Chapter 16 - [Magic Maker]

Food is something crucial.

We humans need to eat food in order to survive.

Normally in survival situations, you eat edible fruits. But that’s when you can find fruits.

Every survival movie always ends up on an island or a forest, how convenient.

Imagine a producer making an adventure of getting strayed in a cave, that would be so dark and boring to watch!

I wish they made one interesting yet realistic show about that…

“Huff…”

In this cave, which only has one tree as far as we know, means the fruit has a limit.

It finally hit me how important that one fruit I wasted.

“Eat up, Yuu-kun.”

How do we get to this point?

… Let’s rewind a bit.

>x<

A Red Lizard ran towards the wall and tried to attack me.

That’s rare. They always died before they could do anything to me, but we killed a lot of them when they were not far from each other.

… I guess it learned that I am a threat. Though no other lizard seems to be aware like this one!

I grabbed it by the neck when it leaped to me, and shoved it to the ground.

Kon, without waiting for my instruction, bit and pulled the lizard’s head.

[Shindou Yuuma - Level 6]

[Mikazuki Yumemi - Level 6]

[Kon - Level 5]

“Alright, Kon! You’re level 5 now!”

“Kyaun!”

My EXP gauge also got filled twice and reached x8 now. Yumemi’s EXP Gauge finally reached x1. She didn’t participate much after all, so she’s not gaining much EXP.

That means I will be level 14… that’s still far from enough to face that wolf.

“Kya…un…”

*thud* Kon suddenly collapsed.

“Kon!” “Kon-chan!” Yumemi and I rushed to check up on him.

We realized he just took a nap while his body started to grow a little in his sleep.

Yumemi’s also not in the shape to fight anyway.

I carried Kon inside my jacket. I can feel him gradually getting bigger.

“Let’s head back to the safe zone,” I suggested.

“Okay…” Yumemi nodded listlessly.

I walked first, and Yumemi followed. I feel I stopped hearing her steps for a secs, so I turned my head to see what she’s doing.

Yumemi, for some reason, stopped and carried about 3 corpses of the Red Lizards. It was the size of 1 meter each, it’s surreal to see a girl like her carrying such things.

She must’ve been able to do that because she is now level 6 and has enough strength… that’s not the point!

“Wait, Yumemi? How are you ok–”

“What I was afraid of is the fact that I killed them, but the situation they are in now is no different than a whole dead chicken.”

“Uh… is that so?”

What is she going to do with them? Making weapons from their bones or something?

I mean, we got better material for making weapons: stones.

But for some reason… I’m afraid to ask.

… and so, we finally arrived at the safe zone. We walked to the tree to take a rest.

I put down Kon and covered him with my jacket.

Yumemi took a lizard to the ground, and started dismantling it.

“What are you gonna do with them…?” I finally put up my courage to ask.

“We can’t rely on those every time.” She said while pointing the knife up to the tree.

I gazed up the tree to see for myself.

I counted the fruit left on the tree. There was no more than my finger could count.

I gulped. I feel like I know what’s coming after this…

*cluck* *bwoosh*

I got my gaze back to Yumemi. She'd already prepared the skillet and turned on the fire.

I could see one tiny bit of meat with 0.5 durability left dancing in the center of the skillet.

“You are cooking them!?”

“I’m worried about the durability… ah, it disappeared…” She lamented that the small bit of meat she put on the skillet was gone due to the durability hitting 0.

“Don’t tell me we are going to eat them raw?”

“That’s too risky. We need to at least get heat through, or we might get sick from eating them raw.”

Thank goodness… wait, in the end we’re still gonna eat them!?

“Yuu-kun, give me 10 minutes.”

She walked off, wandering for something. She finally picked up another rock the size of her head, and started hammering a really big rock the size of her body.

And yeah, around 10 minutes, she got it done. A big stone pot the size of half her body. I bet she leveled up her [Handicraft] skill in the process.

“Hngh…!!!” She tried to push it by herself, but of course it won’t work judging by the size of the pot. “Yuu-kun! Help me get this pot by the river!”

“Got it. But first…” *thud* I tackled the pot and made it sideways.

“Ah, we roll it like a wheel!” Yumemi exclaimed.

“Yeah, it’s easier this way.”

And so, we rolled the pot down by the river. Yumemi set up some stones around to make a foundation for the hot pot.

She then spread some glowing moss under the pot before we put it on the foundation.

“Now, we fill up the pot with water.”

“Uhh… Yumemi, I know we got river water, but we don’t have anything to scoop them.”

“Air Sphere!”

Yumemi without any warning stretched her hand to the river and made a blast of wind and blew some water to the air…

No, looking by the shape of the water, it looks more like she’s making a sphere out of an air and scooping the water up!

She then moved the water to above the pot, and released her hand.

“... was that Air magic…?”

“Yay~!” Yumemi smiled while making out a peace sign. “Seems like I got the passive skill [Magic Maker] when I exhausted myself.”

Isn’t she too much of a novel protagonist!?

“So, Protagonist-sama, what are you gonna do?”

“Stop with the weird nickname!” She shot back immediately.

She washed her hand in the hot pot to wash off the Glowing Moss, and then lit the Glowing Moss under the pot with magic.

She put a bit of the lizard meat into the boiling water.

“Okay, somehow, hot boiling water doesn't affect the meat’s durability. And for its taste… Air Sphere!” She scooped the meat the same way she scooped the water with air magic, and directly moved it to her mouth. “It’s like a chicken salad, I'd say.”

“Ah, right. You washed the Glowing Moss with the same water so it would count as your cooking and trigger your passive skill, huh?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think just boiling meat won’t trigger [Master Cook]. I took a quick taste of the Glowing Moss, and they taste like Aj*nomoto. That’s why it tastes slightly better than usual chicken salad.”

“Aj*inomoto? What’s that?”

“Amino acid, to enhance the flavor since they make things salty and savory.”

She then puts the rest of the meat into the pot and waits for the heat to get through them.

She then scooped some and fed them to me.

“Say ‘aahh’!”

We have no eating utensils for now, so I have no choice.

“Aahh… oh, this does taste similar to chicken salad, but a little better.”

“Right?”

“Still, I prefer stir fried fruits…”

“Beggars have no choice!”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“Wait, [Magic Maker]! What does that skill do!?”

“Let’s see… I think it assists the user to use magic according to their imagination?”

“Alright! I’ll learn that too! How do I do it!?”

“Uhh… maybe use magic according to your imagination?”

“But that’s the part I am struggling on!”

… and so, I do my best to learn the skill.