The dungeon cores were easily taken out of the dead goblins as his arm appeared to pass through what seemed like translucent, spiritual matter. The dungeon cores were also usually located at the center of their chests and as a result, procuring them became a surprisingly quick process. Perhaps it was also the reason why he hadn't seen blood. The monsters were made out of those cores? How did that even work?

Naturally, he was still too afraid to ask his savior. White had no choice but to keep his bottling emotions inside for now. He had moved from 'being dead' to alive too quickly that his mind was unable to keep up.

But there was one thing he knew he had to do, that was to follow this person. He looked like he knew what he was doing, and was probably his one-way ticket back up to the surface.

After a few minutes, all of the dungeon cores were collected and the goblins slowly disappeared into thin air. This was the first time White had seen how a monster 'died' in this world, but he quickly accepted it as how it was. It didn't change much from how it was depicted in the game, but it did give him a sense of ethereality to that phenomenon in reality. 

Keeping all of the stones into a small pouch on his waist, the hooded person then glanced at White's dishevelled look. The young man had been following him ever since he had been rescued. With a tired sigh, Hoodie muttered.

"...Fine, I don't want to see a newcomer die in this kind of place anyway. Follow me, I'll just have to bring you back outside of the dungeon right?" 

"Th-Thank you...! Y-You are..."

"...Shinri is fine. I am a fellow adventurer."

The hooded person suddenly spoke out as he stared at White.

Shinri? 真理, meaning "the truth"? Was that his name? That was unexpected for him to do so, but at least he could finally not call him "hooded person" all the time. In that case...

"Sh-Shinri-san, right? My name is... ...uhm White. N-Nice to meet'ch----"

He had bitten his tongue on accident, causing his initial introduction to stutter. His first impression must have been terrible. It was then----

"...Kh---"

"...Kuh?"

"...No, nothing."

He thought he had heard Shinri laugh, but he must have been mistaken. Shinri didn't seem like the type to be amused by something like this. Turning his head away, Shinri continued walking at the front.

"Well, let's get going already... White... was it? The monsters in a dungeon will respawn given time, so stop looking around and keep up."

"A-Ah, right!"

Because his injuries had not healed completely, White's movements were much slower. However much to his surprise, the masked person seemed to be matching his pace on purpose.

This person was unexpectedly kind, White thought silently.

There were no more monsters on the way up, so the journey had been a safe one. Despite that, the atmosphere in the cave didn't allow White to drop his guard a second time.

After a long ascent, the two of them had finally gotten out of the dungeon safely.

It was then that White was finally able to relax from all the tension. On the contrary, the masked adventurer in front of him didn't seem to be fazed in the slightest.

He must be pretty experienced... White admired the adventurer.

Looking back at where he had came from, White realized that this was the actual entrance of the dungeon. With the vines hanging along the sides of tiles of sandstones, it gave off the feeling of an abandoned ruin more than anything.

The appearance of the dungeon did not seem to differ much from the dungeons in his experience, however a "Dungeon" did not exist in Forest A too. The inconsistencies with his game knowledge was beginning to make him feel a sense of discomfort gradually.

Maybe he was wrong? Maybe he shouldn't rely on his understanding of the game? But was he willing to give up the potential advantages of "foresight"?

"Hey man, you don't seem to be prepared at all, why are you even in the Rotting Forest like this, you got a death wish?"

"I..."

Wait a second.

"...Rotting... Forest?"

"Huh?"

Shinri looked at the young man puzzledly.  

"Don't tell me... you don't even know where this place is? It's common knowledge, right? Only someone that doesn't belong in this world wouldn't know what the Rotting Forest is."

"..."

"...Wait, you... seriously? Hold on... are you for real here? You're not an adventurer?"

Without allowing White to move an inch away, Shinri held both of his shoulders tightly are stared intently at him.

"Tell me the truth, what was the last thing you remembered when you came to this forest... no, this world?"

(How?! How did he know?)

White tensed up as he thought that the existence of otherworlders like him wasn't spread as common knowledge. Even though he wasn't going to lose anything, the fact that he was 'revealed' made him uneasy on an unconscious level. 

"I... I am..." 

Should he be honest here, or should he deny it till the end? What would happen if he did, would he be denounced publicly and become a wanted person? What would he even say anyway, that he had come into this world that resembled a game in his eyes?

White's dull black eyes beneath the masquerade mask began to twitch uncomfortably as he sought for the right words to reply with.

"...Ah. Judging from that reaction, you are definitely someone who came from the other world, am I right?"

"..."

"It's okay. I'm not going to do anything to you even if I know that."

"...I'm sorry..."

"No, you don't have to apologize. At least that explains why you were down there in the first place. Well, the heroes are otherworlders too so it's not like it's anything unprecedented. But you don't seem to be a hero, so there shouldn't be anything dangerous happening to you as long as you do everything by the law here."

Shinri chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders almost as if indicating that he didn't care. But White could tell that he was still a little curious from the way he was glancing at him at times.

As expected, an otherworlder coming here was still a rare occurrence. Still, he had given White a lifeline to cling on to. Perhaps he had wanted to respect the privacy of the young man, and did not probe any further. White became much more relaxed when Shinri had done so.

Although he couldn't let up his guard completely, White thought that he could at least put a little trust in him for now.

Also, he had mentioned something about 'heroes', but White didn't need any more explanation on that. He could probably recite more than ten novels off the top of his head about that kind of story.

Although the topic intrigued him, White thought that it was still not very consequential to him overall as he wasn't as concerned about returning back as much. Maybe he should hit up a library and read about the history of this world and what the heroes did while they were summoned here, to see how it matched up with the game's lore when he had the chance. He would expect the typical demon king plot to show up eventually, or maybe the demon king was already defeated in this timeline. 

Who knows.

After they had resumed traversing through the forest again, Shinri took out a vial of white powder and gave it to him.

White was following further behind due to the conversation earlier, so the adventurer had to walk a distance back to do so.

"This is...?"

"Well, you can see it yourself right? The item information."

He was right. But doing that amounted to admitting the fact that he was a 'player'. However, was there a need to hide it anymore? It seems like this person was already aware of it to a certain extent. On the contrary, trying to blatantly lie through his face might be even more detrimental to him.

Seeing that Shinri did not seem to care to look at what he was doing either, White felt that he had been overly suspicious of him. He felt a little bad that he was trying to doubt the person who had saved him in the first place.

In the end, White obediently looked at the vial's information window.

〚 ♦ Sactilite's Ashes ♦ Rare Grade ✠ Material 〛

 ⤷ The remains of a Twin-headed Sactilite. Emits a scent that low-levelled monsters do not like. Remaining amount: 43% 

The Twin-headed Sactilite (which he was also unaware of in the game) appeared to be a mob which dropped this item.

(So it's monster repellent. No wonder monsters do not approach us now.)

The situation with the goblins did not happen this time, White thought that Shinri was an amazing person. He had also observed the subtle actions the adventurer had taken all this time, for example the marks he had made on some trees to keep track of where they had gone through.

Perhaps this was the reason why Shinri had called him unprepared. As expected, an adventurer who was geared for monster hunting was very different from a complete amateur like him. He had thought that the 'survival skills' he had learnt on the net were somewhat impressive, but it didn't even look like it was worth anything in front of a true expert. While the things he did was simple enough to make White go "why didn't I think of that first", he also realized that it was the ability to be flexible in judgement that made him an expert. Perhaps it was also a matter of being mentally prepared, or even a bit of both.

These were lessons that White was picking up on gradually. He felt like he really had been too rash since the beginning.

While he was in the middle of his thoughts, Shinri suddenly tapped on his shoulder.

"Stop here. We're going to set up camp."

Looks like they were stopping to rest for the night. Besides, White was supposed to be resting to begin with. The mention of 'camp' had reminded him that his body required the much needed sleep after the intensity of the goblin encounter, and his mind slowly drifted off...

However, White began to realize something weird.

"Eh..?"

The young man looked around him perplexedly.

Camp? Here?

"That's right, right here should be fine. You're tired right? Just leave things to me for now."

No that wasn't the problem here, White wanted to tell him that.

The two were still surrounding by large trees which were places that a monster could possibly hide in! Truthfully speaking, he did not feel very safe about this place, but there must have been a reason why Shinri had chosen this location. In the end, White's doubts were clearly transmitted to the adventurer.

"Dont worry." Shinri continued as he held out the vial of Sactilite Ashes,

"We will be fine with this."

"But..."

"It will be safe, I tell you. I've been doing it this way for a few years now, look at me. Nothing's happened to me right?"

"That's... true."

Indeed, if White believed what Shinri was saying, that would be the case because White was an outsider from this world to begin with. He wasn't in a position where he could tell a veteran if he could or could not do something. 

The common sense of this world was different from his own, White had to constantly remind himself of that.

"Sorry for being so paranoid... I'm... just..."

White felt frustrated that he couldn't find the right words again.

"...It's okay, I understand. ...I know that feeling, you just can't get used to the existence of monsters right."

The young man seemed to have felt an empathetic gaze behind Shinri's kitsune mask.

But wasn't the way he said it, weird...? Instead of using a definitive term like 'goblins', Shinri was referring to monsters as a whole.

"But don't worry, I will protect you... at least, until we're out of this forest at least. You can say it's my obligation to do so, taking care of the powerless is the duty of those who have them."

White nodded lightly with gratitude.

It seems like Shinri wasn't a bad person. Although he seemed cold at first, he was actually a reliable and trustworthy person.

"...You're fairly softspoken aren't you, well that's a good thing I think."

Shinri poured out the ashes from the vial, spilling onto the grass like sand. Mysteriously enough, the amount of ashes in the vial was not proportionate to the one in it.

He continued while doing this in a circular motion, eventually lacing the ground with a round 'barricade' of monster repellent.

"At least for me, I wouldn't like to keep talking to people. So... it's strange. You're the first person I've met that I feel a sense of compatibility with." 

"...I-I see..." 

Feeling like the conversation had not progressed the way he wanted, Shinri turned his face to the side and coughed dryly.

"A-Anyway, I'm going to scout out the area to make sure there's no monsters around. I saw a lake further north so if you want to clean yourself up, you can. I've already cleared out the monsters there, but make sure to bring the vial with you just in case."

"Okay... you too, stay safe."