"Fireball! Lightning bolt! Earth spike! Blizzard storm!"

Out in the woods stood a girl with her hands extended forward, shouting random things. A boy standing nearby merely watched.

"Hey... what are you doing?"

But he simply couldn't resist asking after a while.

"We are in a fantasy world right?! That means magic!"

Mindy's response made Nate raise his eyebrows while his mouth distorted. What kind of leap in logic is that? They suddenly appeared in the middle of a forest, they don't necessarily know where they are. And even if they were in a fantasy world with magic, why would it be so easy to use magic just by shouting random things?

Mindy noticed his crossed arms and furrowed brows and guessed his thoughts.

"Because you know! We are from a different world! People like that always get some super amazing abilities!"

"... you should stop assuming so many things."

Having his thoughts read, Nate averted eyes, to which Mindy grinned.

"Status! Menu! Inventory!"

And then continued shouting more nonsense.

Nate, on the other hand, fell into deep thought. Wasn't their situation actually quite bad? They were in the middle of nowhere without any supplies. If they don't find a settlement any time soon, they might be forced to camp out in the woods. Moreover, he wasn't very well versed in plants. He wouldn't be able to tell apart an edible berry from a poisonous one. And then... they also have to be afraid of the wild animals. They can't ward off a wolf or a bear with their fists. That's just impossible.

"Argh! Nothing is working!"

After Mindy finally gave up, Nate spoke to her.

"We should really move from here. We need to find a civilization of sorts."

Although still annoyed by the failure, Mindy nodded.

But before they even made a few steps, Mindy stopped and looked to the side.

"What's wrong?"

"T-that's...!"

And then she ran toward that spot. Seconds later, Nate realized what caught her attention.

"My bag! It got transported with us!"

Nate was pleasantly surprised. Perhaps there are some useful items inside? He closed the distance and watched as Mindy rummaged through it.

Candles, brushes, cans of paint, more candles...

It all seemed like useless junk for the ritual, but when Mindy unzipped another pocket, a light of hope shined upon them. There were a bunch of wafers and even a bottle of water! Nate had no idea why she needed that for the ritual, but he decided to ignore that.

"Food! Now we don't have to worry about it that much!"

He exhaled these words in pure joy. Now they wouldn't starve to death.

"Hm? Oh... umm right..."

But Mindy didn't seem to be that interested in it. That made Nate frown. What could possibly be more important than food in their situation? He couldn't imagine.

"Ah! Here it is!"

What Mindy pulled out of the bag, was the occult book. The one she used for the ritual. When Nate saw it, he realized it. With that book... perhaps there is a way to get back?

They both sat down and Mindy started browsing through the pages. Nate patiently watched as the sheets of paper shuffled. Eventually, Mindy found the page with the ritual they performed to get here.

"Oh isn't that it?"

Nate pointed it out and Mindy nodded.

"Yeah, that's the ritual... but I'm looking for ways to use magic in here! And there's nothing!"

She slammed the book shut, almost crushing Nate's finger.

"W-what are you talking about?! We need a way to get home again!"

"What?! But we just got here! We didn't even get to enjoy this place!"

...

Both of them stared each other. Nate worried about their safety while Mindy was out to have some fun. Neither one of them wanted to back off...

...

"Alright fine! We'll try to find a way home!"

To her words, Nate smiled and patted her head.

"But! There's no way we can do any sort of ritual here! So let's search for some people!"

She had a point. Lighting candles in a forest seemed like a big fire hazard. They better find a suitable room for that. Moreover, they were missing a few key ingredients for the ritual...

"Alright then, let's go."

After storing everything back into the bag, Nate took on the burden of carrying it and they finally left their starting spot.

While walking, they saw all sorts of exotic trees and bushes with fruits. Since they didn't know what would be edible, they ignored most of them. They instead chewed on their chocolate wafers to satiate their hunger. Gradually though, they started realizing something was a little off... They haven't encountered any animals. Not even rustling in bushes to indicate their presence. Even insects seemed to be absent from this place. Only trees, bushes and other plants. And while it was good that they didn't have to run away from wild animals, the silence also felt eerie.

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...

"Haaah..."

Mindy plopped on the ground while breathing out. Her legs were not trained for this non-stop marching. She was too used to the public transportation.

Nate sat next to her to also take a moment to catch his breath. But also, he was getting worried. They could still see the sun, but it would soon set and they had nowhere to spend the night. Sleeping out in the wild in an unknown forest was way too risky to put into practice.

After resting up, they stood up and prepared to wander some more. However, when Nate stood up, he froze in place.

"Hmm? What's wr-"

And when Mindy looked where his eyes were looking, she saw the first animal since coming to this world. Mass of gray fur with menacing eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth. It looked just like a regular wolf... if it wasn't the size of a grizzly bear. And of course, it was slowly walking toward them while staring at them, probably assessing the quality of their meat.

In other words, both Nate and Mindy realized it at that moment: They are screwed. The wolf making a few intimidating growls didn't help either.

"R-run!"

Nate panicked and ran as fast as he could. Mindy attempted to follow, but as soon as her legs moved, her foot stumbled on something and she fell down. Seeing that, the wolf didn't hesitate and dashed straight at Mindy.

"MINDY!"

"GYAAA FIREBALL!"

In her panicked state, Mindy put her arm forward and shouted, hoping her magical talent would trigger in this dire situation.

But just like before, no fireball appeared to ward off the beast... No. Instead, countless horrifying black tentacles suddenly sprouted from her hand and entangled the wolf. The wolf howled and whimpered as the tentacles strangled him.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Seeing... and feeling that, Mindy couldn't help but to scream. As her screams intensified, the tentacles started piercing and tearing the wolf apart, splashing blood everywhere. Nate was stunned as he watched the gory scene unfolded in front of him. But as the tentacles started stabbing into the pieces left of the wolf, he finally got hold of himself and ran to Mindy, who still lied on the ground with a horrified expression.

"Mindy! Calm down... it's okay!"

He hugged her close and stroked her head. Thanks to that, her weak voice gradually stopped whimpering. The tentacles stopped assaulting the wolf's mutilated corpse and retracted back into Mindy's hand. She couldn't help but to look at her own hand in terror.

"It's okay... it's okay..."

Nate continued to comfort the trembling and crying girl, even though he was seriously shaken himself. It took quite some time for both of them to fully calm down...

----------------------------------------

"Ugh! W-what?!"

These words filled with dread came from a woman sporting wolf-like ears and tail. She covered her mouth the instant she saw the gruesome scene in front of her.

"W-what is this...?! What happened here?!"

Her partner, a man with similar ears and tail also felt horror from looking at the chopped wolf bits.

"Verner... Verner! Noooo!"

The woman kept yelling her dead friend's name before her partner covered her mouth himself.

"Calm down... the culprit could still be nearby..."

Hearing that, her face went pale as she silently looked around in panic.

The man, although still upset, walked over to the corpse to inspect it. But he didn't dare to touch... only his eyes examined the remains.

"Hannah... you know what this means, right?"

The woman, Hannah, didn't respond. She didn't want to accept the truth.

"A demon has appeared..."

Hannah still didn't want to accept it. At this time of peace, out of nowhere, she found her friend ripped to pieces. Even though only a demon could do something like this... she still couldn't accept it.

"Hannah! Run back to the town and inform the mayor! I'm going to... take care of Verner..."

These last few words were said with all sorts of negative feelings mixed in.

"B-but..!"

Hannah objected. There's no way she is separating from him!

"Please go! The people need to be warned about this!"

But once she saw the seriousness in his eyes, she lost all will to argue with him. She just silently turned around and ran after leaving him with a few words.

"Be careful..."

...

"Yeah..."

And once Hannah was long gone, tears started flowing down from his eyes.

"Verner... how could anyone do that to you? You were such a nice guy..."

The man started sniffling, completely unfitting his manly stature.

"I still remember... when I got lost in a forest that one time... you were the one to find me and guide me back... You looked scary at first... but when I fell down trying to run and twisted my ankle, you were immediately by my side to help me..."

...

"I will make that demon pay! Even if it costs me my life!"