I Caught Fish
I was hungry.
If this had been the Republic of Korea, I would have headed to a restaurant, ordered something, or just had food delivered. But where I was walking now was raw, untamed wilderness, with not a single concrete building in sight.
Besides, if a beast as large as an elephant wandered into a restaurant, the auntie working there would probably scream and throw salt at it, not cook for it.
Or maybe she’d call the police. Or the military.
There wasn’t even a village in sight—at least, not one that looked like people lived there.
All that welcomed me were thick blades of grass and trees.
I plucked a leaf hanging from a branch and put it in my mouth.
Hm. Still bitter.
I didn’t seem to be a herbivore after all.
After leaving the cave and looking around, that was what I thought.
If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve at least watched one more survival documentary.
Was this how a civilized person felt when they were suddenly dumped onto a deserted island?
I had no idea where I was supposed to start.
Should I begin by hunting down some beast?
Or maybe check whether there were any wild fruits around?
As I kept mulling over the possibilities and trudged forward with heavy steps—thud, thud—
"A river!"
I shouted with delight.
My roar sent the birds perched in the trees fluttering skyward in alarm.
I just laughed.
As I pushed past the final tree that had been blocking my view, I found a river flowing straight below a low hill.
Water was the source of life.
Every living thing needed it.
Countless creatures gathered near rivers, and as long as the water wasn’t polluted, fish would be swimming there, thrashing about in abundance.
There had been water in the cave too, but I hadn’t dared drink it.
It had been standing there for so long that it felt unsettling.
I stomped down the hill, then plunged my head into the river.
Slurp—
The water was so cool it felt like ice water as it slid down my throat.
Once I’d quenched the itchy, parched feeling in my mouth, I let out an involuntary burp.
"Damn, that’s refreshing."
Wiping my mouth, I thought about it.
Fish lived in this river, which was lined with willow trees and blooming rapeseed flowers in full flourish.
If I ate them, wouldn’t that at least fill my starving stomach a little?
When I was a kid, I’d gone hand-fishing in the countryside before.
Even if I’d become some mysterious monster as huge as an elephant—bigger than an apartment building on a full-moon night—my hands were still perfectly fine, so maybe I could still do it in this body too.
I walked into the river.
The water came up to my thighs, deep enough for a human to drown in, but to me it was barely more than a brook.
Fish were swimming beneath the clear water.
I cupped both hands together like a net and lowered them into the stream.
Then I scooped the fish up with a light motion.
About six of them came up at once.
I watched them thrashing wildly on my palms.
"These little guys’ve got some fight in them."
I tossed the fish I’d caught onto the ground and repeated the process.
After about an hour of that, I’d caught around fifty fish and finally climbed out of the river.
I’d never caught this many fish before.
And not even in the ocean—this was a river.
It wasn’t that I was especially skilled. The river was simply abundant.
Just by dipping my hands in and pulling them out again, I’d been able to catch that many fish.
I carefully picked up three limp fish and washed off the dirt.
Just as I was about to put them in my mouth—
Freshwater fish have a higher risk of parasite infection than saltwater fish, so it’s recommended to cook them thoroughly by steaming, grilling, boiling, or frying.
"……."
I set them back down.
Beasts like bears, tigers, and wolves probably just ripped things apart and got cancer later, but I was a monster with the awareness of a modern human.
Could a giant monster even get parasites?
If I got sick, should I go to a hospital? Or a veterinary clinic?
No—did this world even have hospitals in the first place?
Suddenly, those delicious-looking fish seemed like rotten food crawling with worms.
"At the very least, let’s cook them first…"
I clenched my fist.
Then I looked at the huge boulder standing forlornly near the riverbank.
If a human wanted to move it, they’d need a backhoe.
However—
Rumble—!!
I lifted the boulder and rolled it along the riverbank until it was clean.
After the dirt and stone dust had vanished, leaving it smooth and polished, I set the rock back down and placed the fish on top of it.
An emergency dining table was complete.
All that was left was to gather firewood for a fire and a skewer to roast the fish on.
I turned back toward the forest and started walking again.
"This is just absurd…"
"Lieutenant, I’ve never seen footprints this large in my life."
"There’s no way a monster larger than a dragon exists…"
"How are we supposed to report this to the Mage Tower?"
The soldiers guarding the Empire’s front lines were the elite Rangers assigned to search the Osiria Mountain Range and the Sky Tower.
In the wake of the recent mana explosion, an anomaly had occurred in the Gehenna Great Forest. They were investigating the cause in place of the mages who were busy restoring the barrier and surveillance systems.
The Rangers alternated their gaze between the footprints and their watches.
The reason they kept checking the time was simple: they had reached the central region of the Great Forest, where mana concentrations were extremely high.
Unlike the demi-humans, who were accustomed to mana, humans could not endure for long in such a dense region.
No matter how rigorous their adaptation training had been, Rangers still had a limit of around five hours unless they were a Chosen capable of wielding miracles.
They had already spent three hours and thirty minutes on the search. Once they factored in the return trip, they had very little time left.
"For the next five minutes, we track the trail of the unidentified monster. That is all."
Lieutenant Isabella, commander of the Rangers dispatched to the Gehenna Great Forest, stood at the front.
The brave Rangers nodded and followed their commander.
Talented from a young age, she had served as a Ranger prodigy since childhood.
Her skills ranged from exceptional scouting and reconnaissance to marksmanship, and even in close-quarters combat she was on par with knights.
Isabella was the only nineteen-year-old lieutenant in the Empire.
Despite her youth, her charisma was so formidable that none of the squad members could easily contradict her.
People generally described her as a promising talent and an excellent soldier.
The Rangers led by Isabella followed the deep, crater-like footprints gouged into the ground.
Terrifying size. Judging by the depth, whatever made these tracks was carrying enormous weight. Even the largest of dragons, a Red Dragon, wouldn’t be this massive.
Isabella knew quite a bit about monsters.
The area where Rangers operated was a place where they encountered monsters far more often than humans.
Know your enemy, know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you wanted to hunt monsters, you first had to understand them.
"Hold."
Isabella signaled for her subordinates to stop.
The squad halted immediately.
Then they swallowed hard.
"The footprints end here."
"Did a huge monster just evaporate like water all of a sudden?"
The enormous tracks simply stopped at one point.
Beyond that, there was a chaotic jumble of footprints from countless monsters and beasts.
After thinking it over intently, Isabella arrived at one possibility.
"It was probably magic."
"Magic?"
"Yes. Whether it was magic used by the unidentified monster, or magic cast on the unidentified monster by someone else, the only means by which this could have happened was magic."
The only method available to humans who had not been chosen to bring about miracles.
It was magic, and nothing else.
"Someone who can erase traces this extensive would likely be well past the fifth tier."
Akaga, the Ranger well-versed in magic, added his opinion.
"Then what would the unidentified monster—or the alpha entity—have used magic for?"
"To shake off the Empire’s pursuit, probably. I don’t think anyone else was involved in this."
In fact, if someone else had used magic to conceal the monster, then that would have been the monster’s own intention anyway.
According to the Tower Lord of the capital’s Mage Tower, there was no known being capable of artificially causing a mana explosion—at least, none until now.
"That thing isn’t a simple monster. It’s different from the others. It has both intelligence and instinct to spare."
Isabella checked the timer.
It was time to go back.
A chill crept down her spine.
A colossal, powerful being that also possessed intelligence was no different from a catastrophe.
The beast had not yet truly bared its fangs to the world.
This monster is a disaster waiting to happen.
She thought of it as a giant volcano, one that might erupt at any moment.
If the monster ever turned hostile toward humanity, the Empire would be brought to ruin.
"For now, we head back. We can’t continue the pursuit by footprints alone. Once the Great Forest’s surveillance system is restored, we’ll pick up its trail again."
"Understood."
Silently praying that they would never have to fight this monster directly, the Rangers turned and started walking back.
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