Monster Hunter of the One Piece World

"Ha!"

With a low shout, Sherwin gripped his Longsword tightly. In an instant, his skin flushed with a faint red hue, and the veins on his forehead, the back of his hands, and several other spots swelled up.

After maintaining that state for about ten seconds, the redness on Sherwin body faded rapidly, and the bulging veins settled down.

"Huff... My body is still too young. I can’t maintain Demonization for long. And that was just activating it without even moving. If I were actually fighting, lasting five seconds would probably be my limit."

Sherwin let out a long breath of white mist and shook his head helplessly.

While in the Demonized state, he could unleash the same amount of attacks in five seconds that would normally take him more than ten to perform, but his current priority wasn’t taking down monsters—it was to finish exploring the entire island as soon as possible.

He and Sanji Meow had already been living on this island for over a month, and their exploration rate had barely reached 7%.

The reason the rate was so low was mainly because the areas Sanji Meow explored on his own didn’t count toward the hunter manual map.

In reality, Sanji Meow had already gained knowledge of at least one-third of the island.

But many of those areas were territories of one or even groups of ferocious beasts.

Sanji Meow, being skilled in stealth, could pass through without issue, but bringing Sherwin along was another story.

If Sherwin wanted to complete the island map quickly, he had to raise his strength to the point where he could escape unscathed from the strongest beasts on the island.

So for the past month or so, he had mostly stayed near the cave where they lived, spending most of his time training his body and refining his combat skills. Tasks like foraging for ingredients were completely left to Sanji Meow.

In short, Sherwin was currently living off what his Felyne provided.

But being raised by a cat wasn’t all that bad either. Sherwin shook his head to clear away the distracting thoughts, then began a new round of training.

He had more or less already mastered the basic longsword techniques. After all, without any real combat experience, practicing sword forms could only take him so far. A daily review was enough.

Now, the focus of his training was on improving his physical capabilities and adapting techniques from other weapons to enhance his longsword style.

Thanks to the Felyne meals prepared by Sanji Meow, Sherwin didn’t need to worry about energy depletion during his workouts.

Plus, before he came to this world, he had saved a bunch of fitness videos—he still remembered some of the scientifically designed workouts. So over the past month, his training had actually been quite efficient.

Honestly, Sherwin himself hadn’t expected that someone like him—a shut-in used to being lazy—could adapt so quickly to such a dull training routine.

He had once hoarded a mountain of workout videos, but barely ever stuck to them for more than two or three days. Eventually, those videos just sat in his collection, collecting dust.

Now, for him to get into the groove so quickly, aside from the lack of a sense of security, the bigger reason was probably...

This godforsaken place had no internet, no electricity, and no phone. Other than training and petting his cat, he didn’t have any other entertainment options.

In the end, people only change when they’re forced to.

"Sherwin, look meow! I found another new ingredient meow!"

Just as Sherwin was halfway through what felt like his umpteenth set of burpees, Sanji Meow came trotting back from hunting, holding up a wild beast at least half his own size with visible pride.

"Thanks for the hard work."

Sherwin stopped training, walked over, and patted Sanji Meow little head, then scratched his chin. Only after the Felyne let out a satisfied purr did Sherwin turn his gaze toward the "ingredient" Sanji Meow had brought back. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Next, he took out his "high-tech" Hunter Manual from his waist pouch and flipped to the last page of the weapons section.

This page had already been unlocked, and at the very top, it clearly stated: Small Monster Guidebook.

Sherwin wasn’t sure exactly when this page had been unlocked. It was something he’d stumbled upon by accident one day after training, when he pulled out the manual to kill time and noticed the page had appeared. There were even detailed entries for two "ingredients" already listed.

After some testing, he discovered that as long as he had seen the creature full appearance and made direct contact with it, the Small Monster Guidebook would automatically generate an entry. Each one came with a colored illustration and a short description—pretty similar to the Hunter Notes in Monster Hunter Rise.

By that logic, the unlock conditions for the Large Monster Guidebook were probably the same.

Of course, there were still some differences compared to the game.

Some of the animals Sherwin had never seen before needed to be named by him, and the guidebook would automatically append a "(temporary name)" note afterward...

Most likely, once he found a village or met other knowledgeable hunters in the future, the names would be updated with official ones.

So Sherwin didn’t bother naming them seriously—for example, calling one "black-backed white-bellied pig-nosed wolf" without a second thought.

As for the beast Sanji Meow had brought back this time, it looked somewhat like a wild boar overall, but it had a head resembling that of a rat.

Yet, it also sported wild boar tusks. Its front limbs weren’t hooves but long, sharp claws like a mole, and the hind legs weren’t the usual pointed pig hooves either—they were more like horse or cow hooves.

After casually naming it "mole boar," Sherwin rubbed his chin and fell into thought.

He’d already had some suspicions before—among the animals Sanji Meow had brought back, weird creatures like the mole boar occasionally appeared.

Sure, strange creatures weren’t uncommon in the Monster Hunter game. But in those cases, their appearances and ecologies all followed a traceable logic—Capcom had consulted professional biologists to design them based on carefully constructed ecosystems.

Simply put, the monsters in Monster Hunter were grounded in science—or at least, they looked like they were.

But some of the creatures on this island completely ignored that kind of coherence. It was like the designer got drunk and mashed together random animal parts without rhyme or reason.

To put it more simply... the visual style of these creatures just felt off.

So... was it possible that I didn’t actually get transported into the Monster Hunter world, but to some other unknown isekai instead?

Or did Monster Hunter release a new title after I crossed over—and totally botched it?

But then again, even in my original world—the one without any special powers—there were still plenty of animals that looked bizarre. So maybe having weird-looking creatures in the real Monster Hunter world was totally normal?

With no clear answer in mind, Sherwin thought it over and decided to ask Sanji Meow. After all, from a certain perspective, he was the true "local."

"Sanji, have you ever heard of a creature like this before?" Sherwin pointed at the mole boar.

"Nope, nya," Sanji Meow shook his head, then placed his paws on his hips and said proudly,

"But don’t worry. As a chef, I know exactly what edible and what not, nya. I’d never cook something that’d upset your stomach, nya."

"That not what I meant." Sherwin waved his hand with a helpless laugh, then shared his theory with Sanji Meow.

"...You mean, we might’ve drifted to some other continent, nya?" Sanji Meow blinked for a long moment before asking nervously.

"Something like that."

Sanji Meow seemed to have trouble grasping the idea of another world, so Sherwin decided not to press the concept and just went along with what he said.

"No way, nya!"

But to Sherwin surprise, Sanji Meow immediately flopped onto the ground and started throwing a tantrum.

"Granny Cat said there are some continents that don’t even have Felynes! That means I won’t get to see any pretty Felyne ladies anymore, nya! I don’t want that, nya!!!"

Sherwin: "..."

That what you’re worried about?!