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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Befitting an island with nothing but monsters, this nameless deserted island would experience some sort of incident just when you had nearly forgotten about its troubles.
The two monsters I had named Beasts, who divided this island among themselves, would occasionally engage in a war of nerves, causing animals to flee to my territory in panic. Or skeletons and goblins that had spilled out from the dungeons would approach.
Or natural disasters would come mercilessly demolishing my house, signaling it was time for renovations.
In any case, living alone on a deserted island meant becoming neighbors with such things. But hopefully this time it was nothing serious. It would be ideal if the monsters had simply intruded petulantly into my territory. Their meat was disgustingly flavorless, but their hides were usable…
But first, I should give a heads-up. I grabbed the door handle to turn it, then let go and knocked on the door instead.
The sound of fabric rustling came from the other side. She must have been hurriedly getting dressed after wiping her body down. Ah, this wasn’t the right time. Suppressing my urgency, I waited until the noise stopped.
When the sound ceased, I opened the door and said, “Something’s happened. I need to go somewhere.”
“Wh-what is it?! And go where?!”
Karina asked me with a confused expression, but for now I needed to evacuate her first before explaining. Without a word, I scooped her up and immediately left the house.
There was a shelter I had prepared in case of such attacks. First, I would take her there and then investigate the cause of the tremors.
“Please explain!”
“I don’t know either. But it’s dangerous.”
“Where are we going now?”
“There’s a shelter. Wait there.”
At my curt response, Karina nodded in understanding and settled obediently in my arms. Was the slight flush on her face due to her feelings? Now was not the time to be concerned with such things. I immediately headed about 200 paces away from the house. It wasn’t very far for a shelter, but it was originally constructed as a temporary refuge in case the house collapsed, so there was no need to build it far away.
“What is this place…?”
“A shelter.”
The shelter was a small bunker I had dug out of a hill myself. Normally it was covered with soil, making it inconspicuous, and being underground made it relatively safe from monsters. More importantly, being on high ground made it relatively safe from disasters like tsunamis.
I kicked away the soil near the entrance and opened the door. With a creaking sound, the door leading to the shelter opened. Come to think of it, there was no fire source here. I hadn’t prepared one separately. But I had stockpiled some firewood, so I just needed a spark.
“Do you know how to start a fire?”
“Um… I’m afraid not.”
As expected, since she used holy magic. Without hesitation, I descended into the dark shelter, laid her on the bed, picked up a piece of firewood, and activated a skill.
“Crafting.”
The roughly cut firewood instantly transformed into well-processed wooden pieces, falling from my hand onto the hearth. Pieces of wood stripped of all moisture. Taking one of the wooden rods shaped for easy spinning, I placed its tip against a dry woodchip and began rapidly twirling the rod between my palms.
A method anyone would have seen at least once. A very primitive approach, but one of the easiest if you could manage it. Of course, procuring a lighter or matches from somewhere would be the easiest way, but where could you find such things on a deserted island?
It wasn’t like I could start a fire with magic either. So making do physically was the only solution. Actually, I should probably make a lamp or something to transport a flame. Once this situation was over, I should prepare a few.
“That’s…”
“Rest.”
“…Be careful.”
“…Yeah.”
A send-off, something refreshing.
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The first place I needed to check was the outer perimeter of my territory, where I had set up traps. The boundary line of my territory, laden with all sorts of traps over the course of several years, had not been breached in nearly that same span of years.
Through years of trial and error, I had studied the scents, hide durability, and physical weaknesses that the creatures disliked, and set up traps accordingly. At first, the monsters had boldly intruded, but after suffering severe losses to my traps a few times, they stopped coming near.
But the tremors…
The monsters occasionally moved along the border, but the tremors today had lasted unusually long. Just when I thought it had been peaceful lately, it seemed something else had happened.
In the Snake Beast’s territory, or the Bear Beast’s…?
It was likely the Bear Beast’s offspring with a higher probability. The Snake’s side wouldn’t cause the ground to shake unless their leader was on the move, and their actions tended to be sly and underhanded rather than overt like this, lest anyone call them snakes.
“The northwest, huh?”
I sensed the direction of the tremors. A skill I had developed from experiencing such incidents so often. It was difficult to explain verbally, but after witnessing the Bear Beasts’ rampages for 10 years, I had naturally acquired this survival technique. If I hadn’t learned it, my bones would likely be used by the monsters to pick food scraps from between their teeth by now.
Anyway, my territory was in the south. The Bear Beast’s was northwest. The Snake Beast’s was northeast. So as expected, it seemed the Bear Beast’s side was the cause of this commotion. I immediately headed northwest. Past the beach and into the forest, a restless air greeted me.
The air felt different from usual.
Something was amiss.
It was too quiet for the commotion that had occurred.
What on earth had happened?
Remaining vigilant, I advanced deeper inward. After walking some distance, I finally reached the boundary of my territory, and a foul stench assailed my nostrils.
A familiar odor. The pungent stench I had smelled to exhaustion on this island.
Amid the pervasive, cloying scent of blood filling the area, I climbed up a watchtower I had built nearby to survey the trap-laden boundary line. Several bear carcasses, their bodies skewered by sharp stakes, came into view.
It was not unusual for one or two bears to blunder into the traps and die occasionally, but…
“This is too many…”
One, two, three, four… nearly eight bears had been caught in the traps, turned into porcupines.
It was clearly an anomaly.
While monsters lacked intelligence, their survival instincts were superb, allowing them to sense imminent death with an almost ghostly perceptiveness and avoid it at all costs.
Occasionally, some idiotic individuals would fall victim to the traps, but… conversely, such cases were rare occurrences.
That was the reason why the monsters and I had been engaged in a delicate game of eyeing each other warily until now.
If a fight broke out, a victory without casualties would be impossible, and the survivor would inevitably end up as the loser’s meal. So it was better not to fight.
But it seemed some sort of incident had occurred in the Bear Beast’s territory.
If I remembered correctly, their numbers were around thirty, so if eight had fallen into the traps in a panic, that meant one-fifth of the pack had rushed headlong to their demise.
Just what had happened?
A change of leadership? A natural disaster? Or had the disgustingly multi-headed hydra spawn finally met with an accident?
It was perplexing. Without definitive evidence, there were too many possibilities to make an accurate guess.
I might have to infiltrate the bears’ territory soon.
The only information I could glean here was that some incident had occurred in the bears’ domain. If I couldn’t discern exactly what had transpired, I wouldn’t be able to prepare for potential threats. But for now, the urgent task was to remove all these carcasses and repair the traps.
If my defensive line was breached while I was out on reconnaissance, it would be a catastrophe. My territory had to be secure before I could undertake reconnaissance or anything else.
Thud, thud, thud…
The tremors were gradually weakening. I noticed this from atop the watchtower. When the tremors completely subsided, I would descend.
Finally, as the tremors disappeared entirely, I climbed down from the watchtower and carefully made my way between the traps.
Carefully stepping between each trap, I examined the state of the impaled bears.
They were all growing cold, skewered in the traps. Except for one.
“Resilient, aren’t they.”
Perhaps it was because they were bears. The bear being pierced to death by a stake made from its kin’s bones looked up at me with half-lidded eyes.
No emotion could be discerned in the bear’s gaze. Perhaps it had already lost its sight. The bear’s hide was completely soaked in blood, and it seemed it would take quite some effort to extract the bloodstains.
“Farewell.”
I raised the shovel and drove its blade into the still-living bear’s neck. Accompanied by a familiar recoil transmitted to my grip, the bear’s eyes rolled back.
“I’ll take the carcasses… and reset the traps.”
The bear carcasses could be put to good use in many ways.
Their tough hides could be used to make leather clothing or new bedding, and while the meat was flavorless, it could be finely minced as fish bait or simply buried.
The bones could serve as materials for traps or tools. The bears on this island were larger and sturdier than ordinary bears, so their bones made excellent tool components.
“Crafting.”
With a murmured utterance, I pulled out one of the bones lodged in the traps, which transformed into a boning knife to strip flesh from its kin’s remains.
And so I began the arduous task of dismantling the carcasses and extracting them meticulously, swiftly and precisely, for who knew when new uninvited guests might appear?
By the time the sun had set, piles of disassembled hides and bones lay before me.
As for the traps…
“Repair.”
The bones stacked twice as tall as me nearly disappeared, and the traps regained their original form.
The reason I could set up and maintain so many traps. Aside from the fact that I could only use structures and tools I had created, and that the same materials were required, it was an incredibly useful skill.
“…How am I going to carry all this?”
The thought of having to make multiple trips was bothersome.
But what choice did I have?
If I wanted to survive, I had to do it. I couldn’t leave behind useful resources either.
Shouldering the bones and hides, I began making my way deeper into my territory.
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