"I was wondering, if you supposed that this ruin was like the other one Delp have, it means no one had ever entered those right ?" Zach pointed something that troubled him.
"You ... are right, I more or less sneaked in those before the official clear was set up, because of things and other it won't be before a long time. However I was quite lucky these ruin are less dangerous than the other one." Once again Zoe was surprised by Zach's perspicacity.
"So what is the real purpose of your presence here ?" Zach was still curious about that. Zoe hesitated a second before she answered him "I'm here for the treasures of the first clear, some events happened and I am here to support my kingdom and race, I have to succeed otherwise it will lead to catastrophic ending."
"I see, I suppose that it has to do with Kartelion but I won't push you further." Zach said, he then heard a stomach gurgling, he looked at his right, Zoe's cheeks reddened and she was looking down visibly embarassed about that.
"Hahaha ! Don't worry, given that you are here for 4 days and I suppose that you shouldn't have eat much, you should be starving right ?" Zach teased her with a great smile on his face.
"Y ... Y ... Yes, that's right but I don't know how to cook." Zoe answered looking down in embarrassment. "I expected it from you, if you give meat and vegetables I will be able to cook something for us." With the solitary life Zach had previously led he learned to become a great chef for himself, he was nothing extraordinary but he would be an above average chef.
Zoe extended her right hand, on her middle finger was a gorgeous golden ring with carvings on it, it glowed and the next instant 2 appetizing pieces of meat appeared along with a few potatoes and tomatoes.
Zach picked them and thought about how he would cook everything she had gave him, after a minute he had an idea of what he would do but he was missing something "Do you have something you don't need made of light metal ?"
The next second a plate made of what seemed to be an equivalent of the Alluminium in his old world appeared. He took the plate and summoned the hell fire, in a dozen of second the plate was nothing more bur liquid metal, he thinned it as much as possible and let it cool. While the metal was cooling he used his hell fire to dry the tomatoes, he would make a mash out of them.
While he was drying the tomatoes Zoe was bewildred by the fire he was using, she extended her and was about to touch it, "DON'T TOUCH IT !!" When Zach sasw that she about to touch the hell fire he yelled and was about to extinguish the fire but too late her hand was in the fire.
One second passed but no cry of pain came from Zoe, then 2 seconds passed and finally after 5 seconds with Zoe having her hand in the fire he stopped it.
He was looking at her dumbfounded, it was Zach's time to be taken by surprise 'This is becoming more and more interesting.' Zach looked at Zoe with even more interest, she was someone with a pure soul, the first he encountered.
He didn't know how scarce they were but he knew that there couldn't be one on every street corner. For now it didn't have any interest but later he could explore what a pure soul meant.
Zoe looked at her hand, she flipped it again and again searching for any marks, she didn't feel any pain and it was as if she never put her hand in a fire.
She was confused because if it could melt metal this easily it would be able to at least leave her a mild burn. She was about to ask about this fire to Zach but he pulled the rug out from under her "Wait until the meal is ready to satisfy your curiosity." She noddded and continued to watch him cook in silence.
When the metal had finally cooled he used it like foil and wrapped the potatoes in it, once done with that he burnt a piece of the ground almost to the state of lava and put the wrapped potatoes in the burnt rocks, he put the pieces of meat on top of the potatoes.
He was looking proudly at what he had made, he turned his head and looked at Zoe, smiled and said "It's good, now we just have to wait for it to be cooked and we will be able to get a good meal."
"Okay, thank you." Zoe replied shyly in a low voice, she was happy that Zach was taking a bit care of her, it was nothing but it made her happy, he did not make fun of her for not being able to cook and was the first one to be so casual with her, it was different from when she was in the palace and it was far more pleasant.
"Could you tell me about this odd fire which can or cannot burn ?" Zoe profited of the cooking time of the meat and potatoes to ask the burning question she had on her mind for a few minutes.
"It's a quite special fire, it can burn almost everything." Zach explained simply. "Can't you tell me more ?" Zoe asked with an obvious look of anticipation, the poor explanation he gave her wasn't enough in her opinion.
Zach shook his head and said "No, that's all I will say about it, everything else is a secret." When she heard that Zoe decided to wait for the meal to be ready in silence and started to pout Zach in this time. After 10 minutes, the meat and potatoes were ready to be eaten, Zach extinguished the fire, he was a bit tired because all this cooking costed him quite a lot of mana.
"There, stop pouting and eat you will feel better after it, dip the potatoes in the mashed tomatoes." Zach gave her a piece of juicy meat and a dozen of potatoes. "Hmph !" Zoe snorted and snatched them from his hands.
Zach started to eat quietly, as for Zoe she continued to sulk but with how good it was looking and how badly she wanted to eat, she couldn't resist anymore and dipped a potato in the mashed tomatoes.
"So good !" When Zoe tasted this she exclaimed, the next second she realized that she couldn't pretend anymore to be angry. "Haha ! See I'm a good chef." Zach smiled, with the time Zoe took to start eating he had already finshined his meal. 'Considering what I had, to cook, I'm pretty satisfied of the result.'
"I expended quite a bit of mana so I will take a rest, finish your meal quietly please." Zach said and started to meditate. Zoe nodded her head and continued to enjoy her meal, in her opinion it could compete against what was cooked at her home.
Once her meal was finished, she too started to meditate, she needed to recover the whole mana she had expanded in the fight.
Each of them talked of things and others while they were recovering, their mana were fully recovered but they still had to recover their physique.
They continued to recover for 2 days and now they were as good as new, they could go down and battle the fox. "Time to go, I hope to find something to help us." Zoe rose and said in a low voice, Zach nodded and stood up as well.
"Are you fighting bare handed or only with your odd fire which can be useless ?" Zoe asked Zach and teased him on the way. Zach gave her an helpless look and replied while taking out his scythe.
"No, don't worry I have my weapon on me everywhere I go." When Zoe saw the scythe coming out, she looked at Zach's hand searching for a spatial ring but he hadn't one, she looked troubled, she didn't have any idea of how he could do this.
However after another few seconds of reflexion she thought about legendary figures who harnessed the spacial element and dazed she looked Zach and said with disbelief "Are you a spacial cultivator ?" When he heard this Zach was confused, he didn't know the existence of those men but he soon understood why she said this so he smiled and shook his head.
Zoe was sure of her guess and believed that Zach lied to her but now wasn't the time to rack her brain on this issue, they were finally reaching the arena. Zach scythe in hand went in the vanguard and said "I will first attract its attention but when it will understand that I'm nothing more than a decoy it will attack you, at this time I will seriouly attack it, so be ready"
They waited a few seconds on the arena when they saw the white fox appear out of a dark corner, it let out a roar and its whole body started to be coated in the same flame they could see on its 3 tails.