episode_0324

After spending a cramped night in the trees, Edan and I, tightly nestled together, rose slowly like zombies just awakened from the grave as morning arrived.

“Ugh, ugh… Oh, my whole body is sore…”

“Haah, yeah, it seems… I didn’t expect it to rain all night…”

The chill of the morning enveloped us, penetrating deep into our bodies. The drop in temperature in the morning was inevitable after a night of rain.

Grateful that the rain had stopped, I quickly adapted to reality and mentioned to Edan that we had a lot to do today in order to survive.

“The day has dawned, Edan-nim. We have secured water resources, but we need to find food to last the remaining ten days, and more importantly, we need to rebuild the fire for warmth. …However, it won’t be easy to find dry firewood in this damp forest.”

“It’s only the second morning, isn’t it?”

“If we search carefully in the shade of rocks or trees, we might find dry materials. Or we can peel the bark off the trees and dry them in the sun. The area near the river gets plenty of sunlight and the ground doesn’t get soaked by rain, so it seems like a good environment for drying materials.”

“Trustworthy, Lilith. Have I secretly taken this class before?”

“I highly doubt that.”

Playing through the 25th round, I had learned survival skills that could withstand even the worst scenarios.

In a class like Exploration of Natural Sciences, making one wrong move could significantly reduce the completion rate, making it a tedious event. And once you did it, the experience reward was too tempting to easily give up.

“Let’s move quickly, Edan-nim. Once we find dry firewood, with Sally’s help, we can light the fire. Let’s focus on building shelter today instead of spending time elsewhere.”

“Good idea. I’ll trust Lilith and do whatever you say.”

“Yes, just trust me and follow along.”

Edan’s empty words about trusting only me strangely made me feel good.

***

About a day had passed since Edan and I entered the Hobgoblin Forest.

Inside the makeshift shelter we had managed to create, we were taking a rest we couldn’t finish last night.

“It’s my first time entering a house like this. I thought Lilith was going to build a log cabin when she said she was making a house out of wood.”

“I apologize, I don’t have the talent for construction, so I couldn’t consider that option.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. I was just surprised to learn that Lilith has this skill as well.”

Edan expressed his thoughts as he looked at the wooden house he had built over almost half a day.

In reality, it was a rather simple house. It was built on an area of about one room, with wooden support frames in a fence-like shape, and walls made by crossing soft branches between the trees.

The roof was constructed with wide leaves piled from bottom to top to allow rain to flow through. He had simply imitated the survival videos he often watched on YouTube in his past life.

It was a shabby house with wind passing through inside and cracks allowing a view of the outside, serving its purpose as nothing more than a mere ‘roof’. If he had more time, he could reinforce it by applying mud to the walls and letting it dry, but the ‘nature exploration’ class only lasted for a mere four days, so it would be meaningless.

If he built a dwelling in such a way, the class would probably end by the time it was completed. Edan wasn’t planning to live here with just the two of them for the rest of their lives in this forest.

“When managing fire inside the dwelling, please be careful, Master Edan. There’s no problem with ventilation as the walls allow the wind to pass through, but if the fire gets too big, there’s a possibility of the dwelling catching fire.”

“…I’ll definitely be careful.”

Anyway, he managed to secure a temporary dwelling to spend the remaining 100 hours. He supplemented his lunch with nuts and fruits gathered while collecting firewood and construction materials, but for a more efficient protein intake, he had to gather meal ingredients through ‘hunting’.

The problem was that during the five days and six nights, he not only had to survive but also had to complete separate class assignments, so he couldn’t spend too much time collecting meal ingredients.

‘…I don’t really want to resort to this method, but maybe that’s the only way.’

There was probably no other way to gather meal ingredients in one go.

Thinking that he had already made enough wooden skewers for grilling fish, he called Edan, who was resting after finishing his labor, over to him.

“Master Edan, we’re going to start gathering food supplies from now on, so please follow me.”

“Oh, okay. So we just need to pick the red fruits and leave the green ones, right?”

“No, we won’t be going into the forest anymore today. We’ll be using fishing to gather the ingredients we’ll need for dinner.”

“…Fishing?”

“Yes, fishing.”

“Do we have fishing rods or nets? We’re not planning to catch them barehanded, are we?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll catch everything with the most reliable method, so all you need to do, Master Edan, is to gather the fish that I catch.”

“…”

Edan followed me to the riverbank with a somewhat puzzled expression.

To ensure Edan’s safety, I slightly moved him away from me and raised my arms to create a huge mana sphere above my head.

…This cool and heavy sensation, it’s been a while since I’ve felt it.

“Release, all the mana of the origin, soar with the storm! Mana Blast!!!”

-Kwagwagwagwag!!!

A massive shockwave of mana reverberated inside the forest.

The huge mana sphere that appeared above my head pierced directly into the upper stream of the river, creating a massive whirlpool, and the water flowing in the western branch of the river rose up from the riverbed.

-Took, tuduk, hududuk!

The rain of river water from the sky, along with falling fish and freshwater shrimps.

With just one spell, I harvested without any labor, and I quickly commanded Edan, who was staring at me dumbfounded.

“Gather all the fish on skewers and move them next to the bonfire, and store the freshwater shrimps in the water bucket, Master Edan.”

“…This isn’t fishing, Lily.”

“I’ll only listen to complaints from the fish. And this method is the most efficient way to secure food ingredients.”

“Given the situation, it seems likely, but…”

Edan, with a shallow sigh, carefully threaded the fish onto skewers as they rained down from the sky like drops of rain. Following his lead, I quickly threaded the fish onto skewers as well and placed them next to the fire to create something akin to smoked fish.

“At this rate, we should have no problem replenishing our protein for about four days, Master Edan.”

“…Yes, that should suffice.”

Though slightly taken aback by my unconventional hunting method, Edan eventually acknowledged its efficiency and nodded in approval. It was a much more effective approach than trying to balance our meals by making traps all day and checking what we caught in the cold river every morning.

Since we had already started a fire, there was no need to use any more magic today. With the food we had secured and a good night’s rest at home, we would be somewhat satisfied. I wasn’t too worried, even if a monster dangerous enough to require magic appeared, as Edan, a sword expert, was by my side.

However, hunting fish by raising the river water in this manner inevitably came with one problem, and I quietly took off my wet clothes, feeling a belated sense of regret.

-Swish.

“Lilith?”

“Yes, Master Edan.”

“What are you doing now?”

“I am taking off my clothes, Master Edan.”

“Why all of a sudden… Oh, is it because you got wet earlier?”

“Yes. Since it was a fishing method that involved raising the river water, a strong water spout occurred around the magic circle, causing me to spill quite a bit of water in the process.”

“So, that means it’s not really fishing…”

Ignoring Edan’s meaningless objection, I continued to remove the remaining clothes. It was impractical to keep wearing wet clothes that were stealing my body heat in this wilderness.