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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Hide in the shelter.”
“Yes!”
I was a bit taken aback by Karina’s response to my words, which came too naturally. Don’t people usually ask for the reason first? I asked Karina, who had nodded vigorously.
“…You’re not going to ask why?”
“You wouldn’t say such a thing carelessly, would you? Besides, it must be related to what happened last time…”
Well, the reason I wanted to send her to the shelter was obvious, so it made sense that she would immediately catch on to my intention. I didn’t have the confidence to explain everything one by one, but I didn’t expect her to be so quick-witted. This would make things a bit easier.
I walked towards the storage room at the back of the house, recalling the locations of various items inside. Items salvaged from shipwrecks and various goods I had made as a hobby.
Among them, what I needed to take were the poisons I had collected so far.
Powder made by grinding poisonous herbs, spore powder extracted from mushrooms, and poisons extracted from venomous snakes that occasionally entered my territory and became barbecued. In the wild, you always have to keep a trick up your sleeve to survive.
It’s not the strong who survive, but those who survive become strong.
“Should I have brought some dung bombs?”
The smell was terrible, but that made them excellent for driving away monsters.
It may be dirty, but what can you do?
If a weak human wants to survive alone in the wild, they have to be willing to get down and dirty. In the wild, where being picky about food can turn you into lukewarm meat and become a meal, there are no fools who are choosy about such things. Moreover, even if human excrement was useless, animal dung had many uses.
Scattering the scent of predators to block the approach of other animals, drying it to use as fuel, or even trying to use it as fertilizer, although it had little significance. I don’t know why human excrement can’t be used, but anyway, it has many uses. If this were a desert instead of a deserted island, I would have filled the warehouse with camel dung. I heard camel dung burns really well.
Come to think of it, I wonder when I’ll be able to talk more comfortably.
If she were an ordinary-looking woman, it might be easier to strike up a conversation, but because she’s too beautiful, just talking to her feels burdensome. It feels like she’s someone I’ll never have a chance with in my entire life, making it difficult to close the distance.
But we can’t go on like this forever… No, we’ll probably go our separate ways once we escape anyway, right?
After all, Karina is a saint, and I’m just an ordinary castaway with no connections. So there’s no need to get any closer. It’s not like I’m the protagonist or anything.
“…Come to think of it, who is the protagonist of Survival Academy?”
I remember that if you don’t set anything, it starts with the default settings, but that part is a bit hazy. It’s been 10 years, and I’ve never seen the default settings, so I don’t really know anything except hearsay. Whoever it is, I know they go through all sorts of hardships until graduation.
But that’s not something I should be concerned about right now. What’s important to me now is how to resolve the crisis that has approached without warning. Even if I use all the means I currently have, I couldn’t be sure if I would survive or not.
I don’t know its identity or weaknesses. Nothing is more fatal than that.
The only advantage I have, if you can call it that, is that there’s no place on this island I haven’t been to. There’s nothing more important than knowing the geography well in a war. Even more so on this island, which is overflowing with bastards that can crush humans like empty cans.
“…I think I had a telescope among the things I picked up…”
I searched through the haphazardly piled up junk to see if there was a telescope, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find one. Do I have to make one myself? But I don’t know how to make tools like telescopes.
The crafting skill doesn’t work if I don’t know how to make it, so there’s no answer. I think I learned how to make a telescope from a comic book I read a long time ago, but in the end, you need lenses. And to make lenses, you need… glass, right?
Lenses, are there any lenses?
I searched the warehouse for a long time looking for lenses, but unfortunately, there were none. In the end, it meant I had to check with the naked eye.
When I was checking on the snakes or bears, I almost died after encountering them by chance, and now I have to take risks again. Can’t life be a bit easier?
“It would be better to make items needed for stakeout instead.”
Since I can’t even dream of a telescope, it would be better to make camouflage clothing to be less noticeable to the newly emerged invader.
Makeup is a bonus.
“Life…”
I hated applying camouflage cream in the military so much, and now I have to smear it all over my body here too.
“…Tomorrow is going to be a really shitty day.”
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“Please be careful.”
“…Take care of yourself.”
I quietly closed the door of the shelter. This door wouldn’t open again for a while.
To be precise, I hope it stays that way. If someone other than me opens the door, or if a monster invades… Let’s stop thinking about ominous things.
I moved my steps, shouldering a leather pouch as heavy as a military backpack.
The destination was, of course, the bears’ territory where that unidentified enemy would be. I don’t know how many days it will take, but I have to finish it.
Time is never on my side, as always.
The more time I waste, the more I hesitate to act, the closer the newly arrived destruction will certainly approach. So from now on, I have to somehow gather information, set traps, lure the enemy, and eliminate it.
“I hope the poison works.”
If it can be easily caught with poison, there’s no easier method than that. I just happened to have plenty of poisons I had gathered to apply to the traps. Still, I’d like to end it peacefully if possible…
But that’s probably not possible.
According to my 10 years of experience on this island, those eyes were filled with nothing but murderous intent. Is it possible to have a peaceful conversation with a creature with such eyes? At least I don’t think so. If it were possible, would I have gone through the tedious work of covering my territory’s boundary with traps?
We would all just shout that we’re friends and cooperate with each other.
Tsk. If my skill were related to being a druid instead of crafting, life on this deserted island would have been a bit easier. If I could just get along well with the bears, the difficulty of my deserted island drift would have become baby mode.
Even if you choose hard mode in a game, you want to choose easy mode in life, right? Ah, this isn’t the time for such idle thoughts. Let’s focus. I’ll have to enter that dangerous place again soon.
“…Just what the hell is it doing to mess up the forest like this?”
That was the thought that came to mind as soon as I entered the territory and saw the broken trees and the occasional traces of dug-up ground. Despite its behavior like the incarnation of violence, is it a herbivore? Why is it digging up the ground so much? Is it digging for roots to eat? Or…
“…I need to camouflage first.”
I took out my shovel and dug up some slightly damp soil. The rich scent of nature emanated from the soil that came close to my face. It’s a scent I’ve smelled to the point of being sick of it, but today I’m even more sick of it. I smeared the soil all over my upper body. My entire upper body was covered in sticky brown soil.
It’s been several years since I last did this. When I first landed on this deserted island, I did all sorts of things to survive. Covering my entire body with soil was nothing, and when necessary, I even covered myself in bear dung… I thought I would never do this again.
“Fucking life…”
Muttering curses, I looked around at my body that had become covered in soil and crouched down to examine the dug-up spot. The dug-up hole wasn’t very large. It looked like it had been dug up haphazardly with human hands. When I dug slightly into the excavated area with my shovel, a white lump appeared among the soil.
Something about the size of a fingernail.
I very carefully scooped out the object with the blade of the shovel.
“…Is it a mushroom?”
A soft and appetizing texture. It seemed to be a mushroom.
Eating mushrooms? On this island? This place should be full of poisonous mushrooms. Does it have resistance to poison? Or could it be…
“!@#$%^&*()!”
“My ears…”
I reflexively covered my ears, but I couldn’t block the shock transmitted to my brain through my eardrums. The world was shaking. It felt like there was a haze in front of my eyes. I hid my body behind a tree and took out some medicinal herbs from my pouch, chewing them whole.
Bitter.
Tasteless.
But I had to eat it.
I swallowed the medicinal herbs whole, enduring the taste, and came to my senses as my vision gradually returned to normal. It was obvious who the owner of this roar was.
“…Phew. But I still have to do what I need to do.”
I stood up. The fact that it let out a roar meant that something was happening.
My head hurts. But when was it not? Life on a deserted island is a series of headaches. This time, it’s just another headache. I can’t keep running away forever on this tiny island anyway.
So let’s see who the hell is shouting from the morning.
Of course, from very far away.
As a brave coward, I moved my steps towards the unknown invader whose face I didn’t even know.
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Thanks for the chapter 😁