The next day.
Life on this island, that had a lot of fumbling, has been turned into routine as we got used to all sorts of things.
Reina handles the food, but when we’re running out, I go out to hunt.
After breakfast, Reina tells me we’re a little lacking in meat, so I go out to the forest to look for prey.
“When we first got emperor boar meat, I thought it would last our whole lives…”
It’s incredible how quickly we ran out when divine beast people started visiting.
I hunt giant monsters periodically, get cereals from divine beast people, and vegetables from alfar, so food isn’t an issue.
But I guess with the growing kids, it never hurts to have food.
I think about that while looking around for tasty looking monsters, but I don’t think it’s my lucky day.
“Meat… I want to have alfar rock salt again…”
That really good salt I got from Katima in the alfar village. We had tempura then, but I’m sure it’ll be great with meat.
But there isn’t much of it, so I’m sure Katima won’t bring it out even if I go there…
And I still can’t find any prey.
“Hm… I guess I have to go a bit further.”
According to Tiltue, monsters know I’m dangerous. There are practically none around our house too.
It’s nice that Reina and the others aren’t in danger, but it’s also inconvenient because I have to go further to hunt.
“Come to think of it, there were still monsters near the lake.”
I keep walking through the southern forest, when I remember entering the high elves’ forest, and get a little cautious.
Snow reacted in a strange way, and since she’s a great spirit, I feel like there was some trouble going on.
“…I could help if that was the case…”
I offered, but they said they didn’t need it.
I don’t think it would be nice to just push through after they said that, but I’m still curious.
I stop where the barrier is, and hear a cry from above.
“Ah, a dragon… It’s rare to see one over here.”
Dragons live in the north of the island. A lot of them live near the ancient dragons and the alfar village.
“But… After what happened with Aratue, I really don’t feel like hunting a dragon.”
There are a lot of beast types to the south, but I go to different places depending on what I want to hunt. I came here today specifically to hunt beasts.
Also, some dragons are protected by ancient dragons. Despite the rule of survival of the fittest, I’d feel bad if I hunted one of them.
“I’ll leave the dragon hunting for when I’m with Tiltue.”
When I took down a wild one before, Tiltue said it was tasty too, so it doesn’t look like they have a problem with eating dragons.
I keep walking, and see a monster that looks like a deer with great horns and one that looks like a bear fighting.
It’s hard to gauge how strong monsters are on this island, because even rabbits can be strong, but it looks like in this case, the bear really is stronger.
It stands on two legs and grabs the deer’s horns, and swings it around.
The bears I know walk on four legs, so it feels a little strange to me to see one walking on two like that.
The deer smashes against rocks, and one of its prized horns breaks.
It still tries to fight, but the bear smiles sadistically and starts hitting it with the broken horn.
“O-oh…”
The way it hits the deer with such intensity and bloodlust is like a heel pro wrestler.
After a while, the deer roars and cries, and the bear tosses the horn.
It’s gruesome, but this is what it’s like in the wilderness, where you’re either the killer or the killed.
It drags the deer by its leg to take it back to its lair, but I block its path.
“Hey…”
“…”
It looks like it knows the difference in our power, as it freezes with fear and starts sweating.
I imagine it’s wondering if it should run. It looks at the deer, and brings it forward, as if offering it to me.
“Yes, thanks.”
It might understand me, because it thinks it can get away because I said thanks.
But I’ve never had either deer or bear.
“So…”
“…!?”
It sees I’m not letting it go, and rushes to grab the deer’s horn to swing it at me.
I block it, and the bear falls when I hit it back.
“I blew one far away with a punch before, but… This time I made sure to hold back.”
I drain the blood of the mostly unscathed bear, and the beaten deer.
They retain their condition in the Item Box, but if I don’t drain and cool them quickly, they start to stink later.
“Luna and the others are pretty fussy about that, so I can’t forget to do it…”
People in the divine beast people’s village told us how to cook monster meat well, so we’ve gotten pretty good at it.
At first it was only Reina and Elga who did it, but at this point, I could do it by myself.
For example, how I cut the bear’s throat and laid it diagonally to drain it.
It takes a bit of time, but I can then take it apart while the deer drains too.
“I can remove its skin and take it apart more cleanly than before too.”
Once I’m done, I start throwing meat into the Item Box.
Since it maintains the meat’s condition, we don’t need a freezer.
“Although we made one too, so we typically store stuff there.”
We made it with Snow’s power, so we tend to leave meat there.
It’s a simple freezer, where some food is chilled, and other frozen.
“I guess I can go back… Ah.”
I touch the barrier again by accident, but it looks like I can’t go in unless someone on the elf’s side does something.
“Are they really all right?”
I can’t help but be worried when I don’t know what might happen.
My dream is to get everyone on the island together for a big banquet, so I want to talk to the high elves and the southern great spirits too…
“…I need to get ready for it and try again.”
And bring moving soba with me.
Come to think of it, they’re like our neighbors, so I should’ve said hello sooner.
As to how to get in… I could ask Wil or the northern great spirits.
“I’ll talk to Reina about it first.”
I throw all the meat into the Storage Magic, and go back home.
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Thanks for the treat.