"Alicia, I am going to go to Celestial Forest for a month."
Alicia was shocked by Alex's sudden statement, "Can I go with you?"
Alex shook his head.
"Alright then, be careful!" Alicia only sighed and told him to always take care of himself.
Upon hearing this, Alex was the one surprised. Usually, Alicia would nag him to bring her with him but eventually persuaded by him not to. But now, Alicia didn't nag or argued with him. She only asked once and agreed with his decision.
Seeing Alex's astonished face, she pouted, "What?"
"No... nothing. Usually... you will..." Alex hesitated.
"What? Are you going to say I usually persisted in wanting to follow you?"
Alex gulped down, he didn't know whether to nod or not.
"Well, you are right. I usually did that in the past. Don't worry, starting today, I won't do that again. I will support you with what you want to do. I might be a burden for you instead if I recklessly follow you," Alicia in front of him was already a mature woman. It was probably a good experience for her to go inside the dungeon with Mia that day.
"It's just, you must come back here," she said in a low voice.
Alex was astonished but soon a smile appeared on his face, "Yes, definitely."
***
The next day.
Alicia woke up but didn't find Alex in the room. She could only see a plate of breakfast on the table. She looked at the note beside the plate.
"I'm going now, Alicia. Sorry if I didn't say goodbye to you, I am scared that I might be reluctant to go if I do that. I made breakfast for you. Maybe from tomorrow onward for a month, I won't be able to make you more breakfast and you might need to get them in the cafeteria. Also, please tell Firia about this. - Love You, Alex."
***
Alex was on his way to Celestial Forest already. He knew the way to that forest.
He also didn't bother to search for a caravan group to get there, since his speed was a lot faster than them anyway. After all, he only had a month to finish all of his business. So, going there with a caravan might be a bad idea this time. With his current speed, he could reach Celestial Forest within 2 days.
On the third day, Alex arrived in front of the Celestial Forest. He inspected the forest's surroundings, he found it similar to the terrain of the Night Forest. This should be easy if it was similar, he thought.
Alex then had his way inside of the forest. He moved toward the volcano in the center of the forest since the information said that the herb grew beside the volcano.
He killed many monsters on the way. But their rank was only 2 or below.
When he entered the Volcano area, the monsters that started to appear were between rank 3 to rank 5. Alex easily killed them without any great difficulty.
After he searched the herb for two days, he finally found it. But he was surprised by what he saw because it was just a red rose. From the description of the herb, he knew that this was the herb that he was looking for, the Fire Miletonia Herb. The difference between this herb and the red rose on Earth was that this herb gave off heat to its surrounding.
"Why don't they call this rose instead?" Alex was curious. But he somehow knew the answer. He never saw any flower with 'Rose' name on it. He sighed, he almost forgot that he wasn't on Earth. This was a different world, so the naming sense would be different. He should be content that some things still had similarities with things on Earth, whether it was its name, appearance, and so on.
"According to the information, there is a rank 5 monster guarding this herb. I wonder where he might be?" Right after he said that he heard a cracking sound.
'Crack!'
Alex immediately put his guard up. He already pulled out his sword.
A fox covered in fire appeared in front of Alex and looked at him angrily. The fox roared as he charged toward Alex.
"Fire?" Alex smiled.
When the fox bit him, Alex covered his body with his flame armor. The fire that surrounded the fox somehow became mild and was absorbed by Alex's flame armor.
The fox was surprised with Alex's element, it felt suppression in all of its body in front of Alex's flame. But at the same time, it also felt a sense of familiarity in front of Alex's flame. It jumped back a bit and looked toward Alex vigilantly.
Alex was surprised by this, he frowned.
He used his flame once again in front of the fox. The fox was scared by his flame.
"I won't kill you, just go," Alex said to the fox.
"Wuu," the fox responded to his word, but the fox didn't run away.
Alex frowned, he didn't know what the fox said. He then pointed at the Fire Miletonia Herb. Since this herb was protected by it, Alex thought that it was something related to this herb. So he asked, "Do you need this herb?"
"Wuu," the fox shook its head furiously.
Now Alex was sure, the fox was intelligent enough to understand him. But he frowned when he saw the fox didn't need this herb. "Then why don't you go away? Are you expecting me to kill you?"
Alex somehow didn't want to kill this fox. Even though this fox was a monster, it was rare to encounter monsters with this much intelligence. Most of the monsters he encountered would only think about killing him.
"Wuu," the fox shook its head again scaredly.
"Then what do you want?" Alex asked.
"Wuu!" The fox hesitated but it ultimately started to move closer to Alex. Although the fox walked toward him timidly, it still arrived in front of Alex.
Alex frowned, he readied his battle stance, in case this fox suddenly started to attack him. But he was soon surprised by what he saw next.
"Wuu!" The fox started to lick Alex's feet gently.
Alex was confused. Was this fox wanting to taste his leg first before started eating it?
"What are you doing?"
"Wuu!" The fox suddenly became terrified.
Alex looked at the fox, it seemed like it didn't want to attack him. He then stretched his hand, tried to stroke the fox.
The fox lowered its head and let Alex stroke him. Then, it started to lick Alex's hand. Alex's eyes brightened by what the fox did to him.
"Do you want to follow me?" Alex asked.
"Wuu... wuu," the fox nodded hurriedly.
It turned out that the fox only wanted to follow him around. Alex sighed, he never thought that from all the reasons he could think off in his head, none of it matched the fox's real intention. Tasted him? Ate him? He was stronger, why exactly he thought about that.
"Why do you want to follow me?"
"Wuu!" The fox didn't answer him.
Alex sighed, it might be nice to keep this fox as a pet. He could also give this fox to Alicia. This fox could protect her, after all this fox was a rank 5 monster.
"Alright, you can follow me."
"Wuu!" The fox wagged his tail happily.
"Let's give you a name first since you want to follow me. It won't be nice if I need to call you fox every time, won't it?
"Wuu!" The Fox looked at Alex in anticipation.
"... I forget to ask you, are you a male?"
"Wuu!" The fox shook its head.
"Then, are you a female?"
"Wuu!" This time the fox nodded. Turned out the fox was a female monster. Alex thought this fox would be a male since h-she was aggressive. The fox somehow felt Alex thought of something rude, "Wuu!"
Alex then thought of a female name. He wanted to call it Pochi like the anime back on Earth but he refrained himself from doing that. He thought a bit, "Sherry... that will be your name."
"Wuu!" The fox joyfully accepted the name. Maybe the fox was also joyful that Alex didn't name her with some weird name.
"Well, glad you like it. Nice to meet you, Sherry. I'm Alex."
"Wuu... Wuu!"
After Sherry leaped around in joy, it suddenly turned to Alex, "Wuu! Wuu!"
Alex stroked its head, "What is it?"
"Wuu!" Sherry then gestured like it wanted to eat.
"You want to eat?" Alex asked. Sherry nodded its head.
"What do you want to eat? Don't tell me this herb?" Alex then asked her with a surprised face. This fox approached him just so Alex would give the herb back to her?
"Wuu!" The fox shook her head. Then suddenly the flame burst from its body and covered her body, "Wuu!"
"Flame? You want to eat flame?" Alex asked, but soon his eyes widened. "You want to eat my flame?"
"Wuu!" The fox nodded furiously.
"..." Alex was speechless, turned out this fox aim was his pure fire. Well, he didn't mind feeding her with his flame, as it wouldn't harm him in any way from doing that.
Alex then put out his fire. A small fireball appeared on Alex's palm. The fox got closer to Alex's palm and ate the fireball. It finished eating the fireball in a minute.
"Wuu!" That fireball seemed not enough, so she asked for more.
Alex only sighed and shook his head as he poured out more fire for the fox to eat. After half an hour, the fox was laid down, satisfied.
"You greedy fox, " Alex cursed out jokingly. This fox ate too much, he spent around a third of his Mana to feed the fox. But he was suddenly surprised because the fire from within the fox seemed to suddenly spurt out from its body.
"Wuu!" The fox looked like it was in pain.
Alex wanted to help her but he didn't know what to do. But soon, he was surprised because this fox's red-colored flame started to turn pink. Alex stopped trying to help it. This fox might undergo an evolution.
Alex then watched the fox carefully. The process took a half-day. The fire started to become tranquil and back to the fox's body. After awhile, the fox slowly opened its eyes. It looked at Alex then jumped to him joyfully and licked his cheek, "Wuu!"
It took Alex by surprise, he then fell to the ground. Alex observed the fox carefully. Its body was almost a meter in height. The fur was orange with a pink color here and there as that was its body surrounded by pink flame.
"Can you hide your flame? it might be dangerous when we are walking around with your body on fire like that."
"Wuu!" The flame that was surrounding the fox was slowly getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared.
Alex nodded seeing the flame nowhere to be seen now.
Alex then pondered for the next plan. His eyes suddenly brightened, but there was also hesitation in his eyes. He then turned to Sherry, "I'm going to go to a dangerous place, so please stay here. I don't want something to happen to you."
"Wuu!" Sherry looked like it was being wronged.
Alex hesitated, but seeing its expression, he finally sighed. "Fine, you can follow me. If something happens I won't care about it."
"Wuu!" The fox wagged her tail.