Traveling across the barren wastes of Hell was about as enjoyable as it always was. Which is to say, fucking terrifying, even with my new friend along for the ride.

After we left the confines of the Tiletik nest and finally got out into the open, I had let my guard down. After all, I had just seen my demon buddy go to town on that enormous spider. Even though the demons nearby would be large threats to me alone, with him by my side this would be much simpler.

As we began to travel through the rocky passages, with me in the lead as I attempted to retrace my steps back to base, I noticed how carefully the demon was moving; ducking behind boulders, peering around corners, quietly floating and making sure I was treading lightly. He was extremely cautious. After seeing how powerful the little guy was, I just couldn't understand why that was.

"Hey, why are you trying to be so careful around here? Out of all the demons that I've seen in the area, you're easily the strongest. Couldn't you just blast away anything that attacks us?"

With a sharp look, he quickly removed that idea from my head.

"Lake. You must stop thinking that way if you want to survive out here. You're a human, you don't have any extra lives to spare. There are plenty of things in this area that could easily kill me, after all, I am just level twelve at the moment. The only reason I was able to defeat the Tiletik Young Mother was due to the large number of mana and health potions I had prepared before the battle. Along with that, my mana is currently exhausted from the recent fight. If anything were to attack us, I would not be of much help."

I blinked.

Honestly, I was surprised he wasn't more prideful. He was a demon, shouldn't he be confident and arrogant in his abilities?

But he was certainly telling the truth- anything could happen out here. A rogue demon much stronger than the norm could suddenly appear and crush us with ease, and with my companion tired from the boss battle it would be hard to escape.

Then something else he said registered with me.

"Wait a sec, you have potions? Where?! You're not wearing any clothes at all, how the heck are you holding potions?!"

He sighed.

"Of course that is the first thing you respond with. I am using a spatial magic spell to hold my belongings. Anybody can cast it if they have the knowledge, even without spatial affinity."

"...So you're saying that you have an inventory, or item box or whatever, and I can learn how to use it too? Even without a spatial magic affinity?"

My voice was quiet, cautious, and hesitant. This seemed too good to be true.

The demon nodded once.

I grinned.

"Awesome! Then let's pick up the pace and get back to base, I can't wait to start learning! After all, you've just been nominated as my magic teacher."

"Right..."

....

Our trip through the rocks was thankfuly uneventful. No huge demons attacked us, and nothing too hair-raising happened. Although there were a few straggler Tiletiks that had survived our invasion and tried to get revenge, I stepped up and killed them with a huge smile on my face.

I have to say, stomping those little fuckers was a very cathartic experience.

But eventually, we got through the winding stones and into the more open hill area. Large blackened boulders surrounded us and although it was easier to see demons that could sneak up on us, we wouldn't be able to hide, either.

No high-level demons attacked, just one of those crab things, Cirilka, and now that I was level 5 it wasn't too difficult of a fight. The imp also acted as a distraction, and the battle ended with a rather bloody stab to the head. A poetic ending, considering that I made my sword with the claw of a Cirilka.

Plus, along with the glorious finisher, I even got my Time Dilation skill up to level 2!

Although nothing in the description had changed...

Hopefully, something cool will happen if I keep leveling it up. That skill is genuinely one of my favorites.

When we finally arrived at the clearing that my cave occupied, I saw a rare expression on my companion's face. It was surprise, with quite a bit of glee mixed in.

"You did not tell me that the cave you were squatting in holds a mana spring! This is wonderful news."

"Wha- Hold up! I am not squatting. I'll have you know I own this cave fair and square, by right of conquest."

He shrugged off my response in favor of quickly flying into the cave, almost reveling in the beams of light given off by the pool of blue liquid.

I followed him inside, grimacing at the mess I had made of the place. All those bleeding demon corpses looked a lot worse when there was somebody else here to see them. Luckily, he seemed to be entirely ignoring the dead Cirilka scattered around and simply stared into the pool.

"Lake. I assume that you used this spring to awaken your mana, correct?"

"What about it?"

"This is a high-quality spring, with a perfect ratio for human consumption, although it must not have been a pleasant experience. One would certainly have trouble finding something like this in the human world."

"Yeah, it was definitely an unpleasant experience alright... But by the way, you're staring at it, I'm going to guess there's a few more things we can do with this stuff?"

"Of course... Now that you have awakened your mana, drinking from a spring like this will not hurt nearly as much. Drinking straight from a mana spring will actually restore your MP."

It took a moment before what he said registered with me.

"Holy fuck, that sounds useful. I guess we're going to be staying here for a while then."

The demon finally turned back towards me, after tearing its eyes away from the blue mana spring in the cave.

"Lake, before anything else happens, I think that we need to strategize. Our respective levels are very low, and we must make use of intelligence and teamwork to combat stronger demons. In order to do this, I'd like a decent list of your abilities."

I blinked. That made sense, although I wasn't sure how comfortable I was with telling a demon about my combat skills.

No, if I couldn't even trust this guy with knowing my skills, we weren't going to be able to fight together well. I would have to show him that I was willing to expose my weaknesses.

Besides, all the information he asked for is pretty obvious. After fighting with me for just a short while he could gather it by himself.

"Well, my stats are definitely more physically-focused, and I've basically ignored my magic stats except for Willpower, which has been growing on its own without my input. Besides Willpower, Agility is my best stat followed by Power. Most of my skills are also focused on increasing my physical abilities or healing myself. And I don't have any strong spells."

The demon in front of me nodded thoughtfully.

"I see. You are a close-ranged fighter that has decent defensive abilities to keep yourself going. We're basically exact opposites, then. That's very good. With your help, I won't have to worry about my biggest weakness, which is my low defense."

I squinted at him. He was making it sound like I would be the one getting attacked the most by demons.

I didn't like that idea.

Noticing my look, the imp shook his head.

"Lake, I am not asking you to be a, 'meat-shield' for me. With the two of us fighting at once, and your lack of ranged capabilities, you will be fighting with your sword and I with my magic. Speaking completely logically, you will be attacked more often due to your melee skills."

Well, I guess that was pretty obvious. Does this guy think I'm an idiot or something?

...I shouldn't ask that question out loud. He'll probably say yes.

"Besides that, I should thank you for being so forward with me. Not many of your kind would be as willing to fight with and share weaknesses with a devil like myself."

I quickly shook my head, trying to get that idea out of his head.

"Whoa, I'm not about to trust you with my life or anything, I just think it would be pretty stupid to not accept your help, you know? I mean, I need all the advantages I can get right now."

The demon gave me a strange look, as if it was confused about something.

"Many humans in your situation would avoid me. It is well known that most demons and devils attack civilized races on sight. What makes you so willing to accept my help?"

I looked to the side, absently scratching the back of my arm.

It would make sense that my actions were viewed as strange, with me seemingly deciding to trust him on impulse. But my reasoning wasn't something that could be explained that easily. I was sure that humans in this world must have been raised on stories about evil demons, but I just didn't have that background.

Sure, I knew from various fictions that demons were usually bad, but I didn't grow up on horror stories about real-life demons coming in and attacking, which is probably what the average local human would hear.

I sighed, knowing that my companion would want an answer.

"I guess you could say that I have an... unusual background. I'm a bit more open-minded than most humans about this sort of thing."

If I was going to assume this was some kind of medieval fantasy setting like all isekai stories were, then most humans were probably huge racists. That's just how things worked in isekai. It's one of the most common of tropes!

Many of the humans around the protagonist would be racist and stupid in order to make the protagonist like all heroic and kind, and then when the main character runs across a cute non-human girl being bullied or attacked, he swoops in and saves her, before adding her to the harem.

A classic isekai event!

...Wait a second.

In this situation, who was the cute non-human girl that was rescued?

I slowly looked towards the demon in front of me, who still thinking about what I said.

"..."

Fuck.

I swallowed, dryly.

"Hey, um, dude? You... are a dude, right?"

Oh please say yes, please fucking say yes.

My question seemed to startle him out of his thoughts as he looked towards me with a surprised glance.

"Yes, I am male. Why do you ask?"

"Thank god. Ah- no reason. Anyways, do we have a plan for our next move?"

As my words registered, he grinned. Seeing that expression on his face, I had to restrain a shiver.

"Yes. Thank you for reminding me of that, Lake. I suppose it is true that we have spoken enough for the moment. Although I could start teaching you magic, instead, we will hunt. You are still inexperienced, and we'll need to test out all of your combat skills... I'm sure it will be amusing."

Somehow, I really didn't like the way he said that.