GalaxyTL
* * *
Nearly 3 months had passed since the Night Trite’s ambush. The season was deep winter.
Around now, the snows would be flickering on Mount Zahan.
However, conveniently for Emi, this demon realm Kaise Forest was located somewhat south of Mount Zahan, influenced by the warm Sarotrate Current flowing into Aseto Bay, making it a relatively temperate area.
To the point where Emi could sleep outdoors exposed to the elements and still survive.
During this period, Emi hadn’t moved around much.
She had discovered a large hollowed Kaise tree near the night ambush site and made that her base camp.
The hollow was originally the nest of a monster called the Neck Slasher Owl, but after their struggle for survival, Emi tore it apart and devoured it.
As Emi gorged on the Neck Slasher Owl’s corpse, she recalled her homeland forest of Naso from this world.
Come to think of it, back in that forest too, she had made a tree hollow her stronghold.
Back then as well, the prior resident of that hollow had been an owl-type monster.
It was delicious……
However, that nostalgia also brought back unpleasant memories of the Trash Village, so Emi quickly brushed those recollections aside.
And to vent the irritation caused by the Trash Village memories, she proceeded to massacre all the monsters that appeared nearby.
Unleashing violence as she pleased.
Beating them to death, kicking them to death, tearing them apart……
By the time Emi regained her senses, monster corpses were piled up in heaps around her.
According to the voice in her mind, they were called Sword Leles.
Turtle-like monsters with hard shells on their backs, but their defenses were useless against Emi’s might.
Rather than fighting, they seemed to be the type that camouflaged among rocks to avoid stronger foes.
But their camouflage proved ineffective against Emi’s keen observational abilities as a human.
Emi felt ashamed of herself.
Perhaps due to distancing herself from human society lately, she seemed to be losing her restraint.
Wasn’t this just like that time with the Prairie Wolves?
Had she degraded into an “existence sneering arrogantly, deluded into thinking itself powerful”?
The intense self-loathing that arose.
To dispel it, all Emi could do was devour every last one of the Sword Leles she had slain.
By that act, her mere venting was sublimated into the noble act of hunting to survive.
And as a result, she discovered that these Sword Leles were exceptionally delicious.
Devouring their raw flesh yielded a surprisingly fruity taste!
While she didn’t understand the meaning, delicious was a wonderful thing.
She had a hollow to use as a base camp.
And very tasty monsters inhabited the surrounding area.
More than enough reasons for Emi to settle down here.
An extremely unfortunate turn of events for the Sword Leles living nearby, however.
* * *
“……..”
Now, it was nighttime.
A cold night breeze blew, causing the leaves of the Kaise tree Emi inhabited to rustle against each other.
Amidst that, Emi’s eyes shot open.
Not due to the wind’s sound.
She had “sensed” a monster approaching her sleeping area.
Slowly rising, she peeked out from the hollow to visually confirm the monster.
Illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the leaves was a monster the voice in her mind identified as the Power Bear.
As its name implied, a ferocious bear boasting tremendous strength.
Even in this other world of Ardyst filled with bizarre-looking creatures by Earth standards, this bear’s appearance was unmistakably that of a bear.
Yet its might was extraordinary – the 【Magic Strikes】 Emi launched while 【Body Strengthening】 would lose out against a single swipe of the Power Bear’s arm.
Definitely not an opponent for close quarters combat.
Emi had personally experienced the Power Bear’s menace weeks earlier during her forest explorations, nearly being killed in their encounter.
Snorting as it likely sought Emi’s location, the Power Bear showed no caution born of its strength as the forest’s apex predator, a forgivable arrogance.
However—
The area the Power Bear had trespassed into was already Emi’s territory.
Not a place for it to run rampant relying solely on brute force.
The moment it set foot there, it was no different from a bear carcass laid on a chopping board.
Look.
BOTORI—
The bear’s right foreleg suddenly severed at no apparent spot, tumbling to the ground.
Caught off guard, the Power Bear lost its balance and rolled over.
An opening Emi wouldn’t miss.
Immediately leaping out from the hollow, she struck it with a full-power 【Magic Strike】.
“GAAAAAAAAA–!!”
But the Power Bear didn’t expire from just that!
Suppressing the pain through sheer rage, it somehow stood back up on its remaining two hind legs, swinging its remaining forelimb wildly!
The resulting mana-infused shockwaves effortlessly snapped the surrounding trees, rapidly clearing an open area.
The Power Bear was indeed powerful.
Even after losing a limb, it still possessed enough fortitude to make Emi hesitate against engaging in close combat.
However, losing a limb meant it could no longer utilize its familiar quadrupedal movement.
A crippling lack of mobility.
Ordinarily, it would have instantly closed the distance to that small attacker and torn them apart, but it couldn’t manage that now.
And that effectively decided Emi’s victory in this battle.
Emi retreated to a range outside the Power Bear’s attack radius, then relentlessly bombarded it with 【Stone Throw】.
【Infinite Pebbles】.
While each pebble only dealt minor damage to the Power Bear, their accumulated impact would inevitably lead to one conclusion:
Death.
Compounded by the heavy blood loss from its severed foreleg, the Power Bear fell silent within 30 minutes, reduced to a motionless corpse.
* * *
Now, regarding this latest battle.
To anyone besides Emi and the entity residing within her mind, many baffling points would remain.
Why was the Power Bear’s leg severed at an empty spot?
More importantly, how did Emi even sense the Power Bear’s approach?
If revealed, the answer lay in “threads.”
The utilization of these “threads” was one aspect of the new mana manipulation technique Emi had devised since entering the demon realm.