The Begaritt Continent, a harsh and deadly place. Regarding monsters, it probably only loses to the Demon Continent in terms of danger. But regarding survivability, sometimes being born on the Demon Continent is a blessing compared to here.
Because it is an arid continent, devoid of any life or solid civilization. All one can see here is sand and its terrible scorching sun in the morning, or the skin-tearing cold at night. One has to travel for weeks, even months, to find something that looks like a human.
But those are not necessarily the gentle and honest residents you might find in Asura or the Holy Country of Millishion. If you are 'lucky', it might be succubi who kidnap and bring you back to their nest for meat. And if unlucky, it would be human tribes with bizarre customs and hobbies, making those found by them only able to beg for death. So when stepping into a settlement, you should pray to your god that you haven't gone the wrong way.
The young lady of the Boreas house—the one nicknamed the Red Gorilla—Eris Boreas Greyrat, had once wished to visit this place one day. The 12-year-old young lady was a lover of stories and adventures. To her, this continent of sand was nothing more than a place full of mysteries needing to be explored, and the monsters here were opponents she wanted to swing her sword at to her heart's content. The harshness of this environment was to her like an exciting battle where she wanted to challenge herself.
She had planned to travel around the world at the age of 15, with her fiancé, of course. If she could invite her two friends, Rudeus and Sylphiette, along, that would be even better; they would be two extremely reliable support mages. If not, it didn't matter, as long as she had her Atur, that was enough. She would fight on the frontline, being the sharpest sword, while her fiancé would protect her from behind. If she got injured, he could heal her; if she was hungry, he would be the one cooking the most delicious meals. Both would be the strongest and most compatible pair of swordsmen in the world, so what was the harshness of this continent anyway?
But fate was strangely ironic.
A light appeared and enveloped Eris, making the young girl startle only to realize she had appeared in the middle of a desolate desert of Begaritt. With no weapons, no suitable clothes for survival, no one nearby, and nothing but sand, Eris sank into extreme panic and fear. She was hot, she was thirsty, she was hungry. She started calling everyone's names, from Atur, Ghislaine, Rudeus, Sylphiette, Sauros, Philip, Alphonse, Hilda, Edna... anyone she knew, she called with everything she had.
But no one responded, only the harsh sun kept beating straight down on her, making her head spin.
So Eris started walking; she walked while calling names. She looked around, trying to find a shelter. But walking forever, she saw nothing but a vast sea of sand. And calling forever, nothing responded.
And then the sun started to set gradually, it was dark. The girl was still hungry, still thirsty, and now felt cold to the bone.
The young lady suddenly remembered the stories of Ghislaine, her sword master. She knew about the dangers of becoming an adventurer, the things she needed to survive. However, she had always assumed that someone would take care of that for her. Like Atur? Her fiancé was always reliable and always knew how to do everything. That was also one of the reasons she always stayed by his side.
But now she was alone, shivering under a sand dune, trying to avoid the bone-chilling cold winds.
"Sob sob…" And the young lady cried. "Ghislaine… Grandfather… Acchan…"
Eris tried to call the names of her most important people, something she had tried to do all morning. She called, she screamed, she shouted their names until her throat was dry, but no one responded. Now the redhead hugged her knees, trembling, constantly muttering those names like a charm to keep herself safe.
That was the first time Eris knew fear.
She feared this thirst that blurred her vision, she feared the hunger she had never experienced for too long, she feared the loneliness of having no one to rely on like now.
And above all, for the first time in her life, she feared death.
"Sob sob… please…"
Then she continued to cry and tremble like that until she was exhausted.
…
Eris had fallen asleep. She didn't know for how long, but she managed to get some sleep in that freezing temperature. And perhaps she would have died if she continued to sink into that dream.
Morning came, she was still tired, even worse than when she started sleeping.
Eris now had no breath left to call anyone's name. So she stood up, continuing to drag herself over the sand dunes with a soulless body like a zombie.
At this moment, she suddenly remembered the first time she met Ghislaine. The Sword King she admired was just like her now, hungry, thirsty, and desperate. Ghislaine looked no different from a soulless corpse back then, a beggar no more, no less. Seeing that scene, who would suspect that was a powerful Sword King? And the famous Black Wolf Sword King at that.
Now it was the same, look at Eris. Her clothes were tattered, the young lady's shoes were full of sand. The hair that was washed clean and neat the night before was now like a mess of steel wool. The young lady's lips were dry and cracked, even starting to bleed. Her legs, for some reason, had scratches; they created superficial wounds, not deep but truly unsightly.
Who would recognize this as the young lady Eris Boreas Greyrat, the beloved grandchild of the powerful Lord Sauros? She was no different from a slave child who was lucky enough to pick up a discarded outfit of some noble lady.
But has Eris ever cared about her appearance anyway? She didn't mind how terrible she looked. In the girl's head now remained only the wish to return home, to see her loved ones again. She just wanted to eat a full meal.
And with that thought, she continued walking, step by step deeper into that seemingly endless desert.
…
Unbeknownst to when, she was lying flat on the sand surface, and it was dark again.
Freezing winds began to rise, carrying tiny, sharp grains of sand that cut into Eris's flesh. This must be the reason why the young lady's body was covered in these shallow wounds.
Although not life-threatening, they caused her to create a scent, the scent of blood.
And that scent brought unwanted trouble.
"Grrr…"
Then a growl echoed right next to her ear, making Eris startle. Her eyes opened, and what she saw was a creature standing on two legs, with a long beak like a dog and sharp teeth wide open. It was a Gyroraptor, a reptile species specializing in eating rotting carcasses.
But today this Gyroraptor was hungry, especially hungry, so it would make an exception to hunt prey that, while alive, was no different from dead.
The monster's mouth opened wide, as if wanting to greedily bite the whole young girl in one bite.
Eris shuddered. Her pupils constricted to the size of a grain of sand. Her mouth opened. But luckily, that seemingly useless body immediately rolled over, tumbling a few times in panic, dodging its bite by a hair's breadth. Then using the momentum of her body, Eris rolled one more time and immediately stood straight up on both legs. Her hands extended in the stance of the Sword God Style instinctively, even though she didn't have a single sword.
"Hah… hah…"
Eris breathed through her mouth urgently. The young lady's heart began to beat strongly, pumping fresh blood throughout her body, instantly heightening all senses. This was the first time after nearly two days stuck here that Eris felt strangely alert.
The Gyroraptor also immediately rushed in, its sharp jaw opening, preparing to bite a fatal blow to the small body of the young girl.
If it were a weak-limbed girl, this would surely be her death. However, this was Eris Boreas Greyrat. She was nicknamed a red gorilla not just because she was wild like a beast. She was called that because she was extremely strong and never backed down from a battle. Even though she was weakened, panicked, and unarmed, she was still an Advanced-tier swordsman trained by the Black Wolf Sword King Ghislaine herself.
And in this brief moment of clarity, she remembered the words Ghislaine once said.
"If you encounter a difficult battle from which you cannot run. Fight with everything you have."
The young lady's originally soulless eyes immediately flashed, enough to make the moonlight recoil. A strange aura radiated from her, enough to make anyone shudder, including the monster rushing in.
The moment that lizard's jaw prepared to snap down. Eris immediately lowered her center of gravity, dodging past the monster. The sand surface didn't even sink; her legs moved fluidly, like a true dancer performing a deadly dance. The sound of the wind whistling grew louder, and the sound of her punch swinging was even more piercing than that.
"Gahhhhh!!!"
A 'thud' rang out like thunder. That critical punch landed squarely in the middle of the reptile monster's neck, causing its head to fall straight back like a tree just blown hard by a storm.
"Reeeeeeee!!!"
The monster hissed miserably. It stepped back a few steps in confusion. Because even it didn't expect that easy prey to struggle so strongly.
Eris's hand also made a cracking sound as if something had broken, but she didn't stop yet; she was fighting with the instinct of a predator, a hungry and desperate beast. The red-haired girl continued to rush at the stunned monster; she opened her mouth and chomped down on its neck, pinning it down hard and biting savagely like a lion.
*Rip!*
The monster's blood sprayed out, it screeched pitifully while Eris was dazed. She was starting to lose her reason, but that was the feeling she craved most right now, the violence she had restrained for so long.
Now she was no different from a wild beast, constantly rushing to claw, bite, tear, punch, and kick the poor monster. And unbeknownst to when, the D-rank monster had died in its own pool of blood with countless wounds riddled all over like it had just been attacked by a whole pack of wild beasts.
But Eris didn't stop; she continued to break the monster's ribs and then continued to stab it, again and again from legs to head. Only when the adrenaline started to wear off did she stop her hands.
"Hah hah…"
Eris tried to breathe in urgent gasps. Her heart pounded like a drum beat reaching a climax. Her ears began to ring, her eyes blurred. The pain, the hunger, the insecurity returned, making the weak mind of a 12-year-old child extremely nauseous.
"Blegh… urg…"
So she vomited, even though she had nothing in her stomach. Only meager drops of saliva came out along with sour gastric fluid.
"Hic… urgh… blegh…"
She vomited while crying; tears and snot mixed with the fluid coming out of her mouth creating a scent worse than anything the young lady had ever experienced. And that very disgust made her cry louder, retch more until her body was falling apart.
Eris lay on the monster's pool of blood, tired, exhausted.
Her ruby eyes, which were always full of joy and enthusiasm, now looked so dark; they were deep and silent like a black hole full of despair.
So tired…
Also hungry and thirsty. Ah, especially thirsty. Eris was so thirsty she couldn't think of anything else.
And that was when she looked over at the monster corpse lying next to her. A crazy idea somehow crept into her thoughts.
So Eris drank the foul, fishy blood of the monster. It tasted terrible, salty, however, it was perhaps Eris's only source of life right now, she thought so and gritted her teeth to drink like a child being forced to take medicine. Her tears still fell throughout the process, but when the thirst passed, the sour water from the corners of her eyes also dried up.
After that, Eris sat thinking, regaining a bit of the cool night air to calm down before using fire magic to roast the monster's meat.
It tasted terrible, smelly and chewy, exactly like the blood she just drank. But now it was like a delicacy. Eris chewed voraciously while looking at the small flame she created from a part of the beast's carcass while thinking back to what Atur had told her back then.
"Magic is sometimes very useful, you know!"
And that was when she suddenly realized she could use water magic to create drinking water. Eris chanted the spell; she read it wrong twice, but by the third time, she succeeded.
"Water…"
The young lady whispered that and then drank the clear water she created herself as if it were holy water. That was something she could have done from the beginning, right? Yet Eris completely forgot. She forgot she could use magic. But the red-haired young lady didn't mind her carelessness much. Now that she had water and food, she felt alive again.
…
Holding three sharp ribs of the monster, Eris hung two on her waist and held the other in her hand, using it as a cane and also the only weapon she had.
Eris continued on her way for the next many days.
Even though she still felt the sun and heat, she continued walking. Because besides that, what else could she do?
Day after day, the young lady's footprints stretched across the sand. The expensive doll shoes were torn and fell off somewhere without her noticing. When thirsty, Eris used "Waterball" to make herself less thirsty. When hungry, well, this would be harder, but she would wait for monsters weak enough to stab to death with the Gyroraptor's rib.
However, Eris was still tired and afraid. Every day she sank into disgusting nightmares she didn't remember what they were about. Only when waking up, she was always drowning in tears of suffering.
She feared that if this continued, she would die, in loneliness without being able to see anyone she cherished again.
And that day perhaps had come.
On a noon when the sun was hot enough to crack heads, Eris had been teleported here for two weeks; the fair skin of a young lady now bore a bronze color, all four of her limbs riddled with wounds from shallow to deep. Now looking at her overall, she looked like a wooden dummy beaten to tatters in the training yard of the mayor's mansion.
But the most terrifying thing right now wasn't how tattered her appearance was, but the giant scorpion measuring up to two meters right in front of Eris's eyes. The monster had a turquoise shell, rough like the bark of an ancient tree. It had two pincers big and long enough to clip across an adult human and a pair of tails with two sharp tips.
Unlike the Giant Bats, Gyroraptors, or small Sandworms that Eris was swallowed by and then cut open their bellies to crawl out. This thing was clearly not an opponent the young lady could face.
"Grahhh!!!"
However, the little girl still rushed in, because did she have enough mind to think of another way to deal with it when the monster itself had targeted her? Eris's small legs were still agile, even more decisive than before. She knew to survive in this situation, she had to face this dangerous monster with everything she had.
It wasn't an easy battle. Even with a sharp sword in hand, she might not be able to penetrate that shell harder than steel. Let alone having only a few weak ribs as weapons? Yet she managed to smash three or four hits into the red eyes of the monster, embed a bone, slash a long line on the left pincer before she used her body to lure the scorpion monster to use its tail to pierce its own shell with a critical blow.
That much still couldn't kill the monster. Because it was a Twin Death Scorpion, rated as a B-rank monster. Even though hit by Eris's brutal and wild attacks, it still stood firm and easily knocked the young girl flying.
Eris rolled a few times on the sand. The wounds all over her body tore open, blood oozing out all over causing the girl's whole body to go numb.
The young girl still stood up, despite a broken rib piercing through her abdomen. The pain was meaningless to her now. She continued holding her homemade weapons and rushed into battle like a moth seeking death.
Eris knew she couldn't win. But she also knew she had no other way. She had to fight.
Because she still wanted to live. She couldn't give up.
She told herself that continuously in her head even though her whole body had reached its absolute limit. Her tears fell unceasingly.
Yet Eris still swung her weapon, fighting in despair.
She stabbed, she slashed, even bit into that hard shell until her teeth cracked with no effect. And then Eris truly couldn't move. She lay on the sand with countless wounds. Her whole body was red with blood like her hair. Her eyes stared blankly up at the blue sky. Just a second later, the huge tail of the monster covered her entire vision.
It stabbed straight down, aiming right at her neck.
*Thud!*
And when everything seemed hopeless again, a dull knocking sound rang out. It sounded like the sound of skilled craftsmen chiseling blocks of wood with their hammers.
"Reeeeeeeeee!!!"
The giant scorpion hissed, one of its two tails shattered. It was smashed by a long rod, like the kind shepherds usually hold, only it was longer, thicker, and made of metal.
The monster immediately became confused, followed by fear; it immediately intended to dig into the ground to escape but it was too late. The middle-aged man holding that long rod immediately appeared right in front of it with terrifying speed, creating a wind strong enough to cause a sandstorm.
"This is the price for bullying a child."
The man said and swung the rod at the monster's head again.
And just like that, the B-rank scorpion was destroyed, with half of its body from the head down shattered.
Eris's eyes opened wide, she was shocked, surprised by a power beyond her imagination. She had seen Ghislaine fight with full strength once; it was an overwhelming power but compared to this person, perhaps it must be on a completely different level.
But why a rod? It looked really stupid. Yet this was the only thing she thought in her head.
While Eris was still motionless, the man turned to look at Eris. He had the face of a dusty middle-aged man who had gone many days without washing his face. The chin to neck part was even messier with untrimmed beard clumps.
But the part that made Eris pay most attention to was the black hair reaching past his shoulders and the crimson red eyes. Eris's eyes were also red, like Madam Hilda, her mother, but the red in their eyes didn't emit such a brilliant light like blood.
"Is the young lady here okay?" The man suddenly spoke up. Unbeknownst to how, he recognized Eris as a young lady and not a runaway slave.
"I… *gulp*…" Eris swallowed the blood in her mouth; although trying to say something more, it seemed her strength couldn't manage.
"Please don't force yourself, young lady. Let me lend a hand." The man immediately stepped right in front of Eris, while pulling something out of his pocket like a gray handkerchief looking quite dirty. He placed it on the wound in Eris's abdomen then said something the young lady couldn't understand.
A green light emitted, miraculously, that wound not only healed, but the broken bone was also restored, the handkerchief turned red. Although Eris still had countless other wounds, she felt dozens of times more comfortable now.
And most importantly, she could now speak more easily.
"Thank… thank you for saving me!" Eris looked towards the man carrying that metal rod and bowed slightly. She was taught that if helped, one must know how to say thanks. "I am Eris Boreas Greyrat. When I can return to my home, I will definitely ask Grandfather to reward you heavily!"
Although her way of thanking was a bit strange, the man didn't seem to mind much. On the contrary, he seemed a bit surprised, by another thing.
"Greyrat?" He raised his eyebrow slightly, mouth still open as if intending to ask something but then stopped. Perhaps because the man himself guessed Eris wouldn't know the answer to his question either.
Instead, he reached out his calloused hand to the young girl.
"I am Sándor von Grandeur. And I will escort you back to your family and claim the reward."