"Get up, I'm hungry."

"... " Feeling a slight tickle on his nose, Zephyr couldn't help but shift his body and move his head to one side.

Standing in front of him, Loris's eyes narrowed slightly...

"Wah!!" Deep in sleep, Zephyr was jolted awake by a sudden cold sense of danger. He leaped up like he had been electrocuted, waving his claws defensively while scanning the surroundings until his gaze landed on Loris.

"I'm hungry."

"If you're hungry, eat. There's still plenty of roasted meat left, right?" Zephyr glanced at the remaining roasted meat on the rack and couldn't help but ask.

"I don't eat leftovers."

"Eh? Alright." Shaking his dragon head, Zephyr grabbed the leftover roasted meat from the rack and stuffed it into his mouth, "I'll go hunt; don't wander off, cough, do as you please."

Aware of how dangerous the little girl before him could be, Zephyr cleared his throat and walked out of the town. His earlier words were purely due to Loris's small size, which made her look easily abducted.

After leaving the town, Zephyr didn't immediately head into the forest but first circled around the town's perimeter. The roads showed no signs of multiple people having left recently.

With so many people in the town, even if they dispersed widely, there should have been more traces near the exits. Yet, there were none!

"This is an unsolved mystery, isn't it?" After searching for a while without finding anything, Zephyr gave up on continuing the search. Even if he found something, what could he do about it?

"Strange, there weren't so many beasts in the forest before." Carrying a wild boar, a wolf, and several rabbits, he occasionally looked back at the forest behind him.

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This forest was rich in resources. Previously, despite his activities, nothing significant had happened. It was mostly small animals, with large beasts being present but not encountered casually.

This time, upon entering, he encountered quite a few... Could these beasts be in their mating season again?

Upon returning, Zephyr saw Loris reading a book she had somehow obtained, looking very serious. Not wanting to disturb her, he fetched water and began preparing the new ingredients.

As the first piece of roasted meat was nearly done, Loris had already put down her book and was staring intently at the meat in front of Zephyr ’s claw, her expression still somewhat disdainful, "Can you only make this?"

"Do you think my claws can handle delicate work?" Zephyr waved his claws unhappily, causing a gust of wind. Having experienced the dexterity of human hands, he now understood how clumsy his claws were for certain tasks.

"I see, then let's start with this." Under Zephyr 's astonished gaze, Loris reached out and lightly swiped the air beside her, creating a neat black rift. She pulled a book from the rift and tossed it to Zephyr .

A bit flustered, Zephyr caught the book, which was smaller than his palm, "Grilling Meat for Beginners? What kind of joke is this?"

With a strange sense of unease, Zephyr opened the book and indeed found it to be about culinary arts, "Are you planning to make me a cook?"

"If you plan to do so, I agree," Loris said calmly, jumping down from the stone platform and coming to stand beside Zephyr . She gently tapped his scales, sending a prickling sensation through him. Turning his head, he saw that she had taken another small cup of his blood, just enough to be negligible—equivalent to sweating a bit more.

"Are you a vampire?" This finally prompted him to ask.

"No." Setting the cup aside, Loris did not explain why she did this. Instead, she demonstrated by removing one glove and grabbing the wolf's head discarded by Zephyr . In her hand, the wolf's head quickly withered and crumbled to dust within seconds.

"What the heck!?" If Zephyr had hair, it would have stood on end! He had been touched by Loris's small hands many times, "Is this an active ability?"

"It's passive."

"..."

"It doesn't affect you, so I really like you."

"If it worked on me, wouldn't I have turned to dust long ago?" Zephyr 's lips twitched slightly. If it had such power over dead things, how much more powerful must it be against living beings?

"Exactly." Loris nodded.

"Wait... Then what do you usually eat?" Zephyr suddenly realized something. Given Loris's terrifying passive ability, turning everything she touched to dust, what did she eat? Dust?

"You don't need to worry about that." Loris glanced at Zephyr , "The meat is burning."

"Oh oh! Almost!" Quickly flipping the meat on the rack, Zephyr saw some parts were slightly burnt but still edible. It would be a waste to discard them, so he decided to eat those himself and added new pieces to the grill. Loris, however, swiftly picked up a piece of meat and used her unknown method to blend the small cup of blood into the meat.

"This meat is a bit burnt..."

"It doesn't matter." Loris said without lifting her head, fully engrossed in eating. Zephyr felt a strange sense of sympathy.

Although she refused to reveal what she normally ate, it was clear that obtaining food must be extremely difficult for her, otherwise, she wouldn't enjoy his mediocre cooking so much!

Watching her finish a piece of meat, Zephyr couldn't help but offer another, "Want one more?"

"That's enough." She wiped her mouth, "I really like you, so I won't treat you as a tool."

Scratching his head, Zephyr threw the piece of meat in his hand into his mouth, chewed it briefly, and swallowed, "Enough of this, what are you planning to teach me?"

"That depends on what you can learn."

"Magic aptitude? Like determining which elemental attribute you can learn based on detection?" Sitting down, Zephyr became interested. Since he had crossed over to a world with supernatural powers, it was natural to be curious about them!

"You're overthinking it."