The Water Magician

Ryo is running today as well.

Or rather, he might be walking today.

In any case, he continues to move.

Because the sun rises early, he ends up moving for quite a while even in the morning.

Yes, roughly five hours in Earth time.

However, he doesn’t run at a constant speed like in a marathon; sometimes he includes interval sprints, and at other times he walks.

The perimeter of the barrier is about six hundred meters all around, so he sprints through it twice, jogs one lap, and then walks two laps, and so on.

In this way, mixing in walking, he continues for at least five hours without stopping.

While continuing to move, he also practices magic.

By the time the morning training ends, Ryo's body reaches its peak fatigue.

But he can’t collapse here.

First, he cools down.

He cools down the elevated temperature in his muscles.

This is precisely the hallmark of a water attribute magician.

A film of water dotted with ice is applied to his body, cooling his muscles.

After about fifteen minutes of icing, the blood vessels constrict.

When the icing is over, the rebound expands the blood vessels, allowing the fatigue substances to be efficiently flushed away by the increased blood flow.

And then he does some stretching exercises as a cool-down.

This also helps prevent injuries… probably.

For lunch, he eats the leftovers from breakfast.

He prepares two meals when cooking breakfast. It doesn't take more effort whether he makes one or two meals.

And finally, it’s time for hunting.

It’s hunting, but… lately, it has mostly become routine work.

With lesser rabbits and lesser boas as opponents, he obviously wouldn’t fall into a pinch.

With normal rabbits and normal boas, it’s hardly any different.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he will let his guard down.

If he encounters an assassin hawk, he never knows what might happen.

Considering that, one could really say that the assassin hawk is a troublesome enemy for humans.

As he is still struggling with the morning training regimen, it has affected his afternoon activities as well, but once he gets more accustomed to it, Ryo thinks he’d like to expand his range a bit.

For now, he decides to head east or north.

And eventually, he must go southwest… to the sea!

Yes, he must go to the sea eventually.

That’s because he needs to procure salt.

Water and salt are absolutely essential for human survival.

He can produce water almost inexhaustibly, but salt isn’t as simple.

He can’t perform miracles like turning Lot’s wife into salt as described in Genesis… Ryo certainly can’t do that. In fact, it would be frightening if he could.

It would be safer to simply obtain salt from the sea, through salt pans or some other method.

The salt that Michael (alias) is preparing for him is enough to last for over a year at the current rate of use.

However, since Ryo has never done anything like salt pans, he wants to understand just how much effort it takes to obtain salt.

He hates the idea of panicking right before it runs out.

Moreover, there’s also the possibility that he might want to eat seafood again after a long time.

Ryo, who loves meat, doesn’t dislike seafood at all.

It’s been about two months since he started working on a training regimen to build endurance.

Finally, completing the morning routine no longer affects his activities in the afternoon.

“Alright, today let’s go a bit further. First, I need a landmark.”

Saying that, Ryo began to build an ice tower within the barrier.

The appearance was more like a flag-raising platform than a tower. It was about a hundred meters tall.

From a distance, it reflected the sunlight beautifully.

“At this height, it should be visible from most places.”

The Forest of Rondo is a dense forest, but there are still quite a few gaps in the woods.

At this height, it should be visible from two kilometers away… maybe?

For now, this should serve as a landmark, so he won’t get lost on his way back.

While it’s a height of a hundred meters, it was built with speed in mind, so it’s quite haphazard.