4. It’s a start again (1)
Befitting an island with only monsters, this nameless uninhabited island used to be forgotten and something happened.
The monsters that shared this island, among them the two monsters I named the monsters, occasionally engage in a war of nerves.
Or a natural disaster comes to ruthlessly demolish the house, saying it’s time to rebuild.
Anyway, living alone on an uninhabited island means having to be neighbors with those things. Still, I hope nothing happens this time. I just wish the monsters were cute enough to invade my area. It’s not very tasty, but the leather is usable…
Before that, I need to say something. I immediately grabbed the doorknob and tried to turn it, then released my hand and knocked on the door.
I hear the rustling of fabric through the door. It seemed that he was in a hurry to get dressed while wiping himself. Oh, this is not the time. I suppressed my urgency and waited until there were no more sounds.
And when the sound stopped, he opened the door and said.
“Something happened. I have a place to go.”
“Muh, what’s going on?! And where to go?!”
Karina asked me with her confused face, but now I have to evacuate her before answering. I picked her up without saying a word and ran out of her house right after her.
Because there is a shelter made in preparation for an attack like this. For now, I was thinking of leaving her there and going to investigate the cause of her vibration.
“Please explain!”
“I don’t know. But it is dangerous.”
“Where are you going now?”
“There is a hiding place. Wait there.”
In response to my kind reply, Karina replied that she knew, and quietly took me into my arms. Is it because of your mood that your face is a little red? Now is not the time to care about that. I immediately ran to a place about 200 steps away from home. It’s not too far for a hideout, but it was a temporary shelter in case the house collapsed in the first place, so there’s no need to build it far.
“Is this…?”
“It is a hiding place.”
The hideout was a shelter made by digging a small hill. It’s usually covered with soil so it’s hard to see, and since it’s underground, it’s relatively safe from monsters. Above all, it was relatively safe from disasters such as tsunamis because it was in a highland area.
I pushed the dirt near the door with my foot and opened it. The door to the lair opened with the sound of hinges scraping. Come to think of it, there is no fire here. Because it is not made separately. I have stored some firewood, so all I need is an ember.
“Do you know how to make a fire?”
“Uh…sorry, but I don’t know.”
She uses divine magic, so I didn’t expect it, but it’s true. I once descended into her dark lair, set her down on her bed, grabbed one of her firewood, and activated her skill.
“Production.”
In an instant, the roughly cut firewood fell from my hand into a well-crafted piece of wood that fell into the furnace. Blocks of wood that have blown all the moisture away. I began to turn the wooden stick with the palms of my hands with the end of the wooden stick, which was specially processed to be easily turned, placed on top of a dry piece of wood.
A method that everyone should have seen at least once. It’s a really primitive way, but one of the easiest if you can do it. Of course, it would be easiest to airlift the embers somewhere or use a lighter or matches, but what about on a deserted island?
It’s not like I can light a fire with magic. So, it is said that the only solution is to fill it with your body in moderation. In fact, I could make something like a lamp to carry the embers. I’ll have to make some when this is over.
“That is…”
“Take a rest.”
“…Be careful.”
“…Yes.”
Seeing you off, something fresh.
——————
The first place to check was the outskirts of my area where traps were set. The borders of my territory, which I had laid all sorts of traps over the years, hadn’t been breached in recent years.
It was a trap set after years of trial and error, researching the smell they hate, the strength of their leather, and their structural weaknesses. The monsters that came in with great spirit at first stopped even coming in after being badly hit by my trap a few times.
But it’s vibration.
Sometimes there are cases where monsters move along the boundary line, but the vibration was long today. It’s been quiet lately. It seems like something happened again.
Is it the snake head side or the bear head side…
It’s probably the bear head’s kids with a high probability. On the snake side, there is no reason for the ground to shake unless the leader moves, and it is so insidious to think that someone is not a snake, so they do not do anything openly like this.
“Is it to the northwest?”
Follow the location of the vibration. It’s a residual talent that I’ve been through this kind of thing. It’s hard to explain in words, but it was a survival skill I learned spontaneously after watching bear heads go wild for 10 years. If I hadn’t learned it, my bones would have been scraping the debris between the monsters’ teeth by now.
Anyway, my area is south. Bear’s head is to the northwest. The snake head is to the northeast, so as expected, the bear head seems to be the cause of this commotion. I headed straight northwest. After passing the beach and entering the forest, the untidy air greeted me.
The air is different from usual.
This is a strange thing.
It’s quiet for a commotion.
What the hell happened?
I went inside little by little, wary of my surroundings. How much longer would it take As I neared the borders of my territory, an unpleasant stench crept into my nostrils.
A familiar smell. The stench that made me sick of this island.
The fishy smell of blood filled the surroundings, so I went up to the nearby watchtower and inspected the boundary where the traps were set. There were several corpses of bears impaled on sharp spears. Normally, there were occasional cases where one or two unknowingly jumped into a trap and died, but…
“Too many…”
One, two, three, four … Eight bears were caught in a trap and became his hedgehog.
Obviously strange.
Monsters don’t have intelligence, but they have an excellent survival instinct, so they notice each one they die like a ghost and don’t even look at it. It’s not uncommon for one or two fools to fall prey to traps…But on the other hand, this rarely happens unless that’s the case.
That was the reason me and the two monsters had a subtle fight until now.
If there was a fight, there would be no such thing as unscathed victory, and the leftovers would be eaten raw, so it was better not to fight.
But it seems that something happened on the bear’s head. I remember that the number of bears is around 30, but if there are 8 of them, it means that 20% of the group panicked and ran into the trap.
What the hell happened?
Generation change? Or a natural disaster? Or… Have all the hairy hydra cubs finally had an accident?
I feel dizzy. In the absence of definitive evidence, the number of cases is so great that speculation is impossible.
Sooner or later, you may have to sneak into the bear territory.
The only information I could get right now was that something had happened in the bear territory. You can’t prepare for a threat unless you know exactly what happened. But right now it was urgent to get all these corpses out and repair the trap.
If the defenses were breached while I was out on patrol, there would be no such catastrophe as that. If my area is safe, I can do scouting or whatever.
Thump, thump, thump…
The vibration is getting weaker and weaker. I noticed it from above the watchtower. You should go down when the vibration completely subsides.
When the vibration finally died down, I got down from the watchtower and walked carefully between the traps.
I carefully passed between the traps step by step and checked the condition of the bears that had been pierced by the traps.
Everyone was getting tangled up in traps and cooling off. Minus one.
“It’s tough.”
Is it because it’s a bear? The dying bear, pierced by a spear made of the bones of its own kind, looked up at me with half-closed eyes. There was no emotion in the bear’s eyes. Maybe he’s already lost his sight. The bear’s hide was completely soaked in blood, and it would take a long time to drain the blood.
“Goodbye.”
I picked up the shovel and shoveled the blade into the bear’s neck, which was still not dead. The bear’s eyes flipped with the familiar recoil in his grasp.
“Take the body… Set the trap again.”
Bear corpses have many uses.
From noble mtl dot com.
The leather was so tough that you could either make leather clothes or make a new bed, and the meat was tasteless, but it was better to cut it into small pieces and use it as bait for fish, or to bury it in moderation.
Bone can be used as a material for traps or tools. The bears on this island are bigger and stronger than normal bears, and their bones could be used as very good tools.
“Production.”
I pull out a bone stuck in the trap and shout softly. The bones that had pierced the body of his fellow countryman a moment ago now became a sharp knife to cut the bones and flesh of his own people.
So I started the arduous task of dismembering and removing the body. You never know when new uninvited guests will appear, so be quick and accurate.
By the time the sun was setting, there was a pile of dismembered skins and bones in front of me.
The trap is…
“Repair.”
Most of the bones piled up twice my height are gone, and the trap regains its shape.
The reason why I was able to manage with so many traps. It was a very useful skill, except that it required the same materials as the fact that it could only be used with structures and tools I made.
“…How do you carry all this?”
It’s annoying to think about moving it several times.
But what can I do?
If you want to live, you should do it. You can’t just throw away useful resources.
I began to grow bone and skin on my shoulders and move into my territory.