Rei dug up a hole in the ground and buried the left-over timber and food waste in it. While he continued to clean up, Eri grimaced at the barbecued hare.

"I feel like I might get a nightmare from eating this. Alfie! Come over, I have some barbecue for you."

"Au gau uu"

"Yeah, sorry I almost forgot about you. You must have been starving."

"My Eri, we can take off now."

"Are you leaving the stone pot behind?"

"I can always make another one."

"Ehh! You made it! How could you have polished a hole into a rock without shattering it...hey Rei if you can make these things, you might want to join the craftsmen guild when we go back to town."

The corner's of Rei's lips hooked upwards, but there was no reply. He simply didn't have any crafting skills, to begin with. The hole in the stone pot was formed by a highly corrosive toxin he had released from his storage. But Eri didn't need to know this. Rei had come to a conclusion, after a few unfortunate events, that Eri did not react well to his displays of power. Perhaps he only needed to guard her quietly—solving all her troubles without being seen.

Soon, they approached the shrub of vitality berries. Small globes of yellow reflected from Eri's eyes and she seemed to see a pile of wealth before her.

"I hope they don't go bad in my storage bag."

"There's no need for that, my Eri. I will keep the berry bush for you."

Rei gathered his mental power onto the surface area of the bush, and in a blink of an eye, the entire bush disappeared.

"No!! No way!! Rei, it's gone! Someone stole the whole bush!"

"You are mistaken my dear Eri, the entire bush is in my storage space."

Rei tilted his head and his green eyes glimmered with playfulness. In a moment, the bush of yellow berries appeared in mid-air.

Eri gaped at the scene before her.

"I know that storage bags have space functions, but...I've never heard of anyone keeping an entire plant with roots and all...and inside the body too."

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"My Eri, plants can live inside me due to the nutrient solution in my body storage. Moreover, my body can turn translucent and gather sunlight from time to time."

"This...you...you're a walking garden...I don't think I can measure you with common sense. Your latent skill [Body Storage] sure is convenient. Can you put other living things in your body too? For example, people?"

"I'm afraid not, my Eri. That would be truly frightening if it ever comes to fruition."

Eri rubbed her temples and looked a bit dazzled at Rei. She imagined Rei storing an army of soldiers in his body one day, and he would be able to release them anytime he wanted—would they pop out one after another? Although Rei denied its possibility, Eri had a feeling that he would be capable of it in the future.

Rei guided Eri through the dense shrubs. Their path turned several times until they came across clouds of thick milky fog. Rei turned to Eri and held out his arm.

"Hold onto me, my Eri, you might lose your way in the fog.

"Er, yeah..."

I didn't think this slime could look like a prince...if not for his usual bouts of perversion, he would- no no no, nope, nopedy nope. there's nothing attractive about this slime man!

White plumes of fog glided over their faces. And after a quarter of an hour, the fog unfolded to reveal the silhouette of a large beast.

Alerted by their footsteps, the beast spun around and glared at them.

"Wahhh! Rei, that's a guardian beast! It's got three tails! And it's so white and fluuuffy!"

"#*^bt%ai~;hd&! (It's you again slime bastard!)"

"Rei, it seems to be hostile to us...and it should be a Rank A Fox demon. Let's not fight it."

"You are right my Eri, there's no need to fight this fox. We just need to-"

Whack! Whack! Whack!

Rei's arm turned into a thick green whip and slammed onto the fox demon.

"-whip it a few times, and it will go away."

The whip split apart the fog and cleared up the view in front of them. Rei smiled nonchalantly and stepped toward the fruit tree.

The fox demon bent down and whimpered.

"S&:~•*\+h!!! Ooooo... (Shit my fur, my fur! You ass of a slime!!)"

A glare of light flashed in the direction of the fox demon, and what was left was a white-haired man with a pair of golden eyes with slitted pupils.

Eri quickly removed her gaze from the golden-eyed man. Those shockingly bright irises gave a sense of murderous ferociousness.

"Slime demon, you can only take one more."

"We can't take the entire tree?"

The fox demon didn't care for Eri. It didn't put this weak human woman in its eyes at all.

"No problem, my Eri."

With a wave of his hand, the entire Hundred Hearts tree disappeared into Rei's storage space.

"You! Curse you, slime! Return the tree!"

Rei's arm condensed into a shiny green whip again. The smile in his eyes deepened.

"Shit, I'll be back! You wait for it! I'll have a handle on you next time..."

The fox demon disappeared into the fog and the calm was restored.

"I never thought driving away a guardian beast would be an option!"

"Oh Eri, driving it away is much better than fighting it. You do realise that he must have eaten countless Hundred Hearts fruits as the guardian of the tree. How many times would he have to be killed before he really dies?"

"...doesn't that mean we've hit jackpot by scaring him off?"

"Oh, I'm afraid he's not scared at all. It might have to do with his cultivation which makes it inconvenient for him to fight at this moment in time. A nine-tailed fox demon with three tails..."