Chapter 3 – First contact

After getting over the initial shock of being in a different world with a body younger than she used to, Sophia currently enjoyed her journey in search of civilization. Before coming to this world, she had spent most of her life in the city, rarely seeing much greenery, aside from some parks she used to run in for training. She excitedly looked around, taking in all the new sights. Especially the exotic-looking plants and trees caught her interest. The girl constantly stopped to look at the flora she never saw before, not even in books or on TV. This made her progress relatively slow. Then again, not knowing where she was headed to, Sophia didn't feel the need to hurry and prioritized having fun over being efficient.

"What kind of tree is that?" Once again, her attention got caught by something. The tree in question was indeed a weird one. Instead of growing vertically, this one made a sharp turn two meters above the ground and continued to grow horizontally in an L-shaped form instead. Its branches and leaves were already touching the ground, and the easy-to-reach, small and spiky, red fruits, grew in incredible amounts on this tree.

"These fruits kinda resemble lychees, don't they? No, wait, it was something similar looking. Lychees didn't have any spikes. Ah, I think they were called rambutan or something similar to that…?" She wasn't sure herself. "Hmm? Does that mean they're edible, then…?" Thinking so, Sophia was about to reach for a fruit but stopped herself before grabbing it.

"No, even if they look the same, resembling some odd fruit I know from my old world, it still doesn't mean it is the same. In the first place, while I never saw a rambutan, or however they were called, tree before… wait a moment, do they even grow on trees?" She tilted her head, trying to remember what kind of fruits there were and how they grew. "Whatever, I'm confident to say that wherever they grow on, it didn't look like this thing." She glanced at the oddly shaped tree again and retracted her arm. "Even though I'm curious, I better be safe than sorry." She was cautious enough not to taste test a random fruit in an unknown world. Once her interest in the tree faded, Sophia continued her journey to find a city. Eventually, she picked up her speed because there wasn't much of interest, but she eventually had to stop for another reason.

"Hmm~" She looked around before placing a hand on her chin while tilting her head. "I'm lost, aren't I? Well, I was lost ever since I started, but it feels even more so now!" She was casually jogging for the last hour or two, equaling sprinting with a way higher speed any ordinary human could ever dream of reaching. However, there were still no signs of civilization whatsoever. "D-Don't tell me my luck was so abysmal before, that even with boosts, it still amounts to nothing?! Well, that would explain a lot, though… Everything would make sense now, actually." Having depended entirely on luck for finding her way, Sophia began to regret her decision. Not that she had any alternatives in the first place.

"Haa," Sighing, she grumbled over the possibility of not being very lucky, if at all. "What now? Yeah, whatever, let's just continue in the same direction! It's not like anything will change." Lucky or not, it didn't make much of a difference at this point, or so Sophia had thought. That way of thinking may have been a mistake, though.

"Ahaha…" A dry laugh was the best she could muster. Not even five minutes after deciding it would be best to continue in the same direction passed before something blocked Sophia's path, forcing her to stop. "Wow, that's a huge doggy~" She tried her best to deceive herself. In reality, in front of her stood an at least two-and-a-half-meter tall animal that may have some dog-like features, but it was some sort of overgrown wolf no matter how one looked at it.

"I would like to have back the slimes from earlier, please!" Sophia thought for a moment that she would prefer to face the weaker-looking slimes from when she arrived in this world. "No, scratch that-" Still, once she remembered their creepy wiggling and slimy appearance, not to mention those abbreviations sporting tentacles on their body, the girl shuddered and looked at the oversized wolf. "It at least looks fluffy. He would actually be adorable… if he wasn't that huge. Oh, and the fact that he's baring its gigantic fangs at me, not cute at all…" She stopped for a moment. "Ah, that's bad, isn't it…?" Her expression changed while she focused on the monster aggressively showed its teeth.

"W-Well then, goodbye!" Using the same strategy she had success with on the slimes before, Sophia turned around. Then, she jumped into a sprint, using as much of her power as she could. Having superhuman features might not be such a bad thing, after all, was the thought she briefly had while fleeing until she turned her head around.

Unfortunately, the gigantic wolf wasn't bound by human standards, either. Outrunning a normal wolf is already impossible, after all. While not catching up to Sophia, he managed to run at the same speed, making the whole ordeal pointless. Even so, Sophia continued to run with the hope her endurance was higher than that of her predator. This hope turned out to be in vain as well. though. Neither the wolf nor the girl showed any sign of slowing down even a bit during their prolonged chase. Realizing that this was going nowhere, she hit the brakes. Quite literally. Sophia managed to stop so hard and fast that she even tore up the ground below her feet, leaving two brake lines behind her. Clearly not expecting this, the wolf sped past her before finally being able to stop a little way away from the girl. The two stared at each other for a good while. She then glanced at her feet and the broken ground. Images of the destroyed boulder at the lakeside also flew through her head afterward.

"I-I'm quite strong, you know…?" She didn't sound overly convincing. "I'm not sure h-how strong wolves are in this world, especially since you seem to be a, uhh, s-special case with your size and all, or how you could keep up with me… Still, I don't plan on losing!" Sophia took a fighting stance, somewhat resembling that of a boxer, and tried to psyche herself up.

"Hold on a moment, human… girl? I have no intention to fight you in the first place. Earlier, I just wanted to scare you away because you were about to enter my domain. But, once you started running away at such tremendous speed, I got the, let's say, urge to chase you." While he said so, Sophia noticed that the creature's tail was wagging like crazy.

"S-So you wanted to… play?!"

"As much as it hurts my pride to admit, this was indeed the case." The wolf hung his head in response.

"Come on!" Sophia fell on her knees once the tension left her body. "Don't scare me like that!"

"I'm sorry." His tail stopped wagging as the wolf looked genuinely apologetic.

"Haa~ Hmm? Wait a moment-" Having escaped a life-or-death situation, she finally noticed the strangeness of the situation.

"What's the matter?" The wolf didn't get her reaction.

"…"

"…" The two continued to stare at each other in silence for a while.

"You can talk…?" Totally out of place, Sophia voiced the one thing that was bugging her the most.

"Why shouldn't I?" The wolf tilted his head, not understanding what this weird girl was going on about.

"Ehh… So, monsters can talk in this world, huh?" She wasn't sure how to react to this revelation.

"Human, don't compare me to a mere monster."

"A-Are you some kind of Boss-Monster then? Like the final enemy of this area?"

"While not entirely true, it's not that far off, either."

"I really have rotten luck after all, haven't I? Even in this world!" This was the only explanation possible for her.

"You're quite the interesting one, human...?" The last part sounded more like a question.

"Same goes for you, big guy."

"By the way, what brings you here, girl? The next human settlement is multiple days away, even with your speed."

"W-What…?" Sophia hoped she misheard him.

"You didn't know? Where are you even from, then?"

"That idiot!" She had lost count of how many times she had complained towards the sky already. Afterward, noticing the wolf's confused expression in front of her, Sophia briefly explained how she ended up here while making sure to insult the so-called overseer at every possible time. Keeping something this ridiculous a secret hadn't even entered her mind.

"Oho, I wasn't wrong. You certainly are an interesting one." He reaffirmed his earlier assessment, sounding even more convinced. "I never heard about someone entering this world from another."

"Wait, you actually believed me…?"

"Eh?! You lied?!" He seemed seriously shocked.

"No, it's the truth, but… one normally wouldn't believe such a story just like that, right?"

"Ah, indeed, it sounds unbelievable, but you do seem very ignorant of this world. Your aura feels different as well. Not to mention that it makes way more sense than being a human of this world."

"Hmm…? I-I see…" Sophia didn't like being able to be labeled as an outsider so easily.

"Don't worry, only individuals with high enough magical powers can sense something like that. Ordinary human beings are unable to do so." Having sensed her discomfort, the wolf gave her some peace of mind.

"Heh~, so you can use magic?" Feeling relieved, that bit of information spiked her interest.

"Of course, I can!" He sounded smug. "But, girl, you should be able to do so, as well. The magical power I sense from you, at the very least, rivals my own. I never saw anything even remotely close in any human before. You're quite the monster in that regard. Are you truly human? It makes absolutely no sense."

"That's the last thing I want to hear from a boss-class monster!" She had also realized she wasn't normal but hearing it from him made the feeling way worse.

"You should be proud, girl. Most cannot even dream of such powers—also, magic's fun. After all, you can do whatever you want with it."

"Magic, huh?" It was a foreign concept to Sophia because it wasn't a real thing in her old world. "Interesting, I have to try it later!" She recovered quickly.

"That's the spirit! How about I teach you? I'm quite, uhm, free at the moment! It sounds interesting to train such a promising candidate in magic."

"Really? You will?" She was genuinely happy about the offer but then hesitated. "Wait, where's the catch?"

"There's none! As I said, I'm super bore- A-Ahem, I mean, I'm free right now, so I thought, why not."

"Ahh, I see…" Sophia looked at him with sympathetic eyes after having found out his real motive.

"A-Anyway-" He got flustered. "Before that, what's your name, girl?"

"Oh, right… we kind of skipped over that, huh? My name is Sophia. It's nice to meet you. Do monsters have names as well? Okay, boss-monsters or whatever you really are?"

"Sophia, is it? Yes, it's nice to meet you. As for my name, people used to call me… uh, wait, what was it again…?" It seemed like it's been a while since someone called him by his name. "Hmm, I think it was something that started with… Fen-"

"A-Ah! Isn't that fine?! Fen, I mean? It sounds nice if you ask me." Alarm bells were ringing inside her head while she tried to stop him from remembering his full name. Sophia had a good idea of what it's going to be, and she wanted to escape this reality. Forget Boss-Class, that guy in front of her was straight up Mythical-Class, and that was too much for her to deal with.

"Fen, huh?" He said it out loud to get a feel for the name, and at the same time, his tail started wagging again. "How nostalgic… Yes, I like that name."

"G-Good…" Sophia was glad that she, at least theoretically, was still able to deny who the wolf in front of her really is.

"Once again, it's nice to meet you, Sophia."

"The pleasure's all mine, Fen."

And just like that, on the very first day in the new world, Sophia made her first acquaintanceship. It was a somewhat crazy one she never dreamed of, on top.