Alice hid behind a tree and carefully observed the suspected magician, a suspected female wielding a suspected mobile phone in her hand and suspected of taking pictures of Alice's campsite.
Then, after watching the suspicious target for a while, Alice saw the other party tapping her finger on the mobile phone-like device, put it up to her ear, and started speaking into it. Seeing up to this point, Alice determined that the glass plate was a mobile phone. The object might not be called a mobile phone in this world, but it definitely had functions similar to that of a mobile phone. It might be a magical creation unique to this world.
Alice quietly watched as the other party finished her phone call at her campsite. Then, she saw the magician girl walking up to the Milu Rabbit tied to a nearby tree, crouched down, and teased the bunny a little. To Alice's surprise, that Milu Rabbit behaved quite normally when she wasn't around.
However, even after the magician girl stopped playing with the rabbit, the fellow still showed no intentions of leaving. Instead, she sat down on a stool Alice had crudely made out of wood. Seeing this, Alice judged that the other party planned to wait for her, the campsite's owner, to return.
After thinking about it, Alice eventually decided to go out and meet this person. After all, this could potentially be her only opportunity to leave this forest. If she refused to show herself and missed this opportunity, she didn't know when it would be the next time she met another human again. Although Alice suspected the other party to be a magician, the magician was at least alone. Even if a conflict arose, she should still have a fighting chance.
Thinking up to this point, Alice couldn't help but miss her panties. She wouldn't have had to concern herself with such worries if she still had her panties in hand.
After making up her mind, Alice walked out of her cover and finally got a clear look at the person sitting at her campsite. Just like Alice had thought, the other party was indeed a girl. Moreover, the girl didn't seem to be very old.
Meanwhile, the magician girl also noticed Alice walking out from behind the tree. In response to Alice's appearance, the girl hurriedly stood up, extended a hand to the pouch tied around her waist, waved her hand above it, and summoned a long staff out of thin air. Then, she wielded the staff in her hand and solemnly faced Alice.
Sure enough, you can't say you've traveled to another world until you've seen a spatial tool.
This was the first thought that came to Alice's mind the moment she saw the magician girl pulling out a staff that was as tall as she was out of a small pouch. However, as Alice wasn't certain of the other party's attitude toward her, she did not approach the girl after leaving her cover. Instead, she entered a staring contest with the silver-haired girl, neither of them saying anything for a long time.
Through this interaction, it could be seen that both parties were quite wary of each other.
Alice's wariness toward the silver-haired girl was because this was the first time she had seen another human in this world. She had zero knowledge about the human culture in this world, so she didn't know whether she could properly interact with the person in front of her.
As for the silver-haired girl, the reason for her wariness was simple. From her perspective, Alice's facial appearance was so pristine that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call her a princess. Yet, this princess currently wore a tattered blue-white dress. Through the tears in the dress, the silver-haired girl could also faintly see that Alice was wearing something that could hardly be considered underwear. In addition, Alice also held a menacing, fist-sized rock in her hand. Overall, the silver-haired girl found this sight incredibly strange, so she couldn't help but act with caution.
However, staying silent wasn't a long-term solution. So, after staring at each other for some time, Alice took a step forward and opened her mouth to break this awkward silence.
Bang!
Unfortunately, Alice was one step too late. Before she could utter any words from her mouth, the Milu Rabbit that had been behaving normally in the campsite until now suddenly turned around and rammed its head against the tree it was leashed to. Then, it fainted on the spot…
After banging its head for several days, the "Milu Rabbit With Some Mana" had already learned how it should ram its head to produce the loudest sound and lose consciousness in the most direct manner. Hence, its collision with the tree just now made a considerably loud sound, and this sound had caused Alice to swallow back her words. Along with the rabbit losing consciousness, the originally solemn atmosphere had also turned awkward. After all, neither Alice nor the silver-haired girl had expected for the rabbit to suddenly ram its head against a tree.
Meanwhile, when Alice saw this scene, she couldn't help but feel frustrated. The Milu Rabbit's reaction had been growing increasingly exaggerated as the days passed. She had only taken one step closer to the rabbit this time, yet it had chosen to knock itself unconscious immediately. Next time, it would probably ram itself against a tree as soon as it saw Alice. At this rate, the Milu Rabbit was going to ram itself to death one day, and catching another live rabbit wasn't going to be easy. And in the case of dead Milu Rabbits, the system would judge their quality as Garbage when used as a weapon.
"
Cough, cough…
"
Eventually, it was the silver-haired girl who broke the awkward silence. While the Milu Rabbit ramming itself against a tree had indeed surprised her, the strange scene had also allowed her to relax a bit. Afterward, the silver-haired girl also noticed that while Alice's appearance might seem peculiar, she didn't sense any mana coming from the other party. Alice's limbs also didn't seem to have undergone any physical training before. In other words, Alice was a civilian, and there should be no need for her to be wary of Alice. Hence, the silver-haired girl said, "Hello, I'm Zuona, an apprentice magician. I came to Gryffin Forest in search of a potion ingredient. Are you perhaps...lost in this forest?"
Alice's current appearance indeed looked out of place, so it was normal for others to regard her as a disaster victim. Not to mention, Alice was indeed a disaster victim in a certain sense. Though, her disaster involved getting transported from Earth to this world.
"Something like that," Alice awkwardly replied while scratching her head. She was currently hoping for this girl named Zauna to bring her out of the forest, so she went along with the other party's words and admitted that she was lost in the woods.
Meanwhile, after hearing Alice's answer, the girl named Zauna finally relaxed and let her body crumple back onto the stool.
However, Zauna had evidently overestimated the stool's quality. With Alice's craftsmanship, it was already a miracle that the chair could support a person's weight without breaking apart. Now that Zauna had sat down with such force, the stool was evidently overwhelmed as it cracked and broke apart. Then, Zauna found her buttocks planting into the ground.
The scene grew awkward again as Zauna wore a bright blush on her face while Alice tried to hold back a smile. Then, Alice stepped forward and helped pull Zauna off of the ground. Fortunately, after this minor incident, the atmosphere between the two eased up a lot.
"Don't tell me you made this stool yourself? Did you come into Gryffin Forest without bringing anything?"
Zauna felt a little depressed as she looked at the broken pieces of the stool she previously sat on. She also couldn't help but rub her aching butt. Then, she turned to look at Alice with an incredulous look on her face.
Zauna had previously noticed that the simple campsite had nothing brought in from outside the forest. The camp only had a bed made out of leaves and wood chips, some burn marks left behind by a campfire, and a leashed Milu Rabbit that probably had a few screws loose in its head. Apart from these things, the only other objects Zauna found were a pile of stones and branches neatly laid aside for no apparent reason. "It's a miracle that you were able to survive in the forest depths for so long."
"...Forest depths?"
Alice was stunned. She couldn't believe that after walking for so long, she remained stuck in the depths of the forest. Just how massive was this forest?
"That's right. We are standing in the depths of Gryffin Forest. Ahead of us is the Lajal Mountain Range, the border separating the Gryffin Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom. It's almost impossible for humans to cross that mountain range without relying on magic and tools," Zauna said as she pointed in the direction Alice had been advancing, which was also the part of the forest Purification Blade had vaporized before.
After listening to Zauna's words, Alice immediately felt a little depressed. It turned out that she had been walking deeper into the forest throughout this past half a month. It was no wonder that she failed to see any people throughout the journey.