Half a day had passed since Elion had appeared in the forest, and he was really starting to get hungry now.

Growl!

His stomach rumbled loudly.

"Fuck... I should have asked Zenith to give me something to eat before we decided to go to the teleportation formation room," he muttered to himself.

After spending all that time in confinement, he hadn’t put anything in his mouth for weeks... well, maybe except for eating up someone’s blue kitty, but that didn’t really count as food.

The shadows on the forest floor had grown longer, stretching between the roots and fallen leaves, a clear sign that it was about to get dark soon.

’I should find something to eat before then,’ he thought. He didn’t know how far he had to go, so it was better not to take any chances.

He wasn’t a wildlife or hunting expert, but he had seen a few beasts along the way. But he had decided against hunting anything so far since he wanted to cover as much ground as possible.

Wild fruits were also an option, however, as far as he had seen... There wasn’t a single fruit tree in sight.

’So much for the great forest...’ he thought, ’not a single fruit tree in sight. After having come so far, I would have expected to see at least one.’

He climbed up one of the trees and supported himself on a thick branch, and listened carefully. He spread out his perception, activating his discerning eye at the same time as he focused outward.

His vision sharpened and carefully locked onto every living thing in the area.

Hundreds of buzzing and crawling insects filled his sight and hearing. His senses were instantly overwhelmed by the sheer noise of it all.

"Oh fuck no... I’m not eating bugs," he said out loud, immediately pulling his perception back and dulling it, filtering out the smaller lifeforms and focusing only on larger presences while spreading out the blanket of his perception even wider.

His perception currently had a radius of about ten or so kilometres, but the more he spread it out, the thinner and less vivid the details and feedback became to him.

He had never had the opportunity to use it in this way, but now that he had, it was very useful to use for scouting; his only regret was that it wasn’t any wider.

If the best mage scouts ever heard Elion complaining about having a perception that could see ten kilometres, maybe they would all beat him to death.

The average person with a similar skill would only be able to spread their perception out for as far as their eyes could see, which defeated the purpose of it.

So it usually became useful in a situation like this, when you are in a forest where the trees and foliage blocked out their natural vision, or in most cases, in a dungeon, where adventurers use it to look for hidden monsters.

Maybe a high-level scout would have theirs stretching to a kilometre, max.

"...Hmm."

That was easier than he had expected. A faint smirk found its way onto his lips. He hadn’t found a wild boar or anything like that.

Instead, he had found a demon camp further down south, about two kilometres away. He could tell that they were demons from the silhouettes made by their heat signatures alone, even from this far out.

Of course, he wasn’t planning on eating demons or anything like that.

But they probably had real food with them to nourish their troops. He could already sense the faint heat of a campfire being lit.

’Killing them would be easy...’ he thought.

There were not a lot of them, only about twenty or so, and there were no strong presences in the camp.

At best, they were low to mid-level fighters. Nothing he couldn’t handle.

’Wait...’

’Maybe I won’t need to kill them.’

He was still in his disguise. To them, he would just look like another demon. Maybe they would think he was lost or something.

’’Hopefully they don’t think I’m a deserter and try to kill me something...’

If they did...

He exhaled lightly.

’Well...’

Then he might have no choice but to slaughter them all after all.

He dropped down from the tree without making a sound, landing lightly on the forest floor as his body immediately shifted into motion.

The smell of smoke reached him first, accompanied by the fragrant smell of burning meat. He hadn’t thought demons would be the type to cook their food; for some reason, he had been convinced that they would have whatever game they caught raw.

Maybe some of them like to eat their food like humans.

Elion’s stomach tightened painfully.

"Yeah... I’m definitely not killing them before I eat," he muttered under his breath.

He moved through the underbrush carefully, pushing past low branches and thick foliage until the faint glow of firelight began to flicker through the trees ahead.

The camp came into view. It was small. He could see maybe ten... fifteen demons at most in the general vicinity.

They were gathered loosely around a campfire, some sitting, some standing, and a few lazily patrolling the perimeter with little to no real discipline, their weapons resting casually at their sides.

Elion slowed his steps before coming to a complete stop and observing for a little while.

He listened to the laughter, the low conversation, and the crackling of meat roasting over the fire.

He stayed like that for a while, waiting for the perfect moment to integrate himself without being singled out as an outsider.

’It shouldn’t be too difficult.’

His eyes flickered briefly toward the skewers turning slowly over the flames, juices dripping and sizzling as the smell hit him full force.

’At least it’s not human flesh.’ He thought. He had considered the possibility. It would have been tragic if he had to witness such a thing, not to mention the fact that there would be no food for him here if that turned out to be the case. He wasn’t a cannibal.

’Happy to see that they eat like normal people,’ the roughly skinned deer strewn to the side right beside the fire indicated as much.

His stomach suddenly growled loudly.

Growl!

"...Shit."

A couple of heads turned toward.

"—?"

Elion didn’t freeze from despair once he was discovered.

He stepped forward into the firelight as if he belonged there, his posture relaxed, and his expression staying as neutral as he could manage.

His disguise held perfectly as his red skin and single horn caught the glow of the flames.

"Oi," one of the demons called out, narrowing his eyes slightly, "where the hell did you come from?"

Elion let out a slow breath as he approached, rolling his shoulders lightly as if he had just come from a long walk.

"I got separated from my unit earlier today," he said simply in a casual tone, making sure to sound a bit annoyed, like it was more of an inconvenience than anything else, "I have been wandering around for hours, I’m relieved to finally find someone at least."

The demon clicked his tongue.

"Tch... figures," he muttered, before glancing back toward the others, "we’ve been getting pushed around all day anyway."

Another one snorted.

"Sit down if you’re staying," he said, gesturing lazily toward the fire, "the meat is almost ready."

’Well, they’re oddly nice,’ He thought. He didn’t need to be told twice.

He stepped closer, the heat of the fire brushing against his skin as he lowered himself onto one of the empty spots around the camp, his eyes briefly scanning the group again.

None of them were threats, and there was nothing out of the ordinary, as far as he could see.

’Good.’

A chunk of roasted meat was shoved toward him on a crude skewer.

"Eat," the same demon said.

Elion took it without much thought.

"...Thanks."

He didn’t wait. He bit into it immediately. Juice spilled into his mouth as the rich, salty flavour hit him.

"Fuck, this is actually good..." he muttered under his breath, taking another bite.