adventure into the unknown?"
Seeing his carefree expression, Serie said nothing, but whispered softly to herself, "What a ridiculous man."