After Elvy calmed me down, I stopped crying and let her go.
Seeing Elvy in front of me, somehow the strange feeling that had been propping up in my heart disappeared, making me feel very relieved as if a heavy weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
But, this also makes me curious.
"Umm, Elvy-chan, why are you here?" I asked, a little disappointed, because I haven't seen her like this in a long time. I actually have a lot to ask, but first I want to ask what I'm most curious about.
Elvy looked embarrassed, she smiled wryly while scratching her cheek. "Umm, th-that's because I wanted to go on an adventure with you guys… I-Is that okay?" Her face flushed.
Seeing the girl shyly ask, I really want to hug her. My heart pounded with joy.
Oh my goodness, she really is so cute. I'm grateful to be alive, because I can see her cuteness like this. Could she be my real heroine?
"—[Recovery]!"
"Huh?"
While I was chatting with Elvy, for some reason the goddess who couldn't read the mood suddenly cast [Recovery] magic.
"Why did you cast your magic?" I feel suspicious.
However, Alicia tilted her head. "No, I think you're having hallucinations again because your face is as stupid as it was back then."
While the goddess and I started fighting, Elvy who had been watching us suddenly laughed, Alicia and I stopped, we both stared at the girl.
Then after laughing happily, Elvy looked at us with a cheerful smile, hers face looked very serious, so that it made me speechless. Apparently she wanted to say something important.
"Riku-san, Alicia-san," he called out. Then, he suddenly came. My eyebrows and Alicia's raised— continued Elvy. "Please, let me come with you! I promise not to bother you! So, please!" He once again made his request to go with us.
Seeing that, Alicia and I looked at each other and we chuckled. Elvy raised hers head, surprised to see us laughing suddenly.
I tucked her head in and smiled broadly.
"Oh my, Elvy-chan, our loneliness has become friends? If you want to come along, it will actually put us at ease to have you by our side."
"That's right, Elvy. If you didn't save us like this, Riku would have become a piece of beef."
"I wonder why it's just me. But, forget it. Like Alicia said, from now on we'll be counting on you, Elvy-chan."
The girl was stunned, her eyes opened wide, and her body began to tremble. "Can…" Hers mouth opened again. At the same time, her tears slowly started to roll down her face. "Is… Can I really come along?" she asked in a sobbing voice.
At that moment, Alicia and I gave our thumbs up.
Elvy looked at us with a big smile and the next second, she burst into tears. While crying loudly, she hugged us both very tightly. Alicia and I also hugged the girl, trying to calm her down.
If you ask why we accept Elvy. It's because I have no reason to refuse it. Think about it again, from now on our journey will probably get harder and harder than this. So that will make the proportion of our survival very small.
Whereas in this group, we barely have anyone who can fight properly. Like what had happened just now, we could only keep running and running as if encountering a strong enemy. So, how could I refuse someone who could defeat even a dragon, from joining this group?
She even has a good nature and a cute face. Well, I mean, she's just perfect. If you say there are people much better than her, bring them to me
"Alright, this way my progress towards creating a harem is getting closer." I grunt with great satisfaction.
But—
"—[Sacred Full Recovery]."
That goddess was doing something unnecessary again, so I pounced on her.
***************
Even though many incidents happened, we continued our journey as usual with Elvy who was now with us. Just having her here made this trip all the more safe and peaceful. We no longer need to worry about monsters attacking like before. But, because it was getting late, we decided to camp.
Actually, if we weren't being chased by monsters, we could have arrived faster. It was because I was running blindly, so we got off the track.
"Hey, Riku, can you make the fire?"
"Oh my, it can't be helped. Leave it to me. Fufu, I'll show you the results of the practice I learned from Tia-san."
While I was cleaning around the place for us to spend the night and setting up the tent that the Elf had given me in the village, Alicia called out to me.
I made a confident smile and stood in front of the firewood. I stretched my hand towards the firewood and at that instant—
"[Tinder]!"
—A small flame appeared in the empty air and shot right at the kindling, causing it to burn up in an instant.
I see the result of my hard work with pride.
Anyway, finally after all this time, I can use magic too.
"Although it's just basic magic, but at least I can do it."
This made me very happy, because at first I was a little worried whether I could use magic or not since we were from different worlds.
Luckily it does.
"Riku-san, you can use magic too?! Since when did you learn magic?!" Elvy was surprised. Her eyes beamed with awe when she saw me.
"Oh my, Elvy-chan. I'm a genius, trivial things like this are so easy for me to learn."
"Nee, Riku, can you make some water for me."
"Fufu, leave it to me, that's really easy. Give me the glass… [Create Water]!"
"Riku, can you also burn my flesh?"
"Of course, where's your meat."
"My my, as expected of a genius. By the way, could you also prepare my bed?"
"A-Alicia-san, please don't play games with Riku-san."
***************
It was getting dark, I sat in front of a blazing bonfire. While Alicia and Elvy were enjoying their grilled meat, I was busy checking my current status.
[Name: Shinomiya Riku]
[Levels: 17]
[Strength: 71]
[Intelligence: 103]
[Vitality: 47]
[Agility: 98]
[Dexterity: 114]
[Skills >>>]
[Inventory >>>]
Seeing the contents of my status, I smiled in satisfaction.
It was much higher compared to before, especially in [Intelligence] and [Dexterity]. They had already reached 3 digits, with [Agility] to follow soon.
[Intelligence] is a good stat for cultivating magic, while [Dexterity] is a good stat for increasing your understanding of something. It seems that I am very suitable to be a magician.
Fufu, I can't wait to look forward to it.
As I was laughing to myself, Alicia looked at me suspiciously, she looked like she wanted to say something, but I ignored her and continued checking my status content. This time, I went to the skill column.
—[Skill: System Alchemist (Lv. 100/100)]
—[Magic: Low Magic: Tinder, Low Magic: Create Water, Low Magic: Freaze, Low Magic: Create Earth, Low Magic: Wind]
Now I also have a lot of magic to learn, how fun.
This is a real fantasy world.
As soon as my skill bar opened, I pressed [System Alchemist] skill and then went to extract materials. My [Inventory] is now quite full of various kinds of plants and monster carcasses that I encounter on the way, so I want to extract them for medicinal points and mana points.
However, while I was absorbed in extracting all the ingredients I had, I fell silent. There is one ingredient that I can't extract, it makes me confused.
"Why can't I extract the corpse of the demonic ape?" I asked. I've tried several times to extract it, but that failed. Supposedly if it's a monster corpse, I can extract it into mana points.
"Shit, what happened? Is it broken?" I complained.
If I can't extract it, how do I get the precious mana points. Though I wanted to hurry up to get another philosopher's stone.
"Oh my, this is why you are so stupid, Riku."
"Huh?"
As I kept trying to extract it, Alicia suddenly taunted me. I stare at her. "What do you mean?" I asked.
She let out a short sigh. "You said you can't extract the corpse from that demonic ape, right? Of course, you won't be able to extract it, since it's not a magical beast. It's just a normal monster."
I furrowed my brows. "Are they any different?" I asked again.
When I asked, Elvy looked surprised.
What?
Is it possible that it is common knowledge in this world?
"U-Umm, does Riku-san really not know about it?" asked Elvy.
But, I didn't know, so I just tilted my head.
"Fufu, oh my, Riku is really stupid. Alright, I'll tell you a bit about common knowledge in this world," said Alicia while putting on a smug face.
My eyebrows twitched. I ignored her and turned to Elvy.
"Elvy-chan, do you want to explain it to me?" I asked.
"U-Umm, is that fine?" She looked uneasy as hers gaze fell upon the enthusiastic Alicia.
I nodded. "Of course, you can ignore that woman. I want Elvy-chan to tell me." I gave her a genuine smile.
Elvy still looked uneasy, but she still accepted it. Besides, this girl has a weak nature when someone asks for help.
"Th-then—"
"Oh my, Riku-san, you don't need to be shy. This goddess will directly tell you. Listen, magical beasts are created monsters, while ordinary monsters are monsters that naturally reproduce in nature," the goddess interrupted her sentence Elvy and answered my question.
She really didn't want to lose.
"Created animal?" I asked, in that interesting sentence. But, I asked Elvy. "Who created them?"
"T-That—"
"It was created directly by the Demon King."
"…."
I turned towards Alicia who answered that, and she immediately looked away. I looked at her with a flat gaze.
"If you really want to tell me, why can't you just honestly say it? You really are a troublesome woman."
I sighed.
"U-Umm, aren't you surprised after hearing that, Riku-san?" asked Elvy who was amazed when she saw my normal reaction.
Hearing that, I answered casually. "Well, it's not like I don't have my own guesses. I'd be even more surprised if it wasn't the Demon King who did it."
"I-Is that so? As expected of Riku-san, that was great!" said Elvy, looking at me in awe.
I just laughed wryly.
To be honest, that's not to say I wasn't a bit surprised.
This hit me once again, that it's nearly impossible to defeat the current Demon King, without a proper plan, we'll only be turned into broken flesh.
Our main enemy is a monster that can even create other monsters and spread them all over the world, causing terrible chaos. With just that alone, one could imagine how powerful the Demon King himself was.
Apart from him, there are also Demon King Army Leaders and Rodan-class monsters that we have to defeat.
Just thinking about it makes my stomach really hurt. To defeat them all, even though I have dozens of lives, it's still not enough, I'm still even less than the ants in this world.
Well, but I didn't intend to meddle in the fight against the Demon King in the first place, so I guess I shouldn't think about it too much.
By the way, when it comes to the Leader of the Demon King's Army.
I'm curious, why hasn't Estella appeared before?