Into the Wasteland
The next morning I opened my eyes and sat up at once, glancing at the clock.
Six o'clock. Not even breakfast time yet.
I washed up ahead of schedule and woke Pina.
"Pina, get up. Now."
"Mmh… yes~."
I hauled her upright and steered her into the bathroom.
Once we were out wandering for days, chances to wash properly would be few and far between. Pina knew that as well as I did, so she didn't drag her feet.
A short yelp soon came from inside the bathroom.
"Eek! It's cold—!"
The water was still freezing. Nothing to be done about that.
With our preparations finished, we collected our meal at six-forty. At that hour, the only other people drawing breakfast were the soldiers who'd just rotated onto outpost perimeter duty.
Hot soup and sandwiches. We took our time with that last proper meal, then headed back to finish packing.
I buckled on the leather armor made from Luga-lac hide and straightened my gear. It was scarred in plenty of places, but still serviceable — largely because I hadn't let a monster land a solid hit yet.
Pina, a wasteland-exploration blanket draped over her own armor, stood by the crate where the weapons were piled without much order.
"Which weapons will you take, Alice-nim?"
"Hmm…"
I chose the greatsword, the staff, and a sword-and-shield set. Then I went straight to the outpost craftsman and swapped the essences in their sockets.
Luga-lac essence into the greatsword. Kespiraatos essence into the staff. Galori essence into the sword and shield.
Lastly, I pressed an easy-to-use repeating crossbow into Pina's hands.
"Should I take this for now, too?"
"Yeah."
It wasn't one I'd made myself — just a common iron repeating crossbow you could buy with money. Having a ranged weapon opened a lot of options: knocking something down from a height, putting a few test shots into a suspicious spot before walking past. But limited ammunition made it a problem in actual combat.
I had no confidence I could keep up with arrow consumption on a long expedition like this, and I certainly couldn't craft arrows with the precision of a proper craftsman. So bows and crossbows had naturally fallen off my own loadout. I left them to Pina instead.
The moment she took the crossbow, her expression darkened.
"…Remembering something?"
"Ah — yes… a little."
Her father's death. No matter how much of a piece of garbage the man had been, the fact that she had killed her own family with her own hands didn't change. Pina still hadn't fully shaken it off. That kind of karma followed a person for life.
Forgetting it completely was impossible. A little tightness in the chest was something she'd have to live with.
Instead of empty comfort, I gave her shoulder a couple of firm pats.
Our last stop before departure was Biopia the scribe, to report that we were heading out. As always, she was jotting something down beside the passage that faced the wasteland.
What she was writing… I no longer wanted to know. That monster-obsessed woman.
I stood in front of her without ceremony.
"We're leaving."
"Ah, so you've decided. Where do you intend to go?"
"We'll start by looking around the wasteland."
I had decided to clear the wasteland first, carefully. If my memory was right, this land held a top-tier monster for every type of terrain — and not only top-tier ones. Powerful monsters clustered everywhere, drawn, most likely, by the overwhelming force Miteraos was leaking.
Hunters were the same. Whatever their reasons, they were gathering here one by one from every corner of the world. And if Miteraos moved while they were all concentrated in one place…
It could wipe out countless hunters of this world in a single stroke.
Would tragedy simply repeat itself?
I pulled the cloth up over my head. I was here to reverse that tragic ending.
We set out without lingering. Following the path as we'd seen it on the map, we walked northwest, leaving footprints across the wasteland.
The farther northwest we went, the thinner the human presence we'd felt at the outpost became. Cracked earth and stretches of sand took over the view. The sun blazed down on the plain; even autumn's cold wind turned lukewarm in the heat.
"Hah… hah…"
Pina's breathing came from behind me. Carrying the full weight of our supplies, she was bound to tire quickly. Whenever her breathing grew rough, we found shade without hesitation and rested.
I felt bad for her, but every time I tried to take something off her hands she shook her head and refused. It felt like she was testing her own limits.
I, on the other hand, barely tired at all. The load was light, and this body deserved most of the credit. It had once belonged to a hunter who stood at the peak of the world. Inheriting it had given me more advantages than I could count.
Fighting so many monsters, I couldn't claim every victory was pure skill on my part. A body that moved exactly as I willed it had done a great deal of the work.
But this hadn't been a gift without a price. It was our contract. What the original owner of this body had been unable to do, I was the one who had to finish.
"This place really is… barren."
Pina spoke quietly. She was right — the land felt like something whose life had already died. Now and then a crawling insect-monster or a wild animal crossed our path. Grass grew only in sparse patches; there was no sign of a pond anywhere.
A strange stirring moved through my chest as I walked this ground. And whenever we met a monster, I didn't refuse the fight.
A mid-tier monster: Mesascorpio.
The giant scorpion swept its compound eyes over us, decided we looked like easy prey by size alone, and charged.
Its pincers were massive, its tail thick. Venom ran through that tail, and the stinger itself was hard and sharp enough to punch through a monster's armored hide. The pincers were broad and heavy — tools built for gripping, packed with crushing strength.
But it was nothing compared to the ancient Alberoelva. Facing that creature had felt like standing before a true apex predator. Next to it, the Mesascorpio was almost cute. If the two ever met, Alberoelva would crush it without effort.
It meant to kill us with that curved venomous stinger. I had no intention of making it easy.
In situations like this, Pina fell back at once and vanished from sight. The terrain offered little cover, so she simply threw the blanket over herself and flattened against the ground. Crossbow ready, she waited to pass me a weapon if anything went wrong.
She never needed to fire a shot.
Enhanced Slash
I layered the monster's power over my body and swung the greatsword. The Bloodhorn Blade cleanly severed the Mesascorpio's tail.
Full Power Release
After that I smashed the pincers with the staff and finished it for good.
A final, wordless shriek — and the Mesascorpio collapsed. The light drained from its compound-crowded eyes.
I stood over the shattered corpse and considered.
"Pina."
"Ah — yes? What is it?"
"You okay with scorpion meat?"
"……Eh?"
In truth, she didn't have a veto. We were starting to get hungry, and it was better to forage what we could.
I took a skinning knife and peeled away the Mesascorpio's carapace. A small scorpion I might have roasted whole, but this was a world of oversized monsters. The only venom was in the tail; the firm meat under the shell was an excellent source of protein.
"S-so now we have to eat monsters like this, too…"
"It'll be the same as Mudridon."
"Th-that's different! …Or is it? Still, Mudridon is actually edible…"
"This is edible too."
"……"
Pina looked at me with open reluctance. Under that stare I almost felt like some wilderness survivalist. Not that I was planning fish-head curry or anything. I intended to cook a perfectly normal meal.
I cut thick strips of meat and skewered them carefully. Gathering dry grass and dying wood from the surroundings, I built a fire, set the meat over it, and turned it slowly as it cooked.
At first the smell was strange, but once I added salt and a few other seasonings a proper aroma began to rise. Only then did Pina swallow hard and stare at the meat with startled eyes.
"…That actually looks good. I was an idiot for doubting you, Alice-nim."
"Yeah. You were an idiot."
"Eh."
"Idiot."
Pina slumped into full dejection.
Honestly, I'd been half-guessing myself while I cooked. I'd followed the original owner's memories, but still — edible meat was edible meat, right?
I pulled the golden-brown meat off the fire and tore off a small piece. It had cooked better than expected. Almost like chicken.
I used a section of Mesascorpio carapace as a plate, laid the meat on it, and sliced it into easy bites with the one-handed sword. Then I speared a piece and put it in my mouth.
Pina, watching me, pointed at the blade.
"Alice-nim, isn't that a weapon?"
"So what?"
"Well… I suppose it depends how you use it."
Pina used her skinning knife like a fork. Whatever her earlier doubts, the taste must have been excellent — she worked the knife with real enthusiasm.
The meal was good. The real problem was a base camp. On an expedition like this, the camp had to move every day. Planting one out in the open middle of the wasteland would cause all kinds of trouble, and with only two of us, splitting night watch would be even harder. We needed a place where both of us could sleep in relative peace.
We walked farther in search of one.
When the sun dropped, the lukewarm wind turned abruptly cold. The whole world darkened by degrees, and a distant river of stars unfurled across the sky. Tonight, as always, the moon shone clear and bright.
Monster howls rose from somewhere — too many to count. This was a place with more monsters than people. We kept moving forward without stopping.
I was starting to wonder whether we'd have to risk sleeping under a tree when something like a collapsed ruin came into view. And from the middle of those ruins, a thin thread of smoke was rising.
…People?
I met Pina's eyes for a moment. Most likely someone who'd set out on an expedition ahead of us. We picked up our pace.
Half-buried in sand, the ruin revealed itself. Inside it, I found a face I was glad to see.
"Oh — Alice!"
"…Noah?"
Noah looked exhausted beyond any comparison to the day we'd first met. She threw her arms around me without warning; I flailed uselessly, not knowing what to do with my hands. Then she sniffled, and I settled for patting her back.