It had only been a little over two hours since they had met.
Objectively speaking, that was nowhere near enough time to truly understand another person. But during those two hours, Timi had already learned a few things about Lily.
The first was her personality.
Unless she was an exceptionally skilled actress, Lily was an incredibly lively person. She laughed easily and became excited over the smallest discoveries.
The Origin Battlefield was unimaginably rich. Within only a little over two hours, Timi and Lily had already discovered numerous valuable resources.
Either rare herbs nourished by dense energy grew beneath ancient trees untouched for countless years, or strange ores had naturally formed, each containing astonishing concentrations of mana, along with many other natural resources.
Of course, the truly valuable treasures were rarely found lying in the open. They belonged to the rulers of each territory.
Every powerful boss monster they encountered possessed a nest or dwelling, and those places almost always contained additional resources gathered over years of inhabiting regions rich in energy.
More importantly, defeating one boss guaranteed the appearance of a Treasure Orb. Unlike ordinary monsters, boss creatures never failed to leave one behind.
That alone made hunting them worthwhile. The resources hidden inside their territories were merely an additional reward.
Fortunately, the First Layer wasn't particularly dangerous for Lily and Timi, as both possessed more than enough strength to deal with almost every creature they encountered.
Because of that, the pace at which they accumulated resources was astonishingly fast.
By the time several more hours had passed, the amount of herbs, ores, monster materials, and other valuable resources stored away had already exceeded everything Timi had gathered during the past five days in the Land of Origin combined.
Of course, that had much to do with his limited time there, but the Land of Origin wasn't exactly a wild wilderness like this place either.
As the two grew increasingly familiar, the cold, solemn demeanor Lily had displayed when they first met had completely disappeared. It seemed that once she confirmed he wasn't an enemy, she relaxed almost immediately.
The second thing he noticed was something much harder to describe.
Purity.
Not exactly pure innocence or naivety. Lily clearly wasn't naive. This much was evident in the fact that she wasn't someone who simply believed every stranger she met within the last few hours. But she still possessed a kind of purity that Timi hadn't seen in a very long time.
Watching her, he found himself unconsciously thinking that this was how people their age were supposed to act. There was curiosity. Excitement. Occasional embarrassment.
Even childish competitiveness. When she proudly introduced her tamed beasts, she genuinely looked like an ordinary teenage girl showing off something precious to a new friend.
There were moments she pouted over trivial things. Moments she laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach.
Moments she excitedly asked endless questions about Earth despite barely understanding half of his answers.
For just a brief moment, Timi almost forgot the world he came from.
It had only been one year since Earth's apocalypse. Just one year. Yet people like Lily had almost completely disappeared from his life.
Children no longer acted like children. Teenagers no longer acted like teenagers. Adults had become even worse.
Everyone lived with guarded eyes. Every conversation carried hidden intentions. Every smile could be questioned. Every kindness demanded suspicion.
The apocalypse had forced everyone to mature far too quickly.
No. "Mature" wasn't even the correct word. It had forced them to survive. Those were two completely different things.
Timi himself was living proof. A year ago, if someone had told him he would one day calmly cut apart monsters while stepping over corpses without vomiting, he would have called them insane.
Now it had become routine. He couldn't even remember the last time he had hesitated before killing.
The third thing Timi discovered was that Lily was rich. Very rich.
At first, he had merely suspected it. After all, even someone unfamiliar with magical equipment could tell that her armor and weapon were extraordinary.
Now he finally understood why the dark elf they had encountered earlier had immediately assumed Lily came from some noble family.
Naturally, Timi had asked her about it once they had grown more comfortable with each other. She denied it almost immediately.
From what he had gathered over the past few hours, Lily's world didn't even seem to operate under a system of kings and nobles like the area of the Land of Origin he was familiar with.
She also seemed surprisingly ignorant about the power dynamics of her own world, for some reason.
Although she denied being from a noble family, she did admit one thing: her cousin was extremely rich.
According to Lily, her cousin was also incredibly powerful. As for how powerful, Timi had no way of judging. But the first statement he believed without the slightest doubt, because Lily herself was practically walking evidence.
After obtaining her permission, Timi had used Detect on her equipment.
Every single piece, her armor, her sword, even several accessories she wore, were all Rare Grade, Three-Star treasures. Not one piece was lower.
It was as though her cousin considered anything below that grade unworthy of her.
Even Timi, who had only entered this world five days ago, could tell how extravagant that was.
After all, during their journey through the Origin Battlefield, they had already obtained several Treasure Orbs. Yet none of the treasures inside had reached that level.
The highest had been a Rare Grade item obtained from killing a Two-Star Rare Grade level ten boss.
Fortunately, Lily patiently explained the grading system to him. Only then did Timi finally understand just how valuable his own gains had been.
The Extraordinary Grade Shadow Demon Bloodline he had absorbed was far stronger than he had originally imagined.
No wonder the creature had almost wiped out an entire settlement before anyone even realized it existed.
Combined with Presence Concealment, it had become an assassin capable of silently approaching almost any target.
If such an ability had appeared among ordinary demons, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
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