After Sophia's unexpected, or rather, sudden advance in nature, and especially magic related to light, she and Fen decided to keep advancing towards the next human city today as well. Having made great progress, the two finally stopped in the early afternoon because they had found a small lake, which seemed like an excellent place to make a camp for the time being.

"I mean, we could keep going a bit longer, but it doesn't make much sense as we would arrive after dark. I also don't want to camp too close to a human city. It's too bothersome to be worth it, really." Fen gave an update on their situation.

"That's fine by me. I wanted to play around with my magic anyways."

"Go ahead. Ah, but I would advise against anything too flashy, especially something large-scale like yesterday's light magic. I haven't sensed any yet, but there might be a possibility of humans being not that far away from us." He warned her for her own good.

"Hmm…" Sophia had a complicated expression.

"Girl, what were you planning?"

"Ahaha, I wanted to try a little combination of fire and air magic. Remember the oxygen thing in the air I mentioned? I wanted to try and see what happens to fire magic when I increase the oxygen by a fair bit."

"How flashy would that be?" Fen couldn't imagine the outcome.

"Well… very." She was thinking of a gigantic fireball.

"Personally, I don't care and actually want to see it, but your humans might get scared by it. You decide." He was curious, but he knew Sophia might have a different opinion.

"Yeah, you have a point. Let's try it on a smaller scale first. By the way, if we really are close to human territory, wouldn't that mean there's a ton of edible plants, vegetables, and fruits around?"

"Ah, I thought you finally converted yesterday."

"An occasional feast of grilled meat is nice and all, but I couldn't do that every day."

"Too bad… But yes, most of the stuff around here that looks edible, actually is for a change."

"Oh! Time for me to finally get serious!" The prospect of food made her very motivated, and Sophia was raring to go.

"Haa…" Not having the best feeling about letting her roam around alone in this place, Fen decided to follow her with a sigh.

For the next half hour, Sophia was happily gathering plants and snacking on fruits she found. But a little while later, though, she noticed that her companion seemed to be getting a little restless.

"What's wrong, Fen? Found something?"

"Well, there are some humans nearby…" He decided not to hide the information.

"E-Eh?! Seriously?! I didn't notice at all. Where?!" She looked around but still saw nothing at all.

"Detection magic. A couple of hundred meters to our left, maybe a kilometer.

"Hmm, I have the magic running non-stop, but… to our left, huh? Let's see… There's one red dot which size resembles your usual kow, so I didn't pay any attention to it. Ah, there are three smaller dots around it. Huh, aren't these just the kids of the kow? Being right next to them and so much smaller?"

"Wait, constantly? No, Sophia, the size of the dots is determined by their power, not the actual size of the thing."

"Ah, I see, yeah, that makes a lot more sense." She nodded in understanding. "Wait… what?" Or not, because she didn't understand at all. "The dots next to the kow are smaller, you know? How does that make any sense?!"

"Sophia…"

"Yes?"

"I told you, humans are weak."

"Sure, but not that much?! Humans can't be weaker than our staple meal until now, right? Right?!"

"Want to go and take a look?"

"Yes!" There was no way she could believe it.

"Fine." Saying so, Fen used his magic and shrunk his body to the size of a normal wolf, reaching around Sophia's hips in height just in case.

"…" She only stared at him disapprovingly.

"What?"

"I want cub Fen."

"Not going to happen."

"Aww…"

----------------

With a slight pout on her lips, Sophia began moving towards the reaction of her detection magic. Once she made visual contact with the group and noticed the wolf was actually right, about everything, she looked dumbfounded.

"See?"

"…" Sophia was looking at a group of three male humans that seemed a little older than she was, or at least her body. They were wearing a kind of leather armor and were all equipped with some sort of swords. As for their looks, Sophia was too disappointed about finding out they were a group of male humans. She didn't bother taking a good look at their faces. Furthermore, those guys were currently engaged in a sort of combat that made her question many things. Ganging up on a kow from every side, they were swinging their swords at it with great vigor. Unfortunately, the kow didn't seem to be taking much, if any, damage from them. "F-Fen, what is going on here…? Is it some rare new-type, that kow? It looks totally normal, though…"

"Because it is."

"S-Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Ah, they're particularly weak guys, right?" Sophia tried to run away from reality.

"They seem pretty standard to me."

"Seriously?" She was repeating herself.

"Seriously." So was the wolf.

"But how come a sword doesn't hurt a kow. Are they actually pretty tough…?"

"Hmm, for humans… probably? I mean, their skin has some slight, uhh, chew to it?" Fen wasn't a good benchmark in that regard.

"Is that so…?" Sophia wasn't the ideal person to ask, either. Just yesterday, she played around with a group of them as if they were mere toys. Not to mention she hadn't noticed the supposed toughness at all, even thinking they were just slightly smaller standard cows she knew from her old world.

"Ah, it seems like the kow had enough."

"Moo…" Actually sounding bored, the animal let out an uninterested cry and charged towards the group.

"Watch out! It started its attack!" One of the humans shouted once he noticed.

"Nice, it seems like we dealt some serious damage! They only attack if they feel like their life is in danger!"

"Yeah, and so fast! Aren't we like the strongest hunter ever?"

"Absolutely!" The guys shouted in unison.

"Seriously…?" Sophia's vocabulary had decreased significantly since she started watching the first humans she met in this world. The only change was the tone of her voice, which had become increasingly more flat as she watched the fight.

"Seriously." Fen was suffering from the same fate.

"Are they for real?"

"So it seems."

"Being proud of their dealt damage? What? What damage? I can't even see a single scratch on that puny kow!"

"Because there is none. It's only natural that you can't see it."

"Also!" She wasn't done yet and took a deep breath. "The kow attacked us because it felt danger to its life? Really?! No matter how you look at it, its expression is one of boredom! It's likely thinking, are you guys done yet? I have better things to do… It's become rather bothersome because I wanted to take an afternoon nap, you know?, or something like that!"

"That's quite the fitting description of the kow's feelings." Fen looked at the animal and came to the exact same conclusion. "I didn't know you can speak kow."

"They even think they're the strongest?! What kind of joke is that?! Ahh, I get it now… They aren't hunters, right? They're entertainers! I see! It all makes sense now!"

"Sophia, stop deluding yourself and accept reality."

"…" She looked at the pathetic sight again. "Is that for real?"

"Unfortunately… Ah, it seems like the kow wants to end it."

"Moo!" Getting a tiny bit more serious, it increased its speed and effortlessly hit one of the guys.

"Gahhh!" Screaming as if he were about to die, the boy fell out cold on the ground.

"Y-You lowly beast! How dare you hurt one of us superior humans!" Seeing one of his comrades getting hurt, another one of them seemed to seethe with anger, beginning another attack on the bored-looking animal. "Don't get ahead of yourself and tremble under the true power of humans, all monsters in the world fear!"

"Exactly!" The third guy chimed in. "Your fate was already sealed when you didn't run away after noticing us higher beings arriving, but now you even made us angry!"

"Let's go home, Fen." Sophia looked at her companion with dead eyes and turned around. She was unable to deal with this farce any longer.

"Gladly, but are you sure about that, Sophia?"

"What do you mean?"

"Those humans, they'll die for sure. Personally, I don't mind because it's their own fault. They challenged a clearly s-su… superior enemy and lost." He had a hard time staying serious while addressing his favorite food like this.

"…" She actually needed to give it some thought after the show she had to witness. Then again, Sophia had yearned to see humans. Simply leaving them to die now felt very wrong to her, no matter how useless these specimens appeared to be. "Alright, fine…" Slapping her cheeks to motivate herself, the girl stepped forward and walked towards the group, hoping not to regret her decision.