It had been a while since we started exploring this Tainted Land. I didn’t actually know how long it had been, since in this darkness, I couldn’t tell the time of the day, so I had to rely on what my instincts and body told me. I could at least tell that it hadn’t been more than a couple of days, and hopefully it hadn’t been so long that I had missed the start of the academy education.

As we had gone deeper and deeper into the caves, we had encountered a few Dark Beasts, but none of them were of any more danger than the first ones we met, so dispatching them had been a relatively simple task. The only issue I had found was that I didn’t have much room to carry Magic Stones with me, which meant that the time for us to go back was close.

With one quick motion of my sword, I cut down yet another one of those Dark Beasts. This one had the appearance of a large wolf, almost covering the small passage of this particular part of the cave. Bo’guth hadn’t tried to fight it, since even the act of pulling out the hammer was difficult as he almost didn’t fit into the cave at all with his head tilted to the side.

I turned to look back at him. “Should we go back now?”

He snorted and shook his head. “After just a couple of days? Don’t tell me that the Hero of the Holy Gods can’t go on any more.”

I glared at him and felt tempted to just leave him behind and go into a hole in the cave that he wouldn’t be able to fit himself into. “Well it just seems like a Siege Demon like yourself isn’t fit for these kinds of places.”

Instead of getting mad at me, the demon simply laughed. “You know better than anyone that there’s always a way around a Tainted Land, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Bo’guth had been a rather interesting being to travel with. I had kept my guard up for most of the time we had been together, but regardless of what I said or what I did to keep him away from me, he would always either just laugh it off or not pay it any attention as he still kept on talking and walking with me.

“What is it?” he asked, once he realized I had been staring at him with narrowed eyes.

I shook my head and looked away from him, down at the wolf-like Dark Beast I just defeated. These sorts of beast didn’t leave any flesh or a body behind, their energy would just disappear, and I noticed that the more I killed, the better I felt. It was similar to the feeling I got from fighting inside a Holy Place of Power back in my world, especially after dispatching the beings placed there by the Gods in the Holy Trials.

Although, the difference in power wasn’t as much as to say that I was back at my peak, but I could feel there was something growing in me. It must be what Salrak said before, about getting power for killing beings touched by his power in this world, but… I didn’t really consider that I could get more powerful just by fighting inside the Tainted Lands.

This wolf-like Dark Beast had left another Magic Stone as well. A black and red marble, full of the energy that powered these sorts of beings. This one was slightly larger than the other handful that had been dropped by other Dark Beasts, which meant that it must be useful for someone, but looking at my gear, I realized that there really wasn’t anywhere I could place this one, so the only answer was to simply take it in my hand and go back.

“I can’t carry any more. We should go back now,” I said to Bo’guth, who stood slightly hunched next to me.

“Hm?” he replied, half-tilting his head as one of the horns scratched the ceiling. “What do you mean? We’ve only been in here for at most a couple of days, and you’ve collected only enough for a small pay day.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to put more Magic Stones,” I said, reminding him that I really couldn’t carry more by pointing at the armor.

“Oh, I thought for sure you would have a Magic Pocket,” Bo’guth replied with a stunned expression. “How ‘bout I carry them for you?”

From the side of his armor, he pulled a small black box that could be confused with just another piece of his armor. It was about half the size of his large hand, and it didn’t have any particular features besides a few words scribbled on a corner that read ‘Global Magic Technologies’.

He put the other hand on top of it, and after a white glow, a noisy blue bag with drawings of sliced potatoes appeared. I looked wide eyed, since I knew that such artifacts did exist—I even had one myself in my world—but they were so rare and so expensive, that I didn’t think some demon would carry one with him, especially to pack such a random thing inside.

“Here, I can carry the few Magic Stones that you picked up,” he said, presenting the Magic Pocket to me.

I was curious about the thing that he pulled out of it, but I first decided to trust the demon yet again and place the Stones on top of the box. After a slight glow on them, they were all gone. He put the black box back on the side of his armor and then opened the noisy bag.

“What is that?” I asked, narrowing my eyes to have a better look at it.

The bag read ‘Potato Chips: Mayonnaise flavored’ on the front. Bo’guth stopped as he was about to shove his hand into the bag, and presented the opened side of the bag to me. “Want some? These ones are delicious.”

I frowned as I looked deeper into the bag. The darkness of the cave made it difficult to know exactly what was inside, so I summoned a light orb and floated it above us. There indeed were nothing more than extremely thin slices of potatoes, which made me turn to look at Bo’guth with a questioning expression.

“What is the point of these? This is not enough to feed a man.”

“Oh, hoh hoh hoh,” he chuckled. “That’s what you think, but before you dismiss them, have a taste for yourself.”

He shook the bag in front of me, and I could get a strong scent coming out of them. The scent itself allured me more to eat them than to dismiss them, and after such a long time of fighting in this place without anything to eat, the idea was far too enticing for me to ignore. I reached into the bag, pulled one of the chips out and carefully inspected it.

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I looked at it from one side to the other, sniffing it, and giving it a small lick. The taste of the chip was just as strong as the smell that the bag produced, so I finally gave in and ate the small potato chip, making sure that there wasn’t anything strange in it while circulating mana on my body.

“T-this is…” I exclaimed after tasting it. Again, it was like something that only royalty could ever have, so I looked amazed at both the bag and Bo’guth.

“I know, right?!” he followed up, shoving his clawy hand into the bag and pulling a handful of chips before happily chomping them all down. “Here, have more.”

I hesitated again to reach into it, especially after seeing his hand go into it, but the hunger I had been pushing back for a few hours wouldn’t allow me to contain myself, so I did as Bo’guth had done and I also pulled out a handful of chips, as many as my smaller hand allowed me.

Eating them one after another instead, I savored each one as much as I could. I still couldn’t believe that a demon like this would carry around such a thing. Added with both the Magic Pocket and this food, it makes it even more likely that he is important.

“Welp, that’s that,” he said, crumbling the noisy bag and putting it back inside the Magic Pocket. “But I can see that you’re hungry.”

I looked to the side, trying not to confess that I indeed was, since I hadn’t had much to eat from the time I appeared on this world and my body was no longer nearly as powerful as it was just a few days ago. “A little…”

Bo’guth chuckled and reached into the Magic Pocket again. “I don’t get hungry as much, since my kind can go on for a long time without anything, and I thought that you were the same since you were the Hero, so I didn’t think you would need to eat anything yet.”

From his side, another box came out. Although this one was blue and didn’t seem to be as high quality as the Magic Pocket. He then presented it to me, and opened the lid of the box to show me what was inside.

“These are a couple of things that my wife makes for me to snack on,” he continued, pointing at a pair of sandwiches. They were golden in color and still emanated some heat. “Go on, I’ll gift you one, as a sign of good will.”

Looking at the couple of perfectly squared pieces, I again couldn’t just reach for them, even if they smelled great and seemed to be perfectly fine. “Your wife made them… isn’t this demonic food? Can I even eat this?”

He smiled. “It’s perfectly fine! Us demons aren’t too different from the other species and races, we just look different,” he reached in to grab one of them, taking a bite with his pointy fang-like teeth. “Delicious.”

The past me would never reach for food being offered by a demon; I would’ve cut him down the second I saw him, but after the betrayal of the Holy Gods, Salraks words, and the time I’ve been spending time with him, I had lost some of the edge I would have had when dealing with them, so I reached for it and took a careful bite out of the meal. Right after biting it and swallowing it I felt a burning sensation in my throat and tongue, and I could feel my face burning up with my eyes tearing up.

“What is this?! Did you poison me?!” I exclaimed, wanting to spit out the food which I had already swallowed.

“I forgot to mention that it has Carolina Reaper peppers in it. Real spicy, and definitely my favorite,” Bo’guth laughed out loud as he took another bite. “My wife can’t stand them either! She has almost the exact same reaction you’re having, even for a demoness like herself.”

Carolina Reaper peppers? I had never heard of something like that. I looked down on the sandwich, and after a few seconds I could feel the heat of whatever that was cooling down, mostly because of the mana I was circulating to my mouth. I glared up at the demon and prepared my weapon to strike him. Something like this must’ve been used to kill me.

“So you finally show your true colors… demon.”

“Hm?” the demon replied, seemingly unaware of what he had done. “What are you talking about? Not gonna finish the sandwich? If not, then I’ll gladly take it from you.”

I pointed the greatsword at him. “You fed me something with ‘reaper’ in the name! You clearly just tried to kill me!”

He looked wide eyed at me for a moment, but then he laughed out. The sign of someone who’s secret plan had been revealed. “Don’t be silly. Those won’t kill anyone, but they will make you feel like your soul is burning! Truly exciting food!”

“You mean to tell me that… it’s supposed to feel like that?!” I asked with a frown.

“Yes, those peppers are actually only found in this world, and they were eaten only by humans—though only a few actually enjoy them like me. Go on, give it another bite, perhaps you’ll grow to like it too.”

It was difficult to agree with the demon, especially because I had never bothered to talk to one… However, besides the burning in my mouth and throat, I didn’t actually detect any other changes in my body, since the small bite that I swallowed didn’t create any other effect. I decided to put away the greatsword, and looked down at the sandwich in my hand.

At the moment, I was hungry enough to give it another try, and if this kind of food doesn’t kill you, then… I guess it’s better than dying of hunger. I braced myself by taking a deep breath and started biting into the sandwich, eating as fast as I could to avoid having the same feeling from before.

Finishing it in just a handful of bites, I swallowed it as fast as I could, but the burning sensation from before came back even stronger than before, and I could feel my mouth burning, its effects only being reduced by moving defensive mana to my mouth.

Bo’guth just laughed as he watched me, but it didn’t feel like he was making fun of me. It was more like when people laughed at friends in an inn or at a party. Still, he reached again for the Magic Pocket, pulling out a strange pink bottle.

“Here, this will help you with the burning sensation. Sometimes it’s unbearable for me too, so I bring it just in case.”

He passed the bottle to me and I quickly snatched it, clumsily opening it before bringing it up to my mouth, only to stop myself as I didn’t really think about what he was giving me, so I stopped to look down at it and smell it.

“This isn’t another one of those things, is it?” I asked while glaring at the demon.

“No, no, this is just chocolate milk. Great for dealing with the spice.”

I took a sip, and felt the sweetness of it almost immediately lessening the burning sensation, so I took a few more sips.

“Easy there. My wife also made this one, so you have to leave some for me,” Bo’guth exclaimed, and I stopped myself, handing the pink bottle back to him.

There was a strange feeling within me about this whole thing after thinking about it. From the few unexpected interactions with the demon to the pink bottle of ‘chocolate milk’, that made me feel like Salrak’s words were truer than ever. I found myself conflicted, even more so when looking at Bo’guth terrifying appearance and the way his kind would savagely fight in the battlefields of our world.

I shook my head and turned around. “Let's keep going.”

“Hm…” Bo’guth replied, not moving along with me.

I turned again with a questioning expression. “What?”

“We haven’t encountered another group of explorers so far…” he trailed off, looking back at the way we came from before looking at the path we were going to keep walking down to.

“Is that a problem?”

“It wouldn’t within the first few hours, but”—he pulled out the large phone again to look at the glow in it—“It’s been almost a full day without any contact, which is unusual.”

I stopped to think for a moment about what that would imply. “Could it be that…”

“It might just be my imagination, but we should be on the lookout for another group,” he said with a serious tone that he hadn’t displayed so far.

I nodded, turning around as we both kept going down the caves while keeping our attention on anyone that we could find.