I was a Nerfed Hero in Another World

After snapping her fingers, the scenery changed. Those hidden objects materialized themselves before our eyes, which should be impossible to achieve.

The cloud of smoke that Lilith produced came from an illusion spell that only high-skilled mages could conjure. That spell had a similar ability to Meliodas, but it controlled the perception of both enemies and allies.

Players did not consider those illusion skills as overpowered. Well, since self-inflicting wounds could counter them. When we used our gadgets, an option would appear in front of us, asking if we wanted to erase the illusion by hurting our own characters. Since pain would be enough to remove that status, everyone would use that suggestion to their advantage.

Some players would even use that ability, but act like that character was still in that spell. And when their enemies bought those acting skills, the wounded player would take revenge against the mage.

It was a ludicrous move, but effective against fights.

Lilith demonstrated efficient use of that illusion ability among any other mage I faced during my prime. But thanks to my knight's passive ability, I had immunity of some sort from it. My system even showed that even Lilith's demonic power couldn't penetrate through my passive ability.

However, like Meliodas' problem and other conflicts, my eyes never left Lilith's hand. My mind couldn't think of any solution if Lilith had gone rogue and planned on killing all of us with her spells. And that illusion spell could be enough to stop us from our tracks.

It only showed that Lilith was a little humble when she demonstrated her powers to our team. And that claim only strengthened after witnessing the spell first-hand.

"Did you do these by yourself, Lilith?" I asked. "It's amazing."

"Yes. I tried imitating both styles of humans and our race," Lilith replied, and gazed intently at the terrain. "And thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it."

The safe room that Lilith made had decors of some sort placed on the field. There was a make-shift campfire in the middle, surrounded by various logs chopped off from ancient-looking trees. Upon glancing at the side, there were wooden containers nearby, which let out a scent of killed creatures inside. If I had to guess it right, Lilith placed that container to store all her hunts inside it. Since she was still new to the system, she couldn't access those features yet.

And it was all up to me to introduce that untapped power. My mind even imagined how powerful would Lilith become if she could level up using the system. If Lilith could annihilate multiple kingdoms at once with her raw power, she could even destroy other nations as well outside Albion.

But I brushed those chaotic thoughts for now and focused on the occurrence before me.

When I glided my eyes around, stacked leaves greeted my eyes on each side of this camp. And if my eyes did not deceive me, these leaves looked like make-shift beds Lilith made for everyone. It only amplified that Lilith expected us to come by. But as I counted the leaves on the ground, it had too many.

We were only three people on the team, but the leaf count had seven.

Since we were on some land, Lilith found enough spaces for a few people to scooch by. I could only imagine that Lilith had already planned this from the very beginning, considering everything went well to her advantage.

But even though we were running on Lilith's palms, we did not have to fight against this demonic girl. If we brawled with her, I doubt we would see the sunshine tomorrow.

"Please, make yourself at home….. That's what the humans say, right?" Lilith asked, and went towards the container. "Do humans eat fish? Or do you prefer boars?"

That demonic girl might have fetched us some meals we could eat and burn it on the blazing fire. I didn't even know that demons ate anything at all since she planned on cooking something for us. But it was better to ask than to assume anything about Lilith.

"Lilith, can I ask you something? Do you eat those meals? Or did you already expect us to meet and agree to your offer?" I asked, and quitted beating the bush.

After hearing my words, Lilith stared into my eyes and flashed me a grin. "You're quick to notice things, Arthur. To answer your question, yes. I already anticipated that you would have a band of adventurers following your side. However, I did not expect that you would only have three of them at your party. Nevertheless, I planned this for a reason. And I will tell you that reason once you tell me what food humans eat."

"Do not worry about the food, Arthur. We demons eat nothing but our arcane or the arcane in our surroundings. Fortunately, the system told me that a safe room does not require us to eat anything since everything is filled with arcane. If I must say, I would love to live here for a while before continuing our journey. But alas, time is running short. And we need to discuss some important matters soon. And in order to do that, you humans need a meal," Lilith continued, with her eyes still glued to mine. "What's it going to be, Arthur? Fish or meat?"

"We could eat both. Actually, let me try helping you out. In our culture, we add some spice to make these dishes delicious. And I want to express my gratitude to my cooking, Lilith. Have you ever tried some good food before?" I asked, and stood up from the ground. "If you haven't, I would let you taste my cooking. Although I don't usually cook inside my house, I cook these bad boys in-game."

When my parents were busy playing Magique, I would cook some leftover meals inside the fridge. After helping myself with that meat, I would cook them while waiting for my character to level up on his own.

This game also had an auto-levelling option. It only happened if someone wanted to make their characters stronger sluggishly while doing some things. Those small level-ups could dictate the player versus player matches.

But I doubted that would apply to these events since the game became my reality.

"I do not know how to cook. I just watch them turn black. If these creatures changed colour, I know they're cooked." Lilith had a barbaric answer.

Luckily, Lilith made me the cook for tonight. And since Lilith had tasted nothing but terrible food before, I planned on surprising her with that. I could only hope that the food from my world would make the two of us closer to each other.

Lilith also mentioned something about important details we needed to talk about. Well, since this event was our first meeting, there were still details we left out for the two of us. I still had some questions left unanswered for Lilith. And I knew she had the same set of queries for me to answer.

Merleen and Fenrir would remain asleep until they had the energy to wake up. But for now, I could only wait for them to do that while cooking some grub.

Meliodas did not utter a word when all that happened. He just silently watched the scene unfold in front of his eyes while strumming his harp. That bard did not dare to control any of us using his musical instrument. So he played something to make the mood energetic, as we did things for the group.

Within a few moments, I finally cooked the meal and prepared it for the four of us.

(Author's note: You might think that this is a bit slow. Well, yeah. It is. But for me, having these little gestures would increase their bonds or relationships.)

"Since we lack any ingredients inside your container besides salt and some herbs, I made a soup. Thanks to my system, I made it creamier. And that means it has some rich flavour."

I did not know why, but my system saved some meals I had from my previous life. And since my system knew a lot of things, it used the herbs as temporary spices for the pork mushroom soup.

Lilith, Meliodas, and I saved some two bowls for Fenrir and Merleen. We added some extra content for the sleeping beauties since they would look for food as soon as they woke up.

After the long-awaited minutes, Lilith took a wooden plank as her utensil and tasted the soup. She did not even worry about it if I placed poison on the meal. And I doubted that would even work for a demon like her, which had a higher status than those noble demonic creatures.

"How does it taste like, Lilith? Is it to your liking?" I asked, and waited for her response.

"You're correct, Arthur. This soup is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted in my hundred-year life!"