The peaks were strange and steep, the mountainside a flush of red, the creek gurgled, and the fish played.
Under the deep shade cast by the tree canopy, amongst the damp roots covered in humus, clusters of fleshy, reddish fungi grew robustly. Their thick, tender caps overlapped one another, and their unique fresh aroma attracted many creatures living in the stream area.
A cerulean-shelled flying insect fluttered its wings and landed on a cap. As it fed, the faint blue light from its abdomen flickered on and off.
Suddenly, as if sensing something, the Thunderbug abruptly vibrated its wings, attempting to fly. But less than a centimeter after leaving the specialty fungus, a keratinous beak snapped it up. Accompanying the crunching sounds, electric sparks burst from the bird's beak.
"Gawk!"
The creature, a Bird Wyvern called a Kulu-Ya-Ku, was covered in blue-green feathers and shaped like a plump ball. It tilted its head, seemingly unaffected by the electricity, and let out a cheerful cry, flapping its tiny wings.
To it, a Thunderbug was an unparalleled delicacy.
In the grass not far behind it, Ethan was crouched, slowly approaching. The tattered strips of cloth hanging from him could hardly be called clothing, but a bulging cloth pouch at his waist was relatively intact. In his hand, he gripped a scavenged bone strip whose tip had been sharpened considerably.
'That's close enough…'
Ethan narrowed his eyes, then suddenly burst forward, swinging the "bone knife" to stab the Kulu-Ya-Ku's backside.
"Gawk!"
The chubby Kulu-Ya-Ku stumbled forward a couple of steps, shook its entire body, and actually squeezed out an ovoid, half-human-sized egg from its rump.
"Ugh…"
Ethan glanced down at the trace of crimson on the tip of the "bone knife" and cursed silently. The Kulu-Ya-Ku looked large, but a great deal of that was a false impression created by its thick feathers. The knife had plunged in at least ten centimeters, but only a centimeter or less had actually pierced the skin. This small wound was merely a scratch for a Kulu-Ya-Ku that was over two meters long.
Sensing the monster's panicked and fearful emotions, Ethan sighed and watched it flee into the depths of the jungle. He didn't pursue it further. Instead, he put away his bone knife, squatted down, and cradled the Kulu-Ya-Ku's egg.
It was quite hefty. The corner of Ethan's mouth curved slightly. With an egg this large, the purpose of his excursion was met. There was no need to insist on getting raw meat.
Carefully holding the Kulu-Ya-Ku egg, he cautiously made his way, bypassing the Great Jaggi's territory and avoiding the Great Jagras' turf. After a long trek, Ethan finally arrived at the foot of a cliff covered in vines.
He glanced at the Flyen's territory, where the man-sized insects had "respawned" in the air once again. Ethan carefully placed the Kulu-Ya-Ku egg to the side.
Sensing the single-minded yet extremely aggressive "heart-voice" of the Flyens, he gave a light cough to attract their attention. Then, he pulled a half-wrapped insect from his pocket, squeezed it hard, and threw it out suddenly.
He lowered his head to avoid the intense flash. When he looked up again, three Flyens lay on the ground nearby. Their wings vibrated as they struggled to regain balance, and their legs continuously kicked.
"Die!"
He drew his bone knife, chopped off the heads of the three insects, and peeled off their carapaces, flying feathers, and other materials. He stuffed these into the cloth pouch at his waist. Ethan flicked off the green body fluid adhering to the knife and let out an exhalation. "Ah."
Binding the Kulu-Ya-Ku egg with vines and strapping it to his back, Ethan grunted as he climbed the over ten-meter-high cliff. After passing through the narrow fissure ahead, he finally returned to his sanctuary: an unexpectedly discovered rock cave.
He tossed the cloth pouch aside and moved stones to suspend the Kulu-Ya-Ku egg in mid-air. After painstakingly building a fire, Ethan sat with his knees hugged, staring at the flames, his thoughts leaping with the fire.
It had been a week since he had inexplicably transmigrated to this world. If he hadn't recognized it as the Monster Hunter world by the monsters he'd encountered, if he hadn't combined several life-saving items, and if he hadn't gained the ability to hear the monsters' "heart-voices," he would have likely long turned into monster dung, used to mark a territory.
Kulu-Ya-Ku, Great Jagras, and other monsters roamed here, and the geographical environment, with its red autumn leaves and gurgling water, made it impossible not to think of the Misty Peaks map near Yukumo Village. But without help from others, finding the village on his own was incredibly difficult.
He wondered if the main characters from the games existed in this world, and how far the plot had progressed. Was the Amatsu still lurking on the Sacred Pinnacle? Had the Shagaru Magala encountered its nemesis? Had the Azure Star set foot on the New World, and where was the Elder Dragon, Lunagaron?
A burnt smell snapped Ethan back to his senses. He frantically extinguished the flames. Ignoring the heat, he quickly peeled open the roasted egg. Seeing that most of the egg was still tender and white, with only the bottom slightly charred, he let out a small sigh of relief. "Hmm."
Since arriving in the Monster Hunter world, perhaps due to the influence of the high-energy environment, his appetite had been constantly increasing. If too much of the egg had been burnt, he would have likely gone hungry.
However, this wasn't entirely bad. As his appetite grew, his strength was increasing correspondingly. Otherwise, with his physical condition from before transmigrating, he couldn't have carried a Kulu-Ya-Ku egg while climbing a ten-meter-high rock wall.
Although there was no salt or oil, the Kulu-Ya-Ku egg's inherent tenderness was delicious enough. After finishing the whole egg, warm currents flowed continuously from his stomach. Instead of the drowsiness he used to feel after eating a full meal, he felt physically vigorous and mentally refreshed.
Ethan sharpened the "bone knife" with a whetstone and reorganized the items in his cloth pouch. He took out the unused materials like the Flyen bits and piled them to the side, taking only the small, combined items as he re-entered the beautiful but danger-filled jungle.
He walked with a stoop through the woods, trying to avoid stepping on dead leaves and making noise. Ethan moved forward, avoiding the monster territories he remembered while continuously gathering useful items. The pouch at his waist gradually bulged.
There was Herb, with its three-lobed leaves marked with white patterns at the tip; Pale Extract, the pale blue mushroom with spots on its cap; Adhesion Extract, the viscous sap that was hard to wash off once it touched you; Flashbug, clinging to branches and emitting a strong light when provoked; Honey, sweet and thick, almost crystallized; and Thunderbug, capable of instantly producing a current sufficient to paralyze small monsters...
He walked and gathered, and before he realized it, he was back at the spot where he had previously ambushed the Kulu-Ya-Ku. Ethan was about to take a step when a pungent, musky smell wafted into his nostrils, and he abruptly froze.
Standing next to the cluster of specialty mushrooms now was not a dull, foolish Kulu-Ya-Ku, but a Bullfango, snorting and rooting for mushrooms.
"Ugh," he thought. The Bullfango's territory was clearly not close to here. How did this thing end up here?
Ethan held his breath and quietly backed away, trying to bypass the creature. But precisely at that moment, a Flyen, flying in from who knows where, gave the Bullfango a sharp sting on its upturned rump.
Watching the Bullfango turn its glaring eyes and lock onto him, and sensing the wild fury that he didn't even need his sense-perception to detect, a thousand thoughts converged into one in Ethan's mind.
A body hard as carbon steel, the ferocious brute, Glavenus!