6

Good morning from the goblin-stinking riverbank.

Having a good sense of smell was not always a blessing.

It couldn’t be helped that I didn’t get any proper sleep in the end, but the fact that I was not feeling all that sleepy was something to be glad about.

Considering I’d banked up on 200 years’ worth of sleep, it’s only natural that I could go without rest for two or three days without issue, but whether I should treat this as my normal condition was questionable—something to watch for in the future.

Anyway, today was another fine day, but since this place stank, I had decided to head upstream, only to immediately encounter a monster.

Even if the riverside was open and easy to run on, finding one within fifteen minutes made the encounter rate feel a little too high.

Standing before me was a red-brown crocodile clearly bigger than I was.

It was the last kind of opponent I’d want to meet in the water, but unfortunately, we were on land.

There’s a river right nearby, but it’s far too narrow for a creature this massive to live in, so I doubted this was its home.

Which meant that if I kept going upstream, I’d likely come to a river big enough for something of this size to inhabit.

The crocodile opened its mouth, showing off its sharp teeth—maybe as a threat—and didn’t take its eyes off me.

(Should I go around it… or try fighting it once…?)

Including its tail, it’s a massive six meters long… facing something like this without a weapon was sheer madness.

But honestly, for some reason, I couldn’t imagine losing, which made it a tough call.

After some thought, I decided to fight.

That said, I made it clear to myself that if I couldn’t handle it after the first blow, I’d immediately retreat.

I knew this body’s strength.

But I still didn’t know “how far it would take me.”

So I should use this thing as a benchmark.

(Ari… Ari—what was it again? I’ve seen it somewhere, but the name’s not coming to me.)

“Well, whatever!” I said, slamming my fists together, the hardened, shell-like skin making a sound like rock striking rock.

“GOOAAAAAHHH!”

Sensing the change in my aura, the giant crocodile roared.

Its first move was a charge.

It swayed its body from side to side as it came at me full speed, though it wasn’t all that fast.

It was still fast enough thanks to its bulk, but well below what I had expected.

It lunged at me, mouth wide open as if to bite me in half, and I met it with a right hook.

I struck it counter-style, aiming to smash through its lower jaw.

I thought it was a perfect hit.

But I hadn’t expected the crocodile’s lower jaw to disappear altogether.

Apparently, my blow had been so strong that rather than just breaking through, I’d completely blasted away its flesh and bone.

Chunks of meat scattered into the river, and fish began swarming to feed.

As for the crocodile whose jaw I’d blown off, it tucked its tail and fled at full speed.

Not wanting to leave it bleeding out to attract who-knows-what, I closed the distance at once to finish it.

Just then, its tail whipped like a lash, slamming into my side… but it only made me stagger a little, causing no real pain.

It seemed our combat ability gap was far too great.

Faced with a completely terrified crocodile, I had a choice to make.

Spare it, or kill it—the answer had been decided from the start.

Letting it go when it was clearly beyond saving would only mean it would die soon anyway.

Better to finish it here as an act of mercy.

Chasing it down, I leapt to close the distance, and upon landing, delivered a single blow to its head. After twitching for a moment, it went still.

(Can something really be hunted this easily…?)

I was once again impressed by my own physical ability, but one problem remained.

The problem was what to do with the corpse—in other words, “how to eat this crocodile meat.”

The obvious choice was to make a fire and cook it.

That’s probably the only real option.

I didn’t have the guts to eat it raw.

It’s not like drinking water—completely different matter.

So I dragged the crocodile back to my base by its tail, pulled some matches from my backpack, and set fire to a shabby, abandoned house.

The crocodile was so huge that cooking it was an absolute nightmare.

My hands were stained bright red as I tore it apart with brute force, skewered some meat on a stick, and grilled it directly over the flame before taking my first bite.

Given that it was only grilled plain, I expected it to be bland, but to be blunt—it was awful.

Eating meat without draining the blood would do that, I realized—but by that point, the crocodile was already reduced to scattered chunks.

Thinking “I’ve screwed up,” I waded into the river to wash the blood off myself.

(It tastes bad, but it’s meat I went to the trouble of getting… what should I do?)

Watching the shabby house burn on the riverbank, I rested my clean hands on my chin in thought.

I’d completely botched the meat preparation, but the hunt itself proved that, with this body’s specs, it was easy.

(Maybe I’ll just dump it somewhere.)

In the end, I decided to discard the meat.

I wasn’t even sure if I needed to eat three meals a day.

Maybe “eat when hungry” would be fine—but even with my own body, in this situation, I couldn’t be sure, and that seemed dangerous.

(I’ll test that when I have surplus food. That should be enough for now.)

I’d secured a water source, and I had a rough plan for food.

If I thought ahead, I’d want to replenish my fire-starting tools, but that wasn’t something I could do right now.

For now, my only hope was “maybe I’ll find something in the ruins of a town if I’m lucky.”

And so, on the second day of my survival life, it was time for exploration.

Until I found a better spot, this place would be my temporary base, so I left my luggage behind and set out.

Heading straight north as planned, I looked around for any landmarks as I walked.

Nature’s reclamation works faster than I’d imagined, and the traces of the old Empire were completely gone—even the buildings had vanished.

I barely managed to spot what might once have been asphalt paving, but it was so thoroughly shattered that it was hard to distinguish from the surrounding stones.

It may have been destroyed because of the war, but the lack of evidence was strangely suspicious.

There must have been countless structures taller than the trees—trees now twice my height—yet not one remained, which was odd.

“I wonder what kind of war it was,” I thought, my curiosity about the Empire’s final days growing.

I already considered the Empire as gone, but if it were still around, I’d have to figure out what to do with myself.

Walking and thinking, I decided “it’s simpler if it’s gone”—though that conclusion also felt a bit lonely.

I still wondered if any of my family’s descendants were out there.

Anyway, continuing north along the river was fine, but there was one problem.

There were two main rivers flowing from the Kingdom of Canaan south into the Fullretos Empire.

One was the “Hena River” to the west—the other was the “Restnant River” along the eastern border.

The problem was that the eastern Restnant River ran right along the border with the Seizeria Kingdom.

And Seizeria was a “magic nation.”

A magic nation that hated science.

Honestly, I didn’t think I could get along with them.

Back when I was still human, it was a country utterly dependent on magic, with much of its undeveloped land left to waste away—more than half its territory was neglected.

As a result, it was overrun with monsters, and thanks to its anti-modern-weapons culture, the mercenary trade thrived. “Exterminators,” as they were called, were monster hunters found all over the place.

(It’s not just that we wouldn’t get along—right now, I’m literally a monster.)

Wandering around in this form, it would be strange if nothing happened.

I had no intention of letting myself be hunted, but the other side was human.

I wasn’t going to avoid killing just because I used to be human, but killing recklessly could lead to a hunting party being formed—a straight path to a bad ending.

Precisely because I used to be human, I understood how dangerous they could be.

Having been a soldier—even a rookie one—I knew some of their methods.

Even if I had no plans to provoke an organization-versus-individual situation, if they saw me as a threat, they’d come for me.

If I had to interact with humans, I’d rather avoid countries like Seizeria, which would immediately see a monster as “something to hunt.”

In that sense, the west—an elf nation—was better.

They were big on nature worship, and believed “monsters are part of nature,” which sometimes led to idiots getting themselves dragged into goblin nests.

There was a small chance they might accept me.

As I recalled, the idiot who got dragged into a goblin nest never changed his mind, insisting, “It’s just their culture!”—a diehard to the end.

That’s why “Elf × Goblin” hentai never went out of print—I’ve relied on it a few times myself.

The question “why are there so many interspecies elf works?” could be answered by idiots like that doing idiot things, I thought, remembering the elf lawmaker who protested to the Empire holding a porn mag in hand, and I laughed—“Gah, gah.”

And then I remembered.

No—I remembered something I really didn’t want to.

(My collection… my family must have seen it by now.)

I wanted to cover my face and roll around, but doing that in this body would cause some light environmental destruction.

“Gahhh, gahhh,” I groaned from embarrassment.

While I was still hiding my face in shame, a sudden calmness returned.

(Ah—this feeling.)

It was the same strange cool-down I’d felt when the underground facility suppressed my fear.

It seemed it was now suppressing my sense of shame, letting me regain composure surprisingly easily.

Come to think of it, I was completely naked right now.

Shame would definitely hinder combat, so it wasn’t strange to suppress it.

“Yeah, right, idiot,” I retorted inwardly.

It was clearly some kind of built-in brake for various situations.

For example, “anger”—if the Empire had survived and I’d woken up in this form, what would I have done?

It’s obvious.

If a monster with these specs rampaged according to its emotions, the damage would be immense.

This function must exist to prevent that.

I named it the “Emotion Suppression Function” and jotted it down in the mental list of my abilities.

By the way, it’s not that I disliked my current form—nor did I feel disgust.

I’d always loved horror games, and my appearance wasn’t grotesque to me. My performance, on the other hand, was jaw-dropping.

Maybe I was not dissatisfied with this form because I’ve played too many games.

Or maybe it’s because I hadn’t met any humans yet.

Or perhaps I’ve been “adjusted” to feel this way.

“Everyone secretly wishes for a life like in the movies.”

This was said by a certain genius film director… and I wouldn’t deny it; in fact, I agreed. But if it happened to me, I’d like to choose the genre.

Not horror or monster panic films—I’d have preferred a hero movie.

I could daydream endlessly about what I could do with this body, but all of it depended on being able to build friendly relationships with humans.

Objectively speaking, I’d like to meet someone who would want to befriend a monster like me.

Anyway, mastering this body would never be a disadvantage, so for now, I just needed to train to make full use of these specs.

Even just running would be training, so for now I’d keep moving and gathering information.

So I continued upstream, mixing in jumps and bounds, and eventually reached the main river—only to encounter another monster.

A huge red-brown crocodile… and with the river widening, this one was clearly bigger than the last.

With an exasperated sigh of “You again?” I faced it, but it came straight for me as if thinking I was a worthwhile meal.

It wasn’t even worth calling a fight—I kicked the lunging crocodile aside and ignored it, continuing upstream.

By now, the sun was past its peak—lunchtime if I were still human—but I still felt no hunger.

As I went on, I caught sight of something artificial.

I stopped and headed toward it, but what I saw through the trees made me doubt my eyes for a moment.

(…Is that a tank? Could this have been a military base?)

If the structure ahead was the remains of a base, that could be a problem.

That base was on the west side of the river.

Meaning, from the Empire’s perspective, it was meant as a defense for the east.

Geographically, the likely target was the Seizeria Kingdom—which would also confirm this river as the “Restnant River.”

And the east bank of the Restnant River, still within the Empire, was a place where frequent skirmishes with Seizeria occurred.

I had the distinct feeling I’d just triggered a flag for encountering humans—or rather, hunters.