Rephan turned to lie on his back.
Exhausted and somewhat in awe of what he had just seen and done.
The mist in the surroundings began to swirl around and seeped into his body, and immediately he felt better.
Gordon meanwhile had summoned a knife and was busy stripping the daemon of its scales.
Each scale he removed, he tossed into the air where it promptly disappeared.
Feeling well enough to prop himself off the floor, he leaned against the tree he had just smashed into.
While watching Gordon work away, he took the time to digest what he had just done.
'I held a gigantic snake daemon back with my bare hands.'
'Well granted, he had been promptly thrown into a tree afterwards but still.'
'None of the Blackjacks would believe me if I told them this story.'
Watching the mist continue to swirl around the damaged parts of his body, several thoughts passed through his mind.
'This mist Gordon called mana seems to heal my body when I'm injured without any voluntary action on my part.'
'And what was that power I felt in my body during my brief fight against the daemon?'
'It felt exhilarating.'
'Is this what Gordon meant when he said magic can be used to strengthen the body's capabilities?'
'I had no idea it was to this extent.'
Gordon looked back at Rephan, checking to see if he was fine.
Frankly, he was shocked; Rephan had only known about the existence of magic just a couple of days ago, and now he could use it to power his body.
Exposure to magic usually develops people's magic powers.
'Back on Earth, there is no magic, so their magic powers are dormant."
'On Mirror Earth, however, there is an abundance of magic.'
Turning back to stripping the daemon's body of scales, his voice rang out in the clearing.
"How did you do what you did back there?"
Rephan thought for a bit before replying.
"I remember in that moment pushing myself to run faster, faster and faster and then it just sort of happened."
Gordon nodded his head.
'He is either a natural or just got lucky.'
But one thing was clear.
'The daemons, they are getting stronger.'
'It appears I'm going to need his help more than I thought if I am going to get back to the Order's portal and complete my scouting mission for the Order.'
'I wonder if I was the one who was lucky to meet him.'
'Nah, he would have died if I hadn't saved him; his healing ability just makes him a convenient backup.'
'I'll think of how to make him useful later, but for now we've got to move.'
'With the amount of noise we've made, some daemons might be thinking of paying us a visit.'
Satisfied with the amount of scales he had collected, he unsummoned the knife.
Rephan slowly walked over to the serpentine daemon's corpse, not quite sure of what he was looking for.
Blood oozed from the holes dotting the daemon's head, pooling on the ground below.
Forcing himself to tolerate the sight, he touched the scales of the daemon, surprised at how smooth and sturdy they felt to his touch.
'One minute I'm working an operation for the Blackjacks, the next I'm in another world surrounded by daemons, magic and whatnot.'
'But it's not all bad.'
Remembering the feeling of power he had felt earlier, he clenched his fist.
That power, that is what this new world had to offer and if he could grasp it.
The possibilities were endless.
Gordon's voice brought him out of his delusions of grandeur.
"We need to move to a different area; daemons are going to be flooding here soon enough."
Pulling his communicator out of thin air, Gordon proceeded to project a map onto the forest floor.
Their current location was marked by a red blinking dot.
Surrounding them were several green spots that Gordon had marked out as safe spots during his previous scouting missions.
After internalizing the information, Gordon unsummoned the communicator and turned to Rephan.
Summoning a ring, he tossed it to Rephan.
Catching the ring, Rephan studied the ring.
It was a green ring bearing the mark of a circle slashed diagonally with a line.
Rephan had noticed Gordon wearing the same ring.
"That ring will help you go unnoticed by daemons when you stop moving."
"Only if they are not too close."
Rephan hurriedly put the ring on his ring finger.
Pulling another item from the air, he handed Rephan a belt.
"Here, these are nanobot pants."
"And well, I assume you know what these are for."
Rephan strapped the belt onto his waist and activated it.
A black, inky substance coated his legs before hardening but still remaining flexible enough to move in.
'Sweet!'
Rephan studied the nanobot pants before asking.
"Do I get a weapon too?"
Gordon looked him up and down, studying him for a bit.
"Which weapons do you know how to operate?"
Rephan scratched the back of his head, recalling the fact that aside from firing a few pistols here and there, he didn't have much experience with weapons.
Gordon seemed to ponder a bit before summoning the revolver and handing it to Rephan.
'This should be easy enough to use.' Rephan thought.
Fiddling with the gun a loud bang was heard as the revolver went off.
The bullet whizzed past Gordon's head before zooming further into the distance.
Gordon stared at Rephan with something resembling exasperation while Rephan averted his gaze, becoming very interested in the beauty of their surroundings.
Letting out a sigh, Gordon decided to ignore that and proceeded to explain the details of how to handle the weapon.
Finished with the explanation, Gordon looked around the clearing.
"You have my gratitude for delaying the daemon while I was down."
"It showed courage."
"Courage you are going to need a lot more of."
Just then, the sound of daemons approaching echoed in the distance.
Trees were forced to bend or be broken by their collective charge.
Roars and grunts echoed in the forest as the silence was disturbed.
Gordon summoned his rifle, prepared for anything.
"If you do not want to become daemon poop, I suggest we ran."
Rephan did not waste a single moment and took off, followed closely by Gordon.