"Not far off, you said…" Said the young man. It's been a couple hours since they started walking to said nearby town, the dense forest never leaving them, no matter where they walked. "Are we lost?"
"N-No… maybe…" Muttered the beastaan, clearly embarrassed. "I could've sworn it was this way…" He bit his lip in anger as he kept walking, slashing some overgrown vines blocking them with his claws. "Geez, this place's like a maze."
"And… it's getting hot…" Kaio said, wiping sweat off his forehead.
"It would be somewhat cooler if you took off that hoodie of yours"
Kaio stood still for a moment, his hands hugging against his arms as he heard that. "I'd… rather not, at least not now…"
"Well, then you better not complain about being in a mana-oven, alright?" Agrippa looked back and saw the young man standing still, hands hugging his slightly scratched hoodie sleeves. "You alright there?" He said, tilting his head. "If you're feeling tired, we can take a rest here. It's almost night, it'd be dangerous, unless…"
"Unless?" He asked, dropping his hands.
"Unless you're as powerful as.. him. There was someone else who came before you, we thought he was a low-level healer, until we saw him kill a whole horde of daemons with a single spell. He said it came as easy to him as just a snap of a finger. Can you do that too?"
It was now Kaio's turn to tilt his head, but nodding regardless. He pointed his hand at a nearby tree, focusing with all his mind… nothing. Snapping his fingers… nothing. Saying a bunch of random magic-sounding words in hopes one of them was the trigger. "Abracadabra! Alakazam! Hocus-Pocus!" Nothing.
"Alright, alright, I get it. You don't have any mana casting abilities" Agrippa said, waving his hand while stifling a laugh. "Well, that's interesting. Even villagers are able to cast at least a little Ember, like this." The fox beastman closed his eyes, and with a small breath, a small, glowing, floating ball of fire appeared on his hand, before it flickered and disappeared.
"Ugh. Maintaining it is a different story, but creating it for a few seconds should be easy. Tell you what, the said city we're going to has a guild branch. There's a mana-gauging orb there. We can tell your skill level from it." The large man said, his tail wagging carelessly.
Kaio nodded in response. He has read said orb from the web novel, with the protagonist even cracking and shattering the orb from his skill level alone. Typical. But it is puzzling that in such a world, he's kept the same strength he had in his original world.
Agrippa came to a stop as they were in the middle of a mountain road, with Kaio following suit. "What happened?" He asked
He only pointed to the view before them as an answer. It was breathtaking, a huge amount of forests covering the countryside, with a single mountain in the middle, being so tall and mighty it tore through the sky, not being able to see its peak through the clouds surrounding it. "That's the Darkened Chasm we fell from. We surely would've turned into paste if not for my Vulpes Claw" he looked at his somewhat calloused and bruised hand, clenching it. "Nevermind that. This is a good spot for taking a break." He tosses Kaio a water canteen that was attached to his belt. "Don't drink all of it, that's all the water we have, since we don't have either a water source or a water caster nearby."
Kaio nodded in response, taking some gulps of the water before handing it back to Agrippa. They both sat down on the side of the road, taking in the view of the forest and the Chasm in front of them as the sun began to set.
About an hour later the fireplace was done, with Kaio sighing in relief that he still remembered the tips from his school camping trips. "It's done. Can you light it up?" He asked the fox beastman, with him nodding in response, doing the same thing he did a few hours ago, closing his eyes, putting his arm next to the fireplace and taking a deep breath, the small fire appeared again on his hand, quickly spreading to the logs of wood on the fireplace before it quickly disappeared from Agrippa's hand again.
"You're really skilled at this, huh? Guess I underestimated you" He said, petting Kaio's head, which made him blush lightly again.
"It's no big deal, especially in this world, don't you think? Pretty sure everyone here has these same skills."
"Not really, everyone uses standard casting to survive." The beastman said, leaning against one of the mountain's trees. "My flame can barely last a few seconds before disappearing, which is why I rely more on my Vulpes powers, which lets me get more in touch with my beastman side." He flicked his ears before yawing. "Geez, I'm tired. C'mere, it gets way too cold around here at night, your hoodie won't be able to support it alone."
Kaio could only stare at him, blushing a bit more as he looked away. "H-Huh?" He asked, embarrassed.
"C'mon, man, I know it's a bit embarrassing, but it's only us here, it's either this or we both turn into popsicles" He said, moving himself next to the burning fireplace.
Eventually, he accepted, moving himself closer to the beastman, with Agrippa wrapping his arm around him as they both laid down on the soft dirt road, the beastman's large, chubby body providing a cozy source of heat for the young man. He could have sworn that night that sometimes he could have heard some purring coming from the foxman as they slept. "So cute…" He whispered to himself.