6. Here We Go Again (3)
6. Here We Go Again (3)
Two days had passed since the trap went off.
In that time, I'd helped Karina recover while also stockpiling food and crafting various items in case something happened.
"What is this?"
"Paralytic poison."
"And this?"
"Scent pouch. Made from stuff bears hate."
Bears had an incredibly keen sense of smell, far sharper than a dog's, so a pouch that gave off a scent they hated could be pretty useful. The problem was that the foul odor made humans suffer too...
But who gave a shit about that?
Without something like this, you could become a meal in an instant.
"Keep it on you."
"Huh?"
I silently handed her the pouch. Even the Saintess couldn't help but furrow her brow at the smell of the thing sitting on her palm. Maybe her fidgeting was pure instinctive rejection. She'd get used to it eventually, but until then, it really was a godawful stench.
That was only natural. The pouch contained snake droppings mixed with crushed herbs whose smells various monsters hated. Shit naturally reeked, but that powerful odor gave it several uses on a deserted island. It could overwhelm a bear's sense of smell and drive it away, or be dried and used as fuel.
Human shit, on the other hand, I'd never found a single use for...
"Keep it close."
That nose-searing stench would act as a shield against approaching beasts. At the very least, weaker creatures wouldn't dare come near. On this island, the scent of snakes inspired both caution and fear.
"Thank you."
Karina relaxed her expression and smiled at me. Her face always put me at ease. It would have been even better if we weren't on a deserted island. Or was it because we were on one that I got to see a smile like that?
Once we got off this island...
"Dumbass..."
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing."
I'd accidentally cursed out loud, but thankfully, she didn't seem to have caught it.
That was lucky for me. There was nothing more annoying than having to explain why I'd suddenly blurted out a curse. Before the atmosphere grew any more awkward, I slung the bearskin sack of supplies I'd made over my shoulder and rose from in front of the brazier.
"Going on recon. Rest up."
"Yes! I'll watch over the house, so don't you worry!"
Her eager, adorable voice tickled my ears. It looked like she planned to tidy up the house while I was out again that day.
This was great.
Was this why people got married? Of course, we weren't actually married, just somewhat awkward housemates... Leaving Karina's warm send-off behind, I headed deeper into the woods. That was the day I'd decided to enter the bears' territory in earnest and scout it.
The objective: confirm what the hell was going on with the Alpha Bear.
Whether there was a new alpha, or the thing had eaten something wrong and gone completely nuts—I had to find out before I could decide on our next move.
What I'd have to do would depend on the alpha's disposition.
For example, if the group had turned aggressive because of a leadership change, a fight would be unavoidable, and I'd have to start gearing up for real war. There were only two of us, but that didn't mean I planned on just letting them eat us.
"Not sure if I can make it back today..."
The island wasn't that large, but I had no car and couldn't move around carelessly, so I would have to conduct the reconnaissance at a painfully slow pace. Chewing on jerky, I took in the quiet forest.
"It's quiet."
Well, it was still my territory, so that was a given. Aside from the rabbits that never stopped multiplying no matter how many I killed, the birds, and a bunch of other miscellaneous animals, my territory was practically empty of other life. So, naturally, there wasn't much to make noise. At most, it was just the peaceful chirping of birds.
This peaceful forest had been a hellscape at first, though.
That was because, before I carved out my territory, this area had been split between bears and snakes. Even now, it was a miracle I'd survived. Back then, I'd been busting my ass for half a day just to start a fire, never mind knowing how to use a Skill.
I'd gotten so damned hungry once that I ate a mushroom that looked sort of like a white button mushroom, and then I'd been racked with hallucinations. Now that I looked back, it was a wonder I hadn't died. When I came to, I'd been sprawled near a dungeon.
Even scarier was the memory of one week after I'd transmigrated, when I woke up in a tree to find a bear clinging to the trunk and staring at me as if I were some strange new creature.
That was the first time in my whole life I'd pissed myself.
Fortunately, the bear left—either because human piss smelled too strong or because I didn't look appetizing. If it had tried to eat me then, I'd be a snack by now.
"Gonna have to bag a few rabbits soon, too."
I needed to catch a few of those pests—no, rabbits—and smoke the meat so I'd have food stockpiled for emergencies. Once the reconnaissance was over, I'd have to go hunting. Whatever else happened, meat was crucial to life on a deserted island. Everything required physical labor, and without meat, I had no strength.
After walking and thinking for an hour, I finally reached the boundary. The traps there hadn't changed since I'd repaired them two days earlier. It seemed there hadn't been any commotion since then.
I carefully crossed the boundary and entered the bears' territory. A jumble of bear tracks scattered across the ground caught my eye. They were probably the tracks of the ones that had died in the traps. Examining the direction they followed, I could tell the bears had run straight from deeper within their territory.
Obvious as it was, anomalies always revealed themselves in the smallest details. So, even the obvious things had to be scrutinized.
In the wild, overlooking something simply because it was familiar could come back to bite you. Even the smallest change could all too easily become a fatal mistake.
"...Nothing unusual on the outskirts."
Muttering observations no one would answer, I quietly advanced farther into the forest. My target was a small hill inside the bears' territory. If I remembered correctly, a tree at its summit overlooked the area where they lived together.
I hurried along and reached the foot of the hill. The tree-ringed hill was silent.
But the hill itself was anything but peaceful.
"Did a bulldozer go through here or what?"
Or had all the bears gone insane and gone full X-Fight?
Why were so many trees down? I clicked my tongue at the trunks strewn across the hill. Blood stained the wood, and several mangled bear corpses lay crushed beneath the trees.
Maybe they were the companions of the ones who'd fled into my territory. Some died here, and the rest fled and died in the traps laid in my territory... Seemed like a pretty damn plausible theory.
I shifted my gaze and examined the bases of the trees. I meant to check the break marks. Looking closely at the broken parts, I saw jagged, irregularly torn cross-sections. Just as I'd thought, they looked like they'd been snapped by a massive impact.
But here and there, I saw cross-sections that had been cut way too cleanly. As if they'd been lopped off in one stroke by something like a sword. Why were there marks like this?
These weren't thin trees—their trunks were so thick my hands wouldn't meet even if I wrapped both arms around them. And they were cut this cleanly?
Was that even possible?
The bears sure as hell couldn't have done this.
Even the Alpha Bear, which was the size of a rhinoceros, probably could not have done this. What the hell had happened? The trees looked as though something had sliced through them with a sword...
A sword?
Wait. Was it what I thought it was?
The thought struck me out of nowhere, and I couldn't decide whether to welcome it or dread it. If I was right, it could easily turn into bad news.
There was no guarantee that anyone strong enough to hunt the Alpha Bear would be friendly toward me, even if they were a character—no, a person—I knew. I knew them, but only one-sidedly; they didn't know me.
If anything, the odds were plenty high that they'd see me as a suspicious figure and turn hostile. So, I had to move carefully, staying on guard against this new possibility.
Maybe a sword-wielding monster had emerged from the dungeon, but I'd never seen a dungeon monster fight with a weapon.
So, these marks were likely left by a person.
Ratcheting my vigilance to its absolute limit, I crept stealthily over the fallen trees and climbed the hill. It wasn't a big hill, so I reached the peak in about ten minutes.
"Shit."
Had a tsunami swept through while I wasn't looking? My jaw dropped at the sight beyond the hill.
The forest, once dense with trees, had been turned into a plain of nothing but stumps, as if a crew of lumberjacks had rampaged through it. I could just about glimpse the beach that had been invisible before.
What the hell could have happened? The familiar corpses dotting that horrific scene were all bears.
As I slowly scanned the gruesome scene, a chill ran through my entire body.
Danger.
Run.
I couldn't stay here any longer.
My instincts blared an alarm. It was deafening enough to make my head go numb. I started to turn and run, reconnaissance be damned.
"...Fuck."
Blood welled from the lip I'd bitten and ran down my chin. Even as the wet, sticky sensation spread across it, I couldn't think to wipe it away.
Immense bloodlust.
A gaze so saturated with killing intent my whole body froze.
Whoever was staring at me, one thing was for sure.
"This goddamn island, here we go again."
The being radiating that terrible killing intent had begun to approach.