The Demon of Endless Hunger
I sat on a stone pedestal.
Pina sat beside me, awkward but demure.
The ceiling of these ruins was open to the sky, yet the walls still stood on every side, making the place feel surprisingly cozy. The cold air of the moonlit wasteland was steeped in the thick warmth rising from the campfire, and it felt almost gentle.
I looked up. Through the gaps in the crumbling ruins, the sky was breathtakingly beautiful.
Noah was off exploring with two other hunters — a man and a woman. Both of them were now sleeping soundly in a corner of the collapsed ruins. They looked so comfortable I could even hear them snoring.
Only then did I realize Noah was standing watch.
She sat on the stone pedestal across from me and spoke.
"Didn't think I'd run into you here."
"Same."
I'd figured Noah would be somewhere around here, but I hadn't expected to cross paths with her mid-exploration.
She looked thoroughly exhausted, as if the days had been running her ragged. She covered her face with both hands and gave a brief shiver, then looked over at Pina.
"So this is that supporter of yours…. Hello."
"Ah, hello. Please, feel free to speak casually."
The two of them were meeting for the first time. I felt a strange awkwardness settle between them. Watching them exchange names and fall into conversation made me think about a great many things — the time that had passed since I first opened my eyes in this world, the connections that brushed past me like wind, and the people I met by pure chance.
I've been living hard in this world, haven't I?
Noah talked with Pina for a while, then turned back to me.
"Alice. So you made it here after all."
"Yeah."
"I figured I'd see you again in Antico, but it took way too long. Still, I had this feeling. That if it was you, Alice, you'd end up coming here. No real reason. Just… I thought you would."
Noah smiled, soft and easy. I rather liked that goofy little grin of hers.
"Even so, I thought it'd be a while before you got here. How'd you manage it?"
"Ah, well…."
Where was I even supposed to start?
Meeting Fiore, getting her recommendation, the ancient Alberoelva appearing and attacking Antico — I was never much of a talker to begin with, or rather, that was this body's problem. I pushed through the story with a flustered face, gesturing with my hands and feet the whole way. Wherever I fell short, Pina filled in the gaps.
"An ancient Alberoelva?"
"Yeah."
"But it was no match for Alice-nim!"
"Of course. You're something else. An Alberoelva would have been high-tier at the very least."
"Ahem. Even high-tier monsters are nothing special to Alice-nim."
No… high-tier is plenty strong… it's pretty hard, actually….
I couldn't lift my head under Pina's praise. The way she looked at me, you'd think I was some kind of blender that pureed monsters for breakfast.
Noah had been smiling through the whole story, but her expression gradually settled into something more ambiguous.
"…Even so, this place is dangerous. I'm not exaggerating. I mean it."
There was nothing laughing or cheerful in Noah's eyes — only a faint edge of fear. It was an expression I'd never seen on her before, and I watched her quietly.
"I've been roaming around for a long time, and I've found all kinds of things. Mid-tier monsters, high-tier monsters, even Elder Species that look completely different from the usual ones… monsters from the ancient past and from the future, too. Quite the variety. Alice, you've seen them?"
"Yeah."
Among the monsters I'd encountered since arriving here was a Schiagua — a creature that had flown in from the ancient past. Its hunting methods and its refusal to travel with its own kind had gradually cost it its habitat, and it had gone extinct, or so the story went.
In truth, there was no grand reason for a monster's extinction. They were weak, so they were weeded out. And even if the species had somehow managed to endure, a creature that hideous, with habits that vile, would have been hunted to extinction the moment it survived into the modern age.
"Since I've been exploring for so long, I was able to check deeper into the wasteland, too. That place was… strange. There were more ruins than I expected. Collapsed buildings. Crumbled signposts. Looking down at the shattered ruins from a cliff, something about it just sat wrong in my chest."
"Yeah?"
"And at the end of it all, I saw something moving."
I felt a flicker of anticipation at Noah's words. Whatever it was might have been the root of everything that had been happening.
"It was a day when the sandstorms were especially bad. A huge roar called out to me."
Noah frowned as she described the scene.
"Beyond the sandstorm, something was sliding its long body back and forth through the sand."
She raised one hand and waved it up and down like a rolling wave.
"Like this… swimming through the sand as if it were water. And when it spotted prey —"
She flexed her other fist, then clenched her open palm tight.
"— it coiled its whole body around it and swallowed it whole. Sand and all."
"…Th-there's a monster like that?"
"Mm. I was tired, so maybe I was seeing things. But no — that can't be it. The moment it vanished, the sandstorm disappeared like a lie. Seeing it made me think of an old legend."
Noah looked at Pina as she spoke.
"In ancient times, there was a demon starved by endless hunger. In the end it got so hungry that it ate every living thing around it — and then it ate itself."
"That's horrible…. No matter how hungry you are, that's just…."
"But think about it. Look at a circle — you can't tell where it starts or where it ends. You go around once, and by the time you come to your senses, it's repeating forever. That legend was the same. After devouring countless monsters and rotting away itself, a new life was born from it."
"There's something almost romantic about that. It feels like a cycle."
"But the fact that it ate even itself and nothing was left in the end — that's hollow, too. Doesn't it feel empty? All that devouring, and nothing remains."
"Uh… yeah, that's true. That's really empty."
"Still, if you think of life being born again from that emptiness, it almost feels like a picture of the world itself. Birth and death — maybe that's just what they are."
"Th-that might be true, too…."
"…Hahaha!"
Noah finally burst out laughing.
Pina, why do you have no backbone whatsoever?
Pina bristled for no good reason and waved her hands.
"I-I don't know, okay?!"
"Yeah, it's an old story that only circulates among a handful of hunters. The monster's long dead anyway, so no one really cares."
Noah crossed her legs as she said it.
"But if that legend turned out to be true…. If a demon really appeared in this place — what then?"
She spoke softly. Pina swallowed hard.
"Then we'd all die-."
"You say that so casually…."
"Well, a hunter's supposed to be detached in the face of death. Not that I want to die. There's no hunter who enjoys dying. We're just used to it, that's all."
Noah let out a sigh that sounded thoroughly resigned.
But I saw it differently. I answered her.
"It's still just a monster."
"…Well, yeah. It's not like it's an actual demon."
"If it's a monster, it can be killed."
I spoke calmly.
The demon Noah had seen was an earth dragon. More precisely, an Atoryong — the Hungry Earth Dragon. An ancient monster, and the top-tier creature that defined this wasteland.
Its size was so vast it was almost embarrassing to compare it to a human. Its enormous, elongated body was sheathed in a carapace dried out without a trace of moisture. The sharp, thick spines jutting between the plates never released anything they seized. The round mouth on its head was lined with countless teeth that ground swallowed monsters to pulp in an instant. It had no eyes of its own, but it was so sensitive to the vibrations of living things that eyes were unnecessary. Anything that walked near it was swallowed whole.
The starved demon of the earth. Anyone who laid eyes on that thing would feel exactly what Noah had felt.
Noah nodded at my matter-of-fact words.
"You're right. In the end, it's just a monster…. Alice, I figured you'd say something like that."
"Alice-nim even killed that Alberoelva. A monster like that would definitely…."
"That's not something you can say so lightly."
Pina clamped her mouth shut. Noah's expression was desperate. That was how thoroughly top-tier beings drove people to despair. No matter how hard you struggled and managed to take down a high-tier monster, the moment something even worse and more vicious appeared, hope simply vanished. Before something overwhelming, you felt death, and your heart broke.
Noah hugged her knees and spoke quietly.
"We have to give up the expedition here. This place is a true demonic realm. There's no way that monster is the only thing in there. If we provoke it any further, everything will…."
"Noah."
I cut her off.
"It's fine. It'll be fine."
Not giving up against a monster like that — that was what a protagonist did. I had come here to kill things like that. No matter how untouchable they seemed, they were not gods. And if they weren't gods, they could be killed.
I reassured her.
"It can be killed."
"…You haven't changed at all, Alice."
Noah smiled faintly. There was nothing unkind in the words.
"I… wish you wouldn't go."
Her voice was tight.
"But Alice — you're going anyway, aren't you?"
"Probably."
"Part of me thinks I shouldn't have told you… but you were going to run into that monster eventually either way."
I looked at her face. Noah drifted into thought for a moment, then let the expression go and smiled brightly.
"I'm heading back to make my report. Everything I've seen. We're out of supplies, and I want to rest a little. So Alice — you come back to the outpost before it's too late, too. There's no need to fight a monster like that…."
She spoke as if resigning herself.
Noah was deeply worried about me. But even with that worry, I couldn't stop. Common sense said running was the right call. But hunter's blood ran through this body of mine, and it wanted to keep challenging strong enemies without end. In short, the sight of a powerful foe made my blood boil.
How different will it be from the game? Can I beat it? I wanted to know everything.
"…Alright."
I nodded at Noah's words.
The truth was, my gear was still too shoddy to even think about fighting it yet. If I never got hit, it wouldn't matter — but that was the hardest part of all. There was no guarantee I wouldn't take a single blow from something that size thrashing around.
Whatever I did, I had to do it safely. I only had one life. And if I died, it wouldn't just be me who died.
I had to use everything. Everything I had at my disposal.