*Lamia language*

“Tina you know where we are right?” says one of the lamia guards.

“They are like thousand of beasts in this forest, be more specific”

“I don’t know what that was, I have never seen anything like that in this forest before”, says Tina with an anxious face.

The lamia guard sighs and says, “just describe what the beast looked like”

“It had silver hair and purple eyes with pale white skin. The beast was wearing some kind of soft armor that was also hard”

“Tina! What the fuck are you even saying, how can armor be soft and hard at the same time”

“And since when did beasts start wearing armor, even we don’t have any good armor”

“Tina are you sure about what you saw?”

“I don’t know OK!!”, shouts Tina with confusion.

“I don’t know what I saw, it just came out of nowhere and started saying something”.

“I couldn't understand and thought that it was chanting some spell, so I attacked it”.

“When I had it in a bind and was about to poison it, the beast hits my face with its head ”.

“As I was down on the ground, it grabbed my head and smashed it on the ground ”.

“Where were your bracelets?” asks one of the guards.

“Yeah, with those you should have beaten him easy”

“I was wearing them, and he still beat me”

“That's not possible, those are second only to the princess’s bracelets”, says a lamia guard in shock.

“We have to go back and tell the Q-”

“Tell me what”.

Tina was still talking when a voice that oozed authority fell on everyone's ears.

They started to bow one after the other, with their heads touching the ground, and said “Greetings my Queen!!”

A lamia came slithering between the trees. She looked like an older version of Lami with fiercer eyes, hair that reached her waist, H-cup breasts with no visible signs of sagging, and a warrior-like body.

“What is going on here and where is my daughter?”, she asked with a calm voice.

Everyone was silent and just kept their heads down. The queen looks at Tina and moves towards her. Then she wraps her tail around Tina’s neck and brings her closer.

“Start talking,” she ordered.

Tina gulped and started telling her what happened here.

After Tina finished telling her story, she was flung towards a tree.

“You're only living because you're Lami’s childhood friend”.

Then the queen’s eyes glowed a little and went back to normal. She looks in a certain direction and starts moving.

“All of you go back to the village and wait for me”.

“You all are getting punished”, said the queen as she continued slithering into the forest.

Back to The Obsidian Tree Base.

*Normal Talking*

‘She smells great’

That was the only thing on my mind when we were hugging. I don’t know what this smell was but it was addicting. If possible, I would stay like this the whole day but didn’t have time to do so. It won’t be long before the lamias start looking for her. I need to ask the things I want to know and send her back as soon as possible.

I reluctantly move away from the hug and take out a shirt from my inventory. I liked her looking like this but we needed to have a serious talk and I wouldn't be able to focus, with her being naked.

“When you were sleeping I made this for you”

“What this, armor?”, she asks in confusion.

“ It’s called a T-shirt”

She takes the shirt and examines it

“How wear this”

“Let me help you”

I help her wear the black cotton shirt and pat myself on the back for a job well done because she looked stunning. The black looked spectacular with her red tail and hair.

Since her body size was close to mine, making a shirt for her was no problem. I just had to make the chest area a little bigger and it turned out perfectly.

“Beautiful”, I say with a dazed mind.

“Beautiful?Me?”, she asks me in confusion

“Well yeah your beautiful, I am sure you hear that all the time”

“I strong, I think good but not beautiful”.

“You think I beautiful?” she asks me with a blushing face.

“Of course you are, I thought that the first time I saw you”

Lami’s face becomes beet red and the end of her tail starts to shake.

“I see, I like shirt”

“you first male to gift ever”, she says with a face that matched her hair.

“I am glad you liked it”, I say with a smile.

I was smiling when I remember that I don’t have time for this.

“Hey, let's go an-”

*growl* *growl*

I was about to invite her to talk but then her stomach rumbled.

“I hungry”

Well, indeed, she has not eaten anything since yesterday. I take out some pieces of meat from my inventory and offer them to her.

“If you want you can have these”

She takes the meat and smells it.

“this good meat, where to cook? ” she asks me.

“you want to cook it, you're not eating it raw,” I ask in confusion.

Since when did monsters start cooking food.

“raw not tasty, I cook”

Then she starts taking out cooking utensils from inside her bracelets, which seemed to function just like my inventory.

‘Well I guess that’s why she has the [Cook] class’ I think with a smile on my face.

I was really curious how she was going to cook food here. In my old world, the most I could do was fry an egg so I have zero ideas about what to expect.

She takes out a big box that looked like it was made of metal. She opened the box from the top and said, “Fire Ball”. The fireball went inside the metal box and she closed the top.

“Why did you shoot that in the box?”, I ask her in confusion.

“I control fire in box , box get hot, I cook on box”

Then I understood that she was using that as a stove. She was going to keep that fire burning inside the box and making the metal heat up.‘But where did she get the idea to make something like this, I think to myself.

She takes out a crystal-like bottle filled with some liquid and puts it on the meat. Then she puts the meat on top of the metal box and it starts sizzling. I use appraisal on the bottle to check what that liquid was.

[Plant Oil]

Oil is extracted from different plants by crushing them. It is not pure and has some other materials mixed in but can still be used without any harm. Some plants give out dangerous oils so not all of them are safe.

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

It was cooking oil, well sort of. But I still don’t understand where she is getting all these ideas from. There is no way that one day she just felt like crushing plants and start cooking from the liquid that came out.

“Who taught you how to cook?”

“I read with book”

“Book?”

“Yes, book”

She then proceeds to take out a book from her bracelet and passes it to me.

“This book in village”

“it is ancient book, I no can read all”

I open the book to check what was in it and couldn’t believe my eyes.

The book was written in English. It was filled with cooking recipes, methods, and hand-drawn pictures of different plants.

“ Did you learn to speak from this book too?”

“No, mother teach me, but you speak better”

“Where you learn?”, she asks me while sprinkling some spices on the meat.

“We all speak this in my old world”

“Really!! you help me learn more?”, she asks with excitement.

“I guess I can help you learn”

“Good! Mother have more books but no read, she happy when you help read”

“That’s good to hear”, I say with an awkward smile.

So here are the things I understand from the conversation we had.

People from my world have been in this forest before. Lami's mother has more books in English and can also speak a little. So if I want to learn more about this forest, I need to talk to her mother. From what I can see, her mother seems quite interested in our language. She even taught her daughter for some reason.

I was thinking about these things when I smell something delicious. I look in Lami’s direction and see her coming toward me with all the meat on a small plank that looked like it was made up of wood. This was the first time I had seen wood in this world, so I decided to ask about it later.

“here food”, she says while putting the plank in front of me.

Then she coils herself, takes her shirt off, and puts it in her bracelet. I guess she did not want it to get dirty. And to be honest, I prefer her looking like this too.

She takes a whole piece of meat and shoves it in her mouth easily. I was amazed by how much her mouth could open. She looks at me and smiles with puffed-up cheeks. I also give her a small smile and start eating. The meat tasted quite good, but I didn’t get any stats since this was the last of the meat left from Metal lizard.

After eating I tried asking her about some stuff but just as I thought, she could not convey her message to be properly. Since that was not working we just started talking about simpler stuff. She talked about her mother a lot and I could see that she really loved her. According to Lami, her mother was very kind and soft-hearted. From all that talking about her mother, I can’t wait to meet her.

Later I showed her the weapons I crafted and she gave me some tips on how I could improve their balance and shape. I could understand some of her tips but not all of them since she could not use proper words to explain them.

We had been taking for a long time and now the sun was about to set.

“Shit, now we won’t be able to see anything till morning”, I say with a frustrated face.

“you don’t use light ?”.

“I don’t have light here”, I say to her.

Then she takes out a crystal from her bracelet and it starts to glow.

“This light we use, we have more in village”

“How does this work”, I ask in amazement.

“We give mana inside and rock glow”

Well, that solves my light problem I guess. Now I really need to visit her village.

In the light of that crystal, we talked about random stuff till I started to get tired. So I take Lami inside the hut.

“if you want, you can sleep on the bed, and I'll sleep in the tree.”

“you sleep with me”, she says while getting on the bed.

“Are you sure?”, I ask her in confirmation.

“yes, we sleep together”, she says with a smile.

Well since she is inviting me, who am I to refuse.

Since I had originally made the bed big, we both got on it easily. I was lying with my back to her when she comes and hugs me from behind.

“this bed soft, I like”

“I am glad you like it”, I say enjoying the feeling on my back.

“What you name?”, she asks me.

If I think about it, we never exchanged names this whole time.

“My name is Alaric, what is yours?”.

“Me Lami”

“it's a good name”, I say to her.

“hmm, I like Alaric name”, she says while tightening her grip a little.

Then after a little silence, she says, “Good sleep, Alaric”.

“Goodnight Lami”.