Chapter 5 – First meal in the new world

Sophia somehow managed to learn the basics of water magic after Fen gave her a short demonstration. Once they finished fooling around with it, and the girl had enough of messing around with the wolf's fur, she finally calmed down.

"Fen, I'm getting kinda hungry." Having had her fill with fluffing up her furry companion, Sophia noticed that her stomach was empty.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't eaten anything today either yet. Okay, let's go hunting right now!" He suddenly seemed super motivated.

"Ehh…" Sophia didn't share his enthusiasm.

"Hunting's fun, you know!?"

"Of course you feel that way, Mr. carnivore predator." She rolled her eyes. "I don't quite feel it… Aren't there any alternatives?"

"Alternatives?"

"How about, you know, fruits or vegetables for me to eat?"

"G-Girl, don't tell me you're one of these humans that refuse to eat meat?!" Mr. carnivore was fundamentally incompatible with individuals living a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

"I can eat meat just fine… But hunting, on the other hand, is…"

"T-That's good, then" He was genuinely relieved. "Anyway, while there are some fruits in this area, I would advise against eating them."

"Why?"

"Basically everything in this place is super poisonous. If a normal human tried anything from here, they would die an agonizing death within minutes. Well, you are no ordinary human, but it still doesn't sound fun, does it?"

"N-Not really…"

"Even worse are those nasty Rasputam fruits… Those are even capable of killing someone as great as I when eaten a few of them."

"Ras… what now?" Sophia never heard this name before. "Or actually, they do sound slightly familiar… Maybe I remembered the name wrong?"

"Little red fruits with spikes all over its hull. Luckily, that makes them fairly recognizable. The tree they're growing is also easy to identify because not many trees grow horizontally next to the ground… Man, rasputam... To make them even worse, they're supposedly delicious, meaning once you realize they're poisonous, it's already way too late."

"W-Wha…" Her face lost all color because the description of this fruit sounded oddly familiar.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, it just seems like I narrowly escaped death… again."

"Hmm?"

"You see, there's a fruit in my old world that looks exactly the same but is perfectly edible. So, when I spotted that rasputam thingy here… I almost tried it but stopped myself. This is a different world with different rules, after all…"

"You're quite lucky, aren't you?"

"I'm not sure about that." If anything, Sophia was sure the exact opposite was true.

"Okay, with that being clarified, let's go hunting already!" Fen had enough of talking and wanted some action.

"Hunting animals by hand and eating them…"

"Girl, inferior beings are made to be eaten by the strong ones. There's no need to feel reserved about." Being a huge and powerful carnivore, the entire world was an all-you-can-eat buffet for Fen.

"I don't think that's how it works… Wait a moment, Fen!" She noticed something disturbing in his claim.

"What is it now?"

"Earlier… you labeled humans as inferior beings as well… D-Don't tell me you eat them, too?!" Being one, or at least looking like a human, Sophia naturally had to comment on that.

"Nah, they don't taste good at all." He made a slight grimace while admitting so.

"S-So you actually… did taste them…" She looked creeped out.

"Well… In the past, humans tried to attack and take me down all the time… As a matter of course, I defended myself, and I might've bitten off an arm… or an upper body during those times… Later on, I just blasted them into nothingness with my magic, and they stopped coming at me."

"I-I see… it couldn't be helped, huh…?"

"Exactly."

"Haa, as long as you don't want to try me." Sophia didn't want to deal with the topic any more than that. Also, logically speaking, Fen wasn't the one in the wrong after all.

"I-I wouldn't taste a friend! Not to mention, with your dormant powers, you would be able to seriously hurt me in the process."

"That's good then."

"Anyway, girl, why are you so adamant about not wanting to hunt for food?"

"Well… I never hunted before… Most importantly, that also means you have to skin whichever animal I killed, right…? Not to mention messing with the innards and stuff… There's no way I could do that! Way too disgusting! Even just thinking about it makes me shudder!"

"Ahh, I see." Fen finally understood the real reason for her aversion. "Worry not, there's magic for that."

"Ehh…?"

"You can skin your game with magic. After all, even though I look like this, I don't enjoy eating fur personally. I don't like the mouthfeel."

"You're something else, Fen."

"Feel free to praise me more."

"That wasn't necessarily… Whatever, isn't magic way too omnipotent? Is it really supposed to be like that…?" She wasn't convinced that magic should work like that.

"The strong ones aren't bound to the rules and believes of the weak. Because we can manipulate magic directly, we can basically do whatever we want!"

"Being strong sure is convenient, huh?"

"You said it, Sophia."

"Okay… fine…" She gave up. "Let's go hunt for some food." Her stomach had won. "Let's show the weaklings their place." Fen's mindset had already begun to corrupt the girl. "Ah, but nothing that looks cute, okay?!" It was a slow corruption, though.

"Well said, that's a compromise I can live with."

Having finally agreed to something, the two got up and left their comfy place in the shade of the tree, looking for prey.

"So… I never hunted before. Any advice for a first-timer?" While walking side by side through the plain, she addressed the wolf.

"Magic."

"That's your answer to everything, isn't it?"

"Naturally! I have perfected my detection magic, and I don't even need to mention how I'm confident in my attack skills, right?"

"Sure… Detection magic, is it? How does that work?"

"Easy! You just… uh…" Fen had problems describing his magic. "Just feel where your prey is!"

"Feel… you say… You aren't very good at this whole teacher thing, are you?" Sophia couldn't work with such a half-baked explanation.

"Hmm… Ah, I found some nice prey. Sophia, are you able to see the group of trees about half a kilometer away to your east?" He gestured across the plain.

"East?" She looked in the direction Fen mentioned and narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, I do. What about it? Just some trees and a couple of bushes with orange fruits on it, from what I can see."

"You have quite the good eyes." He hadn't expected her to even make out the fruits.

"Yeah…" She wasn't sure how to feel about that. Before coming to this world, her eyesight wasn't nearly as good.

"Behind the bushes, there's some tasty prey hiding."

"Really?" Sophia narrowed her eyes even more to identify whatever animal Fen was talking about. "Nope, all I can see are those bushes."

"You're not supposed to see, but to feel it!" He corrected her approach.

"That again… Feel it-, Feel it… Closing her eyes because she wasn't supposed to see anyway, Sophia concentrated on the spot where the wolf mentioned it to be. "Hrmm… Hrmmm… Hey, Fen… you're just messing with me, aren't you?! I can feel absolutely nothing!"

"Don't give up so fast, girl. I told you something is there. Focus on the area and feel the power that is radiating from the place."

"Fine…" Slightly pouty, she continued to focus on the target. "Hmm… maybe it's something like a radar…? AH!" She suddenly clapped her hands together. "Some sort of red dot appeared in my head!"

"See, I told you so."

"That's super handy!"

"Once you get better at it, you can even tell what kind of monster it is, or how strong. Well, not that their strength matters to ones such as us."

"You're rather proud about being strong, are you not?" She noticed just how Fen was boasting about it whenever he could.

"You'll come to enjoy it soon enough as well. Okay, now that you have the basics down, two other monsters are hiding somewhere. Try to find them."

"Sure!" Feeling motivated after her success, Sophia kept going with her detection magic training. A little over five minutes passed before she finally broke her concentration and looked at Fen with a troubled expression.

"Can't do it yet, girl?"

"Yeah, seems like it… You said there are two monsters, but so far, I picked up four, no, five signals. Apparently, I'm doing something wrong…"

"Eh?!"

"Hmm?" Sophia didn't understand why he sounded so shocked.

"You… W-Where have you detected them?!"

"Uhh… let's see… a group of two is about two kilometers to our left… Two more, almost six kilometers in front of us, and the last one… there's a tiny red dot about seven, maybe a little more, kilometers behind us, I guess."

"…"

"What's wrong, Fen?" She tilted her head, still not understanding his reaction.

"…"

"Hmm…? Ah!" She finally noticed. "Could it be, Fen~? You only found two monsters because the range of your detection magic isn't that big~?" She looked unbearable smug after finding out the reason.

"R-Range isn't everything!" She was spot on. "Y-You still can't make out details from your detections, r-right?!"

"Didn't you say yourself that details like their powers and whatnot aren't of importance for the o so strong ones like us~?"

"You insolent…" Clearly embarrassed, he was trying to stay calm under her teasing.

"Anyway, putting that aside." Finally, noticing that she was overdoing it, Sophia decided to change the topic. "How do we hunt that monster… animal…? Whatever it is now?"

"Find it out yourself, girl!" Still angry, Fen turned his head away.

"Come on, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to tease you… that much. I'm still figuring out how much that god messed with my personality. It happened unconsciously…"

"That's some handy excuse you came up with."

"It's true!"

"Fine…" Sighing, the wolf gave up and walked towards the target he had spotted in the beginning.

"Yay!" Sophia quickly followed him, and the two stopped around 100 meters before the group of trees.

"That should be close enough."

"Hmm… Ah, I just saw something moving behind the bushes!"

"Were you doubting me?"

"Well, all I saw was a red dot after all… It's still hard for me to fully grasp this magic thing."

"Watch me closely then. I'll show you the beauty of magic."

"Bring it on, Fen!" Following his order, Sophia looked at him and eagerly waited for something to happen. Immediately after, three semi-translucent spears, apparently made of ice, formed in front of the wolf. Once they finished materializing, the spears shot towards the bushes with tremendous speed, followed by a pained cry.

"M-Mooo…" The sound didn't last long before the two heard a soft rumbling as if something heavy fell on the ground.

"Moo…?" Sophia had no idea what kind of animal he had just killed, but she thought the cry sounded familiar.

"Let's go and look at our spoils."

"Yeah." Saying so, the two approached the bushes where the cry came from and inspected the area.

"One kow, ready to eat."

"I wouldn't say ready, but… Wait, kow, huh? Well, it's close enough…?" Sophia was looking at the killed animal while pondering about the name. No matter at which angle she looked at, it was a perfectly normal cow, albeit maybe a bit smaller. Assuming these kows aren't naturally equipped with ice-spears sticking out of them.

"Looks tasty, doesn't it?"

"Does it…?" The girl had a hard time agreeing with him on that, taking another glance at the dead animal, riddled with bloody icicles.

"Now we wait until it's bled out, and we can get to the skinning and preparing part.

"S-Sure…"

About an hour passed since the kow had met its icy end. Fen waited until it was bled enough and started with his skinning magic. Having no urge whatsoever to learn this specific magic, Sophia decided not to watch and gather firewood instead. For her, at least, meat has to be adequately grilled, after all. She didn't know how Fen felt about this topic, but he's probably okay with whatever as long as it's a lot of meat, is what she thought.

Once the meat vaguely resembled something she was used to from supermarkets in her previous world, thanks to the wolf cutting it into pieces by using some sort of wind blades made by magic, the two sat down next to the campfire that was handily lit by Fen's fire magic.

"You sure are useful." Sophia was amazed by how versatile he was. "Teach me some of those magics later, okay?"

"Sure, but food comes first."

"Yes, yes."

Fen threw a big slab of meat on a flat stone right next to the fire, lightly roasting it. This apparently was his favorite way of eating kow meat. Quite the gourmand was the comment that Sophia gave in response. On the other hand, she used smaller pieces of meat, which she impaled on a branch before sticking it into the fire, grilling it at a higher temperature.

While they enjoyed their barbecue, although Sophia was missing some vegetables as side dishes, the sun began to set, and their surroundings slowly turned dark.