"Kid, you may not have noticed since you were passed out, but this house is the only one standing here in the Devil's Forest—my place."

Welter began by explaining the layout of the area. The Devil's Forest, as they call it, covers about a sixth of the northeastern continent. It's so vast that the ecosystem here is unknown, with powerful monsters roaming freely, making it feared as a forbidden forest. The Arclight Kingdom, where we were summoned, lies to the southwest of this forest and is a reasonably large country. As for the demon nation, Bergstein, it lies beyond a mountain range north of Arclight.

"By the way, while this house is on the western side of the forest, it'll still take at least twenty days on foot to cross it and reach Arclight Kingdom," Welter added.

"Wait, what? You live here alone?" Yuzuki’s shock mirrored my own—twenty days to get out of the forest?

"Haha, well, I’m pretty strong. I've lived here for fifty years now," he replied, shrugging nonchalantly.

"E-excuse me, Welter-san, how old are you exactly?"

"Hmm... Haven’t counted after three hundred or so," he said, furrowing his brow, not offended but more as if he'd forgotten. Three hundred years... Demons really do live long lives. No wonder he thinks we look like children.

"That said..."

"Yes, we don’t think we could make it out of this forest on our own."

"Indeed. Not at all… Haha! You two ate the Deathmeg fruit and spent ages writhing in nausea! Hahaha!"

Though it was a bitter memory, Welter seemed unable to contain his laughter. To someone in the know, I’m sure our misfortune was just absurd.

"Good thing you managed to spit it out in time," he said, finally becoming serious.

"So it’s edible?"

"Yeah. The top half’s edible, but the blackened bottom half stores bugs eaten by the plant. You definitely don’t want that."

"Yuck!"

I grimaced at the thought, realizing that I might have eaten one of those bugs. Just listening to him sent chills down my spine.

"Of course, bugs here in the Devil's Forest carry all sorts of poisons," he added.

"Yikes…"

I felt the blood drain from my face. So I’d almost died… multiple times.

"But like I said, the top part of the fruit is quite tasty."

"Wait—really? It’s actually edible?" Yuzuki, still pale, looked shocked.

"As long as no black bits remain, it’s safe," he assured her.

"Right… now that I think about it, I might have left a little black part," I muttered.

"Figured," Welter chuckled. Honestly, this forest is terrifying. I just want to leave. Though… where would I even go?

"Speaking of leaving... we heard that if we defeat the Demon King, we’d be able to return to our world. But from what you’ve told us, that sounds unlikely."

"No, I’ve never heard of anything like that,” he replied. “Nothing short of a miracle could open the path to another world."

I asked, even knowing it was hopeless, but any faint hope was completely crushed. It really seemed we had no choice but to live in this world.

"So, there’s no way back..." Yuzuki lowered her head, trembling slightly.

"There are spatial magic spells, but none that could let you cross worlds," Welter clarified.

Spatial magic! We were told there were only eight types, but this must be beyond the basics.

"That kind of magic actually exists?"

"Yep. Now, let’s get back to the point..."

"Yes?"

"I could escort you through the forest, but… how about I train you here first?"

"Huh?"

I let out a dumbfounded noise, completely caught off guard. Having someone as knowledgeable as Welter train us would not only make the journey out safer but also increase our survival odds.

"Why would you do that?"

Yuzuki voiced the question I’d been thinking. Why would he help us? Welter had nothing to gain from this. It’d be easier just to send us off.

"Heh, you two… have interesting skills, don’t you?"

"Huh!?"

Both of us froze in shock. Did he just say skills? Not our professions—our skills?

"You can see our skills? Not just our classes?"

"Yeah, I have the Appraisal skill," Welter said with a grin.

That skill had been one of the options when I’d picked mine. It made sense that if it was offered, others could have it, too.

“Especially you, kid. Your appraisal results show poison resistance, hunger resistance, and even resistance to fainting. It’s proof you’ve wandered the forest eating Deathmeg fruit," Welter chuckled.

"What!? But I didn’t choose those skills!”

Welter burst into laughter once more. “Yeah, you’re a fascinating one, kid. Experience gain is tenfold, your growth rate tenfold, and your skill acquisition speed is tenfold too. You’ll keep gaining skills the more you train. And Yuzuki, you’re not far behind. Your experience and growth rates are fivefold, with magic power at a hundredfold. You’re like a mage prodigy. Things are about to get interesting!”

Welter’s excitement was contagious, and, stunned by everything we’d learned, Yuzuki and I could only reply with a wholehearted “Please train us!”