GalaxyTL
* * *
Three months had passed since then. As the temperatures gradually warmed and the days grew longer, one could sense the arrival of spring.
Emi continued to wander aimlessly through the Kaise Forest this spring, relocating her base camp repeatedly.
Guuuu.
Her stomach growled.
Even though she had just eaten.
This hunger was a side effect of mana conversion.
It would subside after a while.
Emi recalled the voice in her mind explaining this previously.
Yet it showed no signs of abating.
She was always hungry.
The reason was simple.
Emi was living in this demon realm.
The monsters inhabiting this demon realm seemed like formidable beings from a human perspective.
Every day, Emi battled such foes, frequently brushing against death, yet stubbornly surviving to consume their blood and flesh.
Before the hunger from mana conversion could subside, mana conversion would occur again.
To alleviate that hunger, she had to battle new monsters once more.
Fight and defeat them, devouring their blood and flesh.
Causing mana conversion again.
Hunger would then return.
Over these past six months in the demon realm, Emi’s body had grown considerably stronger.
However, from the perspective of resolving her hunger issue, there was no prospect for improvement.
If anything, it only seemed to worsen.
A vicious cycle, one could say.
“!”
Here, Emi came to a halt.
In her line of sight was a frog.
Its body was bright red with green spots – quite the eye-catching color combination.
Its size was about the same as Emi’s head, considerably large.
Based on its colors, Emi had simply dubbed this frog the “Red-Green Frog.”
She didn’t know its official name.
It might not even have an official designation.
According to the voice in her mind, <I’ve never seen this frog in any isekai broadcasts, so I’m not sure what kind of creature it is>.
Their first encounter was quite recent.
The frog had likely been hibernating throughout winter.
Since temperatures warmed, Emi frequently crossed paths with it.
This frog’s venomous appearance belied its edibility – it tasted decent enough.
How did Emi know it was edible?
During their first encounter, she had been in an extreme state of hunger, so she disregarded any potential toxicity and simply devoured it.
Chomping into it raw.
As a result, nothing happened to her.
That’s how she learned it was edible.
Simple as that.
In actuality though, this frog was highly venomous.
Due to repeated mana conversions and the resulting improved toxin resistance from her poor dietary habits, most venoms no longer affected Emi.
Hence, she could readily devour even this highly toxic frog raw.
That was the truth, but neither Emi nor the entity in her mind realized it.
But enough digression.
The Red-Green Frog that made eye contact with Emi instantly grasped the gap in their power levels.
It also seemed to sense that this black-furred creature didn’t care about its venom at all.
That creature might lack the intelligence to even consider toxins.
Mindless yet powerful beings like that could be considered the natural enemies of the Red-Green Frogs who relied on their venomous nature for self-defense.
Being mindless, they would devour the frogs without regard for the venom.
As a result, both eater and eaten would die – a tragic outcome benefitting neither.
In any case, it had to flee.
The Red-Green Frog kicked off the ground with its two sturdy hind legs, attempting to escape from the black-furred creature.
Leaping, leaping, leaping.
Against a sluggish creature, this would have created considerable distance.
But this black-furred being was different.
It moved even faster than the frog.
The only reason the frog still survived was because the dense foliage of the Kaise trees impeded the black-furred creature’s movement.
Sheer luck had allowed it to persist.
Yet the black-furred creature refused to give up.
Stubbornly pursuing the Red-Green Frog.
Driven to frenzy by terror, the frog leapt about mindlessly.
Jumping, jumping, jumping.
Then suddenly, the dense Kaise tree cover vanished from its vision.
Trying to leap off the ground once more, it found itself unable to do so.
There was no ground beneath.
Having burst through the Kaise foliage, the frog now plunged into a massive, unfathomably deep ravine.
Flailing its limbs frantically as it fell deeper and deeper, the Red-Green Frog’s plight was observed from the cliff’s edge by the black-furred creature Emi with an expressionless gaze, her heart filled with frustration at the escaped prey.
* * *
This ravine Emi had arrived at was officially known as the “Serengi Great Ravine.”
At its bottom flowed the raging “Jacoby River” originating from the deepest reaches of the Kaise Forest.
The ravine’s expanse was so vast that Emi didn’t even consider attempting to cross it using her 【Grasshopper】 technique.
Now then, Emi had arrived at this Serengi Great Ravine.
This fact made one thing clear:
She had finally reached the boundary between the middle and deepest layers of the demon realm Kaise Forest.